Want to get fitter, more toned and eat less calories without having to live on lettuce? Welcome to So Shape…
So Shape are a French brand that produce smart meals that contain everything you need to lose weight. The idea is that you can basically avoid hard to follow diets and eat full meals with less calories and less fat. The smart meals are in powder form, they’re gluten free, have no preservatives and are vegetarian. There’s 19 gourmet flavours and they can be ready to eat within minutes. All you have to do is follow the one rule of having a smart meal for your breakfast, and one for your dinner. In between the smart meals you can enjoy a large lunch of anything you choose, but obviously if you’re trying to eat well then you would opt for something healthy! The other alternative is to have a smart meal for breakfast and one for lunch if you have a dinner planned or are eating out. The challenges include a 5 day, 14 day and 28 day. I was sent enough smart meals to try out the 5 day challenge and I’m definitely tempted to try out more flavours now I’ve had a taste!
Some of the benefits the smart meals provide are regulating your metabolism, helping towards getting a flat stomach, toning muscles, boosting energy, detoxifying your body and regulating your cholesterol. All it takes to prepare them is a bit of water and possibly some microwaving if you like it hot, super easy stuff – especially for those who don’t have time to cook. Perfect for me personally if I want to have a healthy week as I struggle to find the time to cook meals as it is, never mind healthy ones!
I absolutely love the packaging of the brand, not only is the logo completely gorgeous, but the packaging of the smart meals is so unique. I love how they separate them individually by colour too, it all looks so pretty when you open the parcel! In the package, you get enough smart meals to fulfil your 5, 14 or 28 day challenge as well as a shaker to make your smart meals with. I’ve been eating so badly lately due to not having time to cook substantial, healthy meals so I was excited to have 5 days of eating less fat and seeing what difference it made. The challenge is to have 2 smart meals a day so for a 5 day challenge, you get 10 smart meals. The flavours I got were Vanilla & White Chocolate, Stracciatella, Speculoos, Chocolate, Cookies & Cream, Lemon Cheesecake, Pesto Pasta, Pasta Spicy Bolo, Indian Curry Pasta & French Garden Soup.
I won’t describe every flavour as I’ll be here all day, but not one of them was disappointing, they were all full of flavour and tasted exactly like the food they’re supposed to be. My favourites in particular were the sweets, they were all absolutely delicious! The first smart meal I tried was the Indian Curry Pasta and it wasn’t spicy at all which was what I was a bit worried about. It was literally just like eating curry flavoured pasta and it had a really nice sweet taste which I liked a lot. It wasn’t pure liquid form either, there were little bits of pasta in which was nice, I feel like it would have been weird to drink it like a soup. A favourite flavour that really stood out to me was the Cookies & Cream smart meal, which was like drinking an oreo milkshake! It even had little bits of cookie in so again, it wasn’t completely liquid form. Mine ended up being quite watery and I think I would have preferred it a bit thicker, but it was still delicious and to say it’s got such a low calorie count too – it definitely fixes a sweet craving. Another flavour I really enjoyed was the Lemon Cheesecake, I absolutely LOVE lemon cheesecake and again, it was just like drinking a milkshake that tasted exactly like a cheesecake, sweet but with a beautiful subtle citrus taste.
Overall, I really enjoyed my 5 day challenge and my body felt so much better for it. I felt way more energised than usual and I was way less bloated. I suffer with quite bad bloating after meals and during this challenge, the smart meals really helped reduce that which was a lovely feeling. I probably wouldn’t do more than the 5 day challenge unless I was really eager to lose some weight, as I didn’t find them as filling as proper meals. But for once a month, it’s definitely nice to have a good detox alongside healthy eating.
In the booklet that comes with the smart meals, there is actually some recipes where you can use your smart meals as part of a recipe to make flans and other meals so that they’re slightly more filling. If I had done this challenge for more than 5 days, I probably would have tried those just so my meals were that bit more substantial. I think it’s fab that the sweet flavours are so delicious and can fix a sugar craving whilst being so low in calories, as that would definitely help someone who was on a huge health kick and struggled with cravings for sugary treats.
If you fancy trying out the So Shape challenge, you can find all the info and flavours on their website here. You can also get 10% off the 14 & 28 day challenges with the code GEMMA10 – UK only π
Have you tried anything like this before?
~ This post is sponsored by So Shape ~