Re: Newbie saying hello

[Guest guest]

Hi Debbie, what do you usually eat without cooking? You can eat basic foods together, canned vegetables are easy to heat up on the stovetop, lunchmeat with slices of lowfat cheese, things like that. Maybe get a book on basic cooking skills from the library or bookstore? I don't mean to be offensive just to get you through the basics.

-Amie

From: hermitesss Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 8:44 PMTo: South-Beach-Diet-Getting-It-Right Subject: Newbie saying hello

I just joined this group and wanted to post a brief introduction. I'm a 43 year old female, 5'4", with my weight at around 260-270 (getting on the scale would be too depressing right now). I'm single and without kids so I don't have to worry about cooking or keeping food in the apartment for anyone but myself. In that regard I feel lucky. The temptation is probably less for me than someone who is also having to consider the eating habits of spouse, children, etc.My problem with diets is always the same. I don't cook. I'm clueless when it comes to cooking. I look at some of the recipies in the Pase One Meal Plan and think to myself, "Who in their right mind has time to prepare *that* in the morning?" Because I don't cook, everything looks overwhlemingly difficult to me. What, specifically, is vegetable juice cocktail? Please, please tell me I can have something besides tomato juice! Yuck! And I don't drink coffee. Decaffeinated tea with nonfat milk? Are we talking hot tea here? Cold tea? Tea bags? Putting milk in my tea is a foreign concept to me. I suspect the tea with milk is filling and my fear is that if I just decide to skip it I will get hungry and set my self up for failure. Can I do anything else? And I haven't got a microwave right now, although I'm hoping for one for Christmas. Somebody please just get me past breakfast and I'll start seeing what I can do to cope with lunch! lolI live in Springfield, Missouri and it seems to me it would be nice to have a real time support group to get together with. Are there any r/t support groups for SB that anyone knows of? Thanks for reading this "brief" introduction ;-) DebbieReminder: The South Beach Diet is not low-carb. Nor is it low-fat. The South Beach Diet teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats-the good ones-and enables you to live quite happily without the bad carbs and bad fats. For more on this WOE please read "The South Beach Diet" by Arthur Agatston, MD. ISBN 1-57954-814-8

[Guest guest]

i thought there was a posting recently on things you could eat from the various fast food restaurants that went with the South Beach Diet? Did I see that on the website or did someone post that recently? It took each fast food place and said what you could eat there.

-Amie

From: hermitesss Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 9:16 PMTo: South-Beach-Diet-Getting-It-Right Subject: Re: Newbie saying hello

Thanks Amie, I'm not offended, appreciate the input. I am guilty of doing the drive through thing a lot, just so darn convenient. Or I'll go to the store and buy a frozen pizza......and eat the whole thing in one sitting. Or buy chicken tenders and potato or macroni salad.....anything at all I don't have to do a darn thing too is pretty much what I eat. I realize I'm probably eating the most processed (i.e. bad) foods I can eat. I get a free lunch at work, and that is, again, usually cheap food, white bread, stuff that they pick up at the local food pantry, etc. Geez, that all sounds pretty horrendous, doesn't it? lol I think I have a book on basic cooking skills around here somewhere. I think I've just gotten to being so large and feeling so bad I find it hard to put the energy into anything right now. But I *will* work on this, so thanks again for your input :-)Debbie> Hi Debbie, what do you usually eat without cooking? You can eat basic foods> together, canned vegetables are easy to heat up on the stovetop, lunchmeat> with slices of lowfat cheese, things like that. Maybe get a book on basic> cooking skills from the library or bookstore? I don't mean to be offensive> just to get you through the basics.> -Amie>Reminder: The South Beach Diet is not low-carb. Nor is it low-fat. The South Beach Diet teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats-the good ones-and enables you to live quite happily without the bad carbs and bad fats. For more on this WOE please read "The South Beach Diet" by Arthur Agatston, MD. ISBN 1-57954-814-8

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the advice Carol! I'll check out those files :-)

Debbie

> There should be an updated food list in the files. You can eat

anything you want from that list. It doesn't have to be anything

complicated. For breakfast you can have leftover dinner or fat free

plain yogurt with flavorings in it like a little sugar free jello

powder. I'd suggest learning just a little cooking though. IT is so

important for your health. I don't cook anything more complicated

than recipes I find where you put all the stuff in a pan, check on

it sometimes and wait for it to be done. Do a search for recipes for

phase one SBD. There are a lot and a lot that are easy. Even on

kraftfoods.com. Just remember that you can eat anything you want

from that food list, but the guidelines are to eat a protein with

each meal and at least 1/2 cup of veggies for breakfast and 2 cups

of veggies for lunch and dinner. It doesn't have to be tomato juice

or V8, can be any veggies. You don't have to put milk in your tea.

You don't have to eat or drink anything you don't want to. Just eat

from that list. And don't skip your snacks. They are important to

keep your blood sugar up. Carol

[Guest guest]

> What, specifically, is vegetable juice cocktail? Please, please

> tell me I can have something besides tomato juice! Yuck!

It's V8 Vegetable cocktail juice, made with lots of different vegetables.

Tomato is the veg that it has the most of.

> And I

> don't drink coffee. Decaffeinated tea with nonfat milk? Are we

> talking hot tea here? Cold tea? Tea bags? Putting milk in my tea

> is a foreign concept to me. I suspect the tea with milk is filling

> and my fear is that if I just decide to skip it I will get hungry

> and set my self up for failure. Can I do anything else?

Tea with milk, IMO, is yuck! You can drink hot tea, cold tea, loose tea,

bagged tea, with or without milk. Just no sugar. Sugar substitutes like

Splenda are okay. Skip the coffee and tea if you like. Drink water with a

bit of lemon in it if that appeals to you. Or herbal tea.

> And I

> haven't got a microwave right now, although I'm hoping for one for

> Christmas. Somebody please just get me past breakfast and I'll

> start seeing what I can do to cope with lunch! lol

How about a bowl of cottage cheese? Plain is fine, or you can gussy it up

with a bit of Splenda and cinnamon to make it tastes a bit like a cinnamon

roll. Slices of cheese with canadian bacon rolled around them is good, too.

Can you boil water? If so, then hard boiled eggs become an option. Salad for

breakfast would work, especially if you add in some cheese bits and chopped

up chicken - cooked, of course, maybe left over from the night before.

Think of what you like to eat that is South Beach friendly and have that.

You don't have to eat " breakfast " for breakfast. A family favorite is pizza

from last night's dinner. I used to eat spahgetti for breakfast when I was a

kid (pre-SBD! LOL!!). Mom used to serve soup for breakfast sometimes, too.

Use your inagination!!

--

Ann

You spend your life fighting dirt, and when you die they bury you in it.

hayakawa@...

North Bend, Oregon, USA

[Guest guest]

>It's V8 Vegetable cocktail juice, made with lots of different

>vegetables. Tomato is the veg that it has the most of.

Well, Ann, I guess I¡¦ll just have to break down and see if I can

stomach the V8 juice. Lol I don¡¦t think I¡¦ve ever had a V8,

so

maybe I can tolerate it and will be pleasantly surprised. If I find

it completely unbearable I just won¡¦t have it, will find

something

else. We are supposed to be enjoying ourselves with this after all,

aren¡¦t we? ;-) And I actually have no problem with herbal tea,

without anything in it at all. It¡¦s just the whole milk in my

tea

concept that turns me off. Yuck again! lol

I spent a great deal of time yesterday scouring the group files and

links and searching the SB website and I found a lot of things that

I think I can actually do. I found the cottage cheese/splendid and

cinnamon thing, and also saw that I can have a variety of ricotta

desserts for either breakfast or a snack, and they look incredibly

easy to throw together. I found another incredibly simple recipe

for roasted check peas I think I can definitely do for a snack

food. Oh! And I found some tuna salad and chicken salad recipes I

can definitely do.

Do you want to hear the funniest thing of all? This should amuse

some of you who have been cooking for years, and I saw it was one of

the things Ann suggested as well. This morning I boiled eggs for

the first time in my life. 43 years old and I¡¦m just now

learning

how to boil and egg. That¡¦s sad, isn¡¦t it? And they were

perfect!

I am so proud ļ I think I can do this as something for

breakfast,

boil the eggs ahead of time and put them in the fridge overnight if

I want to. I seem to be oversleeping a lot these days so don¡¦t

trust myself to even get up in time enough to boil an egg in the

morning. I feel so proud I found something I can do though and it

came out good. Silly, I know, but a first for me. Thanks for the

other ideas too Ann, appreciate all the tips I can get. I used to

eat spaghetti for breakfast *cold*! That¡¦s how lazy I am about

cooking; I didn¡¦t even want to bother to heat it up first.

Debbie

[Guest guest]

You could also put a little food coloring in your water when you

boil the eggs. It would tint the shells lightly.

> From: Ann [mailto:hayakawa@i...]

> Sometimes I boil up a dozen eggs at once and leave them in the

fridge. I mark them with and H or X to let the family know that

these are not for scrambling LOL!!

[Guest guest]

Thanks Ann :-)

Debbie

> Way to go, Debbie!! You are doing great!

>

> Sometimes I boil up a dozen eggs at once and leave them in the

fridge. I

> mark them with and H or X to let the family know that these are

not for

> scrambling LOL!! Then I can just grab one and take it with me to

work for my

> morning snack.