Day 17 Summary

Monday, September 5, 2016 - Labor Day
Total Steps For Day:  13,820     (walk)
Total Calories:   848
Weight Loss: -1.1lb (-5.7 lbs total for 17 days, body fat down .1%)

What a pleasant surprise!  I dropped a little over a pound. So I hit my 5lb loss mark. Yeah team!  I hope I drop more before Saturday because I'm going to have to "wing it" a few days without the Nutrisytem foods.  I do have some snack items I'll take. Those will be good for a road trip. For now, one day at a time.

Diet Day 17 Breakfast

Today I shared a couple of entrees with my husband.  One entree was the waffles which we've had before and the other was the Nutrisystem Turkey Ham and Cheese Omelette.  The waffle was as it always is, acceptable.  I don't care for omelets in general because the eggs tend to get a foamy-firmness I just don't like.  So combined with the fact it was a frozen entree it was just sort of a "meh" for me.  It was OK, it was food, I don't think I'd buy it again.  I can whip up a nice fresh scrambled egg with bits of ham and green onion in a couple of minutes so I'd rather do that.  Along with the egg and the waffle I had some fresh sliced tomatoes and a 4 ounce glass of low-sodium V8 juice (which counts as a vegetable serving).

After breakfast I took a really good walk.  My typical walk is a 2-3 mile circuit through town on mostly pretty flat streets.  There are a couple decent hilly areas.  Today I walked through town then cut up along a creek with lots of uneven terrain and lots of uphill. Some really hard uphill!  The walk was 80 minutes and I got most of my steps in for the day 10,656. 

 

 

For a point of reference this little omelet is sitting on a small salad plate.

Looking at the picture it looks a little meager.  That said it was sufficiently filling.  I'm getting use to eating less than in the past.  I did add salt and pepper to the tomatoes and some pepper on the eggs.  I topped the waffle with my fake maple syrup.

Diet Day 17 Morning Snack

After my walk I had my usual Dr. Keith's Chocolate Cream shake.  It was particularly good today given I was hot, tired and thirsty.

Diet Day 17 Lunch

For lunch today I selected the only shef-stable lunch entree I purchased which is the Nutrisystem Sweet BBQ Sauce With Pulled-Style Pork.  I was reluctant when I ordered this.  I'm not so keen on the MRE foods and I don't typically care for sweet-saucy things.  The serving suggestion was to serve the pork over a whole grain bun.  Well, I'm fresh out of whole grain buns but I did have some whole grain thin sliced bread.  I toasted a slice and poured the heated mixture on top.  I served this alongside some fresh cucumbers with sliced red sweet onion, vinegar and a little salt and pepper.  The pork entree is nothing to look at.  It reminds me of the old Sloppy Joes we used to get in high school.  That said I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor.  Almost every review said the sauce was "soupy" but mine was not soupy in the least.  They could have changed their formulation or maybe I got lucky with a less saucy batch.  In any event, it was good enough that I'd keep it on my "shelf-stable-emergency-food" list.  You could serve it over hot rice or pasta or even steamed vegetables.

  

I have to say if someone sat this in front of me in a restaurant at which I'd never previously eaten I'm not sure I'd even taste it.  I was both brave and hungry and I really thought it did not taste all that bad.  This pork in BBQ sauce provides a bad visual.

Diet Day 17 Afternoon Snack

I actually made the trip to the grocery store so I had enough provisions to make my snack.  I really wanted to keep using the blueberries so they don't go bad so I just poured my 2 ounces of berries on top of my Total 0 Fage yogurt.  I made a point to let the berries warm up before I ate them. This improved the flavor although I think these berries were picked too green.  The berries are not as sweet as they should be.

Diet Day 17 Dinner

Tonight I'm trying the Nutrisystem Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast.  I have not been overly enamored with the cheese Nutrisytem adds to their foods.  Frequently a cheese flavor can barely be detected.  I'm sure its because the cheeses are low fat.  In addition to the chicken breast I made some sauteed mushrooms. I tried a new method, well, new to me.  I gave a pan a quick non caloric oil spray (like PAM) and heated it over medium-high heat.  I added the mushrooms and covered the pan with a tight fitting lid.  I turned the mushrooms after a couple of minutes as they began to brown. Once they were starting to look a little dry I add about one ounce of water.  I kept the cover on and just opened it up to turn the mushrooms.  I added another ounce of water and cooked the mushrooms until they were nicely browned.  I turned off the heat, kept the cover on the pan and kept the pan on the burner.  Right before I served the mushrooms I added about 5 grams (about a teaspoon) of butter.  I gave the mushrooms a stir and served them alongside the chicken.  The mushrooms were fabulous and tons less butter than I'd normally use. This is a great way to do mushrooms.

It was getting late and I was hungry so I used the microwave method to heat the chicken breasts.  This left the meat with a slightly gummy texture on the outside from a light coating, like a sprinkling of fine bread crumbs on top of the chicken.  The flavor of the broccoli (very pureed texture) and a hint of cheese came through. I'll probably buy this entree again but I'll take the time and bake it in my little convection oven.

 

 

 

 

I can't stress how good these mushrooms were!  All these years I've been drenching them in butter.  Mushrooms, like baked potatoes are a butter sponge.  I do like to add sherry to my mushrooms sometimes.  I'll try this again, add the sherry mid cooking time, remove the lid, turn the heat up until the liquid gets syrupy.  I'll let you know when I try that.

Diet Day 17 Dessert/Snack

Tonight I planned to try the Nutrisystem Carrot Cake Whoopie. At the last minuted I decided to try this and the shelf-stable Carrot Cake so I could compare the two.

 

 

My husband and I shared two versions of Nutrisystem Carrot Cake.  One was a shelf-stable cake and the other was a frozen cake, aka whoopie pie.  The Nutrisystem Whoopie Pie is a cute little cake with two layers and a sweet, creamy frosting-like filling.  The Nutrisystem Carrot Cake is a little rectangular cake with what appeared to be frosting on top, most of which had cracked and fallen away.

Flavor wise the winner was the shelf stable carrot cake.  It had a nice spicy flavor although the cake was not very moist, in fact pretty dry.  The frozen whoopie pie had a slightly more moist texture but lacked the same spicy flavor as the other cake.  The filling tasted fine it was just very sweet but with a nice texture.

I probably would not reorder either one.  If I did reorder I'd opt for the shelf stable version.

 

 

Diet Day 17 Wrap Up

I got a lot of exercise so I was a little tired by the end of the day but I still went outside after dinner to rake some leaves in the front of our property. I had to spend about another hour this evening doing my meal planning for this upcoming week.  I'm nervous and excited about having to eat on my own next week.  I'm comfortable with the program and I hate to break my stride but "life-happens" and I have to roll with the punches.

See you tomorrow for day 18!