Friday, January 2, 2009

South Beach, take 3. For real this time.

Hev I mentioned that I am - again - doing South Beach diet? I have a serious love/hate relationship with this diet.

See, I KNOW that it works. The first time I tried it, in late summer of 2007 - it totally worked and I lost almost 15 pounds in two weeks. And it's not an unhealthy diet, like the juice diet or anything. I looked good, I felt good, and I kept the weight off without continuing onto phase 3 of the diet, a.k.a. living a healthy eating lifestyle.

Then I got pregnant and learned to cook, at almost the same time. My Leighton pregnancy was so much better than my Eva one - I gained only 30 or so pounds as opposed to the 65 pounds I gained with Eva. I attribute that to my newfound love for being in the kitchen for reasons other than to warm up a frozen burrito.

But seriously, friends, just because I gained less weight doesn't mean the last 10 pounds are any easier to lose. So I decided that I would just bang it out - phase one of South Beach Diet, 14 days and BAM, I've lost the baby weight.

Except HELLO, it is so much harder now. Last time I did this diet, Eva was eating baby food. It was only Andrew and me that ate real meals. This time, I have to feed Eva normal food. And she doesn't really go for mahi mahi and squash. She's more about the crackers and bread and...sorry, I think I just drooled on the keyboard. Crackers have never sounded so good. Anyway. Today, as I heated up corn dogs and made cookies for her and the kids I babysat all day, the smell was delicious. Corn dogs? Honestly, Steph? They smelled DIVINE. I sat munching on my pathetic little salad and trying to encourage my brain to stay strong.

I'm on day 2. I've lost one pound so far. I have no energy and I want to die for most of the day. Dinner is fine, because I eat a real meal. I'm really not an egg person in the morning, but that is pretty much all I can eat for breakfast. And I'm not really a salad person at lunch, but that's pretty much all I can eat. I mean, I can have a couple slices of fat-free deli meat and a cheesestick. And milk. I'm really downing the milk. But who has time to actually cook at lunch? I'm much better and throwing together a sandwich.

I'm not giving up. I'm really not. I will lose this weight, and I will look good at the Moab Canyonlands 5-mile run in March, in which I am running. (Please cheer for me in your heart.) I will get my hot body back. Just in time to get pregnant again. The words "vicious cycle" seem morbidly appropriate here.

All you healthy lifestyle people, please don't leave a comment about how diets are bad for you and you should just eat in moderation, blah blah blah. I KNOW THAT. But if I had the self-control to eat in moderation all my life, I wouldn't NEED a diet. Ya know? As soon as I knock off a couple pounds around my flabby middle, I'll try to eat sweets in moderation and have portion control and all that jazz. For now, sweets are merely a dream that makes me want to cry with pure desire. And bread...bread, you are my best friend. Crackers, you too. All you easy-to-eat foods, you who stock my pantry shelves and stare at me when I open the doors and glare at you with ravenous eyes. I miss you. And I'll be back in 12 more days. 12 pounds less of me.

2 comments:

Lindsay said...

Ugh! Steph you are way stronger than me. I can't handle that diet! Keep it up though, I know it worked so well for you last time. And I'll probably try it too after I have this baby and see what a hot mama you are :).

Elisa said...

Oh man, that takes discipline! What worked best for me after Addison was weight watchers, because you can eat whatever you want as long as you count the points. I didn't even go to the meetings, I just has a book and it told you what points are for what food. You can even eat a corn dog if you like! Anyways, if option 1 turns out to be too tough, you should try option 2 (weight watchers) and you can do it all online to, so you don't have to go to meetings and what not. I think that is what I will do again after I pop this baby out!