Building Your Own Diet Plan

I really want to follow the South Beach Diet. It looks simple enough, and most of the foods are easy for me to eat because I already do on a consistent basis.
My only drawbacks are two ‘required’ foods on phase one of the diet: vegetable juice cocktail (V8) and ricotta cheese (used nightly as a park of the dessert).
What foods could I use to substitute for these two? Is V8 really anything more than a concentrated mix of vegetables? And I really can’t stand the texture of ricotta cheese. It’s mixed with sugar substitute and natural flavorings to create a ‘creme’ for dessert. Please help!! Thank you!