After gaining back 15 of the 25 pounds I had lost so far this year I decided to go back to the South Beach diet, but approach it a little differently this time. I tried to think back to what went wrong last time.

Last time I was on South Beach I began it with Eric. I was doing it for me, but I felt like it was too hard to cook two sets of meals every day and he was on board at first. By week three he was done with it and wanted his carbs back in full force. After days of his telling me how much he wanted pizza I finally caved. I knew that was the beginning of the end for me. I'm an all or nothing kind of person. Once I cheat I excuse little slips here and there. Oh well two pieces of pizza didn't set me back, I will only have a small dish of ice cream. From there it's a small step to old habits.

This time I decided to approach things differently. The changes to Eric's eating will be scaled back. Basically, I'm just making carbs for him and the girls. I've tried to pick things that I don't find too tempting and only make enough for each meal. I'm pretty sure I could have pressed forward a lot better last time if I had kept Eric carbed up. He was always hungry and couldn't seem to kick it no matter what he ate. While he agreed with going on it, it wasn't his idea and he probably wasn't ready to make that kind of a life change.

I'm feeling optimistic about it this time. Yesterday, my sister and Eric ate Oreo pudding and I was able to avoid temptation. I've also got a plan to make sure I'm drinking enough water. Kat told me about Fly Lady's habit for June; drinking water. FL recommends setting a timer at the top of every hour, measuring the amount and drink 8 oz. This has been working great for me. I had previously tried to do it in 16 oz spurts. The problem I had with that was that I couldn't chug it all at once without feeling sick. I would leave it on the counter and forget to come back to it. The nice thing is that with the 8 oz I can chug it down and forget about it until the next time.

I put up a dry erase board in my kitchen. I have a list of the foods I can't eat that I would think I might be able to and the ones I have to limit. I have a place where I keep track of my sugar-free calories, my days of progress, and my weight progress. It's been a nice visual reminder. I decided on Abs birthday I am going to go to phase 2. We'll see what happens this time. I've also decided to keep a food diary.

Here goes nothing :)