HappyAsianGuy

Jenny Craig Review

Monday, April 9th, 2007

I’m researching diets and the first one that I decided to learn about is Jenny Craig. I have a few friends who tried Jenny Craig and they’ve said wonderful things about the diet plan so I decide to go to their website and see what it was all about. Once I got to their website, the first thing I saw was splashing images of Kirstie Alley. I don’t need to lose that much weight but it’s good to see that the diet program actually works…though if I was getting paid $$$ to shed the pounds I’m sure I could come up with a way to lose that much weight too.

So anyway, I surfed around the Jenny Craig website and it looks like they don’t have an online option (something I had heard in the past). I thought maybe they’d offer online ordering capabilities by now but I couldn’t find anything except random exercise products and cookbooks. The website said I had to go to my local center (there is one about 5 miles from my house) or I could call an 800 number to find out more info. I decided to just go in and check out what they had to offer.

I strolled into the Jenny Craig center and was a bit embarrassed for the first ten minutes or so. Most of the clients were women…actually now that I think about it, I think I was the only male in the room besides a Jenny Craig employee. Anyway, I received a tour of their center and they showed me the food section of their office. It’s pretty much a small frozen food section area (like your supermarket) where you come to choose meals for the week. The pictures on the box look awesome…though I’m sure the portions are about the size of my tiny cell phone. Foodwise, everything looked good. Between the frozen foods, snacks, and desserts I think eating would be no problem.

The cost, however, was a bit higher than I expected. When I visited the Jenny Craig website they had a promotion saying lose 20 lbs for $20. I thought to myself, “Sweet! What a great deal”. But that’s just the teaser rate and it doesn’t count the cost of food. I don’t think I’m allowed to publish their actual rates but it was quite pricey. And if you look at my previous post which links to a Forbes article on the most expensive diets in the market, Jenny Craig is # 1. I’m not saying it doesn’t work because obviously it has worked for many people including Kirstie Alley…but it is expensive.

Overall, I don’t think the Jenny Craig diet is for me. I didn’t feel very comfortable going into the center and as I said before I think it would be too inconvenient for me to go each week to meet with a coach and pick up meals. I’m going to find an online option so that probably eliminated Weight Watchers as well. More about my diet pursuit later today…