One of the great advantages in blogging is the people you meet.  Over the last year I have gotten to know various health care professionals, fitness people, life and weight loss coaches, hypnotherapists, and other various versions of people that are interested in weight loss and optimal health.  Top that off with working with clients, learning and teaching, support groups, and the research that it takes to keep up with it, I finally feel like we can start putting it all together.

These children, playing in a public space, var...
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I wanted to start out with the various folks that have followed my journey from morbid obesity and stuck with me over the last year or so and offer it up to them first.  I am looking for those of you that want to be contributors to the blog and therefore the newsletter.  I talk with so many passionate people that have something to teach on weight loss and fitness that just need a place to express it.    It is time to start putting it down and archiving it.  America needs to hear the facts on obesity.  I am not convinced they need to hear the judgment and condemnation that goes with it from some.  But, I am convinced that there are more than enough people that have made the journey that want to help others.

This weekend I have added the news letter sign-up again to the site.  If you go to subscription options you can set it for everything from each post to a monthly newsletter.  It is easily subscribed to and opted out if needed.  I can tell you unless I get a graphics person it will have to evolve a while before it becomes pretty.  Having said all that I can say that if you like the blog, you will like the newsletter as that will be where it comes from.  We will throw in some extras along the way for those that subscribe when we can.  We will see how it goes.

I am sure we will start out slow, but I am also sure that as some of the team gets the hang of it that you will find it an honest place to get information that will inspire, motivate and inform you on your weight loss journey.

Thanks for being apart of this new stretch for me as I reach out one more way to help people have the hope and faith that morbid obesity is not the “final answer”.  It can be overcome!   We can turn the tide and make sure our future children and grandchildren don’t live shorter life spans than we will.

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Suggestions I found on the MyMedifast site that I thought where helpfulI believe they where written by prairielady

A carpenters' ruler with centimetre divisions
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DAY ONE:
First thing you do is potty. After going to the potty, weigh yourself in the buff. Take your measurements with a good old fashion measuring tape if you have time, if not, you can do them later today. Write the measurements down and then hide them! But be sure to put them in a place where you can find them again (but others can’t) so you can record the inches that will be soon falling off!

You WILL be HUNGRY! You will be GROUCHY! BUT You WILL live!!! Drink lots of water this day, trying your best to get those 8 glasses in. You’ll get used to drinking more water so just hang in there.

Be sure to take some tylenol with some of that water. You’ll probably get a headache for the first few days. Take the tylenol and keep on drinking the water. The headaches will go away and take some of your fat with it!

Water, water, water….

Also make sure you have access to a nearby restroom. You are going to PEE like you’ve never peed before. Think of the potty as your friend. You are going to be spending a lot of time together.

Some of the food you are just going to love right off the bat, but others you will come to love kind of like a stray/matted dog that comes to live at your house. It kind of grows on you. So fret not! Your taste will get used to the ones you aren’t so sure about now. Give them time.. try them again in a few months and you might be happily surprised.

Get a watch with a timer/alarm on it. Set it for every two hours. You are going to eat every 2 hours. At about an hour and half after your first meal you are going to be counting, counting, counting down until your next meal. Wait the half hour….hold it, hold it….just a few minutes more! Now! The alarm goes off! You have the green light to go ahead and eat your next MF meal.

Log your weight and preplanned MF meals into the “my plan” section on the website. As you eat the MF meals, write them on a small note pad on your desk. When you eventually log on to the website that day then you just check off the things you already have recorded. The small note pad is so you don’t forget what you’ve eaten before you can make it to the website and check them off.

Also put all the things you think you could possibly want down for each meal. The calorie intake is going to look huge but don’t worry, you aren’t going to eat them all. They are just there so you can “copy” to all the next days (months) to save you some time. For example, under “breakfast” you are going to put in “oatmeal and eggs” but you are only going to check off one of those as recorded as actually eaten. The other choice just sits there and doesn’t disturb anything. This is the fastest and easiest way I have found to keep your food log up-to-date.

Drink water every time you have a MF meal. Take small, super-small, bites of your MF meal. Use a smaller than normal size spoon. Make the MF meal last as long as possible. If its a MF bar then eat a teeny-tinny bite in the top right corner. Then eat another one right next to it and then finally after about three or four nibbles you’ve eat across the top millimeter of your bar. This is how to make it last a long time and that is so important! Can you make one MF bar last two hours…you can try!

The longer you take to eat your MF food, the shorter time it is between meals.
And the fuller you will feel. Keep drinking that water.

You are going to be tired. Don’t exercise yet. Be a good MFer and wait until the third week like recommended. Trust me! Your body is going to be adjusting to enough these first few days. Let it rest for now. But for the next two weeks start talking to yourself to psych yourself up to start exercising on day one of week three.

Because you are tired and grouchy and hungry, I highly recommend you saying goodnight to your family. Warn them a head of time that you will NOT be doing much in the way of parenting for the first three days. Hubby/spouse, can be the sweet one for a few days and tuck the children in bed while you, shower, and climb your grouchy-self into bed EARLY and go to sleep.

DAY TWO:
Wake up, potty, weigh, eat oatmeal for breakfast, drink water.

The scale is going down already! whoa! What’s in this magic powder?!

Now is the time to get on the MF blogs and discussion boards. Read a few to confirm to yourself that, yes, others have lived through the first three days of MF AND lived to tell about it.

Set up your blog picture, avatar, About your blog, description, figure out just how to work that ticker thing (have to put it in the HTML side). Jane (J2K00) has a great description on how to do this.

Be sure to read about my predecessor, GBS, goalbysummer, the original, that lost half her body weight. She has had a miraculous transformation that is sure to inspire!

You are going to think about turning back….just having a little wee-bit bite of something. —DON’T do it. You have to be 100% on program to get into that beautiful weight loss state of ketosis.

Still a little tired but a little less cranky. In order to protect your family, go to bed early again tonight.

DAY THREE:
wake up, potty, weigh, eat oatmeal and drink water for breakfast.

You are hungry but you have made it this far so you figure you better hang on until the end of this day. After day three, things start getting better.

Spend time on the blogs and the MF boards. This is your lifeline. Your fellow warriors are in this battle with you. If you get that urge to BTL (bite, taste, lick) then quickly PM (private message) Patty the Warrior Princess to chase you in her Volvo –or if you can, save that for week three when you begin to exercise! lol

Your main objective today is to move your bowels. You heard me. You input less, so you output less. Your first bowel movement is going to be a killer. You’ll want to make sure you are drinking PLENTY of water to help things along. After this initial bowel movement since starting MF is over, you are home free!

DAY FOUR:

wake up, potty, weigh, eat oatmeal and drink water for breakfast.

You are starting to get into a routine on MF. You think to yourself, “you know… it has been a rough few days but maybe I can do this”.

Read more blogs between your meals. Don’t forget to eat every 2-3 hours. The blogs are getting kind of fun now! You are encouraged and inspired by others! You are looking forward to your first weekly weigh in and moving that ticker of yours down!!

Brush up on your MF acronyms.  You’ll need to be able to talk the language so you can communicate with other MF bloggers.

Your fellow bloggers will become your friends and family in blogland. You’ll meet new people, make new friends and realize that there are MANY others out there who struggle with the EXACT same issue you have.

You are not alone– You ARE a MF blogger!

DAY FIVE:

wake up, potty, weigh, eat oatmeal (with one package splenda and add some cinnamon to it–that’s how I ALWAYS eat mine, no matter the flavor) and drink water for breakfast.

wooo-hoooo! The scale moved down again!! These white packages are worth their weight in gold!

You realize you CAN DO THIS! You realize the scale is moving down and you aren’t even hungry anymore! How can this be?!! This is wonderful!!!

You want to run around the block! You are so excited that you have finally found something that works! MF WORKS! But don’t start exercising yet. Just keep to the 5/1 and drink your water. Wait until the third week.

Your first two weeks are going to be great loses for you. Then you’ll start exercising on the third week and get that “MF third week slump”. You’ll still loose but it won’t be as much as you did in the first two weeks. Hang in there….more weight is coming off, just a little slower now than the first two weeks.

By the end of DAY FIVE you know you can do this!! You are so amazed that you are loosing weight, you aren’t hungry, you aren’t grouchy. Matter of fact, you are in an AWESOME mood because you are loosing weight and it seems just a little tooooo easy! (The first three days on MF are a lot like childbirth. You forget the pain and can only think of that great thing you have accomplished! In this case, the weight loss!)

Congratulations!!
YOU ARE A MF-er!!!

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So I have gone and done it. I put my before and now pictures together and although it is still a work in progress, when I put the two profiles together I can’t believe the difference. I am just 3 lbs away from doing an average of 20 lbs a month and I still have 4 days till the end of the third month.

I have lost 18 inches of fat in various parts of my body. And although I am still in the obese category, it sure beats being in the morbidly obese category. My scale weighs and tracks body fat percentage, hydration level, and muscle mass. Body fat started at 47% and is now at 33% for a total change of 14%. Muscle mass has gone up from 31% to 41%, that is not muscle loss that many “experts” warn against, it is a 10% gain in muscle mass.

So I put together my then and now pics and put them up on the Medifast Success board if you are curious click here. The contest is for some boxes of their new bars and I really like the newest bars so I thought why not. I am working with enough people now that might want to know what I looked like before and success breeds success. So it is a small price to pay if it helps to inspire some one else to get on board with us and lose the weight.

Well I am off to get a much needed haircut and talk to some more people. This week I started working with a man that is type II diabetic. I am looking forward to seeing his life change over the next few months. I have met many people who have already gone off their medications after their doctor looked at their weight loss and checked their levels. It will be great to hear I helped one more person get medication free.

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