Lose 5 pounds, Gain a Car

Meet the Lily Pad (or Lily for short)

She came home Friday night. I’m still in shock when I look out and don’t see Rufus (aka, the 04 CRV I had). Truthfully, the dealer offered me a deal that I could not pass up, plus I save about $50 a month on car payments. Yeah for getting older and earning more money!!

The true tipping point came when I was at work and I mentioned that I was thinking about buying a new car. I was told “If I was your age, single, and didn’t have to answer to anyone, I’d completely do it. Who knows, this might be the only time you get to buy a car on your own terms. If you get married in the next 5 years, you and your husband would have to make that decision”. Is it wrong that I completely bought into this thought?

So, we are getting to know each other. She’s awfully high tech. I have sensors telling me if ANYTHING goes wrong, right down to letting me know if I didn’t screw on the gas cap. There is a phone charger/ a/c jack in the front, but also in the back seats for others to use. She is iPod ready so I can plug it straight into the car. Plus, when I pop a CD into my player, the album name, artist, and song playing are displayed. I nearly shit a brick when it did that.

This morning I stepped on the scale, and for the first month of NS, I’m officially down 5 pounds. Not shabby. Definitely continuing on for the next month. Dad & I both agreed to continue on for 3 months total, so in November we will re-evaluate our progress.

Oh, Snap!

Yesterday I dropped the CR-V in for new brake pads. He’s at 92,000 miles, so the service department mentioned a few things that will need to be changed when he officially hits 100,000 (timing belt, possibly rear brakes, etc). So, this made me wonder about the benefits of keeping my car for the long haul, or getting a newbie.

True, no car payments would be amazing, but with an older car I fall into having to pay maintenance fees, and quite frankly I’m not the sort of gal to have an extra few grand laying around to fix things. Yes, I have my savings, but I truly consider that to be for real emergencies, ie I’m in a hospital bed and need to pay the bill.

SO I test drove an ‘08. Seriously, smooth ride. It’s funny cause there are things in my 04 that I always thought “Gee, it’d be nice if it would be this way instead” THEY HAVE MADE THOSE CHANGES IN THE ’08’s!! I laid out to the dealer my terms. They thought it over, and came with a counter offer. I said “No thanks,” and walked out the door. Figured that it was a sign that I don’t need a new car yet.

At 7:30pm, I get a call from the sales guy telling me it’s the end of the month and they have sales quota’s to meet. Name my trade-in value and they will see what they can do. I tell him I’ll think about it and get back to him. Off to google I went.

This morning I called him back with a firmer explanation of my terms. Just got the call that they can do it, as long as credit check comes through. So, cross your fingers that nothing major is wrong, and I think I may have a new car

Crazy Insane-ness

My mother came for a visit and my Nutrisystem eating went out the window. I’m showing at 163, up from the previous 161.5. Not super worried about it, but not pleased either.

For a change of pace, I’ve decided to switch over to the Nutrisystem Women’s Plan, which has more options. My dad is on the men’s plan and keeps calling to tell me to try stuff that I don’t have, lol. We aren’t sure if he has lost weight, as the home scale couldn’t weigh him (Bless his heart), but mom did measure his belly. He feels better and is chugging away at it. My mom goes to see him this week and is taking the tape measure, so we shall see.

Today has been a great day, food-wise, though I feel like a dork in that I’m skipping tonight’s social ride….to watch the season premiere of “Hereos”…((BLUSH))

BUT…in my defense, I have started back at Gold’s. I’ve been taking the RPM class:

“RPM - Experience the ride of your life. RPM matches terrain to tempo with all the energy of a rock concert. You will encounter slow climbs, short sprints and recovery spins for a time efficient, high calorie burning cardio workout. Great for everyone because you control your own pace while benefitting from a unique group atmosphere, powerful music and professional coaching.”

So it’s not like I’m not cycling at all, just not outdoors, which I realize is ridiculous, but RPM fits my schedule better. I’m doing it Tues/Thurs/Sat.

Ok, so that’s my recap, I’ll check back in tomorrow

B: NS Bran Cereal, 4 oz milk
S: Cottage Cheese Doublers strawberry
L: NS Tomato & Corn Chowder- ***** out of 5
Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumblers (protein)
Side Salad w/cucumbers and carrots (salad veggies)
Green Goddess Dressing (fat serving from dinner)
S: Apple Slices (fruit)
1 piece beef jerky (protein)
D: NS Mushroom Risotto
Zucchini Fries (veggie serving)
Roasted Onion Rings (veggie serving)
Dt: NS Almond Biscotti
Applesauce (unsweetened)

It’s tiny but….

I just got one of the photos from my bike ride in:

Nutrisystem Week 1 Review

Start Date: 9/4/2007
Start Weight: 165.5 pounds
Week 1 Weight: 162.5 pounds
Pounds lost: 3

Breakfasts:
Typical Meal: NS cereal, 4 oz milk with half a banana. Then I eat the remaining dairy/protein of Yogurt around 10 am.
Thoughts: I do think I’m eating too much dairy with this meal, so I’m going to switch to eating more protein (1 boiled egg) for this week. Today I had my NS cereal & milk w/ 1 boiled egg and am saving my banana for 10 am.
Overall Rating: **** out of 5 stars

Lunches:
Typical Meal: NS meal that has to have water added, a protein or dairy, 1 cup of cucumbers or $1 salad from Wendy’s, light dressing
Thoughts: Had to play around with the adding boiling water thing, but once this was figured out, it’s been good. Most containers tell you to add hot water, stir, cover container for 8-10 minutes, and eat. I’m finding adding hot water, stir, cover for 5 minutes, stir, put in microwave for 30 seconds, eat is the best way to go. Depending on the lunch, it depends on if I add a cheese or a slice of lunch meat. The Black Bean Tortilla Soup is GLORIOUS with some light sour cream added.
Overall Rating: Once you figure out the REAL way to cook it, I’d give these a full ***** stars for ease of bringing to work and taste.

Snacks:
Typical Meal: Piece of fruit and dairy or protein.
Thoughts: If I eat dairy at lunch, I eat protein for snack and vice versa
Overall Rating: Easy and normal healthy snack

Dinners:
Typical Meal: Microwaveable container, 2 vegetable servings, a piece of fruit or salad, and a fat serving
Thoughts: Having trouble eating all of this food, slightly easier to eat if I mix veggies with the meal, like putting mushrooms and spinach on the pizza, rather than eating it WITH the pizza. May be a mental thing, I don’t know.
Overall Rating: *** out of 5; only because it is so much food

Desserts:
Typical Meal:Variety of prepackaged items, favorites are Biscotti, Chocolate Cookie and Chocolate Cake. Not really a fan of the carmel chocoalte crispy bars.
Thoughts: These are fun at the end of the day. I’ve been saving the dinner fat serving to use a TSP of nut butters on my cake or cookie. Nice change of pace from past “diet” sweet treats that are labor intensive (ahem, Black bean brownie!)
Overall Rating: **** out of 5, knocked down a point because anything with Carmel flavoring tastes really fake!

I did it! I did it!

My first official charity ride!! Tour de Pink at Prairie View A&M. I originally signed up for the 12 mile, but after training, I was confident that I could do the 23. When I showed up Sunday morning, I was decided to get in the 23 mile group. I got my registration and route map, saw that I had 2 pit stops and went to get in line.

It was a staggered start, so I didn’t get to the start line until 8 am. There was a large group of us and it was a mass start, so I was grateful that I didn’t crash into anyone, though I did have to go around a lady who was starting to tip. They led us off of campus onto the road and it was on!!

About 3 miles out, I saw the first bike breakdown. I’m still trying to figure out what happened, because the front of the bike was literally in pieces, yet there were no obvious potholes or anything like that. SAG was already with her.

At the pit stop #4, I was proud (yet saddened) to realize I was basically halfway finished. I grabbed an apple, some extra water, and some Powergel (for future rides ) and was going back to my bike, when I see a white pickup truck slowly pass by. IT WAS MY DAD!!! He had decided to drive up to see me at the finish line, noticed cyclists and police blocking the road and decided to head down the road to see if he could find me. I threw my camera at him and said I’d meet him at the finish line. Hopped on the bike and away I went.

This was the hardest stretch. Hills galore. A few hills I seriously thought about hopping off my bike to walk, but was perfectly in the middle of a large group in front of me and a large group behind me, so my pride just wouldn’t let me stop

Made it to Pit Stop #8, by far my favorite as they were handing out ice cold bandanas. Wrapped that around my neck, put some powerade in my water bottle, noted I was 8 miles from finish and took off. The guy that left with me noted we probably shouldn’t have stopped there as we only had 8 miles, he was right because for the first 2 miles, I felt like I was running out of steam.

But then I saw the 5 MILES TO FINISH and I had a resurgence of energy. Pedaled on seeing a mass of horse farms and some lovely dairy cows (don’t generally see here). I had been talking to a storm cloud that was rolling in, “Mr Cloud cover the sun up, it’s getting a little hot”. It respectfully followed directions, but with 2 miles to go, it started to sprinkle. “Um, Mr. Cloud, could you hold off on that for 10 minutes?? Just let me get back in??” This time, he wasn’t so respectful; with about half a mile to go it started to seriously rain, I just kept pedaling, rounded my way to the finish.

I was very proud and can honestly say I’m addicted to that kind of ride. I’m planning on doing a 33 mile ride in November

Day 4

New Food tried:

NS Pasta Fagioli
Rating: **** out of 5
Prepared: 1.5 minutes in microwave, sprinkled parmesan cheese on top (leftover dairy/protein from snack). Served with 1 whole large artichoke(counts as 2 veggie servings) with 1 tbs Smart Balance butter(fat serving)
Thought: My favorite dinner meal so far. Very good!

Dessert ended up being the chocolate cake again, this time with a smidge of cool whip lite as topper.

Today’s Plan:
B: Nutrifrosted Flakes w/ 4 oz 1% milk, .5 medium banana
S(dairy serving from B>): Yoplait Light Vanilla Yogurt
L: Chocolate Drink, Cheese Stick & Cucumber Salad
S: Peach & 8oz milk
D: Unknown
Dt: Almond Biscotti
Total: 1162 calories (plus the Coke I’m currently drinking :), I know it’s pushing me over 1200)

My lunch is one of the lighter lunch options NS offers, but I have a dentist appointment at 1 pm, so I don’t want anything major stuck in my teeth. I think I have a wierd cavity which MAY involve a root canal. Back when I had my wisdom teeth out last year, my bottom left side took an extremely long time to heal, like 3 months! My oral surgeon thought it was odd, but said there was not much he could do to speed up the process. Well, that is the exact same place where my gum and tooth feel like it is splitting in two…..(((mad))) I’m hoping there is not an infection or anything like that, but who knows.

Sigh, I haven’t even paid off my gallbladder surgery yet!

Day 3: A discovery

Last night I swung by H.E.B. (pronounce H E B, not Heb for those not familiar with this grocery chain) to refill my eggs and 1% milk. I was perusing the aisles for anything that may be an added benefit to the diet and guess what I found in the pickle aisle??

DILL PICKLE LUNCH PACKS!!!

They are mini dill pickles stored in containers similar to the Dole parfait’s and fruits!! 4 containers per package. They were new & on sale 2 packages for $5, so I picked up some. 0 calories per package, lol. Is that insane or what?!

Anywhosits, last night I ended up eating the:

Nutrisystem Mushroom Risotto
Rating: *** out of 5
Prepared: In microwave, added 1 cup of broccoli, parsley and half a sliced fresh jalapeno.
Thoughts: Bland out of the package, hence the addition of spices. The jalapeno added spice but did not really fit in. Will explore more flavoring options next time.

Nutrisystem Microwaveable Chocolate Cake
Rating: **** out of 5
Prepared: Added an extra 3 tablespoons of water to the recipe, layered 1 tbs of almond butter (saved protein from afternoon snack) on top as “icing”
Thoughts: This item gets bashed on NS Messageboards, but when I added the extra water and almond butter, it came out really good. If you are expecting INTENSE chocolate flavor, you will be disappointed, but I though it was pretty darn yummy

Today’s Menu
B: Nutrifrosted Flakes Cereal w/4 oz milk, .5 medium banana
S (leftover dairy/protein serving from breakfast): Yoplait Light Vanilla
L: Fettucini Alfredo, sliced cucumbers in vinegar, turkey lunch meat
S: Apple and cheese stick
D: Pasta Fagioli(keep meaning to try this), spinach & broccoli, avocado
Dt: Unknown

Day 2

Last night I ended up sorting my food into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert categories and shelving them in my cupboard. I took pics but forgot to upload them to the computer, so you’ll have to wait on those!

Today, I need to run to the dollar store to pick up some plastic containers. Some/most of the breakfast foods come in packets that are hard to organize, so I’m hoping the plastic containers help. It was sort of funny looking at my cupboard with all of the nutrisystem boxes in it.

Today’s Plan
B: NS Blueberry Pancake Mix (Good, 3 stars, made 2 small pancakes)
1/2 of a medium banana
S: (saved from breakfast) Cheese stick
10:30 A.M.–Became dizzy and weak. Remedy= oatmeal cookie
L: NS Whipped sweet potatoes with cheese (2 stars, only eh), salad(cucumbers, parsley, spinach), lean turkey on top
S: Peach & 8oz milk
D: NS Pasta Fagioli, .5 cup cooked broccoli, tomatoes on salad, Light Italian dressing
Dt: Microwaveable chocolate cake
Total: 1223 Calories

I found out that you can add additional “free foods” up to 3 times a day:
There are Free Foods that can be used on the NutriSystem plan.

The term Free Foods comes from the American Diabetes Association. They are low calorie foods (20 calories or less) that can be added to the meal plan in small amounts. This minimal amount of calories will not affect weight loss, but we do recommend that they be limited to 2 or 3 servings per day if the foods have any calories at all.

FOOD QUANTITY
Coffee/Tea Unlimited
Diet Soda Unlimited
Sodium Free Seltzer Water Unlimited
Sugar Free Tonic Water Unlimited
Club Soda (not tonic or quinine water) Unlimited
Artificial Sweeteners Unlimited
Spices (salt-free) Unlimited
Herbs Unlimited
Vinegar Unlimited
Lemon Juice Unlimited
Sugar Free Gelatin 6oz per serving = 15 cal
Sugar Free Gum 1 stick = 5 cal
Nonstick Cooking spray Unlimited
A-1 Sauce or Steak Sauce 1 Tbsp
Butter Buds 1 oz
Bouillon or Broth (Dry)- Low Sodium 1 packet, 1 tsp, 1 cube
Bouillon or Broth (Canned)- Low Sodium ¾ cup
Catsup 1 Tbsp
Cocoa, dry unsweetened 1 Tbsp
Coffee Whiteners (Powdered) 1 Tsp
Chili Sauce 1 Tbsp
Chocolate Topping (Reduced Calories) 1 Tbsp
Cool Whip (fat free) 2 Tbsp
Sugar Free Candies 20 cal or less per serving / 0 fat
Low cal or reduced cal syrup Amount not to Exceed 20 cals/ 0 fat
Dill Pickle 1
Dream Whip 1 Tbsp
Sugar-free Jam/Jelly Amount not to exceed 20 cal
Low sugar Jam/Jelly 2 Tsp
Horseradish 1 Tsp
Mustard 1 Tsp
Picante Sauce 1 Tbsp
Popcorn (light and natural) 1 Cup
Relish 1 Tsp
Salad Dressing (Fat Free) 2 Tbsp
Salsa 1 Tbsp
Soy Sauce (Low sodium) 1 Tsp
Taco Sauce 1 Tbsp
Worcestershire Sauce 1 Tsp.
© NutriSystem 2006. All rights Reserved

The 1 cup of popcorn is way to exciting for me. I love popcorn….

It Came

It’s been raining off and on for the past 2 days, so when I tracked my NS stuff and it was listed as “On Delivery”, I knew I needed to run home and check to see if it arrived (I don’t want a soggy box of food!). So, at lunch, ran home & there it was. The UPS guy was nice enough to put it in my back gated area, instead of right on my doorstep for everyone to see.

Opened that bad boy up and started pulling things out. It’s a lot of food, obviously, as it’s 28 days worth of food, but DANG that box was heavy. Some of the stuff I ordered was “substituted” with things I didn’t really want (Chocolate Milk Drink….as a lunch item?!) but for the most part, I’m happy with the selection.

I chose the Cheese Tortellini as my first lunch. It comes in those little microwaveable containers that Chef Boyardee snack sizes are in. I put fresh spinach in a bowl, put the cooked tortellini on top and put a slice of FF cheese on top. That was my lunch (well, that and my water)

Not bad overall, it did remind me of Chef Boyardee, which I’m generally not a huge fan of. Overall, I’d give it 3 stars, because it was surprisingly filling. Snack today will be a peach and milk.

Will check back tomorrow with dinner and dessert feedbacks.