I am not a natural-born cook, and this isn't a good thing when you need to lose a few pounds, because restaurant eating just isn't part of a successful diet (not a large part, anyway). So I knew that decreased weight meant increased time preparing dinner at home, so I began looking for services that would streamline the process for me. I was surprised to find many resources, from meal planning apps that help get healthy menus together to services that deliver diet-friendly meals right to your door! Here's many of the services I found that I think are worth a look:
- The 17-Day Diet Meal Delivery Plan: this site delivers a weeks worth of breakfasts, lunches and dinners once each week. The dieting approach is based on the 2011 diet book The 17-Day Diet. Shipping is free and the meals, like berry crepes with turkey sausage, sound delicious. If you prefer minimal fuss, this is definitely worth a look.
- FitOrbit: This is more than just a meal plan. FitOrbit offers personal training and nutritional counseling by personal trainers via website and mobile app. FitOrbit's trainers send recipes and grocery shopping lists, plus you can 'exchange' recipes planned for you for meals at the larger chain restaurants.
- Medifast: similar to the 17-Day Diet service, Medifast ships all of your meals to you once per week. Medifast's website claims that customers who strictly adhere to the meals will lose one to two pounds per week when combined with exercise.
- BistroMD: another complete meal delivery diet service, BistroMD offers a 7-day plan and a 5-day plan, in case you want to work in a cheat day or a fast day (or both).
- eMeals: this is the service I am using, because it allows me to do my own shopping for fresh ingredients, but it's completely planned out for me: I just print out my grocery list and recipes for the week. eMeals has plans for every diet style out there, from low carb to vegan to portion control to calorie restriction and more.
