The Program

Finally...it seems as if it took forever to reach this point. First it was the orientation, next it was the blood work and the EKG, and lastly the body assessment and acceptance physical. Everything came back normal so I am told that I am ready to start.

Start what, you ask? Kaiser Permanente in San Diego has a medically supervised Optifast program for those who are 40 pounds or more overweight. The program has many options; however, I believe that if I am going to lose the weight forever that it has to be drastic, so I chose the full fasting Optifast Program. The full fasting program, as many are aware, allows five shakes per day and two optional soups.  I was told, not given a choice, that I would be using Optifast 70 (two shakes flavors; vanilla and chocolate with a total caloric intake of 400 calories). This may be because my BMI is 42. Morbidly obese! Wow, that is scary. I am lucky that I have not had health issues related to my weight before now. The Optifast 70 is not a program that is offered very many places and I scoured the Internet looking for tidbits of information from people on this program. Nothing. I found plenty of people using the Optifast 800 but very little information on the Optifast 70. Maybe the people on Optifast 70 are so hungry they do not have enough energy to type. Or, maybe they are trying to keep it a secret.

My actual start date was April 10th. My weigh in weight was 249 pounds *gasp*. Have I really let myself get this fat? The answer is YES and I am sure that if I did not reach out for help I would have continued to gain weight at an alarming speed. Most of the people that surround me (friends and family) do not have or have never had weight issues. At least my support group will know the struggles and heart ache that I endure on a daily basis. This leads me to the next topic: my support group.

The group meeting was very interesting. I found it almost depressing as I listened to person after person ask questions about what we "have" to share and some of the experiences from past meetings. Oh yes, many are back for a second or third time. This scares the *&^# out of me. Questions are flooding my mind. Will this be me? Will I gain all the weight back and more? Am I strong enough to handle this kind of stress? Please people, any success stories? I can already tell this is going to be a long 20 weeks. My head is spinning as I try and decide if I made the right decision. I quickly decide that I have based solely on the amount of money that I have already spent ($335 and I haven't even gotten the shakes yet). I am also told that I do not receive any shakes until week 2. Ahhhhh....I was so bummed. The first step, they say, is documenting what I eat for the entire week including how I was feeling before or after I eat. This is meant to help me explain why I eat and eat and eat. You would think that all of this documenting would curb my appetite and make me eat less. Oh no, I ate more than ever this week. I wanted to make sure that I had everything and more that I loved to eat before doomsday. I documented everything. What did I figure out about why I eat? Nothing, of course. I did not think about it at all. I just stuffed every last delicious morsel into my chubby face.

So today (Tuesday @ 4:15 to be exact) I will weigh in for the second time; I probably gained 5 pounds from last weeks weigh in based on the amount of food that I ate. I documented every last crumb and it did make me a little sad as I look back on what I consumed. Oh well, can't take it back now. All I can do is use this to move forward.

A few blogs that I am reading say that there are three types of people on the Optifast program: those who do not cheat at all; those who cheat a couple of times; and those who cheat regularly. The third group does not ever seem to lose weight and cannot figure out why. Really? I plan on being in group 1. I cannot fall off of the wagon and I want to lose the most that I can in this 20 (19 really) weeks. I am a creature of habit and once I put my mind to something there is rarely anything that can stop me.

Join me on this 20-week journey. I hope to inspire, help, or just shed a little information for those who need it.