Official - 50 Pounds!

My new weigh-in date is Monday every week. Today, the scale read 170.0. Official - I've lost 50 pounds since I started this journey on March 1.

August 1 Update

Soooooo....

I've had a bit of a falling off in that I went off my regular eating / exercise routine, first because I took a week long vacation with my sisters in NYC, and second because my husband and I just finished moving into a new place. The bad news - I haven't stayed on my lose 2 pounds a week plan. Good news - I haven't gained any weight back!! So, I'm doing something right.

As of August 1, I am securely at 173 pounds. That's 47 pounds down from the start (of course I'm telling everyone that I've lost "almost 50 pounds!".  I weigh less than my husband for the first time in three years.  Feeling good but want to keep going.

Getting back on it!

Changing it Up a Bit

Hello to all the imaginary people who read my blog!

I've decided to change up my diet plan. Up until now I've been pretty much 100% "in the box" on the HMR diet and it has been successful, but I've decided to stray.

The proponents and coaches of the HMR diet work very hard to keep people from straying, but they primarily are worried about people re-introducing foods that will work against the program - all the naughty bits that are verboten. The things (like cookies, donuts, cake, chips, fried stuff, pizza, etc.) that I was able to give up by following HMR strictly.

I'm glad for what you did for me, HMR, in getting my eating habits fixed and helping me lose almost 40 pounds. But it's time to move on.

I will be following a similar program of my own making, incorporating clean eating, eating five vegetables a day, and tracking, which are the best things I got from HMR.

I am getting one last "two week package" from them with entrees and shakes that would last two weeks, but I think I'll keep them for backups when I don't have access to the clean food that I'm incorporating into my own program. I haven't officially quit them as I have to call and talk to a real person to do that, and I imagine they'll ask "why" and I'll give some version of "I'm ready to move on, but I've lost almost 40 pounds and was very happy with HMR and I just can't afford it right now."

If I were to give the real reasons . . .

• The AFTERTASTE - When I started the program I was ready for someone to tell me EXACTLY what to eat and what to do, and that's what HMR does, and why I bought it. I read reviews that said the entrees weren't palatable, which I wrote off as people being picky. Bottom-line, if you're not REALLY committed to losing weight, you can find excuses in HMR as to why it doesn't work. I was so expecting horrible food that I was pleasantly surprised and thought the entrees were pretty damned good. And they were, for a while. But after three months of nothing else, you start to really notice the aftertaste. and that makes you think about what you're eating. The entrees are not refrigerated and have a long shelf-life, so I guess they're really like canned food, just not in a can. And you realize that what you're eating has to be highly . . .
• PROCESSED FOOD - In reading about eating healthy and clean, you can't escape all of the negative news about processed food, and you KNOW they're not wrong. The easiest way to identify how processed something is to read the ingredients. (This website https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/food-processed-5-ways-know/ has some great tips) And besides the entrees, the HMR shakes, although helpful, have a long list of ingredients. Not to mention that those clean eating proponents are not fans of any kind of protein shake - better to get your protein from clean food. AND, I accidentally learned (something I should have seen much earlier) that the shakes have . . .
• ASPARTAME - As I was searching the HMR website on how to quit the program, I happened upon a question/answer that said the HMR shakes have aspartame. Looking at the ingredients, it's in the top third, so it's not negligible to say the least. I am anti-aspartame. Besides the fact that it affects my husband so much that he has to avoid it at all costs, I had pancreatitis which might have been partially caused by aspartame AND if you don't know why not aspartame, just google it. 
• The COACHING - In the beginning, the coaching is good. It helps you stay on track and gives you a sort of competition by seeing other's progress against yours. And if you are having trouble sticking to the program for any reason, you get tips on how to do it. But if you're not having trouble (which I wasn't) then it becomes a sort of monotonous chore each week. And if you don't show up two weeks in a row, they threaten to knock you out of the group. 

Soooooo, I'm starting on my personal weight loss journey, using some of the tools I got from HMR, some things I've always known, and some help from the internet. Up to this point, I've lost an average of 2.5 pounds a week. I have two-and-a-half weeks to my July weigh-in, and I hope to do 2.5-3.0 per week to put me at or below 175. (Then I'll be caught up to my husband!) 

Wish me luck!

35 Pounds Down

June 1st weigh in - I'm now at 185.6 pounds. Down 35 from my starting weight.

Ten more pounds and I'll catch up to my husband (or would it be catch down?)

Feeling it!!

Quick note - I am full-on into this weight-loss-eat-well-exercise thing and I feel great! I have more energy, I seem to have eliminated my body pains (gotta get the ole'man exercising!), I can bend down, and put my foot up on the counter, and get out of the beanbag chair . . .

This sort of sounds like a commercial for something, but I honestly feel fantastic! This is a good journey!

Two months - 25 pounds

May 1 Weigh-In
- Weight = 195.2
- Waist (inch under my bellybutton) 39"

Yeah.

Only a day away

May 1 is tomorrow. That will be two full months of being on my diet, and as it's a Wednesday, I'll post my official Wednesday weigh-in weight.

This week I did a few things:

1. I haven't weighed myself at all. Okay, I've weighed myself, once but it was at night, and a second time, sort of, at the gym. Nothing that could help me predict or hope for what I'll be Wednesday morning.
2. I've implemented a "physical activity" every day to include two weight classes (BodyPump), two cardio classes (Zumba, TurboKick), one yoga class (going tonight for the first time in years...) one strictly cardio day (12000 steps) and one rest day. I can feel myself getting stronger, more flexible, and generally healthier. Just hope it ALSO helps me drop pounds.  
3. Trying to stick to the "top 10 vegetables for losing weight" which means NO potatoes, no corn, no peas. In actuality I'm mostly eating baby greens as a salad. And carrots. LOTS of carrots. 

Hopefully these things are boosting weight loss. 

Watching the Waist

I had thought that I wouldn't track my inches, just because that's a whole other obsession, and I'm already obsessing about my weight loss.

But, in my efforts I can tell that I'm losing inches, so I thought "what the heck?" and decided to go ahead and track it.

So, a year ago when I started, my waist measurement - one inch below my belly button - was 44"

Now, almost two months into my diet and closing in on 20 pounds lost: waist = 41

Donut Friday

We have Donut Friday where the company brings in donuts for everyone. For the past year I've looked forward to Donut Friday - sometimes only having one, sometimes two, but I was always excited to come to work.

After more than a month on my new plan, I completely forgot it was Donut Friday until I got here. And not even a little tempted to indulge.

😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

One month - 12.2 pounds

207.8

Month = 12.2
Total = 12.2

What surprises me most is how that weekly weigh-in affects me. Last week, when my weekly weigh in was down 3.3 pounds, I was elated and couldn't wait to start my day. This morning when I was only down 1.3 pounds, I was ready to go back to bed.

Can't get all jacked up on the steps. Gotta focus on the journey.

And the April number is . . .

I'm writing this today so tomorrow can simply be posting the number. The thing about weighing yourself at all is that it really fluctuates like crazy. I'm weighing every day and I've seen one day losses of almost two pounds! And I've seen the same crazy gain in one day.  So, not reliable as a daily tool.

My official Wednesday weight last week was 209.1, which was a crazy drop, but I recorded it anyway. Since then I've had a weigh as low as 206.7 and as high as 208.2. Tomorrow I'm hoping for a 207.something. As long as I'm around that I'm on target.

So the April number is . . . going to be posted tomorrow.

Fat Blog - FINALLY on the journey to lose 83 pounds

Noticed I actually was blogging nine months ago that I was on my journey to lose weight. LOL. Here I am now starting my journey. Again. At the same (220 pounds) weight.

Age 58, at the highest weight of my life, including being nine months pregnant three times, of 220 pounds. Seriously gonna get rid of it now. My goal, based on others my age, height (5'10"), and body type is 137. So, 83 pounds to lose.

So what's different this time? 

I started (this time) on March 1, 2019 at 220 pounds. I'm currently doing the HMR home diet which includes them providing entrees and shakes, to which I only add fruits and vegetables. So this diet does the basics: eat nutritiously, exercise regularly, and reduce calories. And I've gone more than 28 days following the plan, so I think I can do this.

One thing that this diet does is tells you to to stay "inside the box" which means you only eat their entrees, shakes, and fruit and vegetables. I'm feeling good about it. One of the things that is different is that you don't get a cheat day or even a cheat meal.

I'm not having any problems with cheating; before I started I was just eating anything I wanted. Donuts on Friday at work. Cookies, rolls, bread, chips, etc. at home. What ever I felt like when we went out. So I'm not looking at the things I can't have and missing them, because I've had them recently. I've had donuts. I'll have them again, someday. Maybe.

I'm also finding success with two other recommendations from the program - eating every three hours, and not eating more than three hours before bed. (The latter one isn't strictly mentioned, but I'm doing it and noticing a difference.)

So. Tomorrow is April 1, but my "weigh in" day is Wednesday. So I'll post that as my April update and we'll see how I'm doing.