jcorn59483

A Seattle Sutton just opened near us. I was lucky enough to get two weeks of free meals because I'm writing an article about their program.

Here's my experience:

I chose the 1200 calorie meal plan, although you can opt for the 1500 calorie plan if you want. On the 1200 calorie plan, you need to drink 2 glasses of lowfat, skim milk a day in addition to the meals they give you.

All food is prepared and flown in twice a week so you pick up (or have your meals delivered for an extra charge) twice weekly, usually on Mondays and Thursdays, between 3 and 6 pm.

Some meals are much better than others and I think the price $95.00 a week, is a bit steep since that is the cost PER PERSON..but may be worth it if you really, really hate to cook and you want to know exactly how much you can eat. We are on a food budget and I rarely spend much more than that for an entire WEEK'S worth of meals for our ENTIRE family, so that would add to the costs if I was cooking for the family but eating those meals too.

Last night, I ate a pasta that was pretty good and they do provide desserts like cookies. Portion sizes are VERY small, as you might expect but they are pretty well-balanced, with some dairy, veggies, protein and breads distributed through the day, as well as fresh fruit. Sometimes the fruit is ripe, sometimes it is a bit under ripe.

I had to make quite a bit of space in my fridge to hold all the various containers, which are labeled "lunch, dinner, breakfast" and they give you a schedule of what to eat on what day.

My BIGGEST complaint is that nutritional info, including calories, are NOT included on most of the meal packages, so you have to take it on faith that you are getting 1200 calories a day. Last I heard, they were planning to list each meal and the calorie and nutritional info on their website but it hasn't appeared yet...and I keep looking. I was also a bit concerned when they said they were "changing or revising" some of the meals before putting up the info. Did that mean they were "off " on their calculations?

They do have clients who swear that they've lost weight on this program but it is not just a weight loss program. It was designed to be also a way for people who need to eat low sodium and/or low fat meals, weight problems or not, to meet their needs.

I do feel that the foods are closer to home cooking than frozen or packaged meals and they are defnitely fresher and use more fresh fruits and veggies... but I feel I can still do a better job than they do of making healthy, low-fat meals at a reasonable price.

Their price, however, may not be out of line when you consider that they are flying the food in twice a week, have to keep the store open and have staff on hand to handle customers and deliver meals, etc.