Saturday, June 14, 2008

Why I'm Going to Try The South Beach Diet





I'm starting to think I'm turning into a paranoid hypochondriac. But as I stated in my previous posts I went to the Doctors recently. One of the other things they did, was have me get some blood tests. I just got the results back the other day.

My cholesterol levels are all good, my kidney seems to be doing good. My blood sugar level was somewhat high. Which I really don't understand since I don't hardly eat sweets and don't use a lot of sugar. And the other thing that has me somewhat worried is my "liver enzymes are slightly elevated."

When I did a "google" search for this one thing that came up is that it could be something to do with your gallbladder. When I did another search on gallbladders, I actually have had some of the symptoms that it states. And it says women have a higher percentage of problems of this, and it is somewhat genetic. And my mother did have to have her gallbladder removed about 5 years ago.

I have to go back in 6-8 weeks from when I had the first blood test done, for another one. Now either I'm just overreacting and maybe it will just be a false test. Or maybe there is something wrong. I'm trying not to be to worried about it (easier said then done though.)

Well to get around to this "South Beach Diet" thing. They told me to eat a low-carb, low-sugar diet. At first I'm like "I don't eat alot of sugar. What are they talking about." But after reading about it I guess you can get sugar from carbs. Which thinking about it I really do eat
a lot of carbs. Which all comes back to the gallbladder thing, eating to many carbs can cause problems with your gallbladder.

So until I find out anything I decided I should cut back on the carbs. And I discovered "The South Beach Diet." I bought this book the other day The South Beach Diet Good Fats/Good Carbs Guide (Revised): The Complete and Easy Reference for All Your Favorite Foods (The South Beach Diet).


It seems like a good book. Now I'm not saying I'm going to follow this to a tee. Because there are basically "3 phases" to this diet. Phase one you cut out practically everything, Phase two you can reintroduce more foods. Phase 3 you can eat even more. I might not do it according to the Phases. Because I really don't want to starve myself. I'm not doing it to lose weight, that's not really the issue. I'm doing it to cut down my carbs and foods with sugar. And this book seems like a good reference for that. It lists over 1,200 different foods you can and can't eat. That's what I was looking for a list of foods with low carbs. Which another google search did not render to many findings.

If you want to lose weight and eat less carbs then you could do the diet according to the Phases the book sets up. It seems like it would work, maybe I'll loose some weight too, which I won't complain about.

So the morale of the story is cut out carbs, don't get to paranoid about blood tests until you know for sure (again, easier said then done), and maybe don't do to many google searches because some of the results can really freak you out. (Examples: liver cancer, hepatitis, fatty liver.)

5 comments:

  1. Hi Sue, my wife and I tried the South Beach diet several years ago, it works as long as you stick to it. I would recommend sticking to the 3 phases at least at first. We are no longer strictly on it, but learned much from it and try to use what we learned. I say we are loosely on phase 3. We try to watch carbs, calories and fat intake, not necessarily all at the same time. :) Something must be working, I have lost 28 pounds! Good call, I recommend South Beach as well.

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  2. Hi Sue - one of my coworkers followed the South Beach diet and lost weight. I borrowed her book, but didn't have the discipline to stick with it. Good luck. And hopefully your future blood tests will come back better - try not to worry (I know...easier said than done).

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  3. Hey Sue - just wanted to encourage you with a more power to you!! I know you can do it because you sound committed and determined. Best of luck.

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  4. I did try south beach diet a year ago and it really works. But it is so hard to maintain especially phase one! Good luck!

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  5. Hi Sue ~ hope you get things straigntened out with the diet. Here is a bit of info that may put carbs & sugar in perspective

    http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food2.htm

    good luck friend!

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