Day 47... Slowly, but Surely

Day 47 -- I took a bit of a break from blogging.  It's so easy to just forget once and then miss a whole month's worth.  I did decide to stop eating the HMR food.  It's not bad food, it's just that my social life revolves around food.  Mike's schedule is so different than mine that the only times we have together are around meals.  People at work "escape" the office for lunch out.  When I'm on the run from work to class, a drive-through is much easier than finding somewhere to microwave the healthy stuff.

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do instead.  I still have the shakes and I drink one occasionally.  They're really pretty good.  I thought about Weight Watchers, but with work and three classes, I just don't have time for a meeting.  I thought about doing the Slim-fast thing again, but it presents the same issues as HMR.  So I'm just being healthier.  I target 1500-1800 calories a day, eat fruit when I want a snack, and drink a lot of water.  I've actually been doing pretty well.

Even during my "I need real food" phase, I didn't gain much back.  Today, I stepped on the scale and started off a great morning -- I weighed in at 240.0.  I've lost 12.2 pounds.  Sure, it's been 47 days, but I've kept it all off.  My clothes are starting to fit better, too.  I can't wait until I can buy something in a normal store that doesn't have  "W" attached to the size.

I learned a lot from this short break in blogging.  I jumped into the HMR diet with everything I had, but I wasn't very logical about it.  I am gone from home from 7:00 am to 10:30 pm three days a week, 7:00 am to 7:00 pm one day, and too exhausted to do much more than homework during the other three.  When am I supposed to fit in the five days of exercise and the HMR food and meetings?  So I'm working in the changes slowly.  I still plan to get in the exercise and I'm still going to run a 5k before the year is over.  But it will all start after May 11. Because then I'll be finished with this ridiculous class schedule and I'll have evenings to run.  And after the schedule I just finished, I'll have no excuse but to fit in some exercise.

For now, I just park farther away in the parking lots, avoid elevators, and walk to peoples' desks instead of calling them.  I'll get there.  I'm just being a little more reasonable about it.