Stick with the plan for results.

Struggling.  Wondering why I cannot be consistent and stick to the plan.  I need to keep my food diary and stop snacking.  I know what I need to do but having a hard time being disciplined.  My days at work are good it is the nights that I struggle with now.  I also think it has to do with my not getting enough sleep and also not getting enough calories during the day.  I will work on getting my protein calories in during my work hours and then I will not feel like I have to overeat at night.  Having Decaf coffee instead of regular after dinner is a good start to a good night's sleep.  Would like to have a little down tick on the scale before my next visit to Medi in a couple of weeks.  Disgusted by what I see in the mirror.  That is a good motivator.

This weight thing is a B-tch.  I'm so disgusted with myself.  The old me is back and it is a struggle fighting her off.  Just seems like I cannot stay in control long enough to start a weight loss trend.  I have good days and bad days that cancel out the good days so I'm stuck.  AGAIN.  Trying very hard to get in the right mind set to stay strong and make it through.  I did go back to Medi but I do not want to got back on the medication.  I want to prove I can do this without a crutch, so I met with Darlene on of the counselors last week and she suggested a week of protein only at 500-600 calories and then go back in a month to get weighed in and for more counseling.  I know I can do it once I become consistent.

I have Bad News/Good News

Argghh...not doing so good with this stop and reversing the rebound weight.  Up almost 20 pounds from my goal weight and feeling tired and sluggish.  Had to come back to the blog to remind myself of all my progress from 2 years ago.  While I think going back to Medi had it's merits I was a little concerned about being on the medication again and having another rebound so I haven't been back there since April and obviously did not do so well without any plan or accountability.  I have decided to tough it out without the crutch of the medication and doing it "naturally."  Installed My Fitness Pal app on my phone so I can journal what I eat.  I think I still need some level of accountability so blogging again about it is one way and also visiting with Medi and see what we can do without the medication if anything.  If I can't do anything with them without going on the meds, I will seek an alternative program.  I refuse to go back to my starting weight.  I have way too many cute outfits in my closet in my smaller size that I intend on wearing again before the end of the summer.  I do have some GOOD news though.  Thanks to this blog, I attracted the attention of a writer from Allure magazine who wanted to interview me about my experience Medi Weight Loss.  I hope I provided some good information for her research and I hope they are positive about Medi.  Even though I had some weight gain, I know it was my fault as is the problem with every weight loss program I have done in the past.  If you don't make the changes permanent the weight will rebound. The good thing about Medi is that once you are a patient and go back within a year of your last visit, you don't have to pay the initiation fee again so I will be making another visit to sit and visit with my counselors.  I'm glad the writer contacted me because having to admit that I gained the weight has motivated me to get back on track and that is a GOOD thing.

Stopping and Reversing the Rebound Weight Gain

Well, it is April and I am farther from my goal weight.  When I began my journey back in 2009 and lost 40 pounds I always said losing it was the easy part.  Keeping it off will be the hard part.  Well that is what happened.

What has happened?  Going to work outside of the house has brought a change from my daily routine for one thing.  It changed my normal daily rhythm and has been a disruption in my life that I have not dealt with it in a positive way so I resorted back to old eating habits.  The old "fat" me emerged and I have engaged in totally mindless eating and have been satisfying the need for immediate gratification with carbs thus gaining back 1/2 the weight I lost.  But the good news is, I'm going to stop that and reverse the process.  So now it is time to go back to the drawing board.  Reading my old blog posts will help remind me of my weight loss journey 2 years ago.  But I am went  back to the 1st day of my journey and met with my Medi Weightloss Clinic counselor today.

Here's my plan:
1.  Eat 3-5 small meals a day.
2.  Keep a journal of  what I eat.
3.  Weigh my protein.
4.  Increase fluids.
Strategies to help:
1.  Prepare meals.
2.  Get organized.

What this means:
Sometimes I have to go 4-5 hours without eating (depending on what time I ate my last meal) so I have to make sure I can take something to work that I can eat for a snack during a 15 minute rest break and go another couple of hours before my hour meal break.  So maybe I can take a hard boiled egg, a container of chicken salad, a protein shake.  Planning and preparing my meals for the day will be helpful.   Instead of reaching for the wrong foods when I come home from work, I can have prepared food so I can have a low cal, low carb snack when I put my feet up at night.  Drinking plenty of water during the day and getting proper amount rest at night is also key.

Lastly:
Yes, I am going back on the medication, phentermine as an aide to help me.  Everyone who knows me knows I do this with a large amount of trepidation because I very much dislike the Big Pharma and the fact that they have created drug addicts out of normal healthy people.  I will be happy to have that discussion with anyone about if you want to call or email me.  So I am a hypocrite in taking medication.  While I do not feel that people should take medication chronically to fix one problem causing a multitude of other serious and just as chronic health problems, I am acting against my own wisdom for the sake of losing weight.  Here's why:  Phentermine is not to be taken chronically so I will be on it a short time.  I will be monitored weekly for any signs of an adverse reaction.  In my own research, I feel it is proven and safe.  That's all anybody can do when it comes to taking medication.  In essence, do the research yourself on any medication and drill down in the results when you "google" any medication to find out the truth.   Don't just take your doctor's word for it.  He or she has been trained and maybe paid to dispense the drugs.  So am I a hypocrite? Yes but at least I will be a hypocrite that weighs 20 pounds less.   My weight is definitely a result of my emotions and being overweight has an effect on my emotions.  It is a vicious cycle that I believe the medication even if it is used as a crutch, will get me to where I need to be weight wise and in the process deal with the psychological aspects of my eating behavior as I'm losing so when I get to my goal weight I do not rebound again.

So for the next month or so, you can expect at least weekly postings on this blog as it was tremendously helpful to chronicle in my journey to lose weight before, I plan on doing it again.  Thanks for following my journey again and I appreciate your support and encouragement.

Happy New Year - New Commitment to Lose Weight Starts

Well, it has been 2 years since I lost 40 pounds with Medi Weight Loss.  I loved the program and it worked but unfortunately, I managed to regain 15 pounds so I am again on a quest to lose the 15 I gained plus a little extra for a total of 20 pounds.  I am not the type to make new year resolutions so I don't consider this a resolution but it is the day I am starting.  Blogging about my weight loss experience helped before so I'm turning to my blog again for accountability and support.  The big question now becomes whether I go back to Medi or not.  I know what to do as far as eating and exercise go and I wonder if now I need the expense of Medi.  I tried going back before the holidays and was not able to stick to the plan then and I wonder if it would be of any benefit at this time and whether being on the medication is a wise thing to do.  Now I'm thinking I will just follow the eating plan without the severe reduction in calories and without the medication and just follow a low-carb eating plan that I can stick to once I reached my goal.  My goal is to lose 20 pounds by May 1.  My 50th birthday.  Before and after pictures to follow.  I wish everyone a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2012.

Thank You MEDI! YOU ARE the one that WORKS!

Well, it has been over a year since I joined Medi and I have lost the 40 pounds I set out to lose and maintained even over the holidays.  Amazing.  It was finally good to go through the holiday season without feeling like a schlub.  I enjoyed getting clothes this year and doing a little fashion show for my mother and sister-in-law to show them how what they bought me fit.  I owe it all to my Medi Weight Loss Clinic.  I am still going regularly and even trying to lose 10 more so I can make it my ultimate goal loss of 50 pounds.  So, I made these cute little bookmarks for the wonderful staff that helped me, motivated me and inspired me.  I am so lucky.
   This is the year I also was brave enough to do a family portrait.  Here are a couple of pics from the little photo shoot we did in our backyard.  The photographer was a friend of Stan's from the local camera club he belongs too.  He shot all the pictures and then gave us a CD with all the shots on it.  We made Christmas presents for my family with them.   I will post later about how I made it through the holidays and what I'm doing to maintain but I just wanted to share with you my gift for the Medi staff and my family pics. 

I wish you all a wonderful happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Wellness Phase...Slight Gain But Manageable.

Losing it was a piece of cake....but keeping it off is going to be my challenge I believe. I'm in the Wellness phase of the Medi program. I recently started feeling like my eating was getting a little unwieldy and my sweet tooth was acting up again so in addition to beginning the week making sure I stick to eating properly to get me back on the right track to losing the 3 pounds that I've gained in the last 49 days, I made an appointment at Medi. I enjoyed visiting with Darlene, my counselor today and discussing the good and bad things I have been doing. The one good thing is that I am walking for 30 minute 3-4 days a week and she just wants me to step that up to 5 days a week and even up to 60 minutes a day if I can. She said that will help on the days that I do tend to eat a piece of chocolate or something. While I have stayed on track with my regularly daily meals, I have been snacking and indulging little bit of candy here as well as drinking wine on weekends and eating a little more than usual when I go to a restaurant. The good thing is I can feel immediately when I'm overdoing it and I can tell my weight has been creeping up a little by the way my clothes have been fitting and by weighing myself every day. So my goal is to get off the 3 pounds within the next 2 weeks before my next followup visit with Medi. Darlene advised to eat protein only for a few days and then add in vegetables for the rest of the week and next week I can add back some fruit. The holidays are coming and this will be the first year in a long time where I won't be hiding form the camera and I can look forward to being in pictures with my family. We all know it is more important to look good than to feel good. hee hee

Losing Weight Prolongs your Life

I was inspired to write this blog entry after a couple of things that happened yesterday. I had a “physical” in order to get life insurance. The insurance company sent a nurse to our house to conduct a physical. She took our medical histories, blood, urine, weighed and measured us. In talking with the nurse I was reminded me of how much weight plays a role in our overall health. Later that day, I saw the Dr Oz show. His show not only focused on his personal journey with a colonoscopy but at the end of the show he talked about our increasing the years of our lives and 5 key life-saving numbers we need to know for our overall health. Those were blood pressure, weight, waist measurement, cholesterol, and fasting blood glucose. For women, weight under 175 is considered good and a waist under 35 inches is good. Blood pressure number to watch out for is the top number or systolic number being 140 or below. I was thinking to myself, well thank goodness I lost the weight. I am now below 175 pounds and my waist size has shrunk to 31 inches. A third thing that makes me aware that losing weight is good for your health is my work. I have been a medical transcriptionist for 11-1/2 years and over that time, I have noticed the trend in the role weight plays on someone’s health. When I start typing on someone who has diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, depression, etc, invariably that person is overweight or obese. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that being overweight contributes greatly to these conditions. In speaking with the visiting nurse during my physical yesterday and mentioning about my gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with Steven 12 years ago, I was reminded at the huge step I took to maintaining my health by losing the weight. I remember reading years ago that women with gestational diabetes stand a higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes within 10 years. Had I not lost the weight, I feel I would have developed diabetes. My blood pressure has never been an issue for me thank goodness. It has always run low even at my highest weight. A nurse once told me it was the blood pressure of a teenager. I have been lucky in that regard. Losing the weight will help me continue to have good blood pressure readings. Now we await the blood work to return. I had the blood work drawn last December when I started the Medi Weight-Loss Program and my numbers were all within the normal range then so I look forward to seeing if they have even improved somewhat to the lower end of the normal range. So if you have issues with your weight and are fighting with yourself to get motivated to get it off, I encourage you to do so for your health. If you have any issues now with elevated blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc, it can be reversible with diet and exercise. I am not a doctor or a nurse but my experience with transcribing medical reports over the years shows me that with a reduction in your weight, you can be healthier.

Also, get a colonoscopy when you reach 50 – Here is a link to Dr. Oz's web page about his colonoscopy: http://www.doctoroz.com/colonoscopy-videos/screening-colonoscopy It changed my mind about the procedure. If you catch a precancerous polyp early, it will avoid you having real issues in the future.

Maintaining and Loving Summer

Key Largo, FL
August 2010
Outside on the deck at Snapper's Tiki Bar before dinner.

I don't know if anyone is following this blog any more. I haven't posted in so long. I have been maintaining and even survived vacation. It was finally nice to be on vacation and not feel like a blimp. I had so many new cute clothes to pack and wear on the trip. I felt so good despite the wickedly hot weather. I ate a lot of broiled fish, peel n' eat shrimp, fruit, and veggies. I tried hogfish and yellow tail snapper (both wonderfully mild white fish) and one night had 1/2 pound broiled lobster. I also ate a Medi Weight-Loss bar every morning for breakfast with coffee as the lodge we stayed at had a continental breakfast and since I am staying away from wheat products, I could not partake in the danish, cakes, and bagels and I'm also keeping things low carb so I did not eat the yogurt and a lot of fruit either so bringing my bars was a very good thing for me to do and I always started out my day right. I did save my carbs for the wine and I did partake in some Key Lime pie (no crust) that Stan and I shared a couple of nights for desert (we were in the "Keys". How could I not). French fries snuck in there to up the carb count one day (hey it was hot and I sweated a lot, I must have needed the salt). Being able to pick and choose what carbs I have is so nice and helping me maintain when I feel I want to splurge. I try not to do everything at once and if I am bad one meal, I watch the next 2 meals and if I have a bad day, I watch it the next 2 days. So that is what I did and when we got back, I immediately went back to my "new" way of eating. I weigh in again next Wednesday and I definitely to not want to show a gain. So I will be behaving myself from now until then.

Key Largo, FL
August 2010
Outside Jimmy Johnson's Big Chill where we had dinner inside and
watched a beautiful sunset. 

Wellness Phase

I am in the Wellness phase of the Medi Weight Loss Program...So I have held my weight loss for a month and now I am on wellness. What does that mean? That means I'm on my own with my eating and they are going to monitor me monthly and I go from paying $80/week to $35/month. More disposable income to spend on clothes now. I am to still watch my calories, fat and carb intake and they will keep tabs on my weight to make sure I am not gaining. I don't intend on gaining because I do not intend on going back to my old eating habits. I am a changed eater. I have changed my thinking about food and I am very happy about that. Anybody going on a diet needs to know that to lose weight you cannot eat the way you did that got you fat to begin with and you should not expect to go back to eating that way after you take the weight off. I do not look at the wellness phase of the program as my license to go back to old eating habits. There isn't anything that I am thinking about ... oh hey I'm on wellness I can eat such and such. I'm not thinking that way. My plan is to continue to eat the things that I have been eating to lose weight and maybe add things like a few grains and a little more fruit in the mix. Although because of an issue with gluten intolerance, I am not planning on going back to eating wheat-based products so no pasta, breads, cookies, cakes, crackers, etc. I will occasionally have some nonwheat-based breads and crackers but those will be limited. I do not intend on eating rice, white potatoes, or nonwheat-based pastas either. Those have entirely too many carbs for me. I need to keep my daily carb allowance around 50 per day to keep the weight off and 40 carbs for a serving of quinoa pasta is not going to help me do that. Meat, vegetables, and fruit will continue to be the mainstay of my diet. I am feeling so good and love being a smaller size. I also plan on exercising more and hope to start tennis soon. I am enjoying exercising in the pool with swimming laps and other water exercises. I feel I'm toning up slightly and will start incorporating other methods of exercise as the summer goes along.

Two Weeks and Maintaining

Two weeks on short-term maintenance and I've been doing okay. I did gain 2 pounds the first week for some reason but this week lost one that I gained. According to the plan, I can go up to 1000 calories a day. I add another 100 calories of protein and add a second serving of starch. I am not doing wheat because I am suspicious I have a gluten intolerance so I got some rice bread and I am also trying some tapioca bread. I didn't intend on going on processed foods but it is nice to have something else to eat besides meat and vegetables. About every other day for breakfast I have been having a slice of the bread toasted with a little smear of peanut butter. I did meet some friends out for dinner the other night and ordered steak with shrimp. I had a side salad for my vegetable and baked potato for my starch. I only ate maybe 1/4 of the potato (no butter or sour cream) and took such small nibbles out of the potato because it was hard to get used to eating it. I felt like I was cheating. I think the hardest thing about adding foods back in is getting used to not feeling like you are cheating. I am trying to keep a good food diary this week because I have gotten away from it the last couple of weeks this way if my weight is up for any reason, the counselor can see what I have been eating. I don't think I'm going to gain though unless I totally blow it. I have been swimming about 3 days a week for exercise and it has been a fun way to do something with Steven. He gets me moving when we are in the pool because he wants to race and I pull him around while he holds on to the noodle. The water provides good resistance and I definitely feel it in my muscles.

THANK YOU MEDI-WEIGHTLOSS! 40 Pounds Gone

Okay my friends. Here they are -- my before and after side by side. I am down 40 pounds and working on maintenance. I'm so glad that I have the professionals at Medi to guide me through this. I am so afraid of eating more food at this point. I am adding back in calories slowly and tapering off of medication. I will go back to the clinic weekly for monitoring for the next 4 weeks. I know I will be as committed to keeping this weight off as I was in losing this weight. Stay tuned for how this is going. I want to thank you all again for following me through this process for the last 6 months. I also want to thank my friends and family for all their support and encouragement. Stan and the kids have been great as have my mom and dad and brother and sister-in-law. I am so lucky to have a loving, understanding family. They loved me through everything and I am blessed.

The Melancholy Baby and the Prom Queen

I was a big melancholy baby Saturday. My daughter went to her first prom and is seeming so grown up. She looked beautiful in her dress, with the hair curled. My little tom boy all dressed up with heels and everything. I helped her with some of the preparations including sitting at the salon while she had her hair done. We took pictures outside and when she finally left with her boyfriend to go off to his house for pictures, I was so deep in a blue state of mind. I swallowed all my feelings along with the need to swallow some chocolate. I had laughed earlier at a friend who posted on facebook that after helping her duaghter with all the preparations for prom, she was going to need a few cocktails. I thought how bad can it be. Well, I did finally understand where she was coming from. After Carrie and Camil left, I took off to the grocery store to pick up groceries for the week as well as the things for our son's 12th birthday party on Sunday. I walked around the store in a daze and all I could think about was that I needed chocolate. I was doing pretty good until the end and went back and grabbed a couple of large bags of M&Ms (for the party, of course) and checked out. When I got to the car, I grabbed a bag of the M&Ms (peanut butter kind) and ripped them open and starting popping them like pills on the way home from the store. "Medicating" myself with food is the old me. I could not control the emotions I was feeling and thus couldn't control my hand to mouth action. I did stop myself but not until the damage was done and it was not the last time because I did dig into them a little bit later in the evening when I felt the wave of emotions coming over me as she was going to an after party and staying the night at a friends house. Thank goodness this happened as I am at goal and not in the midst of the acute phase of the program. I got right back on track Sunday morning and did not touch an M&M or any of the fudge-iced brownie cake that I got for Steven's birthday cake (okay, aside from the one little lick of icing off my finger after I served the cake to the boys). So the new me on a diet is back and atoning for the bad Saturday but it just really goes to show how food is tied to emotion and up until that point, I had dealt well with other emotions but was not prepared to deal with the one that I felt on Saturday. I will have to make sure I am prepared next time because I'm sure with the kids getting older, it is not going to be the last.

Short Term Maintenance Begins

My brother Jeff has been a great sounding board for me throughout the years and with all my false starts and stops at weight loss he hung in their with me listened to me, offered advice and never chastised me. He always was honest with me about my downfalls whenever I was on a diet. And on starting Medi in December, he gave me some great advice on how to be successful and told me not to be ashamed because I needed medication to help lose the weight. "They have medication to help people stop smoking and to stop drinking" he said. "Why not take medication to help you lose weight if it is available."

So now for the news of the week:

My counselor today at my weigh-in appointment told me to wear something spiffy next week because they are going to take my AFTER picture. I can't tell you how awesome that feels. As I am typing this I am actually welling up with tears because finally after 12 years I have attained a weight loss goal. This is a very emotional for me. I have lost 39 pounds since December 29, 2009, almost 5 months ago. Today, Yancy told me to make sure I get my 500 calories of protein a day and add a fruit serving along with my 2 servings of vegetables. I now will slowly start adding food back into my diet until I get to my calorie requirements for maintenance. She said I can expect to still lose while I am making this transition. This will be fine with me. I actually would love to lose about 5 more so I can use 135-140 as my range. I thank all of you for following this blog and supporting me throughout this process. The blog and talking about it was part of my strategy for being successful.

You have to see this news item. http://www.newscentralga.com/news/local/93626474.html It is about Medi-Weightloss Clinics. I echo the sentiments of the 2 patients featured in the item.

Being overweight is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a medical problem and can be treated with a medical program. It takes a team of doctors, nurses, dietitians and counselors along with the right support of medication and nutritional supplements. Just like any other medical problem. Because I have lost the weight, my health risks for diabetes and coronary disease are greatly reduced. If I had continued at the weight I was I could have ended up with diabetes especially since I was already a high risk factor being that I was gestational diabetic when I was pregnant with Steven. If I would have ended up with diabetes, I would have had to take medication and watch my diet and see doctors, nurses, and dietitians so I decided to use those resources for weight loss instead. I have the angel on my right shoulder to thank for my success. When the devil on my left shoulder would whisper in my ear to eat something not so good for me, I had the angel whispering in the other ear "that's not you." and "You are better than that." Self-talk was a big component. Being accountable was the other component. Knowing I would be going to the clinic visits, writing this blog and talking to my friends and family, kept me accountable for my actions. Another big factor I think is that I saw results quickly. I loved to see the results each week. It always spurred me on to maintaining myself 100% on the program each week. Now that I will be having my after picture taken, I am going to have the same commitment to maintenance as I did with the weight loss portion. This took me too long and I worked to hard to gain it all back.

Weigh In Tomorrow

I moved my weigh-in this week to Thursday. Tuesday was kind of hectic with work and other things so I changed the appointment. Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that according to my scale at home, my weight would have stayed the same as last week. I don't think 2 days will make a difference but I have pretty much made up my mind that after the weigh-in tomorrow, I will ask to go on maintenance. I am very happy to have lost 38 pounds and have gone from a size 12/14 to a size 6. My goal was to wear a smaller size and I have exceeded that expectation as I thought I would at best get to a 10 or at least an 8. My other goals besides the weight were also to get my BMI into the normal range and to get my waist under 32 inches (reference to Dr. Oz's book You on A Diet) and I have done both those things as well.

I am encouraged by a fellow Medi-Weightloss member who was on the Today show recently after losing 293 pounds. His name is Jerome and he is blogging at http://feelinglighter.wordpress.com/. He says that he would like to lose the last 7 eventually just to be able to say he literally lost 300 pounds so I know how he feels. I would like to lose the last 3 just to say I am 140 pounds on the nose. That would actually be a 41 pound weight loss since December 29. I know his and my weight loss needs were different than Jerome's but it doesn't matter that I had 40 to lose and he had 300 to lose. It is all relative to one's particular situation. My 40 pounds might as well have been 300 pounds. It was a real challenge for me and it took hard work and determination to lose it just as it did with Jerome. I can't tell you how impressed I am with his determination to lose the weight. Medi-Weightloss is the one that really works. I am sure that once I relax and go on maintenance that the last 3 pounds will come off within the next month anyway as my body adjusts to the changes and I increase my exercise a little bit. I have decided to re-join a gym. I enjoy the structured environment of an exercise class and really like elliptical machines as opposed to walking in the Florida heat that we have looming over us this time of year. I am not disciplined enough to do an exercise program here in the house by myself so I am going to check out a gym that maybe is about 5 minutes from the house. They just acquired another gym's membership that closed so maybe with the extra members some new classes and class times will be added. I'm sure they have Pilates and Yoga so I will be happy with that. I will be back tomorrow with another update.


Oh, and no special reason for the picture...just felt like including it. It is Carrie and I at the Chocolate Gala (Fundraiser for Alvin Dubin Alzheimer Resource Center) May 1, 2010

I am no longer afraid of my dryer. You know that Cheerios commercial where the 2 ladies are in the laundromat and the one loading stuff in the dryer asks the other for more quarters because she is trying to shrink her clothes in the dryer because she lost weight eating whole grains? I am putting clothes in the dryer that I was afraid to put in the dryer before because I didn't want them to shrink. I have a few things now that are a little too big for me that I am putting in the dryer hoping they will shrink just a little. I even threw in some of my new size things not worrying about if they shrink a little or not. Crazy thing to think about but since I spent so much of my life being heavy and bouncing up and down between 170 and 180 pounds, I never knew how things were going to fit and feel if I washed them and put them in the drier. I love being able to shop and look at a smaller size that I thought I would never see again and don't even remember being. I am a very happy camper despite my 0.2 pound weight gain this week. It was because I was retaining water. Thanks to the wonderful computerized scale at Medi, it told me that my water weight was up and my fat weight was actually down but because I was retaining water my net weight was actually up. Oh well...I did start what I call jog walking this week. That is where I warm up with a 10 minute walk and then for 10 minutes, I alternate walking and jogging between telephone poles. The last 10 minutes is power walking into my cool down. I have done that 3 times already this week. Also, according to Yancy, the counselor I met with at Medi this week, I have to drink more water. Since it is warmer out and I am exercising, I have to drink plenty of water to help relieve the water retention. So, we will see what happens on Tuesday.

Birthday Weekend and Chocolate

The four of us (Steven, Carrie, Me and Stan) posing together at my parent's house after the "chocolate gala"

Saturday was my birthday and I let loose a little on Saturday to celebrate. We went to a fundraiser for the Alvin A. Dubin Alzheimer's Resource Center of which Stan is on their board. It featured a buffet of hor's d'oeuvres, chocolate tasting, live and silent auction. The theme for the night was Pirates and Pearls. Unfortunately, I did not get my picture taken with the Captain Jack Sparrow look alike. I enjoyed a little chilled shrimp and bacon wrapped scallops and then headed for the chocolate. The chocolate purveyors were there sampling their chocolate creations for everyone to sample and then vote on their favorite. I did not take any of the cakes but I did try a forkful off Carrie's and Steven's pieces. There was one vendor Irresistible Confections with some chocolate candies and something they called "sipping chocolate" which was dark chocolate mixed with Cabernet wine. Oh my goodness, I was in heaven. It was so delicious. I poured some in one of the little sampling cups and brought it back to the table took my sip and then and passed it around to the family. I did of course have to try one more that I kept for myself. It was warm and decadent; almost like sipping hot fudge. Well that was it for the chocolate I had my fill and put all my plastic gold coins that we were given for voting into the basket for Irresistible Confections and, of course, they did win the award for the best chocolate of the night. The kids liked them so much they got Grampy to bid on a Chocolate Party for 2 offered by the same company during the live auction. Grampy won so the kids get their chocolate party. I of course got something for my birthday that Stan bought through the live auction also. It is a 10 karat white gold bracelet with 2 k diamonds. It is gorgeous. We also won somethings in the silent auction as well and all the money goes to a good cause.

Four months on Medi-Weightloss program and 38 pounds lost, I really enjoyed the way I felt in my dress and I did not feel guilty enjoying a little chocolate and wine. My strategy now is to go back on protein only for a couple of days and see what happens at my weigh-in on Tuesday. I'm not expecting anything big but I do not expect to have gained. The chocolate definitely kicked me out of ketosis and that is why I want to just do protein to get back into ketosis.

Hitting a Plateau Means Time to Sweat

Well, I was hoping for confetti and balloons to drop on me from the ceiling today because I was hoping to reach my goal at my weigh-in but actually I found out I hit a plateau. My net weight was only down 0.2 lbs but my water weight was up 1 pounds and my fat weight was down but overall it really means I did not change much again this week. Yancy, the Weightloss Specialist I met with today recommended more intense exercise and breaking a sweat. ARGHHH! Sweating is not my favorite thing to do. Being hot literally makes me nauseous and I have a little anxiety just at the thought of being warm because of my history of nausea with it., which is so crazy since I live in Florida where it is hot and humid 90% of the time (or at least it feels like it). If I want to look hot, I am going to have to endure getting hot and breaking a sweat. I will have to leave the dog at home and go for power walks. I also will go to the power yoga class on Saturday morning. Yoga is my most favorite form of exercise and doing certain repetitions of certain poses, you can get your heart rate up and break a sweat. I am hopeful to have the balloons and confetti next week.

Day 114 - Assessing Dr. Phil's New Weight Loss Solution

After mentioning Dr. Phil in my previous post, I happened to see this item on WebMd's website Dr. Phil's Ultimate Weightloss Solution It is a review of the Dr. Phil's new book. My assessment is "well, duh!" No really, after reading tons of weight loss books including Dr. Phil's first venture into weight loss, I really do not think there is any thing anybody else can teach me about weight loss. I think most people who are obese and overweight all can say the same thing. There is nothing we don't know. We know what puts the weight on and we know what it is going to take to take it off. It is just getting our minds ready to do it because it really is an issue of MIND OVER MATTER. I do not think I would have been successful with the Medi Weightloss plan had my mind not been in the right place. You really have to know that there is going to be sacrifice...great sacrifice to be successful and you really have to be ready for it. I knew if I was going to embark on another weight loss journey, i would have to be really ready mentally. I knew my favorite foods were going have to become no longer favorites because they were the things that helped me put the weight on and kept it on. Now that I am almost at goal, I do not even want to go back to eating the way I did before. I have already made up my mind that there are foods that are just going to have to stay off limits to me and avoid them totally and some foods will have to be eaten rarely. My main diet is going to continue to be low in carbohydrates and free of wheat/gluten products. Processed foods will also be kept to rare-to-none. I will mainly eat lean protein and low-glycemic vegetables and fruit. I find I no longer crave certain things and I'm just going to keep it that way. This week, I should reach my goal at Medi and I will be given the plan for maintenance and be able to slowly introduce some foods that have been off limits. I'm a little apprehensive coming off the Acute Phase of the program but I know with the guidance of the counselors I will be fine.

According to the WebMD article Dr. Phil's book outlines 7 steps to weight loss freedom. I am sharing them with you because they articulate the exact princples that I believe will lead to successful weight loss and maintenance.
1. Right Thinking: Get rid of self-defeating thought patterns, believe that you will succeed, and you will have mastered the first key necessary to overcoming your struggles with your weight.
2. Healing Feelings: Make choices that stop the cycle of emotional eating that has perpetuated your weight problem. Don't let stress, anxiety, or depression lead you to self-medicate with food. Change your emotional response to life's problems, and the unwanted eating behaviors that flow from it, and you can change. He instructs readers in how to identify the "payoff" you get from overeating and addressing those negative feelings -- getting emotional closure, so you stop self-defeating habits, says Dr. Phil.
3. A No-Fail Environment: You must program your environment in every possible way to avoid binge foods and reminders to eat.
4. Mastery Over Food and Impulse Eating: "Did you binge or overeat for one reason, such as a betrayal, a job loss, an illness, some personal tragedy, and you've kept on doing it as a matter of habit? Your pounds came on quickly, but the trouble is, they stayed because you are overeating habitually, whether you are hungry or not," writes Dr. Phil.
5. High-Response Cost, High-Yield Foods: This is Dr. Phil's way of saying, "eat high-fiber and other nutritious and filling foods - whole grains, lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, dried beans." It also implies eating foods that take time and effort to fix, require lots of chewing, and aren't fast food or other convenience foods.
6. Intentional Exercise: "Regular, intentional exercise is a big deal, a huge deal," writes Dr. Phil. "It unlocks the door to body control - a state of fitness in which your body is metabolically geared for losing weight and keeping it off, and is flowing with energy and vitality People who successfully manage their weight and stay fit exercise as a matter of habit."
7. Your Circle of Support: "Weight loss is not a do-it-yourself deal," he writes. "If you expect to lose weight and keep it off, you must build and nurture relationships that affirm and uplift you in life-changing ways. There is strength and power in support."

The most important of the above to me are Number 7 (Circle of Support). I had wonderful support at Medi and meeting one on one with the counselors provided the psychological support as well as the nutrition education necessary to be successful which also encompases number 4 and 5 (Mastery of Food and High Response Cost High Yield Foods). Numbers 1-3 are really up to the individual to take care of and get their mindset ready to tackle their weight loss issue.

While some people might dismiss Dr. Phil as a quack, etc. and this is not meant to be promotion for his book but rather it is confirmation for me that I did everything right and that all the books I have read in the past have actually contained advice that does work in getting the weight off had I been mentally ready to lose the weight.

Day 109 - Guerilla Weight Loss

Okay, I know this is a picture of a gorilla so it is a play on words. But after 15 weeks on Medi Weight Loss I am a thinner and getting a little giddy with the results. So this week, I lost 1 pound for a total of 37 pounds...3 pounds to go to goal..and I'm thinking to myself, what got me here? Well, I got to thinking about because a lovely lady that I recently met had wanted me to meet her daughter in hopes that I could be an inspiration to her as the daughter has a weight problem as well. In speaking to the mother, the weight issue of her daughter sounded all too familiar to me. The ups the downs, the not finding a program that really works, etc. So now that I am this wonderful weight loss expert because I have been so successful --- ha, ha, ... I thought about the tactics that I took to get me to this place. To finally conquer the enemy. I waged Guerrilla warfare on my weight. In looking up guerrilla on the Internet, Wikipedia defines it as such: Guerrilla warfare is irregular warfare, conflicts in which a small group of combatants uses military tactics, like ambushes and raids, to harass a larger and less-mobile traditional army. So aside from the fact that every time I heard the words guerrilla warfare on the news, I imaged hundreds of gorillas fighting battles with guns, tanks, etc, I decided that the way I approached my weight loss was to do something "irregular" or at least "irregular" for me. Something out of the ordinary in terms of a plan for losing weight that I had not done before. The other thing was that I was going to outsmart my fat cells and my brain cells into losing this weight. So in a sense, I ambushed my own cells. I harassed the fat that was in my body as well as my own thoughts about losing weight. It was a 10-year war I was having with my own mind and my own body that I finally conquered. I thought there would never be a program that would help me. I tried and failed so many over the years, structured and unstructured, in meetings, and on my own. It was a long and tortuous road. So basically if I had a chance to speak to that lady's daughter this is what I would tell her. In my best Patton-like rhetoric.

Those fat cells have been with you for so long. They are resistant to everything you have tried. The more you try to starve them, they be after you for more. The more you give them, they will still want more. It is time that you put on your battle fatigues and tackle this war with everything you got.
1. Finally decide that you have had enough. Like Dr. Phil says, GET REAL with yourself. You are not going to spend another summer, holiday, etc. at the weight that you are currently. You are tired of running from the camera because you don't want the way you look immortalized in pictures. This is a talk you will have to have with yourself and you have to be really mentally ready to commit to a weight loss program 110%. This is no time for fooling around and dabbling and trying and see what happens. This is WAR.
2. Do not settle on a program that says to take the pounds off slowly. The reason why you are fat is because of your desire for instant gratification. Food provides instant gratification. So since we are of that mindset, we need instant gratification with weight loss or we will get discouraged and never follow the program through. Slow may be fine for somethings but not weight loss. I don't care what has been written or proven in science that long lasting weight loss has to be slow...get the weight off first and then deal with keeping it off.
3. Commit to the program. Whatever program you decide you are doing. Commit to it. Do not cheat, do not fudge, do not put off. Do it, do it now, and do it all the way. You are in it to win it.
4. The only way to lose weight is to eat less calories than what your body burns. You need to burn the fat by not adding fat in your diet and severely limiting carbs so you can burn the fat instead of the carbs in your body. I will add the caveat to always check with your doctor first or do this in a medically supervised setting. If you need to drop your calories down to 500-600/day and you need medication and supplemental support to do it, don't be afraid to ask for it. There are programs like Medi Weight Loss that provide these things or you can go to your doctor to be monitored on the medication. I was so afraid of "diet pills" because of their rebound weight gain effect that I didn't want to try it. But when I wanted to really do something and do it fast, I did my research about Medi and found that they covered all the bases to make sure that it would be safe and long-lasting weight loss. The dietitians are counselors that you meet with one on one to educate you and motivate you. You cannot do it alone. Also, You gotta shake it up. You can't keep doing the same things you have done for weight loss and expect different results...that is just INSANE. STOP THE INSANITY as another diet guru from the past had said.
5. Focus on what goes in your mouth first and then worry about the exercise. Almost every weight loss program will tell you to exercise to lose weight...BS! Yes it burns calories but ultimately, it is what you put in your mouth that puts weight on. If you restrict your fat, calories and carbs on a daily basis you will lose weight without exercise. I'm not saying become a couch potato by any means but at least in the beginning get your mind right about food first and the exercise will come into play later. Sugar and gluten-based products are not your friends. They are the worst, sinister enemies of your body. Cleanse your body of these vile products and you will not crave them as much and you will be successful. Light walking while you are losing is healthy and helpful but if you are restricting calories and carbs you can do your body more harm than good by exercising too vigorously in that you will burn the protein in your body rather than the fat. Find a diet that is right for you but one that is low carb. The ones I hear recommended by the doctors I work for are the Adkins diet and the low-glycemic diet. The Medi Weightloss diet is similar to both these diets because it requires you to eat 500 calories of lean protein a day and 2 servings of low-glycemic vegetables or 1 serving of low glycemic vegetable and 1 approved fruit serving. Again, check with your doctor before embarking on any weight loss plan.

Since I'm still losing and not in the maintenance phase yet it is hard for me to talk about maintaining but I am a little apprehensive about putting the weight back on now that my goal is close. I have the wonderful dietitians at Medi there to lay out my maintenance plan for me and like I followed the plan to lose the weight, I am committed to following the plan to maintain the weight. I feel and look the best I have in years and I am not going back to the "old me." Those old fat cells can just try to come after my new thinner cells and I will just take the old bazooka out and blow them to smithereens.