Modified Phase 1 for Regular Exercisers
 

For those of you who are contemplating doing Phase 1 of SBD and you get 30 minutes of moderate to intense exercise at least 4 days per week, I've developed a modified phase 1 plan to help you lose weight, transition to Phase 2 and still support your workout routine.

I work out a minimum of 5 days per week doing 3 days of resistance training, 2 days of interval cardio and 2 days of what I call a mini cardio triathlon (running, elliptical and bike for at least 15 minutes each). I initially tried phase 1 as it is laid out in the book while doing a similar workout routine and found that while I lost weight (5 pounds), I was tired and lethargic because I wasn't eating enough carbs to support my training. After some time off of SBD, I decided to give it another shot but this time I would modify phase 1.

This is what I came up with:

Pre-Workout - 1 Egg Burrito (1 corn tortilla, 1/4 cup egg substitute, salsa and 1 tbsp reduced fat grated cheese)
Post-Workout - Berry Protein Smoothie (1 cup frozen mixed berry, 1 cup plain soy milk and 1 scoop whey protein powder)
Mid-Morning Snack - Laughing Cow Cheese with Celery
Lunch - Grilled Chicken Salad with Balsamic Vinagrette Dressing and 1 tbsp of feta cheese
Mid-Afternoon Snack - 1 ounce almonds
Dinner - 4oz grilled or baked lean meat or fish, 1/2 cup brown rice and 1 cup steamed vegetables.
Dessert - Sugar Free Jello Pudding

Essentially, I added a small bit of carbs to my morning and evening meals and have no starchy carbs during lunch or for my snacks. This allowed me to continue my heavy training and to get my cravings under control. In fact, my Phase 2 mimics this to a certain extent. Using this method the first time, I lost an additional 4 pounds and lost an inch off my waist, chest and hips.

Hope this is helpful and see me a PM with any questions.

Nubie

I see too many things here that are not allowed on South Beach phase 1 to think this is a good idea. Exercising can work on phase 1 just by adding lots of beans and dairy and vegetables. Those are healthy carbs which are allowed.

The non-allowed foods I see are:
corn tortilla - not even allowed in phase 2. You would use a whole wheat tortilla in phase 2.
frozen mixed berries - fine for phase 2 but you should not be eating this in phase 1.
brown rice is phase 2 only.
pudding has too many starches to be allowed in phase 1. You should wait until phase 2.

If you choose to skip phase 1 and go straight to phase 2 or a phase 1.5, then that is fine but I don't want others to think this is an approved way of eating for phase 1. You should be eating 4 1/2 cups of veggies when you are on South Beach (and not just lettuce). If you increased the amount of veggies that you eat you might find that you don't need to eat the other non-approved foods. I am afraid that the foods listed here would keep someone from getting rid of their cravings and that would set them up to fail.

Totally agree with Barb. It really is a Phase II eating plan but the tortillas should be whole wheat, not corn to be SBD approved.