I would stay away from a low-carb diet. Also coming from a family where my mom was very visual about her dieting, I would recommend not letting your daughters in on your diet or to really know that you are doing it. Because of my mom's consistent dieting (everything from low-carb to nutrisystem and everything inbetween) I struggled for a long time with personal image issues. I would always diet with her because I thought that my adolescent self was overweight and ugly. Still to this day I sometimes look at my normal weight self in the mirror in disgust. Because of my constant obsession with weight and dieting and from my wife's interest in where food comes from, I have done my fair share of research in what we eat and how it affects our body's condition. My recommendation to you would be to eat a variety of foods, including the very important carbs. Eat mostly plant derived foods and whole grain carbs (rice, whole grain breads, etc.) and eat meat on a sparing basis. The only thing that I tend to avoid in my diet is milk products because through all of my research, I have not found anything good about milk but have found lots of bad things (such as leeching nutrients from your body, causing osteoporosis, etc.). The things that people give milk credit for (calcium, Vitamin D, protein, etc.) are in much better and more body friendly products such as greens, brocolli, and others. And the most important thing above all is to eat organic. Eating non-organic foods lead to malnutrition (because you would have to eat more than one non-organic apple for instance to get the same nutrition found in one organic apple) and fills your body with preservatives and other unnatural chemicals. These chemicals, I believe from my research and personal experience, to cause you to gain and hold onto unneccesary body fat. At one point in my life I ate a lot of meat and never any organic products and was a steady overweight size. After going on a healthy diet (mostly plants and organic foods) and excercising I as able to lose weight down to a healthy level. At this point I eat an entirely organic, mostly plant, varied diet and I eat to the point of satisfaction and I have been able to maintain my weight for over 2 years now. I suggest reading titles such as Skinny Bitch (great book but is pro-vegan which may not be a bad thing), An Omnivores Delimma (I haven't read this one but I've heard great things), and watching movies such as Food, Inc. (again haven't seen it but heard great things). There are many other sources of this information (a lot of which I have researched) that can be easily found on the internet and in books/movies. Any diet that restricts a healthy food source will cause you to lose weight but in an unhealthy way, and you won't maintain your weight loss. Hope that helps.
