My Experience with Sakara’s Meal Program
I’ve been feeling very much blah lately.
And as much as I love meal planning, being in a wee bit of a rut wasn’t helping. I wanted to try something new, fresh, clean - something where I wouldn’t have to think about food. Enter: Sakara. I’ve known about and loved them from afar, and have used a multitude of their products in the past (I am in love with their metabolism powder, and their cookbook is gorgeous!). But, I’ve never actually taken the plunge and done a meal delivery plan (this was mainly due to the aforementioned reason of absolutely loving grocery shopping and meal planning). But having only cooked at home or ordered takeout for the past almost year; the pandemic sucking the fun out of grocery shopping; and feeling generally down all amassed together to give me the freedom to do this thing for myself and finally order a 5-day meal delivery. And let me tell you: I’m so happy I did. So I’m sharing my honest experience with my first week of Sakara’s Meal Program. This time, I just did a single week… but (spoiler) I’m definitely getting myself a subscription!
Day One
February 1st: Monday
I started off the day ready to roll! I had read my Sakara guide that was provided, I had my menu for the day ready, and I was determined to not drink coffee or alcohol for the day (as they suggested if you’re a first-time user, to really feel more results). I have to admit, I was a little freaked out that I couldn’t see any nutritional information (other than ingredients) for my food - but I was doing my best to roll with it. Each meal was absolutely delicious; and I was pleasantly surprised with how much dinner filled me up! Usually, I am absolutely a culprit of ending the day with something sweet, but I was determined to listen to my body (did I need something sweet? was I actually hungry? or was it just habit?) to see if I would eat anything else that day. Spoiler: I didn’t!
All in all, a successful first day! Weirdly enough, I didn’t miss my coffee in the morning (my guess is I was too jazzed up about the experience) - which is saying something because I can’t remember the last time I started a day without coffee or matcha.
The time of day where I felt the most off was dinnertime. I missed making dinner, and I really missed sitting down and eating dinner together with John. Don’t get me wrong, we did eat dinner together - but eating two completely separate meals just felt a little weird to me, and made me a little sad.
Meals of the Day: Chia Pumpkin Bread with Cacao Creme (the creme spread over the pumpkin bread muffin *made* this dish), Butterfly Bowl with Tie Dye Carrots (so beautiful, so delicious), & Spiced Sunset Stew with Coconut Lime Chickpeas (tasted like the best curry of my life).
Day Two
February 2nd: Tuesday
This day once again started off strong with my mug of hot lemon water. However, around 10am I started getting a splitting headache - whether that was from lack of caffeine, stress from work or wedding planning, or that I generally don’t start eating until around noon - I am not sure. I had read from others’ Whole30 reviews that usually around the second day they have a horrendous headache from finally not having sugar - but as I am generally not a huge eater of sugar, I didn’t think this could be the case. Don’t get me wrong, I love my brownies and ice cream, but more often than not, I’m making sweet laurel’s brownies (which are free of refined sugars, dairy & grains), having a small square of dark chocolate, or making my own banana ‘nice’ cream - which is literally just bananas. Thankfully, after popping an advil, doing a ‘quickie’ TSS ab workout, and having this day’s breakfast, the headache had dissipated. The rest of the day passed by pretty uneventfully when it comes to ‘sakara life’. I had my breakfast, had sakara’s detox tea, had lunch when I started to feel hungry, had more tea, then dinner.
I will say - I had an exceeding stressful day, so I allowed myself one glass of organic wine with dinner. At first I felt guilty for this. Was I shirking on the program? Did I just fail on day two? But thankfully, Sakaralites have your back. They strongly emphasize that this is not a diet - and the answer to one of their FAQs of “do I need to cut out alcohol and caffeine when on the program” even says so. After reading their response of “We don't prescribe cutting them out entirely with our signature program (remember, this isn’t a diet!), but you will see the best results if you take an occasional break.”, I felt so much better. One glass of wine wasn’t going to hurt or reverse the effects of your program or prevent myself from getting results.
Meals of the Day: Neapolitan Parfait (doesn’t look promising, but tastes like ice cream), Youth & Beauty Salad with Lemon-Honey Dressing (possibly one of the most amazing salads I’ve ever had), & Wild Mushroom Pasta (delicious, but there was a lot of oil- a bit too much in my opinion).
Day Three
February 3rd: Wednesday
Today, (which was thankfully headache free) I think I had a better handle on when I was going to eat things. As I said before, I typically don’t eat my first meal around noon (I just don’t wake up hungry, and if I force myself to eat breakfast at the conventional time anyway, I feel nauseous for the rest of the day), but I had two workouts planned and since there’s no snacks planned or provided (sakara does stipulate if you’re really hungry, please eat a snack!), I wanted to make sure I was getting a recovery meal post workout. So, I did a mid-morning strength workout, ate ‘breakfast’, then several working hours later, I went for a peloton ride, then ate my lunch mid-afternoon. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by the Burrito Bowl for lunch! I was especially worried about it because I hate cilantro (I’m one of the unlucky ones for whom it tastes like soap), which was an ingredient in the dressing. Thankfully, the cilantro in the dressing was in big pieces, so I was able to sift them out and eat the delicious meal, soap-taste-free. I’m glad that by day 3, I’ve figured out the best schedule for myself!
Thankfully, today was also a little less stressful on the work/life/wedding planning front, which was a blessing on all fronts. I still have to say - I still did miss cooking dinner with John and eating the same meal together. I get a little jealous of what we make for him and that I’m eating something different… until I eat my own, which is always fantastic! Then, sometimes the tables turn and he gets jealous of my dinner! I also know he’s absolutely suffering from my not planning out dinners for us for the week.
Meals of the Day: Coconut Praline Granola with Cacao Mylk (such amazing granola, and the cacao mylk made it the perfect meal), Sakara Burrito Bowl with Turmeric Corn Salsa (absolutely amazing- yay for the huge chunks of avocado!), & Beautifying Broccoli Soup with Greens
Day Four
February 4th: Thursday
I will say - I was absolutely paranoid for this delivery. The first one was bumped up because of the snow storm (delivered 6p-12a instead of 12a-6a). I was beyond petrified that it would come at the oddest hour of the night, and it would be missing from our porch when I woke. I even debated setting alarms at 2 hour intervals from 12a-6a to get up and check! Thankfully, the delivery came around 2am, and a video playing John was going to sleep at that time, so he brought it into our apartment for me.
By day four, not controlling/cooking/preparing what I was eating for the day was so much easier than it was on Day One. I had kind of surrendered myself to this experience that sakara has put forth to me and you know what? I love it. I mean, I will absolutely continue to cook and plan my own meals, but I’ve decided that I’m going to allow myself this for one week a month - I even signed up for sakara’s subscription! I made it so it’s ‘skipping’ all but the first week of the month; but it offers a hefty discount and can be paused or cancelled at anytime. That being said - I am planning, prepping, and cooking my own food this upcoming week. Thursdays are generally my meal planning days, and I have to say, although I was nervous at first that planning our ‘normal’ meals would make me crave the foods I don’t have on hand right now, it turns out- eating all of this delicious, nutrient dense fresh food absolutely impacted how I planned our dinners for the upcoming week for the better (barring, of course, the loads of Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip to be consumed on Superbowl Sunday). Instead of just making sure every dinner was centered mostly around meat and vegetables (which can get dull sometimes), I planned for maximum amounts of greens daily, and also made sure that there was at least a day where we would give our digestive systems a break and eat fully plant based.
Meals of the Day: Banana Protein Bread with Mashed Berries (this banana protein bread was the best banana bread I’d ever had. I need this recipe. I’m not even remotely kidding when I say I licked this plate clean. I heated it up in the toaster oven, so the chocolate chips were oh so melty… it was heaven in bread form), Mamma Earth Boal with Detox Dressing (absolutely delicious and super filling. the purple cauliflower made this dish gorgeous as well as yummy), & Sichuan Noodles (there was so much sauce! It was super tasty, and I loved how much kale was in there!).
Day Five: the last day of my first Sakara experience!
February 5th: Friday
Honestly, I can’t believe I’ve made it five whole days without coffee. It goes to show that I can live without it (but I’m not about to! I just might swap between coffee & matcha instead of doing practically always coffee). I did have a single glass of wine on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday - but life happens and sometimes you just really need/want/deserve that small glass of red.
There was a moment this morning when I had a mild panic - would going back to my ‘normal’ meals that have meat and sometimes dairy cause me to gain crazy amounts of weight and bloat up like a balloon and feel sluggish and gross and turn me into a troll? What if I went on a crazy binge and ate far too much? But then I took a deep breath, took a long gulp of my hot water with lemon, and logic-ed to death that disordered eating section of my brain. Just because I would be living a life of no food rules didn’t mean I would eat everything in sight. In fact, I had just learned from this week the importance of mindful eating, chewing each bite, and recognizing when you’re full! Those learnings don’t just apply to when you’re eating a prepared meal, silly. There was no deprivation during the week, so there was no reason for me to want to ‘rebel’ over the weekend. Of course I wasn’t going to blow up like a balloon. And you know what? If I felt or noticed some adverse affects to eating a bit of cheese or meat, there’s a simple solution: eat it a bit more sparingly. If I started to feel sluggish and gross, I know what I need: to focus on nutrient dense and mostly plant based foods! There is absolutely nothing wrong with the menu I was planning for this upcoming week - in fact, it looked pretty stellar. And the whole point of sakara is that it’s not a diet. You’re meant to focus on all the goodness you’re adding! And yes, while it technically is dairy free, gluten free & plant based, the founders of sakara emphasize that a life of food rules and rigidity isn’t really a stellar one.
This inner dialogue I had to have with myself may have seemed a little weird or silly - but it was important for me, an ED survivor, to come to terms with this for myself, and overcome this small fear instead of letting it spiral and cause me to do something drastic.
Meals of the Day: Sweet Thai Oatmeal with Thai Coconut Mylk (this was the first dish that I probably wouldn’t want again.- as it was the first meal I didn’t finish. I’m not sure how I feel about cold oatmeal. I tried a couple bites cold- since sakara puts on each dish whether heating is recommended- but I had to warm it up a bit. Even then, I didn’t love this), Daydreamer Soba Bowl with Tahini-Sriracha Dressing (it was like a good for you pad thai!), & Rising Sun Quesadilla with Daily Greens (this quesadilla was OUT OF THIS WORLD. And the nut chorizo? Chef’s kiss. The only issue was the pico de gallo had a lot more cilantro in it, so it was harder to avoid and I ended up with the intermittent soapy mouthful. But honestly? Once of the top three quesadillas of my life.)
What I’ve Learned
I LOVE trying new things! A lot of these foods contained some things I don’t usually buy (cabbage, curries, pea flower rice), and it was wonderful to be able to eat things that are generally too labor intensive to make yourself. I never would have bought or made the Neapolitan parfait- but it was absolutely delicious, even with an unexpected chickpea chocolate base and a cauliflower vanilla top! I was also pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t a single thing I didn’t like. There were new flavors, colors, and ingredients, but everything was genuinely good. Sure, some were better than others, and I wasn’t scouring the ingredient list to figure out how to make the meal myself for all of them - but they were all very tasty.
I really enjoy mindful eating. It slows me down, reminds me to savor each bite and flavor, makes me chew and swallow thoroughly before going for another bite (a problem I have), and gives my body time to let me know I’m full before I’ve autopilot cleaned the plate.
I don’t need my coffee every day (I went five whole work days without!)- but I do love it and will continue to have it in the mornings. Just now I might swap in tea or matcha in some mornings instead. The same goes for desserts, snacks & alcohol. A glass of red wine or a bit of dark chocolate tastes so much better when I really want it - instead of reaching for and consuming them our of habit without truly enjoying them.
I love cooking and meal planning- I don’t want to give that up, and I don’t want to stop having ‘family’ dinners with me and John. That being said, I am excited for this weekly ‘respite’ I’m giving myself every month so that I don’t experience burnout, food boredom, or anxiety around what should be delicious and nutritious parts of our days.
Overall
I absolutely loved sakara’s signature meal plan. Every meal I had was clearly fresh, unique, absolutely delicious, and perfectly filling to a perfect level of satisfaction.
If you’re thinking about taking a try, I’d absolutely recommend!
And if it’s not for you, that’s also perfectly fine.
xoxo, Sarah
