Week 1 Report

Week 1 Total Weight Loss: -9 lbs. Yay!!

I was originally hoping for a higher number, but I'm still very pleased with this.

Weekend Report:
I have to confess I had some setbacks over the weekend. I am proud of myself for never just throwing in the towel and eating everything I wanted, but I definitely splurged, especially on non-carb items like cheeses and deviled eggs. We never did order pizza or cheesesteaks, so that issue didn't come up. Instead I was faced with home-cooked dinners both nights, a challenge I wasn't anticipating.

I didn't eat any Easter candy, so I count that a total success. :)

Lessons Learned on Week 1:

• I feel deeply obliged to eat a meal that someone else has prepared for me.
  
• Party treats/appetizers are harder for me to resist than food I could have whenever I want.
  
• I am more in control when I stick with my schedule of mixes.
  
• I am hungrier and feel more deprived when I eat extra carbs.

I don't really feel ready to start talking about my diet yet or answer a lot of questions about it to people in general. Therefore I didn't mention it this weekend, or I know my MIL would have been happy to make different food for me. I just didn't realize I would have this issue with turning down food that's been made for me. I thought I could just stick with whatever proteins and veggies there were, but it was a bad assumption.

For example, baked potatoes were served with one dinner and everyone knows that I love them, especially since I'm from Idaho. I therefore felt I HAD to have some (though I shared half with my daughter, and some with my son, so I didn't end up with a lot). I had never realized I felt this kind of food obligation, because I've never had to deny it. I would even (and frequently have) eat food I don't like, just to make someone else happy. This is something I will need to work on, now that I recognize it.

Diet Outlook:
I still feel extremely positive about Medifast. I was super scared to start it at first, but after the first couple of days it became much easier. The food is still a hurdle for me, but I know if I stick with the schedule I will feel full and not tired. I'll also be in control and not feel deprived. I also feel way less possessive of my food and less entitled to it.

I am taking too many liberties with the lean/green meals, but when I compare them with how I was eating every day I can't believe it. My semi-cheating L/G is usually SUCH a healthier meal than anything I was ever choosing to eat. Additionally, I love that I look forward each day to such a healthy meal. It makes me feel very proud of myself.

Day 6

Morning Scale Report: I think my mother-in-law's scale was programmed by the people on the Biggest Loser TV show. I stepped on it about 10 times and each time my weight was different, within a 25 lb range!

10:15 - hot chocolate (a favorite)
12:30 - cream of tomato soup (pretty gross)

Last night went better than I thought. I had 3 small bites of a hot dog and 1 piece of popcorn. Not a total success, but I'm satisfied with it. I was afraid that when faced with temptation I'd totally go nuts. It turned out that the food didn't look that appetizing to me. I was hungry, but I didn't feel I had to eat tons to have a good time, or that I was being deprived. I was too concerned about canceling the progress I've worked so hard for.

The biggest problem was I couldn't work in a last meal last night. I was so tired when we got here I went straight to bed.

Day 6 lunch-time: I'm not seeing anything to really get excited about for my lean and green meal today, so I will probably go out and see what I can find. I think we'll be having pizza/cheesesteaks tonight, but I'm not too worried any more. After last night I'm pretty sure I can limit myself to one or two bites, and I'm fine with that.

Click HERE to read about my 8th day on Medifast.

Day 5

Morning scale report: -1

I'm trying to be optimistic about this number. I know there will be days that the scale doesn't change at all or gets higher, but I just WANT it to be multiple pounds every day.

I will not be having a Morning scale report for the next 2 days. That means next time I report it will be after all day dieting on Friday, Saturday and Sunday - My first weekend, a holiday AND a road trip. YIKES!

But honestly, I can't wait to get home for my Monday morning weigh-in. That will mark my first week on the program and it is going to be great, since I'm already down 7 lbs. I am going to hope for 10 lbs, which is 1 lb/day while I'm gone.

10:00 - Hot chocolate

Planning here how I want the rest of my meals today to play out:
12:00 - L/G grilled salmon and vegetables
3:00 - chocolate pudding (in the car)
6:00 - bar
9:00 - bar

I need to fit in another meal and I can't see how. We are going to be at the hockey game until midnight and then it takes another hour to get home. Ugh. I am pretty nervous about tonight.

I placed my first Medifast order today. Again, I'm so grateful to my Medifast friends that hooked me up with a zillion hot chocolates and at least one of every food for me to try so I could figure out what I liked best and whether I can stick to the diet.

I ordered 2 scrambled eggs to try, 4 boxes of bars (because today proves sometimes you really NEED bars), a lot of stew and cream of chicken soup. Then a few other soups and puddings. I got one thing of orange shakes for my friend because they're her favorites and maybe I'll try it one more time. I want to like them. I like the hot chocolate a lot too, and I'd order it, but I still have a lot at home.

I've still got a few things I haven't tried, like the Maryland crab soup and the cream of tomato soup. They aren't dishes I'd normally eat though, so I'm a little wary of them.

I will probably check in again tomorrow with how things are going. Stay tuned!

Click HERE to read about my 6th day on Medifast.

Day 4

Morning scale report: -3.0

Seriously. That's 3 in addition to the 2.5 from yesterday and the .5 from Day 1. I weighed myself at least 5 times this morning because sometimes my scale is inconsistent.

WWWOOOOHHOOOOOOOOOO!

8-9 - Vanilla shake (took me a long time to get through it)
11:15 - Hot chocolate (good again)
2:15 - Cream of Chicken soup (bland but not vile)
5:00 - Banana pudding (fine, better than a lot of stuff)
7:15 - 2 pieces of ham and a piece of cheese (yes, a cheat)
8:30 - L/G turkey breast and vegetables
10:30 - Hot chocolate

Day 4 Morning: Today I am feeling very optimistic. Yes, I know that I'm losing water weight. It is actually feeling similar to my weight loss right after I have a baby. I lose a lot of water weight very quickly and have to pee all the time.

I don't care that it's water weight though. The fact is it was still 3 lbs of me and now there are 3 lbs less of me. :) I'm being realistic and know the weight loss will slow down, but this is the first diet where I've had such dramatic results my first week. I usually lose 3 lbs total the first week and that's after being pretty hungry most of the time.

Hunger: fine. I start getting hungry after 2 or 3 hours, then I make up a mix and feel fine for another couple of hours. I do feel hungrier in the evenings, but not sure if those are just cravings for my usual TV watching munchies.

Cravings: not so fine. They keep hitting me out of the blue. In the car this morning I wanted [Edited - I don't want to derail myself or anyone else with these tasty words of temptation]. Even though I'm craving these things I know I'm not going to go binge on them. Bottom line: Giving in to food fantasies is so not worth it, I can deal with the cravings.

Food coping strategies:

1. No smelling
   
2. No swishing around in the mouth
   
3. No adding ice to shakes, it just makes them bigger
   
4. Adding spices helps sometimes

It seems like my reactions to the food aren't as bad as on Day 1, so I'm hoping that maybe I can get used to the food and accept my lot.

Lean and Green plans: Tonight I'm having the rest of the lemon-butter turkey breast with the delicious veggies. Tomorrow for lunch I'm going out and ordering salmon and grilled vegetables. Words can't express how much I'm looking forward to these two meals. :)

Future concerns: Easter weekend. The candy isn't tempting to me (surprisingly). We're driving 5 hours after work to watch 2 hockey games in a row and meeting friends/family there. I can already smell the popcorn! I've hoarded two bars all week just to get me through the hockey games.

We'll spend the weekend just outside Philadelphia where we always splurge and get philly cheesesteaks and pizza. In my head I'm allowing myself to eat some of the meat/cheese on a sandwich. Hopefully when it's right there I will be so strong that I won't even take a bite. I will definitely NOT be eating any bread or crust though.

Late-afternoon thoughts: I'm about to go make a banana pudding, and I just realized it's 5pm, I've only eaten about 320ish calories today, and I am not ravenously hungry. I feel like I should go eat this mix, but that's it. I'm not secretly harboring thoughts about getting food from the snack machine, or picking up some fast food on my drive home to tide me over 'til dinner.

Someone has apparently replaced me with Folgiers crystals.

Food confessions: I intended to come straight home and eat my dinner, but I had to turn around and leave again right away. I didn't have any bars or anything fast I could make, so I grabbed no-carb ham/cheese. The real cheat was that I also ate one piece of Belgian chocolate. It was small though, and worth it.

Click HERE to read about my 5th day on Medifast.

Day 3

Morning scale report: -2.5 lbs

YAY!

Thank goodness, because seriously, I deserve it. This diet is hard and I needed something motivating.

8:30 - Caramel Nut bar (not too bad, similar to LA Weight Loss bars)
10:00 - Peach oatmeal (Foul. One of the worst things I've tried.)
1:00 - L/G Lemon-butter turkey breast and vegetables (SO GOOD!)
4:00 - Cream of Broccoli soup (not bad. I added broc, but needs salt)
6:00 - Vanilla pudding (mediocre, but not terrible)
9:00 - Hot chocolate (pretty decent)
11:30 - 2 stalks of celery with a super thin smear of peanut butter

Day 3 Morning: Today is the day I'm supposed to enter ketosis, which is where my body is burning fat for energy instead of the carbohydrates I normally eat.

It is also Doughnut Day at work. This means every time I need to use the microwave in the break room I will have to stand there and resist doughnuts. They always buy too many, so there will be temptation in there alllll day.

Last night I had some minor charlie horses while I slept but I got good at stretching them out when I was pregnant, so they weren't a big deal. I didn't have a headache last night, and I wasn't hungry when I woke up (though I did lay hungry in bed last night thinking I should have had one last mix before bed).

I am committed to less cheating today than yesterday!

Post-lunch thoughts: Omigosh, my lunch was so fricking good! On Sunday for my farewell to food meal I made turkey piccata. I bread the turkey breasts for it, then cook them in a buttery lemon juice and serve it over linguini. I know I shouldn't talk about such forbidden foods here. However, that night I also cooked 3 turkey breast filets in the juice without breading them. I had 1.5 for lunch today, along with steamed and roasted veggies I got at Wegman's. There were zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper and green beans. I didn't get any carrots, though they had those too. Now, granted, all of this food was assuredly cooked in either oil or butter. But I totally stayed away from carbs AND I completely enjoyed it.

I look forward to my lean and green meal way too much. I pretty much obsess about it. It's like conjugal visits in prison for me.

Food confessions: Sadly, I suspect I will always have something to confess here. My carbohydrate cravings are not over and I still fantasize about snacks and junk food frequently. Today while I was making my peach oatmeal I had a single bite of a glazed doughnut. I also had 3 bites of the mac 'n' cheese I made the kids for dinner tonight. It is 9pm and I am really hungry and I'm totally in the cheating danger zone. I need to go make a mix and call it a night!

Almost midnight: Well, I didn't go to sleep, so at 11:30 I was super hungry again! I'm allowed 2 stalks of celery as a snack, and I put a teeny tiny bit of peanut butter on them because I really don't like eating raw celery.

Click HERE to read about my 4th day on Medifast.

Day 2

Weight loss: After one full day on Medifast I have only lost .5 lbs. I fluctuate that much normally anyway, so it is depressing after all my suffering (hehe) yesterday. I know I should only weigh 1/week, but I'm a compulsive daily (or multi-daily) weigher.

Today is not a whole lot better than yesterday. It is time to eat my Medifast meal and I am dreading how terrible it will taste. I'm going to try not to smell it while I eat it, maybe that will help.

8:30 - Strawberry shake (pretty bad)
12:00 - L/G Chipotle salad with carnitas (sooo delicious)
2:30 - Maple and brown sugar oatmeal (tastes like banana)
5:30 - Chicken Noodle soup (tastes ok, but crunchy. Cook longer next time.)
10:00 - Chili (better than mediocre after adding seasoning)

Day 2 Morning - My thoughts on the food so far: Gross. I am having such a hard time with the medifast food. It reminds me of that dusty, medicine smell when you first open a jar of vitamins. Last night I felt nauseous thinking of another day eating these mixes. Today is going okay, but I'm scared if I can't find something I don't hate I won't be able to stay on the diet.

Day 2 Evening - I think my main problem is the sugar substitute. The stew last night was okay, as were the chicken soup and chili today. For best results I added my own stew meat to both the stew and the chili, and I had to let all of them soak for quite a while before they stopped being rubbery and became palatable. If the eggs are okay then maybe I will do eggs for breakfast, 2 soups, and 2 bars each day.

I'm getting depressed thinking about 6 months of eating these mixes. Last night I got sad because I saw a jar of my home-made raspberry jam in the fridge and I remembered I would be dieting for all of pick-your-own strawberry and raspberry seasons this summer.

After I get through these first 3 crappy days I hope that I feel more positive about this dieting experience!

Cheat report: I took too many liberties with my lean/green lunch today. For one, carnitas are not lean meat, they're just the only chipotle meat I like. Next, I ordered cheese on the salad, fully intending to pick most of it off, but it melted to my carnitas so I HAD to eat it. Bummer. ;)

I also had them put black beans on it, which I DID mostly pick off. Oh, and my worst cheat - My husband ordered chips/guac and I ate 5 or 6 of his chips in the car on the way back to work. BAD ME! I also had about 5 weight watchers pretzel thins with my chili tonight.

I know if I cheat on this diet, especially if I cheat with carbs, it won't work. I should know better than to cheat, but I also need to not bring temptation in the car with me like that.

I noticed today I didn't eat all 5 of my MF meals. I think I was dreading them a little so I postponed them. Also, it took a long time for the chili to soften up tonight. It's 11:30 now and I'm not going to eat another one tonight, but tomorrow I will eat all 5 like I'm supposed to and maybe I won't be so tempted to cheat.

No headache tonight and I'm not as tired as I was yesterday. :)

Click HERE to read about my 3rd day on Medifast.

Day 1

Yesterday was my first day, and I will be honest - It was pretty awful. Here's what I ate:

8:30 - chocolate shake (hated it)
10:30 - peanut butter crunch bar (mediocre, bad aftertaste)
1:00 - L/G McDonalds grilled chicken salad (mediocre)
3:00 - orange creme shake (hated it, thought I was going to gag)
6:00 - Medifast stew with some of my homemade stew meat added (pretty good)
9:00 - vanilla shake, frozen (hated it less than the other two shakes)

I've heard people feel really hungry on the first few days, and I only felt really hungry at lunch time, so that was nice. But I got a really terrible headache in the afternoon that lasted until I went to bed. I also got completed exhausted around 3pm. I actually dosed off at my desk a few times.

I felt totally deprived. I had a little pity party last night while I ate my pathetic frozen vanilla shake. I know that I'll only be eating this food for a short time, but I feel like I'm being punished by not getting to eat regular food. In my head I keep justifying how I will quit this diet with its wretched food and start eating regular, small, low-cal, low-fat meals of my own choosing every day.

Because that's worked so well for me in the past.

Yeah, right.

My Cheat Report: There were some beans and corns and tortilla strips in my salad, but I picked most of them out or ate around them. MOST of them. I did eat a couple. Also, when I was making dinner last night I had left a whole bunch of snacks and treats all over the counter. I am such an idiot! I did NOT eat the bbq potato chips or the fritos or the belgian chocolates. But I DID eat half of a cookie. Then I threw the rest away. Quickly, before I could eat the other half!

I went to bed early so I wouldn't be tempted by anything else, but I didn't sleep very well. Not sure how much of this was due to the diet, the peeing from all the water, or to my restless 15-month-old son.

Click HERE to read about my 2nd day on Medifast.

Beginning of the Road

Well, I have finally started a real diet and committed to it. Over the past 5 years I've wanted to lose weight, but I always had the excuse of being pregnant, trying-to-be-pregnant, or nursing. I am still actually nursing, but only about 1/day now and I won't use it as an excuse any more. I think my son would prefer a healthy mom over his night-time milk habit.

I'm at my heaviest, non-pregnant weight now, though honestly, over the past 10 years I've really only fluctuated about 10-15 lbs. It's like my body has found its comfort zone and wants to stay here. I should really lose 100 lbs to be at an ideal weight, but I'm going to set my first goal to lose 50. 100 seems like so much it's too daunting and overwhelming for me. So, 50 is the goal and 5 months is the time frame. That's about 2.5 lbs/week which is pretty aggressive, but not unrealistic.

More than anything I just want people to see me the way that I feel I am. I don't realize how heavy I am until I see a photo of myself, or take a plane ride or surprise myself in a mirror. I still feel like "healthy me" but I don't get treated like that because that's not who people see.

A good friend of mine lost 40 lbs. a while ago on the Medifast diet. I was pregnant at the time, and then she got pregnant. She's back on the plan now though (along with her husband), and has already lost 17 lbs. in a month (he's lost 13 in 9 days), so I'm feeling inspired (and jealous). She hooked me up with 4 boxes of hot chocolate mixes and then 1 of everything else she has so I can try everything. She is GREAT!

I'm going to write here about my progress. I think it will help motivate me if I keep a journal. I'm hoping that someday I will look back at these early posts and be able to say, "Wow, I can't believe how far I've come."

Wish me luck!

Click HERE to read about my very 1st day on Medifast!