South Beach Diet - Should I try SBD again?

I am having a really hard time deciding. My nutritionist doesnt believe in diets but due to my weight I really need a jumpstart in getting some off. I dont know if I should try SBD or do Nutrisystem and then do SBD.

I did SBD a few years ago lost a good amount of weight and then totally fell off the wagon and could never get back on. I am at my highest weight and need a jumpstart. Any advice?

Thanks!

Kimberly

I believe you have to find the diet that is right for you... your nutritionist is right diets aren't good unless you consider them a lifestyle.... you must change your diet to lose the weight, but changing your lifestyle will continue good health and keep the weight off. if you just diet then go back, well... sounds like you already know what happens ;)

I think for many it is a very very workable plan. I love it... and when I stick to it-it works. Good luck on whatever you decide to do!

That depends on how much time and effort you want to put into planning and preparing your food. If you have a problem with that, I'd go with Nutrisystem.

South Beach requires planning and preparing as quickie meals are not on the programme. It is not a "quick fix". Phase I is the detox stage and some folks lose quite a bit but it's really Phase II that is the actual programme and the long haul.

Have you read the book? The revised food lists are in this Forum FAQ along with lots of helpful hints but you really need to read the book to understand the theory behind this plan.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

planning truly is key. last week, when i tried to start, i kind of just went for it and FAILED with a capital F. it was awful. This week (yes i know, its only Tuesday!!!) has been much better because my whole day has been planned out and I have quick breakfasts and snacks preprepared and planned so they are ready when i need them. what i am really enjoying right now is the consumption of "whole" foods. I dont feel like im doing my body a disservice because im giving it what it needs. good luck!

I don't believe in diets either, to be honest. I'm doing this because I think it's something I can turn into not-a-diet-but-a-lifestyle as time goes on. I had not yet developed that with Weight Watchers and I think that was my big failing point there. I was doing things I wouldn't want to do all my life for the sake of the scale, you know? Trying to cram every bit of food I could into 22 points a day. No thanks. But I think I can rewire myself to eat a chicken breast, a pile of broccoli, some sauteed spinach, and a little SF jello. Maybe some bulgur or brown rice or waxy potatoes (since they're lower GI) sometimes. Even the occasional cheeseburger or piece of cake when I've learned not to turn that into a week of milkshakes and cupcakes (oy). Does that make sense?

I'd look at what your life will look like in two years, five years, ten years, trying to maintain your diet.

I'm no expert, really - I've been around this one a dozen times, I think, and I don't have more than a year or two of maintenance to show for it. Just thinking out loud.

Waxy potato?

Waxy potato?

There are basically two types of potatoes. Waxy and starchy (sometimes called meally) potatoes. In general "smooth skinned" potatoes are waxy and rough skinned potatoes are starchy. There may be exceptions, and there are also varieties and hybrids that contain features of both.

Smooth-skinned like new potatoes, red potatoes, yukon gold... are waxy potatoes. Great for potato salads (because they hold their shape) and boiling. They're not as creamy when mashed, but if you like "chunky" mashed potatoes, waxy potatoes or a blend of waxy and starchy is very good.

Russets and other starchy potatoes make the best bakers, but they also absorb much more butter (if you put butter on your tater). Bakers make a very creamy mashed potato. They're higher in calorie and especially if overcooked and lose their shape very easily in potato salad (you end up with a mashed potato consistency).

Both can be fried, but you get a very different result. Smooth skinned make a decent "American fries" style fried potato, but they don't have the creamy texture when deep fried that starchy potatoes do, so they're not so great for french fries.

Don't tell your nutritionist you're on a diet. Just tell her you're cutting back on sugar, white flour, and processed foods...she'll be thrilled ;)!!

Seriously though, I've been on SBD for 9 months. Lately I've been a bit bad (freakin' cookies for the kids!), but in reality, my whole way of eating has changed....for the much better.

I can't help but think that SBD helped me be the only one at work that didn't get that skanky cough that went around too! This is my healthiest winter in YEARS!!

Ruth: If you go way back to the very old SBD thread you will find we talked a lot =) I havent read the SBD book in some time and now hear they came out with a new one.

To everyone: Thank you for all the tips. I was on SBD for a good long time and had very impressive results considering my PCOS and insulin resistance. I was terrified to make a mistake and fall off so I didnt until I told myself for my sons birthday I would have a piece of cake and pizza and then get back on the wagon. No matter how many times I tried to do that I couldnt. I crave sweets and even just going on to phase 2 and slowly adding back fruits made me gain weight. My body is very sensitive to carbs but on a low carb diet like Atkins I get extremely moody, frustrated and plain old miserable. I cannot live on a diet like Atkins.

With SBD I did see it as a lifestyle change but was very frustrated I couldnt get to phase #2 without gaining weight back. My nutritionist said I could do something like Nutrisystem to get a jump start but then we would have to work hard into something like South Beach/IR/Low GI principles to try and keep me losing and not gaining. Or she said I could try SBD again. She said once my body was handling gluclose and insulin a little better than I shouldnt crave sweets so much.

I am trying to find my old food dairy from when I was on SBD. I remember a lot of salads, a lot of wraps with lettace instead of bread, a lot of string cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts, sugar free fudge pops, natural pb, sugar free pudding, grilled lemon chicken, eggs and lots of veggies. I am not a huge meat eater and trying to go vegetarian again too so not sure how that will work.

I am not a big planner but when I decided to do SBD I had spent hours on this site reading about the SBD and told myself the next day I start. I did just that and it was easy for me. I dont know why I couldnt get back on the wagon. I dont cook often so my husband would cook extra chicken for me and almost everything else was easy to make or out of the fridge or pantry. I need something very structured.

I was scared of failing before I started the last time and now I am even more scared as I need to take control of my life and lose this weight.

I also am insulin resistant, and have faced a similar struggle. Atkins induction made me ill, I lost weight on South Beach phase I, but couldn't lose on phase II. If I didn't have a way to include some foods I "shouldn't eat," I'd get discouraged and frustrated. Finding the right carbohydrate level for me, is a challenge I wouldn't even say I've mastered yet. I do know that high glycemic carbs make me ravenously hungry, so controlling them is essential to losing weight.

I ultimately chose a low carb exchange plan. I modified one I found on the Hillbilly Housewife website. I took their 1500 calorie plan and added 8 optional flexible exchanges (approx 480 calories), that I can use on fruit, milk, starch, or protein exchanges. I try to make South Beach friendly choices for my exchanges. I also try to use Volumetrics principles (bigger food is more satisfying - so an apple is better than apple juice, soup is better than the same ingredients in a casserole...)

KimberleyHeidi, I sort of remembered the name but there have been a lot of Beachers pass through so didn't realize you were a former Beach Babe. I hope you stick around this time.

Hi KimberlyHeidi. I'm pretty sure you and I were on Phase 1 together at some time, possibly july 2005? I definitely remember you were posting at some point at the same time as me..
Anyhow, I'm doing SBD again after a break from the whole diets thing. And yes I started again at my highest ever weight. Really wish I'd stuck with it that first time!
I'm finding it tougher this time. I'm now on P1 Day 11 and it has been hard work.
I agree with the other posts. Planning is key. I've planned about 5 days ahead at a time - meals and snacks. I've left nothing to chance! Basically each day when I wake up I already know what I'm going to be eating that day.
So it's been tough, what has been positive during this past 11 days? I've had no cravings, and my jeans are defnitely not so tight. I look better. My skin seems glowier and my eyes are brighter. (I sound like a dog food commercial!!)

Make P1 easy for yourself. Don't plan to do it during a time when you know you'll be going out to eat every night. I picked a down time for me and that's helped.

Good to see you again!

Kimberly,

I agree with what everyone has previously said - I have always been the most successful when I take the time to plan out my meals for a few days or at the very least, the immediate next day.

I'm not dealing with a lot of the other medical issues that some of the other ladies are, but I think our overall gameplans are about the same.

It's best to take some time and figure out what works best for you and try to remember that could take a little bit of time. (I know that's easier said than done!)

Good luck!!!

Jenny :)

P.S. I returned your PM a few minutes.

I think I have decided to try SBD again over Nutrisystem. I know Nutrisystem is something I cant live on my whole life and financially speaking SBD would be easier. I just have to do it this time. I have to make my brain learn that if I fall off I need to get back on. I have to get rid of my all or nothing mindframe.

My nutritionist has been amazing but she totally doesnt believe in diets as no one loses and keeps the weight off unless they stick with it and maintain it. She said if I cant see myself doing it in 3 years forget about it. Right now she is encouraging me to do a diet like program since I really need to get the weight off and since I need the structure. She eventually just wants me to eat plain old healthy and get my insulin under control so I can stop gaining.

I honestly have no where to go from here but up. I have support through her who has made me understand my 5 minutes on the treadmill a day or even 1 minute count. I dont need to do 30 min or an hour for it to matter. I have to keep making small changes and making my mind believe they do count.

I am going to have to go back and re read the book and also the threads. I remember the basics I used to eat but cant remember everything.

Ruth: I hope I do too. I might change my name if its possible as I always am paranoid people who I know will read my posts and "spy" on me.

Artamis, I totally remember you. I actually had a foster kitty who was named Artamis and it made me think back to my old friend who was on SBD with me on 3FC lol.

Jenny: Thanks I will PM you back. Can you give me some ideas of how you plan? I know that sounds so silly but I am serious lol. I am not a cook at all (my husband is) and I am lazy in the kitchen.

Off topic why dont I see the smiley option to insert one?

It's absolutely worth investing in a decent pedometer to encourage those little spurts of exercise. The cheap/free ones don't seem to work as well, especially if you have extra padding on your hips. For me it really helped me see the little things like walking up stairs and parking further out as part of the whole increase in exercise. I've now given three more as gifts because once people see mine they want one :)

Kimberly,

You may regret asking me for planning tips...I'm a Type-A, slightly OCD, has a list of all her other lists, kinda gal :)

Let me gather some thoughts together and I'll write again (I don't do my best thinking at night :))

Oh, one thing you could start doing is taking stock of the beachy foods you really like. Having a list of 'go-to' favorites has helped me a lot this time around.

jenny :)

I think South Beach is a diet that can be done for a lifetime, because despite the fact that people like to make it a list of eat and don't eat foods, it's not that. There is no list of forbidden foods, instead it's "avoid or eat rarely." It's really a very common-sense approach, and no where does Dr. Agatson tell you to beat on yourself if you have a piece of cake.

We often prefer rules to guidelines, and rules get us into trouble if we go whacko when we break a rule. If you eat one off-plan meal and get back to eating what you know is best for you, you're doing it the life-time way. If you decide you "blew it," and that being on plan is just too hard and you might as well eat whatever you want - well that's the diet mentality and it won't work in the long term.

I love what I learned following South Beach, even though I had to add a calorie counting component (an exchange component actually). If I had found South Beach at 15, I think I probably would have been able to follow South Beach pretty much as written (except for the admonishment regarding pineapple, watermelon, sweet corn, and beets - I always lost a lot of weight every summer and all four were a far more than rarely part of my diet. Then again, some summer days all I would eat was sweet corn and watermelon.)

I've heard people say things like "I could follow South Beach if it allowed sweet corn (or whatever)," but instead of at least trying to follow the plan with a tiny exception (experiment with eating moderate helpings of sweet corn and monitoring to see if they still make weight loss progress), they decide they can't do South Beach.

Now I know you can loophole a food plan until it's no longer healthy, but tweaking a plan a bit for your personal needs is an entirely different animal. Maybe a person can't get from 130 lbs to 120 eating higher glycemic fruits and veggies frequently, but believe me it's not fresh watermelon, pineapple, sweet corn or beets that are holding me back from losing the next 180 lbs.

We like rigid plans for some reason. The most popular diets follow the "eat this, not that" template. Even when the "diet" argues that it is only an "eat this, not that most of the time," people ignore the "most of the time," part and beat themselves for being a failure when the fall off the plan, breaking rules that weren't even there.

I think it really makes sense, instead of trying to find the plan you can do for life, really sit down and think about what you are willing to do for life, and take it from there. Maybe later as you make progress, you'll find you're actually willing to do more forever than you thought - and then you can make those changes.

It tends to be a bit slower journey that way, but there's a lot less reason to give up because the journey seems too difficult. I can't tell you what a difference it's made to me, just to take one simple thought out of my existance "what's the use, I might as well eat whatever I want, because this is never going to work."

Oh, bad thoughts, like other bad habits die hard, and occasionally that one does come back to haunt me, but I've been able to quickly respond to my stupid self "ok, if this seems impossible forever - decide what DOES seem possible forever - and do that." And there always is another option besides "binge until you gain it all back." I might decide (and often have) that I can't make it to 150 lbs, but I almost always feel like I can maintain the weight I've lost so far. Even when I'm tempted to feel it isn't possible, I ask myself, so what weight can I maintain - and surely it's less than 394, my starting weight. I've never given myself permission to intentionally gain a single pound, but I have on occasion decided that maintaining my current weight was "for now, good enough." The funny thing is, the work to maintain your weight, is nearly the same as to lose it, so often my attempts to maintain resulted in maybe another pound of weight loss, which would inspire me to decide "well, maybe I can lose one more."

One foot in front of the other - one pound at a time. I really think it's looking far ahead or far behind us that really gets us into trouble. Only doing what we can, right now, for me has had a much more dramatic and permanent effect.

It's absolutely worth investing in a decent pedometer to encourage those little spurts of exercise. The cheap/free ones don't seem to work as well, especially if you have extra padding on your hips. For me it really helped me see the little things like walking up stairs and parking further out as part of the whole increase in exercise. I've now given three more as gifts because once people see mine they want one :)

My birthday is in November ;)

jk.

I love my pedometer. When I first got it, I was striving to get 10k steps a day and now, it's tough *NOT* to get 10k.

Cyndi (and others): What kind of pedometer do you have? I used to have a cheap one back from a previous nutritionist way back when. For me the smaller the better, I dont need anymore weight on me! I think that would motivate me a little more with recording those steps especially since I sit at the computer most of the time lol.

Jenny & Kaplods: Thanks girls. I am going to re read the book and get back on here and look at all the info and go for it like I did last time. I keep putting it off because I am so afraid of failing again but I have to do something to at least maintain and not gain weight. Preparing is going to be hard for me, but its something I MUST do. I am out a lot of if I am out during a time and dont have food with me I have to get food as I go from not hungry to starving with my insulin resistance and must eat little snacks every few hours. I have to make planning an essential. I know last time I had my list of what I could eat, stocked up on it and made no excuses. I just need that willpower to do that again and not eat my husbands baking chocolate morsels or my sons school rice krispy snacks.

I agree that something like SBD is a lifestyle change and can be one and done for life. My issue last time was whenever I added a berry or anything back to try and get to phase 1.5 (forget phase 2) I gained weight. Due to that my nutritionist thinks phase 2 is a very healthy plan to follow and she is the one who does not believe in diets and believes everything in moderation but for the time being with my weight being at the highest its ever been and me gaining no matter what that I need to do something structured and guess free and more like a diet plan. The thing for me right now is getting to the root of the problem which is medical issues like PCOS, insulin resistance etc that are holding on to my fat and I have to find the foods that will allow me to lose weight. She has a great way of explaining it with what happens when I eat and what my cells do etc and when a "normal" person eats. Because of my body she said its saying its starving and craving sweets. I need to get a more stable gloucse level and thats why I am eating every few hours to help stabilize that. Hopefully in time my body will start adjusting and doing what its supposed to do.

For me I was so afraid to fall off plan bc I am so addicted to sweets. I was terrified so I didnt fall off. I made myself that promise that on my sons bday I could have cake and pizza and no matter how many times I tried to get back on I just fell off. Eventually over time I gave up and tried other diets but nothing else worked and no matter what I gained. I remember saying over and over to people you have to find the plan that works for you and that for me with SBD. I dont know where I would be if I didnt go off plan but I know I am not going to ever not be able to touch another cookie again. My old nutritionist told me that if it was cakes and cookies etc that made me binge and crave then I needed to NEVER eat them again. I dont know if that is the solution. I hope one day to be able to take a bite or a taste and have that be enough, but right now I have got to stay away from them or else my body and my willpower can not resist it.

I also try and mix and look at the IR Diet and Low GI plan. With watermelon which I LOVE my nutritionist said that she doesnt go into the gly. index on everything because of how much was consumed and how the actual testing was done. She said if I want a piece of watermelon then to have it and its a heck of a lot better than me than a piece of cake it. I agree you dont have to follow a plan to a T and have to make small changes if it will help you maintain the plan and make it a lifestyle change instead of a diet because we all know diets just dont work.

I also totally agree with looking too far behind or in front. I need to focus on small goals and not think my god I cant lose 150lbs. I think of that and its way too much to deal with. Same thing as working out for 45 min a day. Right now I cant do that and cant think of it. Its very hard to change my negative mindset. I do 5 min on the treadmill and my nutritionist is jumping for joy, but I beat myself up over it because my brain says what good is 5 minutes going to do, maybe I burned a half of bite of an apple. I also always wonder what might have been if I had sticked to this or any plan and I constantly beat myself up over it and know I have got to stop. For me the worst is the all or nothing mentatility. With other plans when I did cheat or slip up that meant yay it was pizza night bc I messed up and my one cheat was a whole day night cheat. I have to learn to stop that negative thinking as it only has negative impacts.

Zeff: I was going to say the same thing to Cyndi, my birthday is in May lol. I remember when I wore one it would talk and drive me nuts and I couldnt figure out how to turn off the talking but I didnt get many steps in and that was before when I was more active.

Speaking of pedometers does anyone know if the one that comes with the Nintendo DS weight coach is a cheap crappy one or a good one? I am tempted to get that game and use my sons ds.

I've had an Omron pedometer for about a year and a half and love it. Like it so much I bought their body fat monitor and a blood pressure monitor from them too.

Cyndi- which one do you have... I need one I can stick in my pocket rather than put on my hip- I was looking at this one...
http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HJ-720ITC-Pedometer-Advanced-Management/dp/B000MN92WM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1236055123&sr=1-2
but not sure if I am ready to spend 30 bucks on it! I have a cheapo that I got from my work but it doesn't seem to work well... maybe its my thick hips ;)

I have this one http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HJ-112-Digital-Premium-Pedometer/dp/B0000U1OCI/ref=pd_bxgy_hpc_img_b so it's a bit cheaper. My Mom keeps hers in her pocket and it has only reset accidentally once or twice. It's absolutely worth it IMO. I went through a couple of the cheaper ones before I got the one I have now and they never worked with my hips. For me it really is a great reminder to move and get those steps in.

Thanks Cyndi- I went ahead and ordered the black one because you have to spend 25 to get free shipping and it would have cost the same either way! I will let you know how I like the software for it- I think it will work out for me since you don't have to upload it everyweek :) I get lazy and forgetful- the black one has 42 days that will stay in the memory but you can only view the 7 days on the pedometer, the rest you can view when you upload on to your computer!

I am really excited I just know this will motivate me to take more steps each day!!!

Closing this because we're way off topic. Let em know if you want me to chop off the posts and make a pedometer thread. :lol: