What Low Carb Really Means for Me

There are two approaches to eating after surgery:

#1 - Eat whatever you want, just in smaller amounts

#2 - Eat a high quality low carb, high protein diet

My doctor recommends #2 and I wholeheartedly believe in it. I am sure there are lots of people out there who can eat whatever they want in smaller amounts and lose the weight. For me, I am battling internal demons that if I let them loose to have 1 cookie will maniacally take over and make me eat the whole bag.

It works best for me to keep those little demons (otherwise known as emotions) in the box. That means, I eat a low carb, high protein diet. I still get to eat things I enjoy... steak, cheese, almonds, vegetables, yogurt, etc. What I avoid are super processed foods like chips, cookies, and ice cream. It is best for me to avoid them because I know they are a trigger for me. What do I mean by a trigger? It's something that once I start eating, I have a very hard time stopping. It's like I turn into a zombie almost.

So what do I really mean when I say low carb, high protein? I mean I always eat my protein first at every meal. It's weighed beforehand so I know how much I'm putting on my plate. If I have room left, I eat vegetables. Lately, I have had very little room left for the vegetables, but that's okay. Protein is my number one goal right now. I eat anywhere from 60 to 80 grams of protein per day. A typical day right now plays out like this:

Breakfast: Premier Protein Shake for 30 grams of protein
Lunch: 3 oz of whatever protein we had the night before, some veggies for around 20 grams of protein
Dinner: 4 oz of whatever protein we have planned (chicken breast, steak, pork chops, sausage, ground beef, shrimp, etc) and a few bites of veggies for around 30 grams of protein

Bam! That's 80 grams of protein easy. Some days I don't feel hungry at all and other days I'm a ravenous beast. I don't know what causes the differences. If I'm super hungry I'll eat 1 oz of lunch meat with 1 slice of ultra thin cheese or a handful of almonds.

It is not unusual for me to end up under 20 grams of net carbs for a given day. I never go over 40 grams of net carbs per day. My grams of sugar per day stay under 10. I've found that products with sugar alcohol don't bother my stomach, but they STOP my weight loss, so they are off the table right now.

There are many, many more things available to me on the diet, but I have found an eating pattern that I'm comfortable with for right now. So, in answer to the question... what DO you eat on a low carb diet? A lot of meat and vegetables (no, potatoes are not a vegetable... they are a starch). So, that's what low carb means for me