Week One Nutrisystem Check-In

It's been one week since I've been on Nutrisystem, so I figured it was time to check in.  I have lost 3.8 pounds so far, and am feeling pretty good.  I haven't ate one things so far from Nutrisystem that I didn't like, and if I stick strictly to their plan for each day, I have plenty of energy and I never feel like I'm starving.  I am very excited about the 3.8 pounds though.  Especially since Easter Sunday was last Sunday, and we went to my husband's house and did a whole shindig with a lot of yummy food.  That day I let myself eat what I wanted, but I did try not to pig out to overly much.  And then my husband's birthday was on Tuesday, April 2nd, so we ordered fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and rolls, and they were delicious!  That night I skipped my Nutrisystem dinner and ate with the family.  It was good, but I could tell later that I had definitely eaten some unhealthy, greasy food.  So, yay for 3.8 pounds.  It probably could have been better if I had been super, super strict, but to me that's just not realistic.  There are going to be days where I feel like eating out with the family, and there are going to be days when we go to someone else's house or to an event or something where I have to eat what they are serving.  As long as I can do everything in moderation, I feel like it will all be okay.  Plus, I'm losing weight in a "real" way.  Not in some fad diet way, or extreme weight loss gimick that will come back and haunt me in 3 months when I fall off the wagon and gain all of the weight back plus ten.  *ahem*  Another benefit to my change in diet has been that I no longer feel sick at night when I lay down to go to sleep.  I have been sleeping better and have not woken up with acid reflux!  For those of you who have acid reflux at night, you know that it sucks, and that it is a big deal for it to have eased up.  I took my measurements at the beginning of this journey, but I don't really want to re-measure every week, so I figure that can kind of be like a once a month thing.  Who knows, we'll wing it.  :)  Anyway, that is my one week update.  One week down - who knows how many more to go.  But the important thing is that today I totally feel like I can do it! 

Moving my Book Reviews

To the few people that are actually following me so far (thank you! thank you!!), just wanted to let you know that I have created a separate website for book reviews only.  I figured this would be a way to keep everything more streamlined, and then I could keep this blog for more personal and/or random posts.  Please move over and follow me at Jessica Loves Books to keep up with my newest book reviews.  Thank you!!

Nutrisystem Arrived!

My Nutrisystem order finally showed up yesterday!  I am so, so excited to get this ball rolling!  I stayed up late last night reading through the Getting Started guide and meal plan book, and I have to say that I am loving this more and more.  There are so many more supplemental foods that I can eat than I thought.  I had this idea in my head that I was really only going to be able to eat the Nutrisystem food and then fruits and vegetables, but that is not the case at all.  For instance, I went grocery shopping yesterday with my Nutrisystem shopping guide in hand and bought fruits and veggies (no surprise there), and then was able to buy several types of low fat string and wedge cheese (yum), popcorn, sugar free jello, low fat yogurt, low sodium V8,  and whole grain english muffins.  What's crazy is that there was so much more that I COULD have bought!  So far, I'm really thinking that I can stick with this for the long haul and actually lose all the weight that I want, and need, to.  I don't plan to bore you with all of the details of my diet, but I'll share with you my menu for the day.

Breakfast - Nutrisystem Turkey Ham & Cheese Omelet (was very good)
                  Yoplait Strawberry Non Fat Yogurt

Morning Snack - Yoplait Blueberry Non Fat Yogurt (was gonna have a cheese stick but I forgot to bring it to work with me)

Lunch - Nutrisystem Lunch
             String Cheese
             Veggie of some king - probably bell peppers

Afternoon Snack - Cutie Orange & Apple Slices
             Low Sodium V8

Dinner - Nutrisystem Dinner
             Veggie - Cucumber with salt-free lemon pepper
              Whole Grain Roll or English Muffin w/ low fat cream cheese

Dessert - Nutrisystem Dessert

Even though I haven't really played around with it enough to have a lot of variety yet, you get the idea.  Plus, I don't know for sure yet because I haven't been on this diet for a whole day yet, but this seems like a lot of food.  And even if I did get hungry, I can have unlimited coffee, tea and diet soda (sweetened with calorie free sweeteners), and/or 3 servings of popcorn, or sugar free jello.  I also think I left out at least one serving of veggies from my daily list.  Anyway, I will definitely be keeping you posted on my progress and my ups and downs with the diet.    

For the love of God, my Nutrisystem order needs to get here already!!

Wow, it's only been like 5 days since I signed up for Nutrisystem, and I'm already seeing results. Except they are not really the results that I expected or wanted to see. The tracking on my first order of Nutrisystem food says that the box will be here in two more days, and it can't get here fast enough! I have been stuffing my face constantly every since I hit the "order" button on that Nutrisystem page. It's like my brain and my stomach think that I'm fixing to take a 6 month journey across the Sahara desert and I need to stockpile junk food like a camel with an empty hump. In other words, I haven't stopped eating since I made the decision to get serious about losing weight!

Now instead of over-analyzing why this has been my response to getting healthy and losing weight, I'm just going to keep ignoring the real issues and just pretend that I'm "getting it out of my system" so that when I'm not indulging in junk food anymore I won't miss it as much. That's a sound plan, right? I mean, it's basically fail proof! Now if that damn box would just get here a day early I won't have to spend the first month of my diet losing the 10 pounds I gained since I ordered it!

Things that make me smile

Pictures of a good dog that loves his/her kid make me happy!! So I thought I would share. The last two pics are of Brayden & Rufus, and Brayden & Tasha. :)

And then there are pictures like these that make me go, "Oh My God, the cat's trying to suffocate the baby!" Cats always get a bad rap - it's so unfair. Although if they weren't so sneakily evil that would probably help their case, lol.

I joined Nutrisystem!!! I joined Nutrisystem????

Well, today was a very. big. day. in the overall scheme of my dieting life. I have been "taking a break" from dieting (and from blogging) for over a year. In that time, I have gained back just about every single pound that I lost when I was hardcore Herbalifing it. The story with that is simple. I just got sick and tired of Herbalife shakes. The thought of drinking a protein shake makes me want to throw up. Today, over a year after I made a Herbalife shake for myself, I still want to throw up thinking about it. So unfortunately, I have to disagree with the whole Herbalife mindset that it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle. Because, personally, I don't see how anyone can drink a protein shake every single day of the rest of their lives without becoming ill. Anywho, after I broke up with Herbalife, I tried for a while to count calories and exercise and keep all of the weight off, but over the 2012 Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, I really just gave up and ate myself back up to the 250's. Then in January I joined a 12-week weight loss challenge and did moderately well. Once again I tried counting calories, and it worked a little bit better. I mostly relied on Lean Cuisine's for lunch and dinner to help me stay under calorie budget, but for meals that I didn't want a Lean Cuisine, or went out to eat, I still had a really hard time eating healthy. Anyway, after the 12 week challenge I was down about 13 pounds (242-ish), but in the last 6 weeks or so since the challenge has been over my weight has crept back up to about 247. Well, I decided a couple of days ago that I am sick and tired of the yo-yo dieting and the losing and gaining weight cycle, and decided I was going to try something different that will be easy and hopefully finally help me lose all of the weight I need to lose. After researching Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, etc. I finally decided that Nutrisystem sounded like the easiest and best way for me to go. It is a little bit pricey, but once I started thinking about how much it costs for me to eat out (just by myself), I might actually be saving money in the long run. I tend to order a LOT of food when we eat out. Plus, I love the fact that it takes all of the guess work out of it. I won't have to wonder anymore what to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or what's okay to eat as a snack or as dessert, because they have it all, and they will ship it all to me once a month. So, I basically only have to think about what I'm gonna eat once a month on the day that I place my next order. And how convenient is it that it ships right to my door? And in addition to that, anything extra that I might need (which from what I understand right now may be some fruit and veggies) I can just run to the store and get. Simple and easy. Anyway, I'm really excited about this, but also nervous and anxious and scared. It's probably not healthy how much I REALLY, REALLY want this to work. But since it is so expensive and since it is so fool proof, I really think I can make it work. I plan on keeping a blog journal of my journey from start to finish. One, to keep me motivated, and two, to keep myself accountable (if anyone ever starts reading this thing, lol). Wish me luck!!

First Walgreens Coupon Trip

Last night (or I should probably say this morning) I went to Walgreens to try couponing for the first time. Even though I didn't have a ton of coupons saved up to use, they were having some crazy good sales for Memorial Day that I did have some coupons for, and I needed some essentials like Laundry Detergent and Cereal. We got there about 12:30 a.m. I figured the store wouldn't be as busy and there wouldn't be a lot of people behind me when I was checking out in case there were problems. My first disappointment came right away because I went in thinking that I was going to be able to pick up a Walgreen's Summer Beauty guide coupon book that I had read about countless times online. This booklet was supposed to have some really awesome coupons that I wanted to use for this trip and in the future. Right off of the bat the cashier said that she did not know what I was talking about. I did pick up the regular monthly Walgreens coupon book which has some good deals - but I really want the other one!!!! I don't know if maybe they are waiting until June 1st to put it out, or if our area is not going to carry them. Anyway...... The rest of the shopping part was relatively uneventful. They had all of the stuff that I had on my shopping list except for 2 things, and everything was easy to find. All of their sale items were clearly marked so that made thing easy too. This is where the easy ended. When I got up to the register to check out, a line of about 4 people appeared out of nowhere behind me. So this made me nervous. Then when the cashier started ringing stuff up, several of the items scanned at regular price and not the sale price. So while I am still trying to unload my cart and stack stuff on the counter, I am also trying to watch what she is scanning and make sure it rings up right, and remember the price. She corrects about 3 things to the correct sale price and then totals my sale: $191.76. Yikes!!!! Then I hand over all of my coupons. Thankfully all of my coupons scan without any problems! My total after coupons was $135.59, plus I got $7.00 in Register Rebates that I can use on my next shopping trip like cash. And after getting out to the truck and glancing at my receipt (because I thought it was still a little high) I discovered that one of my items that was supposed to be Buy One Get One Free had actually rang up full price for both. So I went back in with my receipt and items and they refunded me $10.83. So my total cost for the trip was $125.59. My receipt said that with sale prices, rebates, and coupons my total savings was: $109.47!!! So I saved 51% on my total trip. Not bad, but I can't wait until I have more coupons saved and can do even better. Here's what I ended up with on this trip:

(2) Reynolds Wrap Foil 75 sq. ft.
(2) Arm & Hammer Powder Laundry Detergent 36 loads
(4) Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Cereal
(2) Kellogg's Pops Cereal
(2) Kellogg's Raisin Bran Cereal
(2) Hawaiian Tropic 12 oz. Suntan Lotion
(3) Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid 10 oz.
(3) Sun 2X Laundry Detergent 75 loads
(2) Advil 200 ct. Tablets
(2) Pine-Sol Cleaner 26 oz.
(2) Clorox Toilet Bowler Cleaner 24 oz.
(2) Coppertone Sunscreen
(4) 5 Gum 15-packs
(2) Listerine Cool Mint Mouthwash 1 Liter
(2) Listerine Whitening Plus Restoring Mouthwash 16 oz.
(2) Benadryl Anti-Itch Cream 1.3 oz. (Came with free First Aid Case)
(1) Scott Naturals Paper Towels 6-Pack
(2) Off Clip On Starter Kits

So, still more money than I wanted to spend, but like Brandon said, "You got a lot of shit!" LOL. And I learned an important lesson. From now on, I need to have someone with me when I am checking out. This way they can stack all of my stuff on the counter so I can pay attention to the stuff that is scanning so I can make sure everything is ringing up the right price!