Medifast Day Seven

I'm nearly done with my first week on Medifast. It's been easier than I thought and as difficult as I thought. The breakthrough on Monday really has been encouraging. I've also found some ways to make the meals a bit more interesting and add variety to them without adding calories. Nifty! As of this morning I've lost 10 pounds. We'll see what the scale says tomorrow. Can't wait! How often does a person say that?

So in my quest online for recipes and such, I found a site called GetSkinnyBeHappy. The blogger of this site shared all sorts of tips, tricks and recipes...but I can't find a post later than 2010. I'm worried about him. In one post he said he'd lost his job but was still committed to the diet. What's he doing now?  Is it strange that I am concerned about this random person I've never met but whose blog was helpful to me? Probably.

Or maybe not. I'm invested in him because he's a fellow survivor of the first few days of Medifasting. And I want to know if this highly motivated person has kept of the weight he lost. Will I? Can I?

Okay, back to the here and now. First I need to finish this day and this week. Then I can worry about day 8 and week 2!

My Medifast meals for a day.

My way of organizing all the meals for the month.

A cute dog to make you smile!

Euphoria Delayed

Medifast Mary told me many clients experience a great feeling of euphoria the third day. I waited all day Sunday--no euphoria. Headache, fog, and food cravings, yes; euphoria, no. (Any grammarians out there? Please fix that sentence!)

Today around 11:00 I felt...different. Not as panicky about sustaining this. More confident I can keep it up. Not hungry. Actually, every time I turned around it was time to eat. Not a bad thing, eh? Finally, around 2:00 I decided to call the feeling euphoria and embrace it.

Nice feeling. I want to keep it.

My Medifast Journey Begins

I'm on a DIET. After deciding I couldn't afford $15,000 for lap band surgery, I knew I needed to do something. I sought for higher power as I looked at my options, and the phrase 'aggressive dieting' kept coming to me, so I began to do some research into gluten free meal programs. I knew Jenny Craig still didn't offer gluten free meals, but I wanted to double check. I looked into Nutri-System also, then researched Medifast. Well knock me over with a feather! Medifast has a gluten free track of meals including brownies! After a quick prayer for guidance, I took the plunge and ordered 4 weeks of meals.

Here's the plan:
Every day I eat five 100-125 calorie 'meals' (one every 2-3 hours) and one "Lean and Green" meal of my own consisting of 5-7 oz of protein, 2 cups of non-starchy vegetables and a small amount of healthy oil. That's a total of between 800 - 900 calories per day.

Here's how it's going so far:
Thursday was a busy day at work, so I think that made my first day easy. I had eggs for breakfast-- powdered scrambled eggs with southwest spices. I was very surprised that they tasted good. I had a Cranberry Mango drink for my next meal at 10:30. It was okay--I thought it was a shake, so I wasn't blown away by the flavor and consistency. I ate Chicken and Wild Rice soup at 1:00. By then I had already drunk 60 oz of water, so I was pretty busy dashing to the ladies room every hour. My next meal was a chocolate shake which tasted exactly how I expected--satisfying. After work is where I ran into an trouble. I stopped at the store to stock my fridge with Lean and Green meal components and was feeling quite shaky and hungry by the time I finished. I ate my 6 oz of turkey on the way home, then made my green salad. At 7:30 I ate my brownie. Heaven! It's one of those 'make in the microwave and eat while it's hot' brownies--fudgey, warm, and very satisfying.

Friday was a bit less intense at work. I had a pancake for breakfast (tasted fine), then a shake. For lunch I ate a 6 oz chicken breast and 1/2 cup broccoli at Chili's. Tasty! I could have had a larger portion of vegetables, but I had dinner with book club that night so I wanted to save some 'green' for that. Before dinner I had my tomato soup meal, then I ate 2 cups of arugula at Settabello. Okay... that was torture. Sitting for 2 hours with friends who are eating authentic Italian style pizza and gelato and trying to make myself content with straight lettuce as my meal? I should get an Oscar for pulling that off!

Saturday was difficult. Without the routine and distraction of work, it was harder to control my cravings and emotional need for food to 'tame the savage beast.' Still, I did fine. I added two celery stalks and a package of Medifast Soy Crisp snacks to the menu and ate my Lean and Green meal at 3:30 instead of for dinner. It was the hardest day so far. I had a headache and lots of sinus pressure--probably has nothing to do with the diet, but that's how I felt physically. Emotionally I struggled, but I made it!

As of this morning I've lost 7 pounds! That's what I call aggressive. I know it won't be like this all the time, but it feels good  to see immediate results.

I prepared for this by doing the following:
1. I purged my fridge and cupboard of any non Medifast compliant food.
2. I deleted the Food Network from my favorites list on cable.
3. I only watched recorded television shows so I could skip food commercials.
4. I still got on Pinterest, but skipped the food pins.
5. I organized all my meals into reusable bags so I can grab and go for the next 5 weeks.
6. I told my family, friends and co-workers.
7. I signed up for a free Medifast coach (her name is Mary, so I call her Medifast Mary) and have spoken with her nearly every day.

So, that's the latest. I am full of hope.

The Scope of a Scope

I had my left knee 'scoped' on Wednesday, May 16. The real name for the procedure is an arthroscopy I call this a manicure for my knee--the surgeon goes in and smooths over the rough edges of bones that have deteriorated due to arthritis. Those rough edges tear things like the meniscus and cartilage much like a torn fingernail snags on everything you touch.
By my rough calculations, this is the 7th knee scope I've had between the two knees. I thought I'd share what my recovery usually looks like by taking you through the past week. It was fairly typical of my past scopes.
My friend Cathi took the day off to be my 'person' (a la Grey's Anatomy). She picked me up at 7:45 and we were in the pre-surgery room by 8:30 with surgery scheduled for 9:30. That hour is always so long--different nurse types asking questions, checking blood pressure, dashing to and fro. Cathi saved some juicy family stories to entertain me with, but I was ready to crawl up the wall by the time the anesthesiologist came to talk to me. After that, everything moved quickly. I was wheeled to the operating room, made about 30 seconds of small talk with the surgeon, moved from the pre-op bed to the operating table, joked about how small the table was, then fell asleep. The recovery room is such a surprise--I just wanna sleep, but people are poking and prodding and talking way too loud to me, so I have to wake up. No knee pain, but a very sore throat. Do I want something to drink? Yes, a Diet Coke please. Thought the fizzy would help the throat. Wrong. Didn't help at all. I don't remember my throat hurting so much before, but it probably did. Back in the pre-surgery room talking to Cathi. Doc says the knee is trashed, probably the last scope before we do a TKR (total knee replacement). Yuck. Don't want to think about that right now. My throat hurts. After about 45 minutes, we leave. I ask Cathi to stop at the Dairy Queen for a milkshake-maybe that will help my throat. Home. Able to walk into the house with crutches. In bed, propped, on ice while Cathi goes to the store for my pain pills and a McDonald's run. Nice friend, huh? I know! Call and text friends that I survived and made it home. Napped. Ate. Rosann and Anita come over to visit and bring ice. My throat hurts. Bad. I have to go to the bathroom again. Really? Unhook the ice machine, grab the crutches, hobble to the bathroom. Reverse the process to get back to bed. Repeat three or four times. Time for bed. Can't sleep. Really? Really! 5 a.m. before I nod off. Crazy.
Thursday at around 11:00 I realized my knee hurt. Really. I hadn't been vigilant in my Lortab taking, so I upped my pills to 2 pills every 4 hours, and I watched the clock, believe you me! This continued through the night and into Friday.
By Friday I was happy to have some company--the boys and Daisy came for a few hours, then Rosann came to watch a movie with me. Smiling and sitting in the recliner with my knee on ice really wore me out!
Saturday morning at 2:00 a.m. I took my last Lortab. I had a hair appointment that I couldn't miss and didn't want to risk being able to drive. My sister came for the day and arrived in time to deliver me to the salon, so I could have taken some pain pills, but by the time we got home, I decided to switch to Tylenol and see how the pain was. No problem! I was kind of grumpy as I came off the pain pill high, but that was the extent of my withdrawal symptoms.
Sunday and Monday were low key--drove myself to the doctor's office for a follow up visit on Monday.
Tuesday I worked all day at Stampin' Up! My knee was tight and tired, but I was able to keep it on ice and elevated. In the afternoon I felt kind of shaky, but I made it through a very important meeting from 1-5, then went home and iced all evening.
Wednesday I took the day off, worked all day Thursday and Friday.
It's Tuesday now and I'm back to work full time and n the swing of things. My left knee gets swollen, but I don't need ice at work any more. I still baby it at home, but other than that, I'm good to go!

No Offense

"No offense, but...." I spend quite a bit of time with my friend Anita's boys and I'm noticing they use this phrase all the time. "Bonnie, no offense, but your handwriting was terrible when you were young." "Bonnie, no offense, but I liked your old house better." Sometimes they make me laugh with things like, "No offense, but I like pepperoni pizza more than cheese pizza." Like I'm invested in their pizza choice!

So here's my question. Does saying "No offense" open the gate to saying anything I want to say? I'm fairly certain the answer is no, but sometimes I hear myself or others use this phrase and kind of smile at the implication--

"No Offense Intended" really means what I'm about to say isn't nice, but since I've called an audible prior to saying it, it's your fault if you are offended.

Here are some other phrases I use and what I really mean when I use them:

"With All Due Respect": You are my superior/friend/respected neighbor but you haven't got a clue and I am politely pointing this out to you.
"Bless Her Heart": Batty old fool.
"To Be Totally Honest": I'm usually lying when I speak with you; this time I'm not.
"Present Company Excepted": Same category as With Due Respect or No Offense Intended, depending on the intention of the comment.

So, with all due respect (present company excepted), I will be totally honest here. I smile to myself a lot when I use or hear others use these phrases.

No offense intended....

Motivation and Inspiration

It's been a while since I posted about my dieting efforts.
Read between the lines.
I swear I never actually quit dieting--I just quit being obsessed with it. Part of me feels more healthy when I'm not consumed with my consumption, so I try to back-burner the weight loss efforts and go on living.
Wow! That statement says it all, doesn't it? My life depends on confronting this addiction head on--I just get exhausted sometimes.
Last week I had my annual blood work done. The glucose number came back at 127, so we re-tested it. This time it was 128. Diabetes numbers.
My mother was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 55-ish. She controlled it, was vigilant about her diet and taking her medicine (never needed shots) and monitoring her numbers. Still, diabetes robber her of her sight at the age of 68. She was legally blind when she died at the age of 71. We drove her to appointments, she couldn't teach her Sunday School lessons, she couldn't read (one of her passions) and she couldn't garden (another one).
Diabetes scares me.
After another test, I was cleared of the diabetes scare. Still, I must get moving and I must lose weight to keep this pernicious disease at bay.
So, I'm back on the wagon. Weight Watchers online; diligent tracking; daily walks. Prayer.
After a recent dinner with a friend, we were having an informal family night and reading the scriptures.
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23.

The most important challenge I have to overcome is this food addiction. I must treat each day as a step towards dealing with it. I have to take up this cross daily.

Sweep the Corners; The Middle Will Take Care of Itself

This was the advice my mother gave me when she taught me how to sweep the floor. I'm sure like many less-than-enthusiastic chore chart check-offers, I swept up the visible dirt and ignored the stuff under the cupboard or the refrigerator--the places I didn't think mattered. Well, they mattered to mama. I would complain that her approach meant more work. She then said, "Fine, just sweep the corners and ignore the middle." I thought that was a genius compromise. Moms are so smart!

I often think of my life and what I pay attention to. Am I concentrating on improving, changing, or polishing my middle--the parts people see--or am I spending my time on my corners? I'm pretty firmly in the middle. Really. I don't use my time for the private reflection that would lead to a personal improvement. I'm not saying I'm a terrible person. I am saying if  I would spend more time with a broom and dishpan attacking the unseen, un-applauded corners of my life, I would be a better Bonnie.

That would be awesome!