I have started to selling some of my clothes on eBay in order to buy bigger clothes which is fine but .................... I don't want to.Obviously due to my illness I don't exercise (or even move) as much as I used to and I need to start a brand new get up, get fit and hopefully get better scheme.
So after the last time (yes I went through this about 3 months ago) spending over £200 and then selling said diet food on FB for £20 (bargain there!!) I have decided to take the plunge into the diet food delivered to your door world
but after hating and I mean HATING porridge after the last time I had to find one that wasn't going to make me have porridge for 28 days (although I did lose weight).So my research.........
Diets to your door: Do the latest home-delivery meal packages cut the mustard?
Miracle cure: A host of new companies promise to
shoulder the burden of working out what you need to eat. But can they help you lose weight healthily?
Well, the good news is that the rest of us can now enjoy something similar, thanks to the ever-increasing array of home delivered diet food available.
A host of new companies promise to shoulder the burden of working out what you need to eat, while removing the effort involved. But can they help you lose weight in a way that's healthy?
'These home-delivered diets do suit busy people who struggle to find the time to prepare healthy meals,' says Dr Denise Thomas, head of nutrition and dietetics at Portsmouth hospital.
'They might stop you falling into the high-calorie trap of relying on takeaways or eating out, and they can help re-educate dieters to accept smaller portions.'
There are eight main home delivery diet packages on the market that deliver nationwide. Sign up, and boxes containing your diet food for a week, a few days, or just one day (depending on the plan) will arrive on your doorstep.
Some work to a standard daily calorie allowance; others calculate your personal calorie needs to plan a menu that contains 100 to 200 calories per day less, to ensure steady weight loss.
These diet deliveries aren't a miracle cure for flab: 'Some people find losing weight easier when you limit the choice of foods like this, but successful weight management is all about lifestyle change,' warns Dr Thomas.
However, as a way to kick-start a new regime, they can be useful.
We asked Dr Thomas to analyse the eight different home-delivery diet packages, and rate them in terms of their overall healthiness and their ability to help you lose weight.
Balanced: Rosemary Conley's chicken hot pot
SOLO SLIM
Cost: £6.71 per day. Visit www.rosemaryconley.com or call 0870 0507 727
What you get:
One week's diet - a cereal bar and a sachet of hot chocolate per day,
a low-fat soup and a ready meal such as lowfat chicken hot pot or
low-fat chilli and rice in a microwaveable pouch. There is also a 200g
block of low-fat cheese to last the week. What you add: A bowl of high-fibre breakfast cereal each day, three portions of fruit or vegetables/salad, 3/4 pint of milk, 1-2 slices of wholegrain bread, and low-fat yoghurt to make up a calorie total of 1,200 per day.
Support: No initial consultation or helpline, but it's easy to tap into Conley's media empire with TV shows, websites and interactive forums available.
Exercise: Not mentioned with this plan, but very much part of the Rosemary Conley message. Lots of advice on the website.
Flexibility: Vegetarian option available, and there's a choice of five soups, ten meals and three different cereal bars in your box.
Taste verdict: Soups are tasty and evening meals are palatable and filling when bulked up with two portions of veg. The cereal bar is too sweet and, at 65 calories a cup, the hot chocolate is twice as calorific as many diet versions.
Expert view: This balanced, low-fat diet is the sort of plan most health professionals would recommend for weight loss. It's a low cost, stripped-down service backed by years of experience. Adding your own elements gives freedom, but also a wide margin for cheating - it would be tempting to add extra cheese. The calorie count for the evening meals varies, so the meal you select could make an impact on daily total.
VERDICT: 7/10
Not recommended without medical supervision: You
get three milkshakes per day but the low calories could make you feel
light-headed
WEIGHT TO GO
Cost: £8.71 per day. Visit www.weightogo.com or 0845 468 1280 What you get: Three milkshakes per day (one for breakfast and two snacks), a pouch of soup, a ready meal (such as chilli with rustic Camargue red rice, or chickpea and sweet potato tagine) for supper and two energy bars per week. It's delivered weekly (or as a four-week 'value' box).
What you add: One portion of fruit and vegetables, to make a total of 850 calories per day.
Support: No initial consultation unless requested, but you can call or email a 'health educator, leave a message and should receive a reply within 24 hours. You have access to a dedicated blog and receive a regular newsletter, but advisers do not track individual weight loss.
Exercise: You are urged to take a brisk, 30-minute walk each day
Flexibility: There's a 'weekend off' box on offer, so you can have a break from the diet two days a week. After your first order you can pick the soups and meals you prefer (from five soups and eight main meals), and order individual elements (shake powders and snack bars) separately. Vegetarian or wheat-free diet options available.
Taste verdict: Acceptable soups, but main meals taste like Army rations, and the thick, very sweet milk shakes are barely palatable. energy bars taste artificial and are too sweet.
Expert view: Low-calorie diets like this are not recommended without medical supervision. The high-protein shakes might help you feel full, but on 850 calories per day you're likely be light-headed and tired. Very little support considering how hard it is to stick to. You may lose weight rapidly, but this would be difficult to maintain.
VERDICT: 3/10
Delicious: All food is unprocessed and unrefined
THE PURE PACKAGE
Cost: £36.95 per day, from 08456 123888 and www.purepackage.com - not easily available outside Greater London
What you get:
A cool bag delivered every morning containing breakfast ( for example,
granola with goat's milk yoghurt and berries), two fresh organic meals
(fish with vegetables, goats cheese and butternut squash salad), and
individually packaged snacks (oat cakes with tapenade, a piece of fruit a
small sachet of nuts or seeds). All food is unprocessed and unrefined. What you add: Nothing. Your cool bag contains 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day, with a different menu each day personalised to your tastes and lifestyle.
Support: Kicks off with an in- depth telephone consultation, so the diet can be individually tailored. Then the consultant calls regularly to check progress and offer help - if you are going to a restaurant, tell the team, they'll contact the restaurant, look at the menu, and advise accordingly.
Exercise: not emphasised
Flexibility: The weight-loss programme is one of many options, including healthy eating, anti-ageing, brain balance and detox plans. Portion sizes can be altered to suit individual appetites and dinners for partner or friend are available at £9.50 a time.
Costs can be reduced by opting for a no-breakfast, no-dinner or no-lunch programme.
Taste verdict: Delicious and beautifully presented. each meal is laid-out in a sealed tray with pots of dips and dressings, and bags of nuts and seeds. The closest thing to having your own diet chef.
Expert view: This diet is very balanced and nutritious. Frequent small meals balance blood sugar levels to help you lose weight, and reduce cravings and mood swings. At around 1,500 calories per day you should lose 1lb of weight a week, which is good. The support is solid, too, but the plan is definitely unhealthy for the wallet.
VERDICT: 9/10
Generous portions: You could end up eating more calories and slow your weight loss
Cost: £9.28 per day. Visit www.nkddiet.co.uk or call 020 7193 6410
What you get: A week's supply containing breakfast (sachet of porridge oats or granola), lunch (soup or pasta salad), and an evening meal (such as beef casserole, or chana massala) plus a snack (two plain rice cakes or low-cal biscuits).
What you add: One portion of fruit and one of vegetables and either milk or low-fat yoghurt with your breakfast, to make a daily total of 1,000 calories.
Support: You can buy online, or phone to cherry-pick food choices and personalise your menu. Optional phone consultation includes questions on current weight, weight-loss goals, dietary requirements and activity levels. The food box comes with a comprehensive weight-loss handbook with useful advice. Unlimited use of telephone support line and a weekly call from your dedicated 'weight loss professional'.
Exercise: Lots of encouragement to exercise, with exercise log pages in handbook.
Flexibility: Choose the meals you prefer and higher protein or vegetarian menus can be devised. Option to buy extra evening meals, so you and your partner can eat together. Free replacement if you don't like a meal. Money back if you don't like the plan.
Taste verdict: Breakfast portions are tiny, but the soups are delicious and meals hearty, tasty and very varied - in fact, not diet food at all - many are re-labelled supermarket ready-meals.
Expert view: Although you could easily buy this food yourself at the supermarket , the programme offers exceptional support. The meals seem generous in comparison to other plans, so be careful or you could end up eating more calories on some days and slow your weight loss.
VERDICT: 8/10
Soul food: Luxurious and impossible to feel deprived
SOULMATE FOOD
Cost: £25 per day (min six-day order) www.soulmatefood.com or 0870 803 3833 What you get: An insulated box with three days' worth of fresh, organic, low-fat, wholegrain food, with three varied main courses (such as Thai chicken noodle salad or swordfish with black bean salsa) and two snacks, plus a collection of vitamin and mineral supplements. Each menu is bespoke and the calorie count individually calculated.
What you add: Nothing.
Support: A telephone consultation establishes your typical diet, activity levels and any intolerances or dislikes. You have unlimited phone and email access to staff including nutritionists.
Exercise: Free phone advice from personal trainers.
Flexibility: You can eliminate food groups and up to three foods you don't like. In addition to the weight loss plan, you could choose a two-week detox or anti-cellulite package.
Taste verdict: Generous portions (huge plate of wholemeal noodles with 15 big fat prawns on top), lots of snacks and treats ( such as four large strawberries dipped in chocolate). Luxurious and impossible to feel deprived.
Expert view: This is an expensive way to eat healthily, but provides a great education in terms of portion size, new combinations, and how to spread meals and snacks throughout the day. Weight loss would be steady and more likely to last.
VERDICT: 9/10
Atkins by post: Add your own yoghurt and berries to the sachet of breakfast cereal
Cost: £10 per day (£7.23 per day if you pay for 8 weeks) www.golower.co.uk or call 0800 862 0099
What you get: Weekly or monthly delivery. Each day you get a sachet of breakfast cereal, soup or a portion of sliced salami with dressing for lunch, and a low-carb ready meal such as beef in thyme gravy or chicken and leeks in a cream sauce for the evening, plus two snacks a day. This is Atkins by post: high-protein, high-fat, but very low-carb.
What you add: Milk or Greek yoghurt and berries to breakfast, salad at lunch and vegetables with supper.
Support: You will be allocated a personal consultant, who performs the initial consultation and is then available for support (by phone, email, text). A trained nutritionist is available seven days a week through an appointments system and you can access a members' forum.
Exercise: The plan recommends weight training for toning up.
Flexibility: After 14 to 28 days, you move into the steady weightloss phase and can customise the meal choice and add treats (chocolate-coated Brazil nuts, chocolate mousse). Your progress is constantly monitored and your diet adjusted accordingly.
Taste verdict: The breakfast granola and cereal bars are more nutty than sweet, and the soups and main meals are rich and tasty. There's more meat than the other plans, but I found myself eating the thin, oily meatball sauce wishing I had a potato to soak it up.
Expert view: Few health professionals will endorse Atkins-style diets like this one, because they are designed to kickstart ketosis to burn fat by cutting out carbohydrates. During ketosis, the body produces chemicals called ketones, which are poisonous and affect your blood chemistry, which is why you can feel ill during the early stages of these diets. Although these low-carb diets can be effective in the short term and this plan is not expensive, I would stress caution.
VERDICT: 3/10
Only good for short term: Once you start eating solid food in the evenings, you may find it difficult to stop
Cost: £50.90 per day for a minimum of six days. Visit noshdetoxdelivery.com, 0845 257 6674
What you get: Large smoothie for breakfast, mid-morning vitamin smoothie, soup for lunch, small smoothie mid-afternoon, then a light organic, gluten and dairy free cooked supper (such as stir-fried rice and vegetables or bacon and pea risotto with watercress) to total 1,200-1,500 calories per day. Deliveries within M25 are fresh to the door each evening. Various nationwide options available.
What you add: Fresh ginger and lemon to make into a hot drink to start the day, and herbal teas.
support: There's an optional initial phone consultation, but an online form asks about allergies and intolerances. You can call or email questions and a nutritionist will reply. Everyone gets a tenminute consultation with a nutritionist.
Exercise: Plan recommends light, gentle exercise such as yoga, swimming and gentle jogging, and suggests a tenminute walk each day.
Flexibility: The alternatives include a sixday juice fast or healthy ( nondiet) food. Can be tailored for people with food intolerances.
Taste verdict: The breakfast smoothie tasted healthy rather than fabulous, and the rest were delicious but small. The spicy pumpkin soup was tasty but only just filled a medium-sized mug. And although the evening meal was bursting with flavour, the portion was not filling.
Expert view: A very-low calorie liquid diet followed by a balanced meal in the evening means you may feel light-headed until the evening meal. And once you start eating solid food in the evenings, you may find it difficult to stop. Generally, meal replacement diets like this do well, but long-term benefits are doubtful.
VERDICT: 5/10
Healthy: Food is portioned but not restrictive
DIET CHEF
Cost: £7.49 per day. Visit www.dietchef.co.uk or 0845 094 9796
What you get:
Granola or flavoured porridge, soup or milkshake for lunch and a
readymeal such as beef bolognese ( no pasta), pork meatballs, or chicken
casserole for dinner, plus a snack (such as a two-pack of oat
biscuits). Weekly, fortnightly or monthly. What you add: A portion of fruit and veg plus semi-skimmed milk or a small pot of yoghurt per day to make a total of 1,200 calories (or 1,500 calories if very active).
Support: An online quiz takes your height, weight and activity levels and estimates how many calories you need for steady weight loss. Support comes in the form of monthly email tips and hints, and, if you have problems, you can get into a rather stilted online live chat with a Diet Chef representative.
Exercise: Not essential but strongly recommended.
Flexibility: Choose what you want for breakfast, lunch and supper. More options for active dieters and vegetarians.
Taste verdict: A huge choice of delicious soups and a variety of long-life microwaveable meals for supper.
Expert view: A good healthy plan that would help you lose weight. The food is portioned but not restrictive and the energy levels per meal are good. Although the level of support is not as comprehensive as some other plans, its Facebook page is a good way of keeping customers on track.
VERDICT: 7/10
Courtesy of Daily Mail online.
Now me being me I want the expensive one but as I'm making hubby do the diet with me £70 odd per day is a bit pricey in fact we could probably eat quite healthily in restaurants for that.
So (and you notice my old diet saints and slimmers isn't on there) I've opted for Diet Chef (and no time to back out as I've paid for it aaargh) 2 months worth but with hubby its only 4 weeks worth each.
I've also done my virtual weigh in but me being as blonde as I am I did kg instead of the pounds in which I weighed it (and they won't let me change it) so according to the chart I need to lose 2/3 of my body weight in fact a whopping 18 stone OML!!!!
May need to go onto another diet forum to weigh myself and track my weight cor blimey........................Oh boy oh boy.
now.My food :_
Products:
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1 x 8 Week Plan (1200 calories) (DC28AUTO2N) = £190.00
4 x Pink Apple & Cinnamon Granola
4 x Apple & Cinnamon Porridge
4 x Vanilla & Banana Porridge
2 x Strawberry Porridge
2 x Original Muesli Bar
2 x Luxury Muesli
4 x Chocolate Soft Cookie
2 x Oat Bar with Strawberry & Apple
4 x Gluten Free Fruity Oats Muesli
2 x Gluten Free Pure Porridge Oats
4 x Chunky Vegetable Soup
2 x Chicken Couscous Salad
2 x Chicken & Bean Salad
2 x Thai Chicken Soup
2 x Chicken Mulligatawny Soup
2 x Smoked Bacon & Bean Soup
2 x Ham & Sweetcorn Chowder
4 x Pasta Salad
4 x Tuna & Rice Salad
2 x Beef in Ale
2 x Paella
2 x Chicken in BlackBean Sauce
2 x Sweet & Sour Chicken
2 x Thai Chicken Curry
2 x Pasta Bolognese
2 x Chicken Korma
2 x Chicken Jalfrezi
2 x Taka Dahl
2 x Beef Goulash
2 x Chicken Fricassee
2 x Chicken Curry
2 x Coq au Vin
2 x Spelt Risotto
1 x Chocolate Milkshake
1 x Strawberry Milkshake
1 x Vanilla Milkshake
1 x Cafe Latte Milkshake
2 x Chocolate Chip Oat Biscuits
2 x Ginger Oat Biscuits
2 x Berry Oat Biscuits
2 x Salted Popcorn
4 x Sweet Maple Popcorn
2 x Sweet and Salty Popcorn
4 x Cheese & Onion Flavour Bakes
4 x Paprika Flavour Bakes
4 x Tomato Salsa Flavour Bakes
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So I will try to walk the dog for just a small walk up to the park and if I can around the park once a day, that might help to strengthen my muscles
I start Hydrotherapy once a week soon and I could try to get hubby and little man to go to the swimming pool for me, but needs to be warm, jacuzzis apparently are the best for my illness and just moving the legs around when in there.
Phew i'm worn out already now where's my choc bar ????
TTFN!!!!
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