An Update on the Medifast Eating Plan

I have been on the Medifast healthy eating plan since July 18, 2011.  On that day, I was 183 pounds.  I was desperate and ready for a change.  I wanted something that worked and that was healthy.  There were multiple things that happened that showed me this was the plan God had for me.

Medifast works on the principle of the 5 and 1 plan.  Five times a day, you eat a Medifast meal.  It could be oatmeal, a "granola" bar, a shake, cookies, brownies, soup, eggs, pancakes, or sloppy Joe.  Everything has around 100 calories and is made of primarily soy protein.  Each meal has 20% of your needed vitamins and calcium.  Then, once a day, you eat a meal that you cook at home or eat at a restaurant.  The meal is made up of lean protein and low carbohydrate vegetables.  This meal has from 400-500 calories.  You cut all sugar and only eat a small amount of healthy fats, such as olive oil or low carb salad dressing.  This program is effective and works quickly.  Although you are only consuming around 900 calories a day, after four days, you kick into the fat burning zone, where you lose 2-5 pounds a week and at least 10 pounds a month.  When you are in fat burning, you aren't hungry and have lots of energy.

The program also has lots of flexibility.  You will miss eating certain things, but you can make almost anything out of the meal options.  Like burgers?  Eat Boca or Morningstar soy burgers.  Like pizza?  Make a version out of cauliflower, low fat cheese, and vegetables for toppings?  Like spaghetti?  Make spaghetti squash and vegetarian meatballs.  Like Reese cups?  Make a dark chocolate shake with peanut butter.  You can find a recipe for anything, so there are options.

I worked the 5-and-1 plan straight with no cheating until Thanksgiving Day.  I weighed around 145 pounds.  I had lost around 40 pounds.  Thanksgiving Day, I decided to eat off plan and enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with dessert and other things I had been avoiding.  The holiday season started, and I ate off plan for several events, but I had planned this all out and made the choice myself.  The plan at that time was to go back to strict adherence on January 1st, 2012 to reach my goal, which was 130 pounds.

A family tragedy happened, and I did not go back to strict adherence.  Instead, the plan was to go back on the 5-and-1 plan when I returned back to my home state.  After returning home, I got back on the Medifast plan and was feeling good.  I lost another 5 pounds and was only 10 pounds from my goal.  This is when it started to get hard.

Being only 10 pounds away from your goal, it is hard to finish that last little bit of the race.  Why is that?  You have done so well.  But the desire to keep going fades.  You think:  "I have done so well.  Why do I have to keep doing this?"  You start self-sabotating yourself and working against yourself.

My body is also rebelling at losing anymore.  The top half of my body is a beautiful thing.  I have hardly any fat on that half at all.  My bottom half--the birthin' half--as someone said, is not so great.  I really do want to lose the rest of my extra fat and get down to the ideal 22% body fat ratio.  Two week ago, I went back to the 5 and 1 plan, but I was hungry, dangit.  It is hard to keep adherence to this diet which forbids you to eat carrots.  Yes, it works, but my body is weak.  I have lived so long in these habits of mine where I use food to cope with stress or loneliness.  The monster still dwells within.

There is now a battle for my heart and mind.  Luckily, I have a captain, Yahweh God, who speaks to me, and even when I rebel and try to do my own thing, he calls me back gently.  Ten days ago, I decided I was ready to transition, even though I had not met my goal.  I wasn't going out to pig out, but I was going to add extra vegetables.  But then I ate a cupcake, and a burger, and another burger, and yogurt, and I don't feel good.  I am not strong enough to control my desires for good.  The old Lindsey is still in there saying, It's okay, you'll be fine.  Just a little.

This past weekend, I made a yearly plan for spiritual growth.  One of the aspects of my identity God spoke to me about is my health.  He said that I am healthy and make good decisions about my health, therefore, I eat well, get enough sleep, and exercise.  As much as I don't want to, I know that God is calling me to go back on the 5-and-1 and finish what I started.  I know this.  He isn't judgmental about it.  He just says, "Okay, you tried it your way, and now you got to see the result.  What is your choice?  Are you going to do it your way or my way?"  Either way, He's still going to love me, but I won't be able to fully be who He is calling me to be without doing this.  I am surrendered to His will.

I am going back on the 5 and 1 until I make it to 130 pounds.  If I need extra fuel, I am going to eat extra vegetables, but no more ice cream or burgers or any of that stuff.  Even when I have reached my goal, I will have to decide what the new Lindsey is going to be.  I can't ever go back to what I used to do.  It would be against my new nature.  That doesn't mean I can't ever have a burger or ice cream, but I don't need to do them now, when I am so close to finishing.  It will just take longer.

I am continuing to grow and learn.  I need people to help me stay the course.  If you think you can be one of those people, please let me know.

Make an Altar to the Lord

I have been going through the Youversion Read the Bible in a Year Plan.  In this plan, you read a section of Old Testament, a section of New Testament, a Psalm, and a Proverb.  Since this is the beginning of the year, I am going through Genesis right now.  It is good to read about our patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the like.  In these readings, over and over again, God makes promises to his people and asserts that Israel is His nation of promise.  He pledges to them that He is giving them a land, and that no one will be able to destroy them.  They will suffer, but His promises will endure. 

In Genesis 12, he makes the covenant with Abraham to give him a nation and a people, and that through him, all the people of the world will be blessed.  Abraham has a son, and God re-affirms this covenant with Isaac, and then again with Jacob.  One thing I have noticed is that whenever God makes one of these covenants, there is always a response from the recipient. In Genesis 12, Abraham leaves his home as God commands and then he builds an altar to the Lord at Bethel.  In Genesis 16, God comes to Abraham promises that He will have as many descendants as the stars, and Abraham presents a sacrifice and cuts the pieces in two .  Again in chapter 17, God makes a covenant with Abraham and introduces the command of circumcision.  Abraham circumcises his entire household.  This pattern is repeated over and over again.  Check out Genesis 22, 26, 28, 33, and so on. 

God makes a promise or gives a blessing, and there is a response on behalf of the recipient.  An altar is made, a stone is presented and covered with oil, or a sacrifice is made.  So what does that mean for us?  I was thinking about the times God has blessed me or spoken to me.  What do I do with that?  Maybe I journal or say a prayer of gratitude, but is there an altar I can make?  Should we commemorate when God does something amazing for us?  I am thinking yes. 

I don't know what this looks like yet, but the concept of ceremony is important.  In the Old Testament, we see how God's people often placed stones to mark a spot of special significance.  There is something to be said for responding with action when God does something amazing for you.  He wants to be desired and sought after.  He gives his gifts freely to us and doesn't demand a response, but how he might love it if we did. 

Think about it.  Who doesn't like to be thanked for doing something nice?  When you give a loved one a gift or do something special for them, how would you feel if the person just said, Oh, thanks," and walked on?  No, you want to see the look in their eyes.  Get a hug or a big thank you.  You want to know they appreciated your efforts.  How can you show God your gratitude today?  How can we build altars to the Lord today?

35 Things about Me on My 35th Birthday

I saw someone else do this for their birthday this year, and it seemed fun.  What are 35 things that will tell you about Lindsey?

1.  I was born in Tennessee even though I lived most of my life in Indiana.
2.  My favorite two colors are green and purple. 
3.  My laugh is loud and outrageous.  I am not ashamed of it.
4.  I have blogged since 2007.  I now get paid to write, but only $1.50 for every 1,000 hits.
5.  I spent half a year in the United Kingdom.
6.  I was hit by a car when I was in middle school.  I survived with stitches, a scar, and a lump on my upper right thigh.
7.  I was always scared to live alone.  Then I lived by myself, got used to it, and loved it.  I am now living with my sister, and I love that, too.
8.  I am insecure about my looks except for 4 things: my eyes, my hair, my feet, and my lips. I love having big, full lips, and they are from my Mother.
9.  When I was growing up, I always thought it was gross that my Mother drank coffee every day.  Now I have to have at least two cups of coffee every day.

Cheese and Medifast/Medifast and Cheese

Dear readers, after about two months of being on the Medifast plan, I heard some blessed news.  I was allowed to eat cheese on the Medifast plan!  Yes, it's true.  I thought I was prohibited from eating one of my favorite things until I had lost the weight, but if you choose cheese with low enough fat, it counts as a meatless protein.

I tell you, what I love about Medifast is that is flexible.  There is a box of limitations, but once you find the walls of the box, you can run around in them and climb them to your heart's content.  To read the rest of this article, click here.

Medifast Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake

Want a new treat to make your Medifast dark chocolate shake (or any flavor) extra special?  Just add peanut butter.  A tablespoon of peanut butter is allowed each day as an optional snack, along with a sugar free popsicle, 3 celery stalks (really?), or sugar free jello.  Now tell me, why would you choose 3 celery stalks over a popsicle or peanut butter?????
To read the rest of this article, click here.

Medifast Lean and Green Recipes: Spaghetti Squash with Meatless Meatballs

So I made another delicious lean and green recipe that is Medifast-compliant.  I have had a craving for spaghetti and heard about spaghetti squash from my diet coach.  I realized I had to try it.  She suggested combining a spaghetti squash with meatless meatballs and some tomatoes.  Having no recipe to go by, it was time to be creative.

To read the full article and recipe, click here.

Medifast Lean and Green Meals: Boca Burgers with Sauteed Mushrooms

I have been on the Medifast plan now for almost two weeks, and I have to say that Lean and Green time is my favorite time of the day.  Even though I loved junk food, I could never eat that much of it because of what I termed my "small stomach."  After eating so much, I get full and can't fit anything else in there.

On Medifast, because of the low calories I am getting each day (about 800-1,000) depending on food choices, by the time Lean and Green comes around, I am needing to eat, and there are times you get A LOT OF FOOD.

Take my first Lean and Green meal.  I didn't have a lot of time or money left for groceries, so my lean and green consisted of either 2 tilapia fillets or 2 Boca Burgers and baby spring mix greens.  My Lean and Green allotment called for 3 cups of salad greens.  3 cups!!  Now that is a lot of lettuce leaves.  Yet I needed every one of those lettuce leaves.  I had to put my salad in a mixing bowl because a plate or regular bowl wasn't big enough.

Now that I have been doing Medifast for a little while, I am getting a little more creative with my Lean and Green meals and some of them taste so good and seem way too yummy to be diet food.  To read the rest of this article, click over to my Associated Content site.