The Tools to My Success

I cringe at the title of this post, because I am not at my goal weight yet. But, I *have* lost 36 lbs and am off all my obesity-related medications, so I would consider my journey already a success.

I wanted to show you the tools/tricks I use on a daily basis that I just can't live without.

Bag Your Day

I saw this idea on Pinterest long before I tried Medifast. I'd considered doing it, but wasn't sure I'd like the food/it was too expensive/etc. You know, the standard excuses. 

Basically as soon as I get my Medifast order for the month, I sit down with a bunch of zip-lock baggies and put my day worth of food in each bag. I used to use a spreadsheet to make sure I wasn't repeating the same variety on every day. Now I just sit with the boxes, decide what looks good and go for it. The trick is 5 Medifast Meals per bag, per day. I love the Medifast optional snacks, so I put one of those in there per day too. This way I don't have to count how many meals I have. There's no guesswork. It's just there, and as I go I grab my meals. Sometimes I don't feel like what's in the bag and will exchange it for a meal from another bag. Which is fine. I love this method and it's nice to take ALL the work out of deciding what I'll eat for that day. I just grab a bag and go!

Fill Your Jugs

 Another way I take ALL the thinking out of doing Medifast is my trusty Rubbermaid 64 oz jug. I fill it up in the morning and make sure it's gone by lunch. Then I refill it and make sure the second is gone by the time I finish my workout at 9pm.

Medifast recommends you drink 64 oz of water. So, you could just fill it up once and make sure it's gone by the end of the day. That's what I was doing when I first started. But if you read my Week 8 update, I had a stall and bumped up my water intake to 128 oz and broke the stall.

But whatever you chose, this is a great way to ensure you're getting in all your water!

Weigh More Now, Weigh Less Later

By far, my favorite, and most used, gadget for Medifast is my kitchen food scale. I've had it for years

and have no clue where I bought it (I'm guessing Bed Bath and Beyond or Walmart). It sat in a drawer for a number of years, and came out the day I got my Medifast order. I make sure to weigh every lean item I have, and now that I found a spreadsheet with all of the weights in grams for vegetables, I'll be weighing those too (instead of my "how much can I cram into a level half cup method. ha!)

I didn't post a picture of my measuring cups and spoons, but those get a workout too :)

Go for a Spin

 This is one of my favorite gadgets for making Medifast interesting. It's the Hamilton Beach personal drink blender. It's like 15 bucks at Walmart and worth every penny. In fact, it kind-of makes me want to splurge the 60-ish bucks for one of those Magic Bullets.

This thing is great for making up smoothies with the shakes, mixing up the soft-serve, even making my Wendy's Style frosty with the Medifast Chocolate pudding. (I'll post that recipe at some point. A similar recipe is on my Pinterest board :) )

Grill It Up!

Oh, how I love this Rival Sandwich Maker. It was about ten bucks at Walmart, and again, worth every penny. I bought it after finding a Medifast Grilled Cheese recipe on Pinterest. After failing miserably the first time (tip: spray PAM on the grates, even on first use!!!), I scraped up the mess, threw the cheese on it, and ate the first heavenly grilled cheese (however ugly) on-plan.

Then I thought, well, if I can make THAT with this little appliance, what else can I make? I've developed a couple recipes I'll be posting in the future (think Stuffed French Toast and Grilled PB&J sandwiches and a few other things ;) )

If you're doing Medifast and getting a little tired of the standard fare, consider buying one of these babies and expanding your meal options. I love mine!