I’m a man who loves to be told he’s a complete idiot.
It’s not that I’m a masochist. But all my favorite ideas — the ones that have revolutionized my life in wonderful ways — have come to me completely out of left field. I rejected them ALL at first as hogwash. It always takes me months, sometimes years, to really “grok” them.
Consider my introduction to low carb dieting, for instance. In no way did it foreshadow that I would one day become a zealous disciple of the good Dr. Robert Atkins. Here’s how it went down:
“The Atkins Diet Works!” Goes in One Ear, Out the Other
In 2000, I was out on a date with a girl I had just started seeing. I noticed she had a peculiar habit of picking the tomatoes out of her bacon-loaded Cobb salad.
“Why on Earth are you taking out the tomatoes?” I asked.
“Because I’m on a diet!” she grinned back at me.
“What kind of diet has you eating bacon but no tomatoes? That sounds insane.”
“It’s Atkins, silly! It’s a low carbohydrate diet.”
“A whaaa?”
“It’s awesome. I’ve lost 20 pounds already!”
“Really? Is that so…?” (Adam slowly backs away from the table)
Needless to say, we broke up shortly after this conversation.
Seven Years Later…
After that weirdness, I never even casually thought about “low carbohydrate” diets, until 2007, when I read Gary Taubes’ Good Calories Bad Calories, the book that transformed me into a rabid, raving low carb evangelist.
Now, if you’ve already been converted to the low carb tip, you might be wondering: what took you so damn long, Adam? Are you just a dunderhead who needs to hear the truth 50 times before it sinks in?
The answer is: yes!
It takes a long, long, long time for me to fully embrace insights like “count carbs, not calories to lose fat.” Because those kinds of insights are SO counterintuitive. They fly in the face of so much of what we’ve been trained to believe.
And, listen. Like I said, I’m someone who LOVES to be proven wrong. I love finding out ideas that “blow my mind” and force me to rethink everything I know. I actively seek out these insights. And even given my openness, EVERY TIME I come across a new cool insight that “changes everything” in the same way that “count carbs, not calories” changes everything, I hesitate. My skepticism overwhelms me. It overwhelms me, even in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary and oodles of testimonials from the converted-and-cured.
Prove Me Wrong Again and Again… and I STILL Won’t “Get It”!
I’m beginning to reach the conclusion that our ability to transform ourselves hinges on our ability to find, retain, and ingrain the right insights about our problems. And that never happens in one moment! The popular idea of insight as like a lightbulb going off over the head is absurd. Insights, epiphanies… these things develop over time. They sneak up on us. Bit by bit, we open our minds and change our points of view. Until one day, we look back and realize that “everything’s changed.”
And then our minds do a very sneaky thing! They convince us that we went through the change rapidly, maybe even instantaneously. In hindsight, we think a lightbulb went off over our heads. But the lightbulb was a phantom. It was never there.
And it never is.
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It simply amazes me that there is such vehement hatred of carbs. Being inactive is criminal not carbs. I eat at least 500g of digestible carb/day and fight to maintain 139lbs with extremely low body fat. I have had type 1 diabetes for over 29 years, have exceptional blood glucose control, and use very small insulin doses. My secret is tremendous daily activity. We evolved to be extremely active not to hide from HEALTHY carbs as if they were monsters.
It really is scary that people today are so greatly afraid of being very active that they point at whole grains and lots of fruits daily as poison. The poison is lack of MOVEMENT. Wow… laziness…
Robb, thanks for your comment. I’m sure it must seem to you like activity is the key, especially when you’re able to maintain health eating 500g.day of carbs.
I would ask you to consider the following (quoting from Gary Taubes’ 2007 article in New York Magazine, “The Scientist and the Stairmaster”)”
“The American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine published joint guidelines for physical activity and health. They suggested that 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five days a week is necessary to “promote and maintain health.” What they didn’t say, though, was that more physical activity will lead us to lose weight. Indeed, the best they could say about the relationship between fat and exercise was this: “It is reasonable to assume that persons with relatively high daily energy expenditures would be less likely to gain weight over time, compared with those who have low energy expenditures. So far, data to support this hypothesis are not particularly compelling.” In other words, despite half a century of efforts to prove otherwise, scientists still can’t say that exercise will help keep off the pounds.”
I could go on and on and on and on, laying waste to the idea that activity is the key to warding off (or fixing) obesity. I’m not saying it can’t be part of the arsenal. But while YOU can eat 500grams of carbs + exercise and maintain health/blood sugar control, your experience is n=1. in other words, not statistically significant or broadly applicable. (mind you, I’m not saying it’s not significant to you! And congrats on managing your diabetes, however you’ve managed to do it)
lol here we go again…
I was on a forum of people eating 6-10 000 calories a day of just carbs. Mostly these people loaded up on bananas, sometimes in excess of 20 a day. These people were lean and had no problems losing weight. They maintained it for years. I’m sure they didn’t have the muscle that is obtainable on a low carb diet but atleast they said they had loads of energy. I myself was a low carber for years, but then i checked my thyroid and it was shot. When I went back to higher carbs it seemed like my metabolism was working against me. I must say no one diet works for everyone. Now i am starting to believe in the quantum theory. It could put all these diets to the test. The quantum theory states that your perception or how you feel about your food effects the food. Maybe that is why I always hear people say my metabolism just burns everything, while they eat junk food all the time, keep on giving these affirmations to the subconscious. We all know all weighloss starts in the mind so this theory could be possible.
Hi Luka,
agreed – as a rule, it’s best to avoid discounting what the mind may be capable of. Maybe the brain through subsconscious affirmations or whatever has the power to change insulin secretion and hormonal balance in general. I would not rule it out!