Lunch: Cheese Tortellini

Having skipped Nutrisystem breakfast again, I had the cheese tortellini for lunch today.  The small can of tortellini contained about 5-6 cheese tortellini.  It doesn't sound like much, but I feel very full and could actually not finish the sauce.  In just the past 10 days of Nutrisystem, the one thing the system has accomplished is to train me not to enjoy eating.  I love to cook and I love to eat (well at least in the past).  Now, meals are so unappealing to me and I find myself not cleaning the plate. 

I wonder if the Nutrisystem program food includes appetite suppressant, because honestly I really don't feel like eating.

LUNCH: Chicken a la king

This is lunch today, Chicken a la king.  Honestly this looked and tasted like all the other Chicken noodles dishes.  I have now finished one week of Nutrisystem and I am getting tired of the food - the taste, the smell and the texture.

I skipped lunch this morning because I couldn't bring myself to eat the breakfast, and lunch was also a struggle.  Nutrisystem definitely "wires" me not to enjoy eating anymore.

Having read the recent article in Time magazine about how weight is controlled by what you eat and not by exercise, I am testing that out with this Nutrisystem diet.  I am usually a very athletic and active person - but since starting this diet, I have yet to go the gym but have lost a few pounds already (3 1/2lbs).

DINNER: Boeuf bourguignon.. I mean beef and potatoes

This afternoon, I was channeling Anthony Bourdain and made Boeuf Bourguignon for the family.  The smell was divine and the results looked fabulous (I chronicled it here.)

Unfortunately, with all the carbs, excess protein and oil, boeuf bourguignon is definitely a diet-no-no.  So I decided to choose something similar for my dinner - beef with mashed potatoes.  I had this a few days before (I think Monday) and it was surprisingly edible and hearty.  But today next to the boeuf bourguignon, it was just unpalatable.  The smell was sad (my husband and child's cries of "disgusting"and "it stinks" didn't help.) and the taste was just as unpleasant.  I ate 3 bites, gave up and tossed it into the trash.

Instead, I ate an heirloom tomato dressed in balsamic and some sauteed greens.... alas, ...

BRUNCH: Chicken with Noodles

Ran out of the house this morning and so didn't have time to pick up a lovely Nutrisystem chococlate chip scone for breakfast (I'd rather skip breakfast than eat that thing - so I guess either way it accomplishes the goal). 

Around 10:30am when I got back from the meeting I was hungry.  no mere little lunch was going to suffice, so I decided to have a hearty brunch which in my Nutrisystem world means: "eat a dinner entree"

I selected the chicken with noodles entree. I have noticed a common characteristic of Nutrisystem "noodle" dishes - they are only about one degree of thickness away from soup.  Though they are presented in a lovely, black plastic tray/plate, it really is a thick soup with bits of meat and some bits of soggy pasta (like the pasta found in Campbells chicken noodle soup). 

oh, and I have to confess...  my brunch also included a Nutrisystem golden pound cake - a lovely Twinkie-like baked good.

DINNER: Lasagna

This was my lasagna this evening for dinner.  Actually I wish my lasagna looked like that.  The Nutrisystem lasagna is fine - it's edible, and for the most part, thick tomato sauces usually make anything palatable. 

The lasagna has a meat-ish sauce that is filled with kidney beans -which I assume is for protein and fiber.  I ate it with summer tomatoes and some sauteed greens and it was more than enough food for dinner. 

Not bad. and it smelled better than what my husband cooked for the kids!

AFTERNOON SNACK: Nutrisystem "Twinkie"

Hallelujah! I have found my Nutrisystem baked good treat.  It is the golden pound cake. 

This name is a misnomer because it tastes nothing like a REAL pound cake.  However, it has REMARKABLE resemblence to a Twinkie: kinda/sorta vanilla-ish flavor, sponge-y texture.

Having grown up with the artifically enhanced Twinkie, I am all too familiar with its consistency and flavor.  I am a closet Twinkie fan.  I haven't eaten a Twinkie in decades, but one bite of this Golden Pound Cake, and I thought I was 10 again.

Lunch - Minestrone

I have been skipping Nutrisystem breakfasts-just can't stomach the fluffy PowerBar taste.  How bad is this revulsion...  well, this morning I opted to eat steamed eggplant instead... that's how much I did NOT want to eat another Apple Strudel Scone.

So for lunch, I took out a dehydrated container of Hearty Minestrone Soup.  It was basically, like a Cup-o-Noodle without the noodles; just dried beans, and a little whole wheat pasta.  After pouring in boiling water and letting it sit for 7 minutes or so, my lunch was ready.

meh...  It tasted like dehydrated vegetables with bouillion, beans and pasta.  It was all right, I am glad I only have 1 of them.

DINNER: Beef Teriyaki

For dinner last night, I selected a Beef Teriyaki with noodles.  This was a disappointment.  Like most Nutrisystem dinner entrees, the Teriyaki was VERY saucy.  It was nothing like the photo below.  In MY dinner, the few limp noodles swam among in the starchy, thick sauce.  It was not a stir-fry.  The dish had 5 pieces of cut up baby corn and surprisingly a lot of little bits of water chestnuts.

The sauce was far too sweet for my taste.  Again I could not finish this dish.  After eating all the solid food parts in the sauce, the plastic container was still more than 1/2 filled with thick, corn-starchy sauce.  There was no way I could even ingest that.

BREAKFAST: Chocolate Cake :)

The thought of eating another fluffy Apple Strudel PowerBar for breakfast was completely unappetizing (which I suppose is the purpose).  So I did my own substitution yesterday morning, by replacing the breakfast entree with a dessert; or more specifically, chocolate cake!

The cake does not look this good in real life - first it's far flatter and a little wider.  Plus, the photo doesn't include the wonderful plastic packaging and the silica dry packet.

As far as Nutrisystem baked goods go, the chocolate cake is far better than any of the other breakfast baked goods (apple strudel scone, chocolate chip scone).  Much more moist... but like the other baked goods, difficult to eat.  Not hard, but very fibrous and dense (but again not hard).  Again, I could not finish eating the whole thing; I think I just got bored chewing and eating. 

DINNER: Beef and Mashed Potatoes

This was pretty good.  I am finding that the hot food can be very palatable - much aking to how Chef Boyardee and Hormel's beef stew are appealing in a comfort food sort of way.  Not haute cuisine but satisfying nonetheless.

The actual beef and mashed potatoes looks NOTHING like the photo (prop still photographers are truly amazing) - it was more mashed potatoes with beef string sauce (i.e., the beef was cooked down to beyond a cube form).

The portion was surprisingly ample and I am still amazed that it was a mere 220 calories.  Unlike the baked morning goods, this was easy to finish off.

Lunch: Noodles with Chicken & Vegetables

For lunch, Noodles with Chicken & Vegetables.  This is not bad; probably the best meal so far.  It's more like a thick soup and doesn't have any funny textures or flavors.  Walking past my office, my husband poked his head in and ask "mmm, that smells good, what are you eating?" (I have failed as wife and chef :(

Breakfast: Apple Strudel

Back on Nutrisystem, I picked up my breakfast "entree" - an Apple Strudel Scone.  I could not finish it.  I could not finish the fluffy PowerBar-like breakfast pastry.  Where some foodies describe great food as "mouth-meltingly tender", Nutrisystem breakfast pastries are the completely opposite.  I think this is deliberate.

The breakfast foods are the antithesis of mouth-meltingly tender - it takes several chews just to get through the fibrous-filling-ish styrofoaming, fluffy dense consistency (very hard to describe).   It's not hard, but not soft like cotton-candy either. It takes a lot of effort to chew because the pastry itself is a little gummy and dense (but in a light way).

I think it is intentional as it forces the eater to take time to eat the product.  Unlike a nice flaky scone that breaks apart and dissolves with a gulp of coffee (and can be inhaled in less than 5 minutes), the Nutrisystem scone is more like styrofoam that needs effort to break apart and digest.  I think after 15 minutes, the eater gets so tired from chewing that any additional food appears unappetizing.

That's what happened this morning.  I brought a scone on my way to a business meeting.   The drive was 25 minutes, and I started eating the scone as I got in the car.  About half way down the commute, I just gave up eating the scone.  It didn't taste great and the effort and weird mouth texture just wasn't worth it.

lunch - Chicken & Pasta in Cacciatore Sauce

mm mmm good buon appetito!  I have been under the weather a bit so I have skipped the last 2 Nutrisystem meals (dinner and today's breakfast).  And frankly, I couldn't get more than 3 spoonfuls of yesterday's tomato/corn chowder down.  Haven't had much of an appetite, and the thought of eating Nutrisystem made me even more nauseous.

But after popping two Aleve this morning, I am feeling well enough to restart with this delectable Chicken & Pasta.  It could be my sick palate but it tastes very tangy and the chicken... well, it tastes like chicken/soy pressed into a chicken cube (somewhat like the McRib in texture).  The "chicken" cube tastes like an eraser in texture (or what I would imagine an eraser to taste like).

my lunch - tomato and corn chowder

The first time I did Nutrisystem, I let the system pick out the "favorites"  - and I didn't like half of them (add water for scrambled eggs, icky soyburger patties).  So this time I picked out all the meals and I gravitated to the canned goods that just needed to be microwaved. 

So this is my lunch... tomato & corn chowder.  Peeling back the pull tab lid, it brings me back to my childhood when I would ocassionally buy "food" out of the spinning vending machine located in the hospital cafeteria.  Then place it in the Radarange (remember, memories)

Anyways, this time pulling the top off also reminded me more of fancy feast cat food.

This tasted more like vegetarian chili than corn chowder.  It's okay, I think the key with Nutrisystem food is that it is high in fiber which makes it harder to eat (too heavy tasting) but makes me fuller throughout the day.

bon appetit.

This is breakfast - Nutrisystem chocolate chip scone

This is my breakfast scone. It's not great, but edible. It tastes very fibrous (which is probably intentional to fill one up). I can barely finish it - it's somewhat akin to a fluffy PowerBar.

The scary thing about Nutrisystem is that all your meals come in a shelf-stable, never-have-to-refrigerate box. As expected with such space food, the ingredient list is all Greek.

And then like a Cracker Jack gift, a silica moisture packet is included at the bottom of the packaging.

The box arrives

A very discreet cardboard box arrived yesterday - just 2 days after I succumbed and got on Nutrisystem. This is my second time. The first time, it actually worked. So I am trying it again, 2 years later, to jump start this diet process.

In terms of goals... I would like to lose 20 pounds; 30 pounds would bring me to college weight!