Friday, February 16, 2007

My South Beach Diet Phase One Journal

Many of my posts mention the South Beach Dietand how much I love it. It's been almost a year since I started it and lost 20 pounds. The 20 pounds are still off and I mean to actually revert back to a stint on Phase One to lose another 5 pounds or so. But in the meantime, I'm happy fluctuating between Phase Two and Phase Three.

And why this rambling you might ask? I was looking for an old recipe and came across my posts chronicling my journey through the early stages. So I thought of those of you just starting out on the SBD (or at least thinking about it) and decided to share my musings again. But before I do, I want to make it clear that I sometimes cheated, I rarely stuck to tiny portions and I didn't exercise as much as I should have. One of the things I really love about this diet is the fact that you don't have to be very restrictive (obviously the more closely you follow the recommendations....well, you know the rest).

I used it as a guideline to better, healthier eating habits. Before SBD we were very meat and potatoes. The meat was not a challenge really, just a move from rib steak (very fatty) to strip loin (much leaner but still very flavorful), less stews and more grilling or quick sautees in a non-stick pan with a tiny hit of olive oil. The potato part, on the other hand....well, I still miss them and eat them only rarely, but I've discovered a million delicious things to do with sweet potatoes and cauliflower. Check out the vegetable section (remember, not all the recipes are for South Beach, but most of them are). My other weakness is pasta and I discovered that multigrain versions are quite tasty and much healthier. And did I mention sweets? The cassata pictured above was our celebration at the end of Phase One.

Enough babbling...here's a look at my journey and the menus I chose along the route.



Day One - Mini Egg Quiches for breakfast, Steak kebabs and salad with avocado dressing and mocha ricotta cups for dessert.



Day Two - The highlight was dinner - surf 'n turf but the leftover leek spinach & mushroom soup for lunch was very tasty.

Day Three - Inventive tuna salad for lunch, chipotle hummus stuffed celery stalks for a snack and delicious roasted salmon for dinner. So far, life is good (although better for me, since my Honey is getting tired of Wendy's salads for lunch - unfortunately that's the only option near his client's office).

Day Four - Steak and asparagus for dinner, but I wasn't a happy camper. You'll have to read to find out why.


Day Five - Balsamic chicken breasts and roasted broccoli at home for my Honey was much better than a restaurant meal I tried...

The Weekend-usually our biggest challenge, and I must admit to being a little bitchy by now.

Day Nine - and, yes...I'm counting down to the end of Phase one - 5 more days! I just kept thinking about how I was going to celebrate.


Day Ten - my birthday and we went out to dinner so I did have a glass of wine with my steak and veggies, but should have stayed home!

Day Eleven - better than eating out

Day Twelve - a much better day!


Day Fourteen - we made it!!!! Although he did better than I did initially, 10 pounds for him and only 5 for me at this stage.

And probably what I should have stated up front....MODERATION! It's the key to Phase Two.

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3 comments:

Kalyn Denny said...

Interesting to see how you got started. I can't remember at all what I ate at first.

Melting Wok said...

ahh..now I see why all the scrumptious fish post :) I really like what you been doing, always use herbs and spices, and we can forget bout msg's sugars and sodiums hehe, oo..what about the carbs ? do you take rice at all ? I been doing browns for a while now, but sometimes I have to have white with my spicy curries hehe..:) Thanks for sharing, cheers !:)

Ruth Daniels said...

Kalyn, I normally wouldn't remember either - one great reason for the blog!

Melting wok - of course I do rice (I really do prefer white) and I have made a great baked brown rice that I thought I shared on my blog, but I don't think I ever did. Thanks for reminding me. I'll be making some soon.