Sure, there are tons of celebrity diet secrets floating around out there. But most of them tend to revolve around grilled chicken breast and salmon, which are especially hard foods to substitute if you're a vegetarian like I am. So, when my editor asked me to take on a celebrity diet and fitness routine, the proud veggie and buff country superstar Carrie Underwood immediately popped into my mind.

After doing a little research, I realized Carrie and I actually have a lot in common. Not only are we both vegetarians and a little bit country, but we also share an intense craving for after-meal sweets and a tendency to bulk up around the thigh and tummy area when we slack off in the exercise department -- which I was definitely guilty of before I took on this challenge.

So for one week, I was determined to try things Carrie's way. And in the process, I lost a whopping four pounds.

How did I do it? First off, I had to alter my diet, which had started to consist of a lot of cheese sandwiches, PB&J, steamed veggies and the inevitable donut (or two) that just begged to be devoured on a weekly basis. Of course, there were also the indulgent restaurant-centric weekends with my husband where all rules basically went out the window.

But for that week, I was strong, taking Carrie's advice culled from multiple magazine articles. I ate a steady stream of meatless burgers by Boca, faux "Quorn" chicken nuggets (made from mycoprotein, a member of the fungi family), Kashi's Heart to Heart cereal with skim milk, English muffins spritzed with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray, bottle after bottle of Vitamin Water and pickles, baby carrots and almonds for snacks. If I had to find something quick to eat on the road, I headed to Subway for a veggie sandwich.

What I quickly found was that this diet was extremely low-carb and virtually bread-free (save for the English muffins, which I didn't indulge in daily), a switch that started paying off immediately. After changing to more of a protein-based diet, I found that the cravings in between meals didn't come nearly as quickly.

My typical meal schedule looked something like this:
8:30 a.m.: English muffin with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray
10:00: Three baby pickles
12:30 p.m.: One Boca Burger with ketchup, steamed broccoli with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray
1:45: Tapioca pudding cup (um, my own diet addition!)
4:45: Three baby pickles
5:15: Kashi cereal
9:15: Four Quorn chicken nuggets with ketchup, steamed broccoli with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray

This, of course, was on a "good day." There were definitely hiccups along the way, once in the form of a gnocchi-filled night out with a girlfriend. But I can definitely see myself incorporating Carrie's diet staples into my everyday meals. Especially the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray, which I just can't believe has no calories, and the Quorn, which I had no idea even existed!

What might not be so easy to mix into my routine post-trial-period are the 90-minute workouts that Carrie does multiple times a week with a trainer. First of all, I don't have a trainer. Problem no. 2: Who has 90 extra minutes in her day to work out? To be honest, I was only able to scrape together the required hour-and-a-half twice. Both times, the workout went a little something like this:

• 10 to 15 minutes of walking, then jogging on a treadmill
• stretching on the mat and with a foam roller
• pull-ups, push-ups, lunges, jump squats and other crazy, sweat-inducing moves in quick 20-second bursts, repeated 10 times each
• step-ups on a bench with weights, leg extensions on a machine
• 10 to 15 minutes of treadmill and jump rope work
• crunches of all varieties
• more stretching ... followed by very heavy sleeping

Preferable to the gym workout was the Krav Maga class I attempted twice thanks to Carrie's advice. The official self-defense system of the Israeli Defense Forces, Krav Maga was completely new to me. But after two introductory classes, I learned how to throw several kinds of punches and kicks plus break a chokehold, which made me feel especially badass. I also learned how not to cry in public after being accidentally (yet unapologetically) kicked in the hand, hit in the chin and kicked repeatedly in the stomach (the latter with a thick pad between my abdomen and my classmates' feet).

After a week of trying to live in Carrie Underwood's shoes, I was exhausted, yes, but also completely invigorated. The Krav Maga reminded me how much I enjoy working out in groups and trying new things, the 90-minute workouts made me feel as though doing 30 minutes a few times a week was no big deal, and the protein-focused diet gave me a newfound energy to attempt all of the above for at least another week or two.

Oh, and the four pounds I said goodbye to? They were just the icing on the cake!