Low Carb Hero’s Weight Loss Philosophy – Part 5

Surviving The Switch

Before you actually start the low carb hero lifestyle, make sure that you have purchased all the groceries you are going to need for the week ahead. This is massively important. Trash any items you think will tempt you so that you literally only have good choices available. I’ll be perfectly honest with you, the first week is going to be rough!

When you’re first starting out ( or restarting ) a low carb program, it’s important to realise how fragile you will be ( Yes, even the folks out there who think they aren’t scared of anything! Lol ). You will be extremely susceptible to sabotage and negative influences.

This is why on the first week of starting a low carb diet, I personally advise you to limit your social interaction to an absolute minimum. The truth is this is going to be an incredibly important time. After about the third day you will start to experience sugar withdrawal, and hanging with your friends at the bar isn’t the place you want to be when that happens! If you do get to experience the withdrawal, try to view it as a positive. It means that you are getting rid of most of the sugar from your body!

The bad news is you may be experiencing a wide array of negative side effects. Dizziness, headaches and quite likely some very strong cravings for carbohydrates. Well, what did you expect? Sugar is an addictive substance and the entire purpose of the first week is to purge it’s control from your system!

The important thing to remember is this feeling will be temporary and should ease up after a couple of days. Prepare for this and have some headache tablets ready. Hang in there! This is the absolute hardest part of the entire process. If you get to about day five or six, the withdrawal should be completely over and you’ll experience what I call ‘the switch’.

Use every last ounce of willpower in you to make sure you do not falter on that first week! Tell yourself you’ll make it, remind yourself that you must only make it a few more days, visualise your success, make sure you succeed at all costs!

Once you cross the threshold into day five or six, you’ll experience it. ‘The Switch’ is an incredible feeling. It literally feels like someone has flicked a switch in your brain and you are no longer under the control of sugar. The willpower you have will be magnified almost instantly and you will find that you are now the master of your own destiny!

Your choices will be your own and at this point the only thing left you will need to overcome is “habit”. If you can overcome sugar withdrawal then breaking a habit is going to be a walk in the park! Take it day by day, and do what you’ve been doing!

If you have made it through the first week, you have made it through the hardest obstacle there is! You should feel amazingly proud of yourself! Most people have not had to self navigate withdrawal symptoms and you’ve made it through like a champ!

Some psychologists think that if you replace your bad habits with new constructive ones ( like you will do in a low carb lifestyle ), this process will take you about 3 weeks to replace. All you should do for the first month is be conscious of your actions. It may be a good idea to avoid socialising in environments you wont be ready for such as bars, clubs, restaurants, etc. If you do have to go out, find out where you’re going and know what you’re going to eat and drink before you get there. Your friends and family wont all be against you but it is likely the case that they will negatively impact your progress, especially those first critical weeks. The first week is the absolute hardest, the next two weeks should be a lot easier as you’re not going to be fighting a chemical substance but rather your old routines.

Over the first month, keep reminding yourself about how good you felt after you experienced ‘the switch’. Remind yourself how unpleasant those few days of sugar purging was and tell yourself you don’t want to go back there again. Try to visualise sugar as a foreign substance that so badly took over your body that you had to go through all of this just to be rid of it. Remember who your enemy is and never let yourself forget! Over the first month you’ll start to lay the framework of positive behavioural patterns which will soon replace your old habits. You can do it! Be mindful, be strong, be a low carb hero!