Photo by Evan E. Duran / Food photos below by Melissa Welliver

Fresh, Fast, Delivered and … Not Pizza?

Since the early 1960s, pizza delivery has brought us as close to heaven on earth as you can possibly get. The liberation of paying a few extra bucks to have someone bring a custom-order ‘za to your front door while you lounge in your pajamas is the most euphoric of situations. Food delivery has casually evolved over time, and lazy asses everywhere can get just about any meal delivered straight to them in a matter of a couple-dozen minutes.

Most of this food isn’t as healthy as we wish it was. What makes delivered food so lucrative is that it comes ready for our consumption, no strings attached. There is no cleanup and the extra pennies are always worth it. But more likely than not, the food is shit health-wise, and over-indulging is a harsh reality that your booty won’t let you forget anytime soon.

That’s where Midtown’s new Fit Eats fits into the evolution of the food-delivery system. Fit Eats is a food delivery service that promises nutritious and convenient ready-made meals to your door. The company originally opened on Kiefer Boulevard about two years ago, as solely a kitchen that delivers food. Last month, they opened a new location on 16th Street in Midtown where you can also pick up meals yourself.

Owner Don Arnold originally opened up Fit Eats because he says, “Our society is having a healthy eating revolution. The desire to eat fulfilling home-cooked and healthy meals without doing the work of the actual cooking, prep and cleanup is becoming more of a lucrative idea.” Arnold goes on to say, “Our new location is meant to spark a new idea in eating. We want people to start shopping for our all-encompassed meals in a way that they would shop for groceries at the grocery store. You can come into the showroom, pick out your meals for the week, and that’s it. It’s clean, easy, convenient, and you eliminate things like food waste. Sometimes it’s even more affordable too because you don’t have to buy an abundance of ingredients for one meal, we do all of the work.”

Arnold studied nutrition at Chico State, and has used his knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit to devise meals for his company that are broken down in the most health-conscious way possible, and at a portion size that eliminates over eating. “I sit down with my chef every week and think of new meals and make sure that we get the best ingredients to put in those meals,” he says.

We all seek convenience, accessibility and overall satisfaction when looking for what food to nourish ourselves with. Fit Eats promises to offer the freshest, most nutritionally balanced meals possible to its customers. The company makes complete meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner with the option of having your order delivered directly to your door, or picking them up yourself at their new 16th Street location in Midtown. All food offered is as local and organic as possible, and never frozen.

To test this system out for myself, I had breakfast and lunch delivered to my door, and picked up dinner at the 16th street location.

Delivery days are only on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, so your order must be in by noon the day before a delivery day. This made the ordering time frame not nearly as flexible as one would hope, but the menu changes every Thursday. Doing online deliveries to have shipped to your door takes a little planning.

Fit Eats

I ordered Sunday at 2 p.m., and my meals were delivered on Wednesday, before 6 a.m. as promised. The meals come in an insulated lunch bag with a few ice packs so your food stays nice and chilled.

For breakfast, I ordered the blueberry protein pancakes, which came with a side of honey and yogurt. All the food is microwavable, or re-heatable by any means if careful. The pancakes were pretty good, but my boyfriend, who has a history in personal training and athletics, said that it was super good for someone training hard in the gym. I stood far away from unbelievably thick yogurt that tasted like caulking-tinged peanut butter. It also came with a side of a scrambled egg that looked perfectly edible, but didn’t seem appetizing.

For lunch, I split the carne asada bowl with my dude. Again, he applauded it for embodying everything a healthy athlete needs to sustain themselves. Pure protein in the form of meat and beans, and some veggies and brown rice. The convenience of it is what makes it most desirable. I can see being super busy, and having nutritionally balanced meals laid out for me so I didn’t have to run out and scramble to find a healthy meal for the day. It was no culinary masterpiece, but it got the job done.

For dinner, I had the turkey/zucchini lasagna. I hand-picked this out of the dozens of meals they had ready to go at their new location. All of the meals available were diverse, having everything from healthy enchiladas, to breakfast scrambles and turkey wraps. The place itself was super immaculate, and had a microwave and eating utensils on hand in case anyone wanted to walk in and pick a meal to eat there. I think the idea of paying $10 for a meal and still having to microwave it yourself in a restaurant setting is an idea that definitely will take some getting used to. The lasagna had ground turkey as a protein base, with layer upon layer of whole wheat noodles and a teensy bit of zucchini. I was expecting zucchini strips to take the place of most of the noodles, because that’s what seems healthier, but was surprised to find otherwise. Its makeup was mostly of noodles, turkey and cheese. It was still really good, and if that was considered a healthy lasagna, I’m on board.

Fit Eats

While I loved the idea of having all my food prepped and ready for me at my doorstep, I think Fit Eats takes some getting used to. I’ve never been a fan of microwaving my food, nonetheless paying $7 to $10 for food that’s not served at a restaurant. On the other hand, for what this company is trying to accomplish, is there really a better way? The only feasible and sustainable way, realistically, is to provide the healthy and portioned meals that are convenient and only need to be reheated. While looking at Fit Eats’ Yelp page, I noticed that many of the company’s devoutees strictly eat the meals for a certain period of time and notice some sort of weight loss. Many said that having healthy food so readily available and a plan laid out was half the battle.

I think this is a good option for someone who is incredibly busy and needs food that is more healthy and sustaining or diet-fulfilling. Convenience is super valuable, and as the pizza-ordering Americans that we are, the idea of transitioning into healthy convenience might be just the direction we need to start heading.

Ready to get your Fit Eats on? Visit their pickup location at 1420 16th Street in Sacramento from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday, or 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Or to enroll in their delivery options, visit Fiteats.com.

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