My First Week With Nutrisystem has Come to a Close - My Thoughts on the Program So Far....

My first week trying the Nutrisystem Program has come to a close. I have had lots of challenges this week but I have also made some great progress too. I have to admit I thought that the food wasn't going to taste very good but I have been pleasantly surprised by breakfasts and lunches. I love the meal plan itself and I think that its a great method for planning your diet whether you use the Nutrisystem food or not.

The biggest thing that I have learned this week is that when it comes to meals I need to think smaller. I was so used to serving large portions and this has been a really good adjustment to make. Now this doesn't mean that I have to go hungry either. The small portions are perfect for the main entree of the meal, what is different is learning to supplement the entree with lots of fruits and veggies. Its the fruits and veggies that fill you up the most.

I am the first to admit, all though I think that the plan itself is great it has been hard to stick to. I would be lying if I said that I stuck to it completely without cheating. This will be a process and I know that I won't be successful if I try to change my habits cold turkey. I started this week by following the plan for breakfast to a tee everyday. I followed the lunch plan a few times and the dinner plan only once. This week was a little more hectic for me than usual with lots of travel taken and irregular scheduling. I was eating out a lot and trying to eat smaller, healthier portions and drink more water. Water is a huge part of the plan as well. I went from drinking no water to trying to get in at least three bottles a day. I cut down severely on my Cherry Coke addiction. The last piece of the program is exercise. I only found time to exercise once, but I was more active simply by running around and doing more things with my kids this week. I hardly ever sat down to do anything.



The Food: My First Impression

When I first opened the box all the food seemed a bit daunting. I was excited to see what was included as this was my very first shipment. I immediately noticed that the food packages were color coded so that I would easily be able to discern a breakfast item from a lunch item or a snack item from a dessert item. Within the box also contained my meal planner, which had some great info in it. I loved that it came with a grocery guide within the planner. It clearly spelled out what options I have for grocery items and how much one serving is. For example, one morning I ate cherries with my breakfast. Instead of guessing how many cherries I should eat the planner told me 12 cherries was one serving. I need this type of thing spelled out for me to help control my portions which is why I think that the grocery guide is one of the most useful components to sticking with the plan.

Okay, I will admit that I was scared to try some of meal options. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that these menu items that included chicken, turkey and beef, would taste good without any refrigeration sitting in a box for a month. Which is probably why I started with the breakfast menu items because so many of them actually sounded pretty good to eat.

This week I tried a Chocolate Chip Scone, Peanut Butter Granola Bar, Double Chocolate Muffin, Cinnamon Roll, Apple Granola Bar and the Frosted O's Cereal. All of them were pretty good and I combined each one with a serving of fruit and a dairy or protein item of my choosing. I loved the variety of foods and after eating breakfast I was full until lunch time. I really love the breakfast part of the Nutrisystem plan.

So far I have only tried one of the lunch menu options, The Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar, but I had it two times. I really, really like it. I used to eat BioProtein bars that tasted similar to them, so in my opinion I thought that they were really yummy. Lunch is also paired with a dairy or a protein and two vegetables.

Because of my time constraints this week I only ate one of the dinners, one of the snacks and one of the desserts. I started my days very late so I was typically eating breakfast at noon and then trying to play catch up all day with the meals. This week was so busy for me that I didn't have the time to eat as much as I was supposed to eat. I ended up skipping more meals than I would have liked and substituted too many meals with restaurant food. I ate out this week way more than I ever do due to circumstances beyond my control.


My Progress So Far

From Monday, my start date, up through today I have lost two pounds. I think that is awesome considering I didn't follow the plan all the way and I am easing myself into this life change. Especially considering that I only had the time to exercise once. This is exciting! I can't wait to see what I can lose by sticking to the plan and increasing my exercise time.

My Challenges This Week

• Being away from home and dining out - since it was my first week I haven't had time to fully grasp the dining out instructions yet.
• Finding the time to exercise daily.
  
• Drinking as much water as I should be drinking. For me ideally I would like to drink 6 bottles of water a day to help jump start the weight loss.
• Waking up late most days and eating breakfast at noon.
• Getting over the fear of the packaged food
• My husband - I skipped making food for him on a couple of occasions. I am still working out how I can do this plan and cook for him as well, without wanting to eat what I am serving him.
  

What I Accomplished This Week

• I lost two pounds! Yay!
• I stuck to the breakfast plan
• When eating out I considered my portion sizes
• I started drinking water again
• I took the time to make sure that I was fully stocked on fruits and veggies

So that's it for last week! Wish me luck this next week as I try overcome some of the challenges that held me back this week. If you have any tips or advice I would love to hear them too! I need to learn how to make exercise a daily habit and not a chore, any suggestions?





*Nutrisystem has provided me with the program free of charge in exchange for my time and commitment to blog about my experience with the Nutrisystem Program.*