I haven't even tasted the food yet and I am already very impressed, excited even, to start this program.
I am one of the luckiest women in the world: I got to stay home with my daughter for a whopping four years when she was a baby. During that time, I was so active. I was thinner and healthier than I have ever been in my life.
Then I went back to work. While on maternity leave I had resolved to make a career change, never to sit behind a desk again. But circumstance and necessity forced me to break that resolution. Now, a few years and thousands of hours of inactivity later, I have a lower back issue, a mild but chronic crick in my neck and a solid 15-20 pounds of extra weight. With a no-minute-to spare schedule that starts each day a 5:45am and ends at 9:30pm, I have zero time during the week to exercise, and my workday is so crazy I often find myself skipping meals -- or getting to the point of such dire hunger that I make bad meal decisions, simply to cram food in my face. I'm seeing the effects of this dietary roller coaster in how I look and more importantly, how I feel, and something has to change.
So this morning I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for a meal plan. I am so existentially tired of thinking about food: planning meals for the week that will satisfy both mine and my six-year-old's palate; picking from the limited set of vegetable choices that she will eat (asparagus was in; now it's out); relying a little too heavily on carbs, because oh my god who doesn't love mac n cheese; looking through recipes for something new to stave off the food boredom; writing the weekly grocery list; going to Stop n' Shop every weekend and linebacking through the self-checkout line (it's more of a science than an art)... I'm just so burned out on the whole thing. I find myself fantasizing about a pill that I could take that could simply satisfy both my nutritional needs as well as my appetite... and then I get so sad. Preparing food is an essential expression of my creativity. Baking muffins and cookies with my daughter is one of our most meaningful ways of spending time together (it's science! And fun!). But holy crap, am I ready for someone ELSE to cook for a change. I am running low on mental bandwidth, and I am just really freaking tired.
So I did a little Googling, saw 5 Squares come up, and thought, "Hmmm." My first criteria was local -- I didn't want to be signing up for a meal plan that would be flown in from some industrial facility in Nebraska -- might as well call up American Airlines and ask if they do home delivery. I read a NY Times article that really touted the quality of the cuisine by Zone Manhattan, and I was pretty much set to go with that plan.
When I went to the Zone Manhattan website, however, I was a little taken aback. I realize that this is no barometer of their abilities as a food provider, but finding more than one typo on more than one page of a website suggests a lack of credibility. That, coupled with the myriad negative reviews on that meal plan's customer service found here on Yelp, prompted me to think twice about signing up -- especially given its high price tag. It just seemed like a gamble.
Enter Five Squares. Local? Based in New Rochelle. Food expertise? Check. Well-thought dietary agenda? Check. Well-written and user intuitive website? Check. Then the kicker -- I had a question about when the food would be delivered and called customer service. I can't be sure, but I suspect I got the owner of the company on the phone. She was awesome. She was smart and thoughtful, excited to have me as a customer. My delivery question was put to rest, and she encouraged me to be as specific as possible about my food likes and dislikes... I joked that I'm such an omnivore I felt a little guilty about not having any food restrictions and so clicked 'shellfish' out of obligation... she laughed and then told me I would regret missing out on their jumbo shrimp dish. I went back and unclicked the preference, now curious and excited to start trying the food.
I can't wait till Monday for my food to arrive. It's the intersection of online convenience and personal care-taking that goes beyond mere dieting for me. Losing weight will always be a challenge, but now I feel like I've got a partner helping me through it. (I tried Weight Watchers last year and while I definitely got into all the data analysis, it became a second job, what with all the meal planning, points tracking, exercise monitoring, and logging. And I am really not interested in a support group -- I just need practical help.) I will report back once the meals arrive to comment on the quality and taste of the food. I'm optimistic and hopeful that this will be a total win-win. read more