Goodbye to Nutrisystem and the search for something that worksa bit faster..

It has become obvious that Nutrisystem is not working very fast. I still like the ease of the program, but after more than two months I have not lost even seven pounds.

I have several other concerns:

•  My husband has been patient, but it is clear that he would like me to start cooking regular meals again.
• I have started to become concerned about the amount of preservatives and the sugar substitutes in Nutrisystem. This is probably OK for a short-term diet, but if I am going to have to stay on any diet for over a year I need to move to something more healthy. 
• Also, I miss real food.
• My back has gone out again, and losing weight more quickly would be a big help.

I'm still looking for 'easy', but I'm going to start looking for another diet. I still have 21 days of meals left, so there is time to plan.

Thanksgiving and the aftermath:

Thanksgiving is always awkward for me because I have never been the "relative with the big house and a dining room". Many years ago the whole tribe used to meet at either my parents' house or one of my aunts' or sister-in-law's houses. As the years have gone by some of the older relatives no longer cook, some have moved out of state, and some have formed new allegiances, so what remains of the family has either gone to one sister-in-law's house or we've eaten out at a restaurant.

This year, with the Master Cook and others of the family gone to help out a relative who had moved back East, there were only four of us for Thanksgiving. I ordered a Thanksgiving box from Marie Callendar's and my brother heated it up at his house. I tell myself that it is not the food, it is the family.  One advantage of this approach, however, is that I didn't feel obliged to sample everything so that I could compliment people on their cooking. I still ate too much, though.

After Thanksgiving my husband and I went out of town to a small three-day science fiction convention and I think I managed pretty well in spite of having to eat out a few times, and in spite of having to face food everywhere. It seemed as if every vender and bid table had candy on offer, and there were many parties with temptations like cheesecake and chocolate fountains, an Ice Cream Social, and a Con Suite (a meeting/snacking area with different beverages, but mostly items like M&M's and cheese crackers. Fortunately the author who used to bring twenty pounds of chocolate did not do that this year. )We stopped at Trader Joe's on the way up and I stocked up on fresh fruit, hummus, muffins, kefir, low-fat cheese and low-fat Greek yogurt. A lot of that didn't get used, but I always knew that there was something healthy back in the hotel room when I got hungry.

Now to figure out what to cook when I start cooking again.

And another one bites the dust...

Another pound down. That makes six pounds so far. Some people manage to lose that much in a week. Guess I need to be patient.

Another Pound Bites the Dust

Sadly, that's only the fifth pound, and actually it had gone last week before I went on vacation, but after five days on vacation it took another five days to get back to where I was.

Obviously, I am able to keep from losing weight on very few calories. I figure that I need to use up an additional 3500 calories, or approximately 500 calories a day, to lose a pound a week. That's a lot of exercise.

I understand, though, that if exercise builds muscles then your muscled body uses more calories. We'll see. At my age, I'm not going to start out by running marathons, but let's see what I can do.

Conservation of Energy vs. Weight Loss

One thing I've found is that I tend to 'slow down' when dieting, instead of losing weight. I guess my body decides that it should conserve energy.

Obviously, I need to exercise more while I'm reducing calories.

Just back from a five-day vacation. There was no way to avoid eating out and attending potlucks and ice-cream socials, but I managed not to binge and I'm rapidly re-losing the few pounds I gained.

One realization is that I am always going to have to watch what I eat - if I lose weight so very slowly when I'm on 1200-1300 calories a day, then my basal metabolism must be very low.