This ia  picture of one serving of food from my new cooking video,
Tuna Noodle Casserole
which is located at DietHobby, under RECIPES,  Mealtime.

I used up my inspiration and energy in writing this long e-mail answer, so I'm sharing it here in this article. 

 Someone asked me the following question:

"Can you tell me how many carbs you limited yourself to
when you were on low carb?
Did it work well for you?
I seem to have more luck counting carbs."
 

Here's my answer. 

I think that low-carb is an excellent diet plan, and if it is a workable plan for you, go for it. Personally, whether I'm doing low-carb or not, I've found that it is necessary for me to track my food, and count calories.

All of my own research and experimentation and observation leads me to believe that Calories Count, even when doing low-carb, and IF there is a "calorie edge" to eating low carb, it is a very small one, probably not more than 100 calories a day.

I've seen that people who choose to eat more calories than they burn ...over time... while doing low-carb will still gain weight. Low-carb -- when it's VERY low carb -- tends to be more satiating, and more and more I suspect that --- over time --- it works primarily because people ingest less food.

My experiments with low-carb have been during maintenance at normal weight, so it can't be fairly compared with someone in the weight-loss phase.

I am intrigued by Gary Taubes' position about carbs, (see the BOOK TALK Section at DietHobby.com) and did a lot of experimenting with it in 2011.

I have experimented with what is known as ZERO carb -- which actually turned out to be around 5-10 carbs a day, because I choose not to give up my very small amount of plain, Greek yogurt.

However, during most of my low-carb experimentation, I worked to keep my carbs around 20 or less.

When I'm doing my "normal" - "balanced" food plan, my carbs are usually around 50-80 or less. For me, a normal, really high-carb day would only be about 100 carbs. It just turns out that way, because I don't have a large enough calorie allowance for more.

My own experience .. so far .. because I expect to be doing further future experimentation with low-carb
is that...

 It takes courage to start a weight-loss diet.
It takes courage to work to work to maintain a weight-loss.
Each of us is more courageous than we give ourselves credit for. 

Many of us struggle throughout our lives
because we want to be the best,
all the time.

The best wife,
the best mother,
the best daughter,
the best friend,
the best employee,
the best boss.

But we can't please everyone all the time,
and we can't be best at everything all the time.

Due to financial or emotional needs, sometimes our focus has to be our jobs
Other things will suffer: friends, family, and health efforts.
Other times, we will have a different focus.

I'm going to do the best I can today.
Tomorrow, I'll also do my best.
It will never be perfect,
but when we learn to stop demanding perfection of ourselves,
we will stop ourselves from being our own worst enemy.
We are all human.
We're all trying our best.

My struggle with food also involves this issue.
My mindset frequently is:
"I want it all, and I want it right now." 

Regarding everything in life ... including food...
We can have it all, just not all at once. 

 I'm working at Weight-Loss Maintenance one-day-at-a-time here. 

And for no reason at all,
I'm thinking that today is going to be a very good day.