NicoleAs I was listening to the EOFire podcast a couple weeks ago, the entrepreneur being interviewed was the founder of a fresh prepared food service called FITzee Foods. For the busy person, especially an endurance athlete in training, getting the nutrition right can be a challenge. It’s something we often don’t prioritize as much as we should. While listening to the podcast and hearing a little about what the company was about, I checked it out.
Certainly having fresh meals ready to heat and eat (no preparation required!) is appealing. While I love to cook, there are times lately when I’ve gotten behind on grocery shopping. I decided to check it out, in case it could possibly be an option for me at times, and also something to recommend to the athletes I coach who may not always make the best nutrition decisions when pressed for time.
Before ordering, I scoped out the website to see what kind of foods they shipped. I was glad to see there were a lot of high protein options. Many are labeled paleo, vegan or low carb, which may be “trendy” but if it is real food – quality protein and vegetables, it’s what we should eat more of instead of processed food.
I then checked out the nutrition information. Some I found on their site, some on myfitnesspal.com. It all looked really reasonable, so I was definitely up for giving it a try. After a bit more surfing through the site, I settled on the 5-meal lunch box in the medium size. This runs about $55, so $11/meal. Not necessarily cheap, but about what you’d pay at a restaurant for a meal. And if they indeed are using fresh ingredients, it seemed reasonable considering the service of it being shipped to my door ready to heat and eat. (Obviously, the cheapest way to eat is to go to the grocery store, buy fresh ingredients, and make it yourself.) I found a few other things to try and my total order was:
The Lunch Box Medium, which included
Pork Fried Cauli Rice (45g protein)
Paleo Spaghetti (26g protein)
Italian Style Meatloaf (44g protein)
Muscle Meal: Paleo Chicken Fajitas (48g protein)
Red Chicken Enchiladas (49g protein)
Lemon Chickpea Salad (13g protein)
2x Banana chocolate chip bars (vegan and gluten free)
Chocolate Pronuts (dairy free, 15g protein each)
Total cost: $80.65 plus shipping ($24.99). Sent 2-day FedEx and wrapped to stay cold. Orders over a certain amount get a slight reduction in shipping. It seems high, but two-day service and well-insulated packing can’t be cheap. (I did have a $25 coupon code from the podcast, so that covered my shipping.)
I will point out that I don’t have any dietary restrictions or stick to a particular diet (Paleo, gluten free, etc), I just try to get my foods from non-processed/refined sources. So vegetables/fruit and a protein source, along with healthy fat is typically how I structure meals. The Lunch Box already had the meals pre-selected, I just chose the size. There are small, medium, and large portions available for most meals. For those who might struggle to get protein and veggies, and eat too many refined carbs, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
The FITzee Foods website was pretty simple to navigate to find foods and information. One thing I would have liked to have seen on the website is a little more on the “how it works” page is how long the meals are expected to keep. (I’m a little food-safety paranoid.) But all the packages did have a “freeze by” date stamped on them after they arrived.
Another thing to note, which I like, is that this is not a subscription service, which means you can order when you want and for the most part, have meals in 2 days. So if all of a sudden if you see your week getting hectic and you’ve run out of the awesome stuff you’ve cooked or a mostly empty fridge, in two days you can have fresh meals at your door. And by not having to subscribe, you’re in control of how much you order and when. I could see ordering a reasonable quantity and then freezing.
I placed my order on a Sunday morning, with the knowledge that it wouldn’t ship until Monday. I got a notification Monday when it shipped, and additional emails with the tracking information. When I got home Wednesday afternoon after a long ride, my box was waiting at my door.
Now the fun begins:
The box was well-packed with ice packs and insulation. Each meal was packaged in a recyclable dish and sealed with a plastic cover, very similar to how you’d find a pre-frozen meal. I had everything that I ordered, and got it the fridge. Each package is labeled with a “Freeze By” date. If you order a good set of meals and can’t get to them within that week, throw them in the freezer! Now I had a week’s worth of lunches waiting for me.
I put everything in the fridge and finished up my day. When I got home a little before 8pm after coaching my Wednesday evening swim workout, I was ready for food! I went for the Red Chicken Enchiladas, and after poking a few holes in the plastic wrap top and cooking for about 3 minutes in my microwave, I had dinner! Here is the basic nutrition information from myfitnesspal.com:
A hearty meal, and 1:1 CHO:PRO ratio. It was really quite filling. It tasted like homemade leftovers, which is pretty much what they are! This was a good first meal. The one thing I added to it was a salad of mixed greens (gotta eat those greens!) and a little extra cheese on top (not shown).
Let’s compare with a typical “frozen meal” – the lean cuisine chicken enchilada (nutrition info from myfitnesspal.com)
If we double the lean cuisine to make the calorie content approximately the same, what we see is 100g CHO (which probably comes from the rice) and only 20g total protein. Your more metabolically efficient meal is the FITzee one (which didn’t come with rice like the lean cuisine does.)
Over the next week, I went through the rest of the meals. The medium size were plenty – sometimes I couldn’t eat them all at one sitting. The chicken in the fajitas was especially tasty. The pork was really spicy! The ‘spaghetti’ of the paleo spaghetti was zucchini. It was all tasty – similar to something you might cook yourself.
The one item I tried and won’t order again are the pronuts. If you know me, I kind of have a thing for donuts, so I though, hey, awesome – I’ll get a protein donut! Satisfy a sweet craving and get protein. I’m glad I had my morning coffee to wash these down. I’d say, if you really need a donut and protein, go get a donut for $1 from your favorite shop and chase it with a protein drink.
The banana-chocolate chip bars were OK. Gluten free and vegan baked goods just aren’t my thing – the modified ingredients just take something away from the enjoyment of it. I’ll probably give some of the other bars a try, just to see if there is a difference.
In summary, FITzee foods seems to be a really nice solution for homemade meals if you are pressed for time or do not like to cook. They lean towards the Paleo, low-carb options, but not exclusively. If you have dietary restrictions, there are options. It’s not going to be your cheapest way to eat, but if you consider time saved during busy periods, you just might find it worth it. This will be better than some of the frozen meal options, especially as they are delivered fresh, and by far better than fast-food options.
Nicole
