Vegan South Beach Diet Diary

Grains in the morning

2004-07-25T13:34:00.000-04:00

Like the rest of the world (cf. the multi-billion dollar breakfast cereal industry), I like grains in the morning. But cold cereal is either unhealthy (Froot Loops, Peanut Butter Bumpers), or boring (AllBran, Total). So what's a South Beach Vegan to do?

1. Embrace toast! A slice or two of whole-grain bread, smeared with any one of a variety of nut butters, or guacamole, or hummus, or whatever, really sticks to the ribs, and takes about 2.5 seconds to make. Don't limit yourself to margarine and jam (though that's tasty, too). They key to this is opening your mind about what constitutes an appropriate topping.

2. Use leftover grains. For dinner, if you make brown rice, or quinoa, or whole-wheat couscous, or any other grain, make a few extra servings and stick the leftovers in the fridge. In the morning, scoop out about a cup of the grain into a cereal bowl, top with a milk substitute like soy, almond, hazelnut, or oat milk (unsweetened is best, but a little sweetener won't kill you), and mix in some flavorings. My faves: ground almonds, a pinch of cardamom, a pinch of nutmeg, and a packet of splenda. Or, cinnamon and chopped apple. Or, blueberries (frozen is fine) and 1/8 tsp. vanilla extract. Use your imagination: any nuts, fruits (dried, fresh or frozen), jams, or sweet spices will do. Nuke the concoction in the microwave for a minute and a half, and you have a breakfast that takes less than five minutes to make but tastes like you spent all morning on it.

This kind of breakfast will easily hold you over until lunch.

Too much soy?

2004-07-16T13:18:00.000-04:00

Like most vegans, I get a disproportionate amount of my protein from soy sources. There are two reasons for this. One, soy is one of the few (in fact, one of only two that I know of--the other being quinoa grain) vegan sources of "complete" protein. That is, it contains all of the essential amino acids your body needs. The other is that soy is simply convenient. Soy protein powder (for smoothies) is easy to find, and cheap. Soymilk is ubiquitous now, and is the only commercially-prepared milk-alternative I have ever found that is sometimes sold without sweeteners. Tofu, of course, is everyone's idea of the classic vegan ingredient, and most meat-substitutes use soy as their base. (Textured vegetable protein? You got it--it's soy.) Now add in most burger, cheese and ice cream substitutes (virtually all of which are made with soy), and you've got some serious soy action going on.

In fact, I sometimes find myself eating soy three times a day, as when I have a soymilk-based smoothie (sometimes even fortified with soy powder!) for breakfast; a vegan frozen meal made with soy-meat or -cheese substitutes (like the delicious Celentano Italian options) for lunch; and a tofu stir-fry for dinner.

Is there a problem with this? Maybe. For one thing, soy is mildly "estrogenic." Basically, this means that soy acts like a weak form of estrogen. In some body tissues, soy will mimic estrogen; while in others, it will block it. This may have implications for breast cancer--but it depends on the type of tumor. Some breast cancers seem to be exaccerbated by estrogen, while others are mitigated by it. (If you are unlucky enough to have the "breast cancer gene" mutation called BRCA, for instance, type-1 of this gene leads to breast tumors with no estrogen receptors, where a type-2 mutation generates tumors that feed off estrogen.) In other words, it's not at all clear whether soy will prevent or help you to avoid breast cancer. Probably, it does neither... but if you're eating it in massive doses (and I have no idea whether 3 servings a day would be "massive"), then maybe you have reason to pause.

Another possible reason to worry about soy is even more speculative. Estrogen also plays a role in healthy brain functioning. One very small, uncontrolled study showed that in a population of older persons of Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii, those who ate a lot of soy were more likely to suffer from memory and other cognitive problems than their counterparts who ate a more traditional Western diet. This isn't much data, but again, it *might* give you reason to consider not eating soy by the bucketful.

On the plus side, soy is an excellent protein source, a good source of unsaturated fat, and a helpful way for vegans to survive gracefully in a meat-centric culture. There is some evidence that soy protects against heart disease by lowering cholesterol, and may reduce hotflashes in newly-menopausal women.

So what to do? Well, I can tell you what I've decided to do: eat soy, but eat less of it. I aim for no more than one serving a day. I do this by replacing soymilk with other milk-alternatives (such as nutmilks or grainmilks) in smoothies and cooking whenever I can--sweetener be damned. And I emphasize a wider variety of beans for lunch and dinner than I did before. I also am more likely to substitute seitan (a meat-substitute made from wheat protein) for tofu in stir-fries, or even do without the tofu altogether. I also find that many of my recipes for which I previously used Gimme Lean or other soy-based meat substitutes, can be made using some other bean. The "meatloaf" recipe I posted a while back can be made by substituting lentils and lots of spices for the Gimme Lean, and it makes a very nice dish. It's cheaper, too! The other advantage to this moderation is that I get a wider variety of food products, which is always a healthier way to eat than overemphasizing a single ingredient.

You Are Fatter Than You Think

2004-06-23T21:58:00.000-04:00

First, an update: I'm still around 125 pounds. For the past three weeks, I've been running more seriously, and am prepping for a marathon in four months. Right now, I'm running about 20 miles a week, a number that will gradually increase in the coming months to a high of about 40 per week.

I'm still eating "on the beach," for the most part, but my portion sizes are such that I haven't continued to lose weight. It is really hard to both engage in hard exercise and diet (ANY diet, not just SBD) at the same time. I imagine I will drop a few more pounds as I approach the marathon, but that isn't a priority for me right now.

Second, a recommendation: _Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy_, by Walter C. Willett. A really good, popular-press book, whose eating recommendations are backed up with reams of evidence--a refreshing change from most "diet" books (and yes, the South Beach Diet is an offender in this department).

Willett says that the standard weight recommendations for Americans are probably too high. We define as "overweight" anyone with a higher body mass index (BMI) than 25. But while the negative health consequences really escalate at BMI > 25, they begin rising at BMIs as low as 22 (which is my own current BMI, by the way). Namely, your risk of gallstones, high blood pressure, and heart disease start creeping up (and in the case of diabetes, start *rocketing* up) even at weight ranges the USDA defines as the lowish side of "healthy." (This makes some sense to me. I am "big boned" and, like a good quality artichoke, heavy for my size. A BMI of 25, the top of the healthy range, puts me at 145 pounds. Only in a funhouse mirror world is 145 pounds on a 5'4" woman, even a large woman like me, a "normal," healthy weight.)

Even more interesting, risk of disease seems to be linear, rather than U-shaped as usually argued. That is, barring your being a smoker or sick with some fatal disease, you really cannot be too rich *or* too thin! Simply put, multiple studies show that the lower your body weight, the longer you live. In the famous Nurses' Health Study, for instance, those with BMIs as low as 17 (for me, a BMI of 17 equals a body weight of 98 pounds!) live slightly longer than those with BMIs between 21 and 25.

Now obviously, I don't think I should weigh 98 pounds. For one thing, I would have to lose not only body fat, but lots of lean tissue to achieve that kind of weight. For me, a BMI of 17 genuinely wouldn't be as healthy as, say, a more muscular BMI of 20 (116 pounds). For another, such a weight would be so difficult to achieve and maintain that I would be utterly miserable (as well as stick-man fugly). But the point is: as our waistlines have expanded, so seemingly have the recommendations for "healthy" weight. This may in part be because the good folk at the USDA don't want to make people desperate and give up. And hey, maybe they're right. After all, if I were truly obese (as more and more Americans are), I'd certainly be better off even at a still-chunky 145 pounds.

Mickey D's and You

2004-05-18T16:43:00.000-04:00

On any given day, 7%, that's SEVEN PERCENT, of the ENTIRE AMERICAN POPULATION, will eat at McDonald's. This absolutely staggers me.

In fact, this whole article from the current month's Harvard Magazine staggers me. It's one of the best articles I've read on nutrition and health since... well, since last month's issue of Harvard Magazine.

Two especially good tidbits for all you conspiracy theorists out there:

-- Notice how the base of the Food Guide Pyramid is grains. It makes no distinction between whole grains and refined (garbage) grains, it's just... grains. The Pyramid recommends a staggering six to eleven servings of grain a day. The Pyramid also makes no distinction between "legumes," "nuts," and all meat; recommending that you eat two to three servings a day from this "group." Further, it recommends two to three (!!) servings a day of dairy. So who writes and distributes the Food Guide Pyramid? The National Institute of Health? The Department of Health and Human Services? The Food and Drug Administration? Nah. It's the DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Guess whose lobbying drives the Department of Agriculture? (Hint: what moos while munching amber waves of grain?)

-- Half, that's HALF, of the net income of farmers in this country comes from Uncle Sam in the form of price supports and land set-asides. But not all farmers are treated equally. Ever notice how cheap grain products like wheat and corn (from whence come refined white flour and high fructose corn syrup) are, and how expensive fruit and vegetables are by comparison? Is this the market at work? Yes--but the *political* market, not Adam Smith's. Subsidies are for grains. Vegetable, fruit, bean and nut farmers do not get subsidies. Says Harvard medical school professor David Ludwig, "The foods that are the worst for us have an artificially low price, and the best foods cost more. This is worse than a free market: we are creating a mirror-world here."

The Latest Stats

2004-05-15T12:29:00.000-04:00

I have continued on the South Beach Diet, on a sort of Phase 2-and-a-half. That is, I eat according to the Phase II rules, but occasionally I indulge in a sweet treat (like last night, I had some dark chocolate covered marzipan for my birthday), and I don't sweat a little white flour now and again in (very) small doses. I'm posting my stats again, as I used to do once a week, just to keep you abreast of how I'm doing. I continue to lose, slooooooooowly.

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Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 124.5 pounds
Bodyfat: 25%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 27 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 28
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 30
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 31
Hips: 36
Chest: 30
Bust: 36
Thighs: R21, L20

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Weight: 134 -- 131 -- 129 -- 130 -- 127.5 -- 127 -- 125.5 -- 125.5 -- 125.5 -- 125 -- 124.5

Bodyfat: 29% -- 29% -- 27% -- 28% -- 27.5% -- 26% -- 24.5% -- 22.5% -- 27% -- 26% -- 25%

Waist, sucking in: 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27

Waist, hanging out: 30 -- 29.5 -- 29 -- 29 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 28 -- 28 -- 28 -- 28

Belly, sucking in: 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31 -- 30 -- 30.5 -- 30 -- 30

Belly, hanging out : 34 -- 33.5 -- 33 -- 33.5 -- 32.5 -- 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31

Hips: 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5 -- 36 -- 36 -- 36

Chest: 32 -- 31 -- 31 -- 31 -- 30.5 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30

Bust: 38.5 -- 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5 -- 36.5 -- 36 -- 36 -- 36 -- 36

Thighs: R22/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R20.5/L20 -- R21/L20 -- R21/L20

In the last week, I haven't invented any new dishes other than the one I posted. Chili remains a staple, and I lovethe veganoutreach site. Look under the Vegan Starter Pack box, and you will find links to lots and lots of great, simple vegan recipes. The Mediterranean Chickpeas is incredibly easy, and incredibly delicious, with or without rice served with it.

I also recently rediscovered Kittee's site, which is a fun read. I especially like her review of vegan cookzines, which you can order. I've ordered several. I won't say that I use them a lot to cook with, but they are entertaining and motivating reading.

UPDATE

2004-05-10T13:04:00.000-04:00

Hello to all who read this,

As you can see, I've gotten pretty lazy about posting. Putting my menu online (and in my excel spreadsheet) every day has just gotten old, frankly. I'm down to 124 pounds, and I continue to lose, but at a slower pace because I'm simply eating close to maintenance. For me, maintenance calories seem to be about 1850 a day, and I'm eating about 1600. That translates to a half a pound of fat loss a week.

I look pretty good at this weight, and though I know I will look even better at 120, I'm just not motivated to get there full-steam ahead. I will get there eventually--at this pace, in about two months--and I've decided I'm just not going to worry about it.

I'm still doing the South Beach Diet, but definitely as Phase II (meaning I eat whole grains and fruits), and I don't worry about the occasional potato, white pasta, or even sweet treat. Just so long as, on average, I'm eating below maintenance in any given week, I'm happy.

So I will check back in and report my progress from time to time, and post a vegan recipe or two that I might come up with.

In that spirit, I bring you:

Gnocchi with Bitter Greens (loose Phase II, or Phase III appropriate)

1 pound potato gnocchi
1 bunch broccoli rabe/rapini (or your fave bitter green; kale or collards would do nicely)
1 leek
1 pound brussels sprouts
2 T fry-appropriate oil (like canola, grapeseed, or refined avocado)
1 t crushed red pepper flakes (or more, to taste)
1/4 c lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Boil a big, heavy-bottomed pot of water. While it is heating, prepare the various greens: rinse and trim the thickest ends off of the broccoli rabe; rinse the brussels sprouts, cut off the ends and cut an "x" in the bottom of the stems; rinse and thinly slice the leek. The water should be boiling now; dump in the brussels sprouts and cook for 8 minutes. While it is boiling, put a heavy pan on medium heat with 1 T of the oil, and begin sauteeing the leeks. When the brussels sprouts are done, fish them out with a slotted spoon and put them aside. Dump the broccoli rabe into the boiling water, and cook for no more than a minute. Fish out the greens into a collander, and set aside to drain. Now dump the gnocchi into the boiling water, and boil until they rise to the surface (about three minutes). While they are cooking, dump the broccoli rabe into the pan with the leek, and continue sauteeing. Now drain the gnocchi and the water from the pot. Put the pot back on the burner, on medium heat, toss in the other T of oil, the drained gnocchi, and the drained brussels spouts. Sautee for a minute or three, then toss in the red pepper flakes, and the sauteed leeks and broccoli rabe. Add the lemon juice, stir it up well, and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.

Phase 1.2, Day 6

2004-05-06T10:37:00.000-04:00

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Breakfast: V-8 with flax seed meal

Midmorning snack: hot coffee with silk creamer and splenda

Lunch: spinach and chickpeas; curried tofu; dal; eggplant curry; one onion pakora; iced tea [Indian restaurant meal]

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Phase 1.2, Day 5

2004-05-05T12:46:00.000-04:00

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Breakfast: V-8 with flax seed meal; a few pecan halves

Lunch: curried chickpeas and bell pepper salad; felafel on whole grain bread with tomato and baby spinach [I somehow totally forgot I was on Phase I again until I started eating it, I swear!]; diet Snapple lemon iced tea [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: green ginger tea

Dinner: large salad with garbanzos, tofu, various vegetables; chinese cabbage cooked with soy sauce; diet Coke

Dessert: lots of Israeli almond-coconut chocolates :(

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Phase 1.2, Day 4

2004-05-04T10:25:00.000-04:00

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Breakfast: Boca burger with salsa

Lunch: broccoli and tomato salad; large bowl of tomato-vegetable soup; diet raspberry Snapple iced tea [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: hot coffee with silk; 1/4 c walnuts

Dinner: tofu stir fry with broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, snow peas, and cashews; diet Snapple lime green tea [from Food Court]

Late night snack: spring greens salad with cashews, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, olives, and oil and vinegar dressing [from Food Court]

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My site meter on this blog allows me to see the "referral page" for visitors to this site. I can't tell who has visited (though I can tell their internet service provider), but I can tell where they came from! I discovered this fairly recently, and have become entranced by it.

Most of the referrals are unsurprising; they usually come from my postings on the Microsoft South Beach Diet Group Board. But what's really fun is the search engine referrals. Again, most of these are pretty ordinary: people looking for "vegan" and "south beach diet" turns up my site, naturally. Or, people will be looking to see if a particular food item is allowed on this diet. So, they might look for "South Beach" and "beer" or "papadum" or "coffee."

But some of the searches are so delightfully random! One guy (I assume it was a guy) was looking for Michelle Rodriguez's bra cup size, and the poor fella found me instead. Another person wanted to learn how to reduce methodone-induced food cravings, and wound up here. Yet another was looking up something about marsupials.

I can safely laugh at these people behind their backs because I can't imagine the poor, misled souls will actually be back! But just in case the methodone user happened to stick around--congratulations on kicking a terrible habit! And I expect you'll find the South Beach Diet makes you feel better in the long run than heroin did... though to be frank the heroin probably worked better for weight-loss.

Phase 1.2, Day 3

2004-05-03T10:30:00.000-04:00

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Breakfast: hot coffee with silk creamer; 2 oz walnuts

Midmorning snack: hot coffee with silk creamer

Lunch: mystery beans salad; asparagus; green beans with shallots; sauteed mushrooms; diet Snapple raspberry iced tea [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: hummus with raw vegetables (radish, carrot, red bell pepper, cauliflower); olives

Dinner: tofu stir fry with zucchini, broccoli, summer squash, snow peas and mushrooms [from Food Court]

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Phase 1.2, Day 2

2004-05-02T11:56:00.000-04:00

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Breakfast: leftover Mediterranean chickpeas; diet Dr. Pepper

Midmorning snack: hot coffee with half-n-half

Lunch: mesclun salad with tomatoes, cucumber, celery, red bell pepper, walnuts and hemp oil/balsamic vinegar dressing; mug of green tea

Midafternoon snack: V-8 with calcium, with a T of flax seed meal stirred in. Not as goopy or disgusting as feared, since the V-8 is already pretty thick. I think I've found a new way to incorporate more flax seed into my diet!

Another snack: the rest of the toasted yellow-eyed beans, which did NOT age well

Dinner: Malaysian restaurant meal, including peanut and bean sprout salad, stuffed fried tofu, sauteed spinach, and a tofu-vegetable stir-fry.

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I went to a road race with my boyfriend this morning (he won second place! Yay!) and I turned down not only the usual bagels and oranges, but tons of muffins, and *free Ben and Jerry's ice cream.* I think I should have been given a trophy just for that.

Then, for dinner, I turned down dessert at Cold Slab Creamery. *And* a proffered bite of green tea ice cream at the restaurant, which I love. Satan was definitely trying to tempt me today!

Phase 1.2, Day 1

2004-05-01T10:50:00.000-04:00

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Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 125 pounds
Bodyfat: 26%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 27.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 28
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 30
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 31.5
Hips: 36
Chest: 30
Bust: 36
Thighs: R21, L20

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Weight: 134 -- 131 -- 129 -- 130 -- 127.5 -- 127 -- 125.5 -- 125.5 -- 125.5 -- 125

Bodyfat: 29% -- 29% -- 27% -- 28% -- 27.5% -- 26% -- 24.5% -- 22.5% -- 27% -- 26%

Waist, sucking in: 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5

Waist, hanging out: 30 -- 29.5 -- 29 -- 29 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 28 -- 28 -- 28

Belly, sucking in: 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31 -- 30 -- 30.5 -- 30

Belly, hanging out : 34 -- 33.5 -- 33 -- 33.5 -- 32.5 -- 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5

Hips: 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5 -- 36 -- 36

Chest: 32 -- 31 -- 31 -- 31 -- 30.5 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30

Bust: 38.5 -- 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5 -- 36.5 -- 36 -- 36 -- 36

Thighs: R22/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R20.5/L20 -- R21/L20

Ten weeks, nine pounds. All things considered, that really isn't bad. But now I'm starting afresh; on May Day. A beautiful, springy day; full of promise!

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Breakfast: glass of V-8 (they now make a version fortified with calcium!); 1/8 c pistachios; mug of green tea

Lunch: mesclun salad with tomatoes, cucumber, celery, red bell pepper, walnuts and hemp oil/balsamic vinegar dressing; diet Dr. Pepper

Midafternoon snack: failed toated yellow-eyed beans (actually, they were tasty but kind of fell apart so aren't really a good finger-snack-food, so I won't bother posting the recipe); diet Dr. Pepper

Dinner: Mediterranean chickpeas again (man, these are good!!)

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It's amazing how much easier it is to eat fewer calories when on Phase I. I easily hit just under 1200 calories; something I haven't managed for several weeks on Phase II.

Days 53-55, Phase 2

2004-05-01T10:43:00.000-04:00

Well, I won't say I went berserk and ate everything in sight, but I did take a vacation from the diet. I ate mostly SBD food, but with the addition of healthy numbers of cookies (Day 53), and things like white breads and mashed potatoes and the like for various formal end-of-year events I went to (Days 54 and 55).

And frankly, this gives me the opportunity for a complete, clean break. I've been eating at maintenance levels for a couple of weeks now. I have about five pounds left to go; I lost five pounds on Phase I of this diet. And when I was on Phase I, I really adapted to smaller portion sizes without hunger; I want to see if I can get back to those smaller portion sizes.

That's right, ladies and germs: I'm going back to Phase I! Clean slate. I'm going to weigh and measure, and start my calorie counting over from zero, with the new assumption (based on my lower weight) that I can now eat 1850 calories a day to maintain.

I feel skinnier already!

Phase 2, Day 53

2004-04-28T10:37:00.000-04:00

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Breakfast: cantaloupe and honeydew melon; large hot coffee with fake cream

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Phase 2, Day 52

2004-04-27T11:40:00.000-04:00

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Breakfast: 1/2 of a cantaloupe; hot coffee with fake creamer

Lunch: white beans with pesto; roasted vegetables; green salad with citrus and berries; diet Snapple cran-raspberry drink [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: stuffed grape leaves and hummus; a few banana chips [from deli]

Another snack: jumbo peanut butter cookie; green tea

Dinner: spring greens salad with chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, carrots, slivered almonds and olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing; diet Snapple lime green tea [from Food Court]

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This morning, I walked out of my bedroom in my underwear and t-shirt (which comprise my elegant nightly sleeping apparel), only to encounter my roommate's very-buff boyfriend perched on the living room couch. Horrified, I dived back into my bedroom, but too late! My panty-clad rump had been revealed to strange eyes!

Naturally, I had to immediately examine my ass in the mirror from every conceivable angle, to assess the damage to my reputation. And here is what I discovered: it isn't that bad! One doesn't normally bother craning one's neck to search for cellulite, so I hadn't noticed what this diet had done for my rear view. I know I *had* cellulite. And now, other than a little gelatinous shake right where the butt-part joins the leg-part, I don't. Thank you, Dr. Agatson!

Phase 2, Day 51

2004-04-26T18:49:00.000-04:00

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Breakfast: strawberry-orange soymilk smoothie with flax seed; hot coffee with fake cream

Lunch: roasted vegetables on whole grain bread; veggie gumbo soup; diet Snapple lime green tea [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: large hot coffee with soymilk; a pear

Dinner: eggplant and bell peppers stir-fried with tofu; a spring roll [from Thai restaurant]

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I made my living mostly as a waitress for over a decade, and I've worked in a lot of restaurants, and seen a lot of different types of cuisines being prepared. Do you know how restaurants make everything taste so good? So much more decadent and refined than anything you can manage in your own home, somehow? Two ingredients do the trick; and two ingredients alone: oil and salt. Lots and lots of oil and salt. To give you an example, at a Cambodian restaurant I worked at in Boston (a very nice one--favorably reviewed by the New York Times), the cooks sauteed the vegetables for each order in no less than a quarter of a cup of oil. And that doesn't even include the oil in the sauces--this is just what they cook with. A quarter cup of oil is over 400 calories.

I was reminded of this eating at the Thai restaurant last night. The dish was literally swimming in oil. The spring roll dripped grease. Needless to say, it was delicious.

Phase 2, Day 50

2004-04-25T09:21:00.000-04:00

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Breakfast: leftover Mediterranean chickpeas

Midafternoon snack: 2 TJ's peanut-butter filled "oreos"; small cup of coffee with sugar (but no milk! Trying my best to develop a taste for black coffee!)

Lunch: spring greens salad with cucumbers, tomato, red bell pepper, pistachios, olives and hemp oil/balsamic vinegar dressing; mug of orange-spice rooibos tea

Midafternoon snack: Trader Joe's Italian baked tofu; diet Dr. Pepper

Another snack: grapefruit with splenda; mug of orange-spice rooibos

A final (I hope) snack: a Gardenburger "diner" patty topped with guacamole; diet Dr. Pepper

Exercise: 1 hour on the elliptical, at a relatively flat incline, going slooooow

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Like I'd be stupid enough to buy a whole package, but Trader Joe's is making these amazing oreo-type cookies, but instead of funky white stuff in the middle, it has PEANUT BUTTER. {cue Hallelujah Chorus} When you shop there, they always have free coffee and sweets. And often, as in this case, the sweets are vegan. I guess if you're reading this, it's because you're dieting, so I didn't do you any favors by telling you that. Oh, well; I can't resist the urge to share the misery-tinged joy!

Anyway, today was a whacky, snacky kinda day. I gave in to my urge to graze, figuring I'd just nibble instead of eating dinner. Doing it that way, I didn't eat all that many calories; at least not relative to the last few days.

I also used the elliptical for some exercise. The doctor said I could try it, so long as it didn't irritate my hip. I kept the inclination very low, and went slow, and didn't have any problems.

Phase 2, Day 49

2004-04-24T09:34:00.000-04:00

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Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 125.5 pounds
Bodyfat: 27%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 27.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 28
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 30.5
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 31.5
Hips: 36
Chest: 30
Bust: 36
Thighs: R20.5, L20

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Weight: 134 -- 131 -- 129 -- 130 -- 127.5 -- 127 -- 125.5 -- 125.5 -- 125.5

Bodyfat: 29% -- 29% -- 27% -- 28% -- 27.5% -- 26% -- 24.5% -- 22.5% -- 27%

Waist, sucking in: 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5

Waist, hanging out: 30 -- 29.5 -- 29 -- 29 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 28 -- 28

Belly, sucking in: 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31 -- 30 -- 30.5

Belly, hanging out : 34 -- 33.5 -- 33 -- 33.5 -- 32.5 -- 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5

Hips: 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5 -- 36

Chest: 32 -- 31 -- 31 -- 31 -- 30.5 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30

Bust: 38.5 -- 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5 -- 36.5 -- 36 -- 36

Thighs: R22/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R20.5/L20

Anything I lost--if I lost anything--came off my thighs and hips. It's disappointing to see so little change, but I guess it's better than change in the wrong direction. By my calculations, my body is retaining about a pound and a half of water. Unless...

Here's a depressing thought: what if I'm now at the point where I need only 1800 calories a day to maintain? I already dropped to 1900 from 2000, but what if that's not enough? Every ten pounds in supposed to be about 150 calories for maintenance. So maybe I just didn't drop far enough? Let's see... recalculating my maintenance as 1800 calories a day since the beginning of this diet leaves me at... 8.5 pounds lost. Meaning I should weigh 125.5 right now. [Consternation!] But I don't think that's can be right. For one thing, I should have been more like 1950 at the beginning, and only gradually have reached 1800. That means there should be more like a [guessing] pound difference during the transition, so I should be at something more like 9.5 pounds lost. Whatever. I'm just going to reserve judgment on this until next week, when hopefully I'll feel more in the mood for figuring out the math.

But I won't wait to try to see what I can do to get this diet back on track. My problem is *partly* food choices (a cookie here, champagne there), but the real issue is portion sizes. I'm eating past the point of hunger. I'll try to clamp down on that.

********************

Breakfast: orange-strawberry smoothie with flax seed and soymilk

Lunch: spring greens salad with cucumber, red bell pepper, celery, tomatoes, olives, pistachios, and hemp oil/balsamic vinegar dressing

Snack: celery with almond butter/flax seed meal spread

Dinner: Mediterranean chickpeas

Late night snack: carrot cake Clif bar

Late, late night snack (ugh!): sourdough baguette with strawberry/rhubarb jam

********************

Another big eating day, though still (barely) below maintenance. At this rate, I'll be 50 before I hit 120 pounds. Maybe I just shouldn't worry about it? Maybe I should just continue eating like I have been for the last couple of weeks, knowing that I'll be losing well under a pound a week, but still losing?

I hate to consider myself "off" the diet, though, because then it will be impossible to turn down the things I've been regularly turning down. Like beer. Boy, did a beer sound good last night! And my boyfriend had bought a sixer of Newcastle Brown Ale, which I really love. There they were, sitting in the fridge, calling my name...

Phase 2, Day 48

2004-04-23T10:41:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: small can of V-8; 10 pecan halves

Lunch: warm salad of mixed grains and tropical fruits; black bean salad with tomato, peppers and onions; a heavily-seeded cracker; 1 c of lentil-vegetable soup; diet lemon Snapple iced tea

Midafternoon snack: almond butter and strawberry jam

Dinner: warm lentil-shallot salad served with wild and brown rice

Exercise: none

********************

Tomorrow I weigh/measure for the ninth full week on the South Beach Diet. It's been a tough week, calorically speaking: I ate an average of almost 1600 calories a day. Still, if you measure from Day 1 of the diet, when I weighed 134, I have eaten 84,000 calories. Maintenance, at 1900 calories a day, would be 119,700. That leaves a deficit of about 35,000 calories, or about 10 pounds. So, tomorrow, the scale should read about 124, give or take a pound.

Phase 2, Day 47

2004-04-22T10:17:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: grapefruit with splenda; mug of green tea

Lunch: barley, split pea and vegetable salad; guacamole; baked yams; diet raspberry Snapple iced tea [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: one peanut butter cookie

Dinner: 2 slices rye bread with hummus; lettuce, cucumber, tomato and olive salad; black beans with mango/plantain; a glass of champagne

Exercise: none

********************

Well, my hip is not a stress fracture. The sports doctor thinks it's bursitis, caused by one leg being slightly longer than the other. I'm going to do physical therapy for about a month, and possibly get orthotics.

I'm much relieved to hear it isn't broken. While I understand that beliefs about vegans and calcium are overstated, it's hard not to be paranoid, imagining my bones crumbling to dust with each passing non-dairy day. My doctor was too polite to roll her eyes at me, but I could tell she thinks my worry about not getting enough calcium because of my veganism is silly. She told me to just take pills--which as a woman I'm supposed to be doing, anyway.

It's good to be wrong!

Phase 2, Day 46

2004-04-21T11:01:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: a handful of pecans

Midmorning snack: small can of V-8; mug of green tea

Lunch: eggplant parmesan for Staff Appreciation Day (I tried to get bits without the cheese) [catered meal]

Midafternoon snack: a small cup of champagne to celebrate a friend getting his Ph.D.

Dinner: tofu stir-fry; diet Snapple lime green tea [from Food Court]

Late night snack: far, far too many wasabi green peas

Exercise: walked to work and back

********************

I'm reaching the vertigo stage of this diet, where the nearer I get to my goal, the farther away it seems. I only have about five more pounds to go, and I definitely am smaller and look better. Several people have commented that I seem to have lost a lot of weight. You would think this kind of positive feedback would make things easier, but ironically it's kind of demotivating. I think, "I look pretty good. Why should I kill myself for another five measly pounds? Will it really make much of a difference?"

And I don't have a good answer to that. Five pounds probably *won't* make that much of a difference. This fact makes it hard to turn down things like delicious, greasy eggplant parmesan. And it explains why I've been eating much closer to my maintenance level (though still below it... a bit) for the last couple of weeks. Is this the real reason the last few pounds are, famously, the hardest to lose? Not a failure of metabolism, but a failure of motivation?

Maybe I should go back to Phase I for a week. [Cringe]

Phase 2, Day 45

2004-04-20T10:23:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: large hot coffee with fake cream; half a cantaloupe

Lunch: 1.5 c vegetable paella; 12 oz vegetable soup; diet Dr. Pepper

Dinner: 12 oz. vegan split pea soup; roasted vegetable sandwich on whole grain bread with tomato and lettuce; diet Snapple lime green tea

Late night snack: a mango; some bittersweet chocolate

Exercise: none

********************

In the mood to eat junk food? Watch it instead! I saw The Fast and the Furious last night; truly the film medium's answer to candy. Fast cars, hunky boys, slutty girls... and one kickass soundtrack. Extra bonus: the women are so skinny, your jealousy will kill any desire to eat snacks while watching. Possible bummer moment: realizing what Michelle Rodriguez of GirlFight has been reduced to.

Phase 2, Day 44

2004-04-19T16:56:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: carrot cake Clif bar

Midmorning snack: hot coffee with fake cream; 1/2 cantaloupe

Lunch: 1/4 c 3-bean chili; 1/4 c vegetable soup; 3/4 c garbanzo bean, cucumber, tomato, pepper and onion salad with vinaigrette; 2 heavily-seeded crackers; diet Snapple raspberry iced tea [from Food Court]

Dinner: a handful of mixed nuts; mixed greens salad; stuffed fried tofu with mashed potatoes and green beans; fruit tart [restaurant meal]

Exercise: none

********************

Ah, Springtime! When a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of bare skin!

White, pasty, sun-deprived bodies are making their first appearance of the season all over town. Mine emerged from beneath many layers of clothes for the first time today, too, thanks to the (around) ten pounds I've lost on this diet so far. How nice to wear a skirt that occasionally shows a little bit of belly button and not worry that I am disgusting the people who are innocently trying to eat their lunches on the lawn! A few more pounds, and I'll even be willing to risk a sleeveless shirt!

Phase 2, Day 43

2004-04-18T12:16:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: hot coffee with a little milk; rosemary focaccia

Lunch: orange-vanilla soymilk smoothie with flax seed

Dinner: ate out at On the Border--bleah! Tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole; two tortillas; portobella mushroom, zucchini, squash and onion fajitas; black beans and rice

Exercise: none

********************

Phase 2, Day 42

2004-04-17T14:46:00.000-04:00

------------------------------------
Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 125.5 pounds
Bodyfat: 22.5%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 27.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 28
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 30
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 31.5
Hips: 36.5
Chest: 30
Bust: 36
Thighs: R21.5, L20.5

------------------------------------

Weight: 134 -- 131 -- 129 -- 130 -- 127.5 -- 127 -- 125.5 -- 125.5

Bodyfat: 29% -- 29% -- 27% -- 28% -- 27.5% -- 26% -- 24.5% -- 22.5%

Waist, sucking in: 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5

Waist, hanging out: 30 -- 29.5 -- 29 -- 29 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 28

Belly, sucking in: 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31 -- 30

Belly, hanging out : 34 -- 33.5 -- 33 -- 33.5 -- 32.5 -- 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5

Hips: 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5

Chest: 32 -- 31 -- 31 -- 31 -- 30.5 -- 30 -- 30 -- 30

Bust: 38.5 -- 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5 -- 36.5 -- 36

Thighs: R22/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R21.5/L20.5

Not much happening here. (I don't really believe my fat percentage monitor, as I've said before). I do feel like my clothes are still getting looser, though it does seem to have slowed down. For sure, I've been eating more calories -- more like 1400 a day rather than 1200. This means I should have been losing more like an even pound of fat a week, rather than a pound and a half. A single pound can easily get lost in the shuffle of water weight or measurement error, so I'm not going to worry about my numbers right now.

At any rate, I definitely should think of myself as needing 1900 rather than 2000 calories a day for maintenance at this point. Sad. That's almost half a candy bar!

********************

Breakfast: small can of V-8; an apple

Lunch: a large slice of olive ciabatta with vegannaise and the last leftover dosha; about a cup of leftover cabbage curry (there's plenty remaining of that; my boyfriend didn't really like it)

Dinner: roasted chickpeas; diet Dr. Pepper

Exercise: none

********************

The roasted chickpeas were really delicious. I prepared them as a snack, but they were so good I ate the entire order and called it dinner. Somebody on one of the SBD boards said you can roast any kind of bean, and so I think I'm going to try doing different ones. If you are going to make these, I'd suggest a slightly cooler oven (like 350 degrees F), and a little less oil. They'll get crisper that way, like cornuts. Remember those??

Phase 2, Day 41

2004-04-16T10:59:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: stuffed zucchini; mug of green tea

Lunch: garbanzo beans with onions and shredded carrot; mystery beans with bell peppers; asian vegetable salad; diet raspberry Snapple iced tea

Dinner: roasted vegetables in a tomato tortilla wrapper; 3 dolmas (rice-stuffed grape leaves)

Evening snack: hot coffee and Lindt bittersweet chocolate

Exercise: walked to work

********************

Tomorrow I measure! Either I've lost 11 pounds, and the scale should read 123, or I've lost 9.5 pounds, and the scale should read 124.5. Or, it's somewhere in between, because when I weighed more I could eat 2000 calories a day without gaining, and now that I weigh less, I can only get away with 1900 calories a day. We shall see!

Phase 2, Day 40

2004-04-15T10:51:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: small can of V-8; a stuffed zucchini; 2 mugs black tea

Lunch: 1/2 c tomato couscous; 1.5 c roasted vegetable salad; multigrain roll with olive oil; diet cran-raspberry Snapple; hot coffee with soymilk [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: hot coffee with soymilk

Dinner: 3 slices PapaJohn's mushroom pizza without cheese

Exercise: walked to and from work

********************

Phase 2, Days 38 and 39

2004-04-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

Day 39

********************

Breakfast: oatmeal with strawberries and maple syrup; cantaloupe; hot coffee with half-n-half [restaurant meal]

Lunch: 2 stuffed zucchinis; tossed green salad with a some pasta in it; sm. can of V-8; espresso with 1/2 a packet of sugar [catered lunch]

Dinner: stir-fried soba (buckwheat) noodles with veggies and tofu; Israeli couscous with veggies; snap peas and broccoli; diet Snapple iced green tea [from Food Court]

Exercise: none

********************

I'm not eating very far below maintenance this week. I'm averaging about 1400-1500 a day. We'll see what happens tomorrow and Friday, but at this rate, I'm only going to lose about a pound this week. It's all this going out to eat! I swear I virtually *never* go out to eat when it's up to me (I don't count the Food Court, which I treat essentially as a grocery store), and part of the reason is that when you go out to eat, everything is absolutely soaked in oil to make it tasty. It's a strategy that works, mind you--but it sure is bad for the waistline. It would be horrible for my pocketbook, too, except that I have a roughly-hewn-to rule: if I go out to eat, it's because someone else is paying for it.

Day 38
********************

Breakfast: none

Lunch: buffet at a Thai-Vietnamese-Laotian restaurant (bits of pad thai and veggie curry dishes); hot tea

Dinner: a cosmopolitan cocktail; a glass of red wine; a glass of white wine [buuurp!!]; a large tossed green salad with vinaigrette; salmon with a small side of white beans and a mystery vegetable; 3 tiny scoops of different sorbets with a mystery fruit compote [restaurant meal]

Exercise: none

********************

Today my boyfriend formally received an honor/promotion, and the whole day was sort of spent celebrating it. It was a really big deal; his parents came out for it, and he gave a lecture that a couple of hundred people attended. Then there was a big dinner in his honor, and I sat at the head table with him, his parents, his current boss, and his soon-to-be-boss. It was completely overwhelming. At the dinner, we were offered a choice of three different entrees: chicken, beef or, "for the vegetarians," fish. What was I supposed to do? I wasn't going to rock the boat in that setting.

Then I felt bad about that decision. What would have happened if I had said to the server, discreetly, "Can I please just have extra salad and sides?" I dunno; would it have spoiled the "mood" at the table? Would I have looked like a fussbudget? Would I have embarrassed my boyfriend? (He's a vegetarian too, but he does eat fish like so many vegetarians do--which is why people who aren't vegetarians think fish is an all-purpose vegetarian option. Remember _My Big Fat Greek Wedding_? "What do you mean, you don't eat meat? Fine, I'll make lamb.") I'd like to say I was being paranoid, that it would have been fine to insist on a vegan (or at least vegetarian) plate. But there's always *someone* at the table who actually seems to get angry when they hear you're a vegan, isn't there?

What's the more moral thing to do: refuse the fish, or keep my mouth shut and ensure my boyfriend's special day isn't marred by an uncomfortable moment at the dinner table? I do know which is the *easier* thing to do, and that's what I did. And probably the fact that it was easier should tell me that it was the wrong choice.

Doesn't it? Ethics is *hard*!

Phase 2, Day 37

2004-04-12T11:15:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: raspberry-orange smoothie with soy protein powder and flax seed; mug of green tea

Lunch: leftover "healthy harvest" spaghetti with TJ's marinara and a few frozen mushroom fake-meatballs; diet Dr. Pepper

Midafternoon snack: generous spoonful of almond butter/flax meal spread

Dinner: lentil dosha (scroll down to find it, then scroll further for tips on how to make) served with cabbage curry (instead of using the spices listed in the recipe, I just used a boxed sambar spice mix); diet Dr. Pepper

Exercise: none

********************

As a vegan, should you worry about B-12? And should you worry about protein, iron, calcium, zinc, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids?

There was a time when I would have said, "Gimme a break. I eat healthier than anyone I know." But I'm not so sure any more. These nutrients *are* hard to get. I think all vegans should be concerned about calcium, B-12, and omega-3s. Everyone (boys, too!) should supplement calcium and B-12, and all vegans (all people, actually) should make a point to add a source of omega-3s like flax or hemp to their diets. But as for the others, I think it depends on what kind of vegan you are. If you are:

An athletic vegan:
You *might* worry about protein if you are very active. A really active athlete needs about a gram of protein per pound of body weight (maybe per pound of lean body mass). That's not easy to get. But a scoop of soy protein powder in your smoothie, juice, or morning oatmeal cures this problem easily.

A female vegan in her childbearing years:
Iron could be an issue. Make this "is likely an issue at some point" if you are also an athlete, or have very heavy periods. Avoid consuming caffeine while eating your iron sources; caffeine interferes with its absorption. Try to couple iron-rich foods with vitamin C-rich foods; vitamin-C improves absorption. If you use a daily multivitamin with iron in it (check, not all include iron), you are probably fine. Warning: don't self-diagnose an iron deficiency. It can be hazardous to supplement it if you don't need it.

A vegan who is as obsessive about sunscreen as he is about his diet (like me):
Worry about vitamin D. Your body can't synthesize this, and it's necessary for bone health. Take it as a pill. Your calcium supplement probably includes it; if not, switch to one that does.

A vegan who hates nuts and whole grains:
Is there such a beast? If so, make sure your daily multi or calcium supplement also includes zinc.

A vegan who makes everything like soymilk and tofu and such for herself, and never eats anything but 100% whole grains:
Believe it or not, you're missing out on nutrition by doing this. Most soymilk and tofu, and all refined flours, are enriched with a lot of things like calcium and vitamins that can be hard to get in your diet. This doesn't mean you have to eat this stuff, but you do need to be careful you get these nutrients elsewhere, like in pill form.

A vegan who only eats crap like white pasta, and never eats vegetables and fruits:
Worry about everything. And grow up! You're a VEGan! That means VEGetable-eatin' freak, so eat your greens like the rest of us before we take your membership card away!

Does the fact that you *might* have to be concerned about these things mean that the vegan diet doesn't make sense? That always seems to be the conclusion I see drawn in the popular press. "It's hard to get such-and-such from just eating vegan foods, therefore a vegan diet is risky." But in a world filled with supplements and protein powders, why on earth is the availability of these nutrients from vegan foods "alone" even relevant? What, are all vegans Luddites, too? The modern food industry has its ugly, dirty side, but it also has generated amazing innovations. Technology has made possible a variety of resources for keeping us vegans healthy, and there's nothing about the vegan philosophy that prevents us from taking advantage of them.

Phase 2, Day 36

2004-04-11T11:49:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: strawberry-orange juice smoothie with flax seed and soy protein powder

Lunch: spring green salad with olives, cucumbers, pistachios, grape tomatoes, red bell pepper and hemp oil/balsamic vinegar dressing; mug of green tea

Midafternoon snack: a healthy spoonful of almond butter/flax meal spread; diet Dr. Pepper

Dinner: Black beans with mango and plaintain; a wedge of cornbread

Exercise: none

********************

Warning: the black bean frijole dish above is so delicious it is impossible to stop eating it. Next time, I'm going to make half as much, because my boyfriend and I are right now stuffed to the gills and miserable. But until our stomachs came one bite short of exploding, we sure were enjoying it!

Phase 2, Day 35

2004-04-10T11:27:00.000-04:00

------------------------------------
Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 125.5 pounds
Bodyfat: 24.5%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 27.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 28
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 31
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 31.5
Hips: 37
Chest: 30
Bust: 36.5
Thighs: R21.5, L20.5

------------------------------------

Weight: 134 -- 131 -- 129 -- 130 -- 127.5 -- 127 -- 125.5

Bodyfat: 29% -- 29% -- 27% -- 28% -- 27.5% -- 26% -- 24.5%

Waist, sucking in: 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 27.5 -- 27.5 -- 27.5

Waist, hanging out: 30 -- 29.5 -- 29 -- 29 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28

Belly, sucking in: 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31

Belly, hanging out : 34 -- 33.5 -- 33 -- 33.5 -- 32.5 -- 32 -- 31.5

Hips: 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37

Chest: 32 -- 31 -- 31 -- 31 -- 30.5 -- 30 -- 30

Bust: 38.5 -- 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5 -- 36.5

Thighs: R22/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R21.5/L20.5 -- R21.5/L20.5

------------------------------------

By my calculations, if I'm buring 1900 calories a day I should be at 125.5; but if I'm burning 2000 a day I should be at 124 (for the full seven weeks I've been on the SBD). I'm at 125.5, but I don't quite trust the number. Up till now, my losses have reflected a 2000-a-day pattern. I do feel a bit bloated, and I'm due to start my period in a few days. Plus, I'm probably carrying water still from my wild weekend in Pennsylvania. Or maybe not; maybe I do burn 1900 a day instead of 2000. I will withhold judgment until next week.

My inches lost look pretty satisfying. I'm continuing to slowly lose in the belly, but I'm managing for the most part to keep my boobs. What more can a girl ask for?

On a sad note, my hip really seems to be a problem. Have I mentioned that before? I went for a 3.5-mile-or-so run today, and my left hip hurt so bad that I could barely walk afterwards. It's been a recurring problem for a couple of months now, even though I hardly run at all anymore. I'm worried it's a stress fracture. I had a stress fracture in my foot last summer that completely shut down my running for a couple of months, and I never really got back into it again after it healed. Could I have one in my hip, now, too? And if so, why? As a vegan, am I not getting enough calcium? I am completely lackadaisical about taking calcium pills, it's true. Today's episode was so bad I'm finally convinced I need to go to the doctor about it.

********************

Breakfast: Gargenburger sausage patty; a few bites of a mealy apple; hot coffee with milk

Midafternoon snack: 3/4 of an orange; hot coffee with half-and-half (in both cases, I didn't have the option to use nondairy creamer. And as the father said in one of my favorite all-time children's books, _A_Day_No_Pigs_Would_Die_, "God never intended a man to drink his coffee black.")

Lunch: spring greens with olives, pistachios, cucumber, red bell pepper, grape tomatoes and hemp oil/balsamic vinegar

Dinner: lentil-apricot salad; romaine lettuce salad with dried cranberries and walnuts; jarred marionberries [dinner at a friend's house]

Exercise: 3.5 mile run

********************

Phase 2, Day 34

2004-04-09T10:33:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: pear with almond butter/flax seed meal; mug of green tea

Lunch: 1 slice whole wheat bread with Gardenburger soy patty and vegannaise/mustard spread; 1/4 of a nasty, underripe nectarine; diet Dr. Pepper

Midafternoon snack: cherry sugar-free popsicle

Midafternoon snack: grapefruit sweetened with Splenda

Dinner: "Healthy Harvest" spaghetti (not whole grain, but not all-white) with Trader Joe's canned marinari and frozen vegan meatballs; piece of sourdough baguette [I planned a meal of black bean frijoles but burned the beans, so that will have to wait until tomorrow night]

Exercise: none

********************

I had figured that most of the people who would visit this site would already be vegan. But I've come to realize that some (most?) of those who come are interested in veganism, but haven't gone down that road themselves.

So I've decided to write today a little about why I'm a vegan. It's not because it's a healthier way of eating. A well-planned omnivorous diet can be equally healthy; a badly-executed vegan diet can be pretty bad for you. (And obviously, since this site is dedicated to the South Beach Diet, veganism alone is no guaratee of a small pants size). It's not for environmental reasons. Undoubtedly, a vegan diet does put far less of a strain on the earth's resources than one that includes meat. But to be perfectly honest, I'm a half-hearted environmentalist at best. I'm lackadaisical about recycling. I'm never moved to write letters to the editor about air pollution, or strip-mining, or oil-drilling in Alaska. When I get worked up about an environmental issue, it's because of it's effect on animals.

I'm a vegan because I don't want to participate in the industrialized, commericialized abuse of animals. It's not even their deaths that bother me so much as the misery we inflict on them in life. I don't understand the motivations or moral world of hunters; I don't understand why they enjoy what they do. But there's an honesty, at least, in their actions. They eat meat without shying from what it takes to obtain it. And a deer shot by a bullet in the woods suffers at most for a few seconds if the shot is good, to a few days if the shot is bad and she escapes and takes a long time to die of her wounds. But an animal on a factory farm suffers exquisitely from birth to death, an expanse of time that can range from minutes (male chicks) to years (breeding pigs or dairy cows or beef cattle).

I'm not especially articulate on this point, but many others have been. This is a more compelling defense of veganism than I could ever offer. The page you will click on has no upsetting images, but don't go beyond that first page unless you are prepared for progressively more devastating pictures of animals on factory farms. You have been warned. It might take you a long time to decide to go beyond the first (or second) page, and I wouldn't blame you for that. It took me years to face the realities of what we do to animals on factory farms, and seeing these images so vividly still makes me cry.

I'm not a perfect vegan. I'm not even a perfect vegetarian. It's virtually impossible to be either in the modern world. But every little bit I can do is better than nothing. I don't beat myself up over slip-ups or temporary failures of conviction. A good person seeks to make her actions consistent with her beliefs as much as she can, understanding she can always do better, and then striving to do so.

Phase 2, Day 33

2004-04-08T12:27:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: 2 slices White Wave thai baked tofu; mug of green tea

Midmorning snack: pear with almond butter/flax meal spread

Lunch: green salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, pistachios and hemp oil

Dinner: fried tofu with peanut sauce; mixed vegetables in sriracha sauce [Thai restaurant meal]; diet coke

Exercise: none

********************

I admit it: I'm getting really tired of turning down chocolate chip cookies, cakes, etc. It's not exactly that I'm finding it *difficult* to turn them down, but they are just so delicious... and is it just me, or are they EVERYWHERE?? It seems like there's always some chocolate-centered holiday being celebrated, or a meeting where "refreshments" mean coffee and cookies, or somebody's birthday complete with cake and ice cream. I guess that's the reason not to give in; "just this once" is *never* "just this once."

Phase 2, Day 32

2004-04-07T10:40:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: large navel orange; small can V-8; mug of black tea

Lunch: 2 large slices multigrain bread with falafel, tomato and spinach; 1/2 c apple-cabbage salad; diet raspberry Snapple tea [from Food Court]

Dinner: spring greens salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, cashews, and olives; cup of roasted vegetable-rice soup; diet Snapple lime green tea [from Food Court]

Exercise: none

********************

These jeans are *definitely* getting baggy! I bought some size 2s at a thrift store last weekend; they fit, but tightly.

Phase 2, Day 31

2004-04-06T10:12:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: small V-8; small apple

Lunch: navy bean salad; roasted asparagus and bell peppers; a cup of a sort of white bean chili; one seeded cracker; diet Dr. Pepper [from Food Court]

Dinner: hummus with 1/2 white pita; 1/2 an artichoke with mustard dip; 1 c garlic-sauteed spinach; 1 c tomato soup; seared tofu with miso dressing; 1 slice multigrain bread with olive oil [restaurant meal; we ordered a bunch of appetizers]

Exercise: none

********************

I heard an interesting talk yesterday about willpower. Usually, we think about "willpower" as something individual people either have a lot of, or only a little bit of. So either I am a "strong" person, resisting all temptations, or a "weak" person, who gives in a lot.

In fact, psychological research shows that willpower plays a very small role in resisting temptation. It's the tempation itself that does all the work, and *this* varies a lot between people. For instance, remember how much willpower it took for you to resist sauteed calf kidneys when you became a vegan? Exactly: none. Simply put, if you have no drive to engage in a behavior, like eating a particular food, then it doesn't take much willpower to resist it. And people differ greatly in which things they have a drive to eat. Meat no longer tempts me. I even find it fairly easy to resist pie, non-chocolate candy, and white breads. But ice cream? Or hot-from-the-oven whole grain bread dripping with cold-pressed olive oil? Fuhgeddaboutit! It takes all I have to turn these down.

I am able to resist a bowl full of Skittles sitting in the secretarial pool, but my friend pops a handful into his mouth several times a day, even though both of us are on diets. Why? We differ a great deal in how tasty we think Skittles are (he loves 'em), and just as importantly, in situational differences such as how often we visit the secretarial pool, or in how long it's been since we last ate real food.

We can't do a lot about individual differences in how tasty we find various things. But this doesn't mean we can't do *anything* about them. I used to love meat. I mean really, really love it--every time I drove by a KFC my mouth would water just thinking about chicken. But eventually, after years of not eating it, and of vividly imagining meat's gory origins, I absolutely lost my taste for it. It took a long time, but it did happen. In the opposite direction, you *can* often train yourself to like certain things. Studies show that it takes up to 15 exposures to new flavors before one develops a liking for them. You know the old expression, "It's an acquired taste"? It's true. If you don't like something that is good for you, really make the effort to like it by trying it about a dozen times, and eventually you probably will.

While we can't do much about individual taste differences, we can accomplish a great deal when it comes to controlling events that compound our temptation. What are the things that make you vulnerable? I'll categorize them into two groups: drains on your "willpower reserves," and situational cues.

Willpower is a limited resource--one of the several reasons you should not rely on it. If you have recently exercised willpower, your stock is depleted, and until you have time to "recharge," you're going to be more vulnerable to further temptations. It's relatively easy to resist the offer of a cookie. But if five minutes later, you are offered pie, it's harder to say no. If you succeed, and five minutes later again, someone offers you a piece of cake... Resisting temptation gets progressively harder. Avoid situations where you will be exposed to sequential temptations. Tell people around you very firmly that you are trying to eat healthier (not just "I don't want a piece of cake" but "I don't eat junk food"), thus reducing the odds that they'll keep offering.

Willpower can also be depleted by "cognitive load," which is essentially just a fancy term for distracting thoughts, or concentration on a different task. In one experiment, subjects were asked to memorize either a two-digit (low cognitive load) or a seven-digit (high cognitive load) number. On their way to a second testing room, they were offered their choice of a slice of cake or a piece of fruit. 39% of the people in the low-load condition took the cake, but a full 61% of those in the high-load condition chose the cake. Why? Willpower is *effortful.* If you are busy concentrating on something else, you don't have the resources to also resist temptation. Take home message? When you are busy, or stressed out, you are more likely to give in to temptation, simply because it's harder to muster the brain resources to resist it. So if unhealthy food is available, do your best to really *concentrate* on the individual food choices you make. Pay close attention. Even do a quick mental pros/cons calculation for the different choices you could make. Anything you can do to increase the total amount of thought directed at your food choices, will increase the likelihood that you will be happy with those choices later.

However, all of these strategies pale in comparison to the power of shifting the situational cues that make you likely to indulge. Consider this: over 60% of American soldiers were addicted to heroin while serving in Vietnam. Heroin, needless to say, is a powerfully addicting drug, and it is notoriously hard to kick the habit. Yet only *5%* of vets remained addicted once they returned home. The difference is astounding, and can best be explained by the fact that in America, they no longer were exposed to all the situational cues that they associated with heroin, and that made them crave the drug. They completely changed environments, and for the vast majority of them this eliminated their drug habit.

You can apply this insight to your own food cravings. Take steps to remove yourself from tempting situations. Do you overindulge when you go out drinking with friends? Don't expect willpower to enable you to sit with a Perrier while your friends are chugging Old Milwaukee. Instead, don't go drinking in the first place; find another way to spend time with your pals. Do you regularly dive into the kid's Oreos? Don't buy that junk in the first place. (Your kids don't need unhealthy food any more than you do.) Do you munch while watching TV? Stop watching TV. Seriously. There are plenty of other hobbies that will interest you as much or more than sitting in front of the tube.

The final, and maybe most important, thing you can do to avoid temptation is to control how hungry you get. One final study I'm going to tell you about: the subjects were heroin addicts, who were taking a methadone-like maintenance drug in a treatment program. Researchers asked the subjects how much money they would have to be paid to forego an extra dose of methadone the next day. Half of these subjects were asked to make their choice just before a scheduled dose of methodone (so that they were "hungry" when making their decision); the other half made their choice just after a dose (making them relatively satiated.) The "hungry" subjects demanded a *lot* more money to forego the next day's extra dose than the satiated subjects.

Lesson? Make sure you don't get hungry. Eat frequently, in small meals spaced throughout the day. Eat high-fiber foods and good fats and proteins that take a long time to move through your system. Eat enough calories to satiate yourself. All of this will keep your blood sugar even, and eliminate hunger pangs. Sound familiar? You got it--it's the South Beach Diet. There's no magic involved, just good psychological science.

Phase 2, Day 30

2004-04-05T14:28:00.000-04:00

********************

Breakfast: mug of black tea

Lunch: tofu stir-fry; diet Snapple lime green tea [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: tossed spring greens salad with chickpeas, olives and cashews; diet Snapple lime green tea [from Food Court]

Dinner: small lettuce-and-tomato salad; asparagus; yogurt with granola [meal at a friend's house]

Exercise: none

********************

Phase 2, Days 28 and 29

2004-04-04T15:49:00.000-04:00

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Food eaten: Do we have to go there? Let's just say that doughnuts were involved, along with a variety of other fried and sugared Amish treats. And a visit to "Chocolate World" and its agricultural products in Hershey, PA. Do you want to know who the mayor of Chocolate World is? Satan.

********************

I did not expect to stay on this diet while vacationing. I did go a bit beyond even my planned indulgence. One horrible lesson learned: the Amish deep fry everything in LARD. That means BEEF FAT. I thought the doughnut (and, ahem... the apple dumpling...) tasted a bit weird, and then I figured out what it was. I wonder if I would have even noticed the off-taste a decade ago, when I was a fairly new vegetarian. Now it was obvious: cow-flavored desserts. Bleah.

I did eat one or two healthy things. I had a delicious whole wheat burrito with guacamole, brown rice and vegan chili in a little town in Pennsylvania (located right below an amazingly cool vintage clothing shop called Checkered Past.) And I also had... um... ok, I guess I only ate one healthy thing on the trip. But now I'm back. It's Sunday. Tonight I'll eat something good for me. Tomorrow I'm back on the Beach whole-hog. Maybe I'll even drastically cut grains for a few days, to get back into the spirit of things.

As best I can remember (and I *think* I recall everything), Saturday and Sunday saw me eating a total of about 2000 calories above maintenance. That means that if I get right back tomorrow, and eat like I was eating before, then for this week (Week 7), instead of losing my usual one-and-a-half pounds, I should lose a little less than a pound. So really, I only derailed less than a week's worth of effort. I don't plan on doing this again any time soon, but it's good to know that going off the deep end every once in a while isn't fatal, either to yourself or to your diet.

I didn't have access to a scale in Pennsylvania, and in fact I still won't have access to one until Thursday morning. Since I would be due to weigh-in again for Week 7 two days later anyhow, I think I'll just wait until then. I probably gained a ton of water weight from replenishing glycogen stores and what not, so any measurement I took right now would be deceptive in any case. My prediction: I should have lost 1.5 pounds for Week 6, and if all goes well I will lose .5 pounds for Week 7. This means that by next Saturday, the scale should have me at about 125 pounds, or 9 pounds lost on this diet so far.

Phase 2, Day 27

2004-04-02T09:22:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: two veggie to-go quiches; hot coffee with fake cream

Lunch: a few varied small salads from food court; portobella-goat cheese sandwich on whole grain bread; large V-8; hot coffee with fake cream [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: small apple

Dinner: gardenburger on wholegrain toast; tossed green salad with a few chickpeas and oil & vinegar; and... a few bites of my friend's crab-olive oil pasta; a gingerbread cookie; and a bunch of french fries with ketchup. Let the vacation begin!! [restaurant meal in Pennsylvania]

Exercise: 30 minute run on treadmill

********************

Today is the final day of the sixth week on this diet. Tomorrow I am supposed to weigh, but I'm going to be in Pennsylvania for the weekend and won't have access (I think) to a scale. If there is one at the hotel, I'll weigh, otherwise I won't bother until next week. I know I'm continuing to lose; even these size 4s are now a little baggy in the seat.

I'll be in Pennsylvania for a weekend vacation, attending a Mennonite Relief sale (a little random I know, but I expect it to be fun!) Pennsylvania and Mennonites means apple cider doughnuts. Hmmmm....

Phase 2, Day 26

2004-04-01T09:10:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: large fruit salad (pineapple, grapes, cantaloupe and honeydew); 1 T almond butter; mug of green tea

Lunch: leftover mushroom salad; diet Snapple lime green tea

Dinner: mixed veggie antipasto with eggplant, artichoke hearts, beets; a sort of spinach pizza roll (yes it had a little cheese); an eggplant rollette (yes, it had cheese too!); 10 oz vegetable soup [from a buffet-type Italian restaurant]

Late night snack: 1 pepperidge farm chocolate chip cookie; diet coke

********************

ALERT!! Dr. Agatson just released new dietary guidelines! Turns out pasta, white bread, muffins, Snickers, and main-lining maple syrup are all lower GI than previously thought! Eat at will, in every phase!

[April Fools!]

Phase 2, Day 25

2004-03-31T11:55:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: small can of V-8; two veggie to-go quiches

Lunch: potato gnocchi with stewed tomatoes; really large wild mushrooms salad; whole grain hearth roll dipped in a little olive oil; iced tea; espresso [restaurant meal]

Dinner: tossed salad with cashews and olives; medium cup of vegetable soup; diet kiwi-strawberry Snapple

Exercise: none

********************

So how do you determine how many calories you burn a day? If you want to be accurate, you have to be anal. In other words, do what I do: spend about a month writing down every single thing you eat, in correct portions, and use a website like fitday.com or foodcount.com (in addition to the nutrition panels on any prepared foods you eat) to calculate calories. Sometimes you'll have to estimate, but these resources will give you the information you need to be pretty precise in your guesses.

Before you start, weigh yourself first thing in the morning. At the end of the month, weigh yourself again, first thing in the morning. (Better still, weigh yourself every day at the same time of the day for the first three or four days, and average that number to get your "starting weight" value. Do the same at the end of the month for your "ending weight.") When the month is up, if you gained no weight at all, then add up all the calories you ate that month, and divide this by the number of days in the month. That's how many calories you can eat a day and neither gain nor lose. If you lost weight during the month, then add up all the calories you ate, subtract 3500 calories for every pound you lost, divide the total by the number of days, and *that's* your number. If you gained, do the same thing, but add 3500 calories for every pound.

Doing this takes a commitment of about 15 minutes every day to record your diet in a spreadsheet program (like Excel or Lotus), and look up the calories in the food you eat. A lot of people don't want to spend fifteen minutes a day to obsess over what they stick in their mouths. I can't say I blame them. I'd be lying if I tried to pretend it isn't a pain to keep track. However, it's the only thing that is 100% accurate for *you*.

What about rules of thumb? Here's one: for a moderately active, medium-framed young man, who spends at least a few hours a day moving around rather than sitting on his duff in front of a desk or on a couch, multiply bodyweight in pounds by 15. This is the number of calories he can eat each day and not gain weight. So, a 150 lb. man can eat 150 X 15 or 2225 calories a day. Approximately. *Very* approximately.

What if you are not a man? More/less active? Older? Big boned or small framed? Heavily muscled, or the kind of person who gets sand kicked in his face at the beach? All of these things are going to shift that rule of thumb around. Sometimes a lot. But you need precision, you say! Here's one thing you can do: go to this website and input the variables it asks for. You will get two numbers. One is your "B.E.E." or "basal energy expenditure," and will be very low. This is the number that you need to stay alive, basically. If you eat something, you burn calories digesting. If you talk or even think hard, you are going to burn a few calories. Certainly if you walk around, clean house, run to the bus, do wind sprints, etc., you burn even more. The B.E.E. is your absolute baseline energy expenditure needed to keep you alive (and not even alive and awake. Note there is no difference in B.E.E. between those who are bedridden, versus those who are "ambulatory." When they say "basal," they really mean "basal.")

So how much do you burn above your B.E.E.? Well, that's extremely variable, and almost entirely determined by your lifestyle. Find any one of the innumerable sites out there, like this one, that tell you how many calories you will burn doing various daily activities and exercises. These aren't perfect, because, for instance, a 200-pound person burns more in an hour of running than a 100-pound person. But it's better than nothing.

However,even if you carefully calculate the calories you burn every hour of the day, and add that to your B.E.E., you still are not going to get an accurate daily caloric value for you. Specifically, the number you calculate will still be too low. Remember, you use up calories digesting food, and talking and gesticulating and using your noggin, and laughing and kicking your leg absent-mindedly while you sit at a desk. The calories you burn doing these things are going to be very, very hard to calculate--not only because I don't know where you'd find a place that tells you what the average person burns doing these things, but because you probably don't even notice you are doing most of them. To make matters worse, on any given day, your activities are going to vary a lot. You'd have to calculate these numbers over the course of at least a week, and then average.

Now, the final insult: the B.E.E. is just a numerical formula based on what *typical* people of a given height, weight, age and gender burn. If you are more naturally heavily-muscled or heavy-boned than the typical person, for instance, the B.E.E. isn't even going to be the ideal starting point for you to add your lifestyle-calories to.

Can't we just rely on the second number the website calculator gives us, the "Caloric Requirement"?, you may ask. Look, we're trying to be accurate here! Work with me! Seriously, that number strikes me as low, except for an almost completely sedentary person. And again, it's a number meant for an average person--and pretty much nobody is the average person. Certainly not you or me!

What it all comes down to is this: daily caloric requirements are incredibly variable. The number of factors that goes into determining them make even the most sophisticated calculators out there woefully inadequate for anyone seeking a little precision. If it's precision you're after, you really are stuck with my month-long-food-diary technique. (And even that should be redone every couple of years, or with any major lifestyle change, like starting up an exercise routine or changing jobs or having kids.) On the other hand, do you really need precision? Eat until you're full, and then stop. Eat healthy food. Don't count calories. Don't obsess.

Leave that to me.

Phase 2, Day 24

2004-03-30T11:06:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: forgot to eat it and now I'm STARVING

Lunch: big tofu stir-fry; diet Snapple iced green tea (love this stuff!!) [from Food Court]

Dinner: roasted vegetables with lettuce and tomatoes and a packet each of mayo & mustard; a navel orange; one HUGE chocolate chip cookie; diet coke [catered boxed dinner]

Exercise: none

********************

Went to a Broadway show tonight, and had a boxed dinner on the bus. With a delectable, enormous, chocolate chip cookie. I didn't eat the bread on the roasted veggie sandwich, though. All told, it was a super low-calorie day, which I didn't quite realize until I toted it all up. Missing breakfast was big. No wonder I was so hungry when I went to bed.

Thumbs up on the show: Wicked. Highly entertaining!

Phase 2, Day 23

2004-03-29T17:12:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: soymilk smoothie with strawberries, blueberries and flax seed meal

Lunch: stir-fry (they were out of tofu--all veggies); diet cran-raspberry Snapple [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: small can V-8; 1 T almond butter

Dinner: roasted vegetables and pesto sandwich with whole grain bread; small Jamaican bean soup; diet Snapple lime green tea [from Food Court]

Exercise: none

********************

Was definitely hungry a lot today. Never panicky-hungry, but low-grade hungry for sure. Losing the first seven pounds was easy, but I'm now getting to the point where if I lose more, it will definitely be below what my body normally is. I don't expect my body will take this without a fight...

Phase 2, Day 22

2004-03-28T11:31:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: strawberry/banana/soymilk smoothie with hemp oil; mug of green tea

Lunch: salad of mixed greens, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, red bell pepper, pistachios and olive oil/balsamic vinegar

Midafternoon snack: glass of V-8

Dinner: panang curry (Taste of Thai sauce with veggies and tofu); 1 c brown rice; 4 frozen veggie dumplings; diet Snapple lime iced tea

Exercise: none

********************

A friend gave me a bunch of hand-me-downs, including a pair of jeans that are Gap size 4s. They fit. :)

It amazes me how quickly I'm downshifting through jeans sizes. Basically, I've gone down two sizes by losing 7-8 pounds. Is every four pounds really a size? I guess it makes sense; if I were 20 pounds heavier, or 147 pounds, I would be a size 12. And if I were 167 pounds, I'd be a size 16. Etc. It's just that four pounds seems so insubstantial. I mean, I lose or gain four pounds at the drop of a hat. I guess this explains why I need fifty million articles in clothing in as many sizes, to ensure that on any given day I actually have something that fits.

Phase 2, Day 21

2004-03-27T10:13:00.000-05:00

------------------------------------
Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 127 pounds
Bodyfat: 26%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 27.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 28.5
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 31.5
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 32
Hips: 37
Chest: 30
Bust: 36.5
Thighs: R21.5, L20.5

------------------------------------

Weight: 134 -- 131 -- 129 -- 130 -- 127.5 -- 127

Bodyfat: 29% -- 29% -- 27% -- 28% -- 27.5% -- 26%

Waist, sucking in: 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 27.5 -- 27.5

Waist, hanging out: 30 -- 29.5 -- 29 -- 29 -- 28.5 -- 28.5

Belly, sucking in: 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5

Belly, hanging out : 34 -- 33.5 -- 33 -- 33.5 -- 32.5 -- 32

Hips: 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37

Chest: 32 -- 31 -- 31 -- 31 -- 30.5 -- 30

Bust: 38.5 -- 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 36.5

Thighs: R22/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R21.5/L20.5

------------------------------------

My scale records me as down seven pounds in the five weeks on the diet. That's almost a pound and a half a week, which I think is pretty durn good. Sure, I'd *prefer* two pounds a week, but given how lazy I am about exercising I can't expect better than what I'm getting.

I find it bizarre that both my largest and my smallest loss has been measured around my belly button. Not sucking in my stomach, I have dropped a full two inches in that area. But sucking in, I've lost just half an inch.

I know that all abdominal fat is not the same: the stuff over the muscles, the soft squishy stuff, is not the abdominal fat we've all been warned about it. When doctors talk about deadly abdominal fat, they're talking about fat *inside* the abdominal cavity, crowding around all the organs. This fat feels hard, because it's held in by muscle. Ever notice that most men who have "beer bellies," have really hard stomachs? Their bellies don't really get smaller when lying on their backs, for instance, and they can't be cinched with a belt? Most women with bellies, on the other hand, have "jelly bellies." It's usually a fairly discrete pouch, kind of lying there on top of the lower torso. It moves around, can be cinched with a belt, and is very soft.

This is just a guess, but: I think I am losing the hard, internal fat first, and the jelly belly is hanging on. Supposedy, the internal fat *is* supposed to be easier to lose. Would this explain why sucking in hasn't really improved, while my fat-in-repose has shrunk? Or would it be the opposite; so that I'm losing jelly and keeping the hard fat? At any rate, whichever is the case, I'm sure I'm disproportionately losing one kind of fat over the other.

********************

Breakfast: 1 perfectly ripe pear with cashew-macadamia nut butter. Mmmmmm.....

Lunch: 3 T hummus; White Wave Thai baked tofu; diet Snapple lime green tea

Dinner: 1 c green beans dressed with Trader Joe's olive tapenade; 1 medium artichoke with vegannaise/hot mustard dipping sauce; fake meatloaf; 1/2 c mashed potatoes made with soymilk and nutritional yeast (not SBD, but tasty, I didn't have much, and how can you have meatloaf without mashed potatoes?); glass of red wine

Exercise: 3.5 mile run

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Phase 2, Day 20

2004-03-26T11:47:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: 1/2 whole wheat bagel with almond-butter/flax meal spread; mug of black tea

Midmorning snack: cup of tomato soup with a dollop of hemp oil

Lunch: 1/2 ww bagel with hummus and tomatoes; 1/2 pummelo; diet Snapple lime green tea

Midafternoon snack: 3 oz baked asian tofu from Trader Joe's

Dinner: chili with TVP; wedge of cornbread

Exercise: none

********************

Tomorrow I weigh/measure. My five week calorie deficit is about 26,500. So tomorrow, the scale should read about 126.5, give or take a pound. The chili I made tonight was pretty salty, though; I'll possibly be retaining a bit more than usual in water. Chili has become a real staple of my diet, replacing spaghetti-and-fake-meatballs as the quick, easy, tasty thing I make at least once a week. It's extremely filling, and chock full of good SBD stuff like beans and tomatoes. It's the perfect vegan SBD meal!

Phase 2, Day 19

2004-03-25T11:53:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: hot coffee with whole milk; 2 c cantaloupe chunks

Lunch: 1/2 c peas and corn; 1/2 c cucumber and tomato chunks; 1/2 c shredded summer squash; small piece of baked plantain; 1/2 c of some obscure rice salad thingie; diet lime-flavored Coke [from Food Court]

Dinner: 1 c tomato soup; 2 c brussels sprouts with potato gnocchi; 1 c summer squash; diet Snapple lime green tea [from Food Court]

Late night snack: 1/2 of a pummelo

Exercise: none

********************

This is the second day in a row I have eaten to the point of discomfort. It's these brussels sprouts with gnocchi -- I just can't stop eating it!

Phase 2, Day 18

2004-03-24T11:06:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: 1/2 low-carb bagel (by my best estimate, made of sawdust instead of flour) spread with almond butter; mug of hot coffee with silk creamer

Lunch: asparagus; sauteed mushrooms with bell pepper; sauteed broccoli with garlic; seeded cracker; sweet potatoes; cup of cheap espresso with a little milk to (unsuccessfully) cut the bitterness [from Food Court]

Afternoon snack: an orange and a can of diet Dr. Pepper

Dinner: brussels sprouts with potato gnocchi; small order tofu stir-fry; diet green tea Snapple [from Food Court]

Exercise: none

********************

In a comment (yay! comments!), Walnut asked me how I manage such exotic lunch salads. The answer is: I don't make them. We have a nice place here that sells prepared foods by weight, and many of them are vegan and SBD-appropriate. I eat there almost every weekday. You can get as much or as little as you want, and I usually mix-and-match a few bites of lots of different stuff. These kinds of places aren't as hard to find as you might think. Very nice grocery stores often have great salad bars that are far more than just limp-lettuce-and-tomatoes. Finding such a place makes your life as a vegan *much* more pleasant.

Anyway, so as not to fool anyone into thinking that in order to eat vegan-SBD one must have all the time in the world to prepare bizarre dishes, I'm going to indicate on my daily food lists those meals I didn't prepare for myself.

Phase 2, Days 16 and 17

2004-03-23T10:56:00.000-05:00

Day 16
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Breakfast: 1 slice ancient grain bread with almond butter-flax meal spread

Midmorning snack: can of V-8

Lunch: yellow and red beet salad; middle eastern dips (hummus & baba ghanoush) with ciabatta and a little olive oil [restaurant meal]

Midafternoon snack: coffee with soymilk

Dinner: mixed greens salad with a little bit of apple; rice pilaf, mixed vegetables and an eggplant-squash torte; fresh fruit plate for dessert [restaurant meal]

Exercise: none

********************

Whoops! Forgot to record. Very busy day; two fancy meals in a row. The white bread was not SBD, of course... but this restaurant literally had nothing else. The meal as a whole was very low GI, though, so I'm not worrying about it. I wasn't able to exercise last night, and won't be able to tomorrow, either. At some point, I need to get back in the habit. It's just a matter of making it routine.

Day 17
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Breakfast: can of V-8; 2 small chocolate easter eggs from Holland; mug of green tea. (The candy was a gift. I ate two and wisely put the rest in the secretarial pool; they were all gone by the next day, thank God.)

Lunch: jalapeno cornbread with bean salad; black bean soup with a heavily-seeded cracker; a couple bites of beet/yellow bell pepper salad; large hot coffee [eaten at Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: 3 miniature plums; 1/2 oz. pecans

Dinner: hot dog bun filled with sauerkraut and hot mustard; bag of chips; large diet coke [eaten at hockey arena]

Exercise: only vicariously

********************

Went to a hockey game at Madison Square Garden last night, and had a voucher for a free hotdog, soda and bag of chips. I'm a sucker for a freebie! By far, this is the worst thing I've eaten on the diet. (And I came *this close* to buying a big cup of fries with ketchup. The only thing that stopped me is that the person I went to the game with is also on this diet.) I was hoping they'd have veggie dogs. Believe it or not, some professional sports venues do. The woman behind the counter, God bless her, didn't even blink when I asked for a hot dog with sauerkraut, hold the hotdog.

Phase 2, Day 16

2004-03-21T11:56:00.000-05:00

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Breakfast: Gardenburger flamegrilled patty with guac; mug of black tea

Lunch: lentil stew with 1 T hemp oil; mug of green tea

Dinner: chickpeas with spinach; 2 papadum; glass of white wine

Exercise: none

********************

Tonight was the first time I've had booze on this diet. Like the first time I had sweets, it was disappointing. Maybe, of course, the wine was crap. Given that my boyfriend and I balk at spending more than five bucks a bottle, this wouldn't be surprising. But maybe I'm just losing my taste for the rotten things I used to eat without thinking.

I was idly thinking today, "I only have to be on this diet for another six weeks!" when suddenly, I realized I'm not sure what it will mean for me *not* to be on this diet. I mean, I'll eat more calories, certainly. Probably, this will mean I'll eat one or even two additional "meals" a day (like a protein shake after running). But I've really adapted to not having carbs be the centerpiece of my meals. For instance, I can't imagine eating the dish I made tonight with more than the 1/2 c brown rice I served it over. And I can no longer imagine enjoying eating to the point where I'm uncomfortably stuffed. I guess I can imagine indulging in the occasional dessert, or beer, or mashed potatoes. But right now, at this very moment, none of those sound especially appealing. Meaning I simply don't feel like I'm on a diet right now. I just feel like I'm eating the way I want to be eating. Amazing, huh?

Phase 2, Day 15

2004-03-20T09:40:00.000-05:00

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Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 127.5 pounds
Bodyfat: 27.5%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 27.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 28.5
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 31.5
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 32.5
Hips: 37
Chest: 30.5
Bust: 37
Thighs: R21.5, L21

------------------------------------

Weight: 134 -- 131 -- 129 -- 130 -- 127.5

Bodyfat: 29% -- 29% -- 27% -- 28% -- 27.5%

Waist, sucking in: 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28.5 -- 28 -- 27.5

Waist, hanging out: 30 -- 29.5 -- 29 -- 29 -- 28.5

Belly, sucking in: 32 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5 -- 31.5

Belly, hanging out : 34 -- 33.5 -- 33 -- 33.5 -- 32.5

Hips: 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37

Chest: 32 -- 31 -- 31 -- 31 -- 30.5

Bust: 38.5 -- 38 -- 37 -- 37 -- 37

Thighs: R22/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21 -- R22/L21 -- R21.5/L21

Slowly, slowly, we get there. Looks like I definitely added back water at the beginning of Phase II when I added back in carbs, making it look like I'd hit a plateau (or even gained!) when in fact I was still losing fat. Now I'm down a grand total of about six pounds in one month, give or take, which is where I expected to be: 56000 maintenance calories - 34300 calories actually eaten = 21700 calorie deficit. 21700/3500 calories in a pound = 6.2 pounds. Math is fun!

My two biggest drops have been in my boobs (but it looks like it's levelled off), and in my tummy. I hope *everything* starts coming off my belly now. I never can find clothes that fit my waist if they fit my butt and thighs, unless I buy boy's clothes. I'm sick of boy's jeans! I want a girly shape! And I'm tired of looking like a marsupial! At this rate, I should hit my goal of 120 in about another six weeks. Easily doable; I enjoy the way I eat on this diet.

********************

Breakfast: 1/2 ww bagel with almond butter/flax meal spread; mug of black tea

Lunch: lentil stew with 1 T of hemp oil

Snack: 1 disappointingly underripe plum; glass of diet Dr. Pepper

Dinner: fall pasta (whole wheat spiral pasta tossed with various sauteed fall veggies like eggplant, swiss chard, wild mushrooms & artichoke hearts); medium piece of a sourdough baguette

Late night snack: Gardenburger fake sausage patty with guacamole

Exercise: 30 minutes on the elliptical

********************

Phase II, Day 14

2004-03-19T12:24:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: 1/2 ww bagel with almond butter/flax meal spread

Lunch: leftover chili mixed with 1 T hemp oil

Dinner: a couple of slices of ancient grain bread; big bowl of lentil stew

Exercise: none

********************

I spoke too soon on that cold. I spent all of today snuffly and a little headachy, and figured it wasn't a good idea to try to do any exercise.

So tomorrow I weigh and measure again. For the full four weeks of this diet, my calorie calculations predict that I should have lost 5.5 to 6 pounds so far, from my starting weight of 134 pounds. That means the scale should read 128 tomorrow, give or take a pound for measurement error/water weight.

One thing I should point out is that I don't think anyone else doing this diet as a vegan (or not as a vegan, for that matter) needs to worry about counting calories as I have been doing. I've been doing so myself only because I wanted to test out this diet in a systematic and objective way. I think if you eat "on plan" (namely, avoiding all refined carbohydrates and being a little judicious with things like whole grain breads/pastas and fruits), don't eat past satisfying your hunger, and (at least early in the diet) make sure that you are eating often enough to avoid dips in blood sugar, you shouldn't need to keep track of calories at all. You'll eat about 1200 or so calories a day, without having to worry about exact measurements. (Some people, especially heavier people or men, will eat more, because they will have bigger appetites to match their larger bodyweights/muscle mass, but you get the idea.) In fact, the SBD diet book explicitly states that you should not have to count calories, and I agree with that.

Phase II, Day 13

2004-03-18T12:32:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: 1/2 ww bagel with almond butter/flax meal spread; mug of black tea

Lunch (spaced over a couple hours): 3 oz baked asian tofu; large carrot with hummus; mug of green tea

Midafternoon snack: lemon poppyseed Clif bar (all Clif bars and Luna bars are vegan, and delicious. They are sugary, though, and not really appropriate for SBD, despite their high protein and fiber content)

Dinner: bowl of chili (made differently than before: I used pinto beans, and added cubed winter squash); wedge of cornbread

Exercise: 30 minutes on the elliptical

********************

I have definitely become more sensitive to sweet tastes. I had always heard people refer to carrots as "sweet," but I never understood it. Carrot juice, maybe yes, but carrots? Yet the carrot I had today, the first time I've had an unadulterated carrot since starting this diet, had the most delicious sweet flavor. And it was an *old carrot*. I bought it just before I started the diet!

Today was a roller-coaster-y day. I didn't get the job I interviewed for in Chicago, but they offered me a similar one (maybe even a better one? I haven't quite figured it out/decided) at the same place. I *think* I'm going to take it...

Phase II, Day 12

2004-03-17T13:59:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: 1/2 whole wheat bagel with almond butter/flax meal spread; mug of black tea

Midmorning snack: a couple stalks of celery with hummus

Lunch: baby lettuce salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, walnuts & hemp oil

Dinner: thai green curry with veggies and tofu, plus 1/2 c brown rice; 2 small vegetable dumplings (dumplings were from frozen, from an asian food market)

Late night snack: half an ounce of pecans

Exercise: 30 minutes on elliptical

********************

My energy seems to have fully returned (both from early stages of the SBD, and from my brief cold), so I'm going to try ramping back up the exercise a bit. I read over how much I'd exercised over the last month, and it was pretty appalling. So I went 30 minutes on the elliptical this evening.

I also started my period today. I didn't have any of my usual warning signs that it was coming: tender breasts, bloated feeling, etc. And my cramps were even milder than usual. Could be a fluke, but it *could* be related to the lower sugar levels in my blood. I have no idea how, but I've heard such reports from other people on this diet.

Phase II, Day 11

2004-03-16T10:53:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: blueberry-orange, soy protein & flax meal smoothie

Lunch: baby-lettuces salad with red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, chick peas, cucumber & hemp oil

Mid-afternoon snack: V-8; hummus; 3 oz. Thai smoked tofu

Dinner: Gardenburger flame-grilled hamburger patty with guacamole

Exercise: None

********************

My sore throat is mostly gone, and I don't seem to have other lingering cold symptoms. Looks like I dodged a bullet, thanks to so many zinc lozenges the skin of the roof of my mouth has shredded.

Want some inspiration to move yo' body? Read this article from Harvard Magazine. It is the best thing I've read in a long time to explain the dangers of sloth. The SBD's health benefit comes mostly from its effect on stabilizing blood sugar. This article explains in detail how the body processes sugar (including starches like white pasta and potatoes) from our diets, and how exercise improves that processing. (Warning: don't try to access the .pdf file. It seems to paralyze the web browser.)

Phase II, Day 10

2004-03-15T11:24:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: slice of multigrain toast with almond butter/flax meal mix; mug of herbal throat tea with slippery elm

Lunch: blueberry-orange soy protein shake with flax meal

Dinner: large globe artichoke with veganaisse-mustard sauce

Late night snack: Mexican hot chocolate

Late, late night snack: Gardenburger fake sausage patty with guacamole

Exercise: none

********************

Still have a sore throat, so have been eating zinc lozenges all day. They have sugar, but oh, well.

Phase II, Day 9

2004-03-14T10:29:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: 1/2 whole wheat bagel with almond butter mixed with 1 T ground flax seed (this was surprisingly tasty); mug of green tea

Lunch: field greens salad with red & yellow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts and hemp oil

Dinner: orange-blueberry smoothie with soy protein and ground flax seed

Late night snack: 1/2 ww bagel with flamegrilled gardenburger, topped with vegannaise and hot mustard; V-8

Late, late night snack: 3 sugar-free popsicles, in an attempt to freeze my throat

Exercise: none

********************

For the past week, I've had an extremely-low grade runny nose. It was so low-grade, and so unaccompanied by any other symptoms, that I figured it was an allergy, and a mild one at that. But today I have a full-fledged sore throat. Often these things go away in a day or two with me, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. But alas, I guess the vegan South Beach way of eating is not a miracle cure (or prevention) for the common cold!

Phase II, Day 8

2004-03-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

------------------------------------
Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 130 pounds
Bodyfat: 28.0%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 28 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 29
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 31.5
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 32.5
Hips: 37
Chest: 31
Bust: 37
Thighs: R22, L21

------------------------------------

Weight: 134 131 129 130
Bodyfat: 29% 29% 27% 28%
Waist, sucking in: 28.5 28.5 28.5 28
Waist, hanging out: 30 29.5 29 29
Belly, sucking in: 32 31.5 31.5 31.5
Belly, hanging out : 34 33.5 33 33.5
Hips: 38 37 37 37
Chest: 32 31 31 31
Bust: 38.5 38 37 37
Thighs: R22/L21 R22/L21 R21.5/L21 R22/L21

So my guess is that I lost a pound of fat (as my calories would indicate), but gained back those mystery two pounds I had lost in the first two weeks--meaning they were, in fact, water after all. This leaves me with a net "gain" of 1 fake pound. The measurements are more consistent with a one pound fat loss than a one pound gain; that is, a tiny shred off my waist. (Of course, I also added a shred to my belly, but I'm going with measurement error, probably from last week, on that one. Also, my right thigh is back to its freakish disproportion. How will I hold my head up in public?)

Over the course of three weeks, I have eaten about 26,000 calories. My maintenance calories for this time period, at a generous allowance of 14,000 calories a week (or 2000 a day) would have been 42,000 calories, leaving a deficit of about 16,000 calories. This translates to about 4.5 pounds of fat. It's also possible that I'm being too generous with the maintenance calories, and 1900 a day is more like it. If so, my loss should have been more like 4 pounds, not 4-and-a-half. Either way, this is pretty well reflected on my scale.

Why does Dr. Agatson, the author of the SBD, tell people they will lose 8-13 pounds in the first two weeks? It's true that some people, particularly obese people, might normally eat somewhere on the order of 3000 calories a day. A 200 pound woman, for instance, would need about 3000 calories a day just to maintain her weight. For them, the first two weeks of this diet, where they're eating about 1000-1200 calories a day (and I've seen dozens of people's Phase I daily menus that reflect just this), they will indeed lose 8 pounds. They will probably also lose about 5 pounds of water, if my experience is typical. At my body weight of about 134 pounds, I lost about 2-2.5 pounds of water. Someone double my body weight would likely lose double the water. Even someone much less heavy than that, but whose diet is largely comprised of carbs, will lose 5 pounds of water weight from the purging of glycogen from the tissues in the first two weeks on the diet. I'm sure this is where Dr. Agatson gets his 8-13 pound figure, a number he does not explain.

He then says that in Phase II of the diet, you will lose more like 1 to 2 pounds a week. Again, this is consistent with the calorie recommendations of the diet. Starting in Phase II, you are adding back in carbs, and calories. Instead of eating 1000 calories a day, an obese person will probably go back to eating 2000. (And again, this is consistent with the meal plans I see real people describing online). This means your weight loss, from calories alone, will drop to about 2 pounds a week (if you don't "cheat"): 1000 calories deficit a day = 7000 calories or 2 pounds of fat a week.

But what about all that water? As you add back in carbs, your body will start storing glycogen again. Dr. Agatson says that typically, people "plateau" in the first week or two of Phase II. This is real smoke-and-mirrors: you should be gaining back a couple of pounds of water as you add more carbs back in (like I did), but still be losing a couple of pounds of fat. Thus, what looks like a "plateau" is merely the water gain netting out the fat loss. So why describe it as a plateau? Because it enables him to tell people they can "lose" 13 pounds (implying, "of fat") in the first two weeks.

Is this a disservice to people? Yes and no. I saw one woman on one of the SBD boards I frequent who was ecstatic to have lost 10 pounds in a week, and then literally despondent when she quickly gained back 5. So despondent, in fact, that she went nuts with girl scout cookies, cried uncontrollably, and had to have her medications increased by her doctor. She is obviously an extreme example, but I read all the time about people on this diet who spazz out about "gaining" a pound or two. It can be extremely demotivating if you don't know it's just an illusion. I regularly read about these surprise gains leading people to food binges and depression.

On the other hand, this diet is a very good, healthy way of eating. It *does* result in weight loss, slowly, but the loss is impressively painless. How many people would never try it at all if Dr. Agatson marketed it by saying, "You will lose 1-2 pounds a week just like every other restricted calorie diet in the world, but I promise you you'll be healthier and not hungry and your cardiac profile will dramatically improve." It's not nearly as sexy. In fact, *I* would not have done it without the miracle promise of 8-13 pounds, even though I didn't believe it. But I thought, "Hey, what if? How bad can it be for two weeks, and what if a miracle occurs and I achieve my goal weight in just that short time period?" The payoff was worth the low odds of it actually occurring, and in the meantime, I learned through doing that unlike with other restricted calorie diets, I could easily maintain this one for the full two months or so that it will take to lose my 15 pounds.

********************

Breakfast: 1/2 multigrain bagel with almond butter

Snack: cucumber slices with black-eyed pea spread

Lunch: Gardenburger flame-grilled hamburger patty (better than the other kind I was eating!) on 1/2 multigrain bagel, with veganaisse and hot mustard

Afternoon snack: 1/2 c hot coffee; field green salad with cucumbers, red and yellow bell peppers, hemp oil and balsamic vinegar

Dinner: 3 oz Thai smoked tofu from Trader Joe's; 6 papadum; V-8

Exercise: none

********************

My skin has been so dry lately, that I've decided to start adding in vegan sources of Omega-3 fatty acids, after someone on an SBD board I visit reminded me that they are very good for the skin. There are basically two vegan sources: flax seed, and hemp seed. The flax seed oil is richer in Omega-3s than hemp, but isn't as tasty. I figure I'll use the hemp oil in place of olive oil wherever I can, and add ground flax meal wherever I think I can get away with not actually tasting it. I wonder if my skin is dry because of *this* diet, or would it be dry for *any* diet? I don't diet all that often, so I can't remember if this is a feature of reducing calories generally. Of course, it could also just be the radiators, but I don't really think so. I'm pretty sure the timing of the problem tracks to my starting the SBD. I was moved to do something about it when my boyfriend said something about it while touching the skin on my back. Gack!

Phase II, Day 7

2004-03-12T09:49:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: Gardenburger sausage patty with guac; V-8; mug of green tea

Lunch: greens with some kind of mystery salad dressing; green beans; wild rice pilaf; focaccia (pretty sure it was white flour); diet Snapple [catered meal]

"Snack": Diet Dr. Pepper

Dinner: Gardenburger hamburger patty with guac; V-8

Late night snack: 4 papadum

Exercise: none

********************

I'll be weighing and measuring again tomorrow. I'm not expecting much; I don't feel thinner (the size sixes are just as tight as last Saturday), and by my calorie calculations, I should have lost only *about* a pound. Those crazy carbs really do add up fast, mostly because it's so easy to eat so many of them. They just plain don't fill you up like the proteins and fats do, and as a result, adding them back to my diet has resulted in my eating a good 300-600 more calories each day since starting Phase II.

I'm also struck, though, by how often I have been in the position to turn down sweets since starting the SBD. They are abolutely ubiquitous, and because I'm keeping track now, I'm realizing how many more calories I *would* have eaten over the last three weeks, just from sweets alone. The answer is thousands. I'd never realized before what a large percentage of my diet sweets are. Hopefully, my newfound awareness and vigilance won't wear off over time, even after I reach my goal weight.

Phase II, Day 6

2004-03-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: Gardenburger patty with guac; V-8; thick slice of whole wheat bread dipped in olive oil; coffee with fake cream & splenda

Midmorning snack: slice of raisin bread with Neufchatel and sugarless jam; cup of hot tea (tea and bread with jam -- how very British!) [catered meal]

Lunch: 3/4 of a "low carb" bagel (kinda icky); "al fresco" (meaning no cheese) pintos from Taco Bell; can of diet Dr. Pepper

Midafternoon snack: 4 brazil nuts

Dinner: the rest of the bagel (toasting it doesn't make it any tastier); a couple thick slices whole wheat toast with olive oil; cucumbers and black-eyed-pea dip; a gardenburger hamburger patty with guacamole

Late night snack: 2 papadum

Exercise: none

********************

I'm getting a little out of hand with the cheese. Even though I'm not eating much at a time, I'm often failing to resist it when it's sitting there. Maybe tomorrow I'll calculate what percentage of my diet has been dairy these last three weeks.

[Much later: I did this, and found out it was about 5%. Not bad, but could obviously be better. Like 0%, say.]

Phase II, Day 5

2004-03-10T10:31:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: (the last of the) eggless eggsalad; V-8

Midmorning snack: mug of green tea; pear

Lunch: tomato & fresh mozz sandwich with 1/3 of the (white) bread removed; about a 1/4 of a (white) pita hummus roll-up; half a cup of steamed vegetables, a few pieces of cut fruit (kiwi, orange); 3 dark chocolate covered strawberries [catered meal]

Midafternoon snack: 3 brazil nuts

Dinner: tofu stir-fry [from Food Court]

Late night snack: a couple thick slices whole wheat bread dipped in olive oil

Exercise: none

********************

I think today was the first day I ate gen-yoo-ine sweets (dark chocolate covered strawberries.) Worth the calories!! Or at least they should have been. Now that I think of it, in retrospect, and to be very, very honest... they weren't all that tasty. Now the important question: is it because they were lame chocolate covered strawberries, have I lost my taste for delicious desserts, or are chocolate covered strawberries never all that great (because I actually can't remember)?

Phase II, Day 4

2004-03-09T11:20:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: eggless eggsalad; V-8; mug of green tea

Lunch: 1 c tomato florentine soup; 1/2 c white bean chili; 1/2 c roasted root vegetables (mostly turnips--I think that's what they were--and carrots) [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: V-8; mug of herbal tea

Dinner: tofu stir-fry with cashews, broccoli, etc. [from Food Court]

Late snack: 6 papadums

Exercise: none

********************

Interestingly, I don't seem to be adding many carbs back on Phase II. I guess I got used to eating the other way. I should probably be more careful, especially when it comes to grains. Conventional wisdom has it that you need grains to complement legumes in order to make complete proteins. Doesn't have to be every meal, but you should be getting some at some point... I wonder if this is why my skin has been kind of dry?

Phase II, Day 3

2004-03-08T11:12:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: V-8; eggless eggsalad

Lunch: 1/2 c bulghur-heavy tabouli; 1/2 c fava bean salad; V-8 [from local Greek lunch joint]

Midafternoon snack: 1/2 c tabouli and 1/2 c fava bean salad (leftovers); herbal tea

Snack: 4 brazil nuts, 1 T almond butter

Dinner: Indian restaurant eggplant dish (bhartha), 1/2 a very large whole wheat flat bread, 2 or 3 chickpea flour vegetable fritters with dipping sauces [from an Indian restaurant, obviously]

Exercise: none

********************

This has been a heavy-eating day, and I was hungry for most of it. I'm not detecting a pattern in days when I can never seem to fill up, and days where I'm not hungry and don't think about food all the time. (Maybe it has something to do with the damp and cold, which it was today?) The good thing is, even on days where I eat more than "normal" on this diet, I still am hitting below the 1800-or-so maintenance amount. I have to say I'm looking forward to getting to eat 1800 calories a day, every day, again, though... One more month! (I hope.)

Phase II, Day 2

2004-03-07T18:59:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: 1/2 multigrain bagel with 1/2 T almond butter

Lunch: multigrain bagel and half a large orange; diet Dr. Pepper

Snacks: bites of eggless eggsalad I was making (basically, tofu, vegannaise and a grocery store mix), and bites of a soup I made out of yesterday's leftover roasted vegetables with sundried tomato pesto (basically, just add about a cup of soymilk, some water, and puree. Tastes nice hot or cold.) I'll eat these throughout the week next week.

Dinner: Chickpeas with spinach

Exercise: none

********************

Went a bit nuts on the carbs early in the day (so am depriving myself of delicious brown rice with my dinner). But I was at a road race with my boyfriend (I didn't have enough energy to compete myself!) and at a road race, that's what you get. Carbs, carbs 'n' more carbs. I stayed away from the juices and white flour bagels, though!

Phase II, Day 1

2004-03-06T12:09:00.000-05:00

------------------------------------
Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 129 pounds
Bodyfat: 27.0%
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 28.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 29
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 31.5
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 33
Hips: 37
Chest: 31
Bust: 37
Thighs: R21.5, L21

------------------------------------

I believe a table is in order (sorry it's messy; I can't figure out how to insert a *real* table):

Weight: 134 131 129
Bodyfat: 0.29 0.29 0.27
Waist, sucking in: 28.5 28.5 28.5
Waist, hanging out: 30 29.5 29
Belly, sucking in: 32 31.5 31.5
Belly, hanging out : 34 33.5 33
Hips: 38 37 37
Chest: 32 31 31
Bust: 38.5 38 37
Thighs: R22/L21 R22/L21 R21.5/L21

That's right, friends and neighbors, the two pounds I lost last week came off my boobs and my right thigh. And a damn good thing, because I was *really* self conscious about the asymmetry. I'm pretty sure I heard people laughing and joking about it one day on the train. Interestingly, I also lost a half an inch in the middle of "noneffort" girth. By this I mean that sucking in my stomach measured the same, but when I'm not trying, I lost a half an inch. That's actually good (I think), because I'd rather not have to try so hard to look thin. But I can't figure out why, physiologically, things would work this way. Am I squooshing all the fat down to my hips when I suck in, or something?

Okay, so for what it's worth: In two weeks I ate round about 16,500 calories. Normally, in that two week period, I'd have eaten approximately 27,500. So, I had a deficit of 11,000 calories. Since a pound is 3500 calories, this computes to about three pounds. I actually lost, though, *five* pounds. Is the difference the magical edge that the South Beach Diet has over the laws of thermodynamics? In all sincerity, I dunno. Two pounds is well within the margin of error for my body weight. It's also a reasonable amount to have lost as water weight, given the amount of glycogen I purged from my muscles. And I might also have calculated my caloric intake over the past two weeks, or my typical weekly intake, incorrectly. But when I look at inches lost, it seems like five pounds to me.

We'll see what happens over the course of the next few weeks--where I get to eat GRAINS! FRUIT! again. (As I write this, I'm happily munching on a half a multi-grain bagel with 1/2 T almond butter, mmmm....) At an aggressive rate of two pounds a week, I should reach my goal of 120 pounds in about a month. And since I've got my simple(r) carbs back, it should be easier to get back to my running. I'm not sure how often I'll record my food, like I've done in the last two weeks. I wanted to be really careful in Phase I, in order to give the diet a fair shot and be able to evaluate it precisely. I'll probably be equally careful in Phase II for the first week or so, just to make sure that reintroducing grains and fruits doesn't make me go bonkers with the calories.

********************

Breakfast: 1/2 multigrain bagel with 1/2 T almond butter; mug of black tea

Lunch: salad with avocado, cucumber & grape tomatoes; 2 papadum; Diet Dr. Pepper

Snack: orange sugar-free popsicle. Didn't taste like an orange, but did taste like Tang. Is Tang food?

Snack: cucumbers with this bean dip I threw together from last night's leftovers

Post-run snack: 1/2 multigrain bagel with 1/2 T almond butter

Snack: cherry (or should I say "cherry") sugar-free popsicle. Actually, this flavor tastes the most like its eponymous fruit.

Dinner: roasted eggplant and red peppers with sundried tomato pesto ; diet Dr. Pepper

Exercise: two-mile run

********************

I've decided I'll always eat one of my simpler carbs after a run. Today, I could barely manage two miles. I sure hope that as Phase II progresses, I'll be able to ramp that back up...

Phase I, Day 14

2004-03-05T11:34:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: vegan asparagus-spinach quiche; mug of black tea

Midmorning snack: celery with modified hummus; diet Dr. Pepper

Lunch: 1/4 c pecans; mug Mexican hot cocoa (reduced Splenda to 2 packets and it still tasted a bit too sweet)

Midafternoon snack: spring green salad with avocado, tomato and cucumber

Dinner: big meal of felafel (from a box) and salad with tahini dressing, and ful mohammas

Exercise: none

********************

My LAST DAY ON PHASE I!!! Hooray!!

I topped it off with a big ol' dinner. The boxed felafel wasn't very good; the texture is so much better when you make it from scratch. But it sure is a pain to make it that way, when boxed is good enough.

I'm feeling a bit bloated, and have for the last couple of days. It will be interesting to see what I weigh/measure tomorrow morning.

Phase I, Day 13

2004-03-04T11:07:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: mug of mexican hot chocolate (unpleasantly sweet; I think I have become inured to sweetness)

Snack: V-8

Snack: guacamole

Snack: 1 T cashew-macadamia nut butter

Snack: 2 papadum

Snack: 1/2 veggie quiche (prepared the same as the to-go cups, but put into a pie plate and served in wedges. Also, I subbed asparagus for the bell pepper)

Snack: 2 T hummus with celery

Dinner: thai green curry (basically, lite coconut milk and prepared green curry paste with a little Splenda, lots of veggies, and pressed tofu)

Snack: 1 T almond butter

Exercise: none

********************

As you can see, I was all about the snacks today. I never felt like I filled up, and I just wanted to eat all day. In fact I STILL want to eat. I drank a lot of Dr. Pepper in between snacks (probably two cans worth over the course of the day.) I was also cold all day; it's rainy and unpleasant here. I have to say I'm really glad that tomorrow is my last day of Phase I. I really miss whole grain breads, fruit/protein shakes, brown rice...

On the bright side, my six 6 jeans kinda-sorta fit today. Still tight, but five pounds and they would be perfect.

Phase I, Day 12

2004-03-03T12:52:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: 1/4 c pistachios; mug of black tea

Midmorning snack: Gardenburger breakfast patty with guacamole

Lunch: 2 Gardenburger breakfast patties with guac; can of V-8; 2 papadum; mug of green tea

Midafternoon snack: healthy spoonful of cashew-macadamia nut butter

Dinner: bowlful of chili with LOTS of chipotle peppers and guacamole; diet Dr. Pepper

Exercise: none

********************

Papadum, in case you don't know, are absolutely delicious mung bean flour crackers. You buy them from an Indian food/spice store, or sometimes Asian food stores or especially well-stocked supermarkets with international sections. The most expensive ones are called Maj. Chutney's or something, which are made in England. But there are much cheaper ones made in India that are just as good--look for a really creepy looking little boy in a turban and a nightmarish rabbit on the package. I don't know *why* they sell their products with these trademarks, but at any rate it makes them easy to identify. The easiest way to prepare them is to crumple up a paper towel, then un-crumple it. Spray the papadum with a little oil on both sides, then place it on the crumply paper towel in the microwave. Nuke it for about a minute. These are addictive. I eat one while the other is cooking. They have about 25 calories apiece, when prepared this way. They could easily take the place of chips for dipping, too, though I don't generally use them for that.

Phase I, Day 11

2004-03-03T12:43:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: can of V-8; 1/4 c pistachios

Lunch: big serving of pecan-crusted salmon with lots of cooked mixed vegetables on the side; spinach salad with pears and sugared pecans; one bite of a breaded fried green tomato [restaurant meal]

Midafternoon snack: 1/4 c pecans; cup of black tea

Dinner: tuna salad with spring greens; a small handful of purple grapes; one piece of olive ciabatta [airport food from food court]

Midnight snack: celery with modified hummus

Exercise: none

********************

Today was hell. I was travelling in cabs and planes for much of the day, and interviewing for the rest. Lunch was at a cajun fish restaurant; dinner was the best I could do at the airport (sorry, fishies!). I hope no vegan who reads this concludes, from my meals, that it is impossible or frankly even hard to maintain one's veganism on this diet. The answer is that it is not--as long as you have access to a kitchen or at least a well-stocked grocery store, rather than being forced to eat in restaurants and hotels and airports.

Phase I, Day 10

2004-03-01T21:09:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: V-8

Midmorning "snack": can of diet coke, cup of coffee with fake cream and equal

Lunch: plain green salad with raspberry (?) vinaigrette [catered meal]

Midafternoon snack: baba ghanoush with dill pickles

Dinner: tapas meal -- lots of little things like asparagus and mushrooms and stuff (plus a little goat cheese. Sorry, goats!); decaf espresso [restaurant meal]

Late night snack: more baba ghanoush and pickles; 1/4 c pecans

Exercise: 45 minutes on the treadmill

********************

Bizzy bizzy day -- I'm surprised I did as well as I did on both the vegan and SBD elements of my diet. I guess the raspberry vinaigrette was a no-no, but it was that or eat dry lettuce. I'm not that much of a masochist. And, I ate some goat cheese (about 2 T worth) for dinner. I easily resisted cookies at lunch, and rich desserts at dinner, though. I should have been ravenous, but I honestly wasn't tempted. I think that once one gets into the habit of resisting temptation, it really becomes second nature, and you eventually don't experience things as tempting in the first place.

I knew this trip was going to be hard on my veganism, and it has been. The world is ready and willing to adapt to vegetarians, but vegans are a different thing altogether. Not that I'm complaining--you really can't expect people to cater to you when your diet is *that* unusual. And being a vegan who doesn't eat grains or fruit... forget it. I could have had a perfectly lovely lunch, in fact, of rice and beans, salad, and lots of fresh fruit. Perfectly healthy, perfectly tasty, perfectly vegan... but still not allowed on the SBD. Oh, well. I hope my freakish eating habits didn't make me look bad; I tried to be as light hearted about them as possible and laugh at myself.

I'm going to go for a run on the hotel gym's treadmill, then will take a nice, long sauna. Tomorrow I have more interviews, two more restaurant meals to survive, and then I head home, to collapse and obsess over whether and when I hear back about this job...

Phase I, Day 9

2004-02-29T23:25:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: V-8, cup of coffee with milk

Brunch: 3 egg omelette with cheese, spring greens salad with tomatoes, 2 virgin marys [meal at friend's home]

Dinner: spring greens salad with pear, tomatoes, mushroom terrine from hotel room service

Late night snack: pistachios

Exercise: none

********************

I continued to be a Very Bad Vegan today. I ate some slivers of pear on my salad, too. They were miniscule, though, and they looked so lonesome on the plate...

Also, I went to church this morning with my friend, and noticed bread and wine on the alter. But they didn't have actual communion -- I guess it's a Lent thing to have it up there without actually using it. Big relief! Because I was wondering how I was going to explain to the minister that the Eucharist is not on the list of "Approved Foods" for Phase I! (I suppose if I were Catholic, after transubstantiation then it would perhaps... ok, nevermind.)

Tomorrow is the big day (my job talk, plus interviews). Have resisted the urge to order homemade honey granola with bananas from room service for my breakfast. Instead, tore up little card to ensure no last minute changes of heart, and will instead eat a V-8 and more freaking nuts.

Phase I, Day 8

2004-02-28T05:48:00.000-05:00

------------------------------------
Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 131 pounds
Bodyfat: 29.0% (no change -- but again, not reliable)
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 28.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 29.5
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 31.5
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 33.5
Hips: 37
Chest: 31
Bust: 38
Thighs: R22, L21

------------------------------------

My first set of measurements, and they are about what I expected. I've lost three pounds. My guess is that 2 pounds of it is fat (and hopefully not muscle), and about a pound of water. Probably more like half and half, gauging by my calorie count for last week, but hey, I'm an optimist! (I ate about 8000 calories last week; maintenance as I've said is a little under 14000. This leaves a deficit of a little less than 6000, or about a pound-and-a-half of fat.)

Where did it come off? Naturally, part of it came off the two pockets of fat I'd be more than happy to keep--my boobs. I lost a half an inch there. But God is good, so a full inch came off my chest, giving me a net *contrast* of +.5 inches! That happy trend, sadly, can't continue, since I'm pretty much showing bone on the chest already.

The rest came off almost exactly where I'd like: a half inch all around off my midsection. A bit more off my hips, and I guess I did have a little to lose there (my fighting trim is about 36-37 inches in the hips.) Nothing off the thighs, but I don't put my weight there. I still have the freakish difference between right and left. I'm wondering if the bulk in the right thigh explains why I tend to get running injuries in my right knee and right lower back -- the imbalance must affect my stride (more power/muscle on the right).

At 120 pounds, I usually have a 27 inch waist. That means that the rest of my fat loss should start coming off of there now, rather than off my hips and chest, where I had less to lose. (If more keeps coming out of my bra, I'm going to be pissed.)

So on net, I'd call this good news! I've lost a couple of pounds, without ever really feeling hungry. On a normal diet, I'd be so obsessed with food I wouldn't be able to think of anything else. This positive feedback should be just what I need to keep me on the straight and narrow for the weekend.

********************

Breakfast: Gardenburger breakfast patty with guacamole

Midmorning snack: 3 oz baked asian tofu from TJ's

Lunch: V-8

Midafternoon snack: celery and full-fat hummus

Dinner: restaurant appetizers (mediterranean dips with veggies, beets with goat cheese, asparagus with roquefort, sundried tomatoes with mozzarella, vegetable puree)

Exercise: none

********************

It's just plain not possible to eat at the times I should while on this trip. And as I expected, I became a cheater-head, eating cheese for dinner. But I didn't cheat on the SBD part. It was easy to stay motivated, since I had such nice news on the scale this morning.

Phase I, Day 7

2004-02-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: American tofu scramble (note to self: tofu scrambles get narsty when they've been in the refrigerator for several days)

Midmorning snack: V-8

Lunch: portobella mushroom salad; iced tea [restaurant meal]

Midafternoon snack: roasted eggplant & red bell peppers [from deli]

Dinner: 3 T hummus with 1/2 red bell pepper; 2 T macadamia-cashew butter

Exercise: none

********************

Today is the first day I actually felt thinner. My pants were definitely smoother in the front. I'm really looking forward to taking all my measurements tomorrow morning!

I was quite proud of myself -- I ate at a fancy restaurant where there was literally one thing on the menu I could possibly eat, and even then only if they took off the crumbled blue cheese. So I asked for it without cheese and didn't eat a bite of anything else. Good girl! (pat pat pat) But I have much bigger challenges ahead: my wild weekend in Chicago starts tomorrow.

Phase I, Day 6

2004-02-26T11:11:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: a few spoonfuls of baba ghanoush, can of V-8

Midmorning snack: 4 brazil nuts; cup of green tea

Lunch: tofu/cashew stir fry from food court. Thought I'd try a smaller portion than my usual. Regretted it.

Midafternoon snack: can of V-8

Dinner: cup of leftover restaurant chili from last night; 1 T almond butter

Exercise: none

********************

I was reviewing my goals for this diet. I listed that I wanted to "feel better." I don't know why I said that. I feel fine. I just felt shallow saying I wanted to lose 14 pounds and look good in a bikini. So to pretend I actually care about this diet for health reasons, I wrote that I'd like to "feel better." The truth is, I will "feel better" if I don't "feel tubby."

So today: peed a lot, ate a little. (I think I was overdoing it on the water.) Felt hungry at lunch, but for the most part, I had no problem sticking to the diet. It really is impressive how well the SBD kills hunger. I wonder, will it stay that way? Or will the caloric deficit catch up to my brain soon, and leave me ravenous?

Phase I, Day 5

2004-02-25T12:09:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: cucumber slices with baba ghanoush; can of V-8

Midmorning snack: healthy spoonful of almond butter; cup of green tea

Lunch: tofu/cashew veggie stir-fry [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: 4 brazil nuts

Dinner: chili with dollop of sour cream and cheese [restaurant meal]

Exercise: if walking counts, then 1.5 miles walking

********************

My first cheat! For dinner, I asked the waitress to hold the "3 grain medley" they normally serve the chili over, but didn't ask them to hold the cheese and sour cream. I considered spooning the dairy aside, but my economic vote had already been cast so I didn't see the point. I just ate it. (This is the same argument for why I keep wearing my decade-old leather. But who am I kidding? That dairy tasted goooooooooood!) The chili also had carrots and corn in it, which I didn't expect. But the meal itself was undoubtedly very low GI anyway, given all the various beans and other veggies in the chili. And the reason to avoid carrots and corn is supposedly because they cause "cravings." Since I've never had "cravings" for carbs, I didn't worry about it. For *me*, the reason to avoid the high GI carbs is that they have high calories, without the compensating virtue of filling me up.

I felt physically fine today. Walked the mile and a half to work, but no other exercise (if walking to work counts as "exercise" anyway--I didn't break a sweat). Today, I dreaded the thought of another salad. I went out for chili because I couldn't bear the thought of more raw vegetables. And I can't say I'm feeling any thinner at all, sadly. But then again, it's only Day 5.

Phase I, Day 4

2004-02-24T11:49:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: asian breakfast scramble

Midmorning snack: 1 oz macadamia nuts, can of V-8

Lunch: tofu stir fry with cashews (we have a nice food court grill where you pick your own veggies--like bell pepper, summer squash, spinach, mushrooms, etc.--which they then stir-fry for you. Surprisingly, I didn't miss the brown rice I normally eat with it); can of Diet Dr. Pepper

Midafternoon snack: cucumber slices with baba ghanoush (eggplant spread) from Trader Joe's

Dinner: Stalk of celery, 1/2 red bell pepper, 3 T hummus

Dessert: mug of hot chocolate

Exercise: walked home from work, 1.5 miles

********************

I feel much, much better today. Still low-grade weak, but no headache. It's been very easy for me to avoid both dairy and high-GI carbs. I walked home from work tonight; that was the only exercise I could bear.

My resolve will be tested this weekend. I just found out I have a job interview in Chicago, and I'm going to fly out on Saturday and return on Tuesday. (Yay me!) This will involve going out to eat. For pretty much every meal. Ugh. I'll try to pack a lot of nuts and V-8, and pray for inner strength and a lack of easily available peanut butter cookies.

I've been giving more and more thought to this 8-13 pounds deal. The 8-13 pound claim could work via water-loss. When the body stores glycogen, which it gets from carbs, it stores 3 molecules of water for every molecule of glycogen. This is why marathon runners gain so much weight when they carbo-load before a race; 3/4 of it is water, the other 1/4 is the glycogen (essentially, circulating blood sugar and liver sugar). On a low carb diet, you're drastically reducing the body's stores of glycogen, and the water along with it. This is why you feel weak; you don't have the blood sugar the body normally uses for day-to-day fuel. (And again, this is why endurance athletes focus on eating carbs -- it pumps up the fast-burning glycogen stores they need for energy).

The diet *could* also work to genuinely eliminate 8-13 pounds of fat (or at least more than 1-2 pounds of fat) in the first two weeks by shifting your metabolism so that you are burning ketones for energy, which your body produces from fat. To do this, you really, really, really have to purge your body of all glycogen stores. If your SBD Phase I is super low carb (like virtually zero), then you will indeed bump yourself into ketosis, and burn fat at an impressive rate. This is how the Atkins diet works, in fact, and it *does* work (though it's hard to sustain and not very healthy). For vegetarians and vegans, though, the SBD is not going to be super low carb, even in Phase I, so we aren't likely to get into ketosis, and we aren't likely to match the 8-13 pound loss the book touts.

On the other hand, we will lose weight, and more painlessly than on most other calorie-restricted diets, because the low GI-carbs, frequently eaten, prevent us from getting hungry. Plus, avoiding carbs makes it easier to keep the calorie counts low. And we *will* lose at least some water weight, since although the diet for us isn't going to be low-carb, it will likely be *lower* carb than our usual diets, and that will make our body release some of the glycogen it's been holding on to. Actually, I'm convinced this is why I was peeing so much on Day 2 and Day 3, well out of proportion to the amount of water I was drinking/eating. Though I'm still drinking about 80 oz. of water today (Day 4), I'm peeing about half as much. All the glycogen is gone now, I guess.

Phase I, Day 3

2004-02-23T13:46:00.000-05:00

********************

Breakfast: American breakfast scramble with tomatoes (for my recipe, go here)

Midmorning snack: 1 cup Trader Joe's gazpacho

Lunch: Salad with garbanzos, olives and cashews [from Food Court]

Midafternoon snack: 4 Brazil nuts, and about 10 kalamata olives

Dinner: 2 cups roasted vegetable salad from the deli; 2 T hummus on celery

Late night snack: mug of hot chocolate

Exercise: no way

********************

Today, I definitely felt bad. I woke up with a headache, which got worse until I took aspirin midday. Now it's mostly gone, but I can still kind of feel it back there, waiting to get bad again. The headache feels like the kind I get when I haven't eaten enough calories; no surprise there, I guess. I also definitely felt weak, and for the first time I felt really, really hungry (around lunchtime). I can't even imagine trying to go for a run today. And, I've been pissing like a racehorse. Seriously, I have to go about every couple of hours or less. I woke up three times last night to pee. Is it because of all the raw vegetables I'm eating, which really have a very high water content?

I've read on the internet that people say the third day is usually the worst. That seems to be the case so far for me--that is, so long as things don't continue to decline.

Phase I, Day 2

2004-02-22T10:38:00.000-05:00

********************
FOOD EATEN:

Breakfast: Asian breakfast scramble (see my recipe here); can of V-8

Midmorning snack: stalk of celery and half a green bell pepper with 3 T hummus

Lunch: a truly humungous salad, complete with olives and pistachios, and amounting to almost 800 calories

Early-Mid-Afternoon Snack: a sugar free grape popsicle. Tasted nothing like grapes. Or food, for that matter.

Late-Mid-Afternoon Snack: a (modified) mug of Mexican hot chocolate. Tasted like heaven. For my recipe, go here.

Dinner: 1 c leftover chili from yesterday, 1 stalk celery

Dessert: 1 oz macadamia nuts, 1 T almond butter

Exercise: 3.5 mile run

********************

It occurs to me that this diet entails three profound differences in the way I usually eat. First, I eat far more frequently. Normally, I'd eat twice a day; a small lunch and a really, really, really big dinner. Second, I eat no grains. On a typical day, I'd usually eat several servings of whole grains in one form or another (bagel, bread, pasta), and those calories add up FAST, without filling you up as much as you'd expect, given their physical volume. Third, I don't eat fruit. Fruit smoothies are usually a pretty large portion of my diet.

This makes me wonder, though, if I'm going to see results any time soon. Probably the largest effect of this diet in normal circumstances is on people who normally eat few vegetables and all refined-flour grains (white breads, white pasta, etc.) As a vegan, I already eat lots of vegetables and low-GI carbs. So I don't really have "cravings" to kill, nor do I need to improve my triglicerides or cholesterol count. On the other hand, cutting out grains and fruit does cut out a large source of my calories. Yesterday, I ate far fewer than 1,000 calories. Today, I'll probably eat fewer than 1,500. I ran for about 3.5 miles this afternoon, and while I didn't feel fantastic, I felt a lot peppier than I had any right to, given how few calories I ate yesterday.

In other words, for vegans, this is really just a low-calorie diet, but with the considerable bonus of not *feeling* low-calorie. But at this rate, eating about 500 fewer calories than I usually do in a day, I still should not lose more than a pound a week... 8-to-13-pounds-in-Phase-I promise notwithstanding.

* * *

End of day overview: I wasn't ever hungry; indeed, I occasionally had to force myself to eat all the required items (like dinner). I ran slowly about 3.5 miles and had enough energy to do so comfortably. I took my vitamins/calcium, and tried to drink a lot of water, though admittedly a lot of it was in the form of Diet Dr. Pepper. Unlike my prediction of earlier today, I didn't stay below 1500 calories, but I didn't exceed it by much. I certainly don't feel any thinner (or any better) yet, but of course today is only Day 2.

Phase I, Day 1

2004-02-21T10:32:00.000-05:00

------------------------------------
Weight/Measurements:

Weight: 134 pounds
Bodyfat: 29.0% (scale isn't the most reliable in the world, but whatever)
Waist, holding in stomach like I normally do: 28.5 inches
Waist, letting it all hang out: 30
Waist around my belly button, holding in stomach like I normally do: 32
Waist around my belly button, letting it all hang out: 34
Hips: 38
Chest: 32
Bust: 38.5
Thighs: R22, L21

------------------------------------

So I'm a pretty classic apple; I pack it all into the waist. Supposedly, the SBD takes it all off the belly first. Like the 8-13-pounds-in-two-weeks promise, this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But to be fair, I haven't read the author's justification for it. For me, at any rate, it will probably be true, simply because in any diet, where you put it on is where you will take it off. My earlobes shouldn't be getting any svelter.

Bizarre Fact I Learned About Myself Today: my right thigh is bigger than my left. Why would that be?

********************
FOOD EATEN:

Breakfast: tablespoon of almond butter, some diet Dr. Pepper to wash it down, a cup of black tea

Midmorning snack: Gardenburger "sausage" patty

Lunch: 3 oz Trader Joe's baked asian tofu; 1 c Trader Joe's gazpacho

Midafternoon snack: 1 stalk celery with 2 T modified hummus, 2 modified mini veggie "quiches" (to see my vegan recipes for these, go here and here)

Dinner: 2 cups chili with TVP & kidney beans (see recipe here)

Dessert: tofu creme (4 oz. lite silken tofu, blended with 3 packets splenda, cinnamon and almond flavor)

Midnight snack: 4 vegan mini quiches

Exercise: none

********************

OVERVIEW OF THE DAY: I felt full all day, with plenty of energy--despite the fact that I ate fewer than 1000 calories. I did not exercise. I took 4 citrical calcium tablets and basic vitamins, and I tried to keep on top of fluid intake. I did not skip any snacks or meals, even though I wasn't hungry. (Supposedly, this diet works at least in part by keeping your metabolism on a constant slow burn, so missing meals/snacks is counterproductive.) I bought tons of ingredients at the store today, so I should be set for the next week. I look forward to seeing how Day 2 goes!!

(Post script: after I wrote the overview, at about 12:30 a.m., I got really thirsty, and pretty hungry. So I drank a lot and ate 4 of the mini quiches I had made.)

2004-02-20T20:29:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my attempt at doing the South Beach Diet as a vegan!!

I don't have the book, but I've read bits of it, and have the updated Foods list. Plus, I've read a bunch of stuff on the web. That's good enough for me. The rule is that you eat 3 meals a day plus two snacks, and you get a dessert. The catch: the items must come from a very narrow list of "approved foods" for the first two weeks of the diet, a period called "Phase I."

Supposedly, you lose 8-13 pounds during Phase I, at which point you get to move to the more generous Phase II. Sounds like bullshit to me,frankly--five pounds a week means you need a caloric DEFICIT of about 17,500 calories in seven days (1 pounds = 3,500 calories). Normally, I eat about 14,000 calories a week (usually a bit less) and just maintain. So if I eat literally nothing, AND exercise off an additional 500 calories (5 miles of a slow run) a day, I should lose 5 pounds in a week.

But, hey, I'm willing to try to bend the laws of thermodynamics if the rest of the country is. And I can suffer through anything for two weeks.

Oh, so the other thing is, this is a meat-n-eggs-heavy diet. And I'm vegan. This means I'll have to be a bit creative. And probably a little bit of a cheater. (I'm kind of a lousy vegan, but well-intentioned.)

I spent today eating up all the verbotten carbs on the list that are hanging around my apartment: down my gullet went all my popcorn, and my mexican hot chocolate, and my frozen fruit bars, and my left-over pasta... Probably, I should down the three beers left in the fridge, too. Fun! They will be way too tempting later in the week once I start getting desperate. Which I'm sure I will get.

So I will weigh myself tomorrow morning, again one week into the diet, and again two weeks in. I will report what I'm eating, how much I'm exercising, etc.

Here are my goals:

--Get down to 120 pounds.
--Get rid of my bloated disgusting Budda-like stomach
--Feel better

FYI, here is a board that describes what is allowed at the different phases, and other things about the diet.