The Slow Carb Lifestyle

Don't think of it as a "diet."

Diets are about restricting what you want. Cutting out the good stuff and forcing in the bland. They're boring and hard to stand for more than a couple weeks.

Slow Carb is a nutritional plan and lifestyle. Think of it like a game - it has rules and isn't always easy or fun, but the more you play it the better you'll get and closer you'll come to reaching your goal.

The best thing SCD can do is decrease your body fat %. That could either be in putting on muscle or burning off fat. In 2014, after 1 month and 23 days of starting the nutrition plan and continuing moderate exercise, I lost 16.8 lb (22.2 lb of fat lost and 5.4 lb of muscle gained) and lost 5.4% body fat. Another friend lost over 25 lb in about 4 months, after less success with other dieting methods. In general, people with a higher fat % can reportedly expect to lose an average of 20 lb of fat in 30 days without doing any exercise.

So let's start with what you CAN eat.

On all of your plates you should include these 3: protein, green vegetables, and legumes. Protein is the most important ingredient to help us function in a variety of ways both physically and mentally, and you should aim for at least 20-30 grams for each meal. It doesn't have to be meat, just get in the habit of checking the nutrition facts and you may be surprised what is loaded with protein. Try "30 in 30" - 30 grams within 30 minutes of waking up to jump start your body into action. Green vegetables keep the body healthy and get you much needed fiber and micro nutrients, so aim for a fist full on every plate. Lastly, legumes (beans and lentils) are complex slow carbs that replace carbs like rice and bread to not only keep you full, but also digest SLOWLY and actually end up burning fat in the process. Hence SLOW Carb.

You can eat all types of meat, red and fish and everything in-between. Eggs. Nuts. Peanut butter, almond butter, etc. Tomatoes and avocados. Unsweetened tea and almond milk. Salsa and hummus. Kimchi and sauerkraut. All spices and herbs, even salt. And as much fat and water as you want.

Which brings me to another point: no limits on approved foods. There is no calorie counting with SCD and you can eat until you're full. In fact, you will hardly ever be hungry on this diet, and when you are you may want to consider eating another meal.

Now let's get to what you are avoiding. The biggest thing is sugar: straight sugar, sweet stuff, fructose (both artificial and natural), carbs that turn into sugar... you get the idea. Essentially that means this list:

• Carbs (rice, bread, potatoes, etc.)
• Fruit (aka natural fructose, except avocados and tomatoes)
• Soda (aka artificial fructose)
• Juice and other sweet drinks
• Highly processed meat (hot dogs, spam, lunch meat, etc.)
• Milk, cheese, and other dairy (human beings evolved without dairy and it will only get in your way)
• Cake and ice cream (obviously, but it deserves repeating)

That's a lot of food. A lot of tasty food. I never said it would be easy, and people will look at you funny and try to stray you from your path. But if you stick with it - as in NO exceptions, not even a single cookie or bite of a brownie a friend is offering - YOU WILL GET RETURNS ON YOUR INVESTMENT! I can almost guarantee that.

And the best news? Once a week you have a CHEAT DAY where you can eat whatever you want as much as you want. After you get going you may not want to stop the healthy train, but this does 2 important things:

1. Increases caloric intake so that your body doesn't get used to lower calories
2. Introduces carbs back into your diet to prevent an inability to process them and prevent the creation of allergic reactions

There's also some science here about ketogenic diets and how you may want to take a break every so often anyway, but I won't get into that here. Oh, and you may see massive weight fluctuations a day or two after Cheat Day; that's normal and it will go back down shortly afterward. I choose Saturday (or "Fatterday") as my Cheat Day, but you can choose whichever day you like - and it can be a different day week to week (i.e. Thanksgiving on Thursday).

These are the rules for the Cheat Day game:

1. Minimize the release of insulin - Meal 1 (300+ calories, 30+ g protein, especially something with insoluble fiber like lentils). Consume citric juices during meals (grapefruit juice, water with lemon, etc.).
   
   
2. Get it out of your system - Yerba Mate tea, or green tea + dark chocolate. Drink lots of water.
3. Put it in muscle - Exercise (5 min. before cheat meals): squats, wall pushups, etc. - all things easy to do in a bathroom stall.

Let's bring it back full circle and look at examples of my meals.

• Awake 07:00
• Meal 1 07:45 (31 grams of protein): lentils (9 g), spinach (2 g), 1 slice turkey bacon or 2 turkey link sausages or 2 slices Canadian bacon (6 g), 2 large eggs (12 g), kimchi (1 g), almond milk (1 g)
  
  
• Meal 2 11:00 (20+ g): black beans (7 g), green beans (1 g), seafood CHOICE usually salmon or tilapia (12+ g)
  
  
  
  
• Meal 3 15:00 (~30+ g): pinto beans (6 g), spinach salad (1 g), avocado topping (1.5 g), leftover protein (22+ g)
  
  
  
  
• Meal 4 19:30 (~31+ g): legume CHOICE (~6 g), green vegetable CHOICE (~2 g), protein CHOICE (22+ g), spinach salad OPTIONAL (~1 g), almond milk (1 g)
  
  
  
  
• Sleep  11:00

Here are a few more tips to hack your way to victory:

1. Repeat your meals - once they become habit, it'll be harder NOT to eat healthy, and you'll wonder how you ever got by eating anything else. This is actually one of the major keys to success - eating the same thing not only means you have it planned out in advance, but you can focus your "decision energy" in other areas where it counts.
2. Eat every 4 hours on average - you should be eating meals every 3-5 hours. Snacking isn't terrible, but if you're eating meals until you're full you shouldn't have any need to eat snacks between those 4 hours.
3. Weigh yourself daily - sometimes simply tracking your weight and seeing where it goes (without making ANY other changes to diet and exercise) has been shown to be effective in losing weight. We won't be putting all of our eggs in this basket, but it's worth doing anyway.
4. Aim for the golden window of protein - 1.25-2.5 grams of protein per kg of body weight every day. Do the math.

After that it's all experimentation. Sometimes it helps to jump right in, other times it helps to start with "30 in 30" and the fist full of green vegetables at other meals. Try out these tips and feel free to tweak it as you go.

For more information, search "Slow Carb Diet by Tim Ferriss," read his blog, and read his book.

Enjoy. Questions?

#postwhatpeopleaskfor