Livin' La Vida Low-Carb E-mail Extravaganza

The feedback I have received from hundreds of brand new readers who have put me on an all-time record pace for pageviews this month has kept me a busy bee lately. I enjoy reading every single e-mail that comes my way and wanted to share a few of the ones that may interest you.

Here's an e-mail from a man who is contemplating a diet called No White At Night by Bill Gavin:

Jimmy, you are an inspiration! Let me make that clear. I am on my own weight loss journey, but it's been a hard one. I'm now down to about 305 from a high of about 389. I'm about 6' tall. I hit a spirit-killing plateau last summer and tried just about everything to get the weight moving again. I even hired a personal trainer and started working with weights. I wasn't doing a low-carb diet, instead doing moderate everything, counting calories, and exercising. I also realized I needed to increase my water intake, so I'm doing that now.

I recently checked a book out of the library called "No White at Night." Have you heard of it? Do you have an opinion of it? I saw your review of the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet (which I did several years ago), but this diet is slightly different from that one.

Here are the basic principles:

1. Eat 3 meals/day (though I do 5),
2. Protein at every meal
3. No starches/sweets at night

I'm working my mother to help her lose weight because she's extremely overweight and in poor health. She's GOT to lose weight. My mom's doctor won't approve Atkins (I already asked), but I figured this plan would be good for us both. Since she's diabetic, it's possible I am having insulin metabolic resistance. I've never been tested as a full-blown diabetic, but that doesn't mean I'm not suffering from hyperinsulinemia.

So, my basic question is whether you think this approach can work, or if you are just for straight Atkins. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

Hmmm, this plan certainly sounds interesting, but it's not that different from Atkins. My only concern is eating the "white" foods during the day. If they changed the book to "No White During The Day Or At Night," then THAT would be a plan I could throw my full support behind. :)

As for your doctor not approving Atkins for your mother, tell him you want to put her on a healthy diet consisting of removing the sugar, white flour, starchy vegetables, and processed foods and replacing those things with low-glycemic fruits like berries as well as green leafy veggies. How much you wanna bet that doctor would say "Oh, that's really healthy." What they don't even realize is that perfectly describes the Atkins diet! This kind of ignorance is everywhere.

Speaking of doctor ignorance, here's another e-mail from a lady who wants to go on the South Beach diet, but her doctor said it will cause her cholesterol to go up:

For the past couple of weeks I have been researching low-carb diets, reading books etc. I have been doing this in order to decide which eating planning will work best for my husband and I. We need to lose some weight and recently were told by our doctor that our cholesterol was a little high. I finally made a decision to put my husband and I on 'The South Beach Diet' because I felt it would work with our lifestyle the best and easiest. I was really excited after reading Dr. Agatston's book on the diet and was excited about the possible outcome with our weight and health.

However when I called the doctor's office today to get the okay from our doc before going on this diet the nurse told me the diet wasn't good for lowering cholesterol. Now I am really discouraged and confused. How can there be so many different opinions about this subject? I wouldn't imagine a cardiologist recommending a diet that wouldn't help lower cholesterol. Now I am stuck and in need of some suggestions from you.

I haven't started any diet as of yet, for this very reason. I don't want to be in the middle of something and either get discouraged or told it wasn't a healthy choice for me. I was on Atkins a few years ago and I felt very ill on that diet. I had heart palpitations and I was weak. I did however lose weight. I know that Dr. Agatston doesn't agree with Atkins on some points, but now my doctor doesn't agree with South Beach.

I am reallty trying to make the best decision here before changing a lifestyle and then having to change it again. Any input would be appreciated.

This is the kind of thing that REALLY angers me more than anything. Here's someone who wants to seriously do something for herself and her husband about their weight and health problems and yet it is the doctor standing in the way and actually DISCOURAGING them from doing SOMETHING! UGH! I'd really like to ask these doctors like this one a very pointed question--Which is worse, low-carb or obesity? There's no doubt what the right answer is.

Here was my response to this e-mail:

THANKS for writing and sharing your concerns about low-carb raising your cholesterol. It doesn't matter which low-carb plan you choose, your doctor is not gonna like it. Mine didn't before I started on Atkins in 2004, but I did it anyway.

I've written extensively about the cholesterol issue several times before--

- How high blood sugar is the health threat, not cholesterol
- How HDL "good" cholesterol is improved while on low-carb
- How low-carb living with regular exercise lowers total cholesterol
- How even the LDL "bad" cholesterol can be healthy for you
- How low-carb makes worrying about your cholesterol unnecessary
- How traditional cholesterol test results don't apply to people on low-carb

Also, if you haven't seen my interview with Australian independent researcher Anthony Colpo yet, then it's worth checking out. He spent years looking at all of the scientific data to determine the truth about cholesterol and its implications on our health. He wrote a book called "The Great Cholesterol Con" that details the results of his extensive examination of this issue.

I'll warn you now, if you want to start on any low-carb plan--whether it's Atkins, South Beach, Protein Power, or whatever--you are going to run into naysayers, especially in the medical community. They are living on the research that took place many decades ago and have not updated their knowledge to the latest studies. Please take time to read all the links I provided because it will expand your understanding and give you peace about going on South Beach.

Hope this helps! Take care!

Thankfully, there are SOME doctors out there who realize how awesome livin' la vida low-carb is. Meet Dr. Rick Boatright who found me doing a search recently and he is doing some fantastic work helping people with Type II diabetes overcome their challenges with the disease thanks to low-carb.

Here's his e-mail:

Hi,

My name’s Dr. Rick Boatright and I’m a chiropractor. I’ve been getting reports of very good success with my recent book, “Surviving Type II Diabetes (In Spite of the Experts’ Advice)” from both my patients who have purchased it in my office and others who have bought it online and in stores. So my wife and I have been considering re-focusing our practice on helping the Type II diabetic and on weight loss. When I typed “weight loss and chiropractic” into my search engine, I found a Jimmy Moore weight loss article on your blog and just had to find out more about you.

My book has only been out since May and I’ve been steadily plugging along. I believe that the low-carb message is incredibly vital to most Americans today. Any way I can get that message out, I feel I must. Not only is it a vital element in weight loss issues, it’s also a major player in cholesterol control, heart health, controlling triglycerides, and controlling one of the most prevalent of 21st century epidemics – type II diabetes, which represents more than 80% of all diabetes cases in the US today.

I want to applaud you for your incredibly important work. It’s a shining example to follow. You’re a leader and an inspiration. I’ve dropped nearly 50 pounds over the past 3 years and continue to lose, and my wife has dropped 105 pounds and is still losing. I’m pre-diabetic and she’s a Type II diabetic.

I'm a hard core, low-carb proponent coming from the slant of its importance as it pertains to Type II diabetes and I'm proud to have you doing what you are doing.

Sincerely,

Dr. Rick Boatright

WOW, thanks so much Dr. Boatright. I have found most chiropractors at least acknowledge the low-carb lifestyle (except for this lone "dufus Denver doc" I had to set straight!) as a viable option for many since their profession also bucks the trend of conventional wisdom. Please visit Dr. Boatright's outstanding web site to learn more about what he is doing to use low-carb for treating Type II diabetes.

Another web site you might want to check out is a creatively-titled low-carb blog called "The Steaks Are High" by a woman named Kate. I referenced this blog last week in my blog post "When Is Fat Not Fattening?" and Kate just had to respond.

Hi Jimmy,

I just wanted to thank you for linking to my blog last week. My traffic soared after you did that, so thank you. Blogging is fun, but it doesn't make me leap out of bed in the morning to post when the likelihood is that only a few people will actually read it. However, despite my low numbers, I do agree with the point you made in your podcast show today about low carb blogging increasing accountability.

I can honestly say that I have not cheated once since beginning my blog. I'd feel like a bit of a hypocrite publicly touting the benefits of low-carb living and then stuffing myself full of sugar! But even if I do slip up at some point, I think knowing that I'll want to post about it will keep me in a healthy frame of mind where instead of berating myself for cheating I'll be using it to examine what went wrong and how I can do better in the future. This will help me help others who are struggling.

Thank you again for the link! You should've heard me on the phone to my mom--'He's one of the most famous low-carb bloggers ever and he linked to me!' Thanks for all the amazing work you do. I really enjoy reading what you have to say, whether it be ranting or raving, or simply passing on good info. Have a great day!

Kate, you're making me blush! It was my pleasure to point people to the fantastic writing you are doing at your blog. You are doing an outstanding job and I'm happy to announce you are the newest contributing writer at Low-Carb Newsline. Be sure to check out what Kate has to say! Tell mom I said HI! :)

There's another new low-carb blog out there called "Notso Fatso: Chronicles Of A Low-Carb Maniac" featuring the hilarious writings of Andrew Ross. He decided to drop me an e-mail to let me know about his blog and here's what Andrew wrote:

Congratulations on your low-carb success! I’m hoping to catch up to you with my weight loss. I’ve lost a net amount of 90 lbs, and have another 130 to go and it feels a whole lot easier after seeing how much you lost. I was blown away and greatly encouraged when I came across your blog via Google. In fact, it’s inspired me to start my own blog. I saw you asked for emails concerning new blogs, so I thought I’d mention it.

So far, I’ve just been blogging about random low-carb subjects. In the next few weeks, I’m going to start narrowing the scope of it a bit when I find particular low-carb subjects that need attention. I’m also a lover of diet humor, so I’ve posted a few items concerning that as well. At any rate, enough about my stuff…

I’m glad to see someone (that’s you) pouring such attention into matters of health – I get the feeling you are truly passionate about others. You’ve made a difference in my life, and I hope I get the pleasure of sharing the good news of my success with you!

Andy

What an awesome e-mail, Andy! I'm stoked you have found some benefit in what I am doing here at my blog and I KNOW you will be very successful at your intentionally politically incorrect blog as well. YOU GO BOY! Keep in touch and let me know how you're doing. I'll be watching your blog, too!

Finally,

I lost 100 lbs on Atkins about 3 years ago I am just now starting to creep some pounds back on. I have added 29 pounds and cannot get away from that weight. Now I am still not skinny by any mean--I currently weigh 329. I don't know how much I was when I started but I lost quite a bit and then finally went to my dad's dialysis place to weigh on thier scale that was on the floor and looked like a loading dock scale. At that time I weighed 380. I remember how excited I was to get down to a weight that I could use a home scale and now I am pressing that number again.

I got down to 298 and swore I would never see 300 again, but my daughter came back home and her and I like to run around and go out to eat. Her moving back caused extra expenses and stress, then she got pregnant etc. I am in my 2nd marriage and all my kids are from the first marriage which adds stress and I am a major stress eater.

A week and a half ago the company I worked for bailed out of the blue and left us all unemployed. The really bad thing was me, hubby and daughter all worked there so our whole house lost it's income. So needless to say I have not been eating so great the last week. But tomorrow we should have our last paychecks in the mail and I want to by good food and stick with it.

So any ideas, help, family friendly recipes, etc. would be great. Hope you are doing well.

Aw, that just breaks my heart hearing about this. But life does happen and it's that much more important to stick with low-carb living when the going gets rough. Here was my response to her:

I'm sorry to hear about your job loss. I too lost my job in October 2006, but you just keep trudging forward knowing that better days are coming because they are. I'll pray that you and your family find gainful employment real soon. Keep the faith, my friend!

Regarding what to eat, check out my sample low-carb menus. That should give you an idea about what I eat over several weeks. Keep the carbs low and the protein and fat high and you'll be in business. :)

THANKS again for writing and I know God has a miracle in store for you soon. Believe it, then recieve it, okay? SEE YA!

Life can get difficult, but that's when you find out what you're made of. Some use that as an excuse to go crazy with the carbs. But I encourage you to stay strong and have the last laugh when this storm passes because you triumphed without sacrificing your weight loss efforts. YOU CAN DO THIS!

Do you have a comment or question for me? I'd love to hear from you, so drop me an e-mail anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. I answer EVERY e-mail personally, so let me hear from you!