Why are you overweight?

I'm an avid Biggest Loser fan. Like I said in my first post on this blog, I got a big reality check when I realized I weighed more than some of this season's competitors. One thing that's been sticking with me lately is the question that the trainers ask the competitors; "Why are you overweight?"

We all have our reasons. The weight didn't magically appear. If we can't figure out what has triggered us to get to where we are, we're doomed to repeat the cycle again.

I'm still trying to figure out my reasons. I've always been overweight for as long as I can remember. I like good food, and in a lot of cases, that means lots of fat and calories. I'm lazy, and that spans from exercising to taking the time to eat healthy. And I'm used to travelling and eating out all the time, and in addition to restaurants serving enormous portions of unhealthy food, I wasn't interested in making good choices. Are those the reasons that I'm looking for? I don't know. It seems like most of the competitors have an overriding emotional reason. I've had my share of issues when I was younger, but I never even considered that they could be related to my weight. I guess I will keep searching, because I never want to be here again.


I dealt with a personal challenge today. My son has been having a hard time sleeping lately because his eczema flared up, and he's been waking up pretty much hourly at night, which doesn't leave a whole lot of time for Mom to sleep either since my husband was out of town. I've been exhausted for three days now. When I'm exhausted, one of the ways I keep myself going is to eat. I was hungry all day long, even eating the most filling NS meals I had. I finally broke and had 5 slices of whole wheat melba toast with fat free cheese, 85 calories worth. I'm not proud that I cheated on my program, but I am proud of what I chose to eat. In the past, that might have been a whole sleeve of crackers with regular cheese. Now hopefully my son will be feeling better tonight so that Mommy can sleep, too!

I have some more food reviews and recipes to share!

Flatbread Pizza (Dinner):


In my quest to try as many items as possible, even discontinued ones, I may have made some unwise decisions! I bought this pizza from a seller on Kijijji, because I love the NS pizza so I figured I would give this a try. Well, this was a little past its use-by date but I thought that since the Nutrisystem food was shelf stable with those little fresh packs, it would be OK. Well, it was gross. I suspect that even without it being expired, I wouldn't have liked it. The crust was thick and crisp and bready- much like a thick cracker. It had no flavour at all. The cheese that came with it was orange instead of the usual white cheese. I'm not a fan of orange cheese on pizzas, so I threw it out and put my own mozzarella on top. I did eat the pizza, but I really didn't enjoy it and I threw the other package in the garbage. I can see why this was discontinued! I'll stick with the Italian Herb Flatbread Pizza, which not only has those delicious spices on it but a totally different texture.

Split Pea Soup (Lunch):


This is pretty good! Pea soup has never been one of my favourite meals so I don't have too much to compare it too, but it's a nice lunch. I suggest adding slightly less water than NS recommends for a richer, creamier soup.

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Noodles (Dinner):


On the Nutrisystem boards, this meal tends to get pretty bad reviews so I was worried about it. Since most of the dinner entrees tend to have a lot of sauce, I got the idea to dump it over a bowl of Asian vegetables to soak up the extra liquid. I bought a bag of frozen Asian stirfry veggies (just be careful not to include baby corn as that counts as a carb on NS) and steamed them, and then poured the entree over top. Surprisingly, I thought it was pretty good. It won't make my favourites list but it's better than a lot of the Asian inspired dishes that NS offers and I would eat it again. The chicken chunks were plentiful, the sauce wasn't too sweet, and it was a change of pace from the things I usually choose (fajitas, buffalo wrap and pork wrap, pizza, and burgers).

Coconut Almond Bar (Dessert):


People insisted this was like an Almond Joy bar. Since that was one of my favourites pre-Nutrisystem, I figured I was going to love it. I took a bite and the texture just seemed a little off from what I was expecting. I think it was a case of getting overly excited about what I hoped it would be, because the bar isn't bad. It's just not an Almond Joy and I really shouldn't have expected it to be. The coconut flavour is there, although it's not overwhelming, and the chocolate was good. I'm still wondering where the almonds were because I didn't taste any. Like I said, there was nothing wrong with this except it didn't live up to the hype so I probably won't be ordering it again.

Macaroni and Cheese (Dinner):


I've had this before and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd try to jazz it up a little bit. I miss macaroni and cheese the way I used to make it- completely from scratch. It was rich, cheesy, delicious... and about 900 calories, if not more. So I wondered, what could I do to make this more like my macaroni and less like Kraft dinner (although I still say this is a darn good substitute for KD!). I decided to add a little milk to the cup before I poured in the boiling water to the fill line, and I threw in a wedge of Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb cheese to melt into the sauce. I covered it and let it sit for ten minutes, and poured it into a small dish and topped it with Italian breadcrumbs and an ounce of cheddar cheese. I baked it for ten minutes and it was delicious and I was stuffed when I was finished my dinner.

I try to avoid posting recipes that involve the use of additional carb servings because I know that not all my readers get the extra carbs with their meals. In this case, the amount of breadcrumbs is very small. 1/4 cup is a carb serving and I planned to use that much until I saw how much it really is. I used maybe 1/3 of it and I could have used less. I think it you just put a sprinkle on, you'd be OK even if you aren't allowed an extra carb. It's definitely worth saving a protein to top it with cheddar cheese, and a free food to use the Laughing Cow cheese. I prefer the macaroni with beef, but this recipe will definitely make it easy to want to use up my remaining plain macaroni cups!