How Fast Do You Want To Get There?

I'm back home and unpacked after a great 5-day Florida get-away. We had a good time and tried to soak up as much sun and warm weather as we could before returning to our Michigan winter. As we always do when we travel, we packed a lot of Medifast meals (sure do love the crunch bars, pretzels & puffs for traveling!), which saved us a lot of time and money. Flying is a breeze with meals in my carry-on, and having our meals with us for our day trip to the Everglades meant we could focus on having fun instead of figuring out what and where to eat. We ate four Medifast meals every day and enjoyed a great dinner each evening. Between carefully managing our calories and doing a lot of walking every day, our vacation away from the winter cold wasn't a vacation away from healthy habits.

While we were in Florida, we had an opportunity to meet up with a group of people who are on the program right now. It was fun meeting them and hearing some great weight loss stories! One story that particularly interested me was the story of a couple who both went on the program at the same time. The wife made the decision to stay on plan 100% of the time and she lost 50 pounds. Her husband also made the decision to follow the program, with one exception: he did the 5&1 plan plus had a glass of wine every evening with dinner. In the same amount of time that his wife lost 50 pounds, he lost 20. Yep - his wife lost over twice as much weight in the same amount of time!

So often we may think that it's OK to modify the plan just a little . . . after all, we reason, it's only a LITTLE bit off plan, so how much could it hurt? I guess the question each person has to ask is, "how quickly do I want to reach my goal?" If you aren't in a hurry, then perhaps having a glass of wine or eating something off plan might be OK for you.

When I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast and began to realize that I had finally found a program that actually worked, something that really WOULD help me to reach my goal, I wanted to get there as quickly as I possibly could. I fought obesity for over twenty years and I didn't want to be obese for one day longer than I had to. I knew I didn't have any control over how fast my body released the weight, but I COULD control whether or not I stayed on plan. I knew that staying on plan would get me to my goal the fastest. It's not that I didn't miss a lot of things while I was on plan, but I figured that nothing was worth keeping me obese a day longer than necessary. As I approach the two-year anniversary of reaching my goal, I certainly don't regret the decision I made to stay on plan :-).

Almost every day presents a challenge to stay on plan. If it's not stress, it's an occasion of one kind or another (Super Bowl this week, Valentine's Day next week, for instance). If it's not an occasion, perhaps it's a friend or loved one who's less than supportive. Regardless of the challenge, the choice is ultimately ours. As we consider the choices we face, it might help to ask ourselves how fast we want to reach our goal. After we honestly ask - and answer - that question, we'll make the choices that support what we want. Think carefully about what you really want, then choose wisely :-)