A South Beach Diet Story
No Pizza? No Problem! How I lost 50 Pounds on the South Beach Diet
By Aly Walansky
About a year ago, when diets and weight loss were low on my list of priorities, I was leaving a Tiki Hut in the East Village of New York City (bet you didn’t know that NYC had Tiki Huts!). I was with two of my good (and very petite) friends, who probably never dieted in their lives, when a random stranger shouted out, “Hey Blondie! You have a fat a**!”
Perhaps it was the two giant margaritas I had just imbibed (one of many poor dietary habits), or maybe it was because this attack hit on the very core of a lifelong insecurity that I needed to lose weight, but I immediately crumbled into a cocoon of tears.
My friends, of course, tried to console me, telling me he had meant “phat” rather than “fat” and that he was a stupid drunken stranger anyway. But alas, I had hit rock bottom. I knew my attitude towards dieting, from that moment forth, had to change.
I was never “fat” per se, but I had been rather plump since I was a little girl. Blame it on growing up in a Jewish family with a very attentive grandma living across the street. Feeding was medicinal, and every day brought with it a variety of carbohydrates including bagels, potatoes, and an inordinate amount of sugar. Gaining weight with after-school snacks of bialys or potato soup with some hot fresh Jewish rye were the staple for me. I loved that time, and the food was a big part of it. “Eat! Eat!” To not eat (more like overeating) would assuredly convince her that something was desperately wrong and cause endless concern. So, I ate.
As most women who struggle with their body image and weight loss, I had many times during my teens and early twenties tried crazy diets. I’d go entire days eating nothing but bananas and coffee, only to get frustrated after a few days and break back out the carb-filled bagels and pasta. Food is a tough addiction because, unlike other types of addictions, you obviously can’t go cold turkey (which, by the way, is a yummy low-fat meal). To achieve substantial weight loss, you have to learn to modify your eating habits in a way that is healthy and at least moderately satisfying. Let’s face it, a brownie is far more aesthetically pleasing, generally, then, say, a salad, and that makes dieting difficult.
That night, as I sat there hating the phantom wino, the world and even myself, my friend gave me some good advice: Rather than indulging in yet another cycle of self-pity about my struggles to lose weight, do something about it. She had been seeing a nutritionist for years, and was herself attempting the South Beach Diet. She recommended I give it a try.
In my mind, the South Beach Diet and the other low carb diet plans were all from the same fabric – and I was one of the masses who nay-sayed and called them dangerous fads. I’d sit around with my friends, talking about how low carb diets were dumb, because as soon as you start eating “normal” again, you gain the weight back. (Well, duh!) And then, of course, we’d guffaw about how the creator of Atkins died, so that was *proof* the Atkins diet was a bad one. I was sure the South Beach Diet wouldn’t work. It would be just another crazy waste of time.
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