What 30 Days on Jenny Craig Taught Me About Losing Weight

Thank you Jenny Craig for sponsoring this post. — Get serious about losing weight with Jenny Craig!

A few weeks ago I decided to lose weight without dieting by changing my life. I jumpstarted this change with the help of Jenny Craig.

I am thankful for the month I participated in the Jenny Craig program as it opened my eyes to a couple of things about being healthy.

Jenny Craig members can expect to lose an average of 1-2 pounds per week, which is a healthy range of weight loss. However, I should warn this post won’t necessarily be about weight loss, though I did lose weight over the last month-and-a-half.

No, instead this post is about learning to be healthy and what that means for me, and possibly what it can mean for you as well.

Two Things I Learned About Losing Weight from Jenny Craig & Review of Program

1. You Need a Partner

I learned, or rather remembered, that no journey is worthwhile without a partner.

One of the greatest Jenny Craig members is the weekly one-on-one consultation calls  (if you live in an area where there is a Jenny Craig center, you can meet with them in person). They talk to you about your progress on your road to better health.Sometimes the calls seemed canned – by this I mean it felt like they had a script they loosely followed in order to inquire about my progress, encourage me that I can do this, and remind me why I started the journey in the first place.

To be honest, this worked for me for the most part.

I am typically a person who likes to know what to expect, so having the canned conversation starters was not only comfortable, but it was useful.

Because of these consultation conversations, I found myself talking to God about similar things in my prayers. Going forward, I want these conversations not only in prayer, but with myself and my wife as well.

I think keeping a health journal, or exploring my thoughts regularly as a contributor on this site would benefit me.

2. You Need a Plan

Having a plan and sticking to it means enjoying your life more.

I think we tend to view freedom as free, but as history has long taught, nothing is free, and the same is true at the dinner table.

I once ate as much as I wanted, when I wanted it, of whatever I wanted to eat. I was “free” in the same the way that people who do not understand consequences are free for a time. But as is the design of life, the consequences always catch up to us; there is always a price to be paid for freedom.

With Jenny Craig, I learned to love the foods I love, but in a responsible way. They even got me to try new foods which maybe scare me a bit – I’m talking about you fish!The food they supply comes prepackaged. I know this isn’t the paragon of health, but it taught me something very valuable about portion control, and the feeling of being full and being hungry. It taught me to balance of the foods I love with foods that truly nourish my body and soul, allowing me to enjoy them together. This is an invaluable lesson I needed for years.

From here, it will be up to me to see where this weight loss and health journey goes. I know the next step is getting more people on board this bus as I go.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.