Should I Do Meal Prep? This is My One Year Experience.
It’s 2018 and it appears that the meal prep. industry is on the rise. I have noticed that many people are interested in trying meal prep, but hesitate to make a decision. Well, the good news is that I am here to tell you about my one year experience with a meal prep. service called FoodFuelz which is headquartered in the Los Angeles area. Hopefully my experience can provide you with the information you are looking for to make well informed decision!
Reasons Why You Might Want to Start
Most people are looking for meal prep. in order to lose fat or gain muscle. However, there are many other reasons such as saving time, eating food with healthier ingredients, and experiencing new styles of meals.
Why I Choose FoodFuelz
I consider fitness one of my top passions in life and I quickly realized that FoodFuelz would help me reach my fitness goals which entails gaining muscle while keeping a low body fat percentage.
By signing up for FoodFuelz I instantly had a consistent source of healthy meals and an easy way to estimate my calories each day needed to achieve my goals. In addition, my home life stress levels nosedived. On Saturdays, I no longer had to decide whether or not I wanted to spend the effort to find new recipes with an easy learning curve that still meet my healthy yet tasty criteria or to make the same old meals I usually cook for my personal at home meal prep. routine in order to save time. I also gave up on the grocery store shopping nightmare of navigating through busy isles in search of ingredients that were not always easy to find.
On Sundays, I no longer had the slight anxiety upon waking up hoping that I can start all my meal prep in time in conjunction with laundry and other errands in order to finish cooking and cleaning before a reasonable bed time so I can wake up feeling good Monday morning for work. Once I started cooking, the anxiety would diminish as I got in “the zone.” Eventually I would take a break after cooking, eat one of the meals I just made, and start getting ready for bed. The clock rolls around to 11:30pm and I still have to clean all my dishes before I can sleep and I am tired as hell. I would either force myself to clean the dishes and power through them so I can try and get at least six hours of sleep or I worse case I would put them off to the next day praying I would get to them the next day if I had time after a hectic work day and gym workout. Hopefully they wont attract bugs in the meantime, right?
Despite all my meal prep. efforts, I only found time to prepare half my meals for the week at best and would spend more time and money seeking out and traveling to healthy fast food options such as Chipotle during the week.
With FoodFuelz, I got my time, life, and sanity back which is just as important as my physique in the mirror.
If you hesitate, because of the cost, I get it, but ask yourself the following. Will this extra cost help me meet my goals by not missing a meal or subbing in an unhealthy meal? Will this extra cost come with a time savings that will allow me to spend more time making money at my hourly job, more time working on my new business, or more time hanging out with my kids? It’s not always about cost, it’s about value. I personally have more time to work my second job to pay down my debts. Without FoodFuelz, I would save some money, but I would not save as much money as I earn working my second job with the time alleviated by FoodFuelz. Not to mention, I enjoy working my second job much more than the behemoth of grocery planning, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning.
My New Routine & FoodFuelz Plan
Last summer I decided to make a change and I signed up with the FoodFuelz 28 meals/week vegan plan. I get meals delivered fresh on cold packs (not frozen) to my home fridge on Monday’s and Thursday’s. Each delivery gives me four meals a day until my next delivery. My credit card is automatically billed each Thursday. That is how simple it is! I don’t have to do any work!
My Results
During summer of 2017, a month or two after I first started with FoodFuelz, I became very lean while maintaining my muscle mass. That summer lets just say I had the best Instagram photos! In the photo below, on the left it I was still very lean, but sometimes struggling keeping up with my own meal prep. and thus struggling keeping the right number of calories and correct proportion of macros. On the right, was about two months after signing up with FoodFuelz where my body leaned out a bit more thanks to the consistent slight calorie deficit I was in eating my FoodFuelz meals.
From fall 2017 to summer of 2018, I focused on building muscle “bulking”. I notified FoodFuelz of my new goal, and the meals were changed accordingly — less salads and more carbohydrates. They were very cooperative. I would even throw in my own snacks and high calorie shakes to ensure I was getting enough calories since my body requires a lot to gain muscle. During this period I made steady strength gains in the gym and I could tell because I tracked my critical exercises — bench press, deadlifts, squats, and military press weights and reps each week. I began tracking these lifts in April 2018 until the end of the bulk in July where most notably I increased my deadlift by over 20 pounds, standing military press by 20 pounds, and my bench press by over 15 pounds. Also, at the end of my bulk I gained 8 pounds (from 158 to 166) with a peak weight of 168 in June (+10 pounds) as seen below.
How does FoodFuelz Compare with Other Meal Prep Brands?
There is no comparison really. I tried My Fit Foods, which is now closed, before I signed up with FoodFuelz. My Fit Foods had many options to chose from at first glance, but I don’t remember seeing many vegan options. However, going back week after week to pick up meals from the MyFitFoods store, I noticed that the meals rarely changed and thus you would risk boredom. In addition, flip the meals over and there is a whole list of preservatives. Really? For fresh meal prep? Insane! That practically defeats the purpose! Perhaps it was just in some of their raw ingredients (hopefully), but I saw them in all the meals I purchased. Anyway, with FoodFuelz locally grown produce is used and no preservatives are added by the chef since meals are delivered the same day they are prepared. Ingredients are also listed. Most importantly, I have been with FoodFuelz for a year now and lets just say the chef never runs out of meal styles even after a year! What meal prep. company can say that?!
When it comes to delivery of meals, for FoodFuelz you don’t need to do or say anything and the food will be there in your fridge when you get home from a long day of work. That or FoodFuelz will be ringing your door when you are home. With MyFitFoods, I recall that you would need to place an order online with your meals each week and then they would deliver to you if you did not want to drive to the store each week. I was not aware of an any more automated system from My Fit Foods.
How to Get Started with FoodFuelz
Hopefully this post was able to help you figure out if meal prep. is right for you! With FoodFuelz, there is no minimum subscription period and no commitment. If you are leaning towards trying it, then give it a shot! If you don’t like it, you can always walk away and no harm done! Be sure to check out the FoodFuelz Instagram page and shoot them a follow to see the latest meals!
FYI — There is a current special as of September 2018 for 15% off all FoodFuelz meal plans. However, this offer will end soon!
If you live in the Los Angeles area, here is how it works:
- Visit FoodFuelz and click “Get Started” or “Meal Plan” which will walk you through your meal plan options (desired number of meals per week) and diet options (vegan, standard, Keto, etc.).
- Click “Shop” and follow the prompts there to sign up or simply email your questions if you are not ready! Please make sure to spread the love and mention how you found the FoodFuelz site (by referencing “greginlosangeles” or by copy and pasting the link of this post)!
- bon appetit!
