Day 10!

It's been over a week and I'm still going strong!

Everyone was right, it DOES get easier! I decided not to write about every day of this journey, partially because I've been a bitch on wheels for this first week. That is what starvation and deprivation will do to you, I guess. 

I've gotten more used to the food, for the most part, and actually look forward to many of the items throughout the day. (macaroni and cheese, still an epic fail. Ugh seriously I need to return the unopened box.) I think I've gotten used to the food schedule. Instead of counting the minutes between eating, I can pretty much just wait till I'm hungry again and it winds up being just about right (2-3 hours) which is important because all that good stuff (protein, vitamins etc) need to be evenly distributed during the day. 

I'm getting a little bored with what I've come up with for my lean and green dinners. There are only so many configurations of chicken and veggies before it all becomes about the same. Of course I get some condiments and healthy fats to make it more interesting, but I pretty much save those for milk in my coffee. Tonight I was so exhausted, I got takeout from Chilis - but didn't cheat! Their lighter portions 6oz sirloin is rubbed with carne asada seasoning and comes with plain steamed broccoli and topped with tomatoes and jalapenos. YUMMY and less than 300 calories, only 7g fat and 12g carbs, which is right in the O.K. zone for lean and green status. I got double broccoli so as not to have to do ANYTHING when I got home, not even open a bag of spinach (yup, that's how tired and lazy I was) and it was totally worth it. Cravings are INTENSE. Everywhere I go, there seems to be something delicious that makes me want to cry. My work schedule doesn't help much with that particular problem. After getting out around lunch time, I have to find things to waste time and keep me from wanting to mindlessly snack. I've made several Target trips and spend a lot of time tucked in on the sofa with a cup of tea to keep me occupied.  

The good news? I can feel it working! My jeans are a tad less snug, my stomach looks a few months less pregnant, and if you believe the scale, I'm down about 7 pounds. It's not much, and it's not yet dramatic, but I can feel a slight change which is encouraging. I honestly think this is the first time I've lost any amount of weight since I had food poisoning in college. It truly gives me hope and makes me want to stay on track. Si se puede!

Day 2

I'm so hungry, I'm delirious. I should have kept a handwritten journal with all this info, and added it into a blog at a later date, because I am so hungry words are very nearly escaping me. At least, words that make a ton of sense when strung together in a sentence. Definitely lightheaded and loopy, that's for sure. It's better today in someways, but in others it's already getting harder. Cravings are getting worse, I so almost caved and made popcorn or something to snack on after dinner. Calm down, calm down, I didn't do it. Here's what I did do:

Breakfast: Those cinnamon brown sugar cereal crisps, again. I meant to make oatmeal, but was running really late for work, oops. Fun fact about these things that I didn't notice last night - my fingers smelled like brown sugar diet food alllllll morning, EVEN after washing my hands. Interesting...

Mid-morning: S'mores crunch bar. Pretty tasty, actually. Chocolate and mini fake marshmallows, not too shabby! Of course, I'd be happy with cardboard dipped in chocolate at this point, but whatever.

Lunch: Beef Veggie Stew/soup - shockingly delicious! Probably my favorite thing so far! I let the cold water soak into the mix for several minutes before starting to cook it so that the little pieces would hydrate better. It was hot and full of flavor and even the little pieces of dehydrated beef ("beef"?) were good. Nice lunch, and kept me pretty darn full till snack time.

2nd snack: Cheese Pizza Bites. Not terrible, had kind of a decent pizza/nacho cheese kind of flavor. You know those cheetos puffs that were big a few years ago? A lot like that. Would have been great with a beer...ugh.

Dinner: small hamburger with lean beef (about 5oz) a teaspoon of fat free bbq sauce (<6g carbs in a tablespoon) spinach and broccoli, no bun of course. Add a little pepper and a sprinkle of garlic power and I was a happy camper. Could have eaten 5 more burgers, but still felt fairly content. I really need to get the cookbook so I can get more creative with this crap, because plain plain and plain will get old real quickly.

Dessert: Brownie and multiple cups of caffeine free herbal tea. I wonder if it's lack of caffeine that's causing this headache...hmmm.

I need to go to bed before I get starving again or simply pass out.

This is hard...

Day 1...

...and I am STARVING. Someone told me that through this diet, you will learn just how much mindless eating you do. I know it's only day 1, but I've already had the urge to eat between meals like a dozen times. Everything from my Easter basket to food commercials have me physically drooling. On a normal day, I would have caved to every single one of those cravings! I've been told the starvation phase will go away at some point, as my body gets used to the limited caloric intake and the inability to stuff my face with Cadbury creme eggs and my mind stops going FEED ME FEED ME FEED ME!!! Oh please let it be soon!
On to the food!
So, the way Medifast works is a 5&1 program. You eat 5 Medifast "meals" a day and then cook 1 'lean and green' meal for yourself. All of the Medifast choices are just about equal as far as calories, protein etc are concerned. If you feel like having the chili for breakfast and the pancakes for lunch - go for it! As for the 'lean and green' meal, it's basically exactly how it sounds. You make a small portion of lean protein (5-7oz depending on the protein choice) with 3 servings of greens low on the glycemic index scale (about 1.5 cups total of various choices) and within that meal, you're allowed 1-3 'servings' of a healthy fat (things like olive oil, a small amount of margarine etc) All of the details are outlined in the manual, and while it sounds a little complicated, it's actually pretty simple. I have a feeling in a few days I'll kill for a carb, but whatever.

On to day 1 food!

8:30am - Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Cereal - pretty tasty! Kind of like a puffy cheerios, very dry since I couldn't add milk (you can actually have a little soy/almond milk at some point, but I'm saving that for my coffee!)

11:00 - Fruit and Nut Bar - yummy! Nice and crispy and sweet but not too much, and pretty filling, since it lasted me without hunger till the next meal. Definitely had a hint of the diet/good for you flavor to the aftertaste, but not terrible.
Coffee!!! Just plain ole coffee with a splash of milk and a sprinkle (ok, a BIG sprinkle) of cinnamon. Coming from someone who uses a fairly substantial amount of cream and sugar, this is actually a big deal for me!

2:00 Macaroni and Cheese - oh dear, I think I made a horrible mistake by ordering two boxes of the stuff. Ugh. I added a little pepper and some garlic, and it was still icky. I think, next time if I use a little less water it'll help the consistency, but oh man.

4:00 - Dutch Chocolate Shake - Mixed it up with ice in the blender bottle. Not terrible, pretty tasty and chocolatey. I support it!

7:00 - Lean and Green Dinner! Grilled chicken breast with garlic and pepper, with asparagus and spinach. Nice and plain, and nothing I haven't had a million times, but holy hell it was the best little chicken breast I have ever had in my life. I feel like I'll be saying that about every piece of fish, chicken, beef (yes, I'm allowed to have a little beef sometimes!) and egg white I have for the next month because it's REAL food!

8:30 - Brownie - Actually pretty good. You know when you accidentally buy the fat free, sugar free brownie mix? Yup, tastes just like that. But filled me up immediately, and I was already starving again! (Guess I didn't eat quite enough chicken at dinner...) You're supposed to have the last Medifast meal like 2 hours before bed, so I just decided to claim that meal as dessert. I picked a few options for the month that could work for dessert options.

Tomorrow will be easier...right? Honestly, I was pretty much counting the minutes between meals and was starving half the day! I truly hope this works the way everyone says it does. I just need that jump start to make me feel like it IS possible to get to my goal weight and feel comfortable and happy with myself. ONWARD!

Medifast-ing

Well, it's time to admit it to myself and the world. My inner fat girl in running out of room and has officially taken up residence on the outside. As I push closer and closer to 30, I can physically feel my metabolism slowing down. Like the painfully loud grinding of an aging carnival ride, my gears are smoking as they struggle to continue to support my admittedly inactive lifestyle. But I can't blame the extra 20 pounds on my metabolism (or even my inherent laziness) alone. In this super-sized, deep-fried, fast-food filled world I have become weak. I eat out constantly. I care nothing about calories, fat content or serving size. Hunger has little to do with my food consumption these days and everything to do with caving to every sugary, salty, fatty craving that comes my way. Oh, denial has been a good friend of mine. The inches have been creeping up slowly over the past years, so it's become easy to ignore a pound here and there. And I tell myself I've "tried everything" to get in shape and lose weight. Balderdash, self! I've tried. But not very hard. Years and years of zero will power make for a difficult road. Control over food is not something I have. If it tastes good, I want it. Period. If I try to deny myself the good stuff, I last about a week and lose it and binge on chicken tikka masala. I've always said, if someone were to just GIVE me the food I needed to eat, then I might be able to make it work. No recipies. No counting calories. Definitely no point counting. Like dieting isn't hard enough, there should not be math involved, too. That's just cruel. Well guess what, such a thing does exist and it's been staring at me in the face. I've always been skeptical about weight loss programs, pills, diets, sprinkles and all the other gimmicks. However, I have personally known people (people whose will-power struggles equal mine!) who have had success through a food delivery program called Medifast. It's been tried and true for loved ones, and it is exactly what I've always asked for in a weight loss plan. Here. Eat this. Lose weight. The end.

The time for ignoring is over. The time for excuses is done. It is time for a change. Let's get Medi-fasting!