Gimme That Burger!

I would kill for a burger right now. I could get out of the house, drive down to the local burger place, and then come home. Moving is a stronger deterrent than having extra calories to count. I am still hungry for a burger, but it is a comfort that I might have more control over hunger than I thought.

Yet the urge is still there. Typical. When I was up at my parents' house I had lots of real food instead of my Nutrisystem packaged stuff. My portioning is not what it could be yet. I am underestimating my servings. I know my mom has a food scale, I just tend to eat out more there. I will be dusting it off and do some calorie patrol. I also have to give myself more practice measuring real food.

In other news, I have realized that summer is almost done. The leaves haven't started turning, but I was able to take a walk at 8:30 am without dying of heat. It may be that the rain a few nights ago was cooling down the day, but we seem to be out of the high 90's and down to he 60's at night. It still seems rather warm, but this is a nice change.

I am not sure how I feel about changing over to fall (to be quickly followed by winter). It feels like I haven't done anything productive this summer... this last year. But it was not really bad, just different. Things have gotten done; things got done that have taken some gumption to get finished, even though some took a lot of friends' help. There is still a whole list of things to do, but it is shorter than the last year.

This coming fall will help me see new horizons in the future. I also have a hope that my brainz get more calm as well. Hurry up!

Backwards

Let me preface this by saying, 'Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg!"

Okay, now that I have that out of my system momentarily I can explain.

I had been slowly chipping off the pounds. Slow but reasonably steady. Except the past week I have actually GAINED weight. Up from 214 to 216 I am 99% sure that it is meds. I also am 99% sure that it is water retention...but it still hurts on the brainz front. Even with the weight gain I did end up going for a walk yesterday, once it got cool enough to be active outside.

Part of the gain is how much I ate out last week, even if the day was mostly in calorie range. Extra salt and just plain extra food are not good for dieting. Now back to making the Nutrisystem the norm rather than the standby for a while. I even have a brand new shipment coming in today!

On a good note, even with the weight gain, I have pants that fit nicely now and are very comfortable. They may look like simple cotton medical scrubs, but oh no, these are special. This a pair of microfiber soft, quick drying, rugged pair o' pants. Only problem: they are long. Solution? Walk in them for a while so I can tell how long I should shorten them (and to make sure that they are really all done shrinking).Yay! New Pants! Next up, the shirts to match the pants--I am guessing 210 should do it.

The house seems empty. A major house renovation has come to a close so all the tools need put away. There is even empty floor space! After over a year we got it finished! Just cleaning up to do.

Next project: practicing archery to get myself honed in again. My dad and I are going up to go get a deer (or two) and put them in the freezer. I really need to clean out my freezer soon to make room for Bambi. Call that today's chore since garbage day is tomorrow. I also need to figure out how much I want to rely on Nutrisystem while I am traveling. Probably not much, but we will see. Nothing will be bad if I take it and don't use it.

Bad news: blegh. Good news: yay! General news...well... news.

Day Three

Today marks the third day that I have not formally exercised (not counting today). Short bursts of activity were all that appeared those days Today will be different--it has to be. I took a streak of seven weeks and dashed it to bits. Oh well. Life sometimes intervenes.

In the area of food I have been relatively good. Only having a few days outside of the 1200-1400 calorie range. I have two methods of eating: perfect or all out. I have been careful to not let myself lower than my range, but the upper outages tend to be in the 1600-1800 calorie range. For the most part I have been where I need to be.

The last week I relied heavily on real food. It was nice, but so much easier to eat a lot at one time. I can tell what a portion should be most of the time, but eating only one portion is harder. This is not news to me, merely frustrating. But the more that I practice, the easier it gets. Repetition is where the Nutrisystem comes in. It normalizes how my body feels when it is hungry or merely munchy. The combination of real and fake food (alright, Nutrisystem is mostly food) means that I have an easier time eating in general. Mostly.

I am lucky that my splurge of the moment is fruit. It may not be the healthiest thing in large amounts, but it is also far from the worst. Besides, you can't just leave a melon open and alone, right? It is one piece of fruit! One serving...one portion. Right?

Riiiiiiiight. Or not.

Mass sprees on food are no good. For some reason I have have tons of chocolate and goodies around and not get a bad case of the munchies. But there are some things that are I know are killer diet crashers that I cannot have anywhere in the house or they will be gobbled up in a hurry.

So what are these little calorie bombs?
Monkey Bread
Cake
Bread
Homemade treats
Avocado

Most of the items can either be avoided completely or frozen in portions. My fresh bagels get split in half and frozen right when I get home. I don't bake goodies for myself without packaging them up as well. The time it takes to thaw out and get whatever treat I make edible again gives me a little bit more time to decide if I am really hungry.

And now I am hungry...munchy...I want food.

No Scale Headway. Again.

I know that this is a repeat message, but I have to get it out of my system: my metabolism hates me. Another week of no measureable weight change. I am hoping that, like last time, this means that there is a large drop in my future.  I have to keep up that hope.

I wish that I could get a steady loss. I know that is not going to happen. I can still wish.

Since I have been getting back into eating normal sized foods I am scaling back the Nutrisystem foods. That decision was even easier since they raised the price on my plan. Now I have a 20 day (rather than 30ish) plan for half the cost. I find it frustrating that they don't show the alternate plans on their website. I had to go through their chat line to find out about the plans. Frustrating, but done.

It has been around a month that I have gotten in some exercise during the day. I call that a success. It is getting more difficult to get up the gumption to put on my shoes and walk or get out and swim. I wish that I could do some jogging, or even run at some point. Right now I am doing well to do get in a mile or two of walking, or thirty to forty-five minutes swimming. A month is a good time to see how a habit can be instilled in my brain. I feel wrong when I don't  move--I get restless.

I know that the scale will move, I just want it to move now! My clothes have stopped feeling looser. I want more. I want to be off of meds that cause weight gain. Unfortunately I have found that I don't function well without meds in addition to other therapy. Bah!

Between the exercise and fluctuation in brainz I have less motivation to do other things at my house. Playing with the dog (who loves to walk, so he isn't too sad), doing dishes, cleaning out the fridge. Luckily, I have people to prod me when I am down and tether me close to the ground when I am truly manic. Thank you guys!

Productive... or not

I was at 217.5 pounds this morning! But I am caught between three options:

First, I like having meals always have food while on the Nutrisysem --not cooking gives me more time to do others.
Second, I like to cook and bake and that causes me to overeat (fresh bread, cookies).
Third option is to do both number one and two.

Three weeks a go I was planning to only use the real food by month three. But now that I realize how well it is working  and I am leaning more on the NS food. When I eat out I choose foods that do not mess up my diet. Want dessert? Either skip it, replacing it with fruit, or split it and just have a couple of bites (A good reason to eat with others, but still dangerous).

Now that I am a little more familiar foods on the list of choices I am coming to enjoy the meals. The breakfast options are great! But I know that the plan only lasts as long as I want to lose weight--half the battle is making sure that the weight stays off--something that I already have been practicing (again).

So the choice is the third option and keep plodding along with exercise and eating reasonably well. It is obviously the easiest right now while I get medication moved around since I can get really munchy when my brainz are telling me that I should eat everything in sight.

Dog Walking Me

1200 calories (or Kcal if you prefer), that is what my food intake should be around every day. Boy does that go really fast if I am not watching myself, especially when eating out. Since I am still having a hard time portion controlling through the day I am continuing the Nutrisystem food for another week, even though I am doing okay without it. I still need another run to give me options when I don't want to cook or eat. So I will happily toss in the cash if it means that this extra flub keeps shrinking.

I need to start cooking more, just because I love to cook. If I can do that while on the plan I can, eventually I can learn how to make small meals instead of a spread for an army! I used to know how to do that when Jason was with me, so I am sure that I can do it again..

I'm still writing down every thing I eat for accountability, as well as walking and swimming. Yesterday I didn't do an official walk, but instead of playing slots I played catch the Pokemon. It worked pretty well too, considering that it was inside of a steel building.

Link is not happy when I don't take him for a walk, especially after I have been swimming, because he sees me leave the house in my walking shoes--that is supposed to be the time for a walk. When I put him outside he tries to be cute at me. When I put him in his cage he plops down with the loudest,and most pathetic sigh. So he guilt trips me into a walk instead of swimming or a long walk with him. Dang dog and his powers of cuteness! Right now he has claimed my feet so that I can't escape my sitting spot without his knowledge.

We will see if my future job comes through, and if I can still do all the exercise I have been doing. First step is to secure the job before worrying.

So I run problem at at time. One day at a time. One walk at a time. One meal at a time.

Keeping it Real

I am having results on the Nutriststen program and I am getting to like not having to cook when I am tired. But I am missing real food.

I have found a compromise. Each day I make sure to have one meal that is not part of the system. Eating out has become easy again now that I am back to estimating portions accurately. For instance, today I ate out twice, but I was able to make a reasonable choice and pare down/package up food accordingly.

The ready-to-eat Nutrisystem is convenient. That is its main purpose--to make sure that eating does not lead to mindless snacking. The tracking system that they use is pretty accurate; not great, but better than having to jot things down. (I also use my free SparkPeople tracker to get a little more specific calorie count.) The options for several small meals means that I can either eat small meals or save up the calories to eat a larger meal at a later time.

I don't know how much I am going to rely on the delivery food, but having it ready to go means that I eat a little more healthy than otherwise--mostly in varieties of lunches and dinner. I am not claiming that they have a ton of options, but there are enough to rotate through every week or two. Lunches are easy so long as I have eggs in the house--hell, I love eggs for dinner and breakfast.

I have to watch myself and have more fruit and veggies rather than basic bread, eggs, yogurt and cheese. If I can get them in the front of the fridge or out on the counter I am more likely to eat the healthier items along with the old favorites. There is nothing wrong with the basics, but I do need to have some fresh stuff tossed in there somewhere. Nutrisystem only seems to push vegetables rather than fruits, but I tend to add in more whole fruit than in the Nutrisystem plan. Veggies, on the other side, are completely free--not counted toward your calorie intake--so they are almost impossible to dodge. Luckily I like veggies to begin with so long as they are easy to grab and go.

The quick of it: I am not too sure right now of whether I will keep the prepackaged foods. Nutrisystem is working for me outside of it not being home cooked food, and I need to make sure that I eat better while eating outside of the plan boundaries.

First New Me

219.5 Pounds

I am starting to feel my clothes fit looser. My belt has to be tighter to hold up my pants. My shirts are starting to feel less tight. I'm still in the same size of clothes...but really I should have been wearing a size bigger when I started this journey. I was just not wanting to go out and buy more clothes and admitting to myself that I was getting bigger.

While I was at the mall waiting for my car to be repaired I had a wakeup call. I tried on clothes that I thought would be too small for me only to find that they were falling off. I'll be honest. I am wearing size 20/1X (or XXL if they are trendy) clothes right now. I can fit into 1X but not XL--tell me how that makes sense. I should have been in at least 2/3X or 22 when I started this.

Sizes are only numbers and letters, but they mean a lot to me for some reason. I had to remind myself not to buy clothes when I am losing weight--not from expensive new stores at least. I am making one exception to this rule: exercise clothing. I can't wait to get back down to below 200 pounds so I can wear some of my old clothes that fall into this category. Hell, I may even be able to get into some at 210 (okay, not just get into--wear properly)!

So where does that leave me with the Nutrisystem plan?

I found out an interesting tidbit about their program: every ten pounds you lose you get a little beanie baby bear with the pounds you lost embroidered on its chest. Cute and motivating for someone like me (remember the useless points that I talked about way back when). I am continuing to get shipments in from them, but will probably only need them every two months rather than every month. They make my life easier, especially when I don't really want to eat or cook at all. And they are healthier than my go-to food of bread and cheese--an acceptable meal once a day, not for every meal like I have a tendency to do if I don't watch myself.

We are coming up on the hardest part of the year for me, physically. Monsoon season always plays havoc with my joints no matter how well my meds are working. (I haven't figured out why except for the drastic changes in barometric pressure.) This time of year is an ultimate test of how my diet is because I am more likely to gravitate toward easier foods. Easier such as bread, cereal, eggs. All of these are perfectly fine on their own, it is all about variety. The last thing that I want to eat is a salad because that involves cutting, chopping, and preparing the ingredients (which is why I do all the prep work right when I get the produce home so that there is no excuse).

Nutrisystem should help me at least get some variety in my diet and make me more aware of my veggie intake. It also should make life easier because there is no or very little prep needed.

So there you have it, progress and future all wrapped up into one nice little package.

A Little More Magic and Some Ramblings Too

Yesterday I typed about magic. Well, today I had a major dose of it while driving.

Today I got lucky. No, not like that, you dirty minds. Today I dodged a major piece of debris on the interstate. We are talking a lane-covering bag full of dirt and trees. Of course the first thing that I did was call 911 while trying to calm down enough to remember details. Somebody or something is looking out for me. That would have been a major accident. I just hope that everyone else was able to dodge it before the cops got there to take care of it. I am still trying to calm down from it--it was about fifteen minutes ago. (I am typing from the car garage where they are fixing my baby.) While I have all this adrenaline in my system is a great time to be creative, right?

Yesterday I processed most of the cherries that my friend and I picked (from outside of a gas company to be exact). I was not looking forward to pitting all those cherries so I put it off. I cooked up most of the cherries to get the juice with the plan of using the rest as smushed up jam makings. My mom, ever the cook, figured otherwise. Overnight she pitted every single one. I have no idea how long it took her. I now have juice for drinks or jelly, pie cherries for tasty goodness, and some fresh frozen to munch out of hand.

Little things count toward a good day. My mom and her wonderful help made me smile. I knew there was no way that I could go through all of them, so her help made the haul so much better. I, of course, will be sharing the goods with her.

On a different note, I am hoping to be less manic, which might lead to less posts. I don't know yet. I am so much more creative while I have that high. But that may mean I am doing better mentally. I call that a good tradeoff.

Not being manic may also have a different effect: making my weight loss harder. I don't tend to eat as much when my mind is racing. There are just too many thoughts to bother with anything as mundane as eating. Because of that, I will be continuing the Nutrisystem for a few more months but on my schedule. I will be eating a mix of real food with their foods to supplement for when I want to avoid cooking. It also will be useful for when I am too manic and want to cook all the things that I can--normally lots of calorie laden cookies and other desserts.

I got another boost to my mental state when I went to the doctor yesterday. They weigh me before every appointment and it showed an eight pound loss (I had eaten and drank water). The first thing that the nurse said was, "Congratulations!" When my doctor saw the number she asked first how long it took to lose the weight (four weeks) and then said that it was, "Amazing to lose that much on the meds you are on." I know her comment means that future weight loss will probably be slower than I like, but she was happy with how I am doing, as am I.

However, among all this eating on Nutrisystem I have found several items that are not what I would call food. There are also several items that are basic enough that I can just substitute in real for their versions in future orders. The basic items include things like bagels and oatmeal, so long as I watch my portions. I will save the Nutrisystem foods for items that I cannot easily replicate or do not wish to replicate (lasagna--if I make it I will make enough for an army, rather than one or two servings). I do not have room in the freezer right now to make batch meals, but I am working on that. Right now the freezer is mostly full of deer meat and frozen vegetables. I need to use up the deer before I go hunting, but more on that another day.

On that note, I think that is enough rambling for one day. Have you had any close calls lately? Boosts to confidence? Or maybe even what is your freezer full of?

Actual Progress!

I actually have lost ten pounds! Thanks to being female, I was retaining water like you would not believe. I got on the scale this morning and was a full pound and a half lighter than yesterday. 220 pounds!

Ten pounds in a month. I call that success. Yesterday I was really bummed out from the lack of progress, but today lent a whole new boost to my confidence. That is one thing about being female--you don't have steady weight loss. I was not taking that into consideration.

So, now that I have gotten to my next milestone what do I get? "The Witcher" video game! I purchased it a week ago but did not download it until I knew that I had hit my goal. I just need to make sure that playing the game does not interfere with my exercise. Next up is buying a movie (215lbs).

Mentally this gives me a kick in the rear to not give up hope. I got my second (and last) shipment of Nutrisystem food yesterday. This week I start eating real food supplemented by their food for when I don't want to cook. It is scary to go back to eating healthily without the regimented portions, but I know that I can do it, especially with the help of my handy dandy food scale. Eating out is going to be where it is hard, but I am pretty good at estimating portions.

I am not sure if I am going to keep up the six meals a day thing. I am guessing that I will reign it in to four or five meals depending on how I feel that day. Breakfast, lunch, (snack,) dinner, snack. We shall see. Since eating six meals a day involves eating mostly 200 calorie meals, with the exception of dinner which is 300 and night snack which is 100. It is easier to keep meals at around the 300 calorie mark for actual meal preparation.

220 pounds. It doesn't feel much different from 230. I picked up about ten pounds of groceries (really a gallon of milk--8.6 pounds) and felt how heavy that was in my hand. That is how much weight I have lost. That is how much weight is no longer on my knees, on my ankles, and on my mind. It really brought home the significance of what I have managed to accomplish.

I can do this. I have done this. I will do this. I can't wait till tomorrow when I step on the scale at the doctor's office and see the difference. My doc said that losing weight while on my meds was "incredibly difficult." I will show her that incredibly difficult does not mean impossible, just challenging. I can take that challenge.

220 pounds. Down from 230. Yes! Just take it a pound at a time. An inch at a time. A step at a time.

Looks Like Progress

I am three weeks into my weight loss journey (that's two weeks on Nutrisystem). I am at 222 pounds, eight pounds less than when I started, which isn't too shabby at all.

Apparently my clothes are fitting a little differently than before since two people have already commented that I was "looking like the weight loss is working." Now, that might have just been people being supportive, but I have started to notice a difference as well. My belly pooch is a little less pronounced. WIN!

On another note, the hypomania is still here, at least a little bit. I keep waking up before my alarm by about an hour (and actually getting up instead of laying there hoping for a few more winks). I also have been busying myself around the house and outside. I looked around my yard and noticed a few plants that were begging for water, so I turned on the hose and went at them.

The energy was not just spent on the yard. Yesterday I took an afternoon walk down on the college campus where there are trees for shade (and, let's face it, more Pokemon). Today I took a look at the kitchen and did a massive cleanup. My bathroom was a mess from when my dog got covered in tar and subsequently had to get the tar off his paws. The remaining tar got attacked with baby oil and scrubbed; twice. It now looks like nothing happened in there. (Now, if only I could fix the towels and rug that got tarred.)

On the diet end of things, hyper is good. I texted Nutrisystem that I was having trouble getting in all the food that I was supposed to be eating. They took a look at my plan and my activity level and we decided to lower the calorie count down to 1200-1499 calories per day. The customer service was excellent.

Today I went to the store to stock up on the week's veggies and dairy. For $20 I got all of the fresh stuff, and a pile of frozen stuff. Pretty easy to shop when the bulk of the food is paid for. One thing I will change when I am weaning off of the plan will be my fruit intake. Right now there are few options for carbs, outside of the prescribed meals. Once I start subbing in foods the fruits will increase considerably, as well venison. Why venison? Because my dad and I hunt so there is a freezer full of meat that needs used up by October, a.k.a hunting season. But that is for the upcoming transition.

So I can focus on eating every 2-3 hours as per the plan (and my blood sugar seems to like this as well) as well as eating lots of veggies. I am all vegged out for now--lunch had a giant three cup salad with tons of fixings.

For now I am content to sit in front of the computer and brush up on my editing work or watch Netflix. I know that a walk will happen today because I am still a little hyper, but swimming most certainly will not because I strained my shoulder cleaning the tub. But the walk will wait till it is less hot. Thanks for reading the ramblings!

Nutrisystem Day 9

It has been over a week now since I started this whole new food thing. So far--between my trip just prior to starting Nutrisystem and the last 9 days--I have lost about seven pounds. Not bad for two and a half weeks. Granted, most of that is water weight, which is why they can advertise their great one month totals. Still, I will take what I can get.

I have set up incentives for myself along the way. My very first "reward" was my starting gift to me of new walking shoes. I can't believe how much more comfortable walking is with properly fitted shoes! I got the first actual reward already--225 lbs. Every five pounds I have something set up. I am getting a video game for when I hit 220, I will not be able to play it till I get there. Some things on my list: movies from Amazon Prime (every ten pounds), a trip to T or C hot springs (200), real hairdo (190), mini vacation (180) , and the big one: breast reduction surgery. I have to be lower than 160 for that last one and I can't wait to get my back, chest, and shoulders in working order--something I haven't had since I was eleven.

Two things have helped me along on this journey: walking and swimming. I started swimming over the winter and have not been going nearly as often as I would like. Let's face it, it is hot and high altitude here. I have to take a bath in sunscreen every time I want to take a dip. Walking, on the other hand, I can do early in the morning or late at night without any preparation. The dog also has been enjoying the walks and has better leash manners than ever just in the last ten days.

About that walking; Pokemon Go. I started it last week and already have walked over 10km on it, and that is just the time when I have the app up and running! Nothing like an incentive to walk that is fun and entertaining! I spend about half of my time walking without it, so that is a lot of distance for me. Just last winter I was doing well to walk a half mile or a mile, and now I can do two or three without problems. It is amazing how much stamina you can gain in such a small amount of time. Now if I just get a little smaller I can try jogging again. Right now my joints have no business putting up with that type of strain, especially when my joints are already acting up.

On to the food. So far all the dinners tasted at least acceptable and could be made better by a little salt and pepper or some hot sauce. The bars for lunches are getting old. Next shipment I will switch out some of those for more food-like lunches such as the Creamy Chicken and Noodles. Breakfasts have been tasty, but once again I will switch out some of the bars for things like the almond and pistachio Biscotti Bites.

I have been using the NuMi app that is a tracker much like MyFitnessPal or SparkPeople but with less food entries. It details what type of foods to eat every day. It also lets me change a regular meal into what they call a "Flex Meal" which substitutes one of their entrees for food from a restaurant or home cooked foods. I have a little booklet that has many restaurants listed and order suggestions for Flex Meals--it is great when out an about without a lunch bar or for eating out with family.

I am in manic mode and needing less sleep than usual so I am planning out meals a little farther ahead for the day so that I remember to eat. Keeping up with the vegetables has been hard since I don't have the hunger to be munching all day. As long as I am following the plan correctly I don't get hungry or have slumps during the day.

But.

If I know I am going to be eating out I sometimes save up a snack or two so that I can have a bigger portion for the meal. This can backfire for me by making me more hungry at the next meal or, even worse, make my blood sugar crash. I have been noticing that I have much less of a problem with hypoglycemia when I am following the plan. Now when I don't eat on time I get shaky, impulsive, angry, and frustrated (only made worse when I am hypo-manic like right now). Easy to fix--just eat--but sometimes it is inconvenient to say the least. I am not sure if I am more susceptible to the hypoglycemia now because of the reduced calories or because my body has gotten used to only going without food for a few hours.

So there you have it. Week one-and-a-smidge.

Day Three of Nutrisystem

I got this far without trouble. Three whole days. Then I got to lunch today and am choking down a chocolate graham bar. I will keep with this, but I sincerely hope that other foods are not as bad as this one.

In other news, last night I only got about half the sleep I normally get. I woke up and walked just shy of two miles--pretty darn far for me--before 8am. I am sitting here and not hungry despite yesterday wanting to eat everything in sight. (I stayed true to the diet though. Lots of veggies were my friends.)
.
I am supposed to eat four servings of veggies per day. Yesterday I think I must have had about twelve servings because I was so hungry. Today, nada so far. No hunger, just food because it is scheduled. Maybe this is a good thing.

Last time I got on this ride of not eating I had people worried about me. It only lasted a week but I pretty much stopped eating. We are talking 400-600 calories per day. I didn't lose weight, but I did lose mental functioning. As it turns out bodies in starvation mode don't burn calories or fat. But then again, I had a focus. Don't eat, lose weight. Repeat.

This time it is different. This time I don't have a choice to eat. I follow the program and follow the rules, no cooking needed. Veggies will come later today, need them or not. Till then, I'll eat the food and hope that dinner is better than lunch.

Weight Loss, a New Start

It has been three years. In that time I have gained over 90 pounds. Ninety. I have tried off and on to lose that weight over the years.

Yes, I can lose weight on my own. I lost forty pounds and got down to 150 and held it there for two years, then Jason got worse. My weight dropped even more, down to unhealthy levels for me. Then he died.

There was no one to take care of except for myself. I started eating out of stress.

On to the eating change. My plan is to do Nutrisystem for the first two to three months then wean myself off to my own food again once I am used to real portions of food. That is when I start to use SparkPeople food tracker again and monitor my food intake there.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not really happy eating pre-packaged nutri-food, but I know that it works from other people's experiences. The hard part is keeping it off after quitting. Hence, I have chosen to do this for just a few months and then go on to real food with realistic portions.

I have about 80 pounds to lose as of two weeks ago when I weighed myself. Not quite the 100 pound success stories that you hear about, but it will be a ten pound success, followed by another, then another till I get to where I want to be.

I managed to lose about five pounds during a road trip with my father. We were on a fairly regimented schedule with a lot of fruit and veggies to munch on. There was also a lot of candy and Coke, but I managed to get through with success. Far more success than I was expecting as I was just  hoping to not gain any more weight.

Fast forward to three days ago when I got my shipment of Nutrisystem. There were all sorts of options to include in the foods for the month and I also have a first week of Turbo Takeoff. The Turbo Takeoff has breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus two shakes a day and I can add all the veggies I can stuff into my mouth.

I am sick of veggies.

Okay, so not really, but I am eating a ton of them every day. About the time I feel hungry I add in a giant salad with carrots and cucumbers. I do add in a little low calorie dressing, which is not in the program rules, but I like to have the veggies be absorbed by combining them with a small amount of fat. I do think that I need to subscribe to one of those boxes of produce that are available down here.

One of the things that I am not so sure about is that there are a lot of extras that need to be added in once I am in the main plan instead of the first week. It sounds a little confusing, but I think I will figure it out by week two.

To sum up: 80 pounds to lose, Nutrisystem for the first two to three months, eating well after knowing portion control (using my old pal, SparkPeople tracker).