HMR Diet - First Week Complete

Well the first week of the HMR No Decision diet (liquid fast) is complete.  According to the hospital scale I've lost 9 pounds in 6 days.  I would say that's pretty good. Has it been more difficult than the Healthy Solutions where I could eat?  Yes.  Has it really been all that difficult?  Definitely no.  One of the ladies in the class was upset that she only lost 2 pounds and I do understand her frustration.  She too had done the Healthy Solutions prior and was losing more weight than she lost this week.  I'm sure she will have a better number next week.  We also picked up 1 new person and another transferred from a different class.

My goal for this week is to increase my intake of shakes.  I'm going to be shooting for 7-8 in a day to hopefully boost my metabolism a bit.  Today I'm on pace for 8.  It will  help me though because usually each day around 4-5 pm I start to get a little hungry so having a double there will help.  In all honesty I haven't been hungry at all today.  Another thing I'm going to try to do is an extra 5-10 mins of exercise when I work out. 

Using the HMR logic for how many calories I burned using my target weight and a medium effort level I burned 2205 calories for the week.  Using my real numbers I was at 2835 calories burned.  Later tonight I'm going to try to use my "diet math" to see if my pounds lost matches up.  I'm guessing I lost more than the math will indicate.  I had 36 meal replacements over 6 days.  Three of those were the oatmeal cereals at 210 calories each.  With that said my caloric intake for those 6 days is 3930 calories.  So if you take that and subtract how many calories I burned just through exercise I would have netted between 1095 and 1725 calories... for 6 days.  Crazy.  Oh yeah, my dizziness isn't as bad today so maybe things are getting better.

HMR Diet - Day 6; variety saved me

Well I'll admit I was getting burned out on the chocolate shakes.  The puddings are great but the shakes were just becoming a chore.  I called up the clinic and was able to get a box of the chicken soup and their oatmeal.  I swear that saved my diet.  Granted the oatmeal has twice as many calories as the shakes and soup it is about 2-3 times as filling.  They both smell and taste great which helps my brain cope with all the other food smells I come in contact with every day.  Here's how today's "meal" plan breaks down:

Breakfast - oatmeal
Snack - shake
Lunch - chicken soup
Snack - shake
Dinner - chicken soup
Snack - pudding

That equates to roughly 700 calories spread out every 2-3 hours.  Not only does spreading it out over time help keep you from being too hungry it also allows your metabolism to keep burning calories through digesting food more frequently.  As of yesterday the only time I really get hungry is if I go too long in between meal replacements.  I still get dizzy from time to time but a lot of that is because of the quick head movements I'm used to making; if I go slow things are better.  I've also started working out longer, burning more calories.  If I do the same again tonight I will exceed my 2000 calorie minimum by over 200 calories based upon my target weight, not current weight.  If I was basing it off of my current weight I would exceed it by over 800 calories.

HMR Diet - Day 5; tough weekend

This weekend was tough with the hockey tournament.  My brother, sister in-law, and their 4 month old daughter came to visit us too.  I explained to them what I was doing and how much I've lost so far and they were very interested.  Unfortunately we all went to eat at Perkins that night so I was surrounded by great smelling food.  That's one of the big things I noticed; I can smell food much more vividly now that I was able to before.  That's one of the most frustrating things I've come across so far.  Anyway Sunday was the worst day as the timing of the game and our traveling scheduled didn't allow me to space my shakes out throughout the day and I ended up paying the price by being run down, no energy, crabby, and dizzy at times.  Basically the way I usually get when super hungry and haven't eaten in a while.

I need more variety in the flavoring of the things I've been consuming so far.  I've been doing chocolate all week for both my shakes and puddings.  While I love the puddings, the shakes are beginning to get on my nerves.  At first I was shaking them up in an empty water bottle because it was quick, easy, and dissolved all the power.  Well the problem with that is you get a lot of bubbles and because the shakes are so thick you swallow all of those  bubbles down.  This has caused quite a bit of stomach discomfort.  I'm not mixing them up in a blender or using an electric hand held mixer which work a lot better.  I also experimented last night with almond extract to add a little additional flavor.  Well I added way too much and ended up not finishing the shake and my stomach and tongue were ruined for the rest of the night.

I'm going to try to stop by the clinic after work to pick up some of the soup and perhaps the oatmeal as ways to mix things up a bit and satisfy my palate.  I'm also going to try some of the cookie and "chip" recipes so I have something to chew on.  According to the scale at home I've lost 5 pounds since I left the house Friday morning.

HMR Diet - Day 1; went fairly well

I probably wont update this every single day but I'll do my best.  Today is Friday but yesterday was my first day on the full HMR No Decision liquid fast diet.  I will admit that I was hungry yesterday but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Today is going much better so far.  I've realized that I do like the HMR 120 shakes vs. the 500 shakes.  The 120 shakes with 8-12 ounces of water had the consistency and taste of chocolate milk.  Well when I made my first couple of 500 shakes I didn't use the appropriate amount of water (4-6 ounces) and instead used 8-10 ounces.  It tasted horrible; very watered down but will admit that it was very "airy" and thick.  Well later in the evening I made one with the right amount of water and it tasted a lot better, not as chocolaty as the 120's but definitely good tasting.  They are very thick, thicker than the 500's which is nice because it does help you feel full a little bit.  All the air bubbles messed with my stomach last night but I was fine after a couple of hours.  I had 6 shakes for 600 calories and well over 64 ounces of water.

As for exercise I walked at a fairly brisk pace for 60 minutes.  If you go off of the machine I burned about 540 calories.  However, the HMR people have you calculate things a bit differently.  They give you a chart with different body weights going down the left side of the page and different levels of activity going across the top.  It basically creates a matrix as to how many calories a minute you'd burn for different levels of activity at different body weights.  What they suggested you do is to base everything off of the "Medium" activity level and your target body weight.  The reason for this is so you basically have to work harder now so that when you reach your goal weight you are already used to working out at that level.  So according to those calculations I burned 420 calories.  If I did that 5 days a week that would be 2100 calories a week which is 100 above the required amount.  So depending on which number you use I had 180 or 60 calories net for the day.  I'm sure your body needs more than that for it's normal processes so the idea is that it will turn to burning fat for the calories it needs.

Anyway, so far today I'm not as hungry as I was yesterday.  I'm sure as the day progresses it will get a little worse.  What will make things bad is that we have a hockey tournament this weekend so I'll be surrounded by food that I cannot have.  I have tons of willpower but it all smells so good.

HMR Diet - First class is tonight!

I'm actually a little nervous about going to the class.  Again, even though I'm a bigger guy, I'm afraid that I will be the smallest person there.  Hopefully I'll be proved wrong, in a good way I guess.  I'm really hoping that I will learn something that I don't already know (but have failed to put into action) at these classes.  Tomorrow the full blow HMR liquid fast program starts.  Not sure what to expect.  Maybe more of what I've already gone through; really hungry the first few days then livable. 

The HMR Healthy Solutions diet has been working great for me.  I was really upset yesterday because instead of losing a pound or even staying the same weight I actually gained a pound.  I was a little happier this morning when I ended up losing two pounds to put me where I would have expected to be yesterday.  So as of right now I've lost 10 pounds in 12 days.

HMR Diet - The fast program is on again

Well I got a call a few hours ago from the head of the HMR program at my clinic.  Apparently they got the required number of people to start the program and the class again.  The first class is this Wednesday and the fast will start on Thursday.  I must say that I'm a lot more nervous now about the fast than I was before when I was all focused on doing it.  I think it's partly because with the Healthy Solutions I am indeed able to eat solid food and I am successfully losing a decent amount of weight.  On top of all that I'm really not that hungry anymore.  So I would say that the HMR Healthy Solutions diet is more of the comfortable/safe choice and the liquid fast the more uncomfortable/extreme between the two.  Sometimes extreme measures need to be taken.  Sometimes you have to be a little uncomfortable after the years of comfort food.

But like I said in my ealier post, I don't know how long this level of weight loss will keep up if I'm able to make my own choices right now as to what fruits and vegetables I can eat.  The reason I mention that is because this weekend we bought an air-popper for making popcorn.  Granted I couldn't put anything I'm used to on it but it brings up the question of choice; is popcorn even allowed?  Granted it's not exactly bad for you but it doesn't really have much nutritional value with the exception of maybe extra fiber.  Can no fat, low calorie yogurt with fruit count as one serving of fruit?

That's why the primary HMR programs liquid fast works so well; all your choices are basically removed.  It all comes down to chocolate, vanilla, and if you want it in pudding form.  I believe they let you sub in one of their oatmeal packages in place of a shake but it's crazy with their high cost, $2 a serving, and high calories, 210 a package.  It's a lot more economical and lower in calories to get the sugar free oatmeal from the store at roughly $.50 a serving and 100 calories.

Even though I am nervous I'm still excited to start the fast.  If I've lost this much weight this easily I can only imagine what I'll be able to lose with with the fast.

HMR Diet - My Second Weekend

Well this weekend was a heck of a lot easier than my first weekend even though I had some massive temptations.  We went to a youth hockey game for one of the kids and the people down in front of us had these big paper "boats" filled with french fries, one covered in cheese and the other smothered in ketchup.  Never in my life has the smell of fried food and especially ketchup been so vivid.  Because the game was an hour and a half away I brought a pear, shake, and a salad to eat on the way there and back which took care of things.  When we got back home after the game we worked out for an hour and after that I was getting hungry.  We went grocery shopping which was actually kinda fun thinking about things we can do and try when I'm done with all of this.

For dinner I had the HMR Savory Chicken entree.  I also took a can of stewed tomatos and heated them up on the stove.  I had half the can, which is two servings, but it was still low enough calories wise to where it didn't make a difference.  The combination if the chicken, rice, mushrooms, and tomatoes were awesome.  It's crazy to think that these entrees, with the small side of vegetables, actually fill me up enough to where I don't really need to eat anything more.  Sunday afternoon I tried the HMR vanilla pudding with a tablespoon of sugar/fat free pistachio pudding powder.  It was ok but their vanilla flavor is not as good as their chocolate flavoring in my opinion.

My calories have not exceeded 1200 for the past 4 days and I honestly have not been that hungry.  I've burned an average of 670 calories 3 of the last 4 days.  I could easily see myself sticking to this for an extended period of time if I wanted to, which I may do when we get back from our honeymoon.  I've lost another 3.5 pounds since Friday morning and I am losing at least 1 pound a day.  I don't know how long this amount of consistent weight loss will last but I'm going to do everything I can to keep it going.

HMR Diet - My First HMR Pudding

So last night after working out instead of having a shake I decided to try one of the sample puddings I was given on Wednesday.  The package says you are to empty the contents of the package into a bowl or cup and add 2 ounces of cold water.  Well after looking at how little water is in 2 ounces I was a little skeptical as to how well this would turn out.  I went ahead and did it anyway and was amazed at how well everything mixed together and how smooth the consistency was.  It was a little thick for my liking so I added just a bit more water to it.  I didn't let it sit in the refridgerator to let it set up a bit more but I definitely will next time.

Anyway the taste was pretty darn good, a heck of a lot better than I was expecting.  I had the chocolate pudding as I feel that HRM's chocolate flavoring (at least in the shakes) is a lot better than the vanilla.  I'll be trying the vanilla this weekend with sugar/fat free pistachio pudding powder as one of HMR's recipes have you try.  I love pistachios.  The good thing about the pudding is that for how small it is, once it hits your stomach it sits there like a rock and keeps you full for a while.  I had a big glass of water, half before and half after eating it and I was on the verge of being stuffed.  I was floored that I felt that way after eating such a small amount of something, anything, let alone pudding.

The puddings are allowed in both the pure fasting and the Healthy Solutions diets.  Having a single 120 shake doesn't fill me up but does take the edge off of being hungry for a while.  In my personal opinion when/if I'm ever able to do the pure fast I will definitely be using the puddings as a way to get that full feeling that I'm used to.  I will be incorporating them into my Healthy Solutions diet starting next week as well.

HMR Healthy Solutions Diet - Update #1

Ok, so the pure fasting HMR diet class got canceled because 2 of the 5 people dropped.  Apparently they won't run it with fewer than 5 people.  So what I decided to do was start HMR Healthy Solutions diet instead until the full fasting program can be started.  If they can't get this started in a reasonable time then I'll probably skip the pure fast because of timing issues with the wedding.

Basically the Healthy Solutions diet allows me to eat two of their small entrees a day, three shakes, and 5 servings of fruit/vegetables.  Right now I'm averaging 1200 calories a day and have been losing almost a pound a day; I'm down 5.5 lbs in the past week.  I've burned exactly 2000 calories in the past week from exercise but that will hopefully be increasing to at least 3000 calories as I missed two workouts this past week.

I will admit that the first 3-4 days I was extremely hungry.  It didn't help the my fiance and her kids ordered pizza on my third day.  Starting on day four I noticed that I was really no longer ravenously hungry and that spreading things out over time, consuming something every 2-3 hours, really helps.  So far the entrees have been delicious.  I can honestly say that even though they are smaller they definitely have more flavor than the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers I used to eat for lunch.  There are 14 different entrees to choose from so I don't feel I'll get burned out on one specific thing.  They don't discriminate when it comes to "bad" fruits and vegetables either.  Baked potatoes are perfectly fine, though I try not too have too many of them.  Baked potatoes are pretty good with a decent salsa which also counts as a vegetable.

In general I've been feeling a heck of a lot better since I've started last week too.  Both my attitude/outlook and the way I physically feel.  I have much more energy too although the last 15 minutes of my last two workouts have been rough.  So yeah, I won't lose as much as fast with this than I would have with the pure fasting diet but so far it's working out pretty good.

HMR Diet - First Meeting/Class Tonight

Ok, so today is my first HMR Diet meeting/class.  I'm a little nervous.  I have a feeling that I'll be the smallest person there.  I don't know why I think that.  Maybe because I think I do a pretty good job of hiding things; I've gotten good at that over the years. 

Fast forward a couple of hours and I just got a phone call saying that they need 5 people signed up to run the class but two people called this morning and backed out.  So now I may not be able to do this.  I can't start in 2-3 weeks because the way how things would have worked out with this program is that I would have finished up a week before my wedding/honeymoon.  So now I'm actually super pissed.  Yeah I could do the HMR At Home program but that will take longer, I won't lose as much, and it won't be medically supervised to get my medications reduced.  Oh well.  I guess I'll find out more in the next hour.