I may have to take eat my words when it comes to the cookie diet

Sorry for the pun, I couldn't resist.

A little more than two weeks ago, I decided to try the cookie diet for the fun of it. A rep from Dr. Seigal's cookies offered me a week's supply, so to be fair, I thought I'd get a couple of weeks of the Smart for Life cookies too. When I started, I weighed 162 lbs on a 5'5.5" frame. My ideal weight appears to be in the high 130s, but I was only going to aim for 140.

Well, the Dr. Seigal cookies never arrived, so I never got a chance to compare, but I did start doing the Smart for Life diet. The cynic in me has had to eat crow here.

First, I have to tell you that I still think that a cookie diet is not the ideal way to lose weight. It takes us a good bit of time to put the weight on, it only makes sense that it would take a while to take it off. So, the search for quick loss methods really does seem to be like a search for the fountain of eternal youth: impossible. I also am still a huge believer and proponent for weight management methods like Weight Watchers. They not only encourage healthy eating, especially with their points system, they encourage exercise and feeling better about yourself.

Now, that being said, back to my thoughts on the cookie diet. It does work and it's not so bad. Not even those "blueberry" cookies that I hated the first day.

So far, I've dropped from 162 to 154.6, in slightly more than 2 weeks. That's almost half my goal. And that's with some cheating. The other day, I took my son out for lunch and I had pad thai (mmmmm). Normally, I would have made do with a salad for supper, but I had planned a nice roast beef dinner for the family, so I ate that too. If I decide that I really want to eat something, like the other day I wanted some rice pudding, I eat it. I don't believe in depriving yourself of small treats because that's when you're setting yourself up to fail.

Will the weight stay off? Only time will tell. But this is my plan. Because I have them, I'll do this for one more week and see what my final 3-week loss is. Then, I'll switch back to either the WW loss plan or the WW maintenance plan.  Would I do this again? I highly doubt it unless I had a fabulous dress that I was a few pounds too much for and I needed to fit in it in a week or two.

The products: I do like the Smart for Life salad dressings. They are gluten-free which, if you have celiac disease, is a great find. They're really not bad and I would consider using them regularly. The cookies? I don't think they're gross any more, but I won't ever say they taste good. They're tolerable.

Benefits: Because you eat healthy meal in the evening, I've been eating better then than I usually do at supper time. I've eaten many more vegetables than I usually eat and I am eating more fish (tilapia and tuna) than I usually do. I've been alternating between eating chicken, tuna, crab, and tilapia). There's also something in the cookies that make me more regular, so to speak.

What I don't like: I don't like not being able to grab a banana if I'm hungry. I mean, yes, I would if I really wanted to, but I'd feel guilty because it's a no-no on their list. I don't like how much fluid I'm supposed to drink. BUT, that's not the diet's fault. I don't feel thirsty usually so I rarely drink throughout the day. Everytime I get on a kick about drinking more water or healthy fluid, I do really well for a few days, and then go back into my regular pattern of ignoring the water bottle on my desk.

I also don't like that I can't have wine. At least on WW, you can. :-) And I do love my wine. A lot.

So, that's the two-week report on the cookie diet and what I think about it. I don't think it's a horrible way to lose weight if that's what someone wants to do. I'm just reserving judgment on if it's too easy to gain it back.