This is so true! I used to keep peanut butter crackers in my minivan so I wouldn't road rage when I got hungry. These days, I typically have my last meal by 4:00 pm and then I'm up the next morning by 5:00 am and I don't eat breakfast until 11:00. That was unthinkable in the old days.

I agree that real food is best and the other stuff is not only expensive, it's not good for you either. And in my case, fake food causes cravings and weight retention. But, if you're having difficulty transitioning in the beginning, packaged low carb products might be temporarily worth having in your arsenal. But if you're not losing weight they should go go go.

Honestly, the carb values of most vegetables are nothing to worry about at this point. I remember when I was obese and I would eat a Marie Callendar chicken pot pie. And I would leave behind the carrots because "they were high on the glycemic index." Well, I didn't get obese from eating too many carrots. I'm confident if I'd have never turned to heavily processed food, Diet Coke in particular, I'd have never gotten fat. The way I've been losing weight is to cycle between maintenance and weight loss mode until I lose this last 35 pounds. When I'm in maintenance, I will eat things like a handful of baby carrots and onion dip washed down with a glass of water, and I'm much fuller than in the old days when I would've just sit down with a two liter Diet Coke and a giant vat of sour dough pretzels and two hours later I'd be starving. While in weight loss mode, I don't make a habit of eating carrots and try to keep my veggies to spinach, lettuce, broccoli, celery, and asparagus.

In the end, you need to figure out what works for you. But there are a ton of stories on here of people who've travelled the path you're about to go down. I'd recommend checking out the journals and starting one of your own. The advice and inspiration here has been invaluable to me. You can do this.