Tonight is Margarita Friday. Every Friday night, whether I need it or not, we go to the local Mexican establishment, and I get my weekly dose of toxin, i.e., one margarita.  :  )

I look forward to that treat – especially now that I have been following the diet plan that Dr. Gabhart gave me on June 21. Wow, is that plan ever working. There is 10.2 pounds less of me than there was 3 weeks ago, and it has not been difficult to do – and I can still have my weekly margarita.

Thought I’d share it with you in case any of you are interested. I have read about and tried many different plans through the years, and this one is so simple. What I like most about it is I can eat healthy food and feel full.

She basically took an 8 ½ x 11 piece of paper and wrote at the top: 1) keep a food journal, and 2) weigh daily. She then divided the paper into three sections, and wrote the following:

Breakfast: 10 carbs or less

Lunch: 10 carbs or less

Supper: Start with 2 cups of salad with a 1 – 2 carb dressing (Hidden Valley Ranch Light), followed by the following:

Divide your plate into thirds: 1/3 protein, 1/3 low carb vegetables, and 1/3 carbs of choice. The carbs of choice section is where you’d want to put that piece of cake you’ve been drooling over. She said, “If they have cake at lunch, box yours up and eat it with your evening meal.”

How does this system work? She explained that there are two “doors” to the pancreas. “You only want to open door #1.”

At breakfast, you will not have had anything to eat for several hours, so when you consume 10 carbs or less, only door #1 opens.

At lunch when you consume 10 carbs or less, the pancreas only opens door #1.

At supper when you consume the two cups of salad with a 1 -2 carb dressing, the pancreas says, “Oh, here it comes again,” and opens only door #1. While the salad is filling the lower part of your stomach, the remainder of the food enters the stomach, but the pancreas only recognizes the salad part. Interesting how this works, but it does.

Dr. Gabhart recommended I get the little book The Calorie King, Calorie Fat & Carbohydrate Counter. It is a small book that fits easily in a purse so that it can be taken with you when you go out to eat. Not only does it list the content in basic foods, it gives you the counts for various restaurant items.

I was concerned that the carb restrictions for breakfast might be difficult since I love bread. However, Dr. Gabhart recommended I get Healthy Living bread – 5 net carbs per slice. Here’s a tip that I have since discovered: Great Harvest Bread sells a low carb bread that is absolutely yummy – 8 carbs per slice and none of those unhealthy preservatives. I like to use it as my carb allowance for most breakfasts since I love bread so.

The most difficult part of this entire process is initially teaching yourself the number of carbs in various food items. However, after a while, this process gets easier. I am finding that it is has been so worth the effort. I actually look forward to standing on the scale every morning…almost as much as that weekly Friday night margarita.  :  )

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.