Weigh-In Wednesday

Need to lose that tiny handful of weight gained over the holidays? Just get sick for a few days! No, really, don’t get sick, but it did help. I was really not hungry, and forced myself to eat for about three days. As a result, I was very particular about what I ate- no garbage. Mostly it was grapefruit or oranges and chicken soup or oatmeal. I drank plenty of water and herbal teas with honey- it really was a little cleansing actually. And as a result, I have lost the 4 pounds I gained over the last few months. It may not be the ideal method, but hey, it worked for me this time, and now I can focus on moving forward.

So Monday I promised a rant. Last week after I posted I decided to try and find out more about the Mediterranean Diet. One of the sites my searches led me to was E-Diets. Of course, you can’t access much information there without signing up and paying a fee. But I searched around what I could and found out little bits here and there. Then in the bottom corner of the screen I saw a promo ad for trying out E-Diets for just $4.99 for 10 days ( or something very similar, I don’t remember exactly). And I turned that around in my head and thought that for $4.99 I could find out anything I wanted to know about the Mediterranean Diet, and really, any other diet supported through E-Diets. That was a good deal to me, since I’d already paid about eight dollars for a South Beach book, and was hesitating about buying any more. So I proceeded to go through the sign up process. I indicated that I was interested in the New Mediterranean Diet, but I was free to change my preferences at any time. I filled in my information, filled in my credit card info, and got to the bottom of the form.

You know that disclaimer box that you see on a lot of online applications or downloads? The one that you usually just check the box and move on. I checked the box, went to click on the “submit” button at the bottom of the page, and something made me pause. I decided that I needed to check that disclaimer box and see what it contained. And sure enough, not far from the bottom there is a bit about by checking this box, you authorize E-Diets to charge $53.99 to your account, to be automatically renewed in 3 months time. Hey. Where did my $4.99 go? There were no options for a shorter time period, and I thought that was rather dishonest of them to lure me in with an ad. And of course, when you divide it out, it is indeed $4.50 per week- but for 12 weeks. My husband is unemployed right now, I need to be careful about where my dollar goes, so I clicked the back button, received an error, and left the site. Later that day I received an E-Diet e-mail and thought nothing of it. Until I was checking on my credit card account online. I wanted to be sure they received a recent payment, and sure enough, there under recent activity was a deduction for $53.99 from E-Diets. Darn e-diets. And stupid me. I had filled the whole form out AND checked the accept box. So I am the proud owner of an E-Diet account.

In defense of E-Diets, I have spent plenty of time perusing their site since, and they do have plenty of support and information online. If you are a dieter, and need help, I think it is an excellent way to go. You can get a customized meal plan, and they offer you goals, weekly weigh-ins, and you can change your options at any time. And I will also say that I would jump on the Mediterranean Diet bandwagon for at least a trial run if Andy was working. But since he still isn’t (and it’s been about a month now) I need to be frugal, and following a diet plan with specific needs is not budget friendly to my family. But I have the account for three months, so before that time is up, I have every intention of giving the Mediterranean Diet a fair shake. In the meantime though, I’m simply using it as a place to input my daily calorie intake- which anyone can do for free at the site Fitday. Which I highly recommend for anyone who wants to keep track of what they eat.