Book Recommendation

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think

by Brian Wansink

I really enjoyed reading this book. The author has conducted lots of experiments on how we are fooled by marketing and our own brains into eating more than we should. Serving size, plate size, variety of foods, color variety, and even language can affect the amount of food we eat and how satisfied or dissatisfied we feel. At the very least, an awareness of these things should help a little towards controlling the volume of food that we mindlessly put into our mouths.

His advice toward dieting is sound, but a little too slow moving for me. If I was only a little heavy or if I was trying to maintain, his tips would be more relevant. Once I'm back on regular food, I will definitely try to use some of his ideas to keep the weight off.

Week 5 - .2 pounds

Weigh in: 227.1
Total loss: 18.2

No. I didn't cheat on the diet. I've got PMS bloat. Just part of the fun of being female. My doctor said that most of the women on the diet have the same thing happen. Then next week should be a big loss. That is something to look forward to.

I've hit a comfort level with the diet. I don't really crave other foods. I'm pretty satisfied overall with the amount of calories I'm getting. I'm into a decent routine with my exercise. Now, I just need to hang in there for about 7 more weeks. After that I go through an adjustment phase where I gradually get back regular foods. Then the hard part begins... maintenance.

Every week they tell us that this is the easy part. Maintenance is hard work. They are starting to educate us about calorie control and portion size. One of the keys to success will be eating volumes of healthy foods (like fruits and veggies) with small portions of protein and grains. I will need to come up with some new vegetable options to try. I'm looking forward to trying some vegetarian recipes too. I'm determined to make this work.

Week 4 - 4.5 Pounds

Weigh in: 227.3 pounds
Total loss: 18 pounds

Wooo!

My little boy, who is 6, has declared the diet a success. I had no idea what he was judging the success by until last night. He found that he can put his arms all the way around me and his hands touch. This, to him, is success! Works for me.

More is Better

During the HMR Diet classes, they tell you that sometimes you have to practice a thing they call "More is Better." In my straightforward and mathmatical mind, the less you eat and the more you exercise, the faster you will lose weight. Well, sometimes that isn't true.

As I've mentioned, our bodies have about a million different variants to how they run. Sometimes fewer calories means that your body reacts and lowers your metabolism. The exercise helps to counter balance that. The other thing that can raise your metabolism? Eating more.

But I want to lose weight as fast as I can. How can eating more help? Two ways.

One - through the magic of body chemistry itself. If your body is eating the same number of calories every day, it gets used to that and sets the metabolism accordingly. So eating a little higher on the calorie scale will cause the body to turn up the furnace and burn more to compensate. Since my typical day on HMR involves getting about 600 calories. A More is Better day might involve having about 900-1000 calories. (Still well below my caloric needs in any given day.)

Two - by keeping me on plan. Sundays seem to be a hard day for me on the plan. I'm more dissatisfied by my options on Sunday. I crave "real" food on Sundays. So I designated this Sunday a More is Better day. In addition to my regular five shakes, I had two "pumpkin cookies" and an HMR Entree. My total calorie intake was about 950. Yet I felt like I had really splurged. I was able to stay on plan and not eat something "out of the box" by eating more of the stuff that I am allowed to eat. Brilliant.

And this morning... the scale was down by three pounds. While I know it isn't possible to lose three pounds of fat in one day, it seemed like a sign to me that I did the right thing with the More is Better.

Tomorrow we will see what effect a root canal has on weight loss. What fun!

Week 3 - 2 Pounds

Weigh in: 231.8 pounds
Total loss: 13.5 pounds

Hmmm. Must be retaining some water. Oh well, it will work itself out.

Because I'm on such an intense, low calorie diet, it is easy to set myself up for unrealistic expectations for weight loss each week. In class, they stress that everyone has big loss weeks and small loss weeks. Our bodies are these amazing machines that have a million different variables controlling our water and fat content. We can do all the math in the world to predict what should happen, but that doesn't mean our bodies have to perform in that way.

I was predicted to lose four pounds this week. Instead I lost two. Maybe I didn't drink enough water. Maybe I drank too much water too soon to weighing in. Who knows. It really doesn't matter. It was a loss.

I've been on other diets before. A two pound loss on most diets would be a great loss. On this diet I can expect between two and five pounds per week. That is why I chose the HMR diet. Mentally, I need this to go faster than a regular diet. At least for the first 30-50 pounds. Then I will slow down and work on the lifestyle change necessary to keep it off.

So all in all, I'm happy with my progress.

Perfectionism

Dieting and perfectionism are like best friends who are also worst enemies.

I've read over and over that you shouldn't let perfectionism rule you when you are on a diet. It can set up a situation where you feel that not being perfect equals failure. This isn't healthy for a long term "lifestyle change." You need to be able to eat off plan and then get right back on.

Most of the perfectionists that I know would eat one thing off plan and then decide they had totally blown it. And as long as they've blown it, they might as well blow it big time and eat more off plan. This turns into a binge. Sometimes it brings the entire diet to an end.

That is why most diets will encourage you to not give in to the temptation of perfectionism.

The HMR diet is kind of the opposite. They seem at this point to be all about staying perfectly on the plan. They only guarantee the results if you don't eat anything "outside the box." Which means staying within their range of diet food products: shakes, puddings, soups, etc.

The perfectionist in me LOVES the HMR diet. I can boast of not eating one bite off the plan...
until last night.

Last night, the kids were bickering while I was trying to make dinner for them. (Nothing new!) I had dropped something and made a mess I had to clean up. The dog had made a different type of mess for me to clean up. I was trying to help my son get his homework done. My daughter was in trouble for telling a lie about her homework. My husband wasn't home, so I couldn't hand over the reins to him while I got my brain under control. And I was hungry.

It was like there was this whirlwind going around in my mind. The only solution my mind could come up with was to eat. Something. Anything. Right now.

So when my son asked me to cut up his pancake (yes, I made pancakes for dinner), I asked him if I could have a bite. And I ate one bite. I was then tempted to make an entire pancake for myself and just give in. But I didn't. I made a "pumpkin cookie" and ate it. Then I made another one and ate it. And then I was back in control.

Now my mind is going back and forth in a battle over how to interpret this episode. One part of me wants congratulations for this feat of Herculean strength in not giving in to the binge. But my inner perfectionist is trying to beat me up for taking the one bite at all.

And truly, if I had planned on breaking my perfect streak, I would have picked something better than a pancake. So there is a third voice chiming in with all the other foods I could have chosen for that one bite. That voice is the one to watch out for since it is going to try to convince me to take a second bite sometime soon. Maybe I'll just tell that voice that I have to do another perfect three weeks before I can have another "off" bite.

FYI - I e-mailed my HMR counselor and told her about the situation. She was pleased with the way I solved the problem and got back on plan immediately. I'm glad that I "confessed" instead of hiding it and pretending to be perfect.

Updated Stats

I missed my first of the month stats report because I forgot to do the measurements until last night.

Height: 5' 8" (I'm pretty sure this won't change)
Weight: 233.8 (at last HMR weigh in - my scale shows much better already)
BMI: 35 (Down from 38)

Upper Arm: 15" (lost 1 inch)
Chest: 46.5" (lost 1.5 inches)
Waist: 44" (lost 1 inch)
Hips: 44.5 (lost 1.5 inches)
Thigh: 27" (stayed the same - damn)
Calf: 16.5" (lost .5 inch)

Total lost inches this month: 5.5 inches!

I had no idea until I looked at my Beginning Stats post that I had lost any size at all. I'm very excited about those changes. I like that the numbers are pretty uniform too. I'm not losing it all in one place. Just an overall shrinkage.

Progress is being made!

Week 2 - 6.3 Pounds

Weigh in: 233.8 pounds
Total Lost: 11.5 pounds

Awesome!

Looking around the class at the other people following the diet, the biggest changes show up in the face first. Everyone looks a little less puffy. The other women have complained that they are losing it in their boobs first. Not me, but I'm kind of amazing that way. Hee Hee.

The physical activity challenge for this week is going to be really hard for me. One day this week, I'm supposed to get up early and do my exercise in the morning. Ouch!

I am not a morning person. At all. Ever.

I've been taking 15 minute walks at 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. in order to give my metabolism a boost during the day. The remainder of my exercise is done at night. Usually after the kids get to bed at 8:30 p.m. Now I have to schedule a morning workout on the treadmill.

To be realistic, there is no way I will get up at 6 a.m. to work out on a weekday. I think I will schedule my morning workout for Saturday. I will get up by 8 a.m. and get my workout done before I have to drive my daughter to her dance class.

Making a plan should help me succeed.

Pumpkin Cookie

I'm in a little bit better mood today about the diet. I tried something new from the HMR Recipes. I tried to make the Pumpkin Cookie Recipe. Now in my mind, a pumpkin cookie would look something like one of these:

My "Pumpkin Cookie" looked more like a crepe:

Of course, I ate it anyway. And it tasted pretty good. And more importantly, it was solid. As in not liquid. I've made a small list of some of the ingredients I will need to make more of the solid treats in the recipe book.

And for the record, my pants are a little loose today.

Hunger or Craving or Boredom

I'm hungry or something. I'm definitely craving food. I found myself thinking about a slice of bread and how good that would taste. I don't think that I am actually, physically hungry. I can always drink another shake and take care of that. Someone at work made toast and the smell is what started the mental combat. First I will write about it. Then in fifteen minutes, I will go for a walk. After that I will make a shake. That should get me past this struggle.

I made it through the weekend OK. I had a little grumpiness over not being able to eat, but I got over it. This is a choice that I am making. I'm not being forced to do it. The rewards will be worth it. I fully expect to have a decent loss at the weigh in tomorrow. That will renew my willpower for a few days.

At class last week, they gave me a packet of recipes to try with the shake mixes. Some of them, I can bake into a type of treat. I will try to make one tonight and post the results tomorrow. Maybe having a little variety in texture will help. I have a bunch of different flavor options and that has worked so far. I just need to think of other ways to get me past the shake boredom. I'm only on week 2. I've got a long way to go.

Popular

I've had three friends call this week and ask me to go to lunch with them. Hmmm. While it is nice to be popular, it kind of forced me into telling them all about my diet. I would have liked to wait a couple of more weeks before explaining it so I could show a little progress first. Oh well.

One of the hardest things about the HMR diet is that I can't just go to a restaurant and order a salad. With most other diets, I could pass it off as just eating healthy. With HMR, I have to explain that no, really, I can't eat anything, anywhere. And then comes the inevitable "Is that healthy?" question. Yes, it is healthy. Yes, I am being monitored by a doctor, etc.

All three friends were supportive and completely understood that I would rather not sit in a restaurant drinking diet coke and watching them eat. We are trying to arrange some lunches where we take walks together instead. I get the pleasure of their company and the side benefit of calories burned.

I knew it wouldn't be possible to keep a diet this drastic a secret, but I think I was a little bit in denial. I'm still not going to be telling every passing stranger, but maybe I need to lighten up about telling my friends and family. Maybe.