HMR Weight Management Program

[Janey]

Per Karina's request in the Before & After Pics (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?t=12162) thread, I've started this one for questions about the HMR Program. I started the program in September of 2003, and graduated to "maintenance" in June of 2004. I think I lost 90 pounds or so on their program... but I am by far the not most impressive statistic.

I wrote about the program I was doing on another message board I read before it closed, and I had pasted it into my blog into a post called On The Diet (http://stfunfw.wordpress.com/2003/11/17/on-the-diet/). Thought it might answer some questions. It was really helpful to have a blog to vent to over that time, I'll tell ya! Anyway, I read the post before I copied/pasted it, and I realized that I had written:

The HMR program started Sept 17, but I didn't start the program until 1 week later, on September 24, cause they said don't even bother starting until after the wedding.

September 24 is fairly significant to me; I was married to the man I called "Bill" in the post 2 years later - to the day. Too funny.

Anyway... Ask Away. :D

[RobynScott]

MrsHill - You look AMAZING! I read your before/after thread - I hear you about needing to get back down :( I was really low for our wedding - and well, not so low now - but not where I was. I need to get 10-15 pounds off to be back to comfortable.

Congrats on your weightloss - and meeting "Bill"! -wow :)

[Janey]

Thanks RobynScott! I was actually too skinny in the 'after' picture. My face looks great (but my teeth look really yellow in that picture for some reason?)... but the part you can't see is that my breasts look like they are out of National Geographic, and it hurt to sit on a hard bench. :/ I planned to put on 10 pounds, but first with my surgery and then the remodel, it ended up being more than that. :rolleyes: Anyway, I can pin my weight gain on two things: 1) Eating Out!! and 2) quitting the gym. Ahhh if I had only kept on at the gym, I'd probably have gained the 10 pounds and no more. As B would say, "Always forward; never backward!" so I am back at it.

[RobynScott]

MrsHill - what was your surgery?

I also totally understand about the weight. Although I was not to the point of benches hurting, I knew the weight I was at for the wedding was not permanently maintainable for me (nor were the 2x week personal training sessions - after the wedding I had to focus on work. Ate what I wanted on HM, then Jewish holidays - then we moved. Lots of pizza and stuff when we moved (and ordering in in the winter) - and I ended up here. Thought I would take it off last summer and I didn't - so, here we go again! Need to get it off now before it gets too far. But, I am hijacking your thread so I will stop now.

No, I will ask an HRN question - were you really on mostly shakes for a long time? wow - now that takes dedication. at least you have a DH to support (and join in) your efforts. While my DH does not purposefully sabotage, a lot of his actions (read: ordering in, bringing in junk) aren't always that helpful either.

[Janey]

Re: Surgery... I had a tummy tuck & medial theigh lift on December 13, 2003 to remove extra skin. I am 5'1" and so losing ~100 pounds was almost losing half my body weight, so there was some extra skin to lose there. It was more of a psychological thing than it was anything else for me. Even though I knew I was at a good weight, I didn't feel like I was at a good weight because I still had a stomach there. I just never felt like I was going to be done, and I hated that feeling. I was cut from hip to hip, and then between my legs on either side of my crotch. I was about 138 pounds when I went into surgery, and she removed almost 6 pounds from me.

I was probably way too cautious about getting back to exercise. It took me about 8 weeks before I felt like I could go swimming... and a looong time after that before I felt comfortable going back to step aerobics. By that time, I had lost momentum and we had started our home remodel -- no kitchen, plumbing, electricity -- we were eating out a LOT. Instead of spending time at the gym, we were spending time pulling up floor boards. Which is physical activity, sure... but Jones BBQ (http://seattle.citysearch.com/profile/10794174) sure negates anything you burned that day, and more. "You can't exercise off bad eating," is one of the things they tell you at diet class, and it's true.

Your story is very similar to mine, actually. I was 132 at my lowest (ouch), 138 when I went into surgery. Then, I was 145 pounds when I had my bridal shower in July, and 152 pounds when I got married in September. B had a tummy tuck & chest surgery this December (we'll be glad next year to have a Christmas where nobody is recovering from major surgery :p ) so I was taking care of him & very sedentary during the FoodFest known as the holidays, and gained another 12 pounds :eek:. I can hardly bear to admit that I am now at 165. Anyway, I'm catching it now before it gets worse. My ultimate goal is to bounce between 135-140... but I'll be very happy when I see 140.


As for Shakes Only ... I lasted only 1 week on "Shakes Only" ... and I cheated every day that week. :rolleyes: I couldn't hack it. B, however, had great success with Shakes Only. He did that from October 2002 to April 2003 -- so about six months. in April, he decided he wanted to be able to take advantage of all the great Fruits/Veggies at the farmers' markets, so at that point he went to the Healthy Solutions diet plan (3 shakes, 2 entrees, and 5 fruits/veggies per day). There is another guy in our class who has lost almost 300 lbs, and he started out in Healthy Solutions.

At the beginning, I decided I wanted to do Shakes Only because I thought originally that people who did the "Shakes Only" were the most successful, but I have since been shown data that makes that untrue. Actually the people who have the most long-term success are the people who do the "Healthy Solutions" diet, because they learn from a much earlier point how to incorporate more fruits/veggies into their everyday diets, which is what is going to keep you successful long-term.

B does join in my efforts, certainly... and our home is clean of junk, which I so appreciate. And even though I get crabby & grumbly, I am very glad on the inside when he tells me, "That's unfortunate that you don't want to run tonight. Get your shoes on, cause we're going." On the other hand, having someone to go out to romantic dinners with makes you want to - you know - go out to romantic dinners. I love gazing at his beautiful face across the table, as he gazes at mine... while somebody else cooks us a wonderful dinner and somebody else does the dishes. It is - absolutely! - our downfall. We love to eat out. :( We work on this all the time.

[RobynScott]

And even though I get crabby & grumbly, I am very glad on the inside when he tells me, "That's unfortunate that you don't want to run tonight. Get your shoes on, cause we're going."

I think that is the greatest thing! I wish I could get DH to run with me - I can barely get him to walk :rolleyes: He doesn't really need to lose weight, but I'd like him to be helathier. and as much as he now supports me running - there was a lot of grumbling when I'd be getting up at 6 and 7 am on a Saturday to run.

Your running story (and running in the rain! :)) - I think is going to inspire me to get back out there. Not that I have much of a choice since training for Alaska starts Sunday :eek:

So, to get the weight off - are you going to do HRM again? I have said I will do weight watchers again - but my head has really not been where it needs to be to get me to lose weight. hoping to find that drive again.

[Janey]

So, to get the weight off - are you going to do HRM again?
Well, I'm currently doing HMR's Maintenance program. The requirements for Maintenance are: 2 Meal Replacements per day, 5 fruits/veggies per day, and 2000 calories of exercise per week. I am not sure if I'm willing at this point to make the commitment to another 13 weeks of eating nothing but HMR Foods & Fruits-n-veggies. I think I have enough weight loss skills at this point to be able to make good choices on my own. Of course, being able to do it and actually doing it are two different things entirely! I'm doing a pretty good job right now of keeping my calories around 1500 gross per day, and working out about 2800 calories/week. I will keep doing that until I find out I'm not doing as well as I had hoped. In another month or so, I may decide that I need that more restrictive envrionment, and go back and do another 13-week Core class.

Another option for me at this point is the "Weight Loss Blitz" classes. They have these six-week programs called "Blitz" classes where if you've been out of the program a while, you can go to class for six weeks to re-kick-start your weight loss momentum. The requirements of that class are the same as Healthy Solutions. I have done a Blitz twice before, but for me it is not long enough to see any real benefit. Of course, I say that, but during neither of the previous two Blitz classes was I working out at the same degree that I was when I was very successful. I am now working out to that degree so I probably would see some benefit to doing another Blitz. We will see how it goes.

By the way - You know that when I say these 'requirements' for the different parts of the program, there is always an unstated "plus" at the end of those numbers. They do a lot of work on finding out what your personal requirements are for weight loss and for maintenance. They have three things -- Meal Replacements, Fruits & Veggies, and Physical Activity... and then help you find a balance for yourself so that you know what numbers you need to hit in the three categories to help you either maintain or lose weight. For instance, B does a good job maintaining his weight when he eats around 85 cups of fruits and vegetables per week. Any lower than that and his weight starts to creep up... and any more than that, and he loses weight. A good number of fruits/veggies for him in order to lose weight is 100 cups/week. If he's making triple digits in the fruits and vegetables department, we know he's feeling great and in weight loss mode. A good number of F/V to have me lose weight is around 7 per day, or around 55 total for a week. (and now you know why I buy produce at Costco :p )

I realize this doesn't make any sense if you look at this small part of the whole (why does eating more F/V make him lose weight??) but what is happening is that he is using fruits and vegetables to push out other higher-calorie foods from his diet. When he concentrates on eating F/V, he is not hungry for the millions of other hi-cal density foods that are out there. That is one of the biggest principles of HMR: Eating fruits and veggies will displace you eating other higher calorie foods, and therefore help you lose weight.

I have said I will do weight watchers again - but my head has really not been where it needs to be to get me to lose weight. hoping to find that drive again.
I think that's truly the biggest thing - drive. But drive can get you nowhere fast if you don't have a PLAN. Whatever that plan looks like for you -- weight watchers, south beach, HMR, or simply counting calories in and calories out -- there are a million different programs. Drive + Plan = Success.