Starting South Beach Diet tomorrow (Monday)

[KateandtheGirls]

I've tried Weight Watches, can't stick to it. I love food too much. I know people who have lost weight on Atkins, but it just sounds like a terrible, unhealthy idea. I've borrowed the South Beach Diet book and read it and it sounds like it makes a lot of sense, and could be something I could stick to (at least most of the time). The first two weeks (Phase 1) are going to be tough I think, but I'm going to give it a go.

So I've gorged myself on carbs all day, I'm having one final beer, and my fridge is stocked with eggs, low fat cheese and meats, and veggies.

Wish me luck!

good luck Kate!

I've been (fairly loosely) doing South Beach for the last 4 months Kate (more following the food lists than being strict about the plan as such) and I've lost 4 stone in that time, which is way better than anything I've ever tried before. And like you say it's actually quite easy to do as a general lifestyle thing - it is pretty well habit now and I do feel that I can carry on doing it for as long as it takes. Here's hoping it works as well for you!

Good luck. From what I've heard about it it's a pretty healthy diet. I think he first devised the diet for his heart patients to improve their health, and then it turned out that they also lost weight on it.

I'm doing WW and I've found it suits me quite well, but then I'm pretty good about recording food before it goes into my mouth.

Do you have much to loose?

whats that diet then? not heard of it

jampot - there's a summary of it here . I think it's a lot better known in America, and some of the recipes etc need adjusting for the uk, so I don't particularly use them, but the general principles of what to eat, and what not to, seem to be working quite well for me.

LunarSea, that's encouraging to hear.

So far so good. I had 2 scrambled eggs with a slice of Canadian bacon for breakfast and I've just got home from yoga/pilates. Will I start craving some pasta soon???

I hate to admit my weight, and this is probably part of my problem. I think I've kind of been in denial for a long time. It has kind of crept on over the past 10 years, more so when I started working in an office 8 years ago and we often went to Chinatown for lunch etc. and I never exercised. My 2 kids haven't made too much difference. I lost all the weight from my pregnancies, save 5 pounds, within a couple of weeks of their births. And over the past 3 years I have spent a lot of time thinking life's too short not to enjoy a nice meal when you want to. I've recently come to realise, though, that I could actually be shortening my life if my weight gain doesn't stop. I do comfort eat some of the time, but I don't gorge by any means. I have a "healthy" appetite and I know my portion sizes are too big. I exercise pretty regularly. In fact earlier in the year I was going to the gym 5 or 6 times a week doing aerobice, pilates, weight training. I didn't lose any weight during that time, but I think I may have lost some fat and gained some muscle.

Anyway, I'm 5'3''. When I was 20 I probably weighed about 120 pounds. (I guess I need to convert to stones for you don't I?) That's 8.5 stones. Now I weigh 181 (almost 13 stones). I don't realistically expect to get back down to 120, but if I could lose 40 or 50 pounds it would be amazing.

I know that's a lot to ask, but losing 10 or 20 pounds would be a really good start.

At WW they're always going on about how losing 10% of your body weight can make a huge difference to your health, and will make you feel better. I've only lost about 5% so far and I definitely feel better, I can walk faster and I'm more bendy (for doing my toenails etc). I bet once you lose your first 10lb you'll feel fantastic, and that'll make it easier to lose the next 10.

Best of luck. Is it my imagination or is most of Mumsnet currently dieting, thinking about dieting or falling off the dieting wagon? Perhaps I should read other topics too .

What is canadian bacon?

I could never quite work that out either willow (which is a bit embarassing as I've spent a lot of time in Canada!) - I just assumed it meant lean trimmed back bacon, rather than the streaky stuff. Judging from this that is approximately what they mean.

Lunarsea - I'm going to start this tomorow and see how I get on but can I just ask a little question: Can I basically choose foods from teh "allowed" list to eat and avoid the ones that are forbidden?

That's more or less how I'm doing it jampot. As I said I'm only "loosely" following it.

This is what canadian bacon looks like. It doesn't (unfortunately) bear much resemblance to either British or American bacon. It's definitely more ham-like.

There are meal plans in the book, but I'm not following those. Basically just using them as a guide and for occasional ideas (like the stick of celery with cheese spread filling for a snack).

From what I can figure out I think that eating foods from the permissible list is all it takes. But he does stress that you should eat slowly and only till satisfied, and eat as much variety as possible within the limits.

Day 1 has gone fine so far. In fact I'm just finishing up my dessert - lemon ricotta creme. It's not bad actually.

No cravings yet.

That's odd - the bacon we get where I go in Canada doesn't look like that! Oh well, the lean bits of British-style bacon don't seem to be wrecking it for me, so I'll stick with them as an allowable!

Lunar - I suspect it's purely an American invention and probably nothing to do with Canada, the same way Americans eat "english muffins" which have no relation to anything from England.