First HMR Meeting (April 20, 2011)

Ok, so I attended a double-meeting last night, making up the first class I missed and continuing on with the second.  The meeting went something like this:  the educator/trainer/counselor asked everyone for negatives and positives to place on the white board.
Some people did well on the program and "stayed in the box" and others did OK, but maybe didn't stay in the box 100% of the time.
Some people have trouble preparing the shakes at work because of the type of job they have or they are afraid of what their co-workers might think of the blending noise (for shakes).

During the meeting, the program nurse also calls each individual back for weight and other vitals.  I believe you also have blood drawn if necessary.  I was not called back, but I asked to be weighed so I could update my spreadsheet.

Staying in the box means that you are compliant with the particular HMR program prescription.  It means that you take in the appropriate calories for your program and that you meet the PA (physical activity) requirement.  The PA requirement is 2000 calories per week.  I am not sure if that increases as the program goes on or not.  You also check-in weekly with the program educator by email or telephone.


So my HMR program is sort-of delayed again.  The Dr. was in a car accident and could not meet with me last night.  Because the HMR decision free diet (DFD) is very low-calorie (500 calories per day), you must meet with the Dr. before you can officially start the diet.  By the way, I'm going to be using the words diet and program interchangeably on this blog.  Fortunately, the Dr. was not hurt in the accident and I will be able to meet with him next Wednesday to officially begin the program.  For now, I am still on the program, but my calories have been increased by including fruits and vegetables in addition to the HMR shakes.  Basically, I'm going to be mixing in bananas, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries in with the choclolate or vanilla shakes.

This morning I had my first shake for breakfast.  I made a chocolate shake with 1/2 of a banana.  The HMR 500 shakes come in individual packets.  You mix the shake with 4-6 oz of water (I used 6 oz), 4 or 5 ice cubes and blend.  In my case, I also cut up 1/2 of a banana to blend in with the ice, water and shake mix.  The resulting shake was surprisingly good.  I hope that I do not become dependent on adding the fruit to the shakes because that will be a no-no when the office decision free diet program starts next Wednesday.  The Magic Bullet mixer/blender has worked well so far.  I bought mine at Costco.

Oh, almost forgot, you also have to take two horse-pill vitamins on this program.  They really were not that bad, but I don't really care for large pills, they are just weird for me to swallow.  That should be no surprise really, at least for my mom, because I *chewed* pills until I was like 13.  Finally the nasty taste of chewing non-baby aspirin made me learn how to swallow pills.  Just a little trivia for you.  :-)

I should mention that all typos here are my own.  I am not really doing any extensive proof-reading, otherwise I will end up rewriting the posts.  So if I have two but but in a row or misuse some punctuation, you should still get the general idea.