Day 1: Leap of Faith

So today it begins. The leap of faith. The hope that Nutrisystem will help me conquer my weight, once and for all. As I sit here contemplating a cup of black coffee, a 1.4 ounce 160 calorie bar that they call “breakfast” and a gigantic 32 ounce bottle of water I’m wondering where I’ll be 1 year from now. Hopefully a whole lot less of me will be sitting here !

I’ve never been a big morning eater so I think the bar followed by the “morning snack” of a shake will be fine. The black coffee is ok - I chose a vanilla caramel creme flavor so that it wouldn’t be too awful. I think once I am used to black coffee I’ll never go back to cream and sugar. As for the bar, it’s peanut butter granola and I have to say it is delicious ! It’s chewy and dense and when you read the ingredients it’s not a bunch of chemicals and artificial flavors. They’re made in Canada so I’m not worried about the quality of the ingredients. This bar would actually be an excellent substitute for a candy bar - it’s that good ! I can see myself keeping these on hand for years to come.

Drinking 64 ounces of water each day is going to be my biggest challenge. I’m lucky if I consume 32 in a typical day. I bought a Contigo bottle and it’s marked for 8, 16, 24 and 32 ounces so I’ll just have to set goals throughout the day to get through it. 8 ounces down .. only 56 more to go .. lol !! The coffee I drink actually counts but I’ve decided to consume 64 ounces of water in addition to anything else I might drink, such as coffee or iced tea. You can add things like lemon or lime juice to make it less boring so I’ll try that if necessary. One thing I won’t do is add those flavorings made with artificial sweeteners. I want to get past my sugar addiction and relying on artificial sweeteners isn’t going to help me with that.

It’s a cold but beautiful sunny day today ! The blue skies and sunshine outside match my current mood. I am optimistic for the future, for the first time in a long time. I will soon be ejecting myself from the couch to focus on storing away the Christmas decorations and getting some things accomplished around the house. Back to work on Monday so I need to make the most of the the next couple of days.

SNACK AND LUNCH UPDATE: Had my first shake ! It was tasty and easy to mix up in the shaker provided. It’s a 120 calorie item. Lunch consisted of 200 calorie three cheese chicken in a cup. It was actually pretty good. You add water and microwave for 90 seconds then cover and let it sit for 5 minutes so the noodles can cook. I added a tiny pinch of romano cheese so I guess it was 4 cheese chicken ! There is only 20 calories in a tablespoon so I probably only added 5 calories, if even. My water bottle is almost empty so I’ve done well with the water consumption !

DINNER UPDATE: dinner was chicken alfredo. This was a 10 ounce entree with 260 calories that you microwave. If anyone is wondering about salt, it had 590 mg of salt, which is in line with most prepared foods. I feel like this dish could have had much less of the sauce component in exchange for a few extra pieces of pasta. Perhaps the ingredients in the sauce are designed to keep you full since pasta is all carbs and just tends to make you hungry sooner. The taste was pretty good. I’ve got about 8 ounces of water to go and I’ll be at 64 ounces for the day. This was not hard at all !

I will end the day with a snack. Tonight will be a 150 calorie chocolate caramel bar. I didn’t have the required amount of veggies today as I found that what I had in the freezer was old so I tossed them. I’ll be off to the store tomorrow morning to stock up on fresh and frozen produce. I plan to roast a big pan of veggies on Sunday and then portion them out to take for lunch and to have with dinner. The end result of Day One is I’m at 890 calories rather than the 1200 that is allotted. I don’t plan on doing that every day because starving myself is not the answer. I can get away with this today because I’m at home and not getting much exercise other than cleaning up the house and doing laundry.

On a positive note, today I discovered I’ve lost 5 pounds since 12-29, which was the day I decided to embark on this journey. I guess throwing away all the bad food in the house and just the change in mindset made a difference. It also helps that I’ve been at home away from temptation. This ended up being the accomplishment of a mini goal I set for myself !