Food and Spirits: Without proper nutrition, no diet or weight-loss program is worth its weight in marketing puffery. Living healthfully is not always convenient or easy, especially when it comes to consistently eating well. All it takes is just one or two ill-planned runs to a fast-food drive-through lane a week and the results of all laborious workouts and good-eating days are gone!

Many busy people who are trying to either lose weight or just eat well have found a workable solution by having all their meals delivered. It is a nutritional system that is both convenient and easy. Here is an alternative that adds luxury to the mix with three gourmet meals and snacks too.

The Fresh Diet program takes it one culinary step upward by delivering three nutritiously balanced meals daily that are prepared by a gourmet chef. Additionally, the food is delivered daily instead of weekly, and the menu offers variety with four selections to choose from for each meal.

Why does it work? This nutritional system for gourmands provides the correct balance of food in proper portions to promote weight loss and wellness. This is achieved by providing a healthy balance of good carbohydrates, such as low-glycemic whole grains, legumes and vegetables, lean meat and fish proteins and healthy fats. 

The Fresh Diet program consists of a healthy balance of 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent fats, and 30 percent proteins. Special menus are offered for diabetic and vegetarian diets. There also are programs specifically for men and women.

What is an example of these gourmet meals? Breakfast one day might be Canadian bacon topped with scrambled eggs and Chinese chives with whole-wheat toast. A sliced turkey breast sandwich with lettuce and tomato on whole-wheat bread is one of the lunch options. One dinner entree is filet mignon with roasted sweet potatoes and jumbo asparagus spears. Hors d'oeuvres and snacks also are included. Delicacies such as crab cake drizzled with a zesty chipotle lime sauce and fruit kabobs with citrus yogurt dip are examples of the twice daily snacks.

How much does it cost? The cost of daily gourmet food delivered ranges from $35 to $60 daily. There are two programs that provide several price points. The cost per day decreases substantially when meals are ordered monthly. The price of the 31-day plan is between $1,395 and $1,090.  

How does it compare to other food delivery systems? It is more expensive when compared to conventional home-delivery nutritional systems. The Nutrisystem program costs less than $11 day or about $344 monthly. While Jenny Craig wanted us to call toll free and find out more, the info gathered from the Jenny Craig forum section on the website indicated that weekly food cost ranges from $80 to $130 per week. So, it could cost as much as $520 per four weeks.

Crunch: The meals for The Fresh Diet are prepared by gourmet chefs and delivered daily. On a yearly basis, that is $16,740 for three gourmet meals and two snacks per day. Private chefs earn from $45,158 to 101,104 according to Salary.com. Another source, Indeed.com, a nationwide job search site, reports that the average salary of a healthy-gourmet chef in Miami is $73,000 yearly. So, when you say that it is an expensive option, it would depend upon the comparison. If it tastes great, it adds up to a decent deal. OK, who's hungry?

To learn more visit www.thefreshdiet.com.

James Rothaar

James has written content for Justluxe.com and other leading online luxury lifestyle magazines. Rothaar previously served as the senior-tenured staff writer for JustLuxe, having worked with the digital magazine since 2005. He resides in Jacksonville, Florida, and works as an independent marketing consultant and freelance writer and copywriter. He is the co-owner of Wild Owl Digital, a boutique mar...(Read More)