I haven't read this thread for awhile... so I missed these last few posts of yours, Judy! I enjoyed reading this one. I'm going to have to read this thread once a week. It does help!

Please take a minute to read thru this. I know its gotten a bit long but there are some wonderful ideas here. And if nothings else all I can say is learn from my mistakes.

Hi Everyone,

I've done SB in the past and managed to work away from it, but I'm back at it, going strong.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful ideas and inspirations here. I plan on incorporating most, if not all, of them into this new way of living for me.

We are all so gung ho to get the weight off when we first begin any diet.....we are willing to do whatever it takes!! Yet after 2 weeks in phase I....most of us are chomping at the bit to get at the bread, pasta and flour in general.

So I've learned from my own mistakes how this can be the undoing of anyone's weight loss!!

The good Doctor does not, IMHO, give enough guidance in how to enter phase II. Many people end up quitting because they stop losing when they get to Phase II...because they added in too much too fast and they never figured out which carbs they can eat and still lose and which cause them to stall and or trigger their appetites. When you add in more than 1 carb per week, how can you possibly know which carb caused your stall or triggered your appetite?

Being that I've become intimate with this plan and have used guidelines from atkins, I can tell you that it is very important to start with unprocessed carbs first and add in 1 item per week.
1-Start with one piece of fruit per day for the first week..see how your body does with that.
2- second week add in a starchy veggie or whole grain but just one and not both...NO FLOUR YET!!!! NOT EVEN WHOLE GRAIN FLOUR!!! see if you are still losing after adding these items in.
3- third week- add in a second piece of fruit and a second serving of starchy veggie/whole grain....still no flour yet!!!

This is the way I did it. I learned that wheat triggers my appetite...I get ravenous the day I eat a wheat cereal for breakfast so I now avoid wheat...even whole wheat!!! I only started to eat flour when I was close to my goal weight. Even now, I still limit my intake of flour as it triggers me to eat!!! I eat it on occassion and not every day.

We each need to find the foods that our bodies like!! If you go too fast, you will never find this out!!

^^

Judy, scenario help por favor?

I think I started Phase II in early February, so it's been about a month. This past week I decided to back off the sprouted grain wheat tortillas, because they seemed to make me all bloated with water. My rings got tighter and other little things that you associate with water weight and not fat gains. I stopped eating the wraps on Monday, and on Tuesday (out of curiosity about the bloated feeling) I weighed in at +1.5 lbs over last week's weight. So I cut out the flax bread and whole wheat tortillas (I ate both on the same day on Saturday, too ), and decided to stick to fruits and veggies for carbs for the rest of the week. Sure enough, on my regular Friday weigh in, I was down 2.6 from the previous week (or 4.1! from Tuesday).

I'm guessing that it is not the flax bread (which is flourless, whole grain) and it is probably the wheat tortillas.

So will this always happen, the sudden rush of water weight when we eat even moderate amounts of carbs? Or if you wait on things like tortillas, or flour-y stuff in general, does your body learn how to deal with them properly? I didn't get hungry or have any cravings after eating these things, so they definitely aren't a trigger in that sense. But I definitely noticed a difference in water retention. And this was the week after TOM, so I can't blame that.

I'm cool with ditching the tortillas... especially now that I saw the results (and luckily learned my lesson in one week without significant consequences). But I think I'm going to hang on to the flourless flax bread for the weekend and maybe do another mid-week weigh in to see how it goes.

I'd appreciate any insights you may have about this, oh great one.

Have a great weekend!

p.s.: If any other non-newbies (don't want to call the Babes 'Oldies', sorry) have insight, please pipe in.

I'll try to answer you but please *note* that this is based on my experience and is not scientific fact!!

I see it this way, as we lose weight, our fat cells are still sitting there all depleted of water. When we eat flour or any other processed grain, the fat cells hold onto the flour as it passes through our bodies...I've seen weight stay on me for up to 5 days after eating grains. So yes!!...those cells will hold onto water.

OK..so thats the bad news...but I have read that after 6 months of holding that weight off, the cells do not hold on as much as before. I now can eat some flour but not everyday and only on occassion. I'm maintaining my weight between 158 and 160......

Good for you on seeing what the problem was and making necessary changes to make your body go in the direction you want it to go!!!

On the tortillas......If this is a food that you love and will feel like you are depriving yourself if you don't eat it....heres how I view these things: Its what we eat daily that gets in the way of our weight loss progress. If you eat them daily, it will hamper your progress. But if you allow yourself to have them once a week and begin to view them as a treat and not part of your daily food, it won't effect your weightloss and you will not feel deprived.

Thanks for getting back to me, I really appreciate your insight. I think you may be right about me and flour. I bet I end up having to put it off for awhile.

I wouldn't say that I love tortillas per se. But there are times that I'm down right sick of salads and leftovers, and wrapping things in omelets, and I would really love a sandwich or a wrap. I'm okay eating one piece of flax bread a day (ate one last night, and no bloating today), so maybe I'll just try open face sandwiches for awhile.

Part of the problem on the tortillas is that each one was probably more like two smaller tortillas. Safeway does not have good choices. This thing is probably 10" across, and I probably would have about an inch or two a the bottom that didn't have any sandwich fillings in it. So, would I have been prudent and only use half? Or whould I throw away the bottom that went unused at the end of the wrap? Of course not, I ate the whole darn thing.

So I'm going to stick to the flax bread for awhile. I had a piece last night with a little I Can't Believe It's Not Butter on it, and it was great. I ate with my dinner, and not by itself...didn't want to trigger any cravings.

For now I'm going to stick with 1 flax bread max. per day and one to two fruits per day, which is what I've been doing okay with so far. And on days I imbibe the wine, I'll cut down on one of those for each glass of wine I plan to drink. I overdid this weekend on grains & empty alcohol calories, and I learned my lesson.

So thanks for the help. I'll let you know when and if I foray back into the two grain a day experiment.

Have a great weekend!

Whole Grain Help?
From the official SBD web site:

In the end, SBD is, to me, mostly about eating fish. If you are having trouble losing and do not eat enough fish, try some of these ideas and get more fish (especially salmon)into your food plan.

We all make modifications to our individual plans. This is how we can make it a life style chnage and not just another diet. I know that many refuse to give up "their butter" and I do understand this.

I chose to use Smart Balance. They came out with a light version and so I am now going to use the light as it greatly reduces calories. I haven't counted calories yet btu I do know that I have to keep my cals lower now in general.

As your weights come down, you too, will have to start to pay attention to calories and butter is way up there. Please try to stay open minded enough to realize this. When looking to cut cals, its best/easiest to cut it from fat caloires. Nuts, dairy, BUTTER!!, even olives and avocado need to be controlled when counting calories.

I happen to use full fat Whipped Cream shhhhh! and am very careful with portion sizes. I do use reduced fat sour cream and hard cheese(lt jarlsberg)

If you have trouble getting right back onto your plan after eating offplan.....then I suggest to you that you have still not accepted this as a way of life(WOL) and are still holding the view of this, that it is a diet.

I recently heard this saying that I put ito my signature.
I have no idea who said this but I like it:
"When you change your thinking, then you change your choices and then you can change your life."

It does require some effort but it can be done. Change the way you view this food plan and find foods that make you drool .....that is the way that I've made this a lifestyle change and not have it be "just another diet".

Even the South Beach packaged foods are franken foods!! If your weight is stuck or you are having trouble seeing progress in general.....try avoiding the SBD Kraft foods as they are loaded with sugar and salt.

You are better off with fresh whole food!!! That is what the SBD is based on and their food line by Kraft is just a money making shceme...it does not have your best interest at heart!!!

A sugar by other names is (not!) just as sweet
By Robert L. Wolke
WASHINGTON POST


I thought this was interesting and want to share it with all of you.

Just felt this needed a bump back to the top.
This is packed full of info and well worth the time it will take to read.