When I first signed up for this project, I was a little excited about it. I was going to not only be reviewing the book, but also following the diet for thirty days and giving away a copy of the book.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.
The hook of the Cinch! diet is, “Stop counting and start living.” with the promise of, “Lose up to 7 lbs in the first five days!”
During those first five days, you eat five different foods: almonds, eggs, raspberries, spinach and yogurt. You also only eat five meals: a
scramble, parfait, salad and a smoothie.
I like all of those foods and actually love spinach, eggs and yogurt. And these foods were my first challenge. Of the five, we only had one of them–the eggs. This meant a quick trip to the grocery store to stock up. What I hadn’t counted on was just how expensive the trip was going to be. I spent over $80 for five days worth of food for just me. Our normal grocery trips cost between $150 and $200 and everyone eats what we get.
Challenge number two was the fact I could only have one cup of coffee.
I know drinking a pot of coffee a day isn’t the healthiest thing a girl can do but I love my coffee. Really, really love my coffee.
At any rate, I had already bought the food and I could do a week. What’s a week, right?
I made it two days.
And we have a whole bunch of frozen raspberries left. Anyone have recipe ideas?
Pros and cons time.
Pros:
- Extremely specific and simple list of required items
- Food is very filling
- Tons of recipes
Cons:
- Ingredients are pretty expensive
- Food gets repetitive after the first day
- Very restrictive
- Not family friendly
- Expensive
- Exercise isn’t mentioned until the very end of the book.
The bottom line is this diet wasn’t for me. That doesn’t mean it’s not for you. You’re an adult. You can make up your own mind.
