Recently, close friends told us that they were so inspired by the Drink your Carbs diet that they decided to jump into Austerity Mode in spite of the fact that they’d never experimented with Basic Drink Your Carbs. Austerity Mode is the strictest form of DYC. Virtually all carbohydrates come from vegetables, fruit, beans and low-fat dairy. This is DYC so alcohol is allowed, but cereal grains, starchy tubers such as potatoes and added sweeteners are fully eliminated. Our friends lasted three days before abandoning the effort. Frankly, we’re impressed by their fortitude. Most people wouldn’t have made it past lunchtime.
Make no mistake about it: going cold turkey on sugar and starch is a shock to the body. It brings all the symptoms associated with addiction withdrawal. (We were planning to list the symptoms here, but instead we’ll just recommend that you rent Sid and Nancy.) Until Pfizer invents a nicotine patch for people addicted to carbs, there are only two ways to get past these cravings: go cold turkey and suffer or slowly withdraw the simple carbs from your diet in order to diminish the cravings at a measured pace.
If you’re new to Drink Your Carbs, diving straight into Austerity Mode is a little like kicking a heroine habit without methadone or so much as a single therapy session. Consider instead taking baby steps.
Make no mistake about it: going cold turkey on sugar and starch is a shock to the body. It brings all the symptoms associated with addiction withdrawal. (We were planning to list the symptoms here, but instead we’ll just recommend that you rent Sid and Nancy.) Until Pfizer invents a nicotine patch for people addicted to carbs, there are only two ways to get past these cravings: go cold turkey and suffer or slowly withdraw the simple carbs from your diet in order to diminish the cravings at a measured pace.
If you’re new to Drink Your Carbs, diving straight into Austerity Mode is a little like kicking a heroine habit without methadone or so much as a single therapy session. Consider instead taking baby steps.
Austerity Mode is difficult to maintain for those of us who’ve lived for years on DYC. To make matters worse, all of America seems designed to tempt you to fail. It’s virtually impossible to avoid simple carbs without locking yourself in a basement. They surround you everywhere you go. Most of the ads you see and billboards you pass are designed to encourage you to abandon your diet. Three-quarters of the shelf space in any grocery store is dedicated to simple carbs. This is equally true at Whole Foods; labeling Oreos “Natural” and “Organic” does nothing to change their composition or lighten their caloric load. Even gas stations have turned themselves into giant vending machines. Worst of all, it turns out that this country fairly reeks of junk food. Take a deep breath next time you walk down a major boulevard. The smells of industrial ovens, griddles and fryers are as dense as the graffiti along Interstate 405 through LA.
Most people can successfully dive straight into Basic Drink Your Carbs. Some people, however, aren’t ready to commit to a structure that requires a shopping list. We designed the Basic Food List to be simple and flexible, but nonetheless we continually hear from people who are looking for smaller steps that can be implemented easily and quickly and without so much as a single trip to the supermarket. Or, perhaps, it’s the very flexibility that makes Food List difficult. We have one friend who told us, “There are too many choices here. I want something that doesn’t require me to spend a ton of time thinking about it.” For her and any others who feel the same way, we have created the three baby steps.
These three steps are not as effective as Basic DYC, but they will get you 80% the way there. For most people, this is more than enough to start dropping weight. More importantly, once you have fully implemented the three rules your carb cravings will have significantly diminished. Taking the next step into Basic DYC will be easy.
Most people can successfully dive straight into Basic Drink Your Carbs. Some people, however, aren’t ready to commit to a structure that requires a shopping list. We designed the Basic Food List to be simple and flexible, but nonetheless we continually hear from people who are looking for smaller steps that can be implemented easily and quickly and without so much as a single trip to the supermarket. Or, perhaps, it’s the very flexibility that makes Food List difficult. We have one friend who told us, “There are too many choices here. I want something that doesn’t require me to spend a ton of time thinking about it.” For her and any others who feel the same way, we have created the three baby steps.
These three steps are not as effective as Basic DYC, but they will get you 80% the way there. For most people, this is more than enough to start dropping weight. More importantly, once you have fully implemented the three rules your carb cravings will have significantly diminished. Taking the next step into Basic DYC will be easy.
Step 1: Avoid all deep-fried foods. In defense of deep-fried foods, they’re likely to be the foods that allow humans to travel to Mars. The problem with deep space travel is that each astronaut requires about 2000 calories per day to stay healthy. The trip to Mars will take roughly four years, two years there and two back. That adds up to a huge quantity of food that must be loaded alongside fuel, water, air and scientific equipment. The key to making the journey will be finding foods that are small in size but pack a huge caloric wallop. In this one way, deep-frying is like a miracle. It adds an enormous number of calories while contributing little bulk. Of course, deep-fried foods also tend to be disgracefully low in vitamins, minerals and overall nutritional density. But that’s a problem NASA scientists will have to solve out for themselves.
We can’t do all their work. If you’re not part of the Space Program, deep-fried foods are a letter to Santa stating that all you want for Christmas is a mobility scooter.
Step 2: Avoid all added sugar and other sweeteners. Within the rarified world of Drink Your Carbs, we refer to this as the No Mixer Rule. This rule eliminates all sweet or sweetened beverages including fruit juice. No Mixers is an exchange all drinkers must make if they hope to cut sufficient calories to both lose weight and continuing drinking alcohol. We have said this 1000 times and it’s still true; all diets work on the basis of calories in vs. calories out. If you want to lose weight, your calories burned have to outnumber your calories consumed. Alcohol increases you calorie intake so something else in your diet has to go. Anyone interested in DYC should first eliminate all sweet beverages. No more soda. No more orange juice. No sweet liquors. Fortunately, this is DYC: wine, beer and non-sweet spirits are still very much allowed.
Step 3: Eat nothing white. This rule should be treated as a guideline rather than a religious decree. The goal is to eliminate the simple starches from your diet. Unfortunately, nature lacks consistency. Most white foods, such as white bread, white rice and potatoes are low in nutrition and high in calories. Unfortunately, nature spawned a few white foods, such as cauliflower, egg whites and cooked chicken breast, which are the exact opposite. These white foods have high nutritional density and should be part of a healthy weight loss program. We considered adding an asterisk to “Eat nothing white.” We considered changing the name of the rule to “Avoid all foods with a clown on the label.”
Instead we will simply implore you to use common sense. Seriously, it’s not that hard to figure out which white foods to eliminate. If you do get confused, we won’t leave you hanging. First, check the back label for artificial dyes. Then look for more subtle signs. For example, the misspelling of “fruit” in Froot Loops should be a dead giveaway that the color cannot be trusted. The best policy is, if you’re truly in doubt assume that the food you’re contemplating is white and don’t eat it. Choose something instead that’s obviously and naturally colorful.
And we’re not kidding about the clown on the label; those foods are definitely the kind of white you should never go near.
