South Beach should not be looked at as a diet per se. More like a lifestyle. In the last 10 years I have struggled with my weight, a fight to keep it off. I know many of you who will visit this site have suffered the same issues. And it isn’t that I am terribly overweight. Some of my friends call me “skinny fat”. My sister says for a skinny person I sure have a lot of body fat. And my sister and friends are all correct. I look slim enough, seem slender, but do have a high body fat content.
I found success with Weight Watchers though when I actually gained some real weight. Standing 5’2″ I should weigh no more than about 120lbs. Based on my bone size, I should fall in around 110lbs (give or take a few). But at my worst I weighed in at 149lbs. That was when I joined Weight Watchers. I was on their “Flex Plan”, a points based system which taught me to reduce my daily calorie intake. And to my elated surprise, it worked! I lost 26lbs. At 123lbs I was feeling great and looking great. I went off the program, and decided to switch to South Beach. I worked my way down to 116lbs. I was 27 years old and hadn’t been that slim since high school. I couldn’t have been happier. The trouble though, was that I was still riddled with body fat. And now, at 33 years old, I am still covered in fat.
Over the last few years I lost my way. Stopped with my South Beach teachings and found myself on a graduated body mass increase. Depression began to take its toll on me. I am desperately unhappy when I do not feel good about my appearance, shallow though that may be. And I found myself weighing in at between 123-125lbs depending on the lunar cycle. So once again I went onto Weight Watchers, this time with no measure of success. I realized that I had been consuming small amounts of calories in my daily life, but that I had been eating junk which was why I was in the predicament to begin with. And so with the support of my loving boyfriend, out went all the poor food choices in our home and life. I picked up my old South Beach book and we set out on a mission to better our lives, bodies, and spirits.
For those unfamiliar, the first 2 weeks of the South Beach diet are known as “Phase 1″. In phase 1 (the jump-start phase) you take away almost everything lol. No sugar, no starch, no wheats, no fruits. But it isn’t so bad. The point is to purge your body of the reliance on bad carbs. They say you can lose up to 12lbs in this 2 week period. I have not achieved that type of weight loss in phase 1, and I have not known anyone who has. Phase 2 of the diet allows you to gradually add back a few foods. Phase 2 is the longest phase as it is the one where you attain your weight loss goals. They say you can expect to lose 1-2 lbs per week in phase 2. In my experience, it is more like zero lbs to .5 lbs. Yes, I mean it, a half a pound a week at most. I know that seems daunting, but stick with it. They say that the longer it takes you to lose the weight, the better the odds of you keeping it off and the healthier the weight loss is. Then comes phase 3. That is the maintenance phase, which is essentially what you will eat for the rest of your life. It introduces a few “bad” carbs back in and keeps you on track. I have yet to make it to phase 3. It seems that along the way in phase 2 I hit a weight loss plateau where I am unable to lose any further weight/fat. I then get frustrated, and slowly begin to make bad eating choices. The end result is about a month later I end up on the heavy side and find myself starting phase 1 all over again. I would have to say that 3-4 months is the longest I have ever been faithful to the South Beach lifestyle.
It is a long process; a lifelong commitment, but my boyfriend and I are on board and hope you enjoy our journey with us. If you are on South Beach, or want to be, or even if you just want to eat healthier, this site will have loads of tips, recipes, and hopefully thoughts and stories from others in the same boat.
Cheers to eating well.
