Nutrisystem: Diet Cheating

Day 4

Well down 9.2lbs as of today.  Yes I weigh myself daily at the same time each day.  I've heard so many different takes on weighing ones self.  I've heard only do it once a week, or once a month, or never.  Many people oppose weighing daily because they claim it sabotages one's diet.  They say it convinces you you aren't succeeding, so you give up.  I can understand that.  However, from my personal experience, I don't maintain accountability if I don't weigh myself daily.  There have been many a month that I gained 10lbs to 20lbs and I didn't even notice while it was happening.  Looking back I don't really know how I couldn't have noticed, but I think I was just never that conscious of my outward appearance, at least when it came to limiting my intake. 

I ate the Cinnamon Raisin Baked Bar for breakfast and it was surprisingly good.  Lots of cinnamon and there was like a coating of sugar on it.  I'm throwing together some onion (veg), carrot (veg), and cucumbers (veg) in chicken broth (free) right now instead of diving into my morning snack.  I think just because noon has always equaled lunch time, doesn't necessarily mean that is when I should eat lunch.  I'm excited because I'm finally making a dent in some of the home canned goods I made earlier this year.  I'm also excited to use the canned chick peas to make hummus (1/4 cup = 1 SC) next week when I can start adding in Smart Carbs and Power Fuels. 

Cheating

I've been looking up other blogs and vlogs on Nutrisystem.  Most of the posts are clearly early in the process.  And one theme I noticed with nearly all them is the person is always cheating on the diet.  Literally from Day 1.  "Oh it's not gonna kill me."  Either sugar or creamer in their coffee or dressing on a salad.  Those little things are what got us to these places.  It's like going all day eating fat free this, sugar free that, and carb free whatever.  All these foods counteract each other.  The fat free dressing is high in sugar.  The sugar free syrup is high in fat.  And on and on and on. 

If you do the first day (which you should NOT cheat on your first day of your diet).  If you find that you need that much more, plan to add X number of calories or Power Fuels or Smart Carbs or whatever, but STILL MEASURE IT.  You will not loose weight as fast as you would if you didn't, but you will still likely consistently loose weight.  Throwing a dash of this or an extra one of that is how you quickly loose track of what you ARE doing and find yourself (unhappily) surprised on weigh in day.

The whole reason I have desired to be on this diet for as long as I have is because it's easy.  You literally can't screw up unless you DELIBERATELY sabotage yourself with your extra extras. 

Coffee

Black coffee can be terrible.  I have had some of the most awful coffee.  Even black coffee with any amount of milk or dairy is awful.  But coffee is what gets me up in the morning.  I've had interviews where I didn't drink coffee ahead of time and I could feel this wall in my head.  I consistently do better in interviews when I've consumed coffee.  54% of American adults consume at least one cup of coffee daily (Harvard, 2010).  This has likely increased since that study.  But how do you drink coffee without all the dang sugar and creamer??  I am a sugar addict, but I found I could drink black coffee (and actually enjoy it) when I poured it over ice.  It cools it and waters it down, which really cuts the bitter and makes it taste pretty dang good.  It tastes better than water and is a great way to consume water.  If you want it hot?  Prepare it lighter than you normally would.  Both make it drinkable and I found even when I wanted to add sugar and creamer, it made the coffee taste terrible (it was like drinking flavorless milky sugar water).