A Husband & Wife’s Nutrisystem Weight Loss Journey

I am receiving 12 weeks of the Nutrisystem^® Uniquely Yours plan for myself and my husband in return for our honest review. All opinions are 100% our own.

My husband and I are starting Nutrisystem today — July 4th, 2016 — with a week of Turbo Takeoff.

I have struggled with my weight for my entire life. I have dieted several times and lost weight only to end up gaining it all back within a few years. It is a vicious cycle of dieting, losing weight, then going back to old habits and slowly gaining it all back.

My husband has really never watched what he ate, and only in the last few years has his eating habits caught up with him. He has gained weight and has high blood-pressure and high cholesterol.

Working towards the goal of eating healthier and losing weight, my husband and I are starting the Nutrisystem^® Uniquely Yours program. The great thing about Nutrisystem is that they deliver the majority of your meals and snacks right to your door. I will not be responsible for thinking of 12 weeks worth of healthy meals and snacks by myself, which is fantastic!

Goals

My ultimate goal is to lose a total of 90 pounds. My husband would like to lose a total of 20 pounds. Of course I do not expect to lost 90 pounds in just 12 weeks, as that is not only unrealistic but also unhealthy. My goal for this 12 week program is to lose a total of 25 pounds. My husband’s 12 week goal is to lose all 20 pounds.

Past Struggles

In the past I have struggled with weight loss programs. This time around I want to analyze what caused the difficulties in the past and figure out what we could do differently this time to ensure our success.

I think that part of the reason that I have trouble sticking to any of the diets that I have tried is that when I diet, I diet hardcore. I am super strict and do not allow myself anything “unhealthy.” Once I do eventually steer off course, which always happens – whether it is because I go on vacation or whether I decide to eat what my husband eats for dinner instead of my “diet” meal – I end up feeling guilty and like a failure. I just give up on the whole thing and go back to my old ways, eventually packing on all the weight I had lost.

One particularly difficult aspect of dieting is sharing a home, and dinner table, with those that are not dieting. It is a struggle to sit next to my husband at the dinner table watching him eat a juicy cheeseburger. Similarly, it is hard to enjoy a non-fat yogurt while hubby is next to me eating a giant bowl of ice cream. I end up feeling completely deprived, and it pushes me closer and closer to caving in and eating what I know I shouldn’t.

Setting up for success

This time around I am not going to be so hard on myself. I am vowing to not give up in the event that I do slip up. I will forgive myself, as hard as that is for me, and move forward.

Rather than trying to stick to a ridiculously strict diet plan which leaves no room for indulgences and the foods that we love, hubby and I will be following the Nutrisystem^® Uniquely Yours plan. We will get to enjoy everything from pizza to hamburgers. No more feeling deprived!

Although, I think that there will be less temptations in general this time around I have my husband on board to join me in this weight loss journey. With both myself and hubby starting the program, we can support each other rather than tempt each other by eating unhealthy foods.

To prepare for this journey we stopped buying all frozen foods and junk food for a few weeks and set out to use up all that we have in the house. When the first shipment of our Nutrisystem food arrived we got rid of any food that we had in the house that wasn’t in line with our plan.

The reason for this is 2-fold. First, we didn’t want any food around the house to tempt us and since we shouldn’t be eating any of it for the next 3 months anyway, it made the most sense to just get rid of it all. The second reason is basically for practical purposes. Nutrisystem ships out 4 weeks of food at a time which takes up quite a bit of room – especially when you have 2 people in a household on the plan. We simply needed the freezer space and cabinet space to fit all our Nutrisystem food.

Upcoming challenges

Starting a weight loss journey in July poses some unique challenges for us. It’s summertime and ice cream is more enticing than ever.  With Nutrisystem we get to enjoy snacks such as ice cream sandwiches and whoopie pies. I hope that this will help us to stay away from the ice cream shops this summer!

Later this month we have a 5-day vacation at the Jersey Shore planned. We can bring our food with us since we are staying in a condo with a full kitchen. Nevertheless, it will be very challenging to stay on track during this time. We are going away with friends and we love to dine at the restaurants down the shore.

The Nutrisystem Program

With Nutrisystem we get access to great resources such as The Leaf, the NuMi app, and a weight loss counselor. I am confident that by following the Nutrisystem program we will be able to reach our weight loss goals.

Find out how we did on Turbo Takeoff in next week’s post

To find out more about Nutrisystem visit the Nutrisystem website or connect with Nutrisystem on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Youtube.