Can you imagine how the meetings went down at the corporate headquarters for Weight Watchers last summer as they were brainstorming ways to extend the branding of their calorie-counting, fat-eschewing weight loss program from being commonly stereotyped as something exclusively “for the ladies” to a radical new strategy of marketing directly to men desiring weight loss? Hmmmm, who’s out there who we can hire to serve as our celebrity spokesman that needs to lose weight, can communicate well with and relate to a male audience, and be personable enough on camera to pull off the magic of marketing that will send millions of new customers (and dollars!) our way when we roll out our television campaign ads as 2012 begins with all those people going on New Year’s resolutions? After several moments of deafening silence as they deliberated on this, one junior marketing exec who’s a big fan of the National Basketball Association (NBA) raises his hand and chimes in with “How about Charles Barkley?” After several minutes of raucous laughter from the upper echelon within the Weight Watchers company, they all start looking around at each other with wide-eyed excitement as if they had just struck gold with this bit of advertising genius.

After all, Barkley is a popular former NBA superstar who has gone on to have quite a successful television gig as a brilliant, on-the-spot color commentator on TNT and NBC Sports. He occasionally makes headlines for saying some rather controversial statements to and about other pro teams and athletes and he never backs down from a good media fight. Here’s his take a few years back on then-Cleveland Cavalier, now-Miami Heat NBA all-star and MVP Lebron James wanting to be traded to another team:

http://youtu.be/n31xxNy_jR0

That’s typical Charles Barkley. He is very well-known for saying some of the most off-the-wall statements sometimes. He’s probably most famous for his rather unique pronunciation of the word “terrible”:

http://youtu.be/TGw9N5DGT-Q

So the Weight Watchers people probably knew what they were getting themselves into hiring this guy to be the face of their company to the male population. Or maybe they didn’t. They certainly chose the right man if they wanted someone who could exude confidence in himself and stir the pot. This video of Charles’ auto-tuned song “I May Be Wrong (But I Doubt It)” says it all:

http://youtu.be/KhusltpwMIQ

So, in case you’ve been living the life of a hobbit over the past couple of weeks, here’s the former “Round Mound Of Rebound” touting the impact that Weight Watchers has made on his weight since he started following their plan in late 2011 in a series of spots called “Lose Like A Man”:

http://youtu.be/6pynpCMt5Ng

http://youtu.be/MuE_rtwmxX0

And he’s been speaking glowingly about his Weight Watchers experience:

http://youtu.be/m19WU8LbWfY

You’ve heard me say it early and often over the years and I’ll say it again now. I applaud anyone who is seeking weight loss and, more importantly, better health by changing their lifestyle habits nutritionally and physically to put themselves in a better position to be at peak condition. Finding the plan that will work for you, following it exactly and then never quitting it is essential to making permanent and lasting changes happen. But I am always somewhat skeptical of celebrity endorsements like this one for Weight Watchers by Charles Barkley because you can’t help but wonder just how genuine the commitment to this plan really is. There were two things that happened on television over the past week that lead me to believe Sir Charles is growing weary of Weight Watchers already and may not be doing this gig to improve his health as much as he is to expand his bank account.

I was watching Saturday Night Live on January 7, 2012 when Barkley was hosting and in his opening monologue he talked quite extensively about how his Weight Watchers experience has been going. I couldn’t believe his public admission about one of the major flaws of following a low-fat, low-calorie plan like Weight Watchers:

http://youtu.be/VxZw8PQAxSQ

Yes, I understand SNL is a comedy show and that Barkley was trying to be funny. But one of the things that makes comedy funny is an element of truth in the punchline. I’m not at all surprised if he is indeed “hungry” and “starving” on Weight Watchers because everybody in that studio audience and at home knows it’s true if they’ve been on a plan like this before. They all laughed because they’ve tried to eat low-fat, low-calorie and have suffered through the inevitable hunger that awaits them. Far too many diet plans leave dieters hungry because they deprive their body of the satiating macronutrients like fat and protein while loading them up on the hunger-stoking macronutrients like carbohydrates. Do you think the Weight Watchers folks were happy about their brand new spokesman telling people even in jest that they’re gonna be “starving” when they follow this program to lose weight? What’s that forehead-slapping sound coming out of New York City?

As if the SNL bit weren’t enough damage control for the Weight Watchers people to deal with, then Charles Barkley got caught being Charles Barkley again during an off-the-air (or so he thought) admission on TNT’s coverage of a recent Miami Heat-Atlanta Hawks NBA basketball game that being their spokesman is an even “bigger scam” than getting to watch sports for a living:

http://youtu.be/aCB3MyJ94Ns

Now, I don’t have a problem with anyone trying to take care of themselves financially by brokering deals with companies that want to use your brand to help market their products. Charles Barkley is a brand whether he wants to admit it or not. And a lot of guys really like him for his humor, honesty, and coming across as being one of us. But with him basically stating the only reason he’s really doing this Weight Watchers gig is to make money, that’s a problem. Sure, he’s lost weight and I’m happy that he has. But as someone who also lost a substantial amount of weight on a calorie-restricted, low-fat diet in 1999, that way of eating is simply not sustainable. Hunger will drive cravings and there will come a point in your life that you will succumb to that desperate desire to feed your body. Unfortunately, it will most likely be fast food, junk food and lots of it! I’ve been there, done that before and I’m afraid we’ll see the same thing happen to Barkley in the not-too-distant future.

I wish Charles Barkley well in his pursuit of being healthy as he approaches his 50th birthday. But the average, everyday male consumer out there who is watching him tout the benefits of following Weight Watchers in all of these TV ads needs to know it’s all just one big facade. As alluring as experiencing weight loss can be for those men who are concerned about the future of their health, this may not be the best plan for you because of the hunger and frustration that comes from eating this way. Sure, you may lose a few pounds but what good is a plan that you can’t stick with for life? That’s why low-carb is perfect for those who failed on Weight Watchers. There is a certain appeal to following the low-carb lifestyle when frustration sets in from being on programs like Weight Watchers. To make matters worse, Weight Watchers now considers McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets a “healthy” option because it fits within their “points” system. Say what? Looks like they could stand to learn the dirty truth about what’s in that “chicken” product. As Barkley would say, “That’s turrible, you knuckleheads!”

Do you think the Weight Watchers marketing team is wishing they had chosen somebody like John Goodman, Kevin James or Philip Seymour Hoffman instead? Or is this all a part of their scheme to conjure up some free viral marketing? I’d love to have you chime in on what you think in the comments section below.

Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their three cats!

It’s almost hard to believe we are only four short months away from what is sure to be the best Low-Carb Cruise we’ve ever had! This fifth installment of what has quickly become an ever-growing, must-attend annual event will feature arguably the biggest lineup of guest speakers and attendees since we first started doing these in 2008. When we started with just 19 people in that first year, who knew five years later we would be welcoming in excess of 250 people for lots of fun, education, fun, community-building, fun, and, oh did I mention we have fun? Oh yeah, this is one of the biggest highlights of the year in the world of low-carb living and 2012 will be the year you want to come on the Low-Carb Cruise if you’ve never been before (and especially so if you HAVE!).

As the key point person who helps arrange for all the speakers and lecture topics (I know just a few people through this little-known project I dibble-dabble in) shared during the conference part of the Low-Carb Cruise, it is so exciting to see such a diverse group who will offer up their insights and experiences coming up May 6-13, 2012 (our first 7-day cruise!) leaving out of Galveston, Texas port on board the Carnival Magic. We still have LOTS of room left for you to SIGN UP if you would like to come and you can see exactly where we are going on the cruise HERE with three ports of call. If you have any specific questions about pricing, logistics, and more, then you can ask them directly to the members of the Low-Carb Cruise Committee on our convenient Facebook page where you can interact with Becky, Debbie and many more while meeting your fellow Low-Carb Cruisers. You’ll get to know a lot of people now and feel like old friends by the time the cruise happens.

I’m thrilled to be able to share the awesome lineup of guest speakers and their lecture topics with you in this post today as well as our plans for a very special roast of the guest speakers by the hilarious Tom Naughton happening on May 5, 2012 at the Airport DoubleTree Hotel in Houston, Texas. But first I wanted to explain about few changes to the original plans we had for this 5th Annual Low-Carb Cruise. You may recall that The Paleo Solution author, blogger and podcaster Robb Wolf was scheduled to be a guest speaker, but wouldn’t you know it that his lovely wife Nikki got pregnant with their first child due in late April 2012. Since the Low-Carb Cruise happens in early May, he didn’t think he needed to be away from his wife and newborn child. Smart decision there Robb! He has confirmed to be a guest speaker on the 2013 Low-Carb Cruise next year and we look forward to having him. The other speaker who will not be attending is Gary Taubes and it’s not because he and his wife are expecting another child (unless you have some news to share with us, Gary–HA!). His reason for not coming is actually pretty cool–he was invited to speak at a prestigious international obesity conference in Belgium that just so happens to be the same week we’re sailing on the Low-Carb Cruise. Gary’s passion for spreading this message to the unconverted is so evident in his willingness to go anywhere to lecture about the carbohydrate-insulin connection to obesity. We will miss both Robb and Gary on the 2012 Low-Carb Cruise, but I’ve got some GREAT NEWS to share about who we have to take their place as well as a special surprise guest who just confirmed to be there with us.

When Robb told me he needed to back out a few months back, I knew the first person I wanted to contact was Dr. William Davis. His 2011 book Wheat Belly turned the whole “healthy whole grains” mantra on its head and we are so thrilled to welcome Dr. Davis back to the cruise again after he joined us in 2010. To replace Gary, I got not just one but two guest speakers who will be providing lectures for those attending the Low-Carb Cruise. First, we’ll have a veteran low-carb physician named Dr. Ron Rosedale joining us to share from his clinical experience helping patients in the United States and India who are dealing with obesity, diabetes and chronic disease. He’s been quite vocal in recent months in the controversial “safe starches” debate that has taken place in the low-carb/Paleo communities. We also have a relative newcomer who seemingly came out of nowhere in 2011 in Dr. Jack Kruse who brings a refreshingly honest approach to looking at diet and health that I’m sure will resonate with those attending this year. So what about that special surprise guest? It’s none other than the widow of the late, great Dr. Robert C. Atkins–Veronica Atkins. She’s excited to see the legacy of her dear “Bobby” continuing on in the annual Low-Carb Cruise and we are honored to be able to have her in attendance for this cruise that may not be happening had it not been for the incredible work her husband did during his lifetime to educate the public about the harm of consuming excessive carbohydrates. This Low-Carb Cruise will DEFINITELY be one to remember! For a full listing of the guest speakers that includes a biography and links to my podcast interviews with them, CLICK HERE.

As an added BONUS to this year’s cruise, we decided to have a welcoming dinner the night before we set sail to help everyone get to know one another and to have a great time in the process. We are are vacation and going on a cruise after all, so it’s the perfect time to relax, unwind and have a few laughs at the expense of the guest speakers. And who better to do that than Mr. FAT HEAD himself, Tom Naughton? He’s got so much inside scoop on people like Denise Minger, Chris Masterjohn, Dr. Jeff Volek, Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt and more that you will be left in stitches from laughing so hard. I can’t wait to hear what he comes up with during this special roasting and it’s definitely gonna be a good time. The Low-Carb Dinner will take place in the Airport DoubleTree Hotel meeting room in Houston, Texas on Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 6PM. Dress is business casual and come prepared for a good low-carb meal as well as raucous fun for a sugar-free dessert! I’m kinda looking forward to this more than I am the cruise…well, almost.

For the three days we’ll be at sea on our way to Montego Bay, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico, we’ve got a full schedule of activities for the Low-Carb Cruise conference. This is YOUR cruise to spend however you’d like, so attendance at all of these lectures is certainly not required. But here’s the finalized schedule and speaker lecture lineup we have planned for you to enjoy:

May 7, 2012
8:30AM-9:00AM: Registration
9:00AM-9:30AM: Welcome and Introduction of the Low-Carb Cruise
9:30AM-10:15AM: Dr. Jack Kruse – “Factor X”
10:15AM-10:30AM: Break/Door Prizes
10:30AM-11:15AM: Dr. Eric Westman – “Debunking The Myths Told About Low-Carbohydrate Lifestyles”
11:15AM-1:15PM: Lunch break
1:15PM-2:30PM: Recognition of non-speaker guest appearances
2:30PM-3:15PM: Fred Hahn – “Exercise: The Truth And Nothing But The Truth, So Help Me Fred”
3:15PM-3:30PM: Break/Door Prizes
3:30PM-4:15PM: Monique Forslund – “Healthy Food, Healthy Kids”
4:15PM-4:30PM: Closing remarks

May 8, 2012
9:00AM-9:15AM: Announcements
9:15AM-10:00AM: Denise Minger – “The China Study: Wilted Evidence For Plant-Based Eating”
10:00AM-10:45AM: Dr. John Briffa – “Escape The Diet Trap”
10:45AM-11:00AM: Break/Door Prizes
11:00AM-11:45AM: Dr. Jeff Volek – “New Paradigms In Carbohydrate Nutrition For Athletes”
11:45AM-1:30PM: Lunch break
1:30PM-2:30PM: “Low-Carb Success Stories Presented By CarbSmart.com“
2:30PM-3:15PM: Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt – “The Food Revolution”
3:15PM-3:30PM: Break/Door Prizes
3:30PM-4:15PM: Jackie Eberstein – “Is Carbohydrate Addiction Real?”
4:15PM-4:30PM: Closing remarks

May 12, 2012
9:00AM-9:15AM: Announcements
9:15AM-10:00AM: Dr. William Davis – “The Great Whole Grain Caper”
10:00AM-10:45AM: Chris Masterjohn – “Why Animal Fats Are Good For You”
10:45AM-11:00AM: Break/Door Prizes
11:00AM-11:45AM: Dr. Ron Rosedale – “Leptin, Insulin, Food And The Disease Of Aging”
11:45AM-1:30PM: Lunch break
1:30PM-1:45PM: Door Prizes and Question submissions
1:45PM-4:15PM: Q&A Panel With All The Guest Speakers
4:15PM-4:30PM: Farewell/Closing remarks

As you can see, we have a fabulous trip in store for people are fans of health, low-carb diets, fitness, Paleo, and more! If you still want to go, then we’d love to have you be with us. CLICK HERE to register, ask your questions at the Low-Carb Cruise Facebook page and don’t you dare miss this opportunity to be a part of history in the making–on The 5th Annual Low-Carb Cruise!

Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their three cats!

This morning I asked my wonderful wife Christine between worship services at church if she could tell me what happened on this date eight years ago that was historic. To my surprise, she pondered for what seemed like forever trying to think of what was so special about this date. I kept prodding her, “This was something pretty momentous that happened on January 1, 2004.” She clutched her chin, stiffened her lips together, and crunched up her nose with a “hmmmm” look on her face. I playfully responded, “Aww, come on, you don’t know what’s so special about today…eight years ago…it was a HUGE event?” After about a minute of thinking and coming up blank, she said, “Oh I give up, tell me. I’ll probably know once you tell me.” Well of course you will. I exclaimed, “This is the day I began my healthy low-carb lifestyle eight years ago as my New Year’s resolution.” She responded matter-of-factly, “Oh, well that was too obvious…I was thinking of something that happened historically in America or something.” Ahh, I so love that woman for keeping me humble!

Yes, today officially marks eight years of making the fateful decision to stop living my life recklessly from a nutritional/fitness perspective and to begin being deliberately mindful of the foods I ate and the exercise I engaged in for the first time in my life. The Jimmy Moore that existed on January 1, 2004 isn’t even close to resembling the one who lives in 2012. Although I lost 180 pounds that historic year I changed my life and have gained back a portion of that weight loss in the years that have followed, I’ve still kept off 130 pounds for eight years–I’d say that’s pretty good long-term low-carb success. I’ve been quite open and honest about my weight struggles over the years that go well beyond livin’ la vida low-carb as I’ve shared in posts detailing tests of my thyroid panel and most recently my diagnosis with low-testosterone which I’m now taking hormone replacement testosterone cream in an attempt to remedy some out-of-whack hormones. See, it’s not all about how many calories you consume and the amount of time you spend walking on a treadmill at the gym!

This human body is a complex machine that is incredibly resilient but can only take so much damage and still operate at optimal levels. The first 32 years of my life contributed to that deterioration and I’ve spent the last eight years attempting to fix and heal my body as much as possible. It’s quite possible I’ll never attain the “perfect body” that I’d love to have and show off, but high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb living will give me the best body and health that I’m capable of attaining. And that’s good enough for me as long as my cholesterol numbers are where they need to be (and they are!), I have a heart scan score of ZERO showing no calcium plaque build-up, and I’m more active and stronger at the age of 40 than I’ve been in my entire life. For all intents and purposes, I am a new man today thanks to the chance I took on the low-carb lifestyle eights years back. Physically, emotionally, career, my marriage…everything has changed–FOR THE BETTER!

If you would have told me ten years ago that in 2012 I’d weigh less than 300 pounds (before low-carb, I was perpetually over 300 pounds except in 1999 when I dipped below that weight temporarily doing a brief low-fat diet stint before rebelling against the perpetual hunger from eating that way gaining it all back again a few months later), have a popular diet and health blog, be among the top health podcasters on iTunes, written two books, and inspiring millions of people as my full-time occupation, I would have thought you were nuts. But by the grace of God and His blessing on my life, that’s exactly where I am now and what I am privileged to be involved with at this time in my life.

To say that low-carb changed my life is a bit of an understatement because it totally turned everything in my life upside down and shifted everything I thought I’d be doing in an entirely different direction (I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science/English and a Master of Arts Degree in Public Policy…that I’m not using!). Not that I’m complaining because I’m living a dream job: getting to work from home, able to pay my bills, getting to do something I love, and helping people in the process. I work longer and harder at this “job” more than anything else I’ve ever done in my entire life, but it is incredibly gratifying to know I’m making a mark on this world and influencing others to make changes for the better in their diet and health.

Today I received a lovely e-mail from one of my readers who remembered what a special day this is for me because it’s the exact same day that she started living the low-carb life, too:

I just wanted to wish you well on your “Atkinsiversary”! I started low-carb the same day that you did: January 1, 2004. A few months prior, I had lost my dear grandmother to diabetes. I knew little about the disease, but enough to realize that it had something to do with insulin and insulin had to do with carbohydrates. My brother was on Atkins and loving it and looking well and healthy. So I began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, the low-fat, low-animal-products diet I had always advocated and believed in might not be the be-all, end-all of nutrition that I thought it was. I read “Life Without Bread” by Allan and Lutz and the rest, as they say, is history.

If my grandmother had accurately understood the relationship between diet and health when she was my age, she might never have developed diabetes and might still be with us to this day. So I wanted to thank you for this important work that you do, in spreading the word about low-carb living. It is, quite literally, life-saving work, and I pray that God blesses your efforts. The motivation, inspiration, and information that you provide is truly helpful to me, and to countless others I am sure. Thank you for all that you do.

How incredibly cool is that? I’ve been so honored to hear from people just like this countless times over the years and these positive stories of how my work is helping real people keeps that fire burning hot within me to never stop doing what I’m doing. Sure, I have my critics, but I constantly attempt to become better as a human being by learning from the lessons of the mistakes I have made in my life. No, I’m not a perfect man but I strive to be the best I can possibly be. I will always be who I am and let the chips fall where they may. There’s always room for improvement that I will strive for on a daily basis and I’m grateful for the love and forgiveness of those who come into contact with me. I thank God for YOU and the role you have played in my life by allowing me the chance to share my life with you as I strive to educate, encourage and inspire others to make better choices for the sake of their health.

As I have been thinking today about these past eight years of livin’ la vida low-carb, I wondered what advice the 2012 version of Jimmy Moore would give to the 2004 man who weighed 410 pounds, on three prescription medications for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and breathing, wore size 62-inch pants and 5XL shirts and was on a one-way ticket to an early grave. I’ve come up with ten basic words of wisdom about diet, exercise and health that would have been great to hear at the time and I’d like to share those with you:

1. Gaining health is better than losing weight.
2. Worrying about your cholesterol is simply unnecessary.
3. Embrace saturated fat as your optimal fuel source.
4. Cardio exercise isn’t as important as resistance training.
5. The best food quality is all that matters in your diet.
6. Test your blood sugar response to any food you question.
7. Grass-fed, pastured and organic foods are worth the expense.
8. Get eight hours of cool, dark, silent sleep every night.
9. Take key supplements like Vitamin D and fish oil.
10. Don’t become overly obsessive about your diet.

There’s so much more I could share with that really big man I used to be, but those ten things would have been a great start. In a way, I’m glad I had to do it on my own without a “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” blog, podcast, YouTube videos or Jimmy Moore to e-mail. It helps me appreciate where I’ve come from and just how incredibly miraculous my low-carb transformation story has been. Eight years ago today I was a fragile man looking for hope for a better tomorrow and that’s exactly what I got by the end of 2004.

If you are in a situation where you feel hopeless, helpless and ready to throw in the towel on ever doing anything positive about your weight and health, then let me tell you I know how you feel and you CAN overcome. Start right away by finding a plan that will work for you (try this one if you need somewhere to begin), follow that plan exactly as prescribed and then keep doing that plan for the rest of your life. Will it be an easy road? Honestly? No. But if you pursue it like you’ve never pursued anything else in your entire life and put forth the appropriate effort to do the right things, ask the right questions and apply the lessons you learn along the way, then you can’t help but become a success story too. YOU CAN DO IT!!!

If there’s anything I can do to assist you in your low-carb journey, then I’m always available to my wonderful readers whether you have been with me from the beginning or if you’re reading my blog for the first time today. E-mail me anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net with your questions or comments for me and I’ll do my best to help you in any way that I can. THANK YOU for helping me celebrate this special eight-year anniversary of the commencement of my low-carb lifestyle change beginning in earnest. I plan on eating this way for the rest of my long and healthy life and I encourage you to give it a try for yourself, too! You’ll never regret the day you start livin’ la vida low-carb.

Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their three cats!

The year 2011 has come to a close and before we welcome in 2012 (which I anticipate to be an AWESOME year for healthy low-carb living!) I think it’s important to look back on some of the best moments of the past twelve months. No, widespread acceptance of the high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb message has NOT taken place and we’re still many years away from that happening…although we’re inching closer to it becoming a reality each and every day. And while it can sometimes feel like nobody in the mainstream world of nutrition and health is really paying attention to the work so many of us are doing promoting livin’ la vida low-carb, along comes our first low-carb headline of 2011 I’ll highlight with 1. this June 2011 column by Dr. Oz where he mentions my famous trademark in the first paragraph–yeah baby, Dr. Oz knows who I am and the message I’m communicating to so many enthusiastic fans of the low-carb lifestyle on a daily basis! The low-carb message will not be denied.

By the way, as an aside (but a really interesting one), I received an e-mail invitation a couple of weeks ago from a producer at The Dr. Oz Show who wanted me to appear as a guest talking about food addiction. Awesome, they want somebody to articulate what it is like to have an addiction to food as I once did and then overcame it. NOPE! Unfortunately, what they wanted me to talk about was how it DOESN’T exist! Say what? Apparently they’re not reading my blog that closely because I wholeheartedly believe in the concept of food addiction, especially to carbohydrates which I had just blogged about regarding Jessica Biel that same week they contacted me. Needless to say, I turned them down because I’m not sacrificing what I truly believe in just to be on a popular national health television show watched by millions of television viewers. I do have a sense of integrity and ethics that would never allow me to make such a boneheaded decision no matter how alluring the offer. Plus, can you imagine how it would have been edited to make me look incredibly stupid? No thanks!

Anyway, back to 2011 and all of the support we saw in the mainstream press for low-carb living. WOW! When I wrote the “Top 10 Low-Carb Headlines Of 2010″ one year ago, I was thrilled by the increased positive attention being paid to this way of eating that so many of us love and adore for the incredible weight and health changes for the better it has made in us. But there were so many this year that I had to double that number to the Top 20 Low-Carb Headlines Of 2011! Incrementally, we are making a difference and I fully anticipate this kind of excellent coverage of support for saturated fat, promotion of real foods, the meteoric rise of the Paleo diet, the lack of scientific evidence for the low-fat diet, famous people turning to low-carb living, low-carb, high-fat food shortages because of increased demand, the effects of formerly incurable diseases being improved and reversed because of ketogenic diets, and so much more! It’s gonna be loads of fun to watch all of this unfold before our eyes in 2012, but let’s take a quick look back on the other 19 low-carb headlines of 2011:

2. Saturated fat: Not as bad as you think

While it’s not a perfect article by any means, it does articulate that you should be eating at least some saturated fat. This is a far cry from the don’t-you-dare-eat-saturated-fat-or-you’ll-die message we’ve been hearing from so-called health “experts” for decades. When an RD starts talking about keeping saturated fat in your diet, then you know a radical shift is beginning to take place in nutritional education (which makes sense now that this January 2010 study from Dr. Ronald Krauss has virtually vindicated saturated fat). Again, the column has it’s flaws telling people to limit their consumption of saturated fat, but now it’s not an all or nothing proposition anymore. And that’s a good healthy start.

3. USDA finds in favor of grass-fed cows

Because of overzealous vegan activists, red meat tends to be labeled as the bad guy in health for allegedly being a culprit in heart disease, obesity and cancer. And yet all of these studies examining “red meat” tend to focus on grain-fed cows and processed meats. But what about grass-fed cows? Do these same health issues that are oft-repeated in the media exist from meat that comes from humanely-treated, grass-eating cows provided by your local farmer? Well this story show we’ve got an unlikely ally in the real food debate–the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). As much as we rail against them for their asinine Dietary Guidelines, the fact is they’ve got it right on this one. The environmental impact of grass-fed cows raised outdoors in a pasture field is minimal compared with factory farm-raised cattle. The sustainability factor of creating grass-fed meats and this newfound support from the USDA might make it become more mainstream in the years to come. Now if we could just get them to promote this real, whole food in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines in a few years.

4. Fad diet is thousands of years old

Paleo diets continued to make a strong showing in mainstream media coverage in 2011, including this one featuring a fellow diet and health blogger named Melissa Joulwan from “The Clothes Make The Girl” blog (you might recall I recently reviewed her new book called Well Fed). The column did a fabulous job of promoting what Paleo eating is–no grain, dairy, processed foods, sugar or legumes–and to eat like our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Melissa articulated some excellent points, including how she was scared to eat fat at first which is a very real fear of people beginning a high-fat, low-carb type of diet for the first time. Additionally, she explained how it’s not just sugar but foods that turn to sugar in the body that people need to be concerned about and that’s a solid message for people to be exposed to. This column was definitely one of the bright spots of 2011 for Paleo low-carb living!

5. Deadly cost of low-fat dieting

After years of getting a free pass as the holy grail of all nutritional plans despite the lack of evidence to support it as a sustainable way to manage weight and health, it seems the low-fat diet fad is finally nearing its end. You gotta love it when you hear British doctors stating that a low-fat diet “lacks vital vitamins and minerals” that lead to “long-term problems” with health. They add that they are concerned about the “dangerous” trend to eat low-fat and low-calorie rather than focusing on foods that will nourish their bodies. This message has been sorely needed for the past thirty years and suppose it is better late than never. I’d LOVE to see these same kind of warning bells being sound by American physicians and dietitians who are sick and tired of seeing the same old failed results of their low-fat diet advice! That day of reckoning will be here sooner rather than later as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other chronic health issues persist.

6. The low-fat food myth and other fictions

It wasn’t a good year for conventional wisdom. This Australian newspaper takes a look at a lot of the bad dietary advice we’ve been given over the years and shares why it is dead wrong. Things like “eat low-fat foods,” “coconut oil is bad for you,” “eggs will increase your cholesterol,” and “red meat is bad for you.” Sure, there are some strange statements in the column (i.e. “We still need to eat carbohydrates”), but they push people towards the foods that are less bad for them. Again, it’s an excellent move in the direction of healthy high-fat, low-carb living.

7. Bikini Model Christine Teigen’s Top 5 Low-Carb Meals

I couldn’t have been happier to see this column featuring the favorite low-carb recipes of a swimsuit model named Chrissy Tiegen (who was named “Rookie of the Year” in the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue). She’s a big-time fan of eating low-carb and not the low-fat version of it like so many in the entertainment/Hollywood arena tend to do. If you follow her Twitter feed, then you’ll see she’s a lover of meat and doesn’t take too kindly to vegans telling her what she can and can’t eat. LOVE THIS! My favorite low-carb recipe from her is the “Stuffed Red Bell Peppers”…but they all look incredible! See more of Chrissy’s recipes at her “So Delushious!” blog (I love the tag line of her blog: “Personal random ramblings from a girl who loves bacon and can’t be fat”). I’m working on getting her on my podcast for an interview in 2012.

8. Low-carb diet may help overweight girls beat obesity risk

As much as we hear about childhood obesity and trying to find a cure for it, low-carb diets have up until this point been all but rejected as too “extreme” to use in overweight kids. But this research found a reduced-carbohydrate diet produced great weight loss even when carb counts were as high as 43 percent of calories. Can you imagine how much better they’d do if carbohydrates were reduced even more? Getting adolescents off of the sugary, carbohydrate-rich junk and fast foods would make a huge difference in reducing obesity rates. Unfortunately, the simplistic message of “Let’s Move” promoted by well-meaning people like First Lady Michelle Obama just isn’t the answer.

9. Exceptional rise in butter consumption

After four decades of decline in butter sales in the Scandinavian country of Finland, butter sales actually INCREASED in 2011 thanks to the increased popularity of low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diets taking place in that region of the world. People have stopped consuming margarine and going back to what their grandparents ate–real butter! Can you imagine how the American media would respond if butter consumption rose to an average of 7 pounds a year? I know I personally eat a lot more than that and wouldn’t touch margarine with a ten-foot pole. Could this trend come to the United States? I sure hope so!

10. Butter shortage in Norway as low-carb-crazed dieters devour country’s stockpile

Meanwhile, in neighboring Norway butter has become such a hot commodity that they’ve now run out of butter! Holy cow! Sales soared in October and November along with a reduction in production due to a wet summer and now their enthusiasm for LCHF has led to this rather precarious predicament. Enterprising marketers are attempting to sell butter there on the black market for around $13 which seems absurd to Americans where butter is plentiful. Again, could you imagine having a butter SHORTAGE in the United States? How wonderful would that be if it was because more people are eating low-carb, high-fat? Of course, there’s always coconut oil. If you missed comedian Stephen Colbert’s classic take on the Norway butter shortage, then click here and be prepared to laugh your head off! This is super exposure for our message.

11. Facebook top 2011 search for Google Sweden

After those last two stories, this one should come as no surprise. In Sweden where LCHF has become a household name thanks to the great work of pioneers there like Dr. Annika Dahlqvist and Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt (who will be a part of my special “Encore Week” best of 2011 podcasts next week on “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show”), one of the top Google searches there in 2011 was for low-carb, high-fat diets. WOO HOO! Congratulations to the enthusiastic LCHF bloggers and promoters of this way of eating there for making such a strong statement in the nutritional culture there. My dream is to see that happen in the United States taking the lead of our Swedish friends which is why I started my “Eat Like A Swede” blog this year. The closest thing we’re seeing is the exponential rise in Google searches for “Paleo Diet.” And that’s not such a bad thing either.

12. Are Low Carb Diets Bad for the Brain?

If you only read the headline, then you would think this column is anti-low-carb. But read closer…the conclusion is that eating low-carb ketogenic diets does NOT harm brain health. Of course, we knew that already since low-carb neurosurgeon Dr. Larry McCleary has said on my podcast that ketones are the preferred fuel for the brain. So why wouldn’t you eat low-carb, high-fat? DUH!

13. Low-carbohydrate diets look good for the prevention and treatment of cancer

One of the great people we have working on our side in the mainstream media is Dr. John Briffa in the UK (who will be joining us as a guest speaker on The Low-Carb Cruise in May 2012). Dr. Briffa is a physician who understands the purpose of carbohydrate-restriction and communicates key research that backs up this stance. This article is a fine example of such reporting as it relates to the relationship between low-carb diets and cancer.

14. Low-Carb, High-Protein Diet Slows Cancer Growth In Mice, Study Finds

Here’s yet another story on a study of low-carb diets and cancer looking at mice that was published in the June 14, 2011 issue of Cancer Research that confirms what Dr. Eugene Fine is showing in his RECHARGE trial at the Einstein College of Medicine. Reducing carbohydrates starves cancer cells and slows the growth of malignant tumors. I wrote about much of this research on cancer in my second book 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb.

15. Low-carb, high-fat diets add no arterial health risks to obese

That low-carb, high-fat Atkins diet is gonna clog your arteries! If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard this one uttered over the years, then I’d be a bazillionaire by now. But this useless bit of information couldn’t be more wrong according to two studies that came out of Johns Hopkins in 2011. They found no harmful vascular changes from eating this way and weight loss was more efficient than those who consumed the low-fat diet. The researcher Kerry Stewart noted that the “overemphasis on low-fat diets has likely contributed to the obesity epidemic in the United States by encouraging an overconsumption of foods high in carbohydrates.” Ya think?

16. Intermittent, Low-Carbohydrate Diets More Successful Than Standard Dieting, Study Finds

Although I’m not so sure about the intermittent aspect of eating a low-carb diet, it’s good to see that this on again, off again low-carb diet outperformed the low-calorie diets for weight loss and insulin control. They claim that eating low-carb twice weekly will give you these benefits, but what if people did it 6-7 days weekly? But in the spirit of incrementalism, I’d love it if people ate low-carb at least two times a week…it’s a start.

17. Modified Atkins Diet Shows Promise as Treatment for Epileptic Children in Indian Clinical Trial

I first shared about the work Dr. Eric Kossoff is doing with using a modified Atkins approach for treating epilepsy in Episode 367 of my podcast. The effectiveness of the ketogenic diet for children having seizures continues to manifest itself in studies like this one out of India. When we move the focus away from weight loss (which is a nice side effect of healthy high-fat, low-carb diets like Atkins) and on to the health improvements that happen from eating this way like on diseases like epilepsy, I think it becomes quite obvious that this isn’t some passing fad that’s harming our health as it is often mischaracterized by those who oppose it. These kind of stories have to make people second guess whether to believe all of the hyperbole they’ve been hearing about low-carb diets. It’s nothing but great exposure for the low-carb lifestyle in my eyes.

18. Low Carb Diets Are Okay

Well, gee, thanks for your permission for us to eat this way, American Diabetes Association (ADA)! Four years after making the proclamation that diabetics can consume a low-carb diet for weight loss for up to one year, they’re still harping on that message and bragging about how they’re the ONLY major health organization to show support for low-carb diets. And yet, they still only see low-carb as a weight loss tool and not as an actual therapy for treating diabetes. The great low-carb diabetes physician Dr. Mary Vernon is quoted in the column stating this position by the ADA is “not enough and it isn’t respectful enough of how effective this is as a change in patients”–especially those with Type 2 diabetes. While I’m glad the ADA promotes low-carb diets at all even if it is for weight loss, can you imagine how much more of an impact they would have on the actual blood sugar control of diabetics if they promoted this way of eating for treating their diabetes? But as we saw with the ADA’s refusal to publish Judy Barnes Baker’s low-carb cookbook, we’ve still got a long way to go.

19. Food Trends and Eating Habits in 2011

Can you believe what landed at #3? They proclaim that “low-carb diets rule” citing the top four “fasting rising” diets on Google are all low-carb ones. Granted, not all of them are high-fat, low-carb diets, but it’s good exposure for the message of carbohydrate restriction. If we can get people to eat low-carb first, then maybe they’ll end up on blogs like mine, listen to podcasts, participate in forums, etc. to learn why adding in dietary fat is a crucial part of their health equation. Incidentally, “gluten-free” was also a hot trend in food in 2011 and “backyard farming.” Real food, wheat-free, low-carb living is making waves!

20. Top 10 Weight-Loss Trends of 2011

And finally, look what hit the top of the top trends at Shape magazine in 2011–The Paleo Diet! Thanks to the tireless efforts of people like Robb Wolf, Dr. Loren Cordain, Nora Gedgaudas, and a whole bunch of new Paleo bloggers and cookbook authors, this new old trend is probably here to stay for many more years to come! And it coincides quite nicely with those of us who choose to eat high-fat, low-carb, too! Incidentally, CrossFit was also on this list which embraces the Paleo Diet as the nutritional plan of choice for those who engage in this intense exercise routine. Vitamin D also made the list which is a hot topic in the low-carb community with supplementation promoted by the likes of people like Dr. William Davis. Intermittent fasting landed on this weight loss trends of 2011 list too…yet another subset of the Paleo/low-carb blogosphere. The takeaway from all of this–yes, we’re helping get the message out to the people who need to hear it the most!

Did you think 2011 was a great year for low-carb? Tell me your thoughts and any significant headlines that you think I might have missed. Here’s hoping for lots more awesome press for livin’ la vida low-carb in 2012. Bring it!

Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their three cats!

Merry Christmas everybody! It’s that time of year again when people’s attention naturally turn to friends, family, food, fun and fellowship. While the stress of the holiday season can get to a lot of people, I choose to enjoy these few weeks of the year when we can reflect on the blessings we have in life and sharing those with the people we love the most. To that end, Christine and I will be getting away for a few days this next week to just enjoy each other’s company and to have time to refresh, rejuvenate and get charged up and ready to go for 2012. It’s been a challenging year for us losing our twin babies in August that we attempted to have through embyro adoption. But we know and trust that God has a great plan for us that may or may not include kids. We are becoming more and more at peace about this as time passes. Of course, we still believe in miracles and perhaps getting the testosterone issues I recently blogged about under control might make that happen. We’ll see.

Before I go into my usual tradition of sharing lots of Paleo, low-carb and health blogs I’ve recently discovered (I’ve got 50 more for you today!), there are a few things I wanted to pass along to you. I’m a HUGE fan of the “flash mob” concept and here’s one from the Carlson School of Management to get you in the holiday spirit with their rendition of the Christmas classic “Deck the Halls” (watch the security guard):

http://youtu.be/uH8FvERQHtM

How cool is that? My church choir will be singing at our local mall here in South Carolina on Saturday afternoon and we’ll start each of the four performances with a flash mob of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” in a cappella. That should be a lot of fun! We do our Christmas musical in two performances beginning on Sunday afternoon and there is one song in the program that people won’t soon forget called “Christmas In Heaven.” It is sung at the piano by a teenager in our church named Stephanie who was traveling home with her dad in May and they were involved in a horrible accident that injured her and took the life of her father Jim. Stephanie’s mom Mary had the Christmas book sitting out at their piano at home and Stephanie turned right to the page with this song and started singing and playing it. She wanted to share this message with others who might be without a close loved one for the first time this Christmas. I captured it on video during our final rehearsal on Wednesday:

http://youtu.be/oDvb6GCZQhQ

What a courageous young woman and I’m so proud of her willingness to use her gifts and talents for God’s glory despite enduring such a personal tragic loss just six months ago. I’ve known Stephanie since she was a kid (she was in my children’s choir back when there was a whole lot more Jimmy Moore moving around the earth) and I just know she is destined to do some really great things in her life that will honor her dad’s memory for many years to come. God bless you Stephanie!

I wanted to announce who YOU voted on as your favorite podcast guests of 2011 on “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” earning them an invitation back on the show for “Encore Week” 2012 coming up January 2-6, 2012. Congratulations to Dr. Jack Kruse, Dr. William Davis, Paul Jaminet, Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, and Jenny Ruhl. Brand new interviews will be recorded the last week of December and I NEED YOUR HELP! Please send me any questions you would like for me to ask these guests during this special “Encore Week.” This is YOUR opportunity to ask the questions you care about the most of these top low-carb and health experts. Send the questions to me ASAP via e-mail at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. I’ll begin recording these interviews on December 23, 2011, so don’t delay in sending me what you’d like for these guests to talk about during this special week of podcasts. THANK YOU!

I’ve got a special incentive for you to click on the blog links below while I’m away. Our friends at CarbSmart.com have generously offered a very special prize for one lucky reader of a $50 gift certificate for anything in their store. They are the Internet’s leading low-carb retailer offering all sorts of products to fit within your healthy low-carb lifestyle. To become eligible to win, all you gotta do is click on the blogs I have listed for you today, find your favorite one of the bunch, and tell us which blog you like the most and why in the comments section. I’ll pick a winner from all the comments submitted now through Christmas Day. GOOD LUCK!

So how about we get to these 50 new Paleo, low-carb and healthy blogs already, right? It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the Paleo, primal, low-carb, ancestral community continues to grow and I’ve noticed something that is extremely encouraging lately about these new blogs. The QUALITY has improved dramatically as some very talented writers, recipe makers, graphic designers and more have jumped on the blogging bandwagon to give it a go. People think blogging is a cinch, but it really does take a lot of hard work to build an audience, keep the content interesting enough to encourage repeat traffic, and to do it over the long-term. Sadly, too many people come into blogging with high expectations of immediate success. But it doesn’t work that way. You have to build a relationship with your audience, invite them into your life just a bit, and find some sort of connection with them. That’s why it gives me great pleasure to regularly introduce my readers to some of the best new bloggers who are working towards that end. I encourage you to visit as many of these blogs as you can, leave them a comment, write them an e-mail, and bookmark their page if you like what you see there. In case you missed any of my previous blog listings–check ‘em out here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Here are 50 Paleo, low-carb and health blogs for December 2011:

1. PALEO BLOG
2. PRIMAL BALANCE
3. ALL THINGS DENTAL
4. ALL THINGS LOW CARB
5. LOW CARB TRAVELER
6. UNSEENMENACE
7. THE PALEO MOM
8. PRIMAL LOW CARB
9. THE PRIMAL BOOMER
10. PALEO DIABETIC
11. SARAH WILSON
12. PAUL’S HEALTH BLOG
13. ONE FIT FOODIE
14. CALORIEGATE
15. THE LOWCARB DIABETIC
16. DON’T WAKE THE MONSTER
17. THE WELL FED HOMESTEAD>
18. ARIZONA CAVEMAN
19. PALEO OMAHA
20. THE SOULFUL SPOON
21. REAL FOOD UNIVERSITY
22. PRIMAL BITES
23. FEEL GOOD EATING
24. PALEO PASSAGE
25. GO PALEO GET LEAN
26. PALEO FAMILY DOC
27. LOW-CARBLIFE.COM
28. LOW CARB FREAK
29. NUTRISCLEROSIS
30. MANGO Y SAL
31. PRIMAL ZEN
32. SCD LIFESTYLE
33. PALEOMONALISA
34. IT’S ALL GONE PALEO SHAPED
35. SEEKING FATLESSNESS
36. ANCESTRALIZE ME
37. THE RECOVERING VEGETARIAN
38. WILDMOVEMENT
39. THE SAM EFFECT
40. SEE YOUR TOES
41. PRIMAL AWESOME
42. ELANA’S PANTRY
43. PALEO DISH
44. JOSEFINLCHF (Swedish)
45. SWEET WITHOUT SUGAR (Swedish)
46. DUTCH GIRL GETS HEALTHY
47. PROJECT GUINEA PIG
48. ROAR OF WOLVERINE
49. THE TRIATHLETES GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
50. GNOWFGLINS

If you or someone you know has a low-carb, Paleo or health blog or web site that you’d like to see featured in a future blog post here at “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb,” then I’d love to know about it. E-mail me the name of the blog and the URL to livinlowcarbman@charter.net so I can add it to my next big blog update. If you’ve been successful in your weight and health by eating a healthy high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet, then you should DEFINITELY consider starting your own low-carb blog to pass the message on to a world desperate for answers. Working together as one unified voice we can make a strong statement to those who need to break out of the mold of conventional wisdom regarding diet, fitness and health. We ARE making a difference!

I’ll be out of town through December 23, 2011 when so many of you will be well on your way to be with family for Christmas. Christine and I decided to just take it easy and stick around close to home for the holidays this year (of course, the $1400 in car repair bills that we had to endure this week for a new alternator, cylinder and some other thingy didn’t help our budget much–LOL!). She tells me she has something very special planned for my 40th birthday coming up on December 27th (and it better not be those car repairs–HA!). Whatever it is oughta be a hoot and I still like being surprised!

I’ll be recording those Best of 2011 “Encore Week” interviews for my “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” podcast during the last week of December and it’s always an exciting week of podcasts to start the new year. DON’T FORGET TO GET ME YOUR QUESTIONS! Thanks guys. By the way, if you case you haven’t heard, we’ll be expanding the LLVLC Show podcast to air three days a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays starting on January 9, 2012. And we’re gearing up for our brand new LIVE podcast called “Ask The Low-Carb Experts” coming to Thursday nights at 7PM EST beginning on January 12, 2012 (more details on this show coming VERY soon)! Also, brand new episodes of my Friday podcast called “Low-Carb Conversations with Jimmy Moore & Friends” will kick back into high gear on Friday, January 13th! 2012 is gonna rock and I’m so excited to have you along for the ride as we keep educating, encouraging and inspiring people about the life-changing power of livin’ la vida low-carb!

Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their three cats!

In case you’ve never really noticed it before, there is a treasure trove of educational and entertaining information available to you on YouTube. My wife Christine and I used to regularly post a series of videos about low-carb on there and had a lot of fun doing it (life and lack of time because of my podcast recording schedule made us stop). We still post videos there from time to time to use in the social media and in blog posts, like Christine getting a heart scan done, promoting the May 2012 Low-Carb Cruise, sharing about my one-week fasting experiment, posting an old Milwaukee radio interview I did in 2006, blasting the ignorance of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, demonstrating the absurdity of vegans claiming babies won’t eat meat, and even posting the entire “Why We Get Fat” lecture with slides from Gary Taubes. Yes, we stay busy in the video format, but we’re not the only ones sharing fantastic information on YouTube. I’ve been seeing some truly amazing stuff in the past couple of weeks and there have been five brand new MUST-SEE health videos posted that I think will be well worth your time to watch. If you have some extra time to set aside in these last few weeks of December 2011 to view these videos, then I highly encourage you to do so–they’re THAT good! ENJOY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc

Perhaps the most intriguing video getting passed around the Paleo/low-carb blogosphere this week is this incredible TEDxIowaCity presentation from a clinical professor of medicine named Dr. Terry Wahls. She really has an extraordinarily inspiring story to tell of how she was able to overcome a devastating diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2003 that seemingly doomed her to living in a tilt-recline wheelchair for the rest of her life. But thanks to nourishing her body with real whole foods that will look very familiar to people who are livin’ la vida low-carb, these days she is bicycling to work on a daily basis with no signs of the debilitating effects of MS anymore thanks to what she calls the Wahls Protocol™. Dr. Wahls is currently looking for a publisher who will get her message out in book form–tentatively titled UP FROM THE CHAIR: Defeating Progressive MS Without Drugs. And just yesterday I secured a podcast interview with her that will be recorded in January and aired as soon as I can find a spot for her in my schedule. I cannot wait to hear more from this real-life medical miracle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkdFkPxxDG8

If you are not a regular reader of Swedish physician Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt’s English “Diet Doctor” blog, then you are missing out on some remarkable insights from one of the world’s foremost authorities and advocates for a high-fat, low-carb diet. In fact, in his home country they refer to this way of eating as LCHF which you can learn more about in this one-page plan on my “Eat Like A Swede” blog. One of the most fascinating things I’ve seen from Dr. Eenfeldt over the past couple of years is his willingness to travel literally around the world to expand his knowledge of the healthy low-carb lifestyle by attending various obesity conferences and even speaking at high-profile Paleo/low-carb events such as the annual Low-Carb Cruise (where he will be one of the featured guest speakers in May 2012) as well as his well-received lecture at the inaugural Ancestral Health Symposium (#AHS11) in Los Angeles. He’s also used these opportunities to interview some of the best and brightest minds in the realm of low-carb living as evidenced by this interview with long-time low-carb researcher Dr. Stephen Phinney, author of two fantastic books in recent years–The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable and New Atkins for a New You: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great. There are so many intriguing and practical insights into the low-carb lifestyle that Dr. Phinney shares in this video (including how long it takes for your body to get readapted to low-carb if you decide to have a “cheat day” as Jessica Biel does) that you won’t want to miss a single moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaquSijXJkQ

As if his interview with Dr. Phinney wasn’t already a big enough treat for low-carb fans, Dr. Eenfeldt was also able to speak with one of the most energetic and enthusiastic defenders of healthy low-carb living–Lawrence, KS-based family care physician Dr. Mary Vernon from Innovative Metabolic Solutions. Dr. Vernon has been at the forefront of educating both doctors and patients about the value of using carbohydrate-restriction in the treatment of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. In this video interview with Dr. Eenfeldt, she explains the nuts and bolts of why livin’ la vida low-carb works so remarkably well at improving the weight and health of her patients and why she is so passionate about getting this message out to her fellow medical care providers. If you want to learn more about the low-carb protocol Dr. Vernon uses with her diabetic patients, then be sure to pick up a copy of a book she co-wrote with Jackie Eberstein called Atkins Diabetes Revolution: The Groundbreaking Approach to Preventing and Controlling Type 2 Diabetes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhObSu7y2_A

Yo wassup ya’ll?! Alright, quick show of hands for all you Sean Croxton fans out there. REPRESENT! For those of you who don’t know, Sean is the guy behind the wildly popular Underground Wellness brand (YouTube videos, podcast, blog and more!) and Sean’s just doing his thing dropping truth bombs in the world of diet and health everywhere he can. He recently finished writing an e-book called The Dark Side Of Fat Loss that exposes some key concepts that can making losing weight a whole lot harder than it needs to be. In this video, Sean zeroes in on the hormone leptin and makes the case that having a leptin imbalance will lead to all sorts of problems for those of you desiring weight loss. While most of the low-carb community tends to focus almost primarily on the role insulin plays in fat metabolism, perhaps this quick primer video will get you to thinking about how leptin is involved as well. This correlates well with the information you hear from well-respected physicians like Dr. Ron Rosedale and Dr. Jack Kruse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUrS_j-IQUk

And finally, it’s been a while since I shared one of the fantastic low-carb recipe videos from my good buddy Kent Altena at the Atkins Diet Geek Blog. You may know Kent as “bowulf” on YouTube and the man has been a beast posting hundreds of videos there with nearly 2.5 million views for many years now following his amazing 200-pound weight loss success following the Atkins diet right about the same time that I lost my weight. One of Kent’s favorite videos to do is cooking up low-carb recipes in his kitchen like this one I’m sharing today. After years of requests from his fans to write a cookbook, he’s now giving his fans what they want by being one of the featured recipe contributors in the brand new Low Carbing Among Friends: Volume 1 which was discussed in a podcast interview last month with the creators Ian & Jennifer Eloff on my podcast. Fans of low-carb recipes will LOVE this low-carb cookbook that Kent was able to be a part of. I can’t wait to meet my fellow triple-digit Atkins weight loss success on The 5th Annual Low-Carb Cruise in May 2012!

Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their three cats!

I don’t care what anybody tells you, carbohydrate addiction is real and millions of people are dealing with it on a daily basis. This is one of the common themes of everything I do with “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” and I’ll keep shining a light on it for as long as I have this platform. There’s an extremely strong pull towards eating unhealthy junk foods that are full of sugar, white flour and other refined carbohydrates (what I refer to as “carbage”) that many find next to impossible to resist. Believe me, I was there myself back in my 400+ pounds days.

Prior to 2004, I’d easily go on a daily binge eating upwards of two boxes of Little Debbie snack cakes, 16 cans of sugary Coca-Cola, sausage and egg biscuits from McDonald’s, gigantic soft cookies and bear claws from the local 7-11, and much worse that I’d rather not even think about anymore. The old Jimmy Moore was a constantly hungry man trying desperately to find nourishment in foods that were doing a lot more harm than good for his body. When all you are eating is carbage, your body will send your brain signals to keep feeding until the nutritional requirements are met (which they never did since I wasn’t eating well yet).

Instead of calling these jaunts of feeding myself what became my normal everyday diet “binge eating,” I simply called it “eating.” It was just how I ate and I didn’t care a bit in the world what impact that was having on my weight, blood sugar, insulin or health. This was simply my way of life and the beast had to be continually fed at virtually all times or I’d crash. I shudder to think where I’d be today if I didn’t come down from that severe carbohydrate addiction that had me in what was sure to be a death grip unless I changed my lifestyle dramatically. Sadly, I believe that horrific way I was eating and living my life nutritionally is a lot more prevalent in our society than anyone would care to admit. That’s why I’m so thankful for the great work of people like Julia Ross, Dr. Jacob Tietelbaum, Dr. Nancy Appleton, Dr. Scott Olson, Karly Pitman, Pam Killeen and many others doing fantastic work helping those caught in the crosshairs of sugar and carbohydrate addiction. It is nothing to play around with.

While I’ve talked about my own experiences and share success stories of people like this who overcome their addiction to lose weight and get healthy quite often on my blog, I’ve never been able to point people to anything that adequately personifies carbohydrate addiction better than what I’m about to share with you today. And it features a big-time Hollywood actress who you wouldn’t think looking at her on the outside that she has any sort of problem with this…but I couldn’t believe what I was hearing her say in an appearance last week on Episode 6 of the popular interview-based BBC One television program in the UK called “The Graham Norton Show.” Norton was asking Jessica Biel about what she did to get into shape for a role in a remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total Recall. Here’s the entire video footage of what she said it took for her to get into shape along with some very revealing insights into what she did to cope with that healthy eating she was forced to engage in preparing for this physical role:

http://youtu.be/vy1MsAStb1M

On the surface, most people will see this video as funny and it certainly has some comedic value because of the entertainment factor built into the show. But when you look deeper at what Jessica Biel was sharing, it gives you a better perspective on what it means to be carbohydrate-addicted better than anything I’ve ever seen. I’ve provided a transcript of the salient quotes so you can see exactly what I mean. Here’s Biel describing the diet she was on to look the part for her role in Total Recall.

00:21: “You’re on crazy diets and it’s the hardest experience, it really is. Cuz, you’re eating a lot of boring stuff. Chicken breasts and, umm, vegetables all the time.”

Chicken breasts and vegetables? What’s so “crazy” about that Jessica? Sure, I’m sure if you grilled up a dry chicken breast with no butter or salt in a skillet sprayed with Pam and eat steamed broccoli every single day for every single meal, that would be quite “boring.” While it is indeed low-carb and will help you shed the pounds, there’s a lack of fat in the diet that is essential to making low-carb work optimally. When you cut the carbs, you gotta increase the fat to serve as your fuel source. Otherwise, you won’t feel satisfied with what you are eating and will become more susceptible to craving foods you definitely should not be eating. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that plays out so often in people who go on a low-carb diet and unnecessarily cut the fat down as well. The danger in doing that is described perfectly by what Biel said next when she described all the sugary carbohydrates she missed when she ate her “boring” diet.

00:33: “It’s cakes and pastas and breads and sandwiches and croissants and it’s just like (hand gesturing) in your head all the time that’s all you can think about.”

Well, of course it is! When you deprive your body of the food it wants, then you will start having carbohydrate cravings. But I would argue that the food your body REALLY wants is dietary fat. We heard the story on my podcast several years back from a New Zealand-based mom named Rachel Tomkinson whose baby Jenna was so fat-deprived when her mom didn’t feed it to her that she instinctively grabbed a stick of butter out of the shopping cart and started sucking on it. Fat is exactly what Jessica Biel needs to be eating in her “boring” diet along with some tasty herbs and spices to spruce it up (there are an abundance of fantastic recipes from Linda’s Low-Carb Recipes that would keep it interesting for her). That would keep her satiated and calm the cravings for carbohydrate-laden foods quickly. Unfortunately, when you don’t add fat to your low-carb diet, you succumb to the intense cravings and “crack” under the pressure of carbohydrate addiction. When she was asked by Norton if she ever gave in to the temptation, her response was shocking to say the least.

00:43: “Oh yes, absolutely, once a week at least. But you don’t crack just (slight pause) like slightly. You crack bad. I was with my girlfriends we were out in New York City for a night, it was the cheat day. I saw Dunkin’ Donuts. It was just one of those weird…I said ‘pull the car over, pull over right now.’ We pulled over all decked out. We ran in I got 24 donuts. Went to the pizza joint and got two giant large pizzas and I sat in that car and I put as much bread and dough in my mouth as I could possibly manage. It was the best moment!”

O…M…G! I’ve heard of having a “cheat” day and she admits in the interview that she has “at least” one every week. But TWO DOZEN DONUTS AND TWO LARGE PIZZAS!!! Are you kidding me?! Yes, she is gorgeous and looks absolutely fantastic on the outside. So obviously what she is doing seems to be working for her. But that kind of binge eating is worse than anything I have ever done in my life! The fact that she called this her “best moment” was just icing on the proverbial cake that made me very sad for her. Here’s a role model for kids and someone who is looked up to because of her status as a Hollywood star basically telling kids to just let yourself go and eat up whatever you want with zero consequences for such actions. The potential harm this could have on the health and weight of people who love Jessica Biel is frightening to imagine. She wasn’t quite finished yet sharing just how deep her carbohydrate addiction has gotten that has her resorting to doing something so grotesque that you’d have to be addicted to actually do it.

02:14: “Have you ever done the walk down the hallway at the hotel at night and taken somebody’s old room service off the floor? Oh I’ve done it, yeah! You can’t leave a French fry like that!”

Alright, it’s official now. If you didn’t notice it before now, then this should confirm it–Jessica Biel is a carbohydrate addict and a half! Who in their right mind would eat leftover French fries off of a room service tray?! Yes, I realize this is an entertainment program that’s supposed to be entertaining…but I have no doubt in my mind she’s dead serious about doing this. When you deprive your body of fat while cutting the carbohydrates as she did eating chicken and veggies for her movie role, what do you expect?

And if somebody with the physique and image of Jessica Biel eats this way even on occasion, how many average, everyday people are eating like that too because they’re failing to feed their body what it is starving for…literally? This is why I am such a strong supporter of a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb lifestyle change. When you consume plenty of healthy fats naturally found in cuts of beef and fish, butter, coconut oil, full-fat cheese, cream and more while monitoring your intake of protein to your specific bodily needs based on how much you exercise, and limiting your carbohydrate intake most of the time to mostly green leafy and non-starchy vegetables, then you knock out the cravings for carbohydrates and have no desire to eat 24 donuts and two large pizzas in one sitting ever again. Where did she put all of that food anyway? Sheez! That kind of eating will catch up to her metabolically someday soon and she’ll find it won’t be as easy for her to recover from the damage that’s been done anymore.

What do you think about this prime example of carbohydrate addiction that Jessica Biel has outlined for us in this video? How can anyone deny it isn’t true after watching her admit that she binges on carbs when she is trying to eat healthy? I’d love to hear your thoughts about this in the comments section below.

And lest you express doubt that Jessica Biel actually ate all of the donuts and pizza herself, I found this article from February 2010 where she ate 10 donuts in one sitting in the morning and then 18-20 chocolates that afternoon. She’s even been on Jay Leno eating chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate-covered pizza, and chocolate-covered cricket. This kind of crazy eating is certainly indicative of an issue that runs very deep and will catch up to the Hollywood starlet someday.

Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their three cats!