Viral beach activity.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this postA friend emailed me last night informing me that she and her husband were going to start the South Beach Diet today. She wondered if I had any tips. She knew, of course, that I was following the diet. My activities had spread, like a virus, to my friends!
Best virus ever.
50,000 words later, I apologized for my excess and told her, in summation, that the first two weeks were really tough. "Stick with it and get through them and you're set," I essentially said.
The first two weeks for me, sugar addict, were brutal. Grogginess, mind fogginess, lethargy, insane cravings, lunacy, moods -- sugar is a hard addiction to break. By the end of the second week, though, I was doing much better.
We started the South Beach Diet at this house right after Thanksgiving, for various health reasons. It is always better if everyone in the house participates. I didn't weigh myself; I'd lost a bunch of weight a few years ago, put a little of it back on, and didn't want to depress myself with the number on the scale. As much as I love numbers for quantification and comparison purposes, I just didn't want to know.
I wish I'd at least weighed myself back in November. The South Beach Diet works. Seriously. I have lost some decent weight. I've got a long way to go, yes, but I can't believe how much my food tastes and cravings have changed, and how I've learned to want and appreciate healthy, tasteful food.
Me, junk food queen.
I heartily recommend South Beach if you want to lose weight, or if you just want to start eating better. I'm serious. It's good for your heart, diabetes, cholesterol, and blood pressure. And the food is darn good. So good, in fact, that I learned I can even cook where before I was all about opening a box and turning on the oven.
Get past the first two weeks, and you're set. Do it.
Labels: food, product placement
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 1/13/2008 06:16:00 PM
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2 Comments:
I'm not sure that all people need to do the "crash" portion of some of these low-carb diets. I didn't. The low-glycemic diet I've been on for the last two months has allowed me to drop 27 pounds by simply doing the less restrictive maintenance portion.
Just sayin'.
By 
dle, at
13/1/08 22:05
Hi Dan.
I have read some online forums which say the same thing. Some people are fine without the two weeks. Others were like me, who swore by the importance of the two week severe crash.
In cases like mine, where it was a combination of breaking food addictions as well as ingrained habits, I found it really important to whip myself in shape and do the "hard time" to kind of change the habits and such in my mind. For an "all or nothing" person like me, starting gradually wouldn't have a strong enough kick to get me really going in a different direction.
I think, for people like me who easily get locked into a kind of habit or addictive behavior, the "cold turkey" is less about the physiological aspect and more about changing a mindset. If that makes sense. Of course, the other side is that I become ingrained in never veering from the diet which, though sounds good, has the propensity of turning me into one of those annoying people who go to a party and won't eat anything and generally make a nuisance of themselves. So, in that case, I also have to learn to not let the new behavior take a stranglehold either.
Essentially, it's a mental game.
By Julie R. Neidlinger, at
13/1/08 22:15
