Meal Planning the Medifast Way!

Happy Tuesday!  This weekend was soooo much better than the last one.  It took some basic planning just to make sure I was always on schedule with my meals and lean and green.  During my last weigh-in, I purchased a month's worth of food. Lot of newbie foods, soooo excited!!! 

 Some of the new items are:

• Parmesean Cheese Puffs
• Vanilla Pudding
• Brownie
• Chai Latte
• Caramel Crunch Bar
• Tropical Fruit Punch
• Peach Drink
• Cream of Broccoli Soup

I spread everything out on the dinner table by groups. Breakfast always a drink (easy to drink while driving), lunch (always a warm filling soup) and dessert (ending the day with sweetness!). Weeks worth of food is all waiting for me in neat little bags.

Todays Meal Plan was:

Breakfast           Essential 1 Cappuccino
Mid-Morning     Chocolate Shake
Lunch                 Beef Stew
Mid-Afternoon   Tropical Fruit Punch
Evening              Chocolate Brownie

And of course, lots and lots of water.

For dinner, I had to stop and run an errand so I had leftover Buffalo meat with canned no salt added green beans and H2O.

 Really good! No seasoning other than a little black pepper.

Tommorow's lunches are waiting in the fridge. Cappuccino for breakfast, Dutch Choc Shake for mid morning, Beef stew for lunch and Tropical Fruit Punch for mid-afternoon meal.

Weigh-In #4 - Day 15

Weigh-in  #4 was this week. Less 2 more lbs for a total of 13. So excited! Averaging 6.5 per week! Yay! Such a positive note to finish off the week with. Unfortunately, weigh-in #3 was not great.  Did not gain any, but did not lose any either.  This past weekend really affected my weight-loss goals. It was great to know I was getting back on track!  

I was visiting the office twice a week, but beginning next week I am doing only one visit per week. Yikes. A bit nervous but I think I can do it. The support has been great in providing the guidance and answering all the questions that came up during the beginning.

Our next step is joining a gym.  The hot humid weather is uncomfortable to even walk in. The enjoyable walks are gone! So we will tour the Fort Bend YMCA, the online tour has a great kiddie area.  The office recommended Fitness Connection for their low monthly price. Just today I saw that one is coming soon less than a few miles away. We do have a stationary bike, a weight machine in the garage, and pilates videos, so we have to decide what we think will work best.

To catchup on this week's dinners, here is the Citrus-Grilled Pork Chops. Five ounces of boneless pork loin chops marinaded with lime juice, garlic and olive oil. So good!

 We also tried the sun-dried tomato chicken baked with broccoli.

The night before work. I prepped all my meals for the next day. In the blender cup is the morning favorite iced Cappuccino, ready for a final spin in the blender in the morning.  Chicken and wild rice soup for lunch, with chocolate shake and pretzels.

Our favorite recipe from the Lean and Green book is the Nothern Italian Shrimp & Broccoli. Such a good recipe and quick to prep and cook!

The Medifast office gave me a sample of this Peanut Butter Soft Serve. 

 I crushed the ice in the blender.

 Combined the peanut butter soft serve powder.

 The results! Smooth and delicious. I don't think I would buy it again. I am more of an almond butter lover.

 I am trying out the Chocolate pudding for my 5th Medifast Meal of the day.  What better to end the day with chocolate pudding.

 Combine water with the pudding powder.

 Wisk away until combined. Do not stop to take a picture or the result will be a little lumpy.

 Not like the picture on the box, but definately really good! I placed it in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Just enough time for it to chill. Love it!

Weekend of missing meals =(!

This was a very trying weekend on the plan. It seemed I almost missed the 2-3 hour window between every meal!  I actually completely missed two meals without noticing the time. Visiting family and running after a soon-to-be two year old makes it much more hectic than sitting at the office =/.  I can't wait to go back to work to get back into the routine of things! That sounds so sad!

The soups are a great filling way to do lunch and still feel like you are having an actual lunch portion. They are so filling and taste pretty good.

I was running late for dinner. So I needed something quick and easy to prep, with no defrost time. The Zucchini Fritters were perfect.  Grating the zucchini had to be the "hardest part". That and actually having to finish 2 whole eggs and 4 egg whites!!! Lots of egg! I am not an egg lover, specially after the second one!! So this one was a tough recipe to finish.

The zucchini is grated, ready for the egg.

 Combined both together to give me this.

Into the pan they went, 2-3 tablespoons per fritter.  These spread pretty easily when on the pan. I would have preferred them to be a little thicker. Again, not an egg lover here.

 So naturally, I stacked my portion pancake style. Again, one portion gave me way to much food.

 Closeup!

 For the last Medifast Meal I had the Coffee Soft Serve. It is delish! Took the ice through couple of rounds in the blender to give me this.

 Halfway through, I opened it up to scrape the powder of the soft serve still remaining.

 At the end I got this smooth and creamy textured soft serve. LOVE IT! The texture is just right. And with the wonderful hot and humid weather in Sugar Land, its a keeper!

 Ready to be enjoyed with a good glass of water!

Second Weigh in - Day 9 of Medifast Plan

Yesterday was my second weigh-in.  Scary and exciting. They confirmed, I am now less a total of 11 pounds!! So excited!!! Sticking to the plan is the easiest thing. And since I have been following the recipe book they provide, the Lean Green meal is easy to prepare and plan for. The recipes have a small number of ingredients which makes preparing them even that much easier. I just prepared my shopping list for tommorow. Can't wait to try new recipes.

Tonight's recipe was the Broccoli Chicken Dijon. Overall, I would give this recipe a solid B. Good flavors, easy to prepare and fast to cook! This are the ingredients for two serving sizes.

 I sauted the broccoli with garlic and olive oil.

 Cooked chicken, added broth and mustard.

 Then mixed everything together.

Dinner is served. Again the portion is huge! I have literally compared the book ounces to the scale to confirm! I find that the 5 Medifast meals really help me enjoy the Lean Green. I take more time in savoring the taste.

Earlier today, I had the Chicken and Wild Rice soup for lunch. For work, I usually make them the night before and leave them in the fridge until lunchtime. Today I only prepped it an hour before lunch.  The overnight soak really helps the texture of the ingredients. I noticed a few hard pieces of rice....=(. The taste was still good. Lesson learned, SOAK SOAK SOAK!!!!

Last night's dinner was the baked salmon. Delish!!! Love this dish, I looove salmon and asparagus!!

This was a great week! Can't wait for next week's weigh-in! I am hoping for another great week!

First Weigh-In and More Recipe Pics!

Hi there! It's officially begun, the weigh ins! Yikes!

First week in, I am less 4lbs!!! Yay!!! Super Yay! Just knowing that this plan in working is making it even easier to stick to it. The plan is the easiest thing really. It has your 5 meals ready for you, all you have to worry about one! Super convenient food that is also pretty yummy. The support at the office is great! Super friendly and so accommodating!!

Since I passed the first week mark I can now begin getting food other than shakes and bars. I did love the shake and bars so I definately made sure to purchase more of them! I got used to them. =) It was starting to be a routine.

Here are the goodies!

 A list of what I got this week:

• Honey Mustard Pretzel Sticks
• Cinnamon Pretzel Sticks
• Chocolate Crunch Bars
• Essential 1 - Calorie Burn Cappuccino
• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
• Dutch Chocolate Shake
• Coffee Soft Serve
• Chili Nacho Cheese Puffs
• Soup bowl w/lid and spoon.

Which in about 5 minutes of assembly line style work, got me these beauties! Great organizational trick from the online Medifast Community.  I place 4 meals in these baggies. I take out a bag the night before, make the shake for fridge if any, then throw the ziploc into my purse and take to work. I leave the 5th meal at home. No point in giving it a field trip!

 What remains goes into the recycling bin!

Organization time! The food made me expand into the second shelf. On the first shelf is the scale, measuring cups and daily medicines.
The top shelf has the meals, bottles, extra pill bottles/boxes and the 5th Medifast Meal packages in the plastic container.

 All lined up and ready to go!

 I tried out another recipe from the Medifast Recipe booklet. This time it was the Spicy Tilapia with Spinach and Tomatos.  Here are the ingredients. Ready for some serious chopping and mixing!

Which gave us this beauty. I placed a layer of the spinach then the fish with the seasoning mixture and finally topped on the chopped tomatoes.

 Close up!

The finished product......so SPICY. It was tolerable but it was definately spicy!!!!!! I will modify to make it less spicy next time.

I was so excited to try new food. It was hard to pick which one! So I tried these sticks. They are pretty good! The taste is not overpowering which I like, just enough of the honey mustard to taste it!

 This is the full serving....less three sticks!

The next recipe we tried was the Italian Sausage Patties. I love peppers, so those were good. The patties were seasoned just right. The warmer the food was the better it tasted!

 They smelled wonderful!

Next up...........is the Grilled Sun-Dried Tomato Salmon. Less the grilled. I will be baking these instead. I am familiar with the taste of both of these babies in the oven, in the grill, not so much. I am afraid they will come out pretty dry. With organic salmon, I leave the experimenting for later!! =)

That's it. Hope you found something useful. If anything, seeing the actual pictures of recipes always seems to help me out. Let me know if you have any questions!

Day 2 & Day 3!

Day 3 down! Yay! I feel good. I did feel really hungry this morning around 10ish. But I moved offices and was unpacking boxes. The added movement with a decrease in caloric intake could be to blame. I drank more water and waited it out until my next Medifast Meal.

Lunchtime brought another surprise, I had forgotten to pack half of my Lean and Green for lunch. Nooooooooo!!! I was upset! Since I had been feeling hungry I was so looking forward to the shrimp. So I ate the bar instead and for dinner had the full Lean and Green portion. And I must confess I asked my co-worker to bring me two pickle spears from the deli. I ate those between the lunch Medifast Meal and next Medifast Meal shake.

 Yesterday, Day 2 on the plan, I had an appointment with the counselor to get weighed in. Small change of 1.5 lbs down. I am hoping for more and more and more.

True to the prior post, we bought more broccoli to make the Northern Italian Shrimp recipe for dinner and another portion for lunch. 

 The aroma of the dressing with the shrimp is delish! I find that this meal is really simple to prepare and cook. The chopping is minimal, very little ingredients, and it cooks in no time! We will definately repeat this one.

 Yummy goodness.

 To me, the serving size yields alot of food! This is a picture of three servings. Trust me, we measured twice just to make sure. My husband is not on the Medifast plan but is eating the Medifast Lean and Green recipes for dinner. He is also not a seafood lover, he decided his portion was too big so he put back 3 shrimp. At the end of his meal he took them back since they were so delicious!

 My next Medifast meal was a Chocolate Crunch Bar. 

 Here is a closeup of the bar so you can see the bottom layer of chocolate that holds it all together.

 Tonight, I am pre-preparing the Dutch Chocolate Shake for my next Medifast meal of the day.

 I added enough ice just to make it smoother.

 I love these cups. The lids do a great job. And they are so much easier to clean due to the width.

I have two appointments with my counselor next week. So nervous. Like a good student I have started to fill in the Daily Success Tracker by day. I see that this has really helped other patients in identifying the best meal plans for them when they reach their plateau. Here's hoping!