How The South Beach Diet Works

Weight Loss South Beach Diet Articles : How The South Beach Diet Works by Alan Densky

The South Beach diet plan is among the most widely used methods of losing weight today. It is styled around lifestyle and diet changes that help you steadily lose weight. By avoiding "bad" fats and carbohydrates and having plenty of "good" ones, dieters can take weight off without sacrificing their health or feeling deprived.

There are three phases in the South Beach diet. During phase one, dieters do not eat any carbohydrates except for vegetables. Although many foods are banned, dieters still have a variety of foods they can eat. The first phase is the toughest phase, but also the quickest since it only takes fourteen days. Dieters are expected to lose between 8 to 12 pounds during this phase.

In phase two, dieters begin reintroducing the previously restricted carb-rich foods into their meals. Dieters can expect to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week while slowly increasing the amount of carbohydrates in their diet. Phase two lasts until dieters attain their target weight.

Phase three is the maintenance phase. Dieters use their strategies they learned from phase two to maintain their goal weight throughout the rest of their lives. If dieters begin to regain weight, they may revert back to phase one of the diet.

It is likely that you've seen pre-packaged South Beach meals and snacks in the grocery store. These items are convenient, but you do not need to buy them in order to be on the diet. You just need to commit to the different general guidelines for each phase of the diet.

During the first phase of the diet, you can consume lean cuts of meat, such as turkey, chicken, and fish, eggs, most vegetables, nuts, and a small quantity of dairy products. Fruits and their juices are avoided during this phase because of their sugar content. Also banned are all carbohydrates, fatty meats, alcohol, and a few vegetables that may have high sugar content, such as beets. The goal of this phase is to cut "bad" carbohydrates from your diet and start the process of losing weight.

During the second phase, dieters gradually reintroduce fruit, whole grains, and other formerly prohibited foods into their diet. In the process, dieters learn how to balance their diet to maintain a desirable weight. Once this is successfully accomplished, the diet switches into the lifetime maintenance phase, in which dieters attempt to maintain the healthy habits that helped them reach their target weight.

The factor for success with the South Beach diet plan is committing to eating healthy. Although that sounds simple, the South Beach diet program and other diet plans fail because dieters give up before the program can take effect. The problems that most dieters have with weight loss often stem from deeper issues such as a lack of inspiration to lose weight, a habit of overeating, or an inability to control the appetite. The good thing is that all of these issues are treatable with techniques that anyone can learn from a good hypnosis weight loss CD program.

To remedy a lack of motivation, practices from a tool called Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) will help give you a powerful desire to stay on track with your dieting goals.

First, dieters identify precisely what it is that is most valuable to them, as an individual. This is called their "highly valued criteria." Then, NLP techniques are applied to make the dieters feel that by losing weight, their highly valued criteria will benefit greatly. An alternative is to make the dieter feel that if they do not lose weight, their most valued criteria will be placed in jeopardy.

Motivation is produced by what we believe, not by logic! So in the previous case, let's say that the dieter's most highly valued wish is that the dieter's children are safe and happy. Using an NLP tool called Submodalities, we can lead the dieter into believing that if he/she is unable to lose weight, the children will be condemned to emulating their parent and they will be overweight and dissatisfied. This belief will give a strong desire and feeling to stick to a diet and get the weight off.

Other NLP techniques can help to reduce or even entirely remove the urges and cravings that cause one to eat too much. This works very well to help dieters stick to the initial and most challenging weeks of the South Beach diet. Additionally, it helps dieters commit to an exercise program, which will increase the effectiveness of any diet.

Stress is a factor that often drives people to eat too much or neglect their health, but stress-relief is offered by both hypnosis and NLP techniques. One such tool is called the NLP Flash. With the NLP Flash, having the unconscious use stressful thoughts to prompt you to have relaxing thoughts gets rid of the stress that triggers the desire to eat too much.

Unmanageable eating habits often cause people to gain weight. Countless people have seemingly uncontrollable appetites because over the years, they have unconsciously developed a "conditioned response" to eat in certain situations. For instance, many of us eat in front of the television even though we aren't truly even hungry. The good thing is, hypnosis and NLP have techniques that can quickly eliminate these conditioned responses. These techniques eliminate the appetite without drugs or pills.

By targeting the root obstacles that keep people from losing weight, NLP and hypnosis has helped many dieters finally get fit and slim for life. Combined with the South Beach diet, dieters may experience natural weight loss and success at reaching their fitness goals.

About the Author
Alan B. Densky, CH. Visit the hypnosis website for Free hypnosis downloads, videos, and newsletters. He offers several ways to lose weight, including hypnosis for weight loss DVDs and weight loss hypnotherapy CDs.

Source: Weight loss south beach diet information at goarticles.com