Life is indeed in a fast lane, especially for working professionals. Getting to work on time has become a struggle in rush hour traffic. Because of the same rush, sneaking in a proper meal has become impossible. So the daily drudgery of chomping on ‘momo’, ‘chowmein’ and other fast food mark the lunchtime of most working professionals, while they still worry about their health. Now the burden of eating right and healthy can be transferred to Fit Box, an upstart that has for the past six months been delivering healthy meals to the doorsteps of their customers. Entrepreneur Demin Shrestha, 24, owns and operates Fit Box.
Shrestha is a fitness fanatic turned fitness entrepreneur, with a health club also on the cards. “I have been involved in fitness activities for the past six or seven years,” he says. “So I decided to make this my profession. I decided to launch Fit Box realizing the importance of healthy food for a fit body. Starting Fit Box was not difficult, he explains, for Shrestha’s family has been in the hospitality business for over two decades and hiring chefs and kitchen staff for meal preparation was piece of cake.
But what makes Fit Box meal nutritious? “All our meals are made in consultation with dieticians and nutritionists. And the type of food you get depends on such vital stats like your age, weight, your food allergies and health issues,” Shrestha says.
What about the presence of processed food like salami in some of their meals? “What you get depends on your meal plan. Some processed food is allowed in Keto meal, for instance. But if you don’t want processed food, you can tell us in advance and we won’t include them.”
The other thing that makes Fit Box lunch healthy, Shrestha points out, is their use of health food options like brown rice, olive oil, quinoa and vegetables.
The prices of Fit Box’s lunches start at Rs 3,250 for three weeks (Monday-Friday), with various options like ‘Low calorie’, ‘High calorie’, ‘Deluxe’ and the new ‘Keto’. All meals are prepared at Fit Box’s kitchen in Gwarko and delivered warm and fresh in personalized lunch boxes. Registration is pretty simple: you can either call them or send a message on their very responsive Facebook page. The best part for the digitally challenged is, you can pay cash on delivery, at once, for three weeks. Costing a daily average of little more than Rs 200 (‘Basic’)—which can reach up to Rs 400 (‘Deluxe’)—Fit Box might be considered borderline expensive.
But Shrestha says that the prices are justified given the quality, nutritional value and convenience of their products. “We do not compromise with production and use best possible ingredients in our meals,” he says. “Looking at the health benefits of our meals, the prices are not expensive.”
In the six months of its operations, Fit Box has delivered to up to 300 customers a day (it currently averages around 150). Customer response too has been satisfactory, Shrestha explains, but as in the case of any other businesses, there is always that expectation for more. “If we go bigger, we might be able to reduce our prices too,” he says. “The idea is quite new in Nepal. Hope it catches on”.
