As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I received the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
As we shared with you two weeks ago, Jai and I completed our journey on Nutrisystem and joined the ranks of their success stories with a combined 86 pounds lost. Have you or a friend also lost weight and met goals through Nutrisystem? Then listen up: Now through May 22nd, Nutrisystem is hosting the “Now I Can” $40,000 giveaway! Eight individuals will be chosen in four different weight brackets to take home a $5,000 prize. So whether you’ve lost 10 pounds or over 100, Nutrisystem wants to hear from you! One male and one female winner will be chosen in each category. Jai and I will both be submitting our stories under the 34-66 pounds lost category!
If you enter, I’d love to hear your story! And if you haven’t gotten a chance to try Nutrisystem yet, don’t forget that you still have a day left to enter my very own 7-day breakfast sampler giveaway!
As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I received the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
For the last 11 months, you’ve followed our Nutrisystem journey and shared your support and encouragement. After 316 days, Jai and I have dropped a combined 86 pounds, 13.9 BMI points and 55.7 inches. It’s been an amazing journey that far exceeded both of our expectations! So I am thrilled that in celebration of our achievements on the program, we get to host a giveaway where one lucky Contest Corner reader will win a 7-day sampler of some of Nutrisystem’s most popular breakfast items. So many of my readers have expressed interest in the program and asked us what the food was like, so I’m very excited that one of you will have a chance to taste-test some of the menu items! Jai and I ate all of these items very frequently over the last 316 days – it’s hard to pick a single favorite, but the ooey gooey cinnamon roll was right up there for both of us! YUM!
Prize Details:
One lucky Contest Corner reader will win a “Breakfast of Champions” 7-day sampler containing the following items:
(1) Homestyle Pancakes
(1) Garden Vegetable Omelet
(1) Turkey Ham and Cheese Omelet
(2) Breakfast Burrito
(1) Golden French Toast
(1) Cinnamon Roll
Please review the contest rules below for important eligibility details. Entry is easy via the Rafflecopter form!
Rules, regulations, and other important stuff: Giveaway is open to residents of the continental United States, 18+, and ends on May 6th 2013 at 11:00 PM PST. Winner will be chosen through Rafflecopter the following day and notified via email. Winner has 48 hours to respond to our notification email, or a new winner will be chosen in their place. Nutrisystem employees and their family members are ineligible. Must meet eligibility requirements to be on Nutrisystem; Prizes are provided by Nutrisystem based on program eligibility. No cash value. We are sorry, but P.O. boxes and APO/FPO addresses are not eligible to win. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook or Pinterest. We hereby release Facebook and Pinterest of any liability. By entering this giveaway, you are releasing Facebook and Pinterest and understand that you are providing information to Contest Corner and the giveaway sponsor, not Facebook or Pinterest. Contest Corner is not responsible for late entries or entries lost due to technical malfunctions. Please see our Privacy Policy and Disclosure for further details on our site’s policies.
As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I received the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
After 11 incredible months, we’ve reached the most exciting part of our weight loss journey: Sharing our final Nutrisystem results with you!
Beeb’s Final Weigh-In:
Starting Weight: 164.5 lbs
Goal Weight: 110 lbs
Final Weigh-In: 128.8 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 35.7 lbs
Total BMI Points Lost: 6.1
Beeb’s Final Measurements:
Jai’s Final Weigh-In:
Starting Weight: 217.5 lbs
Goal Weight: 158 lbs
Final Weigh-In: 166.4 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 51.1 lbs
Total BMI Points Lost: 7.8
Jai’s Final Measurements:
Our time on this program has been more incredible than either one of us could have imagined – we have learned so much and gone so far during our time on Nutrisystem. I’ve linked up all of our previous posts below, so you can see how far we’ve come and check out all of our thoughts, tips, and strategies:
And this is by no means the end of our journey – although our official time on Nutrisystem has come to an end, we will continue to share monthly weigh-ins & recaps with you, sharing our insights on the process of transitioning off Nutrisystem and maintaining our progress. I’m sure everyone is wondering what life off the plan is like, so we are eager to share how we plan to keep these healthy habits going and continue to maintain and make additional progress. We also have a super special giveaway for one of our readers to win a 7-day Nutrisystem breakfast sampler, so click here to enter that!
THANK YOU, NUTRISYSTEM!!
And thanks to our friend J for snapping our “After” photos!
As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I will be receiving the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 11 months on the Nutrisystem program. So much can change in such a short amount of time!
*Note: Jai weighed in on Saturday this week, while I ended up weighing in on Sunday.
This week, I lost .4 pounds and Jai had a slight fluctuation up of .2 pounds. Last week was a blur of taxes, paperwork, appointments, work, work, work, painting, and trying to navigate my torn-apart house with the couch in the kitchen and no chairs while we renovate. It’s been an adventure, to be sure. It has been hard for us both to try and keep at a normal schedule during such chaos – it’s hard to eat normally when you’re trying to prepare food in a construction food, and the exhaustion from all the work and stress has made me more prone to over-eating. I was reviewing some gummy-bear type chews last week, and let’s just say, I reviewed several bags of them, along with some other off-plan moments for Jai and I both. Honestly, it’s hard to stick to eating at regular times all through the day when your schedule is erratic, but this is just temporary while we deal with a lot of big headaches all at once. And that being said, even when I’m not eating ideally on Nutrisystem, I’m still losing weight and making progress – if this we had tackled this insane laundry list of projects this time last year, we would have been ordering pizza every day instead. Really, if we can keep progress up during bad times, that’s the true indicator of sustainable success – this isn’t the first time we’ve been overwhelmed, and it won’t be the last!
The workload this week pretty much tanked our workout schedule, but we did get to the gym 2 days last week, which is better than nothing. My knees are doing FANTASTIC and I actually made some huge progress last week – I was able to ease into a lot of things I haven’t been able to do since the injury, including hanging onto a balance bar as I practiced a low squat and kneeling down. Friday was the best workout I have gotten since my injury – I was able to do hang upside-down off one of the benches to do sit-ups, something I wouldn’t have attempted even a few months ago. In April 2012, I had to stop and take breaks just while walking due to the pain and swelling in my knees. Just being mobile again is the greatest joy to me – being able to perform athletically on top of that makes me so incredibly happy. As I continue to regain flexibility, I’ll be able to start doing things like jogging again – my goal is to be able to run on the beach this summer. I’m really excited to start getting muscle tone back and see how my body will tone up and change and the months go on!
As of right now, we have one full week left to go on Nutrisystem, after which point we’ll be transitioning into preparing our own food again. With the amount of Nutrisystem food that we have left, it will scale: For the first week or so, it’ll be homemade breakfasts with Nutrisystem lunches and dinners; then it will transition into homemade breakfasts and lunches with Nutrisystem dinners for a few weeks, after which point we’ll be managing it 100% on our own. Managing portion size and coming up with a good meal plan on my own are really the final step in our journey. We’ve already radically changed our relationship to food, so taking the “Training wheels” off and doing our own healthy freezer cooking will help us piggyback on our Nutrisystem success and keep the momentum going.
There will be inevitable ups and downs. There are weeks on Nutrisystem when everything goes crazy and I eat an extra dessert or some snack that became available. There will be times like this off of Nutrisystem, too. The difference now is that we have worked really hard to address the core issues that cause overeating for us, which all boils down to our schedules. Having the burden of meal prep and shopping pretty much taken care of by the Nutrisystem allowed us incredible freedom and provided us with the extra time and structure needed to make these crucial changes, from getting more sleep to keeping to regular meal times to carving out time in the workday to go to the gym or otherwise be active. In today’s world, finding the time for all of these things is becoming really, really difficult, and I can honestly say that Nutrisystem made all the difference in the world. I mean, imagine all the time you’d save not having to cook for 11 months!
Doing Nutrisystem hasn’t just changed our weight, health, and self-esteem; it’s also led to huge changes in our approach to work and life, and improved our emotional state of being and stress levels. Are things perfect? Of course not. But the huge changes we’ve made have been consistent. Now, when I have a crazy week at work where everything that can go wrong does, it throws me off for 1-2 weeks as I slowly fight to course correct and get back to a more regular schedule. In the past, one off week seemed to spiral and spiral into months of chaotic scheduling. What makes the difference here? FEELING the difference. Doing the healthy things doesn’t turn your whole life around in one month, or even three. You see obvious benefits, but the core problems that we face – lack of time from work and other commitments – tend to override our personal health. But after 11 months of consistency, of sticking to a program, having a meal plan that was ready for us 24/7, the change has spilled to all areas of my life. I can think better, work more productively, have more energy, sleep better – EVERYTHING is better. For me, this was crucial in breaking this cycle, and is going to be the most important part when transitioning off Nutrisystem. In the past, I would go through phases of working hard to make healthy freezer meals, which would inevitably get dropped in favor of fast food after a while because I didn’t have time. But now that I see how much more work I get done when I take better care of myself, I literally don’t have time NOT to take care of myself. Eating well is just a business decision at this point. And yes, I realize how incredibly sad it is that it comes down to “I earn more money when I take care of myself”, because that’s not how it should be. We should take care of ourselves because hello, HEALTH! But I’m just being realistic here. With so many of us caught with tough decisions to make financially and on the personal front, we often feel no choice but to sacrifice our own needs temporarily..and sadly, that temporary state quickly becomes permanent.
Sometimes I say to Jai, “I wish we could have done Nutrisystem when things weren’t so crazy.” This past year has been so chaotic, and my goodness, the last 3 months have been nuts. I’ve had a hard time keeping on top of things diet-wise the last few months with my house torn apart by renovations, and we’ve had triple-whammies in every category, from work to huge projects to doing taxes to preparing to renew my green card to AUUUGH! I think anyone would be having a hard time keeping afloat at this point. In a way I feel like this is the worst timing for ending Nutrisystem because I’m not even going to have a kitchen in a few weeks when we start painting that room. But then I remind myself, this was actually the PERFECT time to do Nutrisystem, because this is the time in which we needed it most. Sure, it would have been quicker to lose weight on the plan if everything had been calm, but if my life were ever calm, I wouldn’t need a diet plan would I?!
I’m sure it will be a big adjustment and I expect to see some fluctuations in weight the first month off Nutrisystem (Especially with no kitchen). But the nice thing is, Nutrisystem will always be there when we need it. I think it’s important for us to prepare our own meals for a while and deal with those challenges to really cement the good habits we’ve built, but if it becomes too much what with the renovations and other insanity, we don’t have to worry – we can always resume Nutrisystem as needed while we work out the kinks in our plans. Jai and I have a hard limit of no more than 10 pounds gained before taking action – it’s not like we’re obsessed with the number or anything like that, but we both know how QUICKLY weight will start to pile on, especially hot on the heels of a big weight loss, and I don’t want to gain 30 pounds back in one month because I let it slide. If we gain 10 pounds, that’s a sign that we need to pull the Nutrisystem emergency brake and address a problem in our habits. And even if everything goes absolutely perfectly? I still know that we’ll go back on the program again on the future, just out of CONVENIENCE! It’s so nice to know that there’s an option available for busy work periods or times of crisis when cooking becomes really difficult. I’m really going to miss not having to cook every night!
As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I will be receiving the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
Last week, I lost .4 pounds and Jai had a gain of 2.2 pounds. Although he had this fluctuation up, two pounds is well within the range of water weight so it’s not a big concern on one-week basis, and he and I are both just thrilled to be in new weight ranges – the 160s for him and 120s for me. These are big milestones for us both!
This was a “Holiday week” with Easter, so our eating was “Off” for a few days as we enjoyed Easter candy. One of the most powerful things about being on a program like Nutrisystem is that it makes it possible to keep up good habits for so long that you actually feel the difference. For example, after eating too much Easter candy all day, both Jai and I noticed that we felt kind a bit gross/sick to our stomachs, sluggish, tired, and a little mentally hazy. This actually makes you look forward to eating a regular, healthier meal later and makes you enjoy doing something active – that’s what makes the long-term difference, because when you can feel what a difference it makes, you make time for it. Intellectually, I knew that I felt awful from the way I ate and that it wasn’t healthy, so none of this is news; however, you don’t feel a difference right away when you start taking care of yourself, which is what makes it hard to keep up. I’ve spent plenty of time in the past making healthy freezer dinners, working out, and so on, but with the time investment required to do all of those things, it’s hard to keep it up if you feel like you can’t justify it. You can eat healthy for a few months and still feel lousy; it takes several months of consistent effort and weight loss until you really start to feel the benefits like having more energy, sleeping better, feeling less sickly, and so on. That’s what is so wonderful about Nutrisystem – since it’s done all of the hard work for me, it’s made it possible for Jai and I to stick it out and get to a point where we feel a million times better. Now that I can see how much more productive I am at work and life because of caring for myself better, I will make the time to take care of myself because the results are clear. Yes, working out or cooking healthy foods may mean less time for extra work projects, but the increase in focus and productivity pays for itself, period. I couldn’t have known that until I had the opportunity to live this healthier lifestyle for so long, and Nutrisystem’s time-saving made that possible. Obviously, taking care of myself is what I SHOULD do regardless of how much better I can perform at work, but I’m sure most people reading this can relate to the sacrifices we feel forced into making in order to build a career and take care of our responsibilities. If that’s you, then I would like to offer the encouragement that you will be more productive from taking time out to care for your body – it just won’t be an overnight shift. That’s where Nutrisystem made it possible for Jai and I to continue healthy habits even while under duress with work and life.
And speaking of “Under duress”, oh boy, does that ever sum up this week. We are on the home stretch of our decade-long home renovations, which means we are tackling three of the main living areas. At the moment, my living room is completely empty for painting (Which was delayed by running out of paint unexpectedly), so my couch is in the middle of the kitchen next to my oven, and my kitchen table is hidden behind the entertainment center in my office. After all, when you renovate one room, the stuff has to go somewhere! Not having normal areas to sit, eat or put things away has put us under some understandable stress, but it is all more than worth it to take care of much-needed projects and cover up this ugly, 20-year-old paint.
In addition to the house discombobulation, I wrapped up some massive work projects last week, so it was just full-on in terms of my overall workload. It’s hard to really maintain a normal routine when things are this chaotic, because my schedule has been so off. I only got to the gym twice last week, and since we also had some “Non-program” food come in relating to other projects, we found ourselves eating off-plan more than intended. If a bag of spicy cheddar popcorn shows up on my doorstop when I’m exhausted, I can’t guarantee that I won’t eat it! Jai also went to the store for me to get PowerFuels & SmartCarbs since I couldn’t get there, and he may or may not have brought home some butter for popcorn while he was there. I think (Hope?) that this week will be a little easier on me schedule-wise, since it’s hard for me to get all my PowerFuels and SmartCarbs in when my schedule is all over the map, and that makes it hard for me to resist snacks like popcorn in the evening. But on the plus side, we’ve developed such good habits from Nutrisystem that even when we are indulging, we’re still doing it with a mind towards sane portions and overall intake. For example, if I’m eating a chocolate bunny from my Easter basket, I will choose to skip something like my Nutrisystem dessert. It’s still got way more calories/fat/sugars/etc than the Nutrisystem portions, so it’s not a “replacement”, but the point I’m making is that I try not to “Double-up” and eat large quantities even when I treat myself to something. I’m so grateful to have experienced Nutrisystem for such a long period of time and through a variety of holidays, since I feel like I have all the tools I need to know how to deal with regular life – holiday gatherings, chaotic schedules, parties, and the like. Success is not about eliminating all temptation – since I believe that is virtually impossible – but rather, about managing it in a sustainable way.
As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I will be receiving the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
Jai and I both hit big milestones this week – and NO, this is not an April Fool’s prank!
Jai and I both have a lot to celebrate this week! Jai weighed in at 167.4 pounds, which brings him to the 50 pounds lost milestone, while I lost .2 lbs and officially moved into the 120s, clocking in at 129.8 pounds. This is a huge milestone for me, since it’s been several years since I’ve been in this weight range, which for me represents the beginning of an “Athletic” weight, if you will. I feel my most physically fit between the 110-120s range, so I’m celebrating the fact that I have come so far and gotten so healthy in such a relatively short amount of time – in June of 2012, I weighed 164 pounds, was overweight and was still struggling to get around with my knee injury. Now I am at a normal, healthy weight and just working on being more fit and athletic. This was the impossible dream less than one year ago!
And for Jai, hitting the 50-pound milestone is obviously a huge deal! He hasn’t been this weight since he was a teenager. I am so grateful that we have gotten the opportunity to do Nutrisystem together, because it’s profoundly changed the way he thinks about food. For me, I grew up eating small portions at regular times, so Nutrisystem was intuitive to me – as I’ve said before, it’s what I’d do for myself if I had the time! But Jai isn’t used to eating this way, and was always more the type to skip breakfast and eat larger meals. When he had lost weight in the past, it was from eating nothing but salad (!), and it was kind of hard for him to relate to this way of eating because it wasn’t something he’d really done before. By having a set plan to follow and a planner and online journal to help him remember what he was supposed to be doing, it’s completely changed how he thinks about food. It’s hard to make changes like eating breakfast when you’re not hungry, and the temptation to crash diet is always there, but once you do something like Nutrisystem for a few months, you realize how it’s paid off and, for Jai, it was a whole attitude change towards eating. All I care about as his fiancé is his health, and I was getting worried about him for a while. When my knees were shot and we were both ordering takeout a lot, Jai was so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open. He’s have to take naps throughout the day and his ankles were starting to swell. With his family history of diabetes, I was really worried that he was going to develop the condition himself. The change in his health, energy levels and activity is amazing since he started Nutrisystem! And in the last year that we’ve been on the program, two members of his family have suffered heart attacks, so I am more grateful than ever that we’ve had the chance to lower some of those risk factors for Jai.
This last week was extraordinarily hectic, so our schedules were all over the place. It’s hard to stay on plan and get all your PowerFuels/SmartCarbs in when you’re up until 1 AM doing taxes, so Jai and I just did our best to hang in there and do what we could realistically. Besides skipping those extras, my off-plan moments included a few fish fillets and and extra dessert here and there (OOPS! This is why you have to eat your SmartCarbs!). But thank goodness that week is over, and I’ve stocked up on groceries and salad supplies so that I’ll be prepared for the stable pace of this coming week. I did OK with my water intake and Jai did great – his weight gain last week really did end up being all water weight. It’s finally starting to warm up here, which makes it way easier to drink all our water.
We made a herculean effort to get to the gym whenever possible last week, but did have to skip some nights due to pressing deadlines with taxes and the like. Jai and I were both painting the living room, and man, I’m always surprised by what a good workout painting really is. You don’t really notice it at the time, but my back sure reminded me later.
It’s been a great week for us on Nutrisystem, and I can’t tell you how grateful and happy I feel going into spring and summer. I can walk properly, I can workout, Jai and I are both a million times healthier, and we’ve lost a lot of weight in only 10 months – but in a sustainable way. We’ve learned so much about ourselves and where our trouble spots are, and how to restructure our approach to various situations. Starting with one small, easy change – eating Nutrisystem food – has gradually paved the way for us being able to make changes in other areas of our life. I think the most important thing to remember about losing weight and getting active is that you don’t have to lose anything. I’m not eating “Diet food” and feeling deprived, I’m eating tasty food and still living my normal life, complete with parties and family time and enjoying my aunt’s Easter bunny rolls. I’m not working out because I “Have to” and hate it, I’m being more active because it makes me feel better and improves how much sleep I can get. All of these changes have made Jai and I feel profoundly better, both physically and mentally – more energy to handle work and life, more clarity of thought, better sleep, less snoring, more mobility, more strength – there is no going hungry while I weep over a carrot stick. This is real life, and it’s ENJOYABLE! You don’t have to be some fitness nut to get results – you can still be you and have fun!
Week 42 has been awesome – on to week 43 on Nutrisystem!
As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I will be receiving the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
This week, I lost .8 pounds, bringing me down to a new Nutrisystem low of 130 pounds, while Jai had a small gain of 2 pounds, bring him to 171.8 pounds. He worked hard this week, but I think he had a bit of a water weight fluctuation. We had quite a chaotic week – the end of the month is bringing several large work projects to a head, we had several things break down this week (Like our dryer – we’ve been doing laundry at family’s house all week waiting for the replacement part to come in!) and we’re also wrapping up a huge home improvement project in anticipation of painting this week, so it’s been full-on. Jai also had a somewhat different schedule this week, as he is going to be working part-time on construction with his dad over the spring and summer. As we’re dealing with the workload and adjusting to new schedules, there will be hiccups in process, but that’s OK; once we get through this week, we’ll be on a more stable, revamped schedule again. We did miss the gym a few nights simply due to working late and not having the option, but Jai is also getting a workout doing construction, which is nice! We’ve also been taking Grandma’s dog down to the beach on nice days to make up for days where we can’t get to the gym (Or in addition to) – the weather is starting to get better, which of course makes it easier to be active.
One thing I really notice is that not being able to make it to the gym has a big impact on our water intake. Because it has been SO cold this week, it’s really hard to get enthused about drinking water if I’m not in a heated gym, you know? You can drink hot green tea as a replacement, which I really need to get into doing again; I find it harder to drink as much of a hot beverage as I do cold water, so that’s something I need to work around. (Not to mention, there’s so much going on I kind of just want to bury my head in the coffee pot! )
As for me, I didn’t stick to the diet as diligently as Jai – I missed some of my PowerFuels and SmartCarbs, and ate some extra desserts – naughty!! – but I still did well in the weight loss department. It’s awesome to be at 130 pounds even – it’s been several years since I’ve seen this weight and it feels great. I’m starting to notice more and more of my old clothes fitting, and I’m feeling a lot happier in my skin and how I look. My comfiest pair of pajama pants are getting so big that I almost can’t wear them anymore!
In preparation of Jai working outside the home a few days each week, I’m packing him brown bag lunches that are easily portable – a Nutrisystem lunch bar, bananas, a bag of carrots, etc. I also bought a 24-pack of water bottles so that he can stay hydrated on the job; I normally don’t buy water, but since he’s working on construction sites, it is just not practical for him to keep track of reusable bottles that just end up getting kicked around a job site, you know? On Friday, his dad took him out to lunch at a pizza place, and Jai was so good and opted for the all-you-can-eat salad bar instead of the all-you-can-eat pizza. He actually thinks he might have been a little bloated out by all the salad this weigh-in just because he’s not used to eating that many veggies in one sitting!
We had thought it might be more convenient to do our weigh-in on Monday mornings rather than Saturday mornings as we have been, since I write the post and document everything on Mondays anyway. However, after trying that the last two weeks, we are seeing how it’s actually more difficult since we have so much to deal with anyway on Monday mornings, so as of next week we will return to our Saturday weigh-ins.
Note: Our normal weigh-in day ever since we started the program is Saturday. However, due to circumstances this week we did this weigh-in on Monday (Today).
This week, I hit 130.8 pounds, which is my new low record on Nutrisystem and a weight I haven’t seen in probably 4 years – woo-hoo! Meanwhile, Jai hit 169.8 pounds, a new record low for him as well. He says he hasn’t been this low in weight since he was around 22 or 23 years old, which always feels good – and since he just celebrated his 43rd birthday last Wednesday, I can’t think of a better birthday gift!
This last week wasn’t an ideal one for us in terms of hitting all our fitness and weight goals, but we still did well on the scale so yay for that! We didn’t go to the gym at all last week, because I was feeling really sick. I’ve talked about experiencing esophageal spasms before, which in extreme cases such as mine results in excruciating chest pain. It’s a problem that I have under control for the most part, but when I get really stressed out it can flare up, which was the case this last week. I’ve been under a lot of pressure and feeling pretty tense, so I ended up being in pain a lot of the week. Because I’m trying to take a more conservative approach to exercise in order to avoid over-doing it, I decided it might be for the best to skip the gym until I felt better. (Remember, the source of my debilitating knee injury was ignoring pain and continuing to work out even though I had dislocated both patella, so I’m being more careful this time around. ) I have the tendency to grind myself into dust trying to do everything, so it’s a hard balance to strike sometimes. I felt lousy psychically in other ways for missing the gym so I am super excited to be able to resume my workouts as per normal tonight!
Missing the gym and being sick also had the knock-on effect of us both missing most of our water and vegetable intake last week. That in turn caused us to over-eat at times, but everything balanced out in the end since we both still lost weight.
It’s hard to believe that we’re coming in to our tenth month on the program. It’s been such an incredible journey, and it’s so exciting to now be moving in to a phase that’s all about building our athletic ability back up and striving for our personal best rather than the feeling of, “I have all this weight to lose just to start feeling normal again.” I’m not at my goals yet, but I still feel comfortable with where I am at the moment, which is a stark contrast to last June when I just wanted to hide because I felt so horrible about how I looked. I don’t think I’ve ever gone into the spring/summer season thinking to myself, “I’m actually going to be ready for the beach this year!”. Although this year is filled with challenges, it’s also filled with a lot of things to celebrate, and having a reliable, realistic diet and exercise program in place has affected my life more than I could anticipate or express, in everything from the quality of sleep I get to the quantity of work I can get done. When the diet and exercise portions of my life are in place, it gives me better tools to deal with all the other challenges that a normal work and personal life bring. It’s been a very profound ten months, more so than either of us ever expected! Onwards and upwards, and we’ll see you at the next weigh-in!
As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I will be receiving the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
This week, I dropped 1 pound, bringing me back to my all-time lowest weight on Nutrisystem, 131 pounds; Jai dropped 2.4 pounds, bringing him to a new record weight: 172 pounds! Yeah!
We’ve been continuing our efforts to get our veggies in with a nice salad, and for me, remembering to eat my PowerFuels and SmartCarbs. I’ve been scrambling eggs with veggies like jalapenos and red onion in the morning, which is a nice way to fill up. My pantry is now empty of butter substitutes and salt, which makes it easier for me to resist filling up on popcorn after I get home from the gym. I notice that I still get a carb craving when I get home from the gym – I know that working out isn’t supposed to make you hungry (Or so I have read), but I do think the sudden increase in activity level after being inactive due to injury may have something to do with this temporary increase in appetite. Also, I go to the gym right after work, so by the time I get home I have already worked a really long and exhausting day, then worked hard at the gym for at least an hour – so I’m exhausted by the time I get home! So I do find that I may be prone to sneaking an extra dessert at this time (Which is something I never did until pretty recently!). I prefer to work out earlier in the day, which I think would help with the craving issue too, but it just hasn’t been possible with my demanding work schedule the last few weeks.
We’ve now wrapped up a solid month at the gym after our long hiatus, and we’ve both really noticed a difference in how we feel. My mobility level is doing great, and last week I was able to walk faster on the treadmill than I have before, in addition to working my legs with very light weights, working my abs with a variety of machines, and using the squat bar to very carefully get my knees used to the motion of squatting again without putting all my weight on them. I’ve also been continuing my arm circuit, which I do every other day, and have been increasing the weight I lift with them. Jai has continued his full circuit of weights and cardio machines, and is enjoying the increase in strength and fitness. A few days ago, he was loading up a truck with things to take to the dump, including an old mattress. The dump charges you based on weight, so to get an estimate of how much it might cost, Jai weighed himself and then held the mattress over his back and weighed himself again to compare and get an idea of how heavy the mattress was. When he weighed himself holding this cumbersome mattress, the number was around 215 or so, and he said, “Wow, that’s about how much I used to weigh!” I joked that this was like some kind of exercise on Biggest Loser where they make the contestants carry around the weight they’ve lost! I feel the same way when I lift 30-pound weights. I’m lifting the same amount that I was carrying around with me!
As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I will be receiving the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
We’re on a bit of a plateau this week. Jai is down by .6 pounds and my weight remained steady at 132 – nothing gained, but nothing lost either. We’ve really been working hard, but as we all know, weight loss can slow down the closer you get to your ideal weight. I can’t say it’s surprising that my weight is sticking around the low 130s, as this seems to be a weight that my body has settled at for most (healthy) periods of my adult life. The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention states that for someone of my height of 5′ 4″, a healthy weight range is between 108 and 145 pounds; so I am currently medically healthy where I’m at. For my small body frame, being in the 130s means that I still have excess areas of fat around my middle, but while this may not be my aesthetic preference, I am not considered overweight. I definitely feel healthier and lighter as I am more toned and lose those excess areas, which is why I set my goal weight as I did; but again, I’m not surprised that it is getting harder to shed the weight as quickly, given what a good range I am already in. As for Jai, he too is close to his goals and has not been this weight since at least 1996!
Where our eating habits are concerned, we’ve made a big effort in staying with it faithfully. In the past there has been more wiggle room, but as we close in on our goals and have hit this slowdown, we’ve tightened up our efforts so we can make the most of our opportunity on Nutrisystem. I’ve really worked to remember my PowerFuels and SmartCarbs during the day to keep my blood sugar level, and while I do still forget or get too busy at times, I’ve done better with it in the last few weeks because of my efforts to maintain a more stable schedule. We’ve also been eating salads, drinking V-8 and chugging water at the gym. I had a few off-plan moments over the course of last week, and noticed that the biggest problem both Jai and I have is eating too much popcorn at night. Popcorn is an “Extra”, which means that you can have up to 3 cups per day, assuming you haven’t eaten any other extras. However, we have both been eating more than 3 cups and I have the bad habit of adding salt to it, which is not on the plan. Since I seem to get the real urge for a flavorful, crunchy snack after we get home from the gym, I went to the store yesterday and stocked up on a few tasty items to add to our salads, including jalapeño peppers and red onion. My hope is that this can take the place of popcorn in filling that craving. I also put all of my salt shakers in a bag and stuck them in my car yesterday; it may sound silly, but since I usually snack on popcorn at night, having the salt out of easy reach should help deter me from overeating popcorn, since I don’t have a problem sticking to 3 cups if it’s plain.
So, I will continue to tweak and observe my eating habits so I can continue to progress. Keeping my schedule stable is really the foundation to being healthy, so I try to keep that as my main focus. Don’t get me wrong, my life is so hectic that it is very, very, very hard to do, so it requires continual effort to keep things in check as much as reasonably possible so that I’m not running on empty 24/7. Even if this didn’t affect my weight, working non-stop and not sleeping destroys all the other areas of my life, so I have every reason to try hard to keep work in check; and if my diet goals can provide an extra impetus to stay on track with my schedule, that’s all to the good!
We’ve been continuing our efforts at the gym, and last week marked some progress for me. Jai has been doing a lot of cardio, weights, and when he’s not in the gym he’s been working his arms by painting! As for me, last week I started increasing the weights with my arm circuit, and I was even able to do a little weight work with my legs. I used an ankle cuff to lift a 10-pound weight by flexing my leg, thereby working my knee flexibility and strength. It went well, so I will continue to approach this cautiously, as I will need to do work like this in order to regain that strength. Once I am able to kneel and squat without pain, I will use that as a springboard to resume higher-impact cardio. I have to watch myself, since I enjoy pushing myself, and it was my hard work at the gym which ended up injuring my knees to begin with; so I have to resist the urge to rush into doing things that would put stress and strain on those knee joints and re-injure me. I’ve been slowed down enough over the last few years, so I’d rather be patient and heal completely in the very near future than limp around with knee problems indefinitely.
How do you deal with weight loss plateaus, readers?
As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I will be receiving the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.
My name is Beeb Ashcroft, and I'm a longtime journalist, "Sweeper", and British expat living on the Oregon coast with my fiancé, Jai. Join me as I share my adventures winning big, interviewing celebrities, entertaining my wonderful family and friends, and living a fashionably frugal lifestyle.
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It has been hard for us both to try and keep at a normal schedule during such chaos – it’s hard to eat normally when you’re trying to prepare food in a construction food, and the exhaustion from all the work and stress has made me more prone to over-eating. I was reviewing some gummy-bear type chews last week, and let’s just say, I reviewed several bags of them, along with some other off-plan moments for Jai and I both. Honestly, it’s hard to stick to eating at regular times all through the day when your schedule is erratic, but this is just temporary while we deal with a lot of big headaches all at once. And that being said, even when I’m not eating ideally on Nutrisystem, I’m still losing weight and making progress – if this we had tackled this insane laundry list of projects this time last year, we would have been ordering pizza every day instead. Really, if we can keep progress up during bad times, that’s the true indicator of sustainable success – this isn’t the first time we’ve been overwhelmed, and it won’t be the last!
