The hardest part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle comes down to the food used to fuel one’s body.
This is according to Salmon Arm personal trainers Lindsay Anderson and Kyle Jobin, who say exercise and working out, that is the easy part. Proper nutrition is where it gets challenging.
“One of the things where people really struggle was the food, proper nutrition, that’s where we found a missing link,” said Anderson.
Seeing a need locally for healthy, ready-made meal options, the couple recently launched their meal preparation business, No Bull Eats.
“We just wanted to simplify things for people,” said Anderson. “So they’re not having to worry about going to the grocery store, they’re not having to worry about recipes, they’re not having to worry about having to cook.”
Anderson and Jobin work out of the Zest Commercial Food Hub, where each week they produce gluten-free meal options available for order on their website, nobulleats.ca. Orders for the week are accepted until 11 p.m. Thursday, the meals are prepped at the Food Hub and can be picked up, or are delivered locally, on Sunday.
“Our meals are all broken down with the macronutrients, the breakdown of carbs, fats and protein, so if you were tracking your macronutrients, say on a weight-loss journey, then our meals would be great because they would fit right into your plan,” said Anderson. “If you were also just wanting to eat healthy, well-balanced meals, that’s also an option and you don’t have to be tracking them.”
Jobin said he took chef training in school and has always loved cooking for friends and family.
“It’s kind of a passion of mine I just want to share with everybody else,” said Jobin. “I didn’t know much about nutrition before I started getting into fitness. I just cooked lots of stuff – I wasn’t always the healthiest I guess.”
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No Bull Eats offers a changing weekly special and four other meal options, including a turkey meatball Buddha Bowl with Goddess dressing, Meats and Potatoes with Kobra Kai Sauce, Kalbi-inspired pork tenderloin and the No BS Chicken Pad Thai. They also offer two “treats,” cookie dough power balls and no bull energy balls. All of the sauces are made in-house and are gluten free, the pork and beef are smoked by Jobin, and all the ingredients are sourced as local as possible.
Meals total between 400 and 500 calories. Jobin acknowledged that may not sound like a lot, but noted they’re “clean calories,” which he explained provides essential nutrition and don’t leave you feeling hungry soon after eating.
“When I started counting macros, I dropped 14 lbs. in the first month and a half, just from eating properly,” said Jobin. “Actually, a lot of people don’t eat enough which is the problem.”
In addition to keeping the calories clean, Anderson and Jobin wanted to keep their meal prices lean.
“We’re trying to keep the price point low… $16 per meal,” said Jobin. “You can’t go through a drive-thru for that.”
No Bull Eats began distributing meals this January. Jobin said for the first couple of weeks they were preparing less than 100 meals. It’s been over 100 ever since. Jobin and Anderson currently have a cap of 250 meals prepped per week, and have recently been getting close to that limit.
In addition to being available through the website, No Bull Eats meals can also be found at DeMille’s Farm Market, the Salmon Arm Co-op and Anytime Fitness. Their power balls can be picked up at Chevron.
For more information, visit nobulleats.ca or the No Bull Eats page on Facebook.
lachlan@saobserver.net
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