Huel (Gluten Free) Nutritionally Complete Food Powder - v2.2 Original Vanilla Flavour 100% Vegan Powdered Meal (3.5kg - 28 Meals)

UnboxingHuel box arrived with really fast delivery. 4 packets, each about 850g. Really nice packaging - the pouches are good quality and the branding is really clean and simple. Loads of product information on the back of the packet. Comes with a getting started sheet. With mine I bought a PhD shaker bottle - although if you order for the first time through Huel.com you currently get a free shaker plus some other goodies.Opening the packet for the first time does spray quiet a bit of powder. I tapped the powder down first on the second bag and this helped alot. I also found that Huel gets into the zip-lock seal. If you run a fingernail or the tip of a fork along the seal it clears it out. You only need to do this on the first opening.Preparation of HuelI prepared mine in a Nutribullet on the first time round. This made the Huel really sooth. I used 3 scoops not leveled or compacted (I found by doing this it was almost exactly 100g) with 500ml of water. I have also shaken Huel in a shaker bottle and for the most part it is smooth but you can get a few lumps. Blender is definitely the best option.First ImpressionsHuel is neither unpleasant or a tasty drink. The perfect way to describe Huel is - "hmmm, not bad at all". It's a bit like a very sweet weetabix flavour and not too dissimilar to a smooth porride (just my opinion). I've found mixing coffee in makes it really good. After drinking for the first time you'll want to drink more but this is driven by hunger and not craving for the taste.Living with/on HuelI've found that Huel is truly an amazing product. It completely cuts out any craving for crap or really tasty food. It fully fills you up and there is not part of you that wishes to stuff yourself on other food. I've been mixing up my days with regular food. I find no matter how complete or full a meal of normal food I have, I am always left craving something a short time afterwards. After a Huel meal however you feel totally sustained through to the next meal time (and beyond I've found). I'm not sure whether this is due to the low GI of the Huel ingrediants or whether this is due to the body not getting the correct macros from normal food. Either way, Huel is a miracle for cutting cravings. I personally don't want to go 100% Huel. I love Chicken and mash potatoes and veg - I cannot see Huel replacing this desire any time soon. For me I usually replace 2 meals a day with Huel.Travelling with HuelI took Huel (and a nutribullet) on a business trip abroad - I always get fat when I'm stuck in a hotel for a week! Huel was perfect for regulating calories and effortlessly cut out craving. 3 bags for the week I found was plenty and they pack up small into a suitcase without taking up too much room - PERFECT!. I've found that if you make up a shaker bottle it will stay good for a good few hours. Huels website advises using a sealed flask for longer periods of time.

I love this product. Once it arrived I've spent 1 week on Huel only (even though nowhere in the book that comes with it are you encouraged jump right into Huel 3 times a day and not ingest anything else, quite the opposite, they suggest to start with 1 meal a day then 2, and have Huel during the day and normal meal in the evening). I didn't have any negative digestion effects whatsoever, in fact my digestion seemed more at ease and disturbed only once I've moved back to solid food.Taste is subjective of course, but I appreciated it was so bland as it helped not to overeat. It tastes like runny oatmeal where as if half of the oat flavour has been removed. It was easy to keep my calorie intake at 9 - 10 scoops a day, so around 1400-1600 kcal (I'm an overweight female spending long hours in the office so wouldn't want to stuff myself with 2000 kcal as they recommend).The convenience is amazing, it was such a pleasant week not having to think about what to buy at grocery store, what am I going to cook for dinner today or prepare for lunch for work tomorrow.Of course there were downsides as well, food is pleasure and that was taken away. I did try 8/9 flavourings for Huel that I purchased on their site, but was extremely disappointed (only cacao and toffee were tasty, others were actually pretty disgusting). All in all, the non-flavoured bland Huel was the best option for me.Another inconvenience, as mentioned above, is getting all the nutrients when once is small office-job female and doesn't need 2000 kcal a day. But I suppose on non-Huel diet it is even more difficult to get all the nutrients, just something to be mindful of. Also the fact that some nutrients are not absorbed well together such as iron+magnezium or iron + zinc, but they try to resolve that by putting more then 100% of some of the nutrients.

Huel. The future of food?Not quite yet... But getting close!I decided to give Huel a go recently, as an attempt to try and eat a little healthier, rather than use other shakes, that don't really fill me up in the slightest, I decided to give Huel a go. My plan was simple - replace 2 meals a day (breakfast and dinner) with a Huel shake, and ensure I have a healthy balanced lunch.Huel is simple. I mix 400ml of cold bottled water with 2 scoops of Huel, I add a handful of ice cubes, shake & go. I have the whole thing prepared in less than 3 minutes and take it to work with me.As a breakfast replacement, it works great. I find that drinking a Huel in the morning is convenient and does (unlike other shakes) keep me from craving snacks until lunch, in fact, out of all the low calorie shakes I've tried, Huel has to be the best to keep me feeling full the longest, must be due to the fact that my 2 scoops (304 calories) contains 22.5g of protein (28.2g carbs and 10g fat).As a "full meal" replacement... Its okay. I find that if I drink my Huel shake around 8pm, by the time I head to bed (normally about 11pm) I'm not craving snacks or another meal.However, why only 3 stars? Well... The taste... It's certainly not its selling point, even if they do insist on saying that it tastes great. In truth, it does not, it tastes horrible. The only thing I would say, you get used to it quick. The reason I have ice with my shake is because I have found the colder it is, the easier it goes down.I'll admit - my first Huel, was a horrible experience. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but I certainly brought into the whole marketing bit of it tasting great, the texture (it's lumpy / bitty by design) and taste took me a little by surprise. A week in, I'm glad I stuck with it.Should you try it? Yes. My advice is to stick to it for awhile however (it gets easier), and although they seem to think it could replace all meals in the day, you certainly do need something to look forward to, so I would suggest at least having one meal a day that's not Huel.