During CTE most of the Hogs vow to lose weight and get in shape. Believe it or not, exercise and aerobics alone will not allow you to accomplish your goal during the 12 week CTE period. If you want to lose serious weight, you really need to focus on your diet.

Most of you have already heard of the Atkins Diet. You can download the basic Atkins principles from the Atkins website. Basically the diet consists of three phases, Induction, The Atkins Diet and finally Maintenance. During the Induction phase which lasts 2 weeks, the goal is to deplete your body's store of glycogen, or stored carbohydrate so that after the 2 weeks, your body becomes a FAT burning machine rather than a carbohydrate burning machine.

The Atkins portion of the diet is the weight loss phase and is more liberal in the carbohydrate intake. However, by liberal we still mean around 50-60 grams of carbohydrate per day, well below the normal levels we normally consume daily.

Finally, the maintenance portion of the diet is designed so that you make modifications in your carbohydrate lifestyle so that you avoid having to go back through steps 1 and 2. At this point, you will have eliminated regular colas, sugar in your coffee, candy and other overt carbohydrates. The problem most Hogs have is BEER. Unfortunately, that's why you see us in the Low Carb trough every February.

While we feel this diet is safe and effective, by no means should you attempt this without advice of your physician. Every Hog should get a check up once a year, and this is the time to do it. Check in with your doctor and if he gives you the OK, have him monitor your progress every 6 weeks or so with a lab test. You will be amazed at your cholesterol, triglyceride and LDL/HDL results.

In the meantime, we will try to provide you with recipes and links to make your low carb experience and enjoyable one. One of the great things about the low carb diet is that you are NEVER HUNGRY. But the key here is that by week 2, you have destroyed the basic reason why you have POWERFUL hunger pangs: your glycogen stores are no longer. You will find that you eat less even though you are left to your own devices. Someone on a low carb diet still eats LESS fat than they normally would. However, it is easy to fall into a rut when it comes to food preparation, and preparation is key to this diet. No popping open a bag of something. Almost everything needs to cooked and prepared by hand. It really makes you respect food a lot more. We'll give you some creative dishes that you can prepare that go beyond throwing a steak on a grill.

If you have anything to share with us in the Low Carb Trough, please feel free to send it on over!

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