Centre: Pakuranga, NZ
Weight loss: 36kg
What was your journey?
At the beginning of this year, I was lying on the couch and one of the Jenny Craig Success Story ads actually popped up on the TV and I think it was seeing the person whose success story it was and seeing their before and after and I thought that was exactly me, that’s the way I felt, I don’t like the person I am, I don’t want to be this person anymore, it’s not who I am, I want to get out of this, I want to be better.
After that, I went on to the Jenny Craig website and I was reading some of the previous success stories and reading what the program entails. It actually popped up and said ‘Would you like to request a call back?’ and I selected my centre and she literally called me back within a couple of hours and booked me in for the very next day. I went and met Dee, she’s amazing and she made me feel so comfortable, so confident about the choice that I was making to join. It was incredible. I’m one of those people that gives it 100% so I went into it doing it for myself 110% straight in, it was great.
Why did you choose Jenny Craig?
I loved the way it worked. I loved that they had all the meals prepared and ready to go and it was already portion controlled. It’s just so easy to be able to come home and have the meals ready to go. I also liked the way that you learn how to do it on your own, once you come off the Jenny program. Once you’ve reached your goal and you’ve moved on to maintenance, you’re able to transfer those skills to your life, I think that’s what sold it for me because I wanted to go in and not just lose the weight but I wanted to create a lifestyle change and be able to keep the weight off on my own afterward.
Tell us about your weight loss journey
Honestly, I was surprised because when I first joined and I got all the food, I thought ‘I don’t know how anyone could lose weight on this’, I don’t know how you can eat so much food and have the food be this tasty and still be losing weight on it, it didn’t make sense to me. But then I think I lost about 2 kilos on my first week and I was like ‘oh, I’ll give it a go for a few more weeks and then every week, it was between 1 and 2 kilos dropping down and then when I increased my exercise because I was feeling better about myself, the more it seemed to drop off. I was amazed that it was actually working for me.
I lost 36 kilos in 37 weeks on the Jenny Craig program. I am so proud of myself, it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. Super proud.
I’m proud that I was able to achieve it, proud that I was able to stick to it and just do it for me, because I’m just one of those people that doesn’t really put myself first a lot of the time, so I’m just super proud that I was able to spend this year working purely on myself to create a better lifestyle for myself.
What’s that like, to lose 36 kilos?
It’s a dream. Like you sort of think that you want to get down to this goal weight, and I’ve surpassed my goal, and I’m way past that goal now. It’s amazing!
Was there anything that surprised you on the Jenny Craig program?
How good the food was. That surprised me a lot. Often when you think of a diet you think of the food being bland and simple and boring and tasteless and it wasn’t, it was none of those things.
What did you like best about the Jenny Craig food?
I think what I loved about it was that you don’t feel like you’re missing out you still get a bit of everything that you would normally have, just obviously in moderation and it’s planned out for you. I’m one of those people that likes routine, I like to have things planned out and have it ready to go. I did really enjoy coming home and knowing exactly what I was going to have that day. And being able to take it to work and that is what actually helped me stay on track because I think if you are trying to do it yourself and you don’t have that system in place and you don’t know how to do it by yourself, then you are going to struggle.
What was your favourite meal on Jenny Craig?
The lamb moussaka, it was delicious. Absolutely loved it. it was my favourite thing to look forward to every couple of weeks.
Tell us about your life today
My whole life has changed, my outlook has changed, mindset has changed so my lifestyle has completed changed. I thrive on exercise now. I want to go out and go for my run, I want to go hiking, go walking, I want to do all these things, whereas before I just didn’t have the drive to do anything like that. Whenever I get stressed or emotional, I will turn to exercise instead of food, which is huge for me because that was my life for a long time. It’s definitely changed my entire life. Food wise I do crave the healthier options now. It’s just changed everything. I’m so happy. Ridiculously happy. Very happy.
