Gary Taubes returns to update us on his “crazy year”

In 2008, the focus of my podcast shifted from an audio version of my blog into a regular interview-focused show featuring the top voices in the diet, health, and fitness community who are advocating healthy living–mostly from a controlled-carbohydrate perspective. I’ve been honored to be able to speak with some of the most fascinating people in this industry who are making a difference in the lives of their patients, readers, and fans. This formula has turned into the trademark of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore” now which is likely the reason why it has catapulted into the Top 20 of Nutrition and Fitness podcasts on iTunes in the latter part of last year.

A couple of months ago, I decided to give my listeners a chance to share with me who they thought were the best podcast guests of 2008 and bring them back for a BRAND NEW INTERVIEW to kick off 2009. After tabulating the results of the e-mails I received from YOU, I narrowed it down to five stellar interview guests to conduct another interview to share with you this year. That’s exactly what I’m doing this week with my special “Encore Week” featuring FIVE one-hour interviews with Gary Taubes, Dr. William Davis, Dr. James E. Carlson, Dr. Mary C. Vernon, and Dr. James LaValle sponsored by Atkins Nutritionals.

In Episode 213 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we kick off “Encore Week” with Gary Taubes, the author of Good Calories, Bad Calories who did a fantastic job in my original May 2008 podcast interview with him. Since then, so much has happened with the book, including numerous speaking opportunities at places like UC-Berkeley, at Andrew Weil’s health conference, and an upcoming visit to the NIH. New projects are on the horizon for Taubes, including the much-awaited “lite” version of Good Calories, Bad Calories that so many people have been clamoring for. You can always count on Gary Taubes to be an entertaining and educational interview and he doesn’t disappoint.

There are FOUR ways you can listen to Episode 213:

1. Listen and comment about the show at iTunes:

2. Listen and comment about the show at the official web site:

3. Download the MP3 file of Episode 213 [59:14m]:

4. Calling (818) 688-2763 to listen via Podlinez

Subscribe to the RSS feed or you can click on the “Subscribe” button at iTunes. If you are having trouble, then watch this video tutorial from my producer Kevin Kennedy-Spaien.

Are you a fan of my podcast and feel compelled to help spread the word to more people who need to hear it? If so, go to the iTunes page for “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore” and leave your own comment about the podcast. How has it impacted your life? Have you learned anything from what you have heard on the show? SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK! This is the very best way to give access to the show to those who have never heard of it before. THANKS for sharing with others about my podcast and keeping low-carb on the forefront of the diet and health conversation.

Did you like what Gary Taubes had to share in this special “Encore Week” podcast? Do you agree he was one of the best of the best interviews in 2008? Talk about it in the show notes section of Episode 213. If you’re one of the handful of people who HASN’T read Good Calories, Bad Calories, by all means get a copy for yourself and READ IT! You won’t be disappointed. Read Gary’s original New York Times column from 2002 entitled “What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?” that basically put Atkins low-carb on the map again and check out this 2007 blog interview I conducted with him when his book was released.

We’re only just getting started with “Encore Week” and can’t wait to share follow-up interviews with your favorite guests of 2008:

TUESDAY–Dr. William Davis
WEDNESDAY–Dr. James E. Carlson
THURSDAY–Dr. Mary C. Vernon
FRIDAY–Dr. James LaValle

THANKS for supporting my podcast and show your appreciation to Atkins Nutritionals for making this week’s special podcasts possible!

Filed under: 1 | 1 Comment »

Binx Selby promotes a high-fat, low-carb diet through his BalancePoint Protocol

For those of you who attempted to access the final episode of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore” last Monday, let me apologize for the poor audio quality of the original uploaded podcast. My producer Kevin was out of town visiting relatives for the New Year’s holiday last week and didn’t return to fix the issue until late Sunday night. If you tried listening to it previously, then please listen again because it is crystal clear now. And you are gonna absolutely LOVE what you hear from my interview guest Binx Selby.

In Episode 212 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” Binx shares his personal journey to discover a way to improve his health through his diet when his doctor wanted to put him on cholesterol-lowering prescription medications. Although his LDL cholesterol was just over 100 and his triglycerides and HDL were stellar, a statin drug was the treatment offered. As a science-minded man, Binx researched the subject and put himself on what has now become the high-fat, low-carb, low-protein, calorie-restricted BalancePoint Protocol. Today people following this plan are lowering their cholesterol, dropping their triglycerides, raising their HDL “good” cholesterol, and vastly improving their health with and without weight loss in just a matter of two weeks of being on this plan.

There are FOUR ways you can listen to Episode 212:

1. Listen and comment about the show at iTunes:

2. Listen and comment about the show at the official web site:

3. Download the MP3 file of Episode 212 [35:58m]:

4. Calling (818) 688-2763 to listen via Podlinez

Subscribe to the RSS feed or you can click on the “Subscribe” button at iTunes. If you are having trouble, then watch this video tutorial from my producer Kevin Kennedy-Spaien.

Are you a fan of my podcast and feel compelled to help spread the word to more people who need to hear it? If so, go to the iTunes page for “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore” and leave your own comment about the podcast. How has it impacted your life? Have you learned anything from what you have heard on the show? SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK! This is the very best way to give access to the show to those who have never heard of it before. THANKS for sharing with others about my podcast and keeping low-carb on the forefront of the diet and health conversation.

What do you think about this BalancePoint Protocol from Binx Selby? Is it something that makes sense to implement in someone who doesn’t have a weight problem but whose lipid profile is out of whack? Share your reaction to what he had to say in the show notes section of Episode 212. Visit the official BalancePoint Health web site to learn more about this unique high-fat, low-carb nutritional approach to improving health.

After weeks of telling you about this special week of podcasts with the best interview guests from 2008, it’s FINALLY here. Starting January 5, 2009, we’ll be sharing BRAND NEW INTERVIEWS featuring the top podcast interviews of the year–I’m calling it “Encore Week!” Each of these repeat podcast interviews will be ONE-HOUR long each and they’ll be featured every single day for the entire week. Who will you hear from? Check it out: Gary Taubes, Dr. William Davis, Dr. James E. Carlson, Dr. Mary C. Vernon, and Dr. James LaValle. Special thanks to Atkins Nutritionals for sponsoring “Encore Week” and making it all possible. DON’T MISS THIS SPECIAL WEEK!

Filed under: 1 | No Comments »

Let’s help shape the new Food Pyramid coming next year

Sometimes you can feel so powerless when you see such an influential governmental body like the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) continuing to do the same thing over and over again when it comes to the dietary guidelines they issue every five years. While they will hail the “changes” that happen to what has been commonly referred to as The Food Pyramid for the past few decades every time it is updated, the fact of the matter is it still relies too heavily on bread, pasta, and those so-called healthy whole grains and not enough on the truly healthy foods like beef, eggs, and butter. There’s certainly a disconnect between nutritional reality based on solid science and this fantasy world that members of the dietary guidelines committee over the years live in.

In November 2008, I blogged about my concern that not one member of the 13 chosen to serve on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee were from the low-carb research community. Not a single member! Several capable and highly-qualified ones were nominated, but all of them were rejected by the Bush administration’s Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. We can only hope that President-Elect Barack Obama’s choices for those posts–Tom Vilsack and Tom Daschle, respectively–will be more open to the low-carb message for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Committee.

But what about 2010? Is all hope lost yet again for low-carbers again to be disgusted with yet more conventional wisdom that isn’t gonna make a hill of beans difference about obesity and disease? Well, maybe not. I have some daring ideas about how we can influence the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines with the low-carb science if I can get a few dedicated supporters of the carbohydrate-restricted message who want to be world changers in 2009. It’s not gonna be easy, but what I’m about to share is worth a shot if we want to make a real difference in our country.

The next meeting of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is scheduled for Thursday, January 29 and Friday, January 30, 2009 at the Jefferson Auditorium at the USDA’s South Building from 8:00am to 5:00pm. The following are just a few daring ideas for you to ponder and decide which ones you believe will be most effective at bringing about the real change in dietary public policy that the United States so sorely needs:

1. SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS ELECTRONICALLY

The USDA has set up a public comments database on their Dietary Guidelines web site (you’ll see a big blue button in the middle of the page that states “SUBMIT Comments”). You’ll notice from the comments that have already been shared that very few bring up the lack of attention on carbohydrate-restriction, saturated fat, and other important nutritional concepts. Although many of the comments are from vegetarian/vegan proponents (note low-fat doctorJohn McDougall and the founder and president of the PETA front group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Neal Barnard to name a couple of notable ones), a couple of low-carb ones are in there, too (see the ones from Cynthia Moore and Angel Baugher). You can add YOUR voice to the conversation for consideration by the Committee.

This database was developed as a way to create a way for the public to provide insight to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee in a public and transparent way and the comments are supposedly reviewed by the Committee on a periodic basis. Research articles or other forms of information can be submitted as an attachment to your comment. This will probably make a stronger argument to the Committee than any anecdotal stories of personal weight loss and health success. Key articles that would be of most interest are ones focused on a general
population as well as published data showing the advantages of low-carb vs. low-fat vs. calorie counting.

All published research submitted to the site would be forwarded directly to the Nutrition Evidence Library and kept on file to see if they are relevant to the criteria set for answering an evidence-based research question, as determined by the Committee. If so, then the paper would be extracted from the Library for the Committee to consider.Otherwise, it will be saved on this electronic library until needed.

While this idea is perfect for those who don’t have a lot of time to commit to impacting the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, I personally doubt this will make a huge difference in and of itself on the final version of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. Let’s move on to my second daring idea.

2. OFFER PUBLIC ORAL TESTIMONY IN WASHINGTON

If you care about this issue so much that you literally want your voice to be heard, then why not travel to Washington, DC later this month and offer your own public oral testimony. The Committee will allow these testimonies to be presented at the Friday meeting and individuals will each have three minutes to state their case. While that may not be a lot of time to plead your case about livin’ la vida low-carb, it’s certainly a golden opportunity to share what you have found in your research of this way of eating to be the biggest benefits to following a controlled-carb nutritional approach with a captive audience.

But you do have to sign up if you want to speak to the Committee. You can do this by registering to attend the meeting that day in Washington, DC. An outline of your oral testimony must be submitted electronically so that copies can be made available to the Committee and to the public on the day you present them. You will submit the testimony you would like to present through DietaryGuidelines.gov.

While this one certainly has promise and it would be great to have a large contingency of low-carb proponents embarking on Washington, DC to appear before this Committee and let them know how much low-carb has changed our lives for the better through weight loss and health improvements, there may be one more daring idea that could be even bigger than the first two combined.

3. HOLD A LOW-CARB RALLY IN WASHINGTON

Sometimes when you need to make a point, you have to get the attention of those who are refusing to listen to you. With this in mind, why not organize a low-carb rally in Washington, DC the same week that the USDA has their meeting? We could get some prominent names with credentials in the low-carb research world (several of whom have already confirmed they are ready to do this if my readers like the idea) to share the latest science behind low-carbohydrate diets and saturated fat as a counter-meeting. We’d invite the media to come out and hear what we are doing and a strong presence of a few hundred people would certainly make a strong statement that will be difficult for the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee to ignore.

Is this daring? You bet it is. But if change is what we want and need in the way we go about recommending what is best for diet and health in America, then isn’t something like this worth doing? I really want to hear your feedback on this because it’s only a few weeks away and we need to plan something this week if it’s gonna happen. I’ve got a team of people ready to help organize this and would love to know what you think about it. Worth doing or just a big waste of time? SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS!

Filed under: 1 | 1 Comment »

David thinks I should look like this guy before I can blog about diet

It’s a new year and people are scouring the Internet looking for a way to make themselves skinny and healthy through that perfect nutrition and fitness plan for them. Some will fall for the first thing they find and think it’s the best plan for them while others will spend hours researching and Googling everything they can get their hands on about their chosen program. I think it’s great people get excited about losing weight and turning their health around this time of year. But I only wish they’d KEEP that excitement for more than a few days, weeks, or months down the road–they’d be MUCH better off if they did.

Now that I’ve been blogging for nearly four years about healthy low-carb living, new people are finding my columns all the time. I’ve written over 2600 posts so there’s a lot of information I’ve put out there on the Internet for people to find out more about livin’ la vida low-carb. I consider it a true privilege to have the opportunity to share my success story with others and encourage them as they take this journey to better health for themselves. When I blog about the new low-carb research, recipes, news items and more, I feel I am providing people a great service that they can apply to their own lives. And it’s FREE!

But not everyone thinks my writings are worth reading.

On Friday I received a comment under my Before & After Pics tab from a man named David Fournier who challenged my right to share about the low-carb lifestyle because of what I look like in this latest photo of me in early December 2008. According to David, I have a lot more work to do on my own obesity problem before I dare share anything about the low-carb life on my blog.

Here’s what he wrote in his comment:

Jimmy -

Sorry to disappoint you but I just looked at the most recent pictures of you (late 2008) and you are overweight, if not obese (medical definition here, not an opinion). Could you please tell us your current weight and height, so readers can put your nutritional advice in perspective? For the same reason that people should ignore financial advice from bankrupt individuals, people should ignore nutritional advice from overweight individuals - they have limited credibility. People should only take nutritional advice from very fit and lean individuals.

I suppose David meant for this to be constructive criticism and I can appreciate it from that perspective. Sure, it sounds mean, but I don’t think he intended for it to be that way. Nevertheless, I was happy to respond to David’s concerns and answer some of his questions about the work I’m doing helping others who struggle with their weight and health.

Here was my response:

THANKS for your concern, David. But I post all of my daily menus and current weight every single day for all the world to see at my menus blog. I have blogged quite openly and extensively about a 35-pound weight gain that happened in 2008 following my decision to start lifting weights in December 2007. The creatine I was taking along with several stressful situations in my life (a failed IVF cycle where my wife and I were trying to get pregnant, the death of my 41-year old brother, etc.) have also made it difficult to get the weight off.

–Jimmy

The adage that you don’t have a right to share your thoughts on nutrition and health simply because you are overweight or obese is absurd. If I was giving people advice and telling them what to do and how to do it to become the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, then I could see David’s point. But that’s not what I do. I encourage people to find the plan that works for them, follow that plan exactly, and then keep doing it for the rest of their lives. That is the recipe for success I have seen over the past five years of living the low-carb life.

Blogging isn’t about perfection or nobody would be doing it. How many people do you know who have a blog about whatever subject they care about the most and consider them the perfect representation of that topic? Maybe one or two, but certainly not the overwhelming majority of them. And, again, I never pretend to be the perfect low-carb dieter. I’m simply one man who lost a boatload of weight in 2004 and kept it off for the most part ever since.

I have a message people need to hear and nothing will deter me from sharing that with as many people as I can possibly reach until the day I die. There will always be critics of what I do (from calling me a “dead man walking” to lamenting my “unhealthy fad diet” to questioning my erratic weight management), but I have better things to concern myself with than worrying about what people like this have to say about me personally.

People are dying needlessly because they haven’t heard the truth about how damaging carbohydrates are to their health. Even if I was a 750-pound invalid living in the middle of nowhere USA and I was sharing about how insulin drives fat storage and carbs drive insulin levels, that truth would not be any less relevant than if I had a 6% body fat, muscular 200-pound body. Truth is truth no matter who is saying it.

Would I like to be closer to that muscleman someday? Of course! But I’m just living my life one day at a time consuming my healthy low-carb lifestyle, working out at the gym, staying active, and living a healthier life than I ever thought would have been possible five years ago. That’s why I will continue to do what I do, writing about livin’ la vida low-carb, and not feeling one bit ashamed of doing so. This was what my life was meant to be and my mission is to never stop telling people about the life-changing impact of low-carb!

David, I’m sorry that a 6′3″ tall man weighing 239 pounds doesn’t meet your lofty standards for being able to write about diet, health, fitness, and nutrition. But I’ve been living this way long-term, interviewed the best and the brightest health experts on my podcast show, and committed myself daily to continue the learning process for myself and my readers that I am confident I have something here that is worth paying attention to. The thousands of readers who have come here each and every day for years are a testament to this fact. While I appreciate your comments, I think I’ll get back to work now doing what I always do–educating, encouraging, and inspiring others to make better choices for the sake of their own weight and health. That’s what makes what I do significant to my readers.

Filed under: 1 | 30 Comments »

It’s time to loosen up and have some fun on Fridays this year

Starting today and every Friday in 2009, I’m implementing a new feature here at my blog called “Fun-Filled Friday” where I’ll feature a post with some diet and non-diet related stuff that is guaranteed to be a load of fun. After all, if you can’t have fun on Friday, then when will you EVER have fun, right? So to kick off this inaugural FFF (that’s short for “Fun-Filled Friday”) post, let’s see what Garfield that cat thinks about how you can best lose weight:

I’m not sure how effective that “diet” of our feline friend would be on our waistline, but it sure sounds like a lot of fun. By the way, Garfield is my wife Christine’s favorite cartoon character. She’s drawn pictures of him since she was a little girl. Ironic she loved a fat cat and then married a fat man…except now I’ve lost weight. Ummmm, Garfield, it’s YOUR turn now!

Next up on the FFF lineup is an opportunity to help a LLVLC (that’s “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb”) reader fulfill her dream of recording a song with the legendary Yo-Yo Ma, who will be performing for President-Elect Barack Obama on Inauguration Day on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. Mary shared about her opportunity on my low-carb discussion forum this week that she entered this beautiful flute selection into a contest to appear on a recording with the legendary, Grammy Award-winning artist.

In fact, she went on to share a special connection she has with Yo-Yo Ma that dates back over a decade ago.

Back in 1998, Yo-Yo Ma was interviewed in a magazine. At the end of the interview was the announcement that he would answer one letter from a reader. I knew that the only way to have the chance to have him write me was for me to first write him.

I asked him a question about teaching but not without telling him about my flute choirs and jazz band. Well, several months later there was a letter in my mail box from him. I was the one and only letter that he took the time to answer. I later sent him a thank-you card with the picture of a little black girl playing the flute. She was wearing a watch and was thinking about an ice cream cone.

Now Mary feels destined to take that chance meeting all those years ago and make her dream a reality to record with this man she admires so much.

He is such a genuine human being which makes him an incredible musician. So, when I heard about the contest I couldn’t help but think that this could come around full circle. I look forward to asking him if my name sounded familiar to him. Also, I will complete this arrangement by performing it at my student’s recital. I am going to fight hard with this and I will make the most of what will be…thanks again for your support.

So this is where YOU come into the picture to add a little fun to this Friday. Go to Mary Titus’ contest submission page, listen to her three and a half minute music selection, and then cast your vote for her to be the winner. It takes less than a minute to do this and would give my reader Mary the thrill of a lifetime. You can also access her musical selection and vote for her using the widget below:

THANKS for helping Mary keep her dream alive!

Finally, whether you are a fan of gospel music or not, this video sung by a little girl named Zoe (the daughter of a new LLVLC blog reader Penny) will put a big, bright smile on your face. Watch her facial expressions and creative movements as she passionately sings about the blood of Jesus giving her strength each day and that it will never lose its power. If this doesn’t light your fire, then I don’t know what will!

Zoe is nine years old now and still loves to sing…DUH! I think we might be seeing her on “American Idol” in a few years, what do you think? THANKS so much for sharing this with us, Penny!

Got something fun, funny, or interesting to share with me and my readers for future “Fun-Filled Friday” segments? E-mail those to me at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. Have a FANTABULOUS weekend everybody!!!

Filed under: 1 | 1 Comment »

I can hardly remember that 410-pound man I used to be before 2004

Low-carb is just not sustainable over the long-term. Cutting out an entire food group like that will leave you malnourished and unhealthy. You’ll get so bored eating meat, eggs, and cheese every single day that you will go out and binge on sugar and carbs as a rebellious act. (And my personal favorite) When you add back in the carbohydrates to your diet again, you’ll put the weight back on faster than you took it off (assuming you are going to start eating lots of carbs again).

You know, looking at some of those excuses for NOT going on a low-carb diet, they can seem logical and even somewhat reasonable based on the basic knowledge most people have about weight loss. After all, it’s good to have balance in your diet with a variety of foods that keeps things interesting enough that you’ll want to eat that way for the rest of your life, right? Well, I’m here to testify today that livin’ la vida low-carb is all of that and more for me.

Today, January 1, 2009 marks my 5-year anniversary being on the low-carb lifestyle. Little did I know back in 2004 when I began this amazing journey to better health with the Atkins diet after reading Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution just how much my life would change physically with my weight and health as well as many other areas of my life, including my new career as a full-time low-carb blogger, podcaster, YouTuber, and more!

It’s all been a dream world for me to be able to share my success story with literally hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, most of whom I’ll never meet in person. But the literally hundreds of e-mails that I receive each week confirm that the work I am doing IS making an impact on the lives of real people who need their own inspiration, motivation and encouragement to take this journey for themselves. This weight loss and radical change in my life was and is still my greatest accomplishment in life.

Five years seems like such a long ago, but at the same time it doesn’t. Time has flown by since losing 180 pounds in one year and yet there are plenty of opportunities that come up where the old Jimmy Moore comes face to face with the new one. Although I’m finding it more and more difficult to remember what it was like being obese, there are times when a vision of those days will flash in my head giving me the sober reminder that I am so much better off than I was before.

No more struggling to breathe, no more worries about chest pains, no more dreading walking around Wal-Mart with my wife, no more taking three prescription drugs to control high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and wheezing, no more hating going to the movies or sitting on an airplane seat, no more Big & Tall stores, no more ripping the seat of my pants getting into my car, no more relentless sweating even in the dead of winter, no more wishing I could do more with my life, no more regrets. These days I am doing everything I could ever dream of doing and more.

And I have the low-carb lifestyle to thank for giving me my life back!

While the rhetoric about low-carb dieting prevents so many people from taking advantage of this scientifically-based nutritional approach that is far superior to low-fat diets not just for weight loss, but for health improvements, the fact of the matter is most people who have struggled time and time again on the diet recommended by the so-called health “experts” are finding the most success when they turn to low-carb.

You may not hear about it in the media, but millions of people are cutting the carbohydrates and replacing it with fat and moderate amounts of protein to satiate their hunger, control the release of insulin (the #1 reason fat accumulates in the body), and burn stored body fat (not just weight, but actual body fat). This is not sensationalism, it’s a fact well-documented in the medical literature as I highlight often in my columns.

The past few years have not always been easy for me and I never expected it to be. When I lost my weight in 2004, everyone was telling me how good I looked and that the work I invested in changing my life was done. My response back to them was, “The work has only now begun.” And that was 100% true as I’ve experienced all the ups and downs you would expect after such a significant weight loss.

And despite the naysayers, I have still kept the majority of that original weight loss off. Even with a mysterious and sudden 35-pound weight gain in early 2008 that just came out of nowhere following my foray into weight lifting and struggling to get that weight off all year trying everything I knew to get the scale moving back down again, I FINALLY found going completely “sweet”-free for most of November and all of December helped me take off over 25 pounds and my weight return back to the 230s again for the first time since last year.

Today I weigh just under ten pounds more than I did at the end of 2004 when I hit 230. And that’s perfectly fine with me, although I’m still actively working on bringing my weight back down. Although my weight is slightly higher now, my clothes fit me perfectly. I attribute this to the muscle weight I’ve gained over the past year with regular resistance training and conditioning. I’m as healthy as an ox and enjoy living an active low-carb lifestyle. I can’t imagine ever going back to plopping on the couch eating whole boxes of Little Debbie snack cakes while watching “The Biggest Loser!” That’s not who I am anymore.

I know what you’re thinking, though. Sure, Jimmy lost all that weight and kept it off for years now–but what’s his health like, hmmmmm? I enjoy answering this question much more than talking about my weight loss success. Because this gets into the nitty gritty of why I am so super-excited about sharing with people the positive message of low-carb living.

You see, weight loss is merely a side effect of beginning a low-carb way of eating–improving your HEALTH is what it’s really all about. And even the traditional tests like total cholesterol and LDL don’t give you the whole picture of what’s happening to you. That’s why silly studies on statin drugs like this one encouraging more and more people to take them unnecessarily drive me crazy. The fact is my latest cholesterol numbers are stellar when you look at them through the lens of the most modern tests like the NMR Lipoprofile from LipoScience:

LDL Particle Number: 1453
Small LDL Particle Number: 30

Let me translate that for you. The small, dense, and dangerous LDL particles are the ones you DON’T want in your blood because they lead to plaque buildup, inflammation in the arteries, blockages, and eventual atherosclerosis. Of my total LDL particles, a mere TWO PERCENT are this kind that you don’t want. Doctors hope to keep that number below 600, but mine was 30. Yes, my LDL cholesterol number is 250, but 98 percent of that LDL is the large, fluffy, and protective kind that keeps you out of danger of getting heart disease.

Add to this wonderful news about my LDL the fact that my HDL “good” cholesterol is an outstanding 65 (should be above 40) and my triglycerides are 85 (should be under 150) and this proves my diet is not making me more unhealthy–on the contrary, I’ve never been more healthy in my life! And these changes are a result of eating a high amount of fat, even saturated fat, moderate amounts of protein, and very little carbohydrates. This is a recipe for weight loss and health progress like you’ve never experienced before!

Would I have ever been able to experience these kinds of what I consider miraculous changes in my life had I listened to all those negative comments about low-carb prior to my New Year’s resolution in 2004? Absolutely not! This is why I encourage people these days to ignore those who would try to dissuade them from livin’ la vida low-carb based on health concerns because quite frankly they don’t know what they talking about. Heck, even I have my critics to this day despite my five-year track record of personal weight loss and health success!

If you are reading this and thinking you’d like to get started on your own low-carb lifestyle, then let me encourage you to do the following:

1. Read a low-carb book like Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, Protein Power by Drs. Mike & Mary Dan Eades, or for a side-by-side comparison of the most popular low-carb diets get Dr. Jonny Bowden’s Living The Low-Carb Life.

2. Have your doctor conduct a Lipoprofile blood test to measure your LDL particle size, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides at baseline so you can see how much improvement low-carb will make on your health.

3. Commit to following your chosen low-carb plan exactly as prescribed for at least three months and continually educate yourself more and more about the low-carb lifestyle (read Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories for an excellent history of the science behind low-carb).

4. Get active support not just from your friends and family, but by getting involved with others who have been successful eating this way online through low-carb forums like this one I created.

5. Most importantly, NEVER, NEVER, EVER GIVE UP! You’ll face struggles, temptations, cravings, and even some pain early on when you do this. But let me tell you, the payoff in the end is worth it all if you can just stick it out until you reach your goal.

As I reflect on the past five years of low-carb living, I can’t help but be grateful to all those who encouraged me, gave me strength, and lifted me up when I felt like calling it quits. As a means of paying it forward, I stand ready to help anyone who has any questions or concerns they want to share with me anytime. I’m always just an e-mail away at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. It is my pleasure and honor to serve you and be there as you strive to become a long-term low-carb success, too. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

Filed under: 1 | 16 Comments »

If you start that weight loss program, find the RIGHT support

As millions of Americans get ready for day one of their 2009 New Year’s resolution to lose weight, a compelling new survey conducted by ZoneDiet.com (founded by the amazing Dr. Barry Sears) shows some rather intriguing statistics about how we REALLY feel about the weight loss experience especially when we do it together with a friend or family member.

According to the survey, two thirds of Americans don’t mind sharing their dieting experience with another overweight or obese diet, but about the same number of people also believe the other person is lying about what they are eating. It is unclear from the survey why there is such skepticism and mistrust with people they know. But it does expose a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” mentality that exists in a lot of people when it comes to weight loss.

When I lost my weight in 2004, I did it alone–meaning I didn’t have anyone else losing weight with me. My wife Christine was there encouraging and loving me every step of the way as I melted away from 410 down to 230 pounds. But I didn’t have anybody to doubt whether they were eating what they claimed to be or not. Only myself and it’s very difficult to lie to yourself about what you put in your mouth!

Now, I suppose we can chalk this next set of survey findings up to The Biggest Loser phenomenon or something, but competition seems to be the name of the game when people start on a new diet. The survey shows that more than 60 percent of Americans say it would tick them off if their weight loss buddy lost more weight than they did. In other words, they want to have the friendly competition to motivate their success, but the don’t want to lose! At the same time, 70 percent of those surveyed expressed sympathy to their weight loss partner by saying it would upset them if the other person didn’t lose ANY weight at all.

While I didn’t have a formal “buddy” losing weight with me, I was a part of a competition on a local afternoon radio talk show in Greenville, South Carolina in 2004. Four other people were all competing to win an array of prizes valued at around $3,000 and we’d call in each month with our progress. I was disheartened to hear that two of the competitors dropped out after a couple of months, a third one quit at 5 months, and my final competitor was hospitalized on the day of the live public weigh-in. So, I won the contest simply by being the only one who showed up. But it didn’t hurt that I had lost 140 pounds in the nine months the contest ran either!

In my case, I would have been disappointed if one of the others I was competing against beat me just as all the contestants who go on The Biggest Loser probably hate it to get on the show and then not walk away with the big money. That’s a strange psychology, though, when there is no money or prizes on the line, though. Is it just a competitive nature thing or what? I would think this would be more true of men than women, but I know some women who are fierce competitors, too (just look at the past two winners on The Biggest Loser).

This is why having a quality support system in place is so essential when you start a new weight loss regimen. That is one reason why I started my “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Discussion” forum to give people a safe haven to talk about their weight and health struggles in a friendly environment full of loving people ready to walk that journey with them. Me and my super-encouraging moderators (abnormalslc, Cartbabe, ChrissyLizzy, FormerDonutJunkie, Hogsfan, LindaSue, moonius, PatTee, and Sparkys Girl–THANKS guys, you are AWESOME!) stand ready to provide non-judgmental support to you regardless of what stage of livin’ la vida low-carb you happen to be in.

And we expect to see lots of new faces at the forum in the next week or so with a full 56 percent of Americans expected to try yet again to resolve to lose weight and get fit, according to the survey. However, as most people already know, the temptation to “fall off the wagon” for good is strong and a full 58 percent drop out in less than a month. Over three-fourths of those who quit their resolution to lose weight and get healthy say they must have a lack of willpower.

I’ve got a few things to say about this. Anyone who tries a weight loss program has to give it at least three months to see if it is effective or not. Giving up after only a few short weeks is a lame excuse and proves your heart really wasn’t in it to begin with. If this is something worth doing in your life, then you will commit yourself to it in your mind first which in the end will make you the success you deserve to be. One small screw-up isn’t worth ruining the investment you’ve made in yourself. Just pick yourself up and get back to it again.

Now, let me address this business about “willpower.” I don’t believe there is any such thing as willpower. Whoever thought of this concept in regards to weight loss was an absolute idiot. If all it took was strong willpower to make things happen, then I wouldn’t have gotten fat to begin with. Instead, I’m a BIG believer in people having a steadfast resolve to make smarter and better choices for the sake of their health and that will be the key to their success at losing weight or not (my fellow low-carb blogging friend Regina Wilshire also hit this topic about a year ago). Using a variation on that old high school football chant, “You got to want it to lose it and we want it bad!”

What about giving a weight loss gift? Have you ever gotten one of those? How did it go over with you? Well, according to the ZoneDiet.com survey, 44 percent of women wouldn’t mind getting a diet book or weight loss tool of some sort. But their male counterparts wouldn’t touch that topic with a ten-foot pole and you can’t blame them! Although, when the roles were reversed and my wife and her parents decided to get me a copy of Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution for Christmas 2003, it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. And the rest, they say, is history.

The ZoneDiet.com survey was conducted via telephone interviews during the period of November 6 – 9, 2008. The survey included a national probability sample of 1,003 adults comprising of 503 men and 500 women 18 years of age or older, living in the Continental United States. The survey was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation with a margin of error of plus/minus 3.2 percentage points for the general population.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! By all means, start livin’ la vida low-carb TODAY to be healthier than you’ve ever been in your entire life. And if you are making a resolution to lose weight, let me encourage you to find a proven plan that will work for you, follow that plan exactly as prescribed by the author of that plan, and then KEEP doing it to the end of your weight loss and forever thereafter. You’ll be beaming with success sooner than you even realize! YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Filed under: 1 | 4 Comments »

Heidi Diaz a big winner in 2008 for having the “worst” diet product

I’m beginning work on a follow-up book to my 2005 debut book release Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: My Journey From Flabby Fat To Sensationally Skinny In One Year. While the first book was all about my 180-pound weight loss success and designed to inspire and motivate others who want to shed the pounds, restore their health, and get their life back again like I did, this next book will outline the many lessons I’ve learned over the course of the past five years of low-carb living and blogging. One of the chapters of that book will be on the Kimkins diet scam.

After promoting this diet on my blog for months because it seemed to be helping people find their path to genuine weight loss, I realized thanks to the gentle nudge of some friends who delved deeply into the Kimkins plan that this was nothing more than a “starvation diet” that was encouraging lower and lower calories while cutting out the fat and the carbohydrates and promoting its members take laxatives (what was known as “the plan behind the plan”). EEEEK! This was so shocking to me that I wrote an open apology to my readers for exposing them to this dangerous diet scheme.

The architect of the Kimkins diet is none other than Heidi Kimberly Diaz (aka “Kimmer”) who claimed she lost nearly 200 pounds and maintained that weight loss for several years when I interviewed her in a podcast show I conducted with her in July 2007. However, just a couple of months later, private investigator photos of Ms. Diaz unveiled quite a different fact–she’s STILL a morbidly obese woman struggling to find a way to lose the weight, too.

Then we start hearing from former Kimkins dieters who claim their health has been damaged from being on the diet, including the famous “cover girl” for Kimkins who appeared on the front of Woman’s World magazine touting the diet in June 2007 Christine Sherburne. Soon thereafter, the media starting picking up on this story, including an investigative report named Chip Yost at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, a national segment on FOX-TV’s “The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet”, and even on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America.” The word started to spread about this scam!

I interviewed several former prominent Kimkins members about their experience being on the diet, including Jeannie Battinger, Amy Bryant, and Christin Sherburne for their message to anyone foolish enough to still be considering going on the Kimkins diet. Even Woman’s World magazine couldn’t remain silent about the scam stating in February 2008 they can no longer stand behind their story about Diaz’ disastrous diet!

Going back through that July 2007 interview, I pulled all the lies she told me and highlighted them in one podcast. She can’t get away with inflicting harm on innocent new victims which is why I submitted an affidavit in the lawsuit against Heidi Diaz certifying the interview was legitimate. She is gonna be so busted since she claims she doesn’t recall doing an interview with me. Riiiiiiiiiiggggghhhht!

But as we begin 2009, Heidi Diaz is unfortunately still alive and doing well in the diet business…but that could be changing very soon for two reasons.

First, the gig is in on the Kimkins diet and the Healthy Weight Network named it the Worst Diet Product of 2008 in their 20th Annual Slim Chance Awards.

Here’s what they wrote about the dubious “winner”:

It must have seemed an easy way to get rich quick. Founder Heidi “Kimmer” Diaz set up a website and charged members a fee to access the Kimkins diet, boasting they could lose up to 5 percent of their body weight in 10 days. “Better than gastric bypass,” there was “no faster diet,” and in fact she herself had lost 198# in 11 months. Stunning “after” photos were displayed. In June 2007 Women’s World ran it as a cover story, and that month alone PayPal records show the Kimkins site took in over $1.2 million. Then users began complaining of chest pains, hair loss, heart palpitations, irritability and menstrual irregularities. This was not surprising since Kimkins is essentially a starvation diet, down to 500 calories per day and deficient in many nutrients (shockingly, laxatives are advised to replace the missing fiber). In a lawsuit, 11 former members are uncovering a vast record of Diez’s alleged fraud. They found that the stunning “after” photos, including one of Kimmer herself, had been lifted from a Russian mail order bride site. According to a deposition reported by Los Angeles TV station KTLA, Diaz admitted using fake pictures, fake stories and fake IDs, and a judge has allowed the litigants to freeze some of her assets.

The other reason Heidi Diaz and her Kimpire is is big trouble is the class action lawsuit waged against her by former Kimkins members who were harmed by the diet is set for a court hearing on Wednesday, January 14, 2009. The plaintiff’s motion for class certification action by Jeanessa Fenderson led by chief counsel John Tiedt is on the court docket in Riverside Superior Court in California. To make matters worse for “The Kimmer,” Diaz’ attorney Bert Kottle was suddenly dropped three days before Christmas leaving her to defend herself against Tiedt and company in two weeks. She may be a lot of things, but legal counsel isn’t one of them for Heidi Diaz!

You can access the progress of the class action lawsuit against Heidi Diaz and Kimkins by clicking here and entering the case number RIC483005. She has even gone so far as to file a cross-complaint lawsuit against the members of the class action suit against her as well as others, including myself, allegedly for inflicting economic damage, slander and libel, invasion of privacy, civil conspiracy, and inflicting intentional emotional distress–all worthy of “damages” totaling in excess of $1 million. Hilarious, isn’t it?

Although this “SLAPP” lawsuit was filed with the court on September 24, 2008, I’ve yet to be served with any papers in this bogus counter lawsuit. I don’t even know why she’s suing me and people like Tom Roddy from Netrition since we are not a part of the class action lawsuit against her. The arrogance of this woman to think she can get away with inflicting harm on others without any consequences is about to come to a humbling end for her in the very near future. Thanks for the memories, Heidi! NOT!

Read more about the ongoing Kimkins saga at Laura Dolson’s About.com Low-Carb Diets site or see Jamie Van Eaton’s fabulous year in review post detailing all that happened in 2008. The end is drawing near and it’s not too late to keep yourself from becoming ensnared by this evildoer who wouldn’t know how to lose weight and get healthy if it hit her upside the head like a ton of bricks! The only place Heidi Diaz deserves to be in behind bars. The sooner, the better.

Filed under: 1 | No Comments »

Judy Barnes Baker is writing another recipe book for diabetics

I’ve met so many wonderful people in the past four years who are just as dedicated and devoted to sharing the good news of livin’ la vida low-carb as I am. They are using the many gifts and talents they’ve been blessed with to bring about positive change and influence on those they come into contact with both virtually and in real life. These are the grassroots world changers who are leading the low-carb revolution boldly into the future.

One of my favorite members of this illustrious group of low-carb supporters is a woman named Judy Barnes Baker. In early 2007, she wrote a cookbook called CARB WARS: Sugar Is The New Fat to share some of the scrumptious recipes she came up with for her husband who was suffering with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity before starting a low-carb regimen. That book and the success that followed caused me to name her in my Top 10 Movers & Shakers of 2007.

The notoriety Judy received from that book got her noticed by a BIG BIG BIG publisher (sorry, can’t tell you who it is yet!) who asked her to write a diabetes cookbook chock full of delicious low-carb recipes for people who need to control their blood sugar and insulin levels.

WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY! But Judy needs YOUR help.

Since she is on a deadline for getting the recipes completed to her publisher, the time for trial and error that comes with perfecting recipes is extremely limited. Judy is pleading for volunteers willing to try her recipes and tell her what you think.

“I don’t have the luxury of making each recipe over and over until I’m 100% confident that it will work, first time, every time,” she wrote on her blog. “I also need to know that it will turn out the same in other kitchens as it does in mine. I am asking for volunteers to serve as recipe testers.”

The way this will work is pretty simple. Judy will send you a list of her new low-carb recipes to try, pick your favorite ones to make, and then offer your feedback. She only asks that you follow the recipe EXACTLY as she has written it unless there is something that looks awkward ahead of time. In that case, you’ll contact Judy and let her know about your concern. The goal is to get as many people as possible to test her recipes each month.

“I’d like you to commit to testing at least one recipe a month; of course you may do more if you like,” Judy commented. “There will be an evaluation form to fill out for each recipe. This should be done as soon as possible after you make the dish, while your memory is fresh.”

What kinds of questions will you be expected to answer about Judy’s recipes?

- Were the instructions clear and easy to follow?
- Was it difficult to find the ingredients?
- Did the recipe make the correct number of servings?
- Were the weights and measurements of ingredients and the serving sizes accurate?
- If a headnote is included, did you like it?
- Did you like the dish and will you make it again?
- Do you have any suggestions or comments about the recipe?

If you do not consider yourself a whiz in the kitchen, then that’s okay, too. Most of the people who will be buying this book will be diabetics trying to learn how to cook low-carb for the first time in their lives, so it will be new to them as well.

“After all, the people who buy the book will include some who have never made anything more complicated than toast,” Judy noted. “If you are analytical and methodical, that’s a plus, but not a necessity.”

Of course, since this is a book proposal, confidentiality is a MUST with the recipes until the book has been released to the public hopefully sometime in 2010. I’m sure Judy will also put your name in the list of acknowledgments and thank yous, so that’s a pretty neat perk, too! But who doesn’t like to try new recipes, right? You might just find something that you’d like and never knew how to make it before. I know Judy would be thrilled to have that happen for you.

Interested? Then send an e-mail to contact@carbwarscookbook.com and Judy will hook you up with all the details. I will be helping Judy Barnes Baker with this project because I want her to be successful at writing a genuine low-carb cookbook for diabetics. This is unique chance for the low-carb message to reach people with diabetes who would never otherwise listen to it. On behalf of Judy, THANK YOU for your help!

Filed under: 1 | 3 Comments »

After years of hemming and hawing, the FDA relents position on stevia

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) wields plenty of power about what we can and cannot eat by issuing declarations towards food products that determine whether they are “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). Some of the most popular sugar substitutes on the market today, including Splenda, Nutrasweet, Sweet ‘N Low, and others have long held this coveted distinction of being “safe” for consumption (although many questions still remain about some of those FDA-approved GRAS sweeteners). But one all-natural, plant-based sweetener has been ignored and relegated to the supplement aisle at health food stores for many years–stevia.

Stevia has been the unwanted stepchild of the sweeteners because it is the only one that is not chemically-based. With more and more people looking to remove chemicals from their diet and focus on natural foods, stevia makes sense. But the stubbornness of the FDA (no doubt influenced heavily by the artificial sweetener companies that don’t want the competition) has presented that from happening–UNTIL NOW!

You’ll recall in May 2007 I blogged about food giant Cargill Foods along with The Coca-Cola Company putting stevia on the fast track for FDA-approval by petitioning them to give consideration to a brand new sweetener. I was privileged to be one of the first people to try this stevia-based sugar alternative in New York City during the summer at a special introductory party for Truvia. I was VERY impressed with the taste of Truvia at the time noting that it was a nice blend of the powerful sweetening ability of stevia complemented by another all-natural, zero-calorie sugar replacement called erythritol.

Truvia hit supermarket shelves in October 2008 alongside the other popular sweeteners. It should come as no surprise that many other companies are getting on the stevia bandwagon and creating their own versions as well, including PureVia and Nuva, for example. And with the FDA putting their stamp of acceptance on these and other stevia products, I can see this becoming one of the biggest food trends especially in the diet industry in 2009.

Cargill received a letter from the FDA earlier this month stating that the agency has no objection to the conclusion of an independent expert panel which reviewed research that rebiana, the main part of the stevia plant used Truvia, is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use as a general purpose sweetener. The FDA letter affirms and supports rebiana’s safety and the data used to make that determination. A Cargill spokesman was thrilled with this decision after five long years of development and petitioning to the FDA.

“The FDA brought the appropriate rigor to the process and we are extremely pleased with the news,” the Cargill representative said in a release.

Additionally, the makers of Purvia at the Chicago, IL-based Merisant Company also received a letter from the FDA giving them permission to sell their product to consumers. Merisant CEO Paul Block believes this acceptance of stevia will radically revolutionize the sweetener industry.

“This is a huge day for us, and we have the champagne out,” he said. “This is an enormous innovation for us and a quantum leap for the industry. This is a big part of our future.”

The new stevia-based products coming to stores in 2009

You probably have already seen Truvia on store shelves and I’m sure grocers and chain stores like Wal-Mart are already clearing shelf space for all the new stevia products to come. Purevia is set to be in stores nationwide by the end of March 2009. Purevia will be introduced as a sweetener in the products Sobe Lifewater and Trop 50, Tropicana’s new light orange juice product. Meanwhile, Truvia has been added to a brand new version of Sprite called Sprite Green available this month as well as new flavors of the Odwalla juice drink.

What do you think about this FDA-approval of stevia for the first time ever? Are you concerned about this move or do you think it will open up more opportunities to have natural sugar alternatives sold more widespread? Tell us what you think about in the comments section below.

Filed under: 1 | 8 Comments »