The Livin La Vida Low-Carb Show

Welcome to the 98th episode of the Internet’s most respected low-carb podcast, “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore!”

Today, our host Jimmy Moore takes a look at the past, present and future of magazines supportive of a healthy, carb-controlled diet. Where are they and will we ever see other low-carb magazine in the future? Listen in and join the discussion in the comments section below.

LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 98
- Jimmy Moore’s weight loss story in the Summer 2006 issue of Low-Carb Energy magazine
- Related blog post: SheKnows LowCarb Magazine Returns Online

Transcript of Episode 98

This is Episode 98 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” We’re rapidly approaching our historic 100th episode coming next Thursday, so you won’t want to miss that special event as we celebrate it with a new sound, an overhaul of the official web site at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com , and some really special giveaways that you can win just for listening. THANK YOU for your undying support which has made this show you are listening to right now the #1 low-carb podcast on the Internet today. We couldn’t have done it without you and we are proud to stand tall on behalf of the amazingly healthy low-carb lifestyle.

Today I want to address an issue that people ask me about from time to time. It usually comes in the form of a question like this: “Are there any good low-carb magazines I can read?” Of course, my first inclination is to ask why you need a low-carb magazine when you’ve got a ton of excellent low-carb web sites available at your fingertips. But I can understand the allure of holding a magazine in your hands and flipping through the pages for articles of interest, recipes, and success stories. It’s different than looking at it on your computer because we are still a culture grounded in paper.

Remember not that long ago when you were checking out at your local grocery or big-box chain store and saw all these great low-carb magazines to choose from? The shelves could hardly contain them all! I vividly remember during my 180-pound low-carb weight loss success in 2004 when I first discovered an excellent one called Low-Carb Living magazine at Wal-Mart. I just about did the breakdance on the floor right then and there (of course, I resisted the urge to completely embarrass myself!). Of course, I proudly bought a copy of that magazine immediately and read it from cover to cover when I got home thinking to myself, “Man, what a great concept — a LOW-CARB magazine!” I contacted the magazine right away and expressed my appreciation for what they were doing with it. I also told them about my own personal weight loss success in progress at the time on low-carb and they wrote me back stating that they were interested in my story. I sent them pictures and even wrote the story about my weight loss success myself. It was perfect and scheduled to run in their magazine in May 2005. But then…DUM-DUM-DUMMMMMMMM…Low-Carb Living just went away! As in POOF–gone forever! Well now what do I do for a good low-carb magazine? Soon thereafter, in my search for any other magazines about low-carb, I came across another excellent low-carb magazine called at the time Low-Carb Energy. Again, the stories and features in this magazine had my eyes popping out with excitement and I was elated to find a source for low-carb information. In fact, I was very surprised when they named my LivinLaVidaLowCarb.com blog one of the top three low-carb blogs of 2005 in their Fall issue that year. Sweet! However, they decided in January 2006 to change their name to the inauspicious SheKnows Low-Carb. They sold this name change to the current subscribers of Low-Carb Energy by claiming it is “still the same great magazine you know and love, just under the SheKnows umbrella.” And they seemed to be interested in reaching out to the low-carb community for fresh content when I was asked by the editors of that magazine if I would like to start writing columns for SheKnows Low-Carb early last year and, of course, I agreed. My first article to be published appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of the magazine as a two-page spread about my weight loss success story, book, and blog. It looked marvelous and they let me write my own story in my own words. What a thrill! But imagine my surprise when I couldn’t find it in ANY of the stores in my area.

I recall going on my lunch break to SIX different stores where the magazine was supposedly being carried trying to find the SheKnows Low-Carb magazine, including Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, Eckerd, Walgreen’s, Target, and Ingles. I was stunned that not a single one of the stores had it on their shelf! In fact, I was quite shocked that Barnes & Noble didn’t carry it since they have just about every other magazine known to man on their wall of magazines. But when I asked the magazine buyer for B&N if she could help me find it, the lady quite candidly replied, “Well, we’re waiting for them to make up their minds what they are going to call this magazine before we stock it again!” Oooookay, that seems a little strange as an excuse for NOT carrying it, but anywho. But the more I thought about it, she did have a point. The magazine was called Low-Carb Energy, but now it was SheKnows Low-Carb.

But all of that took another peculiar turn for the worse when there was yet another name change to the magazine formerly known as Low-Carb Energy. In their continuing move away from using the term “low-carb,” the magazine content from SheKnows Low-Carb was to be rolled into the pages of a sister magazine called SheKnows Diet & Fitness. This move left ZERO magazines on the market with “low-carb” in the title, but I was pleased that the SheKnows Network had at least dedicated a good portion of their general diet magazine to the subject of livin’ la vida low-carb. Or so I thought. They said they were still very interested in my “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” column for their SheKnows Diet & Fitness magazine beginning in the Fall 2006 issue and I had already written my first three columns although none of them had actually been published yet (the writing deadlines were at least six months before the magazine was to be published). It was kinda sad that the Summer 2006 issue of SheKnows Low-Carb has the designation of being the very last copy of a fully-dedicated low-carb magazine ever! That is, unless the low-carb lifestyle makes another big comeback over the next few years and magazines like this are reborn. It could happen with the tremendous attention being given to the new Gary Taubes book called GOOD CALORIES, BAD CALORIES.

When I spoke with the editor of SheKnows Diet & Fitness in June 2006, she told me at the time that they are doing their “very best to make the low carb subscribers happy” with the move the magazine. In fact, she quoted a survey from the readers of the Diet & Fitness magazine and found that nearly one-fourth of their readers were already following the low-carb lifestyle. I thought that was a bit odd at the time why they would stop making a magazine devoted exclusively to low-carb if one out of four of their readers is already a low-carber! But I didn’t think much more about that until I received word in June 2006 that the parent company Coincide Publishing had decided to drop SheKnows LowCarb (which we already knew about) as well as their sister publication SheKnows Diet & Fitness which was going to feature my column. I was devastated at the time because my hopes to write for a national health and diet magazine had been dashed as quickly as they were created. Bummer. I am grateful I got my success story published in SheKnows LowCarb last summer before the magazine went away forever. Go to the show notes section at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com to see the pictures from this feature story. The Coincide representative said she regretted to inform me that they have indeed “ceased publication” on the magazines and noted that it was a “difficult decision” for them to make. “But [the decision was] one our small company just had to make at this point,” the representative added. It’s such a shame that people who still believe in the low-carb lifestyle strongly don’t have a greater outlet in the print world for dispersing our thoughts and ideas to the masses. Sure, we have our blogs and web sites, but those can only reach just so many people. There has to be some innovative investors out there who are willing to see solid information and commentary regarding the low-carb lifestyle get distributed to a world where two out of every three people are overweight or obese and one in three are diabetic or pre-diabetic. Will any of them be willing to put their money where their mouth is and support those individuals who still desire to bring the REAL low-carb lifestyle to the mainstream of society? I’d even be willing to create a “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” magazine to help make that happen. Is there anyone listening who is ready to help make that happen?

That’s it for Episode 98 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” Do you think a magazine based on the low-carb lifestyle could do well in 2008 and beyond? Or has the opportunity to be successful with such a niche magazine already passed? Let’s talk about it in the show notes section at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com. Come back on Monday as I will be interviewing my mom Judiann about her gastric bypass surgery experience that you won’t want to miss. So, until next time, keep on livin’ la vida low-carb!

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