Reply #9: South Beach

[Onlooker]

As someone who has tried various diets for years, I've finally found one and have lost 25 or the 35 pounds I want to lose. The South Beach Diet is amazing. I think the key to its success is that you lose a lot of weight in the first two weeks, so it's very encouraging. Also, it's pretty each to get off and back on it after a couple months. The main theory behind it is that if you stay away from carbs, you won't get hungry. Guess what. It's really true. The first two weeks of the diet are really important and kind of strict, but after three or four days, your food craving are greatly diminished.

A key for me has been to avoid gross diet foods that do nothing but remind you of how bad dieting is. I use no diet food, other than skinless chicken, skim milk, and Splenda in my coffee. But, I do like fish a lot, which is always helpful to dieting. One of things I do is buy shirataki noodles at a Japanese food market. You have to wash these thoroughly before boiling them for 1.5 minutes, but what you end up with has no taste, almost no calories (40 cal/portion), is all natural, and are great with a rich pasta sauce and cheese. (Since the noodles I'm eating are so low calorie, I don't worry about the calories of the sauce.)

The other thing I do is what is the perfect exercise routine for me. I go to the gym two to three times per week and ride the bike at a hard level while reading a book. I don't lift weights or do any other exercises (except occasionally the rowing machine for 10 minutes) for they always bore me too much.

This is the first time in years that I've been successful dieting, and I might add that I know four other people who went on the diet before me, and it's been a success for all of them. You just have to get started, but don't worry too much about it this week. It's impossible to diet between Christmas and New Years.