Medifast Maintenance: Celebrating One Year of Carb Sobriety

"My name is Nancy and I am a carbohydrates addict."

If there were such a thing as Carboholics Anonymous, I could have been a charter member. Before losing 35 pounds on Medifast last year, it was as if chips, cookies, brownies, doughnuts, mall pretzels, bread, tortillas, pasta and other high carb foods contained invisible magnets that attracted me like cats to tuna fish.

For years I had been the victim of the low-fat diet craze and thought I was doing myself a big favor ordering my salad dressing on the side while feasting on the bread and potatoes that came with my entree.

I could kick myself now for thinking fat was the enemy instead of carbohydrates.

Happily, the Medifast 5&1 Plan made me go cold turkey on my carbohydrates addiction and I began to realize I didn't have to start every Mexican meal with chips or consume hamburgers with fluffy buns.

One year after reaching my ideal body weight on the Medifast Take Shape for Life program, I can happily say I have permanently changed my eating habits and maintained my weight loss.

Last night my husband and I went out for dinner to celebrate both our 10 year anniversary of meeting each other and my promotion at work. We went to our town's Tahoe Joe's, part of a small chain of woodsy steak houses that are designed to make you feel like you're in a mountain cabin.

My "diet" dinner. That's garlic butter
on the steak in case you wondered.

After studying the menu, we agreed to split an entree of two five-ounce petite filets wrapped with bacon and order clam chowder in addition to the salad that came with. When the bread arrived, I snubbed it like an ex-boyfriend and enjoyed the soup and salad, which we passed back and forth. I gave my husband the entire baked potato that came with our entree and was perfectly content to eat green beans and sauteed mushrooms with my steak. It was the perfect "diet" meal for me.

After dinner, I felt satisfied but not over-stuffed as I would have in the past if I had consumed all the starchy carbohydrates that came with my meal.

What's funny is that I did not feel a bit deprived saying "no" to the bread and potato because doing so gave me license to eat a delicious piece of steak and creamy blue cheese dressing without worrying that my jeans wouldn't zip the next day. And since I now know the link between saturated fat and cholesterol was all a big fat lie, I don't worry about dropping dead of a heart attack eating eggs, full-fat dairy and red meat.

Avoiding carbs has been a small price to pay for keeping my weight off since I now get to eat more protein and fat that keep me full and satisfied. These days I eat flavorful foods like almond butter, avocado, cheese and grass fed hamburgers wrapped in lettuce. I drink smoothies with cashew milk, coconut oil, strawberries, cocoa and chia seeds. I scrape the bread slices off my sandwich filling as if it were packaging that needs to be discarded. And I eat zoodles instead of noodles.

Small changes have kept me smaller, but it took a pattern interrupt to make these changes. If it hadn't been for Medifast, I may never have realized how easy it was to "just say no" to carbs.



More from Diet Skeptic:

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The Shocking Truth About Imported Olive Oil 

Making Cauliflower Rice in the Vitamix 

Why WebMD Doesn't Want You to Get Well


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