From Kimberly Read & Marcia Purse,
Your Guide to Bipolar Disorder.
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by Marcia Purse

My surgery has wrought havoc on my ability to stick to the South Beach Diet, so I am going to start over. According to my ancient scale, I started at 182 pounds, and today I weigh 181 pounds. One thing I am going to do soon is buy a new scale, because this one is very old and I know it weighs about 6 pounds light (based on weighing at home, then weighing at a doctor's office, without eating anything in between).

As I mentioned in my I'm Bipolar series article The South Beach Diet, my doctors had recommended I go on a "modified Atkins" diet. When my About Bipolar Disorder Guide partner Kimberly said she had signed up for South Beach a few days earlier, I took a close look at this diet and liked what I saw. The diet pushes monounsaturated fats - the healthy kind - and even recommends fish oil capsules daily. Fish oil has been shown to be helpful for bipolar disorder, and my psychiatrist told me to start taking these supplements the day he diagnosed me bipolar. In addition, the South Beach Diet allows you to eat non-starchy vegetables from the outset. Since I love many vegetables, I really liked this idea.

Phase 1, the first two weeks, eliminates all starchy carbohydrates such as grains and white potatoes, as well as milk and fruits, from one's daily diet, but you don't starve! By having plenty of protein and vegetables at breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus two high-protein snacks in the morning and afternoon, you keep your blood sugar level. Dips in blood sugar, says Dr. Arthur Agatston, creator of the South Beach Diet, are what cause cravings. High-carbohydrate foods cause spikes in blood sugar; this sets off accelerated insulin production to combat the spike; and the result is low blood sugar - causing sharp hunger and a craving for more carbs which our bodies know will raise blood sugar quickly.

Dr. Agatston is a cardiologist who was looking for a way to help his heart patients lose weight safely. This diet has been shown to reduce total cholesterol and raise the "good" cholesterol - a goal especially important to me, since I have been taking cholesterol medicine since the 1980s and heart disease is rampant in my family.

I did not purchase the book, but signed up at the South Beach Diet website for $29.99 for the first six weeks, and $6.95 per month thereafter. The website has a weight tracker, space for a public or private online journal, support message boards, and a very good interactive area for meal selection and planning that even helps you print a shopping list.

Anticipated Problems

These issues came up on my first time around with the South Beach Diet:

1. My mother, the cook, doesn't really like cooking for this diet. Since there are only two of us in the household, she doesn't want to make rice or potatoes for herself only, but then she feels deprived.

2. I hate cooking and am not good at it.

3. I hated what the diet did to my morning schedule. I'm a slow starter, and all my "slow" time vanished, taken up by fixing and eating breakfast and then fixing my own lunch (Mom used to make me a sandwich, but I felt I couldn't ask her to make the complicated salads now required). Plus, I hate solid food in the morning!

4. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. I'm still addicted to chocolate.

In addition, my schedule is now quite erratic because I'm still recovering from surgery. Sometimes I'm sleeping through mealtimes.

But anyway - starting tomorrow, along with Kim, I'm going to give this my best shot!

Next Page: Day One