It All Adds Up!

Do you ever get tired of staying on plan?  I know I did!  Does it ever feel pointless to open up yet another Medifast meal?  Especially for those who have a lot of weight to lose like I did, getting to goal will require months and months of opening a Medifast meal five times a day, weighing our lean, measuring out our veggies.  There may be times when it becomes boring, or at least not very much fun anymore, and you may wonder if it's worth it.

I remember reading a story about a freshman named Mike at the University of Illinois who, in 1987, found a unique way to finance his education.  He convinced a popular columnist at one of the Chicago newspapers to ask his readers to "send in a penny for Mike."  Mike just asked for a penny because he reasoned that a penny doesn't mean anything to anyone.  He guessed that every reader would find loose pennies in their house, under couch cushions, in their car - forgotten and not valued.

To everyone's surprise, people began sending in their pennies, and in less than a month the fund was up to 2.3 million cents, with donations coming in from all over the United States as well as Mexico, Canada and the Bahamas.  Mike eventually ended up with $28,000 - those pennies added up!

The little things we do today add up! Each Medifast meal in and of itself may seem of little value - but put together, day after day, it adds up!  It's hard for us to have the big picture sometimes when we face what feels like the monotony of yet another day on plan, but there IS a big picture - and it's you at goal :-).

And you'll get there, one day, one meal and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

Six Years Ago Today . . .

Six years ago today I opened my first Medifast meal packet and began my journey - and what a journey it's been!  

I had a lot of apprehension about losing so much weight, even though I didn't even think I COULD lose it.  I was a mix of skepticism and apprehension, sprinkled with just a touch of hope.  I was apprehensive that I'd ever be able to maintain a weight loss.  I was very apprehensive about how I'd look after losing 126 pounds - would I look old and drawn?  Would I have skin hanging all over?  Would I EVER be able to enjoy food again?

There were times when this apprehension threatened to derail my progress, and I'm thankful that it didn't!  When I found myself feeling anxious about all of the unknowns, I decided to not borrow trouble and just leave everything in God's hands.  I figured I would deal with any issues when and if they came up and not waste time worrying about them in the meantime.

The good news is that none of my fears materialized!  I lost the weight quickly and because of the things I learned and the healthy habits I embraced, I celebrated my 5-year goal anniversary last month. 

My skin looks really good - not perfect, but really pretty good!  People ask me all the time if I've had plastic surgery, which I have NOT (I have nothing against it, but that's not how I choose to spend my time and my money at this point in my life).  I have a little bit of loose skin on my abdomen, but I'm not a bikini type of person to begin with; I have some loose skin on my upper arms, but my arms fit in a size 2 or 4 jacket, so it's not too bad; and I have loose skin on my upper thighs.  The upper thighs are the most pronounced area of loose skin, so I don't wear skirts above my knee and I wear walking shorts or capris (I'm too old for Daisy Duke shorts anyway!).  People tell me I look healthy - and younger than I did before losing the weight :-).

And I DO enjoy food now - and I enjoy it without feeling guilty!  For years I felt guilty much of the time I ate, because I viewed everything as either "good" or "bad" food.  No surprise, the food I liked best was in the "bad" category, and every time I ate it I did so with the feeling that I was cheating (I was always on one diet or another), so the enjoyment was tempered with guilt.  I can't tell you how freeing it is to eat something that USED to be in the "bad" category and simply say, "Wow, that was GOOD!"  There is no longer a "good" or "bad" category of food, because everything can be enjoyed in moderation and in proper portions.  This is amazingly freeing and one of the unexpected joys of reaching my goal.  

And I am healthy - most important of all!  With 9 grandchildren to keep up with, being healthy and staying healthy is incredibly important to me. When I started on program six years ago today, we had four grandchildren and my goal was to get healthy so I would be around to dance at their weddings.  I still want that, and I want to be an active, fun grandma for them between now and those someday weddings.

I just realized that there IS one downside to reaching goal, so I'd better 'fess up!  The post-goal shopping trip can be expensive (but oh, so much fun)!  I needed everything from underwear out - pajamas and nightgowns, bathrobe, swimsuits (I actually had fun shopping for swimsuits, if you can imagine!), business clothes, sports clothes, coats, jackets . . . and then new accessories to go with my new wardrobe! Five years later, it's still wonderful to walk into any store and know that I have lots of choices and can select things that fit not only my body, but my taste.  I spent years settling for whatever I could find to fit my size 24W/3X body, and often what I found wasn't really a good color for me or reflected my taste in clothes.  Yep, having fun shopping and spending money on clothes is the only downside I can think of, but it sure doesn't feel much like a downside :-)

Don't let anything keep you from reaching your goal!  Maybe you haven't seen a healthy weight in a long time, or maybe you've NEVER seen a healthy weight, but don't let fear of the unknown keep you from getting there.  Losing weight doesn't solve every problem in our lives, but it WILL improve your life in ways you can't even imagine.   

You'll get to your goal one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

The Key to Success

When we first start on 5&1, most of us (and this was true for me, too) are focused on the food and think that the key to our success is the five Medifast products we eat every day, plus our lean & green.  But the Medifast products aren't the key to our success at all.

Our attitude and how we view this program is the key to whether or not we will ultimately be successful in not only losing the weight, but in keeping it off.  

How do you view the weight loss phase of this program?  Are you constantly looking with longing at off-plan food and counting the days until you can eat it once again?   Do you view eating six small meals a day as a temporary thing you're doing just to lose weight with no thought to continuing this eating pattern long term?  Is every day on 5&1 about deprivation and denial?  

If you answered yes, yes, and yes to these questions, then you are in danger of falling short of reaching your goal, or regaining much or all of your weight once you aren't on 5&1.  I say this because a "yes" to those questions reveals a dieting mindset and the reality is that 85% of dieters regain the weight they've lost, plus more weight, within two years.  I don't share this to discourage you, but to encourage you to embrace a different perspective - one that will not only ensure success for the short term, but will also enable you to be successful for the long term.

One of my friends who recently restarted on 5&1 has embraced a new mindset this time around.  She shared with me that she isn't feeling deprived this time, instead she feels like she is treating herself to something wonderful.  She has more energy and just feels better - physically and mentally.  Another friend remarked that, at age 61, she has never felt better or had more energy and is committed to this new, healthy lifestyle for the rest of her life.  Instead of focusing on the things they aren't eating, these two friends (and others) have recognized that getting to a healthy weight and embracing a new, healthier lifestyle is the real "treat" they are giving themselves.

To ultimately be successful in losing the weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, we have to move far beyond a "diet" mindset and truly embrace a new way of living and eating.  Not everyone is ready or willing to do so, but the ones who are ready and willing are the ones who will not only celebrate reaching their goal but will also celebrate yearly anniversaries of another year at goal.

So how do we change our mindset?  First, we have to take stock of what brought us to this program to begin with.  We didn't start this program because we felt great and were happy with our weight.  The fact that we started this program is an indication that what we were doing wasn't working for us and probably hadn't been working for us for a long time.  No matter how much we enjoyed the taste of the food we were shoving into our mouths, we were eating the wrong things in the wrong portions.  If we look with longing on what we were doing before and somehow think that we can do that again and get different results, we are kidding ourselves.  We have to be willing to let go of what we did in the past and create a new, healthy future for ourselves.  That doesn't mean that we will never eat this or that again, but we will eat those foods differently than we did before.  We have to be ready and willing to do that.

Secondly, we have to focus on what we want at this point in our lives.  Do we want to be at a healthy weight?  Do we want to have a future that's different from our past?  If so, we have to create and embrace new habits.  More than just new habits, we have to embrace a new mindset that WANTS these new habits.  We have to move beyond "we need to or we should or we have to" to "we WANT to!"

If we are willing to walk away from the unhealthy habits that got us here in the first place and we are willing to embrace new habits and a new mindset, then the Medifast meal replacements will be the wonderful catalysts to help us reach our goal - and beyond.  If we aren't willing to embrace new habits and a new mindset, then the Medifast meal replacements will join the ranks of another diet we've tried along the way.

The choice, of course, is yours.  Choose wisely :-)

Losing at a Snail's Pace

One thing that we all share in common is a desire to get to our goal weight as quickly as possible.  When I started Take Shape for Life/Medifast almost six years ago, I paid special attention to individuals who lost their weight quickly, because I very much wanted to follow in their footsteps.  By the time I started on this program, I'd been fighting a losing battle with obesity for over 20 years and I was ready to be done with it - as fast as possible.  I tried to set realistic expectations because I was 55 and post-menopausal, so I understood that I probably wouldn't lose as fast as someone younger than I.  But I hoped it would be a short journey from start to finish.  I'm guessing that's what you want, too!

But what happens if your progress is at a snail's pace?   How fast does a snail actually go?   One study clocked a snail at 0.00758 miles per hour - or 40 feet in one hour.  No wonder the phrase "at a snail's pace" means "slow!"  The snail may move at, well, a snail's pace, but you have to admire its perseverance.  One preacher noted that "By perseverance the snail reached the ark."  

Our willingness to persevere is often tested when our progress slows down to a snail's pace.  I had several weeks when I only lost one pound and I had three separate weeks when I didn't lose a thing - even though I stayed 100% on plan.  I won't kid you - it was frustrating and a bit discouraging.  At that point, I had a choice:  I could either keep doing what I had been doing and trust that the scale would eventually catch up, or I could allow my seeming lack of progress to be my undoing.  

Since most of you know that I DID reach my goal, there's no suspense in how this story ended :-).  I realized that I had no control over how fast I lost the weight - I could only control whether or not I chose to stay on plan.  Some weeks my efforts were rewarded with a several pound loss, but other weeks with equal effort brought little or no progress on the scale.  I didn't realize it at the time, but those snail-paced weeks taught me the value of doing what I needed to do regardless of the outcome.  Perseverance made the difference for me and it will make the difference for you, too.  You WILL reach your goal, and ultimately it doesn't matter if you get there quickly or at a snail's pace.  Once you're there, you'll have no regrets that you chose to make the journey.

We can't choose how fast our bodies release the weight, but we can choose to persevere.  The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)

Doing What We Want

"We will never remain free doing what we think we ought to do.  It's a good way to get started, but we won't sustain on that motivation.  It has to be what our heart desires.  In the end, we always do what we want to do."

That quote is from the fourth DVD lesson in Beth Moore's "Breaking Free" Bible study, and it really resonates with me.  Any change we decide to make, including breaking free from the shackles of overeating, will ultimately happen only if that's what our heart truly desires. 

Many of us started on this program, like so many other programs before, because we knew we needed to lose weight.  Perhaps our physician told us to lose weight, and maybe we'd gotten gentle suggestions or even overt pressure from family members and friends.  We knew that's what we needed to do, but the truth is that some of us are on this program right now because we know it's what we "should" do, but getting to a healthy weight isn't our heart's desire.

I say that because some of us allow anything and everything to interfere with staying on plan.  We feel guilty when we go off plan and we get back on (which is a good thing!), vowing to really do it this time.  Then the next thing comes up and we're off plan again.  I'm not discounting all of the things that factor into the decision to go off plan, but I am suggesting that we make the choice to go off plan because, on some level, we're still doing this because we think we should, not because we've determined in our hearts that we're going to do what it takes to get to a healthy weight.

It's really not a matter of being strong.  The people who stay on plan and reach goal aren't stronger or somehow endowed with more willpower than anyone else.  They simply made a decision that what they wanted more than anything else was to get to a healthy weight.  Once they identified this as the desire of their heart, circumstances really didn't matter anymore and they figured out what they needed to do.  In the end, we always do what we want to do.

So what do you want to do today?  Once you know what you want, the choices will be easy.  Figure out what you want, then choose wisely :-)

Getting What We Want

"To get what you've never got, you've got to do what you've never done."  

Up until many of us started on this program, we got what we DIDN'T want by doing what we've always done.  Especially for those of us who are emotional eaters, we spent years (perhaps our entire lives) using food as our automatic go-to for any and every emotional thing in our lives.  Happy?   Something to celebrate?  Upset?  Stressed?  Our response was always to put food in our mouths, and not just any food, but usually the wrong kinds of food in large quantities.  (I don't know about you, but when I was running to food to meet my emotional needs, I never once ran to the vegetable crisper and pulled out a bunch of celery . . . )

To get what we've never had, or what we haven't had in a long time, we have to do things we've never done.  If we're recovering emotional eaters, we have to find other, healthier ways to deal with the stuff of life.  If we've been gourmet cooks, we will have to find healthier ways to prepare foods and may need to permanently close the cover on some of our fat/carb/calorie-laden recipes.  If we've always been big eaters, we will have to learn how to eat in proper portions.  If we've been meal-skippers (especially breakfast), we will have to learn how to eat six small meals a day, starting with breakfast within an hour of getting up.  If we've been sedentary, we will have to learn how to move our bodies on a regular basis.

It's always easier to stay where we are, doing what we've always done.  But that doesn't get us where we want to be!  Someone once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  For us to stop our own dieting insanity and truly get what we've never had, we have to be willing to do things we've never done.  It may feel awkward at first - new things usually are awkward - but the more we begin to embrace new, healthier habits, the more natural they will begin to feel.

Doing what we've never done involves the choices we'll make today.  Choose wisely :-)

Writing a New Chapter

The book Failing Forward (author: John Maxwell) includes a piece by Portia Nelson entitled "Autobiography in Five Short Chapters."  I think it's a excellent description of how we can change to move from failure to success:

Chapter 1:  I walk down the street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I fall in.  I am lost.  I am helpless.  It isn't my fault.  It takes forever to find a way out.Chapter 2:  I walk down the street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I pretend I don't see it.  I fall in again.  I can't believe I am in the same place, but it isn't my fault.  It still takes a long time to get out.Chapter 3:  I walk down the same street.  there is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I see it is there.  I still fall in.  It's a habit.  My eyes are open.  I know where I am.  It is my fault.  I get out immediately.Chapter 4:  I walk down the same street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I walk around it.Chapter 5:  I walk down another street.

Some of us are stuck in Chapters 1 or 2 - we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again and continue to wonder why we're stuck.  We have a tendency to blame others - our husband/boyfriend/ mother/girlfriend/boss made us eat off plan.  We blame circumstances - we were stressed/upset/bored/tired/it was our birthday-anniversary-Friday night.  We believe that if everyone in our lives would just get behind us and quit sabotaging us, we'd be successful.  When things settle down and we aren't so busy at work or so stressed with the kids, then it will be easier to stay on plan.

Change really begins when we move to Chapter 3.  We may have fallen back into the same old hole, but now we are ready to take responsibility and we don't stay in that hole.  Once we realize that we CAN take responsibility, more than that, that we HAVE to take responsibility for our choices, we are then able to take charge and change begins.

Chapter 4 marks the change, as we recognize the hole and are able to avoid it.  There is something very empowering about knowing that we really can avoid the very pit we've fallen into time and time again, and we avoid falling in by choosing to walk around it.  This is where many of us are right now.  The path we're on is familiar, but we're learning to not trip over the same old things and end up in the same old place.

Chapter 5 is hopefully where we're heading - on a new path all together.  As we learn healthy new habits, we find ourselves walking on a new path that will take us places we can't even imagine.  When we do that, we won't fall into the same old holes ever again.  Of course, this is only true if we choose to take a new path.  This program provides the tools we need to navigate a new path.  We just have to choose to use them, then choose to take a new path.

Which chapter represents where you are right now?  If you are stuck in one of the early chapters, are you ready to turn the page?  You can, and it will happen one day and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

It's Worth It!

Do you ever have one of those days when you seriously wonder if doing this program is worth it?  You don't know what goal will look like and it can be tempting to think that all of the sacrifice now won't really be worth it in the end.  

I once read a story about a family who was vacationing in the Canadian Rockies on a very blustery day in June.  They went to a tourist site that was billed as a "must see", but the cold wind made them reluctant to go on until they saw a group of people returning from the scenic spot.  The family asked the tourists if the view was worth it.  The tourists' enthusiastic "definitely!" gave the family the incentive they needed to go on.  When they finally reached the spot, they wrote that its beauty rendered them virtually speechless, and they agreed it was well worth the effort to get there.

I will never tell you this is easy (although I will tell you this was the easiest program I ever did).  Redefining my relationship with food and learning - really learning - that food is not my source of comfort and entertainment was challenging.  Saying "no" to a lot of food that I enjoyed so I could say "yes" to a healthier me was incredibly difficult sometimes and it was only with God's help and strength that I was able to walk away over and over again.

No matter how hard the struggle may be to reach goal, it's worth it.  The difference physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually for me is night and day.  This is why I continue to blog, because I want you to know that it's worth it!  YOU are worth it!!

When staying on plan is the last thing you want to do, just take it one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  That's how you'll reach your goal.  It's worth the effort and you won't regret your decision to choose wisely :-).

Saying "NO" is Really Saying "YES!"

I received two very different, and very interesting, e-mails from friends a while back.  Both friends were on the 5&1 program and both had a lot of weight to lose.  They live on opposite ends of the country and don't know each other, but they share a common struggle not only with weight, but with emotional eating.  Both have been on the program before and lost weight (without reaching their goal), went off plan and regained much of the weight they lost, and were back on with a resolve to reach their goal.

The first friend shared her experience facing down both pizza and cherry cheesecake at a family gathering.  She planned ahead and made sure that she had on-plan food with her.  While it wasn't easy saying no to what everybody else was eating, she did it and was so excited as she shared with me how victorious she felt.

The other friend also got together with family members, but her story had a different ending.  She told me that she ended up eating "whatever she wanted" and what she wanted was definitely not on plan.  Her e-mail was one of sadness and a sense of defeat because she had once again let herself down.  

The contrast between the two e-mails was striking and I couldn't help but notice the difference.  The friend who said "no" to the off-plan foods left the gathering feeling happy and victorious and the friend who said "yes" to those things left her get-together feeling defeated.

When we say "no" to off-plan food, we are really saying "YES!" to what we really want - getting to a healthy weight.  That's why my friend felt so good about the choice she made.  It's not that she didn't want the off-plan food or that it didn't look good to her, but she wanted something more than she wanted the food.  Her reaction as she left the family get-together confirmed that she made the right decision for herself.

No one likes to feel deprived - me included!  So the next time you face down an off-plan temptation, instead of focusing on saying "no" to the food, remind yourself that you are saying "yes" to what you really want.  We can not only choose what to eat or not eat, but we can also choose how we view that choice.  Choose wisely :-)

Just Call Me "Rutter"

One of the reasons I post a blog almost every day is because I know how wonderful and freeing it is to reach goal and I want to help others experience that same joy.  By sharing from my own experience and what I learned along the way, my hope is to smooth the path for those who are still on their own journey.

Although I'm not a sailor, I have many friends who enjoy sailing and boating and I'm always appreciative for the opportunities to spend time on the water with them.  I'm fascinated by the way they are able to navigate over open water, knowing where they are and - important to me! - how to get back to where we launched.

I was intrigued to read about navigation during the era of great sea explorations in the 15th and 16th centuries, when sailing ships traveled over hazardous oceans and navigated dangerous coastlines.  According to the article I read, "pilots used various navigation techniques - including a book called a "rutter" (not the "rudder," the ship's steering device).  This was a log of events kept by earlier voyagers who chronicled their encounters with previously unknown and difficult waters.  By reading the sailing details in a rutter, captains could avoid hazards and make it through difficult waters."

A rutter . . . in a way, I guess that's what I am, and what other health coaches, are.  Having navigated the waters of 5&1, Transition and Maintenance, we do our best to point out the danger zones so that you can have smooth sailing.  One of the things we continue to do is urge people to stay on plan and not cheat.  This advice sometimes generates discussion, but we repeat that encouragement over and over again because, base on our own experience and what we've observed, we know that staying on plan is the only 100% guaranteed way to avoid shipwreck on this program.  Staying on plan will keep you in the deep waters and away from the rocks and other things that could potentially sink your weight loss ship. 

I have talked to far too many people who have gone off plan for one reason or another and ended up struggling mightily to get back on and stay on.  The decision to go off plan has resulted in far too many people taking two or three times longer to reach their goal, and sadly some never reach their goal. 

With Memorial Day weekend over and summer officially kicked off, some of you will find this time of year easy to stay on plan and others will be continually challenged due to cookouts, vacations, graduation open houses, weddings . . . Every time of year brings its own set of challenges and every season holds a myriad of reasons to go off plan, if that's what you decide to do.  What will ultimately make the difference between reaching your goal and potentially not doing so are the choices you will make. 

I encourage you to open your "rutter log" and learn from those who have already navigated these waters.  We've reached the other side and are here to help you safely cross as well.  Of course, the choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail with a cartoon of a woman looking in the mirror.  The woman in the cartoon was older and quite overweight, but the reflection in the mirror was of a young, thin, beautiful woman.  The cartoon caption read "I need your help.  I need to find the shop that sells this mirror!"  The cartoon made me laugh and I thanked my friend for passing it on.

While the cartoon may have been humorous, it did get me thinking a bit about how we perceive what we see in the mirror.  Before I started on 5&1, I never saw myself as big as I was.  Sure, I knew I was large (I never allowed myself to think or say "fat" or, horror or horrors, "obese" - I was "overweight" or "heavy.'), but candid photos of myself always made me wince.  What was captured in a picture didn't reflect the image I perceived in the mirror and I was convinced that the mirror was real and the picture was "a bad angle" . . . 

Because my perception was skewed, I told myself that I wasn't THAT bad.  Sure I was overweight, but I'd look in the mirror and reassure myself that I carried my weight well.  Never mind that I was 260+ pounds packed on my 5'5" frame and bursting out of a 24W/3X, I certainly didn't look obese like some people I saw.  My perception of how I looked contributed to a lack of commitment to losing weight for a long time.  I wasn't happy about my size, but my mirror told me that I still looked "pretty good," and as long as I looked "pretty good" I found excuses to cheat on whatever diet I was on.

For me, it wasn't until my weight began to impact my health that I finally decided to do something.  Being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, gastric reflux and borderline high blood pressure scared me, and it also worried me that I was out of breath walking up a flight of stairs.  I may have been able to fool my perception of my body as reflected in the mirror, but I couldn't fool the inside of my body and it accurately reflected what was really going on.  As I began to lose weight, the inside of my body responded quickly - blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure all returned to normal, which was very exciting!  

What took longer was my perception of what was happening outside.  Looking at myself in the mirror every day, I didn't always see a difference.  My clothes were getting loose and then falling off, but the reflection in the mirror didn't seem to change.  I realized that my perception didn't reflect reality, so I began taking pictures to document my progress.  Sometimes when I absolutely didn't see it in the mirror, I'd pull out pictures of myself from before and compare them to pictures of myself after losing 30, 50, 80 pounds.  When I looked at the pictures, I began to see myself in a more accurate light.  Being able to really "see" my progress helped to keep me motivated and made me anxious for the day when I could finally take an "after" picture.

This program changes us, inside and out, physically, emotionally, mentally - perhaps even spiritually.  Not all of the changes are reflected in the mirror, and sometimes what we see in the mirror may not be an accurate reflection of the changes we're experiencing.  It takes time to adjust to all of the changes we experience as we get to a healthy weight - that's one of the reasons this is called a journey.  Even if you aren't feeling like there is a lot of change going on, even if you don't see change reflected in your mirror, the choices you're making will eventually be reflected inside and out.  Choose wisely :-)

For Better and For Worse . . . Through Thick and Thin

Yesterday was our 40th wedding anniversary!  I've attached a picture . . . I guess we've changed just a bit :-)

My husband and I met in college - I was 18 and he was 19 and we started dating a year later and married a year after that.  When we got married, I was thin and he wasn't ;-), and by the time we celebrated our first anniversary, we'd both put on weight (him more than I) due to my new-found love of cooking.  That began a series of diets that we did together.  I was generally dealing with 10-15 pounds I wanted to drop and he was usually needing to lose 50 or more pounds. We had good intentions, but wow, did we try some crazy things!

When the Atkins diet first came out, my husband thought this was the answer to a meat-lover's prayers.  I remember one day when he ate 12 hot dogs, stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon - for LUNCH!  Yep, the carbs were little to none, but the calories and artery-clogging fat grams?  Nobody counted those and it's probably just as well we didn't know!  I didn't eat quite that many, but I think I probably ate 3 or 4 of those "on plan" food items as well.  Needless to say, we didn't lose very much weight and we also didn't feel that great (who could, with all that sodium and lack of nutrition?).

Then there was the "eat all of your calories first thing in the day" diet.  We read an article that claimed if you ate all of your calories at the beginning of the day in one big meal, you'd lose weight.  That sounded like a good idea so we got up one morning before work and made the breakfast to end all breakfasts - eggs, sausage, pancakes and I don't remember what else.  We ate until we were stuffed, convinced we'd eaten enough to easily tide ourselves over until the next morning.  Of course, by late afternoon we were hungry and by dinner time we were starving and ended up eating dinner.  I think that's the only diet we did that only lasted one day.

There were other diets we tried together, too, and some of them worked temporarily.  Since I was usually only fighting 10 pounds, these fad diets usually kept me close to where I wanted to be, but they didn't begin to teach me how to lose weight and keep it off in a healthy way.  I was a stay-home, from-scratch cook for twelve years, starting when we had our oldest daughter, and our food was very healthy, even if the portions weren't.

By the time my weight started piling on and I went from needing to lose 10 pounds to being 126 pounds overweight, my husband had pretty much given up any attempts at losing weight.  I went from one program to another and he ate, and we were both at very unhealthy weights.

Six years ago this month, everything began to change when I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast.  My husband was very supportive, but he watched from the sidelines for over six months, until he finally decided to go on the program himself in January of 2008.  He lost 50 pounds and reached his goal weight in three months and I reached my goal about five weeks later.  We have now celebrated five years of both of us being at a healthy weight for one of the first times in our entire married life!

I thank the Lord for my wonderful husband who have loved me through thick and thin (literally) and who supported me on my 20+ year odyssey to a healthy weight.  He never criticized either my weight or any of the methods I tried to lose weight, and when I finally found something that worked - Medifast - he cheered and encouraged me each step of the way.  

Thanks to both of us getting healthy on this program, I'm looking forward to at least 40 more years with this man!

For the rest of you reading this, I really care about you, too.  And because I care so much about you, I'll end this blog like I end them all - choose wisely :-)