So, how goes that diet?

I have learned a lot over the past week (and one day).

Dieting is hard work. On one side, it is overkill that I am attempting a diet. I should likely label this experience as an attempt to cut down on my wine consumption, reduce food court purchased lunches, and increase my intake of vegetables. What I will likely remember about the first 2 weeks (rounding it a bit) is that I may never again EVER eat another egg for breakfast, in particular eggs without a piece of bread. I am sick of eggs. Jim has been the chef of the eggs for the past several days (I have been banished as I can't cook eggs). He tries very hard, however, both of us are struggling at this point.

The truth is out there - I am so eager to try the almond energy blast recipe in the South Beach diet book just to avoid the egg. This recipe is a Phase 1 and it contains the relatively foreign ingredients for this house of silken tofu and low fat/low sugar soy milk. Hmmmm, good stuff. I wouldn't have even contemplated the recipe last week. I was suppose to buy tofu this week on the grocery (delivered) run. Somehow, I messed up the order and no silken tofu was received. I might try to find it at the store in my building. I don't want any more eggs. And, by the way, Laughing Cow cheese really is available in Canada.

Cheating - well, I have had a few instances of falling off the wagon. The stolen salad dressing at the office fridge kicked off a terrible failure last Friday. Without salad dressing, and with the smell of pizza (free), I took a piece. Then, decided a second couldn't be so bad ... but it had bacon, so left a bad taste. So went for a third. Then, as the afternoon worn on, my belly swollen from all this neat bread & fatty food, just had to have one more piece. Thankfully, the South Beach diet isn't a calorie counting diet or I mightn't have eaten all weekend. Old habits die hard, so a few glasses on wine on Friday night are a bit hard to pass up. Alas, a really really bad day for the diet, a real victory for my morale. We were back to eggs on Saturday morning. I didn't touch the chips, cookies or steal a pop in the office today (yeah me) - but it was tempting.

The good news, the diet works. Jim is down about 8 lbs. in the first week, and I am down at least 3 lbs. With Jim's weight loss goal of about 15lbs. and mine around 8lbs, we have made very good progress. I will start soon start dreaming of the menu next week.

My sister was right (as she is so many times) - the diet makes you think about what you are putting in your mouth. I look at bread differently, I look at white rice differently, I think about it. Since both my husband and I are onboard for this dietary adventure, and both convinced of its long term benefits (new one ... healthy heart diet is good for a healthy brain, as the rates of dementia are set to soar), I imagine white carbs, and potentially almost all carbs will be substantially reduced from our weekday eating. We won't deny the opportunity for a great pasta dish, but instead of a carb, a meat and a veggie on the plate, we will equally have a meat (or not ...) and two veggies will become the routine. All better all round. Very exciting stuff.