Hi! This is my first post on here so I'm not sure if I should "introduce" myself or just dive in with my questions. I'm making myself crazy lately with all the research I've been doing about different diet options out there, and I just need some help sorting it all out!!
My goal is to lose the 30 lbs of baby weight I've been carrying for the past 15 months. I have a very regulated body; I played college BB and our coach weighed us and checked our body fat every quarter...I weighed 170 every.single.time. Not a pound more or less. For the 3 times I checked into the hospital to deliver my 3 babies I weighed the exact same for 2 of them, was 2 lbs lighter for the 3rd-- even though my weight gain for each pregnancy ranged from 25-60 lbs! I was the exact same weight while I nursed #1 and #3, during ALL the time I nursed them (I was preggo with #3 while I was nursing #2, so she doesn't count, lol). After each birth, I dropped to 192 and then stayed there, literally, all 11 months I nursed DD1, all 15 months I nursed DD3. With DD1, after I quit nursing, I dropped to 160, but it took about 8 months or so, though I wasn't really doing anything in particular. I've lost about 3 lbs in the 3 weeks since DD3 weaned, but I've also just had foot surgery and it hasn't gone well and now I'm looking at being immobile a LOT longer than we had anticipated.
Soooo.... I'm worried about all the laying around I have to do waiting to heal, and quite honestly, I just so desperately want the weight (or most of it, anyway) gone before we go back home for Christmas and see people we haven't seen in nearly a year, esp. my super-skinny-slightly-snarky SIL.
I've been looking at Medifast, but oh, my, it's $$$$. But my girls are 1,2,and 5-- I cannot count calories/carbs/etc...I LOVE the idea of meal replacements so I don't have to think about what to eat. I'm so pathetic with my foot right now that even reading people's tips about how to make MF foods more edible sound like too much work!
I've written too much already-but my questions are:
1) Based on the crazy "regularity" of my body, will this type of diet even work for me?
2) I know ppl do it, but how do you know how to mix/match MF and Wonderslim (and Bariwise) foods? What is it you have to be "counting" or watching to make that work?
3) If I try to mix and match, is it better to follow the basic guidelines of one of those plans over the other? (ex.: the MF 5+1, with WS supplements vs. the WS 5+1+1 with some Medifast supplements)
Thanks for even reading all that, and any advice you have!