Today was the first day on the Medifast 5 & 1 plan.  The plan states that you can eat every 2-3 hours and choose one of their Medifast Meals.  Along with those 5 one of your meals is a Lean & Green meal which consists of 5-8 ounces of a lean protein and 2-3 cups of low carb vegies.  By eating every couple of hours your metabolism increases and each Medifast Meal is about 100 calories so that along with a 300-500 calorie Lean & Green meal means my daily caloric intake will be drastically lower than I’m accustomed to.  My main fear is being hungry as I don’t do well when I’m hungry.

My morning started with a Lemon Meringue Crunch Bar which was ok.  I love lemons and thought this would fit with my tastes.  As I said, it was ok but definitely not something I was used to eating.  Most of the Meals that aren’t ready to eat come in a powder form that you mix with water.   I followed the plan, trying different items every 2-3 hours.  I never really felt hungry but never really full either.  The powdered meals don’t seem to mix well initially but as they heat in the microwave they tended to emulsify better.

I had pan seared chicken with zucchini and salad for my dinner lean & green meal and have been drinking water all day as recommended.  I miss milk already but if today is an indicator of future days I think I can do this.

My Medifast order arrived today at work.  Packaged in a plain brown box it seems unassuming and plain.  I wonder if I’ve blown $160 for nothing and whether I can commit to this diet.  I’ve already mourned many of the foods I will no longer be able to eat for a long time.  As a low carbohydrate, zero sugar, zero dairy and high protein high veggie diet I’ve already mourned the loss of my precious pasta, pizza, and bread.

I’ve decided that I will start on Monday May 7, 2012 and give myself one final weekend of regular food.  I need to officially weigh myself before then but we don’t have a scale.  We have a Wii with Wii fitness and fitness board but the Wii is broke.  Need to fix it.

Many years ago I started this website and my Rogue’s Reviews blog because I enjoyed sharing my thoughts about things I like such as cars, computers and especially food.  My plans didn’t pan out as well as I had hoped as my time was limited and I was unable to update the blog as frequently as I would have liked.

I’ve decided to resurrect Rogue’s Reviews and chronicle my decision to lose some weight.  I like food, a lot, perhaps too much.  Moreover, I like rich high-caloric foods.  Japanese restaurants, with massive quantities of food and delicious egg-yolk sauce, are a special fondness for me as are Italian restaurants with creamy pasta dishes and tiramisu.  I crave Pizza and anything with cheese as well as breads and other high-carbohydrate items.  Deep fry anything and i’ll give it a whirl (except the crickets I saw once at a street vendor in Bangkok, Thailand).  Combine this with eating fast food for lunch and living a sedentary lifestyle over the past 5 years and it is no wonder I’ve gained weight.

I’m 5′ 10”, 38 years old and overweight by more than I care to admit.  I still have energy and can still get out and do things but I don’t want to get to a point where I can’t and so, at 280 lbs, I’ve decided to do something about it.  After hearing advertisements on a local radio station about Medifast I began to look into it.

My research took me all over the web from reviews to case studies to supposed medical publications.  I’m leery of a lot of online reviews because it is so easy to fake good and bad reviews about a product on the web these days but the more I looked the more personal blogs and forums I found that indicated this diet worked.  A few Facebook friends of mine started it and seemed to be doing well and the radio personality states he has lost 20lbs in 4 weeks.  That seemed to fit with Medifast’s claim of 3-5 lbs per week and so I decided to test the waters.

Not sure that I could really get into diet food or commit to something like this, I started with a two week trial supply.  The decision has been made, the order placed, the journey begins…

Nokian Hakkapeliitta R

I bought my 2009 Pontiac G8 GT last year in December with summer only tires. I made it through the rest of our Ohio winter with only a few days of really tense driving conditions. I grew up driving rear wheel cars but over the past 10 years or so I had gotten used to driving a FWD car.

The summer tires made it far to easy to slide corners in even just a bit of cold, wet light snow conditions but my experience with RWD cars and the G8’s awesome traction control system made it passable for the rest of the season.

During the spring, summer, fall and even up to a few weeks ago I’ve had little problems with the summer only tires. Having been through the previous partial winter I knew how bad the Potenzas could be and had been planning on getting snow tires this winter but Ohio hadn’t been hit with much snow and there was Christmas to pay for so I put them off.

Two weeks ago on my way home from Dayton, about 1.5 hours away with my family in the car we got smacked with an impromptu high wind snow storm that only resulted in about 1.5 inches of snow but because of the winds and open location along with the traffic on I-70 it made the road conditions go south in a hurry. While very tense I was able to get the G8 back to Columbus where the road conditions were even worse. No plowing, no sand, no salt, etc… Even with only a small amount of snow and driving carefully (5-10-15 mph at times) the car’s tendency to slide at lights, not take corners because the front end would go straight, no traction from a stop, slide down sloped roads, etc… made me hate the very car I had loved for almost a year.

Knowing we were getting a much bigger storm coming this week I spent the bucks and put a set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta R’s on my 19″ rims. All I can say is Wow! The excitement I had driving my G8 for the first time hit me all over again even in 5 inches of snow and slush and crap on the roads. Braking time is significantly less. Corners are easy. Uphill, downhill, no problem. I’m not worried about making it up my driveway and in conjunction with the traction control system the G8 is a complete joy to drive now in the snow and all because of a tire change.

While you can drive a G8 in the winter with summer tires (and many similar owners have done it) why would you want to? The G8 comes alive in the snow with a good set of winter tires. My confidence is once again very high now in my car and I can love it again like the day I bought it.