Day 23 Wednesday

Woke up feeling the PMS bloat. I will so not get on the scale because I will just discourage myself, even if I know it's all water retention. Which as a side note, I've been way thirstier than I usually am.

Before starting yet another crazy day I happily had the Double Chocolate Muffin. Aside from the top being a little weird and sticky, this is a total thumbs up, pretty easy to eat breakfast-though not on the go. It's too sticky to eat on the move without a few napkins or wetwipes on hand. I felt fine after eating it and needed to get started on my errands before every place got crowded (have you ever been to the craft store after 2? You'll spend more time on line than shopping) so I didn't have the other 2 breakfast portions I am meant to. Try as I might 95% of the time I can only eat one of the three, even if I am eating late and after the gym.

Lunch: Creamy Tomato Soup. I ate this super fast in between errands. But even though I wasn't supposed to, I had a piece of the fresh bread I had picked up as part of DH's dinner, with a piece of Mini Babybel Light cheese. It's the PMS!

Missed my afternoon snack again. I'm much more of a night time snacker than midafternoon; especially since I no longer have a desk job.

Dinner: Vegetarian Chili. It was mostly various beans and soy. In this instance I like soy as an ingredient. Boca burgers are one of my favorite things in the world. I think perhaps in the second month, if I feel a rut with lunches or dinner I'll swap an entree for a veggie burger; they are low calorie and pure protein. Anyhow, this chili was really good, albeit a puny serving. Even DH thought it was good (and seemed slightly disappointed that I liked it because it meant he couldn't finish it). It wasn't too spicy which is a total plus and it was very thick and rich. While that bode well for my taste buds and tummy it did not for photography.


Dessert: I was so stoked for this. It was the Chocolate Cake, but I was futzing with it. I first cut it in half length wise, leaving me with 2 still decent sized pieces of cake. I microwaved a few sliced strawberries and blackberries with a little bit of low sugar raspberry preserves (a free food, but I didn't even use a spoonful, just enough to melt down to a sauce). I spread 1/2 of the warm berry mixture on top of the bottom half of the sliced cake. I then squired a little fat free whipped cream (free food) on it then topped that with the top of the cake, poured the rest of the berry mixture and another squirt of the whipped cream. In retrospect I should have a) left them as 2 pieces to last longer and b)squirted the whipped cream on the side because it all melted into the berries. There wasn't need to warm the cake because the berries were warm enough to take care of that. It looked so good I couldn't wait to find where I put my camera and dug in. So, so good. I was sad that I ate it before 9pm because it meant I was done for the day.

Day 22-We've made it to Week 4

Alright, I'm at the 4th week of the program, I've lost weight and I don't want to kill myself. Good times. I decided I would do one more month. But of course I am making changes. The second month might be much harder since I'll have even less options, though there are a couple of things I am adding in (there's a mashed potato lunch thing? How did I miss that?). As a bonus of sorts, I will be on vacation in Ireland for a week or so (where I won't post daily updates) so there's meals I'll have saved for when I get back and will finish up the program after I return. Just have to remember to cancel as soon as I get back. I also plan to try and stick with the program as much as I can, while still enjoying my vacation.

Breakfast: I got to the gym late so I got home late, and still had no skim milk. So I just ate the Crispy Rice cereal dry and stirred some into my 4 oz Fiber One strawberry yogurt. I couldn't eat any fruit because I just wasn't hungry enough. The name of the cereal makes you think of Rice Krispies; they do not taste like Rice Krispies. They aren't as sweet. They are okay in their own way, but disappointing if you're expecting some snap, crackle and pop.


Lunch: This did not quite work out right. I had some unexpected travels and wasn't able to prepare and pack some carrot sticks or anything like that. So while out and about I tried to find the healthiest thing I could nibble on because it was pushing 4, I still wasn't home and I wanted to eat desperately. I managed to find a bag of Chicken Jerkey. I love this stuff. I ate more than a serving but the stats are pretty decent so I didn't feel bad about my choice.

Afternoon Snack: was non existent, again.

By the time I got home it was pretty close to 6 so I decided to make my quick little salad, and even though dairy isn't a dinner option I used the one I missed in my afternoon snack in my salad (fat free feta cheese). I got to have the dinner entree I missed the other night- Chicken Pasta Parmesan. It was really good. The sauce was sweet with a little bit of spice. The chicken itself was a bit meh. The pieces are kind of puny. But otherwise a good solid pasta option. Could have used a little more cheese taste. And it was really hard to not grab a piece of bread to have with this. I suppose that's a habit to break since that's carb overload.


Dessert: Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies. Though I prefer a chewier cookie these hit the spot mostly because there are a few of them in the pack. Think Famous Amos cookies in terms of size and texture. I was still kind of hungry so I thought a sugar free pudding couldn't hurt.

Day 21 Monday

This is the end of week three and at last weigh in it's just about 10 pounds. However at this point in the plan we combine it with the settling in of PMS symptoms. There are three things I want at these points in time: cheese, chocolate and lush fresh (multigrain) bread. And I can't eat them in the comforting PMS doses. So we'll see how I hold up. I'm also not weighing myself as regularly for a while. I might want to kill myself.

So after a weekend of barely eating I started my day off with a hardboiled egg before heading to the gym for an hour on the treadmill (4 miles). I wasn't hungry before I left the house, but after showering and such I got super hungry. My breakfast options set out for the next few days involve milk which I don't have. I had a pear while doing some work online. Before I knew it the clock said 12:00 and I didn't see the point in adding another breakfast item. However come 1:30 I was wicked hungry. It's catching up to me there.

Lunch: Oh look, something new. New to taste and oh so hopeful: Black Beans & Rice. Just in case it didn't work out I had a few lunch options left over from days I didn't eat. So I wasn't super worried that it could be gross. It's beans and rice. I grew up on that; though we were more of a kidney bean household than black beans. But I do like to use black beans in salad and in quesadillas (I use canned Goya but I always rinse that liquid stuff off). I kept picturing this as more of a soup than rice and beans because on the picture there are decidedly more beans than rice. Happy to say it was a good mix of both. It set up very well, and though it doesn't look pretty and it was a little spicier than I would have preferred (thanks to chili powder at the bottom of the ingredient list) it was very tasty. Perhaps the next one I will add a little fat free sour cream (which I didn't have on hand). I wound up taking a long walk to my brother's house and picked him up some Wendy's on the way (not torture since I don't eat fast food anyway) and while there I got myself a side salad to at least complete some of the veggie requirement. I missed a dairy/protein though.


The tummy ache that I thought signaled hunger was still annoying me by early evening leaving me to wonder if I was hungry, my insides were mad at me or this is just the joy of the onset of PMS. Regardless, John had made plans for us to meet up with some people for after work drinks and we left too early for me to have the dinner entree I set out, which I really want to try and for some reason only have one. My plan was to hopefully be able to get some sort of small salad and have the dinner when I got home. Unfortunately, the salad turned out to be a pile of lettuce which is so incredibly unfun. By they time we got home it was 10pm and a little late to have a dinner entree (damn!).

Of course I had the dessert: Chocolate Nougat Bar with Peanuts and Caramel. Where has this been? It was just like a snickers bar. I loved it. I'd put it between the Peppermint Cookie and Thin Mint Crisp in terms of taste, texture and satisfaction. This dessert really delivered.

Days 18, 19, 20_the Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was a fail on so many levels. I was just too busy and too out of the house for extended periods of time to really stick with the program and eat all the meals. I pretty much just wound up eating fruit and reduced fat cheese (ok and more bread when I hadn't eaten all day).
Friday I did have a somewhat proper lunch. I had the Chicken Salad again. It's still just ok and way too goopy. Once again it was all about having some of that fresh bread! I had it with lettuce and tomato and for my protein I had a serving of edamamae. I tossed the beans with some Nutrisalt (low sodium salt) and fresh lemon juice and they were Yum!

I didn't eat again until dinner when I had a plain salad of mixed veggies with fat free cheese. I was going to have something else but I just wasn't that hungry. Plus my brother got a new dog and brought her over. It was however slightly cruel of DH to have me call in their chinese/sushi order when I couldn't have any. Ok, I stole the fortune cookie.
I did have Friday's dessert which was Buffalo Pretzel Sticks. Much like the last bag of pretzels these were pretty broken up too. I liked those honey mustard ones from the other week but these weren't as good. Well, they were, they were just spicer than what I was looking for in a snack. I'm sure had I let DH try one he would have liked it.
Saturday I started off right having the Cinnamon Roll. This time I spun it in the microwave for a little while. I think a little while longer it would have been so much better. The outer ring of the bun still had that funky texture but the inner ring tasted pretty good. And the icing melting sure helped also. Picture is a little blurry. sorry.I had another reduced fat string cheese again. God, I love cheese.
I was busy and out of the house so I didn't eat again until dinner, when DH and I went out to our regular spot. Had the salad with grilled chicken and though I only wanted 2 glasses of wine, I got a third on the house. Yeah, I drank it.
Sunday I wound up not eating until dinner when I grazed on some chopped veggies, fruits and yes fat free and reduced fat cheeses.
Monday we start our whole new issue with making the plan work.

Day 17 Thursday

I really really have to get a digital scale. I want to make sure my eyes aren't playing tricks on me (plus if it reads half pounds that would still be a good motivator). But let's just say, I'm still all smiles.

Breakfast: Was going to be pancakes again but had to run some early AM errands for the DH and myself. I switched it with another chocolate chip granola bar which I ate while out and about. I staggered breakfast with a banana and an egg before I left (and had the bar an hour or two later).

Lunch: I had very very late again. How do I have no time to eat when I work from home? I had the Pasta Parmesan. To it I added half a pouch of chunk light tuna as my protein and also more broccoli and about 6 cherry tomatoes as my veg. I dunno, it tasted a little off today as opposed to the last time. I know the only difference is I added tuna this time instead of chicken but that wasn't it. Maybe since it has to stand for 6-8 minutes to thicken and fully cook the pasta it got a little too cold and that was it. It sure looks pretty though. I didn't totally finish this. Maybe next time the whole packet of tuna and spin it in the microwave again. Or half tuna half reduced fat parm or something.
Afternoon Snack: Since I ate lunch at 4:30, this snack went a little sideways in the time department. Again I had some string cheese and I also had a few grapes.

Dinner: Good thing the DH was working late so that I could make both of our dinners late. I had something new tonight. It wasn't one of my selections. Either way this Sloppy Joe is mercifully meat free. Now I don't typically eat sloppy joes so like that broccoli soup from last week this is a total taste experiment. I got to pair it with a small roll, and today I happened to pick up some lovely whole wheat rolls for DH. I used half of one for my Sloppy Joe. I may have been more excited about the roll though; I really miss fresh bread! It had a weird taste to it that I can't quite put my finger on it. It looked like sloppy joe, but saucier than the photo on the packet. I guess I expected more of a tomato sauce kind of taste to it. I thought there was way too much for a roll so I only had half, but I didn't finish that half. I was saddened to waste the bread. I didn't eat a salad like I really should have. I'll level with you-since I tossed the majority of the dinner I ate the other half of the roll with reduced fat cheese. Sue me.

Dessert: Chocolate Caramel Bar I'm not sure if I picked this or not. If I did then it's not what I was expecting. The picture makes it appear that the bottom is a layer of chocolate. It's not, it's just coated. I didn't really taste any caramel at all to this. There was a weird aftertaste to it. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. DH finished it and agreed. I checked the ingredients and it's primarily soy based. I know I don't like those kind of "treats" so I'm sure it's related. This was just plain unpleasant.

Day 16-Wenesday

Looks like there's another pound lost, sweet.

Breakfast: Double Chocolate Muffin. Hello old friend. Still rich and tasty. Though I have noticed the muffins and even dessert cakes have oddly flat tops. Also had a hard boiled egg and a banana. Not all at the same time though. Don't know if I'm supposed to eat it all at once or not but I just can't.
Lunch: Sigh, I was running around all day doing errands for the DH/boss man and missed lunch..completely. Good thing breakfast was staggered.

Afternoon Snack: By the time I figured lunch (which would have been something I tried before and didn't like, so it's not like I really missed anything tasty) was a Fail it was 4pm. Just nibbled on about 5 or so grapes and another WW string cheese. I am so glad I found these. I am a cheesaholic.

Dinner: I decided to eat in stages; start with the salad and then make the entree-Southwest Style Chicken Wrap-later. I tossed together a romain leaf, half a small plum tomato, some cucumber, carrots and celery as my 2 veggie servings (have a mentioned how glad I am that all my fave salad fixins are unlimited?) with 2 tbsp of fat free Italian dressing. It's amazing how easy it is to underestimate just how much dressing one would actually use if not measured. I also figured that since I missed lunch it couldn't hurt to add some shrimp and fat free feta cheese, both of which I weighed to accurately plug into the nutrisystem online calorie counter. When I had the wrap I had the little tortilla with it. It's still not impressive but at least it accompanies this meal better than the buffalo chicken. For my dinner fat I had a 100 calorie packet of Wholly Guacamole. Super yummy. I keep these in my freezer and defrost them whenever I make something remotely Tex Mex. I believe I will start thinking of this more as a quesadilla type than wrap type meal.

Dessert: Peppermint Patty Cookie. Best.dessert.ever. Words cannot continue to describe this. It completes me.

Start of Week 3 Day 15-Tuesday

I'm down another pound or so this week. Wheee. I really need a digital scale. But a pound is a pound and I'm pretty sure it would have been 2 had it not been for the copious amounts of wine consumed this weekend. For it's hit or miss tastes, it continues to deliver as promised (lose 1-2 pounds per week).
Breakfast: Blueberry Muffin. It's back. I decided to toast it this time and spritz with a few sprays of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray, which is a free "food." Not a huge improvement but toasting helped. I didn't realize until after that I could have used a little bit of low sugar jam, which I have and thought of putting on the muffin. If there's another one I think I will toast and jam the next time. And this muffin actually had a few decent sized blueberries. They must have smushed some into the muffin before taking the picture for the package. I had this with an egg, which I pretty much inhaled after returning from the gym. I was pretty full and missed my fruit serving.
Lunch: Tomato Soup. This one is hard to photograph. But it's not hard to eat. It's one of the richest tasting meals in my opinion. I feel like there's a bit of cheesy taste to it. And there's nothing wrong with that! Though I did have a craving for a cracker or two to have with it. I ate this kind of late, but I had a little salad as my veg and protein/dairy servings at a bit of a more reasonable lunch hour (cherry tomatoes, cucumber, fat free feta and fat free italian dressing).
Afternoon Snack: Weight Watchers makes a really tasty mozzarella string cheese. But I forgot the fruit again, blast!

Dinner: Italian Herb Flatbread Pizza. I was really pretty hungry by the time I ate this. I added some diced tomatoes and 4 slices of turkey pepperoni. I ate it so fast the cheese burnt the roof of my mouth. I had some carrot sticks as my other veggie serving. I figure maybe the turkey pepperoni can count as the fat in this case. I can't find it in my little guide. I also don't have a picture because I tore into it before remembering to shoot it.

Dessert: Double Chocolate Almond Cookie. This tasted a bit more brownie like than the brownie did. Though texture wise a little odd for a cookie, it was pretty good. I think it could have been better, but it was good. What I would rather they do with these awesome rich cookies, is make them small so you can have more than one. I also had a kiwi as my fruit.

I went to bed feeling kind of hungry. I really should stop skipping eating.


Bonus: DH came home early and wicked hungry so he decided to try one of those Ravioli's I couldn't have because of the mushrooms in the sauce. The picture has these 2 big nice rounds of ravioli, and that's what you get: 2. The picture, or rather the lighting or some other trick, makes it look full of a lush white ricotta. Not so much in real life. It didn't look very full and it was more of a tan color. When DH was done, he looked at me and said, "What have you got to eat?"
I could probably extract the 2 rounds and rinse them and then cook them in a regular sauce. I'll save that as an option for when I get to something else inedible. That's basically two dicey choices right there.

Day 14 Monday

D'oh! The best laid plans. Missed breakfast again. And I was supposed to have pancakes again. Hoping to see that they can be salvaged. Oh well, I'll save them for a day my breakfast selection is inedible or I'm just jonesing for them. I wound up having a little round of Babybel Light cheese. I've been wanting to try them for a while since my girl Hungry Girl gives them lots of love and I'm in a bit of cheese withdrawl (I can't find my reduced fat Irish cheese!!). So that was pretty much my breakfast. Unless you count the Diet Pepsi I had with it. Nutrisystem recommends cutting out caffeine and this is my only caffeine indulgence. One that I have curbed severely in the past month (one or two a week instead of a day).

Lunch: Cheese Tortellini. I added 2 teaspoons of Reduced Fat Parm cheese to this for lunch as my dairy. I ate around 2 pm. I wasn't really hungry but I didn't want to go totally off plan for a third day in a row, even if I did muck up breakfast. I've had the tortellini before. It's still really good. The sauce is bowl licking good. I'm going to have to remember to eat this with a spoon because it's really hard to get all the sauce without acting like a 5 year old.
I should have had a veg with this but I just wasn't hungry enough.
Which begs the question-what's more important? Following the plan and eating even if you aren't hungry because the plan says to OR to listen to your body's ques and eat when it tells you to?

Afternoon Snack: I forced myself to eat a 50 calorie Fiber One yogurt and a plum.

Dinner: Vegetable Lasagne. I love this. I think with the pizzas it is one of my favorites. If I do this another month I'm getting a boat load of these. I didn't post another picture because it didn't look too pretty this time. And due to unforseen circumstances I was eating at 8:00 and was starvin like marvin. It may not really look like the box, but damn it's tasty.

Dessert: somehow I put another Fudge Brownie so close to the last one. I wasn't really too keen on switching. I paired it with some strawberries that I warmed up to make a little sauce to try and help the little dude out. It's still not quite one of my faves and just makes me sad to see it called a brownie.

Day 12 & 13-Saturday and Sunday

This weekend was an epic fail on sooooooooo many levels. I'll try and stick to the food ones. I knew Saturday was going to be a Nutrisystem fail day. I was going to be out of the house from 7-6pm...and without access to a bathroom or kitchen. I was participating in an outdoor handcrafted market so I couldn't just walk away from my space with no one there to help me out. I did try and plan. I had meant to eat an egg before leaving, but as is par for course with me the idea of eating that early just makes me sick. I could barely look at an egg. I did pack a Nutrisystem Sweetened O's cereal pouch and a 100 calorie pack of dried Cranberries, figuring I could nibble on them all day (this is usally my vendor market snack, dried cereal and dried fruit). Thanks to Mother Nature my day went belly up....and so did my display. I spent the majority of my day holding down my tent and fixing my displays, so I only had a wee little bit of the fruit and cereal. I had to be rescued from my sale (special shout out to the little bro and the uncle pat for rescuing me and my wares from the wind). My initial plan for the day was to have my nibbles at the sale and then go to the cafe up the street and have my salad with grilled chicken and treat myself to a glass of wine, seeing as how I had the calories to spare. Well, after my most frustrating day ever I drank almost half a bottle of Savignon Blanc at the uncle's. Ooops and oh well...if you went through what I went through you'd have drank the whole thing! I did also have a banana, if that counts for anything. I was going to go and get my salad, but once I sat on my couch I was content not to do much more. I kind of grazed for the evening (a habit I am trying to break). I started by having the nutrisystem dessert I had set out for Saturday (I purposely picked the cereal, and swapped some things around so that the lunch was a pasta container I wasn't thrilled with and could skip and dinner was that nasty sweet and sour chicken that I was happy to skip). I had the Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies with a little skim milk. These were quite good and they were little mini cookies. I think there were about 8-10 in the bag. Later, I nibbled on some peanuts and an apple and eventually when I started nodding off at 9pm from being up earlier than usual, having had so much wine and not so much food I toasted up a bagel thin and had it with some Weight Watchers cream cheese and sugar free preserves. No I didn't measure my portions. The wine alone helped bring this days calorie count up to where it should have been. But it certainly was not one of my best days.

Sunday should have worked out well, but I made a mess of it by staying in bed late since I fell asleep early and then woke up in the middle of the night for a few hours. I got up entirely too late to have breakfast, and I had to call the moms for Mother's Day. By the time I got off the phone with her it was lunch time, I wasn't hungry and I had a lot of work to do to fix the mess that happened with all my wares on Saturday (I'm still working on it this Monday afternoon. taking a break to write this). I just started plowing through the things I had to do (you know, when you HAVE to finish something before you can even contemplate something else? that was my mindset and it applied to food). When I did get hungry I had come across what was left of my Nutrisystem Sweetened O's. I figured, what the hey and had them with skim milk. They were better than the Whole Grain O's I had before, but still fall short of the Cheerios taste. I could still eat these though.
When I was peckish again, rather than have the quick little lunch I had laid out I wound up eating some reduced fat feta cheese and a few pieces of turkey pepperoni. Well, I did have a dairy and a protein serving that I missed twice (the milk for the cereal doesn't count).
I had decided to treat the DH to dinner, so we went to the cafe around the corner. We shared some guacamole and fresh salsa (and I limited myself to a few tortilla chips and ate the yums with my fork. My dinner selection was an experiment. I never had it before. It was a nice piece of tilapia and a few new zealand mussels (the huge kind) smothered in a tomato sauce. I tried not to eat up all of the sauce. I could have been a little better but I did better than I would have if I wasn't on Nutrisystem. And, ok, I'll cop to it...I had some wine too. But I had no dessert, not even the Nutrisystem kind. I tried to balance it all out. Let's just hope all of this wine doesn't futz with where my scale has been.
Now, to get back on track.

Day 11 Friday

Breakfast: Apple Strudel Scone. Insert fear here. The chocolate chip scone on the first day was so disappointing. I did not have hopes for this. I don't know if it's because I knew what to expect texture wise or if my taste buds have adjusted to the bland unfun breakfasts, but this wasn't half bad. Could have used a little more apple flavoring to it, maybe some cinnamon. I paired this with a low fat 100 calorie chocolate milk as my dairy. Missed the fruit, oops. I'm still struggling with having breakfast regularly.

Lunch: Tuna Salad on a Bagel Thin. Ahhh, something I know I will like. I chopped up some celery and added that to the tuna salad to give it that crunch I thought it was missing the last time. I also added a little broccoli slaw again and a lettuce leaf for this little beauty down here. Forgot to add a dairy/protein but I was quite satisfied after the sammich so I didn't really mind.
Once again I missed my afternoon snack because I was in a time warp of business and by the time I noticed I figured I would just wait for dinner since I wasn't actually hungry.

Dinner: Buffalo Chicken Wrap. This is the meal I had on the first day of the program that was pretty much the impetus for the blog, and why the url is: that's not what it looks like on the box. This meal so does not look like what is on the box. It is however, very tasty. It's a good wing craving killer. Since I knew what I was in for, I knew I did not want to eat that nasty little torilla it comes with. Truth be told, I don't eat wraps. If you ever open one up, do you see how much there is folded up under the filling? Unless you are getting a high fiber/low calorie one (like from La Tortilla Factory) and making it yourself, I think wraps are kind of silly and you might as well have bread (as long as it's not white). So as you can see in the picture on the box there are big chunks of chicken and the wrap is wrapped properly. When I made it the first time I couldn't wrap it, just roll it taquito (mmmmmm taquitos, sorry, I digress) style because there was more filling than wrap (the wrap is laughably small). Like most things nutrisystem it was heavy on the sauce. At least the sauce is good, even if it is a little spicy for me. I am the whitest Latina you will ever meet (ok half Latina, the Irish side must be what prevents me from diggin spicy foods). Instead of the tortilla I used 2 pretty big romaine leaves to use as a wrap (and a veggie) and to complete the wing experience I had carrots and celery as my veggies. I used them to scoop up some of the filling because the lettuce couldn't hold all of it. I liked this meal much better this way than the first try.

Dessert: Cheese Puffs. These I was excited about. I know a lot of people tend to think the baked variety of crisps are kind of like cardboard, and some are (Baked Doritos I'm looking at you). But I quite like the Baked Cheetos, and I lament that the smaller bags are so hard to find lately (and so are Baked Sour Cream and Onion in the small bags....Lays what gives?) So these spoke to me when I saw them as a dessert selection online. Have to balance out all the sweet with a little savory right? They were good, but they reminded me more of a Fritos Corn Chip than a Cheeto or any other kind of cheesy poof. They also didn't turn my fingers orange, good thing/bad thing. There was quite a decent serving of them in the bag, which I apparently neglected to photograph for you, but I'm pretty sure they are somewhere in remaining pile of food. I was pleased with them, and they did satisfy that evening tv viewing snack craving, but taste wise they were nowhere near to what I was expecting. Now that I know what to expect I'd probably like them a lot more the next time. I also had some peanuts as my dinner fat and a plum as my dinner fruit to this dessert.

Day 10 Thursday

Breakfast: I was crazy busy Thursday and I'm shocked at how I stuck to the plan for the most part. I had to tear out of my house as soon as I got up to run some pretty important errands (which ended in multiple fails, but that's a whole other blog that I'm not starting up) so I didn't have time to sit and have a full breakfast. Luckily it happened that breakfast was a Chewy Chocolate Granola Bar. Understandably after that last one I was scared. But this one was good. It was kind of like a Quaker Chewy. However, in the non Nutrisystem world I tend to only eat granola bars with 100 calories or less. Since I literally ate this on the street, I have no photo. When I finally got home I had my dairy/protein: a 50 calorie 4 oz Fiber One strawberry yogurt (that was the snack food I got at the discount store instead of the crap I usually roll home with).

Lunch: Pasta Parmesan with Broccoli. Sounds good in theory, it's in the vein of what I would get in the freezer section of the grocery store. The picture on the container doesn't look so good. I don't think there was any sort of lighting or angle to make this look good. As with the pasta alfredo the other day I planned to add more veggies to it, and since I get protein I also wanted to add chicken. So while the sauce was setting up I cut up and heated some Perdue Short Cuts Grilled Chicken Strips (super handy to have around, I add it to salads, diet meals like this, I make chicken quesadillas with it and sometimes DH just eats it out of the bag as a snack). As well as about 1/4 cup of frozen broccoli and sliced up about 6 cherry tomatoes. Either I was too impatient and didn't let it stand the full 6-8 minutes or it's just like some of those other meals-goop. So my additions were perfect in taking up some of that sauce. Technically the broccoli and tomato are unlimited and counted as one serving so I should have had another veg but I kind of forgot. I bulked it up enough to be quite filling.


Snack: I had thought of this afternoon snack the other night in bed and I was so excited about it. I diced up a nice Fuji apple (the whole shebang instead of the half I've been having) and sprinkled it with cinnamon and gave it a whirl in the microwave. When it was a bit soft and squishy I added half of my 100 calorie fat free Vanilla Yoplait Light yogurt. Mmmmmm, good. Tricked my tastebuds into thinking it was apple pie or cobbler.

Dinner: We've seen dinner before. It was a Grilled Chicken Breast. Although I should have taken a photo, it looked a bit smaller than the last one. Prior to heating it up, I juiced 1/4 of a lemon over it to perk up the flavor a little more. I tossed it in a salad with my usual veggies (though I miss adding corn and black beans to my salad. They count as a carb on Nutrisystem and I'm not on a plan where I can add one to my meals). I was allowed a 100 calorie bread with it but I didn't have it. I bulked up on the veggies moreso than usual.

Dessert: Fudge Brownie I was excited about this. Brownies are awesome. While this dessert was good, it didn't live up to the other desserts I've had. It also didn't live up to the brownie title. Picture definitely looks better. I was wrapped up in what I was doing so I missed the fruit and fat serving. Oops. Even bigger oops. DH decided to eat super late and got pizza. It was sauceless and cheeseless (it had grilled chicken, pesto, diced tomatoes and olives) and I ate almost half a slice. I've officially called the DH mean for inhaling a pizza pie right next to me after having watched me eat a salad. Wonder if I had enough calories that I didn't eat during the day to cover that. (I know it's not really his fault. I should have had more willpower...or he could have put mushrooms on it so that I couldn't touch it, ha!).

Day 9 Wednesday

Breakfast: Cranberry Orange Pastry. I was afraid. Pastries have not gone well. This was surprisingly good. There were some cranberries in there and the cake was moist with a just right orange taste to it. It was moist, not dry like the others. Hooray for a good breakfast!
Lunch: Cream of Broccoli Soup This selection was a bit of an experiment since I don't eat cream of broccoli soup (potato on the other hand....) I knew it could be hit or miss, and I can't even tell you if it's them or me, since I don't really have a "normal" comparison to the Nutrisystem variety. It was ok I guess. I didn't finish it though. I can say, the broccoli in the soup is nothing like what's on the container. I ate an egg as my protein serving about an hour after my soup got cold.



Oops, got sucked into a time warp and missed my afternoon snack.


Dinner: I'll be honest-I don't usually eat pasta with alfredo sauce. This Penne Pasta & Chicken in Alfredo sauce was basically a compromise on Nutrisystem only having a pasta primavera with tofu (eewww). I knew from the picture when I ordered it that it was kind of plain, so I had planned to add veggies to it, like I usually do to frozen diet meals that are kind of light. The picture on the box is a bit of a cheat. If you look you can see there is some cheese on top-but you can't add a dairy at dinner. Well, maybe one of the other plans you can but not mine. And who doesn't like to add a little parm (reduced fat in this house) to pasta. So it wasn't pretty to look at. I don't think even at an Italian restaurant it looks pretty. But it did taste pretty good. I threw in some broccoli and tomato and since I missed a protein/dairy serving at snack time I added a little parm =)



Dessert: Thin Mint Crisp Bar Oh, I was excited about this dessert. I loved that other mint chocolate dessert and this had to be good. It was super chocolaty with kind of a minty cocoa krispie taste to it. Perfect end of day treat. I mean, look at it; how could that not taste good? I nibbled on my grapes and almonds before having this as a prime time snack.

Day 8 Tuesday-Week 2

Hello Week 2. I haven't gone off the rails eating something "bad." In fact the biggest way I have deviated from the plan is missing meals. Nutrisystem has an online tool where I can plug in everything I have eaten and after a week I can say that they are aiming for someone to be in the 1200-1300 calorie range. I try to make that my daily goal. Unless I miss meals I usually come in closer to 1500-1800. And since DH and I go out to dinner and we both get the evening munchies I go over that a few times a week. I get sucked into the he's having a snack, so I'll have a snack mentality. This plan is helping me break that. Basically the biggest motivation I have to stick to the plan isn't necessarily to see it work, it's that is cost $300 for the month of food and I don't want it to be a waste of money. I'm making my cheapskate tendencies work for me better. Usually they work in that I see a tasty snack for a cheap price and I buy it. I've been very good this week at walking past them in the stores. I'm hoping that all these little mental changes I am making to stick with the plan become habits I continue with after I stop the plan, whether it be next month or the following.
And no matter what I can say about the taste of the meals I'll tell you this it does what it says. In the one week I've been on the plan I have lost 5 pounds. Making a total of 10 since I joined the gym April 4th. This is not counting the other 5 I lost that I somehow gained back and then lost again. Those 5 pounds were the breaking point to start this crazy nutrisystem thing. I have no patience.On to what you are looking for: food porn.
Breakfast: Double Chocolate Muffins. I was torn about how to feel about this choice. All the pastries have been gross, but that chocolate cake dessert was bangin'. There are little chocolate chips inside the muffin and while it's not as stellar as the dessert was, this was a good breakfast. I liked this breakfast a lot. Great chocolaty taste, moist texture and no weird aftertaste. Hooray! I had a successful breakfast! I hope I have more of these. I also had a hard boiled egg as my protein and a banana as my fruit.Lunch: Turkey Dog. Whenever I get dogs, I usually get the soy variety and they sit in my freezer for ages. This wasn't one of my choices, it was one of what they selected for the free week. I figured I'd survive so I didn't ask to exchange it. I could have a bread with it in the 100 calorie range but since I had no buns (since they always go bad because I don't eat the dogs fast enough) I had one toasted slice of light whole grain bread[35 calories] as the bun. A splash of mustard and ketchup because, hey it's a hot dog, it's practically mandatory. I did the turkey pickle combo again and I had a cup of carrots as my other veg. The dog looked like the package, just a little darker. Could have been their lighting. The dog was quite tasty. It's the only one I have so we won't be seeing him again. Though if I reorder I will add in a few.
Afternoon Snack: Yogurt and a plum. Shout out to those Yoplait 100 calorie yogurt parfaits. The lemon flavor and the caramel flavor are awe-some. I feel like I shouldn't be having them.

Dinner: DH wanted to go out to dinner, so we just went to the cafe up the street. I always get the house salad there with grilled chicken. While I could have had that I did want to have the dinner entree I had at home, so I had the salad plain as my veggie servings. When we got home I had the Thick Crust Pizza. I'm not really into thick crust pizzas in general but on this plan I figured pizza is pizza, just go for it. It wasn't a very thick crust. I learned my lesson from the flat bread pizza and this bad boy did not go into the microwave. It probably would have been ridiculously chewy if I did that. I was also hoping that it might solve that weird color I noticed with the flat bread pizza. It didn't; though it could have been that I didn't time it and may have overcooked it. Just like the other one the pizza was solid. Good crust, cheese and sauce all around. I really wish I had an extra protein serving to add some turkey pepperoni to it. Mmmmm, turkey pepperoni. A true test of this plan is if I can avoid one of my fave quick snacks-turkey pepperoni and reduced fat hard cheese.
Dessert: As I mentioned the other day I've moved my fat serving and my fruit serving to later in the evening so I started with the 6 almonds and then I was going to have the 15 grapes but I remembered I had blackberries so I had a handful of them, which was less than the serving guide book said I could have. The dessert itself was Golden Pound Cake. I heated up the blackberries in the microwave to make a little sauce and broke up the pound cake over it. Yum. It was a little darker than the picture, but I'm not splitting hairs.

A Nutrisystem Kudos

The other day I mentioned that I had only just recently realized that 3 of my meals-Cheese Ravioli-contained mushrooms in the sauce. I joked with DH that maybe I could rinse off all of the sauce before heating it up and just add my own sauce to it. I didn't want to chance it. So, I called Nutrisystem about it and explained the situation with the allergy. They were fast and courteous and are shipping me 3 replacement meals of my choosing at no cost for the meals or the shipping. Also, I do not have to return them. DH likes mushrooms, he can eat them. Just like he has eaten some of the other meals I called to have replaced.
The food quality of what I selected (meaning whatever I could find that wasn't red meat, pork or mushrooms) may be 50-50 but the customer service is 100%.

Day 7 Monday

Again, thought I would wake up hungry but not so much. I wasn't excited about this breakfast, it was a Cranberry Granola bar. I don't usually do granola bars for breakfast unless I am leaving the house early. I'll usually throw a 90 calorie Fiber One bar or a 90 calorie Special K Bliss Bar just in case. I had a yogurt and a half a Fuji apple first. Good thing because one bite of that bar and I was done. It was super dry and meh. I'm sure there's someone out there who might like this but I much prefer a chewier granola bar. Actually DH ate it. He thought it was just ok. But he agreed there was a funky taste that had a little hang time.


Lunch: Cheese Tortellini. This was something I was excited about. As I said before I love cheesey pasta. While there wasn't a whole lot of cheese in these, the sauce was nice and flavorful, the pasta tender and the serving somewhat decent given the tiny container. My protein was a slice of turkey wrapped in my veggie-a pickle slice. Weird, kinda, tasty-yes.




I got wrapped up in what I was doing so I incorporated half my snack into dinner and missed the fruit serving.

Dinner: Southwest Style Chicken Wrap. Another meal I was excited about. Mexican/Tex-Mex is right up there with cheesey Italian food. I had already been introduced to the tortilla when I had the Buffalo Chicken Wrap on the first day and I knew it was less than stellar. I had forgotten (I literally just remembered this) that since I didn't like the wrap that I would wrap the contents in a lettuce leaf. Oops. I'll remember to do that for the next Buffalo Chicken Wrap. While it didn't look like the package-hello puny pieces of chicken-it did taste good. And, unlike the Sweet and Sour Chicken I could distinguish the chicken. The sauce was flavorful, and there were beans, corn, black olives and a little rice. There was a decent amount of the filling. It was yummy. I wish I had some avocado, it could have been my fat serving. I had my little salad as usual only since I hadn't had my afternoon snack I added a 1 oz serving of fat free cheese to the salad.
Another little futzing with the plan: since the only fat on the list I eat is the 6 almonds and I don't exactly need them at dinner, nor do they go with dinner I just eat them later in the evening, just like the fruit serving for dinner. I now have a kick ass dessert.

Dessert: Honey Mustard Pretzels. Had to break up all the sweet with some savory treats. These were really good. The only problem with them is why there is no picture-they were mostly broken. They honey mustard flavor was spot on and I liked that they didn't have an overly salty taste to them either. I love that dessert has been 100% epic success with this plan.

And this concludes week one. I survived 1/5 of the plan (I paid for 4 weeks and got one free). I'm still debating whether or not to go ahead with a second month. I still have some foods that I haven't tried yet, so there may still be hope. There has to be a way to rectify breakfast though. Maybe if some of those cereals are better, and there is a chewy chocolate chip granola bar floating around. And there might be a lot of eating of the same few things. We'll see. Two-three months was going to be my max. I do have a vacation coming up in June where I won't be able to follow the program at all. I'd have to do my best in another country. But it's vacation! And, it leaves me with almost 2 weeks of extra food. (I thought I had taken a picture of the whole shipment but I never did.) There's still more pondering and still more taste testing ahead so I've got time.

Day 6 Sunday

Here we have another fail day. Same reason as before. I had to work out of the house today, at a bar. It's a part time gig I've got collecting money at the door for sporting events for the premium cable company. So I kind of have to be at the door at the ready for anyone who walks in; can't be running to the bathroom. Usually the matches are early 9 amd 11am but today they were 12 and 2. I usually don't eat or drink until I am done there for the day, so that I don't have to leave my station if you get my drift. Hunger wise I was fine but once again I was off plan. I can't exactly roll in with fruit and and egg etc. So, I just didn't eat. I got a seltzer when I left which helped squash any hunger I might have had. I actually didn't eat until about 6:00.

Dinner: Vegetable Lasagne with Tomato Basil sauce. I love pasta dishes. The sauce was a little on the sweet side, but I liked that. There wasn't a whole lot of cheese though. Even the Weight Watchers Vegetable Lasagne has more cheese. There were also weird veggies. It was fine, I just don't expect a few beans in my pasta. It definitely looked like there is a lot more filling in the picture. I would eat this again and I was so happy that the one meal I was eating tasted good.
I also had a Bagel Thin with dinner (to soak up the sauce). I know it's off plan but they are 110 calories and high in fiber, not to mention they taste real yum. And let's not forget all I'd had by this point was about 250 calories.
Dessert: You bet your Aunt Fanny I'm having dessert! I had a chocolate chip cookie. It looked good out of the wrapping. Thick and soft to the touch as well as a decent size. Good sized chocolate chips, but I couldn't forget how disappointing the chocolate chip scone was for that first breakfast. Once again, they can't make a breakfast pastry but they sure can make dessert. It was really good. I wasn't all that hungry at the time I finally ate dinner and the dessert. But I was really hungry before I went to bed so I practically inhaled a yogurt.

Day 5-Saturday

I thought that after Friday's near starvation I would be dying of hunger when I woke up. But nope. It may have to do with the fact I'm usually not hungry in the morning anyway. I don't usually feel hungry until about noon or so. I felt lucky to not be starving when I woke up.
Breakfast: Whole Grain Os with skim milk. They look like Cheerios, but not as cheery. I do have Sweetened Os in the box, so maybe that will be the Cheerios taste I was expecting. Decent serving but a little lacking in taste. I can survive. I added an egg for protein and added my fruit serving, a banana, to my cereal. That really helped the taste.
Lunch: I was happy about this selection-Tuna Salad. I love love love tuna salad. I make great tuna salad and I haven't come across absolutely inedible tuna salad. I still haven't. Granted in terms of looking like the package we have a fail. It didn't look too appealing; it was another pouch of goop like the chicken salad. I never make mine like that, I only use enough Miracle Whip to coat it and I add celery, sometimes onion if I have it. Despite how it looked it tasted like a solid good tuna salad. It even had onions in it, sadly no celery. And no relish kick to it. So I did add a pickle (sandwich stacker LOVE those) to the sandwich (using the same light wheat as before), along with a romaine leaf and slices of tomato and a sprinkling of broccoli slaw for crunch. Don't know what broccoli slaw is? Find it, try it and you won't go back to that other kind of bagged cole slaw mix again. I don't even use it as a slaw mix exclusively. As I said I put it in a sandwich, I would mix it in a salad, I've even mixed it in with rice. Yum. I'm not so much into mayo, so when I make the slaw mix I use Miracle Whip, just enough to coat, and I add diced apple. Let it sit in the fridge for a bit and nom nom nom. Along with my tasty sammy I had a yogurt for dairy but I had a brain fart. By the time I remembered it was a second veggie serving I needed (the broccoli, tomato, lettuce and pickle all counted as one) I was already enjoying 5 fresh sliced strawberries.
Midafternoon Snack: I chose protein and had 1 ounce of turkey breast, which was about a slice and a half. I have a digital postage scale that I use to weigh food sometimes. No unitaskers in my kitchen. My fruit was a D'Anjou pear. Next time I have one, I may eat half. They are very big and I'm eating the snack really because the plan says to, not because I am hungry.

Dinner: The entree of the night was Sweet and Sour Chicken with noodles. I love sweet and sour sauce. First we have visual fail. I open the package and all I see is sauce with stuff in it. On the package you clearly see chicken. I wasn't quite sure what was what at first. What in the hell are they taking pictures of? I know why they don't look like what they really look like-no one would buy it. So unfair to desperate people. In addition to visual fail we have the most epic taste fail to date. I didn't even finish it. It had sweet and sour taste, but the chicken was super puny and the noodles were laughable. Actually the chicken was too. Even the DH wouldn't taste it, and he'd taste just about anything. Thankfully I had the salad. I forgot about my fat serving though. Oh well, it's not like those almonds were missed. Once again, eaten because it says to and it's the only thing on the fat list I'd eat.Dessert: I've started pushing my dinner fruit serving to after dinner and am counting it as part of dessert from now on. It makes me feel better. I had 15 grapes, slowly. The dessert selection was Chocolate Cake. I was afraid this would go the way of the breakfast pastries. Happy to say it was enjoyable.Chocolatey and moist, so yum. So, they can make a tasty dessert pastry but not a tasty breakfast one? That's just cruel. But at least the last thing I have eaten every day has been enjoyable.