Brand New To SBD and Starting Tomorrow!

[Delias]

Hi everyone,
I'm brand new to the South Beach Diet and starting it tomorrow. It will be nice to have people to chat to who are also doing the diet. I look forward to it.
Delias

[snowbunni2012]

Hi Delias,

I started SB yesterday so we will be going through Phase one together!! A buddy would sure make this transition easier!!

Lizzie

[idiomatic11]

Hi Delias, I am starting today. Good luck to us all

[DCLissa17]

Hi!

I am restarting tomorrow-ish. I actually started 2 days ago but had a big cheat this morning because I had an really rough night at work last night. Here's my story:

I first tried SB in the summer of 2010. At the time, I was just turning 28 and my metabolism was starting to slow down. Suddenly all my horrible eating habits were catching up with me! Gorging on Doritos and skittles and eating boxes of rice a roni and refined carbs and not very much veggies. I stuck to P1 "ok" and at the end was my birthday and I had a huge splurge at Olive Garden. Felt very yucky though....obviously the diet was starting to work! Did a fast transition to P2 and stuck fairly well to it for about 6 weeks. Then I just got busy, got lazy, and fell off the wagon.

6 months later, after the holiday season 2010, I was gorged on cookies/candy and drinking way way too much. Just feeling generally disgusted with myself. I went back on SB with the start of the new year and had a very strict P1 2 full weeks this time. It was much easier for me the 2nd time around. I had more veggie meals in mind, I was already familiar with the diet, and it just didn't feel that restrictive. I did a slower transition to P2 and ended up consistently eating 2 servings fruit (sometimes 3) and 2-3 servings grains. I did pretty well and stuck to it fairly strictly for 3 months. I even did a pretty good job on cutting down the drinking. Since then it's just been a gradual slip and slide.....too much sugar/candy, too big of portions, letting the white pastas and rice back into the mix, forgetting to get as much veggies. I didn't slide eating AS bad of habits as before, but the drinking got bad again.

So I am back! I hope I can stick to P1 for 2 weeks, P2 for at least 3 months before settling into a nice permanent P3 lifestyle that I can support. I have a houseful of good foods so should be no problem there. I also am a big couponer so that is fun! I work 13+ hour overnight shifts as an emergency vet tech so on workdays my eating schedule is flip-flopped. My biggest problem with SB eating is to make sure I have some semblance of a schedule with eating on my days off. I am a horrible grazer and very lazy about making actual meals so I have to make special effort to do so. work days are much easier in that regards....except on nights like last where I ate my 1st "snack" of pistachios in my pocket while walking dogs, got "lunch" 3 hours late and wolfed it down in 15 minutes, got no other snack, and then due to exhaustion/lack of committment/emotional fatigue had a glass of wine and wolfed down a box of pasta-roni. *sigh* I was going to do a modified and shortened P1 but it is obvious that I have craving issues. So I am officially starting as of today! Companionship and support on this journey is so important. When I tell people I'm on SB they look at my like I'm crazy because I am not really heavy. I am just out of shape and want a better lifestyle where I am preventing weight issues in my future.

Oh yeah, and I'm going to join a gym this weekend. I have a 24 hour one 2 blocks from my house so there is really no excuse. I am ridiculously out of shape and have chronic neck/shoulder/back/hip issues due to this and to my work. I need to do better!

THe plan for today:
B: caulflower/carrots, turkey bacon, coffee
S: pistachios
L: turkey chili, side spinach salad
S: string cheese
S2: (it's a long stretch between lunch and dinner at work) raw veggies w/ FF refried beans
D: ?? maybe beef stirfry over cauliflower "rice"
S: yogurt w/ SF jello powder

~Lissa

[Delias]

Hi guys
Yay we can all do it together that is so cool. Hi Lissa, it's nice to have someone who has done the diet before. I started today with a hard boiled egg and sliced tomato. I'm sort of not a big breakfast eater and that is the best I could do. I'm kind of worried about the cheese and milk thing. It says 2 cups a day. I only put about 2 tablespoons of trim milk in my coffee (I think that is our equivalent of 1%, or at least I hope so. I might to get 'fat-free' milk today just in case). but I do that about 3 times a day. So I'm not sure how many cups that is, and with adding cheese to things or having cheese as a snack I don't know how to work that into the cups. How did you do it?

[Delias]

How did everyone's day go?
I did pretty well but felt a bit funny. I found myself really hungry after dinner, I think because I used cheese as my protein but it may not have been enough. I have protein troubles; I'm not the biggest fan of fish, I can eat kidney beans or chickpeas, I can eat eggs. But that's about it. I really don't do well with any kind of meat, pork, or poultry. I haven't eaten it for years. I am going to try to get some lean mince (hamburger) tomorrow and see if I can make a tiny burger for dinner and see if i can eat it.

[DCLissa17]

[quote="Delias] I'm kind of worried about the cheese and milk thing. It says 2 cups a day. I only put about 2 tablespoons of trim milk in my coffee (I think that is our equivalent of 1%, or at least I hope so. I might to get 'fat-free' milk today just in case). but I do that about 3 times a day. So I'm not sure how many cups that is, and with adding cheese to things or having cheese as a snack I don't know how to work that into the cups. How did you do it?[/quote]

Hi Delias! Cheese is not counted as dairy. I know, counterintuitive to what we've known our whole lives. Cheese in SB is protein. Dairy is milk and yogurt. 2 cups/day is a maximum in P1, 2-3c. day in P2. Now, it is not REQUIRED, but it is a source of good carbs. In P1, the "good" carbs are generally found in dairy (milk/yogurt) and beans. If we don't eat enough carbs, our bodies can go into ketosis which makes you feel really yucky and needs to be avoided. Remember, this is NOT a low-carb diet! It is a GOOD carb diet! I am not a big milk drinker either. Sometimes I'll have maybe a 1cup glass but rarely. I try to eat 1-2 servings (1/2c. at a time) a day and have often have 1c. yogurt a day. (I prefer Greek yogurt - plain w/ SF jello powder tastes just like some kind of yummy dessert!) Somedays I may not have any dairy at all. But if you don't have any dairy/beans for several days in P1, you'll probably start to feel lethargic, sluggish, and generally icky. Just kinda go by feel. Easy bean sources are soups, chili, refried beans (as a bean "dip" for raw veggies), and kidney beans w/ a little chili powder and cheese on top (an easy "breakfast" item!).

Hope that is helpful!
~Lissa

[DCLissa17]

"I think because I used cheese as my protein but it may not have been enough. I have protein troubles; I'm not the biggest fan of fish, I can eat kidney beans or chickpeas, I can eat eggs."

What kind of protein troubles? Like, you just don't like it? You have a mental block to eating it? You have physical/health issues with it? SB can be done as a vegetarian, which sounds like what you have been eating (beans, eggs, cheese for protein). I am definitely not an expert on that particular subject as I love meat but there are some great threads on the the forums about making sure you get enough protein and complete protein. I would think that incorporating milk and yogurt would be especially important in this case. Or if the not eating meat is not physical, try to work into it gradually, look for interesting recipes, new meat sources/ideas. It's amazing how much my food vocabulary has expanded since starting SB 2 years ago! In general, cheese alone will NOT be sufficient to count as your protein source for a meal. It can also be calorie-dense in larger amounts.

I did good on the eating, not good on the drinking today. I was good all through work and then a bunch of cases just blew up at the end of the day and stayed an hour late (remember, already a 13 hour shift) and was just FRIED by the time I headed home. *sigh*

B: leftover steamed broccoli, 3 strips low sodium turkey bacon, black coffee
S: hahahahhahaaa Um no.
L: late spinach salad (~1c. spinach & green lettuce + 4 black olives + smidge of Lf mozzarella cheese), ~1.5c. turkey chili w/ smide of LF cheddar cheese, black coffee
S: Lf string cheese
D: beef stirfry (~1c.broccoli/carrots + beef + homemade soy sauce) over ~ 1c. cauliflower "rice", 3 drinks (total of 1 can diet sprite and 3 mini bottles of cranberry rum)
S: peanut butter

been up for 20 hours now. It's my Friday so I think I might go to bed now. Or watch Bones. We'll see. Crossing my fingers to stay away from the Reese's PB trees.....

[Hunycombs]

My first day was January 9th .. So glad to see others starting the same week ! I look forward to seeing and sharing results and pointers !

[Hunycombs]

P.S. starting my day 7 and so far down 7 pounds !! Maybe fluid ... But the best results I ever had on any diet I' ve tried! Whoop whoop

[Delias]

Hey Guys,

Either I'm nuts or I have lost weight already and I'm only on day 3. I've been drinking almost 2 litres of water a day so I don't know if it is water weight I've lost. But it's pretty cool! It seems ridiculously easy.

My trouble with protein has to do with some trauma I had as a kid. I witnessed a pretty gross murder and I've always had trouble eating meat after that. I have just grown and developed so that meat to me is really disgusting, and because I have lived vegetarian for so long when I do eat it, especially meats like beef, I get stomach pains because my body can't process it. I CAN eat kidney beans and chickpeas. I like tofu but don't know how to prepare it or how to buy good tofu. I've been eating hummus, chickpeas, cheese and eggs. Today I think for dinner I will make a 'taco salad', with refried beans, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, red onion, and taco sauce as a dressing. I know we are supposed to use no-sugar dressings, but I looked at taco sauce and while it does have sugar in it it's minimal. If we are allowed 75 calories of sweets per day do you think it will be okay to use it for a dressing in small amounts?

I definitely don't want to go into ketosis. I'm eating lots of vegetables, cauliflower and broccoli dipped in hummus, salads, nuts, cheese, tomato juice, tomatoes but only one per meal. Snacks. I don't have any unsweetened yogurt. The first night I did feel very sick, so I looked on here and saw a suggestion to drink milk and had a half a cup and I felt better. Would drinking a glass of milk a day help make sure I stay out of ketosis? I put about 1/2 of milk total in my coffees for the day already.

Delias

[Magna]

An easy way to use tofu is to slice it into small chunks and add it to a veggie stir fry (instead of chicken or some other kind of meat.)

[Southern_Charm]

Only thing is I noticed a couple times in your meals that you had carrots listed, just remember those you cant have until P2.

[Delias]

Hi guys
Thanks for the tip about tofu. I got sick last night and ended up having to eat water crackers and drink a lot of 7-up. I didn't have a whole lot of choice. Some kind of bug or something. I can just get back on the wagon can't I? I'm a little worried about how that will affect my hard work. For my motivation I'd like to say I can just return to my eating plan and keep doing it for another week at least and maybe two. I don't have much weight to loose and I know some people can start on phase 2 if they don't have much to lose. But I wanted to kick start it a little.

[DCLissa17]

Hey Delias, don't worry about the little setback when you were sick. Just continue on from here on P1. P1 isn't about losing weight at all, it is about resetting your body and your mind to get off of the sugar/carb craving cycle. People who skip P1 are those who didn't have much cravings to start with (very few of us fit that requirement!). So just get back on the wagon and don't worry about it.

Just as an aside to those following a totally strict P1--- I am not worry about cutting out carrots for my P1. They don't give me cravings or anything so I am not personally worried about them. Course, I've done this a couple of times before so I have a better sense of what my triggers are.

Yesterday I did pretty good, especially considering it's my weekend and I'm a huge grazer.

B: Cup of turkey chili, glass of milk
S: cup of herbal cinnamon apple spice tea w/ 1 splenda, LC cheese wedge, PB
L: beef stirfry w/ carrots/broccoli over cauliflower "rice"
S: SF jello, a few carrot sticks while running errands, SF pickles/olives
D: I ended up going to the little Italian restaurant down the block instead of having leftover chili. They have an incredible "happy hour" menu with tons of tasty small plate dishes. Was able to stay very beachy! (Ok had one glass of white wine) Had a Ceasar salad w/ no dressing (I hate dressing), and pollo farcito which is chicken breast stuffed w/ sage and spinach in a garlic sauce w/ asparagus. Soooooo good.
Came home and was zonked so ended up not going out dancing (was snowing too) and went to bed instead. Felt good to just sleeeeeep!