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Halfway

Congratulations!  You have made it Halfway to your weight loss goal – you’ve reached a major milestone in your weight loss journey. 

Take the Food Confidence Quiz below to find out if you are ready to start planning a day or two of menus on your own.

Food Confidence Quiz

If you answered “Always” or “Sometimes” to most of the questions, you’re ready to begin planning meals and menus with your consultant.

If you answered “Never” to most of the questions, talk with your Jenny Craig Consultant.   You may need more time to work on your relationship with food and become more confident in planning days on your own.

The Transition to Halfway Menu
As you begin planning menus using your own foods, start out with one day during the week and as you become more comfortable, increase to two days using your own foods.  By continuing to include at least one Jenny’s Cuisine® entrée and one Jenny’s Cuisine® snack each day on your Halfway Menu, you can continue to benefit from portion control and convenience with the meal and snack of your choice.  In fact, one study on women compared a self-selected diet using the Food Guide Pyramid to a diet using packaged portion-controlled entrées with additional foods from the Food Guide Pyramid.  The results showed that women using the portion-controlled entrées had greater weight loss and fat loss.¹  This study reinforces the importance of portion control for weight loss.
Steps to Build Your Halfway Menu
Step 1: Gather your Halfway Success Guide and your Success Made Simple guide, turn to page 70 of Success Made Simple for Jenny’s Grocery List.
Step 2: Choose your Jenny’s Cuisine entrée and snack and write it on the Day 1 Halfway Menu below or on page 6 of the Halfway Success Guide.
Step 3: Plan your first Halfway meal on you own and write it on your Day 1 Halfway Menu.  Refer to page 4 of the Halfway Success Guide (Food Group Calorie Level Guide) or the chart below for the daily food groups for your calorie level.
Step 4: Write and tally your choices for your first meal on the sample Halfway Menu below or on page 6 of the Halfway Success Guide.

Get healthy recipe ideas from the Jenny Craig Website or the Creative Recipes cookbook.
Use the Volumetrics® approach and pile on the non-starchy veggies for a more satisfying (and healthy) meal.

Step 5: Plan and record your remaining meal and snack this week to complete your Day 1 Halfway Menu.  Bring it, or email it if you are using Jenny Craig At Home, to your appointment next week to review with your Jenny Craig Consultant.

A sample 1200 Calorie Menu is shown below.
Remember to leave enough servings for your snacks, and include a Jenny’s Cuisine® snack for added convenience.

Use your menu as a journal: self-monitor to gauge pre-meal hunger, post-meal satisfaction and unplanned foods eaten.  It will help build your awareness of what drives your choices as well as what positive choices you are making.  You can also use the eTools on the Jenny Craig Website to self-monitor.

Food Group Calorie Level Guide:

● U.S. clients: Be sure to include 1 Anytime Bar or 2 MultiPlus daily.
○ Canadian clients: Delete 1 Milk, 1/2 Meat, 1 Fat, 1 Fruit and 1 Vegetable serving for Canadian Bar.

Sample 1200 Calorie Menu

Being halfway to your weight loss goal can create a mixture of feelings and emotions.  Along with this, you may have a list of questions – be sure to write them down and share them with your consultant.  In the meantime, here are some commonly asked questions regarding Halfway, along with the answers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How will my menus change now that I am at my halfway weight?
A: You will now learn how to incorporate a day or two of your own menus each 
week using your own foods.

Q: I am nervous to start eating my own foods – what if I gain weight?
A: The “Food Confidence Quiz” provides some guidance in understanding your
strengths and opportunities regarding menu planning and your eating style. 
You will have time to practice menu planning first, to ensure that you are
very comfortable before trying it on your own.  Be assured that you will have
the skills and information needed to maintain consistent weight loss.

Q: Why has my rate of weight loss slowed from the beginning?
A: Weight loss is different for everyone, but it is natural and expected for the rate
of weight loss to slow down over time.  As you lose weight, your body gets
smaller, as do your calorie needs.  In your Halfway Body Consultation you will
learn about ways to turn up your physical activity with intervals or cross
training and add a strength component to increase your energy burn.

Q: I’m feeling a mix of emotions about reaching my halfway weight – proud, but
inpatient and anxious at the same time.  Is that normal?
A: Yes, it is perfectly normal for people undergoing lifestyle change to have a mix
of emotions.  The negative emotions are challenges to solve.  The positive
emotions are strengths to celebrate.  Your consultant is there for you, to share
your joy and work past any hurdles that happen during your halfway process.

Q: Everyone tells me that I look great right now, how do I know if I shouldn’t just
stop and go to maintenance?
A: Midway into your program, you may find that certain people are encouraging    
you to ease up on your weekly plan.  They could make comments that are not
entirely supportive like, “You look great – you don’t need to lose another
ounce!  Why be so structured with your menu and so tight on that exercise
schedule of yours? You deserve to relax, to live a little!”

The truth is, you are living – not a little, but a lot!  The changes you’ve chosen    
to make are moderate ones, so that they can be a part of your life forever. 
That’s the difference between a diet and a lifestyle change.  The time between
now and your goal is not an extended restriction but a critical point in your
weight management journey.  It’s not a time to take a break, but a time to delve
deeper into your consultations and discover what is working best for you – to
stay successful on your journey.

Q: It seems like I’ve been on program forever, what’s the harm in taking a break?
A: What is helpful is to stay in touch with what’s most important to you: reaching
your goal.  Think about your own program and the progress you have made
on the journey.  Weigh the value of the pros for continuing and the pros for not
continuing toward your desired weight goal.  What value does each side have
for you?  Based on all the benefits, isn’t it worth the time and effort to continue
with your program?  Stay in touch with these benefits, and be sure to discuss
your feelings with your consultant.

Halfway Tips

The Jenny Craig Program focuses on three essential components of weight loss: Food, Body and Mind.  While the focus of this article has been about the Food component, here are some Body and Mind tips that relate to being at Halfway.

Body
Halfway is a time to re-focus and re-energize your activity.

• Revisit the barriers and benefits of physical activity, see page 31-32 of the Success Made Simple guide.
• Mix up your activity routine with cross-training, intervals and resistance training, to add variety and turn up the intensity.

Cross-Training – when you cross train (mix up different types of activities), you challenge your muscles in different ways.  Add a day of different cardio activity (stair stepping, bicycle riding or elliptical training).  With cross training you burn more calories while you exercise and challenge different muscles.  That is why it’s a great way to break a weight plateau!
Intervals – use intervals (short spurts of intense energy) to burn more calories in less time.  To do that speed up the pace of cardiorespiratory activities (walking, biking, jogging) for one minute, then slow it down for a few minutes and repeat.
Resistance Training –add some floor exercises, squats or wall push-ups (don’t go very low if you are a beginner) to your routine.

Mind

Halfway is a great time to refocus on your reasons for wanting to lose weight. 

• Compare how you felt before to how you feel today.  As your motivators for weight loss or your weight loss goals change, jot them down and revisit them on a regular basis to maintain motivation.
• Expand your support system – having a network of family and friends to support you in reaching your goals is essential.  You can also participate in the message boards at www.jennycraig.com to connect with other members.

Future Weight Maintenance Success
The National Weight Loss Control Registry (NWCR) is a group of people who have successfully maintained a 30 pound or more weight loss for at least one year and are at least 18 years old.  Currently, there are more than 6,000 members in the NWCR.²
According to NWCR, some of the eating habits and activity strategies for weight maintenance include:²

• Regular and consistent physical activity
• Following a low caloric intake of about 1,385 calories each day, including holidays (depending upon individual’s daily calorie needs)
• Eating a low amount of calories from fat (24%)
• Weighing regularly
• Eating regularly throughout the day (at least 4 times/day on average)
• Preparing most meals at home
• Limiting fast food meals to between one and three meals each week on average
• Avoiding situations that may lead to overeating

Remember that the time between now and your goal is essential to your success.  It’s an opportunity for you to practice new skills and master using them in a variety of situations.

References:

1. Hannum SM, Carson L, Evans EM, et al. Use of portion-controlled entrées enhances weight loss in women. Obes Res. 2004;12:538-546.
2. Thomas GJ, Wing RR. Maintenance of long-term weight loss. Medicine & Health/Rhode Island. 2009;92:53,56-57.

Jenny Craig® and Jenny’s Cuisine® are trademarks owned by Société des Produits Nestlé S.A., Vevey, Switzerland.

VOLUMETRICS® is a federally registered trademark of Barbara Rolls, PhD, used under exclusive license by Jenny Craig, Inc.

Rolls, BJ. The Volumetrics Eating Plan. New York, NY: Harper; 2007.
Rolls BJ, Barnett RA. The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan. New York, NY: Harper; 2000.