Hi everyone. Today is day 3, and I've gained 1.5 pounds I'm wondering if this has something to do with water. Normally I do not drink enough... I was basically drinking diet soda before this. Do you think its possible that I'm still retaining water because my body isnt used to getting it all yet?

Thanks

Bella

It's possible. Are you eating a lot of salty foods? Why don't you post a list of everything you ate yesterday and we can see if we spot any problems. By the way, welcome to the Beach!

You beat me to it, Barb. I wonder if salt is the culprit. Also, it's early in Phase I - there may yet be a whoosh! Is it TOM? We can blame that guy for everything!

Bella, do post what you are eating. We've had more than a few new SBDers who have consumed about 2.5 cups of ricotta cheese each day only to find that it has huge amounts of calories! It's easy to overeat on the okay stuff. But don't despair...we'll figure it out!

Also if you haven't had a bowel movement, (yes, I know, gross talking about bodily functions with complete strangers ) you may be retaining all the food you've been eating the last 3 days.

Things that newbies can do without knowing any better:
(Correct me if I'm wrong or misleading please)

1. Salt is a big problem. If you are eating canned beans, make sure you are rinsing them before using them. They contain a lot of sodium. The cheeses and nuts also tend to contain a lot of salt. The V-8 juice Dr. A. suggests for breakfast also high in salt. Look for the low sodium one. It stills taste good.

2. Not taking a fiber supplement of some sort or if you don't want to do supplmental fiber, maybe eat more beans each day....but don't go over board either.

3. It's one serving of nuts or peanut butter/nut butter per day. Not one serving of each type.

4. Not drinking enough water? At least 2 quarts a day. Water is water, not soda or crystal lite. You can get buy with a little flavoring with your water, but don't drink the entire 2 quarts as soda or full strenght crystal lite or sugar free kool-aid type stuff. Plus it has a lot of sodium also.

5. Eating too much fat. In phase 1, it's easy to eat over 60% of your calories from fat. Like Beachgal said, don't go over board on the ricotta desserts. Try to stick to 1 serving a day. Even when using the low fat cheeses, they still several grams of fat each serving.

6. Not eating enought vegetables. Some people get this plan confused with Atkins and focus on the meat/cheese/eggs aspect and totally forget that you should be eating a ton of vegetables a day. (ok, maybe not a ton, but several servings each meal.)


Oh dear, I hope I'm not totally freaking you out. Really, it's simple.

Drink lots of water
eat a wide variety of vegetables each meal
stick with the lower fat or fat free versions of cheeses and dairy.
drink more water
eat more vegetables
eat some beans for fiber
drink more water and walk to the farthest bathroom you can. Phase 1 can introduce you to so many different bathrooms.

Good luck
Sarah

Hmmm, I pee'd my brains out the first week on SB.

Just as an FYI - I was under the impression that seltzer/sparkling spring water counted toward the water intake. I like the fizzy things, and having the seltzer for meals is excellent when I started to really drink a lot of regular water. Helped with the "water, nothing but water!" boredom.

ciao!
Solarmama

I love the sugar free flavored sparkling waters and seltzers, it definately helps with the water boredom like you said.

I was aiming more for the people who don't drink any water and only soda and sugar free drink mix type things. Thanks for the clarification.

Sarahyu - I thought it might be something like that - but I love the seltzer so much I had to chime in! It's really helped me stay on top of the "64 oz days".

Caio!
SolarM

Sarah - (and all)

Part of your message said something about getting too much fat, which could be a problem. I did my foods on fitday and it did show 60% from fat, which is bad. I'm vegetarian so I don't know what the exact plan he wants you to follow for that. I bought the book last year and did SB but it didn't work too well for me (I was drinking too much crystal light). I know he offers the vegetarian version online but I really didn't want to pay for that when I already paid for the book. So I'm sure I'm eating too much of stuff. I thought I read to eat 2 servings of nuts instead of 1? I know bocas are good, but I can't have those every night. They start to taste funny after a while. I might just go back to WW though bc this can be very hard when you don't eat meat. Thanks for the help guys

Bella

Oh dear, Singing Star, I'm not a vegetian so I'm not sure how to answer this. I do know that phase 1 is a little heavier on the fats, once you get into phase 2 and add back the good carbs you should be able to balance it out better.

Hopefully someone else will get back to you on the 2 servings of nuts a day. I have to admit that I was a little lax on this point myself. But I had very slow weightloss and still do because I tend to eat too much in general. But, I haven't gained it all back which is what I used to do before changing my eating habits.


Could you post a typical days worth of food? Maybe we could all take a look and give our ideas.

Side note to experienced ones:
But I'm thinking that 60% fat in phase 1 is kindof common isn't? Maybe I should change that percentage in the original email, I sort of pulled it out of my hat so to speak.

Sarah

I'm not sure on the nuts myself but I would think you would need to be eating lots of legumes in phase 1 to get enough carbs. I would tend to think that most people eat quite a bit of fat in phase 1 because you have not gotten used to eating lots of veggies. I know that I now normally get the 2 cups of veggies for lunch and dinner that I should get and was not eating in Phase 1. Most people use quite a bit of cheese in phase 1 and then reduce the amount in phase 2.

Remember that phase 1 is for detoxing. It is important that you not cheat and eat foods that are not allowed. This is critical for getting rid of the physical cravings. If you portion size is too large you can always reduce it later. It is also critical to eat your snacks. Dr. A says that they can become optional in phase 2 but they should not be skipped in phase 1. I find that I can skip my snacks on the weekends but I get hungry (or bored) if I skip them during the work week - however, remember that I have been on phase 2 for a long time.