The Happy, The Painful and the Tasty...

Let’s begin with various updates…those of you who are lucky enough to be Facebook friends know that I got my free food yesterday! And I’m so excited. I’ll spend the next 4 weekdays probably telling you guys about what I’m eating and letting you know how it is. Yes, some of you will find it boring, but you know – with all the diet food out there, and there is a lot…hopefully it will be informative and dare I say, helpful?!!


In non-food related news, my knee hurts like a motherf@*^er. Yeah, bad. Anyway I have a doctors appointment for tomorrow. YAY for starting off my weekend with Kaiser (sarcasm).

In GOOD non food related news, a huge huge HUGE non-scale victory. I came across one of my favorite dresses ever. I haven’t fit into it for about 5 years, and even before that I never wore it without a body shaper. Friends, it is too big for me. Now in case you didn’t see that exactly how I did – I have lost at least FIVE YEARS worth of weight. I used to weigh myself maybe once a year as my own scale gathered dust in the garage, but I know that I put this weight on slowly and steadily, whereas I seem to be taking it off much more quickly than expected. It’s just a huge thing to know that I have undone all of the extra strain on my body that I piled on since 2005. What an amazing feeling…

On that fabulous note, let’s go on to my food for today. And can I just mention that the food all has really cute names? Or maybe I’m just really cheesy…I think anyone who has seen my new beloved headband can tell that with me the cutesier the better.

This morning I had a Vanilla In Vogue shake.  They say to mix with 12-16 ounces of milk or water – I wanted a real shake feel so I did 10 ounces of milk and then about 4 ounces of ice in the blender. I thought it was good. It doesn’t taste like a regular ice cream shake, definitely. It’s more like chocolate milk except with a vanilla flavor. But if you’re like me and have for convenience ever had Slim-Fast or Carnation Instant Breakfast let me assure you, this doesn’t have the same chemically gritty attributes that those have. It was yummy, and I would definitely choose it again if after this week I stick with this plan.

I also had a Double Chocolate Catwalk bar.  I knew from the size of the package that I wouldn’t be able to eat it all at once. I cut it up into 12 bite size chunks both for my own benefit and since I am so, so picky about food I wanted to hear what other people had to say. It’s like a Tootsie Roll to me both in texture and flavor. Take that how you will – personally I love Tootsie Rolls so I’m very happy with it. My coworkers had mixed reviews on it, everything from "just like candy" to "chewy" to "edible" which I considered to be the most critical review, but even she said she'd definitely eat it again.

What a delicious first day!  Not knowing the rest of your eating habits, be warned that these may be big meals. Not calorie wise – the shake was 200 calories (307 with the milk), the bar is 270.  I've eaten about half the bar and I haven’t been hungry enough to eat ANY of my fruits or vegetables yet.  Of course, if these are meal replacements based on 3 meals a day then it makes sense.  I'm at 6-8 meals a day, so each of them would make up at least two of my smaller meals.  Everyone who tasted the bar agreed that it was extremely filling, not like most bars that feel more like snacks.
I should add that we are SPOILED at work. We get protein or diet bars, shakes and supplements in a ton of flavors all the time for free, so we can afford to be extremely discerning. I am extremely flattered that I was chosen to review food (I know, a lot of bloggers get sent things to review but this is my first time and I am enjoying feeling important!) and I’m hoping if the rest of it is this good, to be able to get you guys some kind of giveaway so a couple of you can try it too!!