OptiFast Program

Well, I have now been on the OptiFast program for 9 and a half weeks.

I hate it. But I'm seeing results, so I'm not throwing in the towel.

I have lost 37lbs, but considering my starting weight, that is just shy of 10% of my weight.

I think those results are about average. We don't really discuss weight in the class, so I don't know how other people are doing.  I have found the classes to be really beneficial, even the repetitive stuff has been pretty good. Having the support of fellow classmates who are experiencing the same difficulties with the shakes has been helpful, too.

I eventually got some of the Torani flavour shots, and really wish I hadn't. I was at about week 5 when I started to use them, and up until that time it had been tough, but I'd been really good with just sticking to the shakes. The flavour shots are sweetened with Splenda and as soon as I started using them (I had strawberry and mint, both used with chocolate optifast shakes) all my cravings came back and I found it unbearable. I ended up cheating a couple times and then it became easier to cheat.

I'm still losing, and I'm being really mindful of when/how I cheat. But I know I'm not getting the full benefit of this 12 week program, so I feel a lot of guilt. I'm just trying not to let that lead me into emotional eating and binging -- which is my problem to begin with. 

I think the extracts would have been a much wiser way to go.

As for the shakes themselves, they're monotonous and terrible, but fairly convenient for on the go. Just toss the shaker, a bottle of water and a packet of powder into a bag and you're good for a meal. I take them to work and have no problem (in fact, the way my work is, if I don't take a lunch break, I can leave half an hour early, so the under 5 minutes it takes me to have my shake is like a bathroom break and I've been enjoying the half hour freedom that allows me at the end of my shorter shift!)

We are _really_ encouraged to make a lifestyle change with this program. To increase our activity, our exercise and to be mindful of our food choices.  I've started walking. I couldn't keep up with the every night program, my daughter didn't want to come and as soon as it started to get cold, I couldn't go so late in the evening, and it didn't fit anywhere else. Still looking at how to remedy that. I have started swimming at least once a week for an hour, twice a week if I can help it. I am walking more places than I ever did before. I am for the first time getting rid of my car, so I'll be forced to walk to get groceries and other amenities. (I grew up in the country, having a car meant freedom, but now that I live in the city, having a car simply means laziness). I have an appointment this week at the YWCA to check out their services and get a walk-through of all their gym equipment (something I know exactly nothing about) and then the plan is to sign up for a monthly pass, so I have somewhere to go in the winter months. It is about a 15 minute walk there, and even if to start I am just walking there, soaking in the hot tub and then walking home, I am still getting 30 minutes of walking in, which is 30 minutes more than prior to this OptiFast experience. 

I have been researching new recipes and different food choices from the grocery store, and then trying them out on my daughter while I am still on the shakes. The thought is, if I can switch us over to the better foods before I am even eating them, then when it is time for me to go back on real food, I wont be tempted to go back to my old bad habits.

To the poster above who mentions the weight gain after the program -- that's what I am trying to avoid.

The saying goes "If you carry bricks from your past relationships to the new one you will build the same house..."  My relationship with food and exercise and my health in general has been one of ignoring and dismissing. I want to be mindful of everything I do and everything I eat, so that I can once more find a place of health.

It doesn't mean I'm on shakes forever. It doesn't mean I can't indulge ever. It just means that there is a balance -- if I intake an excess of calories because I want to have something extra (like cheese cake or beer), then I need a plan for how I am going to deal with those calories. Maybe I go swimming an extra time this week. Maybe I eat less the rest of the day. Whatever my plan is, simply having a plan and trying to stick by it is what matters.

One of the hardest places for me and snacking was while watching TV at night. I'm not much of a TV watcher, but when I do, I tended to mindlessly munch on just about anything, the 'carb'ier the better.  Now, instead, I have a bottle of water with me AND I use my resistant tubing.  I have no idea how most of the resistant tubing exercises are supposed to go. I've researched some of them, but really, I'm not at a place to do what they do yet. I simply use it to the best of my ability and get in about 10-15mins throughout my show of working with it. I get up a slightly elevated heart rate, maybe once or twice I've done it enough to break a sweat, but for the most part it is simply the act of replacing the snacking with a more positive choice. All I really wanted was to keep my idle hands busy, and eating was an easy way to do that. I wasn't actually hungry.

So, in all, the OptiFast program is really just a way to kick-start the change. Do I recommend it? Yes, if you are willing to make the changes to your lifestyle. No if you think it will make the changes for you.