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!

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