[CountingDown]

I'm in agreement with Aphil and others on this topic. While diets (like the cookie diet) can help you get started, it is important to transition to changes that you can maintain for the rest of your life. Any eating plan that doesn't have real foods - particularly vegetables (and lots of them) probably won't be satisfying in the long run.

CAN you stick to the cookie diet and lose weight?
Probably.

Will you ENJOY it and feel SATISFIED and healthy along the way?
Maybe.

Will you LEARN what you need to MAINTAIN that loss?
Probably not. At least - not without coming here and reading what everyone else is doing that is successfully maintaining their loss.

Weight loss is a journey. Can you begin the journey with a "diet"? Yes. But, virtually everyone here that is successful has learned to change their eating in a way that they can sustain over a lifetime.

That being said, most of our successful chickies have tweaked their plan along the way. They tried things that worked, and some that didn't. They kept modifying until they found what worked for them.

You can too! If the Cookie Diet stops working for you, or you are struggling to keep doing it, give something else a try.

WW calorie counting, SB, Beck, and Atkins seem to have forums with very successful losers and maintainers. There are probably others that I haven't visited as well. The plans that emphasize lifestyle changes are the plans that produce the best LONGTERM results.

[plaidkitty]

Thank you aphil. I completely agree about health and lifestyle changes being more important than instant weight loss. I've yoyoed more than I can count on fad diets! I only recently started eating right and finding little ways to exercise throughout the day, and it feels like finally I can keep this up on a daily basis. It's not a finish line, folks! It's your whole life.

[JulieJ08]

Originally Posted by plaidkitty

It's not a finish line, folks! It's your whole life.

Nice! Perfectly said

[plaidkitty]

Thanks

In fact, I have been thinking about this all day. The thing that has lost me the most *consistent* weight (not the most weight at a time, but the most steady weight loss over a long period of time, which gives me hope for the future) was once I started eating right and exercising in small ways. I really, really can't recommend it enough.

I have a desk job for 8 hrs a day, and I used to use it as an excuse not to exercize, but now I use my chair as gym equipment. I do leg lifts under my desk while holding onto the arm rests. I scrunch my gluteous maximus (or whatever you want to call it) for a full minute at a time. Or I just suck in my stomach as hard as I can for five minutes. I take a five minute break and walk briskly around my building twice. It's not like going to the gym and it won't get you sweaty or out of breath, but it will eat away at those calories steadily throughout the day and there's no reason you can't do them while you're sitting there anyway. Other people won't notice you doing them. All excuses are gone.

The other half is eating right-- I literally gave away all my fatening food (I have a hungry teenage nephew) and wanted to start on a clean slate. I don't know much about nutrition and balance so I hired a woman to come in and have a session with me, and plan out a dozen meals that fit all my requirements. That was the HUGE thing. I never realized how many calories a day you acually need, in order to get your vitamins! You don't have any to spare when it comes to useless things like dessert! It opened my eyes once I started realizing how many calories were necessary for nutrients and how I couldn't waste any on bread, etc. It's one thing to know foods are "bad" for you and another to realize they are simply impossible. Please, please, do yourself a favor and get a nutritionist who knows how to plan meals. You can sit down and write out a menu- it's so good to have a plan you can trust and stick with. There are a bunch of personal chefs that specialize in healthy foods and weight loss-- just do a search. I found my lovely lady at this catering site, which might be a good place to start. Get someone near you who is cheap and can work with you for what *you* want.

Just do me a favor and start making small changes today. Fad diets are exciting and they get weight off fast, but you can't trust them for the long term. Do you really want to be eating the same cookies instead of meals your whole life? I know I can't stick with something like that.

Okay. I have rambled enough! I wasn't kidding, I really was thinking about this all day. Good luck, everyone. I'm off to do more butt scrunches

[Amarantha2]

I like the word "diet" because it defines for me that I have a plan. My plan has always been the same, eating the correct number of calories, exercising and becoming physically fit and over time improving my mental attitude and the quality of the nutrients I eat and for the most part this has worked for me.

But I don't think there's anything wrong with someone experimenting with the cookie diet or whatever diet. That's just a word. Weight Watchers is a diet, calorie counting is a diet, my beloved Sugar Busters (which I don't "do" anymore but the principles form what I understand to be heathy low glycemic eating) is a diet.

As has been said, if that works for you in jumpstarting you into healthier options, then that's great. The concern I'd have, if it were me, about the Cookie Diet is that yes the bars are basically protein bars but for me, I'd just be training myself to eat something that resembles a cookie all day instead of expanding my food horizons as I continually work to do, with variable success.

I think "diets" are interesting. I've seen so many that are strange to me ... like one where pretty much all you eat is nuts ... but at the end of the day, we're in charge of what we put in our bodies, for better or worse.

Musing about diets that provide structure, I think South Beach is a very healthy plan that does have a definite structure.

But whether you eat cookies, or call it a lifestyle change and not a diet or whatever you do, best of luck.

[zay]

It sounds alot like Medifast, but with less options. Medifast offers bars, shakes, puddings, soups, hot drinks, cold drinks plus a healthy meal...ending up around 800-1000 calories and great weight loss if you can stick with it. It is also loaded with vitamins. These plans work for some people and can be very helpful with getting you in the weight loss mode. Best wishes to you. Only you know if you need that structure and that type of rigid plan to get going.

[MEGAn]

Day six of smart for life for me, and I feel great and 5.5 pounds lighter

[cj1083]

I'm on day four of the SmartForLife Cookie Diet. I've lost 4 pounds, but I have to choke the cookies down. I think they're horrible. Any one doing this have any tricks they can share to make it not quite so......blah?