Meal Planning

When you first start a new way of eating, you'll undoubtedly run into old habits that need to be changed to new healthier ones. No longer can you mindlessly hit the vending machine or drive-thru. This is a good thing: Pausing to re-consider our habits is a constructive step toward making improvements in our lives.

But in the case of eating, it's important to plan ahead for awhile until your new habits come naturally. Nothing will sabotage your goals more quickly than realizing that you're hungry but you don't know what to eat, you have nothing in the fridge, or you have no time to cook.  Meal planning before you grocery shop, as well as batch-cooking—which is picking one day of the week to make a bunch of meals that you can eat throughout the week—can be excellent tools to ensure you always have food at the ready. Also, keeping low-carb snacks on hand is a great idea.

Comment:  I agree with the planning but before you do, make yourself familiar with the foods that you CAN eat.  I made a mistake my 1st week and went to the grocery store to buy healthy food.  I knew that meant eliminating breads, potatoes, rice, etc. but I didn't know it also meant most of the fruits I love - oranges, grapes, bananas, etc.  I never realized these foods carried a large amount of carbs.  And not knowing this I spent $70.00 at the store and about half of what I bought I couldn't eat.  So I now shop for LOW-CARB foods with a little treat now and then of an orange, banana and even a grape or two.

Something I've found that is low carb but you have to watch the sodium content are Pork Rinds.  I've discovered that these can take the place of crackers and chips for me.  I use them 'sparingly' in my soups and even in place of bread with my chicken salad.