Ok, another few days go by. Here's my weights:

Day 5: ??? (I guess I forgot to weigh myself)
Day 6: 136
Day 7: 136

Tomorrow is the "official" weighing, it will have been a full week of dieting. This South Beach Diet seems more and more like just good advice from your doctor. Stay away from sweets, eat more vegetables, preferrably raw, lots of fiber.

The only weird part is his "hatred" (too strong a word?) of certain vegetables / grains. His big no-nos are white flour (they take all the nutrients out while bleaching, so they have to "enrich" it again), white potatoes (does that mean Yukon Gold are ok?), and carrots and corn (too much "sugar" in them). The corn I understand -- especially baby corn, yum! -- but carrots don't seem that "sweet" when you eat them.

His explanation of the foods to stay away from concern how fast your body absorbs the sugars out of the food. For example, he makes a scale of the different forms of an apple: whole (with skin), skinless, applesauce, then apple juice. Your body absorbs the sugar slower with the skin and everything (ok, not the core, for those literal-minded readers) because it has to deal with the fiber of the skin, but on the other end of the spectrum is the juice, which is absorbed very quickly. It passes from your stomach to your small intesting quickly, and then, WHAM, into your bloodstream. I guess you might as well inject apple juice into your veins!

I haven't really cheated on the diet, but I have stretched things a little. I took raw broccoli for lunch, and put some bleu cheese dressing to dip into; the book suggests low-fat dressings only. Instead of low-fat mayonnaise, I'm just using regular mayonnaise. I like Miracle Whip, which is lower fat, but I think they replace the fat with sugar -- a bigger no-no. However, I haven't had a coke for almost a week. I'm drinking water with all my meals, except 1 or 2 that I had unsweetened tea -- yuck. Not that I don't like tea, but I'd rather have lots of sugar in my tea, like you get at Woody's or Sonny's. No candy. I have some Breath Savers, sugar-free mints, 5 calories each, that I'm allowed in moderation (75 calories total for sugar-free hard candies).

For those that wonder, I don't like sugar substitutes. I've tried all 3 (pink stuff, blue stuff, and the new "yellow stuff"), they all leave a bad aftertaste in my mouth. We made some sugar-free Jello, I have to eat it with my lunch second, so I still have food left to cover up the aftertaste.

I haven't noticed any inches off my middle, but it's hard to tell. I'm getting the middle-age weak stomach muscle bulge, where I can still "suck it in" but if I relax it hangs out some. My jeans seem to hang on me a little, I might have to buy some new jeans first -- no "butt crack" allowed here!!

Ciao.