today is my final day on phase one of the south beach diet. overall, it hasn’t really been too terrible. i don’t really enjoy cooking as much as i’ve cooked in the past two weeks, so maybe i got a little whiny about it on day nine, which happened to be the day after an all-night festival so maybe i was just having a tantrum. anyway. vegetables are good and i enjoy them.

that said, i am very much looking forward to adding a little bit of carbs back into my life. i think i will still try to avoid actively choosing pasta or bread, but these are things i like. i also like cookies, too.

the past two weeks have taught me a thing or two about smart substitutions in recipes or at restaurants. and i’ve also learned that i have pretty decent will power. i mean, i sort of knew this, but i haven’t been practicing the need to control myself lately, so i just need to keep these last two weeks in mind when i see brownies in the breakroom at work or the bagels on friday morning when i’m not really hungry, they just smell good.

smell, and then move on, amy.

i battled another fierce caffeine withdrawal headache on day (and night) 3, i felt kind of woozy on day 4, i felt pretty amazing days 5–7, then i started feeling woozy again on day 8. this time i think the woozy was something other than the diet change, though i’m not exactly sure what. with the combination of that all night festival and having my sleep schedule thrown out of wack, by the time day 10 came around, i could barely keep myself awake. i couldn’t make myself want to eat much (chicken broth happened instead of chicken noodle soup — and maybe i had to sneak in a couple whole grain saltines) and i went to bed around 7pm. after sleeping for three hours on the sofa in the afternoon. since a responsible lunch on day 11, i have felt much better, though i haven’t felt as awesome as days 5–7 — how do i get back to that?

i haven’t lost as much weight as i was hoping during this phase, but i also didn’t follow the menu exactly and i improvised sometimes. mostly i tried to make most of what i was eating to be veggies, but then i discovered the fake-sugar meringue cookie things… i gotta lay off of those. anyway, if the scale i have is comparable to the scale at my doctor’s office (i have doubts), i have lost about 7 pounds. not too shabby.

i am going to try to keep up the good work through the end of this month, but i am taking tomorrow off — i will be at rock the garden in the afternoon and there is always some delicious food truck to try out!

also, i would like to eat a real cookie.