It's pink. Must be for girls only...

by Glen A.

Starting in January of last year, I chronicled for 21 weeks my weight loss journey using the Smart for Life system. You can read the last post here.

Over the course of that time, I lost 47 lbs. from 241 to 194.

Then, as supplies of Smart for Life were running out, I decided it was time to shift to normal food, and see if I could keep the weight off.

Well, in the eight months since my last post, I’ve managed to regain almost 24 of that 47, so I’ve decided it’s time for a new tactic.

I contemplated restarting the Smart for Life regimen again, and actually bought it when it went on sale towards the end of last year, but I couldn’t get back into again. The prospect of having to eat cookies and drink shakes for the rest of my life (even though the Costco box now included more soups and some muffins, too) just wasn’t that appealing. It would seem to be much easier if I could figure out away to keep the weight off using normal food.

Obviously, though, doing this on my own had not been very successful, and I’d all but shelved the idea, and had been eating what I wanted when I wanted. I wouldn’t necessarily say I was binging, but I went from basically counting everything I ate to not really caring. The reason for that was, regardless of what I ate–even if I kept my caloric take down, I didn’t seem to be losing the weight like I was. And why deny myself when I really felt hungry the entire time.

My water drinking slowed down to previous levels, too, which didn’t help the hunger or the weight loss.

So, really not wanting to get too fanatical about this, but deciding I needed to curb the upward trend, doing something about it had been something on my mind for quite a few weeks.

Then, a friend mentioned his wife was starting a PGX regimen, and then had her send me information about it. It peaked my interest immediately for what it is and what it isn’t.

What it is isn’t is a dietary plan, as much as it is blood sugar balancer and fiber. It’s made out of all natural ingredients, which includes a blend of plant fibers. In the granule variety, the granules expand when introduced to moisture, like water, and so while the blend is rebalancing blood sugar levels, the fiber is helping to clean out the system and both help to curb hunger.

Or, at least that’s the claim.

The friend hadn’t tried the granules yet, but was working with gel capsules. She’s since ordered shakes and the granules.

She reported a two-three pound weight loss within about a week’s time, something that apparently is akin to a miracle for her. She said that using the proper doses of the capsules just plain didn’t make her hungry, so her caloric intake had decreased.

So, on Saturday, while we were out and about, I decided to stop at a health food store and buy the granules. At $19.99, for 150 grams of the stuff, it seemed to be the cheapest entry to see whether or not it would work or not. The container, along with the granules, comes with a 5 gram scoop and foldout information wrapped in plastic.

The idea with the granules is to either take it with water or in juice before you eat, or sprinkle it on the food you are eating. This presupposes that what you are eating is moist, like yogurt, cereal, soup, etc. The information that comes with it says the granules are tasteless and dissolve in the food, but so far, this being my third day, the only thing I can really attest to is, they are tasteless.

So far, after several meals, the granules have yet to dissolve, and rather than mix, they tend to clump. Putting it in water makes those tiny granules expand very quickly, and while there is no taste, there’s definitely texture. It’s not so unpleasant that I’ve gagged, but it’s definitely something I’m not used to doing.

Now, I’m not sure what to think about things just yet, but so far, with just three days (I started Monday, January 25), I’ve already seen some results. Whether or not this can be solely attributed to the PGX, I don’t know, but preliminary results are pretty good.

When I started this current foray on Monday morning, I weighed 217.8. Tuesday morning when I climbed onto the scales, I was down to 217.0, and when I did the same this morning, I was down to 216.0.

I can tell you what I’ve eaten so far, and how much of the PGX I’ve used in the process.

The instructions warn not to start out with the full recommended dose of 5 grams of granules per meal until after the body has adjusted. That supposedly happens between 3-7 days. So, I’ve been having the dose, using 2.5 grams at a time. Or at least, on Monday, I used 2.5 grams for my cereal and 2.5 grams for my yogurt. The cereal was eaten at around 8 am and the yogurt was eaten at 10 or so. I’ve determined to spread out portions again, so I’m not eating everything all at once.

I can’t say my hunger was entirely curbed in the morning, but after having a roasted turkey on white bread with lettuce (no mayonnaise or anything else), I was actually feeling pretty good throughout the afternoon. I did go ahead and pick out some granola around 3 pm, and then didn’t have anything until after 5 pm, when Angela served chicken in a delicious cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and salad. I had one piece of chicken (a thigh), a couple large spoonfuls of the potatoes, with half the plate more or less salad, with no dressing.

That kept me full the rest of the night.

Tall drink of water on the left, 5 gram scoop on the right, and a pineapple for background

In between, there was plenty of drinking water. The instructions warn that if you’re not drinking up to 8 glasses during this PGX use, that you can bloat and the PGX won’t do what it’s meant to do. So, I think I exceeded the amount of water, though I don’t have a hard measure. A glass generally equates to 8 ozs., and the serving suggests anywhere from 10-12 ozs. when using the granules.

On Tuesday, I had a different kind of cereal, another yogurt, and I sprinkled the PGX on both of those. I had another turkey sandwich with lettuce, and then had the same meal for dinner. I added some PGX while eating that. I actually ended up with another spoonful of mashed potatoes this time, and  a little more chicken. Oh, and I did have a chocolate chip cookie between lunch and dinner. Plus all the water.

This morning, there was cereal and yogurt with the PGX, still at 2.5 grams each time, and then I drank some water with it just prior to eating out at Applebee’s. I got the Paradise Chicken Salad, which has a rather tangy combination of pineapple, mandarin oranges, and apple with pico de gallo and the greens. Sliced grilled chicken went on top of that. A vinaigrette came in a container on the side, but I didn’t put that on.

It happens to be part of Applebee’s weight watcher menu (which isn’t why I got it, since I’m not on weight watchers, but it looked good at the time) and has 6 points associated with it. The price was $9.49.

I think I could have done without the pico de gallo (which didn’t really taste like pico de gallo I’ve had), but other than that, it was tasty. It’s salad, after all.

I ate a little over half the salad for lunch, and then after 3 pm ate the rest of the salad. I’m entirely sure, but we’re supposed to be having french toast with ham and such for dinner, which I plan to have some of.

Now, Natural Factors does have it’s menu suggestions, but I’m trying to stick to more or less what the rest of the family is eating for dinner meals, and then whatever might be in the house for the others.

With the water intake, of course, I’ve been heading to the bathroom a lot again. Bowel movements have been similar to normal, but one of the side effects in this some gas, and I have felt a built up of that, though not to an alarming extent. At least not what the clerk at the health food store seemed to be warning me about, but it could be much more tragic for women than it is for men. I’ll leave that discussion for another day.

So, 1.8 pounds in two days. I think only time will tell whether this will really work or not, and I’m not sure if I like the granules solution. I’m not fond of popping any kinds of pills, which is another reason why I shied away from the gel capsules, but the shakes have me intrigued. It’s just that those need to be prepared, and they replace food, which is kind of what I was hoping to avoid.

With 150 grams, I should be able to use it for at least 30 meals at full strength before needing another container. That would be approximately 10 days worth. At $20 a pop, that would mean $60 a month. At the discounted rate of 199.99 on the Smart for Life system, I had 42 days worth of food, so that would rough out to just over $80 with the Natural Factors SlimStyles PGX granules.

Angela is wanting to try it, too, so maybe the both of us will have something to report.