Gary's Boring Blog

South Beach Diet Update

Well, here's an update after the first 2 weeks on the South Beach Diet.
I started out at a rather flabby 87kg. My goal weight is 80kg, which is getting close to the 76kg I weighed when I arrived in Japan, aged 23.

Weight Lost:
4kg (= almost 9 pounds, I think)
Weight left to lose:
another 3kg or so.

Typical Menu for a day:

BREAKFAST: omelette with mushrooms and tomatoes with green salad and tea.
LUNCH: Grilled fish and salad (ham, chicken slices, smoked salmon, or cottage cheese). Salad dressing is a simple olive oil and vinegar mix made by the lovely Mrs G.
DINNER: Grilled chicken (or pork, or even steak) plus green veg and salad.

I have been drinking lots of water, and trying to reduce my intake of tea. Green tea is supposed to be healthy, but the diet advises you to keep caffeinated drinks to a minimum. For 2 weeks, I didn't eat bread, rice, pasta or potatoes at all. Since I am now on phase 2 of the diet, I had a slice of brown bread this morning with my omelette. I will also start eating cereals, though I need to find the ones which aren't full of sugar (and still have some taste!)

Thoughts on this diet

1)It's expensive. Rice, bread, pasta etc are cheap. When you remove them from your diet and replace them with vegetables and meat, you need more veg and meat than usual to fill you up. So, it costs a bit.

2)My stomach feels a lot better. I am not going to go into details, but I am not eating food with rich sauces, and my constitution is definitely much better for it!

3)Eating out is hard, especially at lunchtime. Japanese lunches always include rice, so finding places to eat is impossible. You have to bring lunch ('packed lunch', as we used to say)

4)You need support. Megumi has been great, waking up a little earlier every day and making my breakfast and lunch, complaining as she does! Without her, I would probably have given up already. I asked her the other day what we will do when the baby arrives this summer, and she informed me that I would have to cook myself. Not sure if I will be able to get up early enough...

5)Going without alcohol is tough. I cheated. I had two 'appointments' I had to go to which would normally have involved drinking copious amounts of alcohol. I had a few glasses of wine the first time, and limited myself to 2 small glasses of beer the second time.
Hopefully, I can get down to 80kg, stay there, and still be able to enjoy a few beers or a few glasses of wine occasionally.

6)It has been worth it. It's really nice when people tell you you look thinner or healthier. The best thing that someone has said so far is "your face looks better - I can see your cheekbones now".

Oh, and finally, the South BeachDiet is very similar to the healthy mother's diet Megumi has been given by the clinic, which also stresses limited amounts of carbs and sugary foods, and lots of fresh meat, fish and veg!

Posted by Gary at February 16, 2005 03:25 PM