The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[Checkie]

Oh! ahaha

ICE TEA - Duh!!

[kendra_m]

Hi Checkie! Its great to meet you. I just started yesterday. So far, so good.

I appreciate and applaud the honesty of your first journal posts. I feel much of the same... have dieted and lost, done really well, only to gain it back and feel like a total failure. My self-talk had gotten so nasty in the past few months, it was awful.

It feels better already to have some control, tho i still have a lot of fears about this.

Sounds like you're doing great.... I look forward to going along this journey together!

Kendra

[Checkie]

Hey Kendra!

Thanks for stopping by and keep coming by!!

I am so busy these days that I dont have a lot of time to look around and post at other areas of this site so I do hope others will stop in here and chat with me

For me, yes I am doing well... really well. As you know from my first post I am a foodaholic, no question and thought that perhaps this program could help because of the convenience of the packets and so far it has!

I want to do the full fast but have actually been eating a meal every other day, just a chicken breast and green beans but that's ok, if I need it I need it and one day I did have one too many bars, need to watch that but all in all I am doing well.

To me at this point its more about learning to control my food intake and treat myself better.

I used to hear women say they wanted to lose weight for their health and I thought yeah, right! But now I see exactly what they meant - the weight loss, although I want it - bad, is a secondary factor, first and foremost I want control back!

So please hang out here with me - I wish many of you would, I enjoy chatting about the plan, it helps to keep me going!

[Elizabeth]

Hey Checkie! I'm so glad you're doing great with the plan. The full fast and the 5 and 1 are interchangable. You are smart for working the plan like that. It's nice that the L&G feels like a treat isn't it?
You're doing great! Keep it up. I'll try and check in with you daily.

[Checkie]

Thanks I'd appreciate that!

Not sure if I said but I do a community magazine and it takes up every moment of my time and I am the worlds worst at time management so when I go off and look at stuff I feel I shouldnt because I need to work then I feel guilty and we all know what guilty thoughts can do to us! Plus I really should be working...

So when an email comes in saying someone has posted its not that bad to click over here really quick and say hi and talk about what we're going through!

Thanks again for saying you'll stop in and say hi - we'll pretend this is my house and you're all welcome to drop by and hang out at any time! :-)

[Checkie]

I am SO hungry today.

When passing fast food restaurants I swear to you the different foods available there were popping in front of my eyes, say come on in... Yummy.... But I kept saying “thin feels better than food tastes” over and over and over again and I tell you the food demons were on me hard, saying “oh just come on in, you’ve done so well, even if you have what you want you’ll still have a 6-5 lb loss, you know you want it, come on!!”

I was so hard saying NO – but I finally told myself “NO you’ve not even been on this plan for a week, this is what you do every time and this is why you fail every time!”.

So here I am, I didn’t do it, I didn’t grab quick and easy greasy (but oh so yummy) food, instead I am making my MF chili.

But Lord have mercy, its hard.

[Elizabeth]

Did you have your L & G today Checkie? Maybe that will get you through. How about looking at the L&G menu's and figure out some quick ones for weak moments. How about restaurants....quick L & G's. This may save you. You have done great Checkie. You should be proud that you pushed through the weak moments. You are stronger now. You are tough. You are courageous. You can do it! You are doing it!....and next time it won't be so hard.

[Checkie]

I am trying to only have a L&G every other day, I do 6 packets when I do the complete fast 5 when I have a L&G and today is not a L&G day :-(

[BerkshireGrl]

Checkie,

Just MHO, but if it saves you from the Dreaded McMeal, having a Lean & Green nightly is okay! Heck, it's okay anyway! It's the recommended way to go these days.

I understand if you want to lose a smidge faster, but if it is making your first week more tough than it has to be, why not have the L&G?

The average difference in monthly losses between the Complete Fast and the 5 & 1 Plan is about 2 pounds more. 2 pounds in 4 weeks. Not a real big whopper (I wish it was more too heh!)

[Checkie]

Really? Only 2 lbs more?

Hmmm... I almost said that's food for thought!

ahahaha

[BerkshireGrl]

Really! Well, it depends on just how you make up your Lean & Green, your activity level, etc etc, but about 2 pounds.

I was on both, and that's what I found... and I believe others here have had similar results.

I even geeked out and averaged out my calories for a week on both, and saw that there was indeed about a 1700-1800 calorie difference = about 7000 per month = 2 pounds.

Sometimes I preferred the Complete just so I could take a "food vacation" in a sense. But other days I HAD to make a real dinner or I'd lose my mind Not that I don't like the soups, but 30 days of alternating between 3 of them made me a bit wiggy at one point

Whatever keeps you sane and on plan is good!

[Checkie]

1700 calories a week? That's not right is it?

[Checkie]

As you can see by my ticker I have lost 8 lbs... and I might have even lost more by tomorrow, which is my official weigh day.

BUT... I am choosing to go off plan today and eat whatever I want.

I know - I know - I know!

Thing is... this is hard for me, but I've done well for me but like the old saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day really does apply.

I can't cold turkey diet (ha! pardon the pun). If I try, I fear I will be right back where I was before and super obsessing over food.

I am going to try being very good all week and then have a day where I can have what I want but in reason.

My thinking is after a few weeks hopefully I'll not have to do it and I can be full plan or maybe have whatever I want every other week, only time will tell.

I believe I am "learning" that I can be in control and I think as time goes that will only increase but not if I totally refrain, knowing myself as I do, I know that will cause absolute failure.

This plan is great and I've enjoyed the past week realizing there is help and that I can, day to day start to make the right choices but restricting myself makes me want food even more, so its best to have a little of what I want and to keep on keeping on with the plan than to have a false sense of "I can willpower my way through this" only to get to where I am freaking out and fail and then beat myself up so much that I quit completely.


I hope I don't discourage anyone with this post - I'm trying to be as real and honest with myself as possible and for me personally it is unrealistic to think I can, at this point not have at least a day where I have what I want.

I wish they made foodadone like methadone which surpresses withdrawl effects for drug addicts when they come off drugs.

[Elizabeth]

This is diet number 1,984 or so it seems.

It wasn't until last year when I started dieting big time that I've created a full blown obsession with food (I've always been a little heavy, size 14's then I had 2 back surgeries several years ago and gained 70 lbs).

I never had a problem with food, no more than any other typical American, I like fast food, biggie sized of course but now after trying so many diets, I suppose the restrictions of a diet has made me a foodaholic.

I went to a therapist about it, she put me on welbutrin, that was at least 5-6 months ago and I cannot tell a difference in my desire and ability to consume food - these days I order 2 meals not one - I will eat until I hurt, then I am ashamed and I swear to never do it again only to find myself the very next evening ordering 2 double cheeseburgers, two large fries just for myself and vowing to start a new diet tomorrow...

I am literally sick of food but can't go a day without overeating - its a very odd situation and I am growing bigger and bigger by the day.

I don't know if a full fast will even work for me, how could it as much as I eat and as big of a problem that this has become?

I'm thinking that perhaps if I order these products, completely clear out all of my cabinets, leave ZERO food behind, not even the good-for-you stuff, that maybe, just maybe I can do this, especially with the help of this forum with others on the same plan.

I'm afraid and I am sad, I've just created a pretty successful business (successful in that its paying the bills - to me that's good enough!) I am a friendly and out going person, I have control of just about everything else in my life that I can have control over other than eating - I am single, in my early 40's (42) but I look much younger... most people guess me in my early 30's if not late 20's, I have an attractive face, I love trendy clothes (can't wear them of course) and I have a nice home... almost everything I need other than control over food!

I want to get out there and enjoy life... maybe date a little although that is not my ultimate goal, I've been divorced for a few years now and just don't have the desire to date (could be the fat?), I would love to meet new people and have fun though but the fat stops me, so what do I do? I eat more - which only makes me fatter and keeps me from doing all the stuff I want to do - its insanity!

So perhaps this is it, its working for so many others... then again any diet works if you work it, my problem is I don't work it... hopefully I can find the strength to do so through this program and this forum.

Here we go...

DAY 1 • AUGUST 31, 2006

START WEIGHT: 230.4

MEASUREMENTS:
NECK: 14.5
BUST: 44.5
WAIST: 43
HIPS: 49
THIGHS: 27.5
CALF: 18

Hey Checkie, sounds very reasonable what you plan to do. Two things...first read your initial entry journal and re-evalute.
second...may I suggest to you to be very careful about how many carbs you eat? The only reason I mention this is that you'll have to go through the carb withdrawl over again.
Whatever you decide, I support you 100%. You have to figure out what works for you and how you can do it by yourself.
Please check in later.

[Checkie]

Thank you Elizabeth.

May I ask which direction you're meaning with my first post?

I can see two sides of it, one is this person who gained a lot of weight due to a back surgery and then years of dieting trying to get it off caused me to eat like a mad woman with complete abandon - making me feel as if I could never start another "diet" making me feel as if I would forever fail.

Or...

I also see someone who apparently gives up on every diet, most not even lasting a week.

Now, question is do I not stick to diets because I set unrealistic expectations in a diet? No matter the outline of the plan, I have to consider first and foremost WHO AM I and what do I need as a unique individual to have real lasting success.

Or is it that diets don't work for me because I give in too quickly, because I don't fight and push to get past the first initial hunger and desire?

Its confusing and actually I would say its all a bit of both - so do I have what I want and get back on plan and learn to slowly but surely take back control or do I force myself to be miserable and hope that I make it past this?

See, I am afraid that the latter will catapult me right back into food oblivion - or it could also be the want for food talking - making excuses.

It tough.