Packaged Meals and Clinics - Nutrisystem, Medifast, Jenny Craig, EtcFor support and questions about diet meal delivery programs, or weight loss clinics that offer prepackaged meals and products.
Carrie, I have stayed away from the soups...why? It is to freaking hot to eat soup. I'm sure I'll have to eat it eventually...but, right now, it is sitting in my freezer.
Grace, what KLC said.
KLC, I'm going to log in on Sunday morning to hear about your loss!
Wow, Grace that is tough! I never knew! I guess if I have it, I'll have to live with it. The thought of doing that for two weeks just to spend the day on the toilet does not sound very fun.
Thanks for all of that information.
Yeah, not fun, but if your symptoms are really bad (rashes, abdominal distress, extreme weightloss or weight gain [I gained 60 pounds in 10 months due to the extreme level of sensitivity I had reached without knowing/putting it in check], migraines [I had DEBILITATING migraines], OCD behaviors, etc.), you really don't mind getting the diagnosis (even the "at home" version) because it sets you on the path to being HEALTHY for the first time in who knows how long. Believe me, I am very pleased to be the healthiest I've been in my adult life, simply due to removing wheat-gluten from my diet.
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Originally Posted by MelissaV
I'm not taking pics of the food. I'm just eating it. Most of it is very good. I did email my person and tell her to please make sure I never received another turkey concoction. I do not have the service you have, Grace...but, they are pretty responsive.
Well, bummer they're not so awesome, but good that they're not BAD. Somewhat good news, eh?
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Originally Posted by MelissaV
As of today, I'm down 3 pounds. It is working...as long as I follow the plan to a T...and don't add my own foods. Granted, I'm hungry..but, I'm losing. I'm hungry because I've been overeating!
Woo hoo! I mean, not "woo hoo" to being hungry, but if you are now learning the right portion sizes and how much of your plate needs to be protein vs. veggies vs. non-plant-carbs, that's all good stuff, right? Yay! And HUGE congrats on the 3 lbs.! Way to go!!
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Originally Posted by RosieCat
Hi, All ! Tonight will end my 5th day on BMD and I am really happy with the food. My package is on the way and due on my doorstep tomorrow. I DID like the turkey! I have actually loved all the lunch and dinners but I am a veteran of the diet wars and have eaten some really weird concoctions in my quest for the body I vaguely remember having back in the summer of '72.
Yay, Rosie!! Glad you're having fun with it.
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Originally Posted by RosieCat
Well, it's time for me to head home to the pork loin dinner. Salmon last night was terrif!
Best to all- onward and downward!
I just love that phrase!! How was the pork? Ooh, salmon. Yum!
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Originally Posted by MelissaV
Well, today was my official weigh in and I'm down 2.5 pounds. I was hoping for more with it being my first week...but, 2.5 is OK.
It's VERY okay! You can see by my ticker what a slow loser I am! Less than a pound a week, here. So, not ideal, but dangit, I'm SO going in the right direction. And that couldn't be said with certainty, back when I was "on my own."
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Originally Posted by MelissaV
I just had the chicken fajitas and that was GOOD. I must say that I'm looking forward to "MY night".
I liked those at first, but found they were just a little too "oniony" for my tastes, eventually. But still good. (Heck, it's all good.)
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Originally Posted by MelissaV
Anyone else weighing in? I'd like to hear it!
My weigh-in was yesterday and it's down from the high point of just a couple of days before, but not as low as it had gotten at my "random, not official weigh-in, step on the scale just to see how it's going" point on Sunday. But I'm 203.8 today and that's just gonna have to do. Like I said, it's down from earlier in the week but not as low as it could've been if I hadn't gotten spooked by Onederland, as I had mentioned earlier.
Whatever! It's all in the right direction, dangit!
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Originally Posted by klc
Melissa! 2 1/2 lbs is wonderful! Congrats!
I agree! I'd love 2.5 pounds in a week!! Maybe that'll happen at some point. (Hey, a girl can dream, right?)
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Originally Posted by klc
My weight in is on Sunday mornings
Good luck! *fingers crossed* for you!!!!! For all of us!
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Originally Posted by klc
I'm really hoping this works, cause I LOVE the food so far...yep, even the turkey...the turkey itself was so-so, but that cranberry sauce was to die for. It's amazing how different peoples tastes are. The chocolate was my least favorite protein drink, but I betcha it's alot of peoples favorite.
Not a favorite, here. I learned, though, that if I mixed 1/2 of a Protoccino Shake with 1/2 of a Chocolate Shake and used HOT water instead of cold, it made a really great mocha/coffee/shake thingy. And THAT, I liked. By itself, the chocolate is too "gritty" for me, or something. Not sure how to describe it.
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Originally Posted by klc
Grace, don't let your mind turn Onederland into a spooky place. And PLEASE don't beat yourself up by second-guessing what you've already accomplished. You are incredible, successfully dropping the pounds with one arm tied behind your back with the gluten thing. You need to mosey thru the door and give those of us who are still on the yellow brick road a full report on how beautiful it is!! Go Gracie, go Gracie...
-Kathy
Kathy, I totally needed that. Thank you! Really big THANK YOU. You're right. I forget how big an obstacle I have with the whole gluten-free thing. That I lose ANY weight without hiring a personal chef to do EVERYTHING for me is a miracle. It's not easy and sometimes it's frustrating because--as much as I try not to/know better than to--I will compare myself and my progress to others and just get DOWN about how hard it is sometimes.
But I HAVE to remember that I am now 37 pounds DOWN from where I was at Christmas. That's HUGE! I didn't put on this weight all at once and I'm not going to lose it all at once either. Learning better eating habits, knowing what my plate is supposed to look like, and following a plan modified just enough that I can do it every day--from here on out--is key.
Thank you for the reminder. I and the 37 pounds I no longer carry around with me thank you!
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Originally Posted by Carrie3146
Know what I can't figure out for the life of me? Has anyone looked at the soups?! WHY do the packages all contain one and a half servings?!
I could understand if they were including a pre-packaged product (some of the snacks seemed to be that way too), but this is their own product, their packaging...it doesn't make sense to me. You're a diet plan, you're trying to teach and promote portion control and label-reading, etc...but you include a meal in your plan that doesn't make sense. Are you supposed to throw a part of it away uneaten?
Why don't they just make it a smaller package? Or, if you're supposed to eat the whole thing anyway, then SAY it is one portion, and just up all the nutrition info (calories, protein, fiber, etc.) accordingly.
Just my gripe of the night!
I don't know for sure about the soups, because they're not gluten-free and therefore I've never had them, BUT I did notice they do that with some of the snacks too.
Like the Lemon and Herb Protein Crisps for example. It says on the bag that it's 110 calories per serving. But there's 1.5 servings per bag. So that's 165 calories per bag
At first I was concerned, but then I remembered that my CSR had sent me a cool nutritional labeling chart including all of the calories and fat, protein, sodium, as well as ingredients. (This was when we were figuring out what was gluten-free and what I could have each day vs. what I couldn't have.)
When I looked at the "daily calories" calculation, any time I was to have a snack pack like that, they had it listed as the full bag's worth of calories on the grid. So, there was no need for me to calculate or only eat a portion of the bag. I was to eat it all.
BistroMD does "make" much of the food they send us, but they also have at least two other suppliers from which they order food (I know this because there's one from which I can never get stuff, b/c they dust everything with flour; the other is fair game, as is anything made by BistroMD's in-house team), so they can't ACTUALLY control that we're receiving a "serving and a half" (in terms of labeling), since they don't manufacture those snacks. What they DO do, though, is calculate that we will eat the entire bag at snack time, and that's calculated in that day's overall calories.
So, as long as you're not switching snacks so that you have a smaller one on a day when it had been calculated that you would have a "serving and a half" one, you're fine.
I can only assume that's the same deal with the soup. Your caloric intake for the day probably already accounts for eating the whole portion they sent. If you were to NOT eat part of it, you'd be under-eating your calories that day. No need to do that!
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Originally Posted by MelissaV
Grace, what KLC said.
Thank you. Y'all are awesome.
I'm going to have a great weekend. It is decided!!
I love this board. There may not be many of us (yet), but we're all bad to the bone!
Grace, congrats on your weight drop! We've all had those mid week teasers, but as long as the start is bigger than the end, it was a good week. BTW, I've started using my Wii as my scale...you're right, it does typically weight a pound or so lower than my WW digital scale, but it's more consistent. On my regular scale, I can weigh 3 times back to back and get 3 weights that are up to 2lbs apart (I think it depends on where my center of balance is). The Wii is rock solid. Plus, it cracks me up when it says "ouch" when I step on it!
Melissa, I may have found a solution to the late nite hunger. There are 3 things in the universe that you can depend on...death, taxes, and me wanting to eat at 10:00pm. I rarely get my hot chocolate in with breakfast. Last nite, I fixed a hot chocolate (yep, you guessed it, at 10:00). It's OK in the morning, but it's GREAT at 10:00. It completely killed off any munch urge.
To those of you on the 5 day plan, did you get an odd menu this week (i.e. not the first 5 days of the blue menu)? My weekly menu (and the food that matched it) was a 5 day menu dated 8/5/2008 and instead of 'blue' it said MBI-2. I'm not complaining, cause everything on it looks like something I'll love...there was even a screwup on it and instead of the steak, they gave me a second chicken marsala, which is one of my favorites so far. The biggie was that it still had the Mahi Mahi on it. If that had been left off, I'd have been PO'ed cause I've been dying to try it. I looked to see if it matched any of the Biggest Loser menu's, but it didn't.
BTW, my plan was to do a 6 week rotation thru the regular Bistro menu (I start the 7 day plan next week), see which foods I can't live without, and go look at the Biggest Loser plan (less expensive) to see what you have to give up, just to see if I wanted to swap over. I went to the Biggest Loser link, and the prices are now the same as the regular Bistro plan. It's kind of a bummer, but nothing huge...I haven't found many things that I'd be willing to do without.
Which brings up my food commentary. Although the apple/cherry chicken thingy was one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth, the apple pork thingy didn't turn my crank. Not bad, just OK. If everything else hadn't been so incredibly good, I'd have probably loved this. Next is the cinnamon roll that came with this week's order OMG!!! Poked a hole in the pack, nuked it for 45 seconds, and it was amazingly good. Grace, this may be worth a ride on the porcelain throne for (just kidding...it was good, but not THAT good)
And while I'm being the devil incarnate, for those of you who like to imbibe on the weekends, I did a full trade study on wine vs. vodka. Final outcome was vodka. The bang for the buck (or alcohol for the calorie/carbs as the case may be) decision was vodka. So for 65 calories (98 if you do a full 1.5 oz shot), you can have a 'yay, I made it thru another week' drink. I'm having an Absolute with Cranberry Raspberry Fuze, even as we speak...uhh...type.
But I HAVE to remember that I am now 37 pounds DOWN from where I was at Christmas. That's HUGE!
I had to throw this out to all of you. I raise and show Great Danes, so obviously, I buy large bags of food (35-40lbs). I wrestle a bag a week from the store, into my car, into the house, etc. (with only 2 4-legged kids, I only go thru 1 bag a week). Grace, for a sanity check, go to your local pet store, and pick up a large bag of dogfood, and carry it around the store for awhile. Then put it back on the shelf, and walk the same path. THAT is when you appreciate the weight loss. I'm going to Petsmart tonite, and I can carry a bag of dogfood (sans cart) out to my car, with the same effort that it would have taken me just to walk to my car, before I started this jouney. QED.
-Kathy
To those of you on the 5 day plan, did you get an odd menu this week (i.e. not the first 5 days of the blue menu)? My weekly menu (and the food that matched it) was a 5 day menu dated 8/5/2008 and instead of 'blue' it said MBI-2. I'm not complaining, cause everything on it looks like something I'll love...there was even a screwup on it and instead of the steak, they gave me a second chicken marsala, which is one of my favorites so far. The biggie was that it still had the Mahi Mahi on it. If that had been left off, I'd have been PO'ed cause I've been dying to try it. I looked to see if it matched any of the Biggest Loser menu's, but it didn't.
I didn't get a delivery this week. I decided I needed to save a few $$ and could use up some of the extras I still had, so my freezer is breathing a little right now.
My shipment last week was all screwy though. First, they included a bunch of breakfast-y things I can't have. Then there were things in the wrong packages (a package labeled chicken stuffed with apples & cherries was really the chicken stuffed w/cheese & brocolli), and incomplete packages (the steak was in a sealed package and supposed to have two sides but only had one), and so on.
Are people on the five-day actually getting a five-day menu?! Because every menu I have ever received is for seven days. And many times I get some meal in there that isn't ON the menu on any of those seven days!
I really wonder about this place!!!
What is the Biggest Loser thing? Another plan? I keep seeing it on the email receipts, and I think they added it to the bios and things now (and that's another thing...do I really need a frigging bio every single week?!!!), but I have no idea why it's there. I just figured there was some promotional tie-in to the show.
Are people on the five-day actually getting a five-day menu?! Because every menu I have ever received is for seven days. And many times I get some meal in there that isn't ON the menu on any of those seven days!
I really wonder about this place!!!
ssshhhhhh!!! If I were getting 7 days of food and only paying for 5, I don't think I'd say anything. That's great! My 2 weeks of 5 day plans had exactly that...5 days.
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Originally Posted by Carrie3146
What is the Biggest Loser thing? Another plan? I keep seeing it on the email receipts, and I think they added it to the bios and things now (and that's another thing...do I really need a frigging bio every single week?!!!), but I have no idea why it's there. I just figured there was some promotional tie-in to the show.
They started a Biggest Loser Plan (endorsed by NBC) that was supplied by BistroMD, but it only has a 4 week rotation, and it had a more limited menu, without as much variety. For example, when I first looked at it, there was at least 1 day a week that it had a BistroMD lunch as a dinner. At a first glance, my gotcha with it was that it didn't have as much fish as the regular BistroMD, which is one of the things I love about this plan. On the 7 day plan, it supplied all 7 dinners, instead of the night off that Bistro has, but was $10 less (after shipping). The 5 day plan was the same price per day that the 7 day plan was, which made it a good bit cheaper than the regular Bistro 5 day plan. But if they're the same price, there's no contest! Regular Bistro wins hands down.
There may be some 'oddities' here an there, but I have not gotten anything that wasn't top quality, and when I do need to call about something, I get a real person on the phone immediately. After doing a myriad of these plans, I'm not easily impressed, but I am with these guys so far. JMO
-Kathy
Good Morning! It is Saturday here on the east coast and I am 2 lbs lighter after my first week.(As you can see by the picture, my scale is not exactly high tech!) Yippee!! Is the continent sharting to shift yet ?
I'm on the five day plan and, yes, the menu was different than I expected. I am getting a full set of everything, though, I must say that the vanilla donut was pretty yucky this morning. Maybe in combo with the cinnamon chocolate? Oh well, I can truly eat anything-and have!
For my two days off, I bought Kashi and South Beach frozen food and kept in the calorie range of BMD. I could not find SB breakfast burrittos, though and had lean pockets breakfast. As I said, I can eat anything. I kept to multiple meals throughout the day. That is one of the reasons that I chose BMD, the multiple meal thing seems to work for me.
I treated myself to wine on TH. The wine was called "Oops" I tend to buy wine due to funny name, funny label and price (preferably low). The "Oops" was really nice. Perhaps you need a good sense of humor to grow good grapes. Now there's a thought. I think I may have had more wine than food calories but, hey, it worked for me!
Grace, the pork loin was not the best meal I had all week. It was good but it was beat by the others. I saw the one hundred mark eight years ago during an Atkins run. I then gained back more than I had lost. Sound familiar? I cannot wait for you to share that next big moment! I have two friends with celiac disease and one has diabetes, too. You are doing so well!
Many years ago I had a friend who, at certain party moments, woud stand on a table and shout "the higher the fewer". No one, including her during sober moments, had any idea what it meant. So, I'll sign off with the more meaingful (I hope)
starting the plan next week but I have a few question?
Hi Guys,
I have been on a diet meal delivery program since Feb. I decided I needed to try out the Bistro Md plan. My first week will start next week. My questions:
1. I am not much of a sweet breakfast eater. I am much more into a protein meal, i.e. eggbeaters, or poached eggs.. Is there an option to swap out the sweet stuff for a typical protein breakfast ?
2. I see that they supply protein drink mix's Do they sell those seperately in case I can't eat the sweet breakfast stuff?
3. How much will they allow you to customize your menu's.... in case something is just a NO GO for you individually
Good Morning! It is Saturday here on the east coast and I am 2 lbs lighter after my first week.(As you can see by the picture, my scale is not exactly high tech!) Yippee!! Is the continent sharting to shift yet ?
YAAY Rosie. That's great. This has been a good week for team Bistro so far!
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Originally Posted by RosieCat
I treated myself to wine on TH. The wine was called "Oops" I tend to buy wine due to funny name, funny label and price (preferably low). The "Oops" was really nice. Perhaps you need a good sense of humor to grow good grapes. Now there's a thought. I think I may have had more wine than food calories but, hey, it worked for me!
That's a hoot. I'll have to look for it. My wine selection criteria is the same as yours. If you haven't seen it yet, look for "Mad Housewife". The labels are wonderful. FYI, a regular size bottle of wine typically has around 600 calories in it, which really isn't a big hit if you only do this once a week. With the combo of the Bistro food, and allowing myself drinks on the weekends, I honestly don't feel like I'm having to give up much of anything to lose weight, which makes it a WHOLE lot easier to stay with.
-Kathy
Hi Guys,
I have been on a diet meal delivery program since Feb. I decided I needed to try out the Bistro Md plan.
Welcome aboard! The only thing I miss from the 'other plan' is the frittata at breakfast. I think you need to call BMD, and ask them the breakfast questions. I know if there's something you absolutely don't like, you can ask them not to send it again (I'm going to do that with the chili lime snack).
-Kathy
Crenita, I asked them not to send me the turkey again. They said no problem. So, I'm sure they can help you!
Yay! Rosie cat on the two pounds!
Tonight is my free meal. I biked 15 miles this morning and I should be starving..but, I still haven't had lunch yet (it is 3PM!) So, I'm going to have a snack and then...just wait until my free meal to eat.
ssshhhhhh!!! If I were getting 7 days of food and only paying for 5, I don't think I'd say anything. That's great! My 2 weeks of 5 day plans had exactly that...5 days.
Oh, I didn't mean that I was getting 7 days' worth of food. I get 5 days' worth. But the printed menu they include every week lists 7 days of food, so it includes meals and combinations that are not in the box.
Thanks for the info on Biggest Loser. I wonder why they would have a different plan.
Crenita, as people suggested, you probably should call to get all your options, but for me, I usually receive 2 or 3 egg-based breakfasts, and 2-3 protein waffles every week. So if you don't want the sweets, you could just ask them to pull the items with artificial sweeteners, as that was my ony special request.
I'm just barely down (0.3 lb), but I'm thrilled to have done that after last week's 3lb loss. After eating a TON of sushi (with a ton of soy sauce) last nite, I was just glad that I hadn't gained.
My ex (we're still friends) came over last nite, and we played on the Wii until 3:00AM (taking a break to watch Michael Phelps take his 8th). We ate the sushi early, right after he got here (6:00 or so). Around 10:00, we were both hungry. I have NOTHING in the house but BMD food. So I pulled a chicken marsala out of the freezer, heated it up, and we split it as a snack. He raved about how good it was, including how good the veggies were in it. It beat the stew out of going out for a bag of Krystals (which I would have done before)
BTW, if you like cranberry juice, try ocean spay's diet spray. I tried the cranberry and cranberry/grape last nite, and I thought it was wonderful. I'll be getting it again.
I had the pork in papaya sauce for lunch today. I decided to eat this and get it out of the way, because I wasn't crazy about the pork in apple, but I really liked this dish. The mixed veggies were particularly good.
-Kathy
Somewhat good news, eh? 
Yay! And HUGE congrats on the 3 lbs.! Way to go!!
Glad you're having fun with it. 
(just kidding...it was good, but not THAT good)
This has been a good week for team Bistro so far! 