You have to starve to lose weight, right? Wrong! I had always thought the only way to lose a few pounds was to starve myself until the weight was gone. Boy was I ever wrong.
When I first heard about the South Beach Diet, and watched the people around me eating all kinds of great foods, I figured this was just another fad diet that would disappear after everyone realized it didn’t work. But it does work. People are losing weight and eating too.
Completely flabbergasted at how much food my brother was eating on the program, I logged onto the South Beach Diet website to find out what it was all about. That’s when I learned the simple truth about dieting: not only do you not need to starve yourself to lose weight – you actually lose more weight if you eat!
Unlike a lot of other diets that make you count calories, count carbs and either eliminate all fats and protein, or gorge on them all day long, South Beach doesn’t require counting anything, and it lets you eat plenty of nutritious foods like all the other people around you.
Developed by a leading research cardiologist with Mount Sinai Medical Center, I found South Beach to be completely safe and heart healthy – a plus for someone like me in their 50s who’s worried about their cholesterol and what it’s doing to their heart.
Unable to completely give up food – even to lose a few pounds – I was thrilled to discover that the South Beach Diet would allow me to eat until I was satisfied, as long as I chose highly nutritious foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and cheeses and low-sugar snacks.
Scrambled eggs for breakfast, all types of soups and salads for lunch, and plenty of grilled or sauteed fish, chicken, pork and even lean beef are all allowed in Phases II and III. Believe it or not, dessert isn’t even off limits with this diet.
So, how does South Beach work if you’re allowed to continue eating until you’re full? The answer is in Phase I, which by the way, is the hardest part of the program. During this first 2-week time period, the diet does severely restrict what you can eat, but not how much you can eat.
In the first two weeks of the South Beach Diet, followers are required to give up all sugars and carbohydrates in order to break their body’s unhealthy addiction to processed foods, starches and sugars.
Since you’re basically going “cold turkey” on sugar and carbs, you can expect to feel pretty lousy for the first several days. I personally experienced headaches, listlessness and severe crankiness. But, to be honest, it didn’t last long, and since I had plenty of other food choices to keep me feeling full, I wasn’t hungry at all.
Once my addiction to the junky foods was broken, and my body’s glucose levels were able to naturally even out and stay at the same levels throughout the day, I suddenly felt a burst of energy like I hadn’t had in years. No more ups and downs during the day depending on what snack food I was relying on to keep me going. Better yet, my cravings for sugar and carbohydrates were disappearing – a miracle!
Once my addiction was broken and my cravings subsided during Phase I, I was able to reintroduce some of those forbidden foods like breads, brown rice, fresh fruit, juices and even some desserts. Funny, though, with my carb addiction broken, I didn’t crave those foods like I once had, and a few bites of a baked potato along with a nice piece of chicken and some grilled vegetables straight from my garden now satisfied me.
Before long I was noticing that my pants were getting bigger and my waistline was getting smaller, all while I continued to eat as much as I wanted of the foods that were good for me.
I can honestly say that South Beach has been less of a diet for me and more of an awakening on how good I can feel eating the foods that my body most deserves. Try it. You’ll be surprised at how good you can feel – and look!

Technorati Tags: Beach, Diet, foods

Do you have any? The “potato” can be real or can be anything that tastes like a potato, but remember that it has to be low in carbs and fat. As far as fat is concerned, don’t count the butter and cheese. I have low-fat alternatives for those. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: carb, recipes

I grew up in a vegetarian family. As a child, I had more grains,
vegetables, and soy products than most people will eat in a
lifetime. When I was about 16 years old, I had had enough–I
wanted to eat meat! At first, it was strange cooking with real
meat. After all, I had never touched meat before, so I was a
little repulsed by it at the beginning. But over time, I learned
how to cook meat and found that I really loved cooking. But, I
never really felt quite right about eating meat. Since my
formative years were spent living a healthy vegetarian
lifestyle, the new meat-eating me felt sluggish and unhealthy.
Sluggish or not, I continued to eat meat into my adult years. I
knew I needed to make a change in my diet, but I wasn’t sure
exactly how to go about it. How could I have ever guessed that
my daughter would be that catalyst for a change that I’d needed
since I was a teen myself?

One of the unique joys of motherhood has been nurturing a mutual
relationship with my children: I inspire them, and they inspire
me. As they grow into their own personalities and pursuits, I am
constantly amazed–and sometimes caught entirely off guard–by
their independence and self-declarations. For example, a short
while ago, my eldest daughter stood up at the dinner table,
after stirring her food around on her plate for a while, and
announced that she wanted to be a vegetarian. I was surprised at
her announcement. I was not surprised at all, however,
when–without any arguments–the rest of the kids and I decided
that we would all “go vegetarian” together as a family. I’d been
considering it for quite some time, but wanted the kids to
decide for themselves.

The impact of that decision was bigger and better than I could
have ever imagined. I quickly realized that, not only was I
reducing injury to the health of our planetary body and our
animal friends, I was also starting to see an amazing difference
in my own body. Within weeks, my digestion improved; I had more
energy; and, the insomnia I had suffered from for so many years
was suddenly gone! But, with all this positive affirmation, I
was quite surprised to find that I wasn’t experiencing the kind
of weight loss I had anticipated when I returned to my
vegetarian ways. Frankly, I was disappointed because–health
aside–I wanted to lose weight.

I began my search for the perfect, veggie-friendly weight loss
solution. As have so many others, I read extensively on the most
popular low carb diets on the marketplace today, including the
Atkins Nutritional Approach™, the South Beach Diet, The Zone,
and other low-carb diet plans. Although I could readily see the
benefits of living the low carb lifestyle, I found no low carb
diet plans available in the marketplace that would be acceptable
to vegetarians. Meat is at the center of each and every low carb
plan.

If I wanted to lose weight by using a low carb diet, I would
have to either be A) willing to eat meat, or B) put my research,
cooking, and vegetarian skills to good use and develop a plan
that allows vegetarians to successfully lose weight without
compromising their food and lifestyle ideals. Since eating meat
was not an option for me or my family, I chose Plan B!

To those ends, I was particularly interested in the G.I. Diet, a
book by Rick Gallop, which emphasizes a healthy, low carb diet
plan that doesn’t completely exclude carbohydrates from the
daily meals. The diet is more focused on the process of reducing
and/or eliminating foods in the diet that increase blood sugar
while increasing foods that are low on the Glycemic Index scale.
This combination leads to effective and healthy weight loss.

The G.I. Diet asks people to consider changing the way they
think about themselves, the foods they eat, and dieting in
general. As such, if the commitment is made, the diet is
sustainable and nutritionally-viable so one could reasonably
maintain it long after the weight has come off. However, the
G.I. Diet is not vegetarian.

So, with research in hand, I began thinking about how I could
merge the valuable contributions of Gallop and a low carb diet
together with a vegetarian lifestyle. After extensive trial and
error in the kitchen–some things just don’t taste right no
matter how good they are for you–I created a series of fun,
easy, and amazing ways to re-design some of the most delicious
recipes to make them both low carb and vegetarian. I’d finally
found a way that I could lose weight, be healthy, and live well
as a vegetarian.

When my family and friends saw me lose over 20 pounds in less
than 3 months, the questions started pouring in:

How did you do that?

What are you eating?

How do you make vegetarian chicken parmesan and vegetarian beef
stroganoff?

Where’s the meat?

Where do you get your protein?

How can you eat low carb when you aren’t eating meat?

My answers to those questions and the countless recipes that I
scribbled down for my friends and families became the backbone
of this FREE book, Living La Vida Low Carb: The Vegetarian Way,
which can be found for free at
http://www.VegetarianLowCarb.com,that I share with you now. I
can’t tell you that you’ll experience the same results as I did.
I can tell you–with pride and honesty–that these recipes can
help you achieve a healthier, more balanced diet. And,
thankfully, the book demonstrates that losing weight as a low
carb vegetarian no longer means peanut butter and tofu at every
meal! Good luck and good health!

Technorati Tags: carb, vegetarian

I just wanted to give some people out there some ideas on what to eat on a low carb diet.

Technorati Tags: carb, lifestyle

Listen to the Lowcarbshow.com weekly podcast podcast.com Low Carb, Low Fat Diets can be hell – here is a great BBC Documentary about it….

Technorati Tags: Diets