Category Archives: reviews

Eat Clean Bro Review

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img_5532We’ve experimented with different prepared food services in advance of the arrival of the baby and recently tried Eat Clean Bro and Munchery.

img_5540To preface these reviews, I think it’s important to understand our eating preferences. We’re both generally very healthy eaters when we eat in but while out, we don’t restrict ourselves. Breakfasts are simple – yogurt, berries, smoothies, more recently overnight oats, and on the weekends, we might make eggs with veggies. Lunch is usually at work which includes mostly salads but since I’ve been home lately, I make a protein on Monday and add in veggies during the week for homemade salads. Dinner is where it gets a little tricky. I usually cook on Sunday nights with enough food to get us through to Wednesday or Thursday evenings. This includes a protein, a lot of vegetables, and sometimes a carb (pasta, rice, or quinoa). Occasionally, I’ll whip up something fresh on Monday evenings depending on our schedules. Our meals contain almost no sauces, and very little spices. Most would call it bland! We’ve read and heard from many new parents about freezing bags of food for the crockpot but the thought of preparing that much food is daunting. Also, we’re fortunate (or unfortunate depending on how you look at it) to live in an area where in a matter of clicks, we can get delivery from almost every type of cuisine available. The main reason we tried Eat Clean Bro and Munchery was to find a healthy (and more inexpensive) alternative to eating takeout every night.

img_5557Eat Clean Bro is based in Freehold, NJ and serves many NJ counties north of Monmouth County and the NYC boroughs and Long Island. You can view the areas they serve on the website. The goal of the service is to bring chef-prepared fresh and clean meals with natural ingredients to your doorstep. There is a per meal cost and then if 15 miles outside Freehold, there is a $10 delivery fee. Most of the meals are priced between $8.49 and $11.99. There are over 40 options to pick from. The menu online does give an allergen key and a breakdown of calories, carbs, proteins, and fats, however, I wish it would also list ingredients as well. All ingredients are listed though on the lid of the container, though this is a little too late to help with decision making.

The delivery windows are 2-9PM on Sundays or 3-10PM on Monday and Thursdays. The delivery schedule is based on your location, so for us, we’re able to get delivery on Sunday or Thursday. The challenge with this schedule is that it is a 7 hour window that you need to block off to be close enough by to refrigerate or freeze the food when it arrives.The driver does text you when they start the route and then again when they’re 10 minutes out. You can however leave a cooler bag outside your door and instructions for the driver but from a personal perspective, it’s tough to say if the food is able to stay cool enough and for how long before it is considered unsafe to eat.

img_5533We’ve tried the service twice now – the first time we ordered 6 meals and the chocolate protein balls (enough for the both of us to have 3 dinners) and this most recent time, we ordered 13 different meals (fish, chicken, and beef options). We froze most of the meals this time, which will last about a month in the freezer and ate 4 of them for dinner over the course of two nights. The FAQs mention being able to heat the food up in the same containers but we transfer them to plates before putting it in the microwave. There are some meals that we don’t particularly care for but some that are right up our alley – I won’t bore you with these specifics, but the great thing is that there are so many options to pick from. We found the meals to be more home-style and less about presentation and flavors which is exactly what we’re looking for.

img_5548The customer service we’ve experienced has been spot on. There was an issue with our first delivery – we were not expecting it the day (not sure if it was our mistake or not) it ended up coming and already had plans and no cooler bag available to place outside our door. When we received the text from the driver, we immediately called customer service and while they weren’t able to reschedule the delivery, they were able to give us a cooler bag and ice to store the food. Additionally, we received a free delivery coupon code for next time.

All in all, we have been pleased with Eat Clean Bro and can see it as a good alternative to cooking at home and ordering out. The food is healthy and there is enough variety to pick from. I can see this service being helpful to those who are in a time crunch but looking for healthy eating options as well as those who are just looking for something different to try. I will share our Munchery experience in the next couple of days.

**This post is not sponsored. All opinions are my own. I received no compensation to try and review Eat Clean Bro. 

 

Apple Watch Review

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img_4468It’s been a little over two months since I’ve had the Apple Watch and I’m one proud owner and cannot imagine not having it. I wouldn’t say the watch is something I cannot live without, which is how I feel about my iPhone or MacBook but certain features are extremely convenient.

I’ve worn the Apple Watch every day since I received it and have had the chance to customize the apps, alerts, and interface to my liking. I even wear both the Apple Watch and Garmin Forerunner 220 when I run (weird, yes, I know, but I will explain). I have the Apple Watch Sport Aluminum Case with Lavender Band, Rose Gold (38mm) that I purchased from Amazon since the pricing was less than buying it directly from Apple at the time before Apple’s recent price drop.

There are definitely pros and cons to the watch as many of the reviews have described but overall my experience has been very positive.

Pros:

img_4471—Activity tracking (my favorite feature!) that shows move, exercise, and stand goals. The watch shows active calories, total steps, and miles. I have my watch set to remind me to stand every hour which has been extremely helpful when we flew to California and at work. The activity tracking goals can also be customized to your lifestyle.
—Heart rate monitoring (my second favorite feature) has been a very important statistic to me since becoming pregnant. This is the reason I wear both watches when I run. The Apple Watch on my right wrist tells me my heart rate and tracks my activity. The Garmin Forerunner 220 tracks GPS and distance for Garmin, RunningAhead, and my blog. There is a reason I don’t wear the Apple Watch exclusively for running which I will explain in the cons.
img_5107—The workout tracking feature is great on the watch. Not only can you track indoor/outdoor runs, you can also track walks and cycling (indoor and outdoor), elliptical, rower, stair stepper, and other. Most fitness trackers that I have seen does not allow for tracking of cycling, rowing, stair stepper, or elliptical workouts.
—Text message alerts and ability to reply with a short response or voice transcription message. I like that alerts can be fairly subtle from the watch. Instead of pulling out my phone in a meeting or out somewhere to read my messages, it’s easy to just flip my wrist up to read when I feel a vibration on my wrist.
—Ability to control music from watch.
—Ability to customize home screen of the watch. Mine includes activity tracking, heart rate, calendar, weather, battery life, Twitter, and Instagram feeds. It is also nice that you can customize your alerts and apps differently than your settings on the phone. On my iPhone, I prefer more alerts and on the watch, I have less.
—Range between watch and the iPhone is pretty far. I can get alerts on my watch between 4 floors at work. I leave my phone at my desk and if I am on another floor, I still have connectivity. This is a much further range than that of the Garmin vivosmart HR.
—Watch app is a great and easy to use. It uses the same Apple iOS interface and allows you to edit settings on the watch straight from the phone.
img_5104—Activity app on the iPhone is easy to use and tracks all of your activity history. It also displays all your achievements (i.e. stand, move, and exercise streaks or doubling/tripling your goals).
—Ability to send finger drawn pictures, emoticons, or heart beat to others who have the Apple Watch. While this isn’t a key feature for me, it is pretty neat to be able to do this.
—Wallet functionality is great for payments. I have been able to use the watch to pay for a handful of items and it has been incredibly cool! I just need to remember that I can do this as more merchants roll out Apple Pay.
—The different bands really allow for someone to turn the watch from casual every day wear to a running watch to a more high-end watch (though, I haven’t had a real need to buy a new band yet).

Cons:

img_5106—Watch software updates take a long time. The watch update took over an hour to finish and then the watch froze and needed a force restart before it started working again.
—Battery life lasts about a day depending on your activity level. On a work day if I don’t use the watch to track a workout, I can get to about 40-50% battery left. However, if I track my workouts, then I can get to around 10-20% remaining. Even though I listed this as a con, it’s not as bad as expected. Modifications would likely need to be made to conserve battery if using it during a marathon or longer race.
—Needs to be paired with the iPhone. Given where the technology is now, this makes sense but it would be nice to see a watch one day that does not need to be paired to the phone all the time.
—No GPS tracking for running, walking, or running. This is one of the downsides of the watch that prevents it from being a running watch for me. I like being able to look at the routes on my outdoor runs and as a result, I cannot switch away from Garmin.
—Apps are slow and screen is too small for actual usage.
img_5105—No sleep tracking. I enjoyed seeing the statistics on my sleeping patterns on the Garmin vivosmart HR and unfortunately, this is not a feature of the watch (though I guess I wouldn’t really want to sleep with the watch on anyway).
—Lack of social aspect to the watch. Unlike FitBit, Garmin or other activity tracking devices, the Apple Watch and associated apps do not have the social network and encouragement.
—Wallet doesn’t work as well for scanning boarding passes. This is a very minor thing but I was very excited about using my watch to check into flights but unfortunately, the way the scanners are set up at the TSA counters and the positioning of the watch on my wrist, I wasn’t able to get this to work.

img_5108Overall, the watch functionality is very consistent and are nice to haves. The watch however replaces my need for the other non-smart watches I have. I can see why people would prefer multiple bands so they can change it up a bit. The watch also replaces the Garmin vivosmart HR that I purchased in December. While the price of the watch is higher than that of fitness trackers, it does offer more functionality than most fitness trackers that are also not watches. Likely if the Apple Watch continues to increase functionality, I don’t really see the need for an extra fitness tracker. Once I start training for a race again, I wonder though if I will actually end up wearing both watches on my runs – time will tell!