Today is Day 5.  Otherwise known as Bar Day.  I’m affectionately labeling this as bar day because I’ve done some poor meal planning through the week and now what I’m pretty much left with is bars to eat.  I’m not against bars or anything, but they are indeed easier to eat when you’re on the go.  And I’d love to have to eat less of them as frequently, so in the future, I’ll weigh my options more carefully.

I think this is just how it goes with week 1 of Nutrisystem, too.  I think they just give you a lot of bars to keep you moving and getting used to the portion sizes.  Who knows.  This was also the first day that I’ve hit all my items in the Numi app.  Every vegetable, too…and pretty much on time.

I’ll be honest, I think this makes a difference.  If you’re going to do Nutrisystem, the Numi app has little reminders that you can turn on.  I’d recommend it.  It reminds you to eat.

So, let’s start with the beginning.

Breakfast was the Peanut Butter Granola Bar.  I’m not a fan of peanut butter, but this is pretty good.  I think I will be okay eating more of these in the future.  There’s a good combination of granola in there and it’s chewy, but not powdery.   With this, I had a cup of coffee and I tried to find a few options of milk/creamer to put in.  I scanned my Silk Almond Vanilla milk, but this has 13g of added sugars.  Kind of a lot.  So, I grabbed the heavy cream instead.  No sugar, but tons of calories and fat of course.  I looked in my pantry and found some sugar-free vanilla coffee mate and noticed 1 tbsp was only 30 cals and no sugar.  Score.  I was a little hesitant about coffee and creamer with no sugar, but I did it anyway.  It was actually good!

I really think about now I’m noticing something with my overall palette.  I haven’t been craving the sugar. Perhaps that’s a win for Nutrisystem?  I’m not sure if that’s normal or not.  I am however, very tired.  I normally eat a ton of carbs and sodas so right about now, I’m feeling like I want to crawl in a bed and just take a 10 hour nap.  But, I’m pushing through it.
Snack was my FreshStart chocolate shake and I also decided to have my veggies here, too.  I warmed up a bag of Steamers mixed veggies with garlic sauce (not sure what’s in it) and threw some Tillamook Mozzarella shredded cheese (1/4 cup) on it, too.  The calories in 1/4 cup of this is 80, but I was okay with this since I didn’t have any heavy cream in my coffee.  I do like the shakes. They are rewarding enough to feel like a treat and they are a nice reward after eating those veggies to curb the sweet tooth I usually have.  I downed my water, too, so that was easy.  I’ve found I can usually drink water, as long as it’s filtered.  I know they say water is water, but y’all, it’s not. Certain bottled water tastes different.

 Lunch was the Double Chocolate Caramel bar.  I was uber hesitant about this one because it looked like it had the consistency of a PowerBar, and I literally hate those.  I did kind of like this.  It has a nice crunch on the inside and while the consistency is dense and very chewy, I found it easy to eat while I was in a meeting.  I would note that this probably isn’t something you want to choose if you need to chew and enjoy food. It’s a good on-the-go option.  But, the taste was pretty good.

Snack for the evening was a Chocolate Caramel Bar – and I believe this one is more of a granola type bar.  Think about those types you’ve seen from Quaker and this is about the same, but a bit more dense.  By this time, 3 bars in for my day, I was pretty done with bars, but I managed to eat it and get it down and was just glad it wasn’t the BBQ Seasoned Chicken in a pouch.  I’ve also noticed that I drink a lot more water with bars, so that’s important.  I think this helps me get my water intake down for the day.  I’ve also found that if I can’t get my water down, I’ll add those little sugar free/calorie free Mio water mixes.  I like the lemonade one quite a bit.  I also like sparkling water and I specifically like the Waterloo Strawberry or Watermelon.  I find this is a nice change of pace.  However, I also find that they make me feel bloated, so I limit my intake on these.

 Dinner was the Hearty Beef Stew which smelled like a can of Beneful wet dog food and pretty much tasted bland and boring.  I’m glad I ate it in the dark while watching a movie with my husband because if I had to eat it and look at it, I might not have been okay with it.  I do find that while these portion sizes are quite small, I’m okay with them now mostly because I know I am eating because I have to, not because I want to.  I’m trying to shape the way I’m thinking about food as a necessity and not a luxury. Perhaps that will help change the way I feel about food in general, too, in the future.

Tomorrow, we have my son’s birthday party. Pizza and cake.  Tomorrow is a 2 bar day (breakfast and lunch) and then I think I have one more bar left.  Tomorrow is also the last day of my first week!  Yay!

I’ve decided to weigh in only on Wednesday’s to keep myself motivated about my weight loss.  Otherwise, I find myself getting discouraged by the scale.

I ordered some green food mix online, too.  I’ll be reviewing that, once it gets in!