Week One

Well, it's been a wild ride this week.  Only 11 weeks of Optifast only to go!  Seems like an eternity now, but I'm sure I'll blink a couple of times and we'll be done.

Certainly had some significant weight loss this week - 8 lbs by my scale first thing in the morning, and 5 lbs by the clinic scale - either way it's all good.  This morning I got dressed for work and my pants were puckering at the waistline, so quickly went 'shopping' in my 'thin clothes' closet and found some pants that looked good.  A month ago my size 44 pants were just a little loose and size 42 pants were out of the question.  Today, all my 44's are on a shelf to be altered once I'm down to maintenance weight.  I'm wearing size 42 and I can squeak into a couple pairs of size 40 pants.  Very exciting.

I stopped by Value Village after group session, looking for a new, smaller, belt - no luck today.  I figure I'll be spending quite a few shopping sessions at VV over the coming months.  Once I get down to a stable weight, then I'll go shopping for real.

The weekly group sessions have been informative.  This week we talked about 'ideal weight', 'wish weight', and 'best weight.'  The concept being that it is not so realistic to try and squeeze ourselves into what might be a medically perfect weight, that would unfortunately require so little calories and so much daily exercise that we wouldn't likely stick to it for very long - then give up and gain most of it back again.

At this point I don't have a firm weight loss goal.  They keep saying that most participants lose 10 to 20 percent of their starting body weight.  I'm hoping that if I stick to the program 100% that I'll end up closer to the 20% mark.  That would put me 160 - 170.

I'm not having a lot of problems staying away from food.  The meal replacements, Metamucil, and extra drinking water leave me quite full most of the time.  Sometimes it is even a bit hard to drink the next shake at the 4 hour mark because I'm so full.  It has required a bit of daily planning though - I have to have my shake powder, shaker container, and cold water - which is fine if I'm at home or work, but a little tricky if I'm travelling or like the other day doing staff training off-site.

Drinking enough water is difficult, and requires careful monitoring.  Today, for example, I was crazy busy at work and by 11:30 am I had only drank 500 ml instead of the requisite 1.0 L, so I quickly guzzled 500 ml plus my lunchtime shake.  Youwzers - driving down Johnson Street in Kingston, I wasn't quite sure I'd make it to the parking lot and get to the hospital washrooms in time :-)  Note to self - pace out the water, Steve.