FMP: Week 2

So, you're probably wondering why I've been doing all this "repping" for Fresh Meal Plan. The ilovekickboxing that I go to is offering a full 4 weeks of meals in exchange for reviewing the FMP meals this month. I didn't have to try it for 3 weeks, but I wanted too. I'm on my second week and will receive one more this week. 

So... here are more of my thoughts of some of the FMP meals.

So, I love Caesar salad. It was always something that I craved while I was pregnant, with all 3 of my kids. I was excited to try this. I did replace the romaine lettuce with fresher stuff I had just purchased because it was wet and glassy. I didn't want to eat slimy lettuce. I guess it didn't travel well. I'm all about a good Caesar dressing and sometimes it's hard to find. But, I really enjoyed the dressing in this meal.

These eggs were cooked like a hard-boiled egg and with the sauce, I really liked them. I was skeptical about it, but would like to eat it again.

The spinach got wet and wilted underneath the eggs and ham from the juice. I did try the cantaloupe and honeydew, but they aren't flavors that I like. Little Miss did eat the cantaloupe though.

These Strawberry Almond Pancakes were good. I normally don't like things in my pancakes, but the crunch of the almond was nice. I made sure not to heat the bacon too much. I think I'm a fan of turkey bacon. There wasn't much strawberry actually. I think it was supposed to a sauce on top of the cream cheese ball.

Chicken Parmesan in the morning.

Ok... so many of the breakfasts that I received this week were pancakes. Two of them were Paleo style pancakes with coconut or almond flour. I did not care for them. The texture was stiff and gritty. The flavor was interesting and bit different, something I can't really describe, but they definitely needed something sweet on top of them. I couldn't eat much of the Paleo pancakes actually. They were just too different for me. I couldn't get past the texture.

Anyway, some things that I love about FMP are the easiness of it. The meals come in handy when the kids are at school and I'm running around doing drop off, pick up and errands. It takes all the thinking out of healthy eating.
I also enjoy how it has made me feel. I have noticed that making better eating choices have been easier. Don't get me wrong, I still snack on junk... but I can snack minimally instead of all the time. My stomach hasn't been hurting as much.
Working out has been more beneficial. With the ilovekickboxing regime, the high-intensity workouts needs proper nutrition. While eating FMP, I can workout without getting overly tired during and after. I have the right energy to burn and still feel like I can do other things after I'm finished. Burning over 600 calories every workout is a lot of work and FMP provides a healthy, easy way to replenish my body.
I am learning what kinds of FMP meals I don't like, but overall, I have enjoyed most of them.

FMP: My Pros & Cons After Week 1

First to start with some more of the meals from my first week with Fresh Meal Plan...

Today I had my second meal of the Banana Hazelnut French Toast since I ordered 2. I learned from the first time and only heated the turkey bacon and french toast for 45 seconds so that I didn't burn the bacon.

I also scraped off all of the chocolate that was between the 2 pieces of toast before heating it. Guess what, I actually ate it all today. I drizzled a bit of syrup on top and it was quite good. Redemption for one of the breakfast meals.

Yesterday, I tried this Tenderloin & Egg breakfast... it was not my favorite. I didn't even take a picture of it since it didn't look that great either. I wanted to like it because it smelled good but I only ate half of the steak, the orange and english muffin. It was a disappointment overall.

This was a great lunch the other day though. The Southwest Chicken Salad had a bit of kick with the chipotle aioli dressing. The chicken was seasoned nicely and I liked this salad overall. There was no avocado like the label mentioned.

These Peanut Butter Chia Power Bites are so delicious. I had every intention of not liking them because of the way that they looked. I also figured that they would have way too much of a peanut butter taste. But, I was pleasantly surprised and ate the entire thing. It was a great alternative as a snack instead of the candy that I would normally grab. I love these little things. My son tried part of one, because I didn't really want to share. He said it tasted like candy and he loves them too. He's 8.

Okay... Now on to some other stuff.

Working out this past couple of days has still been hard with the type of class that ILKB is... BUT, I'm not exhausted and immediately want to take a nap after and tired the rest of the day. Fresh Meal Plan has definitely helped me eat more and eat more healthily. With that, my body is already using its energy differently. I can feel a change in myself before and after I workout. Before, and by before I mean last week, I was really tired all the time. I didn't get much done around the house and was just overall lazy I guess... there were more depression issues too. However, now that I've been eating more, I have gotten more done at home. For example, yesterday I washed, dried AND put away all the loads of laundry. That is a major accomplishment. Kickboxing at ILKB has been different too. I have more energy to push myself a little bit more and after I'm done, I feel like doing something else. Normally I just go home, take a shower and go to bed. But, the last 2 days, I have generally felt better with eating FMP and working out. It has also forced me to eat more daily than I normally would.

I always knew that food and fitness worked together. I learned the hard way. I listened to my body though and knew I needed a change in diet. I knew my body was shutting down because it wasn't getting the proper nutrition. I am definitely grateful for the Fresh Meal Plan meals, even the ones that I didn't like, and how it has helped me this week.

The basic breakdown of the CONS for FMP for me personally are:
*Price: it's a little disappointing to have meals that you don't really care for the price that it is
* Eggs: the eggs in the breakfasts were not my favorite. The texture and taste just weren't great for me and I only ate it to try it. I didn't eat it beyond a few bites.
*Labeling: the labels on the meals were sometimes wrong and didn't match what was in the meal itself. I think I did read somewhere that ingredients could change without notice, but getting turkey sausage with fennel instead of turkey bacon was a complete turn-off. So, I guess mislabeling may happen from time to time.

The basic breakdown of the PROs for FMP for me are:
* Ease: I love not having to think about deciding what I need to make for myself when I'm hungry. They're quick to prepare/make.
*Peanut Butter Power Bites: They're awesome.
*Lunch/Dinner meals: The ones that I have tried have all been great.
*Feel Better: I generally feel better now that I have eaten more, regularly, and have healthier choices.
*Workouts: Kickboxing at ILKB hasn't been so tiring. My energy has increased overall.
*Feeling Full: After eating a meal for lunch, I am pretty full until dinner time. I can make it most of the afternoon without much snacking, which is a huge accomplishment.

So yes... I definitely like Fresh Meal Plan and recommend it to you.

Okay... confession... I did have some fast food yesterday after not having any for several weeks. I went through the drive-thru to appease my 2-year-old. I got something for myself. It was a mistake. My stomach hurt and it just made me feel terrible... and a little guilty. Actually paying attention to what I'm putting into my body and what the reactions are has been eye-opening. I fear that if I don't have something like Fresh Meal Plan to give me easy, healthy food options that I'll fall back into my old eating habits.
Discipline: I'm bad at it... but I guess I need more of it.

Breakfast 0-2 vs Lunch 2-2

Ok, I am on day 3 of eating at least one meal from Fresh Meal Plan. Today I actually had one for breakfast and the other for lunch. Here's how it went...

Breakfast was not great, for me. That makes my breakfast meals 0 for 2 since the 2 that I tried were not what I expected. The Kelly & Betty Omelet was different than I thought it was.

I did eat all of the grapes today and most of the sweet potatoes, but the omelet was a different story. On the label, it mentions turkey *bacon as an ingredient... but I think it was clearly turkey sausage. I get that substitutions may have to be made because of availability and things like that, but its completely different. This presented a problem for me only because it had fennel in it. I do not like fennel and it threw off the taste of the entire thing. It was all I could smell and taste.

The kale and the egg itself was fine. I just couldn't get past the taste of the fennel in the sausage. I was a bit sad that breakfast wasn't great for me again. So, if you are ok with fennel, then you'd probably like this.

PS, I don't want to discourage anyone from trying the breakfast meals. Remember that these not working out for me are personal opinions and preferences.

I had a win for lunch though. I ate the Bison Burger Club and it was really good.
The Aioli dressing was delicious on the burger. I don't even know what aioli is, but I like it.
I have noticed the sweet potatoes have been a bit on the mushy side with the reheating though. (sidenote: I also noticed that with my microwave, the heating time is actually much less than the instructions of 2-3 minutes so I have to watch it closely) I did take out the burger and bacon to only heat those up.

 I took off the tomato since I'm not a fan of those.
Also, I noticed that avocado is listed on the label, but there were none. I chalked that up to the recent avocado recall and maybe they were out of them.... ir it is in the aioli?... I have no idea, but I didn't have any.

Overall, I am satisfied with the Bison burger. I ate the whole thing and it was delicious. Lunch has proven to be better for me, in my opinion.

Besides not having luck with the breakfast meals, the other thing that bothers me a bit is the labeling issues with the ingredients that I have found today. There was no avocado for my burger and the bacon in the omelet was actually sausage. Mistakes happen, I get it... or it was an availability issue.

Now, since I've been eating these Fresh Plan Meals on the weekend and there are only Saturday morning classes available at ILKB on the weekend, I don't know how eating these types of meals are affecting my workouts yet. Hopefully, in the next few days when I get to class more often, I will be able to see. For now, I do actually feel better physically because I'm eating more in the morning and afternoon... because I normally don't eat much or just snack on junk. I have more energy by eating more healthy with these FMP meals, well the lunches.
The Abs for April challenge put on by ILKB this month has encouraged me to drink more water during the day too. I cut out soda and haven't had much juice either, so that cut back on sugar has helped quite a bit with the stomach issues I was having.

If you'd like to read about the other meals I tried click (here).
If you'd like to read my origin story of my fitness journey click (here).
If you'd like to check out ILKB or sign up for trial classes click (here).
If you'd like to check out Fresh Meal Plan click (here).

Fresh Meal Plan: It's Here

I went to a Friday morning class at ILKB, which I haven't done in a while. It was great. I worked hard, sweat a lot and burned a ton of calories.

If you want to read my origin story of starting ILKB and deciding to try Fresh Meal Plan go (here).

When I got home, this fabulous box was waiting for me. Fresh Meal Plan, with my 10 meals.

Here's how it comes: The meals are packed in a styrofoam container with wrap and ice/gel packs. It was really cool in there to keep the food fresh. I was surprised. The ice packs are mine to keep. There were 4 inside, so I don't think I'll be needing all of them if I new ones every week. The box and styrofoam are supposed to be left out on the day of the next delivery to be swapped out or reused. I don't know, Fed Ex dropped it off so I'm not sure if they'll take the empty one back. We'll find out.

So here are the lunch/dinner meals that I got. They are all from the Traditional meal category: Bison Burger Club, Chicken Burrito Bowl, Chicken Parmesan, Cardamom Turkey and Southwest Chicken Salad.

For my breakfasts, I ordered from the Traditional category: 2 Banana Hazelnut French Toast, Tenderloin & Egg English Muffin, Morning Bread Pudding, Kelly and Betty Omlet.
Each of the meals have a sticker on the side with the ingredients, which everything can be pronounced. It has the number of calories, grams of protein, grams of carbs and grams of fats listed as well. There is a use by date too; which is basically a week from when you receive your meals. Technically your meals should be eaten by the time your next shipment arrives.

Here are pictures of what a few of the meals look like in their container before being heated. They look pretty good. Not like a bunch of slop that you find in other microwavable meals. You can tell what everything is.

So for lunch after my workout, I tried the Chicken Burrito Bowl. It was actually pretty delicious. I ate it all and was full the rest of the day. I forgot to take a before picture because I  made the video but here is an after picture. I like that the chicken is cut unevenly. It makes me believe that it was cut and prepped by a real human... not a machine in a factory.

Breakfast Fail.

Saturday I tried a breakfast meal; the Banana Hazelnut French Toast. I took out the fruit and syrup to heat up the turkey bacon and french toast.

On the label, it recommends heating for 2-3 minutes. I did 2 minutes but didn't leave it in the full amount because I started to smell the food.
I burnt the turkey bacon. I could taste that the bacon was pretty good and I'd eat it all if I didn't burn it. I am not a crispy bacon person, so I couldn't eat much of it.
Most of the grapes didn't travel well. Some were not edible since they were smashed and others were soft. I'm just really picky about grapes for some reason. I like them firm and crunchy and I'm more of a green grape girl.
The banana chips were 'stale'. Well, soft from being refrigerated. But, I still ate those anyway.

The actual french toast was ok. I liked the crispiness of it... but, there was way too much chocolate on in the middle of the two pieces. I am one to not put much of anything on my french toast. I like a little drizzle of syrup just to sweeten it a touch. So all of this chocolate was a real turn off. After I scraped it off, I was able to eat half of the toast. My husband ate the other piece.

I pretty much ate half of everything and my husband ate the other. All he said was, "It's kind of weird." I was a bit disappointed. But, just remember that this breakfast failure is just a lot of personal preference. This meal broke a lot of my 'rules'.
You can't win them all I guess. I feel bad that this one was a lot of negativity... but...
Overall, I still think Fresh Meal Plan is great. I am still excited to try my other meals.
Go to FreshMealPlan.com to check it out for yourself.