31 July 2013

Medifast: Day 2

Okay, so today was actually a little worse as far as the food goes. Okay, a lot worse. But I don't have headaches yet and I don't feel starving. I even did not give in to my multiple temptations for various things, including Wheat Thins, popcorn drizzled with white chocolate, Skinny Cow ice cream bars, the multitude of fun-size candy my husband produced from his secret stash at game night, or the dumplings from his dinner. So, here's what I did have:

1) Pancakes
2) Cinnamon Pretzels
3) Chicken Noodle Soup
4) Chocolate Chip Brownie
5) None
Lean) Cafe Rio Chicken Salad - no tortilla, no beans, no rice, no cheese. Just lettuce, chicken, pico de gallo, and some tomatillo dressing.

And here is the review:

1) Pancakes: Good glory. HORRIBLE. I followed my coach's advice and added a little baking powder to the mix and made it as one large pancake in a skillet. I didn't realize how quickly it would cook so it got burned. A lot. I hadn't gone to the store yet so I didn't have any sugar-free syrup. Instead, I spread a thin layer of strawberry jam over the top. I couldn't even eat the whole thing. I got through about half. The last bite I did have, I couldn't make myself swallow. It was awful. My sister said she liked the pancake. I'll have to try again and make sure to NOT burn it and now I have sugar-free syrup to use.

2) Cinnamon Pretzels: These are the same ones I ate yesterday and didn't like. Today, they weren't that bad. The after-taste was less noticeable and they felt less dry. I think I actually like something! Woo-hoo! Maybe I'll just eat pretzels until I get some other stuff I like.

3) Chicken Noodle Soup: I liked this. Not as much as the chicken and wild rice from yesterday but this was good. I let the powder soak for about 20 minutes before I put it in the microwave. I've read that it's supposed to help. I'm not willing to try it without.

4) Chocolate Chip Cookie: This is actually pretty good. I mean, not anywhere close to my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but ya know. Diet good. There are real chocolate chips. And like most stuff I've tried, it's better piping hot, rather than lukewarm.

5) My other options for today were the Parmesan Cheese Puffs (YUCK) or Vanilla Pudding. I don't even like regular pudding. I think I'll probably gag on Medifast pudding. The texture of regular pudding grosses me out. Blech. So, I just didn't eat a 5th meal. And I know that's really bad. But I did eat two celery sticks so I think that sort of evens out. Maybe.

Lean) Cafe Rio Chicken Salad sans extras: I love Cafe Rio. I used to get the Chicken Tostada with black beans, rice, cheese, strips, and a tostada shell. I was thinking this "sans" experience would be awful. It wasn't! Sure it was lettuce, chicken, pico, and dressing but it was alright. For some reason it was spicy to me. Maybe they up'd their pico but I was having a hard time with it. The salad is massive (which is why I used to get the tostada) so I was super full when I was done. I will totally do this again, although I might ask for the pico on the side. There was lots of juice in the salad from the chicken and pico. I had to drain my salad. Which was weird.

I've been drinking lots of water today. I'm still not great about the 2-3 hour meal schedule but I did better today than yesterday. When I was supposed to have the meal I didn't eat, at about 3pm, I took a nap for 90 minutes. I was exhausted and the nap was great. I woke up not feeling too hungry and I drank some water and headed to the store to get some new things. I got almond milk, light buttermilk dressing, spaghetti squash, red bell pepper, zucchini, celery, sugar-free maple syrup, spinach, salad bags, egg beaters,and Powerade Zero. I got other stuff but not for me, for my boys. 

I'm looking forward to making lean and green meals for my whole family, not just me eating out. It's hard because I am still learning what I can and cannot eat.

I think the weird taste in a bunch of this stuff is soy powder. It's in everything and everything has this weird after-taste. Some is worse than others. I don't know if I dare try the cereal ever again. I did get almond milk today so I guess I should try it tomorrow. I think that's what I have to get used to: soy powder. Huh. Enlightening.

I had Tyson take pictures of me this morning before work. I'm not posting them until MUCH later but at least I have them. I'm trying to stay positive but I feel the grouchiness setting in. Today was rough in that department. I just keep thinking "Make it to the weekend."

I also decided to weigh myself once a week. Weight fluctuates too much for day-to-day weight checks. I'm going to get a food scale and a new people scale :) tomorrow. Ours is digital and fancy but it's also wonky. Bed, Bath, and Beyond - here I come!

3 comments:

Heather Faulkner said...

I did Medifast last year. I agree with the pancakes. They were disgusting!! Keep up the fantastic work!! And I wish you luck. (If I knew you were starting Medifast I wouldn't have brought you white chocolate popcorn :-)

Laura said...

Here are some thoughts:
I loved the pancakes, but I got totally burned out on them. Here's what I did to make them happy again: Add a splash of vanilla to the water and a bit of cinnamon to the mix. (The baking powder didn't do much for me, so I stopped adding it.) Cook in a bowl or mug in the microwave for 1:15.
If you really can't stand them still, try muffins that make with one pancake mix and one chocolate chip or brownie mix. Makes two meals. (Search the FB group for the recipe. Using just two packets is half the recipe. Don't use the recipes that require Egg Beaters or whatever. Too involved. If you can't find it, let me know.)
But maybe you just won't like them ever. See if you can trade with someone in the area.
The pretzels do grow on you. And your tastes will change as you get sugar worked out of your system and get used to eating food that's less loaded with crap.
Chicken noodle soup. Hmm. Nothing helped it for me. Until I made it into chips! Yeehaw! Again, search for the recipe. If you can't find it, let me know.
Love the chocolate chip cookies! I still eat them occasionally.
Be super careful when you eat out that you aren't going over on your lean or your green. Also, remember that salsa is a condiment, so that should be really limited too. That doesn't mean you can't eat out, but just be careful. As you get further along in the program, you'll get better at judging amounts without weighing them. (Did you get the food scale? Look online for the chart for weighing greens—super helpful. Because the L&G is way more than I thought it would be in some cases and less in others.)
I didn't like the pudding either until I made it into a shake. Mmm, creamy! Better than the actual shakes. Just mix it like you would a shake. Delish.
On the skipping meals, don't do it. The program is designed to give you all the nutrition you need, so when you skip a meal, you are skipping nutrients. And when you're eating around 1,000 calories a day, you need everything!! Also, set a timer or alarm for meals if you need to. Once you get into fat burning, you might not even notice it's time to eat again—until you're ravenous and have a headache and are totally crashed. I learned from experience that skipping is bad news for many many reasons.
Check out Sandy's Kitchen online. Totally saved my bacon with the L&G meals, and we found lots of things that we still eat regularly. I can let you know what some of our favs were and which ones we didn't really like.
Glad you found a weighing schedule that works for you. I weighed twice a week (still do). Tuesday to start the week, and Friday to keep me motivated for the weekend, which is always my time to relax and eat like a horse. Make sure you do your measurements too, (I do mine on Tuesdays) because some weeks your weight loss might seem disappointing, and then you'll do your measurements and see that you've lost inches. Totally use the logging tools on mytsfl.com. It's so fun to watch the lines go down and down and down!
Good luck, Neesie! I know these early days are hard, but you can do this! You can, you can, you can!!
Love you!

Laura said...

Boy, that's a long comment. Ignore it you want. Mostly just this: The hard time is worth it! Like Diana said, nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. And like I say, all the saying no you're doing right now is just preparing you for so much, much more saying yes later on.