Hey there, figured I’d start in this section since it’s what my journey is mostly about.
My story is… convoluted at best, so I won’t be sharing it’s entirety - too long. What I will say is this; I was a high school athlete - hell, I was an all my life athlete. I was never skinny, I was (am) built like a brick um… “out” house. My problems started when I blew my hip out senior year. Then I started working at Taco Bell I refuse to be blamed for consuming MASS quantities of free Taco Bell at 18 years of age lol. None the less, I started gaining fat and losing muscle. Then I ‘scored’ a desk job. Making matters worse - it was a stressful desk job - emergency dispatch. More eating like crap, less moving around. I started sleeping more and moving less. Fast forward 10 years and I’d had enough of the 911 life. Between shift work and something akin to PTSD, I just could not do it anymore.
Over those 10 years, with access to a gym at the station, I was able to shed maybe 20 of the 100 I’d gained since highschool. But it never stayed off, something would happen and I couldn’t work out. Usually it was a weird pain here or there or just… life in general. When I left that job and got my current one, I had hefted that number on the scale up to friggin’ 295. 295 lbs. I couldn’t believe it. I was so MAD at myself. I will say what my doctor said - I “carry it well”. Because, yeah, that’s accurate. The fat is definitely evenly spread around.
I always assumed that my aches and pains were a mix of getting older, lots of old sports injuries and getting fatter. But as the other “weird” symptoms mounted, I finally started doing some research. I never could figure it out until my boss suggested fibromyalgia. I ran it past my doc - he sent me to a specialist. I count myself as lucky that my pains aren’t excruciating. I can’t take anything that isn’t OTC due to a having a CDL and working in a safety sensitive position.
With all that said, I’m ready. Like really ready to take my life back. There’s no reason that fibro should keep me sitting on the couch - at least not yet.
I signed up for a challenge in April and it’s time to start training. I’ll be using this post / topic to kind of blog about my journey / successes and inevitable failures. I’m hoping Huel will help me in more ways than one. Fingers crossed.
I also started using it to help lose weight. I started in a weight loss competition and got this to help me avoid getting fast food when I’m out working and starving. I enjoy it and it works but I don’t think I could drink more than 2 a day
I told myself I could do 5 smalls a day (like a scoop and some change - 50g) but I can’t lol. It’s not the taste or anything, it’s just the time thing. I don’t have time to drink 5 a day, so I’m doing more like 3 a day - breakfast, lunch and snack, then doing fish and veg / rice for dinner. That leaves me open to make an extra one if I’m feeling particularly hungry
I’m not going to update every day - but I wanted to share this weird bit of my day.
So, I’m not hungry in the sense of tummy growling hangry-itis. Huel is definitely doing it’s job in that department. But I want food. Like… it’s almost like a smoker trying to quit smoking - I want food because food. I’m looking forward to dinner to see if this weird feeling alleviates itself. Fingers crossed
I noticed the same thing for the first few days but it did change for me. I truly enjoy my breakfast ritual of eggs and coffee so I still do that. Then I’ll have huel for lunch and maybe for dinner. I’m sure it will pass for you as well! Good luck
I get my delivery on Monday. I was at 242 pounds about 5 years ago. I slowly came down to 220 3 years ago; and got down to as low as 193-197 this past year. I suffer from emotional eating and recently came back up to 210; now back at 204.
Despite being dedicated to the gym; I do attempt to do strict meal planning but it usually slips and I cannot keep track of my macros. So, … this is a very straightforward approach. I am an engineer and using Huel appears to be a very easy way to uncomplicated tracking nutrition.
I plan on doing 4 meals per day with daily excercise. My goal is to get down to 170 pounds over the next 4-5 months. At 5’10” that will be a healthy weight. I know that a positive attitude in my life depends on a healthy body and a healthy mind. I do suffer from depression and I notice it does increase as poor food consumption occurs and weight gains are evident. I need to crash through this plateau.
I know I’ve not updated this. I had some personal and physical (threw my back out, naturally…) things happen so I had to set myself back a couple weeks. I started back Monday last week - down three lbs so far. I think when I start integrating the gym (likely this week or next) it’ll come off faster as well.
I’ve started “meal prepping” my scoops. I’ve changed my regimen to fit me a little better. I’ll update this post either tonight when I’ve left work or tomorrow.
I feel better - it’s not a cure all, not the way I’m using it, because I’m not 100% on it, so I can’t speak to that.
But I feel better. I’m not eating Tylenol and Advil like they’re a new food group, I’m up in the morning and asleep at night - like normal people. I’m PRODUCTIVE. I CLEANED MY WHOLE HOUSE!! If you knew me, or if you understand fibromyalgia, you’d understand that - so trust me, that’s amazing.
My original plan wasn’t really working for me - too much me being busy at work and not getting to actually slam a Huel back every two hours. So… I’ve started “meal prepping” by putting two scoops (not packed) of Huel into baggies and they’re labeled for 6 days a week. One day a week, usually Sundays, I don’t worry about what I’m doing. I’m usually with family or I’m asleep for most of the day lol. I’ve been mixing the Huel with about 300ml of water or coffee. I like trying different KCups and finding my flavors that way. This week and a half (12 KCups to this box lol) I’ve got a maple flavored coffee - it’s really good. Tastes like oatmeal with … maple syrup if you can imagine. I’ll probably pick up a different flavor this weekend, just for shiggles. At any rate, having the Huel for lunch and having a normal breakfast / dinner seriously keeps me around 1200 calories for the day - which is way under the recommended 1380 that my fitness pal wants me to do. I also aim to hit about a 40/30/30 macro ratio - which Huel nails nearly on the head by itself.
So right now, I’m not going to the gym, I just altered my eating habits and added Huel for lunches. That brings me to : 288 lbs. That makes around 10 lbs in two months - ish. Not bad really. I think it’d be right at 10lbs if there hadn’t been pesky food oriented holidays in there lol
I’m really excited to see what happens next week when I finally add the gym into the mix. Stay tuned I guess
What’s your name on myfitnesspal and I’ll friend ya! Mine is onlyberserkerking. Accountability always helps me. Also, I have a pretty awesome Facebook group of roughlyn25 people,all with various goals. Anyway, we all support each other and help keep each other accountable if anyone’s interested please let me know.
I haven’t weighed myself - it’s too damn cold lol, but my clothes are fitting better.
I’ve found that I’m focusing better at work - I don’t know if I can accredit that to the Huel or not but it’s the only thing I can think of outside of eating better in general. I finally got my meal prep containers so I can prep other meals outside of the Huel. So that’s making a huge difference also. I find myself popping out of bed now when my last alarm goes off, sometimes I even get up before the last one. I sleep so good these days also, no dreams really, but I’m knocked out - sleeping hard.
I have YET to start to the gym - I’m kind of disappointed in myself but I’ve gone ahead and put it in my phone to start on Saturday. That will give me exactly 12 weeks until that Go Ruck event in April. I’ll have six weeks to train UP to the point where I can start the six week training course built for that event.
I’ve accomplished a few things around the house that I’ve been meaning to do - buying a large area rug, hanging curtains etc… I’ve literally had no energy available to get out and do these things until now. I’ve actually got a place in my house now where I can entertain people, a place that looks like me and feels like me. It’s so awesome
edit: my flavors came in the same night I posted this, I had chocolate mint today. Did half a tsp, but it could stand to be a bit more minty. I use about 76g of Huel with 300 ml of water (sometimes coffee), I’m gonna bump it up a bit tomorrow see where I’m at. It’s still tasty AF though. More minty than chocolate, which is cool by me.
edit 2: I did strawberry yesterday, SO GOOD. I plan on having a chocolate chocolate chip later tonight. Will edit again for that flavor
I’m a loser and still haven’t been to the gym. They keep dicking with my work hours and it’s making it just a little difficult. I have been doing some yoga / light cardio - just not at the gym. I’m hoping that come Monday they’ll have left my schedule alone enough that I can get in there. The problem is they’re moving me all over, days, nights and in between. It’s sucktastic.
The good news is though, I’m still sticking to my meal prep / Hueling.
I’ve noticed that the strawberry flavor, tasty as it is, gives me a little stomach discomfort. Nothing so far that’ll keep me from drinking it though lol. Pain is beauty - right? Sure. I think the chocolate mint is my favorite and after all three packets are gone, I’ll probably just stick with the chocolate mint. Chocolate isn’t bad - I just don’t taste “chocolate”. It’s not a bad flavor, I just don’t know what it is… If it tasted how it smelled, boy, that’d be awesome. I finally decided that the right amount of flavor for me - no matter which packet it is, was right around a full, rounded teaspoon. I am going to try to do a peanut butter / chocolate with a splash of my caramel syrup flavor and see where I come out at - I’ve got my fingers crossed for a Snickers-y taste
You could try adding more. I don’t have measuring spoons so am guesstimating, but I though ~1 scant tablespoon with 3 scoops UU Huel was good and I would have identified it as chocolate. Note: you can add too much.
I took your advice and added some more powder when I did the caramel / PB / chocolate - and got the chocolate flavor. BOY. The sugar free caramel syrup with PB and double chocolate powder (basically two heaping tsps) - is glorious. It wasn’t quite “snickers” but man it was good anyway.
I’m tempted to mix some sugar free cheesecake flavored jello in with the strawberry flavor powder next time I use that. I used to use that with other protein powders and it was super good, but I know Huel is already pretty thick - might just add more water to make up for it.
First of all, do NOT call yourself a loser! You are winning at this healthy lifestyle thang and you deserve to give yourself serious credit! Also, just had to mention, if you’re interested in doing more yoga, my favorite at-home yoga teacher by far is Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. Check her out!
I refuse to be blamed for consuming MASS quantities of free Taco Bell at 18 years of age lol. None the less, I started gaining fat and losing muscle. Then I ‘scored’ a desk job. Making matters worse - it was a stressful desk job - emergency dispatch. More eating like crap, less moving around. I started sleeping more and moving less. Fast forward 10 years and I’d had enough of the 911 life. Between shift work and something akin to PTSD, I just could not do it anymore.
if you can imagine. I’ll probably pick up a different flavor this weekend, just for shiggles. At any rate, having the Huel for lunch and having a normal breakfast / dinner seriously keeps me around 1200 calories for the day - which is way under the recommended 1380 that my fitness pal wants me to do. I also aim to hit about a 40/30/30 macro ratio - which Huel nails nearly on the head by itself.
Cheers til the next update.