Well, it's been a little over two weeks since I last blogged, so first off let me catch you up to speed. The "I'm only going to weigh-in once a week" thing did NOT pan out. I spent the first week of March not weighing daily, and while I was less stressed and I seemed to be in better spirits, something awful happened. I weighed in the following Monday and only saw a .6 pound loss - for an entire week. I've lost that much in one day before! It completely crushed my spirits and I decided that although the daily ups and downs are tough for me to take sometimes, a blow like that is MUCH harder for me to handle. I so badly wanted to throw in the towel that day, but decided to stick it out. I have finally taken the time to update my Weigh-Ins page. Pretty pathetic. After going off plan last month during my weekend visiting home I gained some weight, no surprise considering how badly I went off plan. However, as you can see, I also gained last week as well. Not a huge amount, but a gain nonetheless.

In the last four weeks, I have lost 3.4 pounds. Looking at the numbers I realize that it all started when I went off plan during that weekend home. I regret now, more than ever, what I did that weekend. I keep trying to convince myself that even though I went off that weekend my body still should have readjusted by now - it's been a fricken month! Apparently not. The last three days I've been stuck, and today a .2 gain. I'm starting to get so frustrated I want to blow my head off!

My frustration only mounted during the last few days when "supporters" from the forums irritated me to no end. Without going into too much detail, I became incredibly bothered when the infamous 100% OP-ers started to sing their song. I have proven in my experiences with Medifast that a modified plan, although it may not work as quickly, works nonetheless. I am sick and tired of people telling me otherwise, and chanting if I don't stick to Medifast 100%-as-written I will fail. That's all I'm going to say on the subject because I can already feel my blood starting to boil. Long story short I have decided to take an extended break from posting on the boards. I have found over the last few weeks with my struggles I am only getting further frustrated by certain responses I have been recieving. Although these people in question I'm sure mean well, I do not need to be told what I'm doing wrong, especially if I know first hand that I can do this my way and see results. My irritation with Medifast at this moment in time is that I'm NOT seeing results. 3.4 pounds in four weeks is pitiful and something I could do on a regular low-calorie diet that allows me to eat bread! ANYWAY ... *breathe* ... my leaving the forums is not permanent, but it is definitely a decision that is long overdue. I'm going to give it about a month and hopefully return with good news for those who care.

I have been conducting several private experiments to try and jump start my weight loss. One of them being that I have not worked out in two weeks. So far it's not helping, and so next week I will be returning to the gym, as well as making some other changes. I'm going to do the following for one week, then re-evaluate when I see my weekly loss and decide what to keep for the long haul.

1. No More Cheese. This is not an easy decision for me to make. I love cheese and everything about it, but I've been reading more so than not lately that the ONLY reason cheese is even on plan to begin with is to give more options to vegetarians. Well, I'm not a vegetarian. I will still be having one or two Kraft Singles made into a grilled cheese with some Broccoli Soup, however. This is a meal I've grown quite fond of for lunch on the weekend. But I will be cutting out ALL shredded cheese, which has become abundant in my diet.

2. Rediscover Flavor Infusers. During my first round of Medifast I consumed probably two or three of the Strawberry Lemonade Infusers daily. During this round, I haven't touched them. I've already started to this week, but next week I will be making it a point to have at least two infusers a day with two cups of water. The infusers are supposed to aid in calorie burning, and who knows - maybe they were part of the reason I lost so much last time. Plus they do taste good, for the most part, so it'll be a nice change from plain water.

3. Back at the Gym - Varied. As I said, I will be working out again starting next week. However, I am not going to do my normal routine (3-4 days a week, 30 minutes to an hour of cardio and 15 to 30 minutes of lifting). Instead, I will be working out four days: two days I will be doing 30-40 minutes of cardio, and the other two days I will be doing 20-30 minutes of lifting. And that's it. I will still be tanning all four days, and using the massage chairs, but as far as WORKING OUT is concerned I am going to limit myself and change it up. It'll get me in and out quicker, and I'm hoping that the variations will keep my body guessing. I'm hoping to have Monday off, cardio Tuesday, lifting Wednesday, Thursday off, Friday off, cardio Saturday, and lifting Sunday. We'll see what that does!

4. Lean and Green Rotation. This is something I've heard from a lot of people; some say it's unnecessary but others swear by it. Essentially I am going to plan my meals for the week in advance, and I am going to switch up the caloric/carb levels in my meals daily. In other words, one day I will have protein from the "Lean" category, with a high-carb vegetable, and the next day I will have protein from the "Leanest" category with a low-carb vegetable. Hopefully the week will look something like this:
- MONDAY: Grilled shrimp salad.
- TUESDAY: Pork chop with broccoli and cauliflower.
- WEDNESDAY: Cauliflower pizza with chicken and mushrooms.
- THURSDAY: Lean-meat salad of some sort (will be eating this meal out after work).
- FRIDAY: Grilled shrimp salad.
- SATURDAY: Lean ground turkey with spaghetti squash.
- SUNDAY: 2-egg omelet with spinach, broccoli, mushrooms, and a little shredded cheese.

5. Water-it-Up. It's no secret to me or anyone else that my water intake sucks. It always has. I am going to make sure that next week I drink half my body weight in ounces EVERY DAY! I'm going to round to 164, and therefore, every day next week, I need to drink 82 ounces of water every day. We have red cups at my office that I drink my water from that are 16 ounces to the brim, aka. about 5.2 cups a day to get my 82 ounces. Being that I don't fill the glass up to the brim I will be drinking 6 of these cups a day. I will be making it a point to eat four Medifast meals at work, all with one cup of water. At home I have a glass that is roughly the same size, and therefore will be drinking one glass with my Lean and Green dinner and one glass with my evening Medifast "dessert" (I say this because I always have a brownie or soft bake as my last meal of the day). Any water I drink at the gym will be considered extra.

6. Lay off Peanut Butter. Peanut butter is a food item that was legal during my first round of Medifast as a snack. Apparently in my absence people at Medifast decided it was too much of a trigger food, so they cut it out of the plan. I still enjoy two-ish tablespoons on my evening brownie or soft bake. However, next week I am not allowing myself this treat. I have about two tablespoons left in my jar as it is, so I will finish that off before Monday hits and simply won't buy another jar.

7. SLEEP. I have read recently that lack of sleep can potentially be a buddying cause of a plateau in weight loss, so I will be setting a strict bedtime for myself. I normally tuck in during the work week sometime between 11:30 and 12:00, which gives me somewhere between 6-7 hours of sleep a night. I am going to attempt to get a solid 8 hours of sleep every night, meaning my bed time Sunday-Thursday will be NO LATER than 11:00. I'm going to try to shoot for 10:00 but I highly doubt that will happen.

I'm hoping with these seven additions to next week I will finally knock my body back into the mindset of knocking the pounds off. I want to be solid in the mid 150s by the middle of April (for reasons I will probably reveal another time). In order to do that I have four weeks to lose 10 pounds. Is it possible? Of course. But I need to break whatever funk I am in! I'd love to get down to the low 150s, brimming on the 140s by this time, but I'm not going to push my luck.

The bottom line is I still really want this. I want it so bad I can taste it. Being fat sucks, and I'm so tired of it. I have plans this summer, big plans. Plans that include my career as well as my personal life. My life as it sits now sucks. I moved to Chicago to pursue performance but can't. I have a very tiny handful of friends and no romance prospects because I've been stalling STARTING this new life looking and feeling the way I do. I need to get this done, and I honestly am starting to lose faith that I can. I'm going to try and write more in the upcoming weeks - maybe it'll keep me motivated, who knows. But I really need to get this jump start - NOW!