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!

A Day in the Life of Jenny Craig - Vegetarian #1

A lot of people have been saying that the thing they'd like to know most about the Jenny Craig diet is whether or not the food tastes nice, so I thought I'd do a couple of posts sharing what I'd eat on a typical day and let you know what I think of some of the dishes.



Here's my food for today. I've got Jenny Craig packaged food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I then have 3 other snacks throughout the day which I've chosen as a pear, a yoghurt and one of the Jenny Craig cereal bars. It doesn't look like much on it's own, but lunch is bulked up with at least 1 cup of salad, and dinner is bulked up with at least 1 cup of veg. Lunch and dinner both have additional nutrients that I need to add (eg 1 protein, 1 starch or 1 fat).

TODAYS MENU

Breakfast:
Chocolate coated wheat flakes
1/2 cup of milk, 1 banana.

Snack: 1 low fat yoghurt

Lunch:
Noodles in sweet & sour sauce
Salad, min 1 cup
Add 2 protein (I chose 1 slice of quorn bacon & 1/4 cup cheese for my salad)
* Also used 1 "limited" portion which was 1tsp of chilli sauce in my salad

Snack: 1/2 cup milk, 1 pear

Dinner:
Thai vegetable curry with rice
Add 1 protein (I chose my 1 left over slice of quorn bacon)
Cooked veg, min 1 cup (random mix of my favourites!)

Snack - Jenny Craig cereal bar.





So far the food has mostly been good. I'd say that I don't get that excited over the dinner meals to be honest. None of those have really wow-ed me. I had pearl barley and asparagus risotto for dinner last night and couldn't eat it because it tasted quite meaty, even though there was no meat in it. I know that's a bit of an odd description but it just didn't taste right and was a bit mushy and bland. Apart from that (and a mushroom stroganoff - but I don't like stroganoff anyway), I've enjoyed everything I've ate so far. I enjoy having my veg as a 'starter' and then having my dinner separately as a 'main' course!

I really love the lunches in particular - the soups are brilliant (and filling!) and there's a little pot of mashed potato with croutons and rosemary that is so stodgy and satisfying and feels like such a treat! The pasta pots do taste a bit pre-packed but are still nice. The sweet and sour noodles I had today had an amazing chilli kick to them and were packed full of flavour!

I feel like I'm eating constantly, and I'm definitely eating more often than before however I've noticed that I do get hungry at meal times whereas before the diet I was snacking, on unhealthy foods, so often that I wasn't hungry at mealtime. I definitely think this is something to do with correct portion sizes. I've been getting really bad chocolate/sugar cravings at night because that's when I'd usually sit down and snack, so I've decided to swap my after lunch snack (chocolate biscuit, cereal bar or potato bites/crisps) with my after dinner snack (fruit or a yoghurt) which has really helped.

I've stuck to the diet religiously and I haven't eaten anything from the "limited" foods (I can eat up to 3 portions of these a day if I want) apart from 1tsp of chilli sauce in my salads so I'm crossing my fingers for a loss when I weigh myself on Sunday!

If you have any questions, or anything you'd like me to cover in a post let me know!

The Jenny Craig programme explained

I think one of the things I struggle with the most when sticking to a diet is the fact that it's not me who decides what we eat at home and it's not me who does the food shopping either, so I don't have complete control over what I eat and how healthy (or not) it is. Being on a diet plan is something I've thought about for a while. I think it would make me feel more in control of what I was eating, which would be a big help.

When Jenny Craig contacted me asking if I would like to try their programme for a month I said yes! Jenny Craig was founded in 1983 and upon doing my research I've found a lot of positive weightloss stories. They don't just send you the food required for the diet but they guide, support and motivate you throughout the programme in the form of weekly phone call consultations with your own personal consultant.

Sounds good so far, right? Not only that but their food looks tasty (see some of their dishes for yourself here) and they even have menus to cater for vegetarian, vegan and kosher diets. I must admit, I'm a bit sceptical about how such 'normal' dishes (pasta, cheese, and there's even chocolate) opposed to 'rabbit food' will help me lose weight but a chat with the Jenny Craig team has taught me about portion sizes and the amount of faith they have in the programme has almost reassured me that it will work for me!





I received my delivery of food for the month this morning and my first thought was that everything looked quite clinical and ready meal like but on closer inspection I do actually like the sound of the meals. Each morning I start off with a cereal or porridge, followed by a snack (eg. fruit or yoghurt), lunch is a selection of yummy sounding soups or noodle dishes. I then get yet another snack which I can pick from potato bites (crisps!), chocolate biscuit bars or a cereal bar. Dinner comes next and there are 7 different meals available including pastas, thai curry and risotto and I get another snack (again, fruit or yoghurt are recommended) before bed. All of the food can either be microwaved or cooked on the hob and is really quick to make.

It seems like such a lot of food but the portions look smaller than what I'm used to so I'm feeling positive so far. I've just ate lunch (pot of noodles [which turned out to be pasta!] in a cream sauce with salad) and has filled me right up! The good news is that non-starchy vegetables (brocolli, courgette, salad and my favourite.. mushrooms!) are all free foods which I can add to my meals to bulk them up.



I didn't get a clear photo of my whole menu, but here's a snippet of what this weeks menu looks like. As you can see there are extra foods to add on to lunch and dinner which are simply labelled as '1 protein, 1 fat' which gives you some freedom to pick and choose. The shopping list of things I need to buy is minimal, only including items like salad, fresh fruit and veg, yoghurts, cheese (yes, really!) and bread.

So... here goes! Wish me luck! I'm hoping to lose a healthy 1-2lbs per week and kickstart my weightloss for 2012! I plan on doing a few more posts on my progress throughout the month - please let me know if there's anything in particular you want to know!

* Jenny Craig has provided me with a free 1 month trial however all opinions about my experience with the programme are my own and are completely honest.