These are some of the things I've eaten during my second week on the Jenny Craig diet food delivery service. For me the standout meal was definitely the thick vegetable & green lentil dahl. It was packed with flavour & really filled me up. I added a steam bag of sweet potato & butternut squash to my meal and they went so well together. I find that I often pick vegetarian items even though I do eat meat, vegetables seem to satisfy my hunger pangs a lot more. Thats one of the things that I've liked the most about Jenny Craig. Theres a strong emphasis on filling up with vegetables & fruit rather than on carbs which is what I tended to do in the past. I did end up cheating a little bit because there was cake & ice cream in the house which was far too tempting. Despite my sweet treats I managed to lose another pound this week bringing my total weight loss to 3lbs in two weeks. I think thats really brilliant & it shows how much its possible to lose if you have a good diet structure in place.
From doing this two week trial I feel that I've learned a lot about the Jenny Craig style of dieting & nutrition in general. I understand the concept of volumetrics & that its possible to fill yourself up with healthy things if you eat a large amount of them. I try not to deny myself if I do fancy some chocolate or cake but I do limit the amount so that it won't have a counteractive effect on the rest of the healthy food I'm eating. My consultant Anna has been really helpful in getting me to understand the eating patterns that I fall into. She has provided me with explanations & answers as to how I can live my life whilst losing weight. One of the main problems I had was with portion size. I often had the same amount of food for dinner as my boyfriend, who is one of those annoying people who goes to several fast food restaurants in one day and still doesn't gain weight. By having a smaller portion for the 'main' part of the meal and filling the rest of my plate with veggies, I feel fuller despite having eaten less calories.
Jenny Craig is a great programme to follow because it gives you that exact balance of food without any effort. Its been really nice to not have to think about what I'm going to eat each day because its all already prepared & written down for me. I would prefer to be able to eat exactly what I fancy each day but this diet takes out the guess work and stops you from having to worry about how many calories are in everything you eat. The convenience of having your food delivered is brilliant for people like me who don't have a car & its saved me from taking a million trips to the supermarket every week. Once you've stocked up on fruit, veggies & low-fat yoghurts, you're pretty much good to go. The phone calls with my consultant each week are a great way to reflect on the things you've eaten over the past week & get motivated for the next week. They can help you plan for meals out & teach you how to manage your diet once you've reached your goal weight. Its good to hear an educated insight into nutrition & I have found these to be a brilliant help each week.
I've had a few days off the diet now and I've found that its already helped to instill some good eating habits in me. I've been having porridge, yoghurt & fruit for breakfast and I find that this fills me up a lot more than the pieces of toast I used to go for. I've also added tons more fruit & veg into my diet which has really increased my energy levels. I've really enjoyed following the programme so I was thrilled when I was contacted to see if I wanted to carry on with the diet. So hopefully I'll be receiving another hamper of food soon. Jenny Craig has really helped me with some of my diet demons so I'm glad to have found a diet programme that agrees with my lifestyle & eating habits. I'm looking forward to see how much more weight I can lose & if I can get to my lowest weight ever.
I didn't realise you were doing it too, exciting to know of another Jenny Craiger! I've been doing it about a month now and have lost 6lbs which I'm really pleased with. This is such a good review, loved all the photos and that's such a good idea to use those steamed veg packets, definitely going to be trying that! I know exactly what you mean about it teaching you new things, I am exactly the same in that I have a boyfriend who is stick thin and yet basically eats from morning until night and yet I used to serve us up the same portion sizes and never think about filling my plate with veggies. I feel so much healthier through doing it too. Exciting that you're going to carry on with it! :) xxx
ReplyDeleteThe breakfast actually looks quite nice! These sort of diets have always put me off as I thought the food was a bit processedy but I've been pleasantly surprised by the meals I've seen from you and Sarah
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Well done on the weight loss so far, that's fab! The food actually looks quite nice compared to other diet food! When I was doing the ketogenic diet last year and I was craving something sweet, I used to eat sugar free jelly. It only has about 10 calories per pot and basically no carbs :) xxx
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