By Di Bauer, CarbSmart Editor
Almost anyone can eat only plain baked and broiled meats, cooked low carbohydrate vegetables, and salad greens for two or three weeks, but almost no one can eat only those things for long periods of time without becoming bored and giving up. If we are to be successful at making low carbohydrate eating a lifestyle change rather than a quick fix diet, we need to change how we cook.
In order to change how we cook, we need to change how we think. Low carbohydrate cooking requires levels of creativity and imagination that far surpass the levels we had to use when we were following the standard American diet. We need to have enough variety in our diet to alleviate boredom. We need to find substitutions for the unhealthy convenience foods we used to rely on; we need to find new favorites to replace our old, unhealthy favorites.
We need to learn to think "outside the box."
The low carb mindset doesn't come about automatically. We have to nurture it. We have to work at it. We have to risk failure to try something new.
We can do all that, and after a period of time, when we have begun to lose weight and we are healthier, we will prefer to do all that because the benefits to ourselves are so tremendous.
But we have to start somewhere, and that's where this column comes in.
I know how hard it can be to switch gears. I've had to do it, and I used to be the Hamburger Helper Queen. I'm no Martha Stewart (she would have a stroke if she walked into my house), and I have much more in common with John Belushi's Julia Child than the real cooking maven. If I can do it, you can do it, believe me.
In "Low Carb Cooking 101" I will be presenting meal plans complete with a menu, a shopping list, a game plan, and recipes. The meals will not be too time-consuming or complicated, and the recipes will be ones that inexperienced cooks can make successfully.
Hopefully, the menus will help you expand your low carbohydrate repertoire, gain some confidence in your low carbohydrate cooking and menu planning, and start you on the road to creating your own carbohydrate recipes.
There will be a quiz in November.
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