The South Beach Diet Supercharged: Faster Weight Loss and Better Health for Life (37 page)
Read The South Beach Diet Supercharged: Faster Weight Loss and Better Health for Life Online
Authors: Arthur Agatston,Joseph Signorile
Tags: #Cooking, #Health & Fitness, #Medical, #Nutrition, #Health, #Diet, #Fitness, #Diets, #Weight Control, #Recipes, #Weight Loss, #Health & Healing, #Diets - Weight Loss, #Diets - General, #Reducing diets, #Diet Therapy, #Reducing exercises, #Exercise
PHASE 3
Enjoying the South Beach Diet for Life
Congratulations! You have achieved a healthy weight and are now ready to graduate to the maintenance phase of the diet. You can stay on Phase 3 for the rest of your life because at this point it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. Even if you’ve never had any extra weight to lose, you’ll find that adopting our healthy eating principles is a great way to improve your overall health and well-being.
For those of you who have been on the diet and achieved your weight loss goals, making good food choices is now second nature. The basic principles you learned on Phases 1 and 2 are now ingrained. You will automatically head for the vegetable aisle, readily select whole-grain bread for your sandwich, choose fish and shellfish and lean cuts of meat and poultry, and read food labels to check for saturated fats and trans fats as a matter of course.
That’s why we haven’t included Sample Meal Plans or recipes for Phase 3 in this book. We know from 5 years of talking with our dieters that by now, you are more than capable of putting healthy meals together on your own. That said, we encourage you to use the Sample Meal Plans and all the recipes from Phases 1 and 2 whenever you want, and, of course, feel free to refer to the food lists whenever you need a refresher.
Our ultimate goal with the South Beach Diet has always been to show you how to make good food choices for yourself (and your family) most of the time, so you can enjoy a few bites of even the most decadent dessert on occasion and still maintain your weight.
Now that you have reached Phase 3, you will be introducing some new foods, specifically those that you were advised to avoid on Phase 2. This shouldn’t present problems. By now you are able to monitor your body’s response to particular foods, you know what triggers your cravings, and you automatically make the right choices for you. If, given this new freedom, you find that you can’t just eat one piece of French bread without practically inhaling the whole loaf or that you can’t eat a scoop of ice cream without devouring the entire carton, it’s a sign that you should probably avoid these foods altogether, at least for a while.
But the best news of all is that now that you’ve reached Phase 3, no food is off-limits unless you say it is. The challenge with Phase 3 is learning how to incorporate those occasional sinful treats into your diet without regaining weight. It’s also essential that you continue to follow a fitness program—ideally, one incorporating interval training and core-strengthening exercises. This is the best way to maintain both your weight and your health.
Here are the answers to some of the questions our nutritionists and I are often asked by dieters who are on Phase 3.
I’ve been on Phase 3 for 2 months and have started to gain some weight back. What should I do?
The question is, why are you gaining weight? There are two possible reasons: You’re no longer adhering to the principles of the diet, or you’re not getting enough exercise—or both.
First, let’s examine what you’re eating. Are you indulging in too many foods that should be eaten only on special occasions? If so, you need to understand that if you revert to your old eating habits, you most certainly will gain weight. If you have put on 10 or more pounds or have started to have food cravings (which I suspect may be causing your problem), you may need to return to Phase 1 for several days until your cravings subside. If your weight gain is minimal and you don’t have cravings, simply return to the Phase 2 eating plan that worked for you before. The beauty of the South Beach Diet is that it’s flexible enough to accommodate the normal changes of daily life.
Second, I can’t overstate the importance of getting enough exercise. Some people believe that once they have achieved their goal weight, they can stop exercising. Nothing could be further from the truth. Exercise is essential to maintaining your weight loss over the long term, especially when you’ve progressed to a lifestyle that includes those occasional treats. The exciting thing about our fitness program is that it will keep your metabolism revved up so you can burn more fat and calories. And burning more calories means that you can have that occasional treat without regaining the weight. It’s important to integrate your exercise program seamlessly into your lifestyle, as you have done with the diet. Try to make it a habit, exercising at the same time in the same place every day or at least on most days of the week.
My food cravings have returned on Phase 3. It’s torture for me to eat just one cookie. I haven’t put on any weight, but I’m very worried that I will. What should I do?
The best part about Phase 3 is that no food is forbidden, which means you are allowed to eat virtually anything, and that includes the occasional cookie or a few french fries. (
Occasional
is the operative word.) Phase 3 is a time of experimentation when you’ll want to try different foods (ideally, healthy ones) and see which work for you and which don’t. If you’re unable to include certain sugars or starchy foods without triggering cravings, there’s only one solution: Don’t eat them. Why put yourself through torture? There are plenty of foods you can eat that won’t give you trouble. You can also replace those sugary cookies and fatty fries with healthier options: Try a couple of our famous Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies (
“Recipes for Phase 2 Meal Plans”
Section) or Baked Sweet Potato Chips (
“Recipes for Phase 2 Meal Plans”
Section).
living
THE SOUTH BEACH DIETJocelyn J., age 57: We’ve Changed Our Lives for the Better
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 and underwent a double mastectomy and a course of chemotherapy. It was very, very rough. After my treatments were over, I was put on tamoxifen to prevent a recurrence of the cancer, and like a lot of women, I started to gain weight on the drug. Much to my dismay, the pounds really started piling on. I had always been slim, and suddenly, overnight, I was fat. I zoomed through clothing sizes at record speed. Soon I weighed 175 pounds, a lot for my 5-foot-6 frame. Needless to say, I was not happy with my situation. Not only had I gone through an ordeal with my treatments, I now had to deal with this new, larger body. I tried cutting back on my food intake, but it didn’t help.
I thought that I could never get my old body back and resigned myself to being unhappy about my weight. At the time, my husband, who weighed 228, was told by his cardiologist that his cholesterol was bad and he had to lose weight. The doctor recommended that he follow the South Beach Diet. Since I wanted to lose weight, too, we decided to try it together. I wasn’t very hopeful, but I felt I had nothing to lose.
I bought the South Beach Diet cookbooks and was intrigued by what I read. Since I had always been thin, I had no idea of what triggered obesity. I learned a great deal about how to eat and put meals together. I’m a gourmet cook, and I love good food. I got very excited when I started to read the recipes. They were great! My husband, who normally dislikes fish, even enjoyed one of the fish recipes I made.
Over the next few months, my husband lost 28 pounds and is now steady at around 199. He’s always telling me how much better he feels now that he is lighter. His cardiologist is also thrilled. And I’m thrilled that I lost 35 pounds and have kept the weight off.
The South Beach Diet definitely changed our lives for the better. We are now conscious of what we’re putting into our mouths. Occasionally we eat things that we shouldn’t, but we haven’t regained the weight. I gave away all my fat clothes and swore that I would never get to that point again. Whenever I feel my weight is creeping up, I go back to Phase 2.
We are firm believers in the South Beach Diet and sing its praises whenever we meet someone who is struggling with weight and wondering what diet to go on.
Of course there will be those times when you do give in to a craving. When this happens, do have a couple of cookies or fries, but at the same time think about how much better you will feel if you don’t have too many. Or, if a little ice cream will satisfy your desire for a special sweet, have a few bites. You may find you have more control after a small indulgence. And on those occasions when you just don’t stop, let it go and return to making healthier eating choices as soon as possible. You should never feel that you’re on or off the South Beach Diet. Eating everything today because tomorrow you know you can’t creates an all-or-nothing mentality that’s detrimental to making the diet a successful lifestyle.
Do I still need to eat snacks during Phase 3?
It depends on what else you’re eating throughout the day. If you’re eating three good meals daily and don’t get hungry in between, you may not even need healthy snacks. Keep in mind that the purpose of snacking is to prevent drops in blood sugar that cause cravings and leave you feeling famished. On Phases 1 and 2, snacks were particularly important to help wean you off highly processed refined starches and sugar-laden foods and help you adjust to this new style of eating. But now that you’re on Phase 3, you’re no longer eating the foods that caused your cravings, and this makes snacks less critical.
Interestingly, I’ve had a number of Phase 3 dieters tell me that they prefer to graze, or eat smaller meals throughout the day, rather than three fuller ones. There’s actually an advantage to eating less at a time but more often, and it’s due to what’s called thermogenesis, which is the measure of the amount of calories burned as part of digesting a meal. Not surprisingly, you burn more calories when you digest bigger meals—but, as it turns out, not by that much. Therefore, if you eat the same amount of healthy foods daily but divide it among five smaller meals instead of three larger ones, for example, you’ll burn more total calories each day, thanks to engaging your digestive system more often.
Whether you snack, don’t snack, or graze, do keep in mind that there are times when a strategic snack can be really useful. For example, if you know dinner is going to be late or you’re heading to a cocktail party where there will be lots of temptations, have a snack to stave off hunger. If you let yourself become famished, you’ll invariably overeat.
The bottom line: By Phase 3, the South Beach Diet becomes a lifestyle that readily adjusts to
your
lifestyle. Only you will know what’s best for you in terms of maintaining your new and healthy weight. And now you’re free to make those choices.
Should I be taking nutritional supplements?
I recommend taking very few supplements. The reason? We have not yet learned to extract vitamins from foods so that they work as well in supplement form as they do when you eat the foods themselves.
I strongly believe that you should get the nutrients you need from eating a whole-foods diet. This means enjoying a wide variety of fruits and vegetables because they contain thousands of phytonutrients that are critical to good health (see Chapter 7, “Supercharged Foods for Better Health”). So far the research that has been performed on specific supplements—notably, antioxidants—has been disappointing. To date there is no pill, including a multivitamin, that works like a good diet based on healthy foods.
That said, I do recommend that you take an omega-3 fatty acid (fish oil) supplement because it’s difficult to get enough omega-3s from foods. I take a fish oil supplement myself, and I strongly recommend it to all my patients. The active ingredients in omega-3s are docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and both are listed on the label. A total of between 1,000 and 2,000 milligrams of DHA and EPA a day is recommended. Taking a supplement of the mineral calcium, which many people fail to get enough of from foods, can be helpful for women at risk for osteoporosis.
Can I really eat anything I want on Phase 3?
If you’re talking about dessert as an occasional treat, of course. On Phase 3, we don’t regulate what you can eat. Yes, you can finally have that small bowl of ice cream or a small piece of chocolate cake or the white bagel that you couldn’t have before. But you shouldn’t do it too often, and you should continue to watch amounts on desserts. Phase 3 isn’t about abandoning the good principles of the diet and suddenly resuming your old eating habits. It’s about continuing to make smart, healthy food choices—for life. If you follow the principles of the diet most of the time, we expect you to enjoy anything you want now and then.
living
THE SOUTH BEACH DIETWendy N., age 30: It’s Simply My New Way of Living
Two years ago, I weighed 370 pounds. I’m 5-foot-10, so I’m tall, but even so, I was extremely overweight. I was already on blood pressure medications, and my doctor had been telling me for years that I might develop diabetes if I didn’t take off some weight. My mother is diabetic, but I was young and thought I was invincible. In October 2006, my doctor told me I was officially prediabetic. I saw how my mother had struggled with her diabetes, and my immediate thought was,
I’m going to run as fast as I can in the other direction!I didn’t know where to begin, though, so my doctor recommended that I try the South Beach Diet. I bought the book, and the first thing I did was thumb through the recipes. I got scared because I’m not a great cook. But then my doctor told me not to worry so much about the recipes but just read about the principles of the South Beach Diet. That’s when it all clicked. I realized that it was easy. I could do this. I saw that I could still eat the same foods I’d been eating, but I’d have to prepare them differently. Once I understood what the diet was about, the recipes didn’t seem too complicated. In fact, they were pretty easy.
My first 2 weeks on the diet, I lost 15 pounds, and I didn’t even exercise—I just ate the right foods. I realized that if I started to exercise, I could lose a lot more. I began slowly, exercising just a few days a week. Now I’m working out 6 days a week. Healthy eating and exercise have become a permanent part of my lifestyle. Over the past 12 months on the diet, I have lost 125 pounds. My co-workers ask me what my secret is, and I steer them to the South Beach Diet. In fact, two of them have adopted this lifestyle, too, and we exchange tips and keep each other motivated. Of course, I have days when I slip up, but I keep remembering what Dr. Agatston says about acknowledging that you’ve messed up and getting quickly back on track.
During a recent visit to the doctor, I learned that I am no longer prediabetic, and I no longer need medications for my high blood pressure. The South Beach Diet has completely changed my life. Everything is a challenge in the beginning, but when you stick with something long enough, you discover that it becomes easier. The South Beach Diet has been so easy to incorporate into my lifestyle that most of the time I don’t even think that I’m on a diet. It’s simply my new way of living.
