Nutrisystem: The Beginning

As I'm sitting here finishing up some frozen junk food, I'm reflecting on why I just signed up for Nutrisystem after all these years. 

I've always wanted to sign up.  It definitely has always appeased my lazy side.  Good food is great but getting there?  Difficult and expensive.  Of course, I go through my phases.  One day I will cook every single meal beautifully and the next I will eat every snack food in the house. 

I was laid off from my new job about two weeks ago.  It has been a rough and long two weeks.  Aside from the lack of physically movement, my cooking ambitions have quickly dissipated.  Even with all this time, I still don't want to cook and now I can't even spend the money necessary to make tasty & healthy meals as town is over 15 miles away and fresh food doesn't keep long.  Or maybe that is just my lazy side talking.

Anyways, after a morning of research and a quick chat discussion via the Nutrisystem website, I was able to obtain the answers I was looking for. 

Taste

First, many websites and reviews indicate the food is either really good or really terrible.  If you are overweight and likely eat for sport or boredom, it looks like the food will be decent.  If you are borderline overweight or if you are the cheapest person you know, you probably won't like the food.  The overwhelming consensus is the frozen food is better than the packaged or soft-canned food.  The food packaging type you will be receiving is unclear if you sign up for the Basic pack (the cheapest option).  I assume it will be a mix of frozen, soft-canned, and dried.  Surprisingly, I hope there will be a minimum of frozen food as my butt will get kicked if I take up too much freezer space (this is a hunting family after all). 

Auto-Delivery

Second, the auto-delivery option is a point of many people's upset.  Pros: There is a discount between 20%-40% when signing up for auto-delivery.  This discount applies to ALL MONTHS from here forward (this was the answer I was not finding but can now confirm).  So if it is $400 "retail price" and you get 40% off, your monthly price is $240 plus a packaging fee ($4.99) and free shipping.  If you sign up on January 5th, you will be charged $240 on January 5th, $240 on February 5th, $240 on March 5th, etc.  This can also be cancelled anytime AFTER the SECOND month charge with NO FEES.  Cons:  As most diets are short lived for many people, it's fair to say Nutrisystem capitalizes on this.  If you don't like it or failed miserably and want to cancel before the second charge comes through, you have to pay back the discount price in the form of a fee.  Most people report a $99 fee, but based on your discounts it could higher. 

Discounts

Right now, you can take advantage of their discount codes.  If you visit multiple portions of the site, eventually a pop-up comes up with an offer.  They vary from $25 off to a free water bottle (Offer Code DRINKUP) to a free shaker bottle (Offer Code FREESHAKER).  If you time it right, you might be able to take advantage of all three.  I was able to get $16.79 off by using the 40% coupon link on Groupon.  How, why?  Not sure but it worked.  [Update: The website was going back and fourth between offering 40% off and not specifying a percentage--when I looked in my checkout basket, it showed 35%, which turned to 40% after activating the 40% off coupon code via Groupon or the website].

Plan

I signed up for the Lean13 Basic plan.  This means (as I've deduced from other sites) that the first week is shakes and bars to 'ready' yourself for the diet plan.  To me this means it going to be tough and it's going to shrink my stomach organ in preparation for smaller meals.  I imagine the idea behind this is that first week you have a lot more will power.  The following weeks will consist of (what I've deduced as) 6 days of meals (random food, i.e. "Chef's Pick" or "Fan Favorites") and 1 day of a "flex" path.  These flex days/meals, you are to prepare food on your own.  First as I hear this I think "sucky".  If I'm going to put all my faith into one of these diets, I don't want to have to be tempted with grocery store visits and candy aisles.  But after considering this further, those flex days will help me reduce the healthy food still in my freezer (that has been in there forever, obviously).  I am contemplating purchasing a 5 or 7 day Nutrisystem meal kit from Walmart to help cover these flex days and any meal I receive that doesn't look/sound the greatest.  I know they have a bean meal and my fingers are crossed they don't send me one.  The "point" of the flex meals though is to allow you to try to make good decisions on your own for when you inevitably move on from Nutrisystem.

The kit should be here in 4-10 days and I will update with all the details as they come in.