Thursday, April 13, 2006

South Beach update

Well, after eight months on the South Beach Diet I've managed to lose just about eighty pounds -- about ten pounds a month, or 2-3 pounds per week! My ultimate goal is to lose a hundred pounds, so I'm fully 80% of the way there now. The funny thing is that it really doesn't feel like I'm dieting anymore, as since I've learned simply to leave things like pasta, rice, and white breads out of picture I'm more or less cooking and eating as I always have, just minus the extraneous starches.

It helps immensely that there are now myriad whole wheat/lo carb breads out there that actually taste like bread: if you're living in the New England area, I recommend the whole wheat pita and tortillas from Joseph's Middle East Bakery, both of which I've served to guests who've found them just as delicious -- if not more so -- than their white flour counterparts. However, the best way to make a diet like South Beach work is not by running out and purchasing "lo carb" replacement foods but by reconsidering from scratch what you eat every day and why.

Consider the bacon cheeseburger, for instance. While I miss eating it and other similar sorts of sandwiches in theory (although less and less so as time goes by, to be perfectly honest), I've reached a point in my dieting that I can have one every now and then without derailing my progress. Are they as good as I remember them being? Hell, yes. But would I want to go back to eating such fare every day? Not a chance.

Except on Good Friday, that is!

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