Weekly weigh in..

Holly, I swear I feel your excitement here in Cali! GO girl.  You seem like these changes are something that you can do easily! Good for you.  I must report to my utter dismay:  1# UP.  I am bummed.  I am only eating like 1400 cals & exercising like a fool.  Oh well, next week has got to be better. My doc says eat more on hevay exercise days.  i will try. I am hoping this is related to my skipped TOM this month - menopause may be here...which is great news, but again, i feel super bloaty lately.  

Ooh it might be, our female problems can really play games with us.  Sorry you didn't see the scale move a little beforehand.  Maybe the docs right, maybe you do need to up your calories a little bit.  You do a lot of exercise everyday.  Maybe it's more than you realize.  I've always heard when you hit a plateau to change it around a bit.  Shoot, I'm sure you've said it yourself. :)  Maybe that's what you need.  Give it a week and see what happens.

YEAH HOLLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is soooooooooooooo awesome!!!!!!!! Celebrate this one girlie!!!!!!!!  Beth

Holly, that is fantastic.  I think it's great that you've found what works for you so far. 

I stayed on phase 1 for a pretty long time.  I don't think I started adding back the carbs for almost a year.  I did add the beans for my turkey chili, which I pretty much ate every single day for the first year for lunch.   And of course fruit, that I couldn't live without after the first 6 months.  But I did the vegetables and protein for a good long time.  Try it for a few more weeks, if you think you can do it. 

We can even have beans now in the first phase!  1/3 to 1/2 cup is recommended.  Pretty interesting to see how much things are added to a plan after time.  I haven't used any beans except for the 2 tbsp of hummus it allows in replace of the beans.  I love hummus, and I have finally learned to eat celery with it.  I've always hated celery for some reason, now I seem to eat it with everything (this past week anyway).  I'm just so excited I found a way to lower the scale after trying for almost a year.  I was starting to think I'll have to go back to the liquids.  I was about in tears every time I would get on the scale.  So yea, I'm going to have to stay on this for a while and VERY slowly add things.  I guess I'm use to the scale going down, I keep thinking I hope I"m not jinxing myself for next week.  Time will tell the tale! :)

I have not actually looked at the program in some time.  I have the essentials carved into my head so I don't quite have to look things up anymore.  But that's fantastic that they've added some things. I truly did live on turkey chili for the first year.  Every day with a little bit of low fat cheddar and light sour cream.  People got sick of seeing me with it.  I used to make up a big vat of it and then portion it out.  After the year was up though I rediscovered my sensitivity to acidic foods.  tomatoes, grapefruit, lemon, all make me break out with big boil like zits on my neck.  It's an unsightly mess, enough to leave some nasty ugly scars.  So more than enough for me to back off of the chili.  by then though I had achieved what I needed and I started changing things around. I know what it means to see the scale moving and realizing it IS possible. Keep it up!

It's interesting how they've added the dairy and tomatoes and beans....makes you wonder if the weight losses are as great as they used to be on the old plan.  Donnamarie...how much were you losing those first few months? I really miss my blueberries...I love those and strawberries.  I'm gonna try and see how long I can go without adding those.  Figured maybe if I add fruits from the low glycemic index list, it wouldn't be so bad.

I was thinking the same thing.  It makes me wonder why they added them also.  

hi Sherrie, It's hard to remember!! LOL  I know that in the first 3 weeks of being on SB I lost 19 pounds.  I do remember by the end of 12 weeks I had lost 60 pounds.  Put me a tiny bit under 300 at that point.  I was ecstatic but of course realized i had a lot more to go.   I lost 138 by the end of that first year, that I remember well.  So since July of 2006 I've been on the maintenance train. I think that without that rapid weight loss I would have been doomed to failure again.  I faithfully tracked my food that entire year, and lemme tell you I was an angel.  Nothing passed these lips that wasn't on my plan.  It worked for me, I HAVE to be that way.   I did have some rebound gain, it's fairly normal from what I hear.  I was not happy with it but I lived with it.  Then I had some REAL gain when I thought I could eat normally again.  There is no such thing as a formerly morbidly obese person eating normal.  Folks, it's just not happening.  So I had my stints of doing well again, they'd last typically like any other diet would have lasted.  It wasn't until the scale showed something that was downright frightening and I realized I was about to begin to undo all the hard work, that I got back on track.  Since getting back on track -- which to me is tracking religiously and nothing getting past these lips that isn't on plan -- I've lost 11 pounds.  I don't own those, not for a second.  I'll start owning them when I get back into that range that I worked hard to get back to.   A friend of mine said that I should own them.  That if we have to own what we gained we damn well should own it again when we lose. LOL As far as those that talk about not depriving yourself of things you really want, I say hogwash.  That might work well for someone who had 20 pounds to lose, but it doesn't work for us 100 pounders, it just doesn't.  We clearly do not know how to do things in moderation, do we?  So why do we think we can eat one reesees peanut butter egg?   Um, Sherrie, did you ask for all that??? LOL As far as strawberries and blueberries, those are so low in calories and so high in fiber and all other good stuff, LOL, there would be really no problem with putting them back in in moderation at the beginning. The premise of South Beach is to eat low glycemic foods so that you don't spike your sugar and kick off those cravings.  You figured that out quick enough what that feels like.  But in the end it's all about what you are putting in your mouth as well as how much of it.  There is no secret handshake to figuring all this out, there really isn't.  In the end it's a fairly simple approach to it all.  I just keep thinking of how great it feels to lose, how mu*****ontrol I feel, and I wonder WHY in the world I undo it each and every time I decide to go off plan.  Blah!!! But that's another whole Oprah. off to the gym, have a great day!!!

Wow!!  Thank you so much for your insight.  It means so much coming from someone who has BTDT!!    It's also very heartening to hear that someone has lost all the weight, had some slip ups, and has been able to recognize what works and what doesn't and get back on track when needed.  I think that's the beauty of this plan....it is liveable and can be used as a lifestyle instead of a "diet". I know for me, the addition of the milk, tomatoes and beans has made this first week very liveable.  I am really in no hurry to get to Phase 2 (except for my blueberries...lol) and would love to see a few sizeable losses in these early weeks....sure helps to stay motivated.  I too am "anal" about the whole thing....have made out my daily logs, plan my menu the night before and highlight each item as I eat it the next day...track on the Daily Plate each day and record my totals for the day.  Am keeping a file on my menu plans and figure it will be good reference to go back to when I'm looking for ideas and what worked for me.  If I was computer literate, I could do all this on a spreadsheet much easier, I suppose....but NOT! I am currently a member of WW and paid through 6/28, so will continue to attend my weekly meetings and be accountable there too.  This plan is essentially the Core plan of WW (with a couple tweaks), so I don't really feel like I'm cheating them by claiming my loses there.  I would like to continue my membership there until I reach goal weight (whatever that becomes...right now 190...BMI under 30) and become a Lifetime Member.  As many times as I've joined WW, I have never reached goal and I could then go to their meeting free each week and really feel like I need that piece to stay accountable...weird like that.  Of course, maybe I will find that these boards and this "family" will do the same...time will tell. Thanks, Donnamarie for all the info and I'm sure Holly and I will continue to pick your brain here and there.  I am so excited over all this, I can't begin to tell you.  I need a total knee replacement and my doctor refuses to do it til I lose about 50-75lb.  I'm hoping by then my knees won't be so painful and I will be able to avoid it all together. Thanks again for your support and encouragement.  Not sure why all these years I've never tried South Beach before....must have come along when I was just truly disgusted and didn't think anything would work.