Hi everyone,
I'm joining this forum for the first time but I've been reading the posts for a long long time. I decided to join so I could learn more about South Beach, which is the first actually sensible, potentially life time eating plan i've ever come across. I'm not a big fan of diets, and never stick with anything like that once it becomes boring. But I've been really impressed with the quality and flexibility of food one can eat with this plan, and the success stories. It also makes perfect sense to me, based on my own eating and weight experiences.
I'll tell you a little about me so that anyone who has similar experience can say "hi" and we can help each other!
I've always tended towards weight gain, but I realize now how much of it was "in my head" (ie., when I was 140, I thought I was obese, too - and my current healthy goal isn't even that low!). I've never been athletic or inclined to exercise either. I'm basically a computer geek and an artist - everything I do is in the creative/cerebral realm and gym class was the only one I failed consistently in school. I also remember passing out an awful lot when I was a kid, if I didn't eat constantly - and I've been tested for hypoglcemia a couple times, always negative.
I hit 180 lbs when I was in my mid 20's during an abusive relationship (thats a chicken and egg story in itself), and when I got away, I embarked on my first ever fitness regime. I did step aerobics, boxercise, all sorts of crazy stuff - and ate like a bunny every day. The gym was on my way home from work so I never missed it, 4-5 days a week. I got down to 145 lb, and looked great - lean and hard. Even at 5'3" that was about as skinny as I could go because I am so muscular (good strong like bull Eastern European genes).
A few years later, a strange thing happened. Basically, I became sick of the attention it got me. I started thinking - dang, I have a BRAIN, you morons - not just a tight a**. And I got sick of it and started slipping. I wanted someone to love me for me, not my six pack. Around the same time, I also started a business, which kept me at home - not passing by the gym each day. I slowly and steadily gained weight back. With my added weight, but the same exercise routine (when I went), I ended up blowing out my knees badly enough that I gave it up.
Around 165, I met a man and fell in love. Thought I was going to get married even. And then he very suddenly announced that though he loved me inside, deeply, he thought I was too heavy and much preferred tall skinny women. And he was off.
I smoked (cigarettes) and ate my way through that break up, for 3 years, completely devastated. Somewhere around 30, I decided I was probably going to kill myself and I quit smoking - I did that with creative visualization - I basically brain washed myself into thinking that cigarettes were horrible, dirty and unhealthy, even while I still smoked - until the idea of them repulsed me. Needless to say, I ate my way through the withdrawal too.
Quitting smoking, you would think, might have helped my health, and perhaps it did - but it also created severe chronic asthma. So, now, for rest of my life, I have to carry around a nebulizer machine and an inhaler. For a couple years, I couldn't even climb the stairs without puffing and huffing - and so I gained a couple more sizes.
Then I was introduced to asthma drugs that came on the market, which pretty much made it possible for me to breathe again. I also started experimenting with food intolerances, and discovered to my astonishment that wheat is a BIG factor in my asthma. Family history tells me that it is genetic too - a number of members have now discovered the same thing. I probably always had it - but my lungs were too trampled by nicotine to notice til I quit.
I immediately went wheat and almost gluten free - replacing it all with rice and potatoes. Otherwise, I ate lean meat and veggies and tons of fruit. And grew a few more sizes.
With the asthma medicines, I could breathe again and decided I"d take up swimming. What a trip, to progress from just learning to put my head under water to swimming laps for a half hour. To my great dismay, even with doing that 2-4 times a week, I never lost an ounce and I gave up.
In the last year, I met someone who really truly DOES love me inside and out, and isn't the least bit concerned with my weight. We're getting married, this time for certain. And he loves to walk and hike - something I never did alone as a female. So, over the last year, I've gone from a huff and puff walk around the block to 5-6 mile hikes with him on a regular basis. And so - you would think I'd be losing weight from that. But noooo....
So - anyway - here I am now, at my highest weight ever. I swore I wouldn't top 200 and I did - and now I'm like, okay darn it, I'm not hitting 220!!! So, over the last year, I started hearing about South Beach and dismissed it but not I'm starting to see the results in the people I know who are doing it and I'm paying attention.
I realized, having read the book, that the replacement of wheat with all those rice and potato products was NOT a good thing. I learned that my mongo watermelon, strawberry and banana salads were NOT a good thing. I've learned the connection between my passing out/hypoglycemic reactions and what I was eating. And I now understand how what I eat can cause me to be hungry soon after. Its all making sense - now I just have to put it into practice.
The main issue I have right now is fats. I have been doing the phase one all week but also track my intake on Fit Day software and noticed that my fat and saturated fat intake is way too high. So, I need to start substituting better - I think its the egg and cheese dishes that do it. I'd also like to find a good healthy dip for celery and other veggies - the one I have is very low carb but the fat is too high. And I'm curious about Splenda - I thought that was still sugar? But it is okay on SBD? I am not going to touch Aspartame - I weaned myself off that garbage years ago. Maybe I should look for Stevia - thats not bad for sweetening drinks and stuff.
Anyway - I rambled long enough - its good to see so many people doing well on this - I look forward to being part of the community.
I want to be on the beach too
