Livin' in the Range...

So, being satisfied with the amount of weight I'd lost and moving on to maintenance, I came up with a five pound range that I want to stay in. That range is 135-140. And I try to religiously weigh myself every morning, even though some days I worry before getting on the scale, if the day before involved restaurants, parties, alcohol, baking (involving taste testing and sampling!), or other factors that didn't result in a nothing-but-healthy-eating day.

So far, so good. I've been as low as 136 and as high as 139 (with decimals after both numbers), and I've tried to react to the higher end number by "taking it easy" food-wise the next day. Which means maybe having a bar (meal replacement) for one meal, and avoiding social eating situations.

I do consider myself a food addict, in that under certain situations I overeat and put self-control on the back burner. There are definitely trigger foods and situations that cause me to regret my behavior later. As a food addict, like an alcoholic, I'm not sure I'll ever be a "normal" person like others who never worry about what they eat. I think I'm going to just have to take one day at a time, and keep on trying.

The main thing, and it's no secret, is that just because overeating occurs, whether it's one candy bar or one meal or one day, you absolutely can't throw in that ever-ready towel and say "oh well, diet's over, I can eat what I want!" That is the path to weight gain, I know as well as I know my own name. At 140 pounds that's still 55 down from January. So even if I am at the top of my "range" I'm still in a great place, and with some dietary adjustment for a day or two or maybe a week, I can land back at the lower (safer) end of the range.

That's my plan anyway!

Rundown of the Products

So the shakes, first. They come in either pre-made, or DIY powdered. Apparently the powdered has milk and the pre-made doesn't (it has soy). We sampled both at the first meeting. I preferred the pre-made. Both types come in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. The only one I can drink is the chocolate, and only over ice, so cooled and diluted/thinned a bit. But I'm not a milkshake person. Supposedly our leader had one person in another cohort who lived only on shakes (no bars or soups) and only strawberry, the whole time! Wow.

The shakes are my least favorite. But you're supposed to have (at least) three a day. The bars come in more flavors. There's a chocolate mint, a chocolate peanut, a berry, a cinnamon, and a chocolate fudge. I think that's all. Again, I only like one - the chocolate fudge. I don't like mint, and the "white chocolate" (or yogurt) coating on the berry and cinnamon bars is just too sweet. The peanut one is OK but the chocolate one is so much better to ME that I don't waste my time on the others. But members of my cohort have strong and different responses - some love just the cinnamon, or the peanut. Whatever, as long as I like one. (My granddaughters like it too.)

Last is the (powdered) soup. It comes in tomato and chicken. People rave about the chicken but I didn't care for it. But the tomato one works fine, and I add lots of spices so it almost feels like cooking! ;-) I add garlic powder, onion powder, curry, turmeric, and sometimes cayenne. I spice it up! I add extra water to make more. The secret I think is to get it hot, and also to whisk the heck out of it so there's no lumps. High point of the day because it's the only thing we get to eat that isn't sweet! My cravings are for salty and spicy, not sweet.

So there's only one of each product I'm willing to eat or drink - but I only need one of each, thank goodness, so no problem. BTW, the products run from about $2 to $2.50 each, so at 42 products a week (6 a day), that's approximately $95 for food for a week.

Double Hotel Week - So Much Food, So Little Ability to Eat It

So Monday I was at the Embassy Suites in Monterey (with the complementary happy hour, full breakfast, plus extra treats as told in my blog post!) then Saturday night I'll be at another Embassy Suites (Sacramento) for my daughter's birthday - also same happy hour and breakfast, PLUS family dinner out at Joe's Crab Shack in Old Sac. And then there's me with my shake boxes and powdered soup. Party on! 😒

This is a doozy of a week. I don't normally have TWO hotel stays in one week. And then there's Superbowl on Sunday! That's a lot this week, but I'm hoping to make it until our meeting on Monday without succumbing.

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming....

Day One - Morning


It's only 7 am and my stomach's already growling. ALL psychological as I often don't eat anything until 9 am!

Woke up in a panic. Four months with no real food? What the heck have I got myself into??

Weighed on home scale this morning at was 193, four pounds lighter than Kaiser scale at night (with clothes, etc.). This way I can see how much weight I'm losing
over the week (by weighing in the morning), and also be prepared for the number on the Kaiser scale next Monday.

BTW there's a financial incentive to stay on the program as it's quite an investment. Comes to something over $4K, which includes the "food" plus the program staff and medical monitoring. Not cheap by any means. But worth it if I can lose weight and KEEP IT OFF - the even harder part. So in a way, the four months on product are the easy part - no choices. It's afterwards that's tough. But I'm determined. I've been struggling with weight all my life. I really want this to be the last diet...

Countdown to Diet

Today is Friday so three - actually four - days and counting, till I give up real food for sixteen weeks. Monday night our Kaiser Weight Management group meets and gets our first week of meal replacement products. Then Tuesday, and for the foreseeable future, it's shakes, bars and soups and nuttin' else. No booze. No Kung Pao Chicken. No Breakfast Jacks. No bananas. No pistachios. No chocolate. No booze. Did I mention that already?