Wednesday, March 25, 2015

losing it!

Woo, today was an exciting day on the scale - I'm within a pound of goal #1!  Still struggling with the constant hunger, and now a persistent case of heartburn... but I know I need to stay the course and keep chipping away at this huge weight gain to get off my shoulders (and hips...)

Thursday, March 19, 2015

slow going

soooo... trying to stay positive, and overall the scale is still going down, so that's good.  But wow, it's slow!  And it does bounce up every now and then too.  According to myfitnesspal.com I'm eating enough calories where I should be losing 2 pounds a week, but I'm not losing that much.  And obviously, that's very frustrating!  At some point, it's gotta start getting to that rate!  Please? ;)

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

keepin' on

I've slowed on the cookies, trying to get my gastrointestinal issues all resolved.  My weight's been bouncing up and down a pound or two, and I'd really prefer for it just to be going down ;)  I ended up having spontaneous dim sum yesterday so that threw things off a little, but it's more important for my sanity to go out to lunch with friends than to stay home and eat a cookie. ;)

I am happy for the extra daylight in the evenings and hopefully will be going for a walk more often now!

Friday, March 6, 2015

cookie diet slowing down

Hrm, the gastrointestinal issues continue, so today there are no oatmeal raisin cookies on the horizon. And I just ate a cup of yogurt.  Whaaa?  ;)

So we'll see how things go.  I made it to the gym last night and did my weights circuit... and only lost 0.1 pounds today.  Oy. ;)

I'm going to get a body composition test tomorrow, and will be curious to see how the numbers compare to my first one back in August.  I'm only down about five pounds from that last one, so it will be interesting!  I *really* want to get it done again in a month from now but I don't know if I'll be able to arrange that.

Oh!  I did have one of the chocolate chip cookies a little warmed up today - I had left it in my car in a little plastic gladware thing, and the icing had melted a little.  It was tastier!

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Review: Smart for Life Chocolate Chip Cookies

After eating seven packages of these on the Smart for Life "cookie diet", let's do the official review.  Here are the "Chocolate Chip Cookies" - they come six to a package, since you're directed to eat six cookies each day (and a protein and veggie dinner).  


the tray of six cookies, straight out of the package



all six cookies laid out

They're okay, at best.  I do like these more than the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies but it's a far stretch to call these cookies. They're definitely more like mini-muffins, but very dense.  They're somewhat dry - not as dry as the Oatmeal Raisin variety, but definitely drier than most cookies or muffins.  The white icing is okay enough.  The highlight of these are the chocolate chips - but some cookies have only one and some have six!  If they put the chips on top to help make sure they were distributed equally, it would be so much better.  

I am losing weight while eating these, but full disclosure - I'm also having some gastrointestinal issues too.  Ugh.


Nutrition Facts for 1 cookie
Calories 100
Total Fat 3.5 g
Saturated Fat 1.5 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 135 mg
Carb 9 g
Fiber 2 g
Sugars 3 g
Protein 6 g

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

good and bad

Good: I'm still losing weight!  Yippee!  Four pounds away from my first goal!  Yeehaw!

Bad: I am having a lot of.. erm... gastrointestinal distress?  I've looked at the ingredients in the cookies, and there's nothing explicitly in them that I know I have an intolerance for, but something is amiss.  There's the unfortunate "natural flavor" ingredient in each of them, which could be throwing my intestines for a loop.  I don't know what it is, but I think tomorrow and Friday, I'll only have the chocolate chip cookies to try to narrow this down between the two varieties.  I do have an intolerance for ginger - which is not explicitly listed in either cookie - but perhaps it's in the oatmeal raisin cookie.  Nutmeg and cinnamon are listed in there, and ginger often accompanies those.  So, we'll see.

I think this might be nudging me away from the cookies more quickly than I had intended.  I really wanted to hit my first two goals and be at my pre-pregnancy weight before I moved off the cookie diet.  But clearly, if there's something in these cookies that is causing this GI problem, then I need to stop them much earlier.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Review: Smart for Life Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

After over a week on the Smart for Life "cookie diet", it's time to do an official review.  Here are the "Oatmeal Raisin Cookies" - they come six to a package, since you're directed to eat six cookies each day (and a protein and veggie dinner).  


a package of cookies with a tape measure for size reference



each of the six cookies on one plate - note the big range in appearance.

So... how do they taste?  Well, they're not horrible but I wouldn't call them good.  I wish there were more raisins - I have had at least three cookies with one only raisin in each of them.  When this is all you're eating until dinner, you cherish each raisin. ;)  Despite the variation in size, they all weigh within 10% of each other (yep, I weighed each of them individually).  There's some spice cake flavor in these - with nutmeg, cinnamon and "natural flavor" listed in the ingredients.  They are a bit dry, and you definitely need to drink a lot of water with them.

I dislike these a little more than I dislike the chocolate chip cookies - but they are working to help me lose weight, so I don't truly despise them yet.


Nutrition Facts for 1 cookie
Calories 110
Total Fat 4 g
Saturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 105 mg
Carb 10 g
Fiber 2 g
Sugars 3 g
Protein 6 g

Monday, March 2, 2015

still cookie-ing, but disappointing weigh in

Ahhh, I knew this day would come but I didn't think it would be day 8 of the cookie diet!  Yes, today, I weighed myself and I had a half-pound gain from yesterday.  I poured over my food diary from yesterday, and the only thing that I can think of is salt - last night I used too much salt accidentally when roasting cauliflower.  But I was in my calorie range according to myfitnesspal (did I mention I'm using that all the time now too?  I find it much easier to use than my prior food tracking web site sparkpeople.com and myfitnesspal has a free app!).  So... we will see what happens on the scale tomorrow.  I am not giving up hope on this, but I am definitely feeling a bit burnt out for sure.

Smartforlife (the cookie doc's company) says to call them for support - and I did call them today, and it wasn't very supportive. ;)  The guy just told me to drink more water and make sure to eat the cookies every two hours.  Oh, and I can snack on celery if I want.  Woo.  I am hungry almost all the damn time - including right now, when I just finished a cookie 10 minutes ago!  I am drinking a ton of water, and... yeah.  I am definitely not enjoying this, but I know it's going to suck for a couple of months at least ;)