I am starting South Beach tomorrow.

I have a bunch of skinless, boneless chicken thighs in the freezer. How strict are you about only eating chicken breasts? Also, I have some full fat shredded cheddar I'd like to use up.

I'm wondering if it really makes a difference if I eat low fat or not as long as I follow the basic structure of the three phases.

Opinions please! What do you do? Thanks in advance for any input.

Oh, glad to meet you all!

Welcome!

I don't go for low fat cheese. I basically, for phase 1, followed "lots of veggies, lots of protein, no sugar/bread, carbs only from beans" etc. I'm now bouncing between phase 2 and maintenance type eating, with some splurges. Yeah, I'm not real good at following rules strictly...

I started at 192 pounds, and have been slowly, with fluctuations, dropping weight. I'm down to 183 this morning. Would I lose faster if I followed it more strictly? Yeah... but life is crazy right now, and this is what's working for me.

The folks who follow closely will have better suggestions for you, my take is it's not a sin to modify this to what you need it to be.

Good luck, and welcome!!

Wow, you are doing great. Congratulations and thanks for the welcome!

Well, I've been on the net on blog called Kalyn's Kitchen. It's a blog of South Beach recipes. She lost 42 lbs. on South Beach about 8 years ago and kept it off. There was a link to some articles she wrote about South Beach. In June of this year she was interviewed by a website called Slimkicker about her weight loss. This is a quote from her:

I do still believe in following the spirit of the diet and not the absolute letter of the law, so I will use a little butter to flavor a dish (not much) and occasionally do make a recipe that uses a little bacon or some higher fat cheese. I call those kinds of things a "once-in-a-while-treat."

Elsewhere on her blog she said she probably eats more nuts than she should. Yet she lost.

So I'll just do the best I can. Perfectionism always did me in, and this time around I really want to succeed.