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.

Day Five Update!

The scale is moving!  Nothing drastic, down to 127.0, which is 1.4 pounds lost in five days, and isn't bad.  I'm off the next two days and have a lot planned in the way of catching up on workouts because work has been wearing me out (excuses!!).  The simple fact of the matter is I haven't really changed anything about my lifestyle outside of the fucoTHIN Green & the meal shakes and have lost weight, which is the point.  If anything, I may be working out slightly less (but will make up for that the next two days, while I'm off and it's finally not -3 degrees out).

Overall?  The challenge is a success so far.  I'm seeing a difference, and I see and feel a difference in my body.  I'm excited to amp it up for the last half of the challenge and see what happens!

Also, I've felt hungrier, but I've only found myself craving good food, which is a great thing!  Love this!!  I have a feeling that when I finish this bottle of fucoTHIN, I will order another!

Since I stopped eating raw...

As the holiday season geared up in retail, it became increasingly difficult for me to stay on track with my raw diet.  I started eating more and more processed foods, and more importantly, more and more empty carbs, and specifically wheat.  Although I have not gained much weight (three or four pounds), the main differences I see are constant bloating and my face is broken out SO bad.  I haven't been this broken out in so long.  My face had very nearly cleared up, and now it is worse than ever.

What does this mean?  It means I need to get back on track with eating a primarily raw diet.  If that means keeping my blender bottle and Garden of Life RAW Meal mix in my locker at work again, so be it.  It worked well before, I am happy to do it again.  More importantly, I have a good blender now, so morning smoothies should be easier, but with hitting snooze more than I ever should, it's been harder and harder to get back on track.

Recently, since incorporated cooked, processed foods and wheat back into my diet.

As you can tell by the smoothie in my hand, this was when I was eating a primarily raw, vegan diet.