I do not work for Nutrisystem. I am trying their product on my own in hopes it addresses some needs I have. Specifically, I need a fast and easy way to learn how to eat properly. My job is very busy and high stress. I often skip meals and settle for convenience foods or fast foods at the end of the day to fill my hunger. I rarely eat breakfast because I get up and go, go, go. I also hope to come away with this program with a good working knowledge of meal components and calories for each meal/snack time.
Nutrisystem (NS) is a low GI plan where meals are ready made for you and shipped once a month. I opted for the core plan for women which is $245 a month when you sign up for at least two months. While that sounds like a lot of money especially since I still have to add my own fresh foods, it isn't really. I was spending a lot more than that on the convenience of fast foods. I still grimaced when I paid the bill hoping I wasn't wasting my money.
When the box came, I opened it and counted my meals immediately since I had read on the NS message boards that sometimes the counts are off. I had 28 protein shakes, a shaker bottle, 28 breakfast entrees, 28 lunches, 28 dinners, and 28 snacks skillfully arranged inside a big box with three pull out levels. All of my meals are shelf stable and many use oxygen reducing packaging to keep items fresh. Also included was a plan program book and meal planner.
That is 140 meals plus a shaker cup, program book, daily tracker notebook, and shipping for $244.00. Figuring for meals alone, that is $1.75 a meal. That doesn't even cover the tip for a restaurant meal.
The size of the "meals" is small compared to what I am use to. Portion control is one thing I am hoping to take away from the plan. There is no way that what is given per meal is going to fill me up, but it isn't suppose to! I need to eat more fresh foods. The perk of this is that when I am ravenous, I can go grab a ready to go meal, eat that, and then work on the other meal components. I am hoping this helps control that impulsive eating I have done in the past.
Some of the meal pictures on the label do not look that appetizing either. While perusing their site when I was waiting for my shipment to arrive, I noticed they have a section where you can enter the meal and it will give you ideas that stay within the program limits of ways to perk up the NS shelf stable meal with your added fresh foods.
I am going to be eating six times a day which is also different. Before, I would eat once or twice a day, mostly in the evening. This is going to be a hard thing to change, but hopefully the convenience will help me.
For breakfast NS wants me to eat: 1 NS Breakfast Entree, PowerFuel (protein), and an optional 1 SuperCarb because I have more than 100 lbs to lose.
For the morning snack, I am supose to eat a PowerFuel choice from their list.
For lunch, it is one NS Lunch Entree, a PowerFuel, and an optional PowerFuel because I have over 100 lbs to lose.
For the afternoon snack, I get one SmartCarb.
For dinner, it is one NS Dinner Entree and one SmartCarb.
For dessert, I get one NS Dessert Entree.
The plan calls for 8 8 ounce glasses of water. Three ten minute exercise sessions and at least 4 cups of servings of low carb vegetables. In the program book, I learned I can have as many low carb veggies as I want to fill me up.
There is more to the program than what I have listed here, but that gives you a good overview. It is necessary to read your program book to learn what you can and can't do on the program.
So, here goes my experiment. Will I learn anything? Will I lose any weight? Will I have wasted money? We will see.
