Pre-Nutrisystem
I'm obsessive compulsive, and that's that. When I fall into something, I fall in hard. It's all consuming. I have done many, many hours of research on Nutrisystem, opinions, videos, foods, costs, coupons, etc.
That being said, once I ordered Nutrisystem and knew the food was coming, but that it hadn't come yet, I ate everything my heart desired. I figured, if I was going to go out, I'd go out in flames. I ate cheesecake, cheese, pizza, coffee w/creamer and sugar, lots and lots of Monster, many Reese's cookie cups, this 600 calorie strawberry cheesecake muffin that my local gas station sells (twice), and an entire bag of cheese puffs. I wanted to get all of my favorites and desires out of the way for when I started my diet. So for those six days, I loaded up on food. I also gained 6.2lbs.
Now there are a few things to be said about this. I knew that that kind of junk food weight, especially the immediate weight, is the first thing you loose on a diet. And low and behold, at the beginning of my third day, I'm down 7.8lbs. Yeah I know I could be all celebratory, but in reality, it's more like 1.6lbs. And still that could flex up/down during the next few days.
I also noticed in that 6 days that my pure junk food diet did more than just make my weight go up. My complexion took a dive. It does this from time to time, but I never realized how much this is probably food related. I also jogged to the mail man when my Nutrisystem arrived (I was excited) and found my chest actually hurt for a few hours and I felt sick to my stomach. Despite what my weight might be, jogging a short distance like that has never really been a problem. And lastly, my wrists, fingers, and ankles ached with arthritic pain. I have never been diagnosed with arthritis or anything, but I have felt it "coming" for years periodically, mostly in my wrists and elbows. And during those six days, the pain in my joints was so bad at one point, I actually had to take a ibuprofen.
Day 1
The night before, I picked out each of the foods I would be eating for turbo week, including the shake and the bar, and put them aside. This way, there was no question. I also put together 1 cup baggies of carrots and cucumbers for snacks just in case I got hungry (as vegetables are "free" foods meaning you can eat "however much you want").
So the beginning of Day 1, before heading out to the woods for opening of Squirrel season, I packed up my breakfast bar, the NutriCrush bar, two bottles of water, and two baggies of vegetables. I ended up eating it all before noon, not feeling too hungry. Not really satisfied so much (I ate a blueberry bar for breakfast whereas I would have loved to eat chocolate) but OK.
I also ate the bean soup to get it out of the way (beans, gross) and I figured the first day would be the easiest. I added a ton of pepper and it was pretty good. I cooked up the wax beans with garlic from a recipe in the little Nutrisystem book and thought they were pretty good. I didn't realize you could cook something like that without at least a 1/4 cup of butter or oil. Honestly, one of the biggest reasons for getting on this diet is because I really have no idea how to cook healthy. In fact, I've never seen a vegetable meal prepared by anyone in my family not cooked in oil or butter. But again, I was surprised by the wax beans and ate them all up.
By 3 o'clock I was starving. I ate more vegetables which got me through. Starving again, drank some herbal tea with lemon. Went out Squirrel and Partridge hunting, and came back starving. Finally ate my dinner (chicken pasta parmesan with dry sauted peppers, onions, and tomatoes) then my shake, which I drank too fast and then later went to bed kind of hungry.
They weren't kidding when they said the first week is the hardest.
Day 2
As the turbo takeoff kit comes with 3 lunch bars (literally, candy bars for lunch), I knew I had to make sure I ate on every-other-day so as to not push myself off the edge. In fact, each day I organize my food ahead of time (takes about 30 seconds). As the volume of each food is so different, even in the same food category, I try to pare breakfast muffins with lunch bars and big dinners all on the same days. Opposite days, I eat a breakfast bar, warm lunch, and small dinner.
So heading out for opening of Early Doe Season, I got winded by a deer. I'm pretty sure it was the blueberry muffin I was eating (it did smell good though). Then the NutriCrush bar towards then end of the morning hunt. They are good by the way, very chocolatey. Very, very good. I have a hard time controlling myself around sweets, but geeze those are good. Luckily they are crazy expensive so I don't feel the desire to sit and mow them all.
Coming back I was starving and all I was going to be able to have for lunch was a fricken candy bar lunch bar. So what did I eat? Steamed broccoli in (dry) sautéed onions and peppers. It's probably because it's been several days since I ate junk food, but onions are quickly becoming my favorite vegetable. It's probably because of their sugar content, especially when you cook them, but geeze are they good.
Once I felt the hunger pains again, towards early afternoon, I ate the chocolate graham lunch bar. THAT was good too. Oh man I love chocolate, I love the real stuff, the light stuff, the dark stuff, and even the fake stuff. Every one of my teeth are a sweet tooth.
Then I (dry) sautéed literally every different vegetable I could find sans green peppers (I'd eating the heck out of these in the last two days and I wanted a break), but it had purple and white onions, tomatoes, a piece of jalapeno, wild asparagus, the last couple green beans from the garden, mashed garlic, and a bunch of wilted cabbage and added these to the chicken alfredo. I am finding this diet is very complimentary to getting rid of the last bits of vegetable garden that would have otherwise just gone to waste.
With the chicken pasta parmesan from day 1, I microwaved it to the instructions, and then added it to the vegetables once they were done cooking. With the chicken alfredo, I added a little water to make the alfredo go a little farther, and found I had to cook it bit longer than I should have needed to. With that, the noodles were a bit overcooked :(. If I could do it again, I would microwave it and add it to the end of the cooking process. Based on other reading, I think this is the best way to maintain the texture.
Day 3
I was out very late last night looking for the doe I shot in the shoulder and never found :(, I woke up quite late today. It is already noon and I have only been up for two hours. I debate skipping foods and meals, but I know I will regret it the next few days so I shall eat my NutriCrush bar once I'm done. Oh no, chocolatey goodness and I'm not even starving :).
Supplementary A La Carte Food
Like I said in the beginning of this post, I am obsessive compulsive and have done a ton of research thus far. I spent a lot of time yesterday keeping busy in the blind by investigating Nutrisystem A La Carte prices. I should say, as it is still turbo week, and I know myself well, I am absolutely terrified of screwing up my diet with weekly flex meals. As this is Month 1, I just don't think I'm ready for that.
I haven't cheated at all, and part of that is that I know exactly what I am to eat for each meal, sans the added vegetables, but with my package, I'm going to be short 4 days worth of meals (i.e. the flex meals). I should mention as I have in previous posts, I'm on the Basic Plan, which includes NO frozen food, only pantry items. So to abide both these problems, I would like to purchase a handful of days worth of frozen food to mix things up a bit, and cover me for the flex days that I don't think I'm ready for.
I've looked into the different multi-kits provided by Nutrisystem, and I mentally picked out the 'Select 10'. It is 10 days worth of frozen-only breakfast/lunch/dinner/desserts, including some foods not available purchased in the a la carte package. As exciting as this package is, a commenter noted that if you picked out 40 meals yourself, it is roughly $4 cheaper than just picking out 40 of your own frozen items. I found this to be roughly accurate. Though I am still tempted, I've decided my desire to try the Tiramisu (snack) and the Strawberry Cheese Crepe (breakfast) have pushed me to pick out 8 days worth of food on my own, as well as keeping as few items in the freezer as possible. 8 days will be enough to cover all the flex meals for my first two months [technically Turbo Week has no Flex Meals so actual # of days is 7].
I also found there is a price difference depending on how/when you have this food shipped to you. Right now, if you have things added to your existing order, you get about 20% off. However, if you do a separate real time order, you can get 30% off [or 40%] and might be able to take advantage of the free NutriCrush bars advertised through the NuMi app (with $100 a la carte purchase). When I first added this coupon, it took away my 30% off, but you might be able to make the two coupons work together. [Update: You can make the two coupons work together, but it charges you $8 shipping for the bars :/].
We are going to the grocery store at the end of Turbo week, at which time I'm going to see what I can find for Nutrisystem foods at Walmart. It looks like they have frozen foods in the grocery section (which, based on my research, are a little more expensive, which was surprising), but we will see and I will keep you updated. NutriCrush bar here I come!
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