Experiments in Sensa
Note from Di:
As most of you know, I typically avoid diet posts, focusing instead on exercise/general health information or just adding delicious bookmarks and letting you decide for yourselves what you need to know. I also do not and will not allow diet advertisers on any part of Fat Chic – if you see any, let me know, because I need to clean that up. So why am I doing a guest post series on a diet product? Because Ruthless Bunny is a personal friend whom I have known for nearly a decade, and her personal struggles are a very real reflection of what many a Fat Chic reader – and I – go through. While I am opting for the HAES system, I respect Ruth’s choices and her willingness to experiment to find what works for her. I believe she has something to offer in terms of why she makes her decisions and the products she uses to assist her towards what she wants.
Sensa is a non-FDA approved diet aid that you sprinkle on your food. There is no information available at this time as to what it is made from.
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From Ruthless_Bunny:
My Sensa came in the mail on Saturday and I opened the small box and inspected the contents. Two shakers, one for home, one for my purse, a booklet and a CD.
I read the booklet and popped in the CD. What’s weird about Sensa is that there’s no big mystery, so the booklet and the CD are pretty short. Basically sprinkle the stuff on your food and you’ll eat less. That’s it.
What I like about is that I don’t have to do any weird dietary stuff. As a person with a compulsive eating disorder (for which I have been in treatment for two-years) anything that focuses on food is a bad thing.
I have done every diet out there, probably twice. If any of them worked, I’d be at my optimal weight (notice I didn’t say thin, I don’t think I have the genetic makeup to be thin.) I have a combination of learned behavior, chemical imbalance and just plain addiction that I cannot control on my own.
The best thing that ever worked for me was Phen-fen. What I liked was that I completely forgot about food. I’d eat my meals, but have absolutely NO fixations on food at all. I remember I bought some ice cream and had it in the freezer and I didn’t eat it for days. Just didn’t want it and it didn’t bother me to leave it alone. But some people had problems and the government took it off the market. I gained back 70 pounds. That’s a lot of weight.
I have done a LOT of work on my compulsions, my emotional eating, food triggers and all the things that conspire to keep me fat.
My goal here is to slowly lose weight and control my desire to eat, even after I’ve stopped being hungry. I want to appreciate and honor food, I don’t think driving thru and scarfing it out of a paper bag in the car does that.
I gave up sugar for Lent mostly because it coincided with starting my job and they don’t know how much candy, cake, cookies and crap I can eat. I’m pretty certain that just foregoing sugary crap will aid tremendously. I have to say though that stopping sugar is a real withdrawal. Just like smoking or heroin. I had headaches, fantasies and dreams where I’d be eating huge slabs of chocolate cake. I’ve also stopped eating ANYTHING sweet, no sugar-free stuff, because it just triggers the triggers, so to speak.
What I’ve noticed with the Sensa is that it does intensify the flavor of food. Or I’m completely suggestible. I also I do notice that I stop sooner and eat less. I’m making better choices. More fruit and veggies, less fast food.
The Sensa folks don’t suggest a diet or an exercise regime, what I like about that is that they give me credit for having good common sense. I am sure that no one is fat due to ignorance of what makes them fat. We are fat because of internal and external issues and if we want to lose weight we have to address all the different issues.
With the Sensa I am addressing the satiety issues. That’s it. I have no more illusions than that.
I will say that I heartily recommend Paul McKenna’s book, I Can Make You Thin
He’s a British hypnotherapist and he goes through some exercises in the book that have helped me give up sugar, stop craving chocolate and give me a method for stopping fixating on food as a soother for stress. You can get it on Amazon and it comes with a guided meditation disc.
I’m looking for tools, not for a miracle cure. I believe that Sensa is a tool.
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You mentioned in your intro: “There is no information available at this time as to what it is made from.”
I was sent a box for review. I decided not to review it because I thought it was ridiculous by the ingredients alone.
Ingredient listings on back: Maltodextrin, Tricalcium Phosphate, Silica, Natural and Artificial flavors, FD&C Yellow 5, Carmine. Contains soy and milk ingredients.
So basically sweet sugar additives, bone ash and silicone.
I have to ask; have you started eating sugar again? Right now I would say it’s hard to tell where any effects are coming from; sensa or the removal of sugar from your diet. same question goes for the flavor changes….
There is a great article at a blog that talks about the way Sensa has been reviewed and about how the stuff has had such hype.
http://sensasolution.com/critics-of-sensa-need-to-try-the-product-first/
Hi everyone! I appreciate your comments. I’d love to address a few of them:
1. I know that the ingredients seem weird, but they are harmless. In the past I’ve used speed and Phen-fen, so safe and harmless are better than other things I’ve done. Homeopathic medicine is based on some strange hypothoses as well, it works for some, not for others. I’m skeptical and open minded. I’ll give it a try to see if it’s helpful or not.
2. I am not eating sugar again. I’m very excited about that actually! It’s a very tenuous thing, not eating sugar and SO hard! I miss my little binges and treats. Somehow though, I manage to live.
3. I’ve seen the Sensa blog and I agree with that particular entry. It’s one thing to have tried the product and to have a negative opinion, it is another to reject it without basis. I’d love to see peer reviewed scientific studies of Sensa. That would be Sweeet!
Bunny