Losing weight feels good

So I've been on the Nutrisystem diet for just over a week now, and I already have more energy than I'm used to. As well, I've already lost a pound, and after hovering between sizes for a while, I'm firmly in the lower size. I've only worked out twice though, as I'm letting my body acclimate to the calorie level. I'm ramping it up this next week though.

Five Fast (diet) Findings:

1. The best thing about this diet is that I HAVE to eat everything provided, because it all adds up to exactly 1200 calories. There's no guilt over eating something anymore, because I HAVE to eat it! It's amazing, when I think about what I ate, I don't have to feel any shame for splurging on something unhealthy or sweet. As well, I've stopped trying justify poor eating choices to myself, because there's now a firm, hard line on what's allowed and what's not. Spinach is allowed, Taco Bell is not, end of story. It's surprisingly comforting to have such ironclad rules, especially since I've always WANTED to lose weight, just never had enough willpower to enforce the rules on my own.

2. The fresh-frozen foods are not great. Ironically, they're part of the "gourmet" plan, and they cost more. Even if they didn't cost more, I'd advise against it. I'm downgrading my plan next month to only receive the ready-to-eat meals that need no refrigeration. Not only do I have yet to really find a frozen meal that I love, but whenever I microwave or heat the meal, it tends to not work properly. I put a Turkey Pepperoni Pizza in the oven, and it burnt the cheese on the outside, but the cheese in the middle didn't melt all the way. So I put it in the microwave (a brand-new one, mind you), and it was the same thing, like the cheese itself isn't meltable or something. So far, none of the frozen meals have really gone through the cooking process smoothly. My ready-to-eat foods, though, taste delicious, and I'd much rather have a Flame-Broiled Burger than the Glazed Chicken Tenders (blech). The one that I did enjoy was the Ravioli Formaggio, but it's not enough to keep me paying an additional $75!

3. The Fudge Graham Bar is probably the most incredible thing I've ever eaten. I'm serious. It's soo delicious. And even though it's just a bar, I still feel full afterward (a rarity for my stomach), because there's so much flavor. I only ordered 4 this month and you better believe I'm ordering a bunch next month.

4. On that note, getting bars for both breakfasts and lunches on this diet is important, I didn't realize that before. Here's the deal: I'm a person that normally skips breakfast and lunch, munches around suppertime, then eats a large dinner. No wonder I weigh more than I'd like, I do the exact opposite of everything I'm supposed to do. Anyway, what I've been noticing is that on busy days, I have a tough time carving out time to eat since I've never done it before, especially with breakfast items like the bagel or chocolate muffin, because you need to put cream cheese on the bagel, and the chocolate muffin is so messy that I don't want to eat it in front of other people. Lame, I know, but I'm also your basic self-conscious-about-food overweight person. SOO, I'm ordering breakfast bars next month. They're mess-free, and I can eat one while I'm driving to church, or walking to class. Same with lunch. There are quite a few lunch bars on the Nutrisystem menu, and they are easy to toss in my purse and eat while I'm shopping or running errands. Again, since I'm not used to making the time to eat 3 squares a day, whatever I can do to make that happen more smoothly, I'm all for it.

5. It's much easier to say no to non-approved foods. We had root beer floats at a group activity tonight, and it took me about 5 seconds to remember I can't have it, and walk away from the table. Had I not been on the Nutrisystem diet, I would have easily had "just a small one." But I had dinner and dessert to look forward to, and with an exact 1200-calorie diet, I don't have room for another 200 calories in a dumb root beer float. I've never counted calories before, and I don't have to now, as long as I follow all of the snack guidelines, but I am more aware now that every item NOT within my diet has significantly more calories than I need to eat.

Anyway. A friend on the HCG diet has suggested that I do HCG to lose a bunch of weight now, then go back on the Nutrisystem diet after that, but I really am pretty skeptical. I don't doubt that people lose a lot of weight on the HCG diet (I've known several people who dropped weight like water on it), but I've spent several months building up good muscle tone, and I don't want to risk losing it. I don't like the idea of being lightheaded either, it seems like medically-induced anorexia. As well, I love not having to cook or prepare food beyond the 1-minute microwave time, and reverting back, even for stuff like tomato soup on the HCG diet, does not sound good to me, even if it's only 26 days. Plus, being on a 1200-calorie diet is just right to train me how to eat smaller portions. A 500-calorie diet seems restrictive enough for me to pack the weight right back on later. But it really boils down to cost. I think if I had a lot more money in the bank, I'd try the HCG diet for a bit, but I think the cost is too high to take the risk. Nutrisystem is a much more solid gamble. Plus, I am in the camp that believes weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint.

Editing to add this:

What I really want from weight loss is to get to a size where, when people learn that I'm 25 and single, they don't think anything of it, except that maybe she hasn't met the right one yet, or she must be focusing on things other than finding a husband. Currently, I feel like people think, even if they don't mean to, that I'm not attractive enough to be married, because that's how I feel sometimes. Even if people DON'T think that, every single girl who has ever weighed more than she likes has thought that about herself at one point or another. It's how our minds work. As well, I tend to like guys who are, well, good-looking. I think they used to be closer to the same league as me, when I was thinner, but now, they are definitely in a class above me. I'm still attracted to those guys though. I'd like to feel like I'm in the same class, looks-wise, as the guys I tend to like. Shallow? Yes. But there it is. This is my blog, so I guess I have to be honest from time to time.

You definitely won't starve on the Nutrisystem diet

So I took the plunge. I signed up for Nutrisystem. I learned last week that I was going to be receiving a very large tax return, right at the same time I learned I'm going moving to go to college in April, less than 2 months away. I really want to lose weight before that happens, so it's either this or a weight loss resort, as I already work out regularly and food intake is my only dilemma.

My biggest problem in weight loss has always been food. I don't like cooking for one person. It takes forever, longer than the actual eating part, and it uses the same number of dishes as cooking for a full family, but I'm the only one cleaning up. I also don't like a number of "healthy" foods, like vegetables. Unfortunately, that tends to translate into my poor eating habits of spending all day trying in vain to figure out something to eat, then finally giving up at 5 or 6pm and grabbing some fast food. And since I haven't eaten all day, I tend to eat more than necessary. This has been a problem for years.

That's why Nutrisystem is actually a great program for me. I already work out regularly, so this is just helping me manage my food. I'm on day 3 now, so I'll catch you up on my activities.

Every day, we are supposed to eat Breakfast (entree, protein shake), Snack (PowerFuel, own purchase), Lunch (entree, PowerFuel), Snack, (SmartCarb, own purchase), Dinner (entree, SmartCarb), and Dessert (entree). On top of that, you're supposed to eat 4 servings of non-starchy vegetables and drink 8+ cups of water.

The only food I have so far is the ready-to-go food, which doesn't require any refrigeration. I ordered it late Wednesday night, and it arrived Saturday afternoon by FedEx. Extremely quick. My frozen foods were only shipped out yesterday, so who knows when I'll get them.

Day 1: I had church today and was runnning late, so I ate my Double Chocolate Muffin in the car. It was fantastic. Great start to the program, despite my skipping the protein shake. I originally planned to have string cheese for my snack, but I didn't check the fridge beforehand, and my dad had finished off the family stock of them, so I skipped my snack today.

After returning home, I ate lunch, the Vanilla protein shake from breakfast, low-fat Yoplait yogurt, and the Three Cheese Pasta with Chicken. It came in a little Instant Ramen-sized round container, and I was supposed to add water, put in the microwave for a minute...then let sit for 8-9 minutes. They're not kidding about that either. I may have started eating a mite early, and the chicken was tough, the pasta still hard. A few minutes later though, it softened up and was edible. Still, I didn't like it. It was full of broccoli pieces (blech) and the chicken tasted a little dry. I think if I liked broccoli, this would be just fine, but there are other lunch options out there. I'm not getting this next month.

Snack was a small wheat roll that my mother had fortuitously finished baking about 10 minutes prior.

Dinner was the Grilled Chicken Breast on another wheat roll, with mixed greens (from a tub, like at the grocery store) stacked on it. AMAZING. Be warned though, it sure doesn't look like the picture. It's fairly small, and sealed in a packet much like tuna might be, because it doesn't need to be refrigerated. I stuck it in the oven for about 5 minutes, then plopped it on my "sandwich." Despite its appearances, it was delicious. Moist, flavorful, didn't need any condiments (good thing, because they're pretty restricted on this diet), and I felt full afterward. I'm getting more of these next month.

Dessert was the Zesty Herb Snack Mix, which I ate along with my sandwich. I actually really liked this one. It has more flavor than Chex Mix, and the pieces are small, which makes one feel like they're eating a lot. I'm getting more of these too. I drank water throughout the day, and instead of snacking before bed, I just continued to drink water. I felt full, and that's a key position with the Nutrisystem diet.

Day 2: I woke up late, so I moved the times of my meals to a bit later. I had the Chocolate Frosted Donut for breakfast with a Strawberry protein shake. The donut was super weird, it looked kinda plastic and EXACTLY like the picture. It tasted alright, but certainly not like the donuts I'm used to eating. I'll probably pass on this next month. The strawberry protein shake was really good.

For a snack, I had one of those Buddig lunchmeat packages, it's 2 oz, which is what I'm allowed for a PowerFuel. I put mixed greens on each slice and rolled them up like a tortilla. I have to slip in those mixed greens where I can, because I can't make a salad and slather them in ranch or honey mustard like I used to. It's 1 tablespoon of dressing, or vinaigrette.

Lunch was the Cheesy Homestyle Potatoes Mix. (also in the round Ramen-type container) and yogurt. The mashed potatoes also had broccoli, but no chunks, so it was bearable. Still, not really a fan. I'll probably pass on this too next month.

At dinnertime, I had a karaoke night with friends and was running late, so I grabbed a slice of wheat bread as my snack, then planned to eat dinner when I got home. We went to a sushi place, and someone ordered edamame, the little green bean-type pods, but you slide out the beans with your teeth and discard the shell. I'd never tried them, and normally, I would have ordered something else, but I ended up having several of the endame pods, since a) I couldn't eat anything else on the menu, and b) I could count them as my SmartCarb for dinner. As it turns out, they weren't bad. So score one for Nutrisystem changing my eating habits. I drank a lot of water too, so eating out was not a problem.

When I got home, I made an Italian Herb Flatbread Pizza. It's kind of like a Lunchable pizza, you spread the sauce on from a packet, and sprinkle the cheese on top, then nuke it for a minute. It wasn't fabulous, but it wasn't bad either. I'll order this next month. I ate it with the Cheese Puffs, which were not quite as tasty as Cheetos. They were small and a little crunchier than I'd prefer, and definitely had some wheat in there. They weren't terrible and if this was the only option I'd be fine, but I'd rather get more of the herb snack mix next month. Overall, a decent day. It's kind of fun anticipating my next mealtime so I can try out a new entree.

Day 3: That's today. I started off with a vanilla protein shake and a Cinnamon Bun, which was as weirdly plastic-looking as the donut, with icing perfectly, evenly spread all over the top. I took one bite, realized it was super-hard, then noticed on the package that I'm supposed to microwave it. Oops. So I tossed it in there for 10 seconds as per the instructions. It wasn't bad, but I'll definitely do this one for 15-20 seconds next time. Overall not bad, but probably not my first choice either. I'm about to eat my first snack, probably yogurt. I'll get some string cheese tonight.

So far, I'm absolutely LOVING this Nutrisystem diet. I love not wondering about what I'm going to eat, and I get enough choice to feel like I have options (which I do, tons of them), but not so much that I get overwhelmed and give in to fast food. Overall, the sometimes-interesting taste of the food is balanced by the convenience of this program, and I think once I try all of the food, I'll have plenty of good options to choose from.