Hi friends! March is now over and so is my experiment with the South Beach Diet.  I followed the diet to the letter for the first half of the month and followed the “spirit” of the diet the second half of the month (meaning I followed the plan with some exceptions). I lost EXACTLY 7 lbs.  This is pretty much on target for what I hoped and expected to lose in a month.  Losing weight too fast is never good because it almost always comes back faster than it was lost. So I was VERY happy with a slow and steady 7 lb loss.  If I continue on in this pattern I will definitely hit my goal of losing 50 lbs by October.

So what do I think about the South Beach Diet?  I think that it’s a good place to start if you want to learn about “bad” carbs and how they impact your overall nutrition.  I also think it’s a good way to get your body to break the addiction to the bad carbs.  Cleanses and fasts are popular and you can sort of call the first two weeks on South Beach a cleanse or a fast.  Eliminating all sugar, white flour and processed carbs is always good for you and doing this for two weeks did break my habitual cravings for these bad carbs.  The first couple of days were SO hard but after about 5 days in I felt I had more energy and noticed that I did not experience the big swings in blood sugar I had while indulging.

I did discover in my research that, often times manufactures, when manipulating foods to be low-fat or non-fat, will replace the fat with various forms of sugar.  South Beach promotes the use of low-fat and non-fat for heart healthy reasons — which I agree with — but for me and my body its better to use full fat versions, especially of dairy products, rather than ingest the added sugars in the low and non fat versions.

I think South Beach is a great diet to follow and a good place to start if you are just beginning to learn about good carbs and bad carbs.  You will also learn about good fats and bad fats on South Beach.  This is not a diet that says — HEY EAT ALL THE BACON AND RED MEAT YOU WANT.  In fact, Dr. Agatston strongly advises against eating much, of any, red meat and other fatty proteins.

Now as we have entered into month two of my diet experiment I will definitely be applying much of what I learned from South Beach as I learn about a new approach to nutrition and weight loss.

I am going to attempt to follow the Zone Diet this month.  I confess that I did lose focus the last couple of days but I am back on the wagon and researching all I can about the Zone Diet.  From what I can see thus far, its similar to South Beach in the foods recommended yet different in that there is alot of calculation involved to ensure you are eating balanced meals according to Zone standards.  I admit I am still researching this diet plan so I am not fully confident I have grasped the strategy but I am attempting to follow the 1/3 – 2/3 rule

Last month I did a little bit of research on the Paleo diet and from what I am learning about Zone I see alot of similarities.  Zone talks alot about how certain foods cause cellular inflammation and from what I understand that is a big point made by the Paleo advocates.

Overall, I am beginning to see a bit of overlap in what I am researching and learning from all these diets, chiefly, the discouragement of consuming SUGAR and anything that turns into sugar (glucose) during digestion.  My focus may turn to a fuller study of sugar now, especially knowing what I do about my own body’s response to sugar and other foods that turn into glucose.

My aunt passed along a news story to me that I just watched today a CBS/CNN report on new scientific studies about the negative effects of sugar.  If that kind of thing interests you, click here to check out the story. According to this story, some reports claim that sugar can fuel the growth of cancer! I am particularly interested in learning more about how our brains respond to sugar, not just our bodies.

Are you now bored out of your mind??  Sorry!  I just wanted to write about where my research and experiment is leading me.  If anyone has any info they would like to share about sugar or foods that convert to glucose I would love to hear it!

In the meantime, if you want to lose 7 lbs in a month, try South Beach Diet! Worked for me! 🙂