Ready, set...not until January!

So I had my first appointment at the Dr. Poon Metabolic Diet centre (Thornhill location) on November 30.  The first thing I found funny was that the doctor's office is located in the basement of a building and able-bodied patients were taking the elevator (and not the stairs) down for their appointments.  Ummm...this is a weight-loss thing, right?  So shouldn't you take every little bit of exercise you can?  Maybe that's just me.

When I got downstairs (elevator or stairs - I'll never tell) I filled out my three-page intake form.   I really like that they make you fill out a consent form which states, among other things, that if you don't stick with the program you'll get booted.  There's just something about signing a contract that makes the whole process real. 

(By the way, the contract also says that I can't disclose the specifics of the program but I will tell you guys how it works out for me. )

After I sat around for 20 minutes I was taken into the secondary waiting room (typical doctor's office) and told to take my socks and shoes off.  Hold on - nobody told me I'd have to do that!  If I knew I'd be showing my bare tootsies to all and sundry I would have kept up with my summer/fall pedicures!  Oh well, I know for next time.  Anyway, I stood on this metal scale and I closed my pretty eyes.  The machine displays your weight, fat composition, Body Mass Index and other wholly depressing numbers.  I didn't want to know, nor will I tell you what those numbers are.  Too damn sad.

So you get a printout with your "before" numbers and you're handed a leaflet with the guidelines of Phase I of the program.  I can't tell you exactly what they are, but it's really not bad!  I thought I'd be starving and would be chewing off my own arm for nourishment, but it's nothing like that.  You can pretty much eat as much as you want of certain things, some of other things, and none of other things.  (Clear as mud, right?)  There's no calorie counting - you just eat from the "allowed" list until you're satisfied.  I will tell you this - coffee is allowed.  With cream!  You have no idea how happy that made me.

Phase I is definitely the most restrictive part of the program, but it's also the most effective.  Just think of it like detoxing from any addiction - you have to clear the crap out of the body and start from scratch.  Apparently I should be dropping 7 to 10 pounds in the first two weeks of the program.  I know it sounds like too much to be safe, but a good amount of it is going to be water.  They're really up front with you about that, unlike some other programs that hail you to high heaven in the first couple of weeks when they know that you're just losing water weight.

After I read over my handy little brochure, I met Dr. Barsoum.  What a beautiful lady - amazing eyes!  She was really nice and sympathetic to all the health drama I'd been going through.  We talked about the program and she answered some questions for me (some questions were stupid, I'll admit).  She said that she has high hopes for me because I'm young, relatively healthy, able to exercise and committed.  When somebody believes in you, you don't want to let them down.

After having a candid discussion with Dr. Barsoum, I told her that I really didn't think that I could go balls-out on the plan until after the Christmas season because I didn't want to yo-yo.  She agreed with me that yo-yo dieting is worse than not dieting at all.  So we agreed that I wouldn't let myself go over December, but I'd start full-out in January 2011.  Boy, is Christmas dinner going to taste good this year. 

After I met with the good doctor, I was shown the "low-carb grocery store".  Don't let it fool you - it's not a bunch of Dr. Poon brand stuff - the stuff is from different companies.  They are low-carb choices that help you get through the restrictiveness of Phase I.  I bought some protein bars (you eat a lot of protein on this plan), some low-carb bread, low-carb mayo, carrot muffin mix, chocolate meringue cookies and hot cereal.  I tried some of the stuff at home and surprise - everything tastes pretty good!  The high-fibre content is going to play with my bowels - I'm just saying.

All in all, it was a great first experience.  I have at least 75 pounds to lose and for the first time in my life I think it's possible.  I'm pretty sure my next blog entry (sometime in early January 2011 when I start the plan) is going to sound absolutely bitchy because I'll be suffering from carb withdrawal.  Don't let that discourage anyone - everybody suffers from withdrawal at the beginning.

If anybody else is on this plan, send a comment!  We'll go through this together.  See you in January!