Wrap Up: Food Delivery Program
Well, I gave the program 5 weeks, as many weeks as they have menus. Overall, the convenience factor was relatively high. The program offers a local "delivery" option in the SF/Bay Area, whereby you choose a delivery site from which you pick up your orders twice weekly. My first pick up location was in my hometown and became problematic because I could never get the Friday pickup before Monday morning. So I changed to a location that was in between my parents' house and Fella's place (where I would weekend). This increased convenience greatly. My advice: choose your local pickup spot wisely (or opt for direct delivery altogether).
My take on the food quality was not so high. As many of you know, I'm a bit of a "foodie," a big reason why I am in need of a food program to begin with. So my critique may be a little skewed. However, I would rate the food somewhere slightly better than Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice/Smart Ones, based solely because it's all fresh. With that said, the program clearly uses items that are not-so-fresh.
I'm finishing the asparagus, artichoke, and roast red bell pepper "salad" of my final meal (lunch) as I type. The artichokes and roasted peppers are clearly from a can, which I cannot gripe about--I use both things regularly in my kitchen. But I draw the line there. Food Program, however, takes it one step further and uses canned asparagus, as well. That's not OK seeing as how fresh asparagus is rather abundant in these parts and there are far superior frozen options available when it's not. Another side salad in their repertoire uses canned mushrooms and that to me is pretty abhorrent.
And their breakfasts were overall mediocre. Their pancakes were great, but there are only three varieties, which means you get them for one morning in three of the five weeks. Similarly, their egg dishes were quite good, too, but again, not prolific enough throughout the weeks. The one morning of French toast: also enjoyable, but I'm sampling the Trader Joe's frozen low fat FT later this week to compare the quality.
The most common breakfast items are their muffins and "scones." These are hands down dreadful. Either sticky to the point where you wonder if they were sufficiently baked, or dry and dense to the point where you wonder who approved the recipe for general consumption.
Other items packaged with breakfasts and lunches: yogurt (the Dannon Danimals strawberry was actually much better than I expected, but I skipped the Yoplait Light peach entirely and opted for the WW flavors of my own choosing, purchased independently of the program). The "fruit" offerings were pretty deplorable. Mostly canned, the fresh items occasionally offered (apples and oranges) were far under-ripe, rotten, or both!
Did I lose weight? Yes. And no. The first few weeks I was down fractions of a pound each, which of course ultimately add up to whole pounds. But I guess I was left rather dissatisfied with the food towards the end and that lead me to find food satisfaction elsewhere. And there was a spell where I wasn't able to hit the gym regularly.
Would I recommend it to others? It depends, of course!
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