Well, I got my first order of Nutrisystem food and I survived the week! Read on to find the second installment of my Diary of a Nutrisystem Journey – Week 1.
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The month’s worth of food arrived in one giant 45 lb box! I read all the information and then created a little Youtube video you can find here.
Now I know the only thing you really want to know is……how much did I lose?? Well, I followed week one to the letter, until the last morning. It was oatmeal and I just can’t eat oatmeal. I won’t go into my food texture plight but suffice to say I have issues. 🙂 I raided my stash of food that was slated for the next 3 weeks to find a duplicate food that I’d eaten earlier in the week and I substituted that for the oatmeal. So when I hopped on the scale Monday morning I’d lost 3.9 pounds in my first week! I really didn’t know what to expect, but my hope was 4 pounds so I’m happy with the result.
Here’s what you experience on the first week of Nutrisystem…
Turbo Takeoff
The first week of the program is called Turbo Takeoff. It comes in a separate box within the larger box. It contains 7 breakfasts, lunches, dinners, plus 7 shakes and 7 bars. THEY choose the food and the snacks. This is Nutrisystem boot camp! You eat 5 times a day and the only food you incorporate that isn’t in that box is vegetables. They want you to eat at least 4 servings of veggies a day. They give you a list of the vegetables in the Turbo Takeoff pamphlet and most of them are 1/2 cup = 1 serving.
For the most part, I liked the food! I was skeptical but pleasantly surprised. It made me a little loopy the first few days and I went online and searched to see if this was normal…and it is! You’re only eating 1,025 calories a day that first week and it can make you a little light headed, especially if you’re active. In fact, it tells you in the pamphlet that they don’t recommend you exercise that first week until your body gets used to the new way of eating. I’ve been waiting my whole life for someone to tell me exercise is bad for me! 1,025 calories is not alot of food but I can’t really say I felt hungry because you’re still eating something at least 5 times a day. I relied on radishes as my snack if I was feeling hungry. It really wasn’t that bad. You can do anything for a week!
Likes and Dislikes
There are some things I really liked and some things I didn’t care for the first week. I can’t say I HATED anything but some things were better than others.
I didn’t care for the Turbo Shake. It tells you to add 8 oz of water and 1/2 cup of ice to the shake mix and it was pretty gritty even after shaking it up quite a bit. So I got the bright idea to use my Nutribullet to blend it better and that really worked well. And actually using a straw helped as well. It was kind of “foamy” after being blended and a straw got to the bottom of the glass which was less foamy. Yeah, more texture issues…
At first I didn’t really like the NutriCurb bar either but I found if I refrigerated it I liked it better. I’m not sure I’d order it going forward, but it wasn’t bad.
Some things I liked alot:
- Double chocolate muffin
- Chicken Noodle Soup (small portion, but good)
- Mac and Cheese with Turkey Sausage
- Chicken Alfredo (I needed to add a little salt)
Things I liked enough to order again:
- Bean Bolognese
- Italian Herb Flatbread Pizza
- Rotini and Meatballs
- Beef Stew
- Chili with Beans
Things I don’t think I’ll order again:
- Cinnamon Streusel Muffin
- Chocolate Chip Baked Bar
- Fudge Graham Bar
- Granola Cereal
- Cinnamon Raisin Baked Bar
- Blueberry Lemon Baked Bar (I find their “baked bars” very dry)
- Loaded Potato
- BBQ Seasoned Chicken
Some helpful hints…
Alot of the food reminded me of Smart Ones or Lean Cuisines, except they weren’t frozen. It freaked me out a little to be able to eat entrees that are able to be stored on a shelf…but when you think about it you see those things all the time in grocery stores. Especially in the pasta aisle.
I mentioned a couple of suggestions above, like refrigerating the NutriCurb bar and blend the shake in a Nutribullet. Another thing I did was to make sure I had snackable veggies when I was needing a little nosh. For me, radishes were the perfect little crunchy snack. If you don’t like radishes, carrots or cucumbers with a little vinegar and salt are a good alternative.
Depending on my schedule, some days I switched my lunch and dinner. I typically like a heavier meal midday and a lighter one at night so this worked really well for me. If I was on the go and couldn’t stop to heat up a meal at lunchtime I grabbed a bar from the selection of Turbo Takeoff lunches.
So that’s week one! I have started week two and I’ll let you know how it goes. It’s going to be challenging because I’m going out of town mid week!
Follow this link to join Nutrisystem. Don’t pay full price! If you can’t find a discount or promo code, email me at info@thetinkeringspinster.com and I’ll do the ‘refer a friend’ to get you a discount. It’s usually $30-50 off.
Happy tinkering,
Susan
