Towards the end of 2015, I had just wrapped up a lengthy and painful custody court process. It took a tremendous mental, emotional and physical toll on me. I spent so much of my energy focusing on the court process, I overlooked a great deal of self care.
Over the course of 2015, I put on 25 lbs. (I’ve typically kept my weight around 225 lbs, but I ballooned up to 250 lbs) The court process reached its height of stress and anxiety during this time and I had a hard time dealing with all of it. As a result, I found comfort in over eating. I ate a lot of really good food during that time. And a lot of it was not very good for me. However, it did accomplish one thing… it gave me a short term break from the stress and anxiety I was dealing with (or trying to avoid…). I would eat pizza, pasta, steaks, deserts (I have a MAJOR sweet tooth) and drink… a lot! Wine and whiskey mostly.
All of the foods I was eating (and over eating) changed my state. Over eating slowed my circulation and caused me to “feel relaxed.” The same way you “feel relaxed” when you overeat at Thanksgiving. The only problem was I was not dealing with the root cause of my stress. I wasn’t taking care of myself.
I have always felt like I have a good knowledge of nutrition until this happened. Then I realized I knew very little. I felt like I was drowning in a sea of unhealthiness and I wasn’t sure how to get my head above water.
A friend suggested going to my family physician to get blood work and get some suggestions from him. So I went to my doctor, got blood work done and got some of the best advice I may have ever received.
My doctor suggested I give the South Beach Diet a shot. I’m not big on dieting, as I believe diets are inherintly set up to fail. I believe in making life style changes. With that said, South Beach was the perfect way to educate myself on the right food combinations and, maybe more importantly, the right PORTIONS of food.
Those weren’t the only benefits. The other benefit was SAVING $$$. Over the years, I had also fallen out of habit of using a budget. Back in 2014, I was trying to be super frugal and spend $400 a month in groceries, which equates to a lot of cans of tuna and cheap methods of eating. I use Mint (www.mint.com) to track monthly expenses and noticed my eating habits were costing me upwards of $800 a month. South Beach allowed me to cut my monthly food bill down to $300.
And, all of the meals and snacks come premade. for someone living alone and wanting an easy way to manage their food intake/nutrition, this was a really easy way to do that.
In the first three month alone, I lost 15 lbs… six months I was down 20 lbs and a year later, I’m down 25 lbs total.
South Beach was a great educational and nutritional tool. I strongly recommend this to anyone looking to make a nutritional change, educate themselves on portion sizes and food combinations and saving money on food.
