7/11 South Beach & Low Carb check-in

[Meatball Mommie]

Eggs with spinach is my favorite breakfast too - I could eat it every day as well, Melinda! I vary it sometimes with salsa instead, but I prefer spinach. I just bought baby collard greens from the store - they looked interesting and much quicker to cook than regular collards. They were totally yummy - very spinach like. I sauteed them with garlic at dinner the other night.

Thanks for the website rec, Alicia - can't wait to check it out! What you are doing is really they way I'd like to be. I know someone who lost a ton of weight doing a primal diet. It seems more true to the way we should be eating, imo. I think I'd miss really awesome artisan bread and rice though

[essnce629]

Ok, I started the thread but totally forgot to check in! I didn't lose any weight this week, but perhaps that's because I had my period and was retaining water. But, I took my last measurements two weeks ago and since then I've lost another 1/2" off my hips, 1/2" off my low waist (pooch area), and another 1/4" off my thigh! So that's a total of 1" off my natural waist, 1" off my hips, 3/4" off my thigh, and 1" off my low waist in a period of about 5 weeks. I'm pretty thin already (127 lbs at 5'7) but I just wanted all my shorts from last summer to fit again and now they do! My normal weight has always been 120, so we'll see if I get down to that again. 125 would be fine though.

I did cheat this past weekend when I went to my friend's DS's birthday party. I didn't eat lunch at home before I went which was a bad idea. All the food at the party was mostly carbs-- fruit platter, pizza, lumpia with sweet dipping sauce, cake, cake pops, and cream puffs!!! So I ended up eating one piece of pizza and a piece of cake. They did have a veggie platter though so I had a handful of tomatoes.

DBF got me this 15-minute low carb cookbook for my birthday and I really like it:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001SARBY4

I made the chicken quesadillas from it using the low carb tortillas from TJ's and they were really good. Lots of chicken, cheese, jalepenos, and avocado. DBF and DS1 loved them too and they were really filling.

Last night I made the Mexican cabbage soup and it was really good too. DS1 liked it too (DBF worked late so didn't get to try it). I want to try the unstuffed cabbage recipe next.

It was DBF's birthday 2 days ago and we haven't had a chance to celebrate yet since he's been working late every night, but I did get him a small ice cream cake from Coldstone and I WILL have a piece of it! Other than that I've been pretty good. I was running late to our weekly playgroup today and normally I would have just left without eating breakfast and eaten whatever snacks the host offered, but today I quickly made myself an avocado shake to take in the car and grabbed 2 slices of TJ's precooked bacon to eat on the way. I'm glad I did too since the only snacks at playgroup were quiche (sadly I hate eggs), cupcakes, muffins, bread, pretzals, and clemintines! But I wasn't hungry so that was good. I'm trying the TJ's precooked bacon for the first time and it's pretty good and only takes 15 seconds to warm up!

Is there such a thing as too much protein, enough to not make you lose the pounds? Well, my scale says nothing's happening
Anyways, weekend was fine - continued with scrambled eggs for breakfast and lentil crepes for staple and bean curries.

You're vegetarian right? I think beans and lentils aren't supposed to be eaten on a low carb diet as they're pretty high in carbs. I've haven't really had any since starting. A 1/2 cup of lentils has about 12 net carbs and other beans have up to 18 net carbs per 1/2 cup. Maybe that's the problem. Perhaps try cutting them out for the first 2 weeks. But I know it would be pretty hard to get enough protein. And have you taken your measurements? Maybe you haven't lost weight, but you can still lose inches like I did.

[maestramommy]

I think beans and lentils aren't supposed to be eaten on a low carb diet as they're pretty high in carbs. I've haven't really had any since starting. A 1/2 cup of lentils has about 12 net carbs and other beans have up to 18 net carbs per 1/2 cup. Maybe that's the problem. Perhaps try cutting them out for the first 2 weeks. But I know it would be pretty hard to get enough protein. And have you taken your measurements? Maybe you haven't lost weight, but you can still lose inches like I did.

Really?? shoot, I roasted chickpeas yesterday, and have been munching on them like popcorn. Just can't win.

[Meatball Mommie]

Beans are allowed on South Beach - so, don't freak out Melinda - you're ok! I don't have my book here with me, but I don't think there's a restriction on the quantities either...I will def. check when I get home today.

It might present a problem if you consume lots and lots of beans because they do contain carbs... I wonder if there's any info for vegetarians on South Beach? Someone else has to have run into this same issue!

[Meatball Mommie]

Ok, I started the thread but totally forgot to check in!

I noticed that! Ha ha That's great that you are able to fit into all your clothes now! That is really my goal (although six-pack abs and a bikini boday would be nice too). I have so many capris and shorts that I don't wear because they are tight around my arse Totally where I've gained weight... I haven't even made it to the beach this year because frankly I don't want to put on my bathing suit. That says a lot because I live across the street from the ocean and usually go a lot!

I'm down 4 pounds from when I started. I think I'd be doing better if I exercised, so my goal for this second week of phase 1 is to add walking/toning exercises in. For those of you who haven't read the latest SB book (Supercharged I think it's called) - it encorporates an exercise plan into the diet. Reminds me a lot of Couch to 5k except it's walking. They give toning exercises in it too. I am going to really make it a point to do some sort of exercise daily even if it's at 10 pm!!

[essnce629]

Beans are allowed on South Beach - so, don't freak out Melinda - you're ok! I don't have my book here with me, but I don't think there's a restriction on the quantities either...I will def. check when I get home today.

It might present a problem if you consume lots and lots of beans because they do contain carbs...

On this South Beach food list it says to avoid pinto beans and black-eyed peas during phase one. It says you can reintroduce them in phase two. I guess other types of beans are fine in phase one and two.
http://www.southbeach-diet-plan.com/food_list.html

[essnce629]

Making billysmommy's stuffed baked tomatoes right now! They're in the oven and smell GOOD! Can't wait to eat them with my leftover Mexican cabbage soup!

[Meatball Mommie]

On this South Beach food list it says to avoid pinto beans and black-eyed peas during phase one. It says you can reintroduce them in phase two. I guess other types of beans are fine in phase one and two.
http://www.southbeach-diet-plan.com/food_list.html

Hmmm... things must have changed since that list? In the "Super Charged" book's "food to enjoy" list it reads: "Legumes - fresh, frozen or canned without added sugar" and it includes both pinto and black eyed peas on the list along with every other bean imaginable... It does say to "start with 1/3 to 1/2 cup serving size" though.

[Meatball Mommie]

I had to post about a new product that I just bought/tried. I really prefer vanilla yogurt to plain, but all the vanilla yogurts in my grocery store have sugar added. I was looking in our organic section and came across Sweet Leaf brand liquid stevia in "Vanilla Creme" flavor. I was a little sceptical especially considering it was $14 a bottle (yikes - I still can't believe I actually bought it). But it's really good - and totally perfect for my yogurt. You only use like 5-8 drops so that bottle is going to last a long time.

Just had to share!

[nfowife]

I just started phase one, I'm on day 4 today. I was doing weight watchers, which I do like, but the constant writing down and calculating was getting to be too much for me. I do much better with "eat this not that" type of structure. So we will see. I have the supercharged book.
So far most days I'm eating this:
bfast: 3 eggs scrambled in 1-2 tsp of smart balance. 1-2 laughing cow light cheese wedges. Today I added 2 slices of smoked deli ham chopped up and that was good. I need to get some veggies in here but it's kind of hard- I don't like spinach at all. I could do tomatoes or mushrooms/onions.... must get some mushrooms.

not usually hungry for a morning snack but if I am I'll do a string cheese or something quick.

lunch is usually a greek salad with chicken, baby greens, feta, tomatoes, cukes, and 4-5 kalamata olives. For dressing I make this but with equal instead of sugar, it's soooo good : http://www.food.com/recipe/kittencal...ek-salad-66596

Snack is usually a string cheese, yesterday I made the roasted chickpeas with just chickpeas and EVOO pam spray and salt and it was very good. I ate the whole can so I definitely went overboard....didn' t realize until after there was a portion limit. Good to know!

Dinner might be another salad, or a meat and a roasted veggie. DH is gone right now so I'm not doing much cooking.

I made the peanut butter cookies last night too, so last night I had 2 of those (=my tbsp daily allowance) with about 1.5 cups of 1% milk. It was nice to have that treat.

So far I don't feel super hungry. I have had some cravings for sweets/chocolate but they haven't been overwhelming.

I will weigh in a few days.