South Beach Diet, Day 1

In my last post, I mentioned I have a few pounds (or more accurately, inches) I would like to lose. Troy's getting a bit round about the middle as well, so he agreed (perhaps under duress) to do the South Beach Diet with me, at least for a few days.

You can read more about this diet at the above link, or their website, but I just want to briefly state that this is not one of those "low-carb" diets like Atkins. In Phase 1 (the first two weeks), you eliminate simple carbs, but not complex ones. Your goal in Phase 1 is to avoid foods that make you ride the blood sugar roller coaster: sugars, starches, flour. Instead you emphasize things like olive oil, complex carbs like vegetables, and proteins like beans, cheese, and meat. In Phase 2 you add back whole grains and fruit, slowly, testing them to see how they make you feel. Do they restart the cycle of cravings for simple carbs? That's my understanding.

This diet is not hugely different from how I eat anyhow. For Phase 1, I have hidden the chocolate and sworn off alcohol and fruit juice. I no longer start the day with an apple, and end it with popcorn and/or grapefruit (I can add the fruits back in 2 weeks). I have switched to low-fat cheese, and am trying to not eat quite so many nuts.

The biggest and most difficult change for me is that in order to get Troy on this diet with me, I have to get up early and make him breakfast, and also pack him a lunch and enough snacks to last him a day. And I have to be sure I'm cooking him dinner everyday. Prior to starting the diet, the poor man had to subsist on sugary cereal for breakfast, whatever sandwichy thing he could find for lunch, and bananas, nuts and energy bars throughout the day. When he'd come home from work (2-3 hours after Ravenna and I had already had dinner), he might be lucky enough to find some leftovers in the fridge, or not.

And how did we do on this first day of Phase 1? I was a bit hungry at first, and I attribute that to the mistake of starting the day with a V8 (these are supposedly allowed in Phase 1, but contain beets and carrots, both of which have a fairly high glycemic index). I looked at the portion suggestions for breakfast, and they were puny. I tend toward eating a larger breakfast, and feel justified in doing this, since it has been shown that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that skipping breakfast usually makes you fat. So I felt no guilt at having additional food at breakfast; even eating part of my lunch for breakfast. Then I did fine the rest of the day.

Troy meanwhile, was miserable. He said he spent the whole day feeling like he was fasting; he was shaky, irritable, lightheaded, felt cold and weak and had a hard time concentrating. By dinnertime, he had come down with cold symptoms. His reaction is a mystery to me, but apparently this is not an uncommon side effect from withdrawal from sugar. I think the fact that Troy spent the weekend leading up to the diet binging on pizza, chocolate and potato chips contributed to his misery. He feels he is going to have to modify the diet in order to survive the week. I wish him the best with that, but hope he will try again in a couple of months (after cold season is over), since clearly he is in much bigger need of detoxing from sugar than me.

Stay tuned for further adventures in dieting!