The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[FORMOMMY]

I like that Lisa:

Someone very wise said something to me last night I want to share with you guys but it is somewhat paraphrased...."you can fall 10,000 times but as long as you get up 10,001 times you have not failed!"

Very good - you are on a roll with your words of wisdom today

[Arklahoma]

Vicky ... Truer words could not have been spoken. I love, love, love this analogy.

[BoPeep1]

How lucky I am to have found this thread today! I have been so tempted to cheat since Easter - the thoughts consume 75% of my day.

I do consider this time food "rehab" for me, time to get away from the food, so I know I will not cheat, but I so wish the thoughts would go away!

I am Brandi, and I am a food addict.

[jump4joy]

Lisa, I agree with you 100% on how the medical field sees overweight people. Alcoholism and drug addiction are treated as a disease and obesity is considered laziness and gluttony. After 20 years of working in the medical field I've seen the discrimination in action! Just thinking about it brings back unpleasant memories I wish I could permanently banish from my mind!!! People would be surprised at what doctors say when out of earshot of their patients! I worked at a teaching hospital in the 80's and I chewed out dozens of medical students, residents and interns for their unprofessional comments about obese patients! Unfortunately I couldn't do that when I worked at private hospitals.

Great comments everyone! Allison, I was just talking to my older sister this morning, who has been a nurse for 30 years. It's funny that you would mention the very same thing she just told me....that there is a terrible predjudice and cruelty directed towards very obese patients. Her husband is 100 lbs. overweight and she's worried that if he ever has to be hospitalized that he would experience the bad treatment she's witnessed. (Yeah, I've already talked about MF to them, but they're not interested.....maybe in time).

On Jan. 1st of this year, I decided to do my own "version" of using MF as an addendum to a low-calorie sensible diet. (Because I'd been struggling with restarts for so long that I thought I'd try a different approach. I managed to lose only 7 lbs. in three months, when I decided to give MF all I've got and commit to 30 Days. I don't like the word "cheating" either when applied to diets, because it ISN'T an immoral act....but I know that by going off-plan from a diet which I believe is the best one I've ever found...that I would only be hurting or cheating myself. Now that I'm 3 weeks into my commitment, I feel so good and so happy and I'm down another 10 1/2 lbs........WHAT A DIFFERENCE compliance to MF makes! Instead of being constantly hungry on 1100-1200 calories a day and losing slooooowly.....I'm having 800-1000 on the 5 & 1, losing faster, and NOT A BIT HUNGRY due to living in the magic of Ketosis-Land! Why would I choose to leave now.....NO WAY!, I'm staying right here in the safety of MF, thankyouverymuch! If you've read Success In a Shaker Jar, there is mentioned the 3 Tablespoom plan for the OCCASIONAL or special holiday meal....which allows 3 T. of any of your favorites. I don't think there's anything wrong with that and it doesn't do damage overall to the diet. BUT....I know me, and I don't dare go too near to THAT particular slippery slope because of my foodie addictions. Medifast is nice in that all your decisions are made for you and it is (and can be, I try to think of it that way) a NICE vacation or break from food.

[jump4joy]

Thanks Vicky, and you said something that is soooo true and pertinent for me after having lost all my weight several times in the past ten years (2 1/2 times on MF!), working so hard to achieve Thindom...only to gain it all back again. You said that it's gotta be a whole new lifestyle and that you can never go back to eating the way you used to....that really strikes a chord with me and I've gotta get that through this thick skull of mine ---that I have to change the way I eat FOREVER---in order to stay thin and make this the last time I ever have to lose this diddly-dang weight!

[ascicles]

Along these same lines I was thinking of all the posts lately about people going on vacation or celebrating special occasions and asking if they should go off program. This is pretty simple in my opinion. Think how you would feel if you had a loved one who was a recovering alcoholic and they came to you and said "I am going on vacation and I think I am going to drink while I am gone then I will get right back to AA when I get back" think honestly for a minute how you would react to that.

I have to disagree with you. The difference with a diet and alcoholism or another plan is that we are going to eventually get off of this diet and go back to eating other foods. We are not completely abandoning everything that fits in a lean and green or doesn't have Medifast written on it.

While I understand what you are saying, there are people who are able to go off of the plan (within reason) and come back to it when needed. A vacation is a time for relaxation, and I'm not going to spend my days stressing about how I am going to get to my shaker jar and packets. The fact is, I'm going to eat lean and green similar items and eat healthy while I am gone. This is the exact same thing I am going to do when I go off of the plan after I hit my goal.

Just because some people are weak and go back to their old habits doesn't mean that we all will.

Also, I don't really agree that eating is a disease. Heroin and other drugs are extremely addictive and in order to stop using, you must completely cut them out. With food, you HAVE to eat to survive. I am a fat person and I take full responsibility for my weight. It's my fault that I am fat and I'm dealing with it. I'm not going to allow myself to be catagorized as sick or as having a disease. I am fat because I eat too much...and I am changing that.

When I see food or drive by restaurants I am occasionally tempted, but no more than an average person (at least from what I've seen). I don't really feel the insane temptations that you described as someone who is "addicted to food".

Maybe I'm different?

This post isn't meant to be confrontational. I'm just a little tired of people talking about eating as being a disease, and treating overweight people as though they have a sickness. For the record, I don't really think alcoholism or bring a drug addict is a disease either.

I consider a disease to be something that you have no control over. With all of the things mentioned, someone initially made a choice.

Maybe I just secretly hate fat people. Maybe my only goal is to get skinny so I can hate fatties without being a hypocrite?

[DogMa]

Count me with those who disagree with some of the original post. Do the people who stick with the plan 100 percent plan to NEVER eat anything off plan again? And NEVER celebrate anything with food? No birthday cake, no special dinner, etc. ever again?

I know that I'll never be able to eat what I want, when I want or as much as I want. But quite honestly, I'd rather be fat than never taste my favorite foods or my mom's recipes ever again. Food is part of the joy in life.

I eat off plan on occasion because a) it helps start things up when I've stalled and b) I really believe that learning to control my eating NOW is the key to successful maintenance. I've lost the weight before and I've kept it off for years. I know that even as hard a time as I have losing weight, the hardest part comes later. I worry when I hear people talk about being "done" when they get to goal, and saving all their favorite foods till then. If you reach goal and think you can suddenly, magically eat all those things again, guess what? We'll be seeing you back here in a few months or a year, at an even higher starting weight. I don't want to be harsh, but I've not only seen it happen with other people, I've BEEN there.

The all-or-nothing mentality may work for some, but it sure has never worked for me.

[falisamarie]

A~ I totally agree that not all people who are overweight are food addicts but such a thing does exsist and I talked to my doctor about this not too long ago and he told me that just like alcoholism runs in genes it is the same thing with being addicted to food. I actually think you are very wise in going to Vegas and following the L&G guidelines as closely as possible as you are teaching yourself the proper way to eat. For me personally and for some others right now that is just not an option. Some people know that they have the strength to eat off program and get right back with it and in a lot of ways I admire those people, I just know that I could not do that right now. I have a lot going on right now with my kids and such and I feel out of control but I know that the one area in my life that I can control is this program and what goes in my mouth.

IMHO for those people, like yourself, who KNOW they can go off program and get right back on it is fine. What I am referring to are members who are fairly new and question whether or not to go off program, in my mind if there is any question on whether or not a person can go off and then get right back on, they are PROBABLY not ready to take that risk.

I too take full responsibility for my weight but I was also a SICK person I was addicted to food and it is an illness. Granted not all of us are food addicts but I can say......I was and forever will be a recovering food addict.

I do not feel you were confrontational at all. I like to hear others opinions on subjects and that is why I post.

I still love ya Manlymuscles!!

Lisa

[DogMa]

Hee. Glad someone else is still thinking of him as Manly McMuscles, too. I can't help it now!

And you're right about that, Lisa. People who can't get right back on, or are afraid they can't, shouldn't even try. And no one should go off when they're just starting out. Cheating is only OK, IMHO, if it can be planned and controlled.

At the same time, lack of control is a problem for most, if not all, of us. But that's precisely WHY I incorporate occasional cheats. There's a big, bad world of goodies out there, and I don't want to wait till I'm at goal to learn self-control. I don't think my cheats are related to my painfully slow weight loss, but to be honest, even if they were, I'd continue. I'm not interested in getting to goal as soon as I possibly can. I'm more interested in STAYING there once I get there.

[Unca_Tim]

Basic addiction is anything you do that causes endorphines to be released into your body which causes euphoria. There's many substances, activities and events that can cause this to a greater or lessor degree.

Once the body uses up these chemicals, it craves more.

It's clinically studied and proven that in "some" people, certain foods can cause this same reaction.

[Tiolazz]

Just FYI

Definition of Addiction:

compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

The traditional distinction between “addiction” and “habituation” centres on the ability of a substance to produce tolerance and physical dependence. Opiates clearly possess the potential to massively challenge the body's resources, and, if so challenged, the body will make the corresponding biochemical, physiological, and psychological readjustment to the stress. …

In medical journals, it states that only chemical substances can cause a true "addiction", other substances such as food, sex etc, are actually considered obsessions, not addictions....

Just wanted to put in what I found while doing research into eating disorders.

However that being said, I know that whatever my issue with food it, whether it be an addiction or an obsession, something about that crazy stuff, made me fat as a cow. And I am sick and tired of it... so even though I am one of those people who won't eat the whole box of the cookies, I am going to keep them out of my house, as long as possible. possibly forever...

Because I want to be thin, sexy, happy and healthy....... YAHOO.....

Terri

[Unca_Tim]

i figured someone'd get out the medical dictionaries...

[Tiolazz]

LOL Tim,

I actually didn't have to get out the medical books, I did an article on eating disorders about 6 months ago, and just happened to have it on my desk, so just pulled that little bugar out and retyped part of what I had found.

funny thing is, that the medical community goes back and forth on this, and as you can see by the true definition, food could and would fall into the definition.....

I truly believe that any substance can cause an addiction, if it changes the body functions due to use, it should be considered an addiction...

Just my opinion though, and thank god we are in the Great old USA so we can say what we believe... another reason to be thankful everyday....

[DogMa]

Ah, but a problem with CARBS is very different. I do have most of the symptoms Vicky cited, but I've known I have a problem with carbs for decades (I'm insulin-resistant, Syndrome X, whatever you want to call it).

The problem is I actually crave sugar far more now than I did before (when I was on Atkins). This plan is helping me lose weight, but Atkins did far better for me at curbing cravings because Medifast has MORE carbs than I'm used to. My biggest issue with Medifast from the beginning has been the plethora of sweet-tasting supplements and the use of things like high fructose corn syrup in some of the bars. I have a much higher tolerance for sweet flavors now than I did when I started, and that concerns me.

And I STILL plan out my day as soon as I get up (and sometimes a day or two before!) and think of what meals I'll be having later on. Medifast hasn't done anything to change that, and I've been on it for more than 10 months now.

[WillDoIt]

Robin,

I greatly admire you. You are a realist.