Learning to Exhale: A Mentor Leaves a Lasting Impression

Thinking back to 2002, when I first began testing the waters with "low carb eating," I recall all the struggles I went through for the next several years trying to drop some weight. My weight varied at that time between 168 and 173. I would lose a little, then gain it back, lose a little, repeat. A vicious cycle.

I discovered how lowering carbs could help you to lose weight more efficiently, and I began that journey of carb counting. I knew so very little then about WHAT I was doing, WHY I was doing it, and how there could be so many variables to controlling carbs. Over that period of time I developed an overblown fear of carbs. All carbs. Any carbs. Convinced that they were the demonic force to my not being able to lose weight and KEEP it off. Keeping my carbs at 20 or below on a daily basis, I would do well for a while, lose a few pounds, and then my hunger and cravings would skyrocket and I'd blow my diet all to hell, bingeing on high-fat, high-calorie, sugary carbs. And then I would crawl back to the starting line with my tail between my legs and begin the madness again. And again. And again.

Eventually I began experimenting with adding "a few more" carbs to my daily diet plan to help balance out my hunger and cravings. The elusive search for balance. This worked for a while, and I was able to shed a few more pounds and managed to keep those pounds off pretty well.

But when I got to within 10-12 lbs of what I considered "goal weight," I found myself on the merry-go-round once more, stalled and frustrated and hungry and disillusioned with the whole weight loss, exercise and nutrition concept. Confused. Totally confused. What was I doing wrong? I was exercising. I was keeping my carbs low to very low. I was watching and controlling my calories. Yet I wasn't making any progress.

Fast-forwarding to 2008, I began researching articles and reading accounts of people who were having a lot of success with cycling carbs. I had been testing the waters with this concept through my reading of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle by Tom Venuto, learning valuable concepts about nutrition, a little here, a little there, but I could never get the nerve to increase my carbs to the levels -- or even anywhere close to the levels -- that he recommended in his book, certain that if I did, my cravings would once again skyrocket, I'd lose total control, and I'd pack on even more pounds in no time at all, stalling my weight loss even further. I managed to lower my fat to more acceptable levels during that process, increase my carbs somewhat, and throwing in "for good measure" what I deemed to be an adequate amount of protein. Having recently been introduced to that new term, "macronutrient," little did I know at that time how that word could have such an incredible impact on my fat loss, muscle feeding success.

While experimenting, reading, researching, I stumbled into a friendship of sorts with a very knowledgeable and experienced mentor who began sharing with me a little at a time nutritional jewels that would totally rock my world from that point forward. It was time to erase the slate. Start fresh. Chapter One. Roll up your sleeves, T, and pay attention. This dude has got it together and you'd better pay attention to what he says. And I did. I became a human sponge for nutritional knowledge.

I embarked upon my first ever refeed in March of 2008. Oh.How.Daunting. A refeed, huh?

refeed

Sounds rather dangerous. Risky. But admittedly, the notion of eating a huge amount of carbs for a day after restricting to very low levels all week, with the promise that this would trick my metabolism into a frikkin inferno -- BURN, BABY, BURN! Yep. I'm in. Let's do this. What do I have to lose -- except fat?

I was sustained by one piece of inestimable good fortune.

I had for a friend a man of immense and patient wisdom

and a gentle but unyielding fortitude.

Thomas Wolfe

I share a question I posted to him online just before my first-ever refeed. His answer, although seemingly too good to be true at the time, laid the groundwork for a whole new way of thinking about nutrition, and was the genesis for my new-found passion for fitness.