Ready to share my news

I'm now ready to share my news. I've really enjoyed the guessing that everyone's been doing. The most common guess, by far, was that I'm pregnant. The one that made me chuckle the most, though, was when one friend asked if I was going undercover for the FBI or CIA. Marlon's reply to those that guessed I was starting a new full time job was "wouldn't *that* be nice?!"

Anyway, it's probably not going to be nearly as exiting or interesting to all of you, but since it's something big that will be going on in our lives and since I'm asking for the support of my friends and family (emotionally and, in some cases for you locals, more practically), I thought it was important to share.

It's no secret to anyone that I have some significant weight to lose. Now that I'm 42, it's really important that I do this for my health to prevent major problems which I know will be lurking around the corner if I don't do something. Regular weight loss programs like Weight Watchers and watching calories, fats and carbs, etc. have been a little bit successful for me over the years for the short term, but when you have so much to lose, those slower methods are difficult and hard to sustain. I feel very confident that eating plans such as those will be very beneficial to me as a form of maintenance of the weight loss, but I need something a bit more drastic to get the weight off.

So, I've decided to go on the UCI medically supervised very-low-calorie fasting diet. It's a rapid form of weight loss, which you can only do under strict medical superivision with weekly doctor appts, blood work every two weeks, frequent EKG's and other monitoring, in addition to two- hour weekly group sessions that provide nutrition and exercise education, behavior modification and group support, as well as regular phone calls with my health educator/weight loss coach. It's a very intense and closely supervised program. My "eating plan" will consist solely of the special shakes (chocolate and vanilla) and the special chicken broth and special oatmeal, plus non-calorie beverages (I'm going to be aiming for lots of varieties of teas and diet sodas in addition to 64 oz of water a day.) I'll continue to do my daily swimming (although I'm planning on going back to a full hour a day instead of 30 minutes) and I'm going to add half hour morning and nightly walks with Midnight. The increased exerise (that will be 2 hrs a day on average!) should really help me lose quite rapidly, which is why they monitor you so closely.

Many of you know that I've done this program before - about 18 years ago when I was in law school, a couple of years before I met Marlon. I was extremely successful on the program and lost 140 pounds in about 6 months. (It's very, very rapid - I'm hoping and expecting to lose about 3-6 pounds a week, which will be about 20 pounds a month). I got down too low that time, so I gained a bit back right away, but then sustained the weight loss very well until the two pregnancies, which became my "license to eat," and I gained it all back and then some over the last 15 years.

I'm excited about this and very motivated to be successful. I never went "out of the box" (their expression for staying on your boxes of shake packets and not eating any real food during the program) and I plan to be as dedicated to it this time. It will be harder, though, I'm sure, because the other time I was in law school and living at home and had no one to care for but myself. Now I have to grocery shop, prepare meals for a family, sit down for dinner with my family, and attend far more social functions than I did then, which have you ever noticed they all revolve around food?! :)

Here's where all of you come in... I will welcome and can definitely use your support! Emotionally, especially, because this is a hard thing to do! But also, for those of you that live here, please don't forget about us and think that we shouldn't be invited to things just because I'm not eating. The rest of the family will still be eating and I will still enjoy a normal social lifestyle -- I'll be happy to join you with a bowl of ice to munch on! Just please don't be offended if I don't offer to help in the kitchen or if I don't offer to bring an elaborate dish to a potluck. Sign me up for the paper products or something I can pick up easily at the store!

If you're some of those friends that love to cook (you know who you are!) or enjoy helping out a friend in need, I'm sure Marlon and the kids would love an occasional home cooked meal! Marlon's going to do what he can to help (he's EXTREMELY supportive of this) and I will be making the basic tried and true very simple and easy to prepare dinners, but if anyone feels like bringing us a meal now and then, the family would be grateful!!

Jewish friends, I'm not going be making Shabbat dinners for awhile or cooking for the Jewish high holidays or Hanukkah. We'd love to be invited to join you for your holiday celebrations this year!

You all know we love to have people over, especially around the Hanukkah season. Rather than never having anyone come over, I'll just be making everything potluck and asking others to bring stuff and handle the "kitchen duty." I know you'll understand because you're all such great friends!

I officially started with my first session last night, although as motivated as I was to go off food and start my shakes this morning, my health educator/coach suggested that I (and most of the group) wait until Monday. She said it's difficult to start right before a weekend and if you have social plans, it's not the best time to start because the first 3-5 days are very difficult as your body adjusts to the very low amount of calories (it's 500-1000 calories a day, which is much lower than what most people are used to.) After the initial period, it's not hard, but those first few days are tough and she said it's better to do that when you're not in a social setting. Since we have 3 parties and an Angels baseball game this weekend, she strongly suggested that I wait the few days and start fresh with shakes on Monday, and Marlon convinced me that she was right, so I'm going to take their advice and do that.

My plan is to do the program for a full six months and move on to the "refeeding" phase in mid February, which will give me the required 6 weeks to get back into a normal diet before Harrison's Bar Mitzvah weekend. If I still want to lose a little more weight after that, I can start up again go on a "modified fasting diet" (through the same program) where you use shakes and special entrees from the HMR company in conjunction with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Even if I don't do that, I'll be on maintenance and their maintenance program is 18 months, which provides great support, and you can use shakes and HMR entrees whenever you want in place of meals or snacks as a tool for success to help you budget your calories and plan your eating so that you can maintain the weight loss while still eating the foods you enjoy, just in proper moderation and making appropriate choices. It's a good program with a great success rate for both losing and maintaining and I'm very sure that this will work for me long term. I've had talks with my doctor and Marlon to come up with a goal weight that is good for me and me alone. The weight that my doctor feels will be the best for me to maintain and the best for my health is still a weight that would be considered overweight for most of you, but will be right for me and far better than the "morbidly obese" I'm considered to be now. I'm not doing this for cosmetic reasons or to become super skinny, I just want to reach a healthy weight for me and to keep that weight long term.

I did spend a little bit of time considering bariatric surgery, which you're probably heard of, but for many reasons decided that this was a better way to go. Both are drastic, both are intense, both get rapid results, but Marlon and I just weren't keen on the risks and long term affects of the bariatric surgery (you can NEVER put any kind of sugar in your body forever because it makes you physically ill and you can only consume 2 oz of food or beverage at one time) and feel that I have the motivation, dedication and know-how required to maintain the weight loss on my own and with the support of this UCI program.

So, now you know what's going on. I'll keep you posted through the blog, although life will go on in other ways, so don't worry - not all posts are going to be about this. It's going to be a huge part of our lives for the next several months, but not the only thing! I'm excited, movitated and ready for this to change my life in positive ways, even though the next few months might be a bit difficult. I know I can count on your support, friends and family, and that helps quite a bit! Wish me well! (Hey, now would be an EXCELLENT time to comment!)