Um...OK...a man called Yasmin....never came across a male version of that name....I should watch out more for that blessed 'e' at the end - sorry man...ma bad..ma bad :)

Yes I fully agree that 106kg is way too much unless you're a heavy-weight full-time body builder 2 metres tall. I can fully understand the hesitation...in fact Dr. Atkins himself recommends never to go too close to a bakery dishing out warm loaves...but at the end of the day I'm sure you've lost the actual addiction to carbs. I find diet soft drinks quite a consolation: but after a week full-blown not exceeding 20g of net carbs a day I hardly feel the need even for those, and artificial sweeteners are not be abused of too.

Cheese, butter and fresh cream are the key to low-carb but no less luscious desserts...while ground dessicated coconut and almonds are the perfect base for 'biscuity' nibbles :))

Wish you further success with your low-carb regime...but watch out for those kidneys mate.

Actually the weight was more, 128kg and I'm a man (bet Mona is giggling now :p) and I currently weigh 106 now.
I'm pleased to have lost weight and love to loose the hundreds so I'll keep at it for longer.
Strangely enough, when hungry and presented with baguettes or perhaps a crunchy ftira there is always hesitation, in fact I wait for the proper things to eat.
Regarding fruits I consume mostly blueberries which are usually used to make low-carb cheese cakes.Again there is always a lot of experimentation going on with foods but I appreciate the taste as there is so much 'gusto' going on.

22kg in 9months not much? Work it out as a percentage of how much you were BEFORE slimming down and then put it into perspective. That's no less than 25% if you weighed about 90kg - which for a woman is quite a lot - that's a full one quarter of what you used to be. If you weighed less that's an even higher percentage, so REALLY well-done.

If you are happy with your weight, do not keep losing. Go for a 'less unbalanced' regime. Avoid always flour-based foods and increase your carb intake with forest fruits, the occasional apple and citrus. Fruits (especially berries) contain lots of polyphenols, which are wonderful in preventing cancers. They are also chocka with antioxidants and vitamin C, which the body cannot store but excretes after using what it needs. Vitamin C is great for the immune system as well as the gums.

I have been on a low Carb regime for 9 months and have lost 22kg. Not much some might say but the funny thing about it is that I lost them eating wonderful food and without doing any form of exercise. So perhaps if I'll undertake a 30 minute walk everyday the kilos will vanish faster.
I have also done a thorough blood-test and it seems I'm as fit as a fiddle. Although I consume eggs fried in butter or hard-boiled the cholesterol levels are near to perfect. Sugars are at a sweet level and when compared to a previous blood test overall health has improved.
My only craving is bread, well I've grown eating bread for 33 years so there must be a little bit of nostalgia. However, I make a spelt loaf with some fabulous herbs. Let it cool slice and freeze. This way I can have my weekly toast and have amazing tasting bread.
A lot of changes and people sometimes don't understand or comment about such a lifestyle. One thing is certain though people have noticed my weight loss as well as my wardrobe :)

A word (or a few thousand of them) about carbohydrates...in a perhaps more universal context...

Carbohydrates are composed of three elements: Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen (unlike hydrocarbons, or petroleum fuels, which do not contain Oxygen). Ratios between the three vary, and each 'block' of these three elements chemically fixed together make up a carbohydrate molecule. Carbohydrates (carbs) may be classified into two classes, simple (monosaccharides and disaccharides) and complex (polysaccharides). Simple carbs include glucose and fructose, which are sugars found naturally in vegetables, and sucrose found commonly in fruit like grapes. Complex carbs are basically starch and fibre. The body processes a number of both these types. Both simple and complex carbs may also be classified as natural or processed, and it is precisely this which makes them good, to be avoided / controlled or utterly bad - just by way of how the body reacts to them.

As stated, not all carbs are bad. when the health directorate as well as many a doctor tell us to eat vegetables and fruit, they are certainly not lying or, even worse, lobbying multi-billionaire unscrupulous companies who don't give a crap about literally poisoning our kids' bodies as well as minds with their 'cereals are good for you' slogans, or by today should I say, stereotypes.

Carbohydrates are a fuel for the body, just like fats. Our body is designed to cope with certain types of carb very well while there is another one (fibre) without which we might get seriously sick...like colon cancer...but more about that later. What determines whether the body burns fats or carbs is basically the kind of exercise we do. When we require a highly intensive, short burst of energy (e.g. lifting a heavy load or sprinting) the body uses carbs. When we require a longer, low-intensity effort the body burns fat. This is why a one-hour walk will get you slimmer so much more effectively than a 15-minute sprint which exhausts the hell out of you, especially if you are not adequately cardio-trained. Even if you use an electronic machine to exercise, you will see that the 'fat-burning zone' requires a lower-heartbeat than 'cardio-training'. Cardio-training strengthens the heart muscles and enables the body to draw in oxygen more effectively - helping you learn to breathe. Many people think that you 'lose your breath' because you will have exhausted your energy reserves - that is not true. You would simply be not providing enough oxygen (through your breathing) to burn the fuel you have stored (whether it's fat or carb). The reason this happens mostly when burning carbs is that it is much more probable to lose your breath while burning carbs (intensive exercise) than fat (a leisurely to fast walk). Once you will have been cardio-trained correctly, you will hardly ever lose your breath. This is also why cardio-training requires a higher heart beat than fat-burning - you will require much less oxygen to burn fat. this is exactly what happens in a car engine - if you feed a lot of fuel but not enough air you will have a rich mixture, the engine will smoke and ultimately perform badly.

With carbs, the difference which concerns the body is that between simple and complex.

Simple carbs (like those found in fruit, honey and non-starchy vegetables) enter the bloodstream very quickly, and are released in a rush. This is useful when needing a short blast of high-intensity training, because the blood has a ready supply of fuel to burn in an instant (assuming you can inhale enough oxygen). In fact, professional athletes eat apples, bananas and oranges some time before a sprint. The big issue arises when this readily-available energy source is left idle and not used...the body is not stupid...it will very soon realize that a surge of carbs has entered the bloodstream and is not used. It therefore resorts to releasing what has been defined as the fat-producing hormone, insulin. Insulin quickly acts on the blood sugar and causes the body to store it. The body can store glycogen (carbs re-converted from blood-carbs to stored carbs) in the muscles and liver, but again, only for a limited time period, say 8 hours. After 8 hours these re-converted carbs are re-re-converted to FAT - and the body can store, theoretically, an unlimited amount of that! Fat is not all bad either - is it used to build-up brain tissue and other organs in babies. It is used to cushion important organs like the kidneys and eyes from impacts. It is also a very important component of the liver. However, excess fat (stored under the skin as adipose tissue) has numerous serious ill-effects connected to it as we know. So, in short, simple carbohydrates, although in theory good, can easily end up as fat - that is why insulin has been nicknamed the fat-producing hormone.

Complex carbs behave differently - after eating some boiled potatoes or rice they are released into the bloodstream very slowly. The carb-level in the blood rises slowly, reaches a peak and starts declining as it is used by the body during medium-intensity exercise, such as a very fast walk or normal jogging. The body might not even need to resort to insulin at all if the portion size is small enough. If these carbs are not used quickly enough, the same as above will happen - insulin re-converts them to glycogen which is stored etc. etc and ultimately, if not used, changed to fat.

The quantity which measures how quickly a carbohydrate is released to the blood is known as the Glyacemic Index, or G.I. Low G.I. carbs include leguminous vegetables like beans and peas, potatoes and rice and certain cereals like oats, which are a wonderful food. The physical relevance to G.I. is that it basically governs how hungry we get. A low G.I. meal makes us feel satisfied for quite a long time, because the blood-carb levels are kept pretty stable for quite a stretch. A high G.I. meal (imagine a fruit-eating binge) will make you feel like exploding at first, but within an hour it's like you've never touched anything to your mouth (and pretty sure you will end up going to the toilet for a not particularly pleasant and not so silent session too!!).
Fibre is, as already mentioned, a very important food. Technically it is not a food at all, since it has 0 calories (YES, zero) and it leaves the body pretty much the same way it enters. So, I hear you ask, what can be so bloody important with it? Alas there is a lot to learn as well as gain from it. Fibre is a complex carb which, on a chemical micro-level, is almost identical to starch and glycogen. The difference is that our digestive system is not able to break it down and utilize it for energy (digest it). It requires a special enzyme (called cellulase) inside the appendix (that little piece of intestine we can safely remove since we do not use) to break down. Our appendix does not contain that particular enzyme, and is, compared to herbivore mammals, very small. The size of a rabbit's in fact. Fibre (technically termed cellulose) can be of two types: soluble and insoluble. Insoluble needs no introduction, it is found in so-called (or so it should unless the seller cheats) 'brown' items, like bread, pasta and rice. Certain cheating bastards have resorted to use non-'brown' ingredients and add a brown colour to them to mask them as 'healthy'. Today, to make sure we do not fall in such pitifully pathetic traps, we use the term wholemeal. Foods containing insoluble fibre provide an indigestible bulk to our meals, making us feel full somewhat before, especially if accompanied by copious amounts of water which swells them and makes them softer too. This bulk provides the large intestine with much-needed exercise to keep healthy and away from cancer, and keeps us, erm, regular.
Soluble fibre is perhaps not that heard of, but its function and impact on the body is no way any less important. Being soluble, it finds itself in the bloodstream. Certain people (irrespective of how fat or thin they are - high fat consumption does not always imply a fat or overweight person) have high blood pressure due to a layer of fat which builds-up inside the inner surface of blood vessels. This narrowens them, and that is where the high blood pressure comes from. Soluble fiber acts like an abrasive on this fat, wiping it away and therefore cleaning the blood-vessels from the inside.
In olden times, fibre was considered a poor food. Early flour producing techniques did not remove the fibre part from the grains, so technically early flours were wholemeal ones. Since the importance of fibre was yet unknown, efforts were made to remove it in order to produce 'finer' flour - which was so expensive only the aristocracy could afford bread made with it.

As I mentioned before, carbs may also be classified (today more than ever before) as natural and processed. So far, as you may have noticed, I only spoke of natural ones. Processed carbs include both naturally complex and naturally simple, but unfortunately the end result is the same: the G.I. for these foods is highly increased. For example, wheat is naturally complex. However, due to the multitude of processes it is subjected to, like milling and bleaching, it is each time increasing the G.I a little bit more, until we end up with a nutritionally-devoid chemical which is unfortunately also highly profitable - flour. The same thing happens with commercial sugar (sucrose) which is already simple naturally. Since these foods have already undergone a number of processes, the body need not process them any further: they are literally thrown into the bloodstream (even the complex ones) in such an uncontrolled manner that the body immediately releases copious amounts of insulin to stabilize the blood-carb level. Insulin itself decreases its own efficiency, meaning that when there is a lot of insulin its effectiveness is reduced and so even more will be needed. So the body will experience a short-lived big rush of carbs into the bloodstream, but which very soon deteriorates and ends. Since the body can only store a limited amount of carbs, if the meal is big enough most of the carbs will not even make it to glycogen – they will be converted to fat instantly. This is the commonest disaster occurring in today’s world. It’s only a matter of time before the rush of carbs I mentioned above becomes an addiction, a real powerful but dangerous one which people are not even aware of and keep satisfying – until eventually they realize their trousers or skirts are becoming WAY too tight. What’s next? They go ‘on a diet’ – either by themselves or by talking to a so-called nutritionist who will have never entered anything more academic than a bloody gym yet market himself as a food expert. They will start avoiding any kind of fat like it’s the plague and indulge in chicken breast whose provenance would scare a SAW aficionado, as well as high-carb foods marketed as healthy – cereal bars, cereals, ‘brown’ rice and ‘brown’ bread. In other words, they are forced to FEED this carb addiction, rather than removing it. They will develop an eye for low-fat this and low-fat that, and experience an ocular orgasm each time they see it and grab it, whatever its cost and taste (or lack of it). I have even stared in dismay at a variety of cheap sweets marketed as ‘fat free’ – my oh MY! – what the hell would you expect to find in 100% refined-sugar-encounters-of-the-third-type? They have the bare-faced cheek to try to make us believe these sweets are actually healthy because they are low-fat! Inherently, and you can check me out anytime, you will find that ‘low-fat’ actually translates into ‘high-carb’ bar a very few exceptions, like sugar-free jelly and CERTAIN meat and fish-based products. What do you think goes in fish-cakes? Butcher home-made burgers? Most sausages? I bet my buttocks that for those legal enough to publish the ingredients on the packaging you are certain to find (sometimes PURPOSELY not even bothering to state the actual quantity) bread crumbs or RUSK – an ominous word reminiscent of carb-laden Farley’s baby food when I was a kid. What about fish-cakes? You guessed, again lots of carb-based additives. Yes, processed carbs (basically sugar and flour) are today’s most legalized drug.

So, carbs can be both healthy and dangerous – but in today’s world of computer desks and automation, their need is on the decline. Sad then that they are so quick to market, sell, make billionaires….and make us addicts and fat. And then we spend millions to cure the ailments caused by them and blame the fats for it – even the good ones which make us healthy and intelligent. Now you have me saving you and the whole world from this tragedy. And we’re still dying in the West of excess food and in the East of too little food. We’re just a bunch of twats, really.

A few comments:

1. (a) DO NOT attempt a low-carb diet before ensuring your body can handle it!!! One of the most important pre-requisites to start this lifestyle is super-healthy kidneys, since in a high-protein context they will be heavily loaded. If you have in the past suffered from kidney stones or have someone in your family who suffers from them, look elsewhere

(b) DO NOT attempt a low-carb diet if you have low bone-density or are prone to osteoporosis. In a low-carb diet the body will become so acidic that it will start dissolving bones at a higher rate than normal.

2 & 3. Macadamias are the best since they contain the lowest carb content - around 2%. Peanuts are not as bad as you say: 9% carb if roasted and oiled. Almonds, pecans, walnuts and brazil nuts are all sub-5% carb, so excellent too, as you say. Be SUPER-careful of what maltese brands market as MIXED NUTS. They more often than not contain high-carb additives such as broad beans and even dried fruits like raisins and sultanas, which first of all are in no way related to nuts, as well as being are chock-a-block with carbs - never mind they are marketed as high-fibre foods.

Incidentally, fibre is a carbohydrate too. BUT our digestive system is not equipped to digest it, so when looking up carb content on foods, make sure you are reading the NET carb content. This is especially valid for vegetables and nuts.

Cereals may be healthy, but certainly not in the amounts consumed today as well as not in the way they are processed to make them appetizing for kids.

4 & 5. Ketosis is a consequence of Lipolysis. In the total absence of fat, the body goes into 'reserve mode', resorting to preserving the fat it has and burning lean muscle - that's why ultra-low-fat diets will have you LOSE WEIGHT but NOT SLIM, and then only for a very short time until you will have to stop because the body will not withstand such conditions for long. In the absence of carbohydrate and just a little fat, on the other hand, the body has simply no choice but to burn its own fat stores - this is known as lipolysis. A by-product of lipolysis are ketones, which the body uses in exactly the same way as carbohydrates, and even excretes them in urine - these are in fact detected in a urine sample. Research has shown that the body PREFERS to burn ketones rather than carbohydrates. Ketosis is the process of producing ketones. That's why lipolysis and ketosis go hand in hand.

When resorting to vegetables, bear in mind that all of them, even the highly touted leguminous ones like beans, contain very little or even no protein at all. A low-carb diet does by no means have to be a high-fat one. Your emphasis should prioritize highly on high-grade proteins and essential amino acids, basically those found in all meats, seafood, eggs and cheese. Fat just happens to be part and parcel of protein-rich foods, so do not go deep-frying eggs, pork and lamb till you feel like throwing up and pretend you're going to lose weight. Recommended vegetables are (and even then, in small amounts) tomatoes, lettuce, green beans (which although beans are eaten with the pericarp and all and therefore have a net carb content of just 3% - 4%), broccoli and spinach. Potatoes and carrots are a complete no-no since they have a very high net carb content. Rice is also out of the question, despite being lauded to the skies in today's low-fat profit-oriented world.

I am not saying that potatoes, carrots and rice are bad foods: they just should be consumed liberally only in high-carb, so-called 'balanced' diets and not even to be looked at in a low-carb diet.

Be also very careful with processed meats. Theoretically they are at the bottom of the low-carb food pyramid, sinc ethey are the lowest carb and highest protein foods, BUT corned beef, ham, mortadella, bacon etc. etc. pose a high risk of colon cancer due to the high nitrate content inherently present in them.

12. The Foodbook is certainly Malta's best (if not only) low-carb diet book. Not only because all recipes take little or no time to prepare in today's hyperfast world which inherently advocates a high-carb lifestyle, but also because it includes a very informative write-up by Alex Manche' - a cardiologist and low-carb dieter - just as Dr. Robert Atkins (who practically invented low-carb dieting) was. It also boasts some of Mona's formidable writing skills which will keep you attached (especially her personal diary - nothing erotic so stop salivating....you'll have enough to salivate for on the recipes) and provoke a laugh or two in the process. It even highly promotes local produce for heaven's sake.