ShineOn- how fun on the clothes shopping!!

DLA - congrats on 10 lbs gone for good

SchoonCR - thanks for the info on the water, I know I have been struggling since going back to work

BlueEyedAngel - yummy sounding recipe!!

It looks liek they changed our schedule at school this year and I will not be able to eat lunch until 12:30. I get up at 5:00! Now normally, this would not be a problem. I could have a HNS at mid-morning, but I need the HNS at mid-afternoon because I won;t be eating dinner until around 7:00. I really like my dessert HNS, so now I am stuck I can;t have 5! Any suggestions? Do I HAVE to eat within an hour of waking? Ideally, I would wait and eat at 7:30 right before the kids come.

Talk to the counselors at your center. These menus, as many as there seems to be, cannot fit every person, and every situation.

You are talking about being awake, and having 3 meals, in a 14 hour time span. Best case scenario, you are going 6 hours in between all your meals, which is a long time, for appetites and metabolism.

They may want to add a snack in, or talk to you about having your HNS at 9am, 3am, and with dinner. Who knows. (of course, its really important to get that boost of protein from the HNS with the meals, to balance out any carbs we get, but they should know the best plan)

I still get 1 snack on my plan, originally it was 2, and I was usually eating 2oz of boars head Turkey... we are talking 60-100 calories here. Couldn't be that damaging. You have to feed the fire to make it burn!

I won't be able to get to the center until Wed, but I will ask them about your suggestion. I can't see 60 calories making a huge difference either. I would even be happy to eat some veggies f that wouldn't mess me up, but someone said on a previous post that the counselor told her to eat a stick of cheese or something with protein if she had to have a snack. I'll suck it up tomorrow and not eat any "dessert HNS" and have both of my extras at mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
Thanks for the advice!

Can someone tell me what exactly pre-conditioning is?

I think that all of the centers do pre-conditioning differently. Mine has you cut out a few foods, caffeine, and sugars for four or five days before going to the food class and getting your menu.

I know that others on the board have done something far more formal than that.

It would seem to me that going less time between eating is more important than eating another snack.

I'll be interested to know what your center tells you.

Thank you all for the words of encouragement. I can't believe how exciting it is to get to sign your name on a board.

My center told me if I just HAD to have something between meals to stick with a protein....So sometimes I will have just a bit of turkey or a small slice of cheese.....

I knew I had read that somewhere! You were the one who told me. I will change up my HNS times and have one in between those two huge chunks of time between meals.
Then, if I am in need of a boost, I will eat deli meat. I have a ton! I will be so busy the next few days (tomorrow is the first day of school- oh joy) that I probably won't even have time to eat. I wil get with my counselor for when things settle down at work and I start getting the munchies.

Way to go with all those NSVs and the weight losses. And for those of you who were only down .5 lbs, hey, it's still a loss!

dla: Way to go on signing that 10 lb board. That was really a motivator for me, as you can really "feel" that you are making progress. Bet you'll be pleasantly surprised when you are weighed and measured for the first time.

SchoonCR: Thanks for the tips on the water. It makes sense the way you relayed it.

Maintain for life: Congrats for staying OP with all that was happening with so many guests. And what a role model you must be to instill in your relatives the desire to jump on the MRC bandwagon. Good luck with going back to the classroom.

Finz: Glad to hear that you were able to stay OP on your trip to Atlanta. I think you pegged it with the extra planning that you put into it. That way, you remove some of the stress of having to figure out what you get to eat with each meal.

Judy
Gma to 4

As far as an HNS goes? Pineapple would probably be good. Orange would make it kinda like an orange julius. Wildberry or mixed berry would be good.

Are you doing the program long distance? Or just ordering some of your drinks online? Did they screw up your order or have to make substitutions? Give them a call, you're paying enough for them to get it right, whoever you ordered from.

Y'know, I didn't know about the whole eating within an hour of waking, don't go more than 4 hrs (or 5, or whatever is it) until I read it here on the board. I don't know if I dozed off during that part of food class or if it just wasn't mentioned. Might find out tomorrow at my re-enroll food class. At any rate, I sure wasn't paying attention to those rules since I didn't know about them.

All to say - you do what you can. Maybe you can have an HNS at 6, eat your breakfast at 7:30. Mid-morning HNS, or an HNS with lunch at 12:30. Mid-afternoon HNS. Dessert HNS at night (I assume that's what you meant.) That's assuming you want to do 4 a day.

It's a lunch time treat only unless you can have fruit at another time.