What’s Happy Diet Delivery?
It’s a food delivery service here in Metro Manila. For PhP 500/day (PhP2500/week roughly US$50/week), it includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, two snacks and delivery. They deliver meals daily at your doorstep (delivery time: 6-10am).
Standard meal plan is 1200-1400 calories per day, but you may increase to 1600-1800 calories to 2000 calories depending on daily activity and body composition.
They deliver in Quezon City, Cubao, Ortigas, Pasig, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati, Manila, Paranaque, Las Pinas and Alabang, as well as certain areas in Cainta and Marikina.
You pay by depositing money at BDO, Metrobank or BPI. Once you’ve paid, you e-mail them a picture of the deposit slip, including the branch, time and date of payment.
A friend actually asked me, “Mataba ka na?” (“Are you fat?”) after learning I started this. I came pretty close to retorting with, “are you body-shaming me if I was?” But I realized that somehow, some people associate the word “diet” with trying to lose weight. If anything, the word “diet” is fairly innocuous and neutral – it’s everything you eat, whether good or bad for you. It’s just become commonplace for people to “go on diet” because let’s face it, not many people actually eat healthy! Of course, not all weight-loss diets are healthy, but that’s a topic for another day.
Anyway, why did I try this service?
- I eat out so often here in the Philippines; I wanted to eat healthily on days when I don’t meet up with others.
- Ever since I arrived here, I’ve avoided baking and cooking because it’s just too hot in the kitchen! I can’t very well cook properly with beads of sweat trickling down my face. Ewww!
- Eating healthy? Why not?
When I started having food delivered, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to blog about it. I took pictures just for the sake of it.
Anyway, you might be curious what types of food I ate for five days, so let’s get started!
DAY 1
Breakfast: Healthy Palabok
Snack: Lakatan
Lunch: Healthy Chicken Caldereta
Snack: Maja Blanca
Dinner: Healthy Sinigang na Hipon
Here are the Chicken Caldereta and Sinigang na Hipon. The broth for the sinigang was in a separate container.
Palabok for breakfast? I’m not used to eating palabok so early in the day. My normal breakfast consists of wheat toast with hardboiled egg, banana and freshly squeezed orange juice. Palabok, for me, is afternoon merienda. But I signed up for this and I sure as hell wasn’t going to waste it.
DAY 2
Breakfast: Healthy Pizza Bread
Snack: Grapes
Lunch: Healthy Paksiw na Bangus
Snack: Cassava Chips
Dinner: Healthy Beef Steak
Once again, I was surprised by having pizza bread for breakfast. Again, not used to this sort of breakfast. The paksiw and the beef did taste healthier than usual.
DAY 3
Breakfast: Healthy Chicken and Egg with Garlic Rice
Snack: Cookies
Lunch: Healthy Baked Macaroni
Snack: Bread Stick
Dinner: Healthy Salad with Grilled Chicken
We went out of town on this day, but I brought along the snacks and salad. I switched lunch and dinner meals around, so when we got home, I ate the baked macaroni. There were three tiny pieces of chicken for breakfast. Not that I’m complaining. I don’t even eat chicken for breakfast, so it’s not a deal-breaker.
DAY 4
Breakfast: Healthy Malunggay Pancake
Snack: Apple
Lunch: Healthy Beef Curry
Snack: Popcorn
Dinner: Healthy Grilled Tilapia
It was my first time to eat malunggay pancake. It was no different from your typical pancake, so that’s a good thing. Not sure what was spread on top of it. Popcorn was an OK snack, but I’d rather have fruit. The beef curry was excellent, though I’d like more carrots and asparagus than potatoes. Oh, and I wish the Grilled Tilapia came with sliced tomatoes and onions.
DAY 5
Breakfast: Healthy Bibimbap
Snack: Nachos
Lunch: Shrimps with Coconut Milk
Snack: Peanuts
Dinner: Healthy Chicken Afritada
Bibimbap for breakfast? Oh yes. I wanted extra gochujang with it, sadly. The shrimps with coconut milk had kalabasa (squash), which I’m not particularly fond of, but I ate it anyway.
Verdict: Most of my friends were asking, “how does the food taste? Is it bland?” If you’re used to eating ho-hum weight-loss diet food, then this is different – the food actually tastes good. If you’re used to eating white rice exclusively with your food, then you’ll probably have an issue with their meals. If you want your food freshly cooked and served while hot, this isn’t for you. You’re supposed to refrigerate the food after delivery. If you’re OK with reheating meals, then you can reheat it using your microwave, on the stove-top or even the oven (I did this for the grilled tilapia).
I was very pleased with their customer service. For starters, they reply to texts pretty quickly. They also texted their clients that there were no deliveries today and tomorrow due to the holiday. Since we live close to their home base, my food gets delivered on or around 6:30am. I was particularly charmed by handwritten hearts that I noticed on the food containers and the reusable bags. One teeny tiny concern I had was whether or not they had a reuse/recycle program for the bags and the food containers. It would be great if they took back the reusable bags they sent me (I was willing to drop it off at their place!), so my orders for this week can be placed in the bag again. The plastic containers also bothered me, so I transferred the food to proper plates. There has to be a better, more eco-friendly way of packaging the food.
Anyway, if you can eat healthy food for PhP500 a day, then this service is a pretty good deal. If you cooked food yourself, you’d definitely exceed that amount and still not eat healthily. Happy Diet Delivery makes eating good food affordable and convenient. In case you were wondering, I signed up again for this week’s food delivery.
Address:
Happy Diet Delivery
09179449797/09164441767
How can I order? Do you deliver in Fairview?
I included their contact number at the bottom of the post. I’m not in any way affiliated with them. Good luck!