Tomorrow Is The Big Day !

So tomorrow my first shipment of frozen and non-frozen foods will arrive from Nutrisystem. I will spend my last day of “normal” eating reviewing (and photographing!) the products and determining what I need to get at the store to supplement. I know I will need vegetables and perhaps salad greens but probably not much else.

I really want to be a success story so I’m determined to work hard and accomplish my goal. I know it won’t be easy and I know there will be plateaus but I can’t let that discourage me. Too often in life I’ve become discouraged and given up. I feel that with this structured program there is no reason I won’t/can’t succeed. As they advertise, all you have to do is eat the food ! The one thing I have to be very aware of is deviating from the plan. I’ve decided to be pretty strict for at least the first 3 months because I know how I am. One day “off plan” turns into 2 and then 3 and then control is lost. After 3 months I feel the new way of eating will have become habit and it will be easier to avoid temptation in a restaurant. It’s actually very easy to eat healthy in a restaurant if you make the right choices. For me that means choosing the 6 ounce steak instead of the 10 ounce and steamed vegetables as a side instead of potatoes. Passing on bread and rolls is also easy enough to do. I typically don’t order dessert so that’s an easy pass too. This is what I mean when I say this is a lifestyle change. My hope is that the Nutrisystem plan will put me in tune with healthy choices that last for the rest of my life. Evenings and weekends tend to be my Achilles heel. When you’re at work you don’t have access to the fridge or those cookies stashed in the cupboard but once you get home and you’re parked in front of the tv or relaxing in bed they’re all calling you. Years ago my husband and I talked about him joining Nutrisystem as he was very overweight and diabetic. He joked that he would probably eat all the food in the first week and in the end he did nothing about his weight and it was the reason for his early demise. I don’t want to go down that road.

So, tomorrow will be a day of reflection and getting ready for this. I think I am there mentally but I’m a bit nervous about the physical impacts of a drastic change in eating habits. I don’t want to end up with digestive issues so I’m glad I’ll be home for the first 3 days. I’m also known to experience blood sugar lows so I will have to keep something around to address that. I actually had an episode of low blood sugar today because I hadn’t eaten. I had to step away from feeding my cats and sit down to eat some yogurt. The Nutrisystem products are supposed to be nutritionally balanced so I’m hoping my blood sugar will stay stable. I am not diabetic and want to keep it that way !

Before I made this decision I thought about all the options available. I thought about just trying it on my own again. I thought about surgical options. I thought about Medifast and Jenny Craig. I thought about Weight Watchers. Trying it on my own might have worked but I’m not convinced I could stay with it for the long term. Surgical options are too drastic. I want some structure but for me the structure of a surgical choice was too severe. I also didn’t want to have to deal with the inevitable pounds of loose skin hanging everywhere due to the rapid weight loss. Medifast involves group meetings as does Weight Watchers and I have no interest in that. The online WW option is not enough structure for me. So that left Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem. I read pros and cons online and it seemed like the Nutrisystem commentary was more positive and the company itself felt more professional and stable.

So, we’ll see if I made the right choice. The proof will be in the numbers on the scale and how I feel physically.