After talking to my dietician (and my awesome friend Jenera) about possibly trying meal replace to kickstart my stubborn pounds, I began to feel more and more comfortable with the idea. With starting to get my digestion started, I figured this would be the best time to start meal replacement as well – just to get everything on the right track.
As I’m sure most of you know, the stinky part about meal replacement stuff is that it’s pretty expensive to go buy a box ‘just to try’. If it turns out to be gross, then you feel doubly bad about the whole experience. Thankfully, my dietician was kind enough to give me free samples of a fairly popular line of meal replacements in Australia.
As it turns out, they’re edible. More than edible. They’re pretty damn good.
As my dietician said, the main hurdle is getting over the psychology of it. That bar (or shake, or soup or dessert) is your meal. Period. Nothing else with it (except a little bit of essence here or an added spice there for flavor – one of the reasons I like this brand). Getting past that ‘need’ to eat a heap is hard.
I discussed it with the husband. My main concern, of course, was the expense. Even at the discount chemist, spending that much on myself seemed a bit… excessive. The prices aren’t bad – I can’t get a regular shake for just over a dollar, that’s for sure.
But, we broke it down and yes, it seems expensive because we’re buying it all at once, but we’ll actually save a bit of money. How? Well… I won’t need any additional food besides a small amount of veggies (having a cup of veggies every day is an absolute must with this plan). We won’t save heaps, but we will save.
While my dietician didn’t say I had to do the ‘intense’ phase, I decided to go ahead and do it anyway. The intense phase lasts twelve weeks, but I am going to go for a month (until the end of June) and then check in then. If I’m doing well and feel I can keep it up, I will.
I am a bit nervous about it, but I need this so badly right now that my confidence is overpowering my fear. Plus, there is so much variety (more than I usually see with meal replacement stuff), you’re allowed to add spices and essences so you don’t get sick of the flavours, plus – until I reach under 100 kilos – I get a serve of fruit every day. That’s in addition to the must-have serve of veggies with a little bit of olive oil.
I’m looking forward to being fit.