Amazing South Beach
Today marks the fourth week that I've been on South Beach Diet, and I am glad to tell you all that I've got results, and they're great!
Not since that era when I was spending almost 3 hours in the gym four days a week have I lost this much weight - 14lbs! Admittedly, the look of my body is different now having lost the excess weight through diet and not primarily on exercise - I do not have the nearly Vina Morales arms. And seemingly, I look leaner and not bulkier.
What's great is my old clothes which were prematurely retired now fit me perfectly again, which is quite relief as that translates to lots of savings - I need not buy new clothes. Okay, okay, I'll be honest - I DID buy some new clothes but hey, you can't blame me. It's been ages since I was able to buy off the rack!
Maybe those who are unfamiliar to South Beach are wondering how it was able to accomplish for me what I have been trying to do for the past several years (in vain!). Well, I am simply not in the mood to go into the chemistry discussion how the food combination and method of the diet teaches the body to burn and lose the fat. Go grab a paperback copy of Dr. Agaston's book cause I'm sure he'll be able to explain it better. My only frustration with that book is the obviously western leaning recipes which actually comprise half of the paperback - very few, if none, of those recipes were actually realistically "doable" here in Manila - unless you are willing to spend much amount of money, of course. People have the impression that doing South Beach is expensive as you have to order food for it to work. Well, yes if you want the recipes in Dr. Agaston; but no, if you are willing to put some time to sit down, think and try hard to squeeze ideas from your head on how you can follow the basic principles of the diet and still save big bucks. At least for Phase 1 (which is the most difficult part of the diet), there are few principles which must be followed to help you get through it successfully:
1. Prepare and eat six (6) meals a day.
Yep, that's right. Read that again and realize that the emphasis is on prepare. But of course, eat is also important. The idea is, in order to survive Phase 1 (wherein you are forbidden to eat rice, pasta, fruits - yes, fruits - and all forms of starches and sugar) is to ensure that you will never be caught off guard and hungry that you will be forced to devour just about anything that is easily available. In a sense, South Beach is a lot of work but in my case, I was just willing to exert that extra effort picking my food rather than spending not less than 2 hours going to the gym. The meals have to be scheduled: eat breakfast then am snack and then lunch. In the afternoon, you can eat a pm snack, then dinner and midnight snack. Of course, the meals are not supposed to be really heavy but the idea is to ensure you'll never go hungry (and run berserk like a starved hippo).
2. Look at the list of allowed foods and make a list of your favorites which can fit into the list.
In my case, I like eggs (which are liberally allowed as they are good cholosterol), non-fat milk, ampalaya or bitter gourd, and all types of gourds for that matter, cheese (not edam cheese though), pistachios, tomatoes (and my current favorite drink is tomato juice). I also like eggplant and I have this recipe which I got from Del Monte Kitchenomics a decade ago which is one of my favorites - Laing - made of squash and pechay with coconut milk and tomato sauce. I like my coffee dark and thin, I love teas - black, green, chamomile, mint, and I drink lots of water. These all help me feel full all the time and all of these are allowed in Phase 1.
So for my breakfast, I usually have omelette either with tomatoes and onions or with cheese or with bits of canadian bacon (which is allowed cause it is lean). I eat my omelette with a glass of non-fat milk and that keeps me full for a few hours. For my am snack, I either drink my tomato juice with low fat cheese sticks bought from the grocery - it's the same one which is quite popular as kids' baon in school when I was in elementary. I interchange that with pistachios which you can eat as much as 30 pcs for snack. I usually eat just a few and stop when I'm satisfied. The cheese sticks and pistachios I eat either in the am or the pm snack. For lunch, mom (who's been a great help) would prepare sugpo or prawn sinigang or ginisang ampalaya. I can actually eat nilagang baboy without the potatoes, and just about any viand but I have to pick out and segregate the starchy ingrediants. For dinner, I have salad (I also like fresh greens) with bits of meat which otherwise I would have as ulam plus my favorite dressing - low fat blue cheese dressing or balsamic vinegar. I also make kani salad composed of cucumbers cut in strips, and kani sticks (about 4 pcs) generously smothered with japanese mayonaise (really yummy). During Phase 2, I added mango cubes for more flavor. Useful for the diet is a handy can of tuna chunks or flakes, even in the regular variety. I also use the spanish style variety. I'd also have spanish style sardines but only in Phase 2 cause spicy food reminds me much of rice! For midnight snack, I usually have it only when needed and its a slice of cheese and an unsweetended glass of non-fat milk.
One of the recipes I've tried is stuffed tomatoes. The filling is made up of egg, onions, ground beef and spices. I pan fry it till the halved tomatoes are tender. The filling when cooked tastes like burger patties. One useful tip from Dr. Agaston is to try eating a "sandwich" without the bread, just the meat wrapped in lettuce. Actually unbelievable but really delicious and satisfying.
Oh, I must mention that you can have artificial sweetener, unsweetened cocoa powder (which you can use with non-fat milk to imitate a choco drink), soy milk (taho - sans the sago and syrup- and tofu included), and vermicelli or sotanghon (but not the instant variety). If you can't survive without coffee, coffee is allowed with sweetener and non-fat milk. I discovered that Grandeur, a 3-in-1 coffee brand available in the market is South Beach-friendly. They say you can also have Seattle's Best or Starbucks coffee as long as you ask the barrista to use artificial sweetener. I haven't tried this though cause I find it doubtful. :)
3. Avoid processed food
Meats are allowed in Phase 1 but it is not a good idea to indulge in tocino, hotdog, meatloaf because it has gone through a lot of processing and the more processed the food is, the easier for your body to digest it AND the easier you will get hungry. Read the book for more explanation! :)
4. Do not deprive yourself
My last tip is to cheat. Yep yep. That's right. If it is unavaoidable that you are in a meeting and everyone else is eating a delicious piece of cake - go ahead, take bite. After one bite, I am actually satisfied that I got to find out for myself how it tastes and proceed with my diet. If you think you will trap yourself into engorging half of the cake by having one bite then don't do it. But most likely, if you have been religiously and methodically keeping yourself full by eating six meals, you are least likely to do that. Several times, I had soda of an amount equivalent to a spoonful, or half a spoon of fragrant rice - these did not ruin my diet but actually helped me go on for the simple reason that deprivation is the last thing you want to happen if you want to succeed in dieting. Anti-deprivation certainly worked for me.
Supposedly, you can lose as much as 8-13 lbs after 2 weeks of Phase 1. I lost just 8lbs but I was not disheartened as my weight loss continued the following weeks till I got to this. In Phase 2, you can eat fruits again (except canned fruits and even fresh pinapples). Potatoes, corn, including cornflakes and popcorn, white rice and regular pasta are still banned but you can sparingly indulge in whole, rolled oatmeal (not the quickcooking variety), wheat bread and brown rice. I am now in Phase 2 but I haven't had brown rice cause I'm too lazy to cook it. I never was able to figure out how to cook it properly that I'd rather not eat it than be bothered eating chunky rice.
What's best about this diet is once you've made a database of the allowed foods which you like and after the first 3-5 days of carbo and sugar withdrawal, it doesn't actually feel like you are dieting. I've lost weight and I'm still losing weight. I look better (which is really a mood booster!), I think! Now I have the courage to go back to my old gym and start working out again. Afterall, I can fit into my gym clothes again. :) I am also more inspired to do Pilates as my body is not as heavy as before which prevented me from doing the exercises properly. Losing stubborn weight is some sort of a going out of a cocoon. My goal is losing more weight enough to bring me back to my law school weight, which is actually a pound away from being overweight. I am not aspiring to become as thin as Wilma Doesn't or Phoemela Baranda (much less Keira Knightly!) as I know it would not look good on me. Normal weight will do. I have to keep up with Phase 2 of the South Beach till I reach that. After that is Phase 3 which I still don't fully grasp right now. Let's talk about that later. :)
Not since that era when I was spending almost 3 hours in the gym four days a week have I lost this much weight - 14lbs! Admittedly, the look of my body is different now having lost the excess weight through diet and not primarily on exercise - I do not have the nearly Vina Morales arms. And seemingly, I look leaner and not bulkier.
What's great is my old clothes which were prematurely retired now fit me perfectly again, which is quite relief as that translates to lots of savings - I need not buy new clothes. Okay, okay, I'll be honest - I DID buy some new clothes but hey, you can't blame me. It's been ages since I was able to buy off the rack!
Maybe those who are unfamiliar to South Beach are wondering how it was able to accomplish for me what I have been trying to do for the past several years (in vain!). Well, I am simply not in the mood to go into the chemistry discussion how the food combination and method of the diet teaches the body to burn and lose the fat. Go grab a paperback copy of Dr. Agaston's book cause I'm sure he'll be able to explain it better. My only frustration with that book is the obviously western leaning recipes which actually comprise half of the paperback - very few, if none, of those recipes were actually realistically "doable" here in Manila - unless you are willing to spend much amount of money, of course. People have the impression that doing South Beach is expensive as you have to order food for it to work. Well, yes if you want the recipes in Dr. Agaston; but no, if you are willing to put some time to sit down, think and try hard to squeeze ideas from your head on how you can follow the basic principles of the diet and still save big bucks. At least for Phase 1 (which is the most difficult part of the diet), there are few principles which must be followed to help you get through it successfully:
1. Prepare and eat six (6) meals a day.
Yep, that's right. Read that again and realize that the emphasis is on prepare. But of course, eat is also important. The idea is, in order to survive Phase 1 (wherein you are forbidden to eat rice, pasta, fruits - yes, fruits - and all forms of starches and sugar) is to ensure that you will never be caught off guard and hungry that you will be forced to devour just about anything that is easily available. In a sense, South Beach is a lot of work but in my case, I was just willing to exert that extra effort picking my food rather than spending not less than 2 hours going to the gym. The meals have to be scheduled: eat breakfast then am snack and then lunch. In the afternoon, you can eat a pm snack, then dinner and midnight snack. Of course, the meals are not supposed to be really heavy but the idea is to ensure you'll never go hungry (and run berserk like a starved hippo).
2. Look at the list of allowed foods and make a list of your favorites which can fit into the list.
In my case, I like eggs (which are liberally allowed as they are good cholosterol), non-fat milk, ampalaya or bitter gourd, and all types of gourds for that matter, cheese (not edam cheese though), pistachios, tomatoes (and my current favorite drink is tomato juice). I also like eggplant and I have this recipe which I got from Del Monte Kitchenomics a decade ago which is one of my favorites - Laing - made of squash and pechay with coconut milk and tomato sauce. I like my coffee dark and thin, I love teas - black, green, chamomile, mint, and I drink lots of water. These all help me feel full all the time and all of these are allowed in Phase 1.
So for my breakfast, I usually have omelette either with tomatoes and onions or with cheese or with bits of canadian bacon (which is allowed cause it is lean). I eat my omelette with a glass of non-fat milk and that keeps me full for a few hours. For my am snack, I either drink my tomato juice with low fat cheese sticks bought from the grocery - it's the same one which is quite popular as kids' baon in school when I was in elementary. I interchange that with pistachios which you can eat as much as 30 pcs for snack. I usually eat just a few and stop when I'm satisfied. The cheese sticks and pistachios I eat either in the am or the pm snack. For lunch, mom (who's been a great help) would prepare sugpo or prawn sinigang or ginisang ampalaya. I can actually eat nilagang baboy without the potatoes, and just about any viand but I have to pick out and segregate the starchy ingrediants. For dinner, I have salad (I also like fresh greens) with bits of meat which otherwise I would have as ulam plus my favorite dressing - low fat blue cheese dressing or balsamic vinegar. I also make kani salad composed of cucumbers cut in strips, and kani sticks (about 4 pcs) generously smothered with japanese mayonaise (really yummy). During Phase 2, I added mango cubes for more flavor. Useful for the diet is a handy can of tuna chunks or flakes, even in the regular variety. I also use the spanish style variety. I'd also have spanish style sardines but only in Phase 2 cause spicy food reminds me much of rice! For midnight snack, I usually have it only when needed and its a slice of cheese and an unsweetended glass of non-fat milk.
One of the recipes I've tried is stuffed tomatoes. The filling is made up of egg, onions, ground beef and spices. I pan fry it till the halved tomatoes are tender. The filling when cooked tastes like burger patties. One useful tip from Dr. Agaston is to try eating a "sandwich" without the bread, just the meat wrapped in lettuce. Actually unbelievable but really delicious and satisfying.
Oh, I must mention that you can have artificial sweetener, unsweetened cocoa powder (which you can use with non-fat milk to imitate a choco drink), soy milk (taho - sans the sago and syrup- and tofu included), and vermicelli or sotanghon (but not the instant variety). If you can't survive without coffee, coffee is allowed with sweetener and non-fat milk. I discovered that Grandeur, a 3-in-1 coffee brand available in the market is South Beach-friendly. They say you can also have Seattle's Best or Starbucks coffee as long as you ask the barrista to use artificial sweetener. I haven't tried this though cause I find it doubtful. :)
3. Avoid processed food
Meats are allowed in Phase 1 but it is not a good idea to indulge in tocino, hotdog, meatloaf because it has gone through a lot of processing and the more processed the food is, the easier for your body to digest it AND the easier you will get hungry. Read the book for more explanation! :)
4. Do not deprive yourself
My last tip is to cheat. Yep yep. That's right. If it is unavaoidable that you are in a meeting and everyone else is eating a delicious piece of cake - go ahead, take bite. After one bite, I am actually satisfied that I got to find out for myself how it tastes and proceed with my diet. If you think you will trap yourself into engorging half of the cake by having one bite then don't do it. But most likely, if you have been religiously and methodically keeping yourself full by eating six meals, you are least likely to do that. Several times, I had soda of an amount equivalent to a spoonful, or half a spoon of fragrant rice - these did not ruin my diet but actually helped me go on for the simple reason that deprivation is the last thing you want to happen if you want to succeed in dieting. Anti-deprivation certainly worked for me.
Supposedly, you can lose as much as 8-13 lbs after 2 weeks of Phase 1. I lost just 8lbs but I was not disheartened as my weight loss continued the following weeks till I got to this. In Phase 2, you can eat fruits again (except canned fruits and even fresh pinapples). Potatoes, corn, including cornflakes and popcorn, white rice and regular pasta are still banned but you can sparingly indulge in whole, rolled oatmeal (not the quickcooking variety), wheat bread and brown rice. I am now in Phase 2 but I haven't had brown rice cause I'm too lazy to cook it. I never was able to figure out how to cook it properly that I'd rather not eat it than be bothered eating chunky rice.
What's best about this diet is once you've made a database of the allowed foods which you like and after the first 3-5 days of carbo and sugar withdrawal, it doesn't actually feel like you are dieting. I've lost weight and I'm still losing weight. I look better (which is really a mood booster!), I think! Now I have the courage to go back to my old gym and start working out again. Afterall, I can fit into my gym clothes again. :) I am also more inspired to do Pilates as my body is not as heavy as before which prevented me from doing the exercises properly. Losing stubborn weight is some sort of a going out of a cocoon. My goal is losing more weight enough to bring me back to my law school weight, which is actually a pound away from being overweight. I am not aspiring to become as thin as Wilma Doesn't or Phoemela Baranda (much less Keira Knightly!) as I know it would not look good on me. Normal weight will do. I have to keep up with Phase 2 of the South Beach till I reach that. After that is Phase 3 which I still don't fully grasp right now. Let's talk about that later. :)
Labels: Fitness, Health, South Beach Diet
posted by wernicke @ 1:16:00 AM
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