Hi All -
I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. I've found these forums, especially the meal-delivery discussion to be incredibly helpful. Meal Delivery really helped me discover what portions are and to stop thinking about food all day long. I love the convenience.
I wanted to share my experience with the meal plans I've tried.
eDiets -
I started with eDiets on a whim. I had never even heard of meal delivery before and wasn't sure what to expect. The website was very user-friendly and it was easy to see what you are getting and make substitutions. It was great in the beginning, although the portions were very small. The food was generally good, but after the first two weeks I grew tired of the food. I liked the lunches, I chose mostly soups, but didn't really enjoy a lot of the dinners. The vegetables were strange. Good Meals: Muffins, soups, burrito, chicken potato casserole, california breakfast, granola. Bad Meals: Meatloaf, vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, most of the "snacks" (birdseed, nuts, granola, etc).
I learned that I really liked kozy-shack pudding. I found them in the grocery store and made their fat-free tapioca pudding a staple in my diet. This helped a lot in the beginning as I l would just have a pudding (sometimes 2) at the time I would have normally have had a big fattening dessert.
I stayed on eDiets for the contractual 4 weeks. I would consider going back, but I think if I did, I'd do the signature plan. This plan is more expensive, but I've heard it has nicer meal choices. Overall, I was very happy with the eDiets plan. It was also nice to have free access to their website and discussion forums. I still have access through this year even though I'm not on the plan anymore.
Healthy Chef Creations
I moved on to Healthy Chef Creations for 2 weeks after learning about it from a poster on this website. They are an all-organic, healthy, higher-end meal delivery company out of Florida. They are on the expensive side, so I followed the recommendation of the poster and ordered just 3 combo meals a week (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack) and split that out throughout the week. Their meals are much larger and come with 2 sides (even breakfast). Dinners also come with soup or salad. I would use the soup/salad and maybe a side for a my lunches or split a meal into two. I'm not a big morning eater, so I'd make my own breakfast and ate their breakfast for dinner. They had things like pancakes with turkey bacon and fruit, whole-wheat french toast, omelettes, steak, crabcakes, fish, etc. I loved their hummus with pita chips and veggies. Overall, excellent food, but as I anticipated, I grew tired of it as well. Also, "organic" isn't really my thing. Great company and product!
Diet To Go
Next, I moved on to Diet To Go. Many say it is better than eDiets. All I can say is Yuck! The food arrives mostly frozen and you are told to freeze half and leave the rest in the fridge to thaw. Well, maybe my defrost skills are off, but it seemed like I was always pulling out semi-frozen meals to eat. I definitely agree that the food would be better cooked in the oven. I used the microwave mostly though and usually got watery mushy food. I remember a particularly bad turkey meatloaf that was not edible. Some of the sandwhiches were nice if you spent the time to grill them right (turkey reuban, wahoo burger). They provide a few fruits and fruit juices with their meals.
The worst part about Diet to Go is their customer service. I wanted to try them for one week, so I placed my order on their site. I wasn't sure whether I had purchased one week only or if it was a recurring order where you have to call to cancel. I also wasn't even sure when the food would arrive. I called a few days later to find out and cancel any future orders since we were going on vacation and would not be around. They said ok. We got our first shipment and went on vacation. We came back 10 days later to find a box of DTG food on our doorstep; it had been outside for many days. We called to complain and get a refund, they said they had no record of our call to cancel. We ended up paying for that week. So now we had to again cancel or we'd get another package. They'd said they'd have to check on it and see if they could cancel. Well they apparently were able to cancel the shipment, BUT decided to charge us anyway. We paid for nothing!!! Again, we call back and they said they have no record of our calls. My boyfriend offers to give them our cell-phone call history to prove we called. They say they will look into it and call us back. The next week, we get ANOTHER package. What does it take to stop these shipments??? I had plenty of groceries, we weren't expecting a food shipment. We are irate now and call. My boyfriend tries to get the name of the people we are talking to (so we have future proof), but they refuse to tell us their name. In the end we received 3 shipments, one we asked for, one that was rotten, and one that was completely unexpected. We ended up paying for two. Be warned, if you deal with this company, make sure you get email confirmations, and the names of the people you talk to.
I might try Fresh Diet out of Florida in the future. They look fantastic and seem to be delivering to more of Florida.
Right now, I think I've graduated from meal-delivery. I've learned what real portions are and I've found I can make a lot of the same things these companies provide (only so I like them). It's all about planning the week, making healthier choices, stocking your fridge full of yummy options, and portions. Sometimes I'll pre-portion the meals into very small containers to avoid the tempatation of eating too much.
I hope this has helped someone, best of luck and thx for all of the info over the last few months!!!
Hi! Are there any DTG people out there? I am feeling much better and slowly making progress. I guess we all have our bad days. I weighed in for my second week on DTG and I"ve lost a total of 6 lbs 
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