Jenny Craig Cheesy Enchilada

Starting Weight (according to my home scale) – 127.2
Starting Mood – still sleepy and a little shook up from the earthquake at 4am

Here’s the planned menu for today – 1,055 calories*:

Breakfast:
3/4 c Special K with Red Berries – 90 cal
1 c skim milk – 90 cal
handful of fresh blueberries – 20 cal

Lunch:
Jenny Craig Cheesy Enchilada – 260 cal
Salad with 1 tbsp dressing – 35 cal

Snacks:
Yoplait Light Fat-Free Strawberry – 100 cal
1 fruit serving – 70 cal
Jenny Craig Bruschetta Veggie Chips – 100 cal
1 serving Trader Joe’s Oriental Rice Crackers – 110 cal
1 Dreyer’s Strawberry Fruit Bar – 80 cal

Dinner:
Jenny Craig Pasta Fagioli – 210 cal
1/2 fresh strawberries – 25 cal
1 slice of toast – 80 cal
2 slices of swiss cheese – 160 cal

Items highlighted are what I actually ate and the ones crossed out didn’t make it to my plate.  Anything extra that weren’t planned are noted below and highlighted red.

Tonight I just couldn’t do it – I feel like I’ve been eating too much pastas lately and the thought of another pasta dish when I have a pizza on the menu for lunch tomorrow was a little too much for me.

Instead, I scrounged around my kitchen for something to eat.  Which was next to nothing since I’ve been eating Jenny food or out for the past couple of weeks.  According to Jenny Craig’s meal exchange, I should be eating 4 Meat, 2 Starch, 1 Vegetable and 1 Fat.

I figured the bread was my Starch and cheeses count as Meat.  I didn’t have any Vegetables and substituted in some sweet fruit instead.  Any since my toast wasn’t buttered I didn’t consume any additional Fat during dinner.

I know it’s unconventional, but I just didn’t want another pasta dish tonight.

Actual calories consumed – 1,040

* calories estimated from CalorieKing.com

Jenny Craig Rising Crust Pizza “voluminzed” with mushrooms

Starting Weight (according to my home scale) – 127.4
Starting Mood – very sleepy due to the time change (yuck)

Here’s the planned menu for today – 1,095 calories*:

Breakfast:
1 slice of broccoli and cheese egg white quiche – 230 cal

Lunch:
Jenny Craig Zesty Tortellini Soup – 220 cal
Salad with 1 tbsp dressing – 35 cal

Snacks:
1 stick of low-fat string cheese – 60 cal
1 small red plum – 30 cal
1 small white peach – 30 cal
Jenny Craig Bruschetta Veggie Chips – 100 cal
1 South Beach Living Breakfast Bar, Chocolate – 140 cal

Dinner:
Jenny Craig Rising Crust Pizza – 280 cal
- add mushrooms

Items highlighted are what I actually ate and the ones crossed out didn’t make it to my plate.  Anything extra that weren’t planned are noted below and highlighted red.

Last week I had a Jenny Craig S’mores Snack Bar that really hit the spot, even though I don’t usually have a sweet tooth.  But at $1.99 a pop, it’s too expensive for me.

So today at my weigh-in at the centre, I asked my consultant if I could substitute it for a granola bar.  It turns out, making substitutes isn’t as easy as you think.

Jenny’s planned menus are somewhat of a science, making sure you have enough nutrients, proteins, fats and starches in your body eat day.  If I wanted to substitute my snack bar with a more affordable option, I needed to make sure what I purchased was similar in calories, fat and protein.

It turns out that your basic Quaker Chewy granola bars (what I was originally going to get) has very little protein (1g) compared to the Jenny bars (around 4-5g).  After reading the labels, the most comparable I could find was with South Beach Living’s breakfast cereal bars at 140 calories (same), 5g of fat (slightly higher), and 8g of protein (much higher!).

Now when I want a sweet treat, I can have one at a fraction of the price that will keep me fuller, longer. 

Actual calories consumed – 990 cal

* calories estimated from CalorieKing.com

Today was my second weigh-in at my local Jenny Craig centre and it looks like I’m down another 1.2 lbs, making the grand total (according to their scale) 4.8 lbs for two weeks, not bad!

As with last week, we discussed challenges, not getting in enough physical activity and going off plan a couple of days, and successes, being able to recognize portions and listening to signals telling me when I was full while we were sampling foods at the Expo last Friday.

Then we discussed challenges for this week.

First, I’m eating vegetarian this week, as I have been one week a month for the past year or so.  My consultant and I decided to work off a personalized menu since all their planned menus have a combination of meat and meatless items.

Secondly, I’m going up to San Francisco this weekend to see the Boyfriend, which means eating out or cooking in.  However I’m committed to following the plan until I reach my halfway goal as much as I can so I told her I wanted to bring travel-friendly meals with me, at least one lunch and one dinner for one of the two days that I’ll be up there.

Well kids, the choices for vegetarian are abysmal.  And the travel-friendly choices for non-meat eaters are even worse.  I believe there were only a handful of items (literally) and all of them were either sold out or discontinued.  The only option I had for lunch was the Zesty Tortellini Soup (which doesn’t show up on their menu as vegetarian, probably because of the cheese).

They had two travel options for dinner – Cheese Ravioli and Pasta Fagiole.  C’mon people, can we do better than pastas and cheese?  Which was funny because that was my one complaint during the week was that it seemed like I was eating a lot of pasta.  And while I liked what I was eating so far, I was already craving something new.

For the rest of the week, the frozen options were still limited so I ended up working in a meal on my own (MOMO) for one of the lunch days.  Jenny, if you’re listening out there, you’ll need to do better than this if you want to attract more clients, many of which are vegetarian and vegan nowadays (esp in California!).

Total weight loss to date (JC scale) – 4.8 lbs
Total weight loss to date (my scale) - 3.0 lbs

Jenny Craig Penne Pasta with Steamed Asparagus

Starting Weight (according to my home scale) – 127.2
Starting Mood – adjusting to the time change

Here’s the planned menu for today – 1,055 calories*:

Breakfast:
1 fried egg – 80 cal
2 slices of sourdough toast – 160 cal
1 small banana – 70 cal

Lunch:

Jenny Craig Cheesy Enchilada – 260 cal
Salad with 1 tbsp dressing – 35 cal
2 pieces of bruschetta
spinach dip with bread and celery
2 mini pizza pieces
handful of tortilla chips with nacho cheese
2 glasses of shiraz

Snacks:
Yoplait Light Fat-Free Blueberry – 100 cal
a couple of pieces of a white peach – 30 cal

Dinner:
Jenny Craig Penne Pasta – 280 cal
a side of steamed asparagus (free foods)

Items highlighted are what I actually ate and the ones crossed out didn’t make it to my plate.  Anything extra that weren’t planned are noted below and highlighted red.

Today was my friend’s son’s first birthday party!  I meant to eat lunch before heading over to the festivities but the time change threw me off my clock, literally.

We had light snacks at the party, some bruschetta that I made (which meant healthier!), spinach dip with bread and veggies, chips and salsa or nacho cheese, Korean BBQ (too bad I’m vegetarian this week) and cupcakes (which I stayed away from).

I ate in moderation and still had fun.  Check out my princess crown that the balloon guy made for me!

Actual calories consumed – ???

* calories estimated from CalorieKing.com