Exciting Announcement: We’re Joining The Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel! #NSNation

My weight over the last decade has yo-yoed between 110-166 pounds. I was always quite slender as a teen and young adult, but my insane work schedule and large number of commitments, projects, and unexpected emergencies changed my eating habits drastically over the last 9 years. For me, weight gain is the direct result of my chaotic schedule. I have the tendency to work very long hours with few breaks, and find myself starving at the end of a long day after skipping meals. And when it’s 9 PM and you haven’t eaten, you don’t really feel inspired to spend another 2 hours cooking – you just want to eat and collapse into bed. So takeaway and fast food became a more and more frequent presence in my life. Whenever I take the time to arrange my schedule so that I can make sure I eat 3 meals a day and cook good food myself, I drop weight quickly; then some disaster will occur and I will find myself struggling just to keep up – and it’s back to late nights and takeout once again.

Another contributing factor to this is that I do have the tendency to “Eat emotionally” sometimes. Some people smoke or drink when they have a bad day; but I’m the one who wants a bucket of chicken to dry my tears on. The last decade has been a tough one for me because I’ve experienced some serious losses and trauma, and while comfort food hasn’t been the primary cause of my weight fluctuations, I’ve definitely found myself eating a bag of Cheetos while waiting in the McDonald’s drive-thru after a few hard days.

The irony of my current weight situation is that it ended up being the unintentional result of exercising! Over 2 years ago, I was doing the healthy thing by taking care of my body and working out every day. Long story short, I dislocated both of my patella in the beginning of 2010, an injury I am still recovering from. Although I will make a full recovery, I went for a long time without a diagnosis and it deteriorated to the point of me having to use a wheelchair. I’m way more mobile now than I’ve been ever since the injury occurred, but I still have difficulty with a lot of very basic stuff. And it ebbs and flows; a few weeks ago I was doing more activities than I have been able to in literally years. Today, my right knee hurts so much I feel like it might buckle. However, my progress is continually upward so I don’t let the bad days get me down too much anymore.

As you can imagine, not being able to stand or walk for 2 years had a devastating effect on my weight. Not only have I ballooned up ridiculously, but I have lost ALL muscle tone, so I look even bigger than I would than if I was at this weight with normal mobility. I watched one of those “Real life ER” shows a while ago where a nurse mentioned that they would get patients out of bed 48 hours after a certain type of immobilizing surgery and have them walk around, even though it was difficult, because the muscles start to atrophy after even a short period of time during bedrest. I haven’t been on bedrest, but have mainly had to stay seated since the end of 2010, and let me tell you, bizarre things happen to your body when you can’t move around much. My body shape has never looked like this before, even at my heaviest in the past; I have pants that I owned when I was this same weight in prior years, and I can’t even get them on because of the lack of muscle tone. To say that it is depressing when you’re immobilized and your whole body starts to fall apart is kind of an understatement.

I’m currently following an outpatient physiotherapy routine, but the gentle stretches and walks aren’t exactly fat-burning workouts, not to mention that fact that I have to be more sedentary than normal in my day-to-day activities while I regain my knee function. I do my best in terms of food, but during most of my recovery I haven’t been able to stand up for long periods of time to shop and cook so I’ve had to go for options that are as simple to make as possible – and not always as healthy as I like. And to keep up with the resulting medical expenses from this crisis, Jai and I both work extremely long hours and don’t have much time available to deal with kitchen tasks. To be quite honest, the last two years have been extraordinarily challenging and we’re just doing the best we possibly can under the circumstances.

As for Jai, he’s sacrificed things like time at the gym and his martial arts training because of the increased work load and also all the slack he’s had to pick up essentially caring for me. He’s had to help me with the most basic stuff since my knee injury, and no one realizes quite how much time and attention this has sucked up. So his health has been affected by mine too, because he’s too busy working and helping me to take care of his own health.

So when Jai and I were invited to become a part of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, I thought this was the absolute perfect thing at the perfect time. I seriously considered joining Nutrisystem at the end of 2009, but decided to spend my money on continuing my gym membership and starting personal training instead. I blew my knees out a few months later, so I probably should have spent it on Nutrisystem instead. 😉 (I’m kidding, I love my gym and the injury was totally my own fault. But I can’t help but notice the irony!) There are SO many reasons why I am incredibly excited about Nutrisystem:

• It’s perfect for the overworked. Nutrisystem’s meals are pre-packaged and ready to go – just pull out of the cupboard or microwave and eat. It’s actually EASIER than getting takeout because you don’t even have to leave the house! When I have a quick option on hand for lunch, breakfast, and dinner, eating at regular times becomes a breeze.
• It’s perfect for those with limited mobility. Remember what I said about it being a challenge for me to cook because of the pain that standing and walking causes? Nutrisystem couldn’t be more perfect. Open a wrapper, microwave a meal, and you’re done.
• It saves you time. When you’re working well over 80 hours a week like me, finding time to cook becomes difficult. Not only does this save the time of trying to think up and cook something for dinner, it also saves you the time cleaning up the dishes that cooking produces.

I am ecstatic about this because it’s going to make a huge difference in our lives. Jai did a 10-day test drive of Nutrisystem last year, and in that short amount of time, he lost 2 lbs. Imagine what it will do for us now that we’re doing it full time! This is the exact encouragement that I need – it’s an awful feeling to look into the future and not only be uncertain of when you will have full mobility back, but also have no idea when you’ll be able to start losing weight. Now, I feel like I have the ability to take control of my weight situation without being limited by my knee injury. Furthermore, the amount of time it will save not having to cook and do so much cleaning in the kitchen is a huge burden off. It sounds silly, but in my current sleep-deprived, overworked, and chronic-pain state, having one less thing to think about is such a relief I could jump for joy! You know, if my knees worked right! 😉

This is going to be a very exciting challenge to see how Nutrisystem works for people of all situations. For Jai, he will be doing Nutrisystem and working out at the gym. For me, I will be doing Nutrisystem and just continuing my physiotherapy to rehabilitate my knees. It will be really interesting to see what kind of results Jai gets by combining this with exercise versus what kind of results I get doing Nutristsyem while my mobility is limited and I am unable to do much physical activity other than my gentle stretches and walks. We’re both going to be outlining our activities and progress in weekly blog posts and monthly v-logs, so you can follow along with our journey. Our first shipment of food will be arriving withing the next 2 weeks, and I’m incredibly excited to start a new and much-needed positive chapter after a rough two years!

As members of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel, Jai and I will be receiving the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions with you. Always consult with your physician before embarking on any weight loss or exercise program.

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or by visiting Nutrisystem.com!