is there a way to do a modified--like O for break/lunch and cook dinner for family and just moderate dinner? And does it taste good? I need to zap 20 lbs for health. It's all around mid middle-which is bad. I'm an apple shape.
It's not a miracle cure and does require the work. The mantra of my coach and all of the coaches in my Facebook group is remember your whys. Why am I doing this and how am I going to keep it off if I forget my whys.
The food does taste good. I really didn't like the chicken soup and a few other fuelings that were terrible. People do weird things with the foods, like waffle the shakes. I eat six times a day and have to do that my entire life. On the program, 5 of the meals are the provided fuelings. You eat one good lean and green meal of 5-7 ounces of meat and 3 servings of green vegetables each evening. Lots of recipes out there for family meals, including on foodiqueen.com Michelle Gray is amazing at creating great tasting meals that fit the program. I saw her on a talk show program, talking about her recipes. She didn't mention Optavia, but she did say Lean and Green, which clued me in on the program she was referring to. It was right at the start of my journey.
We tend to eat that meal at 3-4 PM because we are old, and eating close to bedtime tends to keep us from sleeping as we should. There are Facebook groups you join for support. It helps a lot to see the progress of others. A doctor named Wayne Anderson developed the program, and his book is filled with stories of men and women achieving optimal health on the program. He worked (at first) with Medifast to create the foods, then he chose a different company, but the food tastes the same. There is a nice variety. One of my favorites is a penne, but it isn't much food. It's a good "lunch." The pancake for breakast, the dry cereal for mid-morning, penne for lunch, bar for snack, brownie before bed. That is kind of my routine. But there are shakes, pudding (blah), blueberry biscuit (love it), many different protein bars. Everything is low calorie and an equal balance of carbs and protein.
The books Dr. Anderson includes with the program are extremely good for information on losing the weight and keeping it off. He talks about how exercise should be included in any program to keep us from getting back to where we were before we lost the weight. But he only wants those who are on the very limited calorie intake during weight loss to curtail any vigorous exercise because your body will hold onto fat to keep you from starvation.
I switched my morning Optavia pancake to a Kodiak pancake. The Optavia pancake is better, actually it's delicious. I eat yogurt a lot. I also like Built Bars. That is all for maintaining the weight loss. I couldn't take the last 20 pounds off with substitions, I had to go back to the foods. I tried. I like yogurt, cottage cheese, frozen yogurt, and a bunch of other small meals for my other snacks.
I am not planning on coaching or "signing people up" for the program. I am really just bragging it up because it works so well and was an answer to constant prayer.
I can be bad sometimes, and I gained some weight back by not following my program. I know I can only eat 1,400-1,500 calories a day and I need to eat fish and chicken for most of my lean and green meals. But I did celebrate when we sold the townhouse ten months ago. I was completely naughty.
