Last week I wrote about how I had just found and ordered the Julian Bakery Low Carb Bread.   I received my bread loaves over the weekend.  This is hands down the best low carb bread I have ever tasted before.  I ordered the Cinnamon Almond Raisin (Smart Carb 2) bread and the Smart Carb No. 1 bread and I had so much fun having some variety in my low carb lifestyle.  For breakfast, I made toast with the Cinnamon Almond Raisin bread with lots of butter and cinnamon/splenda mixture sprinkled on top.  I also found a sugar free strawberry jelly with only 1 net carb per Tablespoon that I used on top of my toast.  For my lunch and dinner choices, I was able to make grilled cheese sandwiches and turkey sandwiches.  This definitely helped curb my bread craving I have been having lately! 
 
Over the last 3 months I have felt as if I have been eating the same thing over and over again.  I was in desperate need of some new low carb choices.  I was so excited to see that there was low carb bread available online.  Instead of giving up on my low carb lifestyle because I'm bored of my repetitive food choices, I decided to venture out and find something new to keep me excited about eating low carb.  The best thing about eating low carb is that you can usually substitute a few ingredients in any recipe to make it low carb.  Don't give up on this healthy way of eating!  Let me know what challenges you face along your low carb journey.  What kind of food do you miss eating?  The further along you get in your low carb journey the more creative you become.  If you need any creative substitution ideas for bread, pasta, potatoes, ect. please let me know.  I'm here to help! 

I have been in sales for the last 5 years and one of the things I have to do is share success stories with my team.  Success stories are told to help encourage the rest of the team and show them what you are doing to help your business trend in a positive way.  I know that when I hear a success story from someone else on my team it encourages and motivates me to do well too.  It's definitely fun hearing and sharing success stories in sales, but it is so much more exciting to hear and share success stories with weight loss! 

So here is my success story for the week...  I lost 2 more pounds!!!  I've lost 23lbs total in 3 months and 2 weeks!  :-)

I'm so excited!  I have been really struggling lately with losing more than one pound a week and some weeks I don't even lose anything at all.  Two things I've added into my low carb life are water and exercise.  I'm trying to drink at least 64oz of water a day and exercise whenever I can.  I'm going to keep up on my exercise and water intake and hope to continue to see more weight drop off.  I would love to hear your success story!  Please feel free to share any success you've had, whether big or small.  I love hearing success stories!  They encourage me so much along my weight loss journey.  Please feel free to comment below.   

I have been using the new iPhone Carb Tracker and I love it!  It has been so helpful to me.  I notice that the further I get in my low carb journey the more relaxed I get about the carbs I'm taking into my body.  Even though most of the carbs I'm taking are made up of veggies and acceptable low carb food, it's very easy to lose track.  This food tracker is helping me notice those extra carbs that I shouldn't be taking in that could be stalling my weight loss.  I'm going to continue using it and hope to see some good results from keeping track of the food I'm eating. 

It's so easy to lose track of the carbs you are eating.  Find something that holds you accountable to the food you are putting into your body that way you will continue to see great results.  Do you use a food diary in your weight loss journey?  Do you have a fun application that you enjoy using?  Please feel free to share below.  I love hearing what helps you stay on track in your weight loss journey.

With only a month and a half left of my job, I'm trying to give it my all until my last day.  I'm feeling a wide range of emotions and it has been stressing me out!  I've started telling the people I work with about my departure and it's been so sad.  I usually can hold it together and not cry in front of people, but when someone else starts crying, I can't hold myself back.  Wow!  I never realized how tough it would be to tell people goodbye. 

You're probably thinking to yourself: "Low Carb Bread?  Yeah Right!"  You know what... I found some!  I was looking online for some new low carb, food products that I could buy online that aren't available in stores.  I came across a website called Julian Bakery, and they have a variety of different low carb loaves.  I decided to buy the Cinnamon Almond Raisin (Smart Carb 2) bread, which has only has 2 net carbs per slice: (total carbs 15g - fiber 13g= 2 net carbs)  and the Smart Carb No. 1 bread, which has only 1 net carb per slice: (total carbs 13g - fiber 12g= 1 net carb)  I've never tried it before, but based on the reviews of these product from other people following a low carb lifestyle, it sounds like it's going to be delicious!  I can't wait to receive my Low Carb Bread in the mail, and as soon as I do, I will let you know how it really tastes.  Have you tried Julian Bakery's Low Carb bread before?  If so, please share you comments below of whether or not you like it.  Do you know another great low carb bread?  Please share your comments below. 

I recently read a resourceful blog from the well known Low Carb expert Jimmy Moore, owner and creator of Livin La Vida Low-Carb, that I have to share with you.  In his blog, he reveals a new iPhone/iPod Touch application called "Carb Tracker" created by Dr. Brian Young from Healthy U Technologies.  This application is so helpful for anyone following a Low Carb Lifestyle.  It keeps track of your daily carbs and water intake and it also allows you to track your daily weight.  The application costs $3.99 and can be found in the Application Store on your iPhone/iPod Touch or on iTunes.  I'm going to download it and give it a try.  I'll will let you now what I think.  Please give me any feedback you've had on your experience with this new Carb Tracker Application.  Please also comment if you are going to try it and what you think of it when you do.

I'm so thankful that I'm not a huge pasta lover since I'm following low carb.  I never really feel like I have to have it, but every now and than I get a craving for macaroni and cheese or spaghetti.  You are probably thinking well that sucks for you because you can never have macaroni and cheese or spaghetti ever again if you are eating low carb.  Well guess what... I CAN!  Dreamfield's Pasta makes wonderful Low Carb Pasta that tastes great and only has 5 net carbs per serving.  When I want to have macaroni and cheese I use Dreamfields Healthy Low Carb Elbows Pasta 13.25 oz. box or Dreamfields Healthy Low Carb Penne Rigate Pasta 13.25 oz. box and when I want to have spaghetti I use Dreamfields Spaghetti.  They have so many low carb pasta choices that you can use as an alternative in regular pasta recipes to make them completely low carb.  I'm so thankful to companies like Dreamfield's that make it possible for low carb dieters to continue to lose weight and be healthy without packing on the pounds.  Please comment below and share your own personal experience with eating Dreamfield's Pasta.

When it comes to eating Low Carb I have hardly any complaints.  I am shocked at the food I can eat and enjoy and still lose weight.  It's really amazing how your body stops craving sugar and bad carbs once you cut them out our your diet.  One thing that is hard for me when it comes to following Low Carb is not being able to drink milk.  I know that may sound weird, but if you asked anyone in my family they would tell you how much I absolutely love milk.  I try to substitute a lot of the recipes that call for milk with whipping cream because it adds 0 carbs with cream instead of about 12 carbs with milk.  Cream does work great in most recipes, but some recipes just need the taste of milk to make it complete.  I have some great news for all of those milk lovers out there.  I found some Low Carb milk at the grocery store and I'm so excited.  It's by Hood and it's called Calorie Countdown.  It has only has 3 net carbs per 1 cup serving.  Here are 2 links to Hood's website that show regular milk and chocolate milk:
2% regular low carb milk: http://www.hphood.com/products/prodDetail.aspx?id=576
2% low carb chocolate milk: http://www.hphood.com/products/prodDetail.aspx?id=577
I haven't been able to find the chocolate milk yet, but I'm just thankful right now to have found the regular milk.  If you love milk and are following the low carb lifestyle I hope this puts a smile on your face.  Next time you see those ads that say: Got Milk?  You can smile and say I do and it's low carb!  :-)  Please comment below if you've tried Hood's Calorie Countdown and let me know what you think.

I recently tried cutting caffeine and aspartame out of my diet.  I was successful for about 2 weeks and than I decided to try something new.  One of my friends, Christina Antonis, told me about Diet Rite and I'm so glad she did!  Thank you Christine!  I tried it and I love it!  The wonderful thing about Diet Rite is it has no carbs, no sodium, no aspartame, and no caffeine and it is sweetened with Splenda.  It comes in 7 different flavors: Diet Rite, White Grape 2 ct/ 12 packs, Red Raspberry, Tangerine, Kiwi Strawberry, Black Cherry, Cola, and the newest flavor Cherry Cola.  What a genius idea for all of those Low Carb dieters out there who are trying to cut out all of the unhealthy ingredients from our beverages to accommodate our health and weight loss goals!  I do still have Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper occasionally, but I try to drink Diet Rite when I have the option.  Give it a try and please comment below and let me know what you think.

I love finding new resources to assist in my Low Carb journey to lose weight for good. One of my friends, JayCee Botha, told me about a great book called Dr. Atkins' Vita-Nutrient Solution: Nature's Answer to Drugs by Dr. Robert C. Atkins, M.D. I’ve only glanced at it so far, but I’m looking forward to reading all of it. I have never been very good at taking vitamins because there are so many different ones out there and I never know which ones I should take for me. This book helps you create your own program with nutritional supplements that work for your body and it’s different conditions.

If you want a “basic supplementation plan” than Dr. Atkins also shares a great weight loss/weight maintenance regimen in his well-known book called Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, Revised Edition on pages 303-307. He talks about using the Atkins Basic #3 Formula, which is a multivitamin, on pages 303-304 where you will see a LONG list of 35 different ingredients. He recommended that you take this multivitamin 3x a day, one with each meal. I checked to see if you could still buy the Atkins Basic #3 Formula and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I emailed Atkins customer service at www.atkins.com to see if they knew where I could find it. They replied to me and told me that they no longer produce this multivitamin, but that there is a similar one made by Dr. Hoffman. You can buy this multivitamin, called the Foundation Formula, at his website: http://www.drhoffman.com/page.cfm/285

I’m currently taking a Centrum Multivitamin but as soon as I run out I will buy and try out the Foundation Formula.  Bayer also had a One-A-Day CarbSmart, 50 Count Multivitamin, but I think it has gone off of the market.  It's no longer listed on their website: http://www.oneaday.com/  It's nice to know that we have some supplement options to aid in our Low Carb Lifestyle.  If you know of any Low Carb Multivitamins that I have not listed above please feel free to share in the comment section below.  What is your current supplementation plan?