Priddy Things

HCG Day 33

2011-09-14T07:41:00.001-05:00

284.8 this morning, exactly 25 pounds lost in 33 days.
Drank a ton of water yesterday to eliminate the gain from the day before.
Happy Hump Day All

HCG Day 31

2011-09-12T07:58:00.001-05:00

285 Even - 2 pounds lost - 24.8 total.

HCG Day 28

2011-09-09T08:27:00.003-05:00

Been slacking on the blog I know.
Update on what you've missed.

Today!
Broke out of the 290's - 289.2. 20.6 pounds lost

Laborday Weekend
Was down to 290.6, and splurged all weekend - ended up with almost a 10 pound gain - not doing that again.

HCG Day 17

2011-08-29T09:17:00.006-05:00

Weight this a.m. was 291.6. To be honest, I did not expect much of a loss as 1) body is still recovering from eating out and cheating 2) I ate alot of really salty stuff yesterday, and can feel the water retention.
I'm actually surprised at the weight, as I expected a gain.

I did go for a walk around the lake yesterday - which would have been wonderful, except it was 107 degrees outside. I needed to get out and about through. Took a long walk with the puppy, and to my surprise, the 6 month old puppy wore out before I did. That's a 1st.

We've been suffering a historic drought - and the water's about 13-15 feet lower that it should be. You can see from the pictures above the new emerging islands, and where the water level used to be. The fence used to be compeltely submerged, except for the top 2 feet.

HCG Day 15 & 16

2011-08-28T13:13:00.000-05:00

Did not have time to post yesterday due to my music students, and other visitors that stopped by. Yesterday was interesting, I ate out for the first time since starting the diet due to having to celebrate my MIL's birthday.

We went to this small Italian place, that only had 1 healthy item on the whole menu. It was a struggle, but I opted for the salad with grilled chicken. ... did eventually break down an have 1 stuffed mushroom and 1 slice of pizza. With that said, it's more control than I've ever been able to show at that place. Typically I'd have 4-5 slices of pizza, rolls, 1/2 the order of mushrooms, lots of creamy sauce and cheese. Although I admit to cheating, I've come a long way in changing how I eat. I left feeling great, and everyone got up from the table miserable and stuffed.

Saturday morning I woke with a .6 gain, which was surprising; however, I realized that I did not drink enough water Friday night between the work day and teaching students that evening.
Yesterday, I stayed hydrated all day, and even with eating out and my cheat, I saw a 1.8 loss this morning. Gotta to remember water, water, water!!!

Today is study day, I have several paper's to school. For the last year, on Sunday's when I'd study, I'd stress eat all day, junk, chips, cheese, fat, etc.
I'm changing those habits, so if I have to stress eat now, it helps that the HCG makes me not hungry, but I'll also snack on veggies, fruits and grilled protein.

8/28/11 - Day 16 (a.m.) - 291.8 (-1.8)
8/27/11 - Day 15 (a.m.) - 293.6 (+.6)
8/26/11 - Day 14 (a.m.) - 293 (-0.4)/Week 2 - 6.8 pounds lost
8/25/11 - Day 13 (a.m.) - 293.4 (-0.6)
8/24/11 - Day 12 (a.m.) - 294 (-0.4)
8/23/11 - Day 11 (a.m.) - 294.4 (-0.8)
8/22/11 - Day 10 (a.m.) - 295.2 (-1.6)
8/21/11 - Day 9 (a.m.) -296.8 (-1)
8/20/11 - Day 8 (a.m.) -297.8 (-2)
8/19/11 - Day 7 (a.m.) - 299.8 (-1.4)/Week 1 - 10 pounds Lost
8/18/11 - Day 6 (a.m.) - 301.2 (-1.6)
8/17/11 - Day 5 (a.m.) - 302.8 (-2.6)
8/16/11 - Day 4 (a.m.) - 305.4 (-4)
8/15/11 - Day 3 (a.m.) - 309.4 (+2.2)
8/14/11 - Load Day 2 (a.m.) - 307.2 (+3)
8/13/11 - Load Day 1 (a.m.) - 304.2 (-5.6)
8/12/11 - Starting Weight 309.8

2011-08-26T22:57:00.002-05:00

Saturday:

Lunch:

Beef, round steak

Spinach, fresh, 4 cup

Celmentine, 2 serving

Melba Toast, 1 piece

Dinner:

Chicken Breast, no skin, 3.5

Fennel, 0.5 bulb

Iceberg Lettuce (salad), 1.5 cup, shredded or chopped

Melba Toast, 1 piece

Apples, fresh, 1 large

Red Ripe Tomatoes, 0.5 large whole

Snack:

Beets, fresh, 1 beet (2" dia)

Chicken Breast, no skin, 2.6 ounces

Sunday:
Lunch:

Beef, round steak, 3.5 oz

Red Ripe Tomatoes, 1 large whole

Strawberries, fresh, 8 small)

Spinach, fresh, 3 cup

Alaskan King Crab, 2.5 oz

Dinner
Northern Lobster, 5.5 oz

Asparagus, fresh, 25 spear, small

Melba Toast, 3 melba round

Butter, salted, 0.25 tbsp

Snack:

Grapefruit, fresh, pink and red, California and Arizona, 1 fruit

Chicken Breast, no skin, 3.5 ounces

Melba Toast, 3 melba round

Snack TOTALS:

235

HCG Day 14

2011-08-26T08:25:00.001-05:00

293 even this morning, 0.4 pound loss.
Total for the week 6.8 pounds. Grand total 16.8 pounds.

HCG Day 13

2011-08-25T08:45:00.004-05:00

I find that each day that passes, the more excited I get about this program. The first 10 pounds I did not think much of because it could have been water weight - but to continue to lose, and now start to see some difference in my body... I'm becoming a believer.
Yes, I'm skeptical of any fad diet.. as desperation takes you dark places at times. with that said, I'm amazed at this one.

Even with the success stories, changes I'd seen in friends who'd gone through this, the year of research I did, and listening to my doctors go over it in great detail I was still gun shy. However, these last 13 days have shown me that this is tool I need to change my life. Let's see what the next 27 days bring!

I forgot my shot yesterday and was worried about being hungry. I guess what they say about it staying in your system for a few days is correct, as I never was hungry yesterday and had no problem staying on the diet.

Today's weight is 293.4 which is a loss was .6 (not bad for someone who forgot to take their shot). Total loss is 16.4 in 13 days.

HCG Day 12

2011-08-24T08:44:00.001-05:00

Only .4 lost today (Total now 15.8) - was stress eating last night due to school, and ate an extra helping of protein. I figure it's better than the junk I used to eat when I'd stress eat for school (whole bags of chips, candy, junk!).

I forgot to take my injection this morning as I was running late to work. Half way to the office realized it. Unfortunately I will not get home until after 10pm tonight due to school, so there is not chance of taking it later, should be an interesting day.

HCG Day 11

2011-08-23T09:30:00.002-05:00

Weight 294.4 this morning.
0.8 pound loss.

HCG Day 10

2011-08-22T08:42:00.000-05:00

Lost 1.6 pounds - 295.2 this morning. 14.6 total

HCG Day 9

2011-08-21T10:42:00.001-05:00

1 pound loss - total 13. Weight today 296.8

HCG Day 8

2011-08-20T16:44:00.000-05:00

Lost another 2 pounds, lost 12 total. Todays weight 297.8.

Day 7 - End of Week 1

2011-08-19T08:11:00.004-05:00

Official weight for the end of week 1 - 299.8, a 10 pound loss.

List from this past weeks menu:

Monday -

Lunch:

1 Melba Toast

1 Large Apple

1 Large Cucumber

3.5 oz Chicken Breast

Dinner:

1 Grilled Onion

1 Asparagus

1 4 oz shrimp

1 Radish

4 Strawberries

1 Melba Toast

Snack:

2 oz steak

1/2 grapefruit

585 Calories

Tuesday -

Lunch:

1 Apple

1 Large Tomato

3.5 oz Steak

1 Melba Toast

Dinner:

3.5 oz Veal

2 cups Celery

1 Melba Toast

1 Apple

Snack

2.5 oz shrimp

1/2 grapefruit

Calories 791

Wednesday -

Lunch:

2.5 oz Veal

2 oz Chicken

1 large Cucumber

1 Melba Toast

1 Large Apple

Dinner:

3.5 Beef

2 Clementine Orange

2 cups Spinach

8 Strawberries

1 Large Tomato

1 Large Cucumber

Calories 678

Thursday -

Lunch:

4 oz Shrimp

1 Large Cucumber

Melba Toast

1 Grapefruit

Dinner:

1 Cup Asparagus

1 Onion

5 oz Swai White Fish

1 Melba Toast

Snack:

1 Large Apple

Calories 644

Friday -

Lunch:

1 Melba Toast

3.5 oz Steak

4 cups lettuce (1/2 of a large iceberg head)

2 Clementine Oranges

Dinner:

3.5 oz Crab

1 Melba Toast

5 Celery Sticks

2 Radishes

1 Grapefruit

Snack

1 oz Steak Cubes

552 Calories

Day 6 - down 8.6 pounds

2011-08-18T08:44:00.002-05:00

Diet is going well. I am extremely tired today, but that is due to my MBA class running until 10 pm last night, and me not getting to sleep before midnight.

The diet has not been a problem - the doctor advised me between 500-800 calories, and I've been anywhere between 500-700 each day.

I was pleased this morning to see an 8.6 pound loss - can't wait to be under 300 in the next couple of days.

Today I brought shrimp for lunch, and will combine that with my grapefruit, cucumber and melba toast.

The injections work by keeping the hunger away, I usually don't feel hungry until late evening, and that's when I'll eat my last fruit for the day.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Day 3 on HCG

2011-08-15T08:25:00.003-05:00

The previous load days were fun. Eating everything in sight, and some of the fattiest foods possible. I gorged on pasta with a thick cream sauce, candy, hamburger, fajitas, chips, queso, hard cheese and hotwings. Needless to say, I gained 5 pounds in 2 days.

What I've noticed so far is interesting. Even after the 1st injection, I found it harder to eat. I did not want to eat as much, and by the 2nd injection I spent most of the day not hungry.
This was a nice change given that I'm typically hungry 24-7.

This morning I woke slightly hungry, and within minutes of my 3rd injection the felling subsided. This should make today's 500 calorie day doable.

The agenda for today is as follows:
Breakfast: Tea or coffee without sugar and cream, stevia may be used.
Lunch: 3.5 oz of either veal, beef, chicken, white fish, lobster, crab or shrimp
One veggie: spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, radishes, cucumbers, asparagus or cabbage.
One breadstick (grissino) or melba toast
One Apple, orange, handful of strawberries or 1/2 a grapefruit
Dinner: Same as lunch, but use different protein.

So for today's eating pleasure, I am having tea for breakfast with Stevia and for lunch I'm having 3.5 oz of chicken breast and a large cucumber. I have not had a chance to grocery shop, so during lunch I'll pick up some fruit the melba toast.

Dinner is still to be decided.. either beef or fish from the freezer with a veggie. I'll track the calories each day to make sure I'm getting the required in. Per my doctor, I need between 500-800 each day.

The other big key is getting down the 2 liters of water each day.

A stab at HCG, and back to the blog.

2011-08-12T22:28:00.003-05:00

I started seeing an Alternative Medicine doctor a few months ago.. I call him my "Little Asian Witch Doctor". It's true Eastern medicine, with pressure points, homeopathic remedies, and even acupuncture.

A friend referred me to Dr. Tan, after she'd lost 70 pounds with his version of the HCG diet, and swore he cured all her other ill's before even starting on the weight loss.

Today was my 3rd appointment with him, and I'll start the HCG injunctions tomorrow.

My first appointment was so strange.. he'd touch a pressure point, and I'd lose all control of my arm. He's ask my body questions, and by pushing down on my arm, he could tell what the proper course of treatment was. Seemed like a scam, gimmick. fake, until he did cure many issues I was having, such as digestive issues, sleeping problems and chronic hip pain that had completely left me unable to walk more than 10 feet without crippling pain.

After 2 months of treatment using a cocktail of homeopathic drugs, digestive issues are gone, I sleep great, and the hip pain continues to diminish. It's not gone, but tolerable to the point that I climbed up to the top and back down Diamond Head volcano last week, in Hawaii. Not something I could have done 2 months ago.

Now that those issues are taken care of, he's ready to address the weight problem.

The treatment should last 35-40 days, and the HCG compound is made by a company called Rejuvi.

At my highest weight ever, I'm willing to try anything. Since I stopped blogging in Jan. 2010, I've broken and had major surgery on my right ankle, ruptured my left Achilles tendon twice, and went through two major surgeries for it as well. Needless to say, I spent the majority of 2 years unable to walk, and dealt with my drama by stuffing my face.

The diet follows what we've all read on the Internet. Three days of loading (basically gorging myself on junk/fatty food), then 37 days of the diet. Diet is basically 3.5 oz of protein with veggies and fruit two times a day. The calorie intake should come out to approx. 500 per day, although the doctor said I could do between 500-800 per day.

Don't know if this will work, but if it takes away my hunger and helps lose this weight, I'm willing to give it a shot. So far everything else my Which Doctor has done works... believe it or not.

Starting weight, 309.8

Where did 2009 go

2010-01-14T11:09:00.004-06:00

Don't know about you, but 2009 went by too quick.

The up's:

lost 60 pounds
started taking a martial art's class
My daughter started kindergarten
volleyball team placed 3rd last season & got to play in the tournament
hubby joined the team & is pretty good

The down:

broke my foot & had to have surgery
gained 40 pounds back

I've missed being active. My doctor finally released me last week after 3 mos of no walking/surgery/etc. to start exercising.

Physical Therapy was very successful, so now it's up to me to get my life and body back in order.

Due to finances, I can't afford to participate in the HRM classes, so I've chosen to add the products into my day to day life.

On Friday, several of us at work weighed in - everyone is doing their own diet, but the ultimate goal for all is weight loss.

My weight at the group weigh in was 296. Very sad, since I was down to 254 only a few months ago. The up side, is that I'm less than my highest weight of 314, but in reality I'm not far from it.

I've been having anywhere from 2-6 HRM products a day (shakes, soup, bar, entree) and lots of fruit's and veggies along with lean protein.

After doing the HMR liquid fast for so long, I just can't do it again - it worked great, but so hard to go back to. This way I get both the fruits, vegetables & meal replacements.

My calorie intake each day has been averaging 1450. We will weight in as a group tomorrow and I'll see if my plan is working.

As for exercise, I went to my martial art's class Monday - first real workout since July. Did you know that lunge, squat, lunge, squat = 2 days of not being able to sit down or stand up without pain. It showed me that I am in worse shape than I thought, but the exercise felt great.

Tonight is volleyball practice. Our new season starts Sunday. I'm very excited to be playing again, since I missed the last 2 seasons due to my injury.

Cast

2009-10-23T14:49:00.005-05:00

Got my very first cast today. They took the stitches out - all is starting to look good.
I'm in this cast for 2 weeks, then they'll change it for another one. As the swelling goes down, a new cast will be put on. Should end up with three total.

Surgery Recovery

2009-10-20T12:33:00.005-05:00

Recovery from surgery has been pretty tough - they did a lot of work to my foot to fix the problems, including removing a piece of broken off bone that's the size of the end of my thumb. Above are pictures from right after surgery. Below is week 1 pictures - he changed out the soft cast. I go Friday and he'll remove the stitches and put on a hard cast. My foot and toes are so swollen in these pictures.. little sausages.

Day 3

2009-10-07T12:30:00.002-05:00

It's been harder today.. I woke up starving.

Today I've had:
8am Shake
9am Shake
11am Grilled shrimp/scallops & crawfish with rice and a grilled chicken skewer with veggies

Day 2

2009-10-06T11:41:00.005-05:00

9am Shake
11 am Shake
11:45 am Beef Stroganoff.
4: 00 Shake
6:00 Shake
8: 4 cups lettuce, grilled eggplant, sliced lean ham

HMR added 3 new entrees recently - we'd been expecting this for a while. I've tried the Stroganoff today, not sure yet what I think of it. I think it would be better with a can of mushrooms mixed in. I'm not much of a beef eater, so that may be my problem as well.

If anyone has any great HMR recipies - please pass them along.

Day 1 Down

2009-10-05T22:12:00.006-05:00

Ended up being hungry this evening, but stuck to the plan & stuck with good stuff.

7am Shake
9am Shake
12pm Soup & Chicken Parmesan Entree
2pm Shake
5:30pm 2 Chocolate puddings & Savory chicken
7pm rice & broccoli
10pm mushroom risotto, rotel & chicken soup

114 oz water
2 cans coke zero soda

MRI Pictures of Fracture

2009-10-05T14:43:00.013-05:00

The 1st picture is a comparison of what a normal talus looks like verses my MRI.

This is a good image of the fracture

Surgery & HMR

2009-10-05T13:52:00.004-05:00

Nope, I did not fall off the planet, just lot's of drama.
Today is exactly 1 year since I started HMR. The good new is that I weight less today than I did a year ago, but not by much.

In May I fractured my foot, well it's been a long time, but I'm having surgery on Friday, and this should finally resolve the issue.

They will go in and do a bone graft, remove and clean the dead pieces of bone, put in 1-2 screws,
drill a hole at the top of the bone and repair the cartilage and finally remove the small piece I broke off that's been floating around the back of my foot.

This is what happens when you work out and try to lose weight.. and they say working out is good for you :)

Yes, I did totally screw it up. The frustrating thing is that I have not been able to work out since July, I have been restricted from any physical activity and I've watched the weight pile on.
Got on the scale last night to see that I'm back up to 291...when I started down this path I was 300.1 October of last year and got down to 254. It's time to work on me again.

Since I will be completely immobile for 6-8 weeks, I've decided that going on the HMR liquid diet at home would be the best solution. No dr. visit or high costs - just the products.

HMR released some new entrees that look exciting, but I'm on my way now to buy more shakes.
I'll update more after my surgery on Friday - wish me luck.

It's only Tuesday

2009-08-04T08:14:00.003-05:00

Just feel yucky today. I have not slept well in days and I'm starting to feel the beginnings of a sinus infection.
I also feel super swollen and irritable.
To bad it's only Tuesday. I'm hoping this week flys by quick.
Yesterday the ladies I work with wanted to go to lunch, no biggie - I feasted on a huge veggie salad and a baked potato with salsa.
My kiddo wanted Cici's Pizza before her martial art's class, so I caved. The nice thing is that I did not eat nearly as much as I used to and mostly stuck with the veggie pizza.
Around 8 my tummy was growling again so I cooked a grilled chicken breast and mixed it with tomato's, mushrooms and capers...yum, yum, yum!
Needless to say, I'm not thrilled about todays weight in.. we'll se how it goes tonight.

Good weekend - getting ready for a new week.

2009-08-03T09:17:00.003-05:00

This weekend was busy! We spent all Friday evening sweating in the garage getting ready for a garage sale. Turned out that it rained Saturday, so we'll try again next weekend.

Saturday we spent the day running errands and doing things around the house.

Sunday we hung the new TV and started to put the house back in order.

Since we'd planned to move and have slowly been unpacking everything since the sale fell through, we've taken the opportunity to significantly downsize. We've also been re-painting in the process and everything is starting to look nice. Because we were not moving after all, I gave my husband a $1200 budget to buy a flat screen TV, if I got to re-arrange the living room and paint it how I wanted... of course he agreed. Last week he came home very excited because he got a '50 inch TV on sale for $1199, leaving him a whopping dollar left over.

At least he's happy and the living room is slowly starting to take shape. I'll post pictures later when it's cleaned up.

Our team won their volleyball game last night, which was great to watch, but frustrating for me since I can't play while I'm wearing the boot a/k/a torture device.

I was starving last night, and ate 10 servings of vegetables before I finally filled up.. at least it was veggies and not junk.. but holy smokies.. my appetite has been enormous lately.

Freaking Starving - but making good choices

2009-07-30T15:23:00.003-05:00

So, last night I got home from taking my daughter to her martial arts class and found myself ravenous.
I finished the night off with a baked potato, bake potato soup, grilled turkey & 2 can mushrooms, all topped off by 12 small grilled shrimp.....seriously - what's up with that!!!
I hoped the protein in the shrimp would hold me for a while and it did.

Today's super stressful at work, as always - but been doing well.
1 HMR Shake
1 HMR Entree
6 pieces of chicken with buffalo sauce
2 baked potato's with I Can't Believe it's Not Butter Spray & seasonings
Hopefully since I did not eat lunch until 2 today (again, crazy busy at work), I won't be overly hungry tonight.

Tonight is volleyball night, and I have a fractured foot... sucks for me!
I got my husband to play this season and he's managed to get hooked on the game.
So the plan tonight is to go to practice and hit ball's to my teammates all night.. I can't walk around or play, but I can make them run through setting/bumping drills and serve to them all night long.. at least my upper body will get somewhat of a workout.

I'm Back - Been too Long

2009-07-29T14:00:00.003-05:00

Hello World... miss me?!??!?!
Did you know that any diet works... yes they do - the key is sticking to it.. that is the hard part!
I've been floating around in the land of the lost dieters for the past two months.

RECAP OF WHERE I'VE BEEN

End of May:
Started taking a martial arts class, but my foot started giving me fits.
Saw doctor, he thought it was just a damaged tendon & gave me some antinflamitories.
Put a contract on a new house
June:
Went to Florida for a week - apparently the only way the family in FL eats food is deep fried.
Started back on my martial art's class and volleyball league, but my foot kept giving me fits.
Saw doctor again - he thought it was possibly a cyst or tumor in the foot - sent me for a CT scan and to see a specialist
Packed up entire house, ready to move to bigger place.
End of June:
Contract on house fell through hours before closing.. also it was my 31st birthday (happy birthday to me - you lost a house)
July:
Slowly unpacking the entire house, since we have decided to stay put for a while.
Specialist thinks I fractured a piece of bone off, sent for a MRI
Takes a week for insurance to approve the MRI
Doctor takes a week vacation
July 23 - Doctor calls - you have a fracture in your talus bone and a piece that's fracture off too. Now I have to wear a boot for the next 4 weeks while I wait for this thing to heal, hoping to avoid surgery
7/28 - Went to my HMR class - I'm back up to 276.. I've gained 20 pounds.

The good news is I got my blood work back and my Cholesterol is way down to 160, my blood sugar low, and all the other blood work came back excellent.
Apparently I'm super healthy, just fat!!!

Ugh..

So I am trying really hard to think ahead and plan meals so that I'm not tempted to grasp something quick and unhealthy.
I've gotten to the point that the HMR entrees are starting to taste gross & I just can't stomach them.. the shakes on the other hand are still great.. so I'm trying to find ways to incorporate HRM stuff into every day food.

Last night for dinner we had grilled fish with brown rice and I made a potato soup with the HMR Chicken Soup mix.. and it was GOOD.

Here's how:
3 extra large potato's peeled and cut up
Put in a pot with water, added sea salt & pepper and cooked till soft.
Drained potato's, added 2 packages of the HMR chicken soup mix, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, and fat free milk
Mashed to mush and added water/milk to get desired consistency.
Added 1 teaspoon of the I Can't Believe it's Not Butter Spray (just enough to give the butter flavor
Wha-La you have low calorie potato soup using HMR product.

My husband does not like the HMR products (even though he's never tried any), so I was surprised to find him eating it.... and he liked it...ALOT. I told him it had the HMR products in it and he could not believe it.

Today's been a good day:
I've had 2 HMR vanilla shakes mixed with Crystal Light
1 HMR Savory Chicken Entree
1 mini bag of pop corn (100 cal per bag)
2 HRM 70+ mixed into puddings

Tonight I'll have more of the Potato Soup mixed with the HMR and whip up a new creation.

Finally going in the right direction

2009-05-20T21:54:00.004-05:00

This week's weight loss was 4 pounds. Finally going in the right direction.
I've been super hungry & craving salt this week. So on top of eating ton's of MR's, I've been going nuts with the veggies, especially baked potato's.
Something new I tired this week was my daughters martial art's class. Something totally new to me and scary too, especially because I'm not only the biggest person, but the ONLY girl.
Who cares, it's fun & good exercise.
Looking foward to volleyball tomorrow night.

Good Weekend

2009-05-17T22:25:00.002-05:00

This has been a pretty good weekend. Stayed on plan, ate lots of fruits & veggies when we were running around. Been craving salt like crazy though.

Although I have not gotten all my PA in, I've spent lots of time working in the yard, house, etc. I am hoping to lose the weight gained last week with all the activity.

Finding My Way Again

2009-05-14T13:53:00.003-05:00

Between the compounding stress of work, 5 family deaths in a 1 month period & traveling for work, it's no big surprise that I gained 10 pounds in one week.
I figured it would be bad, but did not realize it would be that bad.

So, I've started on the program, AGAIN. It's a great program & very successful; however, my problem is I ALWAYS go back to my old habits instead of sticking with the healthy ones... heck I'm not even sure exactly what my weight was Tuesday when I went to class, I did not look, I just know my health educator mentioned something about 10+ pounds.

I've also had a few hint's from friends these last two weeks that I finally stopped ignoring & let sink in.
One was a call here from a buddy who said, "hey, meet me for lunch so we can discuss workout strategies", another friend saying "Why don't you take this martial arts class, it would help you continue to lose weight" to even the more obvious one yesterday "I know your not dieting anymore, what happened, you were doing so good and I'm dissapointed that you stopped, what can I do to help?".
H E L L O ! - I guess it's time to pay attention, because obviosly everyone else is.

My new goal is to lose weight & continue to add in healthy foods to break those bad habits.
I've noticed the hip pain creeping back & I go on vacation in 3 weeks, so I want to lose the weight I gained + a few more pounds, especially so that I can enjoy the vacation & not be in pain or constricted on my activites.

Yesterday:
7am - HMR shake
10am - HMR bar
12pm - HMR shake & HMR entree
5pm - HMR two soups & HMR entree
7pm - salad & 1 roll
64 oz water
2 soda's
No PA

Today:
8am HMR shake
9am HMR shake & HMR cereal
12pm HMR entree & HMR shake
2pm HMR bar
44 oz water
....day's not over yet.

Finding My Way

2009-04-09T12:00:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was a moderate success - blasted Easter candy. I'm not a sweet eater, except for a couple of days each month, during a certain time.. which surprised me with a visit yesterday.

All is better today, the cravings have passed and I feel semi-normal - at least until this time again next month..

Today my diet has consisted of so far:
1 Bar
2 Shakes
1 Salad (counts as 2 veggies)

On a good start for the day. I have volleyball tonight, so should not have any trouble fitting in my PA.

I'll update tomorrow how everything went.

Going the Wrong Way

2009-04-07T21:28:00.002-05:00

Had my class tonight and it was tough. After my grandmother's funeral this week and all the family drama it's expected that I gained weight, but still, not what I wanted to see on the scale.
I'm sitting back in the horrific land of the 260's..260.4 to be exact.
Talked with my husband and friends, so time to start back on the diet. I want to stay focused.
Tomorrow the plan is to work on staying in the box and more is better. Will update tomorrow with my progress.

I think it helped in the beginning to blog often about my progress, so I will begin again.
More to come later... goal for tomorrow - Minimum 5 shakes, 100 oz water & 300 PA - more is better!

Hello World

2009-03-26T15:17:00.004-05:00

Thanks to everyone who's been keeping tabs on me, I need the help, and appreciate the thoughts. This week's been very tough both physically and emotionally, so the support came at the right time.

I'm still living in the world of the 250's... it's my own fault. I enjoyed birthday parties, family events and eating out way too much. But, to do everything I did not gain, to actually go a month and maintain my weight, that is a big accomplishment. Now, I just have to find my way back to the weight loss track again.

This week's been very hard emotionally due to family drama, neighbor drama, work drama, kid school drama....drama, drama, drama and I don't like it.

Long story short, I'm stretched too thin at work & overwhelmed, my neighbor picked a bad time to start a war with me, my kids school did a really dumb thing that now add's more stress to my day, and my grandmother is terminal, expected to pass today and all the family drama that goes with this situation has sucked the last little bit of energy I had out of me.

Yesterday, I used all the crappy stuff going on as an excuse to eat crappy food, then I felt crappy afterward, so the I decided that was a really crappy idea.

Today has gone much better. Although all the drama is still there and actually intensified today, I've had a bar, a shake and for lunch has a really good broccoli/rice mixture which was only 300 calories.

Now, that the 1st half of the day has gone well, I need to focus on the second half. If I can find the energy tonight, and the family drama subsides for a hour or so, I should get to play volleyball tonight, and that will be a great release for me!

I’ve Been a Bad Girl

2009-03-11T10:46:00.002-05:00

Diet, what diet – oh yeah that HMR thing.
I know, I’ve been bad.. I was doing SO great, then let my laziness take over.
We’ll I’ve done a lot of soul searching over the past 2 weeks to motivate myself again.
I don’t want to be that lazy person anymore, and I refuse to let “Fat Donna” sneak back into my life and take over.

I got really honest with myself and basically gave myself a lecture about how dumb it is to give in now and go back to my old ways – I will not fail again like every other time (don’t know if this constitutes talking to myself of not, but hey, we’re all a little nuts).
So, after a weekend of fried junk, cake and every fattening thing I just stopped.
I went from 254 to 259 in 3 days..ugh.. I refuse to be 260 again, because I know what will happen.. Oh it’s only 5 pounds, and then I’ll 5 pound my way up over 300 again like before!
I’ve made a conscious effort to be good and stay on track. I need to develop self control, and learn how to live outside the box without going overboard.

So, I followed my weekend splurge by 6 hours of yard work, mowing, raking, cutting down trees and digging up their roots on Saturday. Sunday, I finally finished my retaining wall project, more yard work and a volleyball game.. that combined with lots of shakes and water has put me back to 254 this morning.

I’m done with the 250’s – time to visit 240 for the first time in years… so my personal goal is to be there in the next 10 days..

Picture of my completed wall below.

Still Bopping Along

2009-02-24T08:54:00.004-06:00

Things are going well - I'm stuck between 250-255 - just can't seem to break into the 240's and it's been 3 weeks now - I guess this is what they call a plateau and it's just annoying.

Loving the veggies - I'm still using a few HMR products in addition. I spent all last night cooking - either I was cooking breakfast things for the family to eat and nuke quickly in the mornings so my husband stops feeing my kid pop-tarts, I was also cooking dinner and preparing foods to eat on all week.
I made a huge pot of veggie stew - each serving is <50 calories, a large salad with mixed veggies to eat on all week and even a large cauliflower salad.
I love this because it's cauliflower mixed with a couple of veggies of choice, capers, a few olives for flavor and a 0 calorie dressing that I custom make... yummy - kind of like a Mediterranean salad, but healthy.

Since the weather is warning up, I've started walking during lunch in addition to my workouts - it's nice, clears my head and gets me out of the office. I think I'm starting to get into a pattern for my gym workouts and still have my volleyball twice a week to mix it up - Now I'm just ready to lose the next 50 pounds, if my body will just cooperate.

Feeling Good

2009-02-18T14:57:00.000-06:00

I’m trying to get back in the habit of working out at the gym regularly. I play volleyball twice a week, and putter around doing other things, but after the holidays I’ve been avoiding the gym since all the “New Years Resolution” folks show up. Now that it’s been 6-7 weeks, that crowd is starting to trickle off.

Last night they were swamped and I finally found one treadmill open… after walking for 5 minutes I decided to give jogging a try again, since it’s been a couple of months.. I’m proud to say that I ran at a 5.2 speed for 5 minutes. A very big deal for me since last year I could not run even 30 seconds. I’ve got very short legs, so 5.2 is not much on these treadmills when my 6’2 husband can run at a 9+ due to his long stride and walks at a 5 – but when you are vertically challenged like me, 5.2 is fast! Plus as a bonus, my lose skin did not make any obscene or embarrassing noises like before.

So I’ve officially been on maintenance a couple of days now and am really enjoying it. Technically I ate out of the box last week while in New Orleans, but ate lots of fish and veggies, but I’m counting this as my first true week of maintenance:

Monday:
2 HMR 800 Shakes
1 HMR 500 Soup (2 pkgs)
2 Entrées
2 Bars
Green Beans (2 veg. servings)
1 extra large Baked Potato (3 veg servings)
600 Calories Physical Activity
80 oz Water
Total Est. Calories Consumed 1440

Tuesday:
2 HMR 800 Shakes
1 HMR 500 Soup (2 pkgs)
1 Entrée
2 Bars
Asparagus (2 veg servings)
Green Beans (1 veg serving)
Orange (1 fruit serving)
Nectarine (1 fruit serving)
Miso Soup
2 pork ribs, no fat.
430 Calories Physical Activity
96 oz Water
Total Est. Calories Consumed 1580

Maintenance

2009-02-17T15:22:00.001-06:00

I’ve been a little scarce on the postings because things have been so busy! I was in New Orleans last week for work and it was wonderful. Great conference, good people and excellent location. I’ve always loved the French Quarter and its culture. Now it’s even cleaner and less congested than it used to be. Many people still have a false impression that the area is unsafe and devastated by Katrina. Yes, the 9th Ward is a mess and always will be, but the city has rebuilt and is cleaner and better than before. I was there 2 years ago, and was glad to see that the people have come back. A couple of years ago the area was dead – only a hand full of tourists on Bourbon St. at night, hotels were empty, trolleys were down, but the city’s coming back to life now. It may also be because it’s so close to Mardi Gras, but it’s defiantly more populated than before.
Well, flying to New Orleans with the HMR products ended up being a battle Iost. AA has tight restrictions around weight and luggage size now – so frustrating – so I took my two carryons and that was it – bag of clothes and my laptop along with a hand full of bars to snack on when hungry.
We had dinner out most nights, but it consisted of fish and veggies – very healthy and yummy! The thing that came back to haunt me was the drinks. The reception one night was open bar, the attorney’s bought dinner and drinks another – it was a rare experience, but it was nice. I walked a TON. I actually ended up walking around 2 hours each day – just to see the city and get my PA in. I loved it.
When I was there 2 years ago, I could not keep up, it hurt to walk, I was in pain and out of breath the whole trip– it was completely different this trip and I was amazed at how bad I was only a few months ago. This time, everyone around me was struggling to keep up with me – I walked for hours, no pain, never out of breath. I can’t express how exciting that is.
So, with work, needing to cut costs and upcoming law school I’ve decided to transition to 6 months of maintenance. I still have a lot to lose, but am excited to start adding veggies to my routine and feel this is the best move for me. Last night I had green beans with my entrée and then a baked potato. Today, I finished the green beans for lunch and am looking forward to a salad for dinner. I’m trying to get back into the routine of working out and worked 40 minutes on the elliptical last night – I was amazed that it went so easily.
I’ve been wanting to take up running again, but since I still have a large layer of skin that hangs low, no matter what I do, my body makes this embarrassing noise when I run because that skin flops around – so until that part of my body shrinks more, I’m sticking to the elliptical, swimming and stair machine…. Plus my volleyball twice a week is a great workout.

New Jeans!

2009-02-09T13:18:00.002-06:00

Ok, I've gotten alot of comments the last 2 weeks from co-workers and how baggie my jeans are. It had gotten to the point that some people were coming up behind me, and grabbing a fist full of pant that was hanging where my butt should be (or use to be).. so finally this weekend after my husband watched me all day Saturday pulling up my pants, I gave in and bought new jeans.

Here's the cool part... the jeans I had were size 22 (remember I was a very tight 26-28 when I started)... I'd bought them a couple of years ago and was never able to wear them because they were too small at the time. I've been wearing these jeans for the last month, and now they are too big!
So we went to Kohls, I went strait to the Woman's section I always do to shop; however, all the close were TOO BIG.. can you believe it, clothes that were too big.
A little stunned, I started wandering around trying to find the smaller section.. I grabbed a couple of jeans not knowing what size I actually am......the jeans I bought are a 18!
I don't even remember the last time I was an 18!
I was able to get the 16's on, but they looked awful, so we'll stick with the 18's for a while until they start to fall off too.

Just pretty cool... so today I came to work for the first time in a while with both jeans and a shirt that fit.. I have been stopped by a dozen folks who have gone "Oh my god, you've lost alot of weight."... Pretty cool.

I'm just happy to be feeling better, and moving better. Last night was the best volleyball game I've personally ever played because I can move so much better and quicker now.. and I don't hurt all the time like before.

I looked at the scale this morning and it said 251.. just on the edge of the 240's. I'm getting ready to leave for the airport today and will be in New Orleans all week, but I plan to get alot of walking in, so next week I should finally make it to the 240's.

Day 120

2009-02-04T08:35:00.008-06:00

I’ve been keeping up with the blogs of fellow HMR folks and have to take a moment to give kudos’s to Mr. Losing to Find Myself (link to his page is on the left). He has lost over 130 pounds and has officially broken that elusive 200 barrier.. WAY TO GO.. VERY INSPIRATIONAL.

I really enjoy reading about other’s success and find it helps me on my journey as well.

I had my HMR class last night – last one with this group that I’ve been attending with over the past 16 weeks. We are all parting ways and moving to different classes. Due to scheduling conflicts, I’ll be repeating this class again, which is fine because I still have a long ways to go. When the volleyball season ends, I’ll be able to move into the ongoing class.

Last night’s weigh in was 254, I seem to be stuck. I know the last couple of weeks were due to antibiotic and other gunk, but I’m ready for the 240’s. I need to force more PA into my week.. life and work has been so busy that I leave when it’s dark and get home when it’s dark – then have enough time to spend a few minutes with my kid and off to bed (or I’ll work from home some more). No, I’m not a work-a-holic…I am one of those sick people who actually loves my job (most days), it’s just the 1st quarter of the year is always my busiest time. I also need the PA as a de-stressor.

My goal this week is to leave the 250’s and meet the 240’s again. It will literally be almost 12 years since I’ve been at that weight, so it will be a very big personal accomplishment.

Here’s an updated picture from a couple of weeks ago.. I like that my extra chins are finally leaving! You can really see it against these two pictures from a few months ago.

I also found this cute one of my from when I was a kid.. just had to share.

Next week’s tough. I’m going to be in New Orleans all week for work. I always carryon and hate checking bags, but this time I’ve got to somehow take food & a blender with me. I have not decided how to handle that. I found this mini blender, battery operated with a plastic blade which I can take on the plane, but the real problem is during the conference.

Conference starts at 7am each day with breakfast, which I can skip.. then you are in the room all day and they bring food, snacks, etc.. usually it’s pastries and junk. I’ll have to bring products with me, but not sure how/when I’ll have a chance to mix them. Evenings consist of dinners, drinks, etc…This will be interesting.

Day 119

2009-02-03T09:18:00.000-06:00

Just when life starts to get back to normal, something always pop’s up.
Finally feeling better, I think I’m finally over all the cooties and gunk

We had a pretty good weekend, relaxing, got some exercise in, spend all day yesterday cleaning, broke my nose….

Yes, you read that last part correctly.

At my volleyball game last night the team we were up against all looked like 21 year old Greek gods – way too health.

Last thing I remember was during the 2nd game watching the girl on the other team set the ball and then nothing by black & searing pain. Her 6’6 teammate leaped up and spiked the ball as hard as he could. It happened so fast I did not have time to get my hand’s up to block – so my face took the force.. might not have been so bad if I had not been 2 feet away from when it hit.
So, today I have two lovely black eyes, and my face is throbbing. Not sure yet sure if it’s really broken, bruised or possibly fractured.. but it hurts. I’ve been smacked in the snoz before, but not this bad. It could be worse.

Diet’s going well – I have not weighted in in a few days, but last time I looked I was hovering around 253.. should be in the 240’s soon.

Antibiotics and Ice

2009-01-29T08:29:00.000-06:00

I have not had the chance to blog in a while because I’ve been ill.
Had the Type A flu and pneumonia at the same time – and ended everything this week with an inner ear infection. As of today I’m finally off of all med’s and antibiotics. Unfortunately, the medications I’ve been taking have caused a lot of water retention – and I had to switch to normal food for a couple of days because the milk based HMR shakes were not a great combo with my fever… I had lots of salad, beans and chicken during that time.

I’ve watched the scale over the past few days go from 252 to 257 then back down – this morning it read 256..ugh! I have not had any PA, because until yesterday I could not take a deep breath and was still coughing up stuff in my chest…This stuff has just been nasty!!!

We did not have our HMR meeting Tuesday because poor weather.. the makeup class yesterday was cancelled because the roads were still covered in ice.. so the only option is to make up tonight. Problem is, my volleyball practice is tonight – I’ll have to see how it goes, hopefully they will move the practice to 8, so I can make both.

Pneumona and the Flu

2009-01-19T22:24:00.002-06:00

This weekend went very well with all the food temptations. I did not cheat, which was great until today.
Saturday we were active and I tried rock wall climbing for the 1st time. Very exciting and fun, but I really sore and achy Sunday, so I assumed it was due to the climbing.
Sunday my daughter and I took the dogs for a jog, then I had a Volleyball game at 3. By 11 I really started to feel exhausted - we did the family thing and I left there at 2:15 for my 3:00 game and felt crummy all over... as soon as the game was over, I could not move... something was wrong.

I went home and laid down for a couple of hours, but kept feeling worse, then I started shaking all over.. I had a 102 fever.

Today was a company holiday, so I got an appointment to see the doctor at 10, my fever was 103 by this point - after his exam and x-rays he diagnosed me with bronchial pneumonia. I've been fighting a sinus infection for weeks, so I assumed it finally got the best of me. He loaded me up with antibiotics, cough suppressants and nose spray - I took it all, but kept getting worse by the hour - the prescriptions and Motrin did nothing for my fever, my head and throat were killing me. By 6:30 my fever kept climbing to 104.6, even with the Motrin, I was shaking a drenched in sweat - panicked my husband took me to the after-hours clinic.
Since the antibiotics should have made my fever go down, not up they ran another test and in addition to bronchial pneumonia I tested positive for the Type A Flu.

Because the shakes HMR are milk based and my high fever, the doctor told me not to consume any milk or milk based products until the fever goes away, since that seems to be what's adding to my nausea.
Today I had a cup of fruit, chicken and veggies... all healthy, but I still feel awful and am surprised that I did get those down.

Day 100

2009-01-15T13:27:00.001-06:00

Can't believe it's been 100 days since I've been on this journey.

Got a call from my health educator - looks like they are keeping me in the Tuesday class, but basically I'll have to repeat the starter class. If my schedule changes, I can move to the ongoing class any time I want, or even maintenance when I'm ready.
There's a couple of oldies in my current class that will be doing the same with me.

I am going out with some of my friends tonight to catch up, and after I've got volleyball practice. Going to be a good night, especially since I figured out how to avert the 3 different food crisis this week:

Crisis 1: Sushi with the girls - two of my friends that I really dreaded telling my story too called and said that they were not make it because work/life things that popped up. The other ladies going tonight already know what's going on, and don't judge so, a huge weight has been lifted! Plus, since I have Volleyball after, I don't want to eat heavy and definitely can't drink. :)

Crisis 2: My husband had 2 teeth pulled this week and is still not comfortable chewing solid food. Since neither of us can eat sloppy joes and pizza, we called my goddaughters family, and told them the situation - "Kenneth's had teeth pulled and Donna's on a diet, so don't make anything for us - we'll just feed the kiddo before we come". Whew.. they were totally ok with that.

Crisis 3: Since I have a Volleyball game Sunday, I'm going to leave the family party early, and if they ask why I'm not eating, I can use the game as an excuse.. don't want to eat right before going, so I don't get sick.

WHEW ... what luck!

Day 99

2009-01-14T07:59:00.003-06:00

At my HMR class last night I lost another 3 pounds, putting my total at 46.
They have spent the last few weeks in class going over the maintenance phase and ongoing phases of the diet. Last night they told us that after the end of the month, my Tuesday night class would go away and the only available ongoing class is on Thursday.

Over half of the class, including me cannot do a Thursday night class nor are ready for maintenance, so the health educator said she'd talk to us one-on-one and figure something out.
She did mention going back and repeating the starter class which is available on Tuesdays... so we'll see. I'm just not ready for maintenance yet because I still have alot of weight to go, and knowing me, I learn it's ok to start eating regular food, then I'll fall off the wagon and gain it all back. I'll write more about what we decide later.

Apparently the clinic I go to is going to start undergoing a clinical trial, so they are making changes to how we weight in too starting next week - lots of changes going on.

The fall season for volleyball start's up this week. The captain's meeting is tonight, so I should hear soon if we have enough to make the team this season and I think practices will start on Thursday too. Looking forward to it.

I've got a bunch of challenging days coming up this week, that I don't know how to tackle. They are all with friends/family I have not seen since this past summer, and they do not know anything about the diet I'm on or that I've even lost weight. Just weird that it all hit's this week.

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to meet a bunch of ladies I worked with years ago for Sushi. We try to get together every few months - the last time we met for Sushi was before I started with HMR. I don't think I'll cheat, I'm just not looking forward to the looks and questions.

Friday night we are seeing my goddaughter, her parents and grandparents - I though we were just having a belated x-mas, but my husband said last night that they are planning on dinner, sloppy joes and pizza... so again, I'll have to go through the barrage of questions and explanations as to why I'm not eating. Unfortunately this one will be a real struggle, because every activity with them if focused on food, and everyone is severely obese - so I have to figure out a way not to offend anyone.

and Sunday my husbands family announced some of them are coming in town and they are having a get together - again food will be involved along with 20 questions, etc..

If I could get out of going to one or all, I would, but it's just not an option this time.
If anyone has any advice, let me know - it's going to be a rough week.

Day 97

2009-01-12T08:41:00.002-06:00

It’s been kind of a rough weekend.

Not to get into too many personal details – but 4 weeks ago, I started back on “the pill”. Had a bunch of nightmarish issues over the past 5 years with “the shot” (Depo = Evil) and other contraceptives the OB tried. It took about 3 full years for my plumbing to function normally again (well as normally as it would). Since we are not 100% sure if we are done having kids, I was not ready for my hubby to go get “the snip” so I opted to go back on “the pill” and was told it would be the best solutions, since I also have PCOS.

MISERY!

I got pregnant with Piper December 2002 while on “the pill”. So my doctor explained that he wanted to put me on a higher dose because of that and my weigh. He said basically the bigger you are, the less effective the pill may be... so he’d put me on this dose and to come back in 3 months so he could adjust it down, knowing I’m on HMR and will continue to lose weight.
At first I thought all the nausea was due to the sinus infection, but it has not let up, although the infection is gone, I’ve had intense uncontrollable sugar cravings and Aunt Flo has came to visit unexpectedly 3 weeks now and really needs to go!

I’m told that it will take a couple of months for my body to adjust and work itself out, which I understand but it’s playing hell with my diet and life. I’ve also gone from a 60-90 days between visits from Aunt Flo, to a 3 week long stay..ugh!

I’m not exactly hungry, but have become ravenous for super sugary foods... I caved this weekend and found my husband’s box of Sunkist Fruit Chews – OMG it was good, but I could have easily downed the whole box, almost did! The problem is I don’t think it would have quenched my cravings – I would have just wanted more. Historically I’m not a sweet eater, so this is annoying. I spent all day yesterday talking myself out of going and eating the chocolate baking bars in the pantry. I tried puddings, HMR parts, etc – nothing helped. We were at Sam’s buying food for my family and I was drooling over the cakes in the bakery – I hate cake – have never been able to stand it – icing turns my stomach, but yesterday it looked heavenly.

So I’ve turned to trying to sweeten up my shakes as much as possible instead to see if that helps.. it does some, but the cravings have not dissipated. I’ll give it two more weeks. If things have not improved – the doctor will have to try something else. I can’t handle the diet, cravings, nausea and extended visits all at the same time.

HMR Stuffing

2009-01-08T20:27:00.003-06:00

Ok - this sounds wild, I thought so too, but tried it tonight and super yummy!!!!
At my HMR class Tuesday, one of the other classes keeps going on and on about stuffing they made using HMR products. Well, I'm willing to try anything once...nuts as it sounds, turns out I love it.

1 package of HMR Cereal
6 oz Swanson chicken stock (fat free)*
Poultry seasoning to taste
Sage to taste.
Mix together and cook (nuke it or put in a pan and cook in oven at 350)

It actually tastes like stuffing and is good.
For an extra step, take the HMR chicken soup, mix with 3 oz chicken stock and pour over the top as a gravy.

I think I'm in love.

* My health educator was ok with the Swanson stock because it's 10 calories per cup, as long as it's not more than once a day. Otherwise, all other 0-caloric seasonings are ok.

Picture Update

2009-01-08T00:06:00.006-06:00

43 pounds gone, 117 more to go.

I took pictures in this outfit 10/8/08 and then again today in the exact same outfit 3 months later and 43 pounds lighter.
I've been trading clothes with some of the ladies at my HMR class - so I'm not sure exactly what size I am not, but I was wearing a 28 pant that was tight and am wearing a 22 pant now.
I do know that I finally had to go buy some new bra's and underwear. The bra's I threw away were 50DDD and the ones I bought this past weekend were a 44D. Obviously I'm a little top heavy, but at least that part is shrinking along with everything else.

.

Day 92

2009-01-07T07:45:00.002-06:00

Feeling better and slowly getting back to normal. My PA for all of last week was only 290 since I was sick, seems a little pathetic.

I did manage to lose 1.4, making my total weight loss 42.7 and current weight 257.4.
Slow, but I'm getting there. When I stop hacking up green stuff, I'll increase the PA and want to see a 5 pound loss next week.

I have not been home before 8 pm the last two nights because of either work or HMR - I plan on scooting out of here today at 4 (which is when I'm supposed to get off, but usually work later) and take care of some things at home. If my play works, I should finally be able to post some pictures.

Got an email from the volleyball team I played with last season - looks like they are trying to form a team again. I'm excited and enjoy playing. I should be alot better this season, since I'm 40 pounds lighter and my hip does not hurt regurally anymore - plus that add's in extra PA each week.

Day 90

2009-01-05T14:50:00.005-06:00

Hope everyone had a great New Year.

Still sick and it’s getting old. I’d started to feel, look & sound get better by mid last week, then the last 3 days I’ve had a complete relapse. This time the crud’s moved into my chest. Grrrrr.
Lot’s of decongestants, cough meds, nose spray, Motrin, etc.. only problem is that they all have caused me to retain water – one day the scale reads 257, the next 261. I would not fret about it, but I weigh in tomorrow.

Sorry I have not posted pictures yet – been super busy or sick in bed. I was trying to find pictures from last Christmas as a comparison and ran across one today that completely mortified me… not sure if I’ll post it or not – but wow… how did I ever let myself get that big.
I’ve been waiting to get better before taking a picture of me at my current weight. Will posted updated stuff soon.

I found a great bookcase/desk combo online at IKEA that I wanted to get for my daughters room. We’ve been thinking about re-doing parts of the house and they had some of the furniture we wanted to do it with. Yesterday was a family trip to IKEA – which is a LONG drive. Me, my husband, daughter and mother-in-law all went. They only had the desk in-stock (the website lied about availability). I started putting it together last night. My 5 year old daughter was a great help at first, but then decided to be difficult and then things started to fall apart, literally. She did not listen, got in the way, and whoosh the whole shelving unit started to crash down, in her direction.. Well it was either the computer monitor or her – so I pulled her out of the way, and a 6 foot piece of wood broke off and crashed into the monitor screen – demolished it too. I figured that I can replace the monitor – not my kid.

Looks kind of like this, but white and taller. Thought we wanted to big one – well I had to build it in her room, not thinking that we would never, ever be able to get it out of there – basically when we sell the house – the shelving and desk will stay.

Imagine the desk attached to the end. I’ll take a picture of the real-deal tonight when we finish getting everything put on it.

So, luckily the broken shelf is not in a spot it can be seen, and all is well – just lot’s of tears and yelling to get there. Needless to say, I was very tired by the time everything was said and done last night.

Day 85

2008-12-31T15:29:00.002-06:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'ALL

Day 84, Week 12

2008-12-30T21:37:00.003-06:00

It's official, I'm now into the 250's. This weeks loss was 3.6, which puts me at a total loss of 41.3.

Big milestone this week due to several reasons.
- I've lost 41.3 pounds since 10/7/08
- From my highest weight ever in '06, I've lost a total of 53
- Broke 261.

Why is 261 important - I'll tell you why.
On 1/3/08, I decided to go on a diet, same as the rest of America - I did Weight Watchers, worked out every day and stayed healthy. On 1/3/08 I weighted 295 pounds and lost enough to get down to 261. Around the time I hit the 260's, I found a breast lump the size and shape of an almond. Although I was 29 at the time, due to my obesity and family history, the doctor was concerned. After several tests they were still concerned and removed it in late March '08.

Luckily everything was benign, but I fell out of my routine, could not workout for several weeks after the surgery, etc... very quickly everything was out of control and I was back up in the 290's before I knew it.

Breaking 261 is a big deal, because that is my personal low point, and the lowest weight I' ve been in almost 10 years.

May not sound important, but it is to me.

Also, today is a big day for me because I got my LSAT score - it should be high enough to get into the local law school I want, especially combined with my 3.8 GPA. Receiving that today was a huge relief, and all the built up nerves from the past month are gone. Now it's just the application process, and since there's nothing to study for - no stress there - just sick back and wait to see what their decision is.

We had a storm blow through on Saturday that's left me super sick - upper resperatory, sinus, nausia, the works. I have not gotten any PA since Saturday and am starting to feel it. Even if I'm still hacking and yucky tomorrow - I'm going to have to get some kind of PA in - no way to start the new year as sick.

Ok - New Year's. For the past, umm, 14 years I've vowed to go on a diet - the nice thing about this year, is oh... I'm already there and don't need to make that broken promise to myself.
I think this year will be the year for change - I'm changing my life by going back to school, changing my body by taking care of it for the first time in years, etc. I think my resolution this year will be to accept change and appreciate it.

Also, I've decided that '09 should be the year for downsizing, reducing spending and organizing.
I've committed to now only downsize my body, but my belonging, stuff, years of built up junk in the house we don't use - I want to be efficient in every way.
Also, by adopting the model, "reduce" we will spend less and save more. Last I think a key to my weight loss and living this new life is to get organized - I am terribly inefficient and a mess - at work, home, and how I take care of my body. What I need, is to become a more organized individual. I'm not talking about going OCD - but any improvement I feel will be best for the long run - now just this moment.

Reduce, Organize, Think of the Future

BTW, since it's been 12 weeks, I'll try to take some updated pictures and post them too

Day 83

2008-12-29T08:05:00.003-06:00

Hope everyone had a happy holiday. I had 10 full days of vacation and enjoyed every one of them. I purposely did not bring my work laptop in the house last week, because I would have been tempted to work & I turned my blackberry off, which is why I have not blogged in well over a week. Granted, I came in to over 300 emails this morning. This week I only work 3 days, then I'm off again for 4 - gotta love this time of year. Much needed mental break!

Just a quick update, I'll write more tomorrow after my weigh in.
Last weeks weigh in was 262.2 with a 2.8 loss, total 37.9.
Right now my scale at home is sitting at 260.... soooooo close to getting out of the 260's. I hope tomorrow it will read that glorious 259, which would mean 40 lost in 12 weeks.

Day 72

2008-12-18T09:17:00.001-06:00

My health educator at HMR called me yesterday to discuss my 4 week average weight loss. Due to the weekend cheat and 8 pound gain from a couple of weeks ago, it threw off my 4 week average. They continually monitor weight loss on a rolling 4 week average to ensure the program is still working well and that a person does not need to be transitioned into maintenance.

Although my health educator and I had spoken the week I’d gained, she still followed up today. Basically, in order to stay on the weight loss plan I am expected to lose at least 9 pound in 4 weeks at my current weight. Of course this has not been a problem, except for the weekend I cheated. So basically in order to stay on the plan she said I’d need to lose 2.5 pounds in the next 2 weeks (whew, easy). At first I was nervous because I thought she was calling to tell me they were moving me to maintenance because of that one weekend.

Long story short – if I did not lose 2.5 pounds within the next 2 weeks, then I would be moved to maintenance, which I’m not ready for yet. Although it would be nice to add some veggies in, I still have 120 more pounds to lose and if I get out of the weight loss phase now, I know that I’ll never lose the weight or possibly gain back what I’ve lost.

They kept telling me that the week after you cheat is the hardest to get back on the plan, but it was not for me. I’ve done great and increased my physical activity too. Again, so far this week’s been good too. I have not gotten in physical activity in since Monday since I’ve been working from 7am-8pm all week, in order to take the next 10 days off from work, but I am so looking forward to the break. I have not had any time off since June and I need it.

My kiddo is out of school, and I plan to go to the gym each morning, let her play in their child-care area and get my workout done. There are a lot of classes they offer at 8am & 9am during the week which I would like to try and can next week while we are off. Other than that, I plan to get the house squeaky clean and completely relax.

Food at Christmas is usually not an issue for me. Both families have some finger foods, but that’s it. Also, both families do Christmas on Christmas Eve, then we open presents at home on Christmas Day… woohooo…vacation here I come!

Day 71, 10 weeks

2008-12-17T08:25:00.003-06:00

I lost most of what I'd gained last week from my weekend cheating.
Lost 7.2, which puts my weight loss back at 35.1 and current weight at 265.
I'm ready to get out of the 260's for good.

One of the ladies that I've been doing this with brought me 3 bag's full of clothes last night that are now too big for her. They are all the sizes that I'll be going into next. Very exciting - felt like Christmas with all the new clothes, especially since many of mine are too big or starting to get there.

Day 69

2008-12-15T07:54:00.005-06:00

Morning all! We had a good weekend. I got my husband up on Saturday and made him go play racquet ball with me - it was a good hour workout and lots of fun.

Sunday we went to my daughter's Christmas program at school - it was cute, the kids sang and had fun. I got most of the Christmas stuff wrapped and almost all the shopping done.

One of the Grandmothers from Florida sent Piper a gingerbread castle to build (a lot like a gingerbread house, but pink). We made that Saturday and I did great - did not taste-test anything. I'm not a sweet eater, but I did not realize how much of a habit it is to lick your fingers when you have gooey baking stuff on them - I had to stop myself several times and go wipe it all off.

We got the Christmas lights hung this year for the first time in a few and the house looks good. Surprisingly, most of the neighborhood hung lights this year, which normally there's only 2-3 other houses that do. Of course the light war between me an my neighbor has already erupted. We hung more light's than him, so he showed up with new stuff yesterday.

Don't think I've blogged about my idgit neighbor before - but around 5-6 years ago, he decided to not only get his son a drum set, but let him practice it on the back patio facing our house so that it echoed throughout our home. We tried to talk to him about it, since it was loud, kept me and my family up, and he played all hours of the day and night, etc. his moron response was "well Ben's kid's used to have a band in the garage and we never complained". Well moron - 1) Ben is the previous home owner and had not lived there in several years, we do and 2) I don't give a f*** what the previous owners did, at least there's was indoors, which is the problem. Finally, because of his inability act like an adult, began calling the police every time the drums started to go off, which was every day for a while. He even started yelling at us one day that none of the other neighbors complain - which resulted in several houses down the street telling him that they hear it too - and they would start calling the police as well - after several visits from the police and a couple of tickets, he moved the drum-set to the garage (smart-move).

As you can guess, it's been down hill ever since - petty pissing contests over the grass height, falling trees, who's landscaping is better. Ever since, anytime I do yard work and plant flowers, he comes out, sees what I'm doing - leaves, then comes back with even more flowers for his yard. If I mow, he comes along the property line and intentionally mows just a little shorter (I've seen him adjust the mower height). I don't really care - we find it comical, and it just makes him angrier, especially since our house and yard always looks better better. This past summer, I hired someone to mow the yard each week, because my life was too busy - he could not stand it that our yard was well manicured and scalped his by cutting it shorter than ours and mowing 2x's a week - by the time July and August hit, it was all dry and dead since he cut it too short for our hot Texas summers.

We put a rock creek along the side of our house to help with drainage and planted bushes on the property line last year - it looks great, but again pissed him off. I think it's because the bushes separate our yard from his and the creek is something he does not have in his yard to compete with. We got the impression when the bought the house from the previous owners 9 years ago, that there was some kind of rivalry between them.

I stayed on plan this weekend, in the box and all that jazz. Since it's gotten colder I've been hooked on the soups - which substitute for a shake, but have more sodium in them. I think the sodium has come back to haunt me because yesterday the scale read 263 and this morning it was 267. Oh well - I figured it would take a week or two to undo the damage I made from taking last weekend off.

Day 65

2008-12-11T08:35:00.002-06:00

I have not had any problems staying on plan or in the box since I took the weekend off. That was a real concern for the HMR folks, they said most can't get back into the box after cheating. I gained 8.2 pounds from last weekend's cheating which had put my weight back up to 272.2 in Tuesday (my weight at home on Monday was 275). Today I stepped on the scale it read 266.

The doctor said that all that water weight I'd lost in week 1, I'd gained back this week, but should see it drop back off. It has, and 2 more pounds and I'll be back to where I was 2 weeks ago.

I really wanted to try a salsa class last night, but got stuck at work and did not make it in time. Tonight they have a cardio jam class I'm thinking about trying. I'll write about it if I do.

Since I've taken some wight off, my hip has finally ceased hurting and I'm more active. I can stand and cook dinner for the family without having to sit down because of the hip pain, and I've started jogging again.

Monday I worked at a high intensity on the ski machine at the gym for 20 minutes, the immediately got on the treadmill for 10 minutes, which I ran 1/2 off. I'm still only able to run for 3-4 minutes at a time, but I'll continue to build that up.

When I was younger, skinny & healthy, I used to run in 10K races every year up through high school. I want to run a 10K before June. We have a Cowtown 10K race here each spring and I would really like to run in. I'm hoping I can get my husband to do it with me, he needs to exercise too.

I used to run the Cowtown years ago and it would go through the old historic area of Fort Worth and the stockyards. Yes; I am a Texas native, yes; there are cow's and horses right outside my office window, no, Texans don't ride horses to work (well most of us don't).

Day 64

2008-12-10T08:25:00.003-06:00

Wow - I ended up with a 8.2 gain from taking the weekend off. I figured it would be a couple of pounds, but no where near 8 pounds. The doctor and nurse both said it was mostly water retention since I've been on a low sodium diet.

The days leading up to the weekend I was eating more than normal too. I normally have 7-8 MR's a day, and the few days before the test I was eating 12 & 14 MR's - I'd never eaten that much in a day before. Luckily the test is over and all the stress has left.

Besides the gain, this week has been going well. Starting Monday I was back in the box and did not have any trouble going back to the program. As I said before, Sunday is the most relaxing day I've had in months and I needed the break. I look forward to a loss next week.

I think I'm going to try the salsa class tonight and see how it goes - I'll post about it if I make it to the class tonight.

Day 62

2008-12-08T08:14:00.001-06:00

This weekend was rough. I took the LSAT Saturday and have been incredibly stressed out about it. The test was painful – I got there at 7:30 and stood in line for my testing room. By the time the test and everything was done it was 2:00. I was starving and completely brain dead & still had a 30 minute drive home.

I decided to take the weekend off – I could not handle the stress of the LSAT along with the diet.
In addition to the personal stress – work’s been unbearable. I have a very stressful and complicated job, but the last couple of weeks have been horrible with the long days, super heavy workload and rapidly approaching deadlines.

I am ok with my decision – I badly needed the break, I feel good about it and am back on track today.
My husband and I ate everything – sushi, pizza, wings, Mexican, cookies, chocolate, etc. Sunday was the most relaxing day I’ve had in months and now I feel refreshed and ready to go again.

I looked at the scale this morning and it showed a 10 pound gain from the weekend – I doubt that is accurate – but we’ll know Tuesday how much damage I actually did.

Off to a fresh start today.

Day 59

2008-12-05T08:14:00.004-06:00

TGIF it's Friday.

On Monday I stopped by the gym on the way home from work, and got a wild hair to take one of their classes. Just wanted to change up the routine and I was already too cold to consider going into the pool.

I arrived just in time for an Abs aerobic class to start. One of the ladies saw that I was new to the class and was very helpful - said the class was hard, but fun. Abs workout, yeah right, more like an ass workout. The class consisted of 60 minutes of lunges, squats, etc. with weights balanced on your shoulders holding you down and the occasional arm lifts.

I, of course, was the biggest person in the room, but was determined to not look like a complete lush... squats and lunges are the one exercise I despise, so this class was a little shocker.

15 minutes in I was drenched in sweat and could not feel my feet. 30 minutes in, I could barely breathe. Luckily the last 15 minutes of class was more of a cool down, but consisted of lying on a mat and raising your ass in the air - which I still cannot physically do, so I mimicked their motions and finally got my breath back.

That night I could barely move - the next morning I could not even squat down to sit on the toilet. It's taken me 3 days to actually be able to sit again without falling into a chair. My butt muscles were so sore it hurt to sit - and when my husband grabbed my butt I screamed in pain.

They offer the same class on Thursday nights. I got to the gym last night, stood at the door of the class for about 5 minutes and decided I could not handle another 3 days of pain like before. Good class, major workout, I'm just not quite ready yet. I ended up going to the treadmill and jogging for 15 minuets and then did the ski machine for 20. However, even with that, I did not sweat as much as I would have if I'd gone to the class.

I think I'll try it again next week - need to build up my courage again. They offer a Salsa aerobic class - I may try that, it does not include weights or lunges.

Day 58

2008-12-03T11:12:00.004-06:00

I've been playing with the layout on the page - stick with me while I find something I like.
Weight loss was 4 pounds for a total of 36 pounds lost in 8 weeks. Not too shabby.

I really am working to hit 50 pounds lost by week 12, which I think is do-able.

Day 56

2008-12-01T09:22:00.003-06:00

The scale is evil - one day it show's a 5 pound loss, the next a 2.
Oh well - just one of the dramas of dieting.

Today is the first day in December and my 8th week on this diet.
Only slept 3 hours last night, so I did not make it to the gym before work, but I'll be there tonight.

Found this fun weight loss ticker.

So, my new qustion is what do I do with all this lose skin. I've got wrinkles and extra skin showing up in places - and for the most part it does not bug me, expect fo all the new lines on my face.

Day 55

2008-11-30T19:53:00.008-06:00

I've been swamped with holiday and family stuff. Last week's weight in went well - lost 2 more for a total of 32 pounds. Not as much as I wanted, but since I'd been so sedentary from being ill, I'll take it.

This week has not been as hard as I imagined. The family spent all day Wed. cooking and preparing for the big day. I did have to taste all the food as I was cooking, but keep the bites at a minimum and my family helped with most of the tasting.

Thursday the family came over, and everyone had a blast - we busted out the Wii and even Grandma had fun playing.

I made sure to get lots of exercise during the week, and even got my husband to go with me to play racquet ball yesterday. I hope to lose 5 this week, and get things moving along - we'll see.

My husband's company Christmas party is this Wed. It's more casual than previous years, but I'll probably still wear that dress I bought several weeks ago.

Attached are some pictures from when I started this in October to today.

The first headshoot was taken on 10/3 at the hospital when my best friend had her baby and the one on the right was taken now - disregard the a-la-natural... did not feel like dealing with my hair or makeup.

I started at at 26/28 and now wear a 22.

Day 49

2008-11-25T07:57:00.005-06:00

Hello World
I'm looking forward to my 5 day weekend starting tomorrow.
This week has been good. I spent all weekend in Dallas in a LSAT class from 9-6 each day - needless to say, I did not get any exercise in. Actually because I was so sick, I only exercised one day last week.

Not too sure what tonight's weigh-in will look like since I've been so sedentary, but we'll see. I have not noticed a change in my clothes this week, but I finally feel better and have energy again after being sick for almost 2 weeks.

Yesterday I had a lot of energy, so I went home right after work, changed and took the dog out for a jog. I have not done any actual jogging since February. The workout's and volleyball have helped tremendously, because I was able to run close to a mile. My poor old dog was dragging behind me 1/2 way though - he's in as bad shape as I am.

He kept giving me this "what the hell did I do to you" look the rest of the night. He's a 130 pound lab/mix, that's about 8 year old - and does not move as well as he used to, so I don't think he was too happy after our jog.

I'll update later on my results - but since we've got a big Thanksgiving feast at our house and family coming over, I probably won't have a chance to update again for a few days.

Day 44

2008-11-20T12:11:00.003-06:00

Just a short update today:
- Cold/sinus infection is getting better, I'm feeling human again.
- Scale read 268 this morning (32 pounds lost).
- Could not sleep last night - only got 2 hours in.
- Volleyball practice was cancelled tonight . I'll miss the Thursday 2 hr workout, but since I'm still sick, it would not be a good idea anyway.
- Really, Really, Really hope to feel better tomorrow so that I can work-out in the a.m. before work.
- Want to be out of the 260's before 12/1

Day 43, Week 6

2008-11-19T08:29:00.002-06:00

I lost 1.5 this week - I expected it to be low since I've been sick and the sinus/cold stuff I'm on causes water retention.
Total lost over the past 6 weeks is 29.8. Almost 30.

The scale this morning read 269.4, which is really nice to see that I'm out of the 270's.

I'm feeling loads better today - and hope that I will be able to get back into working out by tomorrow.

Day 41

2008-11-17T08:39:00.003-06:00

I've developed a sinus infection over the weekend. A couple of day's last week my ears started ringing, which is usually an indicator that my sinuses are clogging up.
Saturday I felt stuffy, but yesterday I felt like I'd been hit by a truck and could not move.

I'm taking a decongestant to alleviate some of the pressure and congestion, but I think it's causing me to retain liquids too, since the scale read 270 Friday and 273 this morning. Other than getting sick, my weekend was fine.

Three of my best friends came over Saturday and we hung out, they ate/snacked and we decorated the house for Christmas. It was fun - my daughter had a blast. It worked out well - they were all sitting at the table eating and my best friends 6 week old baby started crying - so I sat at the table with all of them while they ate - and I held the baby and rocked him back to sleep. It worked well and I got to circumvent the "why are you not eating" questions.

I ended up taking some nighttime sinus stuff that night because it had started to hit full force and ended up feeling drugged all day yesterday. I pretty much laid on the couch all day yesterday and slept, except for the volleyball game - but afterward I came home and laid on the couch again. I guess I'm sicker than I thought.

I have continued to drink my shakes - and lots of water. Hope to feel better soon and see those pounds fall off.

Day 37

2008-11-13T13:28:00.006-06:00

Not much to share since Tuesday - still bopping along, feeling good - staying on plan.

I did buy a dress that I want to wear by Christmas. I went to the store yesterday during lunch to try on some stuff. I have not bought any new clothes since most of mine were actually too small and I was busting out of them when I started, so they are starting to fit now. Also, I can sew - so I'll alter most of my clothes to make them last as long as possible too.

I am happy to say that I'm down from at 26-28 to a 22-24. Actually the pants I'm wearing today are 24's and they are too big - 2 months ago they were too small and I could not get them buttoned.

I digress - back to the dress.
Lane Bryant had a couple of black holiday dresses that were cute. (Can't wait until I'm too small to shop at "the big girls store" so that I can shop at cheaper places and buy cute clothes).

I tried one on that I really liked in size 22-24 that fit well. I grabbed the same one in an 18-20 - and put it on too. I got it on, but things were poking out in places that it should not have been; however, when I lose another 20 pounds and it will fit perfect.

I bought the 18-20 with the goal in mind to be able to wear it come Christmas. My husband's company Christmas party is in 4 weeks - I want to be able to wear it and feel comfortable in it by then. His co-workers have not seen me in 5 months - so it would be fun to walk in looking cute.

He's worked at this company 10 years and they have always seen me as heavy and we look mis-matched since he's super tall and thin and I'm very short and heavy. Also - I have not been able to wear an 18 in at least 10 years - so it would be a major accomplishment to be able to wear that dress & look good in it.

This is my new mini-goal.

Day 35, Week 5

2008-11-11T21:29:00.003-06:00

Lost 7 pounds this week - total lost is 28.5 pounds. My weight was 271.5 - WOW.
Been a good weekend - spent lots of time working in the yard and finished the wall - now I'm just finishing the flower bed's and walking path.

I've got my best friends coming over Saturday to have some catch-up time and decorate for the holiday's. They don't know about the diet - so this should be interesting to explain - I can hear it now, a cross between; is that healthy, the why's and a mix of good for you feelings. That's mostly why I have not told anyone other than my hubby and the general world of bloggers - no negative looks or rolling eyes from the Internet. Overall - I am looking forward to spending time with the girls - I'm going to make my announcement to them about going to law school when we get together too - should be exciting.

I took a tour of the school today and talked to admissions. As long as I do well on the LSAT that I'm taking in few weeks, it looks like I should be able to get in without any problems. I'm so excited, but totally overwhelmed at the same time and terrified of doing poorly on the test. I keep telling myself that the cost and time is worth it!

Oh, by the way, did I mention 28 pounds lost, 28 pounds lost, 28 pounds lost - in 5 freaking weeks. Unbelievable!!!!

Day 31

2008-11-07T09:34:00.003-06:00

TGIF, it's Friday.
What a stressful week - so glad it's coming to an end.
I snuck a peek at the scale this morning and it said 274 - I hope it was not a fluke.

Yesterday I ended up getting 3 hours of physical activity in - 1 hr on the wall/path & planting flowers and 2 hrs at volleyball. I was limping to get into the house last night after everything was done, but I sure slept great!

Saturday I'm taking a practice LSAT which will eat up 1/2 my day, but I'm hoping it will be warm enough that I can made some major headway on finishing up the backyard - almost finished!
Sunday we have a family get together to celebrate birthday's. I should be fine, as long as I eat before we go.

Hope everyone has a super weekend.

Day 30

2008-11-06T07:45:00.000-06:00

Can't believe it's been 30 day's that I've been doing this already. I kind of feel like I should be further along, but at the same time I think, wow, I lost almost 22 pounds in 4 weeks.

As I said before, I want November to be an even more successful month.
Yesterday went well - I was hungrier, so I added a couple of entrees "more is better" and made sure to get extra water in.
My mother-in-law picked my kiddo up from school so I got to have the house to myself for a hour and spent it working on the retaining wall and digging a path to the gate before it got too dark. The day-light savings has put a hamper on how much work I can do in the evenings.

We've got a 2 hour volleyball practice tonight, so although I did not get my lazy butt up this morning, that will be a great workout tonight. I've got some added stress in my life, until the 1st week in December. I've decided to go back to school to pursue my JD & take the bar. I'm taking the LSAT on 12/6 and am super worried about 2 of the sections on the test - the other sections I've been passing with flying colors on the practice tests - but still struggle with arguments and the logic games sections. So I'll be spending my evening over the next few weeks studying.

Day 29

2008-11-05T07:57:00.000-06:00

Official weight loss was 4.5 pounds for a grand total of 21.6 over the past 4 weeks. My weight at the time of weight-in was 278.5.

I really want to push these next 4 weeks to beat the 21 pounds, since I stalled in week 3. I plan to incorporate more exercise into my week by getting up early and working out again.

Earlier this year on my own I'd gotten down to 264, which had been my lighest in years - I want to be below 240 by the end of the year, atleast!

Day 28

2008-11-04T10:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday went well - 5 shakes, 2 entrees, 120 oz water and 1 hr yard labor.

The retaining wall in my backyard is coming along well - did lots of digging and laying stones yesterday after work. I ended up building an inset bench in the wall, almost finished, I just have not decided how exactly I want to seat part to look. Since I have my class tonight, I'll try to finish it tomorrow after work, then it's off to other projects. Something about the cooler weather always sparks me each year to take on big projects.

The scale this morning read 277, coming down. I'll know the true weight tonight when I go to the meeting tonight.

Day 27

2008-11-03T07:52:00.000-06:00

Can't believe it's Monday already. This weekend went really well - we had a family get together at my cousins for Halloween so that all the kids/grand-kids in the family could trick-or-treat together. I ate before going so that I would not be tempted by all the boxes of pizza (they looked really good too).

Somehow I've managed to really injure my hip - I stayed and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters while the kids went around the neighborhood because I could not walk on Friday. Saturday we ran some errands and my daughter helped me do yard work for about 2 hours (actually she ran around and pretended to help, but did like digging holes for the bulbs); however, afterward I was in sever pain again. I actually went and dug out an old bottle from last year for hydrocodine because the pain was so bad.

For anyone who knows me, I have a higher threshold for pain than most people, so if it's painful for me, it's bad. My right hip has throbbed off an on for the past 5 years and pops regularly. I've never gone to the doctor about it because I'll get the usual "lose weight and it will stop" or "we can't do anything until you get the weight off of it". Well, suddenly my right hip pain has ceased, and now I have this piercing pain in my left hip joint that's taken it's place and is 10 times worse. I should be grateful that both are not hurting at the same time - I don't see how I'd be able to walk if that were the case.

Sunday, when I got up the scale read 277. I worked in the yard for 2 more hours, re-built a section of our retaining wall in the back (each stone weighed 25 pounds), and had a volleyball game that night. I stayed on plan all weekend, did not cheat, ton's of water, exercise - and this morning the wretched scale said 279. I guess that's what I get for weighing in every day.

My hip was just as painful yesterday, and again this morning. For some reason it does not hurt, or stops hurting if I squat - so I don't imagine it's a fracture or anything severe. If it does not get any better by the end of the week, I'll go see my doctor and see what he recommends.

Day 24

2008-10-31T07:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween Everyone!
Today I'm finally out of the 280's - the scale read this morning 279.
We had a 2 hour volleyball practice last night and played hard - I'm hurting today and my hip is throbbing - but it was a great practice and good workout. I hope to get just as much activity in this weekend as well.

This week has been good - I'm not a huge candy eater, so that has not been a problem for me. Actually I've had a basket of candy in my office for weeks and have not touched it.

Day 21

2008-10-28T21:23:00.001-05:00

Today was just a rough day all the way around - seems like everything I touched either fell apart or blew up - I felt like I'd been beat up and run over by the time I left work and ended up getting to the appointment late because of a meeting that went over- with all that said today's weight in was 283.

Bummer - only a .9 loss - Week 1 was 9.8, week 2 was 6.4 then today's was only .9 - I did not cheat and followed the plan - I guess it's just one of those weeks.
Total weight loss for the past 3 weeks is 17 pounds. I expect to see a big weight loss next week since my body hit a plateau this week.

Day 20

2008-10-27T21:15:00.000-05:00

I've been so busy with work that I have not had a chance to update.
This week's been good, although I'm depressed that the scale has not bugged all week.
I've stayed on plan, 5 shakes a day, no cheating - lot's of water - lots of exercise - but it's literally sat on 283 all friggin week.

That's ok - I'm not giving in - I'll know the true weigh tomorrow at the meeting - just frustrating in the meantime.
This must be one of those slow weeks - which means that next week should be a big loss.
On the up side, I still feel great - feel better each day and the energy keeps increasing.
I'll update after my meeting tomorrow.

Day 15

2008-10-22T08:10:00.000-05:00

The official weight loss for week 2 was -6.4 lbs for a total weight loss of 16.2. I weighed in at 283.9 this week.

The meeting was fine - they had us sample the pudding and gave us a worksheet that would allow us to project our weight loss each week based on a few calculations.
One of the ladies at the meeting had me sample her soup - she'd mixed the parmesan chicken entree with the chicken soup, added mexican spices and threw it in the blender - it was good. When I got home last night I mixed the chicken creole with the soup and some calorie free gumbo spices - OMG, it was wonderful - it ended up makeing a great gumbo style soup.

I did not workout as much last week as I wanted - although I had both an extra long volleyball game & practice. My goal is to make it to the gym every morning this week - which I'm hoping will show a big loss.

Day 13

2008-10-20T23:48:00.000-05:00

Lucky 13 - a few weeks ago before I started on HMR, I won a free lunch at this wonderful Italian food joint next to work for me and 6 friends. Well, today was the free lunch day, but wait.. I'm on a liquid diet and nothing Italian fall's in that category. I'd told my co-workers that I'd invited that I would bring my shakes to lunch and did not plan to order - they stood behind me. One of the girls could not make it, which made things easier - I ordered my meal, but asked them to make it to-go and took it to her.. that way I had no reason to cheat and did not waste a free meal.

When I peeked at the scale this morning it was 285 - tomorrow is my meeting/weigh-in day.
Today I had 5 shakes, 1 bar and 104 oz water

Day 10

2008-10-17T07:47:00.000-05:00

I can't move this morning. We played a solid 2 hour game last night and the captain ran drills with us individually when we were out of rotation. I did not start to feel it until I got in the car to come home after and realized how bad my body ached.

Yesterday was a good day: made major headway on a project at work, I got to pick up my new wedding ring to replace the one that was lost several months back, I got in my shakes at regular intervals and exercise too. Scale this morning read 286.

7:30 shake
9:15 shake
12:00 soup & entree
2:00 shake
5:00 shake

Total: 5 shakes, 1 entree, 72 oz water, 780 calories burned

Day 9

2008-10-16T07:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was super busy at the office, and due to that I was not able to do the shakes ever 2-3 hours and went longer. As a result, I was much hungrier and ended up adding a couple of entrees in to help curb the hunger pains. I don't expect the rest of the week to be as nuts, so I can get back on a schedule.

Peeked at the scale this morning, it read 287.

7:30 Double shake
12:50 Double shake, bar
2:00 Entree
6:00 Shake
7:30 Soup & Entree

Totals, 6 shakes, 2 entrees, 1 bar, 150 cal walking & 80 oz water

Day 8

2008-10-15T08:23:00.000-05:00

The official weight loss for week 1 was -9.8 lbs. I weighed in at 290.3.
Not bad for one week.

Yesterday was my second day to go all day without any entrees, shakes only. I just was not that hungry, and since my stomach has been giving me fits due to other reasons, I did not want to put more in it than I had too.
I met with the nurse and doctor about the bowel issues - we're going to try to add some fiber pills in this week and see if that helps and they will decide where to go from there.

Yesterday was:
9:00 - shake
11:30 - shake, 32 oz water
2:45 - shake, 10 oz water
5:00 - soup (2pk subs for 1 shake)
8:00 - honeygram bar, shake, 24 oz water
10:00 - 10 oz water
Workout - 20 min walk

Totals, 5 shakes, 1 bar, 200 calories burned, 78 oz water

Day 7

2008-10-14T13:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, yesterday was hard - but I did stay on plan. Schools were closed for Columbus Day, so I took the day off with my kiddo. She had a friend spend the night Sunday who stayed with us all day Monday. Since I was juggling a couple of kids, we went to the park, ran around for a couple of hours, hiked through the nature trails (my workout, since I could not take them to the gym), played at the house, etc.

Although I was not hungry yesterday, I found myself wanting everything. I wanted the Corney dog's they were eating, the chips, meat, etc. Everything looked good in the house, although I was not physically hungry. I just wanted to sit on the couch and pig out until I exploded, but I resisted the urges. I found it weird that I was wanting to eat, although my stomach said, "your not hungry, you are still full from lunch". I even started have thoughts of doubt last night that "there's no way I was going to make it on this diet until the end of the year". Well, luckily it passed, because today I've been back to normal and feel like I can do it.

I think it's due to the stress of entertaining 5 & 6 year olds all day and making myself break hard wired habits.

I love the HMR chicken soup and we can add any dried 0 caloric seasonings to our foods or shakes. Yesterday to help get over the desire to eat junk, I added some dried onion, garlic and season's to the soup & entree to just change things. It helped alot.

Due to the injuries from Volleyball last week, and my pure exhaustion this morning, I did not make it to the gym and tried to sleep in a little. I think it's helped - they say if you don't get enough sleep, you want to eat, and it's true. I'll be sure to be back at the gym tomorrow. Today has given my hip and shoulder a little extra time to heal since Sunday.

Weird side effect I've experienced is lot's and lot's of bowel movements. Can't fully say it's from the diet though. I've had Chron's flair ups off an on for years, and since having my gallbladder removed last year, I get the bonus side effect of "gastric dumping". Symptoms to both are similar and can also cause the increase in bowel movements. I'll talk with the doctor about it tonight when I see him & the nurse before the meeting, but they may just chalk it up to Chron's and/or the gastric dumping, either way, there's nothing that can be done.

Yesterday:

9:30 Shake, 8 oz water
11:30 Shake
12:00 24 oz water, chicken bar-b-que entree
2:00 shake, 24 oz water
5:30 soup (shake substitute) & 24 oz water
6:45 lasagna entree
8:00 shake, 24 oz water
Walked/hiked mix 1 hr

Total, 5 shakes, 2 entrees, 300 calories burned.

Day 5

2008-10-12T22:17:00.000-05:00

This weekend was busy with family, errands, sports events, etc. I did stay on plan, but struggled with making sure I had a shake every 2-3 hours on Saturday. I just had not planned on being away from the house more than 2 hours, but we were out much longer. I did get the 5 shakes in, although I was drinking the last one right before bed to make sure I met the 5.
Over all, it was a good weekend, no cheating, lots of walking and moving around. Saturday was my first day to go all day without solid food - shakes only. The min. prescription is 5 shakes, but they preach "more is better" and you can add their entrees, soup, pudding, & bars. I've noticed that my stomach is shrinking, but I have not gotten to the point where I can do shakes only, I'm still adding 2 entree's a day.

We spent most of today cleaning and I had a volleyball game. Good game, but I'm hurting now. My hip has been bugging me for a few years because of the weight and flares up when I've been active. I also hurt my shoulder at practice Thurs during a serve. It caught up with me during the game and tonight I'm really feeling the aches and pains. I told my husband that I'm looking forward to being skinny and getting in shape so I stop hurting like this after an active week and feeling so old.

I snuck a peek at the scale again this morning, it read 289 - 11 pound loss if it's right.

Day 3

2008-10-10T07:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was easier - I was not nearly as hungry as the day before. As I mentioned before, I think the hunger was from it being around that time of the month for me, not the diet.

I stayed full all day and stayed busy, which helps avert me from wanting to snack or cheat. It's frustrating how many food advertizements there are on the roads & on TV. No wonder our society is obese, every block there's a picture of food or every other commercial is for some kind of junk/fast food.

Yesterday:
5:45 - workout - 11 min elliptical, 25 min weights (upper body)
7:00 - vanilla shake with fruit punch sugar free koolaid
7:45 - 24 oz water
9:20 - cereal (subs for a shake)
9:50 - 24 oz water
11:00 - Chocolate shake
Turkey Chili Entree
12 oz water
1:50 - Vanilla Shake w/ sugar free koolaid
3:00 - PB Bar
4:30 - Entree Lasagana
5:00 - Chocolate shake
24 oz water
8:00 - workout - Volleyball 1 hr
9:15 - 20 oz water

Totals: 5 shakes/cereal, 2 entree, 1 bar, 104 oz water, Calories burned 610

I had to eat early last night because my daughter had soccer practice and later I had a Volleyball game. Since the game was an hour and I played hard throughout the whole game, I took this morning off from working out. We're going to a fall festival this evening and will be running around at the park, so I'll still get exercise in today. Just taking it a little easy since I got 2 workouts yesterday and hurt all over this morning from the game.

I snuck a peek at the scale this morning, keeping in mind that it's a.m. and they weighted me on Tuesday in the p.m. It showed a 9 pound loss. I know it's water weight, but I'm only 2 pounds away from being under 290. As long as I stick to plan, I should be in the 280's when I weigh in on Tuesday.

Day 2

2008-10-09T07:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was not bad - I was unusually hungry all day, but I don't think it's due to the shakes- I usually have 2-3 days a month that I'm ravenous, and it's about that time of the month for me. Just a perk of being female.

Since I was so hungry and my health educator stressed that "more is better", I did do that. She also asked that on our 1st day we drink a minimum of 6 shakes instead of 5, and add any soup, pudding, bars or entrees to it if we wanted.

Diary of Day 1:
5:30 am - Workout - 15 min Elliptical, 10 min Bike
6:45 am - Shake - Chocolate
8:00 am - shake - vanilla with 1 tsp. strawberry/banana sugar free jello & splenda
water - 24 oz
9:00 am - cereal (sub's for a shake)
10:00 am - 24 oz water
11:00 am - 24 oz water
12:00 pm - Chocolate shake
Mushroom risotto Entree
2:30 pm - Chocolate shake
2:45 pm - 24 oz water
3:45 pm - Bar honey gram
6:00 pm - Savory chicken entree
Vanilla shake w/ 1 tsp cherry jello
2 pk chicken soup (sub 2 soups for 1 shake)
7:30 pm - 24 oz water

Total was 250 cal burned, 7 shakes, 2 entree, 1 bar, vitamin, 120 oz water

I developed some light headiness around 4:30 and laid down for 15 minutes - after that everything was great. I had a ton of energy by the end of the day and around 8pm found myself cleaning house and doing stuff instead of sitting on the couch like usual.

Luckily my husband worked late yesterday so, I was not tempted to snack when making him dinner - but I did have to force myself to not reach in the fridge out of habit and grab for some cheese or something to stuff in my mouth. The biggest challenge I had was late last night when I had to make my daughters lunch for school - I had to consciously think, "NO, don't taste it, no don't eat that last piece of meat". Tonight I'm be sure to fix her lunch right after dinner, so that I'll be full and not tempted to eat or nibble on anything.

Even with all the distractions and temptations, I did stay "in the box" all day.
I took some before pictures last night to compare at a later time - yuck, yuck , yuck!

Day 1

2008-10-08T08:48:00.000-05:00

Years ago my doctor told me that I had to get my weight under control and sent me to HarrisFast. They are a part of the Health Management Resources (HMR) diet program to lose weight and keep it off for overweight to very obese people. I did the at home program, which was successful, but the holiday's hit - I did a little traveling, and boom - off the wagon.

I've gone back to HMR and told them I'm ready to change. I've commited to 13 weeks - I can do this for 13 weeks, and then from there decide what direction I need to go.

This time I have gone all the way and am on the doctor supervised diet with 5 shakes. They took my blood work last week, and I was terified that it would come back showing I'm diabetic - fortuantly no, but my cholesterol is too high, and my good cholesterol is too low - which means heart disease.

Last night was orentation - 2.5 hours long - I was actually there from 5 till 8 last night.
I've been eating heavly this week, kind of like last meals knowing that I've commited to the next 13 weeks. To my horror, the scale read 300.1.

Well - at least I'm starting with an even number.
I got up this morning and got to the gym at 5:30 - 15 minutes on the elliptical and 10 on the bike.
Slow start, since earlier this year I was a lot lighter and in much better shape - but I have to start somewhere.

Last night I made up two shakes, not fully knowing how this morning would work - One of the girls in class who's lost 40 pounds said to make a double for breakfast - not sure what "double" means, so I made one chocolate and one vanilla, which I mixed with 1 teaspoon of sugar free strawberry/banana jello and 3 splenda packets. Yum - but a little too sweet - I'll cut back on the splenda a little next time. I think I'm going to try to have a shake at 7, 9, 11, 2, 5 & 7 today and see how it goes.

I'm going to take pictuers tonight so that I have a "Before" pictuer to compare to 13 weeks from now.

A new beginning

2008-09-18T08:39:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows me, knows I've struggled with my weight most of my life.

I remember always being thicker than the other kids, or bigger as a kid. In junior high, I was the heaviest - not that I was more than 15 pounds more than my friends, but I was rounder in the face and wider in the shoulders which always made me stand out and instantly made me a target for jokes. I stood out from my cousins who were all tall and abnormally thin. Those on the Italian side of the family were short, but petite and small framed - so I was the biggest kid.

In high school I thinned out and lost that "baby fat" that everyone said I'd been carrying for the previous 14 years.
Freshman & Sophomore year I was heavily active in sports that enabled me to lose some weight. By Junior year I'd started to eat less & exercise more. The summer of my Junior year I ate even less and worked out even more - I quickly lost weight, but at the same time was slowly developing an eating disorder. Senior this cycle progressed - I went from a size 16 to a size 10 by the time senior year started and was into an 8 by that Thanksgiving. I remember barely eating and aggressive workouts. Due to my large frame, even at an 8, my spine and ribs shows through my skin.

After high school I moved out on my own. My world opened up to all kinds of new foods and drinks that I did not have access to at home. The workout’s stopped because school and sports were over. In a couple of months I gained 60 pounds – and the weight kept piling on. Pretty soon I’d gained 70, 90, 100, 130, etc.

I tried everything – getting back into a workout routine, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, starvation, every fad diet or pill I could afford, etc. The weigh kept piling on. I started making excuses – tricking myself into thinking I was still thin and could eat anything, that just make the problem worse.

I now sit her at 295 pounds. I am over 150 pounds over weight. I lost 40 pound earlier this year though diet and exercise, but got lazy and gained all but 10 back.

I’m ready to start – not start a new diet but start my life. I’ve become lazy over the years and make excuses for why I am the way I am.

I am 30 years old and was asked by the parent of my daughter’s friend last week if my almost 60 year old mother-in-law was my sister. When I was 12, people used to ask I my mom and I were sisters, when I was 19, a nurse asked if my husband who’s 4 years older than me was my son, when I was 21 I was asked by a co-worker if the picture on my desk was my daughter, when it was actually a picture of me and my husband taken only a couple of years prior. During my 20’s I was continually mistaken for being in my mid to late 30’s. Now that I’m 30, I’m being mistaken for being the sister of my mother-in-law who’s in her late 50’s.

Obviously this is wrong and I’m ready to change. If I look this bad on the outside, then things are worse on the inside.

New

2008-01-17T10:43:00.000-06:00

I'm new to blogging. Yes I have a myspace account and facebook profile, but I've never taken the time. I have a few friends that do, and now a cousin that started, so I might as well, right.
I'll post fun things about our family, what every is up to and any neat things we come across.