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Personal Log : July 9, 2022
7:33 am : NutriSystem Weight Loss Diet Plan
So three weeks ago I began my diet plan (again), and am following the NutriSystem for Men, Ultra Max Plus, diet program. When I started this diet plan three weeks ago I weighed 241 pounds (I am 6 foot 1 inch tall). My goal is to get back down to 195'ish (195 to 200) by the end of the year. Today I now currently weigh 228 pounds.
The NutriSystem plan does work in helping me loose the weight, as long as I strictly follow their meal plan, which provides me with three meals and three snacks a day. If I only eat their provided meals and snacks, then I get between 800 to 950 calories per day total. They do encourage me to add my own vegetables, to supplement the meals, which can raise the total calorie intake up to 900 to 1200 calories per day (depending on the type of vegetable and how much I add).
The only extra foods that I am allowed to add are vegetables, so I add a side of French-cut green beans (1/2 cup), beats (1/4 cup), and black-eyed peas (1/4 cup) to both of my NutriSystem lunch and dinner meals, and the only condiments and spices that I add to the vegetables are Salt, Garlic Powder, and Cumin. I do not use Ketchup, Mayonnaise, or anything like that, since they add lots of unnecessary (unwanted) extra calories and fats (I do enjoy and like them, I just don't want them in this diet).
The only drink I have is ice water (about six to eight 16oz glass fulls a day), with Hydroxycut red drink mix added to it. No milk, no juice, no soda's, no alcohol, just water. The Hydroxycut drink mix is basically just fruit-punch flavored coffee powder that is high in caffeine, which unfortunately also makes it very addicting (yes, I am addicted to it). I do not like coffee though, I never have, however I do enjoy these Hydroxycut drink mixes. It is derived from coffee beans, yes, but it does not taste nor smell like coffee, if it did then I would not drink it. The Hydroxycut drink mix does not help me loose any weight though, but it does help me feel more energetic and awake. But on the down side, if I don't add it to my water then I tend to fall asleep randomly all throughout the day, especially while being on this low-calorie diet. Also when I stop drinking it then I get extremely bad painful migraine like headaches that last for several weeks or continuously until I start drinking them again (i.e. addicted).
In my opinion I think the NutriSystem foods taste very good and they have a nice flavor to them. Most of them are very easy to prepare too, just pop it into the microwave and/or toaster oven for a couple of minutes and then enjoy.
NutriSystem does offer a good variety of foods to choose from too, so if there is something that they choose for me but I don't like the taste of then I am able to substitute it for something that I do like (on the next delivery order). The variety of different snacks are very enjoyable and tasty as well. I tend to stick with the chocolate and vanilla shake mix, cookies, and chocolate nut bars, since they don't need to be kept frozen and they are less messy than some of their other snacks.
The portion sizes of the NutriSystem meals are somewhat small though, and I do still feel very hungry after eating them, but realistically that is expected for any weight loss diet plan I guess. I mean, I am trying to loose weight after all.
The way I see it though (in my nonprofessional uneducated opinion), for any weight loss diet plan to work (not just NutriSystem's), there really is only two ways to actually loose weight:
- Consume less calories than you burn,
- Burn more calories than you consume.
The first one means that you simply eat healthier foods with lower calories (in efforts to consume less calories than you normally burn throughout the day), and the second one means that you simply move around and exercise more (in efforts to burn more calories than you normally consume throughout the day). When combined together (so that you eat less and exercise more) then you stand to loose the most amount of weight.
I know, I know, easier said than done. And I must admit, I do not exerciser nearly as much as I should be.
So far, I lost the most amount of weight during the first week, some during the second week, and have tapered off during this third week. My body is now in that survival mode and it is trying to retain as much as it can, but that should only last another week, I think, and then I should loose more weight again afterwards. I just need to stick with the diet meal plan and follow it through (while trying to ignore feeling so very hungry all the time).
Also, and I feel this is very important, I always take daily multi-vitamins (1 one-a-day multi-vitamin, in addition to taking 1 C, 1 D, 1 Calcium-Magnesium-Zinc, 1 additional Magnesium, 1 Turmeric, and 4 Fiber tablets). I do this all the time, when I'm on the diet or not, but especially while I'm on the diet mainly to ensure that I make up for any vitamin deficiencies that I might be experiencing from consuming less food during the low calorie diet.
I have noticed though that whenever I take vitamin B (complex, 12, etc, not sure which really) then I usually get very bad out-of-control mood-swings and hulk-like short tempered anger spurts for no apparent reasons at all, so I don't take any extra vitamin B. In fact, from my observation, the less vitamin B I consume the calmer I tend to feel. This is very odd to me though, since vitamin B is suppose to help balance and maintain emotions and mood swings. I don't understand it. I have also always had low-blood sugar too, with values dipping between 50 to 70 (when it should be at around 110), so maybe vitamin B combined with low blood sugar is somehow negatively affecting my emotional states? I honestly don't know.
Following this NutriSystem diet plan I am able to loose the weight though. My biggest problem however is keeping the weight off after I loose it, which is why I am having to re-do this diet again. That is all my own fault though, because I like sweets, cheeses, bacon double cheese burgers, potato waffle fries, curly fries, chicken pastas, and stuffed-crust meat-lovers pizza.
MMmmmm pizza
Final Thoughts
Thank you for reading, I hope you found this blog post enjoyable.
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