THE BEST DIET FOR YOU
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Different Strokes for Different Folk -
Different Diets Work Best for Different People!
Aly Walansky tells of the success she had with the South Beach Diet.
I grew up in Gravesend, Brooklyn in New York in a family neighborhood—in an apartment right across the street from my grandmother. Both my parents worked and so, after school, I would run across the street to my grandmother’s house and she would feed me.
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 traditional Jewish family with that very attentive grandma right across the street. For her generation giving food was giving love. “Eat! Eat!” Delicacies such as homemade potato soup and hot fresh bagels or bialies were some of her favorites. She fed me and fed me and fed me and before I knew it I was plump.
Then about a year ago, I was leaving a Tiki Hut in the East Village of New York City with two of my good and very petite friends when a random stranger shouted out, “Hey Blondie! You have a fat butt!”
Perhaps it was the two giant raspberry margaritas I had just imbibed, or maybe it was because this attack hit the very core of a lifelong insecurity, 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, and I knew things, from that moment forth, had to change.
As with most women who struggle with their body image, I had many times before tried crazy diets. I’d go all day eating nothing but bananas and coffee, only to get frustrated after a few days and break back out the sweets, bagels and pasta.
Food is a tough addiction because, unlike other addictions, you really can’t give it up totally. You have to learn to modify it in a way that is healthy, and well, at least moderately satisfying; and let’s face it … a brownie is far more aesthetically pleasing, generally, then, say, a salad.
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, do something. 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, South Beach Diet and the other “low-carb” plans were all cut from the same fabric—and I was one of the masses who nay-sayed and called them dangerous. 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” his diet was a bad diet. I was sure South Beach couldn’t work. It would be just another crazy waste of time. The adventurous soul I am though, I gave it a try.
The first two weeks are extremely Atkins-like. Phase 1, as we people on the plan call it, is very low-carbohydrate, no bread, no pasta, no sugar, no fruit or starch of any kind, and alcohol was a total no-no as well!
However, it’s different than Atkins even at that phase in that it doesn’t push the high fat as an alternative, either. Lean meats are your friend, fatty beefs and cheeses aren’t. The South Beach Diet was created by Dr. Arthur Agatston, a renowned cardiologist—and he took great pains to create a plan for his patients that would help them beat the bulge in a way that would never make them feel deprived.
It’s not low-carb like Atkins, or even necessarily low-fat or low-calorie. It’s more of a modified lifestyle that teaches you to eat the right carbs, the right fats, and the right proteins—and make it a part of your permanent life plan rather than a crash course to fit into those too-tight jeans.
As a sugar aficionado, those first few days were a bit intense. I felt I was in a state of perpetual PMS. I wasn’t hungry, I ate my fill of egg whites and fresh veggies and grilled chicken—but what I was going through was hardcore withdrawal.
I’m a Sagittarius—I want what I want when I want it, and while, sure, my egg white omelet with mozzarella and mushrooms was very satisfying—darn it, I was used to my morning bagel! As those initial few days passed, I gradually grew less cranky. I ended up losing 10 pounds, and an entire size, in the first two weeks.
The purpose of Phase 1 is detox; you are ridding your body of its addiction to sugar and simple carbs so that you can “retrain” it with the right ones later on. Once that hardcore phase is over, Phase 2 begins.
During that phase, you gradually reintroduce your body to starches and fruits—very carefully and slowly—paying careful attention to what particular starches make your metabolism freak out. Whole grains, oats, brown rice, sweet potatoes are all fine, and actually, pretty darn good for you if you don’t’ go crazy with them.
Being a lifestyle rather than a diet South Beach allows for treats to happen. If it’s your birthday, have the cake—a slice, not the entire sheet! Or indulge in a night of yummy Tex Mex sometimes. I do. The idea though, is to not to get obsessive: “Oh my God! I ate a brownie! It’s all over…I might as well give up.” That is how people fail, and that’s how people gain their weight back.
Over the course of about eight months, I lost 50 pounds and went from a size XL Misses to XS Juniors. I have more energy than I have ever had before, and I’ve learned to not only crave the good stuff—but be repelled by that which is naughty. Do I cheat sometimes? Sure—even with one of the kinds of bagels that my grandmother loved. But I don’t let food control me anymore. I’m too busy enjoying life on the Beach.
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