The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[DutchChoc]

Good morning, all. Thought for sure somebody would be up and at this already!

Results are good here, another minus 3 this week with 10 to go. Means I bet I'll be doing this all of September and into October, probably. Howver, I'm very happy that adding about 4x week crosstrainer (30 min) seems to have re-energized the weight loss, and I've been able to deal with whatever extra hunger materialized so far. These are golden days for me and I've rarely been as happy with myself (and others!!).

Look forward to seeing your results, everybody, and let's keep following this road where it's taking us so surely. Nancy, thanks so much for your encouragement and spark.

[LongWay2go]

DC - Congratulations on another successful week for you, and for keeping firm in your resolve!

I had another good week - 6 pounds worth. That puts me at 36.5 pounds for my first full month (4 weeks) and I've very pleased about that. As I expected to, I made my first "goal" which was to beat my 10 year low of 439 pounds that I set almost 2 years ago. I weighed in at 436 today! Big party in Massachusetts today! WOO-HOO!!! It's par-tee time again!


My next major goal is to break 400 pounds. I'm giving that 6 weeks which should be just about right. I have a family Labor Day cookout to attend tomorrow. I'm planning to have a salad with my Walden Farm's 0/0/0 salad dressing and enjoy the smell of the hamburgs and hotdogs cooking on the grill. I don't expect any problems there. My resolve is strong, but I am planning to eat that salad - my way of enjoying the get-together and keeping everyone from being uncomfortable eating around me.

I need to tell everyone that my silence this past week has not been from lack of interest or enthusiasm. Most know that I co-own a software company. Well, it's a small company (the two of us and one employee) so we distribute the workload. I do customer support and that has grown to 200-300 email a day. That makes for 12-15 hour work days, 7 days a week for me. I decided to create an online knowledge base that will answer most of the support questions, and I've been working on that all week and probably most of the week to come to finish it. I've been working from 7am to 10pm everyday trying to keep support emails caught up and still get work done on the KB. By the time I get to 15 hours on a computer, I just don't have the energy or desire to spend another minute on the computer. But don't count me out just yet, I'll be back posting strong once I get that KB up and running smoothly, and hopefully have some free time for myself as well!

Best of luck to everyone today!

-Gerald

[Sylvia]

Great job guys!

I'm back from vacation and somehow managed to lose 3 pounds. Did very well with the eating but less well with the water and exercise.

Now for the big news (drumroll, please). I am up to a total loss of 51 pounds! Unco - please add me to the 50 pound club!

Chugging steadily toward the finish line.

[SusannaRosannaDanna]

I am so thrilled for all of you! Awesome losses this week!
I myself can post a SIX pound loss this week! YES! That's what I said!! I don't know how that happened, but after stepping on the scale, off, back on and off again, then once more on just in case this morning, I'll take it!
I'm so lucky to get to be a part of this group and share in all the victories around here! Where else could I go and get to celebrate others every week? LOL

Shake on!

Susanna

[Nancy]

Oh, People!!

I am SO Proud of you all! It makes it worth it just to crawl outta bed each Sunday and drag in here to see how you've done!

Susanna ~ Sheesh! What a week you had! SIX pounds of flab – outta here forever!

Wowser! That is a super loss – write this one down. We all need to rejoice with you and be happy for you!

There are weeks when we have been totally program compliant – eat, drink, exercise, etc. On time and have a bummer weigh-in so we just must recall the Happy Dancin’ Days and cling to that and know deep down in our heart of hearts, it WILL come off.

I have been up and down this week a bit with my weight – not significantly but have had a four pound variance and absolutely have not done anything different with my eating plan or schedule.

I could go off the deep end and freak out or do more than just think about eating cookies but there is no reason to do so. My bod just wanted that fluid and fat for some reason so I let ‘er have it!

We are going on vacation soon (this translates into bathing suit 7 days a week time) and I want to be a bit UNDER my regular weight when we leave so I can enjoy some special vacation grub. I have three weeks to prepare for vacation so am confident I will be ready for my leopardy suit. I weighed 130.2 this morning.

Gerald, first of all, we believe in your commitment and I think you are such a BIG LOSER! Wow - you lost over a pound a day!

You have planned ahead for the day at hand - you are smart to do that - having a salad will be perfect and you will enjoy your time with your friends. Thank you for explaining your recent absence to us, too. Like you, others have busy times or scamper away on a much-needed vacation like Miss Sylvia and well, we miss one another. Sometimes silence = non-compliance and then we worry! You rock! Soon, our Cyber Loser, you will be kissin' the 400's good-bye and we will all be doing the Happy Dance in your honor!

You will slide into that driver's seat and zoom off on your special ride in skinny style! Zoom Zoom to your goal with Medifast!

DutchChoc (I love your name, BTW!), I think you will be at your goal very soon. Remember that TRANSITION takes a while - for full fasters, it's best to do the 6 week plan - add back one food item at a time. For 5 and 1 Folks, that speeds up the process a snort. While Linda Spangle says that you may do the tranny by adding back a food over a course of every three days, I prefer to see people do it over a course of one week. Check out my November Newsletter for info about that - plan ahead! Here’s the link for it.

http://www.makemethinner.com/newsletter/medifast-november-newsletter.htm


You are doing a great job. You must look really good now. I had no idea what my final resting weight would be - I thought first of all if I got below 200 I would be in good shape! Then I thought maybe 175 and I really thought 150 would be the bottom line. I looked good at 150 for my age and height - my doc told me that 150 was a good weight.

I always rationalized and said that I had a "large frame" because I do have large hands, wrists and large feet - I wear a size 11 shoe. Dr. Andersen (Medical Director for Medifast) said that truly there is but a teensy tinsy difference between the bone weight of a 'large frame' person and the weight of a 'small frame' person. I cannot recall the exact amount but it was not more than 2 pounds...Dr. Andersen also says that if a person was at normal weight in high school then if we can recall that weight(!) - that can be a good goal weight for a person to aim for. I weighed 140 in high school but was very fit and muscular as I ice skated, did tumbling and other activities. Dr. Andersen and others also say that we ought not to go by the old insurance weight standards but rather use the Body Mass Indicator now to determine our healthy weight.

We also have a link so you can determine your BMI. Here ya go

http://www.makemethinner.com/body-mass-calculator-bmi.htm

Mine was 43 (I was nearly half butter! Well, maybe ¼ butter, and ¼ truffles) when I started Medifasting and weighed 265 pounds and the BMI calculator indicated that 155 was the max weight for my height. I weigh 130 pounds now and am slender. The latest research also indicates that folks that are at a healthy lean weight are less likely to get Alzheimer’s...I am trying to avoid that!

Sylvia, what a fox you are - you LOST WEIGHT on vacation! Folks, that just goes to show you, it CAN be done! Vacations can be trying, that's for sure! Our schedules usually do change significantly and it may be hard to drink a lot of water when on an airplane, in a car, etc. You'll be right back into your regular exercise and water-slurping groove in no time, Kid. Good job! Wow! The FIFTY POUND CLUB! What an accomplishment, Sylvia! People must really notice your results now. You must need suspenders, eh? Keep up the great work!

[DutchChoc]

Yes, there's reason in this "town" to celebrate with all of us here, chuggin' away at what ails us!! Way to go!! Whatever we're doing, let's keep doing it.

So happy you're at your lowest weight, LW2G in 10 years!! Wohoo!!. Good luck at the food event tomorrow. Although I don't envy what would seem to me at this point to be the "job" of going there with the food, I know you'll have the salad and be OK. I do have to say that I've gotten fairly afraid of eating anything at all, and I realize I can't always keep myself from facing that.

Yeah, Sylvia, for your fifty pounds of flab out of sight! Your target is mighty close now.

Susanna, I'm so happy that you got a big reward of SIX pounds gone!

Nancy, it IS good to get up on Sunday and do this (as long as one has nothing to dread). You have the right idea not to freak out. Hope those dreams of sugarplums stop dancing in your head; some stuff like that can be so annoying, as when I developed an overkeen interest in recipes and cooking a couple months ago. I didn't realize that you're sometimes as much as four pounds under 130?

Re goal, I was my heaviest ever in HS - isn't that rather sad? So I can't rely upon that "setting". But I've had some lucid times when my weight was good and I know what I'm seeking and what I'm fleeing. I still have smushy parts that I want to remove. At least I know where they are now instead of feeling padding all over. That's progress, incredible progress.

I'll look into the idea of transition in your newsletter, as you say. The six weeks sounds about right. In some ways, I'm kind of dreading facing the fear of possibly "losing it" and going hog-wild on my first day. I'm going to have plenty of work just sustaining my loss -- that's true it I stop today or it I stop in a month or two. I have never quite gotten that part right.

Take care, everybody. Here's to one more extraordinary week of effort for us.

[DutchChoc]

Thanks for the link to the newsletter, Nancy. That was a very informative and interesting read for me; I enjoyed the whole article and recommend it to everyone here. Yes, I can do it, too, because I can! At least I think I can, and you're my chief inspiration.

[Simmshe]

GREAT job everyone ! I'm not joining roll call today, but just wanted to congratulate you all on your losses--I'm ridiculously happy for you all !

I haven't posted much over the past couple of weeks--I have not been feeling well mentally or physically (I'll write about this in another post) and have just not felt up to posting much, although I always check in here a couple of times a day. No non-compliance here--my eight-week mark will be on Tuesday and I haven't strayed once . But my weight hasn't budged in two weeks now, minus two pounds I loss post-period, a day or two ago. I'm hoping this is just following with my usual pattern of weight loss, which is how I have always lost weight in the past, too, which is holding for 10-15 days and then dropping steadily for 10-12 days. This happened last month. Between my pre- and post-menstrual time period, of around 15 days, my weight didn't change, and then I started dropping on around day 18 and lost a pound a day for about 12 days.

Anyways, I will just have to wait and see . Of course I'm following Medifast for more than just quick weight loss (improved health, breaking free from food compulsion, among other reasons), still, not losing any weight for a couple of weeks is annoying and a bit demoralizing when I already have been feeling emotionally like crap. Anyways, just my venting. Still not feeling on the level emotionally, but the good news is that for the first time in my life my emotional state has zero bearing on what food I eat, so I won't be straying from my plan at all, no need to, not desire to.

Nevertheless--you all ROCK--seriously ! So proud of you all and happy to see you, Sylvia and Dutch, moving beyond your recent slowdowns. Keep it up gang, or down is more like it !

Sheryl

[hawaiiwhatnot]

Dutch,

How great does it feel to just have 10 more to lose? I can't wait to experience that! HOW FANTASTIC for you!!! I too am trying to get ready for the maintenance phase, and I hope you share all your experiences with that here as well. Congratulations Girlfriend! It's just WONDERFUL to see SUCCESS!!!!! YOU ROCK Sheryl - no cheating for 8 weeks!!!

Camille

[DutchChoc]

Hawaiiwhatnot, it feels very surreal. As the upbeat person that you are, you're going to love it and be very happy about having made and being able to see the improvement. As the blahbeat person that I am, I still like it, sometimes a lot, but I worry that "this is the close I'm going to get", or, "maybe 10 pounds isn't good enough and I need to lose 15", etc, etc, etc. It doesn't feel like an egg that is certain to hatch, for sure!! Even though I've kind of proven to myself that I "will" keep going, I still feel like the person who can't be trusted to really succeed. But, I'd like this one time to be the exception to my other experiences, and I'm committing to keep going until Oct. 10th. That's the day I've picked to start the transition plan because I want to get the whole six weeks in before Thanksgiving. Not so I can pig out, but because I hope to be better "trained" by having gone through the re-learning stages by then. If I get to my goal sooner, I'll start when I do. Thanks for asking. I'm rooting for you and I appreciate the humor, dedication, energy, and joy you bring to us in your posts.

Simmshee, have missed you and hearing how you're doing. You're leading me by a week with 8, so you're like my big sister in this, well, after Hawaiiwhatnot and many other very long-termers. Congratulations on your compliance. I think that's integral. Non-compliance works like a wobbling top, which I know from personal experience. Sorry you have the blues, but glad that food is not the way you're trying to feel better. Two pounds is a very good thing, and maybe you're getting back into that phase again. Conversely, I'm about to "go under" with that pattern this week - can't you tell I can hardly wait? It's part of the ebb and flow, no getting around it.

[hawaiiwhatnot]

Dutch,

You're not alone in feeling inadequacies about your goals. I feel like I'm looking down the barrel of a gun anticipating maintenance. MF is a safety zone for me - no calculating - no handling temptations. Venturing into maintenance will lead me to crossroads where I have to exercise the better judgment and make the right choices - not the easy and instantly satisfying ones. It will be harder for me than losing the weight - that is the easy part for me because MF just does it and I follow. I look forward to maintenance but yet again I don't.

I jokingly often say that funny phrase, "Never too rich or too skinny", and I too feel a sort of unrealistic compulsion to live by it. That can be really dangerous because you're not seeing yourself correctly when you look in the mirror. There was a comedian Al Franken on Saturday Night Live I believe was named "Stuart", and he would discuss these self-actualization thoughts with others in front of the mirror, and say "Have you looked at yourself lately? When was the last time you really looked at yourself?" I loved that bit, and quote it to myself all the time trying to keep my own perspective realistic. It is tough and I relate to not being good enough. But you have to keep it in mind that "You are good enough, you are pretty enough, and darnit, people like you!"

Oh and Gerald, you are making ROCKIN progress MotorMan!

Camille

[DutchChoc]

:!: Well, here's to looking down the barrel of that gun together, then, because we ARE going to do it!! Thanks for the reassurance re inadequacies, too.

What I forgot to say yet was that the desk guy in the gym asked me about losing weight yesterday for the first time and I told him about Medifast. He said to keep doing what I'm doing, which made me grateful for that instead of lamenting why I'm doing or have done it this way. It's nice to get a "pure" compliment instead of the kind that leaves one feeling partly twisted. And yes, I do have trouble seeing what's really "in" the mirror, though I feel I like what I see more and find less to dislike. Even that will change when I'm eating and thinking my proportions are changing like the wind because of it. Anyway, we can do this. Even November/December is not that far off, and why? Because we've been doing this much of the summer already! Yahoo!!

[Carrie]

I'm late to roll call - sorry guys.

I spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week on the puter, so I am very loathe to turn it on over the weekend - plus this weekend I was getting the feeder bands off of Hurricane Frances and didn't want to have my puter on when/if the power went off.

I have finally regained my footing, and am proud to report a new 'low' weight-wise. I'm at 221.6, total loss of 44.9. Now to keep the momentum going!

I was able to wear my size 18 jeans and capris out this weekend - that was a first. And I went out 4 nights in a row and did not waver from my program!

My anxiety level is remaining high - first there was Charley, then Frances and now Ivan - and I am RIGHT SMACK DAB in the center of the projected path for Ivan. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Great job everyone this week! I'm very proud of you!

Carrie

[Sylvia]

Carrie - awesome job! Remember to update your profile with your new and lower weight.

Let's hope Ivan changes course and stays out at sea - I think Florida has seen enough hurricane activity for this year.

Sylvia

[hawaiiwhatnot]

Carrie!

CONGRATULATIONS girlfriend! SOOOOO proud of you!!!! Great, great, great news! And sticking to the program while going out - YOU GO GIRL - you show em!!!!

Keeping my fingers, legs, eyes, etc. crossed that you folks escape the wrath of the coming monster weather. I know you'll be very happy to see the end of hurricane season. Godspeed you all to safety.

Camille