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That time of year has returned: when you regret all the food and drink you ingested over the holidays and look to the New Year with resolutions and hopes for a healthier lifestyle . . . and to be able to fit into your pants again. Luckily, St. Louisans can choose among several meal delivery systems, with each plan offering something a bit different. There’s Lean Feast, Metabolic Meals, Best Food Forward, and Feed Your Vitality. Just before the new year, we spoke with Ashley Nanney, the founder and owner of Feed Your Vitality, about inflammation, gut health, and her recent cookbook, SHAPE ReClaimed Simple Recipes for Phase One (below), which has sold over 1200 copies in the last few months.
Nanney was like many of her customers: 95 pounds overweight and in search of a healthier lifestyle. When two different doctors prescribed a paleo diet (the most Googled diet of 2013), Nanney initially balked. Thirty days later, however, she felt amazing and never looked back. Working as a personal chef at the time, Nanney put her clients on the same plan, and they also experienced life-changing results. Founding Feed Your Vitality became a way for Nanney to share wellness with a wider audience, with equal emphasis on convenience, accessibility, health, and taste.
As business increased, Nanney moved her operation into the St. Patrick Center, where her staff grew from 5 in 2011 to 13, with 7 interns from the center. The business has expanded so much that Nanney is searching for a new property, which will allow not only more operating space, but will also mean that she can continue to experiment with new recipes and meal plans beyond the several that are already in place.
Feed Your Vitality’s website provides more information on the existing plans, which include SHAPE ReClaimed™, hCG, and Paleo/Anti-Inflammatory meals. The SHAPE and hCG plans are physician supervised, which is necessary, for example, in the case of the hCG plan because you’re limited to 500 calories a day. If that sounds a bit too hard core—surely, the holiday cookies consumed in one sitting easily add up to as many calories—then the Paleo/Anti-Inflammatory meals may be the right choice, especially for those who want to detox and rid the body of inflammation, an especially popular topic within the world of diet and health.
Nanney (above) told us to Google “anti-inflammatory ratings,” so we did and found a number of sites devoted to sharing different food items’ inflammation ratings or IF’s. The “highest offenders”? Corn, soy, dairy, peanuts, grains, refined sugar. What helps reduce inflammation? Almonds, lean proteins, turmeric, peppers, salmon, fresh fruit (especially blueberries), most veggies, and fermented foods. We asked about alcohol, and Nanney said that those made from grain often cause inflammation, while those made from fruit (which means wine, in moderation) and vegetables (think soju, Korean vodka made from sweet potatoes) may be okay.
The goal, according to Nanney, is to help make the “dietary shift for people as simple as possible,” and to mimic what people love to help make up for what’s missing. Personally, she believes in an 80/20 philosophy wherein 80% of the time, she practices a paleo diet, with the remaining 20% more lax for situations, like restaurant dining, which cannot be entirely controlled. Twice a year, she detoxes with the SHAPE plan.
Feed Your Vitality’s meals can be delivered or picked up at designated locations (at left, their Nissan Cube and "the box it came in").
A month’s or week’s worth of meals are available, depending on the plan, as well as á la carte options, like Mexican Pumpkin Stew, Chili Lime Roasted Pork with Vegetable Escabeche, Beef Bourguignon (below), and Chocolate Chip Cookies. When we sadly imagined a life without bread, Nanney said that’s because we haven’t tried her Rosemary Thyme Paleo Bread, made from almond butter, olive eggs, molasses, arrowroot, salt, baking soda, rosemary, and thyme.
Last January, Feed Your Vitality’s business tripled, and with the cookbook’s success, the company will surely continue to grow. In addition to finding the new property for expansion, Nanney also anticipates releasing another cookbook in the fall, and offering classes again in the summer. “We do whatever we can to support a healthy lifestyle,” she said. If the old acquaintance that should be forgot this year is gluten (and corn and sugar and soy and processed food), then Ashley Nanney just may be the one to help you bid adieu.
