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DietBon are a French company specialising in diet plan ready made meals, which are 100% natural, delivered straight to your door- tailored to your needs. The name, translated literally, means ‘good diet', and so we arranged for a weeks worth of meals to be sent to my husband to try out. He has a busy working life as a Leeds based Lawyer, which involved lots of travel, early mornings, late nights and office desk dinner dates! Ease of use and speedy preparation were key here, as well as a tasty meal of course!
First of all, DietBon make sure that their diet plan regime is right for you by scheduling in a call with one of their dieticians. Thomas had a call with an English speaking dietician based in France, who talked him through how the plan works and realistic expectations for the 7 day review plan. She explained that the diet plan is particularly popular amongst Lawyers for its ease of use within a busy working lifestyle as the plan is made to be as simple as possible. Weight loss expectations are roughly 3-4kg a month, depending on what his usual intake was like and how much exercise he does.
The Dietician also explained that the DietBon Starter Plan is very flexible, so if you start the plan and find that your hunger levels are too high, you can talk to your dietitian who will alter the plan and tailor it to your needs. Similarly, if you find you haven’t lost as much as weight as you’d have hoped for, your dietitian can advise if any changes can be made.
What does the DietBon diet plan involve?
The plan is very simple, working around 4 meals a day for 6 days - the seventh day is free. The 4 meals include breakfast, a main meal for lunch, a main meal for dinner with one dessert and one daily snack.
There are certain healthy principles you need to stick to, such as supplementing the meals with raw salad, healthy vegetables or fruit (two servings of fruit, and one serving of vegetables) and including a dairy intake of the right proportion (two dairy products, 150ml glass of semi or skimmed milk or a low fat yoghurt), and as long as these principles are adhered to on the 'free day', you can eat what you like - great news if you are heading out for dinner one day during the week!
The meals also include a booklet - DietBon guide to success - which includes lots of recipes and meal inspiration for your free day to help you remain successful.
The diet plan also recommends that the carbohydrate rich meals are eaten at lunch time with the lighter meals being consumed at dinner time.
Breakfast - pancakes supplemented with fruit and a glass of milk.
Lunch - Lunchtime for me was a carbohydrate rich DietBon main meal with the fruit compote for dessert.
Snack - lemon cakes as a snack supplemented with a low fat yoghurt.
Dinner - DietBon main meal supplemented with a raw salad or a portion of vegetables and a piece of fruit for dessert.
I shall now hand you over to Thomas for his own review and opinions on the Dietbon diet plan meals...
What are the meals like?
The Dietbon plan allows you to select your own meals according to your preferences, and so I substituted some of the dishes which contained fish - which I don't eat - for alternatives. Here is a list of the meals I was sent for the week:
- creamy vegetarian carrot and coconut soup
- Spicy tomato and beef soup
- Whole meal salad : Mini farfalle with chicken and sundried tomatoes
- Andalusian-style chicken with white rice
- Mexican meatballs with pasta vegetables and tomato sauce
- Roast chicken fillet with mashed potatoes
- sautéed porked with diced vegetables and bacon
- Chicken Tikka masala with rice and quinoa
- Marengo veal
- Beef Bourguignon
- Basque chicken with pasta spirals
- Pork tenderloin with mashed potato
- 8 Pancakes
- 8 Mini lemon cakes
- 8 organic Apple and Pear compote
- TEA Detox 28 DAYS Morning & Night
I was worried about where I would find the room in my fridge or freezer for the meals, but as the meals are cooked, packed and then sterilised,they don’t actually need to be refrigerated! This means that I can easily pack a meal into my work bag at 5.30am and it will still be okay to eat at lunch or even dinner time if I am working away. The meals cook in 2 minutes in a microwave, or a bain-marie and then they are ready to eat!
I'll be honest and say that the look of the food when it was in the microwaveable packaging made me a little worried about how they would taste, especially as they aren't fresh - but the meals were actually delicious! Tasty, full of flavour, and even my 2 year old kept digging in at home as she loved the food.
I even tried, and enjoyed the tea - although I wont be giving up my Yorkshire Tea just yet!
My top tip would be to spend a little time on presentation, always decant into a proper dish and ideally, a smaller sized dish so that you don't feel like you are eating a reduced size, slimming meal.
Would I recommend DietBon?
The meals were simple and easy to prepare, and very tasty. It was handy that they could be stored in the cupboard as opposed to taking up room in the fridge, and the structure of the meal plan meant it was very easy to follow without having to worry about things such as counting calories or cooking using special ingredients every day. It was good to know that there was support from the Dietician if needed.
I think the ready made, home delivered, meal plan idea would work just as well for those who aren't necessarily looking to lose weight, but need a good, healthy and convenient food plan option to fit into their busy lives! It was nice not having to worry about going out to buy convenience food at my desk whilst working through lunch.
If I were doing this plan long term, I'd probably like to have more than 1 free day just so that I can still join in with home cooked family meals at the weekend. The plan doesn't suit every budget - It starts at £44 a week ( £7 per day for 4 home delivered meals and dietary consultations) if you dive straight into the 4 month+ plan, but is more expensive if you choose a shorter term plan. If you are working full time and have little time to plan and prep, and end up buying your food at a shop or a cafe each day then the plan could actually save you money.
If you would like to try your own diet plan ready made meals, we have an offer for our readers: For the very first order of a diet plan, you can benefit from a 15% discount and a free 28-day Morning & Night detox tea cure. To do this, it is necessary to use this link: http://bit.ly/db-arthurwears and use the code WELCOME.
