[missqt]

Between Jenny Craig and eating frizen dinners?

I tried JC for a week, and loved the food, but it was way to expensive. I loved the convenience of it. But with Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones out there, couldn't I just do my own modified JC plan? Portion control is an issue for me, and I think that's one good thing about the JC diet.

Any thoughts on this?

[sarahyu]

I don't want you to think nobody cares by not answering your question. I have never done Jenny Craig so take what I say as just a stranger throwing her 2 cents in:
I think it would be ok. But I do think you need to work on the reasons why you became over weight, read some books from the library about the subject. Keep an eye on the portion sizes and maybe occasionally while you are losing the weight try making a meal from scratch and work on limiting your portion sizes yourself. Because eventually you will be eating regular food again after you've lost the weight, I assume. (Then again, if it were just me eating, I'd probably rely on frozen dinners a lot just to avoid the hassle of cooking.)

You can weigh and keep tract of your measurements yourself. Micosoft has several weight management templates at:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/te...100641033.aspx

Hopefully some one with personal experience can give their opinion.
Sarah

[missqt]

Thanks for the reply. Dealing with my issues is one of the reasons that I want to do JC or WW. I feel like I need professional support.

[sarahyu]

From what I've heard (and again, let me just say that it's all 2nd hand from the 2 friends of mine who did Jenny Craig,) they don't do that good of a job with counseling, especially since you pay so much.

Personally, I found that confronting the issues that led to the weight loss was like a damn opening up. Once I stop eating for emotional reasons I didn't eat so much. I opened up a lot, started telling people when they bothered me, stopped living as if it was someone's elses job to make me happy/content. I am responsible for myself. And if DH says something that steams me, he will know about it immediately because I no longer will stuff my anger or sadness down with food. Oh, dear, I think I got back on my soapbox. I occasionally go off on a tangent

A few books I found very helpful, I didn't buy any of them, I checked them all out from the library:
Emotional eating : a practical guide to taking control and
Emotional Eating : What You Need to Know Before Starting Your Next Diet both by Edward Abramson

It's Not about Food: Change Your Mind; Change Your Life; End Your Obsession with Food and Weight by Carol Emery Normandi

Dr. Phil's Ultimate Weightloss Solution

Flip the Switch : Lose the Excuses, Lose the Weight, and Get the Body
You've Always Wanted by Jim Karas

Books by Geneen Roth are great:
When Food is Love
Breaking Free from Emotional Eating
Why Weight?: A Guide to Ending Compulsive Eating (workbook style)
When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair

I think for me the first thing I had to do was decide that I liked myself at the weight I was. That losing weight wasn't going to fix anything until I made some changes, it doesn't make you any less lonely or people love you more. Oops, I find myself jumping back on my soapbox again. Better stop, this might not even be helping you at all....

Sarah

[aphil]

Basically the Jenny Craig plan has their "entrees" that you have for your meals, but you fill out those entrees with fruits, vegetables, and skim dairy as side dishes and snacks. You aren't eating only the entrees.

So, if you wanted to eat the frozen diet meals, then you need to be sure that you are eating 2 fruits per day, and 2-3 servings of veggies, and 2 servings of skim milk or fat free yogurt as well during the day, to get you to around 1200-1500 calories per day average.

Some of the frozen dinners are pretty high in sodium-Healthy Choice seems to be the lowest in sodium-more so than Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine, so if you plan to consume them daily, then keep that in mind.

The JC (and Nutrisystem and other plans where you eat their food) breakfast entrees are usually a serving of oatmeal, a portion controlled serving of cereal (which you could do by simply measuring out a serving of bran flakes or something decent yourself rather than pouring it straight from the box to your bowl) or something else similar.

The fruits, veggies, and dairy are usually divided up with your meals-you could have a veggie with your lunch and dinner entrees, a fruit with breakfast and another one with a snack. You do want to include these additions though, if you plan on doing this "non JC Food JC"way of eating.

[missqt]

Thanks!