South Beach Diet

I’m getting ready to start the South Beach diet. Yesterday I added
the Phase 1 Day 1 plan to my meal planning system. (I use Living
Cookbook — www.livingcookbook.com — I’ll be happy to tell you all
more about it in a separate post if you’re interested. It was a
great help when I was doing Weight Watchers.) I noticed that the
menu plan as written is actually quite low in calories at 1092. I’m
sure that’s part of why it works so well in those first couple
weeks. For those who have been in Weight Watchers before, the points
value came to 26.6 for that day. According to Weight Watchers, that
points value would be an appropriate weight loss consumption rate for
someone weighing 200 - 224 pounds. Not bad, really, but it may be a
bit much for some. If one wanted to cut the plan back some, a good
place to do it would be with the fat. According to my software, 59%
of the calories for Day 1 come from fat. I know this isn’t supposed
to be a low fat diet, but that does seem rather high.
I’m wondering if it makes sense to use a hybrid of methods: meal
planning and food balance ideas from South Beach with the points
value system from Weight Watchers. Has anyone here tried that? What
I know is that using the Weight Watchers points system worked well
for me for several months. I think where I began to slide with that
was in letting portion sizes creep up. Since I was eating
everything, just in smaller portions, there was nothing in the
balance of what I was eating to prevent a slide into old habits.
What appeals to me about the South Beach diet is that the food is
balanced in ways that I know will work well for me. I’m the type for
whom too many of the wrong carbs make a good sleep aide! I really do
feel much better when I minimize grains and increase the veggies. I
also feel better when I don’t drink diet sodas. Splenda is a nice
way to give oneself an occasional sweet treat, but I’m convinced that
moderation is necessary with that stuff, too. I’m looking forward to
retraining myself to make healthier choices in my meals, and I think
South Beach will be just the ticket.
Roxann

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 1st, 2006 at 9:03 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.