NutriSystem - Day 3

Breakfast:

• NS Chocolate Chip Scone
• Coffee

Folks we have a winner.  The scone is the best (i.e. closest to "real" food) I have had so far.  I would give it a solid A.  Its a little dense however that is the normal texture for a scone.  Its not going to have the flaky outside that a bakery scone would so hence no A+ but still darn good. I'd eat it even if I weren't dieting.  Plus the portion was very generous - 2 substantial triangles.

Morning Snack:

• String Cheese

Lunch:

• NS Fettuccine Alfredo
• String Cheese
• Water

This was one of the heavy paper cups where you add boiling water (think Cup O Noodles).  It was ok.  The sauce thickened up somewhat... I still wouldn't call it a cream sauce but it had good flavor.  Just make sure you don't use any more water than it states.  The portion was fine.

Afternoon Snack:

• 6 Almonds (x2)
• String Cheese
• Mandarin Orange
• Cherry Coke Zero

Ok  this is where we ran into trouble.  By 2:00 I was starving.  I ate my 6 almonds, a string cheese and my little Clementine type orange.  By 2:30 I had to get a Coke Zero for the caffeine.  It didn't help enough. At 4:00 I caved and ate 6 more almonds.  By the time I got home at 5:30 I was ready to chew my hand off. I had a huge headache and my muscles were tight/aching like a stress ache.  

Dinner:

• NS Thick Crust Cheese Pizza
  
• Water
  

This time I did the thick crust pizza I remembered liking from last time.  I also made sure to do it in the oven.  It is only slightly larger than a coaster.  Its about the size of a "Gladware" lid.  I cut it into 4 small "slices" to help myself feel like I was eating more.  The pizza was fine.  There's still a little something wonky with their sauce (its too sweet) but its doable.  I felt better after eating but not full. I chugged a glass of water before running to a 6:30 meeting.

Dessert:

• NS Double Chocolate Almond Cookie
  

It doesn't exactly taste like a cookie.  A little powdery, a little dense and not rich chocolate. But its a cookie, its something else to eat and it does have almonds in it.  I'd give it a B-.  

Today was a hard day.  It started off great with a good breakfast where I didn't even feel like I needed anything other than the NS entree.  However it started to go downhill with lunch and by the afternoon it was realllly hard.  In fact I'm hungry as I type (about 30 mins after my cookie)  I'm feeling VERY low energy, my shoulder muscles are tight and achy and I get headaches quite often.  I'm going to try and up my water intake to see if that will help.  All I can say is that tomorrow better show some nice weight loss or I'll be pretty cranky (ok so I'm already cranky).  I will say that after today, had I not paid $300 to do this, I would be really likely to quit.  But I can't look hubby in the eye if I do so onward we go.  [note: NS does have a money back guarantee, but you have to ship everything back and shipping a 40+lbs box is no small trick]

Grade:  C- 

Caloric intake: 1064.1
Weight lost as of morning weigh in: 1.3 lbs
Weight lost overall:  2.5 lbs

One Last Plea

Peeps, please check out my posting about helping a young man achieve his prom goal by clicking here... we're in the home stretch!!!

http://whendidiorderthis.blogspot.com/2009/02/vote-early-vote-often-take-2.html

NutriSystem - Day 2

Ok day 2 ... harder than day 1 and unfortunately, more calories taken in on top of that.  Definitely noticed being hungry and had some odd side effects?  Here's the report:

Breakfast:

• NS Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal
  
• String Cheese
  
• Mandarin Orange
  
• Maxwell House Coffee
  

The oatmeal wasn't what I expected. I'm used to microwaveable instant oatmeal.  This stuff you put the water in but then microwave the whole thing for 5 minutes (which I thought was quite a lot).  It wasn't bad necessarily - just bland.  And a different texture - more "whole oaty" - you could actually "chew" each oat.  I wouldn't say it was bad... just bland and not great.

Lunch:

• NS Cheese Tortellini
  
• McDonald's Side Salad
  
• Newman's Own Light Italian Dressing (1/2 pack)
  
• 2/3 pack Croutons 
  

The Cheese Tortellini were also bland.  The pasta sauce was almost too sweet and the cheese in the tortellini was chalky.  Also, when I was done I noticed that the container was mostly tomatoes and pasta sauce though I can't say I left the table hungry. My fun find for the day was that a pack of McDonald's croutons only has 60 calories!  (yes I survived a trip to the golden arches with my hubby and kiddo!)

Snack:

Ok here is where I got REALLY hungry.  I think the 2-3 o'clock hungries are going to be my challenge.  I ate my whopping 5 green olives (seriously) for my "fat" for the day.  30 mins later I couldn't take it and caved and ate 1tsp of peanut butter.  I also finally went and got a cherry Coke Zero.  I'm worried about the caffeine I'm taking in, but its the only thing that helps stem the hunger between meals.

Dinner:

• NS Teriakyi Sauce, Beef, Rice & Vegetables
  
• Non Fat Cottage Cheese (1/4 C)
• Water
  

I give this a resounding "ok".  The meal itself had good flavors and did taste Asian-inspired.  However note the title of the entree and it will give you a clue as to what order the quantity of ingredients is based.  At least half of the weight of the product was sauce.  There was a fair amount of beef but it was certainly not prime beef - I actually had to put aside a few pieces due to gristle and fat.  It wasn't horrid and I admit I'm a picky eater when it comes to beef, so take that for what its worth.  There was only about 1/8C of wild rice in a small well to one side of the entree.  I think, apart from water chestnuts, I saw three other veggies total.  The one thing I find odd about this one is that most calorie counters know that the easiest place to find hidden calories is in sauces - we usually steer clear of them.  I didn't finish more than half the sauce and so this makes me wonder if I saved significantly in calories.... but since NS doesn't break that out, I'll never know.  I'd eat this one again though. 

Treat:

• NS Microwavable Chocolate cake
  

This is where things went horribly wrong.  Horribly, horribly wrong.  I was so excited to see a microwaveable chocolate cake.  So excited in fact that I ordered 4 of them.  Big mistake.  I did not expect them to taste like Betty Crocker, but I DID expect them to taste.  My first warning was when I licked the batter off the fork while it was in the microwave... it tasted like some bland mixture of weak cooking cocoa and water.  Then after the suggested 5-minute cool, I tasted it.  The only way I could describe it would be if someone created a water-based spongy paper product and then BARELY flavored it with chocolate. I felt like I was eating a wet newspaper that someone had spilled a drop of hot chocolate on.  Knowing full well I only have one snack a day allotted to me, I actually threw it away and got out another chocolate bar like last night's.  We'll let Future Me worry about what to do about that missing dessert....

NOTE:  I'm noticing some weird things going on with my body.  I don't know if its the diet, if its detox, if its the caffeine, or if its coincidence.  I'm noticing a lot of the same symptoms that I had when I tried to do the juice detox (the Lemonade Diet - you have only juice for 10 days... I made it 2).   My chest, from time to time, feels "restricted" or as if its a little harder than normal to breathe - I notice this more when I'm having one of my "hungry" times.  I'm also noticing the glands in my neck feel swollen - especially on the left side.  Its almost to the point I'd call it a sore throat but not really.  And I have a headache often.  It could be that the Whoppers and onion rings of days past really are detoxing through my system.  Or it could be that my body is in a bit of caloric shock.  Or it could be the increase in caffeine (I used to drink almost NONE before this).  I'm going to see how things go over coming days.

Tomorrow will be my first day at work on NS.  On one had it should be easier - more to keep my mind busy and not as many snacks in arms reach.  On the other I will be sitting at my desk allll day with nothing else to do and will be around snacking and lunch-eating co-workers.  Yipes.  

FINAL REPORT:

Grade:  C

Caloric Intake: 1157.3 (not counting the bite of microwave cake)

Weight lost as of morning weigh in:  1.2 lbs

Total weight lost:  1.2 lbs

NutriSystem - Day 1

Ok so I have officially lived through day one.  Overall I feel ok.  I did get hungry a few times but either tried to have "ok" snacks per the meal plan (baby carrots, string cheese, etc) or plied myself with caffeine (yeah not so healthy but yet effective).  I noticed my energy is down, but I knew the first 3-4 days would be a detox or adjustment period since I'm accustomed to eating crap in great quantities whenever I feel like.   Another thing I've discovered is that I used food as entertainment or something to look forward to. I caught myself thinking "man I have nothing to look forward to tomorrow" since its a Sunday with nothing much planned.  When I had nothing else going on I used food as an event.  Gotta stop that bid'ness!

Ok, so here is what I had today along with my reviews:

Breakfast:

• NS Blueberry Pancake Mix made with 2% milk, & ICBINB spray
  
• Apple
  
• Water

The pancakes were actually pretty good.  Actually really nice - just like normal pancakes.  You don't get a lot.  Enough for either 2 normal or 3 silver dollar-sized.  But that was enough for me along with the apple.  You are "allowed" a tablespoon of light syrup but since I had used 2% milk I skipped that and just used the ICBINB spray.  I felt full and overall good about the meal however we went shopping after and within 2 hours I was very, very hungry. I had to get a coffee to help stem the tide.

Lunch:

• NS Red Beans & Rice w/ Chicken Sausage
  
• String Cheese (Low Fat)
  
• Starbucks coffee (leftover from shopping trip)
  

The main entree was actually really good - a lot of good Cajun spice - and the portion was generous for a diet portion. The chicken sausage was not gristly or overly processed.  Not much else to say here - I did get peckish before dinner but you are allowed one designated "fat" a day so I used mine as an afternoon snack - a teaspoon of peanut butter.  It was really all I needed to not feel deprived.

Dinner:

• NS Flatbread Cheese Pizza
  
• Cooked Broccoli with ICBITB spray
  
• Steamed corn with ICBINB spray
  
• Cherry Coke Zero
  

The pizza was the best thing I remember about my last go round with NS.  Unfortunately it was the most disappointing of my day today!  The serving is VERY small.  I remember thinking the old version (the thick crust) was about the size of a coaster.  The flatbread is about the size of a woman's small wallet (i.e. the kind without a checkbook portion).  I tried cutting it into 4 pieces to make myself feel better but they ended up truly being bite sized.  In addition, I was short on time so I chose the microwave directions and got a rubbery crust. I will do my best to make sure I have time to do them in the oven.  Just to give you an idea of size, these little guys only take 5 mins in the conventional oven - not much there to cook.  The broccoli and corn helped me make it through the meal without feeling bummed.

Snack:

• NS Chocolate Crunch Bar
  

This was the highlight of the day and I remembered the chocolates being pretty good last time so I intentionally saved it for last when I'd get my evening munchies after I put my little one to bed.  The portion was great - the size of a normal candy bar - and the taste was really good!  It didn't have that odd powdery chalky taste a lot of energy or diet bars have at all!  It was a rice crisp bar (like a Nestle Crunch) but also had a bit of an espresso taste.  So far, its 9:00 at night and I'm still "ok".  (And I ate dinner early  - around 5:30 - since I was so hungry!)

Total caloric intake today: 916.6.  Overall I'd give today a B-.  So, one day down.  34 to go!  Oh boy!

Nutri System Take Two - Review

Once again spring is upon us.  So of course once again that means diet time.  After much consideration and weighing of options, I decided on Nutri System.  I had done NS once before about 2.5 yrs ago with great results weight-wise (13lbs in a month) but not so great results otherwise.  What do I mean?  I thought the food was horrid (cardboard and sand as I called it) and I was so hungry ALL the time that, well lets just say I was not a cheerful wife to be around.

So why give it another go?  First, I've heard the food has improved.  Second, I have, since the last time around, become very familiar with diet food and realized most of it is cardboard and sand so you just cope.  Third, I can't argue with the results I got - and that is the bottom line.

When I was thinking of signing back on I looked and looked for reviews of the food.  The only comprehensive one I could find was sponsored by NS itself!  Sooo I decided why not review everything as I go.  I plan to track what I eat each day, how I feel, and how much I'm losing.  I'd like to ultimately lose 20 lbs. 

Today is day one so look for a post tomorrow on today's big start!!