Peer pressure

Well, I promise I am still alive. Sort of.

Summer has been fairly busy, I took a summer class. Yuck. I hated every second of that class, it truly amazes  me that someone could project his ignorance on to an entire class, and get paid for it. That's a whole different story. Another rant, for another day.

One of the most annoying questions I have encountered has become if I am maintaining my wight loss. I have found that keeping a steady number on the scale is embarrassingly impossible.  Everyone's weight fluctuates, or so I have  been told.

I have tried many, many times to "go back and stay on" medifast. I have, but I have quit it more times then I can count.

My last bout  of going back on MediFast that I blogged in April didn't end very well....Because it is such a low calorie diet, I found myself nearly passing out, at work. Isn't that a lovely scenario? I decided to go off plan and try maintaining my weight the old fashioned way. With real foods.

For my food during my summer class I took I tried to make 3 ingredient granola bars. Oatmeal, peanut butter, and honey. They weren't half bad. But I found myself not being able to stay awake during that class. I am pretty sure I had somewhat of a caffeinated IV fueled by diet Mt. Dew. No type of soda helps with maintaining weight.

In conjunction with soda during summer school, my marriage got into some serious trouble. I remembered my parents always having family meals together. I also remembered the saying "the family that eats together stays together." So, I made a conscious effort to try and make breakfast and Dinner for Dean and I. We don't eat meals together, so I thought just by changing one thing in our marriage, I could try and save it, so we ate meals together, and some things improved. But,  I knew my weight was on a steady incline.

A couple of weeks ago, against my better financially sense, I decided to order a small order of medifast and plunge forward ahead.   I decided that while I was waiting for my food to arrive, that I would go back on plan with the old food I had.  I survived a few days, until the car broke down and I was stuck out and about without any "to-go foods," I ended up eating out, and jumping ship that day. I didn't have any of the medifast products that are "on the go." Then, last Wednesday I went back on the program. The first 3 days were utter hell.  I had a splitting headache that felt like I had an ax in my head. After that, it wasn't too bad though.

My friend that told me about the program told me that he was going to give me his remaining food that he had bought (about a months worth).  You are probably wondering why he is not going to use it. Long story short, his doctors advised him that he can no longer use the MediFast products. You might be wondering why something so "good for you" (weight loss) can end up being so bad for you.  MediFast products are made with whey and soy proteins, and apparently when you eat those proteins as your main source of nutrition, your body may have adverse reaction to them, and thus become damaged. He shared with me some of his adverse reactions with me, and in the interest of confidentiality, I will only list one thing. He had encountered a major hormonal imbalance, so much so that it became dangerous, which resulted in his doctors telling him to stop MediFast.

Over the last several months I have found my self wanting to exercise. When I wasn't on medifast, I had more energy then I knew what to do with. I actually wanted to exercise, I even used a hula hoop for cardio in my living room, and my pets as weights. But I wanted more structured exercise, but I didn't want to do it by myself. I found myself missing my first loves: Soccer and dancing.  UNLV gym has various exercise classes, but since I didn't actually attend summer semester, it would cost a pretty penny to attend.

Then, one day I had to go to my agency's office. I was peer pressured into going to an Insanity class that is held at the office. I went, and I L-O-V-E-D it. I felt so good doing something for myself, with others doing the same thing. I even enticed Dean to go with me next day. How is that for trying to save a marriage? Eating together, and exercising together. I want to do the insanity classes daily. So much fun, even though I was pretty much the only English speaker there.  But even that didn't bother me. I enjoyed the exercise, the loud music, and the comradery.

I have stuck to the plan for a week now, and I am hating my life with such limitations.  It's been the hardest thing I have ever done. And I don't have the motivation to stay on it. I begrudgingly so, have stayed on it. But I don't want to.  You aren't allowed to exercise while on medifast, so my idea was to shed the multiple pounds of fat, and then go back to insanity and tone my muscles right up.

But, now I have come at a cross roads. I recently accepted a job offer, working overnights, doing manual labor. Which means, I will not be able to do such a low calorie diet. But, the good news is that job basically has built in exercise for an entire shift.  With this new job, I want to save my on the go foods for my breaks while at work, but I am not planning on ever purchasing more food from them again. Yes, I have said that before.

Last week, the scale revealed 169.  Today it revealed 162.  That means I am once again in the overweight category on the BMI chart.  But I am only a couple of pounds of being in the healthy category again. I hate that chart, because the consensus in my house is that I got some serious muscles on my arms from the workouts that I did do in my house, and at insanity.

No, it didn't work as well as my first attempt at it, maybe I had so much belief in it, that it worked so well just based on faith? Or maybe it didn't work as well because I didn't have as much to lose?  As for my pant sizes, I am still able to fit a a size 6 shorts (barely) and size 10ish pants (depending on brand).  I just can't decide if I want to stay on it, or jump off ship, in preparation for my new job. I can't do medifast completely and work at my job because I will need the carbs for energy.