Stop counting calories today
Doesn't it seem like the moment you decide you want to lose weight you become absolutely OBSESSED with food? Any trip down a supermarket aisle becomes a journey fraught with guilt, longing and disappointment (ohmygawd, it sounds like my last relationship!). You stay away from restaurants, stop accepting invitations to dinner parties and forage among the celery sticks and flavored water in the fridge trying to find the diet vodka.
Thankfully, you now have the option to outsource your meal planning. A number of services across the country will deliver diet-friendly meals right to your very own door, reducing your meal preparation angst, and theoretically your thighs at the same time. But as with anything, you get what you pay for. Here's a list of your options, starting with the cheapest.
Medifast
According to the website, Medifast helps you lose up to 20 pounds in one month without shopping, cooking or counting. Now, I haven't tried these products, but my hunch is you lose so much weight because you can't stand to eat them after awhile. Medifast "meals" are individual packets of dried stuff you mix with water like soups, stew, chili and hot beverages. In the army, they call them "MREs." You also get shakes, puddings, oatmeal and bars. Even Medifast concedes you don't want to live on these meals alone and recommends you add one "lean/green meal" (i.e. real food) each day consisting of 5 oz of red meat or 7 oz of poultry/fish plus salad greens or veg (which you provide). Four weeks of Medifast "meals" will set you back $275, including shipping.
Nutrisystem
This "easy-to-follow plan features low Glycemic Index, "good carb" NutriSystem(r) Nourish(tm) foods with optimal amounts of protein to help keep you satisfied and your blood sugar levels stable." One step up from Medifast, Nutrisystem offers shelf-stable products you heat and eat. A sample day might be something like apple toaster pastry (you mean a Pop Tart?), black bean tortilla soup and, for dinner, a flame broiled beef patty. Just the patty. No bun, no tomato, no lettuce, no pickle, not even any onion. Oh, you also get "dessert" - and under that category on the sample menus they include BBQ soy chips. The plan recommends you add fresh produce and dairy to round out your meals. Four weeks costs about $323 plus $16 shipping.
Home Bistro
It's a little bit of a cheat to include Home Bistro in this list, because they're not really a diet plan per se, but the food snob in me admires their apparent reverence for food (or at least for menu writing). Here's how they describe one of their "flash frozen" entrees:
"A marinated, bone-in, veal chop in a creamy morel sauce made with shallots, morel mushrooms, and white wine served alongside brown rice pilaf accented with onions and white wine together with tender baby green beans. " Home Bistro offers an "Eat Healthy For A Week Sampler" which includes dishes like spinach and mushroom-stuffed chicken breast in wild mushroom demi-glace, and herbed cod fillet with tomato coulis. Four weeks of just dinners will cost you just over $400 including shipping.
Jenny Direct
If you can't be bothered to visit the freezer case at your local supermarket, Jenny Craig will ship directly to your door. Once again, you'll have to BYO fruit, vegetables and dairy. You'll also get weekly (nagging?) calls from a consultant included in the four-weekly cost of around $450 plus about $50 in shipping.
Diet-To-Go
Diet-To-Go has "four weeks of different menus that offer excellent variety." Meals are frozen, and might be things like waffles with apples and peaches in light syrup, Reuben sandwich with Russian dressing, citrus salad, or chicken parmesan dinner with roll and broccoli. And everything is included - you don't need to supplement with other foods. Sounding better, but will set you back about $520 for four weeks.
eDiets Deliciously Yours
The online diet leader recently introduced a meal delivery plan, "prepared fresh in restaurant-style kitchens" and shipped refrigerated, not frozen. The company guarantees a full 14-day shelf life from day of receipt if the meals are kept refrigerated, which include breakfast, lunch and dinner, snack or dessert. A sample menu might be banana muffin, hearty black bean turkey chili, beef pot roast with new potatoes and mozzarella cracker snack. Maybe not frozen, but not cheap either, and you will need to add your own non-fat dairy and fresh fruit. Deliciously Yours for about $520.
Dinewise
Dinewise has been providing frozen meals for over 45 years, and offers special items for various tastes/needs (seniors, diabetics, kids and families). Presumably the "Healthy Lifestyle" menus are lower in calories, and might include a 7 grain waffle and yogurt with blueberry compote, beef stew meal, and blackened catfish with rice pilaf and sugar snap peas with carrots. Four weeks of three meals per day costs about $924.
3 Hour Diet At Home
Latin fitness heartthrob Jorge Cruise is currently promoting his "three hour diet" which recommends you eat breakfast within one hour of rising, eat every three hours after that, but stop eating three hours before bedtime. Of course it depends what you eat, and he also recommends you order his very pricey meal plan, shipped refrigerated weekly. I have a sneaking suspicion he's using the same supplier as the Zone Chefs (see below), because one of his sample menus was identical, but you might also get peanut butter and jelly French toast with egg whites and orange, potato chip snack, chicken three bean salad with vinaigrette dressing, yogurt snack, London broil with butternut squash mashed potatoes, asparagus and pesto, and jelly beans for a "treat." Four weeks of Jorge will cost about $1038 - that's including almost $200 worth of shipping.
Zone Chefs
Although not officially affiliated with Dr Sears' Zone Diet, Zone Chefs offers meals based on the popular plan and offers frozen or pricier fresh weekly delivery of three meals and two snacks. Here's what you might get: sweet potato pancakes with turkey bacon and eggs, grilled chicken breast Caesar salad with apple compote and greens, turkey chili with black beans and crackers, smores snack bar and orange cranberry mini muffin. You'll be in the Zone for a rather hefty $1320 for 4 weeks.
Sunfare
Depending on where you live, you may find a company like Sunfare willing to deliver food to your door EVERY DAY. Sunfare serves just two markets (Los Angeles and Phoenix) and hand delivers freshly made, refrigerated meals by 7:00 am. The Sunfare Signature Diet is based on a "30/40/30" formula similar to the Zone Diet, meaning for every meal or snack, 30% will be lean protein, 40% whole wheat, low-carb or fresh, low-glycemic carbohydrates, and 30% heart healthy, monounsaturated fat. A sample menu might include an American omelet with fresh fruit, chicken scallopini, vegetables and salad, yogurt snack, citrus salmon served with sautéed asparagus and green salad, and a cheese and peanut butter snack. Sunfare is the priciest of the bunch, at $1400 for 4 weeks.
Schwans
Possibly the granddaddy of all food delivery companies is Schwans. In 1952 the company began delivering ice cream to farm families in rural Minnesota and now has 6,000 Customer Service Managers schlepping 400 different products around the country. Most of the products are designed to feed a family of at least four, but there are some meals that serve two, and single-serve items like Cajun crawfish pies (although you have to order four at a time). But if you're rustling up dinner for a dieting crowd, it could be right up your alley. The unbreaded chicken breast meal with herb garlic potato and vegetable blend and French baguette is just $28.47 and serves 8. That's less than 4 bucks a person.