Blue cheese? that's in the Crab Cobb Salad for Phase 1? Why is blue cheese cheating if it is in a recipe in the original book. And the salad is FABULOUS!

I'm glad I read this thread as I'm feeling stalled, but maybe not! And I have not cheated, unless the blue cheese is cheating.

Well, all cheeses are to be low fat or fat free. there are some goofs in the recipes but we are to assume all the cheeses are LF or FF. (I adore blue cheese!)

Kim,

So glad that you are making it work for you.

I am one that can't handle cheats, so I just stick with the plan and try to endulge in things that I know I like and are OP. Not endulge by eating too much of them, but by including those as part of my daily plan rather than forcing myself to eat something I know I don't like.

That said, we all know how totally fickle that darn scale is, so remember that when it all comes down to it, how do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are you tired? Are you back on the up/down blood sugar cycle due to your cheats? I think these are the most important questions, though I do understand the exhileration of stepping on that scale and seeing it down!

Bleu Cheese is not cheating, but it has a lot of fat, so check your amount and make sure it's small! See the amount listed in the book for recipes to get an idea, and make sure to divide it by the portion size (i.e. if the recipe calls for 2 Tbsp., but the salad has four servings, you would need to eat 1/2 of a Tbsp. for one serving).

There was a daily dish recently (you can get these e-mailed to you free from the SBD website) that said you need to find cheese that has less than 6 g. fat per ounce. Here's the text of that Daily Dish:

Shopping for Dairy

This Daily Dish is part of a series on how to read nutrition labels

Buying milk, yogurt, and cheese is not as challenging as finding the perfect loaf of whole-grain bread. That's because dairy products are fairly well labeled for fat and sugar content. Still, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the nutrition label to better understand why a product is considered low-fat, fat-free, or sugar-free.

Low-fat and fat-free dairy products do not contain large amounts of saturated fat. That's why you can use fat-free half-and-half in place of regular half-and-half on The South Beach Diet(TM). The nutrition facts on the back of the package will tell you exactly how much fat the product contains. With cheese you need only look for a product containing 6 grams or less of total fat per ounce to know it is South Beach Diet(TM)-friendly.

The sugar content will also be listed in the nutrients panel. Keep in mind that milk contains a natural sugar called lactose, which will account for some of the sugar grams. The presence of lactose also means that even sugar-free dairy products will contain some sugar grams. The ones you need to watch out for, though, are the high-glycemic added sugars; check for these in the ingredients list.