Too Busy for Meal Prep? TRY THIS.

What's up everyone, Victoria S. Dorsano here, and today I'm going to share with you guys a little bit about how you can meal prep without cooking at all. And make sure you stick around to the end of this video because I will be talking about my number one tip if you're going to be ordering any kind of meals taken out from anywhere that's like meal prep company, takeout, etc., etc. That's going to be really important to keeping you healthy. But before I dive in, as always, if you can give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel, and if you want, follow me on Instagram too at Victoria Victoria S. Dorsano. I would love to chat with you guys there. All right, so I work with a ton of really busy clients who are working professionals who sometimes have families and have just a lot going on in their lives, right? And I work with clients who maybe don't fit that bill but just hate cooking, absolutely despise cooking for whatever reason. I mean, I get it. I've definitely had times in my life where I don't like cooking either, and To those individuals, you know, whether you're just really busy, don't have time to meal prep yourself, or you just don't like cooking, I like to recommend a set of various companies that are wonderful that make the meals for you. And no, I'm not talking about things like HelloFresh, although the, you know, that resource is great too. So I'm not talking about meal prep kits where you have to chop all the vegetables up and you have to actually do some work because that still takes time, right? So I'm talking about already made meals, like ready to eat. You just heat 'em up and go and that's it. And you know, I'm always surprised and sometimes I just, you know, I'm always kind of looking at these different resources out there and I get it. That's my job, right? I'm surprised so many people don't know about them 'cause these companies are great. Um, they've been a huge resource for me because as much as I enjoy cooking, like I said, there's some weeks I don't really vibe with it. I'm not just not wanting to cook. Um, and You know, there's some weeks where I genuinely don't have the time, whether I'm traveling that weekend or there's, you know, Mother's Day or something where you're, you're out and you're busy and you don't have time to do all that yourself. These meals that you can order that are already made, they're super amazing to have handy. So I'm gonna go through a few different companies that I like to recommend to my clients. There's plenty of others out there, and if you know of any others that you like, feel free to drop them in the comments below. I'd love to hear about more that I don't know of or maybe haven't tried personally, but these are just some of the ones that I've tried myself that I recommend to my clients just because I've, I've heard about them, I know them, I've tried them. So I'm going to share about some of those today and we'll go from there. So some of these companies that I'm going to mention have more so like ongoing subscription plans, which is great, right? They usually offer the meals at a discount if you sign up for a subscription. I think there are some of them where you can kind of à la carte and purchase maybe one week here or one week there and not have to keep it recurring, or you can skip weeks, right? That's always an option. But one of the companies that I've enjoyed, my husband's tried before, is called Factor. They used to be called Factor 75. I think they've rebranded now, they're called Factor. But what I like about their meals is that they're very conscious of, you know, whether people are on keto or gluten-free or paleo. And a lot of these companies are But I think they've been, they've been around for a good while. You know, I've been aware of Factor, Factor 75. I keep wanting to call them Factor 75. They're Factor now. Factor sounds nice and sleek and their meals are fairly well portioned. I mean, I would say I personally got a little hungry afterwards. My husband did a little bit too. So I'd say like the portions were okay. We're pretty active though. So, you know, we are burning a lot of calories on a day-to-day basis, but I'd say, you know, it was pretty good. The meals were pretty high quality. We enjoyed that. But that's some— a good company you can go to that's been around for a while, that's trusted. They ship them to your door and there's plenty of variety of meals, right? Another one I've heard a lot about lately is Freshly. What I like about them is they seem to have a better price point on their meals. Of all the other pre-made meal companies, they seem to be one of the cheaper ones. Some of the meals can be $5, you know, a meal. which is really inexpensive in comparison to some other companies. So they have a really great variety too, and they seem more like kind of family friendly in a sense too, where there's different types of meals that will appeal to like kids, um, cuz they have like chicken fingers and things like that that are a little bit more family friendly and family oriented if you have younger kids at home. So that's always a great option too. Another one I've been hearing a lot about lately is Trifecta. I've been getting a ton of ads for Trifecta, probably because I'm a, you know, in the health and fitness world. But they are more geared towards like the athletes. And I think they prioritize, you know, high protein meals. They also do a really great job of kind of segregating out, you know, different diet types, whether you are vegetarian or paleo or keto and that sort of thing. But I've seen Trifecta kind of marketed more towards the athlete or bodybuilder. I have not personally tried Trifecta, but I'd say their price point is pretty similar to Factor. Another great company for all you vegetarians and vegans out there is Daily Harvest. You've probably heard of Daily Harvest if you listen to any podcasters or other YouTubers because Daily Harvest has, you know, really upped their ad game. But they offer, you know, a lot of actually smoothies that you, you know, pretty much just dump into your blender and it's ready to go. And different types of meals that are, you know, vegetarian, vegan, and have like you know, a lot of different healthy grains in there. Um, so that's another really great option too if you are looking to have a, you know, work with a company that's kind of aligned with your dietary style of being a vegetarian or vegan, or if you just really like smoothies but don't necessarily like having to buy a huge bag of kale that you might not use the entire week. And, you know, no one likes food waste, right? So this kind of eliminates that. And then lastly, I wanna share about BistroMD. BistroMD was something that came across my, uh, field of view probably few years ago. Um, so they've been around for a while. And what I really like about BistroMD is I recommend them for my clients that are dealing with really specific, almost medical conditions. So like, um, they have a diabetes meal plan, they have a menopause meal plan. They hook you up with a registered dietitian and you are able to talk with them about your meals and how you're feeling on it. So that's what I really liked about BistroMD is that they have that medical component to their meal plans and they really do a good job of And, you know, especially with like people with diabetes and those kind of specialty populations, if you're dealing with specific medical conditions like that, they're a really great company to lean into and try out as well. But I'm saving my favorites for last, and my favorite meal prep companies are the local ones. So these companies that I all mentioned before, you know, they all pretty much ship out anywhere in the US. They, you know, have multiple kind of centers where they ship out their meals from. Right. But I'm a fan of supporting local businesses. And I myself used to have a meal prep business from home, so I totally understand. It's a labor of love. The profit margins aren't super great. So if I can, I like to order my pre-made meals from local, you know, local meal prep places in the area that, you know, deliver the food fresh. So in the Chicagoland area, there's been several amazing companies I've tried. One of them is Eat Clean Chicago. I have some of their meals right now in my fridge. They are a great one. I absolutely enjoy their food, the flavors, the portions, the service. Everything's been phenomenal about, you know, what, you know, what I've gotten from their company. They have all their macronutrients on the food, so you know how many calories and protein and carbs and all that good stuff you're getting. And it's pretty simple in terms of the ingredients, so it's not too crazy. It pretty much meets every palate for the most part. Another company I like locally out here in the Chicago suburbs is Foodie Fresh Meals. My good friend Jess Evans runs that and she does a great job with her food. I remember the first time I met her and spent some time with her, she made me lunch and it was like a simple Greek salad, but it was so good. She does such a great job. So if you're out in the Chicago 'burbs and you wanna order from her, it's Foodie Fresh Meals. You can find her on Instagram as well. Another great, great company that I can highly recommend from my personal experience. But again, I know a lot of you guys are not in the Chicagoland area. So if you're looking for meal prep companies that are local in your area, all you need to do is just go to Google and type in meal prep companies near me, and you will get a good list of, you know, different places that do meal prep services that are local, maybe small mom and pop shops. Um, I have a few clients on the East Coast. We were doing that too and kind of looking on Google Maps and there's several out that way. So I have no doubt that there's probably some in your area too, but those are always great to support local businesses if you can. Okay, so I know I promised you guys a tip for staying healthy while you are eating these meals from meal prep companies or from even, you know, places that you order takeout from. And my number one tip is to make sure you are not heating your food in the containers that they give you, even if the containers are labeled as microwave safe and BPA-free. If they are plastic they have usually an alternative, you know, chemical called BPS or bisphenol S, or another type of chemical that's also an endocrine disruptor. And endocrine disruptors just basically disrupt how your body is producing hormones, regulating hormones, and we just want to stay away from that. There's a lot of studies showing that reheating plastic just in general is bad and not healthy. And if you've been on my channel for a little bit, you, you know that I'm not super into like, oh, you gotta be careful about this and this and this. But this is the one thing, one of my main things that's like, you should probably stay away from heating your food in plastic containers or plastic at all. And if you are gonna reheat any food from meal prep companies, you know, they come in the plastic containers, right? When you go to reheat them in the microwave, put the food on a paper plate, put the food on a, you know, on a glass container if you have any glass meal prep containers or a ceramic dish or anything like that to reheat it. Um, highly recommend that. So you are decreasing the chances of having any of those endocrine disruptors leaching into your bloodstream, and we just don't want that. Right? Right. So I'm all about, you know, trying to recommend things, but also be safe. And this is one of those things where I'm like, meal prep services, great, but make sure that you're reheating them in something that's not plastic. Cool. Cool. All right, guys, it's been real. I hope this was useful for you and maybe opened your mind up to an option that you haven't known about before or just gave you some different ideas, different companies that you can try out if you haven't tried them. I'm all about making health simple, easy, and effective for you, especially if you are busy like most of us are. So I hope this was helpful. And if you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to my channel and like this video. It helps out a lot. On my road to 1,000 subscribers. So we're getting there, guys. I appreciate every last subscriber. And until then, I will see you guys next time. Bye.