Jenny Craig: The Beginning

If you follow me regularly you will know I struggle with my weight due to a few issues; Hashimoto's Disease, not eating enough, eating the wrong things, sitting on my backside and doing little to no exercise.

So that's it in a nutshell.  The Hashimoto's disease (low thyroid) has been creeping up on me for years.  I've always had a low thyroid level but when it finally was diagnosed as Hashimoto's I had put on around 30kgs!!!  The weight gain was rapid and awful and I felt really depressed and closed off from pretty much everyone.  I hate being the size I am but I am also lazy and don't help myself.

I decided to diet / eat healthily last year and it was going really well - 14kgs lost in around 10 weeks - but then life got in the way with some personal issues and my thyroid playing up and I pretty much started eating crap and put the weight back on.

Being a lifestyle blogger, I feel uncomfortable and like don't fit in when I am at PR events and out in public and even when I film on my channel.  I come across as a very confident person but underneath, I feel uncomfortable and FAT.

So, that being said, I decided to take charge of things this year and join a Jenny Craig program and sort myself out. 

I had my first consultation at Jenny Craig Moonee Ponds last Tuesday and it was a great experience.  I met with Tammy, who was lovely.  She talked me through the program and what to expect, talked about the food, weight loss and the support I would get from Jenny Craig.  I weighed in - NO, I am not prepared to tell you what I weigh at this stage - and Tammy took my measurements.

So that's what I look like at the moment.  I am 5ft 7" and size 20-22 in clothes.  I do tend to wear bigger than I need currently so I can hide what lurks underneath.  Realistically I am an 18-20 but for the time being I am not comfortable wearing my actual size.

Anyway, back to Tammy...

Tammy talked me through the menu and I was able to replace a couple of the meals that I didn't like with food that I did like. I guess not everybody is going to like every single menu item.  It was great to know that the menu is flexible.

So this is the beginning of my weight loss journey and through the weeks I am going to be posting weight loss updates on my YouTube channel (so please subscribe :-)), and also blog posts on my progress.  I'll be talking about the food, my experience with my consultant and my overall thoughts on losing weight and Jenny Craig.

So I thought I would start with a few photos of some of the meals I ate last week...

Beef pie and salad - this was really nice.  

This is a cup of fat free yoghurt and I cut up my Kiwifruit and had it mixed in.  I've been doing this pretty much every time I have a yoghurt and Kiwifruit day on the menu and I really enjoy the two together.

The Chicken Fettuccine is delicious and I changed up the vegetables to broccoli and cauliflower.  You are able to do this if there is a vegetable that you don't eat.  At the back of the Jenny Craig booklet you get, it tells you what other options you have.  This is really great if you don't like certain vegetables or fruits.  You can simply find something in the right category and swap it!

Beef and Ale Stew is one of my favourite dishes so far.  Totally delicious and I had a salad with a small portion of ham as an accompaniment.

Pulled Pork Quesadilla and a salad for lunch.

If you think you will be hungry on the Jenny Craig program, think again.  For me personally, I am struggling to eat all the food.  Before I started Jenny Craig I would have have breakfast of coffee and toast, generally no lunch, pick at things during the afternoon and then load up my plate for dinner.

Now I am eating six smaller regular meals and more often than not I feel too full so I have to get into the habit of eating these regular small portions rather than one enormous meal just before I go to bed.

That's a little look at some of the food I ate last week.  

I went into Jenny Craig this Wednesday to meet my permanent consultant Nita and weigh in.  Nita is lovely and took me through what happens on the second week.  The menu is different and this week we learn how to cope with eating out whilst on the program.  

I also had my weigh in and I've lost:

I am super happy with the loss this week.  This works out to be 6.17lbs. 

That's it for this week.  I'll be back with an update in the next few days.

Enjoy,

Dixie Girlxox