Whenever I learn a tip or trick about making the Jenny Craig Program more personalized, successful and less expensive, I’ll share it with you here on this blog.

I’ve never been in an “organized” diet program before.  I’ve always tried it “on my own”.  Today marks the end of the third week.  A total of 21 days on the program and I’ve lost 8.25 lbs on the program.  Yay me!  I’m very happy so far with the results.  Not so happy about the amount of money that I’m spending on food, but…it is worth the price.

The link to all the tips and tricks I list will always be above, just below the header of this blog.  Look for “Jenny Craig Tips and Tricks under the “Diet and Fitness Drama” menu.  Whenever I add a tip, I’ll post it here on the main blog page and it will always be available as a category under the   “Diet and Fitness Drama” menu.

Here’s the first batch of tips:

Don’t buy the Jenny Craig Cereal  The Jenny Craig cereal is tasty and convenient, but on a cost per serving basis, it is VERY expensive.  It is much cheaper to buy your own.  I bought four different kinds that are low sugar, all natural, all organic and I made sure they all had long shelf lives.

When the Jenny Craig menu calls for “cereal” I just pull out one of the boxes, letting my taste buds be my guide as to which one and then I carefully measure out half a cup of cereal.  Easy.  Cheap.  To help them stay fresh and tasty, I bought some plastic airtight cereal containers and transferred the cereal into those..  I wrote the name and expiration date of the cereal on a post-it note and taped it to the side of the container.

Wear the same clothes each week to the Jenny Craig store when you go for your food and your weigh-in.  At the end of week 3, I wore my work clothes.  On my first and second weeks, I wore “work out clothes”.  I discovered to my horror how much those work clothes weigh!!!!

According to Jenny Craig I gained weight 3/4 of a lb, but, according to my home scales I lost weight, 2.75 lbs.   Eeek!  Who knew that my clothes weigh almost four pounds!!!   For me, wearing the same clothes to the Jenny Craig Center, means taking a change of clothes with me to work on my “weigh-in day” but to ensure that I’m getting accurate weight measurement, it is worth it.
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Don’t buy the Jenny Craig Soups or Soupitizers.  It is cheaper to buy your own at the supermarket.  Be sure to pick up some plastic storage containers at the start of your program because most cans of soup are multi-serving sizes.  You’ll have extra left over that you’ll need to put in the frig.

Also, be sure to go for the broth based soups and go for low salt and organic as well.  Avoid the ones that are “cream of…anything “.  The cream based soups are higher calorie and don’t match up well with the nutritional and calorie levels of the ones you get from Jenny Craig.
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Buy only a few of the “individual dressing packets”  Jenny Craig has only two regular varieties: “Ranch” and “Balsamic Vinegar” and occasionally has some other ones.  You can get lots more variety for a cheaper “per serving” cost by buying your own bottles.  I went to Walmart and picked up some very tiny condiment sized plastic storage containers.

So when I pack my lunch each day, I pour 1 oz of dressing into the container and then toss it into my lunch bag.  I do have a few of the Jenny Craig Packets in the pantry for days when I’m in a BIG hurry in the morning or for when I’m going out to lunch or dinner and want to make sure that I have a “lite” option with me.  Usually I don’t have to use it in those cases but it is there as a backup..
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Don’t buy the Jenny Craig “Salad Kits”.  You can get the same thing at half the price at just about any grocery store.  Check on the “canned meats” aisle.  They come in a variety of meats: chicken, ham, and tuna are the ones that  I’ve seen.  And usually you can find different brands with different spices.

Be sure to look at the labels and avoid the ones that add lots of sugar or mayo and thus up the calorie count.  I use the Bumble Bee Sensations line a lot.  They come in three flavors: Lemon & Pepper, Sundried Tomato & Basil, and Spicy Thai Chili.

I hope that these tips and tricks help folks out there who are on the Jenny Craig program.  🙂

See ya on the dance floor!