Ilumi - 2 weeks later

Food Rating: ★★★★☆    Personal Results Rating: ★★☆☆☆

   While I'd love to continue the Ilumi diet for a full month, my purse just won't allow it, which really sucks, because it's not all that expensive really, but I still can't do it.
   Unfortunately still, I can't honestly tell you if it's helped me to lose weight. It has reformed my personal diet - I thought more about what I ate, and ultimately consumed less calories - but unfortunately, the rest of my plan didn't workout.
   For the first half of the first week, I fell ill with a migraine. Because my migraine didn't have any aura (blind spots, dizziness and so on) that usually accompanies my migraines, I didn't realise exactly what it was, and didn't sleep it off. So instead I was stuck with a headache and nausea with sickness for about 2 days, and I didn't do any exercise. I didn't want to do too much once it began to pass, either, for fear of bringing it back around. It's important to note, though, that the migraine had nothing to do with the food.
   I did my best to exercise properly throughout the second week, and ate carefully, and as I weighed myself Monday morning, I've lost half a pound over those two weeks. I know that I'd have done better if I'd been able to exercise in that first week, but there's no accounting for sickness, especially bloody migraines. But, on those grounds, I believe that, in all honesty, Ilumi did help, and, at the very least, it definitely helped me to feel better after I was ill.

   Ilumi's food was surprisingly delicious. If there are two things I can say about it, it's that the meals are very quick to make, and packed with flavour. They were awesome. I particularly fell in love with the Tom Kah Gai soup, and since there appears to be no minimum order needed to purchase from Ilumi, I will buy a few of those again.
   I felt a bit better than usual for eating the meals, too. I don't know if it was imagined, or if the food really was that much healthier (note: ready meals don't have to mean 'unhealthy'), but I felt better within myself. I thought I'd envy my boyfriend for eating the yummy stuff like the pizza and breaded chicken we usually have, but instead, surprisingly, I felt guilty that he didn't have what I have. But I deem it as quite unfair to force your diet onto your partner or family, so as tasty as it was, there was only one meal out of the 14 that I had that I did force onto them, mostly to satisfy their curiosity.

   Honestly, I really, really would recommend Ilumi to anyone looking to eat healthier without having to worry about their ability to cook. I can only cook cakes, so that's not much use to me. Ilumi was greatly helpful. Plus I love the prices. £1.90 for the Tom Kah Gai soup, I think, is reasonable. The meals were all satisfyingly filling, too, and most of them were between 250-350 calories.

   Shipping is always free and next day, and they're always adding new dishes. In fact, they've just added 3 more in the past week, so they're always expanding. It's great if you're ill, too, because you don't have to worry about cooking up a good meal. Just stick it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. I actually put each meal in for 25% longer than each time suggested, just to be sure. If you do it for the time they recommend, it's properly cooked of course, and at an eatable temperature, but I prefer it a little hotter than that so I don't have to worry about it getting cold before I finish.

   All in all, I love Ilumi, I will be back, I recommend them hugely, and I'm pleased I found them through Women's Fitness Magazine. As before, purchasing through this link will get you £10 off of orders of £25 or more, and they often send you offers for not only money off, but free meals, too. The last offer I received by email was for £5 off of £30 or more, but that would include both of their newest meals for free. So if you're wondering whether it's worth it, don't wonder anymore. You can get yourself like 12 meals for that £25 (which, if purchased through this link, as long as it's your first purchase, will only be £15) which will sort out almost 2 full weeks of meals. All ingredients and calories are displayed on the page of each meal, and every meal is gluten-free, milk-free and nut-free, so it's easy if you have allergies, lactose-intolerance, or Coeliacs.