Need an easier solution? Try the Geico diet.

Here’s a weight loss plan I can support: Peer pressure.

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Well I’ve had fun this week. Just remember: There is nothing a diet can do that healthy eating can’t do better.

That is my belief.

I love the commercials. I find them all hilarious.

Unfortunately for Progresso, I’m not a big fan of canned soup. Tastes like… canned soup.

Livestrong.com writer Ed Donner outlined the pros and cons of the Progresso Soup Diet. And this con makes me want to avoid the canny-soupy-ness of Progresso soup.

“A single 1-cup serving typically has over 650 mg. of sodium, providing 20 to 30 percent of your recommended daily allowance of sodium.”

Sodium is not the nutrition I’m looking for in a diet. If you eat the whole can, you’re at about 40 to 60 percent of the sodium RDA. Avoiding other high sodium foods makes this a relative non-issue, but, really, folks… Sodium is in everything. I have trouble avoiding it.

Donner said:

“For a quick meal or even as a routine item in your weekly menu, Progresso soups provide quick, easy, relatively benign dining. However, they don’t have the nutritional muscle to meet your daily nutritional needs.”

My Opinion: Canned soup is not my thing, but lunching on half a can next to a salad or some salmon probably won’t kill you.

Probably.

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What do you think of canned soups? Regular lunch plan or an occasional side dish? (Please don’t pour it over mashed potatoes.)

And they have a FANTASTIC spokesperson:

I love her. She’s so fabulous.

Dieters learn how to make healthy choices, and track their progress through the use of a “points” system. Weight Watchers is flexible; dieters can eat treats in moderation and drink alcohol responsibly (Cocktail Cheat Sheet). The Points Plus program tracks calories and where they come from for in-depth understanding of what dieters are putting into their bodies.

On the surface, I like Weight Watchers, but I have read about and witnessed its failure. I watched one woman go to meetings and still fail to lose weight.

Weight Watchers is not strictly structured. Dieters control what foods they eat and portion size, and they’re supposed to. It’s part of the learning process. Unfortunately, it is easy to fall back into bad habits without structure.

WebMD expert Keri Gans, author of The Small Change Diet and a weight loss consultant, supports the program.

All foods can fit into a healthy diet, Gans says. Eat healthy, filling foods most of the time, get regular exercise, and you will be able to work in your favorite treats on the new Points Plus program.

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Have you tried Weight Watchers? No, but I might buy anything Jennifer Hudson tries to sell me.

I am not inclined to believe that a cereal diet is going to provide the nutritional value needed to fuel a workout, but perhaps you’re not working out…

I decided to plan my own Special K diet just to see if I could jibe with the food.

First, I needed to select my lifestyle…

Am I “on the go,” “a foodie” or “a vegetarian?”

Well, I’m certainly not a vegetarian. I am on the go, but I doubt my go will get in the way of my food.

Foodie.

Then, I have to decide when to start my plan. I chose today. My plan apparently ends on in two weeks.

After entering those two simple pieces of information, my meal plan is created. Perhaps it should have asked if I had any allergies or special food needs. I might be diabetic. Special K certainly doesn’t know. Maybe I hate cod, which I do, but Special K decided that I should eat it tonight.

The recipes for dinner are not bad recipes, but the rest of the day would leave me starving. And losing six pounds in two weeks? Seems unreal without exercise, and with exercise, you need more food than this meal plan provides.

I’m not a fan, but I’m also not much of an expert when it comes to diet plans. I found a few other opinions.

Cons from Diet Blog: Eat Right, Get Healthy:

“…Satiety – From experience, I’ve noticed that wolfing down a bowl of cereal doesn’t always curb the hunger pangs. However having a bit more protein in the mix does keep the pangs at bay.

Nutrition – The simple truth is – Special K is better than what most people eat, but it still contains such gems as High Fructose Corn Syrup…”

Diets in Review outlined these cons:

• Lacking in balanced nutrition
• A temporary solution
• Special K products contain trans fats
• Provide little guidance for planning dinner meals

I do not agree with the final point. From what I saw, there is plenty of direction for dinner as long as you are prepared to buy the long list of interesting ingredients and prepare a super dinner every night.

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What do you think? Cereal diet or no?

I hope you enjoy!

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Nutrisystem is a weight loss program designed around prepackaged, portion-controlled meals personalized for each dieter. (And it’s on television ALL the time.) The program designs meal plans for women, men and dieters with special food needs, such as diabetics. Dieters can create their own 28-day menus or use pre-made menus designed by Nutrisystem.

The program provides dieters with an online profile to access support services and free tools, such as a daily tracking planner. Online access does not end when dieters end the program. Dieters also have access to transition plans when switching from Nutrisystem meals to normal food.

Unlike the soup and cereal weight loss plans, Nutrisystem does not annoy me to my core. It even encourages physical fitness, which I like. My mother lost weight using it, but it was too expensive for her to continue and too expensive for me to try. Fresh fruits and homemade meals are encouraged but not the program’s focus, and I think healthy weight loss requires real food.*

*As opposed to packaged food. (Note added.)

Also, I have eaten some of the food products, and they’re not that tasty. Bland meal bars and dull entrees. The hot cocoa was OK.

But Diets in Review listed more pros than cons.

(Look at that pretty face on my blog! Thanks for letting me use the video Brandi!)

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Have you tried Nutrisystem? What are your experiences?

A storm is coming…

A four-hour storm during which I must regurgitate all that I have learned as a grad student at WSU in the form of comprehensive exams. I get my questions next week or the week after, and then I have 5-6 weeks to study and prepare my answers.

I must pass my comprehensive exams in order to graduate with a Master’s in Communication. Nervous? Yes. Panicky? Quite.

The semester will soon get the better of me, and I will have a freak-out-panic-attack period during which I will want to take a break from blogging and diet and fitness, but I won’t be able to because I have to blog for class.

Oh, just, joy.

I will go to the gym. I will eat healthy food. I will cook at home.

I have to do it for three credit hours, and my health.

Continuing my research
My graduate project is also starting to stress me out, but in a good way.

Last semester, I worked with a group of undergraduate and graduate students and our professor to raise awareness about hunger on campus. My research focused on graduate students and graduate teaching assistants. It was qualitative research – no statistics, no percentages, just stories.

My graduate project is a proposal to the university to develop the resources needed to create a Campus Kitchen Project at WSU.

It is a big project, a big proposal, and I’ll leave WSU (if I pass my comps) before I see the proposal come to fruition – if it ever does.

The quantitative communication class is taking on the hunger project again this semester. Students, faculty and staff are welcome to provide their food security and hunger stories anonymously to contribute to the research and the cause.

Making time for myself and friends
I do have a ton of work to do, but school and work make Shae a dull girl. She needs time with her friends :)

On Friday, February 17, I attended the Women’s Fair at Century II with some fabulous ladies I met on Twitter.

I got my ring cleaned for free, taste tested some frozen wine and made fun of weird hats like this one.

After the Women’s Fair, we went to the Drury Plaza Hotel’s AVI, and I ate a ham and cheese sandwich from heaven.

On Saturday, I hung out with friends from my hometown, and then with Husband and his friends at my house – all of whomare coming over to clean up their poker chips.

Boys.

Ciao friends!

According to Dr. Joanna Scurr, wearing the incorrect sports bra while jogging or sprinting will irreversibly damage and stretch fragile ligaments, which leads to sagging.

Oh, how I wish they taught this in middle school health class. (Secretly, I believe the health teacher didn’t teach us girls these valuable lessons on purpose. Bitter.)

What constitutes the correct sports bra? Check out these eight simple guidelines.

Did you ever think about number seven? Of course, test the bra out before buying. Run in place in the dressing room – whatever you need to do. But have you considered buying a bra that fits on the first set of hooks instead of the innermost hooks?

I haven’t! No one told me!

I have been wasting money on 36 sports bras when I could be buying 32. They’d last much longer.

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Find yours: Women’s Health Magazine’s Best Sports Bras

According to author and preventative cardiologist William Davis, the wheat we eat today has been so genetically messed up that it isn’t even wheat! Crossbreeding of the plants has permanently changed the amino acids in wheat’s protein causing it to stimulate appetite.

Excuse me?!

So the healthy bread I buy and the whole wheat hamburger buns and the whole wheat English muffins and tortillas are all a lie?

Can I eat anything anymore? What next? Is yogurt bad for me, too?

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What do you think? To wheat or not to wheat?

Tainted sprouts linked to Jimmy John’s
By the Wichita Business Journal

“Twelve cases of E. coli poisoning in five states — Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas and Wisconsin — have been linked to clover sprouts from Jimmy John’s restaurants.”

If you guessed me, then you are correct.

OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO DIE!

The definition of a hypochondriac…

“…a person who worries or talks excessively about his or her health…”

If I die, know that I love you all dearly. If I do not die, I am NEVER eating at Jimmy John’s again. Keep your sprouts clean people! I am a crazy person, and you are the reason I’m freaked out right now!

>:(