DON'T Call Jenny!

Hate is a strong word but I can truly say I HATE them! They are misleading and manipulative and when you make a pact with this devil, it can be expensive! What am I referring to? Jenny Craig, her crappy food and manipulative commercials!

I have a personal reason to be frustrated: not only do I have a lifelong struggle with my weight, but against the advice of my own inner voice and all my friends, I spent three weeks and close to $600 on Jenny Craig! I didn't lose anything but money and lots of it! I hated the food, didn't like the 5 minute "support" and resented paying lots of money while the food sat in the freezer because I didn't like it! Some of it is still in there!

Kirsty Alley was on Oprah this week speaking of her struggle with weight. She tried Jenny but the minute the guys with the scale and a copy of her contract quit coming to her house, she gained the weight back! Sure it must be easier to stay on that diet when you are getting paid but the real reason she quit was most likely that she didn't have her head in the game.

On the same show, Oprah spoke with the guy who weight over a thousand pounds, lost 800, gained it back and is now in the process of losing it again. When asked why he hadn't tried gastric bypass he said it was because they couldn't do a bypass for his brain. Hunger is rarely a factor when he eats.

I see a pattern here and it's one I believe to be true, especially for myself: the biggest struggle with weight loss is going to be the battle that is waged in your head, not the one between you and the fridge. If you aren't dealing with the reasons why you eat why you do, the ones that don't involve "addiction to chocolate" or eating at "that time of the month", than the weight won't come off or stay off.

That is what I most resent about Jenny. She isn't truthful about what it takes to get the weight off. Sure, we all look at Valerie Bertinelli's AMAZING 48 year old new body and think all we have to do is eat that expensive box/frozen food to get it. What they don't tell you in the ads is that Valerie spent hours in the gym to get it! I just hope she is doing the head work as well to keep it off! The odds aren't in her favor!

The odds aren't in my favor, either! I had the full gastric bypass surgery 3 years ago after topping off at 347 pounds. The weight came off as quick as the compliments started coming in. Before I knew it I was down 110 pounds. Yeah...I am fitting in a airline seat, shopping at Old Navy, loving hearing how people tell me I look good. None of that solved the real reason I kept the weight on in the first place: my fear of intimacy with men. Oddly enough, when I came to that "ah ha moment" was when my weight loss efforts stalled and started to slowly creep back up. My head isn't in the game totally. I feel schitzo...I want to take the weight off so I can get into a relationship but keep the weight on so I don't have to face that fear!! Sheesh...that's not something Jenny is going to help me with!

It is still a major struggle just to keep the weight i've lost off much less lose any more! My total net loss at this point is 95 pounds down but I have gained much more in self-awareness. I am going to continue with Weight Watchers, the safe and supportive way to lose weight and start seeing a therapist. And when I am ready to deal with the real reason why the weight is not coming off, it will come off.

Life is hard, there is no way around it. We all have our ways to deal with the downs, be it alcohol, shopping or food! The key is to find a healthy way to deal with the hand you are dealt and I don't think that the solution is found in boxed food, no matter if its yummy or not!