Ooops ... it was probably me that posted vegie sticks including carrots. Carrots are now allowed in moderation in phase two but not phase one. Sorry for setting everyone wrong here.
There is an official South Beach Diet site you can subscribe to but it costs. About half the book contains recipes. The FAQ section of this forum has an updated list of legal foods so you can put together your own recipes based on this list. As long as you are familiar with the list of legal foods you should be able to determine if any recipe is legal.
I don't have a lot of time for meal preparation so I use a lot of dry seasonings (morrocan, cajun, piri piri, tuscan) to flavour chicken, fish and meat. If you are eating salads or stir fry there are lots of choice of vegetables and as long as you follow guidelines you can add dressings or seasoning.
As for exercising - you should still see a big weight loss during the first two weeks because most of this is water loss. From what I remember from a Psych 101 class you need to exercise to increase your metabolic rate so that your body 'lets go' of the fat. When you cut calories your body goes into famine mode and clutches anything it can. Sustained weight loss will be difficult without any exercise at all. Some people have to lose a significant amount of weight before they can begin on an exercise program and this seems to be achievable on diet alone. I use
www.fitday.com to track my daily calories and activities and things like housework, putting away shopping, washing dishes and taking care of the kids are classed as activities so presumably we are all active during the day even though we think we are not exercising.