Hollywood Cookie Diet--A 'Gimmick' that WORKS!

So I was doing okay with my weight, maintaining at least, and thinking I could improve on it, maybe even lose some pounds. I felt in control.

And then my doctor lowered my thyroid medication (thyroid issues are what made me gain the weight in the first place), and I gained two pounds.

Depressing.

I needed something to make me feel in charge again, not just get my weight back in control but hopefully lose some pounds, too.

I've heard, as you probably have too, the ads for the Hollywood Cookie Diet on the radio. At first, I have to admit it sounded very gimmicky to me. You've got the whole popular culture love for celebrities with the 'Hollywood' part, and then of course everyone loves cookies, so you can definitely see the appeal, but would a diet with cookies in it really work?

But I also admit that down under all that was the thought, "Hey, I love cookies. Wouldn't it be cool if it DID work?"
So, when I was given a chance to try a sampling of The Hollywood Cookie Diet, I jumped on it. I would get to eat cookies! And maybe have a laugh or two at my own gullibility for thinking I could lose weight doing so.

So I tried it.

And here's the thing: I tried this diet for 4 days, and I lost four pounds.

Yes, really.


The cookies, first of all, are good. They're about 150 calories each, and they will fill you up for a couple hours, and they have the nutrients you need to keep you from filling up on junk food. You have as many as four (though I would usually do three) cookies a day, and then have a "sensible dinner."

Well, that's the rub, isn't it? If you feel hungry or deprived, you won't usually opt for a sensible dinner. I've found that I've had trouble with that in the past, because I'll spend my mornings and afternoons trying not too overeat and to make healthy choices. I may even do okay with a sensible dinner that first day. But inevitably, the next day I'll go to pick up the kids, and I'll be hungry from trying to eat right, and they'll be hungry because they didn't eat much of the school lunch, and they'll want me to grab some fast food and I'll do that, rationalizing to myself that I've been eating well until then and...well, you see how that can sabotage the whole "sensible dinner" thing.

But with The Hollywood Cookie Diet, I would eat a cookie for breakfast, slowly, savoring it (because, hey, it's a chocolate chip cookie!) and then one at lunch, and then at 3:30, when I picked up the kids, I'd take a cookie with me. They're individually wrapped, and easily portable, and if the kids wanted some fast food, I'd be there with my cookie and I wouldn't be tempted.

And I could have a sensible dinner that evening with the Engineer.

And that's all there was to it.

I'm one of those people who really needs to work on my concept of diet, because in the back of my head I think of dieting as depriving myself in some way. And I think that's one of the reasons I responded so well--I didn't feel deprived because I was eating cookies!

Also, knowing that the cookies are about 150 calories each, I was easily able to track how many calories I was consuming. On a day when the Engineer was playing golf, I fixed something for the kids and then just had low-cal microwave meal myself for dinner.

The Hollywood Cookie Diet also worked well for another bad habit I have. I tend to want to eat comfort food when I am stressed. So, one day, I went ahead and had that fourth cookie when I was feeling stressed. I got my comfort food, and I didn't overeat.

You'll have to decide, of course, if you have issues similar to mine that will respond well to this program.

I ended up ordering more cookies because, as I say, it really did work for me. The samples I was sent were all chocolate chip cookies, but I really like oatmeal cookies, so I ordered a box of each so I could continue The Hollywood Cookie Diet. They also have lemon cookies. Each box contains 12 cookies, enough for 3 days if you are eating 4 cookies a day plus dinner, and a box of cookies is just 19.95, which for two meals a day plus snacks for three days is pretty good--that's about $1.67 a serving.

Ordering was another positive of this diet plan for me. First of all, you can just do it online--no phone call full of sales people, no pressure to buy more. You don't have to commit to months on a plan with The Hollywood Cookie Diet, either--you can order just a box of twelve cookies (three to four days' worth) if you want. If you DO order more boxes, you start getting a discount--buy three boxes of any type of cookies and you get one free.

I chose regular shipping, and ordered my cookies last Friday. The process was simple and professional, and the email notification said that I should receive my shipment after 2-5 business days. Right now, my package (I have a tracking number) says it will get here tomorrow, so that's a pretty good estimate. You can pay more if you want faster shipping, there are several options.

Viv's Take: As someone who has a slow metabolism, tends to overeat more than I should and exercise less than I should, The Hollywood Cookie Diet definitely gave me a plan I could live with, and stick to, so I highly recommend for anyone like me, who needs that extra jumpstart to lose weight! For more information, visit sunsethealth.net

I received one pack of 12 cookies to try out the diet and give my honest assessment. Since this review posted, Sunset Health asked my permission to post my testimonial on their website. I will not be compensated in any way for my testimonial.

Talking Up the Weight of Silence

Heather Gudenkauf's book, The Weight of Silence, is a difficult book to read.

First, the main storyline is every parent's nightmare. One sunny August morning, a small town awakens to find that two girls, best friends Calli and Petra, have gone missing in the night.

But the girls' disappearance, though chilling enough, is only the surface of an entire web of silence, deceit and old secrets that weave throughout the book, giving rise to more questions even as we solve the mystery of the two missing girls.

As you read The Weight of Silence and learn more about the girls--outgoing Petra, the joy of her over-protective parents, and best friend Calli, who hasn't spoken in over two years and still has "accidents" at the age of seven--you may find yourself, as I did, wanting to rail at the adults in the book, for even the most well-intentioned of them contribute to "the weight of silence" that overshadows Calli's world.

Antonia, Calli's mother, in particular, frustrated me to no end. As a mother, I found her behavior irresponsible and damaging, perhaps even more willfully so than that of Calli's father, Grif, who "likes his alcohol."

On the surface, Antonia seems like a devoted mother. Although she allows her children to roam the woods behind their home, Antonia has taught them all about nature and wildlife. She climbs trees along with them, takes them on picnics and shows them which berries are safe to eat.

But there is more to Antonia than meets the eye. In fact, Antonia's marriage, her past with the town's sheriff, the mystery behind Calli's refusal to talk--all of these secrets are linked to the disappearance of her own daughter that day in August.

And although, as a child, Antonia herself grew up in this same town, by these same woods, that once fearless daredevil of a girl is gone. The reckless tomboy who gave as good as she got has been replaced by a tired, secretive woman protecting the image of a happy family that hasn't existed in a long time. She has become resigned to a dysfunctional existence.

This, to me, is what is so exasperating--Antonia's complicit acceptance of her lot in life, not just for herself but for her children. We get the sense that Antonia feels that she has made her bed and so she must lie in it, that she knows she has made bad choices and yet is unwilling to take action to rectify that. As a Mom, I found her stubborn inability to walk away from her mistakes and make a better life for her children completely inexplicable.

The Weight of Silence delves into all the lives of a select group of very flawed people, trying to make the best of their lives, and it's that glimpse into the human psyche that makes the book at once so compelling and, for me as a mother, so difficult to read.

See a trailer for The Weight of Silence here.

Viv's take: A mesmerizing, perplexing and ultimately deeply thought-provoking detective's tale, Heather Gudenkauf's The Weight of Silence will keep you up at night turning the pages to discover the truth. This taut, well-written work is no light summer reading.

I wrote this book review as part of a Mothertalk blog tour for The Weight of Silence.

Hallmark Giveaway! Edge of Motherhood and Encouragement Cards for Kids

A recent national survey commissioned by Hallmark revealed two-thirds of moms say they handle the imperfect moments of motherhood by sharing funny stories with other moms about their experiences, and that 8 in 10 moms turn to each other for candid, empathetic, and unapologetic support and reassurance that “we are all in this together.”

That certainly rings true for me--just last week I was on Twitter sharing some special "motherhood" moments with other Moms and celebrating Hallmark's new card lines. One of them, the "Edge of Motherhood" line, is perfect for connecting with other Moms.

The card on the right from the "Edge of Motherhood" line is my favorite! Online, you can even personalize it with your friend's name. It says, "If you ever need to talk, you can call me." Inside it reads: "There'll be screaming in the background... I'll have to hide in a closet to hear you... It'll be awesome."

Isn't that perfect?! They start at just 99 cents, too! Yay, budget.

For kids, Hallmark’s new collection of encouragement cards for are designed to help parents provide an extra boost of confidence for kids as they experience “everyday” moments – whether it’s the first day of school, taking a test or trying out for a team.

My guys, as you know, already started school. They BOTH had tests yesterday, in fact, and the Owl was really sweating his, so I could see these encouragement cards coming in handy. Some of the cards include originally recorded sound clips too, which play when your kids open the card! These cards also start at 99 cents (the ones with sound retail for $2.99).

Both collections of cards are available at select Hallmark Gold Crown stores and other retailers where Hallmark cards are sold. And some styles of the “Edge of Motherhood” cards are available online (full collection is only in stores).

The fabulous folks at Hallmark have provided us with an AMAZING giveaway to celebrate the new launches--not one, not two, but THREE winners will receive 5 cards from EACH new collection, Edge of Motherhood and encouragement cards for kids! Woohoo!

Here's how to enter: Please leave a comment below with your opinion on the new cards for initial entry (required).

Additional entry methods (optional): Tweet about this giveaway and link to the tweet, blog about this giveaway and leave the link or start following me on Twitter! Really, guys, I want to get up to 1000 followers on Twitter, and that means I have almost 200 to go, so tell your friends! Leave a comment below for each additional entry method, and if you refer a follower to coolmomsrule on Twitter, I'll give you an entry for that as well!

So that's a total of 5 entry methods, and with three winners--well, you have a great chance at bringing home the prizes in this giveaway! Contest ends Friday, August 28, so get hopping (or Tweeting!).

Good luck!

Why I Won't Run BlogHer Ads on My Site Any More.

So, today I received a nice letter from the folks at BlogHer Ads. It reads, in part:

Hi Vivien,

I was reading your site today and read that you received some products from Earthbound Farm -- how awesome!
http://www.coolmomsrule.com/2009/08/healthy-lunches-not-just-for-kids-and.html

Unfortunately, even though this fits within our guidelines of being less than $40, writers should not write post a review if the review is sponsored by a company. We are trying to land many advertising deals right now and these types of posts have the ability to hurt our sales team's efforts.

There are a couple of options of how to fix this, you can have a review page on your site or a separate review site and in both cases you can write a one-sentence teaser with a link to the full article on your main page.

See, I told you it was nice. I especially like the part that even though the (about $6 worth of snacks I received) were less than their guidelines for bloggers, they don't like that the review was "sponsored" by the company.

Hey, you've read my reviews. When I don't like something, I say so. I don't write positive reviews of items unless they make the grade for me. Nobody bought my opinion on Earthbound Farm's snacks. I tried them (because how can I review something I haven't tried?) and I reviewed them. Simple as that.

You know how BlogHer Ads knows that I received the snacks? That's right, because I told them so, right there in the review. I'm an ethical blogger who discloses that information in her posts.

I especially like how, although they are making revenue from placing ads on my site, they want me to create another site and link to it rather than reviewing items on my site. It's inconvenient for them.

So, Viv, you might be saying, you're earning a lot of money from them, then, right? So they have a right to say stuff like that.

Well, let's see...this month, looks like I earned a whopping total of a little over 2 dollars and a quarter from BlogHer Ads. Only I didn't, really, because if your revenue is under $25, they hold it until it gets above that level. In fact, I can't remember the last time I got a check from BlogHer Ads.

In case you don't know it by now, I don't make a profit on this site. On Cool Moms Rule!, when I review something, whenever possible I give it away on the site. Obviously, I couldn't do that with the carrots and apples I ate (eww, gross) so I do see BlogHer Ad's point--that's almost $6 worth of stuff!

In the interest of full disclosure, sometimes items are too big for me to pay shipping for a giveaway on the blog. When I can't afford even to run a giveaway (though I have eaten the costs before and done that, too, because I like my readers to have giveaways), I'll donate that to CITA, which is a local charity, or to a shelter here where a friend of mine volunteers--the Owl will be volunteering there this year, too.

If I somehow end up ahead after all that (but I haven't yet), I also pay for my domain name now, and business cards, and the occasional blogging conference.

Last year, for example, I went to BlogHer, and I paid for that myself. No sponsorship, no strings attached. The year before, I volunteered to work at BlogHer, and that just paid for the conference sessions--again, I paid for my own airfare and hotel.

This year, I didn't go to BlogHer at all. Not only couldn't I afford it (I did put up a donation button on my blog--and then I took it down, because in this economy, I just didn't even feel right asking you guys to buy me a cup of coffee, let alone help me go to BlogHer), but I was getting soured on, ironically enough, the material side of BlogHer. All the swag, all the sponsors, all the entitlement that some of these women seem to feel, like they should be bought and paid for.

NOT all of them, of course. There are some wonderful, committed bloggers out there (and you know who you are!) who just write quality posts and reviews and love doing it (like me, I hope. I mean, I hope you think I write quality posts!). If you want to read more about what I mean, Mommybloggers said it better than I could (Jen is linked in my sidebar and wrote a great post on this very subject, the way mommy bloggers are getting a bad rap from new greedy bloggers just wanting "stuff").

So, anyway, getting back to the whole BlogHer Ads thing, you might be wondering why I went ahead with BlogHer Ads, if my blog might run afoul of their site policies--and the answer is, I never re-upped to BlogHer Ads after they changed their ad policies and became more radical. I bought my own domain name (remember, we used to be owned by blogspot), and never sent in new paperwork, and I honestly forgot to take the ads off of my site, because as I said, I can't remember the last time I got a check from them.

So, really, BlogHer Ads did me a favor when they wrote me, because they reminded me to take down their ads, and speak with my own voice, and to hell with the hypocrisy of their policies.

Oh, I didn't get into that, did I? The hypocrisy part. BlogHer asked me to be a reviewer a while back, and on THAT blog, I can accept money for posts all I want--provided it comes from BlogHer. And then, I link to that blog from this one, and they're happy because there's that "one sentence link" thing going on. For some reason, this is more ethical? I'm closing that BlogHer Reviewer blog up, believe me. I only ever wrote one post, for something I would have reviewed well anyway, because that's the only way I'll write, but even one post was probably too many.

So yeah, I'm happy to be done with BlogHer and their ads.

Snapily Back to School Coupon Codes!

Your kids want to stand out in the crowd. They're always looking for the hottest new trend out there.

And you want them to have the supplies they need for school, while still letting them express their personalities.

So why not let them personalize their own back-to-school products to make a truly fun and unique statement this school year?


From sharing a scrapbook of summer travels to decorating lockers with 3D “flip effect” photos and posters or creating one-of-a-kind notebooks featuring photos of best friends and family, Snapily has the best gear for that back-to-school cool.

How does Snapily make these "flip effect" photos, posters, and notebooks anyway?

In a nutshell, Snapily is the ONLY photo-technology company that has developed a new 3-D, flip animation using lenticular printing technology that literally allows you to bring your photos to life (flip-book style) on notebooks, scrapbooks, postcards, wallet-sized business card, or stationary.

Wow! Snapily sure is cool. Need even more proof?

Snapily is also offering discounts for Cool Moms Rule! readers:

SNBTS20OFF - 20% On all orders over $20 (only for Back to School products) SNGEN20OFF - 20% On all orders over $20 SNBTSFREENB - Free Small Notebook on orders over $25 (Back to School promo) SNGEN5OFF - 5$ off On all orders over $25 SNFREECARD - Free flat card, pay only for S & H.