I cannot begin to express how HMR has impacted and changed my life! I first heard about the HMR diet in the fall of '11 when my mom who lives in Wisconsin began to do the Decision Free diet and had, and continues to have, great success with the diet.

On January 9th I began the Decision Free portion of the diet for myself; I was quiet nervous about doing a 5 shakes a day diet and how I would do with it. I was surprised the first week when I lost 11.5 pounds, and then shocked when I followed that up with 11.2 pounds in week two, from that point on I was completely hooked on the diet.

Over the next 40 weeks I have continued to lose at a steady pace and have been able to stay “in the box” and on track. When I started this journey I was 455 pounds, today as I write this I am 226 pounds, that’s a weight loss of 228 pounds. My life has changed in more ways than I can begin to name.

At 455 pounds I was wearing size 52-54 jeans and I am now in a size 36. My shirt size used to be a 4XL and it is now a L. I used to regularly take afternoon naps to make it through the day, now I have enough energy to make it through the day, plus go to the gym for an hour!

I used to just exist; going from meal to meal and counting major joys with huge meals, now I can’t wait to get out and try new things! I now love to bike, run, walk, swim, anything that is active and not setting around and watching. As a youth minister I am able to keep up with teenagers again, I played ultimate Frisbee with them for an hour and half last week.

When I started this journey my blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides were all high, now they are all completely normal. All of these and so many more have completely changed my life!

I have shared my weight loss journey with so many people and the support and encouragement that I have gotten from them, as well as my health educator and class mates have been invaluable to my success! In fact I have become a strong believer in shouting the fact you are on diet from the rooftop, the people in your life will be more than ready to encourage you, push you, and pick you up when you have a setback.

The best part of my days now are when I encounter someone I have not seen since I started and I get to have the conversation about “How did you do it!” all over again!

Most people say that life begins at 40 or at 50, for me it starts at 33, with 228 pounds lost and more coming off every week. I am so excited to experience life, not just watch it go by from the sideline! I will be forever indebted to the St. Bernard’s Center for Weight Loss and the HMR diet for giving me my life back!