NutriSystem Diet Week 1

Well, the first week of the NutriSystem diet is over and the results are pretty encouraging. After the first week of this new diet, I have lost 8 lbs. I have a little trouble with that number because I had my doubts about the starting point last week. It seems that the last week of non-diet food before the NutriSystem was a bad week. Anyways, I am pretty excited about losing the 8 lbs.

After one week, I think I can safely say that this is doable from a food quantity and taste standpoint too.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the quantity of the food. You get all this pre-packaged food that you have to eat, so that was scary, but you have to add a bunch of food on your own which is mostly fruit and vegetables. So, yeah, if you had to only eat the pre-packaged stuffy, you would be pretty hungry. Every meal, except for the afternoon snack, you end up eating four or five things. Each “thing” is a relatively small portion, but it is a variety of things and in sum is enough food. I get to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables and am having 2 rolls a day. I dont think I had more than a dozen rolls in the last 3 years on the low carb diet. The only time I was hungry last week was one evening when I forgot to eat my afternoon snack.

As for the quality of the food, I am not sure I could be happier. Now, we aren’t talking gourmet food here, but I havent yet found anything that I thought tasted bad. I still have a few shakes that I havent tried, so that may change 🙂

There are only two things that have proven to be a drawback to the NutriSystem diet for me. First, I dont get to cook much anymore and that is/was one of my passions. I should be able to get back to it once I get to my goal weight. I made some homemade spaghetti yesterday for the kids to have for dinner just to cook. It actually wasnt even that tough to not dig in myself while cooking. The second drawback is no “hunk of meat”. I got used to eating nice amounts of meat on the low carb diet. On NutriSystem, you get very small portions of meat. A lot of the pre-packaged entrees have meat in them, but its a pretty small quantity. For two of the daily meals, you get to add a portion of dairy or protein. So I use that opportunity to have some chicken or lean meat, but its only 1 ounce. No more 16 ounce Rib Eyes steaks for a while. Actually, I used to eat more chicken than beef, but a 1 ounce piece isnt that large.

On a side, note, Suzanne lost 3 lbs in her first week of NutriSystem, so she is happy too.

Bottom line – this diet appears to be doable though I doubt anyone would eat the pre-packaged stuff for the rest of your life. The hope is that it teaches you portion control and eating from a variety of food types for balance.