Here's a Tip: South Beach Diet Update & Pizza

We started the South Beach Diet 4.5 weeks ago (you can read about our progress HERE, HERE, and HERE) and the grand total of weightloss to date is Peter: 20 lbs. and Carrie: 10 lbs.! So far so good. Peter wants to lose around 70 lbs. total, which means he has 50 to go before he reaches his goal weight. My goal was to lose around 15 lbs, so I have another 5-6 lbs. before I reach my goal. By "reach" I mean that when I weigh at night (my heaviest) I want to be at my goal weight. It has been really nice to watch the scale creaping DOWN instead of UP! I can't say enough good stuff about this diet. I feel better (no more sugar crashes), I have more energy, I'm exercising more and building strength, and I'm generally taking better care of my body (good foods, lots of water, limiting sweets).

Now that we are in Stage 2 of the diet, we are allowed to begin introducing some carbs back into our diet. One of the ways that we have done that is to make small pizzas at home on Sunday nights. My super easy "recipe" looks something like this:

I used a pita cut in half (so you have two rounds) for the crust (15 carbs each) for the last two Sunday nights. However, I just discovered some GREAT tortillas that only have 5 carbs for a whole tortilla (and 8 g. of protein!) that I'll be using in the future for the "crust".

Top the pita (or tortilla) with 1 TBS. of pizza sauce (I use our store brand - a serving size was 1/4 cup - so by cutting it down to 1 TBS. it now has 10 cals, 1.75 carbs, 0.75 sugar).

Load it up with protein-filled toppings and vegetables: shredded cheese, turkey pepperoni, low-fat cooked sausage (about 1.5 TBS.), sliced mushrooms, and diced onions and peppers.

I put it in the oven on 350 for 15 minutes (or you can do it at a higher temp. until the cheese is melted) and it is DELICIOUS!!! We love pizza and that has been one of the hardest things to "give up", but doing this one night a week makes up for the "loss" and the taste is just as good.

For more ways to save money on pizza (and a bunch of other stuff!), check out Frugal Friday over at Life as Mom.