Sometimes I hear from people who are a little confused about adding the fresh items from the grocery store to their Nutrisystem meals. And there may be some reluctance to even bother with sides because no one wants to work hard on the diet only to add counter-foods to what you’re trying to do to thwart your progress. I heard someone say “what am I supposed to add to my Nutrisystem meals? I don’t want to eat the wrong things.” I will answer this in the next article.

Plugins are divided into 4 categories. You can choose from any category each day: One of the real goals of the Nutrisystem is for you to eat a very balanced diet from all the food groups while eating foods that are glycemic friendly. To that end, plugins are divided into 4 categories. as follows: smart carbs; energy fuels; vegetables; and extras Ideally, you’ll choose from each group each day. This is not as difficult as it seems. You’ll get a grocery topping guide with your order and they’ll tell you how much of each category you should have. They also give tons of examples with suggested amounts.

For example, foods in the “smart carbs” category are foods like fruits, juices, whole grains, and pasta. In a real world example, you could have a medium banana or slice of oatmeal bread with your breakfast from your own stash of groceries. Or, you can add a half cup of pasta or beans at lunch. For dinner, you could have strawberries on the side.

The next category we’ll look at is “energy fuels” and these are mostly lean proteins like cheese, yogurt, nuts, peanut butter, and lean meats. A real-life option might be adding Canadian bacon for breakfast, a cup of yogurt for lunch, or some extra lean meat for dinner. Peanut butter and nuts also count in the “energy fuel” category. Now, the category of “vegetables” is reasonably self-explanatory. Unsurprisingly, there is a wide variety of vegetables on this list. In general, you are allowed a whole cup of vegetables, which is quite a lot.

The “extra” category are things like condiments (mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, salad dressings, oils) and snacks like popcorn and pumpkin seeds. Don’t confuse these snacks with the daily snacks you eat on Nutrisystem. It works like this. On this plan, you eat three main meals (breakfast, dinner, and lunch) plus sides at each meal (choosing from the categories I just talked about). In addition to these main meals with sides, you can have two snacks and have dessert. These are included in your Nutrisystem package. So remember that grocery store sides are just that. They are side dishes to eat alongside your main meals. But you also get between-meal snacks to help keep you from getting so hungry.

So to answer the question posed, the options for side items are vast, but a lot of good information is given to you with your order. Basically, you can choose a side from any of those four categories, depending on what goes well with your meal. So you can have some yogurt (energy fuels) with your breakfast bagel, some carrots (veggie) with your chicken salad lunch, and some pasta (smart carbs) with your steak at dinner. And you would still get 2 extra snacks and a dessert on top of all this.