Louisa's Weight Loss Blog

The South Beach Diet is considered to be one of all the healthier of the weight loss diets available today. Consisting of lean meat, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains

The South Beach Diet is considered to be one of all the healthier of the weight loss diets available today. Consisting of lean meat, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. The purpose of the South Beach Diet was originally a means for heart patients to improve their LDL cholesterol. It has caught on in a big way for overweight and obese people who are desperate to find a healthy way to lose weight.

For a bit of background about the diet, it is divided into three phases.

Phase one – It’s a bit of a shock to the system! This phase should last two weeks and the dieter will restrict their food intake in a way that will seem quite drastic to someone who is used to eating over 4000 calories a day! South Beach dieters will be eliminating all sugar, processed carbohydrates, fruits, and higher-glycemic vegetables as well. This phase usually results in significant weight loss but this is just the beginning…
Phase two – This stage will last for as long as you need in order to lose weight. After the initial two weeks, most South Beach Dieters can add fruits and most veggies back into their diet along with most whole grains. Dieters are expected to begin exercising (in accordance with doctor’s orders of course!) and weight loss should slow up but continue at a much steadier rate if the diet is followed properly.
Phase three – After you have lost all the weight you wanted to lose, dieters can eat what they want – within reason! Graduates from the South Beach Diet are expected to continue with the basic principles of the diet which are:

• low in fat so no trans-fats and choose foods low in saturated fat
• high in fibre
• high in omega 3 fatty acid
• avoid processed foods which are more likely to be simple carbohydrates that leave you hungry sooner after eating.

The South Beach Diet isn’t a low in carbohydrate diet like Atkins although it is often mistaken as a low-carb diet. On the South Beach Diet, dieters are not expected to limit or even weigh their carbohydrate intake, but simply consider their source e.g, are they complex or simple carbohydrates? Brown rice is a complex carbohydrate as your body has to work harder to break it down. In fact, the vegetarian version of the diet is quite high in carbohydrates.

One blogger who has been following the diet and has seen a considerable change in his health as well as his appearance is Steve – but you might know him better as South Beach Steve.

Steve has lost a huge amount of weight. He now weighs in at 187.5lbs but last year Steve weighed 259lbs. Back in August 2007, he weighed in at a whopping 283lbs! This means that Steve is healthier than ever and well on his way to losing five stone from his starting weight of 259lbs! Well done Steve!

To help those who are considering following the South Beach Diet, I asked Steve a few questions about his diet so make yourself comfortable and settle down for what I hope will be an enlightening blog post.

Steve used to be very big...

Look at Steve now! He's slim with defined muscles thanks to the South Beach Diet and hard work

Questions to South Beach Steve:

1. People are really feeling the pinch at the moment, is the SB diet
cheaper to follow than your old unhealthy diet?

One thing I have always heard about the South Beach Diet is that it is
expensive to follow.  I don’t really think that we have seen our grocery
bill rise that much, so it doesn’t appear to be the case with us.  A few
things are at play here.  First, if we are eating healthier foods, it
usually takes less to fill us up.  On the other hand, if you eat a meal
heavy in processed white-flour or sugars, your blood sugar spikes, then
drops, which leaves you feeling hungry sooner, thus you eat more.  In
short, it looks like it should be more expensive, but I have personally
not found that to be the case.

2. Having done my research, it seems as though the SB diet requires a
lot of effort with fresh food prep. Does it take ages to prepare your
food and do you need to go shopping every day?

To do the diet right, it does take a lot of food preparation.  Even the
meals marketed toward the diet do not really fit the guidelines Dr.
Agatston has previously defined.  This is a real challenge when it comes
to food preparation.  I tend to fix larger portions of food, then eat
from the leftovers for several days.  I also freeze certain things like
vegetable beef soup or chili.

We also don’t have to shop every day, although we do go at least twice a
week.  It is hard to keep fresh food that is edible longer than a few
days.  Fortunately, one of our favorite grocery stores is on my way home
from work.

3. I gather you’re quite busy with your job and family life, how does
your diet fit in with your lifestyle?

I really thought this was going to be one of the greater challenges.  I
eat a lot of “work” lunches and dinners, which are not geared toward my
diet.  I also travel a lot, which isn’t conducive to this type of diet.
For me, I didn’t allow that to be an excuse.  Basically, if you know you
have to find workable options, you look harder.  There have been times
that I just haven’t eaten the work meals, and there have been times when
traveling that I have bought my food at a grocery store instead of a
restaurant.

I am fortunate in that my wife generally cooks dinner, and it is ready
before I arrive home (the rest of the family eats dinner much earlier
than when I arrive home).  This helps keep the evening preparation to a
minimum, which I am thankful for.

4. Be honest, do you prefer the SB diet to your old diet?

I don’t know that I can say I prefer it when speaking of taste, but I am
equally happy with it.  Sure, there are foods I miss, but not many.  The
food I now eat is tasty and filling, which is all I can ask for.  The
largest challenge is snack foods, which are very limited.

5. I find that fatty and unhealthy foods turn my stomach now, how long
did it take for you to stop wanting the old food you used to eat?

I would say that it was probably six months or so.  I don’t recall the
moment where I realized my taste buds had changed, but I do remember
noticing it.  It was like a light went off in my head, realizing I had
finally reached a new level of success.

6. Can you describe what you used to eat in a day?

A typical day might have consisted of one or two bowls of some
sugar-laden cereal for breakfast.  Sometimes I would go out for lunch,
when I did it was a double cheeseburger, a large fries, and a large
drink.  While that wasn’t everyday, it was typical.  I often had an
afternoon snack, usually a bag of chips, a bag of popcorn, or a Snickers
candy bar.  Dinner was often a large helping of lasagna with bread, or
some kind of meat, lots of mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn.  The real
kicker was I wasn’t done at this point.  I would often have another bowl
of cereal or ice cream before bed.

7. And what do you eat now?

Breakfast is often an apple with 2-4 tablespoons of natural nut butter.
Lunch is typically a large salad or a chicken breast accompanied by
steamed broccoli.  Dinner is usually a lean meat and a couple of cooked
vegetables.  That being said, salads are always a welcome food.  I still
snack on occasion, sometimes a late evening apple or a late evening bowl
of a whole grain cereal.  I try to keep this to a minimum though.

8. Can anybody do the South Beach diet?

I think most anyone can do the South Beach Diet.  The two exceptions that could still
do it, although it would be tough, are total vegetarians or vegans.  The
premise of the diet is eating foods that have less of an effect on your
blood sugar – proteins and fats are better at this than carbohydrates.
The fiber in vegetables and fruits helps with this, but not as well as
the protein and fats.

9. What benefits have you noticed other than weight loss?

I have been told that I look healthier, although I am not sure if that
is a result of my skin or what.  I have more energy, which is nice.  Of
course, the greatest benefit is my health, which has improved tremendously.

10. Is it easy to stick to the diet when you go out for dinner with family?

With family it is easy.  My family is very accommodating, so we usually
go somewhere that is agreeable with my diet.  This usually means
somewhere with good salads.  Believe me, I count myself lucky here.

11. How important is portion control with the South Beach diet? Can you gorge yourself silly on all the good foods until you’re full?

Can you gorge yourself silly?  Yes, you just won’t lose any weight.
  Seriously, most of the time I feel satisfied on the amounts I eat.
Does that mean I eat all I can eat?  No, but I do eat until I am full.
I am rarely hungry, and when I am it is intentional.  I think part of
the benefit of a low-hypoglycemic index diet, like the South Beach Diet,
is that we recognize being full easier.

12. If you could only give one piece of advice to people thinking about
going on the South Beach diet, what would that be?

Learn the diet.  This is one of the most misunderstood diets out there.
It is not a traditional “low carb” diet.  I prefer to call it a healthy
carb/healthy meat diet.

If I were to offer a second piece of the diet, I would add that you
should not feel that you have to follow the meal plans in the books.
These are just examples, that is it.

13. Do your kids eat the same diet as you now? What do they think of
their new slimline daddy?

No, my kids do not eat the same exact diet.  They do eat many of the
foods I eat, but they still have some foods I do not eat.

One of the best memories I have so far in this journey to healthiness is
my youngest son being so excited that he can actually put his arms all
the way around me when he hugs me.

14. That’s absolutely fantastic! How long did it take for you to see results?

I saw weight results immediately, but the funny thing was that no one
seemed to notice until I had lost 30 pounds.  At that point it was as if
everyone’s eyes were opened.  That was about six months into it.

15. Is this something that you can approach ‘half-hearted’ or do you
have to be really determined and dedicated from the outset for it to
even stand a chance of working?

I firmly believe this is a diet that one must be committed to.  The
eating program that you follow is not well-suited to “cheating”.

16. At what point did you realise you needed to diet? Did you try any
other diets or did you strike it lucky with finding the South Beach diet first?

I have known that I needed to diet most of my life.  I made the decision
last July though.  I was laying in bed and it hit me that I was a
walking time-bomb.  I knew that I would never live to see my children’s
children if I didn’t change something immediately.  That was the night
before I began changing my health for the better.

I had tried other diets.  At one point in my adult life I lost several
pounds on a low fat diet.  It was relatively easy for me, but I became
bored with it quick.  I also lost a great deal of weight on the Atkins
Diet.  I still have a fondness for that diet.  I felt good when I was on
that diet, and I lost an incredible amount of weight very fast.  I
always looked at it as a diet though, not a lifestyle change.  That is
the difference.  When it came time to change for good, I knew I wasn’t
ready to do the Atkins Diet again.  I wasn’t that committed yet.  But I
knew I could do the South Beach Diet.  Furthermore, I felt the South
Beach Diet was a lifestyle diet for me.  I wasn’t sure the Atkins Diet
could ever be that.

And the most recent picture of Steve – in his brand new suit that has sent lots of well-deserved compliments his way…

Slimline Steve

For those of you out there who want to lose weight but feel overwhelmed about the amount of diet and exercise plans out there, don’t despair just yet.

Yes, there are hundreds, possibly thousands of different diets out there, but don’t delay trying to lose weight even though you aren’t sure about which plan to follow. How on earth do you know which one is the best for you? After all, can you possibly contemplate a life without carbs? Do you love cabbage so much that you’d be happy to follow the cabbage soup diet but live with the flatulence?

There are so many diet methods out there to try, yet no matter what anybody tells you, there is no “correct weight loss method”. Anybody who tells you that there is only one method to lose weight is probably trying to sell you something and will probably hinder your progress more than help it.

All diets follow the basic weight loss principle: if you reduce your intake of calories and increase your exercise, you WILL lose weight.

Go on a diet, lose weight. Simple!

Weight loss plans pretty much all follow this principle – they just take a different route. As you will already be aware, everybody is different and different plans work for different people. Will Atkins work for me, Louisa? Heck no! I love carbohydrates and when my IBS royally kicked off three years ago, I temporary had to give up gluten and dairy. This meant no bread, milk, cheese and pasta – everything I love! I lived off chicken, veggies, oat milk, porridge and gluten-free pasta and pesto. I mean it when I say that this is pretty much all that I ate for months. I lost weight but at what cost? I was generally unwell and miserable. Would I enforce that kind of diet on myself again? No, there has to be a better way that I am happy to live with where I don’t feel denied anything I’d like from time to time.

Dieting is a lifestyle choice. Once you reach your goal, are you going to go back to your old eating habits? No! You need to be happy with the diet you’ve chosen otherwise you’ll resent your decision and will be less likely to stick to it… and get fat again.

Slimming aids

A side note for those contemplating taking slimming aids like the acai berry products or Hoodia – you need to realise that

a.) They will not work unless you eat a healthy diet and exercise too

b.) The clue is in the name – they are slimming aids!

You can’t eat rubbish and expect to lose weight. Again, anyone who tells you that pills makes weight loss easy has ulterior motives. This means that you still need to choose a healthy diet plan, they are not a long-term solution but the right one could certainly help you lose weight and keep it off in the long run. As you know, I recommend Proactol.

Choosing the right diet

For fussy eaters and those with food allergies, how do you choose the right diet that lets you eat the foods that you like? Over the coming months, I intend to ‘Showcase’ a selection of diets and not just write a bit about them, but give an honest account of what it’s like to follow these diets. Soon, I will be publishing a piece about the South Beach Diet – make sure you look out for it!

I read an awful lot of weight loss blogs in my evenings. You could say I am hungry for knowledge because I want to lose wight and I want to create a comprehensive website packed full of useful diet tips, product reviews and general information for dieters over the world to use. I want to hear other people’s stories because this is a community.

However, I get incredibly angry when I see rubbish like this published online. I do wonder if the moderator approved my comment, I wasn’t rude but I made my feelings clear, “advice” like this is of no use to the normal man or woman at home just trying to lose a few lbs. In this blog post, the writer says that we have the ‘hot’ part of our brains, the part that acts on instinct and then the ‘cold’ logical part. We can resist chocolate cake apparently, if we count to 10 and access the ‘cold’ part of our brain.

Could you resist chocolate cake by simply asking yourself if you need this when you really, really want it? Didn't think so!

I’ve not heard such rubbish in a long time as cravings can last hours and hours. It is irresponsible to suggest to people that it is as simple as counting to ten to avoid eating chocolate cake. ‘Information’ like this is bandied around by people with very little weight loss knowledge purely trying to increase their website’s content so they can rank in Google. Writers like this know absolutely nothing of value to the weight loss community and clog Google with rubbish so the most useful stuff doesn’t actually appear on the first page.

Ignorant posters like this simply end up contributing to obliterating self-esteem in the long term as people feel weak for giving in and bumpf like this generally creates the idea among the weight loss newbies that ignoring cravings is easy. IT IS NOT! Weight loss is hard work, remember what your mum always said: “Nothing worth having ever comes easily.”

The author clearly does not understand how strong cravings for particular foods can be. I’ve heard of people driving miles and miles just to buy a particular kind of cake! If I told someone willing to drive 10 miles for cake to count to 10, close their eyes and breathe deeply or ask themselves if they really want the cake and I would fully expect a slap in the face and I would feel it was richly deserved too!

By the way, I’ve driven for 8 miles to a specific bakery for a particular kind of cake and another 12 miles back home after I found out they were closed and stopped to my 2nd choice on the way home. I know that telling people to access the ‘cold’ part of their brain is b*****ks!

Hello,  I am Louisa’s twin, Amelia. She has invited me to blog about my thoughts on my own weight loss and exercise in particular.

In the past year, I have lost over a stone and a half, going down from 13 stone to 11 and a half. I’m 5ft 8ins so I can carry a little more weight and I am never going to be eight stone.

I used to look like this

A couple of months ago, I looked like this. Louisa is the one on the right!

Perhaps I should get some more recent photos.

But anyway, I’m happy to be a part of this and share what I have learned along the way and hope to continue learning. This thinner me is for life now and it’s all about how diet and exercise has enhanced my life, plus I am excited about talking about the clothes that I want to wear now I feel more confident!

When a relationship ends, you may certainly be heartbroken. It is normal to cry and need a comforting hug from your friends and family, fun drinking sessions with friends and so on to forget about the emotional pain. The thing is that most people cannot get to the fun stage until they have finished the ‘wallowing’ stage and this is where the Heartbreak Diet comes in. We have all been there and most women will support you and try and help you by telling you of their experiences and how they got through it. You will get over it and you will meet someone nice again. I didn’t meet anyone remotely nice until Jonny came along which was three years after my last relationship!

Most women will be familiar with the Heartbreak Diet and it can go one of two ways.

• Some women won’t want to eat at all. They will only eat when forced and each mouthful of food sticks in the throat and you always feel sick afterwards. Normal eating will usually resume after a few weeks but women who have lost weight as a result will typically be thrilled with their new bodies and will work hard to maintain their new weight.
• Other women will turn to food for comfort and can’t stop eating. They will put on weight and may spiral into depression and feelings of low self-esteem.

When your heart is broken, you will either turn to food for comfort... or turn away from it.

There are ways around the unfortunate second option if you believe you may fall into this trap.

• Surround yourself with mates and maybe eat with them too. Cook healthy meals for each other and go to exercise or dance classes together.
• Keep your self esteem up, stay busy and treat yourself regularly with small gifts that aren’t food.
• Join the gym, spend all the time you would have spent with him exercising and working for the body you always wanted.

It was about time! I’m always on facebook so it’s about time I combined my two internet loves, Facebook and Total Chunk!

Find the Total Chunk Facebook page here:

Afternoon all! I’ve felt really grotty all week, I’ve been feeling very achey, weak, with headache, sore throat, nausea etc so unfortunately, the diet has been on hold. I’m sure there are those out there who believe that even in spite of being poorlysick you should continue to try and stick to a normal routine but I am not one of them.

When you are unwell try to rest and drink plenty of water

When I am not well, I try and get plenty of fluids and bed rest. I’ve fought off many colds by just taking a day or two easy and trying to eat well. When you are unwell, your body needs calories, fat, protein, antioxidants etc to rebuild itself and your immune system. If you lose weight due to illness that is one thing but there is no good in potentially prolonging a simple cold by pushing yourself too hard.

I have asthma and I’ve had it drummed into me so many times that when you have respiratory weaknesses then a bout of flu can develop into pneumonia which is why asthmatics like myself are offered the annual flu jab. It is not just asthmatics at risk, a former colleague of mine who was normally in excellent health caught a cold and it developed into a long-running respiratory infection that she suffered from for weeks and weeks. This kind of thing can really knock your diet sideways so you need to consider your options.

You can either take a few days out of your diet, rest completely and start again in earnest when you’re up to exercise or you can try and carry on with your diet but risk prolonging your illness.

When I get a spare moment (and lately these spare moments have been rather frequent), I like to read the news online. This is because I am unemployed and can’t afford newspapers. Secondly, tree huggers will say it’s more environmentally friendly as trees will not be felled to makes the paper the news is printed on. Then, the carbon emissions are lower as there will be no physical travel in bringing the news to my computer. To be perfectly honest, the first reason is the most important to me right now.

So I was looking around on the BBC News website and saw this article about how children are exercising less. The information included in the article was provided by the British Heart Foundation. According to the BHF, only one in eight children are getting the recommended 60 minutes of exercise they need everyday to avoid obesity. What is laughable is that 20% of the children surveyed thought you only needed to do exercise if you were fat. When I was a child, my sister and I ran everywhere! We were incredibly active and we were skinny minnies until we reached our teens but even then, we used to cycle a lot, walk around with friends etc

I'm the one on the right!

so neither of us really were starting to gain weight until we began exams for our GCSEs and then it all went tits up as I went up to 157lbs!

What surprises me is that the active childhood that my sister and I had is not a normal upbringing for all children these days. One of the links on the side of the BHF story on the BBC website was to another story about childhood obesity that confirmed what I was already thinking. Responsibility lies entirely with the parents. The second story was published a year ago but this study suggested that parents thought it was NORMAL for their children to be chubby and are less receptive to suggestions that their little darlings could be suffering from childhood obesity. Parents are less likely to accept that their children ARE overweight and are hostile to the suggestion that their spawn are in fact, fat.

What could this mean to a generation of children suffering from their parent’s ignorance or delusions of perfection? Overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults and children with obese parents are more likely to grow up to be obese themselves. There is an overwhelming attitude amongst people who think that their weight problems are ‘hormonal’ or ‘glandular’. This is actually, much rarer than you may think and hoards of people have the potential to lose weight and become healthy and inspire their children to also lose weight and become healthy. There is simply a lack of inclination to do it.

Nobody wants their children to look like this

If you are a parent reading this, take an unbiased look at your child and ask yourself if they could benefit from losing weight. As long as a child is eating enough calories then they could run around like mad things all day and not suffer for it. Obesity charities blame the food companies aiming fatty and sugary products at children. Bright and lively cartoon characters advertising a naughty snack just makes children want it and the government are very aware of this but were very slow to react. Parents give in to ‘pester power’ and kids know it because they’re hooked on the sugar rush.

Ultimately, parents should be in charge but regularly, when visiting the supermarket, I see scores of children who have the upper hand over their parents. If parents are to reclaim control and help their children live slim and healthy lives then they cannot give in to demands for crisps, sweets, chocolate and fizzy drinks. Put treats out of their reach or better still, don’t keep goodies in the house. Don’t give them money for sweets and ask relatives to help you reinforce this rule. There is nothing wrong with being the bad guy in your children’s eyes when it comes to their health. They will thank you for it when they are slim teenager who don’t struggle in PE lessons. If you give your children the tools to live a healthy lifestyle they are less likely as adults to become obese and suffer from all the possible illnesses related to obesity.

When you spend time with them, make the activities you do centred around exercise. For example, it doesn’t cost anything to go down to the park and play tag, musical chairs or kick a ball around. Obesity can be prevented, you don’t have to view it as a problem that doesn’t apply to you until your thighs rub together and you have to put talcum powder in the folds of your stomach fat. As they say, prevention is better than the cure and you can stop your children from enduring a fat future by being stronger and denying them sugary processed food as regular snacks and encouraging them to keep active. In the process, you’ll eat better and keep more active too and everyone will be in a better position to enjoy a good life with good health.

Food has always been there for you, it sits in the cupboard waiting for you, no human has ever been so freely available when you need them. There is food sitting in the supermarket, the pharmacy, the petrol station and even the places you would not expect to see it for sale. There is food for all budgets, there is food for all moods and purposes, there is food for sharing and food to eat whilst weeping alone. Eating itself is not a habit, the rubbish you eat is!

I am cat sitting this week

So many people have been emotionally dependent on food from day 1 because ‘it is always there’. In the morning, in the middle of the night and throughout the day. What else is a hungry girl to do other than eat if she is hungry? But are you really hungry or is it just emotional hunger? Too often, people plug gaps in their life with food when they really just want to be loved. It’s not pathetic, it is more common than you think!

Jonny and I are cat sitting this week and even though I’ve only been sat here with Manwell the kitten for a couple of hours, I haven’t felt lonely and I’ve not been so bored. He’s been hilarious jumping after a few feathers attached to a string on a stick. He practically back flips when I wiggle the feathers in front of his nose! I’m madly in love with the little dude and he is currently sleeping on my lap. I will join him for a nap when I finish this post.

Anyway, I got round to thinking, if people substitute love for food, what can food be substituted for? Then it hit me, can animals really help their owners lose weight? It sounds a bit mad but give me a moment to explain myself…

People often gain weight because they have low self confidence. Animals love their owners because they feed them and spend time with them. People who have pets always seem happier to me because animals give unconditional love no matter what you look like and how mean you have to appear at work just to get stuff done.

I would be really interested to hear if you believe the love of your furry, four-legged friend has pulled you from the brink of obesity and helped you to lose weight. I googled all kinds of phrases trying to find out if there are any studies that show that pet owners are more likely to lose weight and keep it off and I’ve not found anything. Is my searching wrong or is there really no studies on this? Please comment below with your stories, I’d love to hear them!

It contains 5000 calories, that’s enough to feed an average male over two days. It’s so enormous that you have to sign a disclaimer when ordering it, and if you finish it then you get it for free. No this isn’t a riddle, I’ll tell you now, it is the largest English breakfast in the world! It contains a heart stopping:

• 10 sausages
• 10 eggs
• 10 rashers of bacon
• 5 slices of black pudding
• baked beans
• mushrooms
• tomatoes AND
• 10 slices of toast

If you finish all that in 20 mins flat and don’t have a drink as you’re munching away, you get it for free. Not that you’d mind too much paying for it, it costs £10.95 ($17.75) and is enough for four people to eat although I don’t know if they would let you share with your girlfriends on a Saturday morning whilst nursing the mother of all hangovers. Better get a pot of coffee on girls!

Think you have a strong enough stomach to eat all this in 20 minutes?

The breakfast is so big that it has to be served on a tray rather than a plate. That is enough to turn the stomach of even the hardiest UK lorry drivers! Where can you find this cholesterol-fest? Mario’s Cafe in Westhoughton, Bolton.

If you don’t finish the gigantic breakfast, your disclaimer is pinned to the wall with over 50 others. Dieters, there is nothing wrong with a blow out treat once a week, but this is ridiculous! As funny as this story is, leave this kind of thing to the guys and have a bowl of Special K instead!