My Nutrisystem Journey

After having such a great Saturday my Sunday morning started out with frozen pipes again in my kitchen. I was up pretty late last night so I didn’t wake up until after 10 and I came downstairs and found the hot water in the kitchen was not working. When the temperatures dip into the teens or single digits I always check the water first thing. I called the plumbers who did the work and emailed Paul Davis. After about 2 hours with no reply I texted the gent from Paul Davis who was here on Tuesday. I waiting another 2.5 hours and finally called the emergency number for Paul Davis. They came out within an hour, told me to stop apologizing and discovered the hot water pipe, which is galvanized, was either leaking and then froze or it froze then split due to a gap in the foundation they missed when they insulated on Tuesday. The good news is it only affects the kitchen sink. The pipe is encased in ice right now so that's why there was no detectable leak in the basement. Considering it...

Reminder: do not feel obligated to “like” these notes or comment on them. It was nice to see the sun when I woke up this morning. Each day that goes by makes life just a little bit easier to manage. I haven’t lost hope for the future and perhaps there is a grand adventure ahead of me. Breakfast this morning was a 110 calorie bowl of cold cereal with a bit of milk .. Nutriflakes ! They were a bit like eating Wheaties. I added the leftover milk to my coffee but I find that the addition of milk does nothing for the coffee, so apparently it was the sugar in my coffee that I loved the most. No surprise - many of us are die hard sugar addicts ! I’m doing ok with the black coffee, surprisingly enough. Lunch was a 210 calorie cup of black beans and rice. Although the flavor was fine the contents of the cup did not look like the fluffy rice and beans pictured. I have to be honest - it looked more like something you’d find in a babies diaper. It was that disgusting. If I encountered ...

I weighed myself this morning and the scale says I lost 7 pounds. I was disappointed with this number but after thinking about it I realized that expecting to lose more than a pound a day is a little unrealistic. I’m hoping getting back on the treadmill will give me a boost as the thought of only losing 1-2 pounds a week is not pleasant. I’m too impatient ! So today begins the first day of week 2. Breakfast was a 170 calorie double chocolate muffin and black hazelnut coffee. Lunch was 200 calorie cup of cheddar broccoli rice. I didn’t find much broccoli in it and I forgot to bring veggies to work or I’d have added my own. Morning snack was my 120 calorie chocolate shake and afternoon was a 150 calorie chocolate caramel bar. Dinner was 250 calorie pouch of “fiesta macaroni and cheese”. It was sorta like mac & cheese made with nacho sauce. I’m finding the flavor of some entrees to be a little flat and I’m pretty sure it’s because I am used to ingesting a LOT more salt. I add roman...

I can relate to the person sitting alone on the bench. I feel very alone too. I’m not alone - I have the support of my family to get through all this - but I can’t help feeling this way. I have never found it easy to ask anyone for help so I’ve always kept things to myself and did what I could to resolve the curve balls life has thrown my way on my own. Today I opted to take yet another vacation day. I will miss this flexibility if I end up having to find a new job. I certainly won’t have 5+ weeks of vacation ever again. It’s a windy and snowy day so I’m glad to be at home. I would be of little use in the office today anyways so I couldn’t see going in to accomplish nothing. I was able to get a few hours sleep but it’s impossible to turn off my brain when I wake up, so going back to sleep is no longer an option. Despite that, today I wanted to just pull the covers over my head and stay in bed forever. On the Nutrisystem front, breakfast is a 150 calorie cinnamon bun bar. It’s pr...

I was going to update my Day 6 note but this sweet girl deserves her own note. I write these for myself, to document my life for me, so don’t feel that you have to “like” or comment. At 5:57 pm this feisty girl passed away peacefully in my arms. Back in November 2017 I was told she had cancer and probably wouldn't live very long, but she hung in there for over a year. She had lost some weight recently and this morning she wouldn't eat so I knew things had changed. At dinner time I found her trying to crawl into one of the cat beds and I could see she was in distress. A trip to the emergency vet wasn't going to help and it's far away so I just held her. She snuggled into my chest and we sat quietly until the end. I think she was happy to be in my arms, feeling the warmth of my touch and hearing the beat of my breaking heart. Had I gone to work today I would not have been here to comfort her, because I would have stopped at Walmart on the way home. Things do hap...

Time does heal all wounds but after 34 years it will take some time to get past what has happened with my job. I think it will be easier once I know if I still have a job, but even if I do still have a job it’s not going to last until I am ready to retire so change is inevitable. My hope is that the change in career happens on my timeline. That is all I can ask for. In the meantime, life goes on. I was able to sleep last night so I feel better physically. The plumbers were here relatively early and have finished all of their work, so I have some peace of mind. Hopefully I will not have to deal with frozen pipes again. Since I’m home and the snow hasn’t made an appearance I was also able to run out and pick up my Walmart order. So now I have my desk chair to assemble. I also have the mats for underneath the treadmill and chair. These were the last couple of items I needed for my house so I’m absolutely done buying stuff for the house. There is nothing else I need or really even w...

Today started off stressful the minute I got out of bed ... to the sound of running water. A split pipe in the basement is the culprit and it will be fixed today at no cost to me. So after losing my mind for a few hours and shedding a bucket of tears I’ve reigned myself back in. Of course, that wouldn’t be possible without the wonderful folks at Paul Davis of Northern NY. They came to my rescue and assured me they would take care of it and, as always, they are true to their word. On the Nutrisystem front I’m all over the place today. It’s Day 5 already ! I’m hoping to see a good number when I weigh myself on Friday. It’s 2 in the afternoon and I’m just now having my “morning snack” of a chocolate shake. I had a 160 calorie apple strudel bar for breakfast. The bar was ok but I’ve never been a fan of apple flavored things. Flavorings are just not going to taste like the real deal and some flavorings are better than others. I haven’t had any water today for obvious reasons so I may not...

Until about 9 am this morning I was having a great day. Got up on time after 2 weeks vacation, got to work super early and didn’t forget any of the things I needed to stay with Nutrisystem for the day. Then the bottom dropped out of over 150 lives when they announced my office is closing in April. The place I’ve worked for nearly 34 years. I may still have a job when it’s all said and done but most of the people I’ve worked with for many, many years will not. We are crushed. We are broken. We are destroyed. I don’t know how I will face going in there day after day as time counts down. I don’t want to have to say goodbye to all of these wonderful people. My work family shouldn’t be crying rivers of tears. They put their heart and souls into this job day after day, year after year and their reward for their sacrifice and loyalty is a pink slip. We are devastated and life will never be the same. On the Nutrisystem front, breakfast today was a 180 calorie cinnamon streusel muffin. Again...

The first 2 days of Nutrisystem weren’t awful ! I’m cautiously optimistic I will finally be successful. Breakfast this morning was a 160 calorie 1.4 ounce packet of granola cereal with a bit of milk. That seems like an awful lot of calories for such a tiny amount of food. The packet indicates it has 30 grams of carbs, with sugar being 11 of them. So Nutrisystem doesn’t seem to be “low carb” and I’m ok with that. I don’t want to be on a faddish plan like Keto or Atkins etc. I’ve read that Keto can cause your “bad” cholesterol to shoot up because you eat so much fat. That can’t be good for you and how does that teach you good balanced eating habits ? Right now my cholesterol levels are perfect and I want to keep it that way. Nutrisystem does have a separate plan for those with Type II diabetes and that probably limits carbs more. Having cereal with milk led to my first Nutrisystem hack - I put the leftover milk in my coffee ! It didn’t do a whole lot for me since there wasn’t much milk ...

Well, I survived the first day of Nutrisystem. For full disclosure, I was STARVING when bedtime rolled around and I knew I would not be able to sleep. So I had a 150 calorie cup of yogurt. It wasn’t part of the program but I was still about 160 under my calories for the day so I’m not worried. I don’t plan on this happening every day - yesterday I did not have any of the veggies they recommend so it’s no surprise I was hungry. Today I’ll be off to the grocery store to buy produce for the week. I suspect hunger won’t be a problem once I add the recommended 4 servings of veggies to my day. During the week my meals will be a bit more structured and I’ll be eating dinner later AND going to bed earlier. So I don’t expect bedtime hunger to be a problem anyways. Day 2 breakfast is a 2 ounce double chocolate muffin with 170 calories. It’s actually pretty good ! Next time I have a muffin I think I will microwave for a few seconds to give it a “just baked” feel. Coffee today is french vanil...

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 t...

Fedex dropped off my Nutrisystem order about 2 hours ago and I’ve already photographed everything and stored it away. Photo’s were posted separately. Today I’ll be reviewing the guide to getting started and formulating my plan for the next few days. One thing I didn’t realize is they recommend you limit your activity for the first week while you acclimate to your new way of eating. Translation: don’t try to exercise while you’re starving ... lol !!! So I will go with that and not begin my treadmill program just yet. Another thing I didn’t realize is that after week one you create your own meals one day per week. This is why they only sent 25 days worth of food. The goal is to teach you to formulate healthy meals so that you’re prepared for “life after Nutrisystem”. If I enjoy the foods and successfully lose the weight I will probably stay with the program even after I reach my goal. I’ve seen too many stories of people coming back because they gained the weight back after they reache...

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 h...

Mother Nature’s wind did nothing but wake me up briefly early this morning. It’s still gusting out there but it’s nothing like the sustained winds that woke me up. When I first moved into this house our power used to go out all the time. Once they changed out the transformer on our street the problem disappeared. Power outages after that were usually a blown fuse. Now that the house has been rewired and I have circuit breakers I don’t really have to worry anymore. We had a bit of rain late yesterday so all of the snow is gone, for now. We had our white Christmas and that was that. It’s 41 degrees now BUT by 9 pm tonight it’s expected to drop down to only 9 degrees ! Mother Nature and her mood swings !! Today I plan to tackle the closet in my downstairs bedroom. Things I didn’t really know what to do with were stored in there when I moved back in and it’s time to clear it out. Tomorrow is trash day so I might as well get rid of stuff today. I guess that goes along with my “out with ...

It's the last day of 2018 and I've decided to start using the "notes" feature on FB for the daily drivel that a lot of my FB friends don't care to see, but I want to record. Today I finally bought the last couple of items I "need" for my home. Mat to go under the treadmill, an office chair and a mat to go under the chair. They won't arrive until late next week but that's ok. Everything else I needed came at Christmas so there is nothing else I need to buy. I put together the over the door mirror I asked for (made in the USA !!) so consider yourself warned that exercise selfies will be making a comeback ! Also got notification that the first box from Nutrisystem will arrive Thursday and the frozen meals shipped today. I appreciated the automated call to alert me about the shipment - this will be important in the summer when it’s hot ! Big challenge is going to be their advice to drink at least 64 ounces of water per day. I don't drink a lo...

Right, wrong or indifferent I made a pretty big decision today. Huge for me, really. I signed up for Nutrisystem. I feel like I need some structure and I'm not disciplined enough to do it on my own. Yes, it's expensive but I also decided not to spend any money in casino's in 2019, so in the end I will be SAVING money ! I will also be forced to give up my daily XL coffee from Dunkin and that will save me about $60 per month. Yes, it's processed food but I eat processed food ev ery day now and this program is NOT forever. I will transition to even healthier choices once I shed a significant amount of weight. I will gladly take my mom to the casino whenever she wants but I will entertain myself in other ways. I used to love to read and I stopped doing that a long time ago. My nieces have many, many books so I may borrow a few !! I'll be sharing pictures of the food and progress towards my goal weight so we'll see if the program lives up to its promises. Here's ...