From Phylameana lila Desy,
Your Guide to Holistic Healing.
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I've been inspired by some of my fellow guides here at About to go on a lowcarb diet. A few of us guides have formed a support group to talk about our challenges on going on either the Atkins Revolution Diet or the South Beach Diet. I chose to follow the guidelines for the SBD.

My Diet History - I've never gone on a specific diet before. I've been lucky that my weight has never been a particular concern for me. Up until the past three years I never worried about gaining weight. I could eat whatever I liked whenever I liked and I never really put on weight. However, now that has changed. My forties have brought me a metabolism change.... uh oh! I guess I am just tired of complaining about my newly acquired Buddha belly and have decided to try and do something about it. Actually I have tried to eat smaller portions and exercising more often, but that hasn't helped.

What has always bugged me about diet plans is that they involved eating lots of food. I've never been one to eat three meals a day. I'm a muncher. I eat this and that throughout the day but seldom sit down to a meal more than once a day. My worst habit is having a Cherry Coke first thing in the morning. Sugar and caffeine is not a nutritious breakfast! It is not uncommon for me not to eat any solid food until after 1 PM. At that time I will have a bowl of cereal with fruit or blend myself my favorite fruit and yogurt smoothie (Neither fruit or yogurt are allowed during phase 1 of the SBD). A couple of hours later I might wander into the kitchen and srounge up a snack, something like applesauce, a piece of cheese, or handful of saltine crackers. Naturally, I will go for candies or cookies first if we have in the house. I seldom buy snack foods even though I do love them because I don't have common sense to only eat a little.

Our supper is usually well balanced. We like most vegetables and fruits. We enjoy fish and chicken. I especially love rices and pastas so it will be hard to limit my indulgences for these. My husband has decided to go on this diet with me. He will struggle with not having his bread. We don't eat red meat very often, but I enjoy a good cheese burger, beef barley soup, and chili. Pork chops are a childhood favorite of mine, but we don't do pork very often although I'm not sure really why not.

Four days prior to starting DAY I stopped drinking my Cherry Coke. I figured my morning caffeine fix would be the hardest thing to kick so I wanted to be able to eat whatever else I wanted in place of it for a few days before I began the restrictive first phase of the SBD.

Setting a Goal - What especially appealed to me in reading about this diet was that the first pounds targeted are supposedly those in the belly. And that is my goal, get rid of my Buddha Belly. Actually your goal needs to be a certain number of pounds. The importance of setting a goal is knowing when you can move from Phase 2 to Phase 3 of the SBD. Phase 1 lasts 14 days. Then you move to a less restrictive Phase 2, but you stay on this phase until you've lost the pounds you set your goal for. After you've met your goal you move along to Phase 3 which is a lifestyle change diet that you stay on to maintain your ideal weight. Sounds simple enough don't you think?

The hardest part of this diet plan was going to the grocery store to buy the approved foods. While there you see all the food you can't have. That, plus I usually come home from the market and go right for the fridge to get a cold soda to drink. Can't have that! I settled for a cold bottle of water. Not so bad, I like water and drink lots of it throughout my day anyway.

One thing I am lucky about is that I have an uncommon type of hypotension called POTS which requires that I have sufficient portions of salt in my diet each day. So at least I can have salted foods instead of settling for low-sodium products.

Next Page: First Week of Diet: Days 1 2 & 3