Break Free from Obesity

I came home from work and my NEW Lean & Green Meal Cookbook by Take Shape For Life (TSFL) was here!!!  It was released last Monday and I have been waiting over a week for this helpful tool in my journey to Break Free from Obesity!

I am in Week #8 and still doing well on this program (down 31 lbs) but there is no doubt that I can definitely use some help in the Lean & Green meal area.  What is a Lean & Green meal?  It is a part of the Take Shape For Life (TSFL) eating plan or as they call it the 5 and 1 plan.

I eat 5 pre-packaged replacement meals (Medifast) every 2-3 hours per day plus 1 Lean & Green meal, which is made by yours truly.  Basically, the Lean & Green is 5-7 ounces of cooked lean meat (or meatless protein options) plus 3 servings of vegetables from the allowed list.  We are also allowed condiments and 1 serving of fat each day, too.   If you click here, you can see the condiments that are allowed on this .PDF file.

Well, I was running out of ideas on the Lean & Green meal but now TSFL has released a new cookbook with tried, true and tested Lean & Green meals. :)

I will definitely be trying these recipes out and posting about them on this blog so stay tuned!!!

Thank you TSFL and Medifast!!! I am finally on my weigh down to a healthy weight for the first time in over 25 years.  You have given me hope where I thought it was lost.  Thank you!!!!!  :)

♥,
MJ

Feeling very blessed today!  I work in an IT department for the biggest Hospice in the US (Suncoast Hospice).  We have about 1,200 employees and maybe 700 or so work at the same service center (office complex) that I work in. 

Well, in the last two weeks I have had two people that I work with and have lost weight on the Take Shape For Life (TSFL) program give me their leftover food they are no longer eating.  They are both on maintenance. 

The VP of my department gave me 6 boxes of the beef stew, 2 boxes of tomato soup, 1 box of chicken noodle and 1 box of chicken wild rice.  I was stunned! She told me she is so proud of me and wants me to keep up the good work.  She says she is no longer eating these (the soups) anymore.

Then another co-worker from our Admission Department dropped off 1 box of Maryland Crab soup, 1 box of Chicken Noodle, 1 box of Chicken Wild Rice, 1 box of Vanilla Pudding and several packets of different stuff.  She has lost 55 lbs on TSFL (Medifast) for a total of 106 lbs.  I was flabbergasted.  She and I are now email buddies and she is offering her support anytime I need it.

I was sort of bumming out because finances are pretty tight right now and I wasn't sure how I could afford another month of food.  Then these two people I work with give me their food out of nowhere -- both told me they are showing their support and want to help me reach my goal.  :)

On top of that I ended up with an $80 credit from my health coach because I had made a small mini order after my first monthly order and because it was under the $225 I didn't get my 2nd week of free food.  She told me she didn't think to tell me that placing an order in between my monthly orders would stop the 2nd week of free food so she credited my account $80!

WOW -- I am truly blessed!!! ♥

Pie Crust:

1 cup shredded or mashed cauliflower
1/2 cup Egg Beaters
1/2 cup 2% mozzarella cheese

Spread out somewhat thin on an aluminum pizza pan sprayed with Pam olive oil spray and bake at 450° preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. The edges should look like they are starting to burn.



Then remove crust from oven. Let cool down for a few minutes and flip over. Add desired toppings -- keeping in mind to stay within the Lean & Green guidelines.

Topping Pizza: (I added the following to my pizza)

1/4 cup diced green pepper
1/4 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup meatless crumblers
1/2 cup 2% mozzarella shredded cheese



Bake at 350° until all the cheese is melted and beginning to brown. Some folks like to put the pizza under a broiler but this requires watching it carefully not burn it.

Below is delizioso pizza pie!



Who knew eating this healthy could taste this good!!! :)

Today, 4/5/10,  is my one month anniversary since beginning the Take Shape For Life (TSFL) program using Medifast replacement meals.  After one full month I have lost a total of 25.5 pounds.  Yay me!!! :)

I have been examining some of my old eating habits and one of them I'd like to write about tonight is mindless eating.  I cannot believe how much food I use to eat because I was so "mindless" about the amount of food I was consuming. 

At a young age, I developed the habit of "stuffing" myself with food when I wanted to avoid a situation.  My Mom died when I was 15 years old and if I wasn't turning to "partying" with my friends to escape the loss -- I was turning to food so I didn't have to think about how sad I felt. 

I cannot begin to guess how many times I wished I could turn back the clock because I missed my Mom!  I was mentally suffering from the "if only's" because I wished I could have said or done something differently before she died.  To get out of that mental suffering, I was either drinking too much or eating too much so I could escape how I was thinking or feeling.

I was very fortunate that a series of events (a whole other story) led me out of the "hell of drinking" and I got sober on June 15, 1992.  I am very content with no longer running from life on life's terms only to drown my sorrows in a damn drink.  Believe me, I know that drinking is always an option but to me it will always be the wrong choice!

Unfortunately, I never found my way out of the hell of eating against my own will until I found TSFL.  Heck, looking back, I can see how combining TV time with binge eating is a serious train wreck for good health but knowing that intellectually didn't stop me.  There was no stopping me!!!

Afterall, munching on who knows how many calories while watching TV is the greatest way to escape life's troubles AND remain sober at the same time.  I'm not drinking myself into oblivion any more.  I will get a handle on this food thing when I'm damn good and ready but until then I am going to eat whatever I want whenever I want!

Believe me, mindless eating is the biggest and badest habit that I need to break free from if I am ever going to be a healthy weight again.  Thankfully, I believe that Medifast is the solution to my success in finally kicking this obesity dilemma once and for all.

To me, mindless eating while watching TV is about shutting our brains off from thinking about whatever it is we don't want to think about.  Then the enormous amounts of food is to "stuff" what we are feeling.  If I'm too busy eating then I don't have to think about how I'm feeling and if I'm stuffing myself to not feel it keeps me busy enough to not have to think.  What a hell of a way to live -- or should I say exist?

Well, I am working on getting honest with myself about my obesity and how I got this way.  The truth is I have longed to be thin for years but too busy avoiding my feelings.  Let's get real, too lazy to do the leg work necessary to lose the weight and keep it off.  Damn, I have been literally stuffing my feelings for over 25 years, which has resulted in my becoming morbidly obese.  It makes me ashamed that I could be in so much denial that I was eating with such wreckless abandon.  Unfortunately, that is the truth of it in a nutshell.  I was eating with wreckless abandon and not willing to stop until now.

Thanks to bad habits coupled with mindless eating I reached my all time highest weight this year.  One month ago today I decided it was time to get off the damn Obesity Merry-Go-Round and do something about my weight -- finally.  Thankfully, devine intervention led me to TSFL and a wonderful health coach that got me started on Medifast.

I have accumulated many bad eating habits over the years so it is going to take time to undo the harm I have done by running from my thoughts and feelings.  Today I am no longer running away nor am I stuffing myself with food.  It feels good to think about what I am actually eating and not feel like a slave to food.  I wholeheartily identify with the concept of "Eating to live NOT living to eat!"

Thankfully, Medifast meal replacements and the book, "Dr. A's Habits of Health" have me learning how to eat the right type of foods, right-sized portions and  I'm eating every 2-3 hours so I am never hungry.  I am amazed that I do not feel deprived whatsoever.  Medifast is the perfect remedy for a mindless eater like myself.  I simply follow the 5 and 1 plan and I don't have to think about it! ;)

Thank you Medifast!!!

~MJ

I've been on Medifast for 25 days and I am down 22 pounds!!! I cannot remember a time I was on a "diet" for 25 days! I have been amazed at how easy it is to do Medifast's 5 and 1 program. I eat 5 Medifast meals a day and one lean and green meal. The best part of this "diet" is I'm satisfied. I don't feel hungry. My husband enjoys our evening dinner together because we are eating a lean meat and vegetables and/or salad. The greatest gift of all is I am not a slave to carbs! I have always been drawn back in by the carbs and I haven't even missed them. My motivation has been that I see the pounds melting away. I posted a picture not too long ago of what 16 pounds of butter looks like and now I have lost 88 sticks of butter off my body!!! Whooo hooo!!! Thank you Medifast!!!

I am going to share below something I typed a while back before I started Medifast. I had emailed it to myself at work and today I increased the font, printed it and hung it on my work station so I can see it every day.

WHY I DON’T EAT BAD CARBS

It makes me crave more carbs
It makes me feel blah (sluggish)
It keeps me FAT (obese)
It does not make my problems
go away – it keeps me FAT!!!

Nothing tastes as good as thin feels!!!

My success tomorrow depends on my choices today!!!

THIS IS MY STORY

I began writing this blog on 3/5/2010 so I could put into writing my weight-loss journey. I have a very long road ahead of me but this blog will be a great way to keep track of the journey along the way.

Sadly, I have been very obese for the last 20+ years. I have tried to lose weight many times (countless times) but I always felt overwhelmed and deprived on a diet so it never lasted very long. As you can imagine, this became very depressing but the more depressed I was about my weight the harder it got for me to stick to any kind of a diet. :(

To me, being obese is a vicious cycle of overeating, gaining weight, wanting to lose weight, searching for the perfect diet but secretly not wanting to give up the comfort of food, feeling anxious and depressed about going on a diet, then finally giving in and eating more food to feel better only to feel shame and remorse. Around and around we go on the Obesity Merry-Go-Round. It's a hell of a ride to get stuck on. I should know, I've been stuck on this ride for well over two decades!!!

How did my weight become such a big problem? I was a normal weight child until 5th grade. I know this because I have pictures to prove it. Then the summer before I went into 5th grade I gained a bunch of weight. I stayed chubby until the tail end of 6th grade, when I started my first diet. How sad is that? My first diet was at age 12 in the 6th grade!

I don't really want to discuss what kind of shenanigans I was involved in at age 12 but let's just say hanging out with the wrong peers led me into a life style where I was able to lose some weight. Not all of it, though. However, I was still pretty active and not that much overweight.

During the summer of 1980 (entering 8th grade), I do remember being mindful of not eating any bread, sweets and drinking plenty of water. I also started walking A LOT that summer. I dropped 35 pounds in one month. I kept the weight off until 1982.

What happened? The rest of this story will continue at a future time when I have reached my goal weight and can post some "Before" and "After" photos. Until then, I will continue to write my story of being stuck on the Obesity Merry-Go-Round.

From now until I reach my goal, I will continue posting about my weightloss journey and other experiences along the "weigh" down. Truthfully, this is the most important part of my story because it will illustrate to my readers how I transform from being very obese to being a healthy weight after years of struggling to lose weight. I will share how I  Break Free from Obesity  and become Thin Again in 2010!!!

Signed,
KisMJ ~ Keep It Simple MJ

Here is another gross thought. For every 5 lbs a person is overweight -- that is how many 5 lb bags of sugar they are lugging around with no help of a grocery cart to push the sugar around in. Imagine a person being 200 lbs overweight. That means that person is lugging around 40 (forty) 5 lb bags of sugar just glued to their body with no help of a shopping cart to help push or carry it around. Their poor aching muscles and bones must be so tired!

The fact is that for every 1 pound of body weight lost that relieves the body of 4 (four) pounds of pressure. That is the truth of the matter. If a person loses 20 pounds they have lost 80 pounds of pressure. YOU do the math!

With either one of the analogies used above, the sad truth is I have A LOT more weight to lose. However, the reality is that I now know I can achieve this as long as I stick to the Medifast plan and do this journey one meal at a time -- ONE DAY AT A TIME!!!

I'm eager to break free so I can be THIN AGAIN IN 2010!!!

~MJ