I had a visit with a cardiologist today who told me that she wanted me to combine WW (which I am currently on) with the South Beach Diet. Supposedly, doing the SBD will lower my triglycerides and LDL and raise my HDL. I've managed to reduce my cholesterol from an all time high of 305 to 243, but have not had success getting it under 200. I'm also supposed to add fish oil caps.

I'm curious if anyone here is on South Beach and if you could kind of explain it to me. I checked out the 3FC forum, but couldn't figure out exactly what the deal is. I'll probably buy the book because I really want to get better cholesterol numbers without resorting to statins, but I want to know what I'm getting into. I'm not crazy about doing diets because I used to have an eating disorder and deprivation can set it off. But I don't want to have a heart attack or stroke either. Yikes! I feel stressed already!

Hi
I am on the south beach diet for the same reason as you.My boyfriend and i love it.The first 2 weeks is rough because you have to give up all fruit,potatoes,rice ect...The second phase you can eat fruits and bread again.It is a diet that you have to give up processed foods(white bread,white flour,boxed meals ect... we eat a lot of chicken,fish,lean pork,turkey.We also eat lots of veggies and beans.I have lots of recipes if you need any.Good luck.oh my name is sheila also

Hi Sheila,

I am sorry to hear about the cholestrol thing. I am a little surprised to hear of a cardiologist recommending South Beach, but it is a healthy diet and heart friendly. It is just more veggies and less anything white which may be close to what you are already doing? It will offer you lots of choice and hopefully won't make you enter a mindset of deprivation. Good luck in taking care of your body.

Jenaya

hi shiela! i've been following the south beach plan for the last few weeks. i didn't buy the book - an online friend posted all the information on a message board for me. it's public, so feel free to read it: http://makingitmine.proboards15.com/index.cgi under the heading "what's there to eat?".

hope this helps! i've been losing pretty well on it, but i haven't had my cholesterol checked.

Holly, you've been losing darn well!

After doing a lot of research, I decided that I wouldn't do phase 1, but instead follow the phase 2 stuff within my WW points. I'm still not ready to handle "eat until you're full" so I need the WW portion control. Surprisingly, today I haven't been able to eat all the points I am allowed, and I've even had nuts and peanut butter today. I've eaten one fruit, with a meal, and one whole wheat tortilla (made a wrap with eggplant hummus and a bunch of veggies for lunch), and those are my carbs for the day. Regular salad dressing is still a bit scary for me. It's interesting that the low-fat kinds have so much more sugar, although the light balsamic vinagrette I normally use meets the South Beach guidelines.

Sheila, thanks for the offer of recipes. I believe I'll take you up on that!