I mentioned in a previous post that Jenny Craig had got in contact with me to see if I’d like to try a 14 day trial of their diet programme and blog about how I got on with it. Like most people, I rather over-indulged over Christmas and my knee injury has meant I haven’t been as active over the last few weeks so I jumped at the chance to try their diet and share my progress with my readers. They’ve started me off with two week’s worth of their plan so I can get a feel for how it works, and I’m so excited to get started on it tomorrow!
The programme started with a long chat with a consultant on Saturday where he asked me lots of questions about how much weight I’d like to lose, how active I was and then tailored the plan for me, also talking me through how the plan works and arranging my delivery. He even allowed me to go through and pick which meals I did and didn’t want, and there are different plans for vegetarians or people with different dietary needs. My delivery arrived today, and I was shocked at how much food there was! Here are some photos of my ‘hamper’.
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| Box of main meals, soups, sides and porridges |
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| Pasta Bolognese, potato and peas, tuna pasta salad, carrot and coriander soup |
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| Cereals, cereal and snack bars, my ringbinder, more meals and crisps |
I certainly won’t be going hungry on this diet! The ringbinder contains all sorts of information about the plan and a planned menu for each week. When I’ve started the diet I’ll talk more about the sorts of meals there are and what you can eat in a day but like other diets it balances set menus with foods that you can choose from a list such a low fat yoghurts and fruit and vegetables. You also get weekly calls from a consultant who will go through an exercise plan with you and talk about other things you’ve eaten or challenges you have (like a meal out for example) and how to overcome them. I know that some people perceive diets like these to not be sustainable (and sometimes be expensive) but the great thing about Jenny Craig is that after a period of time you can introduce normal foods back in and still maintain the consultant calls to help you make food and exercise choices. I think that after a period on the plan where you learn to eat healthily (and for me, eat less!) it would be easy to cease the Jenny Craig programme and just carry on making sensible food choices and maintain the weight loss. The full programme costs £11 a day, which some might perceive as expensive, but when you think that you only do it until you have achieved your goal and can sustain it on your own, and also that you’re not buying any of your own food I think that’s pretty reasonable.
Finally, I want to add that all Jenny Craig have done is send me the two weeks worth of the programme – they have not provided me with a sales pitch to pass on (I am just genuinely impressed with the plan!) and my review will be honest and completely objective. I’m off to weigh myself and take my measurements now, my goal is to lose 2-3 lbs over the next two weeks so I want to know at the end whether I’ve managed to achieve it!
By the way, I’ve set up comment replies now so if you have any questions or anything you want me to cover in a later review just ask!
