[ButKnillinoi]

I hate to be harsh Chris...but at this point I don't think it will matter if your doing South Beach or Atkins...your excursions off diet are not driven by limitiations of the diets, they are driven by your emotional eating and the inability to control your eating when out with friends....combined with the challenges of dieting (and this woudl be so regardless of diet) when eating commercial/cafeteria food plans as your only option...

If by following South Beach you don't feel deprived and that makes a difference, then it may well be the right plan for you! But my observation would be that any diet is going to make you feel deprived until you adopt it as your way of eating for life....until then, you will feel like it is a diet that restricts what you can eat, and you will resent it...and go off it when tempted.

I do wish you luck and success. Your blood preasure and cholesterol are warning signs you need to get your body under control. And you will feel so much better and be treated so much better by others if you can get down to a more "normal" size...