Apparently I’m very hard to please. (Right now, everyone in my family is thinking, “Yeah, tell us something we *don’t* know.”) Seriously though, people seem to really love these meal-in-a-box delivery services, but I guess I’m not one of them. I didn’t like Hello Fresh, and I don’t like Blue Apron. Here’s the skinny.

Blue Apron Meal Delivery Service

I really wanted to like Blue Apron. My friend Sean in New York uses them and seems to like them. They’re a little bit cheaper than Hello Fresh ($59.94 per week vs. $69 per week), but you still get the makings of three meals per week. (I will say that the portions are larger at Blue Apron. Although every recipe indicates that it serves 2, we had leftovers after almost every meal–in some cases quite a lot of leftovers.)

Right off the bat I was annoyed because their delivery day in my area is Thursday. These meals are best eaten relatively soon after receiving them, and they generally don’t show up in time to use them Thursday night for dinner, so that meant we’d be using them for dinner Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I don’t know about others, but I need meal planning for weekdays, when my husband and I have been working all day and don’t have the time or energy to think about an elaborate dinner. Saturday and Sunday we have time to think and cook. If you’re in a similar boat, Blue Apron is not for you.

***Diet to Go Reviews is a perfect guide you choose right meal plan***

I also didn’t like the fact that, unlike Hello Fresh, you have no meal options – you just get what they want to send. Hello Fresh offers five meals a week from which you choose the three you want. Blue Apron makes that decision for you. I don’t like other people choosing my food for me. They make bad choices.

On the positive side, I think the Blue Apron meals are packaged more efficiently and effectively than Hello Fresh. We had a total of five boxes from Blue Apron. No ingredients were ever missing, and none was damaged. That’s a big improvement over Hello Fresh. There also was less garbage/recycling after unpacking the Blue Apron box.

As for the recipes and meals, I can’t say that I’m a fan. For starters, most of them estimate 25-45 minutes of preparation time. This is a dramatic understatement. In most cases, just prepping and chopping all the fresh ingredients took about 30 minutes. Whatever their prep time says, double it. Unless of course you have a team of sous chefs with professional knife skills to staff your home kitchen. Oh, you don’t have that? Yeah, me neither.

Then there’s the fact that two meals in our first box (and one in our second box) involved beets. Beets! The world’s grossest vegetable. No one likes beets that much, especially not me. Even my husband doesn’t like beets, and he likes pretty much everything. When did it become acceptable to foist beets on people? (My friend Liz says beets are the new kale. God help us all.)

My other ingredient gripes relate to garlic and shrimp. Most of the recipes involve garlic, which is understandable. However, instead of sending just the necessary number of cloves of garlic (pre-peeled and shrink-wrapped) like Hello Fresh did, Blue Apron sends an entire head of garlic every week. My cup overfloweth with garlic. It doesn’t last forever, folks. Sooner or later it’s just going to get tossed, and that’s a waste.

As for the shrimp, they are, well, shrimpy. They’re those tiny little shrimp you see at Chinese restaurants. When I’m eating a shrimp dish, I want SHRIMP! Something you have to cut into with a knife. I’d much rather have 10 jumbo shrimp than 30 puny ones. Take note, Blue Apron.

Of the 15 meals we had, I intensely disliked 3 of them, mildly disliked 7 of them, and enjoyed the remaining 5. That’s not a great track record. I’ve heard about one other meal delivery service (Plated) but I’m not sure whether it’s worth a go. If anyone has experience with it, let me know in the comments. I still like the theory of having pre-planned meals and ingredients, but the execution is not living up to my expectations. I think a farm box may be in our future…

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The homemade protein shake is the best alternative to complement the daily diet, the most balanced and nutrient-rich option.

Eating before and after exercise is essential to enhance the effects of training, especially for those looking to increase muscle mass, vitamins and protein shakes are known from the training routine are practical and light.

Protein intake is a very important part of our diet.

They help to balance the body, speed up metabolism and renew organs and tissues in the body, including muscles.

5 Homemade Protein Shake Recipes

1- Homemade sweet potato protein shake
Ingredients:

1 banana
100g of boiled and peeled sweet potatoes
300ml of cold water
1 tablespoon of oats
1 tablespoon of quinoa
Preparation mode:

Just beat everything in the blender if it gets too thick, add more water and then take it

2- Homemade strawberry protein shake with nuts

Ingredients:

2 scoops of vanilla flavored whey protein
1 cup of low-fat strawberry yogurt
6 Brazil nuts
200ml skimmed milk
Preparation mode:

Beat the blender

Whey Protein for Weight Loss and Gain Mass: Diet
3- Homemade banana protein shake
Ingredients:

1 banana
200ml of skimmed or vegetable milk
1 spoon (coffee) of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of oats
½ dose of chocolate flavored protein supplement
Preparation mode:

Beat all the ingredients in the blender and want to add ice

4- Protein Shake with cinnamon almonds and whey protein
Ingredients:

150 ml of almond milk
1 small spoon of almonds
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
½ dose of vanilla flavored whey protein .
Preparation mode:

Grind the almonds in a blender.

Put the milk, cinnamon and whey protein in a whisk until smooth.

5- Protein shake with orange apple, cabbage, honey and yogurt
Ingredients:

1 small chopped apple
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup of chopped cabbage ;
1 140ml jar of low fat natural yogurt
½ tablespoon of honey
1 teaspoon of chia
1 teaspoon ginger
Preparation mode:

Mix all ingredients in a blender.

If you prefer, add some ice cubes after hitting

5 Juice Recipes With Chia For Weight Loss

Juice with chia to lose weight, here you will have several delicious options to include in your menu.

Chia is a powerful ally to weight loss, rich in fiber, the seed helps to regulate intestinal transit and prolongs the feeling of satiety, scaring hunger for longer.

Chia is a seed that has always attracted the eyes of nutritionists and is included in menus for several benefits, and not only in weight loss.

So the famous recipes of juice with chia for weight loss (detox) are the most sought after and used by people looking for good shape, for really helping with weight loss and body health.

Before the recipes see other ways of use to include in your day to day!

How to consume chia in food

1 – Mix 1 tablespoon of chia in a glass of water and drink 30 minutes before the main meals (lunch and dinner). The drink helps to reduce hunger and will make you eat less.
2 – Mix the seeds in the preparation of whole-grain pasta for pies, breads and cakes.
3 – Sprinkle the chia over the salad plate. The grain does not change the taste of the food. It can also be used over fruit salad.
4 – Add in juices, vitamins, smoothies , shakes or yogurts.
5 – Mix the chia in the brown rice.

5 Juice recipes with chia to lose weight

1. Cabbage juice recipe with chia
Ingredients:

Juice of a lemon
1 tablespoon of chia seed
1 large leaf of washed kale
1 slice of thick pineapple
1 tablespoon soup ginger powder
250 ml of ice water
Preparation mode:

Beat all the ingredients in a blender until you get a homogeneous mixture and ready to drink.

2. Juice recipe with chia and spinach
Ingredients:

1 handful of washed spinach leaves
1 glass of coconut water
1 tablespoon chia seed
2 mint leaves
1 apple with chopped skin
Preparation mode:

Beat everything in a blender with ice to add more creaminess. Serve! If you want, add some honey to sweeten it.

3. Juice recipe with chia and cucumber
Ingredients:

1/4 cucumber in shell
1 teaspoon of grated ginger
1 cup orange juice
1 small banana
1 teaspoon of chia seeds
water to taste.
Preparation mode:

Chop the cucumber, and the banana, grate the peeled ginger, squeeze the orange juice. Take all the ingredients to the blender to beat until smooth.

4. Juice recipe with chia, carrots and mint
Ingredients:

3 pineapple slices
2 mint leaves
2 tablespoons chia
½ small to medium carrot
sweetener to taste
250 ml of ice water
Preparation mode:

Beat everything blender, except the chia that must be added at the end. Take fasting in the morning or between meals.

5. Juice recipe with chia and orange
Ingredients:

100 ml of orange juice
2 tablespoons of chia seed soup
sweetener to taste.
Preparation mode:

Place the seed in the orange juice to hydrate for half an hour. Then take everything in the blender and beat. Add ice, sweetener and serve.

5 Tips To Lose Belly fat

The efficiency and risk of the cyclic ketogenic diet to lose fat and crack muscles

Do you know the difference between the cyclic ketogenic diet and common diets when it comes to losing weight and gaining muscle mass?

Most people believe they just need to lose weight and lose weight . It turns out that in a weight loss with a traditional “eat less calories than you expend” diet, you lose both fat and muscle (lean mass). The result may be a slimmer body, but it will also be weaker.

Wouldn’t it be better for a diet that makes you lose only fat while protecting lean mass? It exists and is called a cyclic ketogenic diet .

The traditional ketogenic diet was popularized by Doctor’s. This diet was one of the first to defend that what causes the current obesity epidemic is not the consumption of too much fat, but the excessive consumption of carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates in the form of wheat and sugar. Today, the majority of the population eats up to 100 times more carbohydrates than a few decades ago.

Carbohydrates are present in foods such as pasta, white bread, cookies, ice cream, white rice, cake, chocolate, grains. They are present in every food that is produced with “villains” like sugar and wheat flour .

List of foods

In the ketogenic diet , to lose fat, all these foods are eliminated . But in compensation, everything that is not carbohydrate – that is, protein and fat – can be consumed at will, as many times as we want and in the desired amount. This results in a menu with very tasty options:

Filet Steak
Salmon
Bacon
White cheeses
eggs
Milk cream
Pates
Ham
Smoked turkey breast
Mortadela
Vegetables
Olive oil
Chestnuts
Chicken
Fish
Avocado

All types of meat, including fatty ones like termite and titty

Understanding Ketosis

Our body uses carbohydrates as a primary source of energy. When we cut the carbohydrates off the menu, in about three days our bodies go into ketosis . Ketosis is the process by which the body starts to use fat (and no longer carbohydrates) as a primary source of energy.

As strange as it may seem, you will need to eat fat for the body to start burning it. If you don’t eat it, don’t think that the body will immediately burn the ones you have in your body. He will think something like “oops, no fat is coming, better preserve the reserves I have here” . Our body is an incredibly intelligent machine.

How do you know if you have gone into ketosis?

To find out if you have actually managed to reduce your carbohydrate intake to the point of getting into ketosis, you can buy some urine test strips (or “strips”) that are sold to diabetics in pharmacies. The best known of these is called Ketostix . Just urinate on them and they will indicate a color that shows whether or not you are ketosis.

Once fat has become the body’s main source of energy, it will gradually be consumed from both food and your body. And the best part: since there are no more carbohydrates, there are no more insulin spikes that generate the dreaded localized fats.

And if there are no more insulin spikes, there is no more inhibition of the release of growth hormone, which helps build muscle in the body. The result of this set of events will be your weight loss .

The first few days, while the body changes from “carbohydrate mode” to “fat mode”, are the most difficult, and may even generate a headache or malaise. This is because we are changing the way the body works.

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