JC – Diet Reflections

My lap dog!!

Last night I received an email from Jenny Craig congratulating me on making it through the first week and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride. That being said, I wanted to share some insight; I shared my earlier challenges already, these are my tips and tricks. These are in no particular order, just things as they come to my mind.

Using the Microwave: If you have to microwave your frozen food be sure to account for whether it is still frozen when you put it in. What I mean is, if you put it in a lunch bag and throw it in the fridge for some 3 – 5 hours the odds are it will be thawed. That means the settings on the box will be too high, you’ll want to drop them, sometimes significantly. Can’t believe this took me a week to figure out… :(

Support System: This is paramount, if you live by yourself find a way to hold yourself accountable. If you have a partner invite them to be part of the process; there is no worst feeling than letting your spouse down. Even your kids are great support systems. My wife told them I’m on a diet and when I harass them for a bite of their cookies or ice cream they turn me down – they’re only 4 and 2 years old. If you can’t hold yourself accountable, then I guarantee you they will if they care.

Establish a Routine: This has been key for me, everyone is different, but it might work for you too. In the mornings I get my lunch box, start with the frozen foods, move on to the produce, then get all the accessories; lastly I grab my water bottle and fill her up with some ice and water. When that is done I move on to my first mean – breakfast. If you know you’re not going to do it in the morning, then do it at night; don’t allow excuses to present themselves as an option as to why you didn’t succeed.

Mental State: Look, it’s going to be hard the first week. Your have eating habits that been defined over years of practice – as was the case with me. You have to be mentally prepared for this obstacle; people are going to eat in front of you those things that you crave, it’s inevitable; you’re going to have little cousins that joke about fast foods and poke at your titties (guy or girl); you are going to go to be hungry at times and wake starving, but that’s all ok if you’re mentally ready. I have been down this road several times, well, not really several, but enough times to tell you that it’s been this that as always kept me from making it past the first week. Once the first couple of weeks are over, you’ll be ok, you’ll be acclimated, and most importantly you’ll feel great… hopefully..:D

Communicate: Surprisingly enough, one of the things that has also helped me is writing about my experience – like this post for instance. Preparing this, reflecting on the experience and sharing it out with the world has a profound impact on me as an individual. I find that it helps express those things that you might be holding back and will eventually creep up and hold you back.

Finding the Right Program: I am not a spokesperson for Jenny Craig by any means, but I really enjoy their program. That’s what it is all about folks, you have to find the right program for YOU. Some people can do the no carb diets, or the south beach diet, or the nutri-systems of the world, or any of the various diet combination’s available in the market, just find something that works for you.

I like Jenny, or JC as I call it, because of the variety of foods, and more importantly the tastiness. Most of the food is stuff you’d by at the grocery store in the frozen food section, there is the addition of produce and vegetables ofcourse, but was a winner for me were their frozen desserts – like chocolate chip cheesecake and chocolate and vanilla cakes. I have an obvious sweet tooth so finding out that I could eat sweets was a phenomenal find for me. It doesn’t hurt that I don’t have to settle for dehydrates foods all the time and their frozen selections are pretty bomb-diggity, both in taste and variety.

Ok folks, that’s all I got for now, but I assure you I’ll be back with some more goodness in the coming days so stay tuned.