Diet: week 8

There's a little camaraderie developing in my Optifast group meetings on Monday nights. I am now known as the five pound schedule man. A woman in the group is taking steroids for a medical problem, and she is afraid that will make her gain weight, so she does not drink all her shakes, thinking this will give her less calories and counteract the steroids. She simply maintained this week, and the instructor gently got on her case to stay on the program and drink all the shakes. There is a guy who must have weight well over three hundred pounds when we started. He has lost something in excess of 60 pounds, but has slowed his pace because the doctor said it was not good for his heart. They freely talk about food fantasies, constipation, pigging out and all kinds of stuff.

I lost another five pounds and our instructor finds that funny (along with the applause, of course). I have lost almost 35 pounds. That not only averages five pounds a week, but that is almost exactly what I report each week. I mean it's not seven pounds this week and three the next. It's almost always five pounds. If you are a faithful reader (do I have any?) you will know that my first week I was bitterly disappointed because I only lost five pounds when everyone else lost more. Now I am satisfied with my pace--as long as it continues on schedule. At week 13 we begin transition to real food, gradually. So we are halfway there. At this rate I should be down 60 pounds by that time, and I think I will be happy with that progress.

Of course all this is only a passing fad if I do not learn how to develop healthy dining habit for the remainder of my feeble life. I wish my glucose were down more than it is. I read 150-160 every morning, and that is a bit too high. The remainder of the day it seems to come back to more healthy numbers. The doctor says that I should keep monitoring it because as I lose more weight it ought to come down. This is really one of my goals for this diet: to rid myself of the diabetes pills.

My sweet wife is not only cheering me on (she regularly brags about me on Facebook), but she helps me. The only way I can enjoy anything like variety in my diet is with sugar free flavorings. She has scoured every store that sells Torani brand and brought home a plethora of flavors for me. Oh, by the way, Barbara has lost 5 pounds too because we do not eat big meals together. I still enjoy fixing delicious food for her, but she doesn't often let me to that.