3-Day EATING PLAN to Start or Restart Low Carb Dieting

 Whether you got off track or your  low carb diet failed to launch,  

having a plan keeps you from spinning your wheels.
This video shares a simple and  specific eating plan that you  
can follow for the next three days  to jumpstart your low carb success.
[Intro Music]
I am often asked to be specific  and mention actual foods to eat.  
The challenge in doing this for a worldwide  audience is that the food choices will not  
work for everyone. If you prefer a plant-based  diet or have food restrictions, I am sorry that  
this video is not for you. However, I have many  videos you can benefit from on my channel page.
When you switch to a low carb diet, what  you do not eat is as important as what you  
do eat. You want to avoid foods that stimulate  your appetite and eat foods that quiet hunger.  
Let's start with what to avoid.
Sugar is quick energy. When you eat it, it  gives you an energy boost that feels good.  
This is one of the reasons eating sugar  makes you want to keep eating sugar. The  
problem is that you cannot survive on  a high-sugar diet. Although some of us,  
including my former self, have given it a good  try. At some point, you will not feel good.
Ironically, getting away from sugar can  also lead to ill feelings. When you go from  
a high-sugar diet to no sugar, your blood  sugar crashes, your energy level plummets,  
and you may even feel shaky. This happens because  the human body runs on what it has available. When  
sugar is constantly coming in, your body runs on  sugar. When you go low carb, you cut out sugar,  
so it must use an alternate energy source.  The good news is that the alternative is fat,  
so you will become a better fat burner. The  temporary bad news is that it will take time  
for your body to create the enzymes and pathways  needed to efficiently burn fat for energy. So,  
your energy level will drop before it goes up,  but this transition is well worth the effort.
For the next three days, you want to  eliminate added sugar. Specifically,  
avoid packaged foods and drinks with sugar  listed as one of the first three ingredients.  
That is a long list because it includes nearly  all of the ultra-processed foods out there. And  
unfortunately, ultra-processed foods make up  over half of the total calories Americans eat.
So, this one rule eliminates a lot of foods,  which is okay because those are the foods that  
make us sick and fat. And you want to keep  in mind that sugar goes by many names. So,  
if the food has corn syrup, dextrose,  maltodextrin, fruit juice concentrate, sucrose,  
or another sugar alias listed as one of the first  three ingredients, leave it at the grocery store.  
If you are unsure if sugar is hidden in a food,  assume that it is and leave it at the store.
A piece of fruit has natural sugar.  That is okay because the sugar is  
locked within the fibrous portions of  the fruit, slowing its absorption. So,  
you do not have to stop eating fruit of any  variety to follow this 3-day eating plan.
Two things that you will want to  avoid, in addition to added sugar,  
are bread and breaded foods. You can find  bread that has "zero net carbs" listed on  
the label or no sugar added. However, these  commercial products do not deliver on the  
promise they make. Bread, along with breaded  and fried foods, stimulate your appetite,  
defeating the overarching goal of this preparation  period which is to feel in control of your eating.
As you get more sophisticated with  your low carb diet, you will find  
ways to make acceptable homemade versions  of these foods, but save that until you  
feel in control of your eating, and you  will be much happier with your results.
Speaking of homemade. Home cooking  is a key to successfully launching  
or relaunching your low carb  diet, and it does not need to  
be complicated or time-consuming. So  let's start building our eating plan.
Start by hard-boiling six eggs. You will eat  two each day. When you eat them is up to you.  
If you'd like to have breakfast, eat them in  the morning. If you like to shorten your eating  
window to practice intermittent fasting,  you can have them as an afternoon snack.
Here again, this plan contains specific  foods that do not work for everyone. However,  
if you can eat eggs, they just are not  your favorite, I encourage you to still  
give this plan a try. The foods I am  including were selected because they  
stabilize your blood sugar and satisfy  hunger for hours. That stability has a  
calming effect, so you do not need to rely  on willpower to feel in control of eating.
Lunch is a large salad with protein, fat,  and some fiber. The reason a salad works  
so well is because there is a lot to eat,  so your stomach is filled with non-starchy  
vegetables that take a long time to digest. Salad  is also the perfect base for adding protein, fat,  
and fiber. All four of these elements, volume,  protein, fat, and fiber, give you sustained  
hunger control and blood sugar stability, which  sets you up for success with your low carb diet.
I have a recipe for my typical lunchtime  salad, and I will provide a link in the  
description area below this video.  If you just want to build your own,  
good salad toppers include slices of avocados,  raw nuts and seeds, cheese, meat, fish, chicken,  
and full-fat salad dressing, which can  be as simple as olive oil and vinegar.
For dinner, you are going for the same  hunger-satisfaction effect that you  
went for at lunch. Therefore, you want to have an  
entree that contains protein and fat and  a side dish that adds volume and fiber.
For this plan, make my Easy Keto  Chicken Tenders. Meal prep is as  
easy as putting all of the ingredients in a  bag, smooshing them together, and dumping them  
onto a baking sheet. I will link to the free  downloadable recipe in the description area.
With that recipe, I share how to make  an easy side dish using a bag of frozen  
broccoli topped with cheese. It is simple  to prepare because all you need to do is  
follow the directions on the bag and add  butter and cheese. For that small effort,  
you add hunger-satisfying volume,  fat, and fiber to your meal.
You can make life simple by making a double  batch of chicken tenders and eating them each  
day or mix up dinnertime by buying a frozen  package of hamburgers and cooking them to have  
on one or two of the days. Yes, quality matters  and grass-fed beef is your best choice, but if  
that is a barrier for you, look for 100% ground  beef burgers so you can get yourself started.
The burger will be eaten without a bun. You  can wrap it in lettuce leaves if you would  
like to pick it up and add tomato, onion, and  pickles. There are low-sugar ketchup varieties,  
but you will still be better off going  with low-carb condiments, like mustard and  
real mayonnaise, preferably made with  avocado oil, like Primal Kitchen brand.  
Miracle Whip is not a good choice because  it is made with high fructose corn syrup.
If you would like a different  side dish than broccoli,  
pick up a bag of green beans and prepare  them using the package directions.
Will these be the most exciting meals? No. But  they taste good, control your blood sugar and  
hunger, and fill your stomach, which takes  us to the next part of our plan, eat enough.
We have been conditioned to equate  dieting with low calories. Calories  
are an important consideration for weight  loss. However, cutting calories to eat less  
of the same appetite-stimulating foods  leaves you with nothing but misery,  
and we do not keep doing things that make  us miserable, at least not voluntarily.
The goal of this 3-day plan is to prepare your  body for weight loss. This should be looked at  
as a time to help your body feel comfortable.  That comfort comes when your blood sugar and  
hunger hormone levels are stable. That stability  comes from eating whole foods that have volume,  
protein, fat, and fiber. If I sound  like a broken record, it is intentional.
During this 3-day period, eat big portions  at mealtimes. Salad fits in this bowl,  
top it with 4 to 6 ounces of meat, along with the  other toppers that I mentioned and that you enjoy.
Dinner, if you want an extra portion,  eat it. Do not eat dessert. You want to  
utilize this prep period to move away from  the idea that dessert must follow a meal.
Those two hard-boiled eggs can be eaten as a  small meal before lunch or in the afternoon,  
so you have three eating occasions during the  day. While it might not always be possible,  
work on eating enough at mealtimes and eliminate  snacking in between. But if you need something,  
I have videos on low carb and keto  snacks. A few choices include raw or  
lightly toasted almonds, cheese,  and no-sugar-added beef sticks.
Diets often fail because they are  a knee-jerk reaction to something.  
For instance, a friend says, Do you  want to go on a diet with me? "Or,  
you feel uncomfortable in your body  and say to yourself, enough is enough."
Those moments can initiate action, but if you  do not have a plan in place, it is easy to get  
sidetracked, eat too little, or eat the wrong  foods. One day of this uncertainty is okay.  
Two days can be managed with willpower, but  more than that leads to havoc and misery,  
and the diet fails before  the rewards are realized.
This 3-day eating plan will get you to the  starting line. A well-thought-out low carb  
diet can get you to the ultimate prize, which  is a new way of eating that is easy-to-follow,  
enjoyable, and effective. When  those three E's are in place,  
there is no need or desire  to return to old habits.
If you need more motivation and direction  to get started, download my free 0,1,2,3  
strategy. It gives you the basics of the eating  plan we just discussed and comes with a video  
series that is not available on YouTube that  explains how to get those three E's in place.  
You can get those resources by going  to DrBeckyFitness.com/Free. Thanks  
for watching, and have a great rest of your day.

x