I am continually amazed by the lessons that my life continues to teach me....IF I'm open to them.
I decided to get on the scale this morning....(I know, I know, my weigh-in day isn't technically until Sunday, but I just couldn't wait. Besides, I 'felt' skinny. Ever have one of those days?)...and I could NOT believe my eyes.
I am down to 162.4. That is 6.6 lbs DOWN in....(drumroll please)...3 days.
I kid you not. 3 days OP. I restarted the 5/1 on Saturday morning, and stayed OP Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. So here it is Tuesday morning, and I'm down 6.6 lbs.
My first week on Medifast, way back in February 2012 when I first joined, I lost 7.4 lbs the first week...but this is a new record for me!
Holy Hannah! LOL
Seriously...I think what's happening is probably a conglomeration of things...water, I had been constipated, my body 'relaxing' a bit more since I stopped exercising until I see the doctor today and get on antibiotics or something to end this stupid cold or flu or whatever it is that won't go away...and I HAD had a binge on Friday afternoon (stupid but we're all human) and so at least a few of those extra lbs had been 'add ons'....anyway, there's probably a scientific reason for it.
But I don't care. I figure I got rewarded for staying the course through a very difficult day yesterday.
I find that to be the case time after time on this program. Whenever I have a really really TOUGH day, a day where it feels like I'm fighting tooth and nail to hang in there and stay OP, well, the next day I'm 'rewarded' (either on the scale or by sailing through the day, maybe having people compliment me or something, etc.) for saying NO to Fat Brain.
Anyway, whatever the reason, I'm just GLAD about it.
(And I LOVE changing my ticker, don't you?)
5.4 lbs. to go to my new goal of 157. Which of course will take me weeks yet...but that's OK.
Because I KNOW the program works. I am living PROOF. Medifast works. It's the first program - the ONLY program - that has ever worked for me over the short-term AND the long haul.
And transition and maintenance can work as well, IF you don't overset your TEE (like I did...! careful! Go with goalx11 at first...it works) and watch yourself very carefully. Because it's so easy to get into 'delicious', as my coach Chris says. And 'delicious' is dangerous.
"Delicious" leads us to ... the food triggers that maybe got us here in the first place! In my case I think that PB2 with chocolate was one of my triggers....(pssst....yesterday I moved it from my kitchen cupboard down to the basement. Much harder to get at now).
I started with PB2, which is OP (2 TBL = 1 allowable snack per day).
But when I got to maintenance, I quickly figured out that PB2 with chocolate was 'nearly' (but not exactly) the same thing, for the same number of calories - 45 per tablespoon. So I was using it for most, if not all, of my 'extra' calories....and then, well, the stuff can be squished down a lot (if you've ever used it, or PB2, you'll know what I mean...it's a powder) and I was squishing it down like, a LOT...so that I wound up with MORE than 2 TBL in all honesty (but I WASN'T honest with myself, I counted it as 2 TBL).
And then, 2 TBL became 4, and then 4 became 6.....and....well, you can imagine.
"ONE" is never enough for a food addict. That's the problem.
This month's Angie's List magazine has a long, interesting article about food addiction. I was amazed; and I give Angie a lot of credit for publishing this. They correctly talked about food addiction and how sugar, carbs and salt and junk food can exacerbate the problem.
Here's some selected quotes from that article:
Phil Werdell, director of professional training for the nonprofit Food Addiction Institute based in Sarasota, FL, and a self-described recovered food addict, says about 80 percent of processed foods now have at leat one of the three potentially addictive ingredients (sugar, fat and alt) in them. Thirty years ago the figure was about 20 percent, he says. "People are getting addicted just by eating what would be thought to be as normal or healthy portions". He says.
He also says:
"Food addiction is a separate disease in that certain foods actually change the brain (!!!) biochemically. So people who are addicted to sugar will crave it the same way that a cocaine addict craves cocaine".
[Somebody's blog yesterday talked about eating what she called 'crack bars' -- some sort of oatmeal cookie -- over the holidays. Boy, she was so RIGHT ON when she called them 'crack'!!!]
Experts in food addiction say, like drug addiction, this requires a period of 'detox' -- removing or cutting back certain types of processed foods in the diet, such as those with added refined sugar, to break the cycle.Here here! I could NOT agree more. And it's about time people started to wake up and realize that this is the case.
And you know what?
Medifast is a perfect way to 'detox' your system.
Unfortunately the article didn't provide a lot of answers. Obviously they didn't research enough to know that Medifast is one of the ways you can 'detox' your body and start to HEAL from the food addiction disease. (I think that's exactly what it is!)
In the future, I predict (I hope, anyway) that most, if not all, of the big medical insurers will see that obesity and food addiction are DISEASES and should be classified as such, and therefore you could theoretically get reimbursed for at least part of your Medifast orders.
After all, it's just like taking a vitamin or a prescription for a disease. Let's face it!
It's coming...slowly but surely the medical and professional associations are seeing that this food addiction 'thing' is a TREATABLE condition. It requires commitment, it requires total 'withdrawal' from the sugar and junk food....but it CAN be cured.
Unfortunately the Ange's List article didn't have a lot in the way of 'answers'. It wound up recommending some super-expensive spa in Charlotte (and she referenced the institute in Florida as well)...and that's not doable for 90% of us that can't afford it or live where we just can't get there.
But the article DID properly talk about how food addiction is REAL (even though the American Psychiatric Association doesn't recognize food addiction as a disorder, and they SHOULD) and how cutting back or eliminating junk food and bad carbs helps the body to detoxify itself and helps to END hunger.
We've all SEEN it to be true here. When you stop eating the junk and the sugar, the cravings -- at least the physical cravings -- CEASE.
You are no longer 'starving' all the time. Instead your body calms, and you start realizing that you should be eating to feed your physical body, give it good NUTRITION, not 'feed your head' and try to fix your life with FOOD.
That's the key, isn't it? For years I used food as my 'drug of choice'.
I would sit in my LazyBoy day after day and feel sorry for myself because I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and couldn't work anymore. I was in pain every day. I had no friends because they all were from work, an hour away. I'd watch TV and stuff myself. ALL DAY LONG. Basically not moving except to get up and walk 7 feet to the kitchen to load up on my food to bring back to my chair. I'd eat until I reached a 'food trance'....a state where I was in my own little world, and nothing could touch me, nothing could hurt me as long as I had my buddy food around. Food wouldn't let me down. It always tasted the same, it was always there for me. Until I'd reach a level of satiety, and then pass that to overfull, and then get to the point where I'd become lethargic and go to the bedroom to pass out for a few hours. Only rousing myself to do the things I absolutely HAD to do, like go grocery shopping (for MORE food), pay the bills or make dinner. I had NO life, really. Nothing to look forward to. Nowhere to go. I couldn't work anymore; therefore my life was for all practical purposes 'over' (or so I thought). I didn't want to GO anywhere or DO anything because it was just 'too much trouble'. And if I did HAVE to go anywhere, I'd hate having to get dressed up, I'd find the biggest darkest piece of clothing I could to hide as much of my fat as possible. And make myself 'invisible' so no one would take my picture or notice how big I'd gotten.
And I hated myself. I really did. I didn't know how to get out of the hole I'd dug for myself, but I knew I could do more with my life. I knew I was worth more....yet I couldn't climb out of my despair.
Medifast was like a lifeline hung in the darkness above me. I wasn't really sure it was 'real'....I still remember how positive I was that it wouldn't work, just like every other plan or program I'd tried...but I promised my husband I'd give it the full month to try because after all, it was an investment of over $300. and we aren't exactly rolling in money.
And no one was more surprised than I when I lost 7.4 lbs the first week alone. So I knew right then, that this was no ordinary 'diet program'. Something was happening to me...something INSIDE, in addition to the weight loss on the outside. Somewhere a little voice inside me was starting to grow and take shape, it was the voice of my self-confidence and self-love, and it urged me on. And every day I stayed OP it got a little louder, and every day I got a little stronger, and little by little my confidence grew and I started taking 'baby steps' out into the world.
I still don't have a lot of friends....except here! And I still am no social butterfly. I don't go many places....EXCEPT....I do go to the gym.
A LOT. As in I've become a 'gym nut'!
And I MISS it this week since I'm sick. I can't wait to see the doctor this afternoon, get this diagnosed and hopefully get some antibiotics or something (my DH said to me last night 'Don't leave until he GIVES you something'...LOL) and then get better and get back to my exercise schedule again.
Although exercise, like my food plan, is going to be rough to get back into and up to the level I was at again. All it takes is a week off, your body will scream at you when you go back to it. You've gotta push through that. And work back up, little by little. That's why I've got to wait on the Spinning class until at least next Wednesday. But hopefully I'll be able to do Body Pump and flow on Thursday.
We shall see.
Bottom line? I am no longer a 'life dropout'.
Don't be a life dropout. RECLAIM your life. Work the program and try and have some faith in it. It WILL work, believe me. Try not to stress too much over it or worry about others losing faster than you or whatever nuance you can come up with (which it continually amazes me how much questioning people do of the program; they hear one krazy idea and seize on it, think 'But I'm DIFFERENT!' and suddenly they are questioning everything). Just DO IT. Try and relax into it, the time will pass and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish just by putting one foot in front of the other and DOING it.
It's not easy. Lord, it's not easy some days....but it's worth it.
Keep on keepin' on!
I decided to get on the scale this morning....(I know, I know, my weigh-in day isn't technically until Sunday, but I just couldn't wait. Besides, I 'felt' skinny. Ever have one of those days?)...and I could NOT believe my eyes.
I am down to 162.4. That is 6.6 lbs DOWN in....(drumroll please)...3 days.
I kid you not. 3 days OP. I restarted the 5/1 on Saturday morning, and stayed OP Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. So here it is Tuesday morning, and I'm down 6.6 lbs.
My first week on Medifast, way back in February 2012 when I first joined, I lost 7.4 lbs the first week...but this is a new record for me!
Holy Hannah! LOL
Seriously...I think what's happening is probably a conglomeration of things...water, I had been constipated, my body 'relaxing' a bit more since I stopped exercising until I see the doctor today and get on antibiotics or something to end this stupid cold or flu or whatever it is that won't go away...and I HAD had a binge on Friday afternoon (stupid but we're all human) and so at least a few of those extra lbs had been 'add ons'....anyway, there's probably a scientific reason for it.
But I don't care. I figure I got rewarded for staying the course through a very difficult day yesterday.
I find that to be the case time after time on this program. Whenever I have a really really TOUGH day, a day where it feels like I'm fighting tooth and nail to hang in there and stay OP, well, the next day I'm 'rewarded' (either on the scale or by sailing through the day, maybe having people compliment me or something, etc.) for saying NO to Fat Brain.
Anyway, whatever the reason, I'm just GLAD about it.
(And I LOVE changing my ticker, don't you?)
5.4 lbs. to go to my new goal of 157. Which of course will take me weeks yet...but that's OK.
Because I KNOW the program works. I am living PROOF. Medifast works. It's the first program - the ONLY program - that has ever worked for me over the short-term AND the long haul.
And transition and maintenance can work as well, IF you don't overset your TEE (like I did...! careful! Go with goalx11 at first...it works) and watch yourself very carefully. Because it's so easy to get into 'delicious', as my coach Chris says. And 'delicious' is dangerous.
"Delicious" leads us to ... the food triggers that maybe got us here in the first place! In my case I think that PB2 with chocolate was one of my triggers....(pssst....yesterday I moved it from my kitchen cupboard down to the basement. Much harder to get at now).
I started with PB2, which is OP (2 TBL = 1 allowable snack per day).
But when I got to maintenance, I quickly figured out that PB2 with chocolate was 'nearly' (but not exactly) the same thing, for the same number of calories - 45 per tablespoon. So I was using it for most, if not all, of my 'extra' calories....and then, well, the stuff can be squished down a lot (if you've ever used it, or PB2, you'll know what I mean...it's a powder) and I was squishing it down like, a LOT...so that I wound up with MORE than 2 TBL in all honesty (but I WASN'T honest with myself, I counted it as 2 TBL).
And then, 2 TBL became 4, and then 4 became 6.....and....well, you can imagine.
"ONE" is never enough for a food addict. That's the problem.
This month's Angie's List magazine has a long, interesting article about food addiction. I was amazed; and I give Angie a lot of credit for publishing this. They correctly talked about food addiction and how sugar, carbs and salt and junk food can exacerbate the problem.
Here's some selected quotes from that article:
Phil Werdell, director of professional training for the nonprofit Food Addiction Institute based in Sarasota, FL, and a self-described recovered food addict, says about 80 percent of processed foods now have at leat one of the three potentially addictive ingredients (sugar, fat and alt) in them. Thirty years ago the figure was about 20 percent, he says. "People are getting addicted just by eating what would be thought to be as normal or healthy portions". He says.
He also says:
"Food addiction is a separate disease in that certain foods actually change the brain (!!!) biochemically. So people who are addicted to sugar will crave it the same way that a cocaine addict craves cocaine".
[Somebody's blog yesterday talked about eating what she called 'crack bars' -- some sort of oatmeal cookie -- over the holidays. Boy, she was so RIGHT ON when she called them 'crack'!!!]
Experts in food addiction say, like drug addiction, this requires a period of 'detox' -- removing or cutting back certain types of processed foods in the diet, such as those with added refined sugar, to break the cycle.Here here! I could NOT agree more. And it's about time people started to wake up and realize that this is the case.
And you know what?
Medifast is a perfect way to 'detox' your system.
Unfortunately the article didn't provide a lot of answers. Obviously they didn't research enough to know that Medifast is one of the ways you can 'detox' your body and start to HEAL from the food addiction disease. (I think that's exactly what it is!)
In the future, I predict (I hope, anyway) that most, if not all, of the big medical insurers will see that obesity and food addiction are DISEASES and should be classified as such, and therefore you could theoretically get reimbursed for at least part of your Medifast orders.
After all, it's just like taking a vitamin or a prescription for a disease. Let's face it!
It's coming...slowly but surely the medical and professional associations are seeing that this food addiction 'thing' is a TREATABLE condition. It requires commitment, it requires total 'withdrawal' from the sugar and junk food....but it CAN be cured.
Unfortunately the Ange's List article didn't have a lot in the way of 'answers'. It wound up recommending some super-expensive spa in Charlotte (and she referenced the institute in Florida as well)...and that's not doable for 90% of us that can't afford it or live where we just can't get there.
But the article DID properly talk about how food addiction is REAL (even though the American Psychiatric Association doesn't recognize food addiction as a disorder, and they SHOULD) and how cutting back or eliminating junk food and bad carbs helps the body to detoxify itself and helps to END hunger.
We've all SEEN it to be true here. When you stop eating the junk and the sugar, the cravings -- at least the physical cravings -- CEASE.
You are no longer 'starving' all the time. Instead your body calms, and you start realizing that you should be eating to feed your physical body, give it good NUTRITION, not 'feed your head' and try to fix your life with FOOD.
That's the key, isn't it? For years I used food as my 'drug of choice'.
I would sit in my LazyBoy day after day and feel sorry for myself because I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and couldn't work anymore. I was in pain every day. I had no friends because they all were from work, an hour away. I'd watch TV and stuff myself. ALL DAY LONG. Basically not moving except to get up and walk 7 feet to the kitchen to load up on my food to bring back to my chair. I'd eat until I reached a 'food trance'....a state where I was in my own little world, and nothing could touch me, nothing could hurt me as long as I had my buddy food around. Food wouldn't let me down. It always tasted the same, it was always there for me. Until I'd reach a level of satiety, and then pass that to overfull, and then get to the point where I'd become lethargic and go to the bedroom to pass out for a few hours. Only rousing myself to do the things I absolutely HAD to do, like go grocery shopping (for MORE food), pay the bills or make dinner. I had NO life, really. Nothing to look forward to. Nowhere to go. I couldn't work anymore; therefore my life was for all practical purposes 'over' (or so I thought). I didn't want to GO anywhere or DO anything because it was just 'too much trouble'. And if I did HAVE to go anywhere, I'd hate having to get dressed up, I'd find the biggest darkest piece of clothing I could to hide as much of my fat as possible. And make myself 'invisible' so no one would take my picture or notice how big I'd gotten.
And I hated myself. I really did. I didn't know how to get out of the hole I'd dug for myself, but I knew I could do more with my life. I knew I was worth more....yet I couldn't climb out of my despair.
Medifast was like a lifeline hung in the darkness above me. I wasn't really sure it was 'real'....I still remember how positive I was that it wouldn't work, just like every other plan or program I'd tried...but I promised my husband I'd give it the full month to try because after all, it was an investment of over $300. and we aren't exactly rolling in money.
And no one was more surprised than I when I lost 7.4 lbs the first week alone. So I knew right then, that this was no ordinary 'diet program'. Something was happening to me...something INSIDE, in addition to the weight loss on the outside. Somewhere a little voice inside me was starting to grow and take shape, it was the voice of my self-confidence and self-love, and it urged me on. And every day I stayed OP it got a little louder, and every day I got a little stronger, and little by little my confidence grew and I started taking 'baby steps' out into the world.
I still don't have a lot of friends....except here! And I still am no social butterfly. I don't go many places....EXCEPT....I do go to the gym.
A LOT. As in I've become a 'gym nut'!
And I MISS it this week since I'm sick. I can't wait to see the doctor this afternoon, get this diagnosed and hopefully get some antibiotics or something (my DH said to me last night 'Don't leave until he GIVES you something'...LOL) and then get better and get back to my exercise schedule again.
Although exercise, like my food plan, is going to be rough to get back into and up to the level I was at again. All it takes is a week off, your body will scream at you when you go back to it. You've gotta push through that. And work back up, little by little. That's why I've got to wait on the Spinning class until at least next Wednesday. But hopefully I'll be able to do Body Pump and flow on Thursday.
We shall see.
Bottom line? I am no longer a 'life dropout'.
Don't be a life dropout. RECLAIM your life. Work the program and try and have some faith in it. It WILL work, believe me. Try not to stress too much over it or worry about others losing faster than you or whatever nuance you can come up with (which it continually amazes me how much questioning people do of the program; they hear one krazy idea and seize on it, think 'But I'm DIFFERENT!' and suddenly they are questioning everything). Just DO IT. Try and relax into it, the time will pass and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish just by putting one foot in front of the other and DOING it.
It's not easy. Lord, it's not easy some days....but it's worth it.
Keep on keepin' on!
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