January 31, 2009 Low-Carb Menu

8:45AM
Slice of low-carb bread with butter and American cheese
Coke Zero

9:00AM
3-hour youth basketball refereeing

1:15PM
2 eggs
2 sausage links
2 bacon slices
Green peppers and onions in butter
Pico de gallo
2 Tbs sour cream
1 order mixed veggies (broccoli, green beans, squash, red peppers)
1 Tbs butter
Diet Coke with lime

8:00PM
2 low-carb wraps
3 slices cheddar cheese
6 turkey slices
Mustard
Coke Zero
Sugar-free, low-carb blueberry granola with cream

NOTE: On Saturday mornings, I volunteer time at my church to referee youth sports programs called Upward during the various seasons. Right now, they're playing basketball, so I get to put on the zebra outfit and run up and down the court all morning as kids become acclimated to the wonderful game of round ball. It's funny watching the really small players trying to dribble and they end up traveling or double-dribbling a lot. It's a learning process that takes time to develop the skills necessary to become a quality player once they enter middle and high school.

You know, our low-carb lifestyle journey is very similar to that. When we first start out, we don't exactly know how everything is supposed to work yet. All we know is we have this amazing new experience that holds great promise to improve our lives dramatically. Just as those young basketball players start to hone their skills and get better as each week passes, so too do low-carbers who see for themselves this way of eating in action and they build confidence to do it like never before. At some point, what I like to refer to as "the switch" happens in your brain where your old self is gone and you've taken on the persona of this new man or woman dedicated 100% to livin' la vida low-carb for the rest of your life. When that happens, look out! There's NO stopping you ever.

That's not to say you won't have struggles in your journey. But going back to the analogy of the young basketball players, even the professionals have a bad streak every now and then. It happened to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. Did that mean they needed to quit because they didn't score enough points or grab enough rebounds? Of course not. It just them that much more dedicated to work through the kinks and become the superstar players we know them to be.

The same goes for YOU when you go through the low-carb life. Bumps in the road are expected in the form of weight loss stalls and even gains, but it's no time to panic. Just work through those times doing the things that you learned way back when you started your low-carb journey (re-reading the book about your specific low-carb plan always helps rekindle the fire that got you started in the first place) and then DO IT! A steady sprinter will always be better conditioned to finish the race than someone who runs all out and then runs out of gas before the end of the journey. Pace yourself and make it happen. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!