Ending Week 3 - Medifast

I am pleased to say that even though I have not been blogging, I am happily cruising through the Medifast program.  Clearly I am a food robot, because I have had no issues with eating their replacements.  Not once in the last 3 weeks have I had a craving for anything.  Nothing.  The closest thing to a craving was when I was driving around the parking lot of a shopping center where I would have lunch or dinner at Chick-fil-a a few times a week.  I felt like I should be driving there...and that started me thinking about my usual order "3 piece chicken strips and a small ice dream cone".  But, I reminded myself that those things are not in my life right now ... and that was that.

My weight has been coming off...but pretty slowly, which I do admin is frustrating.  In my mind I think that I should be losing at a more rapid pace given my following of the program...but it isn't happening.  But it is coming down, so I need to chill out about the pace!

Let me fill you in on my typical day with Medifast:

• 9:30 am - shake/bar (whatever quick meal I can guzzle at home or in the car)
• 12:30 pm - eggs/shake/cappuccino (still feeling breakfast)
• 3:00 pm - soup/shake/pretzels (generally want savory by this point)
• 5:30 pm - shake/bar (by now i am not wanting to prep anything, so its quick)
• 7:30-8  pm- Dinner of lean protein and veggies (most night i have the veggies, i am still struggling)
• 9:30-10pm - brownie/cookie/shake mixed with 1 tbs of Peanut Butter
• 12 am - if i am up late i have a little something to keep my body happy, maybe a wedge of Laughing Cow

That is it, my typical day.  I am feeling so good...and having a meal so frequently that I never really think about coffee.  Occasionally I mix a bit of Starbucks Via in a shake for flavor...but its never because I need a boost.  Couldn't be happier with how I feel.

Exercise is not really steady right now but I do occasionally take a walk during the day.  They (Medifast) says wait 3 weeks before starting.  Believe me, starting next Thursday I will be getting a work out as I am going to San Francisco.  Nothing but exercise there!

That is it for now.  I feel like I have a lot to say, but I also feel like I need to finish getting dressed and run my emergency pre-vacation errands!

Total loss right now is about 9 lbs in almost 3 weeks.  I know that is a great loss, and if I were on Weight Watchers I would be over the moon.  So ... I think I will just need to adjust my expectations a bit and be please with any momentum I have.  I am on pace to be in a much better place weight wise for the summer, and that makes me happy.  It also means finding another bathing suit...but that is a small price to pay!

The Voice

Just a random thought ... I never want the tiny hat to ever go out of style.

Blain Edwards lives on...chesticles and all!

Week 1 Medifast

I am very happy to report that I made it through the first week...mostly with flying colors!  The plan itself was not hard to stick to...for me anyway.  The only issue with the first week was finding ways to prepare the Medifast meals in a way that was appealing without blowing through my daily condiment allowance of 3. 

The Internet is an amazing tool and I really enjoyed reading other peoples blogs...those very passionate about Medifast and those with helpful tips on how to make the food enjoyable.  I also learned that every one's tastes are different.  An item that one blogger or reviewer like or loved, someone else may have reported it to be gross.  An example is the Medifast oatmeal.  The first blogs I read talked about how gross it was, etc.  So I took their advice and made muffins out of the oatmeal packet.  The muffins were good ... but finally I realized there was no reason not to try the oatmeal au natural...and when I did ... it was okay.

I think the secret is that a lot of the food (soups, oatmeal) need to be rehydrated and mixed well so that they are not lumpy and hard.  With that I just learned to let both of those items sit for a while before preparing. 

For the soup I tried these approaches, both with equal success:

1. Add water ( I would add just enough water to make a smooth paste or rue consistency...then slowly incorporate the rest so there are no lumps) and just keep in the fridge overnight and heat when ready.  This approach worked very well...it just involves pre-planning .. something I only did once!
2. Follow the same "rue" technique as above but blend the soup with boiling water (make rue with cold, then add hot to get the full 6-8 oz) and let it sit for 30 mins or so.  Reheat if needed.  This worked pretty well for me and did not require much prep on my part.  Perfect, as I am not a great planner.

The shakes were a bit tricky for me.  I did not really like them at first (still don't) but I have been able to get them down.  I purchased the Magic Bullet style blender for the shakes, but believe it or not, the Blender Bottles (those shaker bottles with the metal whisk like ball) made the best shake.  This approach will not work if you are big into adding ice...but I found the ice annoying as bigger chunks would get stuck in my straw!  With the blender bottle prep I am able to drink the shakes and the prep/clean up is a snap.

Tip for the Blender Bottle -- Add VERY cold water (I usually drain ice water), then add powder, THEN put the ball in and shake like hell!  It only took about 20 seconds to get it good and blended. NOT ONE LUMP.  It was great.

So ... how did I feel?  The first few days were not great.  I was light headed a bit and had a headache.  Nothing unbearable, but it was noticeable.  On Medifast you are eating every 2-3 hours, so it isn't hard to look forward to your next mean and never really get to a point of being really hungry.  On about day 5 I noticed I was feeling pretty energetic.  Most days I don't even have morning coffee...I don't need it!  I do sometimes have a cup in the afternoons as a treat and a way to get a boost.  Don't get me wrong, I am NOT a big coffee drinker.  I like one perfect 8 oz cup of Sumatra Reserve or Dark Magic (k-cup) with one packet of Splenda and a tiny bit of non-dairy creamer.  If I were drinking 8 cups a day, I would probably not be as pleased with my occasional cup! 

Dinner, or my Lean and Green meal has been the most challenging part of my day, this I anticipated.  I am not a planner so several nights I was left trying to figure out what to eat.  I made some icky dry chicken that I didn't love and ate a few salads, but I managed.  To be honest, I had a lot of canned green beans.  If they were regular (meaning not reduced sodium) I would drain and rinse them before cooking.  This works for me.  It isn't exciting ... and most people would not dig it ... but it works for me.

So ... weight loss for week 1?  5.3 lbs!!!  I am very pleased with that number.  Many people have a huge loss in the first week due to water weight ...but given I have been dieting since Jan, I don't think I did.  The next few weeks will be the test, however. 

That is all for now. I could write a book, but not sure any one is reading ... and I will have something to go on about next time I sit down.

-allison

Day 1 down ... many more to go

Yes!  Day one is all but complete.  Overall a good experience with Medifast.  I started the say with the Oatmeal muffin...nice way to get my breakfast in while driving.  Moved on to a shake.  Wow, was it bad.  I think my strategy of pre-mixing a while before blending came back to haunt me.  There was a certain funk that was just gross.  I powered through it ... but I hope my next shake is not as bad.  There is A LOT of soy in these products...I suspect the funk was the soy that had been given an opportunity to bloom!

Dinner was a challenge.  I am not a cook, and well...I am not a good eater, so the Lean and Green bit was a bit daunting.  I had a Barber Chicken Cordon Bleu in my freezer ( non-breaded).  It was 5 oz, had 11 gr of fat and 3 carbs.  Delicious.  My veggie was a can (i know, i know) of green beans ...the no salt kind.  There was not enough Spike (my spice of choice) or spray butter to make them anything close to good.  My hope here is that it will drive me to experiment with actual real veggies. 

So, with that in mind tomorrow is going to be a new challenge.  Theater night means no coming home for dinner.  I am armed with a big salad that I will have before I leave for the show ... and I will have a MF meal during intermission that will tide me over.

Today's meals definitely got me all excited about my salad.  It will be a lettuce mix (2-3 cups), 4 oz of chicken, 1 hard boiled egg, 5 black olives, and 2 delicious tbs of Ken's light Italian dressing.  Eventually I hope to expand this to include more than just lettuce, meat, and olives but not tomorrow.

OOOOOH...big accomplishment today aside from staying 100% on plan was drinking about 120 oz of water ... not including my coffee and shake!  Very proud of myself.  I dread a busy day of calls while drinking this amount of water, but I will deal. 

All for now!
-a

Tomorrow is THE day!

I begin my Medifast adventure tomorrow...I am very excited!  I have been finishing my bottle of wine from this weekend ... eating a Weight Watcher frozen dinner (to get rid of it) and Googling tips on how to make the Medifast meals.

I found a great link : http://www.escapefromobesity.net/p/medifast-foods-tips-recipes.html and am working on my Oatmeal Muffin and soaking my soup overnight. 

Right now I am faced with tons of little boxes that represent 5 out of 6 meals a day.  There are shakes, puddings, soups, oatmeal, bars, "pretzels" and some egg things.  I will have 5 of these various things a day and one Lean and Green meal.  This is 5-7 oz of lean meats (or eggs/beaters) and 3 servings of low carb/non-sugary vegetables.

Ugh...veggies.  I don't like them.  There are picky 10 yr olds that have a better palate for veggies than I do.  This will be my cross to bear over the next several months.  My plan now is to try salad with some low carb Italian ... and perhaps some chicken.  I bought some steamer variety packs of a few things to pick at.  Most of them contain veggies that are not on my approved list (carrots) but I will pick them out. Hell... I will likely pick all of it out ... hehe. 

Wish me luck!

-allison

Everything old is new again

Okay .. here we are.  I find it funny that my LAST post was all about a big accomplishment, and here I am 9 months later ... starting all over again.  Such is life, right?

So here we go...this time I am going to do Medifast.  I have decided that I cannot be held accountable right now to make grown up decisions on my food, so it is back to regimented menus delivered to my door.  I decided Medifast over HRM for several reason ... the most significant being that it is low carb and there is more variety.

UPS will be delivering my new diet by the end of this week and I will be starting next Monday.  What will I be doing before then you ask?  Eating the rest of my oatmeal, weight watcher frozen dinners, drinking 8 bottles of wine, oh ... and perhaps a birthday cake (38 on March 8th!).

-allison