The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[jene115]

C- Million Dollar Baby - whoa, I want to see that one. I cry at so many movies, so maybe I'll wait for Pay Per View for that one, so I don't make a fool of myself.

Girl, I so understand what you are saying about having someone close to appreciate you. I get so lonely sometimes and both my best friends are too busy sometimes with their kids and don't seem to have time. I still miss the love of my life in Colorado from 2002, how sad is that? He raised the bar for me on what I want and I will never settle again, so I may be single for a long time. I never dreamed I would want to quit working, but I enjoy being at home and when I finally realize what I want to do with my life when I grow up, I'm going to go after it. I can imagine finding a real relationship in Dallas would be hard. I never really liked the guys I was meeting here in Houston when I lived here before, but I am so out of the dating pool now, I can't even begin to think about meeting someone. My furniture is still in storage in Colorado because every time I have the money saved to get it moved here, my car needs something major done. Plus the thought of who I would attract at almost 300 pounds makes me want to regurgitate

Catherine, I feel like you and I are almost in sync with what we want out of life and our goals. I perfectly understand why being skinny is so important. It's been my dream for so long and I often have the feeling that it's the last hurdle I need to jump to have the life I imagine. I do, however, know that losing weight won't fix some emotional issues that caused me to overeat and get fat, anymore than moving away does, they stay with you and you need to work them out, fat or thin.

I hope to be in the 10# club very soon and get this party started. Thanks for looking after me. I feel so blessed to have found this forum and for all the support given and received. It's great!

[Nancy]

Oh, yeah!

You will be in the 10 pound club vewy vewy soon - choose wisely, that'll do it!

Then you will have more to choose from later, too!

[jene115]

Choose wisely? HA. I don't know if I even have it in me to choose period. I need to take a break, seriously.

I'll be back this weekend.

[cthrn007]

Thanks for the reply yesterday... yesterday was MY bad day!

About the choice thing... everyone has a choice how they respond to a situation. As much as I hate to quote Michelle Pfeiffer from a movie from 1996 - I have to for lack of a better example. Dangerous Minds... "There are a lot of people who live in your neighborhood who choose not to get on that bus and come to school. What do they choose to do? They choose to go out and sell drugs. They choose to go out and kill people. They choose to do a lot of other things but they choose NOT to get on that bus. The people who choose to get on that bus - which are YOU - are people who are saying [in Bob Dylan's words] 'I will not carry myself down to die. When I go to my grave my head will be high'.

We all have a choice when it comes to losing weight and getting healthier and no it isn't easy at first. Everyone on this site is choosing to stop feeling bad about being overweight and choosing to DO something about it. You chose to eliminate all bad foods from your house. You chose to order MF. You chose to come here. You choose to support others even when you are discouraged. We make the choice to follow Medifast one shake at a time. You are choosing to take the first steps in the right direction by staying in touch and by reading and learning from others here.

You and I can't control what our workday will be like or how mean/grouchy our boss' are going to be towards us if we want a paycheck like the ones we have. We often cannot control the health or happiness of other people (heck, I can't even control my own). But you know what? The only thing I think I CAN control is what I put in my mouth every minute of every day... we can choose to make healthier decisions from now on and not to be hard on ourselves if we stumble here and there because we all do! When it really comes down to it, every Medifast shake we drink instead of turning to comfort foods WILL make us me healthier and skinner. Every single one.

Choose to keep trying with us & we will all be here to do everything in our power to help you succeed. One Shake at a time.

I KNOW you can do this & I am choosing to believe in you!!
(insert cheesy movie music here)
~C

[Karen]

Very well said 007, Amen!

[jene115]

That comment about choosing was halfway tongue in cheek. I wish I could choose my boss, lol I had a horrible day yesterday, work, feeling yucky, and now the cellulitis is starting to appear back on my leg. I realized it's PMS and when I said I'd be back this weekend, I meant the "normal" Jen. I really do need a break, meaning from work! I am taking the Monday off after Good Friday, that will help a lot.

I better scoot and get ready for work.

[doglover]

Wow 007 - you really put it out there! Amen sister! That was one of THE BEST posts I have seen on this board in the 2 weeks I've been here! (Very close competition w/ Nancy's of course!!)

Thanks for saying it and reminding us that every day I AM IN CHARGE!

Donna

[cthrn007]

Oh good! Well, I am glad to hear you are on track with just a minor monthly detour!! I wasn't sure what that referred to and got worried. Maybe I have been going to way to many motivational power lunches and this last one just happened to be about choosing our attitude about at specific moments throughout every day that result in a specific destiny in our lives. Pretty powerful. I have about ten post-its around my apartment reminding me to choose to succeed at whatever is going on - right now it is MF!

Here's another good one to remember when this gets hard or when we are sitting infront of a crappy boss/co-worker/person/pizza trying to decide whether or not to go postal or take the high road...

"Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitude toward life. The longer I live, the more convinced I become that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond to it. I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my success or failures, fame or pain, what other people think or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress... It alone fuels my fire or assults my hope. When my attitude is high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge to great for me." CHARLES R. SWINDOLL

I love that and it gets me through a lot...about 90% of the time. The other 10% I choose to have a crappy attitude. kidding.

Happy shakin & feel better real soon!!

[Nancy]

cthrn007 ~

Oh, yeah! I agree with you 100%. Chuck Swindoll is one of my favorite speakers and authors...

You know, most of our daily consciousness is made up of choices. We can choose to have a happy or a crappy day, it depends upon which pair of glasses we put on in the morning. I choose to wear my glitzy glamorous gold glittered glasses!

I went through a really nasty season of life four years ago - no details needed, just know it was just about the skankiest season of my life ever - I read my little eyeballs out between crying jags and my focus was all about improving my thought-life - avoid all downer TV shows - why focus on people cheating on their spouses and being hinky to one another? If it isn't uplifting, out it goes! Dump it.

Many of us have been through rough waters with our health, our weight, our emotions, our life - let this Medifast time be the beginning of a total life revamping - clean out your closets and get rid of the stained, wrinkled, out of style garments; empty the cupboards of the trans fat-filled snack foods and lard enhancers; hose out the cobwebs of our minds and replace them with healthy life-giving thoughts and attitudes.

If your 'tude stinks, spray it with good stuff!

[LadyinVA]

Chuck Swindoll is one of my favorite speakers and authors...

Me too! And I've heard his sister speak and she is a hoot!

That was a great quote!

[scrabbler7]

If your 'tude stinks, spray it with good stuff!

I'm going to make that my screen crawler on my monitor.

I just loved that one!!!

[jene115]

Work was actually good today. My boss actually gave me a compliment in front of another attorney, saying he uses me as his reality check. We deal with a lot of home equity cases and it amazes me how stupid people are. I think he actually respects my no whiners and my take on stupid plaintiffs (we do defense work). Nevertheless, it made me feel good. I'm trying to make up 8 hours in 4 days so I don't get docked for taking off Monday "sick." So far I have 20 1/2 hours for two days. MF makes it easy to work through lunch. Just shake a drink, then contiinue working.

My problem (and I know I will catch flak for this), but I'm asking for help and ideas besides the obvious, don't go there! I can't seem to break my habit of buying fast food for dinner, even though I'm perfect during the day and perfect on the weekends. I'm not craving it, I don't want it, it's just a habit, something I have done for years. I will admit I was very hungry today, and that may have contributed to it, but I could have made another shake. It's really not a hunger thing or emotional eating, or anything else, but a a pure, solid bad habit. I could try a different way home, but Houston is fast food hell. There is no other way home I can take without passing fast food places. I really do wish there was such a thing as a fast food alarm.

The really sad thing about this is I keep remembering how I used to be a person who never failed at anything. If I started something, I finished it. I hate that I'm so weak now. I feel overwhelmed with stuff and maybe that's why I can't focus like I want to. Work, the lymphedema, now the cellulitis is starting again. It's coming up on the anniversary of my mom's passing and I still miss her so much. Excuses, maybe, but I have no outlet for my feelings. I have a friend I met at work who I can really talk to but it's too hard to talk at work, and she has two teenagers to deal with so we haven't been able to spend the time together we both want.

I wish I had a family or lived with someone. When I was married, it was so easy for me to stick to my diet. That's when I lost the 51 pounds before. I cooked and my husband ate what I ate. Of course, he never would have done MF, but I still think it would be easier to have someone who would support me at home. I feel very overwhelmed with everything sometimes. The worst thing is I feel like I'm in such a rut. Work, come home, compression therapy, bed. I live for the weekends, but I still do nothing, but I have all the time I want to do whatever I want. I love my weekends. I don't even eat fast food on the weekends, it's easy to be compliant then. DOH! Maybe I can take early retirement? yeah, right.

Whine, whine, whine. I'm even disgusted with myself writing this. I just want ideas. For those of you who are 100% compliant, how do you do it? This is a serious question. I want to learn from you. I'm disgusted with myself right now and I have to break this habit. How can I eat perfect all day, then blow it? I know if I could just go one week, I could break this habit. One lousy week.

[kassilou]

Jen,

I really hope you find a way to break through whatever it is that is holding you back from staying compliant. For me, one of my main motivations is fear. It has taken me a loooooong time to reach the point where I was able to find this program and do it, and I know that if I fall off the wagon again I may never get back on.

Every day has its difficulties. Yesterday I made a crockpot meal for my family that smelled sooo good. I so wanted a bite of it. I even told myself that I could wipe off most of the cheese and potatoes and just eat some chicken as my "lean", even though I normally do full fast. I talked myself out of it, said I could have it later if I really wanted it, and it was something I could make once I was on maintenance. Then I got away from it. Later on I was so happy that I hadn't taken a bite....that feeling I want to remember.

Today my son had a hot pocket for lunch, one of my favorites. He made it and didn't eat it around me, but he needed my help to get it out of the sleeve after it was cooked as the gooey cheese leaked out and made it stick. So here I am with this all over my fingers....which I normally would have licked clean! I was again able to tell myself that hot pockets will still be around, and someday, if I still want one, I can have one.

So far, talking to myself like that has worked. Maybe that's just the way my mind works, as I have mornings where the only way I can get myself out of bed is to promise myself that I can take a nap later in the day. But tomorrow? Who knows. It's a daily battle. Maybe you can tell yourself that you are not going to get fast food today. Don't worry about tomorrow or doing it for a full week, just not today.

I know I have all the tools I need to lose this weight. I have to choose each day to pick them up and use them. You have to find something, some tool, that's going to get you through that time of day. What if you ate your bar on the way home? Could you do something different in the car on the way home, like listen to a recorded book, that would distract you? How about not carrying any cash on ya? That's probably what would work best for me.

Wish I could be more helpful. I know you can do it.

[BerkshireGrl]

Dear Jen,

I have some bad habits too: pizza and red wine. If you read my past posts, you can see I have caved in to those on a few nights in the middle of Medifast.

My job is high-pressure, with a constant 48-hour turnaround deadline on graphic design work, and I and my fellow workers are pushed every moment to produce lots of accurate work. Weeks can run up to 60 hours and beyond when we fall behind. Office politics run rampant in this pressure cooker atmosphere. Due to this stress, I grind my teeth at night and actually have to wear a "night guard" or I'm going to be left with white little stubs for chewing. Oh yeah, and I have that bad drinking habit!

So, what I'm saying is, you need to make up your mind to just be on Medifast. What is worth more to you? The bag of fast food that gives you a temporary high, or a restored thin body? The body is an unreality, off in the future, and I know it is hard to focus on that as easily as the immediate smell of French fries.

But it is out there for both of us. Nancy made a post a while back where she said to give in to those cravings is to be like a child, with no patience... they have to have what they want Right Now. Do I really want to act like a toddler, crying for junk food? Or like an adult?

I'm single too. I come home at night to my apartment, and it's just me. Nobody will know if I screw up, but my self-esteem will, and well, the scale will too. I'm charging Medifast on credit, admittedly, I'm putting on the cash first, but I'm not paring down my balance. Now I am very aware that I am financially making a bargain here - I am doing this because I believe Medifast is worth the money and because I am not going to let myself drop it again.

I can either get this finished or I can stay fat and miserable and whine about it, yuck! I would rather gnaw off my own foot then indulge in more whining

As far as ideas and help for you, you say you're not craving it, but that you buy it just out of habit. Shooting up is a habit too...

Focus on the future. Focus on your own body as it is now. Fast food is not going to help you, mentally or physically. You are sabotaging yourself and have been since you got your first box the first week of February.

As an outlet for your feelings, we are here and we are all going through it too (especially me, heh!)

You could also talk to a therapist. No judgement on this, because I have been through periods where I should have done this myself. Most of us don't get to be obese by being inwardly joyous people, in my humble opinion.

Today is a new day for all of us. Today is my first day back on the plan... and I am determined to do this till the end, with no more binge eating or drinking.

Am I going to be stressed out and cranky, and want to indulge? Heck yeah! I can guarantee that tonight when I get home, there will be a part of my brain trying to talk me into going off and buying more junk food to de-stress, to occupy my mind, to comfort me.

You know what though? I'm not giving in. Even if I have to come here and post a bazillion times, I'm not going back.

Wanna come with me?

[raederle]

Kass and Sarah-- two GREAT posts! If Jen takes half as much encouragement and half as many new emotional "tools" as I found in your posts, she'll be at goal in a month!

Jen, I can't add much to Sarah's and Kass' awesome advice, but I'll say that for me, it took a couple of really tough weeks of going day by day, sometimes hour by hour, of resisting temptations successfully before I hit stride. What I mean by that is, after I had gone a couple weeks without breaking down and without cheating and without resorting to old habits, I had a new experience to compare with the old-- I suddenly knew what it was like to feel *good* about accomplishing something, and to have stuck with it. And that feeling was *so* much better than how I usually felt (like a hopeless, fat piece of crud) that I wanted to maintain that feeling at all costs. Suddenly, it was easier to stay on plan and to resist old habits, because I was so proud of myself. I didn't want the guilt and shame of overeating to return.

Anyway, if you use the advice Sarah and Kassilou gave you, and you can give yourself ONE week-- just one-- seven days-- maybe you will find yourself more empowered. Don't look at this as a lifetime, or even months-long, project. It's too hard to contemplate 100% compliance for that long! Just do it for a week and build on small successes. One day at a time. One hour at a time.

And we're all here countin' the hours, too!