Day 1, South Beach, Here we go again
What is it about turning 40 that makes our bodies suddenly decide to become "old". Creaks, cracks and groans when we start to move after being stationary for a bit, mornings come and we want to stay in bed, the cold or the hot bothers us more. And then there is the whole weight gain/metabolism thing. Two years ago I lost 30 lbs. I went from 175 (yikes) to 145. It was wonderful. I did the south beach diet, and really embraced it in terms of a way of life rather than looking at it as a diet. But after 9 months of eating pretty much the same thing I went into "maintenance" mode. Well after a year of that, I just went back to eating the old way, pretty much stuffing whatever junk in my mouth I wanted. And of course as a result, gained back 10 lbs of the original 30. I also had wanted (originally) to lose an additional 20 making the total weight loss at 50 lbs, and me at 125. But besides being tired of the same way of eating, I had plateau’ed and wasn’t losing any additional weight anyway. I hit the wall so to speak.
This last weight gain in the last few months of 5 lbs has sent me over the edge, and so today I am again on the south beach diet. I know from previous experience that the first 3 days of breaking the carb addiction are the worst. By Wednesday, I’m likely to be the biggest bitch on this side of the planet. I really really love carbs. If I were to chose one food category that I had to eat from, and nothing else it would be carbs. I could do without just about anything else. But of course, I’m not just talking about the sugary fattening crazy carbs, but fruits and starchy vegetables, beans, etc. I like them all. So doing without is really difficult.
The first time around, I chose SB because it explained really well what the carb cycle does to our bodies. We are constantly in a state of glycemic shift, either up or down. This is the American way, the great American diet. Partially because we eat just 3 meals a day, and then when hungry in between gorge ourselves on foods that are not good for us, but also because we have this way of not combining good foods with bad. For example, if you are going to eat foods that have carbs, combine them with fiber. This slows digestion and there isn’t the same sugar rush to the bloodstream. The whole idea I took from the SB diet is that it’s all about eating foods as close to what they came from as possible. Always reminded me of Euell Gibbons and the commercial about eating a pine tree. But the truth is, the closer to nature the food is, the healthier it is. Therefore, those twinkies, that double chocolate dutch caramel cookie fudge ribbon ice cream, and that wheatable cracker are all about as healthy. Don’t be tricked by "whole grain" in the title. Don’t be fooled by the other tricks the food manufacturers play with us in labeling games. Read them. See the ration of carbs/sugars/fiber. If it’s truly "whole grain" there will be a bigger proportion of fiber to carbs.
So I’m off again. Here to lose yet another 30 lbs. Maybe I’ll actually have lost enough to feel good about my body again by Thunder
Technorati Tags: South Beach Diet, healthy eating, diets, carbohydrates, glycemic index
