I’m starting a new diet tomorrow or maybe the day after or possibly Thursday–definitely this week sometime. It all depends on when my order from NutriSystem arrives. Yes, I said NutriSystem. The people responsible for the stupid commercials with the mother of three grocery shopping in a bikini and the other one with some reality show star talking about how she went from a size 10 to a size 4 (as if size 10 was huge).
So why, if I think their commercials are so stupid, did I decide to buy their product? Well, I need to lose weight (AGAIN) and haven’t been able to muster any enthusiasm for the approach I’ve used successfully before, namely measuring and tracking everything I eat, sometimes even down to the half sticks of gum. All that counting and thinking about food would take more mental energy than I seem to have to spare lately, so the idea of going with pre-packaged meals and letting someone else make the decisions and do the calculations for me is very appealing.
Now, I didn’t just see the commercial and pick up the phone and order; I did some research online first. I found several recurring complaints about NutriSystem (other than that their commercials are stupid, which I already knew):
1. It’s expensive. And I guess it is–to start, it’s $279 for five weeks of food under the special offer going on now, and that doesn’t include the fruit, vegetables, and dairy you have to buy locally to follow the meal plan. But since I don’t exactly economize on food now, it’s not that much more than I’d probably spend anyway, especially if you factor in pizza delivery and fast food stops.
2. It’s not tasty. I don’t think this will be a problem for me, as I’m not that picky an eater.
3. It’s not healthy. Evidently the meals contain trans-fats and sodium; no big surprise there. Still, I can’t imagine they could be any worse for me than a Baja Beef Chalupa or a Sausage McGriddle, so for the limited time I’ll be doing this I’m not worried about it.
4. It’s too easy to gain the weight back when you stop eating the pre-packaged food. Well, sure, if you go back to eating the way you did before you started on the pre-packaged food. Same thing happened to me with Weight Watchers and the diabetic exchanges diet and every other diet I’ve ever been on. Maintenance is a hard road for me no matter what; I don’t think it’s going to be any harder this time.
Since I didn’t find any problems with the plan that concerned me, I went to the website and ordered. This was last Wednesday, so my box should be showing up any time. For all I know it’s sitting on my front porch right now. I’m willing to let the receptionist at work peruse my Amazon purchases and my mail from Disney travel and my shipments from NFLshop.com (have I ever shared the many reasons I don’t recommend NFLshop.com?), but not my diet food. As if she can’t tell just by looking at me that I need to lose some weight. Yeah, I’ve got issues. But at least I’m doing something about the problem, right?
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