Started Jenny Craig

What is the Jenny Craig diet?

I just started Jenny Craig. I decided I can’t seem to get this weight loss thing done on my own so I figured Jenny could help me. My first day was yesterday and the food arrived on Tuesday. I also had my first consultation phone call Tuesday evening. Here are my thoughts so far.

Signing up for Jenny Craig.

The website has a call me back right now feature so you enter your contact information and you get a call back right away while someone connects you with another someone who will actually be signing you up. What I found a bit annoying is person 1 either did not send or did not have the ability to send person 2 my contact information so I had to provide it multiple times. I also didn’t like having to spell everything over the phone. It would have been much easier to fill out a contact details form online and then have the representative be able to access that info during the call.

I was able to select my food over the phone by looking at their menu and picking based on the photos. It was basically me listing off the names of the foods that looked appealing as I moved down the list. Again this might have been automated better but whatever. They had a promotion of 30 days free just pay the cost of food, and then you can renew with whatever plan is available at that time. I paid over the phone and a month’s worth of food came to just under $600. This includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack per day.

Welcome phone consultation.

On Tuesday a huge box was waiting for me when I got home. Some of the items I ordered could be kept in the pantry so they were in a separate box and below that box was a large cooler with all the frozen items. The boxes are about the same size, maybe a bit smaller than the lean cuisine boxes I’ve been eating. The mailing also contained a welcome packet with a booklet and a week 1 menu.

When I got the call from my consultation person I expected a lot of information and step by step details. The call lasted maybe 20 minutes. She basically gave me a brief overview and told me to put together my week 1 menu right away and then check off things as I eat them or make notes of what I changed during the course of that week. She told me to add vegetables and salad with lunch and dinner and a fruit and milk product with breakfast. She also said eat another milk product as a mid-morning snack, a fruit as a mid-afternoon snack and then a dessert as a mid-evening snack. Basically they are having me eat every 2.5-3 hours to keep my metabolism high.

I asked about off days when I know I have book club or lunch plans with a friend and she said I can either eat before I go and just go for the social aspect and not eat during the event, or I can eat mostly vegetables or salad and have a small serving of meat and starch. That was kind of an expected answer – don’t eat good stuff when you go out. Guess I have to bring vegetables as my book club potlucks. No more pasta salads or casseroles lol.

Then she sent me an email with some links and her contact information if I have any questions during the week until my next consultation the following Tuesday. I expected a lot more hand-holding and I actually expected them to help me make my week 1 menu to get me to understand what I was to do. I kinda felt overwhelmed at first. Especially since their menu has blanks where you can put in what food item you are eating, and then the other additives are written in for you. It wanted me to eat a salad with my lunch, but I don’t want to have to carry salad makings with me to work so I switched it to having a salad with my dinner like I have been doing and then just eating vegetables with my lunch.

That overwhelmed me a bit at first because being Tuesday and not a weekend I didn’t have the time to go grocery shopping. So I found some canned vegetables and canned fruit in my pantry and I plan to eat those until the weekend comes when I can go to the store. I also am allowed extras in the form of unlimited items such as vegetables and sugar-free drinks and sweets and limited items (up to 3) of fruits, condiments, hard candy, etc.

Jenny Craig menu week 1

Day 1. Breakfast was crazy for me because I’m not used to eating much in the morning. And it didn’t help that I had to get up an hour earlier for a meeting at work that was earlier than I usually get there. So I was eating breakfast much earlier than I’m used to, and I ate so much more than I am used to. I had one of their sunrise sandwiches, a cup of milk, and some canned fruit. I was so full. I couldn’t take a deep breath. And I skipped my mid-morning snack because I just couldn’t bear to eat anything until lunchtime. The rest of the day went better. The lunch meal I ate was Swedish meatballs with some canned vegetables. I also had some jolly ranchers cause the food left a weird taste in my mouth. Then I had an apple for a mid-afternoon snack like I always do. Then for dinner, I had the cheese ravioli meal and a salad. For the last snack, I had their cookie. The cookie’s taste was kind of disappointing but still, a cookie is a cookie and it had chocolate. I did have a headache by the end of the day and had to take some medication. I think it is from the food changes, and I’m sure they put something in their food to keep you full from the smaller portions.

Day 2. When I weighed myself this morning I had lost 2 pounds! It is kinda strange that I lost 2 pounds in one day, especially when I didn’t feel hungry during the day. But if this is what I can expect I’m all in. Today went better with breakfast and other foods. I didn’t have such a hard time eating as much during my normal breakfast time, and I found that eating yogurt was less filling than drinking milk. It was weird to eat two yogurts today though (the second yogurt was my mid-morning milk product snack). I’m allowed to substitute string cheese for the milk product so I’m excited to buy some this weekend. Yay string cheese! I haven’t had my dinner yet and I don’t know if I’ll end up with a headache by the end of the day today but so far I haven’t felt super hungry, just normal hungry when it was time to eat again, and hopefully, I can stick with it this month and see what results I get.

Next, you can read about my entire experience with my Jenny Craig weight loss journey and you can read my other post sharing Jenny Craig alternatives.