Oh I can't. I'm on a diet.

Oh I can't. I'm on a diet.

In high school I was 103 lbs. After I had my son I stayed at a good 115 lbs, but then I met the Mr. and went to law school. I gained 20 lbs my first year of law school. I don't know the reason. Maybe it was a delayed "freshman 15" since it was the first time I had left home, maybe I was nesting because I was just really really happy with the Mr., or maybe it was the fact that I was holed up reading casebooks and snacking all day with no exercise at all whatsoever. I think it was a mixture of all 3.

I've never been the workout type because I don't like to sweat. If I start to sweat, I stop doing whatever I was doing until the moment passes. The only exception to this was when I gutted houses in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. My roommates last year dragged me to the gym and it was the first time I had ever worked out. Yes, I said ever. I did really well until I started to sweat and you guessed it, stopped. I did Bikrim Yoga for a while, and liked it. Even with all the heat I never sweated and found that I was pretty flexible. Unfortunately, Bikrim is only an occasional thing. Since I don’t workout, I decided that I needed to come up with a way to lose the extra weight before my wedding. Even though I'm 9 months away, I've already started.

Initially I decided that I could lose all my weight by getting rid of my coke habit. I drank about 6 cans of coke a day. Yes, I said 6 a day. I tried to go diet but yuck, I couldn't. In the end I went diet with other brands like Diet Dr. Pepper and diet Root Beer which has made all the difference. Diet Dr. Pepper and diet Root Beer are so good that they don’t taste like diet. I also started drinking more water, so now I drink maybe 2 cans of pop a day and the rest is water or hot tea, usually green, black, or constant comment. I didn't lose any weight though and knew more had to be done.

I am the first one to admit that I need to change my eating habits. I eat whatever I want, whenever I want. The problem is that now I gain weight when I do that. I wanted a program I could use that would be a) cheap, b) effective, and c) help me change my eating habits and I found one through Medifast.

Medifast is a series of shakes, oatmeals, soups, and bars that are low caloric and high in protein. In total you get around 800-950 calories a day. The catch is though, that you have to eat 6 meals a day: 5 medifast meals and 1 lean and green meal. The lean and green consists of something green like broccoli or a salad, and lean protein like select fish, chicken, or other meats. It is hard to eat 6 meals a day- like really hard, or at least for me it is. That means you have to eat every 2-3 hours. Medifast keeps me full so 2 or 3 hours comes and I'm not even hungry to eat anything yet.

The food isn't totally bad or good. The bars are good and so is the banana pudding. I'm a fan on the cappuccino and hot chocolate and the shakes aren't too bad either. Medifast guarantees a weight loss of 2-5 lbs per week. I lost 10 lbs during my first month.

After a month though, I went off of Medifast and resumed my bad eating habits even though I knew what I had to do- eat small healthy meals every 2-3 hours. Luckily, I haven't gained a pound of my weight back. Although the program is super easy to follow, I just couldn't limit myself to one normal meal a day especially because I'm encouraged to participate in networking opportunities where food is abundant and I swear, I have never been invited to as many lunches as I was while I was on my diet- my response: "Oh I can't. I'm on a diet". I want to get back to 115 lbs before my wedding day so I plan on going back onto Medifast until I lose another 10 to 15 pounds. I'll keep you posted on how well I do and if I decide to try anything else, like sweat.

What are you doing, if anything, to lose extra pounds?