Week 3 Report

Week 3 Weight Loss: -5 lbs
Total Weight Loss: -17 lbs

I'm not actually sure why my number is so good this week, considering my weekend. Weekends are by far my toughest time. It's partly the temptation of having and making food for the kids, like the grilled cheese sandwiches I made for them Saturday night. Oh, how I love grilled cheese!

But actually, it is more a problem with making the time to make my meals. Granted, it's not that hard to make a mix. But when I'm with the kids I feel like I go from doing one thing for them to the next, or collapsing exhausted, and I don't take enough time for me. That is something I'd like to work on. Not that I'm giving myself permission to be selfish. But if I'm going to continue healthy eating habits, I need learn how to make them a priority.

My whole family would benefit, both from having a healthy wife/mom, and from eating healthier meals.

Day 21

I feel terrible today. I've got a sore throat and cough and itchy, runny nose. Last night I had a headache too. I don't think it's allergies because both of my kids have it too.

Click HERE to read about my 22nd day on Medifast.

Day 20

Morning Scale report: ??

I honestly don't know. First the scale said I was up half a lb, then it said down a whole one, and after that it gave a bunch of different readings but never the same one twice in a row. Probably up 1/2 lb.

I'm getting a new scale today.

7:30 - hot chocolate
11:30 - cinnamon bun bar (I'm starting to run out of bars!)
4:00 - Medifast cookies
9:00 - L/G Buffalo chicken salad

It's 9:30 now and I don't know how I'm going to get in 2 more MF meals tonight.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

My L/G was so yummy. I put a little butter in a pan and heated it with a little bit of hot buffalo sauce (1 fat + 1 condiment). Then I tossed in a package of pre-cooked white meat chicken strips. When the chicken was warmed through I put it over a romaine salad, sprinkled with low-fat mozz. cheese and a light drizzle of ranch dressing (2 more condiments). It's got too much fat to have every day, but I've been craving buffalo chicken since I started the diet, and this really hit the spot.

It's 10:15 now and I think I'd better get to bed, I can't even keep my eyes open.

Click HERE to read about my 21st day on Medifast.

Day 19

Morning Scale Report: +1 lbs

I am so hungry today. I was so hungry last night. WHAT THE HECK?

I'm so hungry right this very minute and I just finished a whole chocolate pudding, but I want to go eat a whole bunch of stuff! Could there have been that many carbs in my food yesterday that now I've triggered carb cravings again?

Maybe so, since the last time I felt this unsatisfiably hungry was over Easter weekend at my in-laws' when I went off the plan. It could also be my monthly cycle though.

Oh. And I didn't have my L/G at lunch today either. I needed to work through lunch for something so I had a MF meal instead, planning to eat my L/G tonight. I did that last Friday too but wasn't so totally starving that time.

I'm not craving any food in particular, but my tummy is pinching and nagging at me.

8:30 - hot chocolate
12:30 - cream of chicken soup
2:30 - half MF bar
3:00 - chocolate pudding
4:00 - other half MF bar
8:00 - chicken breast meat and chicken stir fry

Okay, so usually by 3:30 I've eaten almost the same number of MF meals, but also my Lean/Green for the day. That's got to be it.

I am going to be thinking of what to have for L/G tonight, because if I just go into my house this hungry without a plan I'm sure to be crazy tempted by all our snacks.

note - I did fine last night when I got home. I ate some of my husband's KFC chicken meat and then made some chicken stir-fry with broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, celery and onion.

Click HERE to read about my 21st day on Medifast.

Day 18

Morning Scale Report: -2 lbs

That's right! I weighed myself about 10 times and it was totally consistent. I'm a little worried it's because I didn't eat enough lean/green yesterday though, so I'm kind of anti-anticipating a small gain tomorrow. We'll see.

8:30 - hot chocolate
11:00 - smores bar (my favorite so far, it tasted pretty good and smelled just like a graham cracker)
12:30 - Hickory grilled halibut with asparagus and mashed cauliflower - BEST L/G EVER!
I'm expecting to have a cream of chicken soup and chocolate pudding this afternoon and maybe more Medifast cookies tonight.

I just got back from lunch and I am sooooo happy with my lunch. I admit it was a kind of reward to myself for hitting the 15 lb point. My husband and a friend and I went to my favorite restaurant. I wasn't even tempted by the free bread appetizer they bring out because I knew my lunch would be so good.

I really want to try making mashed cauliflower. It tasted just like potatoes, it was so light and fluffy. YUM. The only problem was that there was a delicious light lemony sauce on the whole thing, and I imagine it probably had some flour in it to thicken it (not much), and who knows how much butter/milk was in that and the cauliflower.

Ask me if I care though.

One thing I'd like to learn from this diet is that someday when I'm eating regular food and I want to eat something rich, just make it one part of the whole meal but make sure the rest of the meal is something very healthy.

I wish I knew how to grill fish like that.

Food confessions: I ate one of hubby's shrimp at lunch. It was lightly, lightly breaded.

Click HERE to read about my 19th day on Medifast.

Day 17

Morning Scale Report: -1 lb. :)

8:30 - Lemon Bar (tasted worse than usual, I need a lot of water to get it down)
10:30 - Tropical Punch drink (worst MF meal EVER. I could not finish it. *gag*)
12:30 - Southwest salad with chicken
4:30 - hot chocolate
6:30 - caramel bar
9:00 - MF chicken noodle soup (blah, the chicken is so rubbery)

I'm proud of myself because last night Mike stayed late at work so I had to come home by myself. And I didn't cheat at all! Oh wait, grrr, I had a single chips ahoy cookie. I had almost forgotten about that. But I didn't have it because I felt like I deserved it as "reward" for doing dinner and bedtime for the kids while Mike played computer games. I think I ate it because my son rejected it and I didn't want to just throw it away (yes, a whole other issue, though I normally don't mind throwing away food or composting it).

Anyway, I had a good attitude last night. :)

Today is also successful so far (apart from my salad - see below) because it's doughnut day at work again, and when I walked by the box at 11 I noticed my favorite kind was still in there. And listen, I didn't want it. For a tiny second I wanted it, but then I remembered that I don't really like it that much. I eat it because of a work tradition and as something I anticipate and look forward to. But I don't like the doughnuts from that bakery very much and I realized they didn't look that great to me. Even my favorite.

Really.

Food Confessions: My southwest salad today had some forbidden stuff on it - some corn, guac and thin tortilla chips. I picked a bunch out and didn't eat them, but I did eat some that I couldn't easily get out and didn't want to dig for. It also didn't have very much chicken, so I'm going to have to think up another protein.

Click HERE to read about my 18th day on Medifast.

Day 16

Morning Scale Report: -1 lb.

I was so glad to make progress again!

8:30 - hot chocolate
12:30 - L/G marinated chicken with salad (YUM!)
5:00 - chocolate pudding
6:00 - Medifast cookies
9:30 - Stew (not as good to me this time as the first time)
midnight - Oatmeal raisin bar

Oops,

I got so busy at work today that I've only eaten 2 instead of 4 of my Medifast meals. I'm going to have to get on the ball tonight to get the rest in. I put the stew into a thing of water in the fridge this morning to soak all day, so I'll have that tonight, and I'll have yesterday's leftover "cookies," and maybe a bar later.

My lunch was great today! Last night I marinated some chicken breasts and then baked them and weighed them into 5-6oz portions. So today I brought in one of those and went to Potbelly Sandwich and got a veggie salad to go with it. It had roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and cucumbers. It also had some beans in it which I mostly didn't eat and some cheese which I DID eat. And I had a few small drizzles of the salad dressing on it too. It was deluxe and it would be really easy to put together at home. I love getting ideas for new salads.

Edit: A couple of days after this I checked the veggie list and artichokes aren't on the acceptable list. Such a shame. :(

Click HERE to read about my 17th day on Medifast.

Day 15

Morning Scale Report: no change

This was not a good weigh-in for me, I was hoping to lose even just .5, but more like 1. I let it get me down this morning and was feeling bad for myself. I was thinking about how many Medifast meals I ate last week and only for a 2 lb. loss.

Luckily, I did start feeling better around lunch-time (probably looking forward to my L/G meal), and semi-convinced myself that losing 2 lbs in a week is pretty respectable and typical. (I just want my results to be like on weight loss ads: "Results not typical.")

I also recommitted this morning to increased diligence in staying on plan. I ended up having a good day. I didn't take any bites of the hot dogs or chips or crackers that I could have tried today. Giving up so much of my progress even for a taste of junk food isn't worth it.

7:00 - hot chocolate
9:00 - chocolate pudding
12:30 - L/G chipotle salad with steak (didn't like the steak at all, so spicy)
4:00 - cream of chicken soup
5:45 - cinnamon bun bar
9:00 - cookies made from Medifast mixes

On the Medifast message board I read someone posted a recipe that uses shake and oatmeal mixes to make cookies. I made them tonight. The first batch turned out awful, because apparently you can't substitute vanilla extract for vanilla syrup. My cookies were VERY bitter. I suspected the vanilla though, so I made a second batch which turned out much better.

1 T of peanut butter used to be acceptable on the plan as a once/daily snack until they decided it was a trigger food for people and took it off. I used the peanut butter though. I love it but I don't have trouble with it as a trigger.

Medifast Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

1 pk oatmeal (I used peach)
1 pk shake (I used vanilla)
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 pks splenda (I omitted this entirely)
1 T sugar free davinci vanilla syrup (omitted)
2 T peanut butter
cinnamon
1/4 C water

Mix dry ingredients then add wet. Batter is very thick. Roll into 4 or 6 balls and flatten with a fork on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Cookies will be a little bit crumbly.

Split the batch in half, and each half counts as one Medifast meal and 1 snack.

I thought it was a great cookie texture and I will make these again probably. I wish I had an oatmeal flavor other than peach though!

Click HERE to read about my 16th day on Medifast.