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SouthBeach Diet Tips and Guides The SouthBeach Diet is different from the Atkins diet in that it is not a low carbohydrate diet. Regardless of which phase you are currently in, you should follow these recommendations: Drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water, decaffeinated beverages such as club soda, tea, coffee, or decaffeinated sugar-free soda every day Limit your intake of caffeine-containing beverages to 1 cup each day Take one multivitamin and mineral supplement daily Take 500 mg of calcium for both men and women under the age of 50, and 1,000 mg for women over the age of 50, each day Eating can be both pleasurable and healthy as long as you eat the proper foods. All the meals in the SouthBeach Diet consist of healthy combinations of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Dishes can be made by anyone and the ingredients can be found in most grocery stores. These foods will satisfy your hunger without depriving your system of the low-quality starches and sugars that caused problems with your blood chemistry in the first place. The SouthBeach Diet does not involve counting calories, fat grams, or portion sizes. This plan was designed to be simplistic and will help you understand the principles of metabolism and put it to work for your own body. A major key to success with the South Beach Diet is the Glycemic index (GI), which ranks carbohydrate foods based on the effect on blood sugar levels. When you start adding foods back into your diet in Phase 2, keep your focus on low-GI foods such as apples, berries, grapefruit, high-fiber cereal, and whole grain breads. Preparing For The Rest Of Your Life Mindset Change for South Beach Diet You have learned what the South Beach Diet is, how it works, and what to eat. Now, you need to get prepared to change the way you eat, for life. Start by accepting that the first couple of weeks will be a big change but one you will not regret. The first morning of this diet, you will eat a breakfast that may consist of a two-egg omelet with two slices of Canadian bacon, cooked in either spray canola or olive oil. In your old life, you may have toasted bread or a bagel and had fresh fruit or fruit juice to go along with your omelet. However, with the South Beach Diet, the bread will have to wait. Most people have been conditioned their entire life to add bread to meals. You have toast with breakfast, sandwiches on bread for lunch, dinner rolls with dinner, and cake, cookies, or pie for dessert. However, during Phase 1, you will have to forget about the bread. It may take a few days to leave old habits behind but keep in mind that it is during this time that your body’s inability to process sugars and starches is being reversed. After trying numerous diets, most leave you feeling hungry, is one of the most difficult aspects of any diet. A common denominator seen with overweight people is that most of them skip eating breakfast. When this happens, blood sugar drops, which then increases the desire for bad carbohydrates to escalate until lunch when the entire meal is blown. Planning for South Beach Diet Planning will help you stay away from snacking or substituting things that are not healthy and could cause weight gain. Remember that once you start into Phase 2, carbohydrates will start being introduced back into your diet along with fruits. You also need to remember to eat your mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, even if you do not feel like it. Some of the greatest low-fats foods to incorporate into your planning include cheese and yogurt to replace the fats since they have no bad carbohydrates. In addition, the sugar is found in the lactose, milk sugar, is one of the things you can have with the South Beach Diet. The South Beach Diet is a lifetime change, lifetime commitment, and a lifetime of health and vitality! How Does The South Beach Diet Work? As mentioned, the South Beach Diet is unique, successful, easy, and works in a three-phase process. Unlike many other so-called diets, with the South Beach Diet, simply substitutes your bad carbohydrates and fats for good ones. After trying this, you will be amazed by how well and quickly it works. South Beach Diet Phase 1 South Beach Diet Phase 1 lasts for two weeks. During this first phase, you will eat normal meals of chicken, beef, turkey, fish, and shellfish, lots of vegetables, eggs, cheese, nuts, and garden salads using 100% olive oil for your salad dressing. Each day for 14 days, you will eat three, well-balanced meals. While eating until your hunger is satisfied may go against most diets, with the South Beach Diet, it is part of the plan. Trying to lose weight and become healthy by depriving the body of food makes no sense. In addition to the three meals each day, you will also eat a snack between breakfast and lunch, and then again between lunch and dinner. Even if you do not feel like eating these snacks, for the South Beach Diet to work, you need to, and after dinner, you will even have dessert. Additionally, during this phase, you can drink all the coffee and tea you want and be sure to drink lots of water. You may be thinking that this is a lot of food - it is! With most diets, you deprive your body, eating only small portions of foods that are unappealing. The change you will make during this phase is that you will cut out all bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, baked goods, fruit, candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, or sugar. Keep in mind that these eliminated foods will be added back into your diet, starting in Phase 2. In addition to taking these foods out of your diet temporarily, you will also need to avoid beer, or any kind of alcohol. Once you start Phase 2, reasonable amounts of wine can be added back in. Instead of feeling overwhelmed about the foods that will be taken out of your diet during the first two weeks, stop and think about this for a minute. To achieve a life of health and lose unwanted weight, two weeks is a small investment to make. After all, you are worth it! The first two or three days will be somewhat challenging, but breaking any bad habit starts out a little bumpy. Once you pass this small hurdle, the rest of the time will go by quicker than you think. When you see the results that these changes bring, you will be glad you did not give up!

well just got my labs and EKG done.. they said would call me next week for case manager appointment ..wooo hooo !!! Sherri

I'm planning on taking 2 weeks off to recover... I work in child care so I'll need time before I can pick up the 2 1/2 year olds that I work with. Thank God we have 2 teachers in our class and steps that come out from underneath the changing table so the children can just climb up. Keep us updated on your progress. I want to learn EVERYTHING I can about this procedure. & good luck to you too!

Thank you all for your feedback. It helps to know how it works for others. Sometimes I am so caught between thinking I'm eating too little and too much that I get overwhelmed and don't know which way is the right way to go. I am hoping I'll feel something in the next week as you suggest!

Search on the site for esophageal spasm and see if your symptoms are similar. Regardless, if it continues for a total of a week, ask your dr.

I felt the same way too and lived on gas X strips as well. Those things are awesome!! It gets better after a few days (within a week for me) Good luck

I use the active.com website. It has lots of information about nutrition, sports, and all around fitness. It links to my facebook page and I get a small article a couple of times a day plus I got a free cross training 9 week plan that I am using from the activetraining.com part.

jenleigh, I cant reallly give you a straight answer on how long it took me. I did a 6 month supervised diet last year but my insurance wouldnt cover the surgery. As of 1/1/10 we got new insurance that would cover it. I started the process about a month ago, but I had all my documentation including my psych and nutrition appointments all done. I thought I was ready to get banded in a few weeks, but now I found out I need to get a clearance from my PCP and a Cardiologist because I am 52. One thing after another.

Abbie - for me, the surgery was the easiest surgery I have ever had. I didn't have any gas pains (proactively took GasX just in case), the pain wasn't even pain - it was soreness, which goes away completely within 2 weeks. I was literally up and cleaning my daughter's house (stayed with her the first two days post surgery) and doing her laundry and feeling fine. For me, it was a breeze and I know it will be the best tool I have ever had, along with the hope and knowledge that I will one day be thin and be healthier. Again, keep in mind, the first several months post surgery, most people don't feel any restriction and even question whether or not they actually have a band - I did. I have had one fill of 5cc in my 11cc band and still don't have any restriction. I can eat anything and everything i want - which is good and bad. Good because I have more time to convert to a new life style and become more focused about loosing weight and eating healthier, but bad as I have only lost 10 lbs. in 6 weeks. My next fill is April 2nd - hoping to start filling restriction so that I can eat only 1/2 cup of food and be full. That is my dream. I say go for it - I don't the only regret many people ever have is not doing it sooner. Good Luck girl!!

Ugh. So I've been thinking about lap band for years. Last May I decided I wanted to actually look into it and see what I needed to do. The doc gave me a whole bunch of things to do before I could qualify with him for surgery. Loose 15lbs, (I was at 360, 6' tall) which, I've lost 10, then gained it back and now I'm at 360 again. Heart clearance, sleep apnea tests, sleep studies, nutrition counceling, psych test, plus assembling lots of info. I've done everything except loosing 15lbs and the barium swallow. I can't schedule that because I need to be 330lbs to get the barium swallow. I feel like every time I make a move, there's another road block. I commit to go bike riding to get active and loose weight - I get a flat tire. I suck it up, do it again. Get another flat tire. Now I finally schedule the barium swallow and I find out I need to loose 30lbs before I can even do that. I'm starting to get super defeated here. I'm dragging my feet as it is because the idea of the surgery scares the heck out of me. It's just so frustrating though. I haven't been 330 in about 5 years. I feel like if I could diet down adn loose 30lbs, I would have done it already. I did it once, about 10 years ago. I went from like 310 to 260 but I didn't have a child, I had a lot more cash flow for healthy eating and I was way more active. It slowly crept up, then I got pregnant, then my son had some medical issues - that's when the stress eatting really kicked up into high gear. The doc wont' do the surgery if you weigh more than 350lbs. Which doesn't really make sense either, since I know other people who weighed more than that who've gotten the surgery - just from a diff doc. This is the only one in my area though, so, I'm kinda stuck! I'm not sure what I'm looking for here. Just a bit of a rant. I'm not telling anyone except my hubby about the surgery so I don't have anybody to rant to really. I'm just feeling emotional too because I turned 30 this week and this is not what I wanted to look like on my 30th birthday.

Hi everyone. I am now 1 week out from surgery and my approval came back from Carefirst and i am good to go. I was expecting to have to pay $275 in copays + 20% coinsurance. Apparently Carefirst changed my policy and now they cover 100% of everything except for a $25 doctor copay. That was great news for me. I am into week 2 of my modified liquid diet. (Allowed 1 high protein low carb meal a day + 4 protein shakes and under 1500 calories a day). I have been doing very good with this except for yesterday for Easter. I went over by about 600 calories and had double the carbs I should have. I still did so much better than I would have before I started this process. In the old days, I would have easily eaten 5000 calories. Back to my shake this morning and for lunch and back to the pool this afternoon. I have been swimming 90 - 120 minutes a day 3 - 4 days a week. I am going to miss that during the 2 weeks that I can not be submergered in water. I strongly recommend water exercise/swimming for anyone who has not been exercising because it is very low impact and burns lots of calories. At my weight, an hour of swimming is about 1300 calories burned. It took me about 45 days to build up to swimming this much. At first I swam some and then walked laps in the pool and then swam some more. I am sure post surgery, it will take some time to get back to being able to swim that much but I am committed to making that happen. I have not been on the scale yet this week and my scale does not match my doctor's scale. My goal has been to be below 400 prior to surgery and it will be close. Crossing my fingers and plan to get to the pool at least 4 days this week. Thanks for everyone's support. I will post next week after my surgery and I feel strong enough play on the computer.

I had my first fill. Felt great, followed the rules the first 48 hrs nothing but liquids. It has been about a week. I don't know how to get over being overly paranoind about stretching or slipping of my band. I went to dinner with a girlfriend had two bread sticks about two bites of chicken breast and I felt like I may have gotten something stuck the feeling went away and it hurt just a little and I freaked out. Did not drink or eat the rest of the night. I am worried about not getting enough or eating to much, I have also found myslef not waiting two min between bites is there a possibly I have done something wrong. I was thinking about going back to my pre diet before surgery for a while two protein shakes and a salad for lunch. Any thoughts anyone else gone through this emotional roller coaster?

I'm 3 weeks out and still have quite a bit of swelling.

It would be in the Stonecrest Ballentyne area, which is the Rea Rd exit off of 485. Most likely it would be every 2-3 weeks. I have to check with Debbie on that it maybe only once a month. She told me she would keep the cost down around 15-20 a session. I can let you know next week sometime the exact details.

successful in their weight loss journey?and why? Now for the why i ask. I schedualed another fill but don't honestly know if this is what i need. I haven't been following the rules.I know i can eat alot.I eat exactly what i want just like before and am not trying at all.I don't know why i do this.It seems i will be going along, doing all the right things for several weeks and then revert back to all the old behavior.It seems like an up and down pattern. I don't know if i should get a fill and recommit myself to losing weight or try and change my habit first then get a fill what do you think?

My doc refers to the bands he uses as Small and Large... I have the small and my band is 10cm long and holds 4cc's of fluid (however can be overfilled to 5-6cc's) The large band gets fills every two weeks and can hold a lot more fluid. He makes the decision once he's IN and see's the patients stomach.

I think it probably depends on what you do for a living. I work from home so I went back at one week. I have felt great since starting full liquids and getting some protein in. I am still pretty wiped out at night though. I would have loved to have been able to have 2 weeks, but probably would have been a little stir crazy this week b/c I feel so good.

I was off for 3 weeks, but I could easily have gone back after 12 days. It's so different for everyone, though. It also depends on what kind of work you do. I sit at a desk all day, so it was pretty easy for me :-)

I accidentally put this question in pre-op - d'uh maybe because I am in a tizzy finding out I Might have surgery in two weeks. If I do , I will have 12 days to be ready for working a full day-and would love to know what condition y'all were in around that time. MY original thread- http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/15836-advice-needed-what-is-life-like-12-days-post-op/

When I first started, they asked and I said I had no idea. I think I threw out 175. I really just wanted to be healthier. Now that I'm 6 weeks out, they asked again and I threw out 160. I really still don't know! I don't ever remember being 160! It must have been in junior high or so. What's weird is I've already passed up the goal set by the Dexa body scan I had a year ago. Although I laughed when I saw what it said my goal was to significantly reduce my health risks (245!).

It will be o.k. If I were you I would calmly speak to the person at your doctors office and state what you were told and the name of the person at medicare who told you the information. I would ask if she could submit the information since there is obviously not a submission date that will be sent to her. As stated above, we still have at least another month before school starts back. I went back to work the next week. I was back to work after 8 calendar days (which included weekends) and really I could have been back to work by day four. So it will be o.k.

I was sleepy for about 3 or 4 weeks. I'd get up in the morning & be back in bed about 2 hours later & would sleep about 3 hours. It finally went away. Hang in there - everything gets better.

I am 2.5 weeks post-op and experience extreme sleepiness about 30-45 minutes after eating, especially mid-day. I'm not eating a lot of carbs, so I don't think it's a blood sugar crash. Just wondering if it's me or a "normal" (hopefully temporary) side effect?

The surgery was easy. I went home the same day. By the middle of the following week I started to feel that taking in fluids and protein was a chore. I didn't want to move away from my recliner. That was the first signs of a problem. My reasons for surgery were that I am a diabetic and had an aortic valve replaced in my heart eight years ago. That surgery was tough. The heart valve is a composite material that requires me to be on blood thinners for the rest of my life. In preparation for the Lap Band my Dr took me off of the pill form of thinner and had me using an injectable thinner twice a day. The day of surgery all of the surgical team were happy with the INR value of my blood. After surgery the surgeon assisting my Dr came by to discharge me and said that they had a tough time with bleeding. By Thursday of the next week my INR level was coming up but I was not feeling the greatest. That evening I blacked out when trying to get up from my chair. I asked my wife for her auto blood pressure machine only to find that my b/p was 65/45. I called my Dr and he said go to the ER. The paramedic on the ambulance told me that he would try to help me feel better before we went to the hospital by giving me IV fluids. Three liters latter my bp was the same. I was brought to the local hospital given whole blood and transfered to the hospital where the surgery was done. Ten pints of blood, several bags of plasma and many liters of fluids I'm back to making a good recovery. Don't look at this as a minor surgery. This is serious business and please think to ask about what kind of problems can happen to you and be ready.

Nurse Sophie I'm only trying to make people aware of potential problems. Your right my blood thinners and medical history only complicated the surgery. I just thought that I'll be out of work for a week and everything will be fine. Most people will do fine. Just keep the fact that surgery is not always cut and dry. Thanks for your comments.