[tracilicious]

Hey, we started our diets on the same day! Low carb works quickly, though I believe that South Beach is healthier than Atkins. Better fats, more veggies.

I started a diet called the Schwarzbein Principle. The premise is that you need to be healthy to lose weight, not lose weight to be healthy. When we eat badly for an extended period of time, diet a lot and over exercise, that damages our metabolism. This diet focuses on healing the metabolism which leads to weight loss. The key is balanced meals including a good fat, a complex carb, a healthy protein, and low starch veggies. The healing phase is low carb, but higher than Atkins/SB.

My meals today went something like this:

breakfast: eggs with black beans, munster cheese and fresh salsa wrapped in a corn tortilla
snack: 3 strawberries with ricotta cheese
lunch: turkey, cheese, and tomatos wrapped in leafy greens (this was technically too low carb)

Later I'll have some veggies and hummus as a snack and dinner is grilled salmon and asparagus.

The book suggests continuing to "self medicate" with the things you are addicted to while you are starting the plan. That way your body doesn't completely freak out and release a bunch of hormones. I'm addicted to sugar and caffeine, so I'm having small amounts of dark chocolate and green tea as the cravings hit (well, so far I've had one square of chocolate and no tea).

I'm starting out with a goal of losing 45 pounds, which will put me back to where I was before I had any babies. Then I'll decide how much more to lose from there. I can't even believe I have that much to lose as I type it. My how quickly the weight piles on.