1 | Richard Weissman said:

Brett
I’ve read all of your statements and I can appreciate your struggles and what a nice honest person you are that’s why I am responding. I was amazed at your diet soda comments and insights about drinking diet soda too much. I believe that the relationship of diet soda to metabolic syndrome has nothing to do with the fake sugar itself. It is because when we drink one, our brains start looking for something salty and or sweet to go with it because we really can’t tell if we are hungry or thirsty. So because of our past patterns we immediately subconsciously look for the chips and pretzels (and when on Medifast a pickle) or sweet carbs like candy or ice cream (and if on Medifast sugar free garbage foods or even a Medifast bar) when we have a diet soda. The Medifast bar is fantastic but a diet soda should not be the stimulus that makes you reach for it. You know and I know that one bar might not be enough to finish that diet soda. It is a viscous cycle of food-diet soda-food. We don’t need that stress and interference in our brains when we are trying to accomplish what we are with Medifast. We need to stay 100% focused on the prize. We do not need to get hit blindly on the side of the head by something as stupid is a diet soda. Diet soda is literally our mortal enemy because it made us fat and lazy, snore at night and is leading us to metabolic syndrome and diabetes and death. I have a few humble suggestions taken from my Medifast experiences.
First, stop your mental masturbation and quit all food, caffeines and sodas. You should make up your mind that you are playing with yourself when it comes to the 3 items above that can lead to your failure. You are constantly rationalizing and obsessing about them. If you make up your mind to have an extra one or two shakes a day instead of the lean and green you will not have to worry about portions or what you eat. It will set you totally free. Your wife with all her good intentions will not be able to sabotage your game plan because while you are in weight loss mode nothing she or anyone else can do will have any effect on you as you expressed on Valentine’s day. This is true if you are off of food. I would not be surprised if some of the trouble you are having sleeping is related to your blood sugar dropping when you are in bed anywhere from 2-5 hours after you’ve eaten your lean and green and whatever else you might be playing with.
As far as your apnea, as soon as you lose more weight it will go away by itself. My experience has shown that you need your Doctor to write you a prescription for Xanax 0.5 mg to be taken 2-3 hours before you’d like to go to sleep. You will sleep deep and wake up with absolutely no hangover and it will help to get rid of some of those anxieties you mentioned. If you wake up in the middle of the night even 3 times you’ll be able to go to the bathroom, get back in bed and go back to sleep! Also, I recommend that you sleep in a different room than your wife till your apnea corrects itself as you will not wake each other up.
Thank you for your blog as it reinforces for me many of the conclusions I’ve drawn from my own struggles. Oh and two more things. Spend the money and go with the ready to drink Vanilla or Chocolate. You have no idea what a pleasure it is to be able to line up five rows (for 5 days) of 6 containers on a shelf in your frig and just be able to have them whenever you need it without wasting time mixing and cleaning up or making a decision what will I eat next. I line up 6 because that’s how I count how many I have every day. So if I see 3 left on my line at 6 PM I know I must drink them before I go to sleep whether I want them or not. Lastly, use a teaspoon of Metamucil Orange sugar free in a 16 once cup of water at least 3 times a day to prevent any constipation. You can count that fluid as part of your fluid intake and it might be easier to drink than plain water. Good luck
Dr. Richard Weissman Miami Florida