I haven’t actually fallen off of the horse, but I have not practiced at all what I preach, for the past three months. In mid September I started a schedule at work that included no days off, less hours at home each day than I worked, and little time to prepare or eat real food. Also, I have returned to drinking socially. The result of these changes in my lifestyle on my diet and body weight were exactly what I expected.

When we (my wife and I) began this past three months we planned ahead a little bit. We signed ourselves up for Blue Apron, which is a food service that sends you three meals per week. It includes real fresh vegetables, unfrozen meat, spices and recipe cards to show you how to assemble the dish. It is convenient. They try to keep the calories down, which I don’t care about, by sending low fat cuts of meat, asking you to use olive oil to cook with (I used lard), and by keeping portion sizes down.

By way of a review, after three months of Blue Apron, there is too much boneless-skinless chicken breast on the menu for me, and there is too much fish and egg on the menu for my wife. Every meal comes with a bread (tortilla, pita, rolls, etc) or other starch like potato or white rice. Too many carbs to keep from getting hungry after dinner–which resulted in snacking before bed. The food was very good, the spices were liberal and overall every single thing I ate from them was worth eating. Some was exceptional. each plate of food costs ten dollars, so it’s 240 dollars per month to eat this way. Cheaper and time-saving compared to eating at a sit down restaurant three times a week, which is probably what we would have done if not for Blue Apron.

Part of getting back on the horse will be cancelling the Blue Apron deliveries. We don’t eat that many carbs when we cook ourselves. We don’t eat so much low-fat meat when we cook our own menu. I don’t get hungry and snack between meals when I do it my way.

I have gained 14 pounds eating like I have in the past three months.

Of course I don’t blame the food delivery service for my weight gain. I ate plenty of restaurant meals, industrial foods, and drank plenty of pop and beer in the last three months. I blame the pop and beer as much as I do anything solid that I ate. All together it has re-formed some bad eating and drinking habits. Going forward I will be drinking coffee and water, limiting my dining drinks to water. I will be eating the heritage pork that I purchased from a local farmer. I will be eating red meat with the fat on it. I tastes good and it’s good for me. I will go back to making sourdough bread, kombucha and sauerkraut. I have time once again for this kind of life, and I don’t see the Christmas holiday coming up as any kind of impediment to eating and drinking this way. In a few short weeks I should be back down to the 136 pound low I enjoyed a few months back.

In the meantime, if Blue Apron sounds like something you are interested in I have coupons for a free week that I can give out (a 60 dollar value for dinners of 2). I get nothing from it but the satisfaction of helping you eat better. Even thought there are more carbs and less fat than I like Blue Apron is probably a better way to eat than 50% of busy Americans eat right now. I recommend it and I will do it again when my schedule gets nuts next time.

Roast Turkey with Cranberry Sauce–Blue Apron