I've been on Jenny Craig one month and have lost 13 pounds.

But my JC counselor and I have had to make some adjustments.

As most of you know, on this plan you buy prepackaged food from JC and supplement it with salad and veggie items.

Frankly, I find the lunches are just inedible. When I was previously on JC, the only two lunches I could tolerate were the chicken/rice/bean meal and the pizzas. But this time, the chicken had such a funky taste and texture that I’d pick it out of the lunch, and the pizza crust was the equivalent of cardboard.

I was throwing out more than I ate, and those JC meals are pretty pricey. I told my counselor, Suzie, I just couldn’t justify throwing away that money. I asked to substitute Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice products for lunches. She was willing to help me do this as long as I stayed within her guidelines. Suzie showed me what to look for on labels when choosing lunches: no more than 300 calories and 7 fat grams or less.

Me read labels? Good grief, how much effort did she expect me to put into this!

Seriously, though, I learned a good “buyer beware” lesson.

When I started reading labels I was surprised to find that just because the product is advertised as a dieter’s choice, the calories/fat grams don’t always match that description.

But some of my favorites did. For example, I could buy Smart Ones Cheese Pizza Minis (270 calories) Lean Cuisine Southwestern Beans and Rice (300 calories) or Lean Cuisine Shrimp and Angel Hair Pasta (240 calories and 4.5 fat grams!).

Now I’ve started checking calorie counts on almost everything I pick up at the Bi-Lo.

I used to have my grocery trips down to 30 minutes. I whipped through the Bi-Lo aisles like a rat running a maze, knowing exactly where every product I wanted was and where to make the turns. My last visit took double the amount of time, but I felt more knowledgeable about what I brought home.

E-mail Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com.