Are there really bad carbs, good carbs, and ugly carbs? A carb - or carbohydrate - is simply a measure of energy. You need to balance the energy you need with the nutrition that your body craves.

Look at it this way. What if you ate only vitamins all day long. You'd get the vitamins your body needed - but you would get NO energy and you would collapse. Your body needs energy to do its daily functioning. On the other hand what if you ate a ton of energy and no vitamins? Well, we call that the American Diet :) That's the fast-food junk-food way that many people eat every day. They get sick and fat.

So the whole key here is to eat a healthy mix of foods that give you the energy you need to be healthy - but not extra energy that is stored as fat. You need to get enough vitamins, minerals, etc. from the food you eat, because getting those things in your food is always better than eating it in pill form.

Finally, you want to eat food you enjoy. So let's say you love broccoli and hate cauliflower. Then even if one is slightly better than the other in some way, you'll want to go with the broccoli.

So here's how you start. Go to the Carb Chart Pages and print them out. First, cross off things you hate. Yes, a long term project might be to teach yourself to like them - but we're starting easy here. Next, order your favorite items by carb value. Aim for the lower ones - but if you have all low numbers and just one higher number in a day, it'll even out.

Now browse the Low Carb Recipe Listing for a variety of recipes using those ingredients. There are literally hundreds of recipes out there that are low carb and delicious. You could eat a different recipe every day of the year and not have to duplicate. There is never a rut to get stuck in.

Remember that what you are doing is balancing the energy you bring in with the energy you are currently burning. That means if you start burning *more* energy each day, you will lose weight more quickly! So start going for short walks, taking the stairs, or whatever it takes to burn even just a little more energy each day.

Enjoy! Be sure to swing by our forums if you need some suggestions.


Lisa Shea's Library of Low Carb Books