Forget Waldo, Where's 'Low-Carb Dave'?

The beloved "Low-Carb Dave" has suddenly disappeared

A few weeks ago I was blogging and one of my most faithful readers suddenly popped into my head--Dave Koch, the 30-year old Australian man who calls himself "Low-Carb Dave." I first introduced him to my readers in this blog post after seeing what a remarkable job he was doing following the Atkins diet.

In fact, I blogged about the 130-pound low-carb weight loss success that "Low-Carb Dave" had experienced as of July 2006 and he still had a lot more to lose at that point. In August, his low-carb blog, along with mine, were featured by CalorieLab as two of the best and WLTips.com tipped their hat to him for his incredible weight loss by featuring his success story in September.

Soon thereafter, I named "Low-Carb Dave" one of my low-carb movers & shakers of 2006 for making such an influence in the world of livin' la vida low-carb. Weight loss was happening, people were being inspired, and hope was being spread to people the world over that low-carb had changed the life of this young man forever.

But then...silence.

Where's "Low-Carb Dave?" In November, I noticed that he had not posted a comment on my blog in a while whereas he has always been a regular commenter. Hmmm, that's strange. In fact, while I was on vacation during Thanksgiving week, I received an e-mail from "Low-Carb Dave" wanting to know if I was okay since I had not blogged in a few days. Of course, he quickly figured out I was on vacation and was taking a few days off from blogging. That's the last I've heard from him.

So, I went to his blog to be greeted by this: "Low Carb Dave Blog Is Closed. Really? What's going on?

It seems our friend has gotten himself a "big promotion at work" which will take away much of his leisure time that he used to invest into blogging and commenting at other blogs.

"I simply won't have the energy or will to blog."

He did say that people shouldn't worry about him getting off his low-carb weight loss plan because he is still committed to "getting there."

"It's a long journey."

In addition to his new job, it does appear "Low-Carb Dave" is also the victim of what many consider blogging burnout. It stopped being fun to him and, thus, he has "lost interest in keeping this thing going."

He hasn't completely disappeared, though. You can still follow "Low-Carb Dave" and his continuing journey towards lasting weight loss and improved health by visiting the AUSLOWCARB forum page. Become a member of the forum and then click on the journals section to see his progress.

Before he shut down the blog, "Low-Carb Dave" said his last goodbye.

"Thank you to all the readers and other bloggers that have supported this blog. It's time for me to move on to other things. Thank you and good night!"

I would like to publicly applaud "Low-Carb Dave" for recognizing the time was right for him to get out rather than try to fake his way through it. It takes a big man (on the inside) to admit he needs to "move on" to something else. THANK YOU for the example you have set because the bar has been raised for others seeking to follow in your footsteps, my friend.

I'm so happy for Dave and congratulate him on his new position at work. You go make us proud, "Low-Carb Dave," and know that you are always welcome to comment here at "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb." Don't be a stranger, my friend, and keep on livin' la vida low-carb! God bless you, man!

Spitfire Mad At Doctors For Making Us Fat

No, that's not Low-Carb Dave, but it could describe how he feels

There are many things that can just plain make you spitfire mad in this world. The senseless killing of innocent girls in an Amish community. Babies being born with incurable diseases or deformaties. A father who takes the life of his entire family. You know, the kind of stuff that makes you so upset and angry that you can hardly contain your emotions.

But, to a lesser degree, there are issues like the one my blogging friend "Low-Carb Dave" Koch wrote about today at his blog that can still get your blood boiling over when you stop and think about the ramifications of actions taken long ago. Especially when they are completely preventable from happening, but were not.

What is it? The overdrugging that goes on in our society.

Dave talks about back in the early 1980s being put on the steroid Prednisone which was used to treat his severe childhood asthma to reduce the inflammation in his lungs. He talked about the harrowing experiences he went through with this condition as a child and how it "was freaky" at times for him and his parents.

He recalled being given "bucket loads of these steroids" to treat his asthma rather than looking at more natural alternatives. At the age of seven, Dave got chicken pox and was not able to attend school for nearly two months because of the one-two punch that the chicken pox along with his asthma presented him. Actually, it very near killed him! Predictably, the steroid use increased exponentially as well because that's what the doctors thought was best.

But there was one side effect from taking all these drugs: OBESITY!

"When I went back to school, it was the day they were doing class photos," Dave recalled. "What I remember clearly was the different way that my classmates treated me. The reason? I was fat. I had become a fat kid. Before the chicken pox was the last time I remember having a flat stomach."

In addition to the weight gain, Dave experienced the loss of lean muscle mass and a huge boost in appetite that led him to eat and eat and...well, you know what happened (read more about just how big Low-Carb Dave eventually got by clicking here). In studying the impact of steroids on his body a little more as he has gotten older, Dave discovered that these drugs can actually induce a diabetes-like state of glucose intolerance. Yikes! Most amazing is the fact that none of his doctors who prescribed these drugs for him even batted an eye at what they were doing to his body.

But guess who they blamed instead for Dave's weight gain? They pointed the finger at his mother saying it was her fault for making him fat. The doctors constantly chastised Dave's mother about his growing weight problem and demanded she do something about it before the problem got worse. One doctor who Dave described as "a good guy" tried to help Dave with his eating problem, but he wanted to prescribe some Prozac to help. UGH!

Not surprisingly, Dave's cholesterol numbers were high and the doctors urged him to get on a statin drug to bring the numbers down. But that's right about the same time that Dave made the bold and wise decision to start the Atkins diet. In fact, one doctor he discussed his new eating plan with talked about how one person he knew had lost nearly 200 pounds on the low-carb diet. But then he revealed to Dave something that most of us already suspected.

"The Food & Drug industry was stopping people from finding out about [the effectiveness of Atkins]," Dave's doctor exclaimed.

Dave said that gave him every reason in the world to do this with confidence and he has never looked back since. Even after losing 66 pounds by livin' la vida low-carb, another doctor wanted him to try LAP-BAND surgery. This was what REALLY angered Dave and made him to decide to go it alone to "take the future of my health into my own hands!"

Because of all those years of steroids he took, Dave is still feeling the negative effects on his blood sugar from the glucose intolerance he developed. Dave has his own theory about why his doctors didn't warn his mother about this nasty side effect.

"The reason you don't hear about this is the same reason that the government promotes a low-fat diet," Dave noted. "It's because of the huge interest by corporations in having people eat plenty of carbohydrates."

Dave's right, you know. This is precisely why a low-carb diet is not promoted right alongside the low-fat diet. Too many interest groups would be up in arms lobbying for the government to stop hurting their business by pushing livin' la vida low-carb. Low-fat does not threaten them, but low-carb does. It's funny, you never hear any of the industries hurt by the low-fat diet whining and complaining about their profits being cut into by that diet, do you? Hmmm, I guess it should cut both ways!

Today, Dave has become a huge low-carb weight loss success story and he's STILL losing weight as he seeks to make himself healthier and healthier thanks to the amazing low-carb lifestyle. Here's what he had to say about his philosophy on eating carbs today.

"If you want to eat carbs, that is your choice. Please respect my requirement to not eat them," Dave remarked. "It's something I have no choice in. I have felt the best I have ever felt in my whole life being off carbs! The amount of misery, health and self-esteem problems I have experienced because of obesity is enough to fill volumes of books. Am I mad at the doctors? Yeah a little. Am I willing to take charge of my own life now? Hell YES!"

YOU GOT GET 'EM, LOW-CARB DAVE!!! I'm so proud to know you and the remarkable transformation that you have become right before our eyes in just this past year. The best part about your story is that you are STILL changing for the better to become that big stud of a man that you have always wanted to be--slim, trim, happy and healthy for the rest of your life and never returning to morbid obesity again. You inspire me as you encourage and educate others with your weight loss, Dave. Keep it up, my friend! I couldn't be prouder of you than I am right now.

Dave's story is yet another example of why I am always about providing you with information that you may not hear anywhere else. Doctors may not have an agenda, per se, but the people feeding them their information about drugs obviously want to make money. Getting people to start livin' la vida low-carb doesn't make them any moolah, so guess what they suggest doctors do instead? Do you see why so many of us are getting spitfire mad at doctors for making us fat?!

Low-Carb Dave Now Appearing On WLTips.com

Look at that sharp dressed stud who's livin' la vida low-carb!

After posting an interview with me at their web site last month, the people at WLTips.com solicited stories from people at every level of weight loss to submit their story to them for possible inclusion on their site, even if they are not finished losing all of their weight yet.

It looks like my friend and fellow Atkins weight loss buddy Dave Koch (aka "Low-Carb Dave") took them up on this opportunity to get his amazing story out there. The 30-year old Melbourne, Australia native began his weight loss journey at 473 pounds and currently weighs 338 pounds after about 14 months of livin' la vida low-carb. He hopes to someday get between 190-220 pounds (and HE WILL!).

WLTips.com conduced a fantastic interview with Dave that I'd like to post a few highlights from:

Why did you choose [the Atkins diet]?

Because in the end, all the other programs were getting harder to do. The bigger I got, the more that insulin and blood sugar was a problem. This is the only program that corrected my blood sugar, and therefore completely killed my hunger. I read a lot about the actual science and it made so much sense to me.
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What were the most difficult obstacles you had to overcome or are still overcoming?

Well life was so difficult for me prior, so I was living the difficulties. But in terms of implementing the program - it was the dietary mental change in regards to carbohydrates. I was taught that low calorie and low fat was the only way to health. I had to get my mind around the fact that this was not correct. The world I live in is still crazy with junk food as well. We in the western world live amongst people that eat anything and everything. Trying to do any diet in the Western world is very difficult because it's so contrary to our junk food/processed food culture.
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Do you have any weight loss tips for our readers?

- What you put in your mouth is the most important thing when it comes to weight loss.
- Don't simply look at calories. Look at how the food makes you feel.
- When you are going on to a low carb diet regime, remember that there will be at least 4 weeks of detox.
- Like the drug addict, you are going to go through physical withdrawal symptoms.
- In terms of weight loss - reduce your carbs as much as possible, but also try not to overeat.
- Don't obsess about making mistakes. It's a journey, not a destination.

CLICK HERE to read the complete interview. Dave, I'm so proud of you man. You ARE going to make it to your weight loss and health goals because you have completely changed your mindset 180 degrees in the right direction. Don't you wish the body would catch up to where the mind is? LOL!

Dave was kind enough to list my blog as one of his favorites (TY!) as well as several other excellent resources I have recommended before, including his fellow Australian Ray Kelly's new web site. SO GO CHECK OUT DAVE'S INTERVIEW RIGHT NOW! :)

CalorieLab Highlights Two Low-Carb Bloggers

There are all sorts of web sites on the Internet today that are centered around the subject of diet and health. If you've ever done a Google search on those terms, then you know what I'm talking about. But I want to tell you about a web site you will DEFINITELY want to become more familiar with if you like to track the nutritional info about the foods you are eating (and if you don't like to do this, then now's the time to START!).

It's called CalorieLab and features various news and information about calories to educate people who are interested in both the calories consumed and the calories burned.

In fact, here's a search box for you to use to find the nutritional information about any food product you are interested in. Go ahead, give it a try for yourself and see what you find:

CALORIE COUNTER BY CALORIELAB

That's a pretty neat little gizmo, eh? I thought it was and could literally spend hours typing in all kinds of foods to see not just the calories, but the other important nutritional info including carbohydrates. :D

In their News section this week, I noticed an article they posted at CalorieLab entitled "Low-carb blogging is contagious" which obviously piqued my interest since I am a low-carb blogger. Well, lo and behold, it was an article about ME and MY BLOG as well as my friend Low-Carb Dave and his popular low-carb blog. This was a TOTAL surprise because they didn't let me know they were doing this.

Here's how they opened the story they wrote:

"Low-carb living is popular but controversial. The bloggers showcased today have found success, motivation, and passion through living a low-carb lifestyle. In turn, they use that passion to help motivate others while attempting to dispel myths about the low-carb diet.

Then they write a very flattering feature about my "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog and my book as well.

"People looking for low-carb information will find a bountiful supply of facts and figures, along with information on fellow low-carb bloggers."

When they talked about Low-Carb Dave, they discuss his 100-pound weight loss success following the low-carb lifestyle and that he uses his blog to track his journey to try to reach "the hearts and minds of fellow bloggers and dieters by describing success on the Atkins-style diet."

CalorieLab added that low-carb blogging "seems contagious" and notes that Dave was inspired by my blog. What an AWESOME story and I'm thrilled to see the continuing impact that my weight loss and blog have made on so many people. Many of those blogs you see listed among my "Blog Friends" to the right are from people who have started livin' la vida low-carb and using the blogging format to help keep them accountable.

What a joy it is to blog about something as incredible and lifechanging as the low-carb lifestyle! So many of you have been inspired to start losing weight and even blogging about it because of my current "30-In-30" Low-Carb Weight Loss Challenge. Way to go and keep up the great work with your weight loss and frequent blog updates. We will continue to show them that low-carb is here to stay forever and ever, baby!

Special thanks again to CalorieLab for their fantastic feature story. Click here to leave a comment at their blog on behalf of me and Dave for their mention of our blogs. THANKS!