The Truth Behind the South Beach Diet Plan

Unless you’ve been living in a cave or on a desert island
with no TV, no radio, no magazines and no newspapers for the past four years, the odds are you’ve heard more than you care to about the South Beach Diet plan

Still managed not to try it? Why not? Everyone else seems to have. Of course, I may have been one of the last lonely hold-outs.

To be honest, I didn’t care how much everyone was losing on South Beach, I considered it a fad diet and had promised myself I wasn’t ever going to join the crowd in any crazy dieting schemes.

Despite urgings from my friends who kept assuring me that South Beach was perfectly safe – after all it was developed by a cardiologist who was trying to come up with a satisfying and healthy eating plan for his heart patients – I continued to buck the trend.

But three years (and two children later), I’ve given in. Desperate to lose the baby fat from my second child, I decided any diet was worth a try – even if it was just a fad! So I caved in and gave it a try.

I’ll be honest, learning about Phase I of the program scared me to death. How could I live two entire weeks without sugar, without carbs and without all the other wonderful foods I had come to count on to keep me energized throughout my hectic days?

Without sugar and caffeine I knew I’d lose weight – but would I survive? I’d come to rely on those two ingredients alone to handle the long days of motherhood.

But, too anxious to get out of those Mommy jeans and back into a slinky black dress (for what occasion I couldn’t tell you), I decided two weeks wasn’t really that long after all – or so I hoped.

Let’s just say the first three days of the South Beach Diet did throw me for quite a loop. I was cranky, I was listless and I had no patience, as my body began to readjust its glucose to more normal (and stable) levels.

Once that evened out a few days later, I was beginning to feel more like my old self – only better.

Those cravings for sweets were beginning to fade, and I really wasn’t hungry on the diet since I could eat as much as I needed of the foods that were allowed (and there are a ton of them) to feel satisfied.

Always a big morning eater, breakfast was shear joy on the
diet. No more measuring cereal or choking down a grapefruit. The South Beach Diet foods I indulged in were amazing -- a big plate of scrambled eggs and Canadian bacon, for example. This is dieting? Once I made it to Phase II and could introduce a little yogurt to my morning meal, I was set for the day.

Now your

South Beach Diet Menu gets even better. For lunch I learned to enjoy a variety of fresh veggie soups with loads of lean meats, salads and one of my favorites: sliced tomatoes sprinkled with rosemary salt or a nice antipasto.

Dinners are my favorite meals on this diet, since they include plenty of lean meat and fresh fish, with chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert.

After the first two weeks alone I lost nearly 15 lbs., and although my weight loss slowed a bit during Phase II of the program, when most of those earlier food restrictions are lifted, I still managed to continue to shed weight and reach my goal in just a few months.

Although I have never been good at sticking to any other diet before, I found the South Beach plan easier since it was less of a diet and more of a new way to eat.

By allowing me to eat a little of everything I wanted, it was easier not to feel deprived, and to be honest, once my sugar and carb addiction was broken during Phase I, I didn’t even want a lot of those treats that had caused me to pack on the pounds anymore.

Now in the maintenance phase of the program, I find that following a lower sugar, lower carb, and lower fat diet is easy and tasty. And the list of approved
South Beach Diet foods keeps growing.

I love all the new
South Beach Diet menu choices I’ve discovered and rarely feel like I’m missing anything good.

And, when I do find myself "slipping" a bit and gaining a pound or two, I quickly return to a more restricted phase of the program and shed it within days.

Losing weight shouldn’t be hard – after all, gaining it sure wasn’t! So why not try dieting the easy way – by eating your way to better health and a fitter and trimmer body with South Beach.