Lets face it, losing weight is a b****. In my daily ramblings on I LOVE FOOD DIET.com, I seemed to have lost focus on what exactly the diet is all about. In a nutshell, the I LOVE FOOD DIET advocates a very low carbohydrate diet.

As I have tried the Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet several times in the past, I can personally attest that it gets boring FAST. I love food and I wanted to adapt the low carb tenet to develop a more realistic and “do-able ” longterm weight loss lifestyle.  Thus the I LOVE FOOD DIET was born.

I have tweaked the low carb regimen by including wine and spirits, decadent combinations of carb free food (Hello bacon wrapped shrimp!) and a full disclosure that cheating (on the diet) is allowed and in fact, encouraged. I have learned not to beat myself up for guiltily devouring a bowl of  fries and instead stop and savor every single carb laden potato strip. What I find is that if I treat those french fries, or whatever carb filled no-nos,  like a “special treat”, I am willing to forgo those carb laden treats the next couple of days. Further, since you know you “cheated”, and (hopefully) got all of those carb cravings out of your system, you can start fresh on avoiding carbohydrates and instead eating yummy carb free food with enthusiastic gusto.  It goes without saying that you need to keep those cheating days under control and limit them to one or 2 days a week MAX.

I know that many of you may question the logic of my 3 steps forward, two steps back approach. Certainly there are better and healthier ways to lose weight. However, this is the I LOVE FOOD DIET and the thought of eliminating all of my favorite foods forever is just too difficult to bear and frankly,  in my humble opinion, impossible to do.

So, for those of you who may be interested in knowing how I lost 10 pounds and basically kept it off  (remember 3 steps forward, 2 steps back) please see below:

I LOVE FOOD DIET – Food DO’s

• Any Protein (Beef, Pork, Chicken, Fish, Shellfish) cooked without carbs.
• Any Cheese (including cream cheese, marsapone, swiss, american, cheddar, parmesan, etc)
• All Cold Cuts – avoid the maple and honey glazed versions
• Eggs
• Any Seafood – Fish, Lobster, Crab, Shrimp, Calamari, etc
• Heavy Cream (no carbs!)
• All plain brewed coffee, teas.
• All Diet sodas, Club Soda;s Diet Tonic, Crystal Light lemonade. Basically any drink that does not contain carbs. ***Water is the best!
• All clear alcoholic beverage (Vodka, Gin, Rum all have 0 carbs – Just avoid juice and sugary mixers).
• Dry red or white wine (Only 1 gm of carb per 3.5 fl oz.)

I LOVE FOOD DIET – Food DON’Ts

• NO refined Carbs of ANY kind (this includes pasta, rice, potatoes, bread, muffins, rolls, bagels, tortillas, cereal, cakes, donuts, brownies, cookies or anything made with flour and/or sugar)
• NO fruit juices or sugary mixers  loaded with carbs!
• NO Milk including Skim and low-fat milk
• NO Flour, Sugar, or Breadcrumbs.
• NO starchy vegetables
• Less fruit (however  1/2 cup of berries including strawberries are allowed:) )
• Always read the labels AND limit your serving size.

The above list is just an overview of what you can and cannot eat. Keep checking in for more updates. Good luck and good eating.

Chow for now!