Welcome to the beach!!!
DON'T join the online website - it's overpriced (60 bucks a quarter!), not a lot of content and you get much better advice and chat from this site. DO sign up for the Daily Dish from the official webiste - you'll get up to date information on changes to the diet (that often get posted on this site).
I'd buy the main SBD book and the follow up cook book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846
The 'Good Carb Cookbook' is good, but limited recipes in my opinion (but, a good compliment to SBD cookbook):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846
I think the 'Essential Eating Well' cookbook is excellent and I'd highly recommend it:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846
And, 'A New Way to Cook' is excellent - it's chock full of recipes, tips and techniques for lowfat good GI cooking. It's easy to modify her recipes for strict SBD:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...975134-0729649
As I'm sure other folks have mentioned:
The GI database:
http://www.glycemicindex.com/
All recipes - search for 'South Beach Diet' on this site:
http://allrecipes.com/
another SBD forum (but I hardly go there anymore - this one is far better):
http://www.***************************/forum/index.php
Wendi's SBD recipes:
http://www.geocities.com/wendifromte...se1recipes.htm
Another recipe collection:
http://www.***************************/...ollection.html
A great source for S/F condiments and the like:
http://www.alacarb.com/
This site is by far the best, IMO - everyone is really nice, super helpful and incredibly supportive - you've come to the right place!
Good Luck!!!!