NutriSystem Announces Nationwide Voluntary Recall of Peanut Butter Granola Bar

NutriSystem has issued a voluntary recall for it's peanut butter bars. You can call or email and they'll send a replacement. I'm sure they are just being careful. (I've only eaten one I think).

NutriSystem Announces Nationwide Voluntary Recall of Peanut Butter Granola Bar Due to Possible Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) Contamination and Potential Health Risk: "NutriSystem Inc., a leading provider of weight management products and services, today announced a voluntary recall of its NutriSystem-branded Peanut Butter Granola Bar"

Darn packages...

OK, first bad experience.

It was my first time with a microwaveable dinner - "Mushroom Gravey with Salisbury Steak and Rice. The fact that the gravy was mentioned first should have tipped me off!

First of all, it was really hard to get the plastic cover all the way off - I got gravy spots all over the counter top. Secondly, I had to search for the Salisbury steak - I eventually found it hiding behind a mushroom. Thirdly, the rice could have patched a hole in my brickwork.

I fished the steak out and had it with the rice and a piece of bread, leaving the half gallon of gravy behind. It was OK, not brilliant, but OK. I'll give it a 6.

Next time, I'll cut the plastic cover, take out the steak, put a little gravy on it and cook some rice of my own.

I guess it shows I need to get my expectations set before deciding if it works or not.

Getting into the losing weight routine

OK, it's been three and a bit days on the Nutrisystem diet and it's not been bad at all.

Good things

• I haven't really felt hungry at any time
• I've discovered I really like beans (this is very fortunate - there's a lot!)
• There's a lot more food than I expected

Bad Things

• The pizza is really quite pathetic. I had the thick crust and my wife had the thin crust and it really was hard to tell them apart. It's sort of an overweight Lunchable!
• I really don't like salad and that's the biggest part of lunch
• Organizing myself to have all the appropriate food types for each meal
• Storing the food

I've also started a community on Mixx - Losing Weight - to help me keep up with any relevant news.

All in all, it's going fine!

First Nutrisystem Day

Today was the first day on the diet and it wasn't too bad.

Had maple oatmeal for breakfast which was quite nice (7 out of 10) (with Canadian bacon - a pathetic two pieces and a slice of pumpernickel and mandarin oranges - hey that's way more than I normally have!).

Lunch was black bean tortilla soup (8/10) and salad. I didn't eat the salad (ack).

Dinner was a chicken patty (5/10 - tasted like Dinty Moore), asparagus, bread and mandarin oranges again.

I missed the mid-morning snack because I have breakfast late so it doesn't really fit in.

All-in-all a good day. Hope it continues!

How did we chose which system to use?

I wish I could say we used an exhaustive analysis of the available weight loss programs and can to a logical decision after hours and hours of deliberation.

But I can't.

It came down to these points:

• It had to be a company we could trust - i.e. well known, high profile
• We didn't want to decide and debate what was for dinner - we could each chose something out of the closet
• Cut down on shopping
• The food looked as though we would eat it
  
• Cost was obviously an issue
• We thought it could work

The criteria were weighted differently in my mind versus my wife's - she was more worried that she wouldn't like the food, while I wanted convenience as an example.

We looked an the main one's and decided on Nutrisystem (we also looked at WeightWatchers, Jenny Craig and Diet2go).

Nutrisystem looked the simplest, they had an option where my wife could choose the food, and another where they would choose for me - we were both happy!

They had a promotion for where there was a week free and a discount for auto delivery. When my wife rang to order her food she discovered another promotion where if a same member of the household ordered at the same time there would get an extra week free and 10% off - which seemed like a good deal!