One Key we need to develop our internal motivation – “Why do I want to reach and maintain a certain weight?” For appearance? For health? A combination of two?”

Write down your reasons. Flesh them out a little bit. Why are you concerned about your appearance? What specific health issues are you concerned with? Keep this written motivation statement and refer to it often.

Next, just get into mindset, “I do not eat carbs – I don’t like sugar and starchy food is unhealthy.”

Just as important, develop idea that, “I exercise regularly.” Make these two affirmations a part of who you are. Tape them to bathroom mirror, inside your car, to your desk at work and so on. We need to get serious about this.

There are four more Keys - Information, Fitness, Nutrition and Support. There is not enough space here to discuss each key. Please visit http://www.lowcarb-lifestyles.com to better understand all five.

To develop a low-carb lifestyle, we need to commit to restricting our carb/calorie intake and to motivating ourselves regularly and stick to it. Simple ideas – now, get to it and begin your low-carb lifestyle!

Issues of further contention exist, most notably because FDA is choosing not to list a % Daily Value (%DV) for trans fat. Although it admits that scientific reports show a link between trans fat and coronary heart disease, FDA states that none of these studies have provided a specific reference value. This has enraged anti-trans fat advocates, who consider decision not to list daily values a cop-out due to pressure from food industry, not to insufficient evidence of harm (check out http://bantransfats.com/ for a comprehensive and excellent review of latest trans fat advocacy issues).

Unlike FDA's specific daily requirements for both saturated fat and cholesterol already in place, some experts feel this lack of specificity for trans fat allotment in our diet is akin to allowing consumer to believe that any amount is acceptable. Thus, possibility of a veritable free-for-all on trans fat consumption is feared.

The race is now on for food manufacturers to produce foods free of trans fat In April 2004, Kraft Foods announced introduction of three new brands of popular Oreo cookie containing zero grams of trans fat. Other manufactures will surely follow suit and it is likely that we will be seeing an explosion of trans fat-free (although not necessarily nutritious) products, particularly snack foods.

Since we have a while to wait until all manufacturers are required to change their product labels, consumers need to know how to recognize trans fat in products to reduce intake. Read every ingredient label before a product is purchased. If list contains words "partially hydrogenated," you know it contains trans fat. Shortening and margarine almost always contain trans fat. This knowledge is particularly important with regard to processed foods, since they usually contain a large amount of ingredients, most with long, odd looking and hard to pronounce names. For further guidance on how to avoid trans fat in products, check out Dr. Gabe Mirkin's website (http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/N185.html), an excellent resource on nutrition and trans fat info.

Conflicting as it may be, we'll always be inundated with media attention on latest focus on nutrition. But we still need to be aware of facts concerning our health. Coverage on fats was all rage in 80's. For last decade all we've heard about is carbs. What's next? Well, there's always protein.