If you’ve been around the health and fitness portion of Happy Wives Club, you may have noticed that I usually write all of the posts. I’ve been assigned as the resident “expert” for lack of a better term.

This week I was happy to hear about a post from one of our contributors, Maggie Reyes.  She’s been on a mission to lose weight WITH her husband.  When I heard about this I got super excited. I LOVE when a husband and wife are on a joint mission to get healthy. 

One of the most popular diets around is called the South Beach Diet. It has different phases to it.  I’m not going to go through the diet with you step-by-step.  Just know that if you are on it you’ll say goodbye to a lot of carbs (like potatoes, fruit, bread, rice, pasta, etc for a couple weeks). 

Maggie has some food hacks that will help you out if you are in Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet!

Make it a Healthy Day!

Annett Davis (HWC Health/Fitness Contributor) 

5 South Beach Diet Phase 1 Food Hacks!

The hubby and I are losing weight together.  When we analyzed all the things we could eat during the South Beach Diet phase 1, we realized we would have to get creative to stick to the eating plan.

This is where food hacking comes in. Basically you can tweak recipes changing ingredients or otherwise altering a traditionally made item to suit your needs, tastes or budget.

With a little creativity, we have found ways to eat some of the things we love within the strict parameters of the diet’s instructions.

Here are 5 of our favorite “hacks.”

Breakfast Yogurt – 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt, 1 heaping tablespoon of your favorite sugar free jam, 2 Splendas.

You cannot have fruit during phase 1, but you *can* have sugar free jams and jellies. Mixed in with Greek yogurt, they add flavor and sweetness and make this an easy addition to the breakfast rotation.

Chili with Mushroom – The hubby looooves chili, but he usually eats it with rice, so he had to find a substitute. He experimented with mushrooms as they are light in flavor and typically take on the savory flavors they are cooked into.

He followed the standard chili recipe on the back of McCormack Chili and just substituted mushrooms for rice. This one is definitely for the bolder experimenters, but for us, it worked as a great substitute.

The next 3 tips are all about the satisfying the Sweet Tooth.

Snickers Hack – Hershey’s Sugar Free, Caramel Filled Chocolate (1 piece) + approximately 5 to 10 peanuts. It may not be Snickers, but it really satisfies.

Almond Joy Hack – Russell Stover’s Sugar Free Coconut filled chocolate + 3 almonds.

Imaginary Ice Cream – you really can’t have ice cream during phase 1, but you can have sugar free fudgsicles. Take the fudgiscle, put it in a large cup and remove it from the stick with a knife. Put it in the microwave for 10 seconds, then add a nut of your choice (pecans and almond shavings work really well for this). Voila! Imaginary Ice Cream!

There you have it, 5 creative additions to South Beach Diet Phase 1.

Have you ever done the South Beach Diet?  Do you have any favorite food hacks to add to the list?