Fail

I think you all saw this coming. The South Beach Diet did not make it past day 5 1/2. I had a work function on Friday night and there were this lovely little petit fours and mini cheesecakes on the table. I had a mocha petit four and a teeny cheesecake round about a third the size of my palm with a dark chocolate brownie crust. I have no regrets.

Saturday I went to a clambake. While seafood is allowed and encouraged on SBD, the corn on the cob and the white chocolate chip cookie I had are forbidden. Immediately afterwards I went to a bridal shower where a friend had made her famous oatmeal, chocolate, everything good in all the world cookies. Frankly, though, I can never eat very many of those. They are very filling what with the oats and all. Saturday night I thought I was going to go out to dinner with a friend, but she wound up getting fed at the place she was at before she came over, so I ran out and got sesame tofu with a giant pile of broccoli for dinner.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up yesterday morning and found that not only had I lost those couple of pounds I had gained back by Friday morning, but I was even less than I had been earlier in the week. Plus, every single measurement went down at least a quarter of an inch (1 whole inch off the waist).

Yesterday I ate very well, and made an eggplant soup for dinner to bring for lunches this week (in fact, I'm eating some right now on my lunch break). Note: if you simmer eggplant in broth for too long, it dissolves. I didn't know that and was like, Where did the eggplant go? The only sign of the existence of the entire eggplant that I cubed and dumped in are the seeds bobbing around in the broth.

Honestly, I think the key for me is to be reasonable. 1 cookie occasionally at a party is ok. 17 are not. Ice cream once every couple of weeks is ok. Ice cream every day is not.* Also, my body seems to react really, really well to the lower carb and high protein thing. Yesterday I had some whole wheat toast with my soup and was down another half pound this morning, so obviously the carbs didn't make me explode or anything. But yesterday I ate almost 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight and kept my carbs well under 100 grams.** And for those of you who may be concerned that I'm eating the equivalent of 3 chickens every day, a big portion of my protein yesterday came from beans.

It's just a matter of getting back into a healthy groove. I think SBD did help me do that by reminding me that I do like vegetables and really making me think when I have the munchies about what would be a good thing for me to eat at that moment (i.e., not a peppermint patty).

Also, I woke up this morning and dragged my bum to the pool. Finally! I only swam 60 laps, but at least I was there. I think the swimming crowd is starting to thin out a bit as it gets cooler, so I had the lane to myself the entire time.


*Although my sister-in-law eats ice cream almost every day and is tiny and that kind of drives me nuts. I would wager I love ice cream just as much as she does, but she unfairly gets to have it as often as she likes. Stupid slow metabolism.

** Yes, I'm still recording my calories and consequently all of that other nutritional information. Because it's fun.