I have been on a bit of a health kick lately. I am trying to lose a little weight and feel better in myself. I have been exercising, cutting out the snacks and eating smaller portions so when I was asked if I would like to try a food delivery service called Love Yourself I thought why not.
Love Yourself deliver premium food, freshly prepared by a Michelin trained chef to your door. Ideal for people who have hectic lives and those wanting to get balanced and nutritious meals.
There are several different meal plans to choose from low carb, vegetarian, keto, halal, veto, performance and gluten free to name a few. I went with the balanced diet.
The Balanced Diet is for you if: You want to adopt healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, you're trying to lose weight, you don’t have time to cook for yourself, you want to maintain your weight, you aren’t afraid to try new flavours, you want fresh, exciting meals every day and you are new to dieting.
With the balanced diet you get sent 5 meals each day, breakfast, lunch, dinner and 2 snacks. I thought the 2 snacks were a great idea. I am getting better at eating healthily for my main meals but my snacking does sometime let me down.
The menus are constantly changing with new innovative dishes every week that are calorie-controlled and there are different calorie options to choose from – 1200, 1500, 2000 and 2500.
All of the meals are ready made and just need to be warmed in an oven or microwave which means you don't have to spend time preparing and cooking the food.
On Wednesday I ate:
Breakfast - Baked apple and oat cake with blueberry yoghurt.
Morning Snack - Sweet potato hummus.
Lunch - Chicken tikka masala with rice & goji berries.
Afternoon snack - Chocolate brownie.
Dinner – Nectarine & broad bean salad.
There was a lot of this food I would say I wasn't keen on but I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed most of it. I imagined the baked apple and oat cake being more cake like but it wasn't, it felt more dense and made me think of fruity stuffing that I buy at Christmas. It was nice and I did actually like the blueberry yoghurt. I wouldn't normally eat hummus but gave this a try, it's still not for me but I did eat a good chunk of it. The Chicken tikka masala was amazing! It's not a curry I would usually choose but there was a good amount of chicken and the flavours were so good. It was a really filling meal. You can't go wrong with a chocolate brownie and the nectarine and broad bean salad was interesting. I haven't eaten anything like that before, my head was thinking it wasn't much of a meal but my stomach was satisfied with it and I felt quite full. The raspberry and basil dressing was pretty and so full of flavour.
On Thursday I ate:
Breakfast - Scrambled eggs with homemade country style bread
Morning snack - Sweetcorn and feta muffin
Lunch - Classic beef bolognaise with pasta
Afternoon snack - Apple and banana slice
Dinner - Cumin-spiced lentils with chicken
I usually find that scrambled eggs don't do well when they are reheated but these tasted great and weren't rubbery like I thought they would be. The country style bread was so good but it was annoying that it came in 2 bits and I had to put it under the grill instead of just popping it in the toaster. The sweetcorn and feta muffin was nice and is something I am going to try and make myself. I would usually go for sweet muffins but this was a nice change. The beef bolognaise with pasta was great, it tasted exactly like the one I make for my family but with added veg. The apple and banana slice was interesting, it was a lot like the baked apple and oat cake in texture. The yoghurt which came with it was nice too. The Cumin-spiced lentils with chicken was not what I expected it was mostly Brussel sprouts. I usually love Brussel sprouts but I was not keen on these. They tasted soggy and I managed a few mouthfuls before I gave up on this meal.
It is all down to personal taste though, something I might hate you might love and vice versa. I was very impressed with the meals. I tried things I wouldn't normally have tried and liked them. The portions were a good size, especially the lunch and I'd say the majority of the food reheated well. It did feel strange eating my main, more filling meal at lunch time but by the time evening came I wasn't feeling full and bloated. It felt like I had more energy come 7pm when I would usually be wanting to sit down and do nothing.
All of the meals are labelled with ingredients, nutritional info and allergens so you know exactly what you are getting. If you are not keen on a certain meal or have allergies Love Yourself allow substitutes of up to 2 items for allergies and intolerances, as well as dietary preferences but certain items may be difficult to exclude. The meals are made in a facility that handles nuts, eggs, soya, sesame, celery and dairy products so we cannot guarantee that traces of these ingredients will not be present in the meals.
All of the containers are biodegradable and 90 days compostable. The bags are made of paper and the bottles are made from 100% recyclable plastics.
The price you pay for the meals depend on which plan you choose. For the balanced diet it cost £26 for one days worth of meals which to be honest is way above my budget but if I did have the money I would be happy to pay that price as the meals are so good and they are very convenient.
Have you tried a delivery service like this before?
I was sent 2 days of meals from Love Yourself free of charge in exchange for this blog post.
I was really impressed until you came to the price, the only thing that I wouldn't be able to eat is the pasta dish. But £26 a day is more than I spend on my entire families meals. I guess it would be good for a short boost or an introduction to new types of food.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like they have a great choice of meals but I have to agree the cakes look very heavy. It looks like it has the same consistency of bread and butter pudding.
ReplyDeleteThey seem a really convenient option if you are trying to maintain your weight, but I think £26 a day would be a little out of our budget. x