#slimfast

Generally, I’m feeling much weaker physically.

More irritable/shorter fuse, I’m getting agitated by the smallest things.

Very tired.

Very bad derealisation, more anxious so to be expected.

Loss of concentration.

is butter a carb?

So, Slim Fast is embedded in some of my earliest memories. It was the first commercial I ever made fun of when I was five or six years old. Dad and I were watching TV, and there was a commercial where the lady said she lost five pounds or whatever. I remember I like, stopped from my coloring, and mimicked her. It was one of the last times I made my dad laugh. 

(but also, ew. hot cocoa?)

4. 

There’s the shaker! 

My mom also bought into any diet fad back then and bought Slim Fast all the time and even let me have it for lunch alongside her during the Summers, because I too was fat. She made it in a little shaker container. I think she even won a bike at the Commissary for buying a 2 pack of slim fast during the peak of Slim-Fast-iness in the early 90s?! I just remember something about slim fast, a bike, the commissary, and dad giving it or selling it to one of the guys he worked with.  

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, baseball great Tommy Lasorda was the face of Slim Fast in advertising. My most favorite commercial he did was for the short-lived Slim Fast you mixed with juice instead of milk. So of course, the most unhealthiest one was my favorite back then. It was an orange-pineappe flavor.

I found this from a biography about Tommy, turns out he hated the stuff 2:

Another celebrity that advertised the stuff was Willard Scott -- who at the same time was doing ads for Carnival Cruise Lines where he was basking in the glory of the giant buffet. 1 Also, rest in pancakes to Willard Scott, he died recently. America’s Uncle Willard. 

In 1991, it was even offered in some restaurants: 

Southern California restaurants, hoping to lure dedicated dieters, are now featuring Ultra Slim-Fast on their menus. At Sunset Boulevard's trendy Le Petit Four, the diet drink tops the list of breakfast offerings. Selling at $3 a pop, the bistro gets 15 to 18 orders a week. Marie Callender's, a chain famous for its pies, is also serving Slim-Fast, but it's not a big mover. 5

 Around New Years of 1992, Slim Fast expanded big time (er) with food! 

Can we discuss the slim fast CARTON? 

I want to drink Slim Fast out of a carton so bad now. I wonder what was the difference between this and the can though. The can was out at the same time. Did they sit in convenience stores right next to the milk? 

OH speaking of Slim Fast at a convenience store!! I just remembered! A million years ago I saw a video on YouTube of these two bicyclists? who stopped at a convenience store out in the middle of nowhere for a snack. One of the guys got a slim fast shake in a can. He cracked it open and noticed it tasted terrible. It had been in the fridge in the store 3 years past its expiration. I searched high and low for the video, but it looks like it’s long gone.  I found it! They were on a road trip and one guy’s slim fast was fermented. It had only been expired for a year though. I totally mis remembered it. Me in 2008 watching YouTube at 3am.

I miss the Slim Fast in a can. It tasted so much better than the bottle ones they have now, which always, always taste like plastic. 

I found a review for the mac n cheese where food columnist Judy Fitzgibbons stated that the pasta had “no flavor” and a “medicinal aftertaste and odor”. 3

Those peanut butter crunch bars were delicious. 

Ooof that instant soup. It belongs in an office drawer. 

Here’s an example of a slim fast day. Don’t forget your slim fast salad dressing !

...and slim fast ice cream. 

The pretzels got a “poor” rating in a 1993 issue of Shape. They couldn’t even get pretzels right. 

In closing, here are some recipes, I think these are from 1990. Christina is Christina Ferrare who also did commercials for the product. 

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1. Staff, Newsweek. “Living Large.” Newsweek, August 21, 1994. https://www.newsweek.com/living-large-187732.

2. Plaschke, Bill, and Tommy Lasorda. I Live for This! Baseball’s Last True Believer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

3. Fitzgibbons, Judy. “On the Label.” Cedar Rapids Gazette, November 17, 1992.

4. Akers, Charlene. Obesity. Lucent Overview Series. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000.

On Monday July 19, 2021 I began a new journey called 75 Hard Challenge. It is supposed to challenge you mentally, emotionally, physically, and everything in between. 

What is the 75 Hard Challenge?  It is a challenge from Andy Frisella, it includes rules you must follow in order to progress on this journey. The rules are:

1. Two 45 minute workouts daily, one of which has to be outside and cannot be consecutive, so you have to have a break in between each 45 minutes.  2. Drink 1 gallon of water daily 3. Pick any diet and follow it 4. NO CHEAT MEALS 5. No alcohol 6. Read 10 pages of motivational book 7. Progress picture taken everyday And if you mess up on anything you have to start over from day one. No you don’t lose progress obviously, but it helps build accountability and that is part of the mental challenge and mental building that goes along with this challenge. 

Ok, so far I am on day 5/75, 70 more days to go. I have already lost 3 lbs, I will be doing an official weekly weigh in on Wednesdays and my measurements that same day, so I will stay updated on those. 

My ‘diet’ I chose to do was the SlimFast diet, along with Intermittent Fasting. Now what is intermittent fasting? It is something all people do in which it is the break between meals, most specifically it is long breaks between meals, such as the time between your last meal/snack of the day and the moment you eat again the next day. Some people it is 8 hours, some it is 12, others don’t even remember the last time they ate. Those are all examples of fasting, now what I am doing is an intentional fasting, my hours are 17:7 in which I spend 17 hours fasting (not eating) and 7 hours with an eating window. Now I don’t eat constantly during those hours, I spread my meals/snacks through out those 7 hours. You can choose whatever hours work for you. I will post another post about the benefits of fasting, as that is not the goal of this post. 

If you have any questions between now and then just send me a message, I am happy to help. I am also going to try my best to keep this updated for my own accountability as well as informing anybody that wishes to follow.