I love hate diets!!

Seven guys in my department decided to take on a weight loss challenge. We each contribute $20 to a pool, and the individual with the most % weight loss by December 17th gets the cash! This is a great idea as one of the only things that is more motivating for guys than food is competition! The last two days we keep passing each other in the halls with suspicious glances at the cans of soup, heads of lettuce, and other secret diet foods we are each holding. Our initial weigh in was this past Monday, so this coming Monday we will find out how we did our first week.

So in order to structure my approach a bit more, I have started the South Beach diet. I am a skeptic of most diets in general, because I think they oversell the potential for weight loss, and don't emphasize exercise enough. However, I have heard enough good things about the South Beach approach that I have decided to try it. It strikes me as a more balanced version of the Atkin's diet (pardon my ignorance if I am way off?). There is a lot of emphasis on avoiding high carb foods as well as trans fats. I truly didn't realize how many carbs I was eating until I tried to omit them from my diet this week!

The diet goes in three phases. The first phase lasts two weeks and during this time you abstain from all carbs. This is intended to break your carb addiction, after which carbs are gradually reintroduced during phase 2, which is the primary weigh loss stage. The final stage is entered after you have lost the weight and need to sustain your losses. You (theoretically) stay in this phase the rest of your life, only re-entering stage 2 if you need to loose additional weight.

After four days of boiled eggs, raw nuts, heads of broccoli, humus, fish, and plain yogurt, I am definitely missing my *regular* food! I will say that I have really noticed a change in the early afternoon hours, I have not had my typical lunch hangover, which I guess is my blood sugars crashing after my body absorbs a bunch of simple carbs. Look for further updates regarding my terrible wonderful dieting experience.