In the years that I have struggled with my own weight, I have researched and tried many different methods of weight loss in search of ways to lose weight that I could live with – but most only resulted in the loss of a few pounds, which I always gained back in short order.

This same scenario also played out when I tried a low carb diet a couple of years ago, but I learned how to work with it and it has turned out to work pretty well for me.

What I mean by ‘working with it’ is that whenever the pounds start to creep back on or I need to lose a few pounds fairly quickly (the low carb diet is great for quick weight loss) I just eat low carb meals for a few days, throttling back on the carbohydrates until I reach the desired results.

Like many others who have to watch their weight, I have major carbohydrate cravings that I have to constantly struggle with.

So it was not realistic for me to think that I could give most of them up permanently, and for that reason I didn’t even try the low carb diet for many years. Instead, I chose to try all kinds of weight loss pills, programs, and diets – all with disappointing results.

Low Carb Diet Myths

But my reason for writing about the low carb diet here is to address some of the misconceptions that have swirled around the diet for many years. I think a lot of it actually started with the Atkins diet, which somehow seemed to give a lot of people the impression that you could eat a diet loaded with fatty meats, fried foods, dairy, and other high-fat foods – forget the fruits and vegetables – and yet remain perfectly healthy.

I have read a lot about Atkins and other low carb diet plans, and that was not the impression I got at all. In fact, even in the Induction phase of the Atkins diet – which is the most restrictive phase and only lasts 2 weeks – you are advised to eat something like 15% carbs each day, in the form of salads.

The primary thing that I see the low carb diet trying to eliminate in the diet are sugary processed foods that have no nutritional value in the first place.

Vegetables and fruits are loaded with fiber, as well as vitamins and minerals and are thought to be partly responsible for lower risks of many serious health problems (including heart disease and some cancers) in people who eat diets that include large amounts of vegetables.

Therefore, I would be very hesitant to even consider a diet that excludes these healthy foods that are, in my opinion, essential for a healthy body.

The ‘anti – low carb’ folks would have you believe that you are not allowed any vegetables on the diet, but this is not true. The healthier versions of the diet focus on nutritious, healthy food, and promote leaner, healthier cuts of meat along with non-starchy vegetables and low-sugar fruits. This allows you to still lose weight quickly and at the same time maintain a leaner, healthier body.

Some Of The Healthy Foods Allowed On A Low Carb Diet:

Meat:

• Chicken
• Turkey
• Low-fat Beef cuts

Vegetables:

• Summer Squash
• Greens
• Artichokes
• Green and Wax Beans
• Zuchinni
• Cauliflower
• Sprouts (bean and alfalfa)
• Cucumbers
• Brussels Sprouts
• Broccoli
• Radishes
• Tomatoes
• Cabbage
• Asparagas
• Okra
• Egglplant
• Onions

Low- sugar fruits such as strawberries, rhubarb and berries.

Low Fat Cheese

Foods To Be Avoided While On A Low Carb Diet:

• White Rice
• White Flour (Bread, Pasta, Cake, etc.)
• Starchy Vegetables such as corn, beets, all potatoes, acorn and butternut squashes, and parsnips
• High-sugar fruits such as bananas, tangerines, figs, grapes, and pomegranates – and some dried fruits.
• Unhealthy foods such as bacon, hot dogs and lunch meats that have a high fat content should be eaten sparingly or avoided altogether.

Health Benefits Of The Low Carb Diet

Some health benefits that have been commonly reported (and attributed to following a low carb diet) are listed below. And even though not every person that follows the low carb lifestyle will experience all of these benefits, you can at the very least expect to lose some weight.

• Decreased blood pressure
• Decreased triglycerides
• Weight Loss
• Fewer headaches (For those who had them before the diet)
• Better mental concentration
• Improved gastrointestinal symptoms (For those who experienced the symptoms before the diet)
• Improved mood – less mood swings
• Improved skin appearance
• Reduced cravings for sweets
• Compulsive eating diminished

Other Considerations:

• Drink plenty of water while on this diet, 8-10 8 oz. glasses per day are normally recommended. I find it hard to drink that much water, so I have been following Oprah’s trainer, Bob Greene’s suggestion of substituting Crystal Lite lemonade for water, and it seems to be working just fine for me.

• Limit your caffeine.

• Incorporate some sort of physical activity into your life each day.

• Take a vitamin and fiber supplement.

• Make sure you have the appropriate foods and snacks in the house at all times to avert unnecessary temptations.

• Learn to substitute lower carb ingredients in as many of your favorite dishes as possible. You might be surprised at how appetising low carb meals really are.

As always, before starting any diet, including a low carb diet, you should consult with your physician. Your current health and any medications you take may be a determining factor on how long you should follow this diet.

Weight loss hypnosis is another option for those of us who have tried other diets but just can’t seem to get on the right track. There is an ever growing number of people who are overweight and obese, and much of this can be attributed to the standard Western diet, which is laden with sugars, fats, and oils.

With weight loss hypnosis, the goal is to reprogram your mind so that losing weight does not come at the expense of feeling hunger pangs and cravings like you normally would when you are trying to lose weight.

Most of our weight problems, along with many of our other difficulties in life, according to psychologists, come from our subconscious mind and how we relate to food.

Our ability to lose weight successfully is directly affected by how we were brought up and the relationship we have with our food.

If you weren’t taught as a child that you should always ‘clean your plate’ whether you were hungry or not – you probably know someone else who was. Obviously this is a habit that follows us through to adulthood, and so is a dangerous habit to instill in children. Many times our plates may have been over-filled to begin with and such teachings will only encourage weight gain later in life.

Weight loss hypnosis is designed to break the pattern of eating the foods we crave when we are stressed, afraid, happy, sad, or whatever emotions we are feeling when we reach for that ‘comfort food’.

During weight loss hypnosis, the goal is to reprogram your mind so that you no longer have attachments to food. It is not the ‘magic pill’ of weight loss, but it can be a great tool in your battle with the bulge.

The basis behind weight loss hypnosis is to open up the mind so that it is more receptive to suggestions. These suggestions are made when the client is in an altered state of consciousness, and it is similar to the use of positive affirmations to give you more self confidence and to put you more in control of your food choices.

Weight Loss Hypnosis – Two Basic Tenets:

*Helping clients to understand that it is much more beneficial to permanently change your eating habits than to merely ‘diet’. This progressive changing of your eating habits should leave you feeling less deprived than just going on a diet.

*Spend less time thinking of food. While dieting, we tend to be occupied with two things most of the time – how much weight we might potentially lose and what our next meal will be. Concentrating on small changes to our eating habits instead makes us more likely to make these simple changes, one at a time, and feel less deprived in the process.

Most people can be hypnotized if they wish to do so, and people who are willing (and able) to open their minds and relinquish control to the hypnotist have been shown to have much more success with weight loss hypnosis.

There are people however who just prefer to have total control at all times, or who just don’t care for hypnosis because of the expense. And for these people there are other ways to lose weight that don’t involve weight loss hypnosis. Positive self-affirmations with the help of a support person can be much more beneficial than you might think. You can find some great downloads for weight loss here .

In today’s world, doesn’t it seem like we always want more and better than what we have? Nothing is ever good enough or fast enough. Many of us even prefer quick weight loss over the slower, natural weight loss approach to our desired weight. And as wonderful as it would be to lose 30 pounds ‘yesterday’, healthy weight loss can be even more difficult in this type of environment.

Even though we have more appliances, conveniences, and processed pre-packaged foods – which are supposed to cut down on preparation time and clean up – than ever before, we are still not only heavier but busier than we have ever been.

All of these conveniences are supposed to save us lots of time, but somehow we have managed to fill those hours with more ‘things’ and most of us are still spending less time with our families.

Weight and stress related diseases are at their peak. And with two thirds of Americans overweight – 1/3 of those obese – it’s no wonder that cardiac disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer are at an all time high. And in order to decrease weight related diseases, people have turned to the weight loss industry in search of answers and solutions.

But a healthy diet plan that would provide safe natural weight loss is hard to find in the sea of over the counter and prescription supplements that adversely affect the body. Can we even trust products anymore that are labeled ‘natural weight loss supplements’? It’s hard to tell, isn’t it?

Another reason why people search so hard for the best way to lose weight is that they have come to have a distorted body image. All around us are pictures of air brushed models who actually look like different people in person than what they look like in pictures. But they still manage somehow to make us feel that if we don’t look like these pictures, we don’t measure up. The good news, however, is that even Hollywood, which once elevated skinny actresses to top positions, is now recognizing that skinny is just skinny, but being fit is much more attractive.

The word “Diet” doesn’t necessarily mean eating just to lose weight as it has become widely accepted to mean, but rather eating a healthy diet for proper nutrition. Natural weight loss foods and diets rich in nutrients are slowly replacing fat and sugar dense diets for many of us as it becomes more apparent that carrying around extra weight will in fact cause us untold problems later in life.


Some people resort to unhealthy ways to lose weight such as crash diets – taking in far fewer calories than they need to survive – only to find that they have put their body in starvation mode. Once they go back to former eating habits, they invariably gain back the weight they lost in the first place plus even more pounds.  Not only are crash or fad diets unhealthy, they have been proven time and again to not work.

Healthy weight loss means you have a realistic understanding of what you want to achieve. This understanding is based on your own body type and lifestyle and not on that of the most recent bony model. Once you have decided that you are determined to shed the extra weight and become healthier in the process, your goals will become much clearer and easier to attain.

An All Natural Weight Loss Plan

• Define your goals for a healthy weight reduction, write them down and put them where you can see them every day. Remember that anything can be accomplished one step at a time, so take it slowly and make the changes permanent. Don’t aim for a ‘50′ pound weight loss all at once. It’s much easier to shoot for smaller goals such as 8 or 10 pounds a month.

• Anytime you feel you are being deprived you will fail. Healthy, natural weight loss does not mean denying yourself nutrients or your favorite meals. Denying yourself will only cause you to obsess over what you are missing, and failure will be inevitable.

• Start with balanced nutrition and the correct portions of protein, fruits, vegetables and water. Serving sizes are much smaller than you might anticipate so it’s important to become familiar with the correct sizes by using a small food scale.

• Break your meals up into 4-6 smaller meals rather than 1-3 larger ones. You want to keep your body fueled and never really feel too hungry. Once you start to feel hungry you may also start to feel cravings, and since the cravings are harder to resist than the actual feeling of hunger you want to try to stop both before they start.

• Phase out the trash in your diet. The processed foods, crackers, sweets, hamburgers and fries, candies and donuts have no place in a healthy diet plan. When you get hungry at 3 pm, grab an apple or banana to get you through until dinner. Leave the candy bar in the candy machine.

• Get in the habit of drinking lots of water each day because water flushes out the toxins and waste products from your body. A rule of thumb is to drink 4 oz of water for every hour you are awake. You can judge your hydration level by the color of your urine. If your urine has color, you need to drink more!

Exercise To Lose Weight!

Natural weight loss also includes getting some sort of exercise daily. It doesn’t have to be rigorous or last for hours. Walking just 30 minutes a day will afford you some health benefits and without the sweating, grunting and groaning of a workout in the gym. As your level of fitness improves you may even find that you want to increase your workouts.


If you feel you must have some sort of supplement to help you to lose weight, at least try to stick with some of the natural weight loss supplements, preferably from a reputable company. Garcinia Cambogia, or products that include this ingredient, has been bounced around a lot lately as having appetite suppressant properties, as well as other health benefits, without any known side effects.

However, it is not recommended for people who are diabetic or have Alzheimer’s, or for pregnant or nursing women, or for children. If you decide to take any kind of supplement, just make sure you do your research, and even better, ask for the advice of your physician.


Healthy weight loss is achievable for anyone! There is no one who can’t lose weight when they truly want to, especially when they ask for the help they need to keep their motivation high and when they get the support they need to make their goals a reality. Too often people are focused on weight loss for a short time and then life gets in the way. Natural weight loss is not a short-term ‘diet’ – it is a way of life that should be maintained for life.