Welcome to the Beach!!

I've been thinking about how to give all my sage advice to newbies so that you all will have the kind of wonderful success that I've been having on the South Beach Food plan.

I'm starting this thread in the hopes that other people who have had success on South Beach, will share their words of wisdom too. There are not many of us but I know that we all want to see more newbies having success too!!

So c'mon out all of you successful losers!! Share yourself with the newbies!!

OK...First of all, use this link to get to the updated food lists and meal plan charts.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=254313

I brought this info over here from the official South Beach site....I still use these lists and charts to help me stay true to the plan.

I printed them all out and keep them handy for reference when food shopping and when planning my meals...I suggest that you do the same!!

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If you have an emotional eating problem and find that you have trouble staying on any plan, I highly recommend going to OA meetings and finding a good therapist. Get to the root of what makes you overeat!! I did this and I have to tell you that I am now in recovery from being an emotional compulsive overeater. This has been one of the main reasons that I have stayed on plan for the past 16 months.

If you haven't done so already...Read The Book!!

Eating whole fresh foods are the best way to do this plan.

Eventhough South Beach has come out with a line of Kraft foods with their name on them, these foods are not ideal for weight loss. They have sugar in some of them and the frozen meals are loaded with sodium. When in a pinch and nothing else is available, thats when these can come in handy...not as part of your every day food plan.

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Shop the perimeters of your grocery store and avoid the aisles.
Make food lists before you shop and try to stay stocked on the foods that you like to eat the most.

Being prepared with the right foods on hand is a big key to doing this successfully!!

Here are some things that I do each week to keep my kitchen stocked:
Dannon Carb Control yogurt (for phase II)
plain nonfat yogurt for phase I
cottage cheese
eggs
laughing cow lite cheese
string cheese
ricotta cheese
hummus

celery
tomatoes(plum, cherry, beefsteak)
lettuce
onions
mushrooms
cucumber
broccoli
zucchini
garlic

sugar free Fudgsicles

2 lbs of chicken breast(or turkey) cutlets(cooked and ready to eat in the fridge) this is a big deal as there is always a good and legal food for me to eat
salmon filets
misc other fish
ind cans of tuna and salmon
steak

Olives
Olive oil
avocado
splenda
natural peanut butter


I'm sure that I've left some things out but you need to create your own food lists of the things that you like to eat!! See the food lists in the link up above!!
As the Doctor says in the book, he does not believe in suffering while losing weight. Find the foods that you love!! and make them part of your plan.

Judy, thanks for starting this thread. There are a few of us in this forum who have been around a while and have found success over the last couple of years. This seems like a great way to share what we have learned about life on the beach. I've lost weight and managed to keep it off and hope what I've learned can be of use to others.

I'll post things as they come to mind...I'll start with this....

Instead of trying to push the limits to see how much of your old way of eating you can hold on to....stick with the plan, as it's written, until you learn how it works. After you learn the basics you can start experimenting and molding the plan to to your individual tastes. Remember that you are trying to discover how you are going to eat for the rest of your life. SB isn't about quickly losing weight and then going back to how you ate before. It's about discovering how to shop for and prepare healthy, lower glysemic index foods.

Realistically you should try to make it through Phase I with no cheats. It's only 2 weeks and if you are dedicated to changing your life you should be able to make it through two weeks. You have to make a commitment.

When entering Phase II do so very carefully. Don't add everything back in at once. Add things in very slowly to gauge each added food's effect on craving and loss.

In Phase II one or two pounds a week should be considered good weight loss. Be patient and don't get in a hurry...you are changing your eating habits for the long term.

Stick to the plan, always, if you have questions, come here and ask. Read the books or go online, read until your eyes bleed.

Know your trigger foods.

Don't beat yourself up.

Keep at it, the weight just doesn't fall off lol.

Fresh, real foods, try not to substitute, unless you really must.

Don't be afraid of real fats. *BE AFAID!! EVIL! Heheheh*

Staying on Induction longer might not be a bad thing. Don't move into things too fast.

MOVE!!

There is so much more I could right here lol.

Thanks Bill!! Keep them coming!!

Thanks Ayustar!! and please note that you responded to this in the South Beach forum where we avoid real (animal)fats and do eat vegetable fats. Love all your other thoughts!!

LOL I JUST realized that!

Fat baaaad, baaaaaaaaaad!! Don't listen to the girl on Atkins, who probably needs to cut out some fat *huhuhu*

Just pretend I am on the Beach!!! My eating habits aren't that much different, I just happen to like fat lol.

Thanks though!!

me too....and in keeping with being true to this plan, I do avoid animal fats in general....but I do use half and half in my coffee each morning

In your experience with animals fats though, if you eat them, do you notice a gain or not?

I have not eaten many animal fats since I started so I can't really answer your question. Sorry!!

Hey that is fine, but we can tell the plan you are on and the way you are doing it works!! I eat animal fats mostly and that works for me too. I think sometimes it is a preference thing. Do you trim the fat off of the meat or just get lean meats? It seems like you eat alot of fish, the only one that is really fatty is salmon. Fish is good for you. I like both plans, never tried SBD though, it looks good, but I think my body would go crazy if I just switched plans lol.

I eat red meat about once a week and get steaks with very little fat in them. I do eat alot of salmon as the fat in them is the good fat that we want!! I also eat alot of chicken and turkey breast cutlets!! NO SKIN!!

and I do eat the whole egg!! not just the whites!!

Good good, that would be a waste of the egg lol.

At this point in Phase III I eat chicken breast, lean steak, and 96% lean ground beef. I eat smaller amounts of fish and lean pork. I do have real bacon on occaision. There is no meat that I consider off limits now that I've lost my weight...but...I don't have fatty meats very often...sausage, a rib eye or chicken wings are ok for me in moderation...once a month or so.

During Phase I and Phase II...I really only ate very lean chicken, deli turkey, fish, and very lean steak.