the battle of the lard

I’m going to be tracking my exact meals on thedailyplate… this will just be more for journaling. I decided to start out with the 1200 calorie plan (you can choose between that or 1000, for women) and see how that goes.

So far, I have a bit of a headache but feel fine overall. The headache may or may not be due to the diet… but regardless, I am craving a nap. I will probably resist the urge, to avoid messing up meal times. I will avoid stepping on the scale until next Saturday morning, so I don’t get too obsessive about the numbers.

All of my WS goodies arrived on Monday. I have been so crazy-busy this week (and was a bit confused by the instructions that came along with the program) that I put off starting til the weekend. I know, I know… I feel bad about it **but** I am committed to that start date and have alerted the masses that I will be on a hardcore diet and to not come around me with naughty foods. If anyone reading this is on WonderSlim and has any tips or feedback on organizing your meals and all that jazz (or the 1000 vs 1200 calorie plans), please leave a comment.

To top off the joy, I weighed myself on a doctor’s scale (as opposed to the one at home) and found out my home one is not calibrated very accurately. I am 9 lbs heavier than I thought. Doh! So I rounded it out and have upped my goal to a 110 lb loss. Wish me luck

My WonderSlim order still hasn’t arrived *sigh*

FedEx apparently requires a signature and failed delivery today (while I was at work), so I may or may not be able to track the boxes down over the weekend…. Worst case scenario, I won’t have them until Monday.

I also finally put in an order for a personal blender (for making shakes/smoothies at work) today, and that should arrive Thursday. I am such an online shopper… I seriously very rarely have time to do comparison shopping in person. My work schedule’s nuts (as I type this from work) and that’s half the reason I opted to go with a somewhat idiot-safe plan to start.

Anyhow, hopefully I will report back next week with my first reaction to WonderSlim!

Signing off for the week..

So I spent the past couple weeks googling up a storm, comparing my options. I had originally intended to do a gourmet meal delivery plan from the get-go (ie: BistroMD) but decided I needed something more hardcore, to start. I think getting off the weight I packed on in the past couple years should be done in a less than gourmet, and more expedient, manner. After I get back to where I was a couple years ago (1/2 way to my end goal), I will switch to something slower that focuses on teaching me to portion control and calorie count.

That being said, the next debate was Medifast vs Optifast vs Wonderslim vs New Lifestyle Diet. They are all some variety of liquid diet that is delivered and leaves minimal options for food outside the plan (most only allow 1 meal a day at most). I quickly decided against Optifast, since it’s the most rigid… and after realizing Medifast is primarily soy-based (I’m not allergic or anything, it’s just a preference) and less-than-rave reviews on the taste, I nixed that as well… then it came down to Wonderslim vs NLD. They are the same product (literally), with a few small exceptions (a couple different flavors here and there)…. NLD includes more support (a forum, etc) and for that, they tack on about 25% more per item (doesn’t sound like a big deal when you’re looking at one item - but when you add up a few months’ worth of product, it’s a decent amount). On a side note, Medifast is almost twice the cost of most Wonderslim items. So price being the bottom line (since the product is almost identical), I went with Wonderslim and figured any support I need can be gained from forums here and on other sites, along with IRL friends. So Wonderslim, it is…

With their bulk discount (the more you buy, the greater the discount - see the big banner up top on the site for the codes), I got almost 3 months of product for less than $500.

Here’s the bounty –

This would normally cost $569 at their already-wholesale (and cheaper than the other plans) prices. But with the 15% discount I got for ordering more than $399, I got it for $483 with free shipping. Woot!

8 week starter kit

which includes:

WonderSlim Meal Plans (1000/1200 calorie for Women, 1500/1800 calorie for Men), Food Shopping List, 16 oz. Ultimate Shaker.

32 Boxes (224 Servings) 15g Protein Meal Replacements:
(4 boxes Chocolate Pudding/Shakes, 4 boxes Vanilla Pudding/Shakes, 4 boxes Mocha Pudding/Shakes, 4 boxes Strawberry Chocolate Mint (substitution) Pudding/Shakes, 4 boxes Chocolate Mint Pudding/Shakes, 4 boxes Berry Crème Smoothie, 4 boxes Strawberry Crème Smoothie, 2 boxes Chik’n Fajita, 2 boxes Chik’n Marinara)

8 Boxes (56 Servings) 12g Protein Supplements:
(1 box Chicken Noodle Soup, 1 box Double Chocolate Pudding, 1 Box Cheesecake, 1 box Hot Oatmeal, 1 box Mixed Berry Drink, 1 box Hot Cocoa, 1 box Sloppy Joe Mix, 1 box Nacho Cheese Pasta)

8 Boxes (56 Servings) 10g Protein Bars:
(1 box Peanut Butter Crunch, 1 box Butter Pecan Lemon Crunch (substitution), 1 box Chocolate Mint, 1 box Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin, 1 box Variety Pack, 1 box Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, 1 box Brownie, 1 box Double Chocolate)

…and then I tacked on a bunch more items that looked appealing, which should stretch it out by another month-ish (I didn’t do the math, but as you can see it’s a boatload of stuff) -

• 10 servings of orange geletin (fiber supplements)
• 7 servings of vanilla w&i shakes (more excellerating than the regular shakes)
• 7 servings of mint hot cocoa
• 7 servings of chocolate marshmallow pudding
• 7 servings of lemon chiffon pudding
• 3 servings of pretzel twist snacks
• 3 servings of sour cream & onion crunch o snacks
• 3 servings of cheddar doublebite snacks
• 7 servings of chocolate minicrisp snacks
• 3 servings of cheddar crunchy snack mix
• 7 servings of veggie beef pasta
• 1 bag (28 pieces) of lemon flavor chew snacks
• 9 servings of mac n’ cheese

Once it all arrives and I read all the instructions, I’ll figure out exactly how long this stash should last… I also need to find a single-serving blender that can crush ice to keep at work for shakes and smoothies..

If all of what I read isn’t just hype, I will be thrilled… Supposedly, you can lose 20+ lbs a month on this plan. I’d be over the moon to see 50 lbs in the next 3 months go away, which would put me at my 1/2-way point.

I’m glad I found 3FC.

I need it.

I’m going to be super duper lazy and copy+paste my intro from the boards to this post:

Hi there,

I don’t know anyone here just yet, but am looking to make a few WL buddies. I am active on other, unrelated boards but want to keep the battle of the lard to a more helpful board/blog area…

I’ve always been a big girl, but I also carry it deceptively well for the most part — I don’t get a lot of flack or feel horrible about it until I find myself over about 230, which is when my body starts to fall apart and I feel overwhelmed as the pounds pile on. I am currently at my highest weight (280.. gag)… again. I lost 60 lbs over the course of about 2 years, through Atkins-style torture/dieting. The results were slow going (and plateaued after that point) and the deprivation of carbs made for a lot of temptation. I managed to maintain that amount for about a year. A couple health issues sabotaged my weight for a few months in 2007 and that was enough for me to get bummed out and stop trying.. and before I knew it, I’d gained it all back in a little over a year. I’d really like to make this a year of major improvement, and get healthy before I hit 30. In my mind (and for my build), being about 180 qualifies as skinny. I’d be awfully happy to get out of the dreaded 200’s and become a lot more active.

Since my biggest excuse is usually not having enough time to cook and resorting to eating out half the week, I am looking into some of the diet meal delivery plans. I work long hours and if I had something healthy to heat up at work without the stress of planning and cooking it prior, that would be a huge help. I have been googling the various plans like crazy for a couple weeks. Money is tight for me for the next month, so I am toying with the prospect of doing Medifast for a month-ish to get things going.. and then switching to something like Bistro MD for a nice long stretch. Any promo codes or opinions for these (or similar) plans would be most welcome.

Anyhow, thanks for reading and feel free to drop me a line.

Aside from all that, I plan to keep this blog active and post about my progress. I’ll come back at a more reasonable hour (it’s 2am!) and gussy it up a bit.