Weight Loss Tip of the Day

On the right of my blog you will see a section for the weight loss tip of the day. Today's tip was something pretty useful that we should all keep in mind.

Do This: Remember the Perks

Are your New Year's health resolutions a distant memory? Write out a list of all the reasons you want to improve your lifestyle, and keep the list in a handy place. Next time you need a motivational boost, you'll have a convenient reminder.

Phase 1: Complete

So... I completely forgot about updating this blog. I am sorry to those who were hoping to find more recipes. I will work on it a little bit today. Here's an update for now.... The initial 13 week plan is over today. I lost a total of 38.8 pounds. So close to 40!! Oh well, I am going to keep on losing, since I have another 30 or so to go to reach my final goal weight. Bobby and I have been trying many new things that I will post in here later today. Good luck to all those who are just starting. Keep up the good work! It really pays off.

Week 8 Report

Sorry, I forgot to update for week 7...

Week 8: Down 4.6 pounds!
Total Weight Loss: 34 pounds!!

Week 6 Report

Week 6: Down 2.6 pounds!
Total Weight Loss: 27 pounds

Week 5 Report

Week 5: Down 6 pounds!
Total Weight Loss: 24 pounds

AMAZING!

Cajun Creole Bisque

Ingredients:
1 HMR® Chicken Creole Entree
1 packet HMR® 500 Chicken Soup
1 cup hot water
Pepper or seasonings to taste

Directions:
Microwave entree and water for 1-2 minutes until piping hot. Put water and chicken soup packet contents in blender. Hold top so steam does not push lid up when blender is turned on. Stop blender, add hot entree packet to blender, blend. Add pepper to taste. Cover, resume blending. Pour into large bowl or mug or over a baked potato. Enjoy!

Suggestion: You can add any heated vegetables or beans or another HMR entree to make a chunky cajun creole soup.

Found this recipe on the McKinney Diabetes & Weight Management recipe site.

Waffles Supreme

Ingredients:
2 heaping scoops of HMR® 120 Shake (Vanilla or Chocolate)
Pinch of baking powder
1/4 - 1/3 cup of water
Fresh or Frozen Fruit
Non-caloric sweetener
Fat-free whipped topping
Sugar-free/Low-calorie maple syrup

Directions:
Heat waffle iron on lowest setting and coat with non-stick cook spray. In small bowl mix shake powder and water, stir quickly. Mixture will be too thick to pour, and a bit sticky-use rubber spatula to assist into waffle iron.

While waffles bake, prepare fruit topping. One option is to heat frozen berries in microwave until syrupy, add non-caloric sweetener to taste if desired to sweeten tartness of berries.

Transfer waffles carefully to plate, add toppings of choice and ENJOY!

Calories: 240 (before toppings) Shake servings: 2

I forget where I found this recipe, sorry.

Waffles! Yummy!

One problem I've been having on this diet is figuring out how to consume these shakes. They aren't excellent and I don't really like drinking them. A few weeks ago I found a recipe for making waffles. Well, it was 8pm tonight when I realized I still had 3 shakes to get down tonight. How will I get them all in?! That's when I opened the HMR recipe book and found the piece of paper with the waffle recipe in it. I immediately told Bobby we MUST try it. We've had little success with baking shakes in the past, but we aren't giving up... we still have 8 (9 for him) weeks to get through. That's 168 shakes! so we gave it a shot. THEY WERE DELICIOUS! Each waffle counts for two shakes. We each had 2 waffles. BOOM! 4 shakes out of the way -- which will make the people at DMC excited, they love when you practice "More is Better". I topped my waffle with a little fat-free whipped cream and some fresh strawberries. Bobby used a maple syrup that is made with Spelnda and has very low calories. It's probably "Out of the Box"- but whatever, it's low enough calories and it really makes the waffle experience complete.

EDIT: We originally made the waffles with HMR 120 shakes. Today we tried to make them with HMR 800 shakes. It tasted the same, but they came out a little crunchier-which I actually liked. YUM!

Bean Dip Delight

Ingredients:
2 HMR® Five Bean Casserole Entrees
1 1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup fat-free sour cream
garlic powder to taste

Directions:
Place all the ingredients in a blender.
Mix on low speed until well blended.
Serve warm or chilled.

Calories: 555 Vegetable Servings: 3 ½

This makes a large bowl of delicious dip for your favorite vegetables. Try it with raw carrots, celery, bell peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, or cauliflower. Good enough to serve company!

Found this recipe on a Weight Sense handout.

Rockin’ Risotto

Ingredients:
1 HMR® Mushroom Risotto Entree
1 Packet HMR® Chicken Soup
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 bag baby spinach

Directions:
Warm risotto in saucepan
Mix soup with 1/2 cup hot water and stir into risotto
Spread baby spinach on top of mixture and cover until wilted

Found this recipe on the Full Life recipe site.

Asian Cumber Slaw

Ingredients:
1 seedless cucumber, shredded, drained
1 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onion
3 tbsp low-fat Asian-sesame salad dressing
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
(we couldn't find low-fat sesame, so we just got low-fat Asian and added in toasted sesame seeds)

Directions:
In a medium bowl combine cucumber, carrots, bell pepper, onion, salad dressing, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes; toss. Chill until serving time.

Calories: 65 Vegetable Servings: 1 (makes 6 servings)

Found this recipe at our local Shaw's store.

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Ingredients:
1 HMR® Mushroom Risotto Entree
2 medium zucchini
1 cup fresh mushrooms, finely chopped
1⁄2 medium onion, chopped
salt to taste

Directions:
Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out some of the center and chop finely. Add to
mushrooms and onions. Spray pan with low-fat cooking spray and sauté mixture until
vegetables are tender. Cook out extra liquid from the mixture. Add sautéed mixture to
unheated entree and stir. Fill zucchini halves with the entree mixture and place on
baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover lightly with foil and bake at 350° for
approximately 45 minutes.

Calories: 400 Vegetable Servings: 3 ½

Found this recipe on someone's blog.

Super Filling Risotto Stew

Ingredients:
1 HMR® Mushroom Risotto Entree
1 HMR® Turkey Chili Entree
1 packet HMR® 500 Chicken Soup

Directions:
Dash of garlic and/or onion powder.
Combine entrees in slow cooker. Prepare soup with 6 oz. water and add to the entrees.
Season with garlic and/or onion powder and stir.
Cook on low setting for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally.
(No slow cooker? No problem. Just combine entrees, season, and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.)

Found this recipe on someone's blog.

Butterscotch Wholegrain Cookies

Ingredients:
1 Pkg. HMR Multigrain Cereal
1 Pkg. Vanilla HMR 500
1 Tbs. Butterscotch Sugar Free Instant Pudding
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 C Sugar Free Ginger Ale or Sugar Free Lemon Lime Pop

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients then stir in pop all at once. Let stand 5 minutes (While you spray baking pan with non-stick baking spray). Mixture may seem runny but will thicken on standing. Drop by rounded Tbs onto baking sheet, spread slightly with back of spoon. Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet. Store in a tightly closed container.

Makes approx 6-7 cookies. For a variation, try adding 1/2 tsp. Orange extract, coconut, or both!

Found this recipe on the Hackley Health Management recipe site.

Mandarin Spinach Salad with Chicken

Ingredients:
1 HMR Savory Chicken Entree
3 cups baby spinach
1⁄2 cup canned Mandarin oranges
1⁄4 cup canned sliced water chestnuts
2 tbsp thinly sliced red onions
2 tbsp vinaigrette style salad dressing (less than 15 cal/ tbsp)
Handful garbanzo beans to taste

Directions:
1. Heat the entree for about 30 seconds.
2. Cut the chicken into diagonal strips.
3. Mix all ingredients except the baby spinach.
4. Gently toss the mixture with baby spinach.

Calories: 300
Vegetable servings: 2

Found this recipe on someone's blog.

FYI: one

Did you know you can easily calculate the number of calories you would need each day to maintain your weight? It's easy. Multiply your weight by your multiplier (11 for women, 12 for men) and there you have it, the number of calories you would need each day to stay the same weight you are now.

Think about it:
Let's say we have a man who weighs 250lbs. He would have to eat 3,000 (250x12) calories a day to stay at 250lbs. That's a lot of calories... or so you think. Sometimes you never know what you are putting in your mouth.

Did you know a Large Heath Bar Shake at Baskin Robins is 2310 calories?!?! Less than two of those puppies and a 250lb man would start packing on the pounds.
Did you know a Blimpie Veggie Supreme (12 inches) is 1,106 calories?!?! That's the same number of calories as 2, that's right 2 McDonald's Big Macs. 1,106 calories is one third of that 250lb man's daily calorie intake.

I can continue, but talking about the yummy (but TERRIBLE) foods is too much for me to handle, haha.

Now you wonder why American's weigh so much... and if you think about it, a few simple meal replacements could turn that all around. The 250lb man could easily lose weight by cutting his daily calorie intake back to 2,000 calories, and that's still a good amount of food each day.

Now you know.

For Your Information

Ok, so we have a weekly "diet class". All of the people participating in this program come together and talk about our progress, techniques, weekly goals, etc. Then our "teacher" or weight loss coach, Sarah, gives us some really interesting facts and studies.

I will try to post some of the most interesting "FYI"s on here, so look for those posts if you are interested.

Pumpkin Bars

Ingredients:
2 Vanilla Packets
1 Tablespoon Cheesecake Sugar Free/Fat Free Pudding
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 Tablespoons Pumpkin Syrup (??)
3 Tablespoons Cold Water

Directions:
Bake in a muffin tin at 375 for 13 minutes. Enjoy warm or chilled. Makes 6.

Anyone have ideas about "Pumpkin Syrup"?

Found this recipe on someone's blog.

Bored with the Food

There are 11 different HMR Meal Replacement Entrees. Out of 11 choices, I only actually enjoy 2: Lasagna with Meat Sauce and Cheese and Basil Ravioli. I can manage to eat 5 other entree choices. The rest are out of the question. So, at this point, after 4 weeks of eating the same 7 entrees twice a day, I am looking for variety. Time for a recipe search.

Here's the Deal...

Ok, so, I back dated a few entries so you can see the progress from the beginning, but today I started this blog. The purpose is to track my progress for those interested and to collect/share some recipes.

Enjoy!

Week 4 Report

Week 4: Down 1 measly pound =[
Total Weight Loss: 18 pounds -- still amazing for a 1 month total =]

*Backdated*

Week 3 Report

Week 3: Down Another 4 pounds!
Total Weight Loss: 17 pounds

*Backdated*

Week 2 Report

Week 2: Down 4 pounds!
Total Weight Loss: 13 pounds

*Backdated*

Week 1 Report

Week 1: Down 9 pounds! WOWZERS!

Bobby decided to join my mom and I on this diet, however he will be on the "Decision Free" track which means he has to eat 2 HMR Meals and 3 HMR Shakes a day.

*Backdated*

HMR: A Life Changing "Diet" Plan

So, today, mom and I started a diet program, or more joined a supporting path to permanent weight loss. You can read more about the program through the links below, but here's a quick run down. It's a meal replacement program using HMR meals and shakes. It is run through the Derry Medical Center, where we go to classes once a week. There are two tracks, Decision Free and Healthy Solutions. Mom and I are on "Healthy Solutions" which means we have to eat 2 HMR Meals and 3 HMR Shakes AND 5 Fruits and/or Vegetables a day. This is the basics of it for now... as I continue you, maybe I'll go more into detail.

HMR Program: http://www.hmrprogram.com
Weight Sense: http://www.weightsensedmc.com

*Backdated*