my thoughts on jenny craig

It's been just over a month since I finished my 1 month trial of the Jenny Craig diet programme. I posted about it previously (you can read the posts here) but basically, I got sent 1 month worth of Jenny Craig food to trial - including all breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks in the hopes to lose some weight.

I have a bit of a mixed opinion of the diet plan, lots of positives, but a few negatives too.

At first, I was loving the food. Most of the meals were really nice, particularly the lunches which included soups and little pots of mashed potato - total comfort food! The dinners weren't so good though, and probably the one thing that I didn't like about the diet was the fact that for the full month I trialed it, I only had a selection of 7 different main meals. This meant that I was eating the same foods every week. It quickly got boring and I found myself dreading dinner, hating the taste of foods that I once liked because I was sick of eating the same thing. I am vegetarian though, and a few other bloggers who have sampled the diet seemed to get a larger selection of meals - one getting a different main meal every day of their 2 week trial so maybe it's only the vegetarian options which are limited.

I did learn some great eating habits though. Jenny Craig made me realise that I definitely wasn't eating enough (any?) fruit and having to bulk my meals up with fresh veg made me fall in love with vegetables again. There's nothing better than a big bowl of your favourite vegetables, mmm.

Eating 3 meals per day, and snacks in-between, kept me from snacking on unhealthy foods, just as long as I had the healthy snacks that I was allowed by my side. I found that some days I wasn't actually needing to eat my snacks either because I just wasn't hungry. I learned that portion control was my main problem, and the portions from Jenny Craig were smaller than those I'd usually cook myself although they still filled me up.

I lost 6lbs in total over the month. For the girl who finds it extremely difficult to lose weight, even with a healthy diet, this was a great result. I lost a total of 4 inches across my body too and I felt a lot healthier, if that makes sense, and not bloated either.

I left it so long to post this review because I wanted to see how my new found eating habits would survive after the Jenny Craig food ran out. Although I haven't strictly been sticking to the meal pattern (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack) I've lost a further 2lbs and continue to eat lots of fresh fruit and veg. Although I found the meals boring after a while, I did find it much easier sticking to a healthy diet when I had the task of picking what to eat done for me.

Overall I did enjoy most of my experience with the Jenny Craig trial, I just wish there were more choices for vegetarian food. If you're interested in trying out Jenny Craig they currently have a special offer on where you can get a 50% discount on a two week programme, which works out at just £38.50 a week/£5.50 a day for all your food and consultations which is an absolute bargain as I spend that on lunch alone some days!