In the beginning

As much as I rail against Diets, I do think that they are sometimes quite useful, like when you do an elimination diet to determine allergies or a cleanse to clear the toxins out of your system. When I started to change my dietary lifestyle, I began by following stage one of the South Beach Diet. This is the two-week radical, no-carb, low-fat diet that is usually followed by the next stage of SBD, which adds some healthier carbs (like beans, some fruits and starchier veggies) back into the fold. I didn't plan to continue on the SBD (being told what to do just makes me grumpy and resentful), but I liked the idea of giving my body a break from the junk I had been feeding it and the idea of starting relatively fresh after a two week "cleanse".

Two weeks without any carbs was a pain. I was grumpy. I was hungry. But I did start to learn some interesting things about myself. And I found that after two weeks with no carbs at all, the healthy ones I started adding back into my diet made me so happy. Brown rice noodles would have never had the same impact on me prior to the "Diet". Once again, the importance of perspective was driven home.