Add crushed ice to improve the consistency and flavour (Slim Fast Summer Strawberry Milkshake Powder)

Member Name: HonestBob

Product:	Slim Fast Summer Strawberry Milkshake Powder
Date:	02/11/08 (165 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You do lose weight

Disadvantages: Too dull to continue for long

I've been fighting the flab for the past 30 years and have tried diet after diet. In my late teens I tried the Cambridge Diet, a liquid meal replacement system consisting of three very low calorie milkshakes per day in a variety of flavours (the vanilla and chocolate stick in my mind as being particularly unpleasant). I paid a fortune, stuck it for a week and felt nauseous the whole time.

Hence my scepticism when a friend suggested I give Slim Fast a try. Little HonestBob was four months old and I was faced with the prospect of stuffing my post-pregnancy body firstly into a low cost airline seat and then into a swimming costume as I planned to visit my parents in Cyprus six weeks later. The thought of my Mums comments (bless her, she means no harm) on my widened girth meant resistance was futile and I headed down the supermarket aisle to the pharmaceutical shelf housing various slimming aids, including Slim Fast in various flavours in both powdered and ready made varieties.

Luckily for me the supermarket had a 3 for 2 offer on and a bought tins of powdered slim fast in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavour. I also bought 6 pints of skimmed milk rather than my preferred semi-skimmed milk and headed for the till to pay (currently selling at £4.68 per 438g tin online at Asda.com).

D(iet) day started the following morning and I duly followed the instructions for making my 'delicious, frothy' shake.

Yuk!

I made the mixture up in a pint glass and mixed with a spoon. This clearly was not the way to acheive a 'delicious, frothy' shake and I was left with a lumpy mixture which I rapidly bolted to avoid the taste.

The secret to success with Slim Fast is to drink plenty of water between doses (did I say doses, I meant shakes of course!) as each meal replacement is full of fibre which soaks up the water to make you feel fuller for longer. I duly drank 2 litres of water and felt bloated all morning.

I made up my lunchtime shake at the same time as my breakfast portion and put the lunchtime shake into a sealed beaker to take with me.

Yuk! Yuk!

The beaker did not insulate the shake so it had warmed by lunchtime and whilst the fridge-cold morning version had been bareable the lunchtime shake was foul.

D(iet) Day 2:

Now educated that temperature has a decided affect on the palatability of the strawberry Slim Fast shake, and knowing that I like my McDonald's shakes brain-freeze cold, I decided to add crushed ice into the mix. I blended the powder, milk and some ice-cubes together with my hand blender (had to cover a large glass bowl with a tea towel to contain the mixture!) and produced a thicker, colder shake.

Yum!

OK, not McDonalds 'yum' but a ton better than the previous days offerings.

I poured my lunchtime serving into an insulated flask and although not straight-from-freezer cold, it was about as palatable as the breakfast portion from Day 1.

I continued with this process for the next six weeks until my holiday. Alternating between Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate flavours, having at least one shake per day (I graduated to slim fast soups after the second week) with a low calorie evening meal (the dieters favourite, chicken salad, most nights) and headed for Cyprus 18lb lighter and with 1.5 dress sizes less girth (yes, the 0.5 was annoying).

Did I carry on with Slim Fast after my holiday?

Did I heck!

Slim Fast is a short term solution for quick gain (loss!) goals. I do know that some people lose a lot of weight using meal replacements and some even keep it off when they return to 'normal' eating, but for me it just got too dull and too expensive.

Will I use it again?

Well, there are four tins in my cupboard and two soup sachets so yes, after Christmas I will be swapping to Skimmed milk again and dusting off the hand blender. I've regained most of the 18lbs I lost last year (I wonder how, Mr Cadbury's??!!) so I ought to make another concerted (but sure to be short-lived) effort prior to the summer months.

One additional thing I will be doing this time is using the manufacturers website www.slimfast.co.uk . This is a resource which supplies weekly diet plans, handy tips, product information and general motivation. All good stuff for those, like me, not good at 'going it alone'.


Ingredient, vitamin & mineral and nutritional information below is taken from the website www.slimfast.co.uk


Ingredients:
Skimmed Milk Powder, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Vegetable Oil,
Inulin, Lactose, Thickeners(Gum Arabic, Xantham Gum, Guar
Gum), Bulking Agent (Cellulose), Milk Proteins, Stabilisers
(Sodium Carboxy Methyl Cellulose, Dipotassium Phosphate),
Strawberry Powder (0.7%), Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin),
Vitamins and Minerals*, Flavourings, Colour (Beetroot Red),
Antioxidants (Tocopherol-rich Extract, Sodium Ascorbate).


Vitamins and Minerals:
Vitamin C, Magnesium Oxide, Vitamin E, Ferrous Sulphate,
Niacin, Zinc Oxide, Copper Gluconate, Pantothenic Acid,
Vitamin B6, Vitamin A, Manganese Sulphate, Thiamin,
Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Biotin, Potassium Iodide, Sodium
Selenite, Vitamin D.
May contain traces of Gluten, Egg and Celery.

Nutritional information per portion:
Energy kJ 921
Energy kcal 217
Protein 13.8g
Carbohydrate 34.3g
Carbohydrate of which Sugars 29.8g
Fat 2.6g
Fat of which Saturates 0.4g
Fibre Dietary 4.1g
Sodium 0.25g

Summary: Good to help you lose weight fast whilst getting the right vitamins and minerals.