I’ve tried dieting for a few years and can only say that my weight has continued to creep upwards. It’s hard for me to imagine, but two years ago I was 40 pounds lighter than I am now. I suppose I’m fortunate that I’m tall so I don’t immediately look morbidly obese, but adding that much weight not only impacts your wardrobe, but your health too. I know I’m not as healthy as I was and while I have plenty of excuses about how difficult the last few years have been — and don’t get me wrong, it’s been a really difficult journey as a parent these last few years — they’re just, well, excuses.
I consider myself someone with good willpower. For some things, it’s easy for me to hold my ground, as anyone who has gone out drinking with me knows. I have my limit and I stop, regardless of what everyone around me is doing. Foods and snacks, though? Late at night? Yeah, that’s an Achilles heel for my willpower. Or perhaps an Achilles stomach, though I never got the impression that ole’ Achilles had any issues with weight…
The long and short of it is that I reached out to the social media team at Nutrisystem, having had a good experience with their program years ago, and I’m back on the path with them. This time the program’s a bit different, and this week I’m starting with the jump-start of a 1000-calories/day “Turbo Takeoff” program. Imagine, an entire week’s worth of food conveniently sent in a single box:
The basic concept is straightforward, even once I’m done with the Turbo Takeoff week: each less calories than usual, spread your food intake out throughout the day, and don’t stray into dangerous snack and sweet territory. Easy. Except I know that I can’t do that by myself, and as a single father, I am frequently cooking just for myself, which makes small portions even more difficult.
Fortunately, within the program, there’s still the flexibility to tweak and modify things with the addition of veggies, spices, condiments and even different prep styles. For example the “Turbo Shake” instructions have you pour powder into a shaker, add some water and ice cubes, then shake it up. Nahhhh… tossing that into my blender gives me a far more enjoyable concoction, as you can see:
While the optimist in me thinks this is easy and I should be able to proceed without any third party foods in the mix, the pragmatist in me recognizes that for the last few years while I’ve been half-heartedly trying to lose weight, another part of me has absolutely undermined my efforts and resulted in me hitting a weight greater than I want and being stuck there.
And so, please welcome me to NSNATION, the Nutrisystem online community and program. This time there’s a well-designed mobile phone app that makes tracking water consumption, foods, calories, and activity a breeze, and all the foods have been revised to make them tastier and more healthy. Not only that, all Nutrisytem foods contain zero artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners, which is important to me.
Also included are lots of documents to ensure I don’t get befuddled or confused about what to eat on any given day and how it all fits together:
I expect at least a few of my friends will not be supportive and will in fact criticize my choice to work with Nutrisystem to lose weight, but that’s a curious thing: why wouldn’t they trust me to make the best decision for myself and do what’s best for my own health and well-being? And then be as supportive as they could?? I guess we’ll see how this plays out…
For the record, I’m currently weighing in at 288 pounds. My target weight is 250 pounds by the end of the year, though I suspect that’s a bit aggressive. Then again, at an average of 1-2 pounds / week lost, there are 21 weeks left, so I should at least be able to end the year under 265. Under 260? That’d be good. And under 250? That’d be fantastic.
Now for the hard part: Sticking to the Nutrisystem program even as I’m surrounded by fantastic food options in a foodie town. But the end goal is unquestionably worth the journey. So… here we go!
Disclosure: I have received all of my products from Nutrisystem for review purposes and that my opinions are 100% my own. As is always the case.