The South Beach Diet
I am currently on the South Beach Diet. I have become a convert, singing its praises due to, among other things, the 15 pounds I lost in the first two weeks. The food for Phase 1 (no carbs, no sugar, low saturated and trans fats) was good, and the first two weeks make quite a difference, so I was exceptionally diligent. When I hit Phase 2, I stopped because of all the time I'd had to spend in the kitchen during Phase 1 (I enjoy cooking, don't get me wrong, but I was tethered to my kitchen, and meals started turning into a chore), and I didn't really do a very good job of sticking to Phase 2. On the plus side, I didn't come anywhere near gaining the weight back (a couple pounds, but within my normal flux), and so I return to Phase 1 with renewed resolve: I'm going to lose even more weight and do a better job of sticking to Phase 2 when the time comes.
For those who are curious or dubious of the merits of a fad diet such as this and those who are devotees looking for more qualifying meals, I invite you to peruse my photo album, for all of this was at least as good to eat as it looked.
This was a steak marinated in port wine with cumin and rosemary, covered in bleu cheese and mushroom sauce (h/t Kevin at Closet Cooking) and a side of broccoli spears in cheese sauce (h/t Green Giant).
A delicious Gyro Salad; gyro meat, tomatoes, onions, spinach, red peppers, feta crumbles and tzatziki sauce. The gyro meat, tomatoes and onions came from a gyro place down the street. The nice thing about this is that in the Chicago suburbs, gyro places always give you way more lamb than one person can eat, so the meat was split among two salads that were the perfect size to be a meal for one person each. Also, it's pretty darn amazing to me just how well this worked. It's like a bed of spinach is at least as well suited to shaved lamb as a fried pita, if not better. Who knew?
These are the sukiyaki fixins I just posted about last night. This is both OK for the diet and lots of fun to eat.
This is a No-Name Steak with carmelized onions, sliced green bell peppers and homemade hummus. This was a nice quickie meal (the No-Name Steaks come marinated and vacuum-sealed, so they're perfect for Sous Vide) and everything complemented everything else; the onions, having been sauteed in cooking sherry, were mildly sweet and a forkful of them went extremely nicely with the hot, savory steak, a bite of which also meshed surprisingly well with the cool, salty hummus (actually, a little too salty for normal use, which somehow translated to perfection here), which, though it was meant for the pepper slices, also chased a bite of onions like a twenty dollar bill on a string. For such a thrown-together meal, I was really quite pleased with its flavorful teamwork (sadly, my camera was not in such a co-operative mood; this giant blur was the best picture I could get out of it that night).
Chicken marinated in rosemary and white wine, cooked Sous Vide and served with a piping hot bowl of tomato and roasted red pepper soup covered in fresh, grated parmesan cheese. This one was another simple one, and it was fantastic. The chicken was among the juiciest I've ever eaten and the soup... well, it came from a box. It's good soup, though; it's one of those organic soups that often find themselves next to other soups with pictures of Emeril LaGasse or Wolfgang Puck on the box.
South Beach's biggest drawback is that it's a lot of work; there are no store-bought, mail-order or otherwise prepared meals available for Phase 1, which means you're going to be in the kitchen a lot. This is not a diet for those who don't enjoy cooking (or live with someone who does).
For those who are curious or dubious of the merits of a fad diet such as this and those who are devotees looking for more qualifying meals, I invite you to peruse my photo album, for all of this was at least as good to eat as it looked.
This was a steak marinated in port wine with cumin and rosemary, covered in bleu cheese and mushroom sauce (h/t Kevin at Closet Cooking) and a side of broccoli spears in cheese sauce (h/t Green Giant).
A delicious Gyro Salad; gyro meat, tomatoes, onions, spinach, red peppers, feta crumbles and tzatziki sauce. The gyro meat, tomatoes and onions came from a gyro place down the street. The nice thing about this is that in the Chicago suburbs, gyro places always give you way more lamb than one person can eat, so the meat was split among two salads that were the perfect size to be a meal for one person each. Also, it's pretty darn amazing to me just how well this worked. It's like a bed of spinach is at least as well suited to shaved lamb as a fried pita, if not better. Who knew?
These are the sukiyaki fixins I just posted about last night. This is both OK for the diet and lots of fun to eat.
This is a No-Name Steak with carmelized onions, sliced green bell peppers and homemade hummus. This was a nice quickie meal (the No-Name Steaks come marinated and vacuum-sealed, so they're perfect for Sous Vide) and everything complemented everything else; the onions, having been sauteed in cooking sherry, were mildly sweet and a forkful of them went extremely nicely with the hot, savory steak, a bite of which also meshed surprisingly well with the cool, salty hummus (actually, a little too salty for normal use, which somehow translated to perfection here), which, though it was meant for the pepper slices, also chased a bite of onions like a twenty dollar bill on a string. For such a thrown-together meal, I was really quite pleased with its flavorful teamwork (sadly, my camera was not in such a co-operative mood; this giant blur was the best picture I could get out of it that night).
Chicken marinated in rosemary and white wine, cooked Sous Vide and served with a piping hot bowl of tomato and roasted red pepper soup covered in fresh, grated parmesan cheese. This one was another simple one, and it was fantastic. The chicken was among the juiciest I've ever eaten and the soup... well, it came from a box. It's good soup, though; it's one of those organic soups that often find themselves next to other soups with pictures of Emeril LaGasse or Wolfgang Puck on the box.
South Beach's biggest drawback is that it's a lot of work; there are no store-bought, mail-order or otherwise prepared meals available for Phase 1, which means you're going to be in the kitchen a lot. This is not a diet for those who don't enjoy cooking (or live with someone who does).