My Low-Carb Trip To Durham, NC Was Absolutely Awesome!

I've spent the past few days in the great state of North Carolina

Hellllllllooooooo? Anyone home?

Yes, I'm still here although I haven't blogged in a few days. Sorry about that. I have been away in Durham, North Carolina since Sunday with barely a moment of rest over the past three days. That's okay because Christine and I had an absolutely incredible time with the wonderful readers in the Triangle area who came out to see us on Sunday night.



What a blast it was to hang out with the Triangle Low-Carb Cooking Meetup group. It was such an honor and a privilege to meet these people in person and to thank them for their support! Dr. Eric Westman from Duke University along with his professional cohort Adele Hite also attended this gathering at a Brazilian restaurant called Rio Churrascaria in Cary, NC. It was hours (LITERALLY!) of fun with about 18 enthusiastic low-carbers and I sincerely appreciate everyone who came out to meet us.



The food was excellent (meat, meat, and more meat, baby!), although I didn't think they could serve it fast enough! All I had eaten on Sunday prior to this meal was some eggs for breakfast. So I was huuuuuungry when we got there on Sunday night. But I still didn't eat as much as I would have since we had so many people to talk to. Putting real live people in front of you instead of a username or an e-mail address was a great reminder that these are real people whose lives are being changed for the better because of what I am doing. It was a humbling experience.



Dr. Westman suggested we go around the table and introduce ourselves. It was during this time that I learned about the impact my blog, podcast, and YouTube videos have been making. When you're a blogger and sitting behind a computer for much of the day, it's sometimes hard to know if anyone is reading. They really are and Sunday night again reaffirmed that for me.



Of course, it was so funny when one sweet lady heard all these people talking about how Jimmy Moore has helped them and she turned to me when it was her turn and said, "I've never even heard of you...sorry!" LOL! That's okay, you'll be reading my blog now. :P What an inspiring experience it was to chit-chat with my readers from the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area of North Carolina! A big special THANK YOU to everyone who came out!



One person I was absolutely ecstatic to meet was one of my forum moderators named Charles Washington. He and his wife are two of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Christine and I felt like we'd known them our entire lives because that's the kind of warmth and friendliness they displayed towards us when we met them. Charles is a low-carb rebel and you gotta love it! The man eats zero carb and runs marathons (in fact, he had run a 5k that morning!). If you haven't signed up at my new forum yet, then it's worth it just to pick Charles' brain and learn from his experience. It was great to FINALLY meet you, Charles! THANKS for your friendship and dedication. YOU DA MAN!



Then on Monday night, I was asked to come speak to a group of Dr. Westman's patients in Durham, NC and it was my chance to be in my element. Nothing is more exciting than being in the small-group setting (like in previous events where I had shared here and here) where you can make eye contact with people and just be who you are. That's why I love doing these kind of events because there are desperate people willing to do almost anything to lose weight. If I can give them any hope at all that they can do it like I did, then my mission is accomplished.



Although many of the participants in the Monday night talk are patients of Dr. Westman, a few of them are not. It was fun to watch the faces of those who don't understand that fat is healthy for them. One sweet lady asked if she should pull the skin off of her chicken to make it healthier. I responded, "Actually, you should put double skin on it and dip it in butter!" The look she gave me back was priceless. :)



I met Dr. Westman in January 2006 for the first time at a low-carb conference in Brooklyn, New York and have since seen him at other meetings, including the one in Nashville in 2007 as well as in Phoenix last month. We've been talking for over a year about having Christine and I take the drive up I-85 for three hours to see what he does in action. It was great to finally get to do it and see how a low-carb doctor helps patients get better.



Seeing Dr. Westman and Adele working with real patients in a clinical setting was energizing to say the least. The patients who come to see Dr. Westman are generally Type 2 diabetic for the most part, obese, and many are taking a long list of medications. I was given an opportunity to meet a few of these patients and tell them my story. Watching these people talk about their quality of life reminded me so much of myself and I just wanted to grab them by the hand to begin this low-carb journey in earnest.



Seeing how in such a short amount of time they are coming off their medications or greatly reducing them is affirmation that this way of eating is healthier than we've been told by those so-called health "experts." In fact, one patient was able to reduce his insulin by 2/3 in a span of a month after he started livin' la vida low-carb--saving him literally hundreds of dollars a month in medicine! INCREDIBLE!

The work Dr. Westman is doing at the Duke Lifestyle Medicine Clinic is revolutionary! I'll be blogging more about the specifics of what he is doing with patients and take you through the process of how this internist is using what he has learned from the research community and practically applying it to the patients who need it the most. That'll be coming very soon. Also, we took some video footage during our visit and will recap our Durham visit in a YouTube video this week. Stay tuned!

A big THANK YOU to Dr. Westman, Adele, and everyone who came out to the events on both Sunday and Monday nights while we were in North Carolina. Your hospitality and genuine love for us was an experience we won't soon forget. God bless you for all you are doing to spread the message of livin' la vida low-carb in your neck of the woods and I wish you nothing but continued success in this journey to weight loss and improved health. We have the truth and we're living proof that low-carb WORKS!

Christine and I had so much fun visiting Durham and would love to do this kind of thing in other areas too. If you're interested in having us come visit your group, then drop me an e-mail at livinlowcarbman@charter.net so we can work out the details. Now that I'm back home again, it's time to get rolling on some blog posts and I've got so much backed up to share with you. So hold on to your hats everyone and keep on livin' la vida low-carb!