Nutrisystem

I've really been struggling with following and sticking to a diet. I find myself finding new diets to try thinking it'll be the one and I don't stick to it. I start out on a Monday doing great but by midweek I'm tied of the food I'm eating and I end up eating something I shouldn't and figure oh well I'll just make this a cheat meal, which turns into a cheat week and then I swear I'll start again Monday and stick to it...it's a vicious cycle. The only thing I've actually stuck to for longer then a week and lost weight on was jenny Craig. It was before the ex and I separated and it was too expensive to do that and still have to buy food and cook for him too. I liked how easy it was-pick your food, eat it, lose weight. I decided to look into nutrisystem, which is something I wanted to do awhile ago but thought was too expensive. I thought I'd compare it to jenny Craig and if it was cheaper I'd do it. Well it's cheaper then jenny Craig and you get 28 days of food instead of 7. My schedule is unpredictable so having to go in to jc every week on a set day at a set time to met with my coach and get my food was hard. So I like being able to get 28 days of meals all at once. It's not cheap but considering how much I spend at the grocery store each week it will end up saving me money. And it's practically half the cost of jc.

So I stated today with the fast 5. The fast 5 is a pre-packaged box that contains 7 breakfasts, lunches and dinners. And also 7 energizing and 7 craving crusher shakes. You also need to have 4 servings of veggies a day. I chose a plan where I can choose what I want to eat so the rest of my food was in the box and the first 5 box was in there too. The fast 5 is supposed to help you lose 5 pounds the first week and after that you add more to your daily diet. You get 3 "powerfuels" which are high quality proteins (lean meats, fish, yogurt, nuts, cheese, eggs), 1 "smartcarb" which is bread, fruit, grains, pasta, starchy veggie), and up to 3 "extras" (avacado, condiments, fat free creamer, cream cheese, dressing), and then there's a list of free foods like herbs, lemon and lime juice, mustard, salsa, soy sauce, spices, vinegar.

You get a special tracking book for the fast 5:





And a little tracking book for the rest of the month:





I like that in the back of the tracker it has lists of the "powerfuels", "smartcarbs", etc.





They have lots of options for foods and I'm really excited and hopeful for this month! I'd like to lose at least 10 pounds this month but am truly hoping for a lose of more like 15 pounds! Your also supposed to do 30 minutes of activity per day. I'm going to aim to a minimum of 30 minutes but hopefully more! I'd like to try to go on a walk everyday and do a workout video too. It'll be nice to just do whatever I feel like and not follow a specific program. I might do some of the 21 day fix workouts or find something else that looks good.

I started today and had a surprisingly good double chocolate muffin for breakfast. It didn't taste like diet food at all! I heated it in the microwave for a few seconds and it was moist and yummy. I had the energizing shake for snack and it didn't taste as bad as I was expecting! I want wonderful, but not too bad either. For lunch I had the loaded baked potato lunch and it was ok, the texture kinda surprised me and I wasn't thrilled with it but I think it's something I'll get used to and the taste wasn't bad. I also had 1 cup of veggies which counts as 2 servings (cauliflower, carrots, zucchini and squash). I'll have a cravings crusher shake for a snack in a few hours and then dinner a few hours after that. For dinner I had the Italian flatbed pizza with 1 cup of veggies. The pizza was really good! Small but yummy. I actually felt really full after dinner and today I only felt hungry as it got close to being time to eat again. The foods/portion sizes you eat don't keep you full for very long but luckily this diet has you eating every few hours. I ate dinner at about 6 and now it's 8:30 and I do feel hungry but it's probably because I'm used to eating around this time at night. While I watch tv I usually snack on junk that I shouldn't be eating. I'll probably go to bed pretty soon so I can avoid the temptation to find crap to eat and cheat. I really want to stick to this and I'm determined to! And it never hurts to get more sleep! I'll finish my fast 5 on Saturday and then on Sunday we are going to Olive Garden for dinner for my sisters birthday. That will be my only "cheat" that I'm allowing myself to have during these 28 days. I really want to get the most out of this program and I'll get out of it what I put into it. I feel that if I really stick to it I will get results. I know it will take more then 28 days to lose the weight I want and need to lose so I will probably do this program a few times, if this first 28 days goes as well as I'm hoping it will!

I love that other then making the veggies there isn't really much I have to do or think about. At meal time I just pick which item I want to eat. And just warm it up. I also like that there are bars as breakfast and lunch options so if I'm not going to be home for these meals I can just take one with me!