149.6
It was to be expected. I fell off the wagon*, hell, I fell under it. Father’s Day weekend is a family oriented weekend, and family oriented weekends need food. How else does one survive so much family without copious amounts of alcohol and food?
If I had to grade my performance over the weekend I think I get a c-. MY eating habits were terrible but a) I joined a gym, b) I went to the gym, c) I persevered through “the wall”, and d) I went grocery shopping for the week and only both low fat weight watcher foods.
My South Beach days are over, for now. Good riddens is how I feel in that respect. I know that many many people have lost a lot of weight on the South Beach Diet, and I guess if you are willing to put in a lifetime of non-simple carbs (which is better for you) it is a good diet. But 2 phases limit your fruit and carrot intake. Ok, as far as I am concerned a diet with no to little fruit (even for weight loss purposes only) is not a healthy one. The contrary, it is a specifically unhealthy diet. Yes, you are allowed to have all the veggies you want, and you are supposed to have 4-5 servings of fruit and/or veggies but you get different nutrients for vegetables and fruit. It seems counterintuitive to purge your diet of fruit and replace cravings of sweet with nonfat, sugar free cool-whip, or ricotta with splenda. Beyond that, yes white pasta and rice are simply empty calories. I agree, they are like drinking or eating cupcakes on a diet, also counterintuitive, but potatoes and corn? Those aren’t empty calories. I would be hard pressed to qualify a potato as a vegetable, and unlike carrots people have gotten fat because of them, but potatoes are full of nutrients and are filling. Corn and potatoes should not be purged from a diet like white rice.
Facts about potatoes:
However, the fact is, I like white rice. I like it and I hate brown rice. Yes I know I am simply eating inches onto my hips, but I don’t want to live a lifestyle that forces me to eat stir-fry with brown rice. I need a lifestyle where when I want a snack, I can pick up an apple or some berries. I want watermelon, or salad, chicken and corn for dinner. As much as I love a good steaktip salad, I love berries, fruit, corn, potatoes, white rice, and low fat frozen yogurt more. I simply don’t under stand how a lifetime on the 3 phases of south beach can be healthy.
- 45% of the daily value for vitamin C
- 620 mg potassium, comparable to bananas, spinach and broccoli
- trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, magnesium, phosphorous, iron and zinc
- all for only 100 calories and no fat.
So welcome to my day 1 of weight watchers. I won’t be going to my fabulous new gym today, but you bet I’ll be there tomorrow. Today I have been munching on watermelon and strawberries with laughing cow cheese and to top it off? Pasta salad (Kraft Zest Italian free dressing, of course). Everything I have eaten today may have been the anti-South beach but all of it has been healthy (even the pasta, white – eh- tomato and spinach pasta with low fat dressing).
Frankly at the two weeks I did South Beach, I may have been so so so excited to lose the weight but I felt terrible. Physically I felt gross and the excitement over weightloss was able to cover that up, until I took a good look at what I was doing. For now my weightloss will have to be the old fashioned way, healthy eating, being hungry, and exercising a lot. Boo, painful and slow, but at least I am not dreaming about watermelon and corn on the cob. At least I can have carrots for dinner again. CARROTS NEVER MADE ANYONE FAT, orange maybe, but not fat.
* “Fell of the wagon” comes from Ireland. In Dublin before a prisoner was executed he was paraded through the city on the back of a wagon. It was customary to stop at every tavern on the way to the gallows and give the many a free pint. Occasionally after a bit to much to drink he would fall off the wagon.
