Siiiiiiiigh.

I've been feeling kind of low energy the last couple of days. Can't quite put my finger on what it is. Still doing my 800 calories per day, vitamins, lots of water, and all of that. Part of it could be the depression I'm battling. For the record, I don't have clinical depression. I'm talking about the kind of depression that comes along with kicking a severe addiction. 


I can say that I am very proud of myself. I haven't veered off the diet once. I'm not cocky enough to say I won't, but as of now, I've been compliant. 


I do have one issue that's giving me anxiety. In a couple of weeks I will be going out of state to see my best friend for our class reunion. 10 years since high school? Wow. No, I am not dieting for the reunion. Of course, I wish I had gone down this OptiFast route 6 months ago, but seeing these people is not my motivation. 


When I travel, I like to eat at new places. I like to go to places that offer something I can't get at home. You wont find me at Sbarro pizza or Red Lobster. Why visit chains when every city has their own special restaurants? My friend is pretty understanding of the fact that it will be the first time I'll be eating in a month. The doctor knows of my plans and told me to avoid high energy carbs. Lay off the bread, starches, etc.. I know that's easier said than done since carbs are my weakness. I know that my habits will not be of the healthiest variety. 


My biggest concern is coming back from my weekend of eating/drinking and going back on the OptiFast. The first week WAS hard. I craved food I didn't normally eat. As of now, the majority of my cravings are gone. My hunger pains are faint, but not a distraction. Starting over is definitely scary. 


My hope is that I've had enough success on the program by then that it will be natural to return to this method of dieting. Fingers crossed! 

OptiFast

My story is this...

Backstory:

I'm 28 years old, living in Los Angeles. I lost a lot of weight a few years ago and then slowly regained about 50 pounds of it after some major life crises. At the start of this year, I started counting calories. Everything I read online said that a woman my age should lose weight eating 1500 calories per day. I tried that. Twice. Granted, I could only last for 2 weeks at a time before giving up. I never saw a single pound shed, never noticed an inch taken off, nothing. I was "Eating Clean" meaning no refined carbs or sugar, limited good fats. Eventually I went down to 1200 calories and lasted another 2 weeks without any results.

Perhaps it was the fact that it required a lot of effort to eat clean and count every calorie. I was at Whole Foods almost daily, looking for appropriate food, measuring it, etc.. Without seeing any movement on the scale, I was driving myself insane. What should I eliminate from my diet? Carbs? Dairy? Gluten? So, I quit. I went to the doctor and my thyroid was normal. No explanation why 1200 calories per day didn't do anything.

Diagnoses:

A couple weeks ago I began researching OptiFast, which I had known of for a long time. I knew that it was something they give to very obese people to get some weight off. I found a doctor in Los Angeles that specializes in weight loss and made my appointment.

After testing my metabolism, looking at recent blood work, and discussing my history, the doctor suggested a full Opti-Fast program. Shakes, bars, and... NO REAL FOOD. None. 800 calories per day is supposed to put me at a loss of at least 2.5 lbs per week. The doctor believes that my lack of vitamins (which started with my original weight loss) was keeping my body deficient and unable to burn fat. At least it made some sense, whether it's true or not is another story.

And so it began:

Today I began the OptiFast program. 3 shakes per day, 2 bars. We will see how it goes, wont we?

This blog is where I'll be documenting my progress. Hopefully it will help keep my accountable and on track, too.