HMR Sixth Official Weigh-in Result (Wednesday, June 8)

I have lost 43.6 lbs.
My weight the previous week was: 263.2
My weight loss for this week was 6.6 lbs and my new weight is 256.6 lbs!

There was about a two day break from HMR because of the holiday.  I would have lost more weight if I didn't have two days out of the box.  My out of the box days were not as horrible as they could have been - I'm starting to think more about what I put in my mouth and choosing better foods when I do choose to deviate from HMR.

With that said... It has been a long time since any scale read in the 250 range.  I had hoped to make it to 250 lbs exactly by my birthday, but I can be happy with making it into the range during my birthday week!

Short post tonight, I'm beat.  I'm going to try and work harder next week and I'm going to see if it is feasible to work with a personal trainer. 

HMR Fifth Official Weigh-in Result (Thursday, May 26)

I have lost 37 lbs.
My weight the previous week was: 275.4
My weight loss for this week was 13.2 lbs and my new weight is 263.2 lbs!

Due to tornado warnings, HMR was canceled on May 25, so the weigh-in happened on May 26.

Can I say that I have literally been working my ass-off?  Yeah, I can say that in all honestly.  I have stuck to the HMR program with a few minor changes so that it works better for me.  So, was I in the box?  Yes, I was in the box, but there is a little elasticity where the HMR box is concerned, at least for me.

I'm not expecting to lose as much weight next week (I simply don't know if I can work THAT HARD all of the time).  I will be happy with losing a reasonable amount of weight each week.  No more weight gain, which shouldn't even be possible on this low-calorie diet (assuming I don't cheat!).

What I've been doing:
Exercise and lots of it.
My goal for each day is to burn off more calories than I consume. 
Exercise has been indoors for the last week because of terrible wet weather.  I have mainly been doing the treadmill and something called "Adaptive Motion Trainer" or AMT.  The AMT is made by Precor.  I couldn't do 5 minutes on this thing when I first tried it a couple of weeks ago.  Now I can do the entire 60 minute program with the 5 minute cool-down.  This machine burns calories faster than the elliptical.  This machine has 20 levels of resistance and I'm only doing it on level 5.  I like the AMT better than the treadmill because it is so low-impact.  I cannot jog to save my life on a treadmill because my shins start to hurt after 20 seconds - I don't have this problem on either the AMT or an elliptical. 

HMR Diet
As I mentioned, I've stuck to the plan pretty well and generally my calorie intake has been in the 500 - 800 calorie range.  It just depends on how hungry I get or if I start my day off with an HMR cereal (210 calories as opposed to the 100 calorie shake).  I consistently take the two multi-vitamins and have managed to drink lots and lots of water.  The last thing I want is to become dehydrated with all of the exercise.

Other Foods
Though not on HMR, I tried this recipe for Fettuccine Alfredo (without the chicken) and it was pretty good.  You have to prepare the Tofu Shirataki noodles properly -- if you do not rinse them thoroughly and make sure they are really dry, the dish could turn out to have an off-putting texture.  Some people heat these noodles in a skillet to dry them out (after they have rinsed them under running water and patted them dry).

Tonight I tried the recipe for something called "Slaw and Order".  This dish was AWESOME and doesn't have many calories or much fat.  I used Muir Glenn Italian Herb Pasta Sauce instead of tomato soup.

When I felt the need for something sweet (as if shakes aren't sweet enough), I've been skipping the HMR Benefit Bars and just going with the Kellogs Special K Protein Bars.  The Special K bars taste better than the HMR bars.  You can also get a very similar protein bar at Aldi (of all places), but it may be a special buy that they don't always carry.  Both options are cheaper than the HMR Benefit Bars.

**Again, all typos are my own, I'm not proofing these entries that closely!  :-)

HMR Fourth Official Weigh-in Result (Monday, May16)

I have lost 23.8 lbs.
My weight the previous week was: 275.4
My weight gain for the week was 1 lb and my new weight is 276.4

Not thrilled with gaining weight instead of losing weight.
I think I would have had a small weight loss if the class had been held on Wednesday, instead of Monday.  My out of the box eating caught up with me on this weight loss.

I will have better results on May 25.  I know because I've done the program almost perfectly and today is Sunday.  Two days until HMR weigh-in.  I'm actually looking forward to it as I peeked and looked at my own scale.  Yeah!  :-)

Today was a good, no... make that great, exercise day!

I wasn't able to exercise yesterday because my allergies were killing me.  Sometimes I wish that I lived in a clean room that no allergens could penetrate.  That would probably be a sad life.

Today I went to my new gym.  I joined a place called Club Fitness, it's local to the St. Louis area.  It costs $9.95 a month and so far so good.  The facility is clean and I have no complaints.  I do wish they provided towels, like the YMCA, but I can live with bringing one from home for $9.95 a month.

My exercise today consisted of 90 minutes on the elliptical and 25 minutes on the treadmill.  It had been a while since I've used an elliptical and I thought it was going to die after 5 minutes.  I kept telling myself that my legs should not be burning and it should not be this difficult... in fact, I was doing a backward motion and once I started to use the machine properly it was easy (or much easier than doing it the wrong way).  I really like that the machines keep track of the calorie count and heart rate based on your age and weight.  I like feedback. 

I've also been using myfitnesspal to keep track of my exercise and calories.  It constantly tells me that I'm not getting enough calories as it does not work with any diet that allows you to lose more than 2 lbs per week.  Today with my HMR calories and the exercise it informed me that I would weight 235 lbs in 5 weeks (if I do everything the same).  Pretty shocking number to me, it will be interesting to see if that is possible. 

Ok, I'm off to eat my delicious HMR Chicken Soup.  Delicious might be an exaggeration, but it is totally edible and even better when I had no-salt spices to it.  I've been using the following blends to improve the taste. 

1. Penzey's Arizona Dreaming - Salt Free
2. Penzey's Sunny Spain - Salt Free
3. Penzey's Italian Herb Mix - Salt Free

I'm really impressed with the flavors you can create with good spices.  Yum!

HMR Third Official Weigh-in Results (Wednesday, May 11, 2011)

I have lost 24.8 lbs.
My weight the previous week was: 279.8
My weight loss for this week was 4.4 lbs and my new weight is 275.4 lbs!

So... as I suspected, my weight loss was hindered by eating foods that were not part of the HMR program.  I feel fortunate that I lost 4.4 lbs and am not complaining.  :-)  Next week will be better!
My health educator, kindly did a HMR "water math" spreadsheet for me -- I should have lost approximately 6 lbs.  I will try and post a copy of this spreadsheet as it shows exactly what you can lose based on the calories you consume and the calories you burn with physical activity.

My goal for this week is to increase my physical activity (PA in HMR parlance) to at least burn 1000 calories per day.  Our crummy weather along with my allergies has made it difficult to actually do much outside.  I've been using the treadmill and it is getting old really fast.  I need some variety.  A few years ago (like... 5 years) I used to roller blade on a local trail here -- the trail is 6 miles from the start to end, so a total of 12 miles each time I did it.  I did this almost every day, religiously, for months.  I lost about 87 lbs which has come back on over the years (plus a few more lbs).  If I don't watch it, I burn out on exercise, so I need to make sure I have a wide variety of things to do this time around.

Exercise/physical activity that I enjoy:

1. Walking outside or on the treadmill - must have some kind of stimulation, like music or tv.
2. Bike - I have a barely used bike, in great shape.  It was a birthday gift to myself a few years ago.
3. Elliptical machine - You can burn a ton of calories and it doesn't bother my shins at all.
4. Inline skating aka roller blading - I'm so out of shape I probably couldn't go very far, but I'm going to try it again soon.  I'm a fancy skater and can go backwards.  :p
5. Swimming - I refuse to take off my shirt, so prefer to do this at home, though our pool is kind-of small for it
6. Tennis - I enjoy this, but totally suck and really need to take lessons... again! 

Exercise/physical activity that I do not enjoy:

1. Yardwork - my roommate likes to do this and I occasionally help some.  I really should help more.  I used to pay people to do this stuff!
2. Cleaning the house - though it must be done.  Darn economy... I had a great lady who used to do this every other week.  Some day I hope to have her back as it was well worth the money to me.
3. Running - my shins hurt too much when I try to do this.  It could have something to do with weighing way more than I should.  I might give it a try again, just because it can burn a ton of calories in a short period of time.
4. Helping people move stuff - I know, I must not be a very good friend.  I will help though, but won't pretend to enjoy it!

Disclaimer:  Typos and whatnot are all mine.  Hopefully my post are comprehensible!

Off the Rails... in a big way

I would be less than honest if my weight loss blog didn't include the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Friday and Saturday were ugly.  Not just bad days, but truly ugly.  I did pretty well until Friday evening and then I went off the rails in a big way.  My bad eating behavior continued on through Saturday afternoon at which point I finally stopped eating everything in sight.  I probably only stopped because I was so stuffed that my stomach hurt.  I considered typing out everything I ate, but sheesh, it is already embarrassing enough and pretty unbelievable.

I am pretty certain that my weight loss weigh-in on Wednesday (May 11) will be a negative experience.  Based on what I ate Friday and Saturday, I'm not sure if I will lose any weight, I could even gain weight.  Yes, it really was that bad.

So, trying to turn this negative experience into something more positive, I'm back on track today!  I'm currently enjoying an HMR Multigrain Cereal.  I let it sit too long so it is no longer hot and it is kind-of chunky.  It doesn't taste all that great cold.  :-)  However, out of all of the things I put in my mouth this weekend, none of it actually tasted that great, after the fact, so I can deal with some cold cereal.  No problem!

I'll do some PA (physical activity) later today.  Maybe I'll try and do a little extra each day so that the Wednesday weight loss/gain won't be as bad as I think it could be.  I refuse to weight on my own scale, because I just don't want to know..

It's beautiful outside today, so off the computer shortly, to the shower, to my shoes and out the door!

HMR Second Official Weigh-in Results (Wednesday, May 4, 2011)

I have lost 20.4 lbs.
My weight the previous week was: 286.6
My weight loss for this week was 6.8 lbs and my new weight is 279.8 lbs!

I was a little bit frustrated by the scale this week, but I really shouldn't have been as the weight loss was still significant and nothing to sneeze at.  Though, that's what I've been doing all week - sneezing.  Allergy symptoms are not an inducement to stay active, they are an inducement to sleep and laze.  My physical activity (in the form of walking) was respectable, but I'm hoping to add more physical activity.

My physical activity (PA) plan is to burn at least as many calories each day as I consume in food.  So far so good.  To add some variety to my PA, I'm going to start riding my bike.

I took my bike (which hasn't been ridden in at least 5 years) to a local shop yesterday so they could check it out (safety and what not).  I think it probably just needs air in the tires, but better safe than sorry I suppose.

I have tried a couple more of the HMR foods and they are both pretty good!

1. HMR Lasagna with Meat Sauce - thumbs up!
2. HMR Multigrain Hot Cereal - also thumbs up!

The HMR Multigrain Hot Cereal is unique because it can also take the place of a shake.  Oddly though, the cereal has twice as many calories as a shake, so eating enough of it could slow your weight loss.  I had two bowls of it today.  :-)

Though I've tons of interesting things to say, I'm probably going to post only once or twice a week from this point forward.  I don't want to bore people too much! 

Ah, Saturday, HMR day 10 - hot shakes, my new favorite! And soup...

I don't know about anywhere else, but pollen is super-high here in my state of Missouri.  As a result, my system is totally haywire and I've the driest cough that just won't stop.  It probably hasn't helped matters that I took a marathon walk last night (a marathon for me, is probably reasonable to many people). 

We walked from our house all the way to Qdoba (of course we did not stop, but the smells...) and back. 
In the future, if I choose to have Qdoba, I'm going to try and remember to walk there - two reasons:

1. I will have to want it badly, because it is about 1.7 miles from my house and -
2. If I eat it, I really will need a long walk.

Ok, back to hot shakes, my original reason for writing this post.  I mentioned that I have this cough and my throat is wonky, so I thought, hmm... a hot shake (like hot chocolate for instance) might be nice. 
I have tried the hot shakes a number of ways so far and I like them all.

1. Hot water plus HMR 500 chocolate plus a small amount of SF Jello chocolate pudding.  Blend this up and pour into a glass.  I've been using about 10 ounces of water
2. Hot water plus HMR 500 vanilla, plus about a 1 tsp of SF Jello chocolate pudding.  Again, blend this up and pour into your favorite glass or mug.  This one is not as chocolatey, but it is still good.

I'm not sure that the shakes are as filling since I'm using more water, but I still like them.  Oh, and for me, I really like the taste of cooked chocolate pudding so I'm not sure the instant style SF chocolate pudding would do it for me. Jello has two varieties that are SF, the kind you cook and the kind you just mix up.

I tried my first HMR Chicken Soup Wednesday evening after the HMR class.  I had decided I was totally sick of the cold stuff and needed something hot.  I blended the HMR soup up with about a 1/2 cup of cooked broccoli and put it in the microwave.  I think the jury is still out on the soup for me.  I really wanted to add salt to it.  Instead I ended up adding some pepper and some hot sauce.  The soup gave me terrible gas, but I suspect that is because I blended it up and it had broccoli in it.  I will give it another try at some point since I have an entire box of it on my counter.  :-)

Final note for this post, even though I'm on the HMR Decision Free Diet, I have still tried a few of the hot entrees.

1. HMR Turkey Chili - I liked this entree, though it gave me just a bit of indigestion.
2. HMR Basil and Cheese Ravioli - I did not like this entree. The cheese was gross to me.
3. HMR Mushroom Risotto - I really like this entree, but wasn't sure when I first tried it.

First Official HMR Weigh-in Tonight (April 27, 2011)

I have lost 13.6 lbs.  

About half of the weight lost was fat and the other half was water. 

HMR is using the starting weight of 300.2 taken at their office on April 11, 2011.

My current weight is 286.6 lbs!

Let me just say that this week started out on the rough side.  I had a cardiac stress-echo test at the hospital on Monday.  The test goes something like this:

1. You are taken to room and hooked to an ekg/ecg.
2. The nurse records your vitals (bp, heart rate, etc).
3. They do a baseline ekg/ecg while laying down.  I think they did one standing up as well.
4.  The echo tech (I do not know the proper name) does what looks like an ultrasound of your heart.
5. You get on a treadmill, and in my case, walk until your heart rate hits 180 bpm.  The treadmill increases the incline every 3 minutes or so.  It didn't take too long for my heart rate to reach 180.  They also take your blood pressure periodically.
6. As soon my heart hit 180 bpm, I got off of the treadmill and very quickly got back on the table and laid on my left side.  The echo tech does an ultrasound of your heart again and then arranges the images from before and after with the cardiologist.

The cardiologist said several things during the test that made me feel better -- such as, "your ekg/ecg looks perfect, no problems" and after looking at the ultrasound pictures from before the treadmill and after, said, "everything looks normal, no problems".

I was so relieved, you don't even know.  I didn't realize how stressed out I was from the whole thing until I was leaving and burst out bawling in the hall while they were walking me out.  I could feel the tears coming on when I was trying to say thank you to the staff.  I started crying again in the car and I must have looked ridiculous. However, I felt 1000 percent better and have been in a much better mood ever since.

On... sugar free Jello pudding and gelatins

First: The HMR shakes are tasty, but they definitely require you to be creative, otherwise you are going to burn out on just chocolate and vanilla flavors.  The HMR recipe guide has a number of recipes that use sugar free pudding and gelatin.  So far, I have tried a number of add-ins (both puddings and jello) and I will blog more about that at a later date.  Suffice it to say, the addition of other flavors will help me be successful on the HMR program.

Second: I have my eye on you, Schnucks, Dierbergs and Shop-n-Save!
Your stores have a terrible selection of Jello sugar free pudding and gelatin products.  Each store consistently had cherry gelatin, chocolate pudding, vanilla pudding, but few other flavors listed on the Kraft website.  Granted, I did not check each and every one of your locations, who has that kind of time? Strangely enough, Target had almost as large of a Jello selection as any of the grocery stores and I was able to obtain the sugar free cheesecake pudding.

Need Jello?  Internet to the rescue!  I first checked Amazon.com, but tell me... really, who needs a case of any one flavor?  Me either.  So for my Jello fix, I have turned to netgrocer.com.  I purchased approximately $10 worth of Kraft Jello products with a $9.99 shipping charge.
$20 bucks for Jello products, but at least I'm not going to be driving all over town and I'll have the flavors I want.

Fortunately, I shouldn't need to buy any more Jello products as the HMR shakes require a miniscule amount for flavor.