i am starting south beach today...after months of starting and stopping and doing it again and again...i am ready to lose!


wish me luck...

i plan to stay on phase 1 for a month (as opposed to the the 2 weeks)...and i am aiming for 25 lbs in that month....

well...i'd love for some of u experienced South beachers to give me a lil advice/encouragement/guidance...i'd really appreciate it


well for starters...this is my meal plan for today...lemme know what ya'll think...

breakfast:

*an omelet with salsa

lunch:
small salad

dinner:
3-6 oz. of chicken
large salad

snacks: 2 a day
a can of tuna
and
salted peanuts

Good Morning and welcome to the beach! Your menu looks good to me! I live on phase1 it seems. Actually alot of us chicks do what we call a phase1.5. Watch the nuts. I cannot buy nuts cause I can't stay out of them and they will stall you if you over do them. Or atleast they do me. Good luck and be sure you post here daily to stay motivated and keep us up to date on how your doin!

Spartan girl, welcome to the Beach!

Hi Sparatan Girl

Based on your menu, I don't think you are eating enough.

You should have some protien with your lunch - maybe a bit of turkey, and eat a LOT more veggies. Remember this isn't Atkins where you can't have veggies - go nuts on veggies - just the right ones - you don't want to end up feeling hungry. And the key is to eat every few hours to keep your blood sugars stable or you will end up craving carbs.

I just started yesterday but I planned for about a week. I have all my veggies cut up and bagged for whenever I want them. I have my lunches (brown bagged) and dinners planned to. If I didn't then I would just eat whatever and not stay on program.

3 lbs of water weight gone already

Check out my menu if you want - it looks like a lot of food - but is only 1200 cals per day and I wasn't hungry once.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48640

I'm message #8.

Lots of luck sent your way

Kim

Welcome to the Beach, Spartan_girl!

Kim, those are great suggestions! Yes, Spartan_girl, you need lots more vegetables. Your salads are probably mostly lettuce which doesn't hold a lot of nutritional value. You also need to drink lots of water, especially with the salt in the nuts. Make sure you follow the quarter cup limit on nuts. That is about 20 peanuts.

Unless you have a very large amount of weight to lose, Dr. A. does not recommend staying on Phase 1 for a month. Most people who have done that find that the weight loss really slows down after the first two weeks. Please don't get disappointed if you don't lose as fast as you hope. Sometimes it takes awhile. I only lost 4 pounds in two weeks of phase 1 but I was on a diuretic so I had no water weight to lose. However, I've been able to keep up a steady weight loss. Slow and steady works best for keeping it off.

Spartan,

I agree with the others, you need to incorporate more veggies...at least 2.5 cups a day, and really, don't count lettuce. It doesn't fill you up much and it has little to no nutritional value. Throw cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and tomatoes into your salad to beef up the nutritional and veggie count. And put beans in there too to up your fiber and help you feel full! (helps with constipation, too!)

As to doing Phase 1 for a month...it really isn't the best idea. Why don't you do it for two weeks and see how you are doing. If you stay on it too long, you might even stall your weight loss. I lost 26 pounds during my two weeks of Phase 1, but I had 150 pounds to lose and had not done any other diets recently, so I was full of sugar! Just take it easy and be gentle with yourself. Remember that losing weight fast is not a good goal...it tends to come back on that way, and you usually lose some muscle, but gain back only fat. Try to keep your protein up and incorporate strength training (lifting weights) as soon as you feel you can to keep building your muscles.

Welcome to the Beach!

Spartan Girl - Are you a green and white spartan girl? If so what the heck happened last weekend?

Seems everyone has told you the right thing about the veggies. I try to have lots of veggies at every meal. We were just discussing the "overnight slaw" that has a great sweet and sour taste going and I incorporated that every morning into my menu plan. I posted the recipe in yesterday's daily. The more veggies I add the more I lose. I use a salad mix with lots and lots of "other herbs", spinach and spring mix. DS says it looks like I'm eating weeds.

Bups - Love the hamster. I spoil my DS's hamster. He sits on my hand and brush him. I buy him treats and toys. I forgot how nice they are. He is adorable. DS named him Lucky - and he really is lucky.

You are supposed to eat 1/2 cup of vegies for breakfast and 2 cups EACH for lunch and dinner so load up on the vegies! You may find that you need larger than normal serves of protein for the first few days because you won't have the carbos to fill you up but don't worry about this, after a few days you will get used to it and be able to cut back on your serving size of protein. Remember to drink plenty of water and get some exercise. Just a tip, take your measurements as well as your weight because about weeks 3-4 you will slow down losing pounds but lose a lot of fat rather than just water loss. This is really noticeable when you compare your measurements but can be a little disheartening if you are relying on the scales to show your loss.

Anchor, I'm with you on the "weedy" salads. I have been trying to eat salads with either all spinach or mostly spinach and spring mix to up the nutritional content. When I can't do that, I throw in a lot of other things...broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, onions, radishes, cucumber, etc. Anything to up the veggie total!

I love hamsters, too. Lucky sounds like a wonderful friend! How old is he? Those teddy bear hamsters just break my heart...they are too darling!

Laurie,

DS got "Lucky" on 7-5-04. I'm not sure how old he was. He is my baby. I honestly spend more on him than I do on myself. Little treats, toys, tubes, slides, running balls,playpens etc. I even built him a bridge out of popsicle sticks. Which I wouldn't recommend because he just chewed on it. I'm pathetic with that little guy

"Got lucky"! That had me wondering until I went back and read the previous post!

LOL Ruth - thanks I just spit my water all over the monitor

It does read pretty odd when you take it in that context!

Ruth!

Amy, I feel you! I have two bunnies who are the light of my life, but boy do they chew on everything! DH builds things out of craft sticks just to watch them destroy the creations, right in front of our eyes!

Hi everyone,

There always seems to be so much information here. I had posted over the weekend that I was hoping to start SBD tues or wed if possible. We had a funeral monday and today I barely made it thru work(was exhausted and actually left an hour early to vote and go home) So needless to say I haven't had a chance to pick up the darn book. But in the mean time, I am so sick of chicken on salad for lunch at work. And I have to build a tolerance to veggies when dieting. Never ate them as a kid(hence the fat "apple" body I have) but I notice many eat lots of salad with veggies. On the plus side I do prefer the greener greens and spinach type salad (Laurie my guys call them weeds too!)
I do intend to incorporate some beans because I'm so sick of chicken, but I know this won't go down without a decent dressing. What do you all use for dressing? A friend of my says " oh, I measure out 2tbsp of dressing on my salad". That's not much on a big salad. I'm sure the book has suggestions, but figured I'd ask. I'm so frustrated that I cant start. arrgghh Maybe I can get the book tomorrow.

By the way, congrats to everyone with their success. It's great to see how well everyone is doing. Laurie, I know your results are probably not typical...but....YGG! Just fantastic.

I am not a veggie eater, but can eat salad. I usually go with romaine since I like it better. Any suggestions? I will check out the salad bar at lunch and see what they have that I like.