Deliveroo Detox: How to Beat The Roo’ (Avoid This Mistake)

Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat are huge businesses and seem to be going from strength to strength.

And I can see why…

Nice tasting food delivered to your door in as little as 15-20 minutes is pretty appealing. This is especially true for those who work long hours and have limited time to cook.

Is it all what it seems?

Convenience is the name of the game. Just like the convenience store around the corner. It’s there to entice you to buy some low quality, high profit margin items like chocolate bars, crisps and alcohol.

That’s how they stay in business. Not from selling stamps, accepting parcel returns or selling fruit and veg.

And the same is true on delivery sites. The restaurants on there need to make a profit, so they have to get their produce at the lowest possible price.

That results in low quality food, higher in preservatives and ingredients which are not fresh or healthy. But they definitely taste good!

Becoming conscious…

It seems that a lot of us are becoming increasingly aware that this lifestyle is not the best for our health or growing bellies.

So what can we do about it?

Let’s look at some ways to detox from our Deliveroo addictions and learn how to stop using Deliveroo. Be sure to check out my Habit Hacking post as well, because the best way to develop sustainable, long term habits is to create them from the outset not try to change them later.

But first, the biggest mistake those trying to quit Deliveroo make…

Deleting the App (Mistake)

We all want we can’t have, so deleting the Deliveroo app is not the solution. Why? Because it takes all of 2 seconds to re-install. Also, when you say to yourself that you can’t have something you want it more…

We want a sustainable approach, not an all or nothing one (one of my 7 Secrets). Telling ourselves we’re “never going to have a Deliveroo again” is pretty unrealistic.

Also, there is nothing wrong with having a take away from time to time. The problem is having it 5 x a week.

If we tell ourselves we can’t have it at all, we will inevitably use it again and then we will feel like we’ve failed. But we haven’t because one Deliveroo isn’t going to undo 1 week or home cooked, fresh and healthy food.

OK, so here’s how to beat your Deliveroo addiction…

#1 Use a Different Kind of Delivery Service…

And no, not Uber Eats! I mean a grocery shopping one like Sainsbury’s or Tesco.

We’ve all been there, we get home from a long day at work and the fridge is empty. We have nothing to eat and nothing to prepare. The obvious choice is takeaway.

However, if we stock up on non-perishable foods so we’ve always got something to hand it’s more likely that we will cook something instead of ordering in.

So what items are good to stock up on? Try out these kitchen cupboard staples.

#2 Batch-cook in Advance

Cooking can be time consuming and if you’re not a culinary connoisseur, quite annoying too!

I put myself in that category, so batch cooking is a great way to go. You can easily cook enough for 2-3 meals in one-go and then save it for the next day in the fridge or freezer.

You can check out my example meal plan which shows you what I have done in the past for 7 days worth of cooking.

Note: This is just an example and what works for you will most likely be different. You can use it for meal ideas, recipes and shortcuts to eating healthier.

A great example for batch cooking is to cook a load of meat up in one go so it’s always available. Here is a video of how to do that. And there are plenty more ideas for meals to make on this page.

#3 Have Snacks Ready

The number one reason people order takeaway is because they’re hungry and aren’t sure what to eat. They don’t want to cook, either, so it’s easy to get something delivered.

One way to take-away (pun intended) the hunger is to have a small snack. This info-graphic shows some great examples of what you can have to tide you over until you’ve fixed up a proper meal.

The idea is just to remove the immediate hunger so you have time to prepare something more substantial. If you follow point 1 above, your cupboards will be stocked up with plenty of options.

To Summarise

If you’re able to avoid the first mistake of thinking that deleting the app will stop you from ordering Deliveroo, that’s a good start.

To move forward and make sustainable, long lasting changes you can use the three steps above to reduce the number of takeaways you get each week. Those three steps were:

1. Use a different kind of delivery service
2. Batch-cook in advance
3. Have snacks ready

I’m confident that you will be able to make progress using these strategies. Remember, change doesn’t happen overnight. It can take weeks and months to instill new habits and the path leading there is often bumpy.

If you can’t get it working for you straight away, try not to worry. We can’t be good 100% of the time. There will be slip-ups along the way. It’s normal. One mistake doesn’t ruin all the hard work you have put in.

Feel free to get in contact if you have any questions or concerns.