A month of transition, sort of

Well, I didn't transition the 'approved' way, as we decided to cut out the majority of our Medifast purchases.

In the past month I've taken to eating Yoplait 100-calorie greek yogurt with granola, protein meal replacement bars from Aldi, and Campbell's 'on the go' soups, and still eating the occasionaly Medifast shakes, bars, and etc from our stash.

I've also started eating more carbs and variety at dinner. Some pizza, some pasta, even some bread.

I haven't been tracking very religiously, I wanted to see what would happen if I tried to just wing it. Well, I moved between 254 and 262 lbs. About an 8 pound swing over the past month, but never got a new low.

I know that I was going to immediately add some weight as my carb intake increased, so that's ok. And I also was on a steroid regimen for my foot, and I know that increases water retention. And finally, while I was at GenCon I was eating a out more, since I was, you know, at a convention.

Well, I think I've learned that while I can fairly easily maintain myself at this rate, it's time to buckle down and start tracking seriously again. I'm going to reset my MFP to a new baseline next week. that will give my body one more week to recover from the steroids and once there, I'm going to create new spreadsheets and track everything to try to get a feel for my actual BMR while eating real food.

Currently my food plan is:

Breakfast: Turkey Bacon and eggs, or a shake
Morning Snack: Greek Yogurt and Granola
Lunch: various: soup, tuna, mac and cheese, leftovers, etc
Afternoon Snack: protein bar
Dinner: lean meats and veggies, occasionally go out
Dessert: protein smoothie or low-cal ice cream treat

Expect to see more weekly charts and graphs again starting next week as I keep transitioning off Medifast and onto something permanent!

Progress pics, before and after

Long before I started Medifast, I took some 'before pics' when I decided to start losing weight on my doctor's advice. Over the course of 6 months or so (honestly I'm not certain when the first pic was taken, May 2013 is an estimate) I went from 345 pounds to 332 pounds, at which point I decided to start Medifast. Despite 332 not being my 'heaviest recorded weight', I completely reset MFP to zero at this point, to give me a baseline. However, I didn't take fresh progress pics then.

In addition to the loss of 90 pounds between these two pictures you can also see a few other interesting changes...

For one, we finished painting the bathroom! I'm wearing my Fitbit in the new picture. I'm not wearing my wedding band, as it is at the jeweler getting resized so it stops falling off my finger, and finally, I've got a new phone. Also notice that I have learned to take pictures in landscape mode as well.