As a disabled vet I am eligible for the Veteran Administrations MOVE program, a national weight management program designed by the VHA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention to help veterans lose weight, keep it off and improve their health. I am all over that!

A Partner With Your Healthcare Team

This little device here is my new friend, it greets me every morning with all kinds of cool suggestions on how to make healthy food choices. It attaches to a scale that I can send in my weight with and is connected to the nursing center at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix where I have been assigned my own personal nutritionist. I weigh in once a week but check in daily for tips, helpful suggestions and questions designed to motivate me. Check out the one here on How Do I Get Started With Changing My Eating Habits

How Does A Veteran Get Into The Move Program?

I wasn't kidding about the saving my life part. Since leaving the Marine Corps in 1972 I have struggled and fought a mostly losing battle to maintain my marine corps weight or some semblance thereof! Even accounting for my age (61) I am way over the line for any kind of healthy outlook, pre-diabetic and fed up with the way I look and feel. I have tried everything but I think this time between the support I get from the Viterion 100, my VA nutritionist, the follow up MOVE Forward programs, and the staff of the VA MOVE Program in Phoenix, I may just have a shot at becoming human again! The good news is that a low carb approach works great with the MOVE program – so stay tuned for progress reports!

You don't have to dedicate yourself to any diet plan or low-carb regimen to lose weight. Just substitute what you might eat in carbs with fat instead, bacon vs donuts, cheese vs cereal, or a sandwich with mayo without the bread.  Doing this will have much less impact on insulin levels, where upswings cause weight gain.

Of course, later on when my mouth could handle it I too started eating like my Dad, hogging it down in a way that I convinced myself had me enjoying food more. I didn't just pick up this eating style during my stint in the Marine Corps, although back then I ate fast because I either had to or was in a hurry to get somewhere. The marines have a saying about chow time;  "take all you want, but eat all you take".

Unfortunately, as a result of his bad eating habits,  Dad became extremely overweight, developed diabetes and died at the tender age of 62 from complications of a gastric bypass operation.

After I joined the marines I had to learn how to eat all over again. In USMC boot camp I was always hungry, not because they starved me (just the opposite) but because I was expending so many calories in training I needed the nourishment. And the food was darn good too! Since leaving the marines I have had to watch what I eat and was not always successful, I gained weight and before I knew it had gained more weight than I thought possible. Before I discovered the low-carb lifestyle I was headed toward repeating my Dad's mistakes and fortunately I woke up in time to reverse that trend.

As a low-carb aficionado my sandwiches (I call them roll-ups) now consist of ingredients such as ham, turkey, roast beef, tuna salad, cheese and lettuce, minus the bread and I don't really miss it. I may never be able to give up bread completely but the carbs I have resisted not eating bread with a sandwich allow me to eat other carbs I enjoy, especially pasta (low-carb) and fruit.

What brought all this up was  coming across an article in Men's Health titled Chew on This which brought back memories of Dad's eating habits because the article is about what Dutch researchers discovered;  that big bites (and fast chewing) can lead to overeating. I didn't know about this and was surprised to read that people who chewed large bites of food for 3 seconds consumed 52 percent more food before feeling full than those who chewed smaller bites for 9 seconds. Their findings suggest that tasting food for a longer period of time (no matter how much you bite off) signals your brain to make you feel full sooner.

I wish these Dutch scientists had discovered this in time to help my Dad, he might have lived longer had he been able to change his eating habits by taking smaller bites and chewing longer. If you find yourself doing the same thing, taking big bites and gulping, remind yourself to slow down, try taking smaller bites and see what happens. You might be surprised at what you discover.

Get Me OUTSIDE!

This is why I don't like treadmills in the spare bedroom, garage, working out at health clubs or other forms of indoor exercise,  other than they are boring, boring, boring, wall mounted TV or not. I don't care if Oprah has Michelle Obama, Tom Cruise, David Letterman, Ellen, Donald Trump and Tiger Woods on the same show! (wouldn't that be a show?), indoor workouts just don't work for me, even if I have a window to look out of.

If you ever wondered why your new year's resolution to exercise and lose weight lost it's momentum after only a few weeks here is a clue:

Hello! It's winter out there, cold, rainy, gloomy, etc. Your brain wants to be doing something outdoors, walking, hiking, just about anything as long as it's outside while your body cringes at the thought. Some refer to exercising outdoors as eco-therapy, or green exercise, although I think that word green is overused. Did you know for example that the color green balances the nervous system and is supposed to have a calm, soothing, effect?

When there isn't a whole lot of green around during winter where you live it can be tough to get motivated, much less stay that way until spring. But don't despair, just by seeking the natural world you can reap the benefits of re-connecting with the environment – a reduction in anger and stress levels only to mention a couple. Take the dog for a walk, bundle up and breathe the fresh air.

Low-Carb regimens that follow similar paths to those of the Atkins and South Beach Diets can be diets that include animal fat and  protein. Or they can be vegetable and fruit inclusive. The problem is that most people don't know how to eat well and do what it takes to maintain a healthy and balanced diet.

People tend to go to extremes, carbs should be limited just like fats. If you eat too much of anything, you're headed for a fall.

American Diabetes Association  

Care, Cure Commitment

And, while low-fat, high-carb diets are often recommended by doctors who treat diabetes, my feeling is that we have to minimize our carb consumption, especially the bad carbs (sugar) found in processed foods (empty, useless calories) and continue to promote the "good" carbs found in fruits and vegetables.

It then becomes a question of finding your carb "threshold" the fine line between weight stabilization and weight gain.

Being overweight is not just a cosmetic problem, it's a major health problem around the world. Just in the US alone, two-thirds of adults weigh more than they ought to. And, as the study in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition points out, a  low-carb diet that minimizes bad carbs is a much better way to go than eating sugar-loaded, low-fat products.

I love sugar as much as the next person and, as a matter of fact, I have a serious sweet tooth. However, a low-fat cookie for example has more sugar per serving than a regular one. Not surprising since low-fat translates into added sugar – no tasty no selly.

A Common Sense Approach to Dieting

The thing that has worked for me, after having read and studied both of the definitive books on the subject of low-carb dieting; Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution and the South Beach Diet by Dr. Arthur Agatson, is a combination of low-carb and low-fat, meaning, have that juicy steak – but cut off the excess fat, enjoy your cream cheese – but on a stalk of celery, not a bagel, keep the bacon for breakfast – but limit it to two slices.

Use common sense when faced with eating decisions. Keep track of what you don't eat and make a list of the (bad) carbs that didn't make it past your lips. At the end of a week use this formula to see the amount of weight gain you avoided. (this is only an approximation because of the differences in body structure from one person to another).

I start the formula with a stern warning; one dessert consumed = 1 lb of weight gain, no matter the portion size. That's the bad news IF you should fall. But for each 100 grams of bad carbs you resist you can say you avoided a pound of weight gain.

So, at the end of the week, if you lost 3 lbs and you resisted 300 bad carbohydrates, you can say you doubled your weight loss! It's just like resisting a sale, especially when you don't need the item that is discounted. Like my Dad always said (i know it's corny but I think of it often) "Son, if you want to double your money, fold it twice and put it back in your pocket."

There is only one diet I know that has been shown to have a protective effect against type 2 diabetes, drum roll please…A low-carb plan, one that advocates cutting out "bad" carbs like processed sugar and flour and limiting the "good" carbs like those found in vegetables and fruit.

Duh!, just because dieters the world over (nutritionists and doctors too!) have been brainwashed by all the low-fat propaganda out there doesn't mean that there aren't some people in the know.

Dr. Atkins NEVER said "don't eat fruit." He DID say "don't eat fruit during the induction phase" of his low-carb regimen. But what is it that most people will say when the subject of low-carb and the Atkins Plan comes up in conversation? "isn't that the nut that said don't eat fruit, it's bad for you?" What a travesty.

What has happened here is that the sugar people have done their jobs well, just go to any grocery store or even specialty "health food" stores and read the nutrition labels of their "low fat" products. Prepare to be amazed at the sky-high carbohydrate content – 99 percent of which is sugar! In order to make low-fat products palatable, food manufacturers have to add sugar when they take out the fat. No taste = no sale!

Watch as Steven Segal demonstrates the art of Aikido and visualize his opponents as not just another kung fu opponent but appearing like the fruit guys of the famous Fruit of the Loom characters.

Instead of grapes and apples as his "enemies," visualize him defending himself against sugar enemies, such as the pie/cake/donut enemy, the candy enemy and the pasta and white bread enemy. Watch as he skillfully diverts them away from his body.

Work out and lose weight at the same time with the Aikido Diet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

That Doesn't Taste Like a Diet Drink

Here is a mouth-watering chocolate milkshake recipe supplied by our friends at South Beach Living. It's low-carb, low-calorie and low-fat. Since I have been making this I have managed to avoid countless calories from the carbs I would have consumed had I not been completely satisfied with this particluar substitution. I used Nature Sweet as my sugar substitute but otherwise followed their recipe. (the secret ingredient here is; a touch of vanilla extract). I have made the same shake using other flavors too: cherry, peppermint, almond and rasberry but I keep coming back to the one with vanilla.

Have this one for desert and savor it like you would a fine brandy or as a snack to ward off the sugar-monster. It's a guilt-free way of satisfying your cravings for sweets and it works for me. I have already lost over 120 pounds while enjoying recipes like this. The key to my weight loss success has been substitution – find a way to replace the bad with the good and if it don't taste good – forget about it!

Here is the actual recipe:

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons granular sugar substitute

Pinch salt

3 cups cold 1% milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ice cubes

Instructions:

In a medium bowl, stir together cocoa powder, sugar substitute, and salt. Slowly pour in 1 cup of the milk. Whisk until smooth, and then whisk in remaining 2 cups milk and vanilla.Fill 4 (8-ounce) glasses with ice. Pour Chilly Chocolate over ice and serve.

The bottom line: Per ¾-cup serving: 90 calories, 2.5 g fat (1.5 g sat), 12 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 95 mg sodium

For more mouth-watering recipes like this visit our friends at South Beach Living