The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[ladybug]

okay shakers, i need a little advice. here's the scenario:
i am on my sixth day, and have followed the program perfectly. i have not eaten one thing that is not allowed! i can't wait to weigh in on friday morning!
but there is one potential slip up on the way. i am a pastry chef!
i have been between jobs, but i will be starting my new gig on friday. i am not worried about the temptation of all the naughty goods, but it will be necessary for me to taste certain things to make sure that they are the way they should be...i know that i can just have someone else taste them, but i don't know if that will help me tell if the recipes need improvement... and i am talking about things made with butter and sugar and chocolate and nuts, etc....again, i don't feel any overwhelming desire to shove my face into a pan of brownies, but i am worried that a few tiny tastes may add up to trouble in mfland!
in the past, i did not think twice about tasting things! it is what good chefs do, but then again, i wasn't always this heavy, and am not supposed to be, so you can see where that got me!
so what i was wondering, is if anyone has any suggestions as to how i should navigate this road. should i compensate somehow for the tasting, however small? i don't want to mess up my great efforts to follow the plan, but this is what i do for a living! any help will be greatly appreciated

[DogMa]

Is there any way to group the tastings, or do you need to taste throughout the day? If you're going to have something off plan, it's best to have it all within an hour because it will have a minimal effect on your blood sugar and your insulin response.

If not, I guess just taste as little as possible and see how it goes. Maybe avoid the bars, since they'd just be adding more carbs.

Good luck!!

[falisamarie]

I am not sure so I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong but my fear for you is that if you are having sugar everyday then will your body stay in a state of ketosis? You should be in ketosis after a week and sugar may kick you out of if. I know that pastries and stuff ike icing are basically pure sugar. I personally would have someone else do the tasting regardless. I would not risk my weight loss and would find some other way around it. If you were a diabetic you would not be able to have the sugar either so try and think of it like that and what you would do in that situation. Ultimately the decision is your but I would ask my HA or Nancy if it is going to affect ketosis before I did any taste testing. JMHO

Lisa

[Dayna]

I think Dogma's suggestion of not spreading the tastings out over the whole day was a good one . . .

Of course, all this tasting business would be strictly forbidden to us, but then most of us aren't cooking for a living. I'm guessing you're talking about very tiny tastings, right? What about spitting it out right after you taste it (and rinsing your mouth out a little with water)? What about minimizing all other extraneous sources of carbs (bars, condiments like ketchup and bbq sauce, dressing with any carbs, medifast crackers) to try to balance it out? I suppose the best test is going to be how you're feeling, and what your body tells you. If you quit losing weight and start feeling kind of cruddy, then the tastings are probably a problem. If you keep losing weight at a rate you're happy with and you still feel like you're in ketosis, then the that probably means you're doing okay.

I AM NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM ENDORSING A PLAN OF TINY TASTINGS FOR MEDIFASTERS IN GENERAL!! THAT WAY LIES MADNESS (and poundage)!!

But I think there's a point at which we've got to be pragmatic about things, and when it's your source of income, well, then, we just have to figure out a way to make it all work. Ideally, I hope that once you know a recipe is correct, you'll be able to have a trusted coworker tell you whether or not the day's batch tastes okay. In the meantime, maybe another chef will be able to give you better advice, and listen to your body.

- Dayna

[falisamarie]

What about spitting it out right after you taste it (and rinsing your mouth out a little with water)?

I think that is a wonderful idea and very inventive. Good job Dayna! Hope this idea can work for you!

Lisa

[ladybug]

thank you all so much!
i knew that if i brought my concerns here, someone would have good ideas!
i think that i will try to taste as little as possible as few times as possible (while still producing a great product of course )
i like the idea of tasting and spitting out! thanks dayna! i can look at it like a wine tasting, where people taste like 20 wines, but spit it out so they don't get drunk! i just hope my coworkers don't see me doing it and assume my goodies taste bad
i will let you all know how it goes
thanks again ladies

[Lauren]

I agree with Dayna's idea of limiting the high-carb items from your diet to sort allow for the tastes. Not that you should totally stick to shakes alone, but if you don't have the bars, and some of the soups which are higher in carbs, as well as the crackers and such, you should be in better shape.

I don't know about you, but I have trouble tasting things without actually swallowing them. I always had that trouble with wine tasting, too, which is why I often left tipsy from wine-tasting events! :-)

Ladybug, this is your job, your livelihood. You have to determine what you NEED to do on a daily basis to be most successful in your career, and then find a way to make it work within the confines of a diet. Any diet that doesn't allow us to function professionally, is not one that will work for the long haul.

So, be creative. If you can spit them out, go for it. If that doesn't work, then take tiny tastes, and remove higher end carb items from your other meals. Just experiment, and see what works. While you may see from reading my past posts that I am a proponent of being 100% compliant on this diet in order to see success, I am an even bigger career-focused woman, and I have complete confidence that we can find creative ways to help you thrive at work and in the diet.

Keep us posted!

Lauren

[Diana]

I know I'm really, really new to this, but I'm wondering if some light exercise might help, too, if you notice the body's not changing -- perhaps a 10 minute walk? Basically, it still comes down to calories-in-calories-out. So, if more's coming in than intended, how about slightly increasing the output? What do the rest of you think? In addition to the wine-tasting method, would this work?

[Loribug]

While your at it could you make me some yummy cream cheese pastry, the kind with the flakey crust, I promise to only smell them. hehehe

[smartipantz]

Lori,

After you smell it - can I just take a small taste and then spit it out?? After running in a full sprint from everyone in this forum, I certainly wouldn't have gained any weight!

JUST KIDDING

Smarti