The toughest part of a diet isn't watching what you eat. It's watching what other people eat.

Ever been  to SoBe?  That's where the South Beach Diet originated from. Dr. Arthur Agatston developed this unusually unique diet. Eat the right carbs, eat the the right fats.  He said that the reason most diets fail is that people get tired of counting carbs, calories, points, proteins, grapefruit slices, cookies in the cookie diet, yada yada, yada.  My brother Steve was THE biggest proponent on this diet. "Dave, this is the healthiest, best diet.  I've lost SOOOO much weight.  Well big brother must be correct right?  I'm sure he read some article on it.  

Well Dr. Agatston's books became best sellers.  And why not? My brothers lost tons of weight.  So my wife and I decided to go on it. 

I gotta say the first two weeks of that diet were the most grueling weeks I've EVER had on a diet. My root canal, well both of my root canals at that point were MUCH easier than my wife and I found those two weeks.  You've got to cut out all the carbs... .to rid your body of the cravings. That includes not only the bad carbs like white bread and potatoes but also the good carbs like whole grain breads.   Not only do you rid your body of carb cravings for chips and stuff...you also rid yourself of every incredibly delicious tasting food on the planet.  This diet has three phases...first is the worst!  2nd is not so bad and third phase...well I never got to the 3rd maintenance phase. 

I did lose about 30 some odd pounds..think about it...pick up two 15 pound bowling balls.  That's how much weight I took off!  I was slimmer than I had been in many years.

But holy cow! The recipes in those cookbooks...

Now, I'm a pretty picky eater to begin with, but not only were the recipes in that first book REALLY bad, a good number of the other books had ingredients that you had pay an and a leg for only to use a couple of teaspoons.  So we bought some other of the SoBe cookbooks and were able to use very few of the recipes.  Many of them were probably OK for most people, but not my lovely wife and myself.

Again, not the right diet for me.  I just couldn't control myself during a cruise.  I ate what I wanted..and I mean, isn't that what cruises are all about?  EATING????  Well, after the cruise I just could NOT go back on that phase 1 and rid myself of the carbs again.  And after a few months I got on the scale to weigh myself and the needle went all the way up to where it said, "To be continued." 

So this was also NOT the right diet for me.  Bye-Bye South Beach Diet!!   Another diet down the tubes!

Now let's fast forward 10 years and 40 pounds later to 2010.  NOW my brother Steve who told me South Beach was the best thing since sliced bread now tells me that the Jorge Cruise Belly Fat Cure is the best thing since man landed on the moon!   And that's where I am now.  Down 30 pounds as of today.