Medifast
June Newsletter

Do you have ‘I’ trouble?

‘I’ trouble caused my weight gain.

BM (before Medifast) when it came to eating, I was very self-centered. I ate because I felt happy, I ate because I felt sad, I ate because I wanted to, I ate because I was bored, and I ate because I liked the taste of something. I liked the taste of everything.

I ate because I had ‘I’ trouble.

I thought only of myself and of my own needs. I was selfish. I have come to realize that I am not my own. I have a husband; I have a family and I have friends.

When I chose to over eat, I was shortening my LIFE time with my family and friends – I was robbing them of my health and robbing them of my relationship with them. I wasn’t putting my relationship with them first. I was self-centered and self-seeking.

I changed the way I thought. I put my family first. They deserve to have me be the best wife I can be, the best mom that I can be, the best friend that I can be.

The way we think determines the way we feel. The way we feel determines the way we act.

My Daddy and Mom gave me a shiny red tricycle for my fifth birthday. It had red streamers coming out of the handle bars and a little metal bell on the handlebar that I could ring with my thumb.

I’d ride down the sidewalk full speed, flicking the little silver bell, announcing, “Ding! Ding! Looky here! Ding, ding! Hey, Everybody! Ding! Ding! Stop everything right now and look at me on my new trike! Ding! Ding!”

Each day is so important. The power of the moment impacts the future.

The decisions you make today may very well determine where you will be tomorrow.

One of the easiest things to do is to procrastinate. Procrastination is a conscious choice or decision to put off what can be done today until tomorrow.

Someday there will be no more tomorrows…

Didja notice that this newsletter is a day late? I procrastinated.

I didn’t purposely plan on delivering this a day late, I fell victim to the tyranny of the urgent. Sometimes we allow the tyranny of the urgent to dictate what we do right now and Gulp! what we shove into our mouth.

Weight loss success is dependent upon a definite decision, an intentional commitment, planning ahead and persistently following a plan.

If you keep doing the very things you are doing today, where will you be one year from now?

Yikes! Bathing suits are in the stores right now.

Two years ago I was totally freaked out because I weighed nearly 260 pounds, a Hawaiian vacation was just around the corner and it meant that I would be wearing a skirted knee-length bathing costume (again) rather than a bathing suit.

My thighs were so porky that I was afraid that if I walked on the beach that they’d rub together announcing, “Ding! Ding! Attention! Look at the fat lady in the bathing costume!” The friction could have caught my suit on fire. The inner thighs of my pants always wore out before the color faded from the garment.

I love to eat but I really wanted to lose weight. My fatness loomed large like Mt. Everest. I wanted to lose weight so that I could wear a bathing suit, so that I could swim in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean. During daylight hours.

I made an intentional decision to begin using Medifast on July 16th and I committed to stick with it NO MATTER WHAT until October 7th, the day we left for Kauai.

I consciously chose to persist and to persevere, no matter what!

The decision I made for the moment determined my future.

Can you hear the little bell?

DIN! DIN! It’s saying, “Do It Now! Do It Now!”

Make a conscious decision that you will take control of this very moment and take control of your future - the decisions you make today can and will change the course of your future.

The result of the decision I made on July 16th, 2002 is this: I lost 59 pounds in ten weeks. I persisted, I persevered and I lost a total of 130 pounds in seven months and have kept it off for sixteen months. I heard the DIN! DIN! of Medifast – Do It Now! Do It Now!

I got this cutesy wootsey article from a friend a couple of years ago and kept it because it was so funny and also because it reminded me that the decisions I make today affect my future. Perhaps it is just what you need to encourage you to join the DIN DIN Club: Do It Now! Do It Now!

In the 1950's, the bathing suit was designed for a woman with a mature figure: boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered. They were built to hold back and uplift and they did a good job.

Today's stretch fabrics are designed for the pre-pubescent girl with a figure carved from a potato chip. The mature woman has a choice: she can either shop at the maternity department or try on a floral suit with a skirt, coming away looking like a hippopotamus who escaped from Disney's Fantasia, or she can wander around every department store trying to make a sensible choice from what amounts to a designer range of fluorescent rubber bands.

What choice did I have?

I wandered around, made what I thought was a sensible choice and entered the chamber of horrors known as the fitting room. The first thing I noticed was the extraordinary tensile strength of the stretch material. The Lycra used in bathing suits was developed, I believe, by NASA to launch small rockets from a slingshot, which gives the added bonus that if you manage to actually lever yourself into one, you are protected from shark attacks. The reason for this is that any shark taking a swipe at your passing midriff would immediately suffer whiplash.

I fought my way into the bathing suit, but as I twanged the shoulder strap in place, I gasped in horror. My bosom had disappeared! Eventually, I found one cowering under my left armpit. It took awhile to find the other one. At last I located it flattened beside my seventh rib.

The problem is that modern bathing suits have no bra cups. So the mature woman has to wear her bosom spread across her chest like a speed bump.

I realigned my speed bump and lurched toward the mirror to take a full view assessment. The bathing suit fit all right, but unfortunately, it only fit those bits of me willing to stay inside it. The rest of me oozed out rebelliously from top, bottom, and sides. I looked like a lump of play dough wearing undersized cling wrap.

As I tried to work out where all those extra bits had come from, the pre-pubescent salesgirl popped her head through the curtains and said: "Oh, there you are!" admiring the bathing suit. I replied that I wasn't so sure about it, and asked what else she had to show me.

I tried on a cream colored crinkled one that made me look like a ball of masking tape, and a floral two piece which gave me the appearance of an oversized napkin in a serving ring. I struggled into a pair of leopard skin bathers with ragged frill and came out looking like Tarzan's Jane, pregnant with triplets and having a rough day.

I tried on a black number with a midriff and looked like a jelly fish in mourning. I tried on a bright pink one with such a high cut leg that I thought I would have to wax my eyebrows to wear it.

Finally, I found a suit that fit--a two-piece affair with a shorts-style bottom and a loose blouse type top. It was cheap, comfortable, and bulge friendly, so I bought it. When I got home, I read the label which said: "Material may become transparent in water." I'm determined to wear it anyway. I'll just have to learn to do the breaststroke in the sand.

(I wish I knew who wrote this article so that I can give credit where it’s due. It sounds so much like Erma Bombeck!) If you keep doing the very things you are doing today, where will you be one year from now?

In 1975 after becoming the first woman to climb Mt. Everest, Junko Tabei said, “Technique and ability alone do not get you to the top; it is the willpower that is the most important. This willpower you cannot buy with money or be given by others…it rises from your heart.”

You have all the will power you need and we have all tools you need to help you get on top of the mountain of flabbage. DIN! DIN! Do It Now! Do It Now!

Nancy before Medifast - - - Nancy after Medifast
Weight: 258 pounds - - - 128 pounds
Cholesterol: 214 - - - 160
Triglycerides: 211 - - - 71
Blood Pressure: 130/96 - - - 98/64

Choose. Decide. Make every effort. Persist.

If you keep doing the very things you are doing today, where will you be one year from now?

Nothing tastes as good as thin feels!