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REVIEWED: Paleo Chef – the meal delivery service based on the ‘caveman diet’ that takes all the work out of healthy eating

Personal trainer Kelly DuBuisson tried out Paleo Chef, a fully prepared Paleo food range that is delivered directly to your door, and loved it! 

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to sample Paleo Chef, a home delivery service focused on healthy diet options of the Paleo variety. The Paleo diet has become popular with celebrities such as Jessica Biel and Matthew Macconaughy and in recent years has caught on with the general public, although the concept is nothing new. The idea is to only eat foods that existed 1,000 years ago and that our ancestors would have eaten before the agricultural revolution and the introduction of processed foods. This includes fruits, vegetables, berries, meat, fish, nuts and seeds.

Hollywood celebrity Jessica Biel swears by a Paleo diet.
Hollywood celebrity Jessica Biel
swears by a Paleo diet.

These foods are natural and easily broken down by our bodies to provide the right nutrients and vitamins. Our modern diet consist of lots of foods that didn’t exist 1,000 years ago, let alone 100 years ago, and most will have been artificially altered through chemical additives and extreme heating so they no longer break down easily, but instead cause irritation and inflammation, increase weight gain and put us at risk of disease.

junk food, paleo chef, by healthista.om

Vitamins and minerals are lost in the processing so our bodies become deficient and we lack energy so to counteract this feeling, we overeat. There are many chemicals such as aspartame and MSG that are added to modern foods such as crisps, chocolates and colas that stimulate free radicals and increase foods addictiveness so we crave these unhealthy choices. But they do nothing for our wellbeing.

The Paleo diet only uses foods that have come straight from the ground or the tree with no chemical additives so they are still full of their original nutrients allowing the body to burn consistently and break down efficiently.

Paleo Chef delivers the meals fully prepared and ready to cook.

Needless to say, I was excited to sample what Paleo Chef had to offer. Although this is a similar idea to the programmes I offer my clients, the difference is Paleo Chef delivers the meals fully prepared and ready to cook. The issue I am presented with by every new client is ‘I do not have enough time to eat healthily’. Granted, eating a healthy diet does take planning and preparation, it is time well spent. However, if someone can do the work for you, more the better.

Paleo Chef delivered three days worth of meals in a cool box (a normal order will cover five days worth) and it is vital to refrigerate immedietly. Although it didn’t include breakfast this is an option you can add on.

Paleo Chef Delivery, paleo chef, by healthista.com

All meals are packaged in containers for fresh meals or vacuum packed in sachets that are simply added to boiling water and boiled for 10 minutes. That’s it; it’s all done and ready to eat. If you have no time to cook a healthy option then this is surely a fail-safe option.

There are 3 options to choose from:

Fat loss– Self explanatory, really!

Performance– To increase training levels, energy and improve sleep.

Warrior– To boost physique and push your workouts to the next level.

As a personal trainer I decided to test the Performance package as I often find myself lacking in energy. I am also a Pescatarian (I eat fish but no other meat), so was keen to find out what alternatives were open to me. I like to stick to a mostly vegetarian plan generally but Paleo Chef recommended that I eat fish to improve my energy levels. Now whilst I was happy to do this, a fully vegetarian person would not be and I feel this was really the only issue that arose. I’m sure they have options for vegetarians but maybe this is something that needs exploring a little bit further. I personally feel that a vegetarian diet can provide just as much energy as a carnivorous one (but that’s a whole different article!)

So that aside, my meals consisted of:

Day 1

Mediterranean salad with salmon and horseradish.

Green smoothie

Hake with salsa, pesto and broccoli and rustic sweet potato.

 

Day 2

Salmon salad, paleo chef, by healthista.com

Greek Salad with vinaigrette

Nutty power bar

Red Thai curry and coconut cauliflower rice.

 

Day 3

Moroccan spiced vegetables and fish

Tomato and red pepper soup

Cashew and Banana truffles

Moroccan spiced vegetables with Pan fried cod and parsnip and fennel puree.

 

Firstly, every meal was absolutely delicious and I was so full after each one. Carbohydrate options are served in the form of cauliflower and starchy carbs like sweet potatoes and parsnip puree (which ended up like mashed potato), and the snacks keep you full between lunch and dinner.

Every meal was full of flavour with added spices, vinegars and herbs, all of which help to increase the metabolism and keep hormones ticking over ’til dinner, and the fact each meal took only 10 minutes to prepare meant I had time to digest it properly instead of spending ages preparing and then eating in a hurry.

I found myself springing out of bed on day three and didn’t hit the sugar slump that normally hits me around 11 am.

After just two days I felt better. I work late every day and struggle to get up in the mornings but I found myself springing out of bed on day three and didn’t hit the sugar slump that normally hits me around 11 am. What’s more, I was actually looking forward to my lunch and dinner every day as it was such a change to the simple meals that I have time to organise myself.

So the big question is, how much will Paleo Chef set you back every week? Unfortunately, it’s not cheap, but then it’s worth weighing up how much you would spend on a weekly shop versus how much time you spend preparing meals or even – if you are looking to lose weight – how much money you put into gym membership, weight loss products, etc. This definitely works and the health benefits are undoubted, so it’s all relative.

A 5-day fat loss plan will set you back £120 which is a bargain and could act as a fantastic detox. A months worth will require £432 (bear in mind this does not include breakfast). If it’s breakfast you struggle with, there is a breakfast plan for 5 days at £15 which makes a great addition to all programmes.

If you are looking to lose weight or simply improve your lifestyle I highly recommend Paleo Chef for its fantastic meals and ease of use.

If you are looking to lose weight or simply improve your lifestyle I highly recommend Paleo Chef for its fantastic meals and ease of use. There really is no excuse not to commit to a plan when it’s delivered straight to your door and the concept of eating entirely natural foods is really the only effective way of making a permanent health change.

If you are interested in trying it for yourself, visit their website or call 02921 321040 for more information.

Read Kelly’s Fast Fitness blog for Healthista

Try Kelly’s 30 day squat challenge, an exclusive video series for healthistaTV

Kelly-Du-Bussion-215x300Kelly Du Buisson is a leading London trainer specialising in short, high intensity workouts that get her clients super-fit, super-fast. She is also the creator of The 7 Minute Workout, The Fastest Way to Shred Fat and Change Your Body Shape for Good, available from Amazon. Kelly is also the owner and creator of The City Workout a revolutionary online workout program for busy business men and women to get lose weight and build lean muscle. Kelly is also the Fast Fitness blogger for Healthista.com and the creator of the Healthista 30 Day Squat Challenge

 

 

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