[ginpea]

I am just starting this journey. For those of you who have lost 40+ pounds, would you be willing to share your journey so far in this thread? The things I'm most curious about are:

How many HNS drinks did you and do you drink per day?
What supplements have you taken?
What supplements do you feel has helped the most?
Have you purchased supplements from places other than MRC? Which ones?
What exercise, if any, do you do?
How often?
Do you drink anything other than HNS drinks and water?
What advice would you give to us newbies?

Thank you for sharing!

[teacherlady79]

Originally Posted by ginpea

I am just starting this journey. For those of you who have lost 40+ pounds, would you be willing to share your journey so far in this thread? The things I'm most curious about are:

How many HNS drinks did you and do you drink per day?
What supplements have you taken?
What supplements do you feel has helped the most?
Have you purchased supplements from places other than MRC? Which ones?
What exercise, if any, do you do?
How often?
Do you drink anything other than HNS drinks and water?
What advice would you give to us newbies?

Thank you for sharing!

I have lost 75lbs. (woo hoo!)

I usually maxed out on my HNS drinks per day (if I was allowed up to 5, I usually drank 4-5 HNS)
In addition to my own multivitamin and the MRC krill oil, I took cortitrim (for about a month) and phentatrim.
I feel like phentatrim really helped the most. Didn't notice much, if any difference, with the cortitrim. Phentatrim helped me out of a serious stall. Also, I liked the energy boost--helped me especially with my workouts.
I have purchased HNS from dietdirect.com. Not very often--only when they're running a great sale/coupon code or I have the $$ to make a pretty big purchase to get the extra discount.
I currently do yoga 2x a week and almost 60 mins of hard cardio 2x a week. I try to walk the dogs here and there in between. When I started MRC, I was walking 30mins 3x per week. I gradually started adding in yoga, then converting over to my current routine (it became easier as I lost weight and gained cardivascular fitness).
ONce in a great while I would have an iced tea in addition to my HNS and water. Usually, though, I struggled to get my water in and didn't want to add to the liquid I had to drink. However, as it has gotten easier to get my water in (I'm up to 100oz a day, more when I work out), I have added 1 diet cream soda or a cup of coffee per day.
My advice: Stick with it, make it an ingrained habit/lifestyle change, and keep posting to this board! This forum has been a lifesaver for me!

[momoffour]

I hit 40 lbs this morning on my home scale and hope to make it official tomorrow when I weigh in - here's what I would suggest. . .

1. I also max out on HNS (4-5 depending on what my plan recommends).
2. I take Krill and a multivitain (from Sam's Club) and Calcium, magnesium and D (I was already taking these 3 before starting the program for leg cramps - I get these from Walmart)
3. I have not used the other supplements, but am not opposed to trying them if I need to - however the super chocolate drink has helped with my chocolate cravings (I make an MRC brownie almost every night).
4. Exercise - Mine has varried a lot this summer - Usually I walk/jog either outside, on a treadmill or elipitcal trainer or using an in-home video for about 45 min 4-5 days a week (hoping to walk a 1/2 marathon this fall). In addition I do strength training 2x a week and 2-3 days a week I use our Wii Fit (and other Wii exercise programs) or other exercise videos - I love Turbo Jam and other "kickboxing type videos" for when I am stressed out! I started out using walking videos 4 days a week for 30-45 minutes.
5. On rare occasions I will have a Diet Cherry Rite or some Crystal Lite. Also once I have gotten in at least 120 oz water I will usually have a cup of decafinated tea in the evenings.
6. Advise - Drink your water, it makes a huge difference. Be 100% honest with yourself - if you ate it, you write it down (this has kept me from eating many off plan things because I did not want to see it written down). Keep learning and experimenting - you can choose to see the food sheet as restrictive and as a punishement or you can see it as an opportunity to try new foods and experiment - your attitude will make a huge difference in whether or not you succeed! Also, this board is an awesome support, keep checking in and letting us know how you are doing and we will help support you.

Mariah

[Rzrbackcandi]

Hi ginpea!

Today is my 109th day on program - so a little over 3 months and I've lost 60.5lbs. I signed the 60lb board on Friday. My measurements were done on day 90, as of then I had lost 34". I can't wait to have my measurements done again in 11 days!

1) I'm pretty much like Teacherlady & Mariah - I usually do 4 HNS every day. When I'm traveling, feeling stressed or know I'm going to have a hectic day then I will drink 5.

2) I take just about everything right now but going to start cutting back on cortitrim & MRC-6. It's just getting too expensive. Here's what I take Before each meal - 1 Phentratrim & 2 MRC-6
Breakfast - D3, B6, Vitamin, Krill (from Walgreens), 2 MSM, 2 Cortitrim
Around 10am - 1 Trace Mineral, 2 Guggul, 2 Internal Cleanser
Lunch - Vitamin, Krill, 2 MSM, 2 Cortitrim
Around 3pm - 1 Trace Mineral, 2 Guggul, 2 Internal Cleanser
Dinner - 2 MSM, 2 Cortitrim
Starting tomorrow, I'm going to cut MSM down to 1 at each meal & eliminate my Cortitrim at dinner. I will probably start cutting back on MRC-6 but not sure yet. Figured I would give it a try and see what happens. I still have a lot of weight to lose!

3) Not sure which one above has really helped the most because I've been taking these since I started, except the Guggul & Internal Cleanser. I can tell you that since I've started taking those two, I haven't had any bad constipation issues. Which I had when I was just taking Fiber. The Krill is a huge help with my skin & hair. And Phentratrim definitely curves the appetite!

4) I buy everything from the center except for Krill - I get that at Walgreens when they are running their buy one get one free. I've been afraid to try things like HNS or bars from another company.

5) I used to go to the gym about 2-3 times a week and spend anywhere from 35-1 hour on the treadmill walking at a brisk pace and adding speed bursts every 5 minutes and also holding 1lb weights. I was also attending a PiYo class at the center. Then life happened and I haven't been to the gym in about 10 weeks. Not trying to justify not exercising - but I've lost 35.5lbs in those 10 weeks. I'm planning on starting back with PiYo on Monday and hoping to get the gym again next week.

6) At this point, I don't drink anything but water & HNS. I drink about 120-128oz. of water each day along with my 4-5 HNS. In the beginning, I was drinking 16oz. Decaf Tea or about 12oz. Diet Rite just because I thought I felt deprived with only drinking water. But I've gotten over that and know my water intake is much more important. I don't even mix the soda/tea taste.

7) As for adivse - stick with it! If you fall off the wagon, don't dwell on it. Be honest about it and get right back on the wagon. I posted my top 10 that the center is featuring this month and it says -
People crave different things. I have ONE craving now – a healthier/thinnger me!
When life gets in the way and I feel stressed; instead of reaching for comfort foods, I think of my #1 Craving. It may not have a taste but I know I will feel amazing making the right choices and reaching my goals!

I hope this has helped. Please don't hesitate to ask questions!

Candice

[tkdtara84]

Before my baby, I had lost 67 lbs. I kept off a little over half that during the pregnancy, and now I'm back to lose the rest.

I drank 3-4 HNS/day on green menu. If I was hungry, I had 4, but if not, it was usually 3. I took MRC-6 for a while, and then Cortitrim (only 1 bottle's worth) for a shorter time. I couldn't tell that they did much. It's hard to definitively say, really. I think how you eat has 90% of the impact, and it wasn't worth the $$ to keep taking them. This time I didn't plan to take anything, but my mom had some leftover that she gave me, so I will add those two back in if I stall later, and I'll just take them until they're gone. For me, the HNS and eating OP are the keys.

I bought my vitamins and oil elsewhere. It's so much cheaper, and it's the SAME stuff as at MRC, so that's a no-brainer for me. I also bought some HNS off dietdirect.com, and when they had their sales, I stocked up. This time, however, I have about 50 boxes of HNS (I stopped mid-program when I got pregnant) leftover from my own stash plus my mom's stash, so I don't think I'll be buying any the whole way through. My center hasn't pushed anything on me, so I'm thrilled about that.

I didn't work out until I had lost about 40 lbs. At that point, I started working out (weights and cardio) pretty heavily 5 days a week. I do think it helped me look a lot better because it toned muscles as I went along. I didn't have trouble with saggy skin or anything. I haven't started working out again because my baby isn't walking yet, and that's the criteria for childcare at my gym. I plan to go back to a similar routine, though, once he's walking. In addition to making you look and feel better, exercise really does make the weight loss faster. You don't have to do it to lose weight on this diet, though. I didn't go until I felt less self-conscious about my weight.

I mostly drank water and HNS. Occasionally I would have a diet soda (gasp, sometimes even with caffeine) but only once a month or so. For example, if my husband is at DQ getting ice cream, I can handle it if I have a diet coke in front of me. I figure that's a small amount of damage to stay sane and OP in an ice cream place.