The road to 12...

About 2 1/2 weeks ago I started the Slim 4 Life diet. I have decided that I wanted to document this whole weight loss process that I am going through. I think it will help me monitor the whole process and maybe, if someone stumbles across my page that is in my same boat it might help them. I imagine I will talk about the good (how much I have lost and the benefits) and the bad (struggles and gains *eek*) and probably some other randoms just because I will feel inspired. However, this blog will be to primarily explain the diet itself. Here we go...

The beginning: Once I made the decision to start Slim 4 Life, I submitted an online request for a free consultation at a center near me (Overland Park). I attended my appointment which ended up last about 1 hour. During the consultation they told me how the plan worked, what I could expect, etc. By the end of the sales pitch (let's face it, consultation was a nice word for sales pitch), I decided to jump on board and get started ASAP. For my weight loss goal of 87 lbs. it will take me about 30 weeks to get to that point. In addition to those 30 weeks, there is a 6 week set of maintenance where foods that were "off plan" (i.e. pizza, dairy, beer, etc) is introduced one week at a time in moderation. After those 6 weeks there is another set of 20 weeks that is sustainability. These 20 weeks are to help teach me how to keep myself within 5lbs of my goal weight. In total I will be with them for 56 weeks. They also sent me home with a package of "goodies" that I will explain later on in this post. My appointment was on a Thursday, on Monday I started my 3 day prep. During the prep you can have as much raw green veggies and protein as you want. The more red meat the better, I suggest you enjoy this now because red meat becomes limited through the diet. I had a class on Wednesday which weighed me after the prep (down 3.5 lbs) and they explained everything that goes with the plan from the food you can eat, the portion, the supplements, the pills, etc. After that I was sent on my way and started the diet the next morning (a week after my initial visit).

The cost: I have done some searching on the web, mostly to see where I can buy the products for a cheaper cost. *E-bay is my bff!!! In my search I found several websites that talked about how bad this diet was, and blah blah blah. One of the biggest complaints was the cost. Face it, if you want to drop the weight, it is going to cost you some green. Even if it is to just join the gym, you are going to have to pay something, this program is no different. I won't deny that it is expensive but in the end I think it will balance out. As stated, my plan is for 56 weeks, this amount will vary based on how much weight you have/want to lose. If you want more than 87lbs your plan will probably be longer, less you might be shorter. It is customized to your needs. At $7 a week I paid about $392. This amount is paid up front (they accept credit cards) and is non-refundable. While it sucks that it is non-refundable, if you spend that much money you will be more likely to stick to it. You are also required to go see them at least 3 times a week so your $7 pays for your opportunity to talk to the experts 3-6 times a week. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
In addition to the cost of the program you have the "goodies" to buy. Since I still haven't explained those, let's just say if you bought EVERYTHING that they offer for the plan you would spend about $350 a month. You don't have to buy everything, but to get the guarantee they offer you do have to purchase the vitamin ($135 per month), the metabolizer (i think it is around $100) and the supplements ($7 a box and you will go through 2 boxes a week).

The goodies: I have mentioned these a couple times and I bet your curiosity is peaked! :o) These were also mentioned in the websites I found, people talking about how they were bad for you and what not. Everything they have you take is all natural and herbal formulas. It is just a combination of the right herbs and vitamins. First up is your herbal vitamin. Just like any other multi-purpose vitamin it will provide you with essential vitamins to be healthy plus it has an extra bit of your B vitamins, calcium, and metabolic boosters. You take this once a day, no biggie. Next you have your metabolizer, again self explanatory. This is a small capsule that you take 2 pills, 30 minutes before every meal (total of 6 a day). The final "mandatory" item is your supplements. These come in the forms of bars, cappuccino, hot chocolate, pudding, soy nuts, fruit drink mixes, etc). You have one of these 2 times a day. There are some rules around what combinations of supplements you can take, but for sake of writing more, they explain it in the class.
There are 3 optional goodies as well. In the starter kit that you buy, you get a omega oils (fish oil) bottle, a box of thermo boost, and a bottle of carb blocker. The fish oil capsules are taken the same as the metabolizer so you end up taking a total of 6 a day. These help to drop the inches and they also have health benefits to your skin, hair, nails, joints, etc. I LOVE THEM! The thermo-boost is a powder that you mix with water (it says with 8 oz but I suggest 20 oz) and take 2 times a day. This is supposed to give you energy (like a red bull) and help your metabolism and helping you last longer between meals & snacks. It also has some benefits similar to "airborne", or so they tell me. Finally, the carb blocker is basically to help you block any extra carbs you take in. You can take this up to 3 times a day, about 10 minutes before your meal. They suggested to take this when going out to eat (i.e. when I am on a business trip and I know I will be eating off plan or something I didn't cook myself). They basically can give you 300 calories back for each pill you take.

The food: The next complaint I heard all through the websites was about the food you have to eat. You really do have several options of food. However, if you don't like veggies... this is NOT the diet for you!!! In a day (for my plan at least, there are actually 5 different plans) I get 2 proteins (typically about 5-6 oz per serving), 4 veggies (1 c. raw or 1/2 c. cooked), 2 fruits (the amount varies by fruit and the fruits allowed are limited), 2 carbs (again amounts vary and carbs allowed are limited), and 1 fat serving (I typically use 1 tsp butter but there are 3 options for the fat). All of that is in addition to the supplements (bar/drink). You have your 3 meals a day, plus a morning and afternoon snack out of that list of portions. As is to be expected, there are some limitations to what you can have but they spell it out for you and if you have a question you go see them (the people at the center) 3 times a week so you can always ask them about stuff. Some of the restrictions is that you are only allowed to have red meat 2 times a week. You are also limited on the amount of high sodium protein like salmon or cottage cheese to 3 times a week. You are also restricted to never having the limited proteins two days in a row (you can't have steak on Monday and salmon on Tuesday, nor can you have roast on Monday and steak on Tuesday). The rest of the time you have the allowed proteins like chicken, turkey, and several types of seafood (shrimp, lobster, orange roughy, cod, etc). It really is plenty of food and my understanding is, if you are on a higher plan (I am on plan 2) you get different types of servings of these foods. You are also required to have 1/4tsp to 1/2tsp of Morton's Lite Salt (it is how your get your potassium since things like bananas are not allowed).

The hard part: As with every diet plan there are some difficult things such as not being able to eat anything and everything you want. Obviously that is part of how you got to where you are and/or why you are still there. It is difficult when you really want something that is restricted (i.e. pizza or cheese). The hardest part for me has been the beer. I have finally gotten back in touch with several friends from college and we drink beer, it is what we do when we get together. I am either going to drink water or drink beer and risk gaining some of what I have lost back. The other hard part is finding new ways to make things. I am limited to what I can use to cook with and since I am used to butter, soy sauce, creole seasoning, etc. I am trying to be creative. I can use just about any spice/herb so long as it isn't a salt beyond the Mortons Lite (no garlic salt, onion salt, etc) and I am also able to use Mrs. Dash products. I have found, I am not the biggest fan of Mrs. Dash but I LOVE dill stuff!!! Some people find it hard to get the required 80 oz of water in as well. I am doing ok with that but see my tips section for more on that.

Exercise: I think the stupidest complaint I heard in the websites was when someone said they (the people at Slim 4 Life) told them they couldn't exercise. NONSENSE! The Slim4Life plan is designed to work without exercise (this is great if you have some sort of physical handicap and can't actually do a lot of exercise). However, they will NEVER tell you not to exercise!!! They tell you that if you choose to exercise to do things like Cardio workouts (bike, walking/running, stairs, etc) rather than lifting because with lifting you will see the inches go down but not so much your weight number. They also say that if you are working out for more than 6 hours a week regularly then you should let them know so they can boost your caloric intake because you are not taking in enough calories for that. Exercise is completely optional and I won't lie, when you first start you are probably not all about the gym because you don't really have the energy. Within a few days I had the energy to get up and go do something like walk or do the elliptical machine, but I don't feel guilty if I don't like the plan won't work.

Tips: Obviously I am not an "old pro" at this by any means but in 2.5 weeks I am down almost 15lbs and have learned a few things. The first is with the food. Don't go buy your food until you actually start the diet and only buy enough to last you a week when it comes to veggies and fruit. These items spoil and since you are eating specified quantities of them (primarily the veggies) you might get sick of them and need to spice them up a bit. Things like your chicken breasts, buy in bulk, portion out into zip-lock baggies and freeze. I suggest portioning out EVERYTHING when you buy it so that way all you have to do is thaw/prepare one baggie at a time and it is a bit quicker for the cooking part. When cooking, make your lunch the night before either while making dinner or after it will save you time in the morning and you are already cooking anyway. Since you have already portioned everything cooking dinner shouldn't take more than about 30 minutes so take your metabolizer and fish oil when you start making dinner (depending on how long it will take you) so you hit your 30 min. mark for them to be the most effective. I also have to say, as much as I prefer a Price Choppper or Hy-Vee over Walmart, I found out this week that the Walmart Neighborhood Food Market has the best selection for me to get things like frozen seafood and veggies (I actually found great deals on frozen salmon and orange roughy planks that I couldn't find at Price Chopper). For the fresh stuff though I will still hit up the normal grocery store.
For you water, I suggest (again I hate to say it) Walmart's Sam's choice 20 oz bottled water. You can buy other brands (dasani makes a 20 oz bottle too), but you can get 24 bottles of Sam's for a great price. You will be drinking a lot of water so the cheaper the better. If you use one bottle a day (to conserve money and plastic) and empty it 4 times you have hit your 80 oz of water. I typically have about 30 to 40 oz gone by the time I am off work. It is important to keep above 80 oz and below 100 oz since outside of that range you risk retaining water which impacts your weight loss. You can add lemon if you like for taste (I prefer without). You keep a food diary that helps you monitor your water intake as well so make sure you fill it out.
I also recommend you use your meeting time. If you say you will be in on a day and don't make it or don't get there 3 times a week, they don't give you a hard time (at least they haven't done that to me yet). I am sure if you miss a lot or just stop showing up they might call you, but I haven't done that so I don't know. The reason I say to use your meeting time is this, for those of you who have done the whole dieting thing for more than just a time or two you know how disappointed you are when you don't succeed the way you wanted to. With each diet you are a little less excited to tell people because if you don't hit your goal wait you feel like they will judge you for it not working. I have only told my family members, a few co-workers, and a few friends about my being on this diet. The downside of this is that diets actually work better when you don't go it alone, something about having another person be it competition, motivation, whatever they help make it work better. Well with this program I get both. I don't have to tell everyone I know and I don't have to have someone doing it with me because I have the support, motivation, and actually the competition all at the center. The competition part comes with a board they have that lists everyone (first name last initial only) that was a "big achiever" for the week and their loss. The scores from last week range 3.0 to 11.4 (I was #2 with a 7.3 loss). Seeing these numbers helps to know you can do it but also give you something to strive to beat! Plus talking with the counselors helps keep you going if you had a bad week (i.e. my business trip to Chicago where I gained 1.5 lbs *still made it to that 7.3 though).
If you mess up and go off plan there are somethings you can do. I had to go to Chicago on business and unfortunately when it comes to those types of meetings meals are usually provided or you eat out. Rarely are you able to stick exactly to plan. First, remember that it is OKAY!!! Take your carb blockers on these occasions when you know you will be eating off plan or going out, they will help a lot. Try to be good about sticking to the diet (I wasn't, I had cheesecake) but if not think about exercising. I spent some time in the pool to help lessen the effects of the off plan stuff I had. Finally, don't lie to the counselors. If you tell them that you went off plan or whatever else they will help work off any damage that may come from that. For me with my trip, breaking a bone, and having a cold (broken bones and cold medicine will make you retain water) I gained 1.5 lbs (not to bad) so they had me do a water flush. This is where I drank 88oz on day 1, 96 oz the next day, 88 the third day, and back to my normal 80. It worked! :o) I am sure there are cases where this doesn't work or there is something better and that is why it is important to talk to them about your specific situation (that is why you pay them $7 a week, not so they can give you a hard time).
Finally is my tip for thinking about the cost. This was the hardest part for me so far. It is a lot of money, there is no denying that. When looking at the cost though, it actually doesn't seem as bad in comparison to what I was paying for going out to eat, drinking a few beers with my friends every week, and running in to fast food joints/buying lunch at work. Adding up those costs plus the cost of my normal multi-vitamin I think they pretty much balance out. I also think that once this is all over and done with I will still be spending less on my food bills because I will be eating less. It is all a matter of perspective and I for one don't want to let the bank get in the way of what is doing so much for me health wise. If it starts to get too expensive I will start cutting back on things like the extra stuff you can buy from them (such as the thermo-boost and the carb blocker). I will find a way to make it work.

Anyway, this is really long. I don't think any blogs will be this long but hopefully this provided you with a good bit of background info on what I will be dealing with for at least the next 56 weeks. Final thing... the title of the blog and this post, the road to 12, is based on the fact that on my weight loss program I hope to be at least a size 12 by the time this is done. :o)

Happy reading!