I thought about going in for a dry January, and all the healthy eating propaganda around had me looking up the price of a Nutribullet.
Neither idea stuck, I needed a drink in the bitter cold and grey of Jan more than another time of year, and chewing my own food is a luxury I don’t fancy giving up. So now it’s Feb and I’m looking for a new craze to potentially fail at in an effort to be healthy and skinny and I found Diet Chef.
I’d seen the adverts, a chef sends you your calorie controlled food every day, you lose weight, seems simple, can’t go wrong, do it for a month and lose about 6lbs, awesome!
I began last week at the beginning of lent, very fitting I thought, not because I’m Christian but I will be expecting an Easter egg or two when I finish this diet. So in the spirit of the season I’m giving up my favourite guilty pleasure of chips. My delivery of food arrived at my door, a whole months worth in a box, breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus snacks. I hadn’t thought until now that I am going to be eating packaged food for a month and I’m suddenly starting to understand how astronauts must feel.
Breakfasts are largely oats or cereal bars, lunch is soup or cuscus and dinner is a typical ready meal, curry or Chinese etc. You can pick your options online in advance so you’re not left with anything you can’t stand. The variety is vast and impressive, you could more or less have a different meal for lunch and dinner every day and stick to 1200 calories. It costs £245 for a months worth and delivery in within a couple of days.
After the first day my first impression is that the food doesn’t taste bad at all as ready meals go but I was literally starving and decided there is no conceivable way anyone could live like this, and then I read the instructions. Ah you’re meant to add your five a day and some dairy to the meals so now it gets interesting. So day two I’m adding so many salads, fruits and vegetables and really questioning if I’m still on a diet.
By day three I think I’ve found the balance, no point doing this if I’m not going to be sensible. You can go online and check exactly how much you should add for your own body mass. So I’m adding a banana and strawberries to my oats, a salad with lunch and a couple of vegetables with dinner. I’m still hungry but I think my stomach is shrinking because I’m not whining as much about it any more.
In three weeks I’ll come back to you with my results. Am I able to stick to the food in the cupboard or does Hungry House get the better of me?