The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[VK]

Well gang, this weekend was the first serious test of my willpower and I’m pleased to report that I made it through! I went to Blues Alley which is a pretty famous Jazz supper club with a menu of Creole dishes out of this world. I had one shake, and tea with lemon the entire night. I was never hungry, but the smell of all the great food was very tempting. For some reason plain ole dinner bread was the most tempting thing EVER. I’ve always been a big carb junkie but the desire for that bread was very strong. I also REALLY wanted some jambalaya, but I made it.

The biggest test, however, was yesterday. We went to a Redskins football game (the ‘Skins beat the Seahawks, by the way) and since we have box seats, they put out trays of free goodies all over the place. Little quiches and other hors’ d’oeuvres are put out for you, so I had to keep smelling that all day. Then there are all the concessions in the stadium itself - Papa John’s pizza, Great Steak and Fry, McDonalds (the great Satan of fast food ) rotisserie chicken, tortilla chips dripping with cheese, Mrs. Fields, popcorn, beer, hotdogs, ice cream - you name it! The whole day I wasn’t hungry, but I was tempted by the smell of things and I wanted to taste things just for the sake of tasting it. I had a hard time smelling french fries and looking at people eat ice cream. I didn’t cave, but it was tempting. I became very aware of the HUGE portions! They serve up french fries in mega cartons the size of a 64 oz soda. Of course I’d seen all this stuff before, I just hadn’t been aware of the massive size of the portions and how laden with fat everything is. And I became aware of what a social event eating is. Everybody was eating, and almost non-stop for the entire 3 hours of the game! It’s just an orgy of food. You get something to eat when you arrive, you get something more to eat at halftime, and the rest of the time the vendors are walking the stands with ice cream, beer, cookies, popcorn, etc. It’s amazing how easy it is to just graze. But I made it! If you knew what a junk food junkie I am you’d understand what a huge step that was for me to leave FedEx field without eating a single thing except my shakes yesterday.

For dinner last night I did a modified version of the plan for the first time. I planned to just have a shake, but we were with friends who wanted to have dinner in Chinatown. I had a salad of mixed greens without dressing and ordered roast duck which I put on the salad. Duck is NOT a lean meat at all, and it hurt me to leave the yummy, crisp skin, but I did lop it off and I had what I estimate to be about 6 oz of duck breast over my salad, and you know, it was really very satisfying. So I’m back to plain shakes today and I must say, I feel great. My pants are baggy ALREADY. It hasn’t even been a week, so how is that possible?! I have on a pair of trousers that I never wear a belt with, but I made a mental note that I’ll have to use a belt the next time I wear them! It’s great fun to lose the blubber!

Good luck all,
Vonni

[Nancy]

Dear Vonni ~

Hooray for you! You did a GREAT thing - you passed the first major tests of your weight loss program! Good for you. You chose wisely for your modified plan. I would truly suggest that you have a salad every few days. In many ways, it is a good idea to keep your stomach working along the way so it doesn't go to sleep. You'll have to read my November Newsletter and find out about the "Brown out" that occurred in our parlor while I was tending our African violets...

You must feel so good because you were able to refrain from eating unhealthy foods when you were literally bombarded with all sorts of ghoulish grub! Woo Hoo!

What kept you from caving?

I am thankful that you noticed what is happening to our society - we are programmed to continually eat - rather than three squares a day or even 5-6 smaller meals per day, we have super size meals (the portion sizes are outta this world!) that are non-stop. There is no beginning or end to the meal.

We are lead to believe that it is our right to eat it all - we deserve it!

Restaurants feed us high-fat, low nutritious foods that look good and taste good (palate pleasers) to keep us coming back.

Gosh, Vonni, the foods you described are a cardiac stress test precursor! You did the right thing! We are a balanced protein, balanced carb, balanced low fat meal replacement plan that will enable you to reach a healthy weight and to increase your longevity.

Go for your goal and revel when ya get there!

[VK]

Thanks for the congrats! I think I was able to resist all that stuff because I’m more aware now of what I’m putting in my body, and I was also aware of how many obese people there were consuming that stuff. According to my doctor I’m not technically obese, but I’m definitely overweight, so I have a lot of work to do to re-think how I approach food. Being on the shakes gives me a chance to take food out of the picture and sort things out to figure out things like how and what I tend to eat in social settings vs. what I eat when I’m hungry vs. what I eat when I’m stressed. It’s complicated. But I am thrilled that I was able to skip the greasy stuff and stick with the plan. I rarely say “No” to food so declining it all day made me feel really strong, if that makes sense.

[Ellen]

VK,
Great Job, In many ways weekends are the worst for me. I'm finding that I was a "boredom eater". Quite often we run all week, so we try to spend at least one weekend day at home tending to the home-life and those days are long and I find my self thinking about food more. When I'm running around doing things, I don't think about it as much.

You've started conditioning yourself as a non fat person. I'm a big believer in spending time around food and learning to deal with it. If we can't learn to go out and be around food, how will we ever maintain the weight loss. I cook, bake, and serve my family food. I find that as time goes on, I actually start to mentally remove my self from the food. I've stuck my head in my son's bucket of Halloween candy a few times and enjoyed a good sniff of all that chocolate. I've never even been 'seriously' tempted. My biggest temptation this weekend was when we went to an apple orchard to pick up some cider for family. I had never been to this particular place before and we walked in and the smells just about killed me. Then we walked by the breads. They had a homemade apple cinnamon bread that was whispering to me in a very evil voice. Sigh... But I stayed strong!

I must say, I couldn't handle Chinatown. You are much stronger than me. I soooooo miss decent Chinese food. Out here in the Midwest it is very overcooked and not like the Chinese food I know and love from back East.

Best wishes for another successful week. Watch those pants don't fall down now!!
Ellen

[Nancy]

Hi, Ellen and Vonni ~

Why is it that the scent of fresh baked bread or Chinese food, or ___ (fill in the blanks) seems to just drive us wild? I'm with you regarding fresh baked bread!

I'll suggest that you order a couple of helpful books" Lifestyles, The Medifast Program of Patient Support and Linda Spangle's book, Food is Easy Life is Hard. They are both excellent resources. They'll help you through the journey to good health and wellness.

Love ya! We're changing the shape of the nation, one shake at a time!

[Lois]

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO Vonni!!!!!!!!

Way to GO, girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hugs,

Lois

[Jeanette]

Vonni, you inspire me!! thanks!

Jeanette