THE SKINNY Diary

Day before: Found Slim-Fast website and had quick look around. Easy to navigate w/ loads of info. Spent a couple hours reading backgrounders, picking up tips and figuring out my meal and exercise plan. Diet certainly takes guess work out of food; meal plans specify every calorie I will consume and come w/ recipes and grocery shopping tips. Found Slim-Fast products at local grocery. Little disappointed in selection; only meal bar choice was oatmeal raisin — where’s the chocolate chip? A bit pricey, too: $55 for 6 shakes, 6 meal replacement bars and 6 snack bars. While unpacking groceries, had this thought: How fast does one slim on Slim-Fast diet? Day of: Grabbed a meal bar for breakfast on way out door. Definitely convenient, almost tasty. Will remember to also grab bottle of water next time to wash down meal bar pastiness. Single orange for mida. nosh not enough to satisfy hunger. Had another small orange an hour later. Took sister’s sound advice to drink vanilla meal shake v. cold and out of a glass instead of the can to get rid of tin-can taste. Leafy greens topped w/ tomato and balsamic vinaigrette fulfilled craving for crunch after two meal replacements. Slim-Fast caramel snack bar sweeter than candy bar. Certainly helps w/ p.m. sugar craving, but did I need this much sugar? “Sensible meal” also quite yummy. Didn’t have time to concoct the Scaloppini Limone; ate chicken breast plain. Forgot about late-night snack of Raisin Bran cereal. Instead, had small glass of milk before bed. Megan Ogilvie is a Toronto freelance writer with a BSc in environmental science and an MSc from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.