Living with a NJD (Non-Jenny Dieter)

I wanted to post this earlier today, but a career fair got in my way!

Living with another person is difficult. Significant other, roommate, friend, parents, siblings, animals, etc.  They all pose different problems and conflicts, but living with a NJD is even harder.  Meals together are not the same.  Going out to dinner is not the same.  It is Jenny for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.   And it lasts for as long as you make the commitment to Jenny.  I think I underestimated how much of an adjustment Jenny would be.  Not only for me, but for my significant other.  Granted it is only day three, but I think "it is only day three" that is a large part of it.  I think if it was just me, living alone, Jenny would be easier.  Sure, I have support from friends and of course my mother, but having a Jenny buddy would make the process easier.  

Instead, my live-in chick is counting calories on an iPhone app.  She enters in all she eats and calculates calories.  Let me be honest, I am ecstatic that she has gained interest in counting calories, but it is not the same as having a microwaved meal with me every night.  She is tempted by Jenny though, I can tell.  She asks about her, looks at her food boxes and has been looking at my Jenny books.  I can tell she is curious, but I am not sure if she is curious enough to sign up.  Enter my mother, who for the past three days has called me and asked why my girlfriend is not doing it.  I think if my mother is good at anything, she is good at pressuring you into believing her vision.  At the end of the day, Jenny is showing me portion control and everyone, including my girlfriend can benefit from that lesson.          

My mom said the first 5 days are the hardest.  I always say that it takes two weeks to alter any behavior.  I haven't reached 5 days or two weeks, but what I can tell you is that the food is extremely tasty.  I've had an egg omelet, pasta with meatballs, a turkey burger and even fish and chips.  Who knew?  I would never think of fish and chips as a diet meal, but Jenny made it one.  

I had to bake 4 dozen Funfetti cupcakes and 3 dozen Funfetti cookies tonight for an event on Thursday.  I didn't eat a single one, but I did have my Jenny cookie.  Mmm Mmm Good.  

The Explanation

After creating my first post I realized I should provide some background information.  The first and most important thing you should know is that I grew up in Brooklyn with arguably the funniest mother alive. 
I was always pleasantly plump and my mother never had a problem pointing that out to me or anyone else for that matter.  She would constantly ask me if my thighs had a rash from rubbing together (anyone who has had a weight problem knows about this).  When I asked her what the "w" on my clothes stood for she would tell me wide.  Now I am old enough to know the "w" stands for women's.  My mother once told me she wanted to video me wiggling into a Nancy Ganz body slimmer and submit it to America's Funniest Home Videos because she guaranteed we would win.  I can't deny that she is entertaining.        

And it wasn't only my mother.  Growing up, one of my skinny cousins would always tell me, "you can fix fat but you can't fix ugly" and I always took that as a compliment.  At least I wasn't ugly, right?

I will never forget this one trip to the fat girl store.  You know which one.  It was around holiday time and I was looking for a holiday outfit.  And back in the late 90s the options were not very stylish.  I will give this fat girl store credit for improving over the years and now carrying fancy jeans.  I mean, they are still no J Crew for plump chicks but they are better than they were.  Anyway, back to holiday time in the late 90s.  I entered the store and it had to be 100 degrees in there and the heat was blasting.  Yes it was winter time, and yes it was cold outside.  But, but, but, it was like hell on Earth in that store.  I was looking rack to rack when I started sweating profusely as if I was on a treadmill running uphill.  I asked the girl working in the store if they were trying to get their customers to sweat off the pounds and she said that wasn't funny.  I told her hell yeah it was funny and that she should have a sense of humor.

Here's the thing.  I was shopping at the fat girls store and therefore I surely wasn't slim.  I would like to think I am pretty self aware and that kind of thing didn't bother me.  I don't know why she acted like it was a bad thing to say. 

I know I can be thinner and I know I can be plumper...or am I supposed to say luscious these days?  I have struggled with my weight my entire life.  In the past 7 years, I have been as thin as 120 and as heavy as 260.  I went down to 120 when I lost a ton of weight right before relocating to the District.  I gained some back over the last few years, but not all of it.  I joined Jenny because I don't want to go all the way back up to 260.  When I first lost the weight I did it on my own, but I was also 10 years younger.  It is not as easy now - even with going to the gym at 5 am every morning.  

If you know me, you probably don't think I weigh as much as I do.  I owe that gratitude to my "black girl booty" which stores the bulk of my weight.  I never want to weigh 260 again and I never want to weigh 120 again.  The goal for now is 150 - or as the Jenny consultant put it - a weight within my healthy range.  I am going to do something very taboo and disclose my weight since I am sharing all this other information and hopefully it will dispel the weight taboo.  At Jenny on Saturday, I clocked in at 200.8.  To me, it truly is just a number and I have the power to change it. I hope you continue to read and enjoy my journey.       

       

And so it begins...

After months of pressure from my eccentric mother I have given in and decided to give Jenny a go.  When I say "Jenny", I am referring to Jenny Craig.  My mother and brother have been doing Jenny since January with much success.  Since the fat gene clearly runs in my family I figured what did I have to lose. 

I signed up on Saturday, using my mother's American Express card (that she was foolish to let me keep when I moved out of state almost 7 years ago).  With mom paying I definitely didn't have anything to lose.  The representative who signed me up told me all that I would want to know about the program and I told her I already knew it all because my mother is the unofficial spokesperson for Jenny in Brooklyn.  The representative also told me that my consultant would call and check on me during the week and that if I needed her to call more she could do that as well.

Little did this representative know that my mother would be calling several times a day, acting as my consultant.  My mom offered tips on certain foods.  For example, she told me to separate the blueberry pancakes from the sausage in my breakfast otherwise the pancakes taste like sausage.  And she said, "oh, Tara, be sure to only heat that one for 70 seconds, not 75".  Mother does always know best, right?   

Yesterday was day one.  Not too bad if you ask me.  The program is extremely easy to follow.  Jenny provides a sheet with all your meals on it and you just follow along. If my brother can figure it out, I can too.  Easy means this program is not cheap.  

I am going to be "doing" Jenny for longer than anticipated.  I had my bubble busted on Saturday.  I went in telling the representative that I only wanted to lose 20-30 pounds and her response was that I needed to lose at least 50 to be within my healthy weight range.  What the what?  I said that is a lot.  She was quite encouraging and here I am.  I have a 50 pound weight loss goal and I plan to share my experience doing Jenny and the craziness that unfolds with my mom along the way.  Stay tuned...