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.

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

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.

In Transit…

My Nutrisystem food is at the UPS dock, but since it’s a holiday it will not be delivered until tomorrow. That’s fine, though….I’m at work today (Can you believe that?!) and we are having a BBQ, so I don’t feel too guilty.

I’ve printed out the nutrisystem meal plan, it’s pretty simple:

B: 1 NS Breakfast Item
1 serving fruit
1 serving dairy or protein

L: 1 NS Lunch Item
1 Dairy or Protein
Salad Vegetables Serving (not to be confused with vegetables>basically lettuces, herbs & cucumbers)
2 tbsp. FF Dressing

S: 1 Fruit Serving
1 Dairy or Protein

D: NS Dinner
2 Vegetable Servings
Salad or Fruit Serving
Dessert: 1 Nutrisystem dessert

My only possible complaint is that a Protein serving of fish is 1 oz…..that isn’t much at all (I bought a food scale this weekend). I thought “normal” serving size was 3 oz……

Anywho, hopefully food will arrive tomorrow morning & I’ll start tomorrow evening.

Nutrisystem Order

Like I said previously, I’m going to be doing the All-Vegetarian Program. Once I get the “official program emails” I will list more info about that. I do know that most of the foods I’m being sent are carbs and I have to add a protein & fruit/veggie selection to some of them.

Anywho, the following is the food list that I’ve ordered:

Breakfasts:
Blueberry Flavored Pancake Mix
Nutriflakes Cereal-40% Bran
Pancake Mix
Scrambled Egg w/Cheese
Lowfat Granola Cereal
NutriCinnamon Squares Cereal
NutriFrosted Crunch Cereal

Lunch
Black Bean Tortilla Soup
Black Beans & Rice
Cheese Tortellini
Cheesy Homestyle Potatoes w/Broccoli
Fettuccine ALfredo w/ Veggies & Mushrooms
Fudge Graham Bar
Hearty Minestrone Soup
Pasta Parmesan w/ Broccoli
Tomato & Corn Chowder
Whipped Sweet Potatoes & Cheese

Dinner
Cheese Ravioli w/Basil Tomato Sauce
Flatbread Pizza
Mac & Cheese
Mushroom Risotto
Pasta Fagioli
Thin Crust Pizza w/Cheese
Veggie Lasagna

Dessert
Almond Biscotti
Caramel Crunch Popcorn
Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Biscotti
Chocolate Covered Caramel Popcorn
Double Chocolate Almond Cookie
Hot Cocoa
Microwaveable Chocolate Cake
MutriCrunch CHerry Cordial Chocolates
Nacho Crisps

Grand total: $268.72

What did I get myself into

Dad-brother drama has calmed.

I don’t think I mentioned it, but the last time I saw my dad, his weight scared me. He has always been a big guy, but for the first time in my life, I was physically scared for him. He’s been having some health problems and FINALLY went to the doctor this week. He is 5 feet 9 and weighs 268 pounds, an all-time high. Not good. The doctor basically told him that he HAS to lose weight. So my dad mentioned to my mother that he wanted to try Nutrisystem. He did it back in the 80’s with success, it just cost SOO much money back then that he had to stop.

So, I saw an opportunity and ran with it. I went to the NS site, got pricing info, did some more research and called my dad to let him know what I found. Research shows NS can be succesful in teaching people proper portion control, but the average user only stays on the program for about 90 days, before falling off or choosing to eat healthier on their own. I explained that I think it would be a good “starting point” for him, but he needs to learn from it and be ready/learn to transition to real food at some point.

Well, he was interested, but still nervous, so…..I’ve agreed to do it with him for at least a month. I’m not a huge pre-packaged food girl, but after seeing my dad & his weight, something has to be done. I’ve already set-up our food options and ordered everything, so we shall see how it goes.

So, come Sept 1, the Nutrisystem experiment begins