by Nancy » April 23rd, 2007, 1:59 pm
Hi there ~
Yes, I am aware Medifast was in the process of changing the Quick Start Booklet. Dr. Andersen along with the Nutritionists reviewed the program over the last few months and were making revisions.
In light of the carb content and how the glycemic load of certain vegetables can change when the vegetables are eaten raw or cooked, some revisions were made. Some of you are aware there is a fine line between being ‘in’ or ‘out’ of the fat-burning state and just a few extra carbs can do it – that’s precisely why we encourage people to not add a lot of extra items to their daily food intake.
I received a preliminary guide a while back and was waiting for the finalization before announcing it to you. I noticed that we also received Quick Start Program booklets in our recent BeSlim Club orders and assumed it was to get rid of them in anticipation of the new version’s debut.
When my husband and I started the weight loss phase in 2002 we were attracted to the program because of several features:
The program is simple – we did not have to be mathematicians; no counting calories or carbs. We just needed a measuring cup and a kitchen scale (we actually used our office postal scale).
We did not need a gym membership to be successful – as we were able; we progressively increased our activity level and increased our fitness level.
There was no need for us to reinvent the program – it is clinically proven and we trusted the program as it is written; yes, we are mindless. We just mix our shakes, drink them down every 2.5 hours and have water chasers. The program is designed to be muscle-sparing when a person follows the program – tweaking the program is not in our best interest if we want to lose fat and retain muscle tissue.
When we started the program in 2002, the meat portion sizes were slightly larger for men than women (7 ounces for men; 5 ounces for women) and the vegetable serving size was one cup of cooked vegetables.
I view the changes to the Quick Start Booklet to be most helpful. The Medifast products are designed in a specific ratio of protein to carbohydrates to fat. I know my personal perspective about fat was that I wanted to avoid it as much as possible. Erroneously, I thought fat was bad-bad-bad and did my best to avoid it most of the time. We need some fat in our diet to help with elimination, to keep the skin and hair soft and moisturized, to assist with cell manufacturing and turnover and to keep our liver and gall bladder humming along. Some fat is essential and this new guide gives a great breakdown for us to show us how to effectively get some 'good' fat each day. Like some of you, I prefer to go the more natural route and avoid marg and use olive oil, olives or canola oil.
I’ve always been told to not combine the Medifast Meal Packets with additional vegetables or additional protein to maintain the balance of the macronutrients – such as not using part of the vegetable serving by adding say ¼ to ½ cup of the vegetables from the Lean and Green meal to a packet of the Medifast Soup and yet others have done so and have consistently lost weight. The nutritionists at Medifast now say that you may eat the vegetables and the protein separately, for example that you may use some of your vegetables with your Medifast soup such as adding ¼ cup broccoli to your Medifast Minestrone Soup or the Creamy Brocc Soup or some chopped tomatoes to your Creamy Tomato Soup as long as you keep track of the daily vegetable serving. You could eat 7 ounces of Crab with ½ Teaspoon of cocktail sauce for lunch and later in the day eat one cup of chopped cucumber along with a 1 packet of Chicken With Wild Rice soup with an additional ½ c mushrooms and a green onion.
I do feel it is important to keep a daily food journal, to record weight loss and activity level as it provides a record of what you’ve done. If you notice a change in your rate of weight loss it can assist us in determining why.
I noticed the new Quick Start Guide indicates the Snack options are two dill pickle spears rather than two dill pickles (to me pickles suggests two whole dills…) it also says ½ C sugar-free Jell-O. In the past, some documents said up to 1 cup of Sugar free Jell-O. IMHO, to keep people on the straight and narrow and the scale moving downward, the pre-packaged Sugar Free Jell-O snackette cups in the ½ cup serving are the best way to go. Just because the program booklet indicates that we may have a snack, it does not mean we MUUT have a daily snack. It is an option during the first few days of the program when hunger is more apparent or when a person is feeling especially foody and cannot seem to satisfy that need for eating by slugging down a few more glasses of water.
The new version of the Quick Start Guide indicates two Bocca or two Morning Star Burgers; the former version states one burger patty.
I view the changes as showing us the versatility of the program. The new vegetable and protein chart will enable us all to keep on thinnin’ and to enjoy the abundance that is ours when we make healthy choices.
Re: Splenda Sweeteners are really up to the choice of the individual. I prefer the taste of Splenda and do not use more than 1 or 2 packets a day. My experience is that the more sweet stuff I eat, the more I want. If I want something sweet to drink, I drink licorice tea, mint tea or passion tea because they are naturally sweet. I love the cinnamon Cinnabon sells – it is called Makara – it sells for $4.99/ bottle and we add some of the Cinnabon cinnie to our Medifast oatmeal; it makes it flavorful and satisfying without adding extra carbs. Sometimes we add a packet of Splenda to our Medifast Oatmeal along with the Cinnabon Makara Cinnamon.
Liquid sweeteners are somewhat lower in carbs than the powdered forms. Just remember, the sweeteners are considered condiments. For best weight loss results, use no more than three condiment servings per day.
(Sheesh! If you are using 12 packets of Splenda or sweetener a day, that’s a lotta additional carbs – no wonder you are so sweet!)
Nothing tastes as good as thin feels...
The Formerly FLABulous and Now very Fabulous
Nancy Pettit
267/130
I have been doint this program wrong since November. After reading what Nickiluv said about the condiments, I went and re-read what the guide lines were. I swear I do not remember reading that Splenda was on that list. I also do not remember that I was limited to three pack a day. I put that much in one cup of coffee. I bet in a day, I use at least 10-15 packs of Splenda. 
That's how I ended up in the shape I WAS in. 
with the Splenda in the coffee. I just used skin milk all day. I honestly did not know there were any carbs in it. OOPS!
News
Site map
SitemapIndex
RSS Feed