I'm a newbie to the SBD WOE. I'm in Phase II on day 39. It looks like most of the folks visiting this SBD forum are newbies. There are a couple of 80 to 100 day SBD veterans but it seems that most people are in Phase I or have been in Phase II for a short period.

I am by no means an expert, but I thought I would share what I think I have learned and experienced so far...

1. I think that the SBD is really just a very healthy WOE and for the most part is information that I've known at some level for a long time. I wrestled in highschool more than 30 years ago and we all had to lose weight. The first thing we did after football season was cut out the sweets, potatoes, bread, etc. The coaches advised us to eat meat(steak), salad, and other veg. We almost always lost what we needed to in order to make weight. I can rember my grandparents talking about 'all those starches' causing weight gain when they were gossiping about friends and relatives.

2. I think that this WOE requires that I be fully engaged and pay a lot of attention to what I eat. The book seems to intentionally require that I make choices about what I eat and how much. I think that this is what is going to allow me to change my eating behavior so that healthy eating comes as naturally to me as my unhealthy ways were.

3. I've used the book as a daily guide. I rely on the information, food lists and recipes to help me decide what I am going to eat. I rely on package lables, nutrition guides, glysemic index, etc. to help me decide how much I should eat. I've entered most of what I eat into fitday.com and I'm consuming between 1700 and 2000 calories a day without hunger. This is probably half of what I used to consume. At this point good carb items are usually between 50 and 75 gr. per day. My stomach has shrunk and I get satisfied/full much quicker than before. I haven't used many recipies from the book. We come up with our own based on what we like.

4. I've had a couple of minor cheats that haven't caused me any problem. I have had a problem when eating to much of the added in items for Phase II. I've found that if I eat Phase II for breakfast and lunch and then try to stay on Phase I, or at least minimize carb portions, for dinner I have the best results.

5. I think I do best when I don't eat anything after dinner until the next morning. Besides quiting the bread and sweets, this may be my biggest change. For someone who was back in the kitchen within an hour after dinner for most of my adult life, I have got to the point that I don't miss the evening snacks at all.

6. The more water I drink the better my weight loss. It also makes me feel better.

7. I've used 1% milk, 1% cottage cheese, and limited amounts of regular cheese since starting and have still continued to lose weight. I've had a LF latte almost everyday after dinner with no ill effect.

8. I try not to eat any sugar, sweets, white bread/flour, pasta, etc. it's amazing that I really don't miss them.

9. I read every lable to make sure that I understand the products fats, carbs, fiber, and added sugars.

10. After wasting a bunch of money on different LC food items, the only one I use now is LC tortillas. The rest cost too much and don't taste good to me.

11. As I lose weight, I have a better self image, this in turn motivates me to stick to the WOE.

12. I'm very goal oriented and would like to lose the weight quicker, but, I'm slowly realizing that this isn't a race. It took me a long time to put the weight on and it may take a long to take it all off. Even when the weight loss is slow I now know that I'm better off with this WOE.

13. When I first started the SBD it seemed confusing. I guess I wanted the book to tell me exactly what to eat, how much and when. I just don't think that this WOE is designed to be that way. It's not a 'cookie cutter' WOE. It can be used in many different ways by different people and still achieve good results.

14. In my feeble brain the SBD boils down to 4 things:

Don't eat bad carbs - eat good carbs.
Don't eat bad fats - eat good fats.
Don't overeat and maintain portion control.
Get some exercise - any is better than none.

15. I haven't felt this good in a long, long time.

Sorry for the long rant...once again I'm no expert and your milage may very...I've read the book several times, done tons of reading on the web, and have had fairly decent results over the last 39 days...I hope it continues.

Very well said PStar. Thanks for shedding some light into this WOE and your experience.

Awesome! Thank you for sharing your wisdom

Speaking from a newbie to SBD, TYTYTYTYTYTYTY!!!

Great summary!

I am not as new as some (2 months) and I completely agree. I would like to emphasize the warning about phase II. I didn't eat any really forbidden foods but went overboard with allowed phase II stuff (peas and some allowed carb in soup, more than 1 glass of my weakness, red wine, whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, fruits), and suddenly I am going up again in weight - oh-oh, back to phase I. It isn't as simple as good carb good fats, you really need to pick and choose from the phase II items.

Thank you! That was somehow inspiring to me. Maybe just because it's a nice reminder of the important points and that this is a WOL more than a diet, that we can each customize to what works best for us. And to hang it there and appreciate how I'm feeling, and in the meantime the weight will slowly come off - a nice side benefit to eating healthier and feeling better.

That's all you needed to say!!!

Best diet out there. Very healthy.

I love "The BEACH"!

Bill.....................day 101

Great post, thanks for the wisdom.

Thank you so much. I needed to read something like that since I just started yesterday. (I had been on Atkins since November so I'm starting Phase II since I have already been doing a Phase I on induction)

I really like the advise of eating Phase II for breakfast and lunch and Phase I for dinner. That is what I will probably do because dinner is when I tend to eat the most and having the carbs available might be to tempting.

The only LC products that I bought are the LC tortillas, LC milk and yogurt. Other than that I am sticking to regular foods. I still to this day have not tasted a LC bread and don't plan to either.

Thanks again.

Wee

Thank you so much for your insights. I just started SB today after a year of Atkins and I'm afraid of Phase II. But I was afraid of leaving induction also. It's just a matter of thinking before you eat and making informed choices. Thanks again. I think I'm going to like this woe.

BINGO, dude, I think you've got it. Your post deserves to be a sticky.

okay pstar--here is the big confusion I am having with the SB
Don't eat bad carbs - eat good carbs.
Don't eat bad fats - eat good fats.
how do you know exactly whats good or bad---is there a list anywhere or some way to educate myself
i just dont know whats good fat or bad and so i tend to stick to the same foods..which can get a little boring!!
thanks for your advice

I've been doing the Atkins diet but my cousin lost a bunch of weight on SBD. What is the major difference between the two plans?

Hi Minus30,

I'm sure there are people here, Bill L for instance, who have more in depth knowledge of good carbs-bad carbs and good fat-bad fat than I do. I'll give it a shot anyway and hope they chime in.

Good carbs are those foods that are low on the glysemic index...if you look at pages 70-74 of the SBD book you will find such an index...there are several more comprehensive ones on the internet that you can find by doing a quick search.

At the point I am at in Phase II I try to eat foods that are low for the most part...50 and under...I allow myself to eat foods in the 75 range occaisionally and foods that are over 75 rarely. The exception to this is whole wheat bread...I have around 3 servings per week. I've seen information somewhere stating that 70 and under is ok...I try to be more careful than that for now.

If you look at the foods allowed list for phase I they are for the most part very low on the glysemic index on pages 70-74.

One of the things I have done is to eat meals that I always have liked and modify them to be low carb...for most of meals I used to eat it is usually only a matter of changing them to not include, potatoes, corn, peas, white bread, white flour, sugar of any kind, etc...you know, all the bad carbs...The trick is to find other good carb foods to take the place of the bad ones. I've found that stir fried vegetables or fresh vegitables, along with a salad or whatever other cooked veg I have does the trick. I've had to get used to having multiple veg dishes at the same meal along with whatever meat dish I'm having.

Example: Last night I had pan fried tenderized round steak. Before SBD I would have had mashed potatoes, gravy, some sort of cooked veg and bread/butter. Instead, last night I had a double serving of steamed asparagus and 8 sweet potatoe oven fries (sweet potatoes cut like french fries, sprayed with a little PAM and baked at 450 until golden brown). I could just as easily have a celery, onion, pepper, and squash stir fry instead of the sweet potato. This type of eating has become very satisfying to me.

Another example...I love chili...used to make it with both pinto and kidney beans and bought whatever tomato products that were on sale...I now leave out the pintos because I know they are higher on the glysemic index than kidneys. I also make sure that the canned tomatos and or tomato sauce has no added sugar and is the lowest in carbs I can find.

If you start on page 32 of the SBD book, you find the section on good fats, bad fats. The book says it better than I ever could.

Basically I eat all of the meat and fish items I always have...I've never been a fan of fatty meats...I use LF or 1% dairy products and smart balance spread in small quantities instead of butter. The exception is cheese...I don't like LF and use regular.

I think the key is to avoid saturated fats and of course the Trans fats.

As Bill L has said in an earlier post somewhere "read all product labels" we need to be very educated about what we buy.

I'll confess here that I don't always avoid the saturated fats as maybe I should, but I do make an attempt to make them a very small amount of what I eat. I use blue cheese salad dressing with no carbs but all of the fat and I use regular cheese...both in moderation.

I hope this helps a little...I would recommend reading the book until you really understand what it says...I use it every day...when there are things you don't understand, get on the internet and research the particular subject there is a ton of information out there...this is what has worked for me...my knowledge about this WOE has increased as I've gone through the process...I started out somewhat confused and now 42 days later I feel that I'm finally starting understand what this WOE is really all about.

and as usual...YMMV

Hi there,
No one talks about being in ketosis? Does this plan keep you in ketosis?
Thank You!!