Diet Experiment #3: Lean Cuisine

Let me just tell you right away that this was, by far, my most favorite and least favorite plan. It was my most favorite because it was FOOD! Blessed food, and a nice variety too. No shakes, no meal bars, just nice, pre-packaged meals. I was in heaven. "You can lose weight eating like this?", I thought to myself. WRONG!!!! That's why it was my least favorite. I gained 3 pounds over my two week trial. Yes, GAINED. I was so mad!!

It turns out that these delicious meals come with a price--sodium, and lots of it. I was so bloated and felt so gross after two weeks that I just wanted to drink water and eat salads and fruit just to flush out my system. It was not worth it to gain weight while still limiting my calories on diet food. Whereas their meals are good, it's still a small amount. If I'm going to gain weight I want it to be eating all the greasy hamburgers and french fries and chocolate I can consume.

If you're going to eat Lean Cuisine, limit it to one of their meals a day. There is easily a days worth of sodium in one of their meals, let alone two. I personally love their mini pizza's for lunch every now and then. I guess the lesson is that if it seems too good to be true, it usually is. Oh well. On to my last experiment...

Diet Experiment #2: The Slim Fast Plan

I was feeling pretty good about my weight loss success, but then my family and I went on vacation and let's just say I "slipped" a little in my eating habits :). That's the way it always seems to be with me; one step forward, two steps back. But, in my defense, there was a GREAT hamburger joint in Breckenridge with the best onion rings I've ever tasted.


My second diet experiment was an oldie but a goodie: The Slim Fast Plan. Whereas everything with the Special K plan is cereal, cereal, cereal, Slim Fast is chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. I thought I would be in seventh heaven since I am a confessed chocoholic, but I'm telling you, I was SICK of chocolate by the end of two weeks. The shakes for breakfast were chocolate, the snacks were chocolate and carmal, the meal bar were, you guessed it, chocolate and peanut butter. I was consuming so many sweets on this plan, my teeth hurt. My poor lil guy, Grayson who is still nursing also didn't seem to fair so well on this plan. We were both pretty jittery from all of the sugar.

The good news was I lost another five pounds, but the bad news that it was just....too.....much....chocolate. I honestly didn't know those words could come out of my mouth. This is a also a really good plan to lose a few pounds quickly. I didn't feel nearly as hungry on this plan as I did with Special K, but I was still hungry a lot. Their meal bars brag that they will control hunger for up to four hours. Yeah, I never made if four hours--two was my maximum. I would love to meet the person who isn't hungry. My guess is they are some little pip squeak who doesn't need to be concerned about dieting anyway.

Diet Experiment #1--The Special K Challenge

A couple of months ago I wrote about how I was going to try a series of diet experiments in an attempt to lose my baby weight. My first experiment in this dieting madness was to try out the Kellogg's Special K challenge. You've seen the commercials--"Lose a jean size in two weeks". Sounds promising. In checking out their website, I found out that they offer a variety of cereal, meal bars, and snack bars as part of their plan. You choose two meals, two snacks and then eat a healthy dinner. You're also allowed to snack on fresh fruits and vegetable throughout the day.

One word describes how I felt for two weeks--HUNGRY!! I'm not kidding. I was constantly hungry. All I thought about is "when can I eat again?" I tried to keep my snacks and meals to every two hours, but I was counting the minutes in between. On one day, I was so hungry I ate a whole canelope in one sitting. I figured since the plan did allow for snacking on fruits and vegetables and it didn't say how much....

The good news is I lost 5lbs (and a jean size) during this two weeks. If you are trying to drop a few lbs quickly, I think this is a decent, short term diet. The down side is that you are eating cereal for almost every meal or some sort of cereal snack bar. They try and "church it up" by offering different types of fruit cereals and chocolate meal bars, but cereal is cereal. I was REALLY tired of cereal after two weeks.

All in all, they keep their promise to lose a jean size in two weeks and it was fairly easy to follow. Just be prepared to be very hungry. And try not to eat whole canelopes for a snack--I'm pretty sure that's not what they have in mind :).

Diets

Most of you know that I had a new baby almost six months ago and in a previous post I mentioned that the baby weight doesn't come off very fast. So, I've decided to experiment with a few of the cheaper diet plans, just to see if any of them work and I can get some of these stubborn pounds off. I'm going to write a post on each one and give a critic of the plans. I've chosen three different diet plans and am going to give each one a two week trial. All three of them allow me to eat a regular dinner, which works very well into my life style. Also, I've started running again (very s-l-o-w-l-y) to get some exercise in--usually about 45 minutes a day. My goal is to get within 5 lbs of my pre-pregnancy weight by the end of October ( about two lbs per week). I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!

Is 40 REALLY the new 20?

I turned 40 a couple of months ago. Forty. Maybe it's me, but something about 40 just seems so...old. To be honest, I was dreading the whole thing. Everyone I knew that had turned forty told me that, physically, they started falling apart within weeks of turning the dreaded age--knees going out, wrinkles more pronouced, skin sagging every where. In my mind I was saying "No Thanks".


But, my day turned out to be great. I was greeted by bright, fun pink and yellow balloons trailing down our stair case and found our kitchen smothered in more balloons and steamers everywhere. What fun! No black decorations announcing my age making me feel ashamed, just lots of cheerfulness. My wonderful husband also held a surprise birthday party for me. My whole day was just awesome! Something my husband said to me that day is so true. Turning 40 is not all that bad, but announcing it to everyone is the hard part.


The truth is 40 is does not feel like 20. Not even a little bit. When I was 20, I was in college and didn't really have a care in the world. My only concerns in life were keeping up with my homework and choosing my social schedule. I was in a lot better shape and even if a few extra pounds snuck on, I could drink Slim Fast for a week and they would be gone. My hair was naturally blonde back then and I could look at my face up close in the mirror without cringing about all of my wrinkles.


Now, at 40, I have a lot more concerns in life and tons of responsibilities. I enjoy all that has changed in my life, but I would definately not label it as "care free". My husband and I just started our family a couple years ago and it is so wonderful. But, my social schedule consists of playdates with toddlers and trips to the grocery store and that extra pregnancy weight does not melt off my body the way it does for my 20 something and 30 something friends. My hair now has to be highlighted to maintain any hint of what it was twenty years ago and I am so grateful for my failing eyesight because when I look in the mirror I can't see how deep the wrinkles go unless I'm really close up (which I avoid unless I'm trying to put on mascara--which brings up another issue: where the heck did my eyelashes go?--ugh!).

To be honest, I'm not as upset as I thought I would be about turning 40. My grandma told me many years that you never stop feeling about 28 on the inside, the only thing frustrating about getting older is a failing body and not recognizing yourself in a mirror. I always liked her outlook on life-- she was never afraid to try new things, meet new people and keep up with the current times. Should I get to live as old as she was, I hope I'm the same way.

Let's face it-- getting old stinks. None of us likes getting wrinkles and gray hair. We would all prefer to have the energy of our youth but, I would rather take on what getting older brings than to stress out over it and get even more wrinkles. Hollywood has turned getting older into some sort of freak show. I don't even need to mention Joan Rivers to point out how ridiculous plastic surgery has become. Some people don't even look human any more. I sometimes wonder if that's what people are really seeing when they claim they've seen an alien. Maybe it's just another person who took plastic surgery and a face lift a little too far.

So here's to all of us who are turning 40 this year. May we all enjoy it and learn to laugh at ourselves and what aging brings.

Contest!

My husband is hosting a great contest to give away some music and restaurant gift cards. It's called, I think rather cleverly, the Beats and Eats contest.


Basically, we need your help selling some CDs. But rather than just asking you to help us sell, we're giving away prizes for the people who sell the most!


Click on the picture below to learn more about the contest:

Goofy knows my name