The journey of reaching your weight-loss goals starts in the kitchen. Taking stock of the foods that you will be cooking and eating, and learning which to avoid as you follow the South Beach Diet, is a good way to set yourself up to succeed. When we say avoid, it ideally means removing certain sugary and starchy foods altogether. To help you get started (or to serve as a reminder) on Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet, we’ve created this checklist of foods that should be eliminated. Some of these foods can be reintroduced two weeks later, once you enter Phase 2. Learn how to create a Phase 1-friendly kitchen with this easy cheat sheet:

Foods to Avoid on Phase 1

Baked goods: All breads, bagels, and rolls (even those that are 100% whole wheat or whole grain), cakes, cookies, crackers, cupcakes, muffins, pastries, and waffles

Beverages: All fruit juices, sodas, and any other drinks containing added sugars, as well as all alcoholic beverages

Cereals: All varieties of cereals

Condiments, dressings, and seasonings: Barbecue sauce, honey mustard, ketchup, cocktail sauce, and any other condiment, sauce, or salad dressing made with added sugars

Dairy and cheese: Whole milk, cheeses made with anything but 1%, part-skim, or fat-free milk; no creamy cheeses except for low-fat cottage cheese and spreadable cheese wedges; ice cream, 2% or whole milk; whole soy milk; full-fat cup-style or frozen yogurt

Flour: All flour (even whole wheat), including pancake and waffle mixes; cornmeal

Fruit: All fruit and fruit products, including dried and canned fruits, and sugared fruit jams and jellies

Meat and poultry: Anything processed using sugars (honey-baked or maple-cured ham, for instance); fatty fowl such as goose and duck legs; pâte; dark-meat chicken and turkey (legs and wings); processed fowl such as packaged chicken nuggets or patties; beef brisket, liver, rib steaks, prime rib, skirt steak, bacon, bologna, full-fat beef pepperoni, salami, and other fatty meats.

Oils and fats: All solid vegetable shortening or lard, butter, and hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils

Pasta: All pasta, even whole wheat

Rice: All rice, even brown

Snacks: All unhealthy snacks are off-limits (such as chips and cookies), except for sugar-free gelatin and 1-ounce packages of dry-roasted nuts

Soup: All powdered soup mixes (many are loaded with trans fats and sodium)

Sweeteners: All sweeteners, except sugar substitutes

Vegetables (starchy): Beets, carrots, corn, green peas, sweet and white potatoes, pumpkin, turnips (root), winter squash, and yams