NutriSystem Foods

Mother of 3 overcomes insecurities, upheaval to lose 30 lbs.*  

I grew up in a tiny community (I graduated in a class of 8 people), and it was there that I met my future husband, Gary. In reality, we have known each other our entire lives—having grown up only 10 miles from one another. In fact, my grandmother and Gary's father actually went to school together. Gary and I started dating in 8th grade, and we got married when I was a senior in high school. We've now been married over 20 years.

I have battled my weight since around my sophomore year of high school. After I had my first child, I dropped weight like crazy and was still pretty depressed—thinking I was still fat.

Nutri System Prepared Food

Hi, I'm Cara. I'm a very busy mother of three. For several years I worked full-time as a family social worker, but left a little over a year ago to spend more time with my family. This is my weight loss story. 

When I became pregnant with my son, I gained about 50 pounds, and after he was born I went right back to my old ways of losing weight (basically by starving myself). I stayed relatively thin until my husband graduated from college and joined the Marines. Due to quitting work and having 2 small children, I gained about 15 pounds; I carried that around for years (even after the birth of our third child). I kind of figured I had screwed up my metabolism due to my choice of dieting and left it at that.  Click here to review program details

When my youngest was about 6 months old, we moved to Japan. While in Japan, my husband was deployed to the Persian Gulf for an undetermined amount of time, so I was in a foreign country, 26 hours from any family members—essentially, as a “single” mother of three. We were in Japan for about 3 years total and then moved to North Carolina. In 2003, we found out that Gary was going to Afghanistan. At that point I was working like crazy, trying to raise three kids (two of which were pretty difficult teenagers) and trying to put on a brave front for them while their Daddy was going off to war. Gary left for Afghanistan in early 2004 and, while stationed there, he found out he would likely be going to Iraq less than a year after his return home. 

Meanwhile, at home I worried about him—watching the news and cringing at the mention of a helicopter (he's a pilot)—worried about my rebellious teenager, and worried about the neglected/abused kids on my caseload as a social worker. What I didn't give any thought to was my weight. I rarely got off work before 6 p.m. and I always had a ballgame or gymnastics meet, or something to attend for my kids. We ate out almost every night. I totally felt fat. I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I felt sorry for myself. 

Gary returned home from Afghanistan that fall. During the next several months, he was here and there preparing for his Iraq deployment. I continued to feel sorry for myself and gained even more weight. In June 2005, I took my two youngest kids to an amusement park. When we got the pictures back from that trip I was mortified! I'd never been so heavy in my life, outside of being pregnant with my son.

Nutrisystem Review

I decided at that point that I had to take control of my life once and for all. I vowed that when Gary left for Iraq, I would get myself healthy—not just thin. Honestly, some of it was about losing the weight for Gary, but it was more about changing my life; I did it for me.  Click here to review program details

Gary has watched me suffer with my insecurities about my body and my unhealthy attitude towards food for years. We had talked about it a lot over the years and about how I needed to get "healthy" mentally as well as physically. It was time.

So I began researching "diet plans" and decided that I really needed an "eating plan." I researched all the major plans and felt that NutriSystem made the most sense for me. It seemed that it was more of a "life plan" than the others. I fully expected that my metabolism was likely shot (considering my history), but I just had to do this to show my kids a healthy way to live. 

I used the food for a couple of months and began to run again. I was surprised at the amount of food I could eat; I was more accustomed to eating one huge meal a day, in the evening after work. I was definitely eating more food with NutriSystem (I love the chocolates and the vegetarian choices), but I was actually making better choices on the program. I also used the online diary like crazy (and still do, actually) to make myself accountable. I used some of the bulletin boards, too—particularly the recipe board because I like cooking.

Nutri System Diet Center

I continued to drop weight for the rest of 2005 (Gary even joined me on the program that fall), and in December reached my goal of 30 lbs.* lost. I really feel like for the first time in my life I'm in control. If I add a pound or two, I eat sensibly for a few days rather than starving the pound off for the next few days.

I now wear a size 2, but the thing I'm proudest of is knowing that I didn't "starve" myself into it and that I was really in control. Most important, though, I learned that being healthy is so much more important that just being thin—and that healthy and thin CAN coexist. I feel great.

And my new healthy lifestyle is going to come in handy—Gary and I recently became proud grandparents!

Here's the bottom line. Life is about choices. You just have to choose what you want to do with your life and do it. This is a super easy program and it definitely works. Follow the program 100%—no excuses—and you'll be rewarded. I know I was. 

—Cara