Thursday update

Morning weigh-in:

Daily gain/loss: -1/4 lb.
Total loss from peak (7/8/08): -1/2 lb.

I made it through my first day back in the box pretty well. I staggered my meals well enough that I did not feel hungry: I started with a cereal for breakfast to immediately satisfy my hunger. In the late morning I had a double shake. I was going to put fruit in it but found out I didn't have the frozen fruit I thought I had, so I just used sugar-free syrup instead. I had a later lunch of the lasagna entree with a can of green beans and 4 oz. can of mushrooms on the side. Then, because I had to work at a charity outdoor event in the evening, where I know there would be some tempting food, I filled up on a dinner of savory chicken entree mixed with HMR Soup mixed with a can of garbanzo beans and another 4oz can of mushrooms. That really helped me resist the kettle corn I kept smelling at the event -- it's good and it helped start my descent (or should I say ascent on the scale) last summer. However, as I browsed the vendors of jewelry, etc., after my shift was over, I sampled a cracker and a small meatball with BBQ sauce (the vendor was selling bottles of the sauce) on it before realizing I was going out of the box. I wasn't even hungry, I just wanted to sample the sauce (which wasn't that good). Because it was so small I don't think I'm going to say I was out of box on my mid-week call, but I can't do that again!!!!!

Almost forgot my daily numbers -- don't know if I'll do it everyday but here goes:

S: 2 shakes/1 soup = 3
C: 1
E: 2
V: 7
F: 0
PA: 360 calories (continuous strolling/standing at charity event for 3 hours times 2 cal/min)

Tuesday "Transition Day" Success

As I mentioned yesterday, I took Tuesday as a "transition" day -- no bread, crackers, alcohol, etc., but I did have some lean meats and some cheese on some salads. I also got in two HMR shakes with an HMR cereal mixed in, and two HMR beef stew entrees mixed together, and I got 4 vegetables from the salads.

This morning, I was down one-fourth of a pound. Yea! And when I got up I immediately had an HMR cereal to keep me in the box.

Starting Weight/Lifetime Peak (from Tuesday morning.

I hesitate to put my weight down, and I'm not sure I'll do it everyday, but I will give my starting weight from yesterday: 217 lbs. on the bathroom scale yesterday morning, 218.5 on the HMR scale with clothes before noon. I think it's the highest I've weighed on the bathroom scale (I know it is on the HMR scale), though I have not weighed myself everyday for a while, so I may have weighed more on a couple of days.

I've been hovering between 215 and 217 for about a month now (when I have weighed), and this has actually represented a slowdown of my weight gain. I have cut out some things in recent weeks: I try not to keep crackers in the house, and I would allow myself to get a southern chicken sandwich at McDonalds every few days but I stopped getting fries with it. But I know it is not enough, so let's get back in the box!

Let's try this again . . .

It's been a long, long time, but I'm going to try to do this blog again. I am trying to get back on a diet and I'm hoping this will help my accountability.

What's happened in the meantime? Well, a lot of nice things, actually. I lost about 50 pounds on HMR in the fall '06 and spring '07. I did the decision-free product-only program, and I was "in the box" (no straying) from late October '06 until mid-March '07. I took HMR entrees to banquets and even a few restaurants. A sad thing that happened during that period was my grandmother passing away, but my decision-free discipline on my diet gave me some amount of control during a difficult time, and I took comfort in that.

By February '07, I was turning heads, and I met a wonderful man who turned out to be my soulmate, and we married earlier this year. As I went into maintenance last summer, he encouraged me to eat more indulgent things. He meant well -- he didn't want me to be deprived. He has also dealt with the pain of weight issues before, and I think he bent over backwards to make me feel comfortable no matter what I ate.

But of course, I gained my weight back as I kept on eating. I gained about twenty-five pounds by the time I got married, but I still looked pretty in the wedding dress. (My husband says I was the "most beautiful thing he'd ever seen", and I believe him.) In the six months since the wedding, however, I went nuts and gained another thirty pounds, and am now about nine pounds heavier than when I started HMR in October 2006. It was a combination of "yea, no more dress to try to fit into anymore!" and some mild depression over losing my job not long afterward. I kept going to maintenance classes (I had already paid for a year) and sometimes met the maintenance minimums, but I wasn't really into it. However, I didn't feel I could afford to restart HMR's weight loss program, so I was happy to hear that they were doing a summer "Blitz", where you do short weight-loss classes but don't pay anything extra except for a minimum food purchase.

So, I go back in the box tomorrow, though I had a good "transition" day today -- I had salads with chicken and salmon on them, but I didn't have any bread, alcohol, or junk food, and I had a double HMR shake. I've got my wonderful husband's support, too, so that will help me a lot. I feel like I'm just in the right mind set to take this on, at least for the next four weeks of Blitz.

Wish me luck!!!!!