The common sermon aimed at new mothers is to eat a balanced diet, get enough sleep and exercise. When baby Pea turned three months old, none of the above had happened to me for a while, let alone all three of them together. As a result, I have felt like crap. There is no putting it any other way. Hit by a bus times ten. That’s roughly where I have been – physically and emotionally.

I tackled the exercise situation and the sleep issue, and although it’s far from perfect, I am doing OK on both fronts now. The most difficult thing to sort out though was eating healthily. Left over fish fingers, surprise grabs into the fridge (open the door, stick your hand in and tah-dah!, meet your lunch/dinner/snack) and, of course, nachos and beer were the key components of my diet.

Losing weight hasn’t been on the forefront on my mind. I just wanted to feel better about myself, have more energy and replenish my body after having a baby and (on-going) breastfeeding.

To give credit where it is due, Big M had the idea to order food for me. I had done it before and loved it. After a little bit of research, Pure Package’s post baby menu seemed to be the ticket for a lacklustre Mama like me. And because eating alone is only half the fun, we ordered a detox package for Big M from SoulmateFood to enjoy upon his return from Thailand.

Pure Package

This is hands down my absolute favourite. The food is gorgeous, fresh and lovingly prepared. I let out actual screams of delight each morning when taking in my temperature controlled black bag. Customer service is active, accommodating and caring. The team behind Pure Package wants you to succeed and sends regular messages to track your progress and adapt to changed requirements, if needed. Food is delivered daily in the wee hours, guaranteeing absolute freshness of the product.

I noticed a massive change in my mood on the 3^rd day of my superfoods charged ‘diet’. Portion sizes were generous – I hardly managed to eat up. Lots of snacks meant I never came anywhere close to feeling hungry, let alone hitting a sugar low. Loved every bite of it!

• Aim: healthy eating, boosted mood, increased energy levels
• Status: mission accomplished
• Price: 10 days for £395, i.e. roughly £40 per day

Bodychef

I had a week’s worth of Bodychef’s detox programme a couple of years ago, to get rid of these last pesky baby pounds after having Little L. Detox here means eating lots but of the right kind – no such thing as a juice fast for me.

Deliveries are twice weekly, which means that you’ve got to get a little creative making space in your fridge. There are little bits of ‘cooking’ involved – you’ve got to boil the rice and mix together porridge oats and rice milk for your breakfast. At the moment, this would have spoilt it for me, because unfortunately, even boiling rice is too much of a task for my shattered, sleep deprived self.

Bodychef is very accommodating to your personal requirements if you tell them upfront. And although they don’t actively search the contact with you, they are extremely helpful if you have to reach out to them.

The food itself is good, nothing too fancy or adventurous. However, the price tag is really sweet. This is by far the best deal I could find online.

• Aim: lose the last few pounds of baby weight
• Status: mission accomplished
• Price: from £47.93 for three days, i.e. roughly £16 per day. Unbeatable!

SoulmateFood

Sadly, and against our expectations, SoulmateFood was a bit disappointing. Whilst the food is exciting, varied and you never go hungry (we chose the detox package for my husband), delivery service is below average.

In general, they don’t send food for Sundays (because you don’t eat on Sundays?), and you can’t schedule deliveries for bank holidays. As a result, my husband went without any food during the Easter weekend. What’s even worse, on two days the driver was hours late, i.e. Big M left for work without any food to take with him. Despite telling the office where to leave the food box in the night, the driver kept on placing it under the baby’s window, waking her in the process.

Delayed deliveries and waking babies ruin the point of having Detox Food delivered and we decided to cancel the course. Even though the T&Cs claimed that was not possible Soulmate Foods was understanding and canceled. They gave us a full refund even though we had received half the food. A shame that it did not work out, but at least it was solved amicably in the end.

But the eating did not end there, surprisingly another food box was delivered on Monday morning around 5am. Of course, it had been placed under the baby’s window (waaaaahhhhh…), but I have happily been tucking into the truly lovingly made dishes for the past couple of days.

It seems as if SoulmateFood are great with food, but as soon as you step out of their kitchen, things go wrong. The customer service is not as personal or on the ball as BodyChef’s and Pure Package’s and the hiccups with the delivery team have left a bitter aftertaste to what could have been a great experience.

• Aim: maintain a detox diet after an extensive detox on holiday
• Status: mission impossible
• Price: £750 for three weeks (=18 days), i.e. roughly £42 per day