MEAL NAMES for Jenny Craig (and other) users

LindsayRidgeway

I love a lot about the Jenny Craig approach, and even though I don't need their proprietary meals to control portions and realizing I'm overpaying for them compared to purchasing similar items at the grocery store, it's worth it to me for the weekly weigh in with my counselor and, frankly, to support their program, which I believe helps a lot of people in a scientifically sound, non-gimmicky way.

However, the Jenny Craig web and Android apps suck so bad that they're virtually unusable, which is what got me to MFP, which is, oh, 1000%+ better. The crowd-sourced food library all by itself puts it into its own galaxy.

So if you're a Jenny refugee like me, please accept my welcome. I'm sure you can use MFP effectively without any help from me, and I wish you well on your journey.

But I just wanted to mention one thing that took me a couple of days to notice, that I wish I'd noticed sooner so that I didn't need to rework my first couple of days of entries: MFP's ability to customize Meal Names.

MFP's default is three meals, but for our Jenny plans, we need six. Well, it's easy to customize MFP so that you can track by six meals a day (or a smaller number if you like).

Just go to My Home > Settings > Diary Settings, and there's a section for Meal Names. I changed mine to say Breakfast * Morning Snack * Lunch * Afternoon Snack * Dinner * Dessert. My son added a notation about calorie goal for each meal to his names, another interesting innovation. And he keeps his snacks at the bottom. So you see, to each his own.

But now you know you can customize Meal Names, and I hope it's a little helpful. Again, best of luck on your journey!

gothchiq

Hooray! Glad you're saving money.

59newGIRL19

I realize you posted this a while ago, Lindsay, but I thank you for the tips! I have been on Jenny since August 1 and using MFP app as well. I've lost 45#. Tracking my food intake is really essential to my success and the Jenny app was pitiful compared to MFP. The Jenny forums are helpful, but few post on them. I get a lot of good tips in general scouting these forums.
Good luck with Jenny!

LindsayRidgeway

Thanks, Pearlygirl135. Congratulations on your awesome success with Jenny, 45 lbs in five months! I guess that's around 2 lbs/week. I'm also averaging around 2 lbs/week, and continue to feel I benefit from the weekly weigh-in (accountability!), MFP for tracking, the Jenny concept of many small meals, and another Jenny concept, "volumetrics". Also, I've gone back to using more of the Jenny meals. I tried grocery items such as the various Celeste pizzas-for-one, but it turns out I don't like them, while meanwhile I actually do like certain Jenny items like the Margherita pizza, and on top of that, they're packaged in lower-calorie portions. Win win :0) Anyway, I hope you have a great New Year!

SleepyGirl2

Thanks for the tip on changes to the food diary. I just started back to Jenny Craig this week and am also using MFP. I've done Jenny in the past with great success and maintained for four years then got sloppy...eating and drinking whatever I want! That doesn't work! Now I'm back after trying just about every diet without success. Even MFP...I just can't eat back exercise calories!! Anyway, I'm excited to be back on Jenny...loving seeing the scale move down! And, the food is so good!!

MegJJ76

I was able to find the list of new meals for Jenny Craig, plus all the food prices for 2015. I was crunching the numbers and didn't realize the hidden costs. It seems you have the right idea though, using MFP really makes a difference.

http://www.bestdiettips.com/jenny-craig-food-prices