275...

I have been running on no appetite for several days. Yesterday I had a nonfat yogurt for breakfast and a Zone bar for lunch. By 7:00 pm, I started feeling nauseous and a little dizzy, probably from very low blood sugar. We were going to Costco at the time, so I had half a Chicken Bake and felt better. Later in the evening I ate the other half, and about half a dozen garlic shrimps we had purchased from Costco (pretty good, actually).

This afternoon, I'm feeling the same no appetite feeling. I'm going to have a nonfat yogurt right now because I don't want to spiral out of control later. Oh, and a pomegranate Izzy. Yum. I'm more thirsty than hungry anyway.

Very tired today. Part of the fatigue is from staying up late last night with friends and then finally going to bed at 4:30 this morning. My heel spur foot was really hurting last night at Costco, and even after I got off my foot, it was hurting deep down, so I took a Tylenol PM to try to sleep. If I have any little bit of pain in my body at bedtime, I simply can't sleep, thus the Tylenol PM. I only took one, but I awoke at 1:30 pm, and I'm still groggy and fatigued. Being so tired does nothing for my appetite either so I'm going to try to move around today and get some chores done, and hopefully work the fatigue out of my system.

The one hopeful thought I'm having is by this time next month, I'll be 10 pounds lighter, YAY! It will be nice to be in the 260's soon. If I focus on 10 pounds a month, by the end of summer vacation, I'll be 245!!!! Wow. That makes me 205 by the end of the year! Once I break that 205 barrier, my BMI will be out of the morbidly obese range (I think 202 is my magic number). And then, by this time next year I'll be NORMAL. Well, normal physically.... If you ever get to the point in your life where you're not 'normal' in other respects, then good for you. Normal is over-rated. And boring.

276 holding steady

I've been 276 for the last couple of days. I haven't been eating the NS food, and am down to one meal a day, in the early evening. Yeah, I know, bad habits. I've been stressed and not hungry but forcing myself to eat each day, which I know from experience has the opposite effect I'm looking for. It's a little after 11:00 am. I'm not particularly hungry but I know it's important to stay on track. 

I like that it's the end of the first month of trying out this experiment, because that makes June a whole new month of mistakes and rewards. Kind of a 'do-over'. I would say this month has not been bad weight loss-wise, as 10 pounds lost is 10 pounds lost. I have learned a lot this month, and hopefully going forward, I can apply that knowledge in a healthy way. Had I stuck with the program, I would likely have lost 20 pounds, but my goal was always the more conservative 10 pounds and the fact I've reached that goal, makes going into the next month more exciting and hopeful, if that makes sense.

Ok, I'll have a yogurt right now. After that, I'll have to think about my options. One meal at a time today.

275!!! YAY!!

I figured that was a whole lot of water weight I had gained this week. I lost 5 pounds today, so I'm going to be extra careful. My goal was to lose 10 pounds per month. Right now I'm at 11 pounds, and the month end Saturday. My lowest weight this month was 272, maybe I can get down that far, I don't know, and really I'm pretty happy with just being 11 down.

Yesterday was totally sticking to the program (except for a couple of handfuls of Skittles). Instead of the NS dinner, I had a large salad I had ordered with the pizza the previous day. Luckily the kidlet was starving that night and ate half a pizza and had the rest for lunch yesterday.

So far so good. But now I have to eat breakfast and I always get a little nervous about the start of having to eat each day. I always feel out of control the moment I put something into my mouth.

Ohoh

Well I've royally screwed up. I'm up to 280!!! That's an 8 pound addition in the last week or so. I swear, I don't know if I'm just stupid, or stupid and lazy, probably both.

Yesterday I ate a bunch of beef jerky (had a salt craving) and three slices of Garlic Chicken pizza. Oh, and about 4 or 5 cans of Hansen's soda (I was also thirsty....hmmm I guess that's what all that sodium does to you). That was the extent of all my eating yesterday, and I'm hoping the sodium caused several pounds of water weight, but whatever. I screwed up. 

This morning I had a NS Scrambled Eggs and Chedder breakfast, and Chicken Salad for lunch with 6-Ritz-type crackers (low sodium). I also drank 16 oz of water with lemon juice, because that's a natural diuretic, and hopefully will help flush out a lot of water weight.

277

I'm not doing so well, am I. I didn't do any of the NS program yesterday. I'm hoping a lot of this is from the high sodium content of the foods I did eat. I made soup from a dry soup mix. It was 4 cups of water and the soup mix. I ate it all (it was just chicken noodle) but 4 cups of salty water is probably not a good thing. I also had some beef jerky and crackers with cream cheese spread.

Ugh. I'm horrible with this dieting stuff. Why couldn't I do something I'm good at, like power sleeping or laying around watching cheesy reality shows. 

One day at a time....one day at a time. Maybe if I took a nap for the next month, I can get back on track.

275..

The previous two days I was down to 174, now I'm back to 275. To be honest, I'm not eating the NS food. Yesterday I had no breakfast, and a turkey sandwich on marble rye from the deli. No guacamole on it, and light mayo. For dinner, I had several English muffins with tuna. A total of 6 oz of tuna with mayo. No snacks or sweets.

Mainly, I've been bored and stressed. I'm happy that I haven't gone to the Ben and Jerry's or chips or anything like that. Breads seem to be my downfall right now.

I haven't yet eaten today so maybe I'll be good and jump back on the NS program.

&#%$!

Well the chicken salad may be gone from the fridge, but it's not gone from my thighs! I'm up to 276! Holy moly! Late last night my friends were hungry and I thought I'd get a Wendy's cheeseburger. Yeah, good choice NOT! I shouldn't have eaten anything, as I had the last of the chicken salad earlier in the evening. 

I don't know if I'm sabotaging myself because I see the 270s on the scale and I feel complacent, or if I'm just dumb. I'm leaning to 'just dumb' but that can change to 'just stupid' at anytime. Watch this space for updates.

Oh oh!

Well I'm back up to 275. Honestly, I don't know how a few English muffins and chicken salad can weight 3 pounds, but somehow in the bizarro fat universe, it does. Today will be a hard day, because that yummy chicken salad is just sitting in my fridge, over half full.

So-so day...

I didn't get around to having lunch until after 1:00 pm. Bad, I know. I had a Chicken Noodle dinner thing that was ok. Later I went out grocery shopping and picked up a pound of deli chicken salad. I got home and made three, yes, three, sandwiches with the chicken salad and english muffins. So yummy, but probably not the best choice. In my defense, I didn't have anything else to eat all day except one low-fat yogurt and a couple of small glasses of V8 veggie choice and one small glass of V8 Fusion. 

V8 Fusion is actually really good. It's a blend of fruits and veggies. Some years ago V8 put out a fruit and carrot juice concoction that was pretty gross and very disappointing so I was happy to discover Fusion last week. We tried the Orange, the Mango and the Strawberry/Banana, and all are yummy.

Holding steady at 272...

So no change is good. Last night for dinner I had two English muffins with tuna and mayo. I didn't get around to eating dinner until 9 pm, and while I was making tuna for the youngin's late dinner I decided to just dig in. Really yummy, and I thought for sure it would show up on the scale this morning, but honestly it's not like eating a burger or something so I think it wasn't a bad choice.

Starting off late this afternoon. Haven't even had breakfast. I guess it's been 3 weeks since I started and I'm down 14 pounds, which I think is pretty good, almost 5 pounds per week lost. The last couple of weeks I haven't stuck strictly to the NS program, but at least I'm proving to myself that I can make good choices and I'm much more aware of eating throughout the day, than just taking in all my calories after 6 pm, which was my usual habit. Who know how much more weight I would have lost strictly on NS, but I think anyone would be really thrilled with 5 pounds of steady weight loss per week. Most of the contestents on Biggest Loser and Celebrity Fit Club see far less weight loss per week.

Blech!

So far, so good today. I tried the Bar-B-Que Soy Chips and they are 100% nasty. Nothing at all redeeming in their flavor or texture. I did a bad thing. I swamp them out for a small bag of Doritoes Cool Ranch. I know, I know, I should have had more self control, but I didn't, so life goes on.

For breakfast I had Apple Granola bar and fat free yogurt. For lunch Chicken A La King and another yogurt. Dessert was obviously Doritos (which were yummy BTW). Haven't decided on dinner yet, though I should as it's getting on 7:30 pm, and it's probably a good idea to stop eating by 8:00ish.

Didn't do to much exercise other than scrub the driveway of all the sap dripped by the large tree on my sidewalk. Oh, and about a 20 block walk. 

172!

I lost 3 pounds while I was gone. I had hoped for 5, but considering I was doing this without the NS program, and completely on my own, I think I'll take the 3. Changing eating habits without a plan, is difficult, and I'm not far enough into the NS program to have a handle on what my new habits should be. 

I'm hoping this time next month to be 250ish, so that's 20 pounds I have to put my mind to. I'm back on the NS program as of this morning so fingers crossed that I'll be able to accomplish this goal.

Back to 278

Disappointing after the 276 earlier this week, which made it look like I was on track for being 275 tomorrow.

Had a fat free yogurt for breakfast, granola bar for lunch, small bag of Kashi granola mix for snack, and a small chicken breast for dinner. None of it was NS food, mostly because I didn't want to have to deal with it today. Very tired and slightly stressed. I usually stop eating when I feel like this, or eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's, I went for the happy medium.

On Saturday after the wedding, we're eating at a nice steak house, so it will be hard to chose healthy alternative when the menu will look so yummy with thick delicious steaks and sumptious lobster in butter sauce. Hopefully I'll be just as tired and stressed as I am now, and I won't have anything. I guess this would be a good time for me to learn about moderation.

8 days...

Here I am, finishing up the 8th day. Not bad so far in terms of hunger/cravings, etc. I still have a sweet tooth, but munching mints is enough to take away the urges for more potent stuff. I didn't eat much today. Have so much to get done for the trip and when I get busy my appetite shuts down. I had a Chicken Noodle soup for lunch (no breakfast), and a Chocolate Caramel bar for snack. For dinner I had some grilled chicken (from restaurant) and some low fat popcorn. Not really hungry and so I'm trying not to eat when I'm really not hungry. Believe it or not, I'm still full from the burrito last night, which hints at one of my biggest problem, a pathetically sluggish metabolism. 

In the last two days, I've managed to walk quite a bit, without nearly as much pain. The new orthotics are working well, best $20 I've spent in a while. The two sets were $15 each, and did little to nothing to reverse the problem. I'm walking much farther and much longer, with a lot less pain. I'm not all the way back, but I'd say I've improved a good 80% in the last two days. Today, I walked over a mile with some foot fatigue and the beginnings of pain as I finished. Considering for the last 2 months, I've been decidedly less ambulatory, I'll take whatever gains I can. 

So, I finish out the day, hoping those 2 additional pounds will magically disappear tomorrow morning, along with another one by Friday morning, for a net weight of 275. Lol, how many people do you know covet the relatively svelt weight of 275 pounds!

Argh.

So last night's mistake with the burrito, haunts me to the tune of 2 additional pounds today. Yep, I'm back up to 278. Not as bad it could have been, but a blow to the ego nonetheless.

It's almost 2:00 pm, and I haven't eaten anything since the burrito of doom, mostly because I'm still full from it...damn slow digestion. I'll have a NS granola bar or something soon to stay on track.

Oh Oh

I learned a very important lesson today...read the nutritional information BEFORE ordering or eating food.

Tonight I had to run out with the youngin for some errands. I had only eaten a Chicken Noodle soup and a couple slices of sourdough bread all day, so figured I could eat something small on the road. Took the youngin to Carls Jr, which also has a Green Burrito . Bought her her dinner and looked at Green Burrito's menu for something appropriate for myself. I asked if they had plain vegetarian burritos, without all the bells and whistles. The cashier said all the burritos were sold with chicken or beef, but they could be made without. I then asked for their basic burrito, without meat. He asked if I wanted their new ONE-POUNDER BURRITO! Holy heck! I explained I was looking for something simplier. He suggested the Grilled Chicken without chicken. I thought again, and thought grilled chicken shouldn't be a problem and it would give me an extra boost of protein. 

A bit later, my burrito was brought to me. It was fairly large. I didn't worry, because I assumed it would be chicken, rice, beans and salsa. Well it wasn't. It was chicken, rice, salsa, cheese and drenched in some sour creamy sauce. It was really good, but not exactly what I expected. Well I ate it, and got to thinking of the calories. I had only ingested about 400 up to that point (7:00 pm), so I figured the burrito probably added 600 or so. I thought to ask for the nutrition guide and was shocked that the Grilled Chicken Burrito had one of the highest calorie counts of any entree on the menu,  1030 calories!!!!!!! And the sodium??? The sodium was seriously in the 4-digits, at 2590 mg, which is just over 100% of the daily recommended allowance. The calories from fat were 261% of the daily recommeded. I about passed out.

I walked out feeling ill. It's criminal how fast food places can stick you with those huge calories counts, and at the same time all their advertising proclaim how fresh and healthy their meals are.

Of course, they don't even have nutrition brochures, which would be handy for the diner, I had to ask for the poster behind the counter, that you can't read from the cash register. 

Luckily, I hadn't eaten much, or I'm afraid I would have really screwed things up. As it is, I'm pretty sure it will take until the end of the week to flush out all that sodium, and maybe longer to work off all that excess fat.

Live and learn. I won't make that mistake twice. I would have been better off eating what the youngin ordered, Charbroiled Chicken Club Sandwich, hold the mayo. I would have eaten half the calories and almost half the sodium, and still had a satisfying meal.

YAY!!!

I went down 2 pounds from yesterday! That makes a total of 10 pounds in one week! WOOOT!

Last night I had the Chicken Noodle Soup, with two small slices of 9-grain sourdough bread and one salad.

I'm hoping to be 275 by Friday when I leave, and then hope to lose another 5 in the 10 days I'm gone.

We shall see...

Not a bad afternoon...

About an hour ago I had lunch, the Rotina and Meatballs in Sauce. It actually wasn't that bad at all. Surprisingly good, I wasn't expecting it to be more flavorful then some of the other dinner entrees I've tried. Of course ,there are far better pasta dishes in like the Lean Cusine line, but honestly, I was expecting so much worse, as NS doesn't seem to do tomato sauce very well.

The following rant has nothing to do with NS, but I figure while I'm here, I might as well get on my soapbox.

This has to do with court tv cases and women. There seems to be a trend on these court tv shows to show women (mainly young, but it does touch on all age groups) accepting money loans from men and then getting to court and batting their eye lashes and saying 'oh your honor, I just assumed this man I met the week before was gifting me my past due rent money and gifting me by paying for my cell phone bill/credit card bill, etc". 

Women, please assume all transfers of money are LOANS. Just because a guy is nice and 'he's so generous' does not mean he expects to pay $3000 of your bills in a month. Obviously, he likes you, and if you have no intention of persuing the relationship, then you have no business accepting either loans OR gifts. At one time I too was a sweet young thing. If a gentleman offered to help me out in any way, I politely REFUSED. A simple 'no thank you' will suffice. If he purchased a gift that was far beyond what I felt was appropriate for that level in the relationship, I politely DECLINED!  Again, a simple, "I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I don't know if right now is an appropriate time to accept a gift this generous". Guess what? The men were very understanding. They understood that I was not a gold digger and that I valued building a relationship at a pace that was comfortable for both of us, and if I had no intention of going forward in a relationship, I had no intention of using them and exploiting their feelings. 

I have told mY own children, that they are never to accept 'gifts' from people they have recently met, unless they can return the favor in kind. So, if an interested young man presents them with a tennis bracelet, unless they intend to purchase a like amount gift for the gentleman, they should politely decline. Also, they have been told, under no circumstances are they to 'borrow' money from men who they are not involved in a committed relationship with. And if they do, they need to get the terms in writing, and they need to PAY IT BACK!

The only gifts they may accept from men, would be flowers or candy at the early stages of the relationship. They are never to ask outright, or hint at gifts. They should never discuss money problems they may have to guys they are casually dating. These are the kind of values, all people. both men and women should learn from. In the olden days, there were strict rules for courting gifts, and the gold diggers were far fewer. Now, so many young women grab the shiny object, and then ask for the conditions of what is expected of them. 

And if you do find yourself backed into a corner, and you're asked to pay for those items, do the right thing and either return the gifts, or pay for them.

Still at 278...

Not budging. Which is actually a good thing, because of all the SlowPokes I inhaled last night. It is discouraging, and I'm finding myself slipping back into bad habits, like it being 1:00 pm, and I haven't eaten anything yet. No breakfast, no lunch, and I'm really not hungry or feeling compelled to eat. I will eat breakfast now though, and see if I can catch up, but really not feeling it today. 

Ironically, the not eating regularly will do me in pretty quickly, as I won't budge from 278 but NOT eating. I can't win, lol.

heh heh

I've been bad.

I had to take the youngin out tonight to do some shopping. I forgot to take one of the NS dinners. I went to El Pollo Loco, and bought the youngin smashed potatoes and gravy. We then went to Carl's Jr. where I ordered the bbq chicken salad. Yuck. I ordered it with balsamic vinegar. The chicken was good and I'm sure my body needed the protein. The use a ton of iceberg lettuce, which I don't like, big slabs of cucumber, which are hard to eat, shredded cheese, cherry tomatoes and shredded carrots and cabbage. Not tasty at all. I ate like 1/4 of the salad portion.

Earlier in the day, I purchased a Chocolate Zone Bar and used that in place of my snack for the day. I checked the nutrition box and it stacked up pretty much the same so I was happy to make the switch. The Zone Bar was far better than any of the NS food I've had. When I go off NS, I may stock up on Zone Bars for replacement meals.

I made an unfortunate purchase of a small bag of SloPokes, which are like Sugar Daddys. Only 50 calories each and I thought they'd be handy if I just had to have a sweet...well, one thing led to another and I just polished off about 400 calories worth of them, lol. Damn, they're so good and so little you don't realize you're being so bad...well I did realize it, but I had a hard time stopping. I did put one back in the bag and decided to blog instead of eat.

I'm a little disenchanted with NS. Other than a couple of the desserts and the granola bars, and the Chicken Noodle soup, nothing is really tasting all that good. I think taste is very important, and maybe more important when you're dieting. Having your tastebuds fulfilled satisfies an external hunger, if you know what I mean. People eat for other reasons than hunger and being deprived of good tastes, makes me want to search for other things to fulfill that desire. I think that's why I like doing the V8. It's got a lot of taste, and satisfies the taste buds.

Well, I blew it tonight, the only thing I can do right now is pick myself and get back on the NS horse. Blowing one day is not blowing a whole week of good effort, so I just have to move forward.

Oh, and I won't be buying anymore 'treats' for just 'one bite'.

I will say one of the most beneficial learning tools I've learned from NS is portion control. For example, the single serving soups (which are the same size as those little Gerber Baby Soups) fill less than half a soup bowl from my house. So, now I know that if I want I go to a restaurant, I should be ordering the 'cup of soup' size instead of 'bowl of soup'. The cup would be closer to the portion I should eat. The same with some of the dinner/lunch entrees. Most of them are about the size of my fist, so when I go to a restaurant or serve my food from home, I know to halve the portion I might otherwise serve.

AH HAH!

So, lazy me, just decided to look through all the brochures and crap Nutrisystem sent to me last week. It turns out I'm NOT eating enough, as I've pretty much only been munching the Nutrisystem. Of course,  I knew you had to throw in fruits and veggies and non-fat dairy, I just wasn't paying attention to when and how much. Below are the NS guidelines.

BREAKFAST: 

NutriSystem Breakfast Entree

1 fruit serving

1 dairy or protein serving

LUNCH:

NutriSystem Lunch Entree

1 dairy or protein serving

1 salad serving

2 tbsp fat free salad dressing

SNACK:

1 fruit serving

1 dairy or protein serving

DINNER:

Nutrisystem Dinner Entree

2 vegtable servings

1 salad or fruit serving

1 fat serving

DESSERT:

Nutrisystem Dessert

Last couple of days I had added in fruits and salads, but not to that extent. I didn't have any of the other things like diary and protein.

I went back to the store, bought 5 nonfat yogurts (Wallaby Organic is really good) and more salad fixings. I received a little journal book from NS last week, which is supposed to tell me what proteins and serving sizes I should eat, but I put it in a safe place, and now I can't find it :(

I walked around 15 blocks this afternoon. I have greatly reduced pain in my heel. It still hurts, but I'm not in agony for that 15 blocks like I was, even yesterday. I bought a new orthotic because I realized the one I bought a couple of weeks ago, didn't have quite the same arch support as the ones I used previously. It seems counter-intuitive, but you get a heel support orthotic with a very rigid arch support, and you think it's going to hurt because intuitively you're thinking something soft will feel better, but really the harder the support, the better. It really is about 'supporting' the arch and not cushioning it. I'm going to try the newer ones right now, and hope they work. For years I bought a particular Dr. Scholls brand, but it looks like they've 'improved' the systems, and they no longer carry the one that has eliminated heel pain for me, for the last 10 years. Hopefully, the new ones will work as well as the older ones *crosses fingers*.

Frustrating

Back to 278. Very odd. I'm pretty much sticking to the plan but nothing is happening. I had an orange after dinner last night, and fat free popcorn, along with the V8 combo. So, besides the apple at breakfast, those were the only changes I made to the diet.

I'm drinking plenty of water, and I stir in a couple table spoons of lemon juice because that acts as a natural diuretic to get rid of excess water, and I walked around the neighborhood for an hour last night. Sigh. I could have been eating HoHos and Ding Dongs for the last couple of days and been at the same weight.

I'm going to have a Cranberry or Apple granola bar for breakfast with a big glass of water. Absolutely no substitutions today. I'm not sure if I'm still eating too little (about 1200 calories yesterday) or if I'm eating too much. It appears I should be eating 2000 calories a day, and the fact that I'm not, and losing so little may just mean my metabolism is really f'd up, which I've long suspected. 

Today I'll hop over to the drugstore and buy a new orthotic foot pad for my heel spur. Hopefully that will lesson the pain there, so I can actually walk more than a couple blocks without excruciating pain. I used to walk over 5 miles per days, now I'm down to less than half a mile.

Argh.

I ate a Chocolate Chip Granola Bar and a large Granny Smith apple for breakfast, and then for lunch Chicken ala King and Mustard flavor Pretzels. The Granola Bar was good, pretty much tasted like most of the granola bars on the market. The pretzels were GROSS. Ick. I'm glad I only ordered two bags instead of more. The Chicken A La King was no different tastewise than the Chicken Noodle soup from yesterday, actually maybe a smidge not so good, but basically the same.

Now it's 3:15 and I'm getting hungry for some real vittles. It's still 2 hours before I should even think of eating supper. I'm noticing when I eat food that doesn't taste so good, I get a hankering for better tasting food, even if the calories in not good food are the same as good food, I just don't feel as satiated with the bad tasting stuff. Considering there is so little food on this program, I hate to see food opportunities wasted on grody stuff.

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and have a large glass of the V8 combo, at least it's tasty and might whet my appetite for eating for a while.

This is going to be a looooong weekend, lol.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

I'm up 1 pound. Dang. So, this weekend I'll go back to the absolute basic plan. No salads. No V8. I have a feeling the V8 is the culprit, all that sodium causes a lot of water retention.

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd feel deprived because I couldn't eat salad :(

No weight loss today...

Must have been that 20 pounds of salad I had last night, lol. Still holding steady at 278, maybe things will change tomorrow.

I didn't get much exercise lately, a about 17 blocks of walking today, about 24 yesterday. Yesterday I wasn't in as much pain from the heel spur as usual, and today not too much with the 17 blocks. This heel spur has really been bothering me the last month and a half or so. Dr. says the spur hurts because the heel is swollen. Not much I can do unless I want to swallow steroids, so I'll take the pain for now, and hopefully losing weight and resting it will make it better.

This morning I had a granola bar for breakfast, chocolate brownie for snack, chicken noodle soup for lunch (didn't taste bad at all and spinach raviolis for dinner. I also had two big bowls of salad, tomatoes, carrots, green onion, cucumber, radishes and romaine lettuce with fat free Italian. The salad was SO GOOD. Honestly, the bit of onion and radish really bring out some great flavors, and it's very satisfying.

Yesterday at the grocery store I picked up one bottle of V8 Low Sodium, and one V8 Spicy Healthy Choice (lower sodium than normal). I took the two and combined them, and that reduced the sodium to 360 mg per serving, and it tasted really good. Low Sodium V8 is yuck yuck, but combined with the spicy, it was really good. I did a 50/50 and the Spicy flavor still came through pretty strong, but not too strong. I didn't try the Spicy on it's own but if diluted with the other at 50/50 and it was still pretty spicy, then I can imagine full strength it's a woozer! If spicy isn't your thing, reduce the amount in your Low Sodium and you can probably get it to taste closer to full sodium V8. I had a couple of big chilled glasses of the V8 combo, which is very filling, but only has like 50 calories.

I'm surprised my body hasn't gone into shock with all these veggies floating around in my system. Of course, I noticed Hostess stock is down considerably over the last few days and Sara Lee isn't looking too good either.

Tough day....

The eating part wasn't a problem, it was the fact an old friend died early this morning. Very sad for all the family and friends. He was one of those guys everyone absolutely loved. The kind of guy who never hurt anyone. A great person who will be deeply missed by many many people. If you've lived a life that was so brilliant, that others feel that loss so deeply, then I think you've lived a life worth living. Good bye my friend.

So, in all the weirdness I did manage to go to the grocery store and stock up on about $40 worth of groceries.

For breakfast I had another V8 and the Scrambled Eggs with Veggie sausage. Around noonish, I had a snack of Pretzals. They weren't really all that great. Very bland, but edible, I guess. For lunch I had the Chocolate Raspberry bar, which was really really yummy. Probably the best thing I've eaten so far.  I had a very late lunch at 5:00, but was feeling very headachy, so went shopping and then had supper.

I got home at 6:15, to find a message on my machine that a friend had sent me an EXTRA LARGE, EVERYTHING ON IT PIZZA from Round Table, as a thank you. Ugh. I haven't told any friends about my Nutrisystem experiment (I don't need the nags bagging on me for what I eat, if I slip up, lol). Anyway, so soon after I get home Round Table knocks at my door with my extra large pizza and a salad. Whew. The salad will be my saving grace! I open up the pizza box, scrap about half the stuff off the pizza for one of the youngins (we usually order garlic chicken, so the kids aren't in to all the pepperoni, sausage and salami). I then promptly packed up half the pizza and took it across the street to my neighbors. The neighbors stepped out for a bit and some of their friends were sitting on the porch waiting for them, so I handed over the foil wrapped package, and honestly, with the hungry look those folks gave me, I'm pretty sure the pizza is history by now!

Got back home and tasted a total of three small hunks of sausage and one slice of pepperoni. That was more than enough for me. I then took the salad poured Fat Free Italian on it, and enjoyed. The Fat Free Italian I bought, was really REALLY good. Usually those fat frees tastes chemically, so it was nice this one didn't.

After the salad, I made a big salad from the veggies I bought earlier. I had two huge bowls of that. It really was tasty (I make a damn good salad!) and I honestly didn't miss the pizza at all. I filled up on salad purposely, because I knew with being so sad about my friend, and a huge ol' delicious pizza calling my name, that I had to be proactive and fill up on something more appropriate, knowing my willpower might falter.

I also had another V-8, so I think I'm pretty good in the veggie arena today, and upped my calories sufficiently so I may be closer to having 1200-1300 calories today.

Awww. What a day.

Around 7:30 I had the Beef Stroganoff which was pretty bad. I only at the

Whooo hoooooo! Down 2 pounds

Yes!!! I'm now at 278. I was hoping to be 275 by this time next week, so that may just be possible. I'm aware that after the first couple of days, you can slow down a bit as your body adjusts to the new dieting circumstances, but I think 3 pounds lost in the next week is a pretty reasonable hope, so I'll go with that.

Out of curiousity I took the time last night to total up my calorie points for the day, on just the NutriSystem food alone, and it was 690 calories. According to NS (NutriSystem), they recommend a 2000 calorie per day regimen for weight loss, so their food alone only provides 1/3 of that amount. This morning I'll haul my ass down to the grocery store and pick up some veggies and fruits and stuff. I did have a single-serve V8 last night, which is only 70 calories but 780 mg of sodium (about 3 times more sodium then any of the NS foods), so my total calories for the day were 760. From what I understand, actually upping the calories will probably shed more weight because it stabilizing the metabolism and blood sugars better. 

I'm off to dig in my box for something to chew.