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| A McDonald's choice: Yes or no? |
Let me outline what happened: A person on the full fast was in a situation where they faced a craving for a hamburger. She posted that her program nurse gave her a "green light" to go to McDonald's and get one. As you can imagine, this set off major warning bells for several people, myself included. The upshot from me was first, disbelief that a medical professional would advocate an Optifast full faster go to a fast food establishment versus advising she have a plain hamburger patty, made from 92% lean meat purchased at the grocery. Actually, I was confused as to why the nurse didn't give her tips for managing cravings so she didn't break the fast, but that's a side issue.
But also knowing that cheats, slips, program deviations, whatever you want to call them happen when you are full fasting, I tried to make suggestions of what can be chosen if you feel you must eat (or even are in a social situation where you have an AOK by the clinic to eat). I based this on the guidance I received from my own clinic, which allowed me to have one dinner out once a week after roughly 7 1/2 months on the full fast. The guidelines are very simple: 4 oz. chicken or fish, baked or grilled, not fried; a small, simple salad; and a small serving of vegetables. No carbs, no sugar, minute fat. Importantly, this is designed to keep you in ketosis and keep losing weight and shedding fat. So, for example, the McDonald's chicken sandwich pictured above would not be allowed.
Now, as you know from my posts, we have fairly hefty odds stacked against us that we will not keep our weight off after we conclude the fast. Some have argued that this is because we lose the weight quickly, and don't learn how to make the behavioral changes necessary to maintain our weight. This is certainly the case with many. Subsequently, our clinic spends a great deal of time and effort educating us about the changes we need to make -- and importantly, the choices we should make when it comes to our daily diet.
I've heard and read in countless places that if you can get yourself comfortable preparing and cooking your own healthy meals, you've got a very good chance of maintaining your weight. I know this can be very overwhelming at first for some, but please believe me when I say things can be prepared quickly, easily, and you can have fun doing it. And the food tastes great. If you are hit with an uncontrollable urge for hamburger -- and I mean really uncontrollable -- make a small patty yourself with ultra-lean meat. This is my advice. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that McDonald's, and other fast food chains, play a key role in the obesity epidemic in America. Cheap, fast, feed cravings for salt, sugar and fat -- it all adds up to weight gain. We are working so hard to be true to our fasts. And in my opinion, we must also devote just as much work on making healthy choices when it comes to deviating from the full fast routine.
Yes, I had "real" food while on a full fast -- in controlled situations and I only ate certain things. You can do this too! Get comfortable saying "No!" to fast food. You don't need it! The goal is to learn how to eat things that are good for you -- and still taste good. They are out there if you eat out, and even better, you can have full control by preparing things yourself. Give it a try. You'll be so very glad you did.
I'm shocked the clinic would advocate this not because of someone being knocked out of ketosis, but there's a bigger issue. We were told that a jump back to greasy foods like that could lead to a gallstone attack. We both know someone that it happened to and she had to have surgery to have her gall bladder removed. That's too rough of a consequence.
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I was on optifast for months strictly shakes 800 calories a day. I felt amazing! Then I stumbled upon a freak situation surprise birthday party for a friend's father who I've known since birth, he turned 87 and he himself fried up an entire Turkey. I wasn't the slightest bit tempted to eat anything, it's funny how you get used to not eating solid foods but then he brought over this huge plate of fried Turkey, homemade sweet potatoes, some sort of casserole with gravy on it. And everybody's looking at me on the deck outside like "what's your problem?" So I started to nibble then eat this plate of homemade greasy food then started to mingle with everybody on this densely populated outdoor deck. I literally felt my stomach rumble and within seconds just blew everything I ate on that plate less than a half hour earlier onto the deck and even people standing around me! It came shooting out of my butthole like a tomahawk cruise missile and the smell was something that too this day haunts people in the neighborhood. People were screaming and running, a few jumped into the pool, adults were grabbing their children screaming "Holy God Al quida is attacking!" I'm standing in pure horror as this lumpy hot liquid is spewing outta my pants through my shorts and it was like time had stopped, well it was like everything that was built up and stored for 2 decades came rushing out in those few minutes. As cars were peeling out of the driveway and people were trying to get out of the pool screaming why God why I turned to the only person not moving and it was Mr. Cartwright who's birthday it was and who handed me the food.. his look was one of astonishment and all I could say was I'm sorry do you have a broom or something. So word to the wise avoid eating greasy food after fasting.
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