Fun Monday

I almost spaced on Fun Monday - I'm sorry I'm so late.

The game from Grace this week is this:
Many people make resolutions during the month of January and they usually include diets/eating healthy/losing weight and all that good stuff. I myself decided to try the Weight Watchers this time round. My assignment is to tell us about a diet or two (Atkins, Sonoma, Weight Watchers, South Beach, the You on a Diet, Best Life, The Abs Diet, The Zone, Cabbage Soup, E-Diets, Dr Phil, Jenny Craig, The Mediterranean Diet, Nutrisystem, Slim-Fast, Suzzane Sommers or No Name diet etc etc) that you have tried and what you liked or did not like about it. You can tell us about one diet that you had so much success with, or another that was a torture to follow or both.

I have tried and utilize the South Beach eating plan. I don't like the word diet because it seems so short lived and it's kind of one of those "4-letter" words that are just evil.

South Beach has worked really well for me because of the limit of sugar and white flour. I'm a sweet tooth and I love bread. We grew on sandwiches and ice cream. One or both of these was part of a meal. South Beach has taught me to eat more often, more lean proteins and that whole wheat really is a good thing.

I've learned how to accommodate my eating plan to still allow breads or pasta, but in the right form - meaning whole wheat and not with enriched wheat flour. I look for a lot of whole grains and really read the ingredients list. I also eat a lot more veggies these days than I used to. I'm learning to love those again. I never used to eat veggies so this was new to me.

I still splurge on occasion with ice cream, but I try to keep it low-carb or low or no sugar. Sugar Free is one of my favorite things.

I have found that logging what I eat is most helpful. And my favorite quote from my friend Erik who helped me start on South Beach is, "No popcorn. Eat cheese!" I do eat popcorn though, just not as much as I usually do.