Diet Riot

Well, it's been ages since I have posted, and my diet has completely come undone.  I have had a lot to do over the last few months, and taking care of myself is usually the first thing to go out the window when I am overextended.  It would be nice to change that.  I think I've officially gained about 10 pounds since my lowest in January, but my semester is over on Thursday, then I am going on vacation, and then it's luxurious summertime during which I will be substantially less busy than I am now.  So I can do things like go to the gym again, and go shopping for food, and spend my lunchtimes going for steep walks uphill rather than eating pizza at my desk!  Last summer, I managed to lose about 15 pounds so I am hoping for a similar experience this year.  Because right now I feel like crap, and my waistband is a little tight on my favorite skirt!  My hair looks nice though.  Anyway, I started the day by eating salad for breakfast, and a diet coke.  not sure if that's a good thing or not.  good, because low calorie, but bad, because it's a random thing to eat, and unplanned.  Oh well. 

I am down another 1.8 lbs this week, but it has been a bit of a struggle.  Last Monday evening, I was invited for a posh dinner at one of the Oxford colleges, which involved 4 courses and lots of wine.  Actually the meal was quite healthy, soup, fish, vegetables, potatoes, whole grain rolls.  The dessert, or shall I say "pudding,"  was some sort of delicious Bailey's cheesecake though which started the generally downhill slide for the rest of the evening. 

 After this annual dinner, it is apparently traditional to head to the college bar for a "Pongo," which is a sickly sweet, pint size cocktail which contains no less than 7 shots of different kinds of liquor and an unknown, but I'm sure exorbitant, amount of sugary, fruity substance.  They come in red or blue and I was lucky enough to get the red, which was slightly less disgusting than the blue.  At this point I was totally drunk, so it seemed like a great idea to go on for a pint of beer at a different pub after that one closed.  Then, it seemed like a shame to end the night that early, so we went on to my friend Alex's for a bottle of THE WORST WINE IN THE WORLD.  It was needless to say a big disappointment because this wine had been brought back to England the week before from the south of France….go figure. It was far worse than the Pongo, completely vinegary and unnecessary, but yet we nearly finished the bottle.  The evening ended in a predictable fashion, with me not wanting to ride my bike the 2.5 miles home and instead sleeping on Alex's spare air mattress.  I woke up a bit hungover, especially for a Tuesday, but the Pain au chocolat that Alex went and got us helped me feel a bit better , even though it was far from South Beachy.  Yep, didn't get much work done that day.

 That was really my biggest setback of the week.  I ate really well most other days and never drank more than a glass or two of wine.  I did have a one beer and about 5 cookies on Friday at work, but I still think I was less t han 1600 calories for the day.

Anyway, I'm very encouraged by my steady weight loss.  My goal is to lose 1.5 lbs per week, and I have been keeping a very detailed excel spreadsheet of my progress since my most recent return to the Beach on March 27th.

Looks like I am on track to be at least 166 lbs by my trip to Australia on August 25th.  That would be so fantastic.  I would be so much happier to wear a bathing suit in front of my co-workers…must keep this in mind. It is the best motivation ever.

I managed to lose another 1.5 lbs this last week!  Hurray!  I began more of a Phase 2 eating style recently, having fruit, brown rice, low carb pasta, and whole grain toast in the last week.  In fact, I was worried that I was overdoing it, but since I still managed to lose weight, I guess it is ok.  I might try to cut down a bit more on the P2 foods though this week to see if I can up the weight loss.

 I did cheat quite substantially on Friday by going out to dinner at La Tasca, a tapas restaurant here, and then to a pub.  I had lots of wine, some bread,some paella, one cosmo, one beer, and even a dessert (flan and ice cream…yum).  I really think I could probably have lost another half pound at least if I hadn't had this episode.  This weekend I will try to restrain myself a bit more.  It is hard though going out to eat around here, especially when I don't really feel like explaining the whole SB diet thing to everyone I'm with. 

On another note, exercise has been pretty good recently and I have big plans to start working out even more.  Last week I cycled every day to work and back (~35 minutes total), played squash on tuesday, and went to yoga on wednesday.  I've decided to join a gym here in Oxford that has lots of fun classes, etc. too.  I think I will go there this week to join and hopefully start going there at least a few times a week.  I really feel the need to do some strength training more.  I haven't lifted a weight in ages and I really miss it.

Well, since Gen, my Diet Riot blog buddy, has recently become interested in  the SB diet, I thought I would write a bit about my strategy and experiences with this eating plan.  I apologize ahead of time because I know this is going to pale in comparison to some of the excellent summaries found on the South Beach forum.  Before any of you hard core SBers take offense, though,  when I mention my yogurt and bean obsession or my occasional consumption of full fat cheese and wine during Phase One, remember that this is my own personal interpretation.  It seems to be working for me and is definitely easier to stick to than other diets I've tried in the past.

I should mention that my first brush with a similar diet was with The Zone.  I followed this one on and off for over a year, and lost 20 pounds with it.  I find the Zone and South Beach are quite similar in lots of ways, so I think I keep the principles of both in mind when planning my meals.  Usually try to incorporate a 40:30:30 ratio (Good carb: protein:fat).

 While there seems to be a bit of controversy over whether Phase One is actually necessary to curb your carb cravings or whether it is merely there to sell books (lose 7 to 13 lbs in the first 2 weeks!), I don't really care because it is highly motivational to see those pounds fall off so quickly in the beginning.  I tend to agree, though, with those who say that Phase One should really be only followed for 2 to 3 weeks.  Any more than this, and experience tells me that I will lose control, pig out, and gain back half the weight I just lost.

While I won't go into an exhaustive list of foods I eat during the different phases, I will say what my staples and favorites are.  So here goes…

Phase One Breakfasts (each of these is meal):

• 2 Eggs, scrambled or fried,minimal butter or oil with glass of V8
• Low fat cottage cheese
• 2 slices of Back Bacon or veggie sausages + V8
• Smoked salmon + V8
• My favorite:  Scrambled eggs with pinto beans, mozzarella cheese, and hot sauce

Phase One lunches:

• Usually a rather large salad with a selection of delicious things, including:  Lettuce or spinach, bell pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, chickpeas, cucumber, avocado or cheese (feta or blue),  some sort of protein (either a can of tuna, some lunch meat, or grilled chicken), and a low-fat, low carb dressing (usually just some balsamic vinegar).  The major problem with this is that it is time consuming to prepare every day, and requires very frequent trips to the supermarket.
• If I don't have time to make lunch, I will usually buy pre-made salads from the supermarket.

Phase One dinners include:

1. Usually, grilled meat or fish on the george foreman grill (chicken breast, lean ground beef, steak, pork loin, lamb, salmon).  I tend to have a larger portion than is probably allowed 6-8 oz rather than 4…
2. Some sort of vegetable.  I like making roasted vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc.  add a little olive oil and seasoning and bake in oven).  Also, I will sometimes have salad or steamed or boiled frozen veggies.  Broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and zucchini are my favorites.  I also make green beans with Thyme and slivered almonds…very yummy.

Phase One snacks:

• Low sugar yogurt, either plain with splenda and vanilla extract or another flavored one with less than 75 calories.  I have at least one yogurt a day.
• Pistachios, usually 15-20.
• Hard boiled egg
• veggies and hummus.
• Celery with Laughing cow cheese (the standard SB snack). 
• A couple squares of dark chocolate or a fudgsicle (skinny cow brand in the UK)
• Wine – I know this is technically not allowed, but I must say that I have always had at least a few glasses of wine per week during Phase one and have always lost at least 8 lbs in the two weeks. 

Well, this is already a rather long post, so I think I will save my Phase Two description for another time. 

I know, I am complete crap for not posting sooner, but this last week has been super busy.  There seem to be a never ending number of social occasions which involve lots of eating and drinking.  First, we went out for a 3-course meal with a Chinese visitor who was leaving last Tuesday. Then, on Friday, it was my friend Anna's birthday, so we went out for pizza and lots of wine.  Then, another good friend of mine here is moving to France, so there has been a number of going away events related to that.  I did pretty well yesterday at the going away pub outing though.  It was at this awesome pub called the The Trout Inn, which is on the Thames River.   We walked there from town (2 or 3 miles), so I think I earned my sunday roast with yorkshire pudding…mmmm. 

 Overall, despite a fairly large amount of cheating in the last week, I've somehow managed to eat well enough to lose 1.5 kg in the last week.  I credit it to drinking only wine, controlling my portions, and eating good phase one foods whenever possible.  This puts me at 87.5 kg (192.5 lbs), which is lower than before I went to California!  Now, I am totally inspired to do as well again this week.  I have fewer social engagements so it might be even easier this week.