Nutrisystem Day 1

My husband and I are giving Nutrisystem a try. I thought it would be fun to blog about it along the way because we had no idea what to expect when we ordered the food for the plan.

Breakfast
My breakfast included a 3.5 oz bag of low fat granola. I chose to eat it dry rather than have milk with it. It was really good, and it tasted as good as anything I've bought at the store. Next, I had 1 cup of raspberries. Normally, I just have oatmeal in the morning with no fruit so this was a nice change. I had water to drink. I saved my 8 oz. of dairy for a latte, which I bought at the Starbucks below my office building.

10 a.m. Status update -- Kind of hungry but not ready to pass out.

10:45 a.m. Status update -- DYING for lunch but make myself wait until 11:20 a.m.

Lunch
I was very curious about lunch because the box makes the Caesar Salad look delicious. So I opened the box and there was no salad inside (We were really wondering how they were going to accomplish that). Inside is a packet of chicken and a packet of dressing/Parmesan cheese bits. Luckily, I had sliced an entire cucumber to take to work for a snack. I am using that as my "lettuce." Now, I know what to pack for my next boxed salad meal!

For lunch, you provide your own protein and 2 servings of vegetables. I ate 2 servings of green beans. My dairy is a low fat Oikos fat free yogurt with honey. It says in the guide that a yogurt (if that is what you choose) should be at least 7 grams of protein (mine is 8 grams) and about 120 calories (I hit that right on the nose). I love this yogurt!

I packed my husband's lunch, and he reported that the Nutrisystem lunch he had was good. He's also enjoying the kid-sized Honey Nana yogurt I packed for him (He wrote: "This honey-nana stuff is good. quite good actually). So far so good.

So how is this boxed meal?

The dressing tastes great, and I can tell there is Parmesan cheese bits in it. I miss the croutons, but that's fine. Some of the chicken bits have an interesting texture, but other pieces taste like normal chicken. There's just not a lot of food in this box, but I understand that I've grown accustomed to large portion sizes. So far, the food is not as bad as we thought it was going to be when the shipment arrived yesterday. Here is a photo of the food in my bowl:

I added more cucumbers as I ate them to ensure that each bite had some dressing on it. There was a lot more dressing than I would normally use, which is nice. But what do I do with the rest of it? Slurp it up? The serving on the side of the box says to eat the entire contents of the package. Slurping dressing sounded awful so I tossed it. 

The afternoon snack was a small pudding and a fruit (which I forgot at home).

1:30 p.m. Status update -- Very hungry and headache is starting!

2:00 p.m. Status update -- Stark raving hungry, but I avoid eating because I know I have just a pudding cup (sugar free).

2:30 p.m. Status update -- Must eat!!!!!!! Pudding cup contents disappear too quickly.

2:55 p.m. Status update -- Must take Advil. Head is throbbing and starting to feel light-headed.

3:30 p.m. Status update --Need dinner or snack. Instead, I drank a 23-oz bottle of water. I'm also sucking on a sugar free hard candy (just one, lemon flavored).

4:30 p.m. Status update --Work day over. Fled home. At home, devoured the Nutrisystem chocolate peanut butter bar (good but too small) and fell onto the couch.

5:10 p.m. Status update --Time for dinner -- cannot wait. The bar probably hadn't hit the stomach yet.

Upon examining the available meals in my box, I picked a spinach and cheese ravioli with meat sauce meal. It went into the microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds (it's not a refrigerated dinner). I peeled back one corner of the film as instructed and wait. The darned thing explodes in the microwave -- which I had cleaned very well on Sunday -- leaving behind a mess that resembles "modern art." There go my calories -- all over the top and sides of the microwave! The meal smelled good, but it is of course too small. Take a look at the box (I was too hungry to take the time to snap a photo of the actual food in the dish).

The food filled my stomach so I went to bed with ice on my head, hoping to rid myself of the headache. This did not work. An hour later, I got up and ate my veggies and fruit. I decided that since part of my dinner had decorated the microwave and some of the Caesar dressing hit the trash, that I was entitled to some PB2 (powdered peanut butter with 45 calories in a 2 tablespoon serving). The dinner section of my meal plan book says to eat some "fat." I checked the back of the book, and I discovered I was allowed 1 teaspoon of creamy (regular) peanut butter. Thankfully, the PB2 has nearly the same stats as a teaspoon of the real stuff so I happily dipped a large apple (that counts as two fruits) into the PB2. The food eased my queasy stomach. I felt better. Too bad I ate my dessert earlier!

When husband gets home from work at nearly 8 p.m., he's even more desperate than I was only without the headache. His dinner included 2 veggies (I gave him salad with dressing), 1 fruit (grapes), and 1 fat (3 squares of real graham crackers). In addition, he ate the Nutrisystem meal pictured below.

It smelled delicious to me, like it was perfectly seasoned. I heard no complaints so I guess he was happy. His dessert was 1 Weight Watchers ice cream bar with some fat free Reddi-whip whipped cream.

With waters in hand, we spent the evening thinking about tomorrow's breakfast.

Let's see how long we last!