I know this lovely woman, she works at a store that I go to on Fridays and we have talked.  She said she wanted to lose weight, so I shared my diet with her.  I saw her a couple of weeks later and she told me that she didn’t lose any weight.  I told her she wasn’t following the rules.  She declared that she was, but then pulled a bag of dates out of her pocket and said that she eats them throughout the day.

DATES ARE NOT ON THE DIET and NOT PART OF THE RULES.  One date is about 18g of carbs EACH!  Imagine if she is eating 10 a day!  That is 180g of carbs.  Dates have good vitamins in them, but they are also HIGH in sugar.

You have to follow the rules.

• You can have 6 proteins a day (low-carb, and watch how many carbs are in each one because you should not have more than 50-100g per day).  This means eggs, meat (including bacon and sausage), low-fat cheese, low-carb yogurt or cottage cheese, no sugar added and measured out ice cream, measured-out nuts (look on the side of the jar for carb info–but be careful to not have too many because nuts have carbs), protein bars that are low-carb, like Power Crunch bars or have some carbs, but are high in fiber, like Quest bars (all of these are available online at places like Vitacost.com or you can get them at Smart and Final.
• You can have fruit, but measured out to a small portion of fruit, twice a day.  Some fruits are higher in carbs than others.  Berries and citrus are the lowest.  Bananas are high.
• You can have four small servings of vegetables, but not starchy ones.  If you choose to do carrots, it has to be a very small serving.  I stay away from potatoes when I want to lose weight and basically most of the time.  I only indulge in a potato skin here and there if my weight is stable and I am good with my carbs all day.
• Two small salads a day.  (You can put your vegetable servings in and even protein portions to make the salad a filling experience).
• No dried fruits (NO DATES)
• If you put milk in your coffee, it counts as protein.  I do half and half or powdered cream instead.
• Adding sugar or honey adds calories.  Don’t do it.
• If you have a hankering for chocolate, you can do a piece of low-carb or get chocolate low-carb chocolate protein products that you see at Lindora.com, Carbessentials.net or Netrition.com, etc.  There are crackers, bars, puddings, hot chocolate, etc.  This place has the best Belgium low-sugar and carb chocolate on the market.  http://www.amberlynchocolates.com/

So no dates, and just follow the rules! And for Pete’s sake, if you don’t always have access to a computer to look up carbs, or you don’t look at the bag that the item comes in, then get this book and carry it with you!  http://www.amazon.com/CalorieKing-Calorie-Carbohydrate-Counter-2012/dp/1930448368