Staying On Schedule

One thing I have learned from my experience to date on Optifast is I do best when I adhere to the same product schedule every day. For me, that's a shake around 8:30 a.m., one at 12:30 p.m.. another at 3:30 p.m., and then a final shake and soup at 7:00 p.m. I round out the day with my sugar-free jello at 9:00 p.m. When I follow this plan, I never get hungry and my energy lasts all day long.

However, there are inevitably days when the schedule doesn't work out this way. And that tends to cause me problems. For example, yesterday at the family gathering, everyone had BBQ sandwiches at 5:30 p.m. Not wanting to stand out, I had my soup and shake with them. When I got home around 8:30 p.m. I was ravenous. I had my jello but that didn't take the hunger away. I drank my water and that helped some, but I was still hungry. I went to bed that way and didn't sleep very well. Fortunately, I got back on track today.

I have decided that I really dislike those hunger pangs. I start thinking about food -- nothing in particular, just something that would take the hunger away. I have not had to deal with them much. Mostly just those first few days in the beginning when I was transitioning onto the products, and a few weeks ago when we substituted one of my 800 shakes for a 70 shake to try and increase my weight loss. But altering the schedule can cause problems too as I found out yesterday.

I've heard from some who aren't able to get their daily product allotment in all the time, and I wonder if they find they don't feel well. I think that would happen to me. I need those calories to function properly and I don't like to be uncomfortable during this fasting phase. Getting my five products in each day has never been a problem for me so far, it's just spacing them out correctly that can be a challenge sometimes.

It helps that I like the shakes and soups, and I've worked up an extract "flavor schedule" for them. I have my banana nut shake in the morning, almond vanilla for lunch, orange in the afternoon and butter rum shake at dinner. I purchase both the chicken and tomato soups and alternate night to night. Knowing in advance what I'm having helps keep me on track. Not everyone will be this way and will probably want more flexibility. But it works for me.

So staying on schedule --taking all of my daily products and spacing them correctly-- is fairly important for me, for health reasons, ease of product consumption, and to avoid side effects. I recommend this strategy wholeheartedly.