Come Monday, It'll Be Alright (The Diet, Day 34)

I stuck some Jimmy Buffet in this post just in case you were expecting him. Otherwise, this post is about the fact that my designated time on Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet expires on Monday. Today, I’m contemplating what I’ll do with my freedom.

I suppose my response should fall somewhere between “do nothing” and “go to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet.”

I feel like I’m only just now getting the hang of Phase 1. I think if I stayed on it another week or two I’d start to get good at it. So I did think about staying on it a bit longer, but…nah.

Then I thought about only very gradually coming off it. Phase 1 cuts out all fruits and all grains. The apple is the fruit that falls the lowest on the glycemic index, and barley is the grain that falls the lowest. I thought maybe I would only add back apples and barley for a couple of weeks.

But…nah.

I’m going to eat rice, and I’m going to eat bread, and I’m going to eat strawberries. Just not all at once.

I’ll stick to whole grain rice and whole grain bread in very modest portions…except for one thing. I plan to eat vegetable sushi on my first day back in carbland. Veg sushi is low in calories and fat, and it is my own special treat food. Through Phase 2 of South Beach, even though white rice is not allowed, and white rice is what comes with sushi, I’m going to allow myself vegetable sushi once a week. It’s my diet, and I can make up the rules if I want.

As for fruit, I’m going to try to stick to the low end of the glycemic index as much as possible, but I have exceptions for that already too. Two of the fruits containing the highest amounts of natural sugars are bananas and watermelons. I’m not going to eat a banana every day, but sometimes they are necessary.

And have I mentioned that I have seven small round watermelons currently growing in my yard? I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to break the no watermelon rule and eat some of them after I went to the trouble of accidentally growing them.

It’s a toss up right now whether I eat the sushi or the watermelon first. Either way, that thing about two weeks being long enough to get rid of cravings for carbohydrates turns out to be not quite true. I’m having dreams about toast.

It’s been two lonely weeks in a brown South Beach haze, and…well, you can fill in something appropriately corny here. I just know it’ll be alright come Monday.