(no subject)
Yay for Fratboy being home. 9 out of 10 Kneegeys agree that talking about our sex life is vom inducing, so I won't. However my vagina has been singing "I Feel Pretty" all afternoon. Sorry Cyn, I'm contractually obligated to mention Down There and you know how uppity sponsors can get. There's definitely something to be said for the whole 'how can I miss you if you won't go away' school of thought. Reunions are groovy. Weekend has been good.
Now when we first found out Fratboy would have to go away for 3 months I figured Cyn and I would revert to our old pre-babies, pre-meal planning bad habits of eating nothing but noodley thingies and giant boxes of hors deurves and McDonalds since Fratboy has really been the impetus for healthy eating. Instead I thought we could take this 3 month break from having to make big dinners and try something completely different and with Cyn fully on board we decided to give Nutrisystem a try...
Okay. So. Nutrisystem first impressions. It's expensive. 28 breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts, good for one month of eating cost $380 with taxes and shipping. It would have been less if I had signed up for auto-renew as the system is $20 cheaper plus you save the $25 shipping charge but I didn't want to sign up for auto-renew until I knew whether I liked it or not so I sucked it up. This works out to a unit price of just under $3 per piece, which when you look at the price of WW or Lean Cuisines isn't THAT bad, though I usually can get them on sale for $2 or less. However when you factor in each individual cookie, chocolate bar and bag of chips $3 is ridiculously high. Plus you need to supplement the system with additional fruits, veggies and dairy so you still have to buy additional groceries. If you're looking for cost effective, this ain't it.
Also I don't know why they bothered letting you order it online because they have ZERO online support. An initial auto email was generated when the order was placed, but when I tried to reply turns out support@nutrisystem.ca is not a valid address. When I looked on the site there is no online contact info at all, something I hadn't noticed initially. And no further emails came through to let you know when your order was placed or shipped so if you wanted to follow up, you would have to pick up the phone and call which is something I personally hate. So far, not impressed.
That said, I placed the order late Tuesday night so they wouldn't have received it until Wednesday morning and by Friday before noon it was here. Score one for Nutrisystem for prompt delivery.
It was also an ENORMOUS and extremely heavy box. I was going to put the kids in it, yes all of them, for a funny photo op but before I could even form the thought let alone say it Cyn had all the food organized and all the boxes broken down. She truly is magic. This is what the dinners look like...
Now when I ordered it mentioned that no refrigeration or freezing is needed which was a plus in my books because we have limited fridge and freezer room. But I didn't quite think that through to completion, shocking I know and so I was more than mildly surprised and put off by how much powdered crap was included. I wouldn't have ordered anywhere near as many of their pasta options if I knew they were all powdered soup box crap...
Cyn and I being Cyn and I immediately dove into the chocolate. Cuz, you know, you give us instructions and we're the girls in the corner with our hands over our ears singing 'lalala can't hear you'. Usually drunk.
We were both pleasantly surprised that the chocolate was indeed chocolate. No weird aftertaste, nothing funky. In the days before 100 calorie snack packs and bars became all the rage this was probably big news. Now of course all I could think was that 3 bucks was highway robbery for such a small chocolate snack, but then I'm crotchety like that.
Cyn had been most looking forward to the meatloaf and mashed potatoes so that's what she started with. From the get-go, good call. It was heavy and felt like it would be a decent meal and it was. The 'mashed potatoes' were a bit dodgey but the meatloaf was tasty and combined with the taters a pretty fine meal. This one got high marks for both taste and filling the belly.
I dove into the Mac and Cheese which I was skeptical of given the format but hey, I loves me a good KD every now and then so I figured how bad could it be?
Wow.
If the Chemical Brothers jizzed in a cup and served it to me for dinner I would have a hard time telling the 2 apart. Plus it was way skimpy portion wise so I complained for the next half hour or so about how hungry I still was. Strangest thing though, I had to take Cyn and Crispin home and of course there was some frolicking and playtime involved so by the time I got home an hour or so later I wasn't hungry anymore. I shudder to think what kind of chemical party must have been taking place in my stomach for it to keep expanding and filling me on the inside but I was grateful enough not to be hungry anymore so I didn't think too hard on it. I try not to think too hard on anything if I can avoid it.
I totally forgot to take a pic of it though but that's okay because Saturday morning and my reach into the Breakfast bag brought out the cheesey scrambled eggs. So serving size and colour and whatnots looked very similar to the mac and cheese so you aren't missing much. Picture below but with some noodles and there you have it.
The eggs themselves were nowhere near as gross as I imagined. Never in a million years would I have mistaken them for real eggs, but never having tried a powdered egg I was surprised at the minimal gross factor. And yes, I am aware of the fact that my life has now become an endless measure of how gross everything I eat is. The fact that I paid out the nose for that is not lost on either. Ha. That said, with a nice plate of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers this wasn't a horrible breakfast and about a 5 on the filling scale. I wasn't stuffed by any measure but I wasn't whining about starving to death either...
Lunch rolled around and my foray into the Lunch bag pulled out a cheesey mashed potatoes. Powdered again, of course. Now I'm a gal who was raised on instant mashed potatoes because that's what my mama served me so I didn't think I'd be too revolted by this. And I wasn't. I wouldn't under any circumstances describe it as tasty, but I didn't need any help getting it down so we'll call that a win, shall we? And it was relatively filling as well, at least a 5 if not a 6.
If I had eaten it with the recommended veggies and dairy or protein it would have been a decent enough meal in terms of taking the hunger away.
In addition to the NS meals a serving of dairy is a glass of milk, a small light yogurt or 1 oz of cheese. Protein would be a egg, 1 oz of meat or a 1/4 cup of tuna. Veggies you can pretty much go nuts on and a fruit serving is pretty simple, one apple, one pear, one peach, you get the idea. The dinner fat serving would be a tsp of mayo or a tbsp of light salad dressing. So here's all the additional groceries you need to buy with the plan...
By the end of the day I was ready to kill someone if I didn't get some real food. It wasn't so much even hunger, I just couldn't face any more pre-packaged crap so I put Fratboy to work grilling up some of his magic meat which I ate with all the salad in the world and order was restored yet again.
Today's reach into the Breakfast bag yielded some instant oatmeal which didn't sound too bad..
Out of curiosity I looked up the nutritional content against your store bought Quaker instant oatmeals and calories, fat, sodium, sugar, carbs and fibre were all really comparable. The only real difference was in the protein content with Nutrisystem packing 8 grams of protein in one serving vs. Quaker's 4.
Oh, and when the instructions say to nuke it in a bowl, pay attention. Figuring it was like my Quaker I just used a mug. Erm...
Since I had no desire to lick it off the bottom of the microwave I have no idea how it tasted or whether it was filling. Sure smelled good though.
One disgusting clean up later the next Breakfast grab netted this..
Now never in a million would I order this voluntarily, but when you first sign up you get a week of free food added to your order, but no say in what that additional week of food contains.
This was sort of like pound cake. Pound cake's denser, much more unpleasant bastard cousin. I couldn't get it down without copious amounts of coffee, it was so mealy and gross. And surprisingly unfilling given how heavy it was and how long it took to choke down. I immediately went for some yogurt and fruit to take the edge off or someone was going to die, I was THAT surly and hungry.
Lunch netted another great idea at the time until it turned up powdered...
The directions said to let the fettucine alfredo sit for 7-8 minutes. After 15 it was still soup so I gave up.
Poured over a nice bowl of steamed broccol an cauliflower it remained a bland, tasteless soupy mess. But a filling one. I'm reserving judgement on this one until the next go at it, where I'll use less water and hopefully get creamy sauce instead of soup which should improve the taste...
So there you have it. I'm not starving by any stretch of the imagination but I'm not exactly thrilled with meals either. That said I'm down a pound and a half in a day and half and that's with the bloodletting starting this morning which is typically my heaviest, most bloated time of the month. We've got the food so we may as well continue to eat it to see what happens. If the results continue it will be worth it. If they don't I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Stay tuned...
Now when we first found out Fratboy would have to go away for 3 months I figured Cyn and I would revert to our old pre-babies, pre-meal planning bad habits of eating nothing but noodley thingies and giant boxes of hors deurves and McDonalds since Fratboy has really been the impetus for healthy eating. Instead I thought we could take this 3 month break from having to make big dinners and try something completely different and with Cyn fully on board we decided to give Nutrisystem a try...
Okay. So. Nutrisystem first impressions. It's expensive. 28 breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts, good for one month of eating cost $380 with taxes and shipping. It would have been less if I had signed up for auto-renew as the system is $20 cheaper plus you save the $25 shipping charge but I didn't want to sign up for auto-renew until I knew whether I liked it or not so I sucked it up. This works out to a unit price of just under $3 per piece, which when you look at the price of WW or Lean Cuisines isn't THAT bad, though I usually can get them on sale for $2 or less. However when you factor in each individual cookie, chocolate bar and bag of chips $3 is ridiculously high. Plus you need to supplement the system with additional fruits, veggies and dairy so you still have to buy additional groceries. If you're looking for cost effective, this ain't it.
Also I don't know why they bothered letting you order it online because they have ZERO online support. An initial auto email was generated when the order was placed, but when I tried to reply turns out support@nutrisystem.ca is not a valid address. When I looked on the site there is no online contact info at all, something I hadn't noticed initially. And no further emails came through to let you know when your order was placed or shipped so if you wanted to follow up, you would have to pick up the phone and call which is something I personally hate. So far, not impressed.
That said, I placed the order late Tuesday night so they wouldn't have received it until Wednesday morning and by Friday before noon it was here. Score one for Nutrisystem for prompt delivery.
It was also an ENORMOUS and extremely heavy box. I was going to put the kids in it, yes all of them, for a funny photo op but before I could even form the thought let alone say it Cyn had all the food organized and all the boxes broken down. She truly is magic. This is what the dinners look like...
Now when I ordered it mentioned that no refrigeration or freezing is needed which was a plus in my books because we have limited fridge and freezer room. But I didn't quite think that through to completion, shocking I know and so I was more than mildly surprised and put off by how much powdered crap was included. I wouldn't have ordered anywhere near as many of their pasta options if I knew they were all powdered soup box crap...
Cyn and I being Cyn and I immediately dove into the chocolate. Cuz, you know, you give us instructions and we're the girls in the corner with our hands over our ears singing 'lalala can't hear you'. Usually drunk.
We were both pleasantly surprised that the chocolate was indeed chocolate. No weird aftertaste, nothing funky. In the days before 100 calorie snack packs and bars became all the rage this was probably big news. Now of course all I could think was that 3 bucks was highway robbery for such a small chocolate snack, but then I'm crotchety like that.
Cyn had been most looking forward to the meatloaf and mashed potatoes so that's what she started with. From the get-go, good call. It was heavy and felt like it would be a decent meal and it was. The 'mashed potatoes' were a bit dodgey but the meatloaf was tasty and combined with the taters a pretty fine meal. This one got high marks for both taste and filling the belly.
I dove into the Mac and Cheese which I was skeptical of given the format but hey, I loves me a good KD every now and then so I figured how bad could it be?
Wow.
If the Chemical Brothers jizzed in a cup and served it to me for dinner I would have a hard time telling the 2 apart. Plus it was way skimpy portion wise so I complained for the next half hour or so about how hungry I still was. Strangest thing though, I had to take Cyn and Crispin home and of course there was some frolicking and playtime involved so by the time I got home an hour or so later I wasn't hungry anymore. I shudder to think what kind of chemical party must have been taking place in my stomach for it to keep expanding and filling me on the inside but I was grateful enough not to be hungry anymore so I didn't think too hard on it. I try not to think too hard on anything if I can avoid it.
I totally forgot to take a pic of it though but that's okay because Saturday morning and my reach into the Breakfast bag brought out the cheesey scrambled eggs. So serving size and colour and whatnots looked very similar to the mac and cheese so you aren't missing much. Picture below but with some noodles and there you have it.
The eggs themselves were nowhere near as gross as I imagined. Never in a million years would I have mistaken them for real eggs, but never having tried a powdered egg I was surprised at the minimal gross factor. And yes, I am aware of the fact that my life has now become an endless measure of how gross everything I eat is. The fact that I paid out the nose for that is not lost on either. Ha. That said, with a nice plate of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers this wasn't a horrible breakfast and about a 5 on the filling scale. I wasn't stuffed by any measure but I wasn't whining about starving to death either...
Lunch rolled around and my foray into the Lunch bag pulled out a cheesey mashed potatoes. Powdered again, of course. Now I'm a gal who was raised on instant mashed potatoes because that's what my mama served me so I didn't think I'd be too revolted by this. And I wasn't. I wouldn't under any circumstances describe it as tasty, but I didn't need any help getting it down so we'll call that a win, shall we? And it was relatively filling as well, at least a 5 if not a 6.
If I had eaten it with the recommended veggies and dairy or protein it would have been a decent enough meal in terms of taking the hunger away.
In addition to the NS meals a serving of dairy is a glass of milk, a small light yogurt or 1 oz of cheese. Protein would be a egg, 1 oz of meat or a 1/4 cup of tuna. Veggies you can pretty much go nuts on and a fruit serving is pretty simple, one apple, one pear, one peach, you get the idea. The dinner fat serving would be a tsp of mayo or a tbsp of light salad dressing. So here's all the additional groceries you need to buy with the plan...
By the end of the day I was ready to kill someone if I didn't get some real food. It wasn't so much even hunger, I just couldn't face any more pre-packaged crap so I put Fratboy to work grilling up some of his magic meat which I ate with all the salad in the world and order was restored yet again.
Today's reach into the Breakfast bag yielded some instant oatmeal which didn't sound too bad..
Out of curiosity I looked up the nutritional content against your store bought Quaker instant oatmeals and calories, fat, sodium, sugar, carbs and fibre were all really comparable. The only real difference was in the protein content with Nutrisystem packing 8 grams of protein in one serving vs. Quaker's 4.
Oh, and when the instructions say to nuke it in a bowl, pay attention. Figuring it was like my Quaker I just used a mug. Erm...
Since I had no desire to lick it off the bottom of the microwave I have no idea how it tasted or whether it was filling. Sure smelled good though.
One disgusting clean up later the next Breakfast grab netted this..
Now never in a million would I order this voluntarily, but when you first sign up you get a week of free food added to your order, but no say in what that additional week of food contains.
This was sort of like pound cake. Pound cake's denser, much more unpleasant bastard cousin. I couldn't get it down without copious amounts of coffee, it was so mealy and gross. And surprisingly unfilling given how heavy it was and how long it took to choke down. I immediately went for some yogurt and fruit to take the edge off or someone was going to die, I was THAT surly and hungry.
Lunch netted another great idea at the time until it turned up powdered...
The directions said to let the fettucine alfredo sit for 7-8 minutes. After 15 it was still soup so I gave up.
Poured over a nice bowl of steamed broccol an cauliflower it remained a bland, tasteless soupy mess. But a filling one. I'm reserving judgement on this one until the next go at it, where I'll use less water and hopefully get creamy sauce instead of soup which should improve the taste...
So there you have it. I'm not starving by any stretch of the imagination but I'm not exactly thrilled with meals either. That said I'm down a pound and a half in a day and half and that's with the bloodletting starting this morning which is typically my heaviest, most bloated time of the month. We've got the food so we may as well continue to eat it to see what happens. If the results continue it will be worth it. If they don't I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Stay tuned...