Hello', everyone.

I've been reading som great posts about losses and I'm so proud of everyone. This is such a friendly, likeable group and I feel that if one of us has a good week, it's good karma for the rest of us.

Had a bad week last week weight-wise. I worked so much overtime that I didn't get enough sleep. I was on my feet too much and showed a four pound gain at work. I didn't make it to weigh-in at all last week because of my weird schedule and frankly I'm kind of glad. I had a few moments of almost total surrender to the dark carbo side of life but held out. And most of it was due to the progress of my fellow MRC chicks!

A couple times though I was absoluted starving while at work despite taking all my supplements, fiber, and the vegetables. I actually ate the replacement bars as a snack twice, lol. I hadn't been that hungry in along time. I think it was partly hormonal and partly my increased energy spent at work.

So I'm weighing in this evening (Tuesday) and expect to show my gain since this it will be another day of no sleep. I'll also being weighing in the morning after eating and drinking at night instead of my usual evening WI. I'm mentally preparing myself for a disappointment on the scales, but expect to rebound next week.

Good news is that my blood pressure is staying low and haven't taken my BP med for two weeks. Two weeks ago I was staggering around took my BP and it was 88/58 instead of my normal 142/80. As a person with a medical background I was thrilled despite feeling horrible, lol. I just drank 3 glasses of water and drank a half a cup of coffee to get it back up. I hope my MD will let me stay off BP meds permanently. What a fantastic side effect of losing only 20 lbs. The theory of losing 10% of your body weight for health benefits has been proven by me.

Hi little edie,
I was getting hungry at the tail end of the night shift. Plus with my drive home, 1.5 hours, I was going 9 hours without eating. Too long and getting dizzy and just felt like garbage. Talked to the counselor and they don't want you to go for more then 5 hours between meals. So I am doing a meal bar around 4-5 am and drinking an hns on the way home. Felt better and safer, lol don't want to crash and be brought back to the hosp as a patient! I also stopped my bp meds. Systolic is in the 90's now when that was my diastolic before!
Hope your shifts lighten up a little for you soon and you can get some sleep.

Finally others who work nights. Can I ask how you eat? I really struggle working nights to get 3 meals in a day. I know it slows my weight loss down, but I do not know.

I also agree with the sleep issue. There are days I am up well over 30 hours, not hungry and crabby! LOL.

Jo

Wrote on the night shift thread. Thanks for putting that up. Everyone has unique challenges with this program and hopefully we can help support each who have that particular one!

Hey girls! I wanted to take a minute to re-introduce myself after a six-month 3FC vacation. I started MRC last May (2008) and had great success over the summer when all my temptors were out of town. Things slowed down when school started again, but I made it to stabilization. I was a mail order client, though, and I made the mistake of trying to do stabilization on my own, without my 3FC friends and 290 miles from my center. So, I'm going to take some time over the summer to get back on the green menu and try to go through stabilization in a couple of months while checking in with the folks on this board REGULARLY! I look forward to getting to know everyone who has joined the board since my "vacation" started!

I felt the same way on previous diets about my Pepsi! This time I stopped buying it for at home and since starting MRC, I've been ok. There was one day it really sounded good, but since I didn't have any and the vending machine at work is filled with Coke, I managed to get through. I haven't had any caffeine since starting the plan. I'm very tired today and, in my mind anyway, I could really use one!

Hi all - I've been gone from 3FC for quite a while. Back in mid-April I completed stabilization and went into maintenance. Just as I expected, keeping the weight off is much harder than losing it was. I've gained about 7-10 lbs back, and if I go to my center they'll make me re-sign. Financially I just can't sign back up right now...it's just not possible. I'm looking for some pointers/guidance from all of you. Has anyone been in this spot? Do you know if they start you over with week 1 again? Any thoughts on best places to get HNS and herbal supplements for less than MRC? I don't want all my work to go to waste.
Thanks in advance for all your help!

Well I weighed in yesterday and gained 2.5 pounds for the whole week. It was a rough week...the last week of school. I caved in at the company picnic and had cheesecake, slept through breakfast Sunday due to a migraine, and well...had a couple of glasses of wine. That's the biggest Off program snafu since I started. The counselor put me on the Medi-quick plan starting today. I chose a chocolate shake meal replacement, which I drank, but didn't like it much. Has anyone here had any luck jump starting with Medi-quick? I have been exercising a lot about 4-5 days a week regardless of the diet.

Hi stuck - I think I remember you from when I was on the board before. Sounds like you're sort of where I am....welcome back and I'll be cheering you on from here. I'm trying to figure out if I can start again with the green...or if I have to go all the way back to the beginning.

Hi and welcome back! Sorry to hear that you are struggling. When you completed your program did you pay for maintenance? If so, then you have a year of help from your center. I would call them and talk to someone and see if they can help without having you resign. I am currently in stabilization week 5 and I am fearing maintenance myself! I know that keeping it off is going to be hard. When you were on maintenance did you count calories? Did you weigh in regularly at home? I'm just curious since I will be in maintenance in a couple of weeks and not sure how I will handle it!

Read up on some information here, there is lots of info. I know there is a place where you can order HNS, I think it is called Diet Direct, check the threads. I know that there are some pills that were discussed also that have some of the ingredients as the MRC6, I think they are the Now brand, don't remember the name...lol!

I will talk to my counselor on Friday when I go WI and I will ask about what do we do if we gain some back....go back to square one or green menu....I'll let you know.

Good luck and stick around here, there are some very knowlegable people on here who have been there and can give you words of wisdom!

Take care!
Mel

I'm kinda like the lone ranger when it comes to MRC. I make a lot of it up because my center is so far away and they seem understaffed, so phone consultations are never the full experience. I just jumped right in with the green menu and have plowed ahead. I never went through the pre-program phase either. When I started I just jumped right into the beige menu. I'm not sure if that slowed my weight loss down or not--I still lost at what I thought was a healthy pace. I'm only on day 2 of the green menu, though, so I guess it's too early to tell how it will go this time around.

As for alternative HNS, check Diet Direct. I've also found that in a pinch Meemo's whey protein/Crystal Light concoction is a good substitute for the real thing.

just checking on my ticker

Trying again...lol

Thanks stuck! I think I'm going to try Meemo's concoction...at least for a few days until I can get some HNS ordered. And, I'm going to follow your lead and jump back on green....that's better than what I'm doing now!

I'm hoping that being back active on this board will help too. Everyone here was a great inspiration to me earlier.

Ok now that my ticker is working...I just thought I would check in. Thought I had a bad week last week because I stayed completely OP, but the scale did not look like it was moving. When i went to weigh in on Wednesday I had lost 2.2 pounds!!!!

This week has been a completely different story though, my teenage son plays baseball and we had the finale of a six week schedule with two out of town ballgames (Thur, and Fri) and a 5 game tournament Sat and Sun. Truely hard to stay OP with food our HNS. I weigh in tomorrow and deserve whatever I get because I know that it was my fault. I think these weeks are easier to handle though when you know that you controlled your own destiny. It's the weeks that you stayed completely OP and still didn't move the scale that are so difficult to handle.

I am staying strong and got right back on schedule yesterday and today. So everyone keep strong and realize that we are all "worth it".