South Beach Diet Questions

[joyjoy]

Hi, everyone, I'm new here. I'm thinking I want to do the SBD - I have about 20 lbs to lose. I exercise pretty regularly (Crunch videos at home and I run/walk 2 miles 3x per week) but I need some extra help and I think SBD sounds right for me. I am a vegetarian and in a recent Vegetarian Times magazine there were a lot of recipes that you can use on the SBD. So anyway, my questions are:

How do you get started? Do you just buy the book and start reading or do you skip right to the diet part?

Did you buy the supplemental recipe book? (They sell them together on amazon.com)

Is it necessary to join the SBDonline thing? It's $5 per week and has a bunch of message boards and stuff, but I'm not sure it's necessary or worth it.

I'm excited about doing this. I've never been on any kind of "diet" before, other than the vegetarianism, of course. Thanks for any help.

melanie

 

[ZerasPride]

Hi Melanie!

DH and I are South Beachers and we love the program! We find it quite easy to follow and the food is delicious. I use a lot of Atkins recipes with slight adjustments to make them more SBD friendly and we are having a ball trying new recipes out.

I would definitely buy the book and read it through. It's not too long, maybe 80 pages or so, then there are lots of recipes so it makes the book look even thicker than it truly is.

I have a journal on the WISH journal board if you are interested in seeing some of my menus. I have lost 22.5 pounds since 12/1/03 and countless inches. I'm kind of upset with myself that I didn't start measuring myself from the beginning but from 1/1/04 to 1/11/04 I have lost 8 inches. DH has similar results.

If you are talking about the supplement guide to the book, I was looking at it yesterday (borrowed it from a coworker) and frankly I thought it was very confusing and I won't be buying it. I didn't see any recipes in it so maybe we are talking about two different publications.

As far as joining the actual SBD site and paying the money, I have found two other sites (free ones) that are just as good as the official site and most of the info from the official site gets posted to them anyway. The first is lowcarbfriends.com. It is primarily an Atkins site but people who are low carbing on other programs visit too. On the challenge board there is a specific South Beach thread filled with wonderfully supportive people (just like this site). I have the same username there as I do here so if you decide to check it out and register, just give me a "holler". The other site is at prevention.com. The have message boards and one specifically for SBD. They are a lively group but I just lurk there - they seem a bit more animated than I want to be involved with right now.

That's about all I can think of off hand. Let me know if you want any other specific info or if you need some encouragement. Again, I love SBD and am so glad I found the program that works for me and I know you can be successful with it too!

 

[joyjoy]

Lisa,
Yay! Thank you! You have totally inspired me. I'm going to go order the book right now. Yes, I was talking about that supplement thing. I won't get that, then. Thanks so much for the links to the other groups, I'll check them out and let you know where I'll be. It's a little overwhelming right now with so many websites and message boards, but I like the DIS so if it's okay, I might just hang around. Thanks again, I can't wait to get started!

Melanie

 

[Dancind]

Welcome, Melanie. Everyone is supportive here. Glad you're joining up! Diana