Tabby, way to go with the weight loss I do think the small and gradual changes are best so there's time to get used to each step instead of being inundated all at once.

ibcycling, I did look at the Savingdinner site. I signed up for the free recipes and it looks pretty good.

jobob, it's great that your husband cooks. Mine does too...he tends to add cheese and butter though he's really trying to watch to curtail that. As far as South Beach taking more time, I know my mother said that it tended to take fresh ingredients (meaning more trips to the store) and cooking.

I'm not an emotional eater. I DO tend to eat what's convenient and fast. I tend to get overwhelmed by the various types of carbs and what's needed. I tend to eat whole grain over white, low fat over fat, and while we've been known to cook rib eye steaks, we eat more chicken or fish than red meat.

Here's my challenge though. I am busy. Just as an example, last night I got home at 3am (home from work), unwound and went to bed and woke up at 11:30am. I ate a bowl of cereal (bad, I know, but fast) and went to the gym to swim for an hour. I got home and rode my bike for 1/2 hour, got home and had to be in the shower in minus 20 minutes. I grabbed a handful of pistachios because I was starving. I brought a frozen low fat burrito and a frozen low fat chicken/veggie bowl to work. I do things like this four times a week. During my work week, I have little time to do much beyond exercise, sleep, and go to work. I do have more time on the weekend but with us, fresh food tends to go bad. If we can freeze it, it's all good. I also have little time to do frequent trips to the store.

For a snack, I'll tend to do things like eat a whole wheat english muffin with honey and cinnamon. I have chocolate milk after exercise, usually. My workouts are 6 times a week and range from about 45 minutes to several hours. Some of them are fairly high intensity so "dieting" worries me because my calorie expenditure is fairly high.

My long winded question is....what is fast, good for you, and doesn't go bad quickly? There are days I don't even have time to make scrambled eggs (go figure!) so those are cereal days. I don't like skimping on sleep either.

I try to stock our kitchen with things that aren't bad for you but then again I tend to get a lot of processed things just due to time constraints.

Whew, that was long-winded