Thursday, April 29, 2010

Day 3-Thursday

That's it, breakfast pastries from Nutrisystem are just pretty nasty. Too bad I cluttered my breakfast selections with them. Loooong month ahead. If I do this for a second month I am swapping out all the pastries for cereal. I have hope for the cereal. I mean, how can you muck that up? Pastries I can see, but cereal? Today's blueberry muffin definitely didn't look like the package. See all those huge blueberries (or substitute blueberries?) on the package? Non existent in reality. Same texture as the last two as well. Barely a taste of blueberry, but somehow it smelled like blueberry. That's a little creepy.
I don't know if it's the breakfasts themselves or if it's me, but I'm having a hard time getting it all down without feeling sick. I don't typically eat a proper breakfast because it usually leaves me feeling the way I have felt the past few days-waaaaaaay too full. But this is part of the plan. Whereas I would go to the gym and then have a hard boiled egg or a yogurt or a piece of fruit, I'm now have to have all three. It's way too much food for me in the morning. But maybe I am supposed to get used to this? I think when I'm done with this program if I still have trouble with breakfast I'll go back to something small, but have something else in between breakfast and lunch rather than all at once and then waiting. (Or hell, I might start spacing out the breakfast tomorrow-half before the gym the other half after?)
Lunch was Chicken Salad which came in a pouch and I could add bread to. Hello 80 calories for 2 pieces of light whole grain toast. This was a let down visually. *Note on the picture-that's not blurry, that's the way it looks. On the package the chicken looks, well like chicken, out of the package we have goop again. I'm not deluding myself, though I rarely have eaten chicken salad I am a big fan of tuna salad and I know it can run on the goopy side. I expect that from a deli. I do not expect that from nutrisystem. I've also had those Starkist premade tuna salad pouches and though they have similiar stats nutritionally they are not similar in texture. I could make a better looking chicken salad myself with similar stats. Pluses were, the taste was good and there was a definite relishy kick to it, so I didn't add a pickle slice like I am inclined to add to my sammys. I added carrot sticks as my second veggie (slice of tomato and a lettuce leaf in the sandwich were the first) with a tiny serving of fat free tzatziki sauce. Yummy. It was a satisfying lunch if messy.

Midafternoon Snack: I ran errands so I didn't have this until about 4. I wasn't hungry but I'm supposed to have a dairy/protein and fruit. I had tossed a yogurt into the freezer earlier to make a fro yo which I had with a plum.

Dinner: This I am excited about. Pizza. I've tried all the diety frozen kinds-weight watchers, lean cuisine, healthy choice etc and they've all been pretty good. (My fave is the lean cuisine french bread pizza). This easily looks like the picture on the box.
I started off by having my 6 almonds for fat followed by my little salad of the greatest unlimited veggie hits. Then made the pizza. Though it makes perfect sense I was a little surprised at it all being in separate packages to assemble. Duh, I'm so used to frozen. It was good, however going forward I am going to cook it in the toaster oven instead of the microwave. It left it a little chewy. Otherwise it was everything I could expect from a diet pizza. Plus side-it was seasoned very well and the sauce was very good and there was a decent amount of cheese. Not sure why but the cheese as it came out did not look like the box.

Trying to incorporate the fruit serving as a kind of first dessert, so that I can have the nutristystem dessert a little later for the tv munchies. 15 Grapes was my serving.
Dessert: Chocolate Chocolate Chip pudding. Powder in a pouch to which I add 1/2cup of skim milk. I go into this expecting something equal to or greater than a jello sugar free pudding cup. I love those. It misses the mark. Maybe I didn't stir it fast enough but it didn't have a very creamy texture. A little grainy which could be lack of necessary stirring. Chocolate chips inside are yummy and a nice bonus.
Starting to wonder if I'm going to have a day where I enjoy all my meals.
At least I'm not hungry, and I've lost 3 pounds. According to my temperamental scale.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Day 2-Wednesday

So I survived day one and lived to tell about it. So far so good except I am way more focused on food. I mean thinking about it constantly. Argh! A trip to the grocery store didn't help but I just focused on all the fruits and veggies I could get.

Breakfast: Cinnamon Bun. Another chewy pastry and a good example of "that's not what it looks like on the box." It was ok. Smaller than yesterday's so called "scone" just as chewy but a little sweeter. Probably because of that icing.
I had some skim milk and a plum as my dairy and fruit.

Lunch: 3 Cheese Pasta with Chicken. This I had high hopes for when I ordered it. Little did I know it would come in one of those add water soup containers. Frightening, but I have had good things come out of those containers before with soups so I reserved judgment. Oh my god: it was pretty vile and definitely did NOT look like the container. It was a bland colored mush mall. I tried to liven it up using some of my veggie servings in it (broccoli slaw and tomatoes both unlimited and counting as one along with what I had in my side salad). For protein I had a hardboiled egg. This meal is a fail on nutrisystem. I have a few more in the box to choke down at a later date. Maybe next time I will add less water? more? more veggies?Where does the pasta end and the chicken begin? That's broccoli? oh my.
Midafternoon Snack: Cherry Cobbler Yogurt (yummy) and half a Fuji apple. (my fave apple is really big and nutrisystem says to have a small to medium one, so I have half a large apple)

Dinner: The dinner entree itself is grilled chicken. And it accounts for having a small roll with it. Small roll being in the 120 calorie range. So I had a 110 calorie bagel thin. But I didn't eat it as a sandwich. I added it to my salad and had the bagel thin on the side. I was so happy to learn the bread thing =) So it looks like what's on the package and tastes like chicken! Winner! So far this wins the prize for most like whats on the box.
I also had a kiwi as my fruit serving and 6 almonds as my fat.

Finally, Dessert: Strawberry Shortcake bar. I've taken one bite. Pretty good, very sweet. Was expecting a little more firmness than it had. This selection was one of my I can't pick ALL chocolate options.
I'm going to eat this bar very very slowly. Possibly a sugar free jello later.
But very very slowly.

Day 1-Tuesday

Ok, so this is a sparse photo one. I didn't start taking pictures until dessert. But here's what I had sans picture:
Breakfast:Chocolate Chip Scone. Ugh. It was super chewy and bland. I have about 4 more over the course of the month. Sort of looks like what's on the box but I think they should just call it a breakfast pastry, not a scone.

Lunch: Tomato Soup. Super tiny diet portion but super YUM! Rich and thick and creamy and everything tomato soup should be. I hope I have quite a few more of these.

Dinner: Buffalo Chicken Wrap. It was ok. The filling wasn't too spicy which was a plus, but it was kind of goopy. It came with a small tortilla to put the filling into and well, wrap it. Didn't dig the tortilla so I scooped out the inside and ate that. One more of these in the box.

Dessert: Peppermint Cookie Patty. I could marry this dessert. If I could only have one flavor dessert every day for a month I could live with this. It's like a peppermint patty wrapped in a Girl Scout Thin Mint. I hope I have a boatload more.Now, luckily for me the 4 itty bitty meals a day Nutrisystem sent me are not my sole sources of sustenance. I get to bulk things up a bit. It's basically common sense; More fruits, veggies, yogurts etc. And their meals basically should help reset my brain to remember what a normal sized meal should look like.
Here's a rundown of what I get to add (and they send me a list of how much of what I can have as part of their plan. Thank god all my fave salad veggies are unlimited!)
Breakfast: add a dairy or a protein and a piece of fruit
Lunch: A dairy or a protien and 2 veggie servings (those unlimited veggies I mentioned? They all count as one. So I just add carrots which are a serving unto themselves).
Midafternoon Snack: Can I just say thank god for this. I might have to kill myself if I wasn't able to nosh on something. Even if it is a piece of fruit with a dairy or protein.
Dinner: 2 veggies (so my salad again) a piece of fruit and a fat. The fat list doesn't really have a lot of options of anything I want. So right now my daily fat is 6 almonds. Which I have before I start making dinner so that I don't rush through it.

There are also free foods such as my favorite sugar free jello. That's my after dessert dessert, ha! Well, a girl has to keep herself sane while trying to lose weight.

Hi there

Hi I'm Jenn. I'm not even quite sure why I started this blog, other than I just started the Nutrisystem plan out of desperation and people are curious what the food actually looks like. I can tell you that after 2 days, so far we're at 50% don't look like what's on the box (hence the blog URL) and same stats on taste. The 2 seem to go hand in hand. I suppose this is my way of sharing my snarky comments about the food and dealing with the misery of dieting. So let me hook up the camera and start posting pictures from the past 2 days.