I Need to Eat a Skinny Person

I know, GROAN. Seriously y'all, this is the summer of dieting for me. I'm tired of being the fattest person everywhere I go. It's old and tired. Just like me. I'm tired of the aches that I know will subside, at least a bit, once some of this weight is gone. I'm tired of hiding from cameras and, when I can't, I'm tired of faking a smile and then having to look at myself in the picture. So, I'm doing it. Or trying to. Again. And I'm trying to NOT think about where I'd be now had I stuck to it the first time out of the gate a few years ago.

My first thought was to try the Isagenix plan I had been hearing about. Holy crap, though, that stuff is expensive! So, I started out with the Atkins plan since I knew I could do that without breaking my poor little bank account. And I knew I could do it because, I've done it before. So I cut the sugar and the bread and the potatoes and a few other things and I started losing right away. It's because of my sugar addiction. I can eat the crap out of some sugar. 

After school was out, I thought I would go ahead and take the Isagenix plunge. However, I still couldn't justify spending that much money on it AND some of the people who sell that product are pushy. Like used car sales people. If it's more about them making money than understanding and helping people, I'm out. I ended up ordering a container of the chocolate shake and a bottle of their Natural Accelerator from eBay. This was a GREAT idea! 

I tried it out as soon as it arrive and it was not good. However, when I use plain almond milk instead of water, used ONE SCOOP instead of two and added ice, it wasn't bad at all. I also decided to use Atkins snack bars instead of Isagenix bars and kept on going. 

The two things I didn't realize? The Isagenix shake that I bought has 22 grams of sugar in a serving. 22 (of course, when you only use ONE scoop, that lessens to 11.) AND the Atkins bars have sugar alcohol. So, I wasn't really keeping away from sugar.

The negatives:

• Cost
• Dealers are pushy
• sugar content
• chemical content

The positives:

• Taste (as long as you use almond milk, ONE SCOOP, ice and a blender)
• It is filling
• You can get what you need/want from eBay
• The company does offer a money back guarantee but I have no idea how legit it is or what hoops you have to go through to get your money back.

These are NASTY.

What to do? What to do? And then, I saw Paleo Protein Bars from Julian Bakery on Facebook and decided to give them a try. I really needed a healthy, low sugar, low carb solution to my problem.

Paleo Protein Bars are NOT the answer. I've never tasted anything so nasty in my entire life. EW and YUCK. NEVER again. I'd be much better off making my own. If it wasn't hot and I was motivated. Ha! Nevertheless, these bars are DISGUSTING.

So I added fruit to my plan and used the Atkins bars in case of a sweet tooth emergency. I also kept up with the shakes because, well, I did pay for the container.

I was down two pant sizes when I decided to get serious and have the Isagenix shakes for breakfast and lunch and then eat dinner. I wasn't making the progress I wanted to make. In other words, the fat was not coming off fast enough. It's difficult to tell a huge difference when you're so overweight that it takes 50 or so pounds to really tell a difference other than pant sizes.


Still concerned with the sugar (and chemical) content in the Isagenix, I ordered the free trial of the ALOHA protein powder. They are completely organic and plant based and have only 4 grams of sugar.

And now, I have a taste problem to resolve as these are not that delish.


The negatives:

• They make you sign up for a subscription service whereupon they mail you more of the stuff on a regular basis. The only way to opt out is to call them. (Haven't done that yet.)
• The taste is not great, even with the almond milk.
• They are grainy/gritty even when blended in the Ninja with ice and almond milk.
• There's an after taste that stays with you for a couple of hours.

The positives:

• You can order a free trial (but the subscription service comes with it)
• You can choose how often to have replacements sent (from every 30 days to every 180 days)
• It is organic and the protein is plant based.

Right now, I've decided to finish the Isagenix shake mix before allowing ALOHA to ship me anymore of their product. I'm torn between taste and the organic, plant-based issue/sugar issue. Right now, I'll probably drop Isagenix and go with ALOHA only because I feel it's the healthier option. 

Let me know if you've tried any of this and if you have any good low carb, high protein bar recipes.