Afternoon Day 19

Well, even though I haven't posted, don't make the mistake of thinking that I've fallen off the wagon. I weighed in at 190 pounds today. That makes my total weight loss 18 pounds. That means I'm pretty close to my 1 pound per day goal. So I feel like I'm right on track. I'll probably hit 170 pounds sometime next month if I manage to stay on track. And I will manage to do that. I am determined to reach this goal!

I have to say that overall the Nutrisystems food has been pretty good. I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating. There are a few items that I just don't care for but most of it has been pretty good. A few things I even like and look forward to. The Lemon Blueberry Dessert Bars are really great and probably my favorite single item so far. Too bad I only have one of those in the shipment. I'm going to have to special order some more of those bad boys.

I'll keep you all posted about my progress.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

Afternoon of Day 11

Boy! I've been bouncing around 195 pounds all week long. Not much progress here. I should be going to the gym, but have been really busy with work this week.

I made another non NS omelette this morning. Those are nice. Sautee some onions and mushrooms then pour the egg substitute over the top. Only a little bit of non-stick olive oil spray to lube the sautee pan. Salt and pepper to taste and good to go.

I have enjoyed the Nutrisystem food for the most part.

I had to share with you that I just ate the Strawberry Nutripeptide Bar. It was the hardest nutrition bar I have ever tried to eat. I thought I was going to break my teeth and I could hardly chew it. I'll have to stick the next one in the microwave for a few minutes to see if it helps.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

End of Day 7

Okay, I managed to lose another pound. That puts me at 195 pounds. We'll keep watching to see how low it goes.

I made a really nice mushroom and onion omelette this morning. I just can't stomach the powdered eggs in the Nutrisystem meals. Bleeccccchhhh! But I had some egg substiture (low cholesterol/low fat) and where I would normally use butter for the fat, I had an olive oil based pan spray (also low cholesterol/low fat). So I sauteed some mushrooms and onions then poured in the egg substitute. A little salt and pepper and a flip later, I had an omelette on the plate. A really nice treat.

For lunch I had the Black Beans and Rice and a salad. I really liked the Black Beans and Rice. It just needed a little bit of salt and pepper to make it taste really nice.

For supper I had the Beef Chili. Oh my gosh, that rocks! I really liked it a lot. I had some strawberries and yogurt to go with my meal.

I kind of botched my Chocolate Pudding dessert. I added too much milk and it was runny. Oh well!

We'll see how the weigh-in goes tomorrow.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

End of Day 6

Well I seem to be stalled about where I expected to be. I'm still weighing in at 196 pounds for the last several days. I think it's my body's way of saying, "Hey! The easy part is OH-VAH!"

I'm still sticking to the Nutrisystem food, although there have been a couple of instances where I needed to eat and I didn't bring food along with me. For the most part my choices have been healthy and in a few cases they weren't very healthy. But overall I've lost a good amount of weight. If I stick with it and stay the course, I'll start seeing some more movement in the next few days.

I had a Thai Noodle with Tofu dinner tonight. I'm not a big fan of tofu. I know people say, "it's just like chicken," but I think they're fooling themselves. I missed the chicken in that particular dish. Well at least it was better than the Tuna Casserole that I had last night. That was more like a tuna flavored mush dish. They could do some work to improve that recipe.

Hmmm.... goals for the week? I need to get to the gym more often. I'm going to shoot for two days this week.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

Beginning of Day 5

Sorry I've been away for so long. My original goal was to try to explain each meal to you so you could know what to expect. But it's just been really busy around here working on another project.

I just weighed in at 196 pounds and I'm feeling pretty good about this diet so far.

The Nutrisystem food has been pretty good overall. There have been several items that I don't care for. But many items that really aren't bad at all. Especially once I add some seasoning.

The lunches are smallish but as long as I can make a decent salad to add to it, it's plenty to eat.

Supper is probably my favorite meal so far. The portions are a bit larger and I usually end the day feeling satisfied.

Over the past couple of days I've had Rotini & Meatballs with Tomato Sauce and Salisbury Steak with Gravy and Rice for dinner. I've had Chicken Cacciatore for lunch which was really nice once I added some salt.

I'll keep up with this Nutrisystem diet for the month and evaluate whether I want to continue. But so far it's looking pretty good.

I have a personal goal to reach 170 pounds, which means I have 26 pounds to go. But I've already lost 12 pounds off my top weight. I imagine I'm quickly approaching the end of the quick weight loss and approaching the tougher loss period. We'll just watch and see.

Patience and Persistence are the key to stay the course.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

Beginning of Day 3 - Weigh In

Wooo Hooo! I just weighed in at 198 pounds! That means I've lost 10 pounds off my official starting weight! Now I started eating sensibly 6 days ago and I'm on Day 3 of the Nutrisystem diet plan. That's not too bad at all.

I just had the Lemon Poppyseed Muffins for breakfast with my coffee. Not my favorite. I'm not a huge fan of muffins anyway, in particular pre-packaged muffins. And that's what they tasted like. But they were edible and I was able to finish them.

I guess my favorite for breakfast has been the granola bars. I'll probably try the egg substitute (non-Nutrisystem) tomorrow for some scrambled eggs.

I'll check back in later today. I should probably do more fruit today, since I didn't do much yesterday.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

End of Day 2

Well I never got around to posting again yesterday. It got really busy around here.

My parents were in town so we went out for lunch. Yes, I know, only Day 2 and I was already slipping off the diet. We went to a place that I frequent for their really good hamburgers and french fries. BUT... I was good! I ordered a Chef Salad. Little did I know it was going to be as big as my head. I should have ordered the small. Oh well!

Still, I was good and only ate about 1/4 of the salad and went easy on the ranch dressing. And I drank iced tea instead of a soft drink. I did slip a bit when I realized my mother ordered a plate of potato skins smothered in cheese and generously sprinkled with real bacon bits. I only had half. Hey! You really have to take into account that I could have had a huge cheeseburger and a large portion of french fries. Plus I could easily have polished off two or three of those fat filled potato skins.

So, over all I was pretty good.

I wasn't hungry come snack time, so I skipped the fruit.

I promised my son that we would go to the gym in the afternoon, so I got 45 minutes of brisk walking in on the treadmill. Hey! There I burned 280 calories, so that can't be bad! I need to do some more of that and start doing some upper body weights.

For the evening meal, I decided to try the cup of Beef Macaroni & Cheese. I boiled the water and added it following their directions. After 10 minutes I came back and the concoction was still really watery and I discovered that the bottom of the container was not mixed in correctly. So I had to dump the entire thing out into a bowl and scrape out all the gunk. I put the whole thing into the microwave and reduced it down a bit.

The whole thing turned out a little bit gummy but it tasted okay. Not great, but okay. I had it with the ever-present 1/2 pita.

Before going to bed, I had to have my snack ;). I chose the chocolate shake. The instructions said to mix the package with cold water. But it didn't seem cold enough, so I added some ice cubes. I probably should crush it in the blender next time. The shake was tasty. I'll look forward to that one again.

I didn't log all my calories since it was hard to figure out what I did at the restaurant. But overall I feel like it was a pretty successful day. One thing is certain, the scale will tell how successful it was.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

Beginning of Day 2

Here it is at the beginning of Day 2 and Whoo Hoo! I just weighed in at 200 pounds (maybe a smidge over). So I lost 2 pounds over Day 1 and 11 pounds over my wake up call at the gym the other day.

Now that's not unusual for the beginning of a diet (at least for me). I can usually lose the first 10 to 15 pounds pretty easily. So we'll see how quickly that goes. I have no doubts at all that I can hit my goal of 30 pounds in 30 days to reach my goal of 170 pounds.

I just had a cup of coffee (yes, with sugar) and tried preparing the Scrambled Eggs with Cheddar Cheese. I botched the job though. I'll explain.

I opened the package of scrambled eggs to find a powder that I was to mix with some water and prepare like scrambled eggs in a sautee pan. As the water cooked out I decided to season the mixture. See, I like to season my food as it cooks to improve the flavor. I added the usual salt and pepper, and here's where I went wrong. The eggs still tasted a bit funny so I decided to add a bit of Mrs Dash to the mix. The Mrs. Dash has seemed a bit bland to me so I overdid it and really got the eggs overseasoned. Well at that point I was committed and had to stick with the plan.

So let's not talk about flavor but texture and consistency. The texture of the eggs was okay. Not really the way I like my scrambled eggs. Really fine like you stirred them and broke them up quite a bit as they cooked. I prefer large moist chunks for my scrambled eggs. But they were edible indeed.

I had my obligatory 1/2 pita bread to help balance the meal.

But boy! Those spices are sitting like a rock in my tummy. We'll see how the rest of the morning goes. I probably should have my fruit and dairy.

I'll check back in later.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

Day 1 - End of Day

Well it's the end of Day 1 and I survived! ;) As I entered all my food items into the Food Diary on the Nutrisystem website, I had a total of 1355 calories (with a maximum quota of 1500 calories for the day). Not bad!

Instead of having that salad for my afternoon snack (remember I got confused and had my snack for lunch), I decided to have half a glass of apple juice. I just felt full and wasn't really hungry.

Now I feel that I must explain part of the reason for my full feeling. I had taken some fiber pills at the beginning of the day along with my vitamins. Those things kept me going to the bathroom most of the day. I really think that played a part in my feeling of fullness.

For supper I chose the Beef and Mushroom Gravy with Orzo Pasta, but I decided to tweak it a little bit. The Nutrisystem entrees that I have had so far have kind of a pre-packaged wang to them. So here's what I did. I used just a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and sauteed some onions and fresh mushrooms using some Mrs. Dash seasoning and salt and pepper then dumped the dinner entree into the sautee pan. I cooked this entree down and the flavor became really quite nice.

I also cooked some spinach and added the sauteed onions for flavor. I was really disappointed with the spinach. Maybe I'm used to having some fat in with my spinach. ;) But it could be that I just needed to sautee the onions a bit longer for the right flavor.

I decided to add a whole pita bread instead of 1/2 and I really appreciated having that extra bread.

A couple of hours later it was time for my dessert. I was really interested to try out the soy chips since they had some interesting flavors. I had the Sour Cream & Onion Soy Chips. Yuck! I was really disappointed. The chip part was about as I expected I guess. The crisp was about like chewing on styrofoam. The flavor wasn't very nice either. I guess I'll avoid the soy chips until I just don't have a choice. ;)

Since I was so disappointed with my dessert treat and I still had some calories left for the day, I decided to cheat a little bit and get a Caramel Dessert Bar and enjoyed that quite a bit.

I drank a lot of water during the day. But that's not unusual for me.

I guess we'll see in the morning how much weight I've lost. I am feeling like I've lost a bit more weight in my stomach.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

Day 1 - Just had Lunch

Here it is on Day 1 of my Nutrisystem diet. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I don't feel just famished today.

I decided to weigh myself right after I got out of the shower (avoid all the extra poundage ;) ). So I weighed in here at the start of Day 1 at 202 pounds. 32 pounds to reach my goal of 170 pounds. I'm confident that I can stick to this diet reasonably well and reach my goal in about 30 days. I expect the first 15 pounds to be sort of easy and then we'll see how we can push through the second 15 pounds.

I'm not a big breakfast eater (usually a cup of coffee and to the office). I had to take my son to school today. So I grabbed an Apple Cinnamon Granola Bar on the way out the door and dropped him at school. On the way back home I stopped at the gas station and got a cup of coffee (come on, I didn't want to make it myself today). The smallest they had was a 16 oz cup. I like my coffee with Half & Half and plenty of sugar. Yes, I know... Sugar... Bad! But I'm stubborn so I fixed my coffee the way I like it and ate it with my granola bar. Nice apple cinnamon flavor. Good texture.

When I got back to the house, I fixed a small portion of fresh strawberries and low-fat yogurt. A nice fresh treat. Of course don't forget the bottle of water. Water is important to flush stuff through your body. I'm a big water drinker anyway. No problems there.

I worked for a few hours and loaded the dishwasher (now you know why I didn't make the coffee). With the kitchen clean, I felt okay to start on lunch.

The lunch portions look ridiculously small. About half of the dinner portion. I'll have to get used to that.

I chose a small microwaveable bowl of Bean & Ham Soup and 1/2 Pita Bread slice(for sopping... you guessed it). The soup had a great flavor. Reminded me of Campbell Soup from my childhood. The pita bread is not a major brand label, some local Arabic label. That made the flavor really nice and authentic. The major brand labels tend to be kind of bland if you've ever had the real thing.

I was supposed to have some sort of dairy or protein and a salad. I got confused and had fruit with dairy instead. Oooops! Oh well, I'm sure I'll have to make up for that at snack time by having a salad instead of fruit. I cut up a medium mango and had that with some low-fat cottage cheese. Nice and fresh. I don't know why I don't eat more fruit. It's rarely on my first choice for a snack.

I guess here in a couple of hours I'm supposed to have some kind of snack (which will be salad instead) and later will be dinner.

I'll check back in with you later and let you know how it goes.


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

Food Arrived Today

UPS came today and dropped off a big heavy box from Nutrisystem. Unfortunately it arrived about 2 minutes after I finished eating lunch.

So I unloaded the box and marveled at all the different choices I had available. My wife and I had done a little bit of shopping over the weekend to supplement the meals with frozen vegetables, salads, and some fruit.

I wish I had thought to take a picture of all the food spread out on our kitchen table. There was a whole bunch of food there.

On the box was a phone number that said "Call This Number First." So I did. There was an encouraging message by a Nutrisystem client that had lost her fair share of weight.

I immediately started sorting the food and storing it in my cabinet (I'd take a picture, but you just wouldn't get the full effect with everything sorted in the cabinet).

I wasn't due to eat a meal for a few hours, so I went back to the office to work for a while.

My wife came in about supper time. So we started steaming some frozen cauliflower and broccoli and heating up the pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and gravy. And of course we made the obligatory salad.

I dumped the whole pot roast entree over the steamed vegetables and had the salad on the side. The entree and vegetables was decent. It didn't taste like my mother's but that would be a stretch indeed. The meat was just a little bit tough but there was lots of gravy.

It was really okay since I was allowed a piece of bread to sop up the extra gravy. (A pleasure that stems from my childhood of Sunday Pot Roast Dinners.)

A couple of hours later, I was allowed a trip back to the kitchen to select a dessert. I chose a chocolate peanut butter dessert bar that tasted kind of like a trail bar or granola bar of some sort. The flavor was nice and the texture was crunchy, yet chewy.

I'll give this a serious go. Since tomorrow's the first full day with Nutrisystem food, I'll start counting down tomorrow. I'll weigh in tomorrow. Last weigh in yesterday was 202 pounds.

I'll try to give you guys a full report on the food and how it really tastes. And of course how much weight I lose. Stay tuned...


_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.

Time to Lose Some Weight

Well the time has come to lose some weight. My fighting weight is 170 pounds. but I haven't seen those kind of numbers for a long time. I have never knowingly topped 200 pounds. until recently. I took my son to the gym for swim class the other day and stepped on the scale (fully clothed, keys, shoes, the works) and topped out at 211 pounds. Ouch!

That did it for me. Put me over the edge. Drew a line in the sand. Time to take off the gloves and fight the good fight.

I've done my own version of the Atkins Diet before. Nothing official, just cutting out the carbs and going as low carb as I could stand it. It wasn't too hard to knock off 10 pounds. and I guess that was enough for me at the time. A couple of weeks and I was done. I think I took off like 11 or 13 pounds. I tried again half-heartedly about six months ago and didn't really follow up enough to make any progress.

So this time I decided to do something significantly different. I've been seeing the commercials on TV about Nutrisystem and just decided to check it out. I went to their website and got to looking around. The food looks decent and I was shocked at how inexpensive the meals are. Most meals are less than $3 each and you can get a whole day covered for about $10. Eating out I could spend $10 on lunch alone.

So I spent some time poking around their website. Ladies, don't take this next statement wrong, I'm a married white male approaching 40 years old. Their website seemed to be a little bit more focused towards women. But I can understand that. Women seem to more inclined to focus on weight loss than men.

They do however, have a meal plan specifically designed for men. There's nothing worse as a man than trying to survive on a woman's portion. And, Hey! Dan Marino is their male spokesperson, so it can't be too bad, right?

I was really impressed with the articles and the built-in encouragement on the website. Nutrisystem really seems to do a great job at breaking down the barriers to enrollment. It was really easy to make the decision.

As a man, I really liked these aspects of the program:

• No public weigh-ins at a weight loss center.


• They had a plan specifically designed for men. I didn't have to spend a ton of time shopping for food I knew nothing about.


• I get a weight loss counselor assigned to me with no extra cost involved.


• There is a support forum if I need extra encouragement or weight loss ideas.


• There is a huge variety in the meal selections. I probably won't eat the same entree more than three times in a single month.


• They even included late night snacks (my absolute weakness) in the plan.

So, I took the plunge and made the purchase. I bought the 4-week autoship program which saved me some money and included free shipping. If I need to adjust the autoship date, all I have to do is call them to make the adjustment.

It should take a few days to get the package. I'll try hard not to binge over the weekend.

I've decided to start this blog as an encouragement to others. I'll let you peek into my journey to lose 30~ pounds in 30 days. Look, I know 30 pounds isn't a huge amount to lose compared to some. But it is probably somewhere close to the average overweight male at my age. I have no scientific data to back that claim up. I'm just going on me and my friends.

I guess we'll start counting the 30 days on the first full day I have my food. I'll post again when I get the food to let you know my first impression.

_________________________
About the Author:
Kevin Harris is an Internet Entrepreneur and runs the blog 30 Pounds and Counting, a blog chronicling his weight loss journey.

Disclaimer:
Kevin Harris is not a medical advisor and doesn't claim to provide any medical advice in this blog. He also does not claim that his results are typical. Results depend completely on the individual and the effort that the individual applies.

By the way... Everything I say here is solely my own opinion and is not meant to represent the opinion of NutriSystem, Inc. That is to say, NutriSystem does not validate these statements in any way shape or form.