I heard somewhere that a whopping 70% of us Americans will go on a diet this year. And with all the choices in miracle weight loss plans available just in he supermarket check-out alone it's no wonder we get confused as to what will actually work. After all the goal is to lose weight healthfully and still satisfy our hunger, isn't it? So it isn't really surprising that most of us find it hard to stick to any of these plans, small portions, low-cal, low-fat, ow-carb, prepared foods, etc, and when we fail we take it hard. (we gain back what we lost and add a few more pounds for good measure)

I Did it my way

This website advocates losing weight by cutting back on bad carbs and the research backs us up, however, how YOU do it is up to you. I combined elements of the South Beach Diet and the Adkins Diet to lose weight and at the same time tried to watch my fat intake. It worked! The point is, I made up this diet myself. I used proven weight loss tricks but I personalized my own plan where I adapted each diet plan to fit my life, not the other way around. Check out ome of these proven strategies and choose ways to make them work for you.

Cutting Carbohydrates = Success

And by that I mean the bad ones, refined flour in the form of white bread, pasta and especially refined sugar. Did you ever stop to think how much sugar there is in all of our so-called low-fat foods? Just look at the labels and it becomes obvious, when a product removes the fat they have to add sugar to get the taste back - otherwise, no sale! All of these foods may taste good but they provide zero nutrition and empty calories. Learn to eat your way around them. Just avoiding one 20-ounce soda per day could translate into savings of 25 pounds or more over a year! Try the ones with Splenda, like RC Zero or my personal favorite, Diet Ocean Spray Cranberry Grape Juice with Splenda. Both have zero calories and zero carbs and they taste very good.

Eat Smart, Eat Well

Your body needs carbs for energy but if you eat the wrong ones your body just ends up storing them as fat. Eat smaller portions of good carbs like vegetables and whole grains. These will give you a satisfying feeling between meals and will steady your blood sugar. If you have to eat refined foods (like white bread) try to combine them with a food that has protein or healthy fat like lean meats or greens.

Eat to lose

That may sound like a gimmicky statement but it actually works, IF you know what to eat. I know that when I am hungry I need to eat. And I don't mean one of those wimpy diet meals that will have me sneaking into the fridge an hour later. I like to choose foods high in fiber and water content so that I can eat a lot, feel full and still lose weight. I eat a lot of salads. At first I found it hard to control the amount of salad dressing I used because I was using the low carb ones like Ranch and Oil & Vinegar. But even low carb dressing can defeat you by using too much. Here is a tip for you: dry your lettuce well with either a salad spinner or using paper towels, a tablespoon of salad dressing will then go a long way. My favorite is ranch but again, don't get carried away.

Add some bulk to every meal by adding high-volume foods like fruits and vegetables. If you are just starting out and you want to lose weight quickly in a short period of time try the Atkins two-week induction plan. Fruits are a no-no during this period but plan on adding them back in when you finish induction. A lot of fruits are high in carbs but they are good carbs, natural carbs. Atkins got a bad rap from his critics and competitors when he suggested a diet without fruit but read my lips: This was during induction only - he never meant to exclude them from a healthy eating regimen - ever.

Watch the Fat 

When I first started advocating both the South Beach Diet and The Atkins Diet people would say, "oh, thats the one that says it's ok to eat a pound of bacon for breakfast." Well, that's just ridiculous and it only goes to show you ignorant people can be. If you are interested in the facts, read the books. What I did that worked for me was to try to control my fat intake as well as my carb intake. Naturally I banned the bad carbs from my diet but all of those things that Atkins said were ok like butter, mayonnaise, olive oil, meats and seafoods, cheeses, eggs, etc, I cut back on too. It was scary at first, all the things that the low-fat bunch had drilled into my brain, but after I saw the weight loss and how good I felt, it all started making sense. I mixed low fat mayo with real mayo, I ate two strips of bacon for breakfast instead of four, I cut out bread and subbed Parmesan wafers, I kept the half&half for my coffee but cut it down, etc. Just use common sense and it will work for you as well. There is no other diet that will allow you to eat as much and as well as a low carb diet.

Men Concerned About Their Wives and Risk of Diabetes

I was speaking with some fellow veterans at the Carl T. Hayden Veterans Hospital in Phoenix the other day while I sat in the waiting room of the Agent Orange Registry. I was there for an examination that would tell me if I had or, were at risk for, type 2 diabetes, a disease now on the the list of associated nasty things that you can get as a result of exposure to high concentrates of Agent Orange (DDT- a defoliant) in Viet Nam. Anyway, as vets will do, we got to talking about our wives and what they were doing to lower their risk of diabetes and how a certain diet might help. All of the wives that were discussed were women ranging in age from 50 to 60 years old, having weight problems, and were on diets of some kind. It's a well-known fact that being overweight is the single largest contributor in causing the onset of type 2 diabetes. And, believe me, you do not want to get this disease!

Low-Carb or low-fat?

The discussion with my Viet Nam comrades resulted in a split decision, some were in favor of the low-carb diet and some were on the side of low-fat, with the consensus leaning (ha!) toward a low-fat approach. My wife cringes when she sees me eat a steak or bacon or cream cheese, regardless of my weight loss results because she has been conditioned to think that way by a multi-zillion dollar campaign to keep king sugar posting record profits. This includes glossy ads in magazines and TV commercials that promote low-fat foods or diets while showcasing the thin bodies and beautiful faces of those (18 year old) ladies among us, who represent less than 1% of the entire female population, paid to say they got that way by consuming a certain low-fat food. Pullease! 

Up on my Low-Carb Soapbox

Among my veteran colleagues there were advocates for both low-carb and low-fat approaches but before I could get up on my low-carb soapbox and enlighten them with all that I have learned about the low-carb nutritional approach to weight loss, I was called in to the doctor. When I came out my new friends had dispersed to examination rooms where the news was either good or bad. (in my case, I came out ok, whew!). I thought about it on the way home and got on the computer first thing. And voila!, right there in Healthday News was an article about those same concerns. Very illuminating, especially for woman who feel the need to reduce the amount of meat in their diet, and their concern they might be at risk for type 2 diabetes.

Low-Carb Wins!

It turns out that a diet low in carbs but high in animal fat and protein doesn't seem to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in women, a new study claims. As a proponent of the low-carb approach I was happy to hear that because sugar and insulin spikes are the culprits here and low-fat diets are full of sugar! I agree that "one study is never enough to change a recommendation," but this study leads the way in pointing out the obvious, what us low carb advocates have known for years now; a low-fat diet is not the way to eat if you are concerned about preventing type 2 diabetes.

Low-Carb diets show protective effect against type 2 diabetes!

Author of the study, Thomas Halton, a recent graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health and founder of a nutrition consulting company called Fitness Plus, seemed to be a bit surprised that the one diet that did seem to show a protective effect against type 2 diabetes was a low-carb plan, one that advocates cutting out "bad" carbs like processed sugar and flour. Duh!, just because dieters the world over (nutritionists and doctors too!) have been brainwashed by all the low-fat propaganda out there doesn't mean that there aren't people in the know. It's just that no one wants to actually read Dr. Atkins or Dr. Agatson's books or if they do what is said in them is taken out of context, ridiculous comments like; the Adkins approach advocates not eating fruit or vegetables! Baloney, what has happened here is that the sugar people have done their jobs well, just go to any grocery store or even specialty "health food" stores and read the nutrition labels of their "low fat" products. Prepare to be amazed at the sky-high carbohydrate content - 99 percent of which is sugar! In order to make low-fat products palatable, food manufacturers have to add sugar when they take out the fat. No taste = no sale!

Protecting Yourself From Diabetes

Being overweight is not just a cosmetic problem, it's a major health problem around the world. Just in the US alone, two-thirds of adults weigh more than they ought. And, as the study in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition points out, a  low-carb diet that minimizes bad carbs is a much better way to go than eating sugar-loaded, low-fat products. I love sugar as much as the next person and, as a matter of fact, have a serious sweet tooth. However, a low-fat cookie for example has more sugar per serving than a regular one. Go figure.

A Common Sense Approach to Dieting

The thing that has worked for me, after having read and studied both of the definitive books on the subject of low-carb dieting; Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution and the South Beach Diet by Dr. Arthur Agatson, is a combination of low-carb and low-fat, meaning, have that juicy steak - but cut off the excess fat, enjoy your cream cheese - but on a stalk of celery, not a bagel, keep the bacon for breakfast - but limit it to two slices. Use common sense when faced with eating decisions. Keep track of what you don't eat and make a list of the (bad) carbs that didn't make it past your lips. At the end of a week use this formula to see the amount of weight gain you avoided. (this is only an approximation because of the differences in body structure from one person to another). I start the formula with a stern warning; one dessert consumed = 1 lb of weight gain, no matter the portion size. That's the bad news IF you should fall. But for each 100 grams of bad carbs you resist you can say you avoided a pound of weight gain. So, at the end of the week, if you lost 3 lbs and you resisted 300 bad carbohydrates, you can say you doubled your weight loss! It's just like resisting a sale, especially when you don't need the item that is discounted. Like my Dad always said (i know it's corny but I think of it often) "Son, if you want to double your money, fold it twice and put it back in your pocket."

The good news about Type 2 diabetes, which affects as many as 45 percent of women and 30 percent of men in the United States, is 75 percent preventable with the proper diet. (The other 25 percent is hereditary). And, while low-fat, high-carb diets are often recommended by doctors who treat diabetes, my feeling is that we have to minimize our carb consumption, especially the bad carbs found in processed foods (empty calories) and continue to promote the "good" carbs found in fruits and vegetables. You just have to find that fine line between weight stabilization or weight gained, usually determined by portion control.

The surprising thing about this study was not that saturated fat will have much less impact on insulin levels than whole grains (bread), cereal fiber or fruit and vegetables (which can heighten the risk of type 2 diabetes). Even if you don't follow Atkins or The South Beach Diet you may already have known that. We also know that even the good carbs found in fruits and vegetables are still carbs so we have to count them too. For the study referenced here, Halton and his colleagues examined the association between low-carb diets and the risk of diabetes among 85,059 women participating in the Nurse's Health Study. The data, which included 20+ years of follow-up research, also ranked women according to what they ate. "We calculated a low-carbohydrate diet score based on the women's percent consumption of fat, protein and carbohydrate," Halton explained. "A higher score reflected a higher intake of fat and protein with a lower intake of carbohydrate. Therefore, the higher a woman's score, the more closely she followed a low carb-diet, the lower her score, the more she followed a low-fat diet." Bottom line is; meat-eating women with a higher score did not have a heightened risk of diabetes. In fact, and this was the surprising find I alluded to earlier, they seemed to have a slightly decreased risk when they derived their fat and protein from vegetables (like avacados) rather than animal sources!

Low-Carb regimens that follow similar paths to those of the Atkins and South Beach Diets can be diets that include animal fat and  protein. Or they can be vegetable and fruit inclusive. The problem is that even though it's a "very good thing to do," most people don't know how to eat well. They don't bother to learn the differences between simple and complex carbohydrates and what's involved in maintaining a healthy and balanced diet. People go to extremes," said Dr. Stuart Weiss, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine in New York City. "In general, carbs should be limited just like saturated fat needs to be limited. . . If you eat too much of anything, you're bound to get into trouble."

American Diabetes Association  

Care, Cure Commitment 

I thought I should pass on this interesting article I saw on MSN's website, Health & Fitness section that rates the sugar substitutes, the good, the bad and the so-called unacceptable. Written by Sylvia Geiger, M.S.,R.D., Eatingwell.com

In my opinion this article is not only a review of sugar substitues but a reassuring bit of information that helps to enlighten the public as to their options when it comes to FDA approved sweetners. A quote that appears in the article by Manfred Kroger, Ph.D., professor emeritus of food science at Penn State says it all for me. "The public should feel confident that any approved sweetener is truly safe and has been closely scrutinized." And it's not just me, most food scientists agree with that statement. That's comforting news for those of us who have been subjected to the cancer scares of aspertame - even though most are aware that you would have to consume buckets of this stuff daily to maybe get the big C. The sugar industry does what it can to mis-direct and mis-inform us about other sweetners that challenge their markets but from the looks of all the low fat foods out there that depend on sugar for taste I dont think sugar has much to worry about. But when I see some of the big guns out there like Coke and RC with labels that proclaim "sweetened with Splenda," it does my heart good.

Ms. Geiger goes on to talk about the fact that sales of "diet-friendly" sugar substitutes have gone through the roof, up a factor of 50% from 2000 to 2006 primarily because health experts are now recommending the use of them to their overweight and diabetic patients. A staggerting 66% of Americans are overweight and 20.8 million have diabetes. She mentions that according to a recent survey, seven out of 10 adults say they want to reduce or avoid added sugars. And in order to do this they are forsaking regular sugar for sweeteners that deliver zero or minimal calories. 

For me Splenda is the only choice for sweetning beverages both hot and cold, especially coffee. I am a sweet freak that has to have sweet in his life and Splenda does it for me. I have to use 10 times the amount of sugar to get the same sweetness and that is just unacceptable. Bottom line is it just depends on what you get used to and what you believe the experts like Sylvia Geiger have to say. I started using Splenda when I read about it in Dr. Atkins book, The New Diet Revolution. He recommended those sweetners like sucralose, not because he thought aspertame caused cancer but because it seemed to derail his patients efforts at the Induction phase of his low carb plan. They were not able to lose as much weight as quickly. Bottom line, read the article and decide what is best for you.

If you have been away from low carb for a while or maybe even never bought into it in the first place I have good news! There are thousands of people out there that believe, like I do, that the controlled carbohydrate nutritional approach is the best way to lose weight. There are so many resources for great tasting food products out there that offer more variety, are better tasting and a heck of a lot better for you. Weight loss is about substitution, not about depriving yourself of the things you love like bread, pasta and, Heaven help me, sweets, my personal nemesis. Sugar was a staple in my life until I was able to find things that tasted just as good without it. And when I do need something sweet for my decaf coffee or low carb drink I reach for the Splenda!

The typical American diet is what makes you fat, especially if you buy into the low-fat lifestyle. The only way they can make low-fat food palatable is to add sugar. I am all for cutting out fat when I can but not by adding a ton of sugar to food. The best way to cut out fat on a low carb diet is to watch your portions, have two slices of bacon instead of four, 8 oz of meat instead of 12 or mix low-fat mayo with regular mayo for your salad dressings and dips.

If you don't believe me just take a cruise through your nearest health food store or even grocery store. Look at some of the low-fat products and read the Nutritional Facts on the back of the product label paying particular attention to the carbohydrate content. Prepare yourself for sugar shock because 99% of a products carbs are added sugar. Shoot, even a lousy one-cup serving of low-fat 2% milk has 13 grams of carbs and 12 of those grams are added sugar. If you are trying to watch your carbs this one cup of 2% low-fat milk will derail you. You are better off drinking cream!

I don't know about you but when I tried living the low-fat way all it did for me was make me tired, irritable and caused me to lose sleep. I also wondered why I was hungry all the time and why I couldn't resist eating even more sugar-laced "low-fat" products. Well, if you are a sugar slave like I was you don't need me to tell you that sugar begets sugar, meaning, the more you eat, the more you crave. 

Now I am able to eat sugar-free chocolate and actually enjoy it! Malitol, Sorbitol, Splenda and even Stevia have weaned me away from sugar and now I don't miss it at all. Don't believe it? Just visit Netrition.com, try a few things and you will be surprised. I lost 115 lbs doing this and, more importantly, have been able to keep it off. Stay tuned to this site for more ways to overcome those things that made you fail in the past. I am loving life right now every time I put my clothes on and I want you to feel this way too.

You may remember that low- carb dieting became a fad not too long ago and a bunch of us Americans jumped on the bandwagon, thinking this was another quick fix. In restaurants around the country it became trendy to order a hamburger without the bun or to ask for Splenda for your coffee. You might have tried low -carb yourself with some success but went back to your bad habits after losing a few pounds, possibly ending up with a few extra for good measure. This "fad" fizzled because most of us just don't have the staying power and because the low-fat crowd twisted the solid research behind this plan and convinced us that it was "unhealthy." Bullcarb!

I'm here to tell you that the Low-Carb movement is alive and well and is just as active as ever in trying to convert us Americans (who get fatter every day) to a more nutritional approach to eating and losing weight. I personally believe that a combination of the Atkins Low Carbohydrate Nutritional approach combined with aspects of the South Beach Diet AND a low-fat approach are the way to go. If this sounds like an oxymoron bear with me. I know what you THINK you have heard about fat not being a consideration with either Atkins or The South Beach folks - you know those people who just can't let go of their bad habits and start the Atkins diet with a pound of bacon a day!? This is simply a mis-conception and spin from the low-fat folks who support the sugar industry. Just go into any supposedly health food store and look at the low fat stuff. Its all LOADED with sugar. And to us metabolically challenged, processed sugar is our number one enemy! NO ONE, especially Atkins, advocates eating unlimited quantities of fat-loaded foods. PLEASE, if you are going to do this, READ THE BOOKS first, then get with your doctor and see if this approach is something that is safe for you.

If, like me, you can look back at the many diet plans you tried over the years you may recall how you felt when you found a plan where you actually started losing weight and your clothes started fitting better. There was this feeling of. WOW, I'm actually doing this and it's working. Remember that feeling of re-gaining your self esteem - feeling more in CONTROL? But, then after losing a few pounds and feeling cocky about it you gradually started re-introducing those very things that made you fat - and pretty soon, boom!, back to square one - or worse. This forum is about sustainable weight loss and how to achieve it. I want you to have that feeling of control and I want you to like yourself ALL the time. Don't accept that you are overweight and there is nothing you can do about it. Don't utter those awful words to yourself that kill any chance of a better life "well, I'm fat and that's what I am." Bullcarb!

You may have noticed that the first words to appear on this site are Low -Carb when it would appear by looking at the images that mosaic, particularly a how-to approach to practical mosaic, is the focus. The simple truth is that I found myself gaining a lot of weight and I started to hide behind my craft as an excuse to stay home and be more comfortable in my triple X hobby sweats. You would be amazed at the excuses I could come up with to stay in my cave. I still don't know if spandex is a blessing or a curse but even elastic has it's limits! At a paltry 5', 8" and carrying around almost 400 pounds I was putting unnecessary strain on my heart, I had become borderline diabetic and was totally ashamed of myself. I am a former- Marine for crying out loud! I am fairly certain I know the cause of my weight gain because I discovered that crafting causes knoshing, not that I am Jewish but it's such a perfect word, snacking doesn't carry the same weight, excuse the pun.

You may be house-bound for one reason or another and took up a craft to keep you occupied or you may just be someone like me who likes to keep busy and try new things but has a metabolic problem. My metabolic challenge is that I can't process refined sugar or flour. You know those lucky ones who can eat anything and never gain an ounce? (I hate them!) They are no different than you or I but they do have a metabolic advantage over us. I would be willing to bet that if we ate the same foods in the same quantities, at the same time of day, after a year I will have gained a ton and they will look the same. It just doesn't seem fair but that's life.

After reading about the Low Carb focus of my site you may want to hit the escape button and head to the refrigerator but before you do please allow me to tell my story. It's about how I lost 115 lbs and how I hope to lose even more. You will be glad you stuck around because I am going to show you how you can make these beautiful mosaics and lose weight at the same time!

Since my craft of choice is mosaic you are going to see a lot of things on this site that have to do with that medium and which were made to be enjoyed, sometimes admired (I hope) and, more importantly, used around the house. The things that you can make with the complete mosaic instruction that I offer will not sit forgotten on a shelf, I can guarantee you. If you have even the remotest flair for the dramatic and love color, if you think you possess what it takes to brave the territory beyond the bun, if you want to get started on a craft that will give back more than you give - just step inside. It's fun, very gratifying and totally doable for not a lot of money or time - what more could you want in a craft?

Inspired by a desire to find something productive to do with my spare time, I took a class in mosaic design. The class was a bit on the expensive side and I had to drive a ways to get there but it did serve to awaken an interest in mosaic that had laid dormant in me for a long time. I had run the craft gauntlet from macramé to wasting perfectly good canvas with what resembled kindergarten finger painting! But whenever I saw a mosaic piece I was envious and would wonder; how do they do that? I was admiring beautiful tile and glass pieces that had the appearance of having taken years to complete. I don't know about you but I don't have that kind of patience, nor do I feel particularly blessed with creativity, so I had to wonder, could I do that? Never one to shy away from a challenge I decided to experiment with things I  found just laying around the house, plain things that could use a good make-over and that I could use once I was finished. Something I could put a plant or candle in that would look great on the patio table. I had no other expectations (I don't work well under pressure), just a desire to see what I could do. 

I was not about to invest a bunch of my hard earned money on special tools and expensive materials, especially since I already had a fair amount of cash invested in the mosaic class I took. So I decided to go my own way and try to develop a simpler style. Then, if later on, I wanted to get fancy I would have the confidence to take on something more complicated. You have to learn how to walk before you can run. (A tired cliche but so true!) After much experimentation (over a five-year period) I developed a foolproof and easy way to master the basics of mosaic. I refer to this method for beginners as Practical Mosaic and invite you to take my course (coming soon!) and find out for yourself how rewarding this craft can be. It's FREE!

"Go not where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We all know someone creative, a friend or a relative that has the ability to visualize each stage of a project from beginning to end. They seem to know instinctively how to use color, texture and space to their utmost advantage. The revolting thing about it is it seems to come naturally! Why sit on the sidelines while your creative sister takes center stage? It doesn't have to be that way and that's what this site is all about. With my instruction, supplied at no charge I might add,  I can show you where to find the raw materials that are gathering dust in your basement or are practically being given away, things that you can transform almost overnight into a wonderful accent for your home. You could be on your way to discovering a craft for life - I did!