NUTRISYSTEM FAST 5: DAY 3

Last night, I ate the almonds. Not many, but some. Afterwards, I felt less like hurting people. This is my life now. I've done this to myself. There is no one else I can blame.

You probably see a big difference between the way I write about the meals at the beginning of the day and the way I write about them towards the end. I try and write about what I'm eating while I'm eating it (real time, y'all!), so I think that as I get progressively hungrier, by dinner time my sense of humor about everything is gone.   I'm one of those people the "I Think You Need a Snickers" commercials are about!  I'm a little embarrassed that I had a small come apart on only the second day.  I figured that would happen WAY later on in the week.  If I make it through the week without going completely off the rails and deviating badly from the program, and I DON'T lose some weight, Imma be mad.  I don't expect even the whole 5 pounds at this point, but something, any loss, better happen. I'm doing this whole thing on purpose and I'd hate myself if it didn't work!

Anyway.  Even after the almonds, I went to bed hungry and couldn't go to sleep!  I know that technically I'm not supposed to get hungry because the shakes are supposed to supplement my meals, but the first one I drank was bad and I've been too scared to try another one.  However, I did learn yesterday that there are 2 different kinds of shakes, not just the same shake with two different names, so maybe the evening one isn't as bad?  We'll see!  I went to bed hungry and couldn't sleep, but once I did fall asleep, I way overslept.  I overslept through the alarm that was supposed to wake me up for the gym, and I overslept the one that was supposed to wake me up for work.  That probably didn't have anything to do with the food, or lack of it, but still.  I was running late, so I didn't have time to make a salad to go along with lunch, but I got some fruit.  I hope it doesn't matter.  Here's the thing, though: I'm not sure why this diet is supposed to work.  Is it strictly portion control with relatively low calories, or is it the kind of food that you are given that can alter your body chemistry?  If it's the latter, adding fruit and nuts is probably sabotaging me.  If it's the former, I'm hoping I'm keeping it around the same amount of calories, more or less, that I would be getting if I followed this whole thing to the letter.

I've also just now (this very second) realized I've become one of those people who are talking in depth about a diet I'm on and I hate myself a little for it. Normally I wouldn't, but I am justifying it this time because it's a special kind of diet and not just me eating regular food in smaller portions or whatever.  Also, I'm doing it for mankind!  I tried finding reviews of this diet all over the place, and I only found 2 that were not sponsored. I was looking for someone who'd bought the kit themselves (instead of being sent it from the company)  and tried it without feeling obligated to say nice things if it didn't deserve it, and I didn't have much luck. So, I figured I'd do it!  Maybe it will be around until Nutrisystem's company finds these entries and then has them scrubbed from the Internet!  At least I'm not bragging about cross fit.  :)

This was what was left when I remembered to take the picture.

BREAKFAST: Granola Cereal.  This was actually really, really good.  I like granola.  It wasn't very much, but that's to be expected.  I actually forgot to take a picture of it because I snarfed it up before I thought about it.  I just wanted to put it in my face as quickly as possible.  I also had some more pomegranate arils a couple of hours later.

LUNCH: Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar.  I'm not sure if it's because I'm so hungry, or if this was actually good, but I liked this one.  Again, I was in such a hurry to eat this that I almost forgot to take a picture, but I remembered mid-bite. It almost tastes like a Butterfinger candy bar, and it is high in protein, so let's see if it will carry me all the way to dinner-time without me ripping anyone's head off!  I hope so, because I just realized I forgot to pack the shake I hoped to have in case of emergency hunger.  I don't want to be tempted to raid the children's ministry snack stash.  I don't want to be that guy.

P.M. SHAKE: Chocolate Craving Curber (or something like that) I actually found my shake mix!  I didn't forget to bring it after all!  The children's snacks are safe for another day!  I really didn't want to drink this, but I got hungry enough to do it.  I mixed it up and, believe it or not, it didn't taste bad.  It wasn't great or anything, but if I've learned anything over the past few days, it's that none of this food is going to be great.  I really wanted to finish this shake, but I couldn't.  It wasn't the taste, it was the texture and the fact that it wasn't cold enough.  I think that if I could put this in a blender with some ice and make it into a smoothie kind of thing, I wouldn't have a problem with it.  But it wouldn't mix completely, so there were little, floating lumps of powder on top.  Also, it was so thick it was like drinking cake batter.  I couldn't drink it without my throat closing up, so I poured it out.  I replaced it with some saltines I found in the church kitchen for about the same amount of calories.  In better conditions, I wouldn't have a hard time drinking it, though. 

DINNER: Chicken Pot Pie.  I was dreading this one, because of all the reviews I was able to find online, one of the worst was for this. It didn't look great, but I was starving.  I cooked it, heated the little cracker thing and plopped it on top.  It was not bad.  Maybe I liked it because I had been convinced that it would be terrible, and when it wasn't, I was pleasantly surprised. Again, it wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, so that's good enough.  I ate it fast because I was hungry (this is a theme!) and I realized it's actually on par with a lot of heat-and-serve convenience foods that I've had, so I was OK with it.  I added some brussel sprouts to this to round it out, but I was still hungry.  I had a hard boiled egg and some almonds and I was fine after that.  I'm sure those pushed me over whatever calorie limit I had for the day, but I don't care. At least I didn't go to bed so hungry I couldn't sleep.