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Here’s something I recently rediscovered. I say “rediscovered”, but in actuality, I’d never really forgotten it, and in fact have been using the concept to some degree for years.

Maybe a better way to put this is to say that I understand it more fully now. The concept is so simple that some of you might say, “Well, duh!” when you read it, yet it’s so profound that it can mean the difference between failure and success in weight loss and weight maintenance.

I’m a carboholic. If I eat carbs, especially on an empty stomach, I tend to want to eat more and more of them. I’m sure a lot of you can relate. I don’t keep cookies, chips or ice cream in the house these days, because just a taste can send me off the deep end of the carb diving board.

Still, in our society, it’s close to impossible to eliminate carbs completely from our diet. Besides, who’d want to? Carbs taste great! Anyway, fruits and veggies are full of carbs, and it would be unhealthy to completely eliminate them from our food choices.

Of course, some carbs are worse than others when it comes to cravings. It’s not likely that eating a stalk of celery will make me crave more celery (although it might make me more likely to choose celery if a crunchy veggie is what I’m looking for — more on this in the weeks to come). When it comes to cravings, it matters a great deal which foods we choose to eat. Still, even eating a banana (which is good for me, making it a way better choice than, say, a cookie) can definitely cause me to want another banana sooner than I would if I hadn’t eaten it.

Barring the unrealistic choice of eliminating carbs completely, I’ve been looking for a way to avoid those cravings that inevitably accompany the faster carb choices that I make. This week, I may have found the solution to this dilemma. Best of all, as I said, the method is so simple that just about anyone can do it!

I was going to hold off mentioning this until I’d had a chance to test the theory for at least a few weeks, but it’s so powerful, and is working so well, that I can’t wait that long to tell you about it. So, without further ado, here it is.

Recently, I came to the realization that if I don’t allow my system to experience carb spikes, the cravings don’t happen. (More on carb spiking in a future post.) Not only that, but I’m finding it easier to lose weight.

Here’s how it works. If I’m going to have carbs — any carbs, even slow carbs like veggies, but especially fast carbs like bread — I ALWAYS combine them with a significant* amount of protein, and ALWAYS take a bite of the protein first. As I said, I’ve known about combining carbs with protein for some time now, but there’s a bit more to the story.

First of all, I’m still making good carb choices. I still don’t keep cookies, chips or ice cream in the house. I DO eat bananas, though, and grapes, too, and even bread. This is a given, seeing that my main focus here is to lose weight.

*The ratio of carb to protein matters. There needs to be enough protein to slow the carb hit to your system, enough that it doesn’t create an insulin spike, and yet not so much that it creates an insulin spike from the sheer AMOUNT of food you’re taking in at one time. (If you don’t know what I mean by an insulin spike, hang in there. I’ll explain it, too, in a future post.) You will need to work this ratio out for yourself, depending on your food choices and the effects they have on your cravings.

That’s basically it, at least for now. I’ve only been doing this for a matter of days (Friday will make a week), but the scale is once again going in the direction I want it to, and that’s huge! BEST OF ALL, I’VE EXPERIENCED NO CRAVINGS ALL WEEK! Not only that, but it wasn’t a big letdown when a friend of mine declined my invitation to stop at the new frozen custard stand after dinner last night. (Normally, when something like that happens, I can’t get the item — in this case, the frozen custard — off my mind until I finally go get some on my own.)

As I said, it’s a simple concept, but it’s working for me. Maybe it will work for you, too. Give it a try and let me know what happens, OK? I would love to have some fellow experimenters on this trip.

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, I was feeling completely out of sorts. The world was on a tilt, and I was tilting in the opposite direction. It was not fun. Despite all the weirdness, insecurity and the return of those old sugar cravings, I stuck to my guns, knowing that today I’d be out the other side of those withdrawal symptoms and back to feeling great.

The QuikStick beverages were quite helpful. They helped to satisfy the sugar cravings, and kept my taste buds satisfied between meals. They’re really quite good for this purpose, and they provide the quick energy I need to keep going all day long. Check them out one of these days.

Anyway, I’m back in the game, and feeling more empowered than ever. I’m not quite ready to get back to the gym, although I know it would feel great to do so. Maybe after the New Year, at a time when everyone else is getting back to the gym, too.

I’d love to get into the habit of a morning workout. Years ago, when I was a mere youth in my prime, I’d gotten into the habit of a morning workout at a gym near the bank I’d worked at at that time. I’d do 30-45 minutes at the gym, then go to a nearby breakfast shop for an egg, a slice of toast with butter, and a coffee. I lost weight consistently for a while that way, but the gym wound up closing and my habit shut down with it.

These days, I find it nearly impossible to get up in time for work, let alone early enough for a workout before work. I’m hoping that, once I lose a bunch of this extra weight, I will again be able to rise early and get that workout in first thing in the morning. For now, I’ll just concentrate on the food. Then I’ll add a workout whenever I can fit it in. One of these day, I’ll be strong enough to choose exactly when and where to work out, and I’ll do that consistently.

One foot in front of the other. I’ll get there.