1) I’m on the threshold of overweight against a healthy BMI
2) My doc tells me that my threshold for BMI is lower on account of South Asian origins, so need to aim for BMI of 23 (instead of more normal 25)
3) New BMI target means I need to lose another 9kg or so, which was my long term weightloss goal anyway.
4) I’m not running due to an injury at the moment

So the diet has resumed, and a week in I’m already rediscovering the satisfaction I derived from last year’s obsessive geekery, diet-logging etc. Gyminee is proving invalauable.

I am, however, persistently hungry, quite tired etc., but thanks to quite a bit of exercise I’ve done between then and now, my fitness seems to be carrying me through this a bit more gracefully.

This does also mean that my journey of soupsploration will begin again; however there’s a piteously small selection of new offerings from Eat and Pret a Manger… so hoping for some variety come autumn.

Not sure how Hippo’s arrival in the autumn will change my dieting – some friends have said that they dropped weight on account of sleeplessness and baby-caring-busy-ness, but I can see myself eating more than strictly speaking necessary…!

Anyway, wish me luck and point me to vendors of good, interesting, meaty soups! Sorry for the slightly unstructured brain dump…

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Health: OK, ish – at 408 calories for the big bold it’s a modest lunchtime portion and has a good amount of fibre. However, it is a tad high on the fat front, ditto sodium.

Taste: A little taste of Mexico. It’s OK, tomato is the dominating flavour and texture and so its not massively exciting, but there is a good amount of chunky chicken in there and a tasty tortilla topping (which would be better when crisp – they sog up fast). Fundamentally under-spiced though…

Full-o-meter: Not bad. Fibre and protein/fat content should keep me going.

Verdict: 3.5/5. A good soup, I’d have again, but there’s room to refine this one, Eat.

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Health: Low cal – 222 calories for a 600g pot. Reasonable on all other scores, good on fibre, could have more protein…

Taste: Pretty good pea & ham soup. Standard. I must admit that I decided to spice it up with my new favourite condiment (Nando’s hot Peri-Peri sauce), not because it needed it – perfectly tasty as pea and ham soup – just that after the initial tasting I decided I wanted a little more kick to my lunch.

Full-o-meter: Not bad. Thanks to hot sauce have drunk two pints of water with lunch so feeling quite full right now. Eaten with two slices of medium sliced wholemeal toast.

Verdict: 4/5. Would have done better if it was a bit more interesting (it’s perfectly tasty, just standard) – but it is nonetheless a solid soup offering from those lovely Waitrose people.

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Health: 248 calories for the pack, low on protein, surprisingly high on fat (was clarified butter an undeclared ingredient?), pretty low on fibre. So good on calorie count, basically, and mediocre on actual nutritional value.

Taste: Nice. A low-level of spice (high street food can be *so* conservative with chilli) could have used some pepping up but there was a smooth, nicely textured consistency to the mild curried soup, the spinach was tasty and substantial… but I’m still opposed to potato as the sole substance in a soup. Lentils would have made this a lot more substantial…

Full-o-meter: Rubbish. Even with the artisan bread (175 cals extra) I was wanting more.

Verdict: 3.5/5. It’s not bad, but more fibre and more spice would have earned it a higher score.

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Description: Ingredients from Pret: “Pork & beef meatballs, celery, tomato, onion, garlic, organic vegetable bouillon, parsley, basil, oregano and thyme.” My description – watery ragu with a few self-pitying soggy meatballs.

Health: 261 calories and relatively low fibre and protein – consumed with the 175 calorie artisan soup bread this isn’t the lowest call soup lunch on offer…

Taste: My standard for this is the delicious Eat Italian Ragu and Pasta, and this just doesn’t compare; the soup needs garnish (Parmesan for a salty kick?) and the texture is just weird – although that could be a side-effect of the soup being kept ludicrously hot – it was scalding, and the meatballs had largely dissolved into a soggy mess.

Full-o-meter: Suspect it will have my willpower tested against the office biscuit jar this afternoon.

Verdict: 2/5. I might give this one another chance because there was some potential there, but it is not high on my list. Disappointed.

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Health: OK. 420 calories for the pot, reasonable fibre, low on fat, but v. high on carbs, sugars and salt.

Taste: OK. Not brilliant – tasty as the gyoza are, they kind of dissolve in the broth so the texture is a bit odd. had chilli in (Eat’s ‘extra spicy’ option), which gave it a pleasant kick but might have been overkill, and some of the vegetables were a bit odd – the edamame-esque beans were crunchy in a weird way. Not bad on the whole, but… lacked a certain ‘oomph’.

Full-o-meter: OK; not too shabby at all but I was slightly short-brothed today, and the ‘hot hot’ broth was either tepid or the freezing wind chilled it over the 3 minute walk back to the office. Still, better than Eat’s Tom Yum’s…

Verdict: 3.5/5.

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Health: Heavy on the carbs, but OK protein and good fibre, and a mangeable amount of fat and not too bad on the sodium front. 420 calories in all, for the pot, which is OK.

Taste: Wow. The best of M&S’s soups by a long way, so far. Deliciously thick and tasty, well-seasoned with a good amount of spice, you can feel the cayenne and the cumin giving it a little edge whilst the creamy tomatoes and burger-licious meatballs square off on your taste budes.

Full-o-meter: Not too bad at all. Good amount of fibre in there, and the thickness of the soup will keep you going for a while.

Verdict: 4.5/5. With this soup, M&S, you redeem yourself for some of your previous efforts…

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Health: 272 cals for the pot, but decent protein, low sat fat, OK fibre. Bad on salt, as you’d expect…

Taste: Moreish; good level of gentle spices, tasty bacon… maybe a little too salty. Pretty well headache inducing, actually.

Full-o-meter: Good. Good lentil/protein kick. Eaten with artisan roll, taking overall calorie count to about 440.

Verdict: 4/5. Oversaltiness lets it down, but would have it again nonetheless.

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Health: Erm, not great. 460 calories for the pot, loads of fat and sat fat, quite a bit of sodium. On the plus side, reasonable amount of fibre and protein.

Taste: Awesome! You can smell the lemongrass from across the room even as it microwaves, and whilst the texture seems a little weak on initial pouring it thickens as the soup cools from boiling (the all important “let stand” period). This soup is tasty, well textured, spicy, meaty and full of useful chunks of veg – deliciously soft and tasty choi sum and still-crunchy water chestnut that actually serves a purpose in this context!

Full-o-meter: Good, as you’d expect from a more substantial soup.

Verdict: 4/5. It loses a point for health. Otherwise this soup is outstanding.

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Health: 245 calories for the pot, with a pretty good amount of protein, relatively low on the carbs and fat, and a decent score on fibre. A fair amount of salt but not bad by Eat standards! In essence: pretty good! It’s also gluten, wheat and dairy free for people who care about those things, and organic too!

Taste: Impressive meatiness from the ham, great texture from the lentils and cabbage, satisfyingly fresh and crunchy. A really good flavour combination for savoury lovers. Only criticism, and its minor, is that the soup is a little brothy… could use a bit more thickening… but a very minor complaint!

Full-o-meter: Not bad. Whilst a relatively low calorie count and a slightly smaller pot than your typical supermarket soup pot (500 vs 600g) the decent amount of fibre and protein should keep you going.

Verdict: 4.5/5. Will look out for other tasty soups from the YP folk, although they do seem to be focussed on organic veg-only options which I’m not a huge fan of…

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Health: 398 calories for the pot, which is OK, but reasonably carb heavy – relatively low protein and fibre – and a decent score for sodium.

Taste: Wow. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this that much, having only barely liked Eat’s Goulash… but this is really nice, bolognaise esque (well, the way I make it – which is tomato intensive), with tasty morsels of beef and good quality tomatoes making up the majority of the flavour with the occasional lump of potato for the occasional dose of bland (not a massive fan of the potato when it hasn’t been fried or roasted).

Full-o-meter: OK. Not great. The texture and consistency fills you up on eating, but I have a feeling the nutritional content will mean it doesn’t last the afternoon.

Verdict: 4/5. It’d get a 4.5 if they had a way to get more fibre and protein in there without substantially upping the calorie score. Good on you, Waitrose.

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Health: OK – only 236 calories for the pot so additional sustenance required, but good on all key vital indicators.

Taste: Meh. No interesting spice, no meat for texture – nothing wrong with it for what it is but just totally uninspiring. If they’d swapped out sweet potato or butternut squash for the regular potatoes in there that would have been something.

Full-o-meter: OK. Not great. Too low-cal, not enough protein to really carry you.

Verdict: 2/5. I’m sure it’d rate higher for someone that liked plain vegetable soup, but for me it was a bit dull.

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Health: Not bad – 394 calories for the pot, good amount of fibre. Could have more protein…

Taste: Better than the other two MPW’s I’ve tried recently – good texture, flavourful, tomato-based soup, delicious morsels of sausage and the beans are nice too. I know Rick Stein loves a good cassoulet and suspect he’d struggle to recognise this as one, but it is nonetheless good and hearty as a fresh soup pot.

Full-o-meter: Not bad. Better with more meat…

Verdict: 4/5. The first MPW soup properly worthy of the name. Suggest Mr White has a chat with the people at Glorious Foods swiftly…

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Health: Not bad – about 390 calories for the pot, high fibre, low fat, but quite low protein too and reasonably high levels of sodium.

Taste: Bleh. I’m beginning to wonder if the addition of “-inspired” or “-style” to any description is an admission that they don’t really know how to spice the soup properly. This soup, whilst well-textured, is pretty bland and the absence of any proper spice or meat makes it a slightly tedious meal. In the interest of full disclosure I should confess that I gave up on it half way through and nabbed a passing sandwich from a lunch meeting I was in.

Full-o-meter: Not bad, was the impression I was getting before I lost interest…

Verdict: 2.5/5. Not getting the strongest impression of the MPW range…

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Health: 404 cals for the pot, which is OK, but low fibre, high sodium, middling protein makes this a bit average.

Taste: Less good than the first time I tried it, I think. The soup is a bit thin and suffers from the absence of a strong binding veg in there (some potato or some curried squash or even a few more lentils). The salt-level, whilst not overbearing in the taste, is headache inducing.

Full-o-meter: Not brilliant. Not thick and substantial enough without bread.

Verdict: 3.5/5. Downgraded on original verdict now that I’ve given it a full review.

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