I almost dropped this class when I saw the TED talk assignment.

When thinking of things I’m passionate about, I realized, I’m not. I do not like to become overly opinionated about something I don’t have all the information about, I’m not an over-the-top sports fanatic for any one team, and I don’t want to be labeled as too into any one thing.

As pondering my topic for this assignment I could have entered my quarter-life crisis. So, I turned to those close to me to see what they were passionate about; it was easy for them to identify their passions. My brothers are both competitive swimmers who could spend hours talking about workouts and tapering strategies. My boyfriend was able to rattle off an entire list of hobbies and jobs, including surfing, motocross, and scalloping. My one friend is into politics so much I usually try to avoid talking about recent elections or scandals with her. Then I asked my mom. She, like me, had difficulty coming up with a topic. We are both passionate about our family and friends but are more subdued when it comes to sports, jobs, and hobbies.

And I thought about this, I am not ashamed I’m not overly passionate about anything, I’ve actually worked my entire life to become this way. I am not the type of person that talks just to hear my own voice, when I talk I want it to be relevant and add to a conversation. I am not the type of person that needs constant attention in a group, I don’t wear flashy clothes or dance provocatively, and those are all things I don’t want to be known for. I do, however, want to be known for being a nice, caring person and a good friend.

This insight, however, still left me without a TED topic. So one night, pretty late, I was watching TV, well, info-mericals actually. They really seem to draw me in, and then I realized why, THE PASSION! It’s the extreme passion these people have for he products they are selling that captures my attention.

So I decided if I tried one of these products, maybe I too would become passionate about them. The overwhelming amount of fitness products and diet supplements really seems to catch my eye, being a science major I know some of the greatest selling points of these products are stretches of the truth, but somehow they still sucker me in. The passion people have in the info-mericals carries over into daytime and prime TV as well, especially for the diet products. So I decided to try one, the Special K Challenge.

The Special K Challenge commercials claim that if you follow their plan you will lose six pounds or a jean size in two weeks. I was skeptical, but would not mind losing a few pounds, so I decided to research just what the challenge was. On the Special K website I found the Special K Challenge involved replacing two meals a day with Special K products. It also said that you were supposed to eat two snacks a day which could be fruits, veggies, or Special K products. For the two Special K meals a day it didn’t just have to be cereal, they also make protein shakes, protein bars, waffles, and crackers. The third meal can be anything you want. The freebie meal of doesn’t always have to be dinner; it can be any meal throughout the day. You are also permitted to drink whatever you like.

On the website I also found a section about previous Challengers success stories. In this sections dozens of people share their experiences, strategies, and success of completing the Special K Challenge. After reading all this I was excited and ready to talk on the Special K Challenge! I headed to ShopRite to stock up on Special K products. I bought Special K chocolate protein shakes, fruit and yogurt cereal, chocolate peanut butter protein meal bars, tomato basil crackers, and chocolate snack bars. I also picked up some bananas and strawberries for snacks.

On the first day of the Challenge I started with a bowl of the fruit and yogurt cereal with a cup coffee. It was okay, but I didn’t really love it. I went to school and by 10:30a.m. my stomach was growling! It was time for a snack, I had packed strawberries, but I was still kind of hungry. When I came home I had my freebie meal of the day and ate a lot, probably more than I should have. But then I headed back to school for my night class and finished my day with a protein meal bar when I came home. On Mondays and Wednesdays I have this schedule, so it worked out well. It was the other five days of the week that were more of a challenge. I quickly realized the cereal was not enough for breakfast in the morning, so I had to modify my plan. I consulted the Special K website and decided to use the protein shakes in the morning as my breakfast to help control my hunger longer. The protein and fiber in the shake are meant to control hunger. So I tried it, and it worked! For the rest of the Challenge I began my day with a protein shake. It was an essential change if I was going to be successful with this plan. For my other Special K meal of the day I would usually mix it up. The crackers and the protein meal bars were both pretty good.

At the end of two weeks I was anxious to see my results. I had refrained from weighing myself throughout the Challenge, so I would not psych myself out. I was happy to see I had lost five pounds! It wasn’t the six they had claimed, but my jeans were feeling looser so I was excited. I felt like I could add my experience to the Special K success stories list!

I was curious how and why I was able to stick to this diet and still feel satisfied while doing it. While researching the Special K diet, and other diets that work, I came across an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that researched what makes a diet successful. The researchers concluded that the diets that reduced calorie intake are the most effective, no matter what nutrients are emphasized in the diet. And I thought about it, this is exactly what the Special K diet had done. Even though I was eating multiple times throughout the day, I actually had reduced my calorie intake by almost half!

During my time doing the Special K Challenge I was also doing my fieldwork hours for Practices and Techniques in a tenth grade biology class at Pinelands Regional High School. Mrs. Leonard, my cooperating teacher, noticed my change in diet during our lunchtime. I explained to her why I was doing it and what the Special K Challenge was. She liked it, but said once I was a teacher I would have many more challenges to worry about. During our lunch that day I just laughed, but later in my observation hours I got to see just what she meant.

One day when I came in to observe I helped Mrs. Leonard set up a laboratory on enzyme reaction rates. Mrs. Leonard had brought in cow liver to react with hydrogen peroxide. The most abundant enzyme in cow liver, and our livers too, is catalase. Catalase is responsible for decomposing hydrogen peroxide to oxygen gas and water in the body. Hydrogen peroxide is a harmful cell bi-product of many cellular processes and could poison our bodies if it is not decomposed my catalase.

The procedure of the laboratory had the students soak filter paper discs in liver puree, place the disc in hydrogen peroxide solutions at different temperatures, and measure the amount of time it takes for the disc to float to the top of the beaker. In a hot solution, the catalase should have been denatured, or killed, so no reaction should take place. In a cold solution, the reaction should have proceeded slowly. In a reaction at body temperature, the reaction should have been the fastest. However, when the first period students tried to do this it didn’t matter what temperature the solution was, the disc floated to the top of the beaker so quick it could barely be measured. Trying to figure out what was wrong in the experiment we tested every variable. We diluted the hydrogen peroxide solution, diluted the liver-puree, changed the size of the filter paper disc, and changed the size of the beaker; all to no avail. Quickly, Mrs. Leonard cut of pieces of the cow liver and put them into petri-dishes and had the students drop the hydrogen peroxide solution onto the liver so they could witness the decomposition reaction. The students got to see the conversion of hydrogen peroxide to oxygen gas and water. By the time second period came in she just had the students witness the reaction on the whole pieces of liver.

The next day when I came in Mrs. Leonard had a new, proven, laboratory for the students to complete. Using test tubes the students heated or chilled the liver puree to various temperatures and then added the hydrogen peroxide solution. The rate of reaction was then calculated by measuring the height of bubbles that formed in the test tube. It worked great! In the tube that was boiled, no reaction occurred, in the tube that was iced, only a slight reaction occurred, and in the tube around body temperature, the greatest reaction occurred! This laboratory was a success! It was exciting to see the student build upon their knowledge from the previous day.

Seeing Mrs. Leonard’s success story in the classroom made me think of my future and the many more challenges we will all face. No matter what you challenge is, whether it be a TED talk, losing a few pounds, or keeping your students interested in your subject, be sure to face the challenge head on and be willing to adapt to achieve your own success story!

This led me to investigate deeper into the diet world, deeper than just the dieter’s reviews of what works, I went looking for scientific research about diets that work. I am across an article in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled, “Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates.” In this study overweight adults were assigned to one of four diets. Each of the diets varied in amount of fat, protein, and carbohydrates the participants were permitted to intake, however, the foods they ate were similar. The participants were offered group and individual instructional sessions for 2 years to help them stay on track with the diets. After two years the researchers compared the dieters progress based on the diet they were on. They concluded, “reduced-calorie diets result in clinically meaningful weight loss regardless of which macronutrients they emphasize,” meaning, that it did not seem to matter if the diet had more fat, protein, or carbohydrates to be effective; rather the effective way to loose weight is to reduce the number of calories being taken in.

This research makes a lot of sense when I think about my experience with the Special K Challenge. Even though I was eating more often throughout the day, I was actually eating less. I reduced the number of calories I was eating by almost half. This drastic decrease in calories is the reason that weight can be lost in such a short period of time.

Special K Challenge Commerial

Another girl doing the Specia K Challenge

David from Irondale, Alabama claims, “I love eating Special K in the morning before I go out for my morning walk. It gets me going in the morning.”

Kathy from Storrs, Connecticut declares, “I joined the Community Center in our town which has a walking track that opens at 5:30AM!! After an early morning walk, Special K cereal makes my breakfast not only delicious, but one I can feel good about.”

Roselle from Plainfield, Illinois, exclaims, “I started using Special K on New Year’s Day! I love that cereal! I have been exercising and weight training five times a week.”

The Special K Victory stories, however, do not address any difficulties that participants may have encountered, what their plans actually were (as in which products they ate when), and since the Challenge is only two weeks long what happened after they stopped?
These are all things I am concerned about for my own plan, so why would Special K just skip over these seemingly important factors. For instance, unlike Roselle, I have found that I do not enjoy Special K cereal at all. I bought Special K Fruit and Yogurt because I thought it would be a nice variety for the morning. Instead, however, I have changed my daily plan to have the protein shakes in the morning. They are more satisfying for me and go down a lot easier. They also fill me up more and keep me from getting hungry for a longer period of time.
No where in the instructions for the Special K Challenge does it say that you must exercise. While I know and understand that exercise and a healthy diet is important, it is not outlined to be integral for this diet to work. So that’s why I am surprised that almost all of the Victory stories incorporate some type of exercise. Is Special K saying that exercise is necessary for this diet to work? Or could these people have lost the 6 pounds in two weeks by just exercising alone and did not need the Special K at all? I have decided not to change my exercise plan (I usually run and swim 3-4 times a week) because  the diet plan does not instruct you to change your lifestyle, so I do not think I should alter my exercise plan, so the results are fair.
The Special K products and website really try to get you to exercise. My cereal came with a free exercise DVD, my protein meal bars came with a coupon for the same free DVD if I mailed it in, and on the website I could get that same free DVD if I wanted it. They are pushing exercising a lot, even though it is not apart of their diet plan. Could this be a flaw with in the diet challenge, would it still work if you were not active? Or is it just that much more effective if you have not been exercising and then start to. My bet is on the second one. People that are drawn to the Special K Challenge are looking for a quick and easy way to lose 6 pounds. Chances are they are not exercising a great deal at the moment and when they start the Challenge they will most likely challenge themselves to start exercising again as well. Between eating less food and exercising more than they had been it makes sense that they will see results quickly. But what about when the two weeks are up? I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens to me.

Optimistic about beginning the Challenge

I decided the Special K Challenge was among my least favorite of the diet advertisements because it just seems like a big ploy to buy lots of Special K products. I visited their website to learn more about the Challenge and it was confirmed, to successfully complete the diet plan as they lay out for you, you have to purchase a stock pile of Special K products in just about every variety. (I did not even know Special K made waffles.) But for this blog I have challenged myself to take on this challenge in its entirety to see if the claims on television are true.  

I signed up on the Special K website to pledge myself to the plan. The challenge instructions include: Meal 1 – any Special K cereal, 2/3 cup of skim milk, and choice of fruit or protein shake or protein meal bar, or drizzle two tablespoons of light syrup over Special K waffles and add fruit. Meal 2 – a serving of cereal, protein meal bar, protein shake, or waffles. Meal 3 – eat as you normally would. Snacks are permitted two times a day, as long as they are Special K. Vegetables, fruits, and beverages are also permitted throughout the day. The website then directs you to choose which type of person you are, so they can formulate the best diet plan to fit you. The choices include the Classic Plan for people who want the essentials and love the classics, the Mix It Up Plan for foodies and people who love variety, the On-the-Go Plan for busy moms and business travelers, and the Chocolate Lover’s Plan for chocoholics and people with a serious sweet tooth. I decided to go for the Classic Plan because I thought it best suited me and my mission to find out what the Special K Challenge is all about.

After reviewing my meal plan for the next two weeks, I looked up recipes, rearranged the order of some of my meals to make it fit my school schedule, and headed off to BJ’s and Shoprite to buy all the Special K products I need to complete my challenge. Check back for my progress and reviews!