Our bodies need the proper fuel to keep us energized. Many of the snack foods we so love are just filler and are not proper fuel for our bodies. We need to be sure we keep on hand (at home, while out and about, when we travel, etc) foods that are better choices as fuel and are not just filler.
We can still have the "filler" foods, we just need to limit the portions and savor the tastes of them.
I really see the evidence of that with Medifast. The Medifast meals are very small and run 90-110 calories each. But I can be really hungry, eat one Medifast meal, and the hunger goes away and I have the energy I need for the next few hours. Within 2-3 hours, my body is reminding me that it's time for another small meal.
This is the part where Medifast really works for me. I own my own company and work from home. When I am not on Medifast, I really struggle with eating breakfast and lunch. My tendency is to skip breakfast and drink my latte (now an americano) as my "breakfast." Then for lunch I would grab whatever I could scrounge up or a diet frozen meal. Or I would not eat and end up searching out chips and other snacks late in the afternoon. I would overeat at dinner and then continue to snack throughout the evening.
My energy levels SUCKED and I could feel my blood sugar was wildly up and down. And I'm not diabetic. My moods and my ability to concentrate was also all over the board and often I had days when I felt I got *nothing* done.
Now that I am a few weeks back into being on Medifast, I am reminded how I felt last year when I was on it. My blood sugar is level, my energy is up, my concentration is better and I'm getting a lot done during the day and clearing my desk of some of those awful piles. And I don't have to figure out what to eat. I have a choice of all the MF items (the ones I like) throughout the day.
So I do eat every 2-3 hours and usually by 4:30pm (when I start making dinner) I've had 3 MF meals, sometimes 4. I am hungry for dinner, but not dying for it.
Dinners do take some planning. Planning for what to have. Shopping for the ingredients. And pulling out items from the freezer to defrost in time to cook them. And constantly searching for and thinking up new meals that fit (mostly) within the Medifast "lean and green" parameters.
Last time I was on MF I know that a lot of my undoing was the pure boredom from the food that was available for me to eat when I was on plan. Towards the end I got lazy with the dinners and felt that if I saw another grilled porkchop and green salad I was going to murder someone.
Now, I look forward to dinner. I look forward to preparing it and I look forward to enjoying eating it with my husband.
I also keep some of the Medifast meals (cheese puffs, pretzels, soy crisps) in the back of my vehicle so if I find myself out and about and hungry, I have something I can eat while driving and therefore can fend off the urge to buy fast food.
Yesterday's Foods:
9:30am: Medifast oatmeal
noon: Medifast oatmeal raisin bar
4pm: Medifast dark chocolate shake with coffee/water mixed in
5pm: bonesless skinless chicken thighs, pasta, green beans
11pm: Medifast chocolate pudding, 1 tsp PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter, 15 choc chips, 2 tsp fat free Cool Whip
Exercise: Treadmill 35 min, 2.5 speed, no incline, 1.5 miles, 154 calories burned; 1.5 mile walk with the dogs outside
Weight: down 1.4lbs from previous day, down 10.8lbs since starting back on MF, down 15.4lbs from heaviest weight
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