Update
I may have mentioned a while ago that I started a diet blog. So far Ive lost about 7lb and today Im wearing jeans that have sat in my closet for a good deal of time. Needless to say Im pretty happy and almost excited to see what my cholesterol levels are now. As a consequence I've been actually more active on that site. Here is something of a cross post as I realized that you cant really keep food separate from life. So here is what's been going on with me lately.
---
I've been firmly on phase 2 now and things have gone fairly smooth. I've had instances where my meal went completely off diet but the next day always brings things back again. Even with these few major (Del Taco on wed night) and minor (Chicken Marsala and too much non diet raspberry iced tea) detours I am still losing weight. Not as dramatically as I had been, or probably even could be but steady wins the race and Id rather keep things encouraging AND manageable. Considering the serious, serious lack of exercise on my part for several weeks I am pretty ecstatic about reporting myself below 136 today for the first time in over a year.
This puts me JUST BARELY within a normal BMI. While I dont give a crap about BMI, it was rather awesome to see my WiiFit Mii actually jump up and hooray instead of the usual slump and high pitched reminder of 'you're overweight.'
What amazes me the most about this whole thing is how much you dont realize what is 'good' or 'bad' for you. I used to think eggs bad and fruit juice good. Now its eggs good, fruit juice bad; apples good, pineapple & banana bad; rice bad, cheese good and the list goes on. Im really rather happy that red meat and cheese arent so bad as scientists used to think (thank you advances in instruments and federal research money). I'm not a dieting person and giving up cheese and red meat last year to reduce my cholesterol was total hell. Hence why I couldnt stick to it and I really didnt lose weight until I got depressed, lost my appetite and then almost only ate vegetables for like a month. That is not a long term healthy way to weight loss, as evidenced by the rebound of said weight. This current 'diet'/lifestyle thing I can actually totally do, especially if it includes red meat and lots of cheese.
---
Nicole gained like 50 lbs while living with her junk food eating boyfriend and had been trying to workout and eat right for months now. She took my advice and started the South Beach Diet about 1 week ago. She hasn't actually read the book but I gave her the use of my copy of the small purse size book that has all the Foods to Eat and Foods to Avoid etc. in it. She took it to the grocery store with her and hasn't looked back. She hasn't weighed herself, mostly because earlier she had been afraid of the scale and then the batteries ran out. Last night though she told me her face had gotten thinner and she feels that her pants are less tight which are all good signs. She is a bit more dedicated and hasn't cheated once! Im pretty darn proud of her.
I was also glad I wasnt the only one who thought how weird it was that food altogether tasted differently and better. Sweet things are sweeter or even too sweet. Raw vegetables actually taste kinda yummy. I would never eat celery before. At first with a little cheese I would just stuff it down. Now I adore raw vegetables with broccoli as my fav and I even like celery! Nicole has reported similar feelings. I mentioned how awesome the diet was in passing to a few friends... now if I could only get John to do it. And Dimitri. And Morgan. And Charles. Weird that I mostly feel my guy friends need it. I guess they just seem far more clueless about anything health related. Well if they are offended they can prove me wrong. What's the worst that could happen.. they learn something new and live longer and happier?
Last night I went to the bookstore and picked up a nice little kit that I can put recipes in. I also couldn't resist the Taste of Summertime SBD cookbook. Now Im only missing the Holidays and Parties cookbook. I'll probably see if I can score that one for my birthday. I also bought the new updated SBD: Supercharged which is something of an update on the original diet (first published 5 years ago) and now includes some very interesting things on exercise. They even have a workout DVD. I had planned on giving the book to Nicole but ended up reading it myself. Im sure she wont mind if I copy a few pages of the exercises before I give it to her :D
---
I've been firmly on phase 2 now and things have gone fairly smooth. I've had instances where my meal went completely off diet but the next day always brings things back again. Even with these few major (Del Taco on wed night) and minor (Chicken Marsala and too much non diet raspberry iced tea) detours I am still losing weight. Not as dramatically as I had been, or probably even could be but steady wins the race and Id rather keep things encouraging AND manageable. Considering the serious, serious lack of exercise on my part for several weeks I am pretty ecstatic about reporting myself below 136 today for the first time in over a year.
This puts me JUST BARELY within a normal BMI. While I dont give a crap about BMI, it was rather awesome to see my WiiFit Mii actually jump up and hooray instead of the usual slump and high pitched reminder of 'you're overweight.'
What amazes me the most about this whole thing is how much you dont realize what is 'good' or 'bad' for you. I used to think eggs bad and fruit juice good. Now its eggs good, fruit juice bad; apples good, pineapple & banana bad; rice bad, cheese good and the list goes on. Im really rather happy that red meat and cheese arent so bad as scientists used to think (thank you advances in instruments and federal research money). I'm not a dieting person and giving up cheese and red meat last year to reduce my cholesterol was total hell. Hence why I couldnt stick to it and I really didnt lose weight until I got depressed, lost my appetite and then almost only ate vegetables for like a month. That is not a long term healthy way to weight loss, as evidenced by the rebound of said weight. This current 'diet'/lifestyle thing I can actually totally do, especially if it includes red meat and lots of cheese.
---
Nicole gained like 50 lbs while living with her junk food eating boyfriend and had been trying to workout and eat right for months now. She took my advice and started the South Beach Diet about 1 week ago. She hasn't actually read the book but I gave her the use of my copy of the small purse size book that has all the Foods to Eat and Foods to Avoid etc. in it. She took it to the grocery store with her and hasn't looked back. She hasn't weighed herself, mostly because earlier she had been afraid of the scale and then the batteries ran out. Last night though she told me her face had gotten thinner and she feels that her pants are less tight which are all good signs. She is a bit more dedicated and hasn't cheated once! Im pretty darn proud of her.
I was also glad I wasnt the only one who thought how weird it was that food altogether tasted differently and better. Sweet things are sweeter or even too sweet. Raw vegetables actually taste kinda yummy. I would never eat celery before. At first with a little cheese I would just stuff it down. Now I adore raw vegetables with broccoli as my fav and I even like celery! Nicole has reported similar feelings. I mentioned how awesome the diet was in passing to a few friends... now if I could only get John to do it. And Dimitri. And Morgan. And Charles. Weird that I mostly feel my guy friends need it. I guess they just seem far more clueless about anything health related. Well if they are offended they can prove me wrong. What's the worst that could happen.. they learn something new and live longer and happier?
Last night I went to the bookstore and picked up a nice little kit that I can put recipes in. I also couldn't resist the Taste of Summertime SBD cookbook. Now Im only missing the Holidays and Parties cookbook. I'll probably see if I can score that one for my birthday. I also bought the new updated SBD: Supercharged which is something of an update on the original diet (first published 5 years ago) and now includes some very interesting things on exercise. They even have a workout DVD. I had planned on giving the book to Nicole but ended up reading it myself. Im sure she wont mind if I copy a few pages of the exercises before I give it to her :D