I'm doing South Beach and have had what I consider great success with it. In a little bit under six months I have lost 60 pounds and over 40 inches. My husband is on the program with me and he has lost 65 pounds. We absolutely love all the foods we eat! I do admit that I didn't think I could give up my pizza crust, butter pecan ice cream, french fries and chicken mcnuggets but I honestly don't miss that stuff now. Plus there are so many substitutions available now, we can pretty much have whatever we are really craving and still stay on plan.
It is a bit of an adjustment giving up the carbs for Phase 1, but once we could add good carbs back to our diet and continue to lose weight we were hooked! We eat whole wheat pasta including macaroni and linguine plus there's whole wheat spaghetti and lasagna noodles. There is no need to feel deprived on this way of eating. I eat dessert every night. If you'd like to get an idea of what Phase 1 and 2 meals are like, check out my journal in the WISH journal board.
I stopped having cravings for the bad carbs about day 4 and haven't had a craving for the white stuff since. We use splenda instead of sugar and are allowed long grain converted rice, brown rice and wild rice in addition to whole wheat and sour dough bread (I believe there are a few other types as well that we can have). We eat dessert every night plus two snacks in addition to our three meals per day.
The ground beef you are talking about having, if it is lean, then there's no reason you can't have it. You asked about a website with a listing of the foods that are acceptable, you can find a listing at
South Beach Acceptable Foods.
I hope this helps you out and that you and your husband join us on the Beach! I have tried just about every other diet out there and this is the first time in my life I have found a program that fits my lifestyle, that I truly don't feel I'm on a diet and have had this type of weight loss success.
If you have any more questions, just ask away, we love to talk about South Beach!
