Low-carb breakfast, option 4

Here's a very simple low-carb breakfast option: eggs (cooked any way you like) and some veg. In this case, simply a few slices of cucumber and tomato, sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh black pepper. And to drink: a glass of tap water.

Low Carb Tex Mex

This is one lunch or dinner option: low carb Tex Mex. Instead of eating ground beef with Mexican spices inside tacos or tortillas, just eat it as such, with some veg and some grated cheese on top. Yummy!

By the way, according to Timothy Ferriss (in the 4-Hour Body) pulses (beans, peas, lentils and chick peas) are excellent on a low-carb diet. Many people who go on a really low-carb diet start to have nasty symptoms such as mood swings or feeling dizzy, etc. By integrating pulses into your diet, you can avoid this. They contain both protein and carbs, but according to Tim (who really has done the leg-work) they should not slow down your weight-loss too much. This makes Mexican food a really good option for dieters - but of course you need to skip all the baked products and potatoes. So no tortillas chips, tacos, tortillas etc.

Low-carb breakfast, option 3

I haven't been eating low-carb for a long time now and it's starting to show: my weight has stabilized at around 72 kgs (I'm 175 cm), which means that I'm not over-weight, but that I'm not exactly slim either. So I'm slowly starting to think about my diet again. Here's what I've done so far:

• I've completely given up coffee (maybe 3 months ago). Coffee is fattening because it raises your insulin levels (you can see in my earlier posts why that's not a good thing). However, I also gave it up because I don't like the idea of being addicted to something. I'm still drinking Coke Zero, but I'm trying to wean myself off that as well, slowly but surely.
• One of my new year's resolutions was that I complelety gave up all sugary snacks. For a while it had gotten really bad: I was eating them every day after dinner. I would snack on candy, chocolate, ice-cream, cake, pastries, cookies. And now I have had dessert only once all year (well, in the past 27 days), and I really don't miss it. Now I only eat when I'm actually hungry and it has changed the way I think about food. I now only think about food when I'm hungry. Before, I was thinking all the time: what yummy thing should I eat next. So eating had become a sort of hobby, which I've now given up and I'm very relieved.

These two things alone would probably mean that I'd eventually lose weight, but very slowly. So I do intend on taking more drastic action as well but, this year, I'm trying to create permanent changes in my life so I'm integrating new habits into my life one at a time in order to ensure that they become second-nature.

I intend to start exercizing more and more (I exercize very little currently).

I also intend to start slowly reducing the amount of carbs I eat. One of the most important things would be to always eat a low-carb breakfast. According to Tim Ferriss (in The 4-Hour Body), that change alone should help you lose weight. So I'm now trying to go back to eating ymmy, low-carb breakfasts again.

My breakfast from this morning is pictured: green tea, fried cherry tomatoes and eggs sunny side up cooked inside slices of bell pepper (a trick I learned on Facebook). I cooked it in extra virgin olive oil and added fresh black pepper from the mill and sea salt. It was really delicious.