Musclefood Do the Unthinkable Review

I think we all know that healthy eating and exercise is good for us! Right? But when your a busy parent, sometimes the constraints of time and energy you have left at the end of a day mean you would rather be reaching for the take-away menu than the chopping board to prepare a healthy meal. This is our Musclefood Do the Unthinkable review, a diet plan which is prefect for busy parents.

I hate to say it but I am a little bit of a serial dieter! Over the last few years my weight has yoyo’d drastically, losing 2 stone then getting pregnant, then losing a stone and a half, gaining half of that back and then losing another stone, my body doesn’t really know whats going on with it. In my head I know how to lose weight, how to eat healthy and what I really should be doing to look after myself at my age.

But…and that’s a pretty big but…I’m a parent of a toddler, Jon and I technically run 4 businesses, spare time is very slim, and cooking from fresh is time consuming and often expensive. So more often than not even when you start eating healthily and exercising you’ll hit a speed bump and return to your bad habits again. It’s all to easy to gain wight, and take the easy road out when your sleep deprived, tired, busy and trying to keep a small human alive day in day out.

So what can you do to lose weight and stay healthy

Jon and I have tried a few different diet plans and pre-made food options. If we are honest, apart from Slimming World which we know works for us, but is time consuming sadly, nothing really works. And all the other pre-made food plans….well no offence but the food sucks! Portions are usually tiny so you feel hungry all the time, the food is watery, bland or totally over spiced with pepper or chilli to mask the fact it has no flavour.

And obviously we are people who like food, hense the fact we need to lose weight, so we just can’t cope with starving ourselves or eating bad food for weeks on end. Lets just say that past experiences haven’t gone well, I’ve wasted a fair amount of money on rubbish diet food and we usually end up abandoning things a week in.

We have worked with Musclefood in the past, last time we tested out and reviewed their new Change One Thing Recipes. So when they got in touch to ask us to try out their new Do The Unthinkable plan, an all inclusive healthy eating diet and fitness plan, we jumped at the chance. We know the quality of their food is good, we know their healthy eating recipes are good, and after reading a few posts about the plan and watching a few reviews I was up for the challenge.

How the plan works

The plan provides you with everything you need to lose weight and get fit over a 12 week period (although you can do the plan for as long as you like, for instance we trialled 5 days). Do The Unthinkable provides you with a breakfast, lunch, dinner and 3 snacks for everyday you are on plan. Dishes are calorie controlled and are simple and quick to cook. Most only require heating in the microwave or oven, but there are a selection of stir-fry dishes which require cooking fresh but only take around 10 minutes.

Unlike other plans which only look at altering or controlling the food aspect of your lifestyle, the Do The Unthinkable Plan also looks at working on your exercise and fitness habits. With the plan you also get a fitness DVD and a calendar of of when to do the exercises to get the most affect from them. I’m not gonna lie the fitness test and exercise video was tough, it showed us just how unfit we both were! But I can see our fitness level improving, even just a little each time we did the video.

You also have access to an online personal trainer and helper for any questions you have along the way. We didn’t use this over the 5 days but can see how it would be helpful to keep you on track and motivated if you were to keep going for the full 12 week program.

It’s so simple to order

The plan has 3 options, at 3 different price points. Depending on how much you want to spend, but also on how strict you want to be with yourself.

5 days on plan, 2 days off – £60 (£2 per meal)
6 days on plan, 1 day off – £69 (£1.91 per meal)
7 days on plan, 0 days off – £78 (£1.88 per meal)

To order you simply need to select your chosen plan. The entire plan runs for 12 weeks, but you pay per week, so can change and alter as and when you want. If you want to just trial a week thats fine, or you keep going as long as you like. You can change and choose your meal options 48 hours before your weekly delivery slot.

You need to input your personal details: name, age, weight, height, activity level and why you want to do the plan – lose weight, tone up, gain muscle, etc. The system will then select all the items you can have on the plan and give you options to chose from.

You then choose your breakfast, lunch, dinner and 3 snacks for each day of your plan. There are lots and lots of options to suit all tastes so you don’t need to worry about being bored of the same meals all the time.

Everything is then delivered to you on your chosen date in a cooler bag to keep it fresh. Meals need to be kept in the fridge, although a few are frozen, but nearly all breakfasts and snacks are cupboard storage.

Our favourite items

Me and Jon have quite different tastes when it comes to food, I will happily eat meals piled up with veggies, whereas he rathers plenty of meat. Plus there is the spice aspect, I can’t eat spicy food due to an allergy, and although Jon doesn’t like anything super hot he will gladly eat a good curry or chilli dish. so between us we trialled a lot of the food and snacks on offer.

Breakfasts

Battle Bites Protein Bar Chocolate Caramel
Battle Bites Protein Bar Cookies and Cream
Trek Cocoa Coconut Flapjack

Snacks

Lemon Crunch Protein Bar
Chocolate Mint Hilo Bar
BBQ Mountain Chips
White Chocolate Yumm High Protein Crunchers
Chocolate Caramel Hilo Bar
Smokey Barbecue Zippers
Chinese Chicken Stick

Meals

Salmon Teriyaki Stir-fry – My fav dish of all!
Persian Lime Chicken with Minted Bean Quinoa
Goats Cheese Pizza
BBQ Chicken and Rice Pot
Chinese Pork Stir-Fry
Beef lasagna with Italian Veg

Our Results

We only did the programme for 5 days, but in that time I lost around 2.5lbs and Jon drooped almost 4lbs. In the 5 days we never felt hungry, always having a good snack to get us through between meals.

All the meals are a good portion size, and you can add 2 portions of healthy veg to the meals if you want. I did this with my stir fry to add in some baby corn and beans, but with most dishes you don’t need extra food. You can also have a portion of fruit each day too.

We loved the majority of the food. Obviously with personal taste you aren’t going to love everything you eat, but we honestly like 95% of the food. The Salmon Teriyaki Stir-fry is my favourite and I could easily eat that every day. Jon loved the Goats Cheese Pizza the most. Snack wise there were lots we loved as you can see above. Everything tasted great and was made of such great quality ingredients.

Would we do it again?

100% we would love to do the Do The Unthinkable plan again, and would happily do it for longer next time. I think you could easily lose a large chunk of weight and get fitter by following the plan for the full 12 weeks. You wouldn’t ever feel like you were missing out as the snacks give you your sweet tooth kick, and the meals are tasty and filling, plus with pizza, Chinese and curry dishes your not missing out on the naughty meals you like.

Is it worth the cost

I honestly think the plan is worth the cost. If you tried to budget for healthy fresh cooked meals every day, and buying all the snacks it would be hard to do it for the price. Especially if you factor in a personal trainer or gym membership like the one you have access to with this.

The time saved from cooking all the meals is the biggest thing for busy parents. The fact the meals take 4-10 minutes max to cook is a major plus point for parents. It means you can stick to the plan without having to go out of your way or factor in time for cooking from fresh.