I missed a couple of meals yesterday and I know exactly why… I was off my schedule. I normally eat some oatmeal first thing in the morning, then a breakfast bar, Lean & Green, shake in the afternoon, soup for dinner and then shake or pudding for dessert. It goes like clockwork and keeps me eating every 2-3 hours. Yesterday I started off on the wrong foot by missing my oatmeal after waking up late. By the time I got to work, I was a meal behind and I never got back into a good eating pattern. It is hard sometimes, I know that weight loss is a monster when we lead busy lives filled with work, school, children, friends, family and whatever else you can think of. It seems I spend most of my week just hurrying to get it over so I can have my weekend, but then just find myself busy with other things and before you know it the next week has arrived.

I know that if I am going to get to my goal, I have to focus on keeping a good eating schedule and not falling behind on meals or skipping them all together. This is further complicated by an almost complete lack of appetite after eating my one lean and green meal around noon. My stomach seems to have shrunk to the point where a small, healthy meal fills me up and then I struggle at times to get those other meals in… Which is why again, a schedule is critical.

Although tired and a little disappointed in myself this morning, I’m not that frustrated because I know today is a new day and I will be back on my eating schedule even if it requires me shuffling around some of the other things in life that seem so “important” at the time. It really is strange how we seem to rearrange our lives for things that we deem important when in all actuality if we fail to do those things at that specific time or at all, the world continues to function. I think my busy schedule and stressful job contributes a lot to a frenzied eating pattern for me. Instead of eating regularly throughout the day, I tend to feast. Getting fat for me wasn’t the result of constant eating or even always getting 3 meals a day… it was the result of me eating one or two really big meals because I didn’t have time for anything else. Combined with stress and anxiety over life’s little problems, I would comfort myself with the biggest burger on the menu or half a pizza in a sitting. Not really a healthy idea. Waiting until I was absolutely starving before I would eat caused me to eat huge portions.

That is behind me now and I am focused on eating more often and less at a time. I am working hard to not only follow the Medifast Program, but to engrain the eating patterns in my head so when I finish at my goal weight I can transition to a normal life and a more regulated eating pattern.