South Beach'n It! - Day 1 Phase 1

In the pictures - a lump serving of cooked steel cut oats from Whole Foods, egg beaters with ham, spinnach, zucchini, and reduced fat mexican shredded cheese, and all the individual servings measured out into ziplock bags next to a large container of wasabi soy almonds and pickled asparagas spears.

So the new year brings two seperate goals for us achieved via the same strategy. For Harley, he is to get in shape for real and to lose 30-40 lbs. For me, it is to kick the daily sugar habit that I have developed over the past year and decrease some body fat by dropping 5 to 10 lbs or fitting more comfortably in some snug pants from 2006/2007.

Harley's mission is to get fit and get healthy. My goal is to attain BETTER health and energy by correcting my blood sugar and hopefully halting tumor growth by giving them less glucose to feed off of. I also like to keep my weight within a certain range and my lean body mass high in preparation for future treatments and surgeries as steroids make weight go up and down time starts eating away muscle. Added fat and less muscle makes one flab out and become unfit quickly. My endurance and strength training prior to this 2nd surgery really made a huge difference. I was more fit going in (I was fit last time too but not as strongly as I was prior to the 2nd surgery) and although the first week I was really sick, I bounced back amazingly quick!

I am running multiple times a week for at least 3 miles while strength training and personal training once a week. In mid-December I started hill running when I visited my parents and my only option was hills! I came back and all of a sudden a 4 mile run seemed pretty easy. So far my record is running at least 5 miles last Saturday (just shy of 3 months post surgery). After my 2007 surgery, it took me 8 months to build up the endurance to run a 5K (3.1 miles).

Ok, but back to my photos and post title........
To reach our goals, our stategy is the South Beach diet (and a whole lot of exercising). ;-)
Actually, I do not exercise as much as Harley does. Yesterday I did nothing but a 45 minute run with the dogs (I estimate 4 miles or more). Whereas, Harley has a bootcamp hardcore ex-army personal trainer he meets with 3 hours a week and does another hour of cardio after each session along with working out 2-3 other days a week. Yet I guess I don't have to work that hard because I am interested in losing 4-5 times less than he is.

He is also doing the Gold's Gym $45,000 challenge (which is basically the club's own version of "The Biggest Loser"). So there is a little more incentive there. ;-)

With his plan, he needs to count out calories and log what he is eating. Hence, the measured out individual servings in baggies. With South Beach you do not actually have to do that. The theory is that you can have as much as you want of the right kind of stuff (lean protein, the good fats, and vegetables -aka "good carbs"). No sugar, fruit, or bread is allowed for the first 2 weeks for Phase 1. For the next 2 weeks in phase 2, you are allowed to add a complex carb per day - meaning one a day (such as old fashioned oatmeal, brown rice, a fruit, whole wheat fiberous bread). These things are supposed to keep you full if you eat enough of them (the good protein, fats, and veggies).

Now we tried this back in 2006 but I never could do phase 1 and shortly after Harley tried it, I was training for my first marathon (walking). Therefore, I was not able to completely cut carbs out for the 2 weeks.

These pictures were actually taken on January 3rd but I was unsucessful with keeping to Phase 1. The steel cut oats are shown above because Harley is not completely starting at phase 1 due to his activity level (the original intent of the South Beach plan was not meant for athletes or those with a high activity level. It was intended for cardiology patients with high blood pressure that most likely had a sedentary lifestyle.).

Even so with my high activity level, this time I am dropping the oatmeal and going to try phase 1 for 2 weeks. While I was eating the oatmeal loaded with cinnamon to replace sugar, I had a terrible time not eating some form of sugar. Eventually I cracked and bought myself an individual serving of 2 safeway baked M&M cookies before the first week was over. Then after that I managed to justify eating a truffle a day and so forth.

Therefore, I really need to cut cold turkey to lower the glycemic index of what I am eating to control my blood sugar so I can stay awake and have more energy to accomplish some heavy goals and projects we have for the year.

So far I have made it through day 1 pretty good surprisingly! Yet, today was not a running day. I went to an hour water aerobics class, walked the dogs for an hour, and did strength training on my legs - increasing weight by 5-15 lbs.

I sustain endurance activity by consuming FRS supplements. I have the diet kind so I am going to try that to see if it is enough. If not, I could cut down my running for at least 2 weeks and do other things.

So here is my menu from today:

Breakfast:
serving of egg beaters with green pepper, green onion, mushroom, ham, and reduced fat cheddar cheese

Snack:
muscle milk light protein shake

Snack:
lowfat mozerella cheese stick

Lunch:
celery sticks
V8
orange sparking water beverage

snack:
serving of wasabi soy almonds
3 piece of corned beef lunch meat

early dinner:
smoked turkey salad

late dinner:
cheesy steamed cauliflower with 2 pieces of lunch meat ham

dessert:
1 cup sugar free cherry jello with 2-3 tablespoons fat free cool whip

additional drinks for the day:
2 cups coffee with 1/2 cup soy milk, 2 teaspoons armaretto creamer, 1 sugar substitute packet
1 cup blueberry herbal tea
1 cup camomille tea

I survived day 1!!!! Only 13 more days to go!