Carb *kitten* Starting the South Beach Diet

Lobster1987

I'm starting it on the 15th..so I have time to eat up what I have in my apartment and start over fresh with new groceries when I get paid on the 13th.

I've already packed up all the sweets, frosting, sprinkles, baking goods etc...And will be getting them out of my apartment before then.

I am a MAJOR sugar/processed carb addict. Majorly....omg.

Does anyone have any tips to survive the first two weeks? It's going to be BRUTAL!

I've got my book, having my grocery list ready to go....I saw that I can have sugar free hard candies and gum....Thank god....but do you have any tips for when the cravings are so bad that I feel like I'm going to die??

Thank you!

LivyB14

WTG!! I too am on SBD and I'm not going to lie, the first 3-4 days are tough BUT you have the books, the fresh veggies are essential and drinking a lot of water (to the point where it's coming out your ears) and you'll get through it. I promise!! You're the only one that can get you through it. Just keep telling yourself when you have a craving, and you will have them, "I know what it taste like and it'll be around in.....I don't NEED or WANT it". Those first 2 weeks, I did drink A LOT of green tea with lemon...did it help, IDK, just a tip

Friend me if you want when you start. Best of luck!!

Lobster1987

Did you do any journaling or anything to help or use some sort of distraction to help with the cravings? I'm so nervous about those....I KNOW it's going to be super rough...

SergeantSunshine_reused

I tried that (also a carb *kitten*) Made i through 6 days and binged like crazy.

mischa_12

Does anyone have a link to the meal plans? I would be interested in doing it with you as I too am addicted to carbs

Lobster1987

You can get the book from the library or like me, I bought it for my Kindle from Amazon. It was only $6.40. I don't think they list the plans anywhere because they want to make money. I bought the South Beach Diet Supercharged one...the updated version.

BrettPGH

Can I just say I love the phrase "Carb *kitten*"? It combines all my favorite things.

Good luck to you!

mzhokie

I love the South Beach Diet but yes, the first two weeks are hard. But from what I have read it's better than it use to be and the food list are better.

What I did is take the approved food list with me to the grocery store and only bought things on the list. I loved having a yes and no list! The only cheat we allowed that wasn't on the list was carrots. Baby Carrots help when the blood sugar is crashing.

The best is small snacks all day long. When we first did it veggies were unlimited so I would fix two or three veggies with our dinner. Just make sure you prepare them with very little oil etc. and fill up on them.

We did the deli meat roll ups for snacks. (I'm assuming these are still in the book) Eggs for breakfast. I made veggie omelets with egg beaters a lot. One good idea is to fill muffin tins with various veggies and pour egg beaters of them (spray with PAM first!) and bake them. Then heat them up in the morning.

Two weeks is about all I could take before I started adding carbs back. Now we basically cut out bad carbs..... not big on white flour, sugar and white potatoes.

I haven't read the revised edition of the diet. I know they added some things back to Phase 1 vs when it first came out. Really I like Phase 1 because it helps me break bad habits. I have always gone low carbs when I find myself eating bad stuff too much. It makes me eat veggies.

You can do it. If you have a sweet tooth I recommend No Sugar Added Fudgesicles and Sugar Free pudding. For my salt addiction I go with salted almonds. But we usually want just something small and sweet around 9 pm... so the pudding or a fudgesicle would work.

CMB1979

I lost 85 lbs on Atkins, but I think my advice is still valid for South Beach. (I'm back on here because I moved to South Korea and put on 25 lbs - low carb, sugar free, or gluten free (prepackaged) products don't exist here and I couldn't afford to keep paying $15 for a pound of ground beef...blah blah blah excuses... etc)

Anyway...........

I would avoid most "sugar free" candies. Gum isn't as bad, but he candy contains a lot of sugar alcohols. Some of them are as bad or worse than sugar and will make you crave the real thing even more. Plus, if you get a big need to binge on the candy, you'll live in the bathroom as the -titol's on the label are like laxatives.

First two weeks - lots and lots of water and snacking every couple hours on high protein foods. If you can find a food dehydrater, you can make your own chicken jerky, etc.

Lobster1987

Thanks for the tips. I like the eggs/veggies in muffin tin idea.

Lobster1987

Can you have any sugar free candy with phase 1 or is it only gum and hard candies?

Lobster1987

Bump? Is SBD not popular anymore?

AbsoluteNG

Bump? Is SBD not popular anymore?

I don't know much about south beach diet but after skimming the wiki article on how it works, you might as well just do PSMF. You'll drop the pounds much faster.

yesthistime

Low-carber group (SBD included):

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-group

thomo71

Don't do it!! I've lost a stone just sticking to my calories, you need carbs for energy. Depriving yourself only leads to binge eating!!
Humans were designed to eat a balanced diet, it's just that today we all eat too much. Hail to the Carbs. all said in jest of courseX:laugh:

kir911

south beach is kinda of similar to primal or paleo eating. I would suggest reading up on that....I try to follow the primal thing, it works for me. I love carbs and sugar too...so hard for me to stop, but, my body responds best to high protein/fat and and low starchy carbs. I still eat veggies but limit my fruit. I try and eat fruit when I have a sweet craving. I won't lie it's not easy, but once you get it out of your system, you don't crave it as much!

AbsoluteNG

After reading more about the South Beach Diet, you are basically cutting out most carbs during the first two weeks. You'll probably end up eating 20 grams of carbs a day at most. Is this correct? When you cut out so many carbs, you will feel extremely tired so you'll need caffeine to get you through the day. If you can make past day 3 or 4 then it should be smooth sailing from there since your body has converted completely over to fat as fuel instead of carbs. You'll know when your body has switched completely over when your pee is dark brown, has an extremely horrible stench to it, and you'll also have bad breath or bad body odor. The term for this is ketosis. You should not let your body stay in ketosis for too long as it can cause kidney damage, kidney stones, and other such things. It should be obvious to you that your kidneys are being overworked when your pee is a dark color. I don't really know how long is too long but most people on the bodybuilding forums go for no more then 3 weeks before they refeed with carbs. When you know that you're in ketosis, you might as well take advantage of it by keeping your calorie count low. Two more supplements you will need to take daily are fiber pills and omega 3 fish oil.

and... i think that's pretty much all i know about cutting carbs out of your diet.

rejoys

I am a diabetic and it was the south beach diet that helped me to understand how my body processes food. I fell off the wagon and almost 2 weeks ago I went back on the SBD. Yeah its hard but you have to continuely tell yourself that you are doing this to get rid of all the sugar/carbs out of your system so to speak. After a week it gets easier as you go and your getting closer to the point that you can eat carbs again. My diet started off with my boss bringing in her homemade gobbs (would kill for one) stayed away. Went home that day and my family was making homemade pizza. Couple days later my boss brings in the employee Easter Basket filled with little chocolates. Then I go home and my daughter is making cupcakes. I can honestly say I did stay away only by reminding myself that eating one was going to throw everything I was doing down the drain. I am almost thorough my second week and I can walk past the sweets without a problem infact I can smell the chocolate in the air and it is so sweet that it actually makes me wonder who would eat that kind of stuff. Just do your best and if you slip just continue on. Your worst enemy is that thought that you failed. Never let that thought in.

Elf_Princess1210

Get the south beach diet cookbook. The recipes in there are so inviting you won't miss the carbs!

Lobster1987

It's this first week that I'm really worried about. I already drink a buttload of coffee to stay awake at night for work. I know it's going to be REALLY rough for the first few days.

I'm just trying to see what people use as their go to when their inner carb *kitten* is trying to escape. Does sugar free gum help a lot? Etc...I'm scared, but I need to completely detox from processed carbs and sugar.

CMB1979

You should try to stay away from anything that even tastes sweet. Just the taste can set some people off as it does for me. My go to on Atkins was a small handful of Macadamia nuts (they're about 80% fat and really help).

Lobster1987

I should. Sweets are my downfall. Thank you!

aahd

Sugar free gum and candies are allowed on SBD but make sure to count your sweet treats to 70 calories per day!
you can also enjoy yogurt with Sugar free jam as a treat but also limit the dairy into 2 cups per day in phase 1 and 3 in phase 2
there a lot of carb free reciepes that you can enjoy in SBD!
Sugar free Jell-O is allowed too!

CaseRat

So you've had a DS Fat Malabsorption operation, and now you're cutting out most carbs on a fad diet?

Personally, I think you're going about getting healthy the wrong way. You eat 4000-7000 calories almost every day, and then some..

Just my opinion. Do what you want to your body; I prefer to eat healthily, exercise normally and have 'bad' things in moderation.

FoodieGal09

Best advice I can give is eat plenty of "good carbs". A glass of milk is a great pick me up when you start having a carb withdrawl headache. I would get up in the morning and drink a pint of water and a glass of milk straightaway.

There is a great forum out there on the interwebz and they're really lovely and supportive on it.

Basically, get used to eating lots of beans. Ideally you would eat at least 2 cups of beans a day. Roast chickpeas are great or shove a few tins of beans into your soup or chili and you're good to go!
Some other snacks which help stave off the carb withdrawl are nuts, light cheese, plain fat free yoghurt with agave, vegetables with peanut butter, hummus or guacamole.
My treat during those two weeks was a little tub of sugar free jelly.

SBD really is a lifestyle change and the first two weeks are not for the fainthearted. You will probably have 4-5 meals which you will stick to for 2 weeks which can get rather depressing! Best of luck!