How can i make an effective low-carb diet plan?

Hi! I started a low/minimal carb diet in October and within 3 months I have dropped 26 lbs. I am not even exercising any more than usual. It’s really a lot easier than you think.

First you need to clean out your pantry or stash of junk or snacks. No carbonated drinks even if they are diet!

Second make a trip to the grocery store. It’s very easy. You can eat eggs, meat like beef, chicken, fish as much as you want. You can have sour cream, most cheese (just check the contents to be sure there is a 0-2 grams of carbs. You can have fresh romaine lettuce as a salad with some olives, sliced onions, avacado, and salad dressing of choice (ranch or a vinegarette as long as the carb content is below 3 grams of carbs. In dinner you can have a large portion of chicken or beef (you can even have real butter with it) and one cup of veggies.

The tricky part is finding a list of veggies that are low in carbs. But you can have ONE CUP OF cabbage, spinach, broccoli, caulflower, turnip greens, collard greens, or okra at dinner. You can also have a fresh salad again in dinner if you are fond of salads. Just remember to count the carbs.

Avoid bread of any kind, rice, anything sweet like ice cream or cake, and also avoid milk or yogurt until you have lost the amount that you want to lose.

The biggest trick for people is remembering that once you have lost the ideal bit of weight you must continue to carefully integrate the higher carb diet very slowly. The fact is that most people eat a lot of bread. In breakfast you have all sorts of cereals and even just having toast includes higher carbs. Also at lunch many people eat sandwiches or some drive through burger and they are just swimming in carbs, salt, sugar, and fat. And at dinner people like to have some sort of rice or pasta stir fry which tastes good and seems healthy enough but in actuality is loaded in carbs.

So stick with this and you will be good. Load up on fresh produce items that are low in carbs. Load up on fresh meats from the grocer not in the frozen dept. The key is to stick with fresh ingredients because buying the prepackaged meals in a box most definitely are loaded in all sorts of preservatives, extra fats, larger amount of sodium, and hidden things like transfats. I just read today that if you eat ONE Hungryman Fried Chicken microwave dinner it is equivalent to 4 crispy creme donuts! Man if I knew that I would have been eating the donuts, haha. Anyway, my point is that the fresher things are better.

You can get frozen veggies as the ones I listed above and that is so easy to pop in the microwave for dinner within minutes. The issue is setting aside time to prepare your chicken or meat. I have found numerous ways such as steaming, baking, grilling, boiling, etc. You really have so many ways to prepare meat in a way that you don’t get so sick of it.

Also be prepared for stomach slow downs. Meaning that you may want to get a stool softener or mild laxative just until you get used to the diet changes.

This is how I usually eat everyday with my low carb diet. I am not a breakfast person, so I don’t usually eat much but if I do feel a bit hungry then I will drink a bottle of water and have a string cheese stick (weight watcher kind). Then at 12 I have a large fresh salad of romaine lettuce with my choice of olives, onions, and or an avacado. And since I have no time to cook at this hour and have to eat within 15 mins, I usually have four slices of turkey lunch meat (oscar meyer brand). I get the large lunch meat pack then it will last for the week. I can also have about an ounce of cheese. At dinner time I cook chicken fajitas with onions bell pepper on the grill and will eat one cup of whichever veggie I want that night. If you are the type that craves something sweet then it won’t hurt you to have a spoon of peanut butter. Because peanut butter is low in carbs but only one small spoon will help settle the craving for something like a dessert when you can’t have one. If you get the munchies in between then munch on celery, string cheese, or beef jerky. I like beef jerky just because it takes a long time to chew and you are not like over eating yet it satisfies that feeling of wanting to snack. I always buy the original slimjim beef jerky snacks that come in like a tin there are several sticks in a pack and they last me for weeks. Maybe thats why they call it slim jim hahaha.

You will probably feel sickly for a few weeks in the beginning because you are in actuality taking in about less than 40 carbs with the menu I described. But you will immediately start to drop weight and results will encourage you to stick with it if you are determined and strong enough to beat the temptation. After a while you can take one day a week off the diet and eat bread or pasta or pizza if you want but you have to get right back on the program the next day or the weight will come back on. Good luck!