Now that the christmas and new year festive season has disappeared from our minds, many folk are still living with the consequences of all that enthusiastic scoffing of the carbohydrate laden mince pies, marzipan and icing covered fruit cakes; chocolate and of course, pretzels, crisps and all other manner of svoury snack.  It is so easy to say to oneself, oh it’s ok, I’ll just have one and then a few seconds later, another treat disappears and then another.  The level of discipline is sadly inadequate!

One of the most successful changes I have experienced is moving to a low carb diet.  I am not so heavily invested that I have reached full ketosis but my efforts to drop certain foods which although favourites, are heavy on the carbs and replace them with others with hardly any at all, has paid off.  Even when I stray from my own path of rightiousness, I find it very easy to get back on track.   For my own personal needs, I have discovered that potatoes, carrots, bread and all cakes/biscuits and most shop bought snacks are so heavily laden with carbs, that just swapping these for other low carb items has made a tremendous difference.    I do eat many more eggs per week – these are essential protein as is meat of all sorts and fish.  I don’t eat puddings at home but end my evening meal with greek yogurt over berries or stewed plums or similar.  I fast between 8pm and 12 noon the next day.  Fasting is one defined requirement to make the low carb regime successful, certainly in my case.