I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Each improvement I make, eases the transition into the next improvement I have to make. My fitness level was fairly pathetic...but it's improving. An hour walk that is my standard now, would have been too much when I started. My pathetic 5min of calisthenics will hopefully increase to 30 or even 60. Who knows, I may even lift weights besides my own lard butt some day.

If I can eat that piece of bread today...or partake in a bit of tortilla chips today...and still lose weight, I'm happy to do so. If I can't tomorrow, then I'll have to adapt. But if I had to start with my end state diet, I'd just give up.

Thanks. It's a journey, and where I am today is not where I'll be tomorrow.

Banished to the Semi-Low Carb Ghetto. What about "Glycemic Load" defines this topic as semi-low carb?

In the last 10 days there are only three threads, including this one now, in the Semi Low Carb section.

Huh?
Why do you feel that you are banished to the semi low carb forum?
Do you feel you need everyone elses approval to be here? Because you don't!


coachjeff
You keep saying that you eat a vlC diet and that you can't eat carbs. Then you say that you eat 80 grams a day. That to me is contradictory.
My defintion of vLC is under 20 grams a day.
Anything up to about 130 grams a day is still considered low carb.
Your 80 grams a day really confuses me. What are you eating that totals 80 grams a day, please?
Carbs are in veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, dairy.....etc.

I eat between 80 and 125 a day and consider myself to be a moderate low carber....and I told you what I eat!
Please tell!

Well, this discussion was going on in the general low carb section, and then it was moved here. Seeing as this section has very little participation....that is bothersome.

There is nothing about the question "what do you guys think of glycemic load" that determines how many carbs people are eating. That leaves me with the conclusion that the thread was moved because I haven't been following a particularly low carb plan to this point.

Perhaps the moderator could explain

I see your point. I didn't realize that it had been moved.

Leebase, I appreciate you taking the time to articulate how your "step down" approach is working for you. Many of us "old timers" are very sensitive to people who have trouble with carbs; unfortunately, for many of them, cold turkey is best, and so we've all gotten in the habit of reminding people that pretending "cheats work" is self-defeating.

I wish you luck: when I started I could not imagine cutting my own carbs so drastically, and not eating certain foods. And now I can easily do 20 carbs a day for stretches, and don't eat grains at all.

I feel so much better for it.

Who's pretending? I am not telling anyone else how to manage their own journey. However, 39lbs gone since April 4th suggests whatever I'm doing is working for me.

EVen before the thread being moved, I think in terms of your original question, regarding GL, what has already been said is probably everything that was going to be said, even if it were in a really high traffic area. I don't think many people on this board put much stock into GL. And then, in terms of discussing your particular chosen diet, I have to honestly say I have no idea if you even want 'us' to discuss it. We really don't have any frame of reference for it. Nobody but you does. And we're, mostly, atkins and variations on the atkins theme, or paleo, with some south beach sprinkled in. Wait, I just thought of a way to explain it to you;

Around here, LC isn't even a diet. We refer to it as our way of eating or even go so far as to say LC is our way of LIFE. This is what we practice. It's great that bread with breakfast made you happy, it really is, and we truly do wish you success and want to show support (even though we have no idea how to do that), but do you know what bread makes a lot of US? It makes us;

Hungry, farty, binge-y, dissappointed, sleepy, angry at ourselves, heavy, headachey, nauseous, cranky, sore, and FAT.

Can you blame us if our first impulse is to help a fellow member to avoid it?

I think that's a fair question and I'd say yes, it involves your discussion of your intention to eat more carbs such as bread than most people consider "low carb" around here, therefore, you're "semi low carb".

I was actually thinking of encouraging you to post in this section, thinking you might rustle some people out of the wood work who eat more carbs than the norm -- people like me.

When I came to this board the first time in 2008 there was more discussion here in Semi Low Carb and I was grateful for the support. I tracked my food more back then, losing 60 lbs in 6 months averaging 100 carbs/day, 1500 cals. I got derailed for various reasons, mostly stress and was too demoralized to start over again until last summer when I had no choice. I was diagnosed with diabetes -- my blood sugar was very high -- and I had to get it down quick, so I followed Dr. Bernstein's 30 carbs a day for 6 weeks until I was diagnosed with cancer and eased up a bit to maintain my emotional equilibrium as I was miserable on Bernstein's plan.

I was thinking about your original question about glycemic load and was going to reply but lost track of the thread -- now I know why. All I was going to say was that I don't think glycemic load or anything that anybody can tell you to eat or not eat means as much as your own experience. Even Dr. Bernstein, in advising diabetics, acknowledges that they need to learn how their individual bodies react to foods whether he says they're "ok" or not. Some simply advise diabetics to "eat to the meter".

In effect, whether diabetic or not, we all need to do that in some manner. If eating rye bread makes you enjoy your breakfast and it doesn't give you trouble, that's a viable choice. Many people here have read Wheat Belly and Gary Taubes' books and I'm one of them, but there are plenty of people who disagree with the concepts too. There aren't too many foods that somebody can't come up with an objection to so we all generally make some kinds of compromises by someone's standards because we have to eat, and how we eat has to fit how we live our lives.

I've gotten used to feeling out of step with the low carb norm and thankfully, there's always Judy!

This really cracked me up! Thanks!

There are many days that I don't feel like I should be here too. But someobdy has got to represent a more moderate approach to low carb. Being that I've made it to my goal and stayed there for 7 years....I am self nominated!

Do I eat bread daily? No! Not even once or twice a week....but it is not banished from the list of acceptable foods for me.

Take coachjeff, who think that he's vLC at 80 grams day...isn't really vlc at that level, bread or not.

Its all in how we perceive it and apply it to our lives.

You're a beacon of light to us. Truly.

Sometimes I am truly concerned that the hard core approach that is echoed around here might turn off people from LC in general, who just can't hack that level of restriction. It nearly did me, to be honest, but like you, I was a participant in OA for several years back in the day and I approach these boards with what I learned there -- take what you can use and leave the rest.



Exactly and I think the most important thing is to learn our limitations -- sometimes the hard way, but there's really nothing as powerful as experiential learning!

Thank you!


Exactly!




I agree....there really is nothing better than learning by experience.
But when we see some making the same mistakes over and over and refuse to hear that its a mistake...well, it just gets tough to keep offering the info....to deaf ears.

I just saw this and feel its good here too:

Well but there is such fuzziness about what the "levels of low carb" are, so who knows what goes in what forum.

"vlc" isn't even in the categories published by the Nutrition and Metabolism Society

coachjeff could be LC if his 80 grams was between 10-26 percent of calories.

And I wonder about the comment "we are mostly atkins" - who is "we"? I personally ignore the atkins- only threads because that is not my plan, and I still have tons to read and lots of opportunities for discussion.