Weight Loss Meal Delivery – Is This The Solution To Losing Weight & Keeping It Off For Mums?

Many women struggle to lose weight after having a baby. It’s no wonder why! Baby plus broken sleep equate to a lack of time or motivation to eat well and exercise. Let’s face it, during those early years, it’s likely you’re spending more hours at the kindy gym than you are at an adult one.

Whatever your age or stage as a mum, we know that you’re time poor. You’re juggling a myriad of responsibilities from your own children, a home, a partner, work and even ageing parents as well. There’s just no time to focus on yourself, to plan and cook healthy meals or to fit in some physical activity. That’s why so many mums who are wanting to improve their health or better manage their weight, will turn to a weight loss meal delivery service to help break the cycle of weight gain.

Top 7 Reasons for Considering a Weight Loss Meal Service

1. We’ve already established that mums are super busy! Outsourcing healthy meals to someone else is a massive time saver. No shopping, no prep, no cooking. What could be simpler? Time saved means more time to spend on the things you enjoy doing or with the people you love.

2. Weight loss meal companies make dieting super easy. Instead of having to create your own diet, work out the ingredients and proportions, let alone the calories or macronutrients – it’s all done for you. Effortless dieting translates to results. All you have to do is stick with the plan.

3. The key to dieting without feeling hungry or deprived is ensuring that your body receives all the nutrients it needs. Diet company menus tend to be nutritionally balanced and designed to provide variety for optimum health and what better than Chia Seeds recipes to help you with nutrition?

4. Perhaps you want to incorporate intermittent fasting. You might have dietary preferences such as being vegetarian or needing to avoid gluten or dairy. Alternatively, you may be looking for a diet that has been designed to match the needs of your age or gender. These options are often catered for by a meal delivery company and again, make dieting even easier for you.

5. You might be surprised to learn that most Aussie households throw away 20% of all the food they buy. That might be those wilted greens you never got around to cooking; the meat that’s out of date; or those stale breakfast cereals. With weight loss meal delivery services, you receive a menu that covers all your meals for the week, so there’s no waste.

6. In the age-old debate, scientists now agree that weight loss comes down to around 80% what you eat and 20% exercise. So, getting the weight loss meals part right means you get the best chance of weight loss success. Plus your time is freed up to take a walk or get to the gym – exercise will not only accelerate your weight loss efforts but it will make you a healthier and happier individual overall.

7. Once you add up the cost of your time to shop and cook, plus ingredient expenses and any food that you throw away, you’ll realise that meal delivery services are actually great value.

Sounds great, but are there any downsides to meal delivery services?

Family vs Flying Solo. Well, one thing to remember is that if you have just one dieter in the family, then their food is provided but you may still have to cook for the rest of the family. This can be tricky to manage if you’re making food for younger children and perhaps a partner too. You are saving time on your own meals but maybe you are still stuck in the kitchen prepping food for everyone else. Some weight loss meal services may cater to this by offering wholesome family meals too.

Cost. While the cost may represent value for time saved and ingredients, it can still be a stretch for some people, especially if you’re buying groceries for other family members. One way around this might be to opt for a selection of healthy low-calorie “swap” meals that you use on days when the home-cooked option is too heavy. Another way to look at this is that most dieters find it relatively easy to start the day with a healthy breakfast they make themselves.

Lost the weight – great! What’s the secret to keeping the weight off?

Unfortunately, the statistics aren’t great for dieters. Probably because diets are often associated with deprivation and are hard to stick to. Research shows that most dieters lose 5-10% of their body weight within the first 6 months. However, after 4-5 years, up to two thirds of those people will have gained back the weight, plus more! Studies also show that this yo-yo dieting pattern of fluctuating weight can have negative impacts on our health. It’s been linked specifically to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke and disrupted immune function.

But the good news is, you can keep the weight off!

Secret number one is to ensure that you don’t follow an overly restrictive style of diet (such as juice-only detoxes) which leaves you lacking the vital nutrients your body needs. The second secret is to make new habits that you stick with for life. Here are a few examples that have worked for successful dieters – stop buying highly processed foods that are full of fat/sugar/salt/additives, switch from a large latte to a small cappuccino; cut out that biscuit you have every day with morning tea or that chocolate after dinner; always eat at the table – rule out couch-snacking altogether; incorporate 30 minutes of activity every day; try intermittent fasting by skipping breakfast occasionally; commit to eating 5 serves of vegies per day.