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HMR Week 3 – Return of the Mack

Week three had pretty good results.  First I got my 2000 calories of “PA” (physical activity – what HMR calls exercise) in.  Secondly I lost 5 pounds.  That takes my 3 week total to 20 pounds.  That’s not too bad.  I can live with those numbers.  I was once again “in the box” for 7 out of 7 days so it’s nice that I haven’t fallen off the wagon yet.

I have two basic concerns at this point:
  • I may be pushing the PA a bit too hard at this point and don’t want to aggrivate my knees or cause any harm – not sure how long I can keep this up.  (Although obviously as I keep losing this will become easier, hopefully.)
  • I’m falling asleep dreaming of food I can’t have.  That’s just not right.
Other than that it’s just going.  We’ll see how week 4 goes.
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Drivers Wanted

This commercial came out right around the time I got my Jetta and boy did it make me feel cool like the cool people in these commercials. I will say that 14 years and 170,000 miles later I think I have gotten my money’s worth. I hope the R32 does as well. (It’s at 6 years and about 60,000 miles.)
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Vitamin Water Zero – tasty beverage

Not only have I obivously dropped sodas with sugar from the diet, but I’m also trying to avoid carbonated beverages and see what that does.  For a long time I’ve enjoyed Propel, even in it’s new Propel Zero form, but I haven’t liked any other flavor than grape.  Now I’ve got a new zero-cal beverage that I like and it comes in many tasty flavors:

All the names are cutsey.  And they have little text on them trying to be cool and funny.  But hey…the stuff is tasty.  More so than the generic “grape” of the Propel I’ve been drinking.  I’m buying it where I can and stocking the fridge.

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PB2 – Awesomesauce in a powder

So far I’ve only been having chocolate shakes on my diet, since fake vanilla has never really worked for me.  And I do like chocolate.  But having 3 shakes a day starts to get old pretty quick, so we’re given all sorts of suggestions on things we can add to the shakes that are still “in the box” – meaning that they’re safe for us to use.  I’ve tried some of the sugar-free Torani syrups and they’re just not really working for me combined with the chocolate.  
However we’ve got a new seasoning “in the box” and it’s crazygood:
Yeah, that’s right, powdered peanut butter.  It’s way lower in fat and calories than “regular” peanut butter.  1 serving is 2 tablespoons and is 45 calories.  However, I have found that only 2 teaspoons are necessary to turn a somewhat bland HMR shake into a frozen peanut butter cup.  I’m only using it once a day right now to avoid burning out on it, but if you like peanut butter (and I am rather fond of it) I bet there’s all sorts of things you could do with this stuff. 
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HMR Week 2

Yeah, this is late.  

The good news: On the second week of the diet I was again “in the box” (meaning I didn’t cheat) all 7 days.  I even got in my first workout.
The bad news: I only lost 3 pounds.
Some folks might say “Hey, 3 pounds is good!”  And on a normal diet I would be happy with that.  However this diet isn’t “normal”.  It is supposedly so intense that I’m taking a drug to avoid gallstones because I’m supposed to lose weight so fast.  It’s so hardcore that I need to get blood work done every two weeks.  It’s expensive.  I was expecting better.
And here’s the thing – at 3 pounds a week average I will have to be on the plan an extra 7 months longer than the advertised (and hoped for) 5 pounds per week.  Now maybe that number was unreasonable to hope for but if it the diet ends up performing at a 3 pounds a week rate then that’s only 1 pound a week more than the “safe and sane” 2 pounds a week.  And I’m not sure that’s worth all the sacrifices necessary for this plan (such as having to carry their food with you everywhere, like on vacation).
I haven’t given up yet – I’ve committed to doing at least the “core program” which is 12 weeks.  And I have higher hopes for week 3, as I will have gotten in 3 workouts during the diet week.  (That’s the max I’m willing to do right now until I get more weight off and take stress off my knees.)  We’ll see how it goes.
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My first week on HMR

I’m not going to blog about every week on HMR – those who are insanely curious can follow the hilarity over DailyBurn.  This is just a recap of my impressions.

First, the good news.  According to my scale this morning after 1 week on the diet I am down 13.2 pounds. (HMR weighs in the evening and their scale said 12 pounds, but I’m going with my home scale for now.)  I tend to post huge results on the first week of any diet, and I’m sure a lot of that is water weight, so while it’s a good number I will wait and see what next week brings before I get too excited.
Now, the not-so-good news.  I got blood work done this week and I’m a little concerned about my uric acid level.  In December, during the screening, I was at 6.6mg/dL.  This week I was 7.2mg/dL.  And the reference range is 2.6 – 7.2.  *sigh*  Unfortunately for the folks at HMR I got my test results via the Sutter/PAMF online system before I went in, so I knew something was up and was prepared to discuss it.  While technically this isn’t hyperuricemia it is going in that direction and I wanted to know what I could do other than trying to drink more water.  I was told this was not unexpected – when you’re on a low calorie diet it’s like being on a high purine diet.  This number could go up, fluctuate, or does who knows what.  Clearly I’ll be keeping an eye on it.
As far as the actual diet program itself that hasn’t been too bad.  The shakes are ok, and I am more than happy with my fancy new Blendtec blender.  The instructions for the shakes say to add water and powder, blend on low for a bit, add the ice one cube at a time, blend on low for 90 seconds, etc.  Well screw that.  I put everything in the jar, and hit the “smoothie” button.  25 seconds later I have a very smooth shake.  (And the cats are hiding somewhere.)  Yay Blendtec.  However, as far as making shakes on the road the recommended BlenderBottle is just kinda meh.  Not a tasty shake.  I will need to work on figuring that out.
The real surprise has been the entrees.  They are rather tasty.  There is a strong tendency towards tomato-based stuff as far as sauces, but so far they are pretty good.  They’re on the small size, of course, but 60 seconds in the microwave and they’re done.  If I’m really hungry and it’s time to practice “More Is Better™” then I’m more likely to grab one of them than a shake.  Except for the risotto.  I traded my leftover one back in.
The bars are good, and I’m trying to limit myself to no more than 2 a day although they are “in the box”.  They taste very familiar – I know I’ve had the same exact product under a different label.
The last two things I tried were the cereal and the “chicken soup”.  Firstly, yes, the Blendtec will heat soup. That’s crazy, and I will not do it again because it was insanely loud.  The blender runs at full speed for 90 seconds.  No, I’ll just use the stove.  The soup itself was kinda nasty.  I’m gonna try adding some bullion to it and seeing if that improves it.  As far as the cereal goes – it’s nice, just incredibly bland.  I had to hit it with some Splenda/Stevia to get some flavor.  I will also try adding salt and cinnamon.  
So far the first week was pretty easy, but then it always is.  Now we’ll really start to see how things go – it’s not so new anymore, and I’ll also start to get an idea of how much weight I can really lose.  Also, at this point, I haven’t tested myself on the diet.  I didn’t leave my apartment last weekend.  I got home on Friday night and didn’t leave until Monday morning.  At some point I’ll need to be able to go out into the real world but for now I’m just trying to get up to a good solid start in order to get some motivation.