South Beach Diet Support and Chat Thread!

I just started Phase I today. Any tips advice etc?? So far so good and it's half way through the day.

Great job completing Phase I!!! :drinker:

How much did you lose and where??

Good luck starting Phase II.

(katie, this will be a rerun for you )

I lost 71 lb in 7 months 3 years ago on SBD, then let life get the better of me. So I'm going down the same road again; I'm going to DO IT and STICK WITH IT this time! Phase 1 can be really great for a kick start! If you have not much to lose or you've been eating pretty healthily before you started SBD, your weight loss won't be as dramatic, but your health improvements will still be great, and you will lose, just maybe not as fast.

Tips: Read the SBD book by Dr. Agatston if you haven't already. He spells things out so clearly and easy-to-understand form. When things make sense to me, it's so much easier for me to follow them. If it just seems like a random rule, then if I don't like it, it's stupid and why should I follow it, right? If you don't have the book, most libraries do, so you can check it out. The actual explanation part is just the first 1/4 of the book or so; the rest are food lists, sample menus, and recipes.

The second thing is just stick to Dr. A's guidelines and don't freak out about whatever the scale is doing for the first 3 or 4 weeks. Your body is going through a MAJOR adjustment, flushing out all the bad crap, adjusting to not having the bad crap, adjusting to the new influx of all that healthy fiber, etc. First time around in 08', I weighed after one week on Phase 1. I'd lost 10 lbs! Now, I had 114 lbs to lose, but still! I'd been eating--plenty! If I got any "hunger pangs", no matter when, I ate a bite of string cheese, or some raw cauliflower, or sauteed mushrooms or something. I was blown away, delighted, but blown away. Then I weighed at the end of next week, the end of Phase 1 for me. I had lost NOTHING. I was devastated. It almost derailed me. But I re-read the book, saw that it said my body was busy adjusting to things so not to panic. So I kept on. I weighed once a week, and the next couple of weeks were also wonky. Maybe no gains, but not much in the line of loss. I thought, I've done all this work for a month now, and I lost everything I'm going to be able to in the first week?! Is this worth is? But then, suddenly my body settled in, and from then on, most weeks I lost 2-3 lbs. It slowed some as I got lower on the scale, and I would still occasionally stall for a week or two or even three. But it always started again.

Also, make sure besides weighing, you've measured yourself. At least the "big 3" I call them--bustline, waist, and hips. But I also did just about everything else--neck chest above breasts, ribcage, upper arm, mid thigh, calf, ankle, wrist, and ring finger! I did that because there is always somewhere that is shrinking on SBD. Your hips might stay the same one month, but your upper arm goes down by a 1/2". Next month, the hips suddenly lose a 1/2" or inch, but your waist stays the same. Next time, maybe your thighs and bustline reduce. So no matter what the scale is doing, the tape measure is showing love.

One last tip, especially during Phase 1, do eat at least one serving of beans a day, like great northerns, or pinto, or red beans, etc. They have fiber to help keep you full, plus they help keep the digestive system plugging along nicely, which can be a problem if you eat too much cheese, as a lot of ppl do on Phase 1. The beans also help avoid "SBD flu", which is just a feeling of being a little "off" for a day or two, usually around days 3-5, a little tired, lethargic, etc. So make a pot of chili and include beans in it and eat a bowl a day, or throw some on your taco salad. Or eat them mixed with sauteed onion, mushroom, etc and maybe with some turkey or chicken sausage. Yum! They are calorie dense, so you have to keep an eye on them, but they are very filling, and do so much good for you that it truly is a very wise idea to make sure you get them in daily the first couple of weeks, at least.

Mostly through my mid-section is where I lost. Approximately 10 pounds. Advice.... When you are having a freak out I am gonna eat everything in the house moment.... Try drinking a glass of milk... I did this once and found that in the time it took me to chug about 2 cups...I felt full and the crazy moment passed.

Another bit of advice... Keep snacks around and TRY to have some variety. I even kept some "not so healthy" snacks...just to fill the void, give some satisfaction, and variety. Mind you, I didn't make my whole day junk..but every once in a while I ate beef jerky and pork rinds! lol...

I love eggs...so that was easy for me.

Good luck and let me know if you need any help. I'm excited to meet someone who is joining me! Maybe we can get a little group going. I would LOVE that!

Posh I just saw your post... I replied to you in message but didn't realize you'd answered here. LOL You'll do great in Phase II I'm sure!!! I'd be scared too.... Are we allowed to do sugar free chocolate milk syrup in milk? I love choc milk but not such a big fan of plain white milk unless it's in cereal and well.....

Mostly through my mid-section is where I lost. Approximately 10 pounds. Advice.... When you are having a freak out I am gonna eat everything in the house moment.... Try drinking a glass of milk... I did this once and found that in the time it took me to chug about 2 cups...I felt full and the crazy moment passed.

Another bit of advice... Keep snacks around and TRY to have some variety. I even kept some "not so healthy" snacks...just to fill the void, give some satisfaction, and variety. Mind you, I didn't make my whole day junk..but every once in a while I ate beef jerky and pork rinds! lol...

I love eggs...so that was easy for me.

Good luck and let me know if you need any help. I'm excited to meet someone who is joining me! Maybe we can get a little group going. I would LOVE that!

Posh I just saw your post... I replied to you in message but didn't realize you'd answered here. LOL You'll do great in Phase II I'm sure!!! I'd be scared too.... Are we allowed to do sugar free chocolate milk syrup in milk? I love choc milk but not such a big fan of plain white milk unless it's in cereal and well.....

I'm pretty sure the sugar free stuff is allowed. I'm still very new to this, so if anyone sees a mistake of mine, please correct me! I need to know too so that I'm doing it right to get the best result.

I am going back to reread the book again (I got it from the library last week ) and I am pretty sure it said sugar free choc syrup was ok as well as skim milk so I think I'll be ok... but I want to double check just in case....

Today I moved to the next week in my running program and I definitely didn't feel sloggy,... not sure if it's no carbs yesterday weighing me down or if I just had God running along with me... I sure was praying a lot while running LOL but whatever the reason I felt awesome (I'm sure it was God LOL) and I managed to run further and faster before!!! It was awesome!!!

How did your first day of phase II go????

I'm wondering, are you eating things that have either hidden sugar or sodium in them? That "starving" feeling could be from too few calories, or it might actually be a chemical craving, your body pleading for more bad carbs to go with the ones it just got an hour or two ago.

An interesting thought. I've gone back through my diary, and on my 'binge' days, I'm definitely going over on sodium and sugars. Not surprising. On 'good' days, I'm under on sodium, but over on sugars, but it's often with foods like yogurt, fruits, and sweet potatoes. So, I'm not sure. Maybe I need to go back to plain nonfat yogurt or cottage cheese. :-( I like my yogurts, though!

Are you eating the No Sugar Added yogurts? "Light" yogurts are light on fat, but not on sugar in one form or another. Fruits and dairy products both have natural sugars in them, so the container can't say "sugar free" but it will say "no sugar added" if it truly doesn't have sucrose or fructose in it.

It's also possible that you are having issues with a "trigger" food. Myself, I don't do well with peaches. They tend to throw me into cravings like crazy. I've learned mostly to avoid them, or if I really want to eat them, to do so in the evening so I can sleep through most of the cravings! :bigsmile: You may be having the same type of response to something you're eating, a specific fruit, or maybe the sweet potatoes. Try an experiment; try eating only the one kind of fruit for a couple of days (w/o the yogurt and sweet potatoes) and see if you have any "hunger pangs". If nothing happens, then try a couple of days of eating the sweet potatoes, etc. You may not have a problem or "trigger" food, but you may. That's why it's best to really easy slowly into phase 2, taking a couple of days to watch your body's response to each new addition, to see if you're going to have any problems. Also, sometimes a certain combination of two foods might be a problem, like if it's two higher-sugar foods together, especially if you're not eating any fat or protein with them. A bite of cheese with a sweet fruit can help slow down the rush of sugar into the system.

LOL Tausha... too funny!!!

OK so I can feel the carb craving starting to kick in... I am at my desk at work and drinking water, and googling between calls... just ordered a really adorable pair of black riding boots... went to retailmenot.com and found a 30% off coupon for the avenue... so trying to stay off of food and on to cute clothes which will get cuter as I get smaller LOL attached a link for a pic of the boots...

Any other advice for this crazy craving... I am out of snacks so nothing to munch on....

http://www.avenue.com/clothing/Ellen-Stretch-Riding-Boot.aspx?PfId=247122&DeptId=19963&ProductTypeId=1

I will be starting phase 1 tomorrow again i tried it a little while back and i fell off the wagon the milk idea is great i had never that of that ! Thanx

Hi! I just started today. Good luck!

Hello everyone. My name is Noelle. I started Atkins last wed (the 5th I believe) Then decided that South beach sounded healthier. Ive done atkins before, but never SB. Im excited. I have so many more foods I can eat I feel like Im cheating LOL!!!!
Loving the idea of having some support though. Feel free to friend me, as Im new to myfitnesspal and dont have many on here to keep me in line.

Ok I have a question. I have a friend who is doing SBD and has done it in the past, and she is saying that we need to limit cheese, and really shouldnt have much dairy??? Anyone else heard that????