Day 15

Yes friends, we're here. As the great philosopher Bon Jovi said "whooooooaaaaaa we're halfway there!"

Well, halfway through this first 28 days at least. I FINALLY have this thing figured out to where I can still function like a normal human being. Am I still hungry a lot? Yes. Is the scale moving yet? No. Do I feel a difference in my clothes? YES. That's a big fat yes. Just a reminder to myself and others that the scale is not the end all be all of weight loss. 

Last night's dinner was a frozen Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza and MAN was that thing good. Small, but good. I'm very much adjusted to the small portions, however. To the point where I see people's plates when I go to the cafeteria to fill up my water and I think "OMG that is SO much food!" 

So I have until 10/19 at 3pm to decide whether to order another 28 days' worth of food. And you know what? I think I will. As I predicted, it is so much easier to not have to think about what to eat. I have a variety of options for each meal, but that's it. No unlimited choices at the grocery store. No unlimited choices of restaurants and drive throughs for when I don't want to cook. This is it. Period. There's really no room for error. With Weight Watchers, it was so easy to say "oh, that was probably 2 oz of lunch meat" when in fact it was more like 5. Or to estimate how many points that giant tuna salad sandwich was and you know in your heart there's probably way more mayo in there than you're reporting. Man, I love me some tuna salad. Good thing Nutrisystem has it! I've yet to try it, but I have three packets of it. And you know, if it's bad, I'll just measure like hell and make my own for my snacks or Flex lunches.

I discovered that the best PowerFuel snack is a hard boiled egg. So filling and a great source of protein. I feel this is the key to my feeling normal again since before I switched it up, I was eating a cheese stick. All last week I purchased hard boiled eggs from the cafeteria, but even at $1 each, it's obviously cheaper to make them myself. But I've never been successful at this. They are so darn hard to peel and end up looking like Edward Scissor Hands peeled them and half the whites are down the drain. Well let me enlighten you people. Steaming! I put about two inches of water in my big stock pot, brought it to a boil, and put a whole dozen eggs in the steamer basket. Twelve minutes of steaming and an ice bath and BAM! Perfectly cooked (no green around the yolks) and so easy to peel. Life has changed. 

This has been a long way of saying that, yes, I think I will sign up for another 28 days of this. It's easy and it's working. And at some point, the scale will move. It has to. And the money we're saving on groceries and Taco Bell? HUGE. The price of Nutrisystem comes out to about $12 a day, not counting the snacks and vegetables. Even so, I won't even tell you how much I was probably spending on a cafeteria breakfast, lunch out, and a drive through dinner. Not to mention the groceries purchased, unused, and thrown out. 

The next few days will be spent making sure I eat the items I haven't tried yet from my freezer and pantry so I can be sure my next order won't include anything gross. But I honestly have only had two truly gross meals so far. There are just some that were fine, but I could do without. Now, that Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza, I'll be getting several of those for November!

Be well my friends. Self care is important. I'm indulging myself today with a charcoal face mask and a deep moisture treatment. What are you doing for yourself today?