Transitions Meals began in September 2004 as a complement to a prepared "meals to home" service which was founded in 2001. That original business was based on what is commonly referred to as a "Fad Diet." With Transitions Meals we hoped to address the shortcomings that were identified with the original service and improve upon whatever else that we could.

In terms of weight loss, we realized that all successful programs have one thing in common: ingesting fewer calories than the body needs to maintain its current weight. Although the "Fad Diet" upon which our original service was based followed what the author termed a "Balanced" approach, the reality was that people lost weight because we were sending them 1100-1300 calories (in the case of women) per day of food.

There were three main shortcomings of the original company that needed to be addressed: 1) the food was often perceived as boring and/or unappetizing 2) the service was relatively expensive 3) the nature of the diet meant that it was next to impossible to maintain on one's own.

In terms of the food being boring or unappetizing, we knew that this wasn't an issue of our company or any of the other companies offering the same service. It was the consequence of the parameters of the "Fad diet" itself. Further research into the "Weight Loss" industry revealed that the most successful programs for long term weight loss were those that involved portion control. It was therefore decided to base a program upon precisely that. Why not serve people meals that they would look forward to eating? You don't have to feel deprived and in some cases miserable, to lose weight.

In order to offer 3 meals per day at a lower price without compromising on quality, we decided to use special packaging technology that would allow us to offer 2-3 days worth of fresh meals and thereby save on delivery and production costs. By offering 6-9 different choices per meal but with no variations we not only reduced costs but realized an additional benefit of allowing customers to order their favorite meals more than once.

The complicated nature of the diet upon which the original service was based made for an excellent business opportunity. It was perceived as being "Too difficult" to do on one's own. However, this meant that for most people long term success would be elusive. We believe that Transitions Meals has addressed this issue. People learn the proper portion size of their favorite meals. As well, for those that are too busy to prepare their own meals, the lower daily cost of $20-$25/day means that people can afford to use the service more frequently if desired.

One observation about many weight loss services was that they focused on weight control but not on overall health. For instance, many services offer meals that are high in sodium or saturated fat. Many companies treat weight loss and healthy eating as mutually exclusive which they shouldn't be. Therefore, it was decided to rely on professionals who deal with the health issues of hundreds of thousands of people and in 2006 our company became involved in the Heart & Stroke Foundation "Health Check" program. Approximately 25 % of the meals on our menu are "Health Checked" (with more to come) while the remainder are still based on the Heart & Stroke Foundation's parameters of being low in both sodium and saturated fat yet protein adequate. As well, we use whole grains, multi grains and whole wheat whenever possible as well as plenty of fruits and vegetables.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy our service and welcome any feedback that you may have.