wiltshire farm food/ diet chef/ shop brought ready meal

coolcats

Has anyone used wiltshire farm foods or diet chef, if so what do you think of the options and meals. How do they compare to shop brought ready meals. Is there a simular place to go for main meals but also meals for the whole day.

Cooking homemade meals and putting in freezer is not an option at this stage. But it could be mixed with homemade sandwiches and weetabix.

RuthnJasper

The elderly chap who lives in a bungalow behind my parents has them. We literally had to save his life when mum and I found him unconscious one day; he had all sorts of kidney and liver problems (still going - but only one kidney left!). We were appalled that he had literally nothing in his fridge-freezer except Rustlers burgers and ice-cream; that must have been what he'd been eating for years!

On his return home from hospital he was left in no uncertainty about his eating habits and he went for these Wiltshire Farm Foods. He finds them tasty and nutritious and fairly good value. The interaction with the regular delivery drivers is also a social connection that he enjoys. I have no in-depth knowledge, but I suspect that they are better (nutritionally and possibly ethically) than some of the supermarket ready meals - even if they are prepared in a smaller kitchen, it's a start!

I also know of someone else (no now longer with us) who had them and enjoyed them too.

Hope this helps. x

ripplyuk

I use Wiltshire farm foods sometimes and I think they're ideal for someone in the situation you describe. The meals are very tasty, far nicer than anything I can get in a supermarket and I think, much healthier. They have a good range of main meals and desserts as well as mini meals etc. Only down side is that I found the portions quite small for the price (but the smallish portions seem to suit a lot of elderly people).

The delivery drivers are all lovely and will offer to put the meals in the freezer for you. They are never in a rush, mine were always happy to chat, and I do think they would be useful to check the person is ok. They delivered to my area every fortnight and would always ring to ask if I needed any more.

I'm not elderly, just lazy about cooking and liked getting healthy ready meals instead of rubbish stuff!

coolcats

Thank you both, it's a need based on potion control and having meals available to stop grabbing what is handy (takeaway and biscuits etc). The diet chef is an option as calorie controlled, but that still invovles adding veg (which I don't expect will happen)

Any more thoughts are welcome

donnac2558

Diet Chef you have to add your own meal and veg. It very low calorie, well lower than a doctor recommends your intake when dieting. Slower you lose the longer it will stay off.

coolcats

I thought they would be low calorie for the diet chef, its also adding the veg that would become an issue. And then would possibly be add bread etc to the meal as not enough which most certainly add to junk food eatting.

RuthnJasper

coolcats wrote: »

I thought they would be low calorie for the diet chef, its also adding the veg that would become an issue. And then would possibly be add bread etc to the meal as not enough which most certainly add to junk food eatting.

Wiltshire Farm Foods put the calorie-counts for their meals on their website and hard-copy menus, I believe. But I think the only real way to stop persistent junk food eating (and I completely understand why you are doing this) is to remove the source of the problem - e.g. the ability to buy and have junk foods delivered.

Speaking from personal experience, it doesn't take too long to "unlearn" the junk food habit (though I appreciate that not everyone is the same as me). After a couple of months of noticing the health benefits and range of tasty foods outside the realms of junk, I stopped pigging out on cr-p. Personally, I got into making my own soup, but have been surprised about how I would these days choose, for example, a baked potato over chips.

Good luck! Maybe you could "incentivise" (b*ll*ck-speak, I know - sorry ). Sensible eating for a fortnight and a special treat as a 'reward'...? Something relatively naughty every two weeks, or even weekly, might be a way to sneak in healthy eating!

coolcats

The junk food eating is more from the pressure of life and a shop in easy reach. Although that has got better, its still the comfort of toast with butter on etc, not just biscuits and crisp. This needs to be does as a full life style change. Not just a short term plan. The treat would have to be part of it but as a weekly plan to start. Also got to be simple as here is your meals and what you can eat this week.

A good day and its not a problem a bad day and it is. The problem is the day will start off good and then a phone call will be recieved and will become a bad week. All other people and emotional (which dealt with slowly but has a long way to go)

Trying to find a way with baby steps that it can be improved on and a good proper meal available will be a good start.

Thanks for the suggestions they are all helpful to know what will work.