- By Ilona Biro

One week on The Zone diet. Can it really make a difference? Your fearless Health editor takes the bait, and signs up for a week of deliveries of Zone meals. No shopping, no cooking, and meals delivered each night to the door. What's not to like?

You know The Zone, don't you? It's the low-carb diet that made Jennifer Aniston long and lithe, and is keeping half of Hollywood toned and trim. So when the opportunity to try out a new Zone meal delivery service for one week came my way, it was too good to resist. I mean, I wasn't expecting miracles - especially after just seven days. But a week was long enough to notice that I was feeling better than I had in years. Instead of walking up in a fog, I felt mentally sharp, energetic, and ready to take on the world. My mood was buoyant and I had my old self-confidence back again. I couldn't ignore how good this food was making me feel.

And what was I being fed? Dishes like Sesame Coated Salmon Wasabi and Roast Lamb with Pesto and Artcihokes. Snacks like pumpkin cheesecake, corn chips and dip and chocolate-covered Zone bars. Loads of fresh fruit and vegetables. But no spuds, no pasta, and very little bread.

I went off caffeine, and drank herbal teas, decaf coffee and plenty of water. And to prove my heart was really in this thing, I even cut out my nightly glass of wine.

Here's how it worked: the folks at The Specialty Gourmet called me up to ask my height, weight, food allergies and address. Then every night between 9 pm and 6 am, they would drop off a cooler on my front porch. In the morning I would wake to find three Zone meals and two Zone snacks, neatly packed inside, in microwaveable containers. Each night I'd put out the cooler and they'd exchange it with a full one containing my next day's supply. What could be simpler?

It started well enough on Sunday night when the sound of someone on my front porch alerted me to the arrival of my first cooler. Carrying it in, I resisted the temptation to eat the snack item - a slice of orange walnut bundt cake. A good thing too, because the next day I needed that snack badly.

Waking up the next morning, I made myself an herbal tea and opened up the West Coast breakfast parfait. A big container of Balkan-style plain yogurt was sprinkled with a muesli-like mixture of ground nuts, granola, sunflower seeds, poppyseeds and raisins, and topped with fresh strawberries and orange sections. Didn't feel hungry after that, though by 10:30 am I was tucking into my morning snack. It was that bundt cake, dense and moist and hey, wait a minute! Was it possible to be eating this stuff and still be on a diet?

Lunch was Chinese chicken savoy, a salad of chicken breast, sugar peas, and lettuce, topped with orange sections and a tangy soy dressing. Dinner was Sirloin pork roast with black mushrooms and smoked leeks, perfectly cooked so a quick blast in the microwave rendered it medium rare.

So the food (by Toronto's Occasions Catering) is terrific, but what about the cost?

According to The Specialty Gourmet, most people spend between 20 and 30 dollars a day on food. If that sounds like you, then the cost of home meal delivery service is not out of line. Priced from $27.99 to $39.99, this service is a godsend for anyone who's pressed for time to shop and cook one's own diet meals. Compare it to a week at a health ranch or spa, which rings in at about 1000 dollars. Then imagine that same thousand dollars stretching to last you for an entire month of food deliveries. Add in some daily exercise and you'll be making an investment in your health and well-being, and what's that worth to you?

When I weighed in at the end of the week, I had lost two pounds. But more important, I had gained a new appreciation for a diet I had once dismissed as a fad. And the energy and great mood I've been experiencing is enough to convince me to make a permanent change. So I'm off to buy a Zone recipe book, and am committed to changing the way I eat (and the way my family eats) forever.

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