September 3, 2010

Glycemic Friendly Meal Delivery Programs

Exclusive: This is a Superb offer.  Actually, it's the best we've seen in over 3 years.

SPECIAL OFFER: 4 Weeks FREE.  This is pretty incredible.  Usually they offer 1-week free, but for a limited time GlycemicEdge users can get 4 WEEKS FREE.  All the benefits, none of the work! 

Better still, the daily price is essentially exactly the same as you would pay to prepare these yourself!

Nutrisystem - Mens and Womens GI Diet  (Special: 4-weeks Free

 

eDiets - Fresh Prepared Meal Delivery (Special Offer: 1-week Free)

Meal Delivery Program Benefits – the Real Story:

► Nutritionally balanced specifically for the Glycemic Index (out-of-the box)
► Auto-pilot Approach (easy)
► Hassle-free (no need to memorize glycemic load values or verify sugars)
► Affordable – see comments below (compared to buying & cooking yourself)

One of the most frequent comments we get on the glycemic index is how it can be difficult to understand (at first).  If you're a working adult, managing a family as a mom, or just don't have time but want the benefit of a diet and nutrition plan which emphasizes the benefits of the glycemic index, a meal delivery program is a great option. 

Nutrisystem:Basic Plan credentials

Nutrisystem has backed off some of the glycemic index named promotional elements, but their basic plan still uses the glycemic index and balances on carbs, sugars, and nutrition. 

Foods are packaged and freeze sealed, with portions being generally well balanced and tasty.
We liked the sheer volume of their menu – there are literally hundreds of choices available.

Users select breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks + desserts.
It was fun and easy to keep a variety of foods coming — and made planning lunch to bring to work or have on-hand easy and guilt-free.

Nutrisystem costs vary depending on if you're going with a 5 or 7-day plan, whether you're opting for snacks + desserts, or just the basics of the main meals.
We kept costs to around $15/day, which honestly is about the same as we paid buying and cooking the food ourself. 

eDiets: Fresh Meal Delivery

eDiets is the largest online diet provider in the world, and they've jumped in with both feet to the meal-delivery service a couple years ago.

Their foods are delicious.  These really are freshly prepared (we we're pleasantly surprised).

Ranked #1 by epicurious.com as the best tasting diet delivery program, I don't know if I'll really call these "gourmet" as they say but they are quite good.

The eDiets glycemic impact meals are really well done and professionally portioned.
Costs here are slightly higher (from $19.95/day), again right in the ball-park for what you would pay to buy & cook 3+ meals for yourself.  Seriously – we pinched pennies and did all the work ourselves and added up expenses, and doing-it-ourselves spent between $13 and $28 buying and doing all the preparation ourself/day. 

The Belly of the Meal Delivery Decision

For most of our readers, it comes down to time.  Does the benefit of time & convenience make this a good choice for you.
From a pure cost perspective, it really is comparable to what you'll be paying to do it yourself.

We think Nutrisystem is a solid choice.  They've got inexpensive plans.  They've been doing this for a LONG time. 
The process to order & receive your food is painless and laughably easy.
The foods are pre-packaged, frozen, and won't offer the level of pure freshness you can get with eDiets though.

The eDiets plan includes the glycemic index foods or foods from any of the other 20+ diet plans eDiets services.
That gives you a lot of additional flexibility.

Lastly, we still think for responsible nutrition and health you'll want to educate yourself on the benefits a low glycemic diet brings.
A meal delivery plan is like 'glycemic index compliance' on auto-pilot.  But it's not substitute to lifelong wellness – so educate yourself too.
Stay up to date with the latest glycemic index values and load by consulting our glycemic index chart information.

But it sure makes things easy…

Note: We looked at other meal delivery services (Medifast, and many others) but they are more general in nature and at best offer carb-friendly menu's but not low glycemic meal formulations.  If that changes, we'll add them to the review list here and try it again…

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eDiets Test Drive

Starting the glycemic index diet is a lot easier with some structured help to get going on the right track.  Interactive (online) plans are the cheapest way to get started – and the provider that consistently ranks #1 from our readers is eDiets – preferred by 55% of readers of GlycemicEdge.com.

We get a lot of emails from those wondering how the eDiets program works.  They offer a free profile analysis featuring their Glycemic Impact diet plan – but what can you expect when you sign up?  We tested it last week…

Part 1: Signing up for their Free GI Diet Profile Analysis

Pretty easy and clean process.  Includes realistic goal setting and timeframes for when you want to hit your weight loss goal.  Also includes BMI (body mass index) calculations.

Part 2: Inside eDiets: Progress Charts (your Diet Dashboard)

We love this.  It puts all your key data into one place – including starting health points, goals, daily calorie guides, BMI levels (original, current, and goal BMI).  Visual display of your weight loss by date.  eDiets also provides a sliding bar and customized interactive health plans for exercise to accelerate your daily/weekly weight loss goals.

Part 3: Shopping Lists and Glycemic Index Specifics

This is where the real planning and help begins.  Plans and guides specific to the Glycemic Index plan – our favorite is their interactive shopping list.  It’s printable (makes it easy to hit the grocery store with low GI approved foods), plus eDiets has pre-planned low GI Meal Plans that are pre-approved to be GI friendly.

The shopping list includes categories for meat, frozen foods, produce, canned, dry goods, fruits/juices, and more (like candy – yes, candy….)

Part 4: Glycemic Index Interactive Plans and ‘jumpstart’ guides to get started

Overall, we continue to be really impressed by eDiets interactive plans.  They’re cheap (about $4/week – a real bargain compared to most of their competitors) and make a huge difference — especially if you’re just getting started or thinking about getting started on a low GI diet but need help to see how it works and pick the right foods on an ongoing basis. We would like to see even more recipes and videos is one of our few gripes.

Also – eDiets (like NutriSystem, MediFast, and others) now offers a delivery plan that includes the Glycemic Index.  So whether you go the online plan (do it yourself shopping) or delivery (autopilot – everything is done for you) it’s a great choice to get started.  Click here to get a free GI diet profile to test it out yourself.

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