So although I'm philosophically opposed to dieting, I'm on South Beach. The prospect of losing 8-13 pounds in two weeks is too alluring. And since I only need to lose 8-13 pounds, I can then go straight to Phase 3. Right? Anyway. I've lost three pounds (!) so far and have to say, it's not bad.

I mean, I snack on cheese and turkey and I have turkey bacon and eggs for breakfast, and big ol' giant salads and sugar free jello for lunch. And then dinner isn't all that different from regular dinners- last night we had rosemary salmon and the killer roasted asparagus with brown butter and pecorino from A New Way To Cook, alongside a huge, huge, huge plate of Marcella Hazan's wonderful tomato salad from Essentials of Italian Cooking (which I could make a whole dinner of, alone. Heirloom tomatoes, sliced and dressed with basil and garlic infused vinegar and oil. Yum, yum, YUM.)- which isn't that different from a non SBD meal.

Tonight we're having friends for dinner and I'm serving a meal Julia Reed described in the NYT magazine a few months back- ribeye steak, a tomato and cheese torte, a big salad, and flourless chocolate cake. All of which I've been dying to try for ages and all of which (apart from the cake) is totally on the SBD.