Nutrisystem Snacks: Pickles?

Pickles are not listed as legal veggies in the meal planner. But cucumbers are. But the nutrition label on the big jars of dills says 0% fat, 0% protein, 0% carbs. Salt is the only problem with cucumbers.

I'm asking about this because I've used pickles for years on a diabetic diet -- just not on a Nutrisystem diet.

Now this is Dill Pickles we're discussing. I understand that many other kinds of pickles have sugar added to them, which would get them off of diabetic, Nutrisystem, and almost any other diet.

So does anybody know... Are moderate quantities of pickles an acceptable veggie or snack on the Nutrisystem plan? They aren't exactly produce any more, but they were until recently.

Nutrisystem cooking -- the water trick.

Hey... Here is an easy and completely legal trick to improve many Nutrisystem meals. Just add (a little) water. Nutrisystem takes some of the water out of their packed entrees, and for good reason. The extra water makes the packages larger and heavier -- driving up the cost of shipping. I'm willing to bet the water also interferes with some of their manufacturing processes.

You will need to experiment with this idea a little bit, but here's the concept. Just add back a little water before you microwave the package. Since the instructions say to open the package a little anyway, this is pretty easy to do. And water is allowed on even the Nutrisystem diet. Leave the cooking time the same -- normally the full 1.5 minutes.

This trick doesn't work on all the meals, but it sure helps some of them. The greatest success for me so far has been on the Red Beans and Rice lunch. It's spicy enough just as it comes, but it has a distinct hockey puck quality to it -- almost a fried rice effect. But adding a couple of tablespoons of water seems to re-hydrate the rice so that the meal seems bigger and less like something I would aim at an intruder (or a goalie). The added water trick also worked well with the spinach ravioli. Not so successful was the addition of water to the oriental steak with green peppers. That's better without any help.

Can anyone else comment on this trick or similar ways to bring life to the meal-in- bag quisine?

Nutrisystem D vs the regular plans: What's to chose?

So what are the differences between the new Nutrisystem D plan announced this spring and the well established basic plans? Well... It looks subtle, and it is. Afterall, the basic plan is a pretty good diabetic plan on its own. The basic plan features balanced meals with exchange-like lists of veggies, fruit, protein, carbs, etc. And of course there is the brutal portion control.

If you compare the D plan menu and the regular plan menu, there are lots of subtractions and a few additions -- mainly to the dinner menu. Think of it as two lists that overlap about 80 percent or so. Some meals on the standard plan menu apparently had too much of this or that (mainly carbs I'd guess), and some other meals have been added to keep the balance and provide a reasonable number of items on the list. Many favorites (oriental beef with green peppers and mushrroms, and spinach ravioli) are "legal" on both plans. But you'll see some of your standbys missing if you move from the regular plan to Plan D.

I have not seen the guide book that comes with Plan D yet, but I'll bet there are detail changes there too. Has anybody got copies of both books to give us a comparison report?

Thanks in advance.

Policy Post: What's Up?

Oh NO! Not another Nutrisystem blog! (How I lost my entire body weight twice over with delicious nutritious bags of food and lots of lettuce.)

Well, right. This isn't just a Nutrisystem blog. It's also a
Type 2 (Adult Onset) Diabetes Blog.

And the idea is for people to contribute ideas and lessons learned about using Nutrisystem plans for both weight loss AND diabetes control.

Visitors are invited to comment and to contribute posts. But let's keep things brief and to the topic... Nutrisystem AND diabetes.