Starting Monday…a journey to the finish…

…luckily I found a piece of driftwood to hang on to…to keep me afloat.

Ok, so I’m not generally one for analogies, so I’ll cut right to the chase.  I gave up..big time.  By last Friday, I was so sick of opening little white packets and eating dehydrated mush, that I went off the deep end.  I literally took my bowl of stew down the the cafeteria with full intentions of eating it…then proceeded to purchase a grilled chix sandwich, chips, and a ginormous Kit Kat.  (The stew was quickly tossed into a nearby garbage can, never again to see the light of day.)  From then until last night, I went on a major food bender…eating like the Titanic was going down, and I wasn’t going to EVER see a morsel again.  I won’t get into the specifics, but it wasn’t pretty. 

Needless to say, the 7lbs I had lost my first two weeks…well, they came back for a visit, with a vengence, might I add.

So, I’m back to square one.  Yippee.  Today is day one.  Again.  Double yippee. 

I’m not quite sure why I went so crazy the past few days.  I know for one I grew EXTREMELY tired of eating the same things over and over again.  One more bowl of soup and I was going to scream.  I know there are all sorts of neat little tricks you can do with your meals, but I’m a simple creature…and to me, the less preparation, the better.  I’m pretty sure my laziness and lack of planning sure did contribute to my ultimate demise last week.  I guess that just a bit of planning goes a long way.

I guess the thing about the program that bothers me most is that I lack a feeling of “normalcy” on it.  Being overweight, you feel like an outcast from society to begin with…let along carrying a full days worth of food in a ziplock bag.  And what if I want to hang out with some friends on the weekends and have a few drinks?  That’s virtually impossible…which makes this program all the more difficult.  When I was with the other program…the one that I lost my 100lbs with…I was able to have a few drinks every now and again…and was still able to lose the weight.  (Albiet…not nearly as quickly…well, for most people anyway.)

I’m sorry if this post seems like one big rant…I just feel like I really need to air my frustrations…and what better place than right here with everybody that’s going through it too?  I have been OP 100% today…and plan to stay that way for a LOOONG time.  It’s now t-minus 4 months and some odd days until that wedding I’m the maid of honor for.  I need to be down 50lbs by then. 

With your help and encouragement (which I’ll be needed by the bucketloads) perhaps I can make that dream a reality. 

Thanks for reading, kids!

Well kids, I finished my first two weeks on Medifast. Let me tell you…this plan takes a lot of getting used to. It’s unlike anything I’ve done in the past, and definitely requires some patience and trial by fire with the meals your given. 5 meals a day are out of little white dehydrated packets, that you simply add water to, and eat. (Or drink….I’m having A LOT of shakes.) All in all, it’s going fairly well.

My first week, I lost 7lbs, which I was obviously pretty excited about. During week one, I didn’t exercise. The program suggests that if you don’t exercise to begin with, wait 3 weeks, then start a program. It also suggests that for those who were already on an exercise regime, to cut back a bit in the beginning. So I did. I had no physical activity outside of my first softball game. (Which we won by the way, 5-1!) 7lbs down.

Week 2. I started working out again. Made it to Curves MWF, softball on Tuesday (We got wailed on 14-1…I struck out twice and looked like a total baffoon…played the entire game in the freezing cold rain. And to top it off, the rain stopped, sun came out, and a huge rainbow planted itself over the field as soon as the game ended. It was like being in a frickin movie!) Thursday evening I went for a 30 min bike ride with my brother..so needless to say, I got A TON of exercise. Oh…and I had my monthly visitor this week too. So what happened on the scale, you ask? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was EXACTLY THE SAME!! 7 lbs in 2 weeks. Boo.

Normally I would have gone off the deep end…cursing, crying…you know, the whole 9. But I didn’t. I know how huge the difference was with my body between week one and week two, so I’m chalking it up to:

a) my period

b) 3 days @ Curves doing muscle bearing activity

c) a week with no exercise followed by a week with a ton of exercise. My body simply said “WTF?”

I have noticed my pants feeling a bit looser, which is always a sure fire sign that something good is happening. It’s hard to make that mental note in your head that scale isn’t end all be all of weight loss success. There will be times when you see no numerical change, but your losing inches. I don’t quite understand the physics behind it, but I’m not going to argue, all the same.

Yesterday I went to a Chicago Cubs game (I was dragged there, I tell you! You should all know by now that I’m a die hard White Sox fan, so going to Wrigley Field is generally against all of my beliefs…but it’s still baseball, and I LOVE the game! In fact, I was watching the news highlights of the game last night, and it turns out Jerry Seinfeld was at the game too. How cool is that? And to top it off, the Cubs ended up losing, so it was a GREAT game!) Anyhoo, I tried my damndest, but it’s completely un-American to go to a baseball game and not have a beer and a hot dog. So I did. I ended up having a few more beers later that evening. I know it’s definitely not on the plan, but I’m still a firm believer in having that one day out of the week where you allow your body extra calories…to keep it in a state of confusion. So, we’ll see how my little scheme worked, come this Friday, my weigh in day.

One more thing before I go. I had my official monthly weigh in @ Curves on Friday. The tape showed that I have lost a few inches here and there, which is cool. I was talking to the woman who measured me, and asked if she would be my “accountability buddy” of sorts…and weigh and measure me every Friday, as a way of keeping tabs on me. She happily agreed, and said she’d work with me to help me be down 50lbs by October. (Remember kids…the wedding that I’m the maid of honor for?) So, here’s a shout out to Karen, the cool lady who works at Curves, and who’s going to help keep tabs on my and my progress.

Here we go, on to week 3. Keep your fingers crossed, as I’m hoping for a 4lb loss. 263.

(Oh yeah…I’m attaching a picture of the dress I’ll be wearing for the wedding. I don’t remember if you’ve all seen this before, so here it is. Talk about motivation!)