What is your why? It sometimes helps to stay motivated if you have a concrete reason why, you are doing this diet challenge. For me it was weight loss, at first.
After years of trying every diet in existence, I finally went back to the diet with the most success, Atkins. I had done Atkins in the past, but all of the fat scared me. This time I decided to actually read the book to find out why the diet worked.
I was sick of counting carbs and calories, so I just ate foods I knew didn’t have any carbs, which is meat, cheese, seafood, etc. I was also including lettuce and cucumbers because I would make chicken or tuna salad and liked the crunch of lettuce.
But, I was doing my own “healthy” version of Atkins, low fat! My goal was to stick to Atkins Induction (less than 20 carbs per day) for 2 weeks.
The first few days I wasn’t feeling great, hadn’t pooped in days, was feeling sluggish, bloated and fatter. But, I pressed on.
Then I got to the part in the book where he basically says you need to eat more fat on this! He even has a “Fat Fast” version of the diet in one of his books that is supposed to jump start fat burning.
So, I ditched the low fat foods: mayo, cottage cheese, blue cheese dressing, chicken breast, turkey bacon and went full fat everything! I WAS IN HEAVEN!
By the 10th day, I think I was only down 3 lbs, but I looked 15lbs thinner, especially in my face.
I also felt amazing and I had no digestive problems.
I had lifelong digestive pain, bloating and gas. I thought it was normal. When I realized carbohydrates and fiber caused it, I never wanted to eat a carbohydrate again! Being free from that pain became my “why”.
That’s when I realized ”NOTHING tastes as good as being healthy feels!”
