The Cookie Diet!!

Losing weight is calories in < calories out.  It's a simple enough equation, and while I need to drop some quick weight, I felt like it was a chance to have a little fun with it.  If I were trying to build muscle, or cut body fat quickly, we'd have to do it with a little bit better control over nutrients and macros.  Also, this is not a long term, sustainable lifestyle change.  It is, however, delicious and kind of hilarious.

My TDEE is generally around 1,600 calories, on a particularly active day at work, my Fitbit claims I burn about 100-200 extra calories.  I shoot for 1,200 calories a day.  Being realistic, I eat closer to my TDEE, and on some days, I eat well over it (obviously).  I am probably estimating it to be a little low, but despite the amount of walking I do each day (10,000 to 15,000 steps), I don't think I'm off by much.  I used multiple calculators to land on this number.  For this fun little experiment, I will continue with my daily goal of 1,200 calories, with motivation to exercise for extra calories for snacks.  I am lucky that the math works out perfectly in my favor.. you see, three protein shakes and two full cookies are almost exactly 1,200 calories.  Yes, I just said cookies.

Lenny and Larry's Complete Cookies are a little piece of fitlife heaven.  For a whole cookie, which is 4 oz, you eat 380-420 calories, 12-14g of fat, 54-58g of carbohydrates, and an impressive 16g of protein.  They come in eight different flavors, so hold on to your seats here: Double Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, White Chocolate Macadamia, Oatmeal Raisin, Lemon Poppyseed, Pumpkin Spice and the newest Snickerdoodle.  The most important part about all of the different flavors?  They're actually good.  These cookies are the perfect mouthful of cookie, not too crumbly or dry or even too moist for that matter.  They're fantastic dipped in coffee or eaten plain.  I have yet to try one I don't like (and I've had a lot of them).

My protein powder for this experiment will be from True Nutrition.  It is their gemma pea protein (non-gmo) formulation, and the massive tub we have this time is in Creamy Peanut Butter.  That said, they have ten vegan protein sources, and more flavors than you can shake a stick at.  Seriously, if you manage to try them all, I will be impressed with you (and if you decide to do so, use my discount code BBE100).

For those curious of a breakdown of my day, they can follow me on MyFitnessPal.  If you just want to casually follow along, check out my Instagram!

Disclaimer: Lenny & Larry's did provide me some swag for this diet.  It did not influence whether or not I took on this cookie diet challenge.  True Nutrition has provided me products to review in the past.  The protein I will be using for this challenge was purchased.  They did send me a True Nutrition Blender Bottle to use for the challenge.  As always, I reserve the right to my open and honest opinion.

Ten Day Challenge with Garden of Life!! [Starting March 1st]

I really love Garden of Life.  They are hands down the number one purchased brand in my home, with So Delicous Almond Plus milk being a close second.  I have bought their protein and meal powders for a while now, and repurchase them time and time again.  I am the type of consumer that doesn't care what you buy, necessarily, but what you keep buying.  For me, Garden of Life is that brand that I keep coming back to.

Garden of Life recently sent me their RAW Fit Protein in Marley Coffee and Original, as well as their fucoTHIN Green for a ten day challenge.  I would love to get more people on board with it!  There is a $5 off coupon in the Whole Foods book right now, and they carry several of the Garden of Life products (including their vitamins and supplements).

What will this challenge entail?  Starting March 1st, I will be replacing my breakfast and lunch time smoothies with RAW Fit Protein.  I will be drinking the Marley Coffee flavor for breakfast, and the original flavor for lunch.  Because the Fit protein powder is so low carb, I will probably pair it with some fruit at breakfast and probably nuts or fruit at lunch as well.  I will be keeping my calorie intake at 1200 calories, per usual, focusing on eating high protein and keep my carbs at or below 75g.  For those who follow macronutriet guidelines, I will be shooting for 75g of carbs (25%), 135g of protein (45%) and 40g of fat (35%).  For those of you who do want to follow macronutrient guidelines, I highly suggest the myfitnesspal app for calorie trackings, and really like this site for figuring out your macro needs.

I will be pairing these two meals with a wisely picked dinner and regular exercise.  I love the Insanity workouts.  I don't do them as consistently as I should, but I will be doing the workouts at least three times a week.  I will be trying to do it more often, as work allows.

I will also be taking their fucoTHIN Green supplement.  fucoTHIN has two active ingredients, Fucoxanthin and Green Coffee Bean Extract, both in their raw forms.  The coffee bean is decaffinated to prevent jitters, which makes me extremely happy.  Anyone who has had caffeine jitters knows what a nightmare that is.. now imagine being a makeup artist and trying to do liquid liner on a client.  I would also be scared to mix this with the Marley Coffee Fit protein if the supplement wasn't decaffeinated.  I've had large portions of caffeine, but that's during the holidays and I really don't feel well doing it.

As a precursor to this challenge, I want to give a brief description of both key players in this challenge, the Fit protein and the fucoTHIN.  I plan on doing an in depth review of both following the challenge, but I'd like to give you guys a little information now so that you understand why I chose them.

RAW Fit Protein:  RAW Fit protein is a hybrid of a meal powder and a protein powder.  It has an impressive macronutrient profile (28/5/67 on my 1200 calorie plan; I'm shooting for 25/35/45).  This means I have room for healthy fats, and means I will probably be eating a lot of avocados.  Avocados have been found to help suppress hunger, so they will be a great addition to the challenge.  That, and they're just damn delicious.  My favorite thing about the RAW Fit is that it is still a raw food, and that the protein blend is about twenty different things for a complete and rounded amino acid profile.  Also fantastic?  It's vegan, gluten free, dairy free and soy free!

fucoTHIN Green:  The active ingredients in this weight loss supplement are Xanthigen® (raw, concentrated Fucoxanthin) and Svetol® (raw, naturally decaffeinated green coffee bean extract).  These are both non-stimulant natural fat burners.  We've all heard of green coffee bean (it came to the market in 2002), but I'd never heard of Fucoxanthin prior to this supplement.  A little research taught me that it was a not so new ingredient used in weight loss that had recently gained popularity thanks to celebrity doctor Dr. Oz.  It's derived from a brown algae and is an accessory pigment in the chloroplasts responsible for their brown and olive color.  Scientists in Japan did a study with mice and rats and found that it increased thermogenin which lead to weight loss.  A later double blind study with a placebo in women found that when it was blended with pomegranate oil, the subjects taking the fuxocanthin lost weight.  I found this information with a google search and I recommend you do the same before you start any supplements with unfamiliar ingredients.

So who's ready to accept my challenge?  Who's in it to win it!!?  Let's do this!!

Where to follow me for this challenge?
this blog
my instagram
myfitnesspal
& facebook