After two weeks, I’ve lost 8.4 lbs and am down to 233.6 – I only lost 0.6 lb this week (for a very good reason).
Week 2 is where the plan really kicks in. The calorie count rises to 1,500 per day as we start to add outside food to the menu. Generally, the recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 for men, so at 1,500, I should continue losing weigh at a decent clip. here’s how the plan looks from now on:
Now we have PowerFuels, SmartCarbs and Flex meals.
The Flex meal is literally a meal on our own as we “flex” off the plan. I’m not yet confident I won’t over-indulge, so I’m holding off on Flex meals. Since we are eating the Nutrisystem food 5 days a week, we’re technically flexing every weekend anyway.
PowerFuels are lean proteins, low-fat dairy and nuts to keep you feeling full. The idea is to add them to the meals, and use it as part of the afternoon snack. Since I’m allergic to nuts, I’ve focused on 2oz of Chicken or 1 Egg. It doesn’t sound like much because it’s not much, but it really does the trick in satiating me more.
SmartCarbs are whole grains, beans and legumes, fruit and starchy vegetables. I’ve focused on potatoes – 1/2 cup of baked steak fries or a red potato. I’ve also added a wheat tortilla for my afternoon snack, which has become a fried or scrambled egg with diced green chiles in the wheat tortilla.
From the start of the plan, I make time to walk for 30 minutes a day. When the weather gets warmer, I can return to biking in the evenings as well. The funny thing is, exercise is never really the key to weight loss, it’s the food you eat, yet people still think if they go to the health club daily they can eat what they want and stay in shape.
So…why only -0.6 lbs this week? It could have been -4.2 lbs but Saturday night was a guy’s night out with friends at Giordano’s and I ate 3 pieces of Stuffed Sausage Pizza. Based on the Giordano’s website, that was 722 calories per piece for a whopping total of 2,166 calories! I hesitated with the 3rd slice, but in the end do not regret it. The next day, my weight was +3.6 lbs from Saturday morning. Oops.