I’m completely and unabashedly an emotional eater. I feel stressed; I want to eat. I feel sad; I want to eat. I feel frustrated; I want to eat. Considering that I felt all of these emotions the vast majority of the past year, I discovered that the weight I am at was not what I wanted to experience.

But it’s hard to retrain your body when you have gradually built up a response system the whole previous year. It’s like how I have to go to bed by a certain time every night, or else the next day is absolutely miserable for me. I’m a junkie for my sugar and carbs. I know it’s not healthy for me, (especially because my myriad of health problems make physical workouts hard to do,) and it definitely hasn’t done anything nice for my vanity, either.

Enter: South Beach Diet.

Principle 1) Eating food that are lower on the glycemic index (essentially, low on sugars- natural or added). First two weeks, no sugar or carbs–mainly veggies and low fat dairy and proteins.  No fruit (too much sugar), no bread or grains (cutting out both sugar and carbs), and not even some veggies (carrots and beets are high on the glycemic index).

Essentially, I’m going cold turkey.

I am hoping that by sticking to this, it will help me break the “addiction” my body has to the bad stuff. I’ll eventually add whole grains and fruit back into my diet. When I did the diet several years ago in college, it was amazing how much it helped me feel better about myself and my weight. I’m hoping it will happen again now.

It’s been one whole week, and I am happy to report that I have already lost 5 lbs.

That almost makes it worth not having my daily dose of bread and sugar… right?