Hi All,

I am starting south beach in the morning and am a bit nervous about it. I have tried many many different diets in the past and have found that I get bored and all the weight comes back. I have now been told if I ever want more kids I MUST lose weight. Wondering if anyone had any good tips on how to stick with SB? Anything would be appreciated.

Thanks!!!

Jessie

Hello everyone,
I am starting the SB diet for the first time tomorrow as well. I have only struggled with my weight after having kids. I just turned 30 and spent 90% of my 20's being overweight by at least 80lbs. This time I am committed to change. Here is to a new way of life!

Jessie

to the Two Jessies! Please join us in the Phase I thread.

Hello Jessies and

After 5 years losing most of my weight, I am still a newbie here. I made my commitment May 5;almost 6 weeks OP. I find alot of support here at the. It has especially been helpful when I felt like caving. I know there are folks cheering for me.

I post every day and look forward to seeing both around.

I guess the best I can say for right now as far as sticking to it is I do anything possible not to cheat right now, and learn more about SB through reading the book and perusing the old threads here. I do have every confidence that it will work if I work it.

Thank you all for the responses and support. Wow this may be easier than I thought, especially having so much support here. Jessie- I am so excited to have a buddy that will be right on track with me. I as well had no problems with my weight until I had my son, and then I feel like I just blew up. I have Poly cystic ovarian syndrome, so that has a lot to do with my weight gain, and the reason I have so much trouble losing.
Would you guys mind telling me what types of exercise you do?

Thanks so much!!

to both Jessies!

Jessiebear, I used to belong to Curves, and really enjoyed it. I finally had to cancel my membership, though, since my work hours are pretty crazy and inconsistent. Nowadays, I try to work in a long, fast-paced walk every day. Good luck to you, what ever you decide on!

Glitzenvixn, I love your username. Good luck to you, too. I think you'll find this lifestyle plan is pretty easy to live with.

Welcome to both Jessies. I second cottage for walking as the best way to get exercise. I try to lift weights occasionally, but find I can't do it consistently to get the best benefits from it.

Jessiebear

I ride my bike to a outdoor hot springs pool every day where I participate in water aerobics and H2Yoga.

After over 2 years of this way of eating, I can promise I'm never bored. Just keep a lot of variety in your meals and plan ahead and don't be scared of trying new things you've never eaten before..it's an adventure!!!

Eat a lot of what is on the "ok" list and don't starve yourself and you'll do just fne.

Hello Fellow Jessies! I go by Jess for the most part, but I have been called Jessie in the past, so I think it counts!

I've been following the SB diet since September of 2008 and have lost about 52 pounds. I've tried lots of other diets, but this is the only one that's worked for me for such a long time. I don't get bored with my food or with the diet at all - in fact, the thing I like best about the diet is how much I enjoy all the food I get to eat, and how satisfying it is. I don't feel deprived at all.

The tips I can come up with are:

-Plan out your meals and snacks in advance, and make sure you eat all of them. I think a huge thing I've gotten out of SB is more healthy eating habits - meaning no more grazing all day, skipping meals and then eating huge amounts later, etc.

-If you try something as a meal/snack and don't like it, switch to something else. There's a lot of variety in SB (even in Phase I) and I enjoyed everything I ate in Phase I and I enjoy everything I eat now. Don't force yourself to eat something because you "should"; the plan offers lots of healthy alternatives. For example, I gave cottage cheese a shot when I started, but when I found that I still didn't care for it, I switched to something else.

-I waited until I was out of Phase I to exercise. For me, changing my eating habits was such a huge endeavor that adding in exercise felt like it would have been too much. I had previously been someone who cooked rarely, relied a lot on processed food/frozen stuff, and so the amount of time it took for me to prepare all of my food was kind of overwhelming. I figured out by the end of Phase I how to streamline things, and introduced exercise after that. If your goal is weight loss, then the most important thing is what you eat - exercise is important for overall health, but I remember my GP telliong me that 75% of weight loss is dependent on what you eat rather than what you do.

-This message board was a huge help to me, too! I'm mostly a lurker, but the recipes on here are fabulous (like the awesome Taco Bake!), and the people on the board are super supportive and helpful.

Best of luck to both of you!

Thanks for all of the support everyone!! Can't write much, I have an early day tomorrow-I'm almost done my 3 practicum. I have tonnes of journalling and research to do for school, so it takes up alot of my time-along with being a mom of 2 beautiful kids
Today went really well, had no cravings for anything I chose not to have(ie.bread, fruit) and prepared alot of my meals/snacks for the week.
I'll post any more entrys on the Phase 1 thread.
Thanks again for being so welcoming!

Welcome y'all! Make sure you have lots of snacks. Peanut butter and ricotta cheese saved me the first few days of Phase 1.

Jessie! Being able to have kids healthfully was the main impetus for my start on SBD. It's since become a very comfortable lifestyle, and I've never gotten bored!

Try the recipes in our forum at first, limit yourself to one salad a week (so many people burn out on salads on this plan and there are TONS of other things to eat!!!), and check out the recipes at Cooking Light (www.myrecipes.com), which are very easy to modify into SBD-safe versions.

Glad to have you with us!

Thank you all for your support. Well it turns out that yesterday was NOT the day for me to start, so today was officially my first day. I think I did really really well, and I had 3 new things. I tried the South beach muffins (Yum!), the lemon pie (double Yum!!) and the Chocolate Black Bean Brownies. I have been completely satisfied today, I hope this lasts.

Thanks again, glad to have such a support group!!