I spotted a Twitter request for people who are on a diet and like Bounty bars. Now I am on a diet BECAUSE I like Bounty bars – and any other chocolate bar, and wine, and cake, and basically anything you can eat or drink! So I immediately replied! The very lovely people at Exante then offered to send me not only some diet Bounty bars – but also some other of the Exante diet products that are available to trial.  There’s even salted caramel pudding in there – boom!!

X Factor winner Sam Bailey is doing the Exante diet at the moment with great success and is blogging about it here.  Exante basically offer a wide variety of meal replacement products that are high in protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals.  There are numerous plans you can follow to suit your lifestyle to lose weight or maintain a healthy lifestyle.

I am not following a plan – but thought I would try out the products and let you know what I thought of them!

Day 1

The fist thing I tried was the chocolate coconut bar – the aforementioned ‘diet Bounty’!  I had it post workout, when I needed a protein / energy fix – and at 207 calories and 17g of protein, it seemed like a good plan.  I have to say it was more chocolate than coconut, and didn’t have the consistency of coconut – but was a bit ‘gritty’ – but in a good way, adding texture to it.  It had a typical ‘protein bar’ taste to be honest.  Now a ‘proper’ Bounty is 270 calories but only 2g of protein – so whilst it might not taste quite the same, it’s a better alternative – and way better than no chocolate at all!!

Day 2

Today, in lieu of breakfast, I had the strawberry shake. I was going to go for a run, and didn’t have time for ‘proper food’ to go down and thus a risk of it coming back up over the treadmill – so the shake was the perfect substitute. With 201 calories and 14g of protein, I figured it would power me through my run! I used the shaker that I’d been sent – which had a clever metal spiral ball inside which helped mix up the shake really well. It recommended 200-250ml of cold water – and I went for the maximum amount – but the shake was still incredibly creamy. The powder had been white – but the shake was a lovely strawberry colour (keeping all senses happy!) and tasted really nice. Some protein shakes can have a weird synthetic aftertaste – but this didn’t at all. I really liked it.

Mid morning – I had the choco balls as a snack.  These are fabulous – like super crunchy Maltesers. At 79 calories and 7.5g of protein per serving – not too naughty either!  HOWEVER, a serving is only half of the bag!! This is as ridiculous as the fact that a ‘serving’ of Cadbury’s chocolate fingers is only 4!  Obviously once I’d popped I couldn’t stop and ate the entire packet – whoops.  This lack of self control is another major factor in why I’m 5 stone overweight…….

For lunch I had the tomato and basil soup. I was at work and therefore had neither a blender or whisk to had – as they advise – so had to make do with a fork. Consequently the soup was a bit lumpy as I couldn’t get all of the powder to disperse properly – but it was really tasty – and with similar calories and protein to the breakfast shake, I can positively polish my halo today with eating!!

Day 3

I’m having a shake as an early lunch before a gym session with my PT – and today’s is the creamy coconut shake. This has the same calories as the strawberry one (201) but a whopping 16.9g of protein. The description was perfect – it was very creamy and coconutty – and again, I really liked it.

Day 4

Today I am at home with a poorly daughter – and so even more time poor than usual – and in need of a treat – so I thought I would try the gooey salted caramel pudding.  I mixed this up as per the instructions and it made quite a paltry amount, and when I licked the spoon it had more than a passing resemblance to butterscotch angel delight.  I then had to microwave it.  I did it for 1 minute (as per the instructions) but that was too much in my 900W microwave, and I’ll do the gooey chocolate pudding for only 40 seconds I think.  It expanded brilliantly – and tasted like a proper pudding.  There was no gooey middle (hence the fact I think I’d over zapped it) but it was really tasty.  I had very low expectations, and was concerned I was going to slate it – but I needn’t have worried, it was great! And with 205 calories and 16.7g of protein, should keep me going with playing nursemaid all afternoon.

Now – I still have the aforementioned gooey chocolate pudding, along with chocolate, white chocolate and raspberry, and strawberry cheesecake shakes to try – but I wanted to get this initial review up for you all to read – and I think it’s a pretty safe bet that these shakes will be lovely too!

I was very pleasantly surprised by all of the products I was sent to test.  I’m not sure I could be as hardcore as to do one of the total replacement diet plans – but they are great meal replacements for a busy Mum like me.  Having looked on the Exante website there are loads of different ways to purchase the products that work out very reasonably, so I will be shopping later!  And maybe I should just try it hardcore for a few weeks……….

I was sent these products to review, but all opinions are my own.