Healthy eating: how was our week on the box diet? [review]

Disclaimer: The food brought in has a label on it that makes the actual contents of the box not very visible in photos. Therefore, we decided to use the photos sent by Healthy Eating directly for this review. Some of the photos don't match the meals we tried, but they are still photos of actual meals from the company's repertoire.

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A few words about Healthy Eating

For those of you who have never heard of this project, a little introduction is in order. Healthy Eating is a boxed diet that delivers its meals to every county (not just regional towns) in the country and tosome parts of Slovakia, producing about 25,000 meals a day for more than 10 different meal programs. As a customer, you can therefore choose, for example, from classic programs such as Pro zdraví, Protein + or Fit +, but they also have non-traditional options such as Keto, Meatless, Pro Moms and others. For each of the programs you can then choose the amount of calories from the basic 5000 kJ up to 10000 kJ for all programs, while Protein + and Fit +, for example, also have options for 11 and 12 thousand kJ per day, which is a hefty portion. Based on which program you prefer, how many calories you want to take in per day, and whether you only want to take in certain meals of the day, the price of your order will be determined and the courier will deliver it to you at a pre-arranged time. At the same time, for those of you who are not very knowledgeable about nutrition, their higheducated nutrition team who are willing to provide you with a consultation before you order your meal. In Prague and Brno, you can also make an appointment for a personal consultation in the consulting room with measurements on a bioimpedance device. But that's all of the general talk around and let's take a look at our experience already.

Nice delivery system

I wanted to have my food delivered to my college dorm, where, to be honest, parking isn't exactly easy. However, I have to appreciate that the very sympathetic driver was always able to manage and deliver the food at the agreed time each day. The arrangement with him was absolutely seamless and I knew in time when the food would arrive the next day and thanks to the diningavailable on the website, you will always have a clear idea of what to look forward to the next day.

Monday: for health

On Sunday evening I received my first food delivery, which was five portions with a total calorie value of about 10,000 kJ, withThis time it was the Pro Health program, which according to the Healthy Eating website is the most popular. This programme is, in the words of the authors, "as close as possible to a normal diet."

• Semolina porridge with strawberries and chocolate (breakfast),
• Cream cheese dip with carrots and breadsticks (morning snack)
• Baked pasta with beef, eggplant and cheese (lunch)
• Vegetable salad with apple (afternoon snack)
• Bulgur with chicken and broccoli (dinner)

And I have to say, it was absolutely delicious. Note that each meal contains a vegetable or fruit, so you'll get the recommended 5 pieces of fruit or vegetables per day with absolutely no problem. But I also have to appreciate that the three main meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) were the largest in volume, which suited me exactly. The snacks are rather smaller and not very filling, but you definitely won't be hungry during the day (if you set your calorie intake correctly).

As for the taste, I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. Even though I cook and prepare food regularly, one is trained to a certain stereotype and some combinations just don't come to mind. The biggest surprise for me was the Waldorf salad with lettuce, celery, apple, walnuts and light mayonnaise. Taste-wise, however, all the dishes were good. I dare to say that if you choose this program because you would like to improve your lifestyle and switch to a quality diet, "junk food" you won't even miss it, because the Pro Health program is definitely not a harsh reduction program without a pinch of fast carbohydrates.

Tuesday.

Tuesday's menu for me again included a meal of my set calorie value of 10,000 kJ, but this time it was a Meatless meal. And as someone who has gone meatless for some time in the past, I have to appreciate the huge variation in the dishes prepared. I got:

• Baguette with leek spread (breakfast)
• Dessert with plum puree and walnuts (morning snack)
• Penne with pomodoro salsa, capers and cheddar (lunch)
• Cheese roll with thyme cream and breadsticks (afternoon snack)
• Klaso with honey and sesame, bulgur (dinner)

Honestly, although these are relatively simple dishes to prepare, they are actually flavourful to perfection and if you think aboutyou're thinking about cutting meat out of your diet for a while, I recommend trying Healthy Eating for a while. You'll get lots of great inspiration for simple recipes that you can then replicate over time with a little bit of skill.

Personally, I have to admit that the food was so great and varied that you didn't even realise that you didn't actually have any meat. And although all the dishes tasted great again, most of all I have to appreciate the really delicate yet simple leek spread, which I really enjoyed. However, the penne was also excellent and could be eaten cold without any problems. Klaso, which is a high-fibre cereal, was also an interesting and also very tasty experience for me.

Wednesday: Eating 3 times a day

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to try out the Eat 3x a Day option, which only offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, with each of these portions is logically quite large, so that my daily intake is still the agreed 10,000 kJ. I can see this diet working for people who don't have much time in the day and eatso they don't want to take time away from work to figure out what to eat. I got these three meals:

• Tortilla with ham and cottage cheese (breakfast)
• Cod with mascarpone and cucumber topping (lunch)
• Pumpkin risotto with mushrooms and parmesan cheese (dinner)

I'll freely admit that eating out 3 times a day is not for me, and even more so when I've made my way through the lastlast few days I've kind of gotten used to five boxes, but I certainly can't say I've been hungry. It's been more of a challenge for me to schedule, for example, the gym and otherso that I'm not hungry, but I'm not working out with a full stomach, for example. But I imagine that this option will also find its target group.

As for the taste of the meals, again, I have nothing to complain about at all. The tortilla is, of course, a perfectly simple dish, as it was just a wheat pancake filled with aand cheese, and cottag, but given how complex the other two dishes were, it didn't really matter. The cod was absolutely delicious and the pumpkin risotto was also awesome, so Wednesday was a very enjoyable Wednesday for me in terms of dishes.

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Thursday: Fit+

Thursday's menu for me was marked by the Fit+ option, which is aimed at people seeking to improve fitness and lose weight. And honestly, this option didn't disappoint me, even though I had high expectations for it. I got:

• Hermes sandwich, cherry tomatoes (breakfast)
• Dessert with raspberries and vanilla flavor (morning snack)
• Whole wheat fettuccine with corn pesto and turkey noodles (lunch)
• Dip with roasted garlic and cashew nuts, coloured peppers (afternoon snack)
• Pumpkin with spelt, cheese and mushrooms (dinner)

And as is usual with Healthy Eating, I enjoyed myself a lot this time and again I have nothing to complain about the food. Personally, I would highlight the dip with roasted garlic, which was really delicious. This option suited me just because it offered a huge variety of different dishes, a really good portion of protein and a lot of variation in vegetables.

The pumpkin with spelt was perfectly seasoned, the corn pesto I've probably never eaten before, but incrediblyand the aforementioned roasted garlic dip also exceeded my expectations. The morning dessert with raspberries perfectly satisfied my craving for sweet and the sandwich with ermine was exactly the type of breakfast I hadI was used to from time to time and which I missed a bit on the boxed diet.

Friday: Protein+

The best part at the end - on Friday, we got a meal from the Protein+ option, which, as is probably obvious from the name itself, great for athletes looking to grow muscle mass. I therefore got:

• Pancakes with strawberry-mint sauce (breakfast)
• Basil spread with knuspi and peppers (morning snack)
• Vegetable salad with chicken, egg and herb dip (lunch)
• Broccoli muffin with cheddar cheese, radishes (afternoon snack)
• Shrimp with spicy dressing and whole wheat pasta (dinner)

And the thing I have to appreciate about this meal is that it's not just the proverbial "chicken and rice" that many bodybuilders eat on a treadmill, but it's still the same great variable diet that I've become quite used to over the course of this week. I got over 200 grams of protein in my meals throughout the day, which is ideal for me and I still really enjoyed myself.

Many of the meals, while completely out of line with what most bodybuilders and fitness people regularly but I still found the broccoli muffins, for example, absolutely delicious. The prawns with spicy dressing were also a great dish, which I had been looking forward to all day and they certainly didn't disappoint.

Benefits and insights

If I had to evaluate my week on the boxed diet in any way, I would definitely except the benefitsthe above comments on the different types of food, I would also highlight the following benefits:

• Knowing the exact ingredients of your food - If you're like me, you try to watch what you eat and want to make sure your food doesn't contain unnecessary preservatives or other additives. That's why I liked the fact that Healthy Eating doesn't just list the names of dishes, but the complete ingredients. In the nutritional factsheet, you can see not only the carbohydrate content, but also how much sugars are represented, and for fats, how much saturated fatty acids are in the food.
• Optimal portion size - If, like me, you get the calorie value of your food rightyou won't be hungry at all during the day and your portion sizes will keep you full.
• Radical restriction of baked goods - When you don't watch your eating, you can sometimes tend to slip into eating relatively a lot of baked goods, for example. It's easily accessible, stackable and you can take it anywhere and eat it anywhere. But of course that's not a good thing, because pastries (especially white ones) are not exactly nutritionally valuable.

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Who would I recommend Healthy Eating to?

At the end of this comprehensive review, it would be good to point out who Healthy Eating is suitable for. Of course, anyone can reach for it, but for these people, in my opinion, Healthy Eating is absolutely ideal:

• Students in exams - Although Healthy Eating is not exactly the cheapestAs a student on probation, I often don't want to spend time cooking and shopping. When you want to avoid reaching for some unhealthy fast food, choose Healthy Eating. As a student, I can unequivocally say that I'm happy to let Healthy Eating make my life easier during exam time.
• People looking for inspiration - Actually, this was kind of my case too, as I often had a tendency to repeat the same healthy meals over and over again. However, Healthy Eating gave me additional inspiration and by trying the meals straight away, I was able to filter out the dishes that I really liked and that I'll love coming back to.
• People who are busy - When you're busy all daywork all day, the last thing you're probably in the mood for in the evenings is to start cooking for the next day. Healthy eating, however, will bring you a meal one night at a time and you can just eat it at your own convenience. You don't have to worry about anything.
• Seniors - If you have to take care of your parents or grandparents, for example, and don't have time to cook for them, Healthy Eating is again a pretty effective solution. You can choose smaller portions and you don't have to buy all your meals for the day, just any combination of breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner.
• When you're sick - When you feel like something is getting to you, you probably don't feel like cooking. This is also when Healthy Eating can come in handy, which can help you effectively weather even periods of minor illness.

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Well, that's all for this comprehensive Healthy Eating review from us. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments, we'll be happy to answer anything.

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