Polly’s South Beach Diet Blog

I got weighed at the doctor a week ago and at 152, I’ve gained nine pounds over the summer, in spite of rigorous hiking and rock climbing. Part of that is undoubtedly muscle, but I also know I let myself eat a lot of sweets because of all that exercise I was getting. I want to get back down to 135. I look great at 135. Besides, rock climbing involves hauling myself up a wall. The less I weigh, the easier that will be, no doubt.
So I immediately started the South Beach Diet because everybody says it works. I found the book a little inconsistent; it says there are no portion sizes or calorie counting, but the sample menus do both.
It also talks about use of good fats, but the sample menus don’t include many, really. If you just look at the sample menus, it looks a lot like any other diet.
Also it said that giving up caffeine is not a must, but the sample menus call for decaffeinated everything.
So I’ve decided to go with the philosophy of the diet, no high-carb foods the first two weeks, no saturated fats, pretty much adhering to the (very limited) food list given.
Other than that, I’m eating when I’m hungry. In the first week, I lost two pounds. Not the dramatic weight loss others experience, but I eased onto the diet, cutting carbs out gradually the first three days.
So I am pleased.
I love to eat and I hate bad food and deprivation doesn’t really work out for me. So I’m going to eat things I like; no fat-free ranch dressing for me. I like real chocolate, and the sugar-free variety is so unlike real chocolate that I plan to forgo chocolate altogether.
I’m going to blog my weight loss as well as the foods and recipes I’ve discovered.

Week One:
Weight loss: two pounds, now I'm 150
Good foods:
I took a bunch of fresh vegies I like; summer squash, mushrooms, onions (the latest from Dr. Agaston is that onions, tomatos and carrots are unlimited in the first phase), broccoli, etc, and sauteed them in my brand new set of Circulon non-stick pans, which I love.
Then I sauteed a few ounces of firm tofu and added it (I like tofu), and then threw in a can of black beans. I covered that and let it cook.
Once it was all hot and the veggies were nicely al dente, I scooped out a small plateful and grated a scattering of cheddar cheese on there. It wasn’t low-fat, because I’m using up what I’ve got in the fridge, but it wasn’t a lot, either.
That was really good with lots of salt and pepper. Salsa probably would have been good too, if I’d had it.

In fact, salt and pepper is key to this diet for me, so far.
As I said, I love to eat and I hate bad food. So when I say that I have found I love salad with no dressing, just salt and pepper, I’m not trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Here’s what I’ve been putting on salads.
Garbanzo beans.
Half a small avocado-takes the place of the oil
A chopped hard boiled egg.
A bit of minced prosciutto
Sunflower seeds
Cucumber
Blanched, peeled tomato.
Chopped pickle.
Onion-white or green
Purple cabbage
Chopped black olive
A bit of blue cheese, crumbled. Not low fat, but only a little bit goes a long way
Other shredded cheese

Of course, I don’t put all that on there at once! But with salt and pepper and with or without lettuce, it makes for flavorful salads that you can taste without an inundation of pungent dressing.

I usually have non-fat yogurt for breakfast, which Dr. Agaston now also says is in. I have the kind with fruit in it, even though you’re not supposed to. It’s not that much different from the plain kind, ingredients-wise. It makes breakfast possible, even though I have no desire to cook eggs every morning.

For egg haters, though, here’s a palatable dish. When I was at the Jailhouse Restaurant in Moab, Utah one morning, I had the best breakfast ever, a frittata. Just throw a bunch of your favorite stuff, broccoli, mushrooms, whatever meat that isn’t too fatty, onions and what not and saute gently in a pan. Then pour scrambled eggs or egg substitute, if you want, over it. Let it set on the bottom, then run it under the broiler to set the top. Then grate a little cheese on top and melt that, then cut it like a pizza. Each serving has very little egg-it’s mostly the vegies and whatever you put in there.

I don’t like most low and non-fat products, but low fat sour cream isn’t bad, nor is low fat cheddar. I hate low fat "half and half" so I just go with black coffee for now. But it Sure Lord has all the caffeine! I think it may actually make me hungrier by noon, but I don’t care. I can live with it.

I had a can of Baxters carrot and coriander soup for lunch today. Extremely light, low carb, good ingredients, and with a lot of pepper and a little grated cheddar, it was a really tasty lunch.

Mozzerella sticks are great for a mid-morning snack.

Last time we grilled steaks, marinated nicely in a vinaigrette, I grilled a couple portaballa mushroom caps, brushed with balsamic vinager and olive oil. They leave an inky trail of juice wherever they go, but they taste pretty good.

As far as trying to make a dessert out of ricotta cheese, cocoa powder and Splenda, well, one woman I know said she lived on it. Me, I think I’ll just forgo dessert altogether. But I might try some sugar-free jello!
I drink a few cans of diet pop a day, some with caffeine, some without. I’m also trying to remember to take a multivitamin daily, too, but it’s hit or miss.
One thing I learned while on Weight Watchers, also a good program that I lost 10 pounds on once, is that it’s a lot easier to get my water down if I keep a big glass next to me while I eat, for some reason. Plus, I get fuller, of course.

Eating out
I love sushi, and sashimi, the same thing without rice, is just about as good, so that’s nice. My favorite Japanese restaurant, Toyoda Sushi here in Seattle, also grills a wonderful cheek of yellowtail. It’s rich, but it’s got fish oils and no carbs! Also, their miso soup with little tofu cubes and fresh spinach leaves is so good I make it at home. When I’m really hungry, I sometimes prepare that soup before even starting dinner. A cup of it keeps me from gorging myself while I cook and again when I’m done. They also do a nice grilled veggie skewer there.
Thai curries without the rice are plenty good, too. Unfortunately, my favorite curries are rich in coconut milk and fairly sweet, too, from palm sugar, but red curry is also quite yummy. They also do great chicken skewers.
Salads and soups are good choices, unless of course it’s mayonnaise-based tuna salad and chicken corn chowder. Water-based soups are best. Oil and vinegar on the salad is the way to go, with lots of salt and pepper.
A small steak with a salad and/or cooked veggie makes me as full as I need to be. I found myself at a creole restaurant for a fundraiser for Katrina victims last weekend and a plate of peel-and-eat shrimp off the appetizer menu worked out well. Of course, I had a corn fritter too, and little lapses like that are probably why I only lost two pounds, but, damn, it was good. I’m not sorry. Two pounds is fine.
I find there’s usually some grilled-chicken kind of thing or other unadulterated protein on most menus. Starches like baked potato and rice can usually be opted out of.
A coworker brought pizza in the office yesterday, wouldn’t you know it? No one ever brings in pizza when I’m not on a diet. So I grabbed a plate and just scraped the top off a piece and ate that. Not low fat, but, hey, mozzeralla’s in and it was Canadian bacon, so not high-fat! And no carbs, so there you go. I didn’t feel too deprived. It tasted like pizza to me.

Another thing-it's not the sexiest place on earth to eat, but I've found the Old Country Buffet to be a good diet choice. Perhaps because so many seniors eat there, they actually have quite a few low-carb, low cholesterol offerings, like poached fish and steamed cabbage and whatnot. So rather than hit the food court at the mall, I hit the buffet.

I'm going to blog at least once a week with my diet results and whatever I've found useful (or extremely not useful). That oughta keep me motivated.