Sensa Day 1: An attitude and an experiment

I admit I went into this Sensa trial with a preconceived attitude that it would not work; I was not going to cut it ANY slack at all.

And I was aggravated that it took ten days for this stuff to get here from HSN.

What was in the $60 Month 1 box: Two Sensa dual-sided shakers, one side containing the “tastant” to be sprinkled on sweet foods, the other to be sprinkled on salty foods; an instructional DVD which I did not watch; a photo-heavy instructional pamphlet written, insultingly, at an approximately 6th grade level.

First trial: Breakfast

Immediately confused as to whether plain oatmeal would be considered a “sweet” or “salty” food, I consulted the instructional pamphlet which told me oatmeal was a “marginal” food and I could use either tastant. I chose sweet and sprinkled it in an amount consistent with the photo instructions. I could smell it at first and tasted it (not unpleasant) for the first couple of bites, but then didn’t notice it at all.

Honestly? I got full about halfway through my too-large bowl of oatmeal but finished it anyway – because I have this irrational fear of getting hungry later while I’m at work and not being able to do anything about it – and then I was uncomfortably full. And bloated. And burping. And then I got a headache.

What I also realized: I was not that hungry to start with and the pants I was wearing may have been just a smidge tight around the waist. Still, I started to think maybe this stuff actually DOES work and felt cautiously hopeful. Especially since I did not feel my usual hunger around 11:00 am and skipped the banana I normally have at that time.

Second trial: Lunch

I sprinkled the “salty” tastant over the top of my tuna sandwich (you want to put it on top, rather than inside the sandwich, because you have to be able to smell it) and, about a half hour after that, sprinkled the “sweet” tastant over a bowl of strawberries. The degree of fullness I felt while eating, and after, was no different than how I felt on any other day eating this same lunch.

Additionally, my friend, who was excited to participate in my study, used the “salty” on her salad and seemed surprised to report she “didn’t notice any difference at all”.

My earlier optimism started to wane.

Third trial: The dinner experiment

I decided I would sprinkle the Sensa on Mr. Jelly Belly’s dinner and not tell him. Then I would watch him closely to see if it seemed he stopped eating sooner than normal. I thought this would be an accurate measure of whether Sensa somehow worked on its own or had a “placebo effect”. (Please do not ever tell him I did this. If you do, he will question every single food item I hand him for the rest of his life and I’m not in the mood.)

We had turkey and mashed potatoes. I had roasted asparagus with that and he had peas. I sprinkled the Sensa over both meals. It was a small miracle that he didn’t notice it. We ate our dinner. He went back for seconds and then picked at a little more. Then he had a snack. Then an odd thing happened. I developed a HUGE craving for something salty. This is odd because I almost never snack at night. And, if I do, it’s usually a bowl of sugar-free Jell-o or pudding and that’s it.

So I found this bag of Pringle’s Sweet Potato Chips that looked like they would do the trick. Only 150 calories for 28 chips. Turns out they weren’t salty, though. Coated with sugar and cinnamon (3 grams of sugar per serving) - and they were delicious, by the way.



And then I ate THE WHOLE BAG. I would like to repeat that I never do this kind of thing, so I found this very strange. And I sat around the rest of the night like a slug. Mr. Jelly Belly fell asleep watching TV. Must have been all that turkey.

First day overall opinion: They’re kidding, right? I put out $60 for a weight loss product designed to make me eat less and, instead, actually ate MORE than I normally do? Well now, this doesn’t seem quite right, does it?

Oh, one more thing - the following day I forgot to take it with me to work and had the EXACT SAME experience with my oatmeal as I had when I used it. Minus the burping and the headache.

I am going to continue to use it over the weekend to see if anything earth shattering happens but my feeling is that this stuff is going back on Monday. I can buy a lot of vegetables for that $60!