a great bargain

Anyone who has even flirted with the idea of starting a low-carbohydrate diet knows that most dieters eventually abandon such lifestyles due to the boredom that results from the elimination of certain core foods. (Under the South Beach plan, bread, pasta and rice are prohibited in the initial stage and then reintroduced in limited portions in stages two and three). In The South Beach Diet Cookbook, Dr. Agatston tackles the problem by presenting a wide range of recipes that are not only within the Plan’s guidelines but are delicious, satisfying, and simple to prepare.

What makes this recipe book (and probably the South Beach diet itself) so appealing is that it uses ingredients that are readily available and can be easily incorporated in a dieter’s daily routine. In addition, while some diet cookbooks provide extensive information relating to which foods should be avoided and why, this cookbook centers around permissible food choices. This directs the focus of South Beach dieters away from what is not allowed and towards the wide range of satisfying ingredients that are consistent with the plan. This tactic minimizes the feelings of boredom and deprivation often associated with Dr. Agatston’s diet.

Would you believe I got this book for less than S$5? I can never resist a sale sign, much less one found right outside a bookstore! I am so happy to have found this at that price, because you know how expensive hard bound books are, especially good cookbooks! The photographs are fantastic, and the instructions are really easy.

After a brief introductory material, the book delves into traditional categories of recipes such as breakfast, appetizers, soups, salads, side dishes, fish and poultry, meats, vegetarian entrees and desserts. Each recipe is labeled as being appropriate for Phase One, Two or Three of the South Beach plan. The recipes offer a host of flavors and food choices, and the instructions are clear and concise even as they span difficulty levels. Recipes top chefs prepare in some of the finest restaurants are also scattered throughout the book, reinforcing the non-restrictive nature of the diet.

still alive

hello everyone! i know i haven't been blogging a lot for a looooong time, but things have been crazy busy around here. i have no time to gather my thoughts and write them down in a way that would make sense.

my weight has been steady, neither going up or going down. i blame the binignit i made on maundy thursday, a huge stockpot of it which took us 4 days to finish. plus countless other "sins". it's a wonder i haven't been gaining weight actually.

i had some skin problems last month, necessitating a lot of photoshop-ing in the photos i posted in my multiply site. =) talk about breakouts! a gigantic pimple erupted on the tip of my nose and no amount of acne medication could take it out. and it left a scar. grrrrrr.

how have you been? anyone losing weight yet? =)

food stall favorite

the yong tau fu stall at raffles city food court


i wish i could have this chilled stall in my kitchen
so i can just pick out the veggies i like
then have them cooked by someone else

the one thing i hate about cooking vegetables is the amount of preparation involved.
you know what i mean --- all the slicing and peeling and dicing.

snacking

i love to snack. i love munching on crunchy things all the time. actually, i love snacks even more than regular meals. =)

lately i've been addicted to this --- apple slices, baked walnuts, and sharp cheddar. yum! i love the combination of tastes, textures, and flavors. and because you have to exert a bit of effort to prepare it, you won't find yourself eating more than what's on your plate.

it sure beats eating a bag of chips. =D

like mother like daughter

i am so proud of my mom. she went on the south beach diet a few months ago, after i had told her how astonishing the results were. she's diabetic, so she has a greater motivation to lose weight than i do.

so far, she has lost 15 lbs, her blood sugar is stabilizing, and her insulin dependence has gone down. she used to inject herself twice a day with a high dose of insulin. now she only injects herself once, at half the dose of her usual. and she's looking really good! to think she's not even following the diet as religiously as i have.

i know i have a high risk for diabetes -- i have the genes on both sides of the family. i'm hoping that with this change in lifestyle, i'll get to avoid developing the disease for a few more decades yet. my mom's improvement gives me hope that maybe i can.

after the holidays

it's time to face the harsh truth again. how much weight did you gain after the holidays?

me? i gained back 5 lbs. mostly around my tummy. my clothes still fit me well, it's just that my waistbands are just a little snug. i'm not alarmed though, i expected to gain a bit. (after all the panettone, wine, cakes, and chocolates i ate, who wouldn't?)

i went back to phase one last saturday, and i'm slowly losing the weight again. my new walking regimen is giving me a good workout -- i get so tired after picking up vito from school! and that's a good thing in my book.

how about you?

close but no cigar

christmas is just a couple of days away, and soon december will come to a close. have i achieved my weight loss goal? not quite. i'm still 10 lbs away.

i know i can loose those 10 lbs with just one week on phase one, but i'm not going to do it. it's enough to know that i can. i would rather enjoy the fesitivites. there are so many reasons to be sad this christmas, so i'll focus on the ones that make me happy -- having my little family together, celebrating the birth of our Savior, and enjoying great food.

i will continue on my journey towards a healthier, fabulous me. i resolve not to overeat, no matter how tempting (fruitcake with brandy creme sauce, panettone french toast, baked ham, tiramisu, chocolate florentines, and everything else i'm preparing for noche buena). i'm just moving my target date, that's all. and i will aim to loose not just the 10 lbs i promised myself for december, but 20 more pounds so i can really go back to my 2003 weight. but i will do it slowly, steadily, safely. i will give my skin time to adjust so i won't end up looking like those extreme makeover candidates with rolls of skin on their bellies and arms. (no way!)

so the journey is not over yet.

almost there

salads

if someone had told me last year that i'd soon be craving for salads, i would have laughed so hard. i used to hate salads! given a choice between pizza or a salad, i'd have chosen the pizza any time. no hesitation.

now? now i crave salad every day! i've come to love the crunch of the vegetables, the freshness of the flavors, and how clean the feeling is inside my tummy. i love how i never feel bloated afterwards, and i love the mix of textures and tastes. every few days i try a new combination, and so far they've all been great.

the one in the picture is my chicken fajita salad. instead of wrapping them in tortillas, i shredded the roasted chicken, mixed it with the roasted veggies, added cherry tomatoes and romaine lettuce, and mixed them all with a special dressing (sour cream, parmesan cheese, garlic, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, olive oil). it's so good!

yes!

i lost 2 more kilos! plateau over!

went back to phase 1 for a few days, and increased my walking pace.

no way!

i gained back 2 kilos in one week! aaaaaargh!

mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!!!!

been pigging out on deep-fried chicken wings for the last few days. i hate it when i'm pmsing and i can't control my cravings! but darn, those chicken wings (from old chang kee) really tasted good!

i think i'll go back to phase one for a week.

in control

i know how to control my cravings now. this week has been full of celebrations, what with my birthday and my hubby's just a few days apart. i didn't deprive myself of the usual favorites, and yet i didn't gain any weight. the secret? i just took a few bites of all that i wanted to eat. (except for the cheesecake, which i did finish. )

this is a major step for me because previously i was never able to stop at a few bites. i always had to finish a plateful of whatever it was i was eating. now i just take a few nibbles, and stop.

it feels really great to finally be in control of my cravings.

was it worth it?

you bet!

did i feel guilty after eating that cheesecake? of course!

did i do something about it?

yes i did.

would i do it again?

only on rare occasions. =) the guilt is still eating me up.

what should i do?

here's another challenge - what do i do when i get invited to a party at someone's house?

i've been to a couple of gatherings where the host prepares a lot of food and none of them are on my acceptable foods list. you know the usual fare - pasta, rice, sweets, breaded everything.

i don't want to insult the host by not eating, and i'm not sure if it's even good etiquette to bring my own food to a party.

yesterday my sister-in-law and her husband came by and brought lunch. they told us not to prepare anything. i made a salad nonetheless, which was a really good thing because she brought, --- you guessed it --- pasta, rice, shrimps cooked in a sweet sauce, (very little) crackling pork belly, and tiramisu. i mean seriously, what was i supposed to eat? if not for the cobb salad i made, i would have been breaking my diet again.

anyway, i've received a few invitations for the coming weeks, and i expect the food choices will be no different. some of them know i'm on a diet, but fail to understand that i cannot eat starch and sugar EVER. (my SIL even asked me yesterday if pasta and rice were still off my list. hmmm. how to explain? how to explain? )

so should i just decline the invites? or show up and bring my own food?

on waist management

dr. oz says that your waist circumference should be half of your height (or less).

if that's the case, then i need to lose 4 more inches.

hmmm. give me another month. =D

just thoughts

please forgive the self-congratulatory tone on my recent posts.

it's just that i've been working so hard for this and i can't help but be happy with my progress.

there are days when i feel like quitting. it's too hard! i miss eating pasta! and crepes! and all-butter cranberry cookies from marks and spencer! it's particularly difficult when my little boy eats all of those and i have to feed him. last night he ate a chocolate danish, and he asked me to pour condensed milk on top of it. but when he found out how sticky it was, he didn't want to touch it, so he asked me to feed him. that was torture! the danish was in my hands and i could smell all its buttery and chocolatey yumminess. i wanted to cry.

goodness knows where i get my self control. whatever it is that i'm doing, it's going against my nature. if i didn't have all of you to be accountable to, i'd have given up a long time ago.

adventures in eating out

when you're on any diet, eating out can be a challenge. but it's particularly tricky if you're on the south beach diet (or any low-carb diet) AND you live in singapore. noodles and rice abound! all our favorite local dishes have carbs in them. think nasi lemak, mee goreng, fried hokkien prawn mee, mah chang, or even "carrot" cake. sometimes i wonder why the people here are so slim when all the local dishes are full of starch, sugar, and oil. maybe they only eat once a day? :P

however, i'm still glad to discover that a lot of family restaurants and diners do have low carb choices. even the restaurant at ikea! kenny rogers roasters is also a surprise -- they don't smother the chicken in gravy! in fact, there's no gravy at all! (trust them to pander to the health conscious singaporeans.) pepper lunch is also great, i just give the rice to the hubby, and eat the meat and veggies.

i still wish there was a restaurant here that serves south beach diet meals, like tinderbox in cebu does. but then again, i do enjoy the adventure of the hunt.

=)

20 lbs lost, 30 more to go

i feel so great today, even if it's the first day of my period. i just crossed the 20 lb mark!

all my efforts seem to be paying off. even when i was pms-ing, and had all these cravings, i never once cheated, even if i salivated over the peaches & cream icebox cake that i made for a gathering of friends. it took every ounce of my willpower (plus everyone else's in the building) to stop me from even tasting what i made. i'm so proud of myself!

today i celebrated by buying myself a shirt from mango. in large. =)

will post a picture of myself wearing it.

16 lbs lost, 34 lbs to go

sometimes it seems to me that my goal is so hard to achieve.
i have to remind myself all the time to focus on short term goals instead of the seemingly insurmountable end goal that i have set for myself. will i ever lose 50 lbs by december? the days are flying too fast. i can't imagine september is almost over.

two months.

34 lbs.

i wonder if i can make it.

quick south beach diet shopping list

• A lot of eggs! (at least two dozen. I ate 3 a day)
• Turkey and Canadian bacon
• Sugar free Jell-O
• Lettuce & whatever else you want in your salads (buy enough for the week)
• Salad dressing (balsamic vinaigrette is good)
• Veggies (no carrots) (broccoli & zucchini are good)
• Chicken breasts and whatever other meat you like (spam doesn't count as meat, not even low-sodium spam)
  
• Nuts (for snacks)
• Low fat string cheese & shredded cheese (I use it on my salads)
• Part-skim ricotta cheese
  
• Splenda or other sugar substitute

if you want to start on phase 1 and don't know what to shop for, here's a quick guide. but first, empty your fridge and pantry of all sweets, starches, and non-allowed fats. goodbye rice, goodbye pasta, goodbye biscuits & cakes, goodbye potatoes & carrots, goodbye crisps and chips!
give them all away so you can start with a clean slate and you won't be tempted to cheat.

the best way to modify your behavior is to change your environment first.

in fact whatever diet you want to follow, be sure that none of the bad foods in the list are inside your home.