My Take Shape for Life Post are Moving

(don't click on the above link with the title or you will go to the actual page of this post!  Click below for my new Blog!  See you there!!)


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I am moving my Take Shape For Life posts to a new Blog, 

so come visit me here:  

Shari's Experience With Take Shape For Life


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Take Shape For Life: Day 5

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Take Shape For Life: Day 5

August 27, 2010 - Friday

Today was a very good day.  Still no hunger pains.  In fact I was late on getting lunch because I lost track of 'feeding' time and wasn't hungry.  That is good and bad at the same time.

The process of feeding my body every 2 to 3 hours helps my body understand that I am not in starvation mode and that I have plenty to eat and that I don't need to hold on to my fat stores.

It is pretty wonderful that scientists and doctors have realized that our bodies store energy for hard times.  The problem is that for nearly 40 years, my body has been prepared to take care of me during the famine times that I let it believe were coming.  I have been carrying my 2 year food supply on my body frame- (OK, even as big as I am my stores would not last me 2 years!  I really do know that!)

My phone holds my desired eating schedule and an alarm sounds when it is time to eat.  I don't hear it all the time, but I generally stay on track.  I also don't want to get used to hearing an alarm and having it become a trigger to eat.  So I have to be careful with my alarms- if I could have a dedicated sound that was only for food maybe that would work.  But as of now, the calender alarm sound is for all notifications and that really could be dangerous.

Maybe there is a 'take medicine app' that would work for me?  I will have to look into that.

So for my Lean and Green today, I went again for dinner time.  I fixed 2 boca burgers, with a touch of catsup and mustard.  A half a pickle spear, lettuce and 2 tomato slices.  I wanted to use the lettuce as a bun, but was too lazy to pull out the head of lettuce and grab a leaf.  I just ate torn lettuce pieces with the burger.  I also had a lettuce salad with mixed veggies- dices of tomato, radish, cucumber and mushroom.  It was a large filling meal.

Overall:  Great day!  I have lost 6 pounds since starting Monday.  I sure my weight loss is different from yours, but I am thrilled with it!!!  It has been a wonderful day and now I am very content with the way of eating and grateful that the hunger pains and cravings for sugar, salt, fats and chocolate have subsided.

Keep Up The Great Work!!

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Take Shape For Life: Day 4

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Take Shape For Life: Day 4

August 26, 2010 - Thursday

Lean and Green

OK so do you want to know what I had for dinner?  

I baked some chicken breasts and then cubed them, weighed them and put them on top of 2 cups of lettuce salad.  Then I added a Tb spoon of chopped tomato and a bit of sliced radishes.  I also put a few, several drops of green taco seasoning as my dressing and the rest of my Parmesan cheese puffs, leftover from afternoon snack. (croûton)  Not that I like croutons, but I thought I would try it that way.  It was way wonderful eats and very filling!

Ryans meat was sliced and he drizzled BBQ sauce on them and he had a salad too.  He could only eat half of his plate.

Michael ate his meat sliced, with the salad on the side.

Rachael has yet to eat.  Not sure why she doesn't want to eat yet.  

Now I have a little meat juice, chicken broth to use tomorrow- maybe I will add it to my chicken noodle soup instead of all water............... just thinking.............  Well, Hubby thought he would put the juice out for the cat. That way the pan would be empty and he could wash it.  So I have no broth for tomorrow.  I can stop thinking now.

I have not been as hungry today.  YES!  In fact I was pretty, am pretty full after eating dinner.  Good day overall.

I have been eating my Brownie snack for the last hour.  There are still two bites left.  It is good.  I am just content and not feeling hungry, in fact I still am full from dinner.  But the diet plan says to have an evening snack so I chose to have a brownie.  

I am supposed to be eating my snack at the table and focusing on it 100%, but old habits die slowly.  And I really wanted to get a few things done on the computer, so here I am typing, figuring, logging my daily foods and blogging as I eat my brownie.  

But bottom line is: I AM NOT HUNGRY!!!  I love it!!!!

Overall:  Great day.  Successful.  Awesome.  Not Hungry!!!!  Oh and I have lost 4 pounds since Sunday.  8 pounds in the last week.  So I am doing just great.  I had energy enough for the day and was able to take the garbage out to the neighbors and back without a problem.  (Garbage truck drove by our house and I realized he didn't stop.  I looked and our can was not out to the curb, so I had to take it across and down the street.  But thankfully I was able to do that.)

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Take Shape For Life: Day 3

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Take Shape For Life: Day 3

August 25, 2010 - Wednesday

Wednesday and Day 3.  What a great day!  It has been so much easier today.  I have not needed hardly any extra helps today.  I finished my special soup yesterday so I was hoping I wouldn't need it today.  I did add a pickle spear as a snack today, but didn't need anything else.

I felt liberated!  I was not craving sugar, salt or fats!  Maybe the transition phase for me has come and gone?  I hope so.  For the lean portion of the Lean and Green tonight, I made turkey burgers.  I defrosted the turkey burger and added one egg white and half a can of mushrooms, that I whirred in the Magic Bullet before adding it to the meat.  Then I had my hubby crank some salt and pepper into the meat mixture.

I grabbed a handful of meat and plopped it into the frying pan that was sprayed with Canola Oil Pam.  I let them firm up and then flipped them to cook on the other side.  Then back to the first side to complete cooking.

We had green beans and salad for the Green.

I put a tsp of mustard and ketchup on my burger that only weighed 3 ounces.  Pilot and Hubby got about 6 ounces each.  I got the leftovers.  Angel wasn't hungry so she made a sandwich later when she was ready to eat.  Since my Lean was so lean, or small; I made 2 eggs cooked in the crumbs from the cooked turkey burgers.  It was like having bacon bits, in texture that is.  I loved the little crunchy bits.  I don't like bacon bits, but I like turkey bits.

Overall: Day 3 was very successful. I feel wonderful.  It was a very wonderful day.  I feel successful and empowered!  Onward.......................

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Take Shape For Life: Day 2

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Take Shape For Life: Day 2

August 24, 2010 - Tuesday

My soup rescued me again today.  I probably was not as hungry as yesterday, but one would never have know it.  I was grateful for my soup.  I also ate some pickled cauliflower, in fact it was the rest of a 40 cal bottle that I opened yesterday to help with my need to eat!, crunch and chew.  Most of my issues are with sugar, salt and fat withdrawal as well as having a need to eat crunchy things.

Lean and Green

Tonights meat and vegetable was a stir fry.  I chopped up some turkey, red and green bell peppers, celery, zucchini and mushrooms and stir fried them in my secondhand Wok like pan.  It is now my favorite pan and it only cost me $2.00. !  I cranked some Lemon pepper salt over the food and splashed some soy sauce into the pan.  Not much of course.  But enough to taste good.

Dinner was enjoyed by all.  Of course we had a nice veggie salad on the side.  I don't use salad dressing, but then I have always tried to avoid them unless I am in a restaurant and then I get blue cheese and ranch to mix. I put some green taco sauce drops in my salad and was just fine with that.  I have used lemon juice in the past but it is getting too strong for me in my older age.

I can't wait to get some money in so we can have some fresh broccoli and green beans and other veggies.  Canned green beans and lettuce salad is going to get boring.

So I have been crunching a little ice today as well, but only when they are nearly soft enough to crush with my hand.  I am NOT crunching fresh hard ice cubes, I don't want trouble with my teeth.

I ate about the same amount of calories today as yesterday, and pretty much the same 'extra' stuff (my soup, other snacks) as I did yesterday.  In the future I will be sticking to the plan much closer and only having the snacks they recommend.  But I had to make it through this second tough day.

Overall:  Day 2 has been a success.  I am glad it is over.  I made it just fine.  

If I can do it- you can do it!

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Take Shape For Life: Day 1

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Take Shape For Life: Day 1

August 23, 2010 - Monday

I made it through the day, but it was a very difficult struggle.  I miss my sugars, my salts and my fats!  Where did my cheese go?  My breads were gone too.  It was really hard. But I know that this phase will end after the adjustment period is accomplished.

I am pretty sure I will be done with the cravings and feeling hungry in 3 or so more days.  The program study materials say 3 to 5 days, I think.  And I know that I was completely satisfied and not hungry when I was on a full liquid diet years ago.

I decided that in order for me to make it through this most difficult day, I was going to have to take matters into my own hand.  So knowing that I was leaving a very high caloric diet and stopping all my vices and trying to get by on way more than half the calories I was used to.

Here is how I handled my first day needs for more food.  I chose not to follow the Medifast 5/1 recommendations for the first and second days.  So today I made a huge pot of soup.  Well it was about 6 cups worth.  I put in a package of coleslaw mix, 4 ounces of diced raw mushrooms, 2 celery stalks, a cup of diced zucchini, a medium green tomato finely diced, a small red tomato diced and a handful of chopped radish greens.

I sautéd the veggies in a sauce pan in their own juices.  When they were getting tender, I added 4 cups of water and chicken bouillon granules for the 4 cups of water.  Then I let it come to a boil and turned it down to simmer and blend the flavors.  I also cranked a couple of  cranks of Lemon, Pepper, salt seasoning into the soup.

I then ate as much as I needed for Day 1's lunch- which was the time I found myself the hungriest. I believe I had about 3 cups.  This did help curb my hunger pains.  But I realized that I was not exactly hungry, but just craving those foods I was choosing to avoid for the next couple of months.  I also had to grab a couple of dill pickle spears and some celery sticks throughout the day.  But I made it and still was way under 1000 kcal for the day.   OK, I was at 850 kcal for today.  Which is where I will be on most days anyway.

So the plan is to finish the soup tomorrow and make it through day 2.

Overall:   Day was a good day.  Successful in that I did not eat excess carbs, sugars and fats.  Success!

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Take Shape For Life: Preface

August 23, 2010

Monday

To be honest, this was a hard day.  I have been down this road before, when the Medifast Meal Replacements were in their infancy back in the 80's.  I don't remember feeling hungry when I did the Medifast Diet back then.  But maybe the first couple of days were difficult back then as well.

All I remember is the wonderful weight loss program and the fact that I dropped 60 lbs in a few months.  I loved the ease of the program, not having to make all the foods/meals makes the plan easy.  

I didn't keep the weight off, as was usual for me.  I have tried every diet, fad and doctor administered, most with some degree of success.  But then I would slip into my old habits and the weight would come back on.

I have not done any kind of weight control for the last 10 years.  I have just hung on to trying to keep myself from ballooning into a huge huge elephant.  (Peanut gallery please hold your comments!)

I have been given an opportunity to have a couple of months on the Take Shape For Life Program and my desire is to use this program and the accompanying Medifast food supplements to get a hold on my weight problem by changing my behaviors and eating habits.  I have signed up to be a TSFL Health Coach and desire to help others gain control of their physical health.

So join me on my progress as I do the Take Shape For Life program and take control of my health!!!

Watch my progress and be happy for me and my choice.  Please don't throw comments my way that might be overwhelming to me and my progress.  I am the kind of person that does not like to be in center stage or in the spot light, so the lesser the attention made the better.  That said, comments coming from your hearts that are loving and supportive will be accepted, because I love my friends and family and know that they love me and support me through my challenges.

If you have any questions about the Take Shape for Life program, please ask me and I will be happy to answer them for you.  If anyone would like to have me as their TSFL Health Coach and join me on the Medifast plan, let me know and I will get you set up and started on your way to good health.  Having me as your Coach is free, you only have to pay for your food.  

sharinskishe@hotmail is the best way to get a hold of me.  If you want me to call you, send an email request with your number and I will call you.  Or you may request my cell number via email.

Take Care!  Have a wonderful day.

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Taking Control of My Life and Addressing My Health

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What's Next in my Life?

So I have finished school and now am in the process of finding work in my field.  I just have to get my license from the State. Should be here next week.

Now it is time to focus on my health- or lack of good health.  I have been eying the Take Shape For Life Program using the Medifast 5/1 Diet plan for several months now, and feel like it is the plan for me.  I did the original Medifast back over 20 years ago under a doctors care and did very well.  So I know that the meal replacements they offer are doable. In fact, they are really pretty great and today there are so many more items in their plan, it is awesome.  I also know that my health and weight loss were good at that time.  

I also know that I have since gained that weight back and it is because I did not make any lifestyle and behavioral changes.  I learned a lot about myself going to school this past year.  I have a lot more confidence in my abilities to make changes and be successful, so I am embarking on another life changing journey.

I have the opportunity to do the Take Shape For Life Program, an opportunity I can not pass up.  With the support of my Coach, I am heading into a somewhat familiar food regimen, and totally committed to learning how to eat correctly so that as this weight drops off, I will be encouraged to continue losing weight and making myself healthy.  I am committed to changing my food beliefs and learning how to prepare meals that are healthy and wholesome for myself and my whole family, as well as friends and new friends.  I have already been studying and reading new information concerning foods, health, fitness, eating behaviors and much much more.  

I have many years of knowledge, some of which is being disputed in new studies and some that are being changed due to new technologies and information.  But my basic knowledge is still available and helpful.  The one thing that I really understand from experience after experience is that when I am at a healthier weight I feel better overall and can move and be active along the side of my loved ones, especially my husband and my children.  So that is where my focus at this time is taking me- I am off to conquer optimal health!!!

Come along with me on this journey.  Let me be your TSFL Coach and I will guide you to your optimum healthy weight target as well.  You pay nothing to have me as your Coach, all you will need to purchase are your meal replacements and the foods for your Green and Lean Meal.

It is time for ME to make a change,  

is it time for YOU?

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