August is gone, and I’m happy to say that I will never see a fat summer again. I have read a million times that maintaining is harder than weight loss, so maybe I should rephrase that to ‘I better never see a fat summer again’. I know this will be hard work. So many things get in the way - such as strep throat. Of course I wanted grilled cheese sandwiches and warm pudding and soothing things my mom used to make for me. I tried Medifast soup and it just burned my throat. I felt like I was swallowing sandpaper for about 3 days, so I didn’t follow plan strictly. I was nauseous, my head hurt, and I felt like crap. To make things worse, everybody at work was more concerned about working harder and being inconvenienced than they were about me being out sick.

 So, to make a long story even longer…I gained two pounds last week. But this week I’ve been back on plan, and I’m sure to see a loss this week. I’ll weigh tomorrow. I totally forgot that today was Monday with it being a holiday. It has felt like Sunday, all day long!

 What I’m getting at, is that I am learning quickly that maintenance will be hard.  I can’t just gain a couple of pounds everytime something goes wrong, or I’ll be back on Medifast before I know it! I’m also finding that each time it is harder to go back to Medifast. I gain steam with this plan. The longer I’m on it, the easier it gets and the more natural it feels. When I go off plan, it is so hard to get back on track. I do it, but it’s not exactly a pleasure!

Until tomorrow…

Just a short hello…I’ve got a bad sore throat, and I’m not really up to being sociable. Why can’t oatmeal (the long cooking kind) and cream of wheat be on Medifast? I’d love some. I’ll post again soon…

Not bad! I lost 2.5 more pounds. I can handle that! It gets easier as time goes by. I know now, that if I do any future off plan meals, that I need to be choosy about how off plan I’m going to go! I’ve not been at this so long that it’s a way of life yet, so I’ve apparently not developed all of those ingrained habits I read about. Boy, it can’t happen soon enough.

We cancelled our vacation. Not enough time to plan and get somewhere that we really wanted to go on such short notice. It’s just as well, I’m not sure how I would have held up to dieting on a vacation!

I’m back to baking cookies with the muffin mix, and I eat those at work while they are still fresh. I read that they mold if you make a few days at once, so I make them daily. It’s easy to do while I’m getting ready for work. I just have to wipe the pan down and use again the next day, so it doesn’t even make a mess. Work-girls are starting to get used to this. I am still amazed that I lost all of this weight. 36 pounds in 2 months! And that was with a couple of slides. I always dread taking the kids to the fair every year, but this year I’ll feel a lot better. I won’t get as sweaty and sticky, I’ll be able to fit in some rides - not that I want to, those fair rides are crickety! But maybe something will look stable. I’ll at least be able to fit in the turnstile without angling and wedging myself in. I’ve always had a fear of getting stuck in one of those things! The hard part will be saying no to the Fair Food. Brats and funnel cake. Yes, I will miss you, but not so bad that I want to replay the last two weeks again!

We’ve decided to take the kids for a vacation before school starts again. Right now it’s a tossup between Disney World and Busch Gardens. Joe’s having fun on the internet reading about the rides - he’s worse than the kids sometimes! But all I can think about is what will I eat and will I gain weight. I feel so selfish! I should be thinking about what the kids want, and how much fun this will be for them. But I’ve worked so hard to lose weight, and I’m doing so well so far. I just don’t want to blow it. Does anyone have any tips for vacationing on Medifast?

Adding some veggie snacks has really done the trick for me!  I was worried and feeling kind of down, but I need to relax and not be so hard on myself.  Everything was so great for a long time, and it’s normal to have a little snafu, right?  I’ve stayed back on the Medifast plan since adding a few extra veggies. It was that simple!

One word of caution - if you decide to add a little something extra to your Medifast diet plan, make sure to read the labels!  I doused my cucumber slices with seasoned rice vinegar.  It was tasty and seemed harmless, until I read the ingredient label. It had high fructose corn syrup!  So I was basically splashing sugar on my cucumber.   Live and learn!

Well, it’s really been harder since I fell off the wagon. I’ve been sticking with it this week, but it has been a little bit modified. I’m eating a lean and green, plus I’m eating another snack in the day of fresh cucumber slices, or sometimes baby zucchini. I feel like I need more fiber in my diet (yeah, you know!) than I have been eating, and I’ll admit that I seem to be hungrier than I did when I started. I’m a little more active than I was, so maybe that is why. It isn’t adding too many more calories by snacking on the , but it is probably more of a problem to have more carbs than anything. Whoa! My dog just got sick. Now that’s an appetite suppresant!

Anyway - I’ll weigh again on Monday. So we’ll see how the extra veggies stack up to the scale.

P.S. I don’t know how much longer this deal with last, but you can get a FREE week when you buy 4 weeks worth of Medifast! Click Here then use code PROMO when you are asked at checkout.

Ok, it was a bad night! As the old saying goes, I couldn’t eat just one. I ate and I ate, and then I was bloated and nauseous for the rest of the evening. So when I woke up on weigh day, I didn’t want to weigh, and instead - I ate breakfast. Not a shake, but more carby stuff. I had the day off, so the rest of the day wasn’t too good. The kids were at a water park with the summer daycare program, and Joe had to work. So basically there was nobody to give me disappointed looks, and I obviously can’t be trusted! How do single people stay in shape?

     I guess I just had to get it out of my system. It was Thursday before I was totally 100% on track again. So this weigh in is late. And after all my damage, I still managed to lose a pound. I’m glad I didn’t weigh on weigh day, it wouldn’t have been good. But even though it took me almost two weeks to lose a pound, I did LOSE a pound. So I’m happy, and I’m already back on track, so next week is sure to be a good one.

Tonight is a test. We’re having a family reunion style gathering. It’s not the whole crew from around the country, but big enough to get me in some trouble! We’ll be having pasta, potatoes, corn, and all kinds of things I shouldn’t eat. We’ll also have grilled chicken and vegetables, and another casserole that I will be able to eat. I’m not going to eat a normal Lean and Green meal. I’ll eat a bit more because I don’t want to stand out and have somebody try and convince me that ‘a little won’t hurt’. I know they’ll mean well (some of them, anyway!) but I just don’t want to set myself up for it.

I had the whole weekend off , and I didn’t get anything done that I hoped to do! I was going to do some heavy house cleaning, exercise, maybe give myself a manicure. But instead I read, relaxed, napped. It was great! But I hate not getting things done that I planned to do. I think I need another nap before I make dessert-for-twenty that I can’t eat!

Yes, it is true! I’ve pinched myself and everything. I lost another 4 pounds, and I am beside myself with excitement - I am so amazed at how ‘not-hungry’ I am.  I’d be lying if I said this was just like Jello pudding and Nestle Quik, but that’s what got me here, and Medifast is what is taking it off.

Some days I forget to eat because I’m not hungry, and other days I really wish hard that I could go get a gooey pizza. But there is the old cliche that ‘nothing tastes as good as thin feels’. I was so tired of reading that line, but now that I get a chance to really feel it, it is the first thing that comes to mind. I guess I’m in my groove!

Tip! (I just learned this)

Remember to not have more than a combination of 3-4 condiments a day, including spices.

Also, each condiment should have no more than 1 carb per serving. Most ‘lights’ will be automatically out because of this.  Look for sugar free or low carb versions where possible.

You may have one snack per day. Here’s the snack list!

1 cup bouillon
3 celery stalks
1 sugar-free Popsicle
1 ounce of nuts, unsalted, dry roasted
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
1 Packet of Medifast Soy Crisps
1 cup of Sugar-free Jell-O
1 packet of Medifast Crackers
1 Medifast Fast Soup
2 dill pickle spears

You can also have up to 5 olives per day, for free.