Just wanted to vent about the HORRIBLE food day today. Yuck. This is day seven of planned week one, and the first time I have thrown out meals!
Breakfast was the silver dollar pancakes with veggie sausage. Pancakes were good, but the sausage was just inedible. Ick. Lunch was the potato soup ... double and triple ICK! Dinner is turkey chili ... ugh, just not looking forward to that at all. First of all, thats just not something I would eat (alone, in a bowl), and secondly, I can only imagine its as icky as the other stuff I've had today. *sigh*
Just wondering what others do on terrible food days. I am going to make myself a veggie stir fry tonight, then *taste* the chili and eat it if its any good. Not expecting that, though. I'm already eating my evening snack because I'm so hungry. *SIGH* Stuck at work and nothing else I can do but suck it up and stay hungry until I go home in 5 hours.

Hey Foxy~ I do the personalized menu, so I haven't been really stuck with too many bad foods yet, but I have been trying new things lately and I agree, the potato soup is yuck yuck yuck! I do liek the turkey chili a lot, though, so I hope tonight goes better. Hang in there! And maybe the planned menu isn't such a good idea? idk, I haven't tried the silver dollar pancakes yet, but i did have the veggie burger and I didn't like that veggie patty either. Hope you like the chili better (even if it is just becasue you're starving! lol!)

Sorry for your bad luck Foxxy. I remember being fairly disapointed with some of the meals when I did the planned menus. Luckily, I had some leftover weight watchers entrees that I could substitute instead. You might want to try that if you are going to do another week of planned foods. Also, some people on the boards have suggested turning the chili into a taco sald type meal. I have tried it, and it's pretty good. Just serve it over a bed of lettuce, and add some salsa (free) and some fat-free sour cream (limited free). That might make it more edible for you.
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I have never had a food in my life that I couldn't eat .. I'd rather eat what's there than be hungry. Perhaps that's my problem!! Everytime I go out to dinner with my in-laws, (and this has been for 30 years), my mother-in-law always says, "Linda's such a good eater"! Well, yes I am. Not a good thing, but there you go. I didn't care for the soups, wouldn't buy them again, but it was between eating it or being hungry, so I ate it. Always the case with me! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! It's 88 degrees here in LA today, I hope we get some seasonal weather by Thursday.

I am noticing that more people who are on the planned menus feel stuck or do not like the foods chosen for them. I have been on the flexible plan and love choosing every week. web page

I agree. I hated the planned menus and hated the chili and the potato soup. I think I still have the chili in my pantry somewhere! I definetely recommend for you to try to customize your own menu. Hope you have a great week!

There is NO WAY I could have had success with the planned menu, I would have quit right away, I'm too picky!
I love my personalized menu!!

Well the only thing that scares me about the personalized menu is that I'll pick foods that are too high in calories, and not lose at the end of the week. But I'm definitely going to customize it, once I'm done with week 2 and have sampled everything.
Well I had the chili for dinner tonight ... it was really pretty good. I love the idea of mixing it with a can of diced tomatoes, which someone suggested elsehwere. Also love the other add-in ideas. I think it needs some salt, but I didn't add any ... I know I should try to get used to food that isnt loaded with sodium, for health reasons. I crumbled some wheat thins from a 100-calorie pack on top, and ate it with stir fried veggies. Good stuff.
Despite my starvation earlier, I did great today. Resisted LOTS of temptation. Weigh in is Wednesday, hoping for some great results.
Thanks to everyone for your input!!

My counselor told me that the foods are all designed to be close to the same calories so that you can just pick a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner and a snack and not go over 1200 calories. She said that of course if you eat the highest calorie foods for every meal and everyday you may lose slower, especially if you are not having to lose a lot of weight to get to goal. She also said that if you plan your meals on the online form then print them out to bring to the center, it will fill in for calories if you don't have enough.
I remember the first day I was on the program, I was about to starve and it seems that every time I eat that same combo I am more hungry, so I try to switch it for more protein.
IT WILL GET BETTER!




SW 198 GW 160 (for now)
11/5 -3.6 (195.4) week 1
11/12 -3.5 (191.9) week 2
11/17 maintained and will weigh in 2
weeks, clothes feel better!

I love the turkey chilli .. I dump it on a big plate of salad (I buy it cut up in bags at the market) and it's like a tostada. I always ordered tostadas without the shell anyway, and it's great. A little salsa and it's just like the "tostada without the shell" at Baja Fresh or one of the other Fresh Mex restaurants. The soups, forget them. Yucky! I ate mine as it was either that or go hungry but didn't like it. I'd never buy them again.

i also disliked the soups
specially that potato one ewwww

the pancakes loved those and the sausage was tasty.
now i dont like the french toast at all and i told the online consultant and she still sent 3 more......so i just had my son eat them.

i have some of the seven grain hot cereals and the garden veggie soup........oh i just hate soup doesnt fill me up at all its like drinking hot water with salt.
just wanted to add in my 2 cents

All the meals are about the same in calories, it's not enough of a difference to worry about. So, just order the things that you like. I never get the soups as they don't fill me up either. It's about 300 calories a meal for 900 (duh) and 300 for the snacks. Some days a little more, some a little less. I just get 7 of each and mix it up as I feel like it each day.

If you like the convenience of the planned weekly menu but don't like any particular meals or days of meals, you can switch those out with things you do like. I am sure your consultant will help you customize it to your liking.

I'm on 1700 calories... just wait till you get to planned week 3. GAG ME! This is going to be a sh*tty week for food for me.
I don't overeat any more, so I try each thing and then after I throw it away I fix something I have in the house that would be comparable. Like today.. the second time for potato soup. I tried it again and doctored it up good..a nd still yuck. So then I tried the southwest chicken again... yuck (I had eaten out a few times, so I had a few meals to play around with).
So I wound up fixing a Boca chicken patty on toast with lettuce and then some cherries.
I don't know what I'm going to do about the rest of the week. Turns my stomach thinking about it.
I've been working on my personalized foods... as I think I'm going to have to reorder this week. I like the dry for breakfast.. the cereals... and looks like I'm going to go with mostly frozen for lunch and dinner. I'm expecting that I'll have to pay for extra shipping, but it doesn't make much sense to throw away food I don't like either.
One thing.... since I've had to essentially plan my own meals, I'm sort of thinking giving JC one more month and then going on my own (I have a nutritionist). I've been able to prove to myself that I can eat real world food and still lose weight... so that's encouraging.
Oh, to clarify.. I did a month of frozen and dry so week 3 is actually a dry menu. *sigh* I really feel like I wasted 200 dollars here....
Take care,

Jennifer, I know what you mean. My 3rd and 4th week are dry (shelf -stable) foods. I am making it! Fortuantely, by now, I am figuring out the "meals on my own" section of the grocery list. let that help you if it's unbearable. I like the "complete start cereal" and several of the entrees: swedish meatballs & chicken parm.
I can't wait until next week. I get to do my PERSONALIZED! YIPEE!

I forgot to say my 4th week is also dry planned. I haven't had the chili or the swedish meatballs yet, so here's hoping I can deal with what is left to eat!

Why not just eat the stuff anyway? It seems a waste of money to buy it and not eat it. You don't have to like it, food is just something to keep you alive and keep from being hungry until the next feeding time.

I Know I am a fairly picky eater! I am allergic to fish, don't enjoy canned anything and seem to have this bizarre fear of shelf stable food! I was never a camper, and even when I was a kid and everyone was trying Astronaut food i said HMM gee No thanks!.
I did personalized from day one, because I figured i wouldn't stick with it if I didn't like the food!
I opted to do exclusively frozen. I do try to add stirfry things to some of the entree's. I am eating better than I ever have before and lost even when on vacation. Some of the meals I bought because I knew I needed to add more variety. The beef chow mein sat in my freezer for a few months as did the beef sirloin rice bowl, I finally sucked it up and to my surprise I loved them both! I know have them both weekly! I also tried to mimic the meals I was having for my family. I am always laughing when my kids will say Mom do you have enough JC for me to have one for lunch dinner, breakfasts??My kids are 16, 21 and 25! My husband who balks at lil black boxes is now a weekly potsticker fan!!
SO give the plan a chance...try some different foods, but seriously rather than quit why not get a food list in advance of your consultation and sit down and pick out the foods you think you might like to try!
Good Luck to you!!
P.s. Chardonney. LMAO @ being a good eater!!

Chardonney.... I do make myself try to eat half of it. And then I try to finish the meal with a little something else.
I don't just eat it because life is too short to eat things I dont' like...or have an aversion to. I like to eat mindfully and savor the food and taste it, etc... and that just doesn't work when you are gagging. lol

Just my 2-cent's worth....
For me (and I am speaking only for myself), I didn't get to be 60 lbs. overweight by eating stuff I didn't like. Of course, I found those things I did like and ate a lot of them.
Seems that changing my life around, my eating habits, my portion sizes, etc., is about CHANGE. That means experimenting, keeping an open mind, "eating to live" instead of "living to eat."
When I joined JC I understood that it meant eating their food, as opposed to cooking my own. Yes, there are some items I like less than others, and I don't buy them as often if at all. There hasn't been anything so awful that I haven't eaten it, because my willingness to acquire new habits means that if all I have left in a day is 110 calories for my Vegetable Beef Soup--but I'm really in the mood for something different--I still have my soup, because it's about learning to be committed to my plan and not always doing it MY WAY.
MY WAY got me to go from 150 to 226 pounds. MY WAY had me always wrinkling up my nose and saying "eewwww" to anything new. It took some serious reflection to realize that I was saying "eeewwww" to things I'd never even tried, just because it sounded like something I wouldn't like!
So I encourage people to have an open mind. If you try something and you're not overly fond of it, try "tweaking it a bit" by adding stuff to it, etc., before declaring that you HATE IT and throwing it away. There are a limited number of foods on the plan. If you, like me, will be on it for a good while before reaching goal, experiment, rather than limit. Keep an open mind. Don't "eeewww" so quickly. Remember, your best thinking (like mine) got you to where you are. Isn't it time to try something different?
Terri

Terri, your attitude is inspiring! And how you do it definitely seems to work for you! I won't argue with that!
For me... all of that goes against what I learned recovering from my eating disorder. It is because of what I learned (again..like you said.. this is only for me)... I won't eat food that makes me gag. That feeds into the "diet mentality" of deprivation, etc.
And I've worked too hard over the last 2 years to undo all of that hard and rewarding work!
I'm not intending to be contrary... just illustrating how wonderful it is that we're all different and how we have to find what works best for us! All suggestions welcome!
I am going to personalize next week... so I feel happier about that.
Oh, BTW, doing something radically different is one of the concepts of recovery... so I definitely concur with your there!

Oh! I just edited to add this.. I thought of something interesting... I did get to 266 by eating foods I didn't like! Once I became aware of my bingeing and started to work through it and worked to give it up... I realized I was eating food I didn't even like! I wasn't tasting the food. I was just shoveling it in. Once I started to mindfully eat, I was shocked at how gross some of my binge foods really were.
I never really connected that before... thanks for making me think!
Take care!

I too think Terri is inspiring. So far everything I"ve tried has been extremely tasty and I normally LOVE Potato soup, but now I"m kinda leary. Maybe I'll eat it later on or on the wkend when I"m extremely hungry!!! sometimes then, foods I don't normally like taste even better too. I was hesitant upon trying the turkey burger and it was really, really good. Hang in there everyone and Good Luck to all.
Liz

I had twins .. I lived for several years on granola bars and such. Couldn't afford to be a picky eater, no time, just ate whatever kept me from being hungry. Yogurt, snickers bars, etc. Weighed about 105 pounds in those days. I'm still the same way, although 30 pounds heavier. Don't care all that much about what I eat as long as it is low calorie and moderately healthy. Although I do still consider Snickers the best food ever made with all the food groups. I had one for lunch with a Diet Coke for about two years! I am meeting someone for dinner tomorrow night at Magianno's and have to figure out what to get. The menu's online so I'll check it out.

the things that i dont like i give them to my 10 yr old son and he loves them.
im now doing personalized because i did end up throwing away the tuna salad kits and the chicken salad kits 8 total and the chicken fettucini just couldnt stand that same with Lasagna so that was like $100 in the trash.
im doing better now ordering the things i do like.
hated the lentils and beef and my 1 1/2 yr old loves it so thats wonderful

They didn't give you a credit for the stuff you didn't like?

Once you buy something from JC and take it home, you cannot return it for a credit. They do not take back the food. Think about it, food tampering is a big issue in this day and age.
Grocery stores don't take back any food either, unless it was spoiled when you bought it and you didn't realise it until you took it home and opened it.
For anyone who is starting on JC and consider themselves a bit picky, I would say not to buy more than "one" of each item to try the stuff first before buying multiple packs of any given food. I don't know how you managed to buy 8 tuna and chicken salad kits, etc... since there are only 7 lunches in a week (or did you buy for several weeks in one shot, like on Jenny Direct?). Even then, I would not recommend to buy more than one or two of each item if buying for more than a week.
I'm not picky at all. I really eat everything (except bananas and fish-seafood because of allergies), and I do not care for a few items (potato soup, beef vegetable soup - that one has been cancelled from their menu now, enchiladas - I like enchiladas, just not JCs).
Good luck with the program!

I am on personalized due to food allergies. I have buying a couple extra entrees just in case the food is yucky...that has worked for me so far.

Foxxy: When I started I agreed to do the planned menu and try everything. After the first round of planned menus there were several things I did not like (in fact I recall spitting some out and skipping that meal). I just told my consultant what I did not like and she switched them to something I do like. I still do the planned menus, just tweak it a bit. I also order a few extra of things I do like so if whatever is on my menu for the day does not appeal to me, I can eat something else. You just have to add up the calories as you go along to be sure you stay at your calorie level but it is hard not to as most of the foods are fairly close in calories. You don't have to suffer through food you don't like.