You may regret asking me for planning tips...I'm a Type-A, slightly OCD, has a list of all her other lists, kinda gal
Let me gather some thoughts together and I'll write again (I don't do my best thinking at night )
Oh, one thing you could start doing is taking stock of the beachy foods you really like. Having a list of 'go-to' favorites has helped me a lot this time around.
I think South Beach is a diet that can be done for a lifetime, because despite the fact that people like to make it a list of eat and don't eat foods, it's not that. There is no list of forbidden foods, instead it's "avoid or eat rarely." It's really a very common-sense approach, and no where does Dr. Agatson tell you to beat on yourself if you have a piece of cake.
We often prefer rules to guidelines, and rules get us into trouble if we go whacko when we break a rule. If you eat one off-plan meal and get back to eating what you know is best for you, you're doing it the life-time way. If you decide you "blew it," and that being on plan is just too hard and you might as well eat whatever you want - well that's the diet mentality and it won't work in the long term.
I love what I learned following South Beach, even though I had to add a calorie counting component (an exchange component actually). If I had found South Beach at 15, I think I probably would have been able to follow South Beach pretty much as written (except for the admonishment regarding pineapple, watermelon, sweet corn, and beets - I always lost a lot of weight every summer and all four were a far more than rarely part of my diet. Then again, some summer days all I would eat was sweet corn and watermelon.)
I've heard people say things like "I could follow South Beach if it allowed sweet corn (or whatever)," but instead of at least trying to follow the plan with a tiny exception (experiment with eating moderate helpings of sweet corn and monitoring to see if they still make weight loss progress), they decide they can't do South Beach.
Now I know you can loophole a food plan until it's no longer healthy, but tweaking a plan a bit for your personal needs is an entirely different animal. Maybe a person can't get from 130 lbs to 120 eating higher glycemic fruits and veggies frequently, but believe me it's not fresh watermelon, pineapple, sweet corn or beets that are holding me back from losing the next 180 lbs.
We like rigid plans for some reason. The most popular diets follow the "eat this, not that" template. Even when the "diet" argues that it is only an "eat this, not that most of the time," people ignore the "most of the time," part and beat themselves for being a failure when the fall off the plan, breaking rules that weren't even there.
I think it really makes sense, instead of trying to find the plan you can do for life, really sit down and think about what you are willing to do for life, and take it from there. Maybe later as you make progress, you'll find you're actually willing to do more forever than you thought - and then you can make those changes.
It tends to be a bit slower journey that way, but there's a lot less reason to give up because the journey seems too difficult. I can't tell you what a difference it's made to me, just to take one simple thought out of my existance "what's the use, I might as well eat whatever I want, because this is never going to work."
Oh, bad thoughts, like other bad habits die hard, and occasionally that one does come back to haunt me, but I've been able to quickly respond to my stupid self "ok, if this seems impossible forever - decide what DOES seem possible forever - and do that." And there always is another option besides "binge until you gain it all back." I might decide (and often have) that I can't make it to 150 lbs, but I almost always feel like I can maintain the weight I've lost so far. Even when I'm tempted to feel it isn't possible, I ask myself, so what weight can I maintain - and surely it's less than 394, my starting weight. I've never given myself permission to intentionally gain a single pound, but I have on occasion decided that maintaining my current weight was "for now, good enough." The funny thing is, the work to maintain your weight, is nearly the same as to lose it, so often my attempts to maintain resulted in maybe another pound of weight loss, which would inspire me to decide "well, maybe I can lose one more."
One foot in front of the other - one pound at a time. I really think it's looking far ahead or far behind us that really gets us into trouble. Only doing what we can, right now, for me has had a much more dramatic and permanent effect.
It's absolutely worth investing in a decent pedometer to encourage those little spurts of exercise. The cheap/free ones don't seem to work as well, especially if you have extra padding on your hips. For me it really helped me see the little things like walking up stairs and parking further out as part of the whole increase in exercise. I've now given three more as gifts because once people see mine they want one
My birthday is in November
jk.
I love my pedometer. When I first got it, I was striving to get 10k steps a day and now, it's tough *NOT* to get 10k.
Cyndi (and others): What kind of pedometer do you have? I used to have a cheap one back from a previous nutritionist way back when. For me the smaller the better, I dont need anymore weight on me! I think that would motivate me a little more with recording those steps especially since I sit at the computer most of the time lol.
Jenny & Kaplods: Thanks girls. I am going to re read the book and get back on here and look at all the info and go for it like I did last time. I keep putting it off because I am so afraid of failing again but I have to do something to at least maintain and not gain weight. Preparing is going to be hard for me, but its something I MUST do. I am out a lot of if I am out during a time and dont have food with me I have to get food as I go from not hungry to starving with my insulin resistance and must eat little snacks every few hours. I have to make planning an essential. I know last time I had my list of what I could eat, stocked up on it and made no excuses. I just need that willpower to do that again and not eat my husbands baking chocolate morsels or my sons school rice krispy snacks.
I agree that something like SBD is a lifestyle change and can be one and done for life. My issue last time was whenever I added a berry or anything back to try and get to phase 1.5 (forget phase 2) I gained weight. Due to that my nutritionist thinks phase 2 is a very healthy plan to follow and she is the one who does not believe in diets and believes everything in moderation but for the time being with my weight being at the highest its ever been and me gaining no matter what that I need to do something structured and guess free and more like a diet plan. The thing for me right now is getting to the root of the problem which is medical issues like PCOS, insulin resistance etc that are holding on to my fat and I have to find the foods that will allow me to lose weight. She has a great way of explaining it with what happens when I eat and what my cells do etc and when a "normal" person eats. Because of my body she said its saying its starving and craving sweets. I need to get a more stable gloucse level and thats why I am eating every few hours to help stabilize that. Hopefully in time my body will start adjusting and doing what its supposed to do.
For me I was so afraid to fall off plan bc I am so addicted to sweets. I was terrified so I didnt fall off. I made myself that promise that on my sons bday I could have cake and pizza and no matter how many times I tried to get back on I just fell off. Eventually over time I gave up and tried other diets but nothing else worked and no matter what I gained. I remember saying over and over to people you have to find the plan that works for you and that for me with SBD. I dont know where I would be if I didnt go off plan but I know I am not going to ever not be able to touch another cookie again. My old nutritionist told me that if it was cakes and cookies etc that made me binge and crave then I needed to NEVER eat them again. I dont know if that is the solution. I hope one day to be able to take a bite or a taste and have that be enough, but right now I have got to stay away from them or else my body and my willpower can not resist it.
I also try and mix and look at the IR Diet and Low GI plan. With watermelon which I LOVE my nutritionist said that she doesnt go into the gly. index on everything because of how much was consumed and how the actual testing was done. She said if I want a piece of watermelon then to have it and its a heck of a lot better than me than a piece of cake it. I agree you dont have to follow a plan to a T and have to make small changes if it will help you maintain the plan and make it a lifestyle change instead of a diet because we all know diets just dont work.
I also totally agree with looking too far behind or in front. I need to focus on small goals and not think my god I cant lose 150lbs. I think of that and its way too much to deal with. Same thing as working out for 45 min a day. Right now I cant do that and cant think of it. Its very hard to change my negative mindset. I do 5 min on the treadmill and my nutritionist is jumping for joy, but I beat myself up over it because my brain says what good is 5 minutes going to do, maybe I burned a half of bite of an apple. I also always wonder what might have been if I had sticked to this or any plan and I constantly beat myself up over it and know I have got to stop. For me the worst is the all or nothing mentatility. With other plans when I did cheat or slip up that meant yay it was pizza night bc I messed up and my one cheat was a whole day night cheat. I have to learn to stop that negative thinking as it only has negative impacts.
Zeff: I was going to say the same thing to Cyndi, my birthday is in May lol. I remember when I wore one it would talk and drive me nuts and I couldnt figure out how to turn off the talking but I didnt get many steps in and that was before when I was more active.
Speaking of pedometers does anyone know if the one that comes with the Nintendo DS weight coach is a cheap crappy one or a good one? I am tempted to get that game and use my sons ds.
I've had an Omron pedometer for about a year and a half and love it. Like it so much I bought their body fat monitor and a blood pressure monitor from them too.
Cyndi- which one do you have... I need one I can stick in my pocket rather than put on my hip- I was looking at this one... http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HJ-720IT...6055123&sr=1-2
but not sure if I am ready to spend 30 bucks on it! I have a cheapo that I got from my work but it doesn't seem to work well... maybe its my thick hips
I have this one http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HJ-112-D...bxgy_hpc_img_b so it's a bit cheaper. My Mom keeps hers in her pocket and it has only reset accidentally once or twice. It's absolutely worth it IMO. I went through a couple of the cheaper ones before I got the one I have now and they never worked with my hips. For me it really is a great reminder to move and get those steps in.
Thanks Cyndi- I went ahead and ordered the black one because you have to spend 25 to get free shipping and it would have cost the same either way! I will let you know how I like the software for it- I think it will work out for me since you don't have to upload it everyweek I get lazy and forgetful- the black one has 42 days that will stay in the memory but you can only view the 7 days on the pedometer, the rest you can view when you upload on to your computer!
I am really excited I just know this will motivate me to take more steps each day!!!
