Jenny Craig in the VI

Well, after two years of "livin it up" in the VI, I've finally come to the realization that you can't act like a tourist for two years without it taking toll on your body. So, I decided it was time to do something about it. I tried going back on my Weight Watcher program, but just couldn't stick with it. But, then I talked to a couple of my co-workers that have been doing the Jenny Craig program and they love it and have had great success! So I said why not. I see the commercials constantly and it looks like a pretty good program, it's worth a try. The process was fairly painless, but you know this is "the islands" so nothing is as easy as it should be. :-)

There isn't a Jenny Craig center in St. Thomas, so you have to do the Jenny Direct, where they mail you the food. So, I called the Jenny Craig 800 number listed on their website and talked to a really nice person that took me through the entire process until we got to my shipping address. Surprise, surprise, there is no VI listed as an available address. I told him that my coworkers are on the program, so it must be an option somewhere. After several attempts of trying to add me to the system, the consultant finally realized that I would need to order out of the Jenny Craig Puerto Rico division which is separate from the main corporation. I verified this with my co-worker and sure enough, you have to call the consultant in PR to sign up but it's not an 800 number. No problem, I call. The person answers the phone in Spanish so I was a thrown a little off guard when I tried to ask for a Jenny Craig consultant. No problem, she spoke English, took my number and said the consultant would call me back shortly.  Which she did. Her name is Iris and she's really nice. She's speaks really good English, but stumbles over a word or two now again. She took me through the same process that the earlier consultant did, but no problem, I let her continue. I placed my order and she said it would be on St. Thomas on Monday (I was calling on a Friday afternoon). Apparently they have a warehouse in Puerto Rico. They pack up the order in the morning, put it in a styrofoam cooler with dry ice, ship it to St. Thomas via Rush It and it's ready for pick up around 11:30am at the airport. So, on Monday, the order arrived, I took a long lunch and picked it up. Of course you have to clear it through customs, but for a $20 fee, Rush It will take care of it for you. lol It was worth it not to have to go to customs, get the paperwork, then come back to Rush It for the order. Just let them handle all that. A really nice guy, put the box in my car and off I went to the house to put it all away. Thankfully Jay was off that day so he got the box out of the car and carried it into the house. It's a pretty big box, but he said it wasn't that heavy. I guess I'll see in two weeks when the next order arrives and I have to carry it myself. Iris said that the dry ice will actually keep the frozen food cold for 18 hours, so on those days that I can't go home to put it away, she said it will last in the car for the day until I get home in the evening. Maybe that's what I'll do so that Jay can still carry it. :-)

The box contained a styrofoam cooler with the frozen food and a separate box with the dry goods.

I was worried that two weeks' worth of frozen food would not fit in my little freezer with everything else I had in there, but it wasn't bad at all. Everything fit just fine. I had asked my co-worker how she got everything to fit (because her and her sister are both on the program so that's a lot of food). She said magic and think "jig saw" lol

So today is my second day on the program and so far so good. The meals are really good, just small. So you're supposed to supplement with fresh vegetables, which can sometimes be a challenge on island. Jay went to cost-u-less last week and got a few things and I went to Gourmet Gallery in Crown Bay last night and got a few more things. I think tonight I'm going to hit one of the vegetable stands on Waterfront and get a few more things. I'm a terrible vegetable eater so that is one thing I will definitely have to improve on. My other challenge will be dinners. Jay and I eat out a lot, so that will have to stop. No more Pie Whole for me :-( We'll have to start eating at home more and he'll have to fix his own dinner while I eat my JC food. He is a good cook and does most of the cooking anyway so he said it will be fine, but I'll have to resist whatever it is he decides to cook.

So we'll see how these next two weeks go while I work through my first order. Hopefully I'm able to stick with it. Wish me luck!