You Can Eat the Foods You Enjoy While on the South Beach Diet

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One of the first things anyone ever notices when checking out a diet menu to see if they think they can do it is the “can haves” and the “cannot haves”. You will soon form the opinion that you will not go far with a diet when it is unvaried and boring and all the things you would normally enjoy eating are off the menu. This however is not the case with the South Beach Diet.

Go ahead and examine the foods recommended on the South Beach Diet. Happily, you will find that the South Beach diet recipes use a wide variety of foods and diverse cooking methods to prepare meals that are truly mouth-watering combinations.

When creating the food list for the South Beach Diet, much consideration was given to the foods most people enjoy eating. The South Beach Diet program allows you to eat a variety of meats, like chicken breast, Cornish game hen, lean beef, boiled ham and turkey. Meat is even allowed on Phase 1, the most restrictive part of the diet.

The South Beach Diet is Mecca to the seafood lover. Eating the fruit of the sea is encouraged on all phases of the South Beach Diet, and you are especially reminded to eat fish that offer up high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, like cod and mackerel.

In Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet, your intake of high-carb fruits and grains is restricted, but don’t fret. It’s only for two weeks, and during this time your body will stop craving unhealthy amounts of these foods. Now when you start eating fruits and grains again in Phase 2, you will be more able to control your portions and eat them healthfully.

Phase 2 also allows dairy products and full-fat cheeses back into your diet. As with the carbs you gave up in Phase 1, you will now find that your body does not crave these foods like it did before. This helps you to eat them in a healthier way.

Vegetables are found in abundance throughout the South Beach Diet. Favorites like asparagus, cauliflower, celery and collard greens can be eaten freely. Want a little treat? How about pickles sweetened with Splenda.

Another great menu item on the South Beach Diet is salads. Take some of the meats and cheeses you can eat on Phase 1, and add a nice helping of romaine lettuce or spinach. You will have a meal-size salad that will be both tasty and healthful, and you wont’ feel like you’re on a diet at all!

They say that variety is the spice of life. If that’s true, the South Beach Diet is the spiciest diet around. Check it out for yourself. You will not be disappointed or feel deprived, and the weight will come off too.

What does the South Beach Diet Menu Look Like?

One of biggest draw-backs to many diets is the “forbidden” foods list. It is human nature to desire the things we know we can’t have, and this seems to magnify when you’re on a diet. Dieting is difficult enough without the disappointment of having to eat foods you don’t like.

Well, say hello to the South Beach Diet. The South Beach Diet is highly successful because the list of “allowed” foods is much longer than the list of “forbidden” foods.

There is no “forbidden fruit” on the South Beach Diet. This program simply teaches you how to enjoy the foods you love in a healthier way. For example, if you are a meat lover, the South Beach Diet doesn’t say, “You can never eat red meat again!” Rather, the South Beach Diet teaches you how to eat red meat sensibly, by choosing smaller, leaner cuts.

Phase 1 is the most restrictive part of the South Beach Diet, but the list of foods you can eat during this two-week period is unexpectedly diverse. In fact, Phase 1 allows many foods you would never expect to eat while on a diet.

Low in fat or fat free cheese along with beef, pork, eggs, low fat lunch meat and poultry are all allowed so long as you avoid greasy or fatty portions. For all you seafood lovers, you will be delighted to discover that products from the sea are allowed and even encouraged throughout all phases of the South Beach Diet. If you have a sweet tooth, that’s no problem, but you must keep your sweet allowance to 75 calories each day. Phase 1 is the strictest part of the diet but you still have the choice to include your favorite foods so you can see that this diet will be easy to stick to.

One of the reasons the South Beach Diet is so successful, is that you learn how to adapt your own recipes to make them healthier. Phase 1 restricts you to using only canola oil or olive oil, but you will find this actually enhances the taste of your food. You are also advised to use low-fat dairy products during Phase 1, but this is only for two weeks. From that point on, preparing home-cooked meals is a breeze.

Fruits, normal dairy products and grains are re-introduced to your choice of foods during Phase 2 of the diet but you will find your cravings for these are not nearly as strong as previously. By eating food which your body can break down easily your weight will continue to drop, until you have reached your goal.

The most important question to ask when you are choosing a diet program is, “What will I be able to eat?” You will be more than pleased with the answer to this question on the South Beach Diet. And the weight loss that comes with it won’t be so bad either.