I am about to quit SBD!!! Help!

[ruby1019]

I started SBD last week Monday, Jan 3, 2010. My first week I lost 4lbs. Yay! But I am so sick and tired of having to constantly cook! I can't find the frozen meals or bars anywhere in my area and its so frustrating to cook so much. My husband and kids wont really eat my food so I have to cook something else for them. Its so frustrating that sometimes I prefer not to eat since I dont get hungry but I know that I have to eat in order to lose weight. I dont know what to do anymore..... I start school next week, only adding to the problem. Help! I need support!

[Magna]

You don't need the frozen meals or bars, and in fact they're probably not good for SBD on a regular basis. Most successful SBD-ers who use them do so only when they can't easily get regular food, and supplement them with other things.

You might consider posting the type of meals you're cooking for yourself that your family won't eat. People might be able to suggest different things you could cook that would be fine for you and that your family would also like. For example, a lot of people on phase 1 cook dishes like chili, vegetable lasagna, hamburgers, pork chops, ham, etc., serve them with vegetables and salad, and bread or pasta. The SBD-er eats the main dish and plenty of vegetables or salad, and the others eat the same but also have bread or pasta.

FWIW, most successful SBD-ers eat foods that people not on SBD would also enjoy. When I started SBD, it was rough for a while, but after a week or two I realized the food I was eating (crab salad, salmon patties, etc.) was better than what I had been eating before.

[ruby1019]

Thanks Magna! Well after a couple of meltdowns I have decided to stay on the diet. I am starting Phase 2 as planned on Monday. Hopefully being able to eat a wider range of foods will help me. I am very happy with the diet since it helped me understand how bad I was eating before. Not only do I want to lose weight, I want to be healthier and prevent future illnesses as I come from a diabetic family. After eating like I used to for two days this week, I felt a little sick to my stomach and I got headaches. Never again will I indulge in so much sugar and empty calories. I am sticking to this even if the weight doesnt come off. And if it does, well then thats just great!

[Chris55]

First of all, this is not a quick weight loss diet that you go on, buy some special food to eat for a month, and then go off. It's a permanent lifestyle change, so you need to learn to shop and cook this way or you'll just go off the program and gain all your weight back. It takes a while to get used to and adapt your shopping and cooking, but it will be better for all of you once you get the hang of it.

My family (husband and son) are not following SB, but I don't make separate meals at all. They have things available for breakfast and lunch (cereal, bread, sandwich meat, ramen), but we pretty much eat the same dinners most of the time. I grill or roast meats and seafood, so that part is the same. I make either a large salad or some kind of cooked veggies or both. Sometimes I have a salad and leftover veggies from another day, but often I'll have brown rice along with them. They like potatoes, so I'll do mashed ones for them, but if I'm putting anything in the oven they get a baked potato and I get a yam, or I chop up veggies and potatoes separately, put them on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and roast them along with the meat of the day. Theirs turn out to be wonderful healthy oven fries or roasted baby potatoes and I have my eggplant, zucchini, cauliflower, asparagus, winter squash, or whatever. They usually have some of the veggies. If I'm making asparagus or something my son hates, he has raw veggies and dip or a salad or a small dish of frozen corn that gets nuked in 2 minutes. It doesn't take much more effort than cooking the way I did before SB.

The only problem we have is pasta. My husband is Italian and he eats white pasta. I'm not crazy about the ww stuff and really don't want to cook two kinds. Usually I'll make the white stuff and have a small portion with my meatballs and a large salad. Other times I make a small lasagna with those no-boil noodles for them and an eggplant lasagna for me (I roast eggplant slices on a cookie sheet when I've got the oven on). That takes more planning. We do eat a lot of Asian-inspired dishes and have buckwheat soba with them, or brown rice, both of which we all eat.

My son also does not like beans, so I make chili or bean soups for myself and my husband, but I mostly have them for lunch. I make a big pot and then freeze individual portions so I can have a warm satisfying meal pretty quickly.

Once you find ways to fill out your menu with foods they like you'll be fine. It may take some weekend planning and cooking ahead for a while, but you'll be able to do it and eventually they'll start eating better, too. It's a great way to set a good example for your family.

[SB-Willow]

Sorry Ruby but I got a bit angry when I read your post about having to cook for everyone else. I thought, is she running a diner? Is she the hired cook? Is she chained to the kitchen? I might be stepping out of bounds here but your family is spoiled. You are under appreciated. You need to be strong and lay the law down. You are going back to school? You are going to be very busy. South Beach is a perfecty healthy life style. I say cook one meal for everyone and if they don't like it leave them to fend for themselves...don't worry, they won't starve. My hunny is not following southbeach and he is fine with it all. I might cook him an extra veg like a potato when I'm preparing meals but I would never make 2 separate meals...I just don't have time. I have been cooking with so much fresh garlic and other herbs he is really enjoying everything we make. Yes, he helps me in the kitchen. I love the recipe forum at this site. There are all sorts of meal versions fit for non-beachers too. Try and get the kids on board and make it a challenge for them to create beachy meals. How about printing off a list of beachy foods and challenge them all to create a meal...you might be suprised at what they come up with.

[RedRox]

Also FWIW, as soon as you give up your control of the food you eat to corporate America, nothing good will come of it. Their profit goals and your health and weight management goals are for the most part in direct opposition to each other. Even the Kraft SBD meals and bars when they were available were largely just repackaged crap foods from Kraft designed to ride the SB wave and make a buck. The program was designed and launched without any special branded foods or convenience foods for a reason. That is what actually works. Does this mean you can't ever eat out or use a prepared meal ever again? Of course not. But do so only with the understanding that they are sub-optimal choices, not primary ones that will further your progress towards a lifetime of healthy eating.

[ruby1019]

Thanks everyone for the great ideas and support. I have gotten a little used to cooking the sbd way. This past week on phase 2 I managed to make quick healthy.shakes in the chaotic mornings and I have been packing fruits and veggies to snack while at school and I lost a pound and the best part is that I didnt even expect to. My family is mexican and 85%.of our meals are mexican. There is alot of rice beans tortillas and all the yummy food you can think of that is very unhealtjy in our menus. Noth of our families have been fed mexican food throughout our childjood ignorong the bad fats and carbs that are contributing to our families diseases such as high cholesterol and diabetes. And yes my family is spoiled and I am very unappreciated! I talked to.my hubby and told him that I need support. To respect my wishes to have a healthier lifestyle. Our unhealthy habits will take time to break but it will happen. I no longer want to eat bad food. After reading the sbd book I realize now how bad we used to eat. I see that I find myself applying sbd guidelines everywhere I go now.

[Chris55]

Good for you for sticking with it! You'll be a great example for your kids - it's their health in addition to yours that you need to improve. You can still use the wonderful flavors of the foods your family loves (and we all love!), just with adjustments. Low fat cheese, lean protein, more veggies, brown rice, less corn, no deep frying (!) and slimmed down beans. I've introduced beans into my diet in a big way since being on SB - you already have that going for you, but need to get the unhealthy fats out and add a little bit of olive oil instead. If you come up with some recipes that the rest of us could handle cooking-wise, please post them. We're all looking for ways to have healthy food that's flavorful.

I was raised with Polish foods which were all prepared using the fat from salt pork. My mom's entire family had seriously bad heart disease. My uncle, who lived with us, ate a half pound of bacon and then fried 3-4 eggs in the fat every morning for breakfast. This is the example I grew up with, but slowly I've changed how I cook and what I eat and serve my family. I make slimmed down versions of much of the ethnic food I grew up with so I still get my fix, just not as often and not as fat-filled!

[Healthybound]

I too, only cook the SBD way. If my husband wants a potato, I bake him a sweet potato in the micro, real quick. Or if he wants corn on the cob, I make it in a silicone cooker in the micro - 2 1/2 mins. I cook family style according to SBD. I always have plenty of vegetables. He is vegetable challenged. I'm hoping that as he sees my weight come off and that I am feeling much better than I ever have before, the light bulb will come on and he'll just follow along. I'm lucky in the fact that he loves the winter squashes; and they cook up real fast in the micro. I'll cook his squash one night and the next night I'll cook up spaghetti squash. When I have my squash he has his left over squash and vice versa. I have a fryer and used it only once a few years ago. I grill or roast or get a roasted chicken from the grocery store. He loves the dark meat; I eat the breast. With the left over breast I'll make a chef's salad or caesar salad with chicken. I cook more now that I am on SBD and we don't eat out very often. It's much cheaper to eat at home. Due to the fact that I have had a knee replacement and the other knee is on borrowed time, the weight loss has been very helpful and I am much more ambulatory and can cook or make 3 meals a day for us. He sees the benefits of this and is supportive.

When he wants steamers or expresses a wish for a certain food, I just buy the clams or whatever he wants and cook them at home SBD style. He gets to eat more of them at a cheaper price. The only thing I won't cook is ribs or a meat that is not SBD. I have convinced him that we both don't need it.

Ruby1019, I hope you have hung it there. It is so worth it. Please let us know how things are going.