SOUTH BEACH DIET, THE RIGHT CARB DIET

Today marks day 3 of my SB weight-loss regimen.

The first thing I did upon getting out of bed and after a visit to the bathroom was to get to my weighing scale. It registered 144 lbs.

Dr. Arthur Agatston, in his book wrote that "the SB Diet is not low-carb. Nor is it low-fat. The South Beach Diet teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats - the good ones - and enables you to live quite happily without the bad carbs and bad fats. As a result, you're going to get healthy and lose weight - somewhere between 8 and 13 pounds in the next 2 weeks alone."

When I first undertook the regimen about 5 years ago I lost 8 lbs after two weeks on the program.

The diet is not actually about limiting (weighing calories and all that) the amount of food that you take but rather avoiding the bad carbs that tend to create hunger pangs just a few hours after meals. It has been proven that the more we consume food high in sugar and refined starch, the faster we grow hungry. So the tendency for us is to gobble on foodstuffs that cause our bodies to store excessive fat especially in our mid-section.

I can personally attest to the fact that just after the 1st week (or even less) on the diet, your cravings for pasta, cakes, and the like will not be as great as when you first started out. Actually your appetite for them will just eventually disappear before you know it. Trust me.

It is just unfortunate that I do not have the culinary gift to prepare South Beach-friendly-fare. I make do with what is available in our fridge. Since I love all kinds of omelet, I stick to the same menu while I am in the Phase 1 diet or while I can't have wheat bread yet for breakfast.

So for my first early meal today I concocted my own version of the Spanish Omelet consisting of two whole eggs, strips of left-over steamed veggies from last night's dinner, a slice of low-fat, low-salt luncheon meat (Spam) cut into small cubes, a dash of pan salt and a small amount of tomato sauce.

My own version of the Spanish Omelet

I had toasted cashew nuts for my mid-morning snacks.

My lunchbox to the office on the other hand consisted of the left-over chicken breast adobo and a plateful of salad greens.

Another serving of toasted cashew nuts for my mid-afternoon break plus one piece togue lumpia ordered from the factory canteen.

For dinner tonight I had grilled fish and adobong kangkong. But just before bedtime I was "forced" (and I allowed myself to be tempted) to eat one piece of Godiva chocolate that Nikki was dangling before me. "C'mon Mom it won't harm your diet to cheat once in a while."