Ten-Finger Exercises

A weighty matter

Last summer Bill and I went on a diet. Somewhere around this spring, we plateaued. We still have plenty to lose, but the talking scale keeps saying about the same thing every day. So something needed to change.

My daughter did really well on Nutri-Systems years ago, and so I thought we'd give it a try. Portion control is difficult, and I thought this would be a good way to have that under control. Just eat what they send. We agreed to do that.

This huge, 50# package arrived today, filled with stuff and a label that says, "Call this number before opening the package." Okay, I called the number. It wasn't instructions, or anything useful, just cheerleading. Maybe that's useful, but it wasn't what I expected. Inside the box, the printed material was not much better. Nowhere was there a page that says, How to get started with the actual diet. There was a booklet that told you that on the first day, you should make yourself a priority. The second day had similar advice. By the end of the week it suggested meditation. I'm not kidding: there was no content here!

All we have to go on is the food diary, with the allowables the same on every page to be filled in. For breakfast, there's the Nutri-System breakfast choice, plus 1 oz of dairy or protein, one fruit, and, for men, one ounce of low-glycemic carbohydrate. There is a short list at the back of the diary that describes what these categories include.

In other words, to make this easy, food-provided diet work, I still have to come up with a slice of bread and an egg without fat added and a fruit for breakfast. For lunch, I need to provide a tiny salad, a fruit, a low glycemic carbohydrate like an ounce of beans, in addition to the entree. Shoot, if I'd known I'd still have to figure it out myself and provide these tiny additions to make up a full lunch, I'd never have bought the plan!

We still need to figure out where to put all these things too!

This whole thing does not make me very happy.