CommuteCommando

In 1990 when I returned to College as an old man of 35, I went on Jenny Craig. It worked really well. After I got out of college I hit 300 lbs.

I don't blame Jenny. It, like Weight watchers, is based on sound nutrition. Medifast, Optifast and others like that offer a similar product, but are often faster weight loss.

The danger of recidivism comes from the "on a diet" mentality. I used Jenny Craig to hit a goal weight of 175. Once I got there, I said "Great! I did it!" then went back to my old habits. A health crisis in '08 put me on a lifestyle change. I have lost nearly 90 lbs and am now down to 210 lbs. Rather than focusing on a goal weight, I focus on eating right. I have determined that I will maintain this for life. The weigh loss has been slow, but I have been loosing for over five years, and am mostly keeping it off. There have been some back slides, but the trend continues downward.

I will not dis Jenny, it was a good program, and I took away something very important from it-structure. A common misconception is that over weight people obsess about food. In my case it was the opposite. I didn't think about it, I just ate it. Driving home from work; hit the drive through. It was automatic. Now I obsess about what I eat. Time, amount, quality. I track every calorie I put into my body, and every mile I put on the bike. If I let up, I go back on autopilot and gain weight.

Now here is the deal. I will not discourage you from doing Optifast. I say go for it. Just remember that when you are done, you're not really done. You will never be done.

I can offer one bit of anecdotal evidence to debunk this statement. It works for me.