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!

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.