OK I am starting yet another journal, I want to post my foods here as well and maybe some of you will find any mistakes I'm making etc.

I'm gradually trying to switch to south beach, I'm doing pretty good so far. I haven't completely gone off my cream in my coffee yet, but I did change to 5% light cream. I'm using butter sprays for my eggs, and I have some turkey bacon. I also bought a loaf of whole grain bread too. I did start last week but with alot of work stress found it hard to concentrate on it so I'm starting fresh tomorrow.

One of my biggest things to give up will be chicken wings. boy will i miss them, but I'm really looking forward to more grains.

Forgot to post my story too :-)

I started Atkins two years ago March 13th (wow i can't believe it's been that long and I've stuck to it!). I did reach goal, in December 2004, then last summer, struggled to maintain. I do consider myself still at goal, though I do go up and down 5 lbs. I'd also like to go down 5lbs below goal..to my original goal of 115. I gave up on 115, and changed my goal to 120 after spending a few months there.

I do know I need to keep up with my exercise in order to lose/maintain. I believe that not running or going to the gym, and too many calories was my downfall over the summer.

I think I need the lower fat/higher grain aspect of South beach. As much as I love my high fat atkins foods, I think in the long run the low fat will be far more beneficial and easier to keep the weight off. I find trying to adjust my calories, and do atkins, and count carbs is getting too complicated. It may also bee the boost my metabolism needs as well.
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I was in the office on Wed last week and ran into a male coworker who's lost 40lbs and looks fabulous! He did it on SB, so that was a big reason for me to try to seriously start this woe this week.

Monday:

got paged a few times this morning, ended up getting up at 5 a.m. so i had 2 breakfasts, because it was so early.
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snack 5:30: 1/2 cup 2.5% yogurt, 1/8 cup of frozen blueberries with 1 tbsn flax.

Bfast at 9: 2 poached eggs on 1 slice ww l/c toast with becel spray. 3 coffees with light cream (in 4 hours ..i needed them!)

snack: celery with p'butter and cream cheese.

Lunch: boneless skinless chicken breast stuffed with ricotta/spinach

Snack: s/f chocolate pudding (from lindas website but made with soy milk inst. of cream)

Dinner: cheese burger (gr chicken) on a flax bun.

Snack: 1/4 cup yogurt with 2 tbsns cooked rhubarb

Cals: 1380, carbs 25, fat 70g. fat was 50%. not sure if that's good or not? is there a guideline to how much fat we should have? normally my fat was about 65% of my diet..

Jen!!!!!!!!:Love3: :Love3: :Love3:

I'm LOVING the way I am eating. And if it is any consulation, I think the SB plan is pretty much the same as Atkins higher rungs. In DANDR, Dr. A. alludes to cutting the fat as you go up the ladder but there hasn't been enough emphasis put on that and there are SO many of us in this boat who are stuck now!

I'm so glad to see you can't you tell?:Jump Rope:

well Mindy i'm hoping I can stick to this..i'm so used to the atkins high fat way. I think you're supposed to cut alot more fat in atkins too..but you're right..they don't put alot of emphasis on it. I have always thought fat/cals were my downfall.

What is helping me is to concentrate on adding back the foods I've missed so the trade-off feels worth it.

I was never able to drink coffee on Atkins because cream stalls me. Can you imagine that the entire time I've been on Atkins I have not been able to add cream to one recipe???? Waaaah!

We'll I am finding that it is not the cream that stalls me so much as it is the extra calories, so now that I have adjusted my eating to this way, I can have my decaf in the morning. I got used to it with skim milk (which I couldn't really have on Atkins) and to punch up that flavor I sprinkle cinnamon in the coffee and a *splash* of half and half with the skim milk. Sounds drastic right?
Well I drink the coffee with two small slices of toasted whole wheat sourdough cranberry walnut bread, with my Earth balance spread on it. :OMG: That bread is so awesome and goes so delicious with coffee. I feel like a liberated woman!

I find it easier to keep my calories to my goal even though I occasionally stumble and what I like is that my % of fat is around 40-45% with those calories. I am slooowly losing, but the scale is moving again!

Jen, don't think of it as drastically cutting your fat. Experiment with the foods that are lower in fat and see if you can find ones that appeal to you. Part-skim ricotta does not taste bad at all, nor does part-skim mozarella. There are small steps you can take without feeling deprived, but couple those steps with adding in foods once forbidden to you and you will feel good about the choices.
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I love that I can now go out to eat sushi rolls because I can now eat brown rice, guilt free! And I find that I crave the taste of the brown rice over the white rice, because the brown has a nutty flavor!

I felt just like you did in the beginning until I realized that I was eating more balanced and liked how I felt!!!:sun:

It feels so good not to be afraid of a carb crossing my lips. I had a cup of old fashioned oats for breakfast with just sweetener and 2% milk and it was wonderful!

Just cut down the fat gradually and increase the carbs slowly. I had trouble cutting down the fat at first. But I kept at it and I'm doing really good now. I'm down another 1/2 a pound this morning!

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Join me at Gather!

Well you two have me convinced :sun: I am really enjoying having toast with my breakfast too. And part skim cheeses I"m fine with actually..what percentage of mf is the part skim cheese there? I've been buying 'light' cheese with 40% less fat..but not sure of the mf% of it.


I actually had a kind of bad day yesterday with work at lunch so I didn't do so well with the fats..ended up having wings (and They seemed to be 'floured'). Though the day wasn't that bad all together, just my lunch. We went to a brittish pub for lunch, there wasn't much else to order there..no salads, pretty much pub fare, pies stews etc. I also didn't have a morning snack..


Here is what my day looked like besides the wings:

B'fast: 2 poached eggs with toast with 1 tbsn p butter. 1/2 cup yogurt with frozen blueberries. 2 Coffee with light cream

S: coffee with half and half

L: 6 hot wings, slightly 'floured' or breaded couldn't tell which but it wasn't thick.

s: 2 small light babybel cheeses, coffee

D: 1 egg 2 egg white omlette with 1 oz light cheese. strawberry smoothie (1/2 cup soy milk, 1 scoop protein powder, frozen strawberries, water)

s: s/f fudgcicle

I also had quite a bit of coffee yesterday, but I had a 50 mile drive to and from the office and was going on very little sleep. :Sleepy:

So i didn't do too bad according to fitday:

1800 cals, 43 carbs ( i over est this because of the wings..i have no idea what was on them), fat was 119 g's which is high. Everything was high but not outrageous. I'll make up for it today. fitday showed 6 wings as 900 cals but I think that's a bit high? but i kept it in.
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I didn't exercise at all yesterday, it was waaay to cold to run. I did take the dog out for a short walk twice..

Keep going Jen. Little-by-little you will whittle down the fat calories and eat lower calorie foods like whole grains/breads in their place but you will never eliminate the fat like low fat diets try to do. Aim for 45% calories from fat on Fit day...

I am losing slowly but I am losing. I am tettering at losing one more pound and that will put me into another weight category lower and I really want to see that! In the mean time, by belly is getting slimmer. I am seeing more hollowed out areas and my shirts are fitting looser as well as my waistline. My belts and pants buttons are looser!
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I was surprised at how good a completely egg-white western omlette with cheese tastes. I could never have just egg whites by them selves. I can't believe I used to do this on a low fat diet. YECCCH! But egg white western omlettes with 2% cheddar served with salsa or V-8 juice is pretty darn good.

I still eat whole egg a lot of the time but I notice they pack a lot of calories so now I intersperse with the egg-white omlettes and that helps with the calories. Tonight I am having a hard-boiled egg in my salad so there's an example of still eating them! And I have whole eggs for breakfast, just not as often now.

I've actually always used egg whites in my omlettes to keep the cals down..you are right, the calories can really add up and the omlette is just as filling IMO if you take out a couple of the yolks. I actually buy 'Simply Egg whites' that come in a container. Though it can get a bit pricey. I also use Egg beaters too..they're good for recipes like flax buns etc...


I actually ended up eating alot yesterday, and my calories were only 1100! I was so surprised to see that.

What I want to get up the nerve to do is eat a whole wheat minbagel. They sell them at my grocery store and they're fairly low carb. I miss my bagels terribly...but still have a bit of carbphobia, though i'm getting over it..I've been having toast every morning..which is a big step for me!