Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Its Been Awhile and My Newest Diet Endeavor

Do you ever get so discouraged that you would rather not talk about the issue at hand? Well, that's what's happened to me over the last few months. After my failed attempt at jolting myself out of my plateau with the Columbus Fitness Bootcamp, I just lost the motivation to keep on keepin' on with this blog. The bootcamp was amazing and really helped my stamina and built muscle I didn't know I could build, but it just didn't get me out of my rut.

So what do you do when nothing else is working? Go to the extreme! No, I'm not talking about an eating disorder... I'm talking about the South Beach diet!!!

I believe this diet has been given a bad wrap. Notorious for being one of those "low-carb diets," unlike the Atkins diet, SBD actually encourages healthy eating. It is broken in to three phases which is where the similarities to Atkins end. On the SBD in phase 1, which lasts two weeks minimum, you will cut out all bad carbs, fats and sugars by taking in alot of fresh veggies, lean meats and healthy fats such as nuts and olive and canola oils. Things you can't eat in phase 1 are fruits, sugars and starches.

The first week was a real rollercoaster for me. I wanted to eat carbs but couldn't. But that feeling went away quickly, like in the first three days. I lost eight lbs in the first week, five of them being between the fourth and fifth days of the diet. At that point, I had barely any appetite at all. That weekend I snacked on a few too many nuts and gained one pound back but hit the ground running in week two, worked out a few times and lost another four lbs. With the exception of two meals, I adhered to the diet faithfully. I had a short-term weight goal of 240 in mind and, with the success I was having, decided to stick it out another week. Today is the last day of phase 1 for me.

After losing 14 lbs in three weeks, I consider phase 1 of the South Beach diet to be a success. Phase 2 will involve slowly readjusting my body to carbs. I will be adding 1-2 servings of fruits, unprocessed starches or whole grains per day. Each week I will add another serving or two of these good carbs until I'm comfortable with the amount of carbs/complex sugars I'm taking in while still losing weight.

Wish me luck!

Candice K.
240.6 lbs

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

GOOD LUCK!

YOU CAN DO IT! YOU CAN DO IT ALL NIGHT LONG!

Candice K. said...

Aww. I heart you, Ashley.

Miss Wan said...

i want phase 2 update - stat.