Can Hello Fresh make coping with chronic illness easier? Disabled Girl tries out meal kit!

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  • Опубліковано 9 тра 2024
  • I am on a mission this year to hack my life to make living with a chronic illness easier, more streamlined and more mental illness friendly. I'm am looking to make all aspects of my life more simple, to make chores and processes less difficult so I can be more independent. In this video, I'm trying out the meal kit delivery service Hello Fresh. I find cooking, meal planning and grocery shopping really difficult with my me/cfs and anxiety, so i am looking for ways to simplify the process!
    Streamlining Series • Streamlining my life t...
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    Reminder: everyone with ME/CFS is different! So you or someone you know might have a very different experience with ME/CFS than I do at the moment! Also, remember that chronic conditions such as these can change dramatically over time, so my life may look very different to this in the future (and has be A LOT worse in the past).
    Thank you so much for watching!! Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe to see more videos from me most FRIDAYS!
    About Me:
    My name is Elinor, I am a 25-year-old sociology graduate who has been living with ME/CFS for 8 years. I also have anxiety and depression as co-morbid conditions! I started making UA-cam Videos consistently about my experience with chronic illness and mental health struggles in June 2020! I also love fashion, connecting with people in the community and being creative!!
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 18

  • @Isobel201
    @Isobel201 Місяць тому +7

    Hi, I tried Hello Fresh. For me, it did not work because after the reduced price for one week, I ended up paying more than I would normally pay for food for me for a week because its based on two people, and I live on my own. I have arthritic hands and I had to buy the lazy garlic as they sent normal garlic that needed to be prepped which I could not do. I also cannot stand and chop vegetables like potatoes for very long as my back aches due to arthritis. So I gave up Hello Fresh as well.

  • @seansteckley
    @seansteckley Місяць тому +7

    I tried it but was disappointed in learning how much it was without the coupons and discounts. Also the meals are nothing like the advertised pics.

  • @deetsitmeisterjd
    @deetsitmeisterjd 19 днів тому

    Life debilitating mental health sufferer here, I have a decent appetite...when I eat, which may be nothing at all for a day or two due to just not wanting to cook or feel like the effort required.
    Firstly meal prep is king, I've got an arsenal of recipes that are easy to make that when I do have a burst of energy I will make the effort to make a large batch of food and freeze, it does take a while and afterward I'm mentally drained but that's 8-16 portions ready for me whenever.
    Second thing is cooking is a heavily practice based activity, I love food so by necessity cooking is kind of a half way between a chore and a hobby for me, I've gotten much better as over the years which reduces the time and effort.
    Lastly, recipes are good but the order in which you do things is not written well for people who struggle with cooking for whatever reason. For example, I have prepped every possible step that doesnt require using the hob from the comfort of my sofa or bed previously. You have ALL the time in the world before you put the ingredients in the pan etc. for myself when the food is cooking that's when I'm being rushed and panic 👍 hope that helps.

  • @nub1vagant
    @nub1vagant Місяць тому +3

    Thanks for making this video. I live in a household where everyone is disabled and deals with chronic symptoms so we also tried hellofresh for a while because food is always a huge struggle. It did make some things easier but all in all the money we were spending was not worth the quality, quantity and type of food we were getting. We shared your thoughts about the amount of effort it takes. In my household there is only one person who has the physical ability to cook an entire meal and it was really not manageable for her even with help. Even while taking into account that everything takes longer for people with disabilities/chronic illness, it still took at least twice the predicted time to prepare, if not more. And it is much less of a problem if you're only ordering for yourself, but another huge drawback was that hellofresh did not have enough meals that could be adapted to different dietary restrictions within the same household. Because I have a lot of foods I can't eat, I didn't get to try over half of the hellofresh meals, and we would just end up cooking two things at once or ordering takeout on the same night we were using hellofresh. Regardless, there are other meal services out there and for me almost any would still be better than hellofresh because of hellofresh's anti-union stances and treatment of their employees. Hellofresh workers have been overworked and subjected to unsafe work environments where high injury and disease rates occur, on top of low wages. As disabled and chronically ill people it is our utmost responsibility to support safe and unionized work environments as we have first hand experience with how unethical workplaces will give people disabilities and actively worsen the disabilities people already have. I implore anyone to research into these issues to form their own opinion as well, don't just take my word for it. Companies love to cover this stuff up so it's common for people not to have heard about it.
    Side note: I really appreciate the way Elinor talks about both physical and mental health in these videos. A lot of disability/chronic illness videos don't involve the mental struggles that too often come along or happen comorbidly with physical illness.

    • @aimarshmallow6441
      @aimarshmallow6441 Місяць тому

      So the service isn't cheap and the money doesn't even go to the workers, as usual 🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻 I hate this

  • @randomchannelonyt9125
    @randomchannelonyt9125 5 днів тому +1

    Hi, Elinor! Have you checked your B12, iron and vitamin D? I suffer from pernicious anemia, an autoimmune disease that distroys my b12 so I can't absorb it, also it affect other things, like iron. The symptoms can mimic CFS and other neuro conditions, also it gives anxiety and depression. Some people just have chronic b12 deficiency without autoimmune, but symptoms are the same. Maybe you want to look into that, just a thought. Many people are not diagnosed because docs don't look into this

  • @ecologist_to_be
    @ecologist_to_be Місяць тому +3

    Great review. This just proves to me that Hello Fresh isn't suitable for me either with M.E.

    • @aimarshmallow6441
      @aimarshmallow6441 Місяць тому

      Yeah, if I have to cook for a long time and TO WASH EVERYTHING (I don't have a dishwasher at home because the kitchen is too small, it is maybe the worst part. Luckily at my partners' there is) it doesn't solve almost anything

  • @PokerDottable
    @PokerDottable Місяць тому

    I've used hello fresh on and off (mainly coz they keep ringing me to give me a new promo code). It was good initially when I wanted to get back into cooking, I realised the quicker recipes or the ones that required the least amount of hands on prep were best. But I don't always have the energy to cook, and I don't want it to all go bad in the fridge if I realise that week I'm in a bad way. I feel I'm better off going through the meal subscriptions that are premade and ready to reheat

  • @whoviangirl3878
    @whoviangirl3878 Місяць тому

    Not sure if this would help you but sainsburys have a meal planner type section on their website now, where you can pick recipes and add all the stuff into your order, with any changes you want to make to the ingredients. It does require more thinking than the hello fresh thing to pick the meals but a lot of the recipes i've seen on there are tray bake type things where its like 10 or 15 minutes of prep stuff and then you just whack it in the oven until its done.
    Again idk if this would work for you with your issues in deciding but just wanted to let people know it was a thing in case it could help anyone
    :)

    • @whoviangirl3878
      @whoviangirl3878 Місяць тому

      Its wayyy cheaper than hello fresh too cos it's just a food shop but slightly more structured

    • @whoviangirl3878
      @whoviangirl3878 Місяць тому

      And i imagine a lot of the recipes could be made easier by swapping out some of the stuff for precooked or preprepared things like i do for a couple of them

  • @aimarshmallow6441
    @aimarshmallow6441 Місяць тому +1

    Recently I saw a video about a similar service called Humamy, but with microwaveble frozen vegan meals, also claimed as healthy. I checked the price and it was 7,50€ per unit with the discount and 10€ per unit without the discount. At least you just have to put them in the microwave, some dishes looked very yummy even though I food selectivity due to autism. For the same reason I'm not vegan or vegetarian but I think it's a good choice and having an easy way to eat vegan should be very good. BUT. The price is just too expensive. I can't spend this much money on a single meal, if I have too I'm going to order something at home and I can even spend less or get bigger portions to eat. I don't have a job because with my disabilities it wouldn't be sustainable (CFS, autism, ADHD), but my disabilities make difficult preparing meals, beside I have IBS and the struggle with food is even greater, my relationship with food really plummeted.
    Very long comment just to say I feel you. And I feel it's unfair for disabled people to have to pay so much just to survive even though when you're disabled you're more likely to have small money/be poor/need economic support from families/partners/whatever

    • @aimarshmallow6441
      @aimarshmallow6441 Місяць тому

      (adding details: where I live with 10€ you can get a poke bowl with fresh raw fish. Of course other restaurants are more expensive, but you can have good stuff for less than 10€k

    • @deetsitmeisterjd
      @deetsitmeisterjd 19 днів тому

      ​@@aimarshmallow6441My go to meal is lazy stir fry, noodles vary in price but bulk buying makes them incredibly cheap, I usually just go for pre cut mixed veg which is more expensive but saves so much effort. A sauce, and a portion of chicken is typically £2.49 but I can go for mushrooms as a substitute which is far cheaper. The entire meal maybe comes to £4 and it gives me 3-4 servings.

  • @ahmedalhsnawe8986
    @ahmedalhsnawe8986 Місяць тому

    صديقتي اعملي رنين مغنا طيسي ثلا ثي البعاد تكون ملونه للورده واشرايين داخل الدماغ تكون الورده ضعيفه جدن لا يقدر يضخ الدم بشكل صحيح مما يسبب كل هاذهي المشكلات

  • @kaybrown3162
    @kaybrown3162 Місяць тому +1

    It sounds good for cutting down on food waste, but if there is too much standing up involved in the preparation then it’s still using a lot of energy 😢🥱