[podcast flashvars=”titles: ‘gloria gaynor'”]http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/wp-content/uploads/llvlcep81-boom-bust.mp3[/podcast]
Hello and welcome to the 81st episode of the Internet’s hottest low-larb podcast–“The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore!”
Today, our host Jimmy has some advice for those times when people tell you that “low-carb diets are so 2002.” Listen in to hear why despite the supposed “bust” that many of the low-carb products and businesses went through, Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb is still as vital in 2007 as it ever was! Whether you look at the original 1970’s Atkins plan or go back to the 19th century low-carb diet promoted by William Banting, low-carb living is always gonna be with us!
Also, Jimmy has some breaking news about his brand new video show! SAY WHAT? That’s right–now you can now get your Jimmy fix on YouTube, too! This man is EVERYWHERE!
LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 81
– Promo video for “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb On YouTube”
– Episode 1 of the brand new “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb On YouTube”
– Get a FREE COPY of William Banting’s “Letter On Corpulence”
– Get your copy of Gary Taubes’ new book Good Calories, Bad Calories where he discusses Banting
– Cracker Barrel and Captain D’s still have low-carb menus in 2007
Did you miss anything Jimmy said? That’s okay, just click the following link for a complete transcript!
Transcript of Episode 81:
This is Episode 81 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” What an exciting show we have lined up for you today and I’m so glad you were able to tune in as we talk about the issues that matter most about the incredibly healthy low-carb lifestyle. Today we’re gonna address a common mistake made by the low-carb antagonists when they equate the demise of the low-carb business interests with the end of the actual low-carb lifestyle overall. One has absolutely nothing at all to do with the other as I will explain in just a moment.
First, I am excited to share with you another brand new project that I have taken on to continue the work I am doing at my LivinLaVidaLowCarb.com blog and with this podcast show talking about low-carb living with those who need to hear it the most. It’s the uber-popular YouTube, baby, and my beautiful wife Christine has joined me to help encourage, educate, and inspire the millions who flock there daily. Go to the show notes section at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com for a link to both the special promo video as well as our first full-length episode of the segment we are calling “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb On YouTube.” We are excited about extending the reach of the low-carb community into this new medium and would appreciate your help in telling everyone you know about these videos. If you go to YouTube.com and type in my name, Jimmy Moore, into the search box, then you should be able to find these. I’d love to have your support there, so come check us out, leave a comment, mark our videos as ones of your favorites, and then subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Thanks for helping us help others lose weight and get healthy–the livin’ la low-carb way on YouTube!
In Episode 81 today, I have a subject matter that I want to bring up in response to the critics of low-carb who often repeat an apples and oranges argument when they spout off their utter disdain for this way of eating. You’ve heard it over and over again, I’m sure, and it’s thrown in my face quite often when I tell people I lost my weight on the Atkins diet. What is it? It’s the erroneous assumption that the once high and mighty economic success and then sudden crash and burn of so many low-carb products on grocery store shelves means that livin’ la vida low-carb itself has failed as a healthy nutritional approach. What an absolutely absurd connection that has been used as a “gotcha” to the low-carb lifestyle! The two are completely separate from one other and I’ll explain why later in this podcast.
Most media accounts of the Atkins diet and low-carb diets in general consider the low-carb marketing trend that hit a few years back as merely a “fad,” “frenzy,” and “craze” that caused a lot of people to make a lot of money and then quickly lose a boatload of money. They cite the sudden appearance of low-carb EVERYTHING on store shelves seemingly overnight and it was one of the hottest trends to ever hit the food industry. And yet when many of these low-carb imposter products failed to sell, people assumed that the low-carb fad was passing and thus, the low-carb diet itself was no longer viable. I agree that the low-carb business fad with all the garbage line of products is indeed over and done with and good riddance. But let’s not make this about the diet itself. The Atkins diet has been around since the early 1970’s and a man named William Banting talked about carbohydrate restriction for health and weight loss well over a century ago as Gary Taubes so brilliantly lays out in the opening chapter of his upcoming Random House release entitled “Good Calories, Bad Calories.” If you’d like a FREE copy of Banting’s 45-page “Letter On Corpulence,” then go to the show notes section at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com to access it. This way of eating has literally helped countless numbers of people lose and then maintain weight loss over that time. Despite the overwhelming popularity of the low-carb lifestyle (or maybe because of it), the media continually bashes it as a “fad” that has run its course and they state that it’s time to move on to the next big thing in weight loss. If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a million times now. The Atkins diet is finished. The “low-carb craze” has hit rock bottom. Nobody in their right mind is doing low-carb anymore. Oh, really. Are you sure about that?! Why do they keep talking about it so much then? If it’s dead, then why bother opposing it anymore, hmmm? But check this out–I noticed in my local grocery store recently that there was a shelftalker that stated “Counting Carbs?” in front of a new low-carb bread. If low-carb is really out of the picture now, then why are grocery stores still carrying items that cater to people controlling their carbohydrate intake? How about restaurants like Cracker Barrel and Captain D’s offering a low-carb menu for their health-conscious customers? If low-carb is somehow off the radar as a diet that real people are following nowadays, then why would these businesses continue to market livin’ la vida low-carb? The answer to that question is as obvious as the nose on your face.
Keep in mind that it’s still a good idea to be very discerning of any product that purports to be “low-carb.” You have to read the labels carefully and not automatically assume it is low-carb just because the packaging says it is. Count the carbs for yourself so you don’t make a foolish mistake. Subtract the dietary fiber and sugar alcohols from the total carbs to get the net carb total. These are the only carbs you should be concerned with. But also look out for the portion sizes in these “low-carb” products. Companies will try to fool consumers by making the product smaller than their regular version or put several servings in one package. Don’t fall for this marketing ploy by the food manufacturers. Some of them are trying to make a buck off of your desire to lose weight. Unfortunately, so many people don’t think before they buy these kind of products and wonder why they aren’t losing weight on low-carb. Keep in mind that when this happens, it’s not the low-carb diet that stopped working! Low-carb living is not the reason we are obese in the United States. Instead, it’s poor dietary choices made by those who fail to take responsibility for their own health. They buy into the mistaken notion to blame the Atkins diet and the low-carb lifestyle for these awful low-carb foods and thus implicate livin’ la vida low-carb in the process. But it’s not the diet’s fault that people buy these foods that don’t help them one bit. We need to hold the companies labeling their foods as “low-carb” responsible for false advertising and incorrectly marketing their foods as something they are not. Choosing the low-carb lifestyle was one of the best things I could have ever done to improve my health. Although losing over 180 pounds was indeed an amazing miracle for me, the improvements I made in my overall health are even more fascinating to me. It was all about making those meaningful choices that will change your life forever.
As for the business side of low-carb, who’s fault is it that any money was lost as a result of investment in low-carb products? That responsibility lies solely with the investor and nobody else. It’s called basic economics and everyone knows there are risks involved with ANY investment strategy. Many people who got in on this bandwagon didn’t give a rip that people like Jimmy Moore and others were out there trying to lose weight on the Atkins diet. All they saw was dollar signs and they couldn’t spend money fast enough on making “low-carb” products in the hopes that they could cash in and see a profitable return. Many people made out very well in the business side of low-carb a few years back because they bought into their own hype that all those products were helping people lose weight. Unfortunately, most of the so-called “low-carb” products that came out were very poor quality, full of sugar and excess carbs, and would not be considered “low-carb” by most of us who genuinely eat this way. This doesn’t mean that all of the products labeled “low-carb” are inferior, but be smart about it. Choose the ones that fit within your lifestyle and help you in your journey to better health. Chose foods based on their nutritional content, not because they blare the phrase “low-carb” on them. That is why I have publicly called for stricter standards to be placed on any product purporting to be “low-carb.” The low-carb retailers who are providing quality low-carb products from smaller vendors seem to truly care about the health of their customers by building a strong relationship with the people who make the good products so they can get them in the hands of the low-carbers who could benefit from them the most. While it is sad to see so many of those stores shut their doors in recent years, there are still some low-carb stores thriving in 2007 because they never lost focus on who was most important to their business–those people who are still livin’ la vida low-carb. The low-carb business owners are true heroes in my book for weathering the constant barrage of attacks against low-carb that distort what this way of eating is all about and threaten their financial future each and every day. And yet they stick with it because they believe in the mission of what they are doing to help change people’s lives forever.
Let me repeat something that should not be missed–in my eyes, the end of what I call the low-carb business “fad” was a VERY GOOD thing. While the principle of offering good low-carb products for consumers to use as part of their lifestyle change was there, the reality was that many companies kept making products worse and worse by trying to pass them off as “low-carb” when they clearly were not. THAT is why the business of low-carb failed beginning in 2004 and this explains why so many investors lost money and closed their doors. But does this mean the low-carb lifestyle as an effective means for losing weight and getting healthy has failed? Not hardly! Remember, I started losing weight on low-carb beginning on January 1, 2004 when Atkins was still the “in” thing to do. But by the time I had lost 180 pounds at the end of 2004, Atkins had gone from “in” to “sin” by the media, the radical anti-meat groups like PETA and Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine, and those self-appointed so-called health “experts” who always have an opinion about low-carb dieting. Yet, did that change take away anything about my low-carb weight loss success? Did the “failure” of the Atkins diet in the eyes of the media mean that my 180-pound weight loss didn’t really happen? If you read the media accounts of low-carb that keep coming out, then that’s what they would have you believe. But the fact is I DID lose weight this way and I’m VERY proud to tell people HOW I did it all these years later!
Listen to me right now–the success of the low-carb diet is NOT dependent upon or tied to in any way the businesses that sell low-carb products. I remember being interviewed on a local talk radio station right after Atkins Nutritionals filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2005. Everyone, including the host, wanted to know what I was going to do now that the company that represented the Atkins diet was going bankrupt. My response was that I was gonna keep on livin’ la vida low-carb to manage my weight and health just like I always had because the business side of low-carb has absolutely NOTHING in the world to do with being on the low-carb nutritional approach. I enjoyed tremendous weight loss success thank you very much and I DID look at the long-term implications before I got started eating this way. That’s why I chose this way of eating because it not only provided me the weight loss I have longed for my entire life, but has enabled me to keep the weight off for the first time ever in a very enjoyable fashion with or without the use of any low-carb products. I wouldn’t think of ever eating any other way not only to control my weight, but to see my health improve, too. I am not ashamed nor do I ever regret my decision to start livin’ la vida low-carb. It radically changed my life for the better.
As for low-carb businesses in 2007, there are several companies that are still producing and distributing outstanding low-carb products that will make your low-carb experience better if you so desire to use them. Names like ChocoPerfection, CarbSmart, Flax Z Snax, Atkins Nutritionals, and so many more will be around as long as they keep pumping out the quality products that have become synonymous with quality low-carb foods. But remember, sticking with low-carb and persevering for life is not about finding a product to eat that says “low-carb” on the packaging. It’s about making better choices in your food selection and taking back control of your health. Become an avid nutrition label reader and become your own “low-carb” expert about what is good for you and what is not. I taught myself how to do this and so can you. Never fall for the “low-carb is dead” mantra you will hear quite often in the media. Despite the negative connotations that you read in the media, there are plenty of examples of people like me who have made the low-carb lifestyle their permanent and healthy way of life. We ARE the silent majority who are just going about our business, eating low-carb, and grinning from ear to ear every time we step on that scale or visit our doctor for a health check-up! YOU can be a part of this, too, by starting on your own low-carb plan if you haven’t already. Do it for yourself and make today the first day of the rest of your long and healthy life–the low-carb way!
That’s it for Episode 81 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” Please share your comments about today’s podcast in the show notes section at our official web site–TheLivinLowCarbShow.com. We’d love to hear what you think, so tell us what’s on your mind. Come back again on Thursday for another episode of this top-rated health and weight loss podcast show featuring the amazingly healthy low-carb lifestyle. So, until next time, keep on livin’ la vida low-carb!