Tuesday, December 15, 2009

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...

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

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.