Beware of traps!

Recognize what triggers you to overeat and try to plan solutions ahead of time. Try to think of what foods you crave, and then imagine what else would satisfy the craving.

Does visiting family make you want to snack (or snack on inappropriate things)? Pack enough food ahead of time...don't rely on making good decisions in the moment if you know it will be hard for you.

Do holidays have you craving chocolate? Do social events make you crumble for chips and dip? Think ahead if possible. Offer to being veggies and homemade dip to a party to ensure you have a backup. Buy some healthy snacks with some chocolate (some granola bars, healthy cookies, dark chocolate covered pretzels, etc), pre-portion them, and enjoy an indulgence when you are craving sweets.

And if you fall into your trap, if you over snack at your in-law's, if you eat 3 big reeses easter eggs from your daughter's basket, if you grab a plate of ridged chips and French onion dip at a party, remember: it isn't the end of the world. It isn't the end of your weight loss or diet. Things happen, and this is a trap you can just walk out of. Make your next meal a healthy one and get back on track.

Some tips for your vegetables…

Having a hard time adding vegetables? Not sure what to do for snacks? Here are some of my tips and tricks. Whether you’re on Nutrisystem or not, these can help with your steps toward healthier eating!



http://www.fitsugar.com/How-Steam-Fry-Vegetables-Fish-16079898

Need protein with some vegetables? Do a quick and easy greens steam fry. Put about ½” of water in your pan (cast iron or nonstick work best) and add your seasoning vegetables. Let’s say 1/4c onions, 1/4c peppers, and 1TB minced garlic. I buy the peppers and onions frozen and the garlic pre-minced in water (in a jar). As they heat up, add ½-1cup of your “main” vegetables. I’ve been on a spinach kick lately, but I’ve done kale, collards, swiss chard, even cabbage. I like to use frozen, again, because it is faster. But local fresh greens are coming, and I can’t wait! When that starts to thaw, I add my protein. The past few days, it has been a Boca vegan burger. But I’ve done a vegan sausage with an egg white, I’ve done just a scrambled egg, I’ve added lean ham or turkey. Try to stick around 80-100 calories for your protein. When your water is gone (I try to keep a level of water in the pan until all ingredients are added, so have a cup or two of water next to you to add as you cook), add 1-2TB of salsa. I use jarred, but fresh would be yummy too. Let that cook down for a minute or two, and voila! Very yummy. I have been using this for my breakfast lately, then waiting a bit and having my coffee and Nutrisystem muffin or bar or biscotti as a morning snack.

As an extension of the above, try microwave poaching an egg (spray a shallow bowl with pam or other thin coating of oil, crack egg into it and break yolk, microwave at 50-60% power for 1:45-2 minutes), toasting a Nutrisystem or other healthy bagel/bread, making a small amount of greens steam fry, and making a sandwich, topped with salsa.

Steam frying is GREAT for most things. No, it won't put a beautiful crust on your meat/tofu/tempeh. It doesn't work too well for eggs. But when it comes to vegetables and fish...steam fry! You can use water, broth, or even wine (yum! Just watch your calories from the sugar).

When you’re making a salad, make it INTERESTING! Having the same thing *every.single.day* kindof sucks. Sure, some days I’m ok with lettuce, tomato, and some dressing. But that is boring, and doesn’t make you really WANT those veggies. Find “free” toppings…other vegetables that work as toppings. Find low-calorie dressings that you can mix and match with other seasonings. Make a theme…try to match your salad to your entrée so it flows and you look forward to it more than “just a salad.”

For example: If I’m having chili for lunch, I think about what I can have in my salad to make it more like what you would get in a Mexican restaurant. I have my mixed greens, I add tomato, red onion, diced peppers, and mix 1-2TB of salsa with 1-2TB of fat free greek yogurt. If it is dinner time and I have the calories to spare, I may add shredded cheddar, guacamole/avocado, or pepitos or baked tortilla chips for some extra crunch. If you’re not watching your sodium, try some olives. For some seasonings, I may add cilantro, lime or hot sauce.

http://vegancrunk.blogspot.com/2011/04/sushi-deconstructed.html

Another example: I’m having kung pao noodles for dinner. So I make a salad with a base of mixed greens, with coleslaw or broccoli slaw mix, chopped nori, scallions, canned/pickled mushrooms, a few baby corns (some people say these are too starchy, because corn is corn, but baby corn has a higher glycemic index…use in moderation, and watch your sodium if you’re getting canned!), maybe some broccoli or cucumber. I may add edamame for protein, sesame seeds, tahini, chopped peanuts, or avocado if I have the room for the calories, maybe some brown rice or quinoa if I have some leftovers. I make a dressing of soy sauce (or Bragg’s liquid aminos), rice vinegar, maybe some sesame oil, and crushed red peppers or horseradish/wasabi or ginger.

You’re having Italian for dinner? Try a light semi-ceasar or greek-inspired salad! Romaine lettuce, spinach, a couple of baked croutons, a smattering of some nice parmesan/romano cheese or feta, and add some fresh basil, chopped tomatoes, chopped zucchini, sundried tomatoes or roasted red peppers, olives, red onion or chives. Use a fat free Italian dressing with a TB of greek yogurt, or use balsamic or red wine vinegar with a little olive oil and minced garlic.

http://www.evernewrecipes.com/tag/coleslaw

Having a BBQ? Make a vinegar-dressed coleslaw with shredded cabbage, carrot, broccoli, onion, red pepper, zucchini, maybe some apple and raisins for sweetness. There are tons of recipes online for coleslaw ingredients and dressings…I haven’t made one in a while, but check it out. You might surprise yourself if you didn’t think you were a coleslaw fan!

I love making “themed” salads, and they always taste so much better! Salads and raw vegetables are a great way to increase your veggie intake. You can only eat so much steamed broccoli, but a salad is very filling for very few calories (just keep an eye on your cheese/dressing/meat toppings!). I try to have at least 2 salads a day. Usually in addition to my “cooked” vegetable side dish to my entrée.

Do you have any favorite salad recipes? Please post them in the comments…the more, the merrier!

On falling off the wagon.

Already I fell off the wagon. Hard! 

It started with a week of the flu. I was eating from 300-800 calories a day in broth and toast. I couldn’t imagine a vegetable passing my lips. I slept and whined. I didn’t exercise a bit. 

When I started to feel a bit better, I upgraded to noodle soups. Maybe some chicken and well-steamed broccoli. Nary a raw vegetable in sight (which normally is what keeps me on track). I was still low on my calories, so I didn’t much care. Plus, I lost more weight and was down to 227#! 

I had planned to “cheat” on Easter, but still didn’t feel well. I probably ate a few too many scalloped potatoes, but overall I ate very little compared to my usual bingeing! 

Then I felt almost all better. And my partner didn’t want to cook. And I didn’t want to cook. And the thought of a salad still made me gag a little. So he ordered a pizza. And I said “oh what the hell” and ate half a slice. Then another half a slice. Then a few bites of my daughter’s. Then another half a slice.

705 calories later, I felt gross! I’ll admit it, I have some body image issues. I sometimes equate what I’ve eaten or how I look to the kind of person I am. Which is wrong, ok? I know this isn’t right, and that eating 705 calories of pepperoni pizza doesn’t make me a gross person, it doesn’t make me a bad person, it doesn’t make me “sad” or stupid or take anything away from the success I’ve had so far. But this was how I felt. I had an argument with myself. My overeater “devil” on one shoulder saying “it was just one meal…just one cheat…don’t worry about it…you deserve it.” My self-conscious “devil” on my other shoulder (yes, I have two “devils”…probably more, lol, but these were the ones arguing amongst themselves that evening) telling me that it was wrong, and I just wasted all my work and probably gained a bunch of weight back and how stupid could I be? I would never succeed. And so I wallowed in my self pity, with my overeater mentality appearing to be the “angel” on my shoulder. Making me feel better about myself. Telling me to go get a reese’s peanut butter egg, because damnit, why not? 

The next day, I started somewhat healthy, but faltered at lunch when we took the kids out to a restaurant. I thought I was ordering healthy…a chicken fajita rollup, with shredded chicken, pico de gallo (fresh salsa), lettuce, and cheese. Well, with so much cheese, and a creamy dip (which I didn’t eat much of, but can’t calculate), the calories ended up being 1040! Plus 230 for the salad (which doesn’t compute, since it was just lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and shredded cabbage and carrot with a tiny bit of light honey mustard dressing). I ate that damn reese’s peanut butter egg. And some reese’s pieces. And a few jelly beans. (can you tell I like reese’s?). I was at almost 2,000 calories for the day, and feeling even worse than the day before. 

Until I talked about it. It may have only been on a facebook group, but I talked about it. I got it out. I realized that the voice of reason isn’t any of the devils on my shoulders. It is my healthy self, somewhere deep inside. Sure, I felt bad because I gained 3 pounds. Sure, I knew I needed to get back to thinking healthy. But indulging on pizza or a really tasty meal out doesn’t deny that I am still over 15# down from my starting weight! And there is probably a decent amount of water weight there from all the sodium. I need to accept that shit happens, and the only thing we can do is dust ourselves off, get back up, and start over. Feeling guilty won’t help, because you can’t change the past. You can resolve to do a bit more exercise to try and balance out those calories, which may start a good habit of increased exercise in general. You can put your foot down and use your emotional energy towards healthy thinking (both about food, and about yourself).  

Positive thinking doesn’t always come naturally to me. I know a lot of people for whom that applies. But you can consciously change that. Even if you feel super shitty about yourself, every time you take a step back and really look at what happened, really look at “how bad is it?” you take a step towards healthy thinking. Obviously, for some people, it takes more than just self-talk. I’m not discounting that! I’m talking in generalizations. Feeling a little (or maybe a lot) bad about yourself is, unfortunately, something that is seen as normal in today’s society. Especially for women. It is going to take a lot of positive self-talk to help us move towards confidence and healthy thinking.

 

Today has been better. If I stick to plan, I should be at 1180 calories, which gives me a little wiggle room. And I took the stairs twice today, which is better than I usually do here at work.

 Baby steps.

Got my first shipment! And eating with family

I’ve been gone for several days, sorry! Weekends are busy at our house, and I don’t have a computer to easily post from, so I usually type at home and post from work (shhh, don’t tell my boss…OK, I don’t care, tell her…I’m on my break!).

So, Friday I received my first shipment.

Holy cow, it is huge! Fifty four pounds! The first thing I did, once I was able to sit down with it without my 2 year old trying to grab things and run away with them, was sort out meals by time of day. That’s mostly my OCD, though. I used the packing list to make sure I received everything I was supposed to. Unfortunately there were some substitutions…I ended up with EIGHT chilis. EIGHT! Because they were out of the sloppy joes, they substituted vegetarian chili. There are so many beans in so many of the lunches that I called them up. The rest of the substitutions I was OK with (getting an extra oatmeal raisin cookie because they were out of oatmeal chocolate chip? Fine…getting an extra rotini and meatballs because they were low on the tortellini dish? Fine), but I can’t eat that many beans. Their customer service person agreed to replace the 3 sloppy joes I had ordered with 3 burger patties instead, and also sent me 3 extra meals “for the inconvenience.” She kept asking “well, have you tried any of the other dinners you know you like?...Would you like one of those?” I felt guilty! But she was very nice about it, and said it was no problem. So I’m getting 6 free dinners in the mail. If anyone wants to try a vegetarian chili, let me know!

I also was convinced by some friends on Facebook to ask about an insurance discount. Now, according to all the research I had done, my insurance does NOT cover or participate with any kind of weight loss diet program. Sure, they would cover doctor’s appointments (with copays) and weight loss surgery, but in terms of gym or diet plan discounts, all signs pointed to “no.” But I asked anyway. They asked what insurance I had—“XXX plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield.” OK, BCBS is a participating insurance…12% off your next order. They didn’t ask for my number or anything! So, definitely call and ask, even if you think they will say no. I could have gotten another $40 off my first order, had I known!

Since there is SO MUCH FOOD to deal with, I took an empty plastic 3-drawer cart like this one (without the casters) from my daughter’s room. I have a fairly unused counter in my kitchen that always ends up being a catch-all/clutter collector, so I cleaned it off and put the cart up there. The food fit PERFECTLY! Breakfasts and desserts up top, lunches in the middle, dinners on the bottom. It was a tight fit at first, and some dinners ended up in the lunch drawer, but now that I’ve had about 5 days of the food, things are much easier. I put my “extras” up on top—my cracker crisps, my hummus chips, my organic oatmeal and healthy cereals. Well stored and out of toddler reach! (She tried to run off with my popcorn while I was putting everything away…I just barely saved it lol)

I’ll try to remember all of the foods I’ve eaten and how I thought about them in a new post…I think I will do that from now on.

I’ve had 2 “eating out” experiences so far. One was spending the day with my fiancee’s mom. She was kind enough to make a wonderful looking casserole for all of us. I had thought ahead enough to bring breakfast and lunch, but didn’t think about dinner. The casserole was egg noodles (full eggs), cream of chicken soup, breaded chicken chunks, and peas. So much starch…so many simple carbs…so much fat and calories! But it looked yummy and I had no NS entrée. I went to the website and messaged a counselor (so easy, and they were so nice), and she recommended having a 1 cup serving. It would most likely be higher in calories than a NS entrée, but as long as I was practicing portion control, it wouldn’t affect my diet much. I also asked my fiancée to bring back a bag of salad mix (I still had dressing and tomatoes from lunch), and dinner was good! I declined the big puffy dinner roll, which got a little eye rolling (“Oh, it won’t kill your diet, just have one!”) but that’s OK. I know it wouldn’t have killed my diet, but I’m just starting out and am making the choice to stick to it as much as possible!

My other eating out experience was meeting my mom for lunch when I was on the road for work. This time I was prepared. She wanted to meet at a subway inside Walmart. So I brought a lunch bar, chicken, salad dressing, and a bowl. We were out of salad at home, so I got to Walmart a little early, purchased a bag of mix at the store, grabbed a fork from the deli, and met her inside Subway. At first I was a bit embarrassed…I could have just bought a salad from them, but would have paid $6 or more, and I’m cheap! So, my mom got her sub, I had my salad with dressing and chicken breast, and we had a great lunch together. I ate my bar as a “dessert” while she had her chips. After the first 5 minutes (while I was assembling the salad), I didn’t feel weird at all.

The lesson I learned, especially from family visit #1, is that the point of NS is to teach you about healthy eating and feeling good about what you’re eating, not to only restrict calories. I’m learning this slowly, especially when I’m flexing meals. How to really pay attention to what is going into my body and how it will affect me physically. I knew all of this stuff before, but didn’t really care. I feigned having “no willpower” and I don’t eat “that bad,” but both were lies. I have willpower, I am strong, and I was eating badly. I felt sick all the time, and that should have been an indication.

My only complaint so far…the sugar alcohol they use to sweeten the baked goods and bars. Whether you’re diabetic or not, sugar adds calories, so they use sorbitol and malitol mostly to sweeten their foods. My body is NOT a fan. I’ve known I have an issue with xylitol for several years, through experience (unfortunately). I can have some, but repeat use causes some serious gastrointestinal issues. This is fairly common, so be forewarned. Some people experience gas due to a sudden increase in fiber from the vegetables and whole grains you’re now eating. This gas will go away as your body gets used to the new diet, sometimes in a few days, sometimes it takes a few weeks. However, if you are sensitive to things like the sugar alcohol (malitol, etc) in the foods, the gas may let up some, but it won’t go away. I was really bloated last night, sorry if that’s TMI, and decided that today I would stick to flexing my meals. I will stick to the NS plan, but use my own foods as the entrees. I planned on oatmeal and an egg for breakfast (my own organic oatmeal instead of NS oatmeal), salad and some “zero noodles” with chicken, broccoli, and pesto for lunch (leftovers from a flexed dinner), snack, and then a lean cuisine with salad for dinner. I had a smoothie for breakfast and never got to the oatmeal, but that’s OK with me, and I’m getting ready to grab my lunch and feel SO much better. If you are having gas issues, pick up some gas-x or beano, and try giving yourself a break from the high “sugar” foods for a day or two to see how you feel. Also, read this thread, it is HILARIOUS: http://boards.members.nutrisystem.com/showthread.php?168095-These-farts-are-no-longer-funny&highlight=funny .

Edit: I had the fudge brownie for dessert last night, just to see how it went. Yup, gassy again. *sigh*

 

 

 

 

How do I get ready for the day?

Well...with the nutrisystem I find it fairly easy to get ready for the day (or the next day if I am packing up the night before for work).

Here is a typical "setup" for my work day:

First I set aside my entrees for breakfast and lunch. This is at or  day on the road, so I am having two bars (the Luna protein are fairly comparable to the NS bars, and I'm out of NS breakfast bars). I use my plan* to see what I need with each meal (dairy/protein and fruit for breakfast, veggies and protein for lunch, veggies and protein for snack). I make sure everything is premeasured so there is no guesswork. I find it somewhat freeing, actually. And I have accountability. I spent this money on this plan, I dang well better use it! 

I'm bringing a bowl because I don't have my salad greens-I will buy them When I get to the store at lunchtime.

*My plan may be a bit different because I have quite a bit of weight to lose, and I dont eat a morning snack

Wow! And more food stuff.

I think my pictures are on the bottom...and huge. If so, i will fix it when I get to a computer!

So, here's my "Before" stats and some pictures

245#
Waist 45
Hips 50.5
Body fat percent ~28

I stepped on the scale expecting to see 260. After 2 days on nutrisystem, it was 242.4. I'm going to say I started at 245 to make myself feel that much better.

I'm impressed because I've been very down on myself lately. I've felt terrible, so many of my clothes don't fit, and shopping for new pants has been AWFUL. I hate looking in the mirrors at department stores, especially when the pants that fit me and that I can afford are all "Mom Jeans." Now, I love my mother, who wears jeans. I am a mother, who also wears jeans. But there are jeans, and then there are mom jeans. http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/2012/10/plus-sized-denim.html I'm probably wearing the offending jeans RIGHT NOW. But I don't have the time, patience, or money, to go in search of nice-looking jeans for myself. So I get frustrated and very down on myself. I honestly believed that I was upwards of a size 24, 260+ pounds, and my waist had crept well over 45". The biggest men's pants I've ever worn were in my college and post-college days, when I was a 42x30. Now most 42s won't fit.

Surprise, surprise, the last few days, even before starting NS, I've noticed that my pants are much looser, I'm on belt loop #6 now (I was on loop #3 for quite a while, then #5, then back to #3 just recently). When I was weighed for my weight loss surgery consult, I was 253, and I just FELT bigger and even less healthy than I did all those months ago. But I guess not. I'm also not sure how they figure that my body fat % is only 28 (not the "obese" category? Seriously?). Probably because my wrist measurement is large...I have fat on my wrists, and I think that is a proportion they assume you DON'T have fat. Well, we'll see what it says next week!

Anyhoo, food stuff...

The food stuff

So, Monday for dinner I made my own! (I wasn’t planning on doing it so early in the system, but I made SURE I followed the steps.

1 entrée is typically 2 proteins and 1 carb. 1 regular turkey burger is 2 proteins, and for the carb I had sweet potato “fries” (oven broiled sweet potato, probably equivalent to about 1/8-1/5 of a large sweet potato). Total about 275 calories. For my veggies I had steamed broccoli and a salad with tomatoes. For my “extra” fat, I added a low calorie slice of cheese (60). Total calories for all of that? Probably 375-400. Nice.


At first, I was hungry…I wanted 2 burgers like usual. I wanted the bun like everyone else had. And then, I won’t deny it, my brain went into feminist mode, recalling articles about women denying themselves food just to fit into what society says they should. How women should stand up and take what they want, and the diet industry is prospering on women’s insecurities (men’s too, but across our society, women tend to be the most active in the diet industry). But I reminded myself that this isn’t forever. This is a change to get my body to a healthy weight. If I forego the big white fresh-baked rolls for a few months, I will FEEL better. I already feel better. This is not to say I will never have rolls again. Or that I can’t find a healthy substitute. I’m not choosing to always deprive myself, I’m choosing to be healthy so that I can be here for many more years. So I can hike and dance and climb with my kids. So I can hike and dance and climb with my grandkids. Hell, I would love to hike and dance and climb with my great-grandkids, if I’m so lucky. I want to avoid the diabetes and heart/cholesterol/blood pressure issues that run in my family. My outlook needs to change from “I live to eat” to “I eat to live” (see Dr. Fuhrman’s book “Eat to Live”—amazing stuff, and I would love to get back to that kind of living once my body “resets” to a healthier weight).

After the table was cleared and I packed up the baby’s leftovers, I realized, yet again, that I wasn’t hungry. It will take me some time to remember the difference between cravings and hunger. I had a good meal, seasoned well, tasted great, and plenty of calories. My body still craves the simple carbs and sugars it is used to. In order to satisfy that craving, I had my dessert of the NS mini chocolate chip cookies with a glass of almond milk. It helped quite a bit, and by then I was ready to get down to what I needed to do that evening.

Tuesday morning I brought my same cottage cheese and applesauce as yesterday, but instead of a muffin, had apple cinnamon oatmeal. I never got to the oatmeal! Just had my cottage cheese, applesauce, and coffee. I had it as a snack that afternoon and skipped the hummus and veggies.  I had the NS Red Beans and Rice, leftover steamed broccoli, and a salad of ½ coleslaw mix and ½ spring mix, a few tomatoes, some bacon bits, and my own FF dressing (1Tb Italian, 1Tb roasted red pepper dressing, 1tsp BBQ sauce, and ½ tsp hot sauce). The inspiration was from a wegmans pre-packaged salad mix I had in the fridge. It is a coleslaw/romaine blend with bacon bits and tortilla chips for toppings, a yogurt dressing, and BBQ sauce to mix in. I used the veggie blend and some of the bacon and made my own dressing. I’m saving the other stuff for a later date. I planned on adding a hard boiled egg as well, but I left that at home. Oops.

For dinner I had the NS chicken pot pie, with a repeat of my lunch salad (except with more cabbage/carrots and less lettuce) and my egg. I was pretty full! I'm still surprised when that happens. My eyes have been trained for so long to see what I THINK is a good meal, when in reality I need so much less. I had the NS cheesecake bar for dessert since dinner was saltier than normal.

As I delve more into sharing and my own history with food, I know it is related to control. If anyone has done any research on eating disorders, you know it is often associated with control. Food is sometimes the one thing that a person CAN control, and when they do it to excess, it becomes a disorder. My issues are twofold. The control aspect is like the opposite of what I described above: I have so much going on, so much I have to control, so much I have to get right, so much I have to fix, that I often don’t control a damn thing that goes in my mouth. It is something I don’t have to think about. It tastes good, so who cares? It also is a bit OCD: I can’t imagine food going to waste. So I eat leftovers, I can’t pass up free food, etc. It is like hoarding!

How do I fix this? How can I repair my relationship with food? Well, I’m not sure. But for now, I need to establish control. I can’t let myself get overwhelmed (which is why proportioned meals are good for me right now) or forget that my goal in eating is to survive and thrive, physically, not to escape and eat out of stress or depression. The control and meal plans help with that—a lot. Sure, we have a whole bag of honey BBQ potato chips in the pantry. But I have special K cracker chips if I want something salty. I have nutrisystem popcorn if I want it. We may have Sarah Lee brownie bites (I’m not 100% sure what they are—a big red box of packaged goodies I don’t even look at!), but I have cookies and chocolate covered pretzels and fruit if I want a sweet treat. For the OCD half of my issues, I need to remind myself that if I’m just eating the ¼ of a burger my daughter leaves on her plate so it won’t “go to waste”, it IS going to waste. It is adding to my excess weight and other related issues. It will be unwanted and wasted whether it goes in the trash or into my body. If all else fails, healthier stuff will go to the dog. He doesn’t mind, and doesn’t have excess weight to worry about! ¼ of a turkey burger would do him good. (obviously don’t feed your dog bad things like onions, excess garlic, grapes/raisins, avocado, etc)

NS Food reviews:

Mini Chocolate chip cookies: ★★☆☆☆

In a word: Meh. I guess if I had them again, I wouldn’t mind too much, but if given the choice I won’t order them. I figured they would be somewhat hard and tasteless (like those 100 calorie pack mini chips ahoy cookies), but…wow. I could barely taste any chocolate, even when I bit off a “chip” from the top of a cookie and ate it by itself. The cookies were hard, but didn’t soften at all in my almond milk. It satisfied the craving, sure, but it wasn’t very good. If you like crunchy cookies, you might like these better—I’m a soft cookie fan, myself.

Red Beans and Rice with Sausage: ★★★★☆

I want to give these 3.5 stars. Good, but I’m not sure if it is 4 stars good. The sausage is GREAT for diet sausage. Unfortunately, there are only 3 little slices, lol. The seasonings are pretty salty, but not too bad. The rice is pretty soft, but that is to be expected from a pouch meal. My advice: pour it into a bowl to cook. I feel like the plastic made it taste funny when it was really hot. After it cooled down (on my plate) and was mixed with my broccoli, it reached 4 stars. But at first I was ready to give it 2 or 3. And add some veggies. Frozen/thawed peppers and onions would be GREAT in here! Let them thaw on the counter in the morning so they are room temp and soft, then microwave with the rice. Zero extra effort, and would definitely add to the flavor and texture.

Chicken Pot Pie:  ★★★★☆

The flavor was pretty comparable to other prepackaged pot pies. Fairly small, but that's the point of portion controlled meals! The crust topper was a bit tougher than I would have liked, but still flaky and the flavor worked very well with the sauce and filling.

Cheesecake flavored bar:  ★★★☆ ☆

Not bad, but the texture was a bit odd (slightly hard, like a nougat). Size-wise, it was like a small candy bar, maybe the length of my palm (see picture). A little tart and not particularly cheesy, and the graham cracker layer had something in it that stuck in my teeth. I will eat it, because it reminds me of a candy bar and I already ordered 2 more lol. But next order I probably won't be getting them.

Cinnamon Struesel Muffin:  ★★★★☆

A little smaller than the chocolate muffin, but very similar to "regular" prepackaged muffins. No aftertaste, just cinnamon and a slight brown sugar flavor.

WHO WANTS $30 OFF THEIR FIRST ORDER?! And other tips

If you would like $30 off your first order of Nutrisystem, simply leave me a comment with some way to contact you. I can send you an email with a coupon code.

My advice: find the BEST deal you can online. Search, for days if you have to. The basic offer on their website is never the BEST deal they offer. For example:

If I went to their website and ordered the Core plan, it would have been $279.99, and I would have gotten their free "fast five" 5 day program, which includes 3 meals and 2 shakes per day for 7 days. Which, including the shakes, ends up being about $1.90 per meal the first month, and $2.50 per meal for subsequent months. I don't know about you, but I can get protein shake powder for a lot less than $1.90 per serving!

I searched around and found a coupon for up to 40% off, plus $50 off your first order. $229.99 my first month ($2.05/meal), but back to $2.50 per meal after the first month.

Then I found 40% off (locked in), plus a free week of regular food in your first order. $254.99 for the order, which means $1.82 per meal to start, and $2.28 after that.

Plus, I found a friend who had this same $30 off coupon for my first order. Over the next two months, I should average $1.90 per meal. Not bad!

If you choose to use my $30 off coupon, I get rewards as well...so contact me! Benefits for both of us :).

Other tips:
Unless you LOVE the bars, oatmeal, and cereals, don't order them. You can get very similar bars in stores for much less, which will help stretch/flex your Nutrisystem orders. There are bars from 100 calories (Think Thin, Special K, etc), up to meal replacement bars that you can purchase for $0.69-$1.49 apiece, easily. Plenty of yummy cereals are very similar to the nutrisystem ones, just make sure you're only having one serving (I used measuring cups and snack size ziploc bags to separate out several servings when I first open a box). Prepackaged oatmeal is also often similar--make sure you're getting a low-sugar or "healthy" one. Spend the money on things like the muffins, bagels, cinnamon roll, etc. Those are harder to find at low cost in the lower calorie/high protein proportions that Nutrisystem provides.

Same rule applies to lunches. Go for the prepackaged hefty stuff--you can get microwave soups for pretty cheap! Also, lean pockets are great lunches, and usually $2-$3 for a 2-pack, still less than a Nutrisystem entree.