A fit new year: Healthy eating
One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions every January is to get healthy. For those looking to start off with a fit new year, here are some tips from several local business owners who spend their days meal planning, giving healthy advice and running a catering business.
Allie Black, founder of Wholesome by Allie | wholesomebyallie.com
Allie Black is a former television anchor and health reporter who embraced a clean, organic lifestyle 15 years ago. She began her business, Wholesome by Allie, nine years ago for families who want to eat healthier but don’t know where to start. Her goal is to make healthy living simple and affordable.
Black said people say they can’t afford to eat healthy, but that isn’t necessarily true. She teaches her clients how to live a healthy life on a budget. Her company offers nine services that are custom tailored to each individual or family.
“I get to know my customers and shop based on their custom needs,” Black said, who is known to many as the food lady.
Her company is national and in addition to her clients in Birmingham, she does her services with out-of-town clients via Skype, Face Time and by phone.
Although Black starts with food first, cleaning out pantries and refrigerators and helping clients shop on a healthy budget, she also focuses on holistic living, from what people use in their garden, feed their pets, clean their homes with and put on their bodies.
Her advice is not to get overwhelmed and just use common sense. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
“Take a look at everything in your kitchen and pantry, flip it over and read ingredients and see if it’s real food. If you can’t pronounce what’s in it, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Katie Strickland, Katie’s Plates | katiesplates.com
Katie Strickland is a culinary nutrition professional with a passion for catering and nutrition education. After graduating from Mississippi State four years ago, she had planned to work as a dietician, but then realized she wanted to work with food.
After starting out in her mother’s kitchen, she moved several times as the company continued to grow. In August 2015, she rented a commercial kitchen space on Montevallo Road. She has grown from six families to more than 100 families.
An alternative to dining out several times per week, Katie’s Plates clients can go online and select meals and have them delivered directly to their homes.
“We try to do classic meals and make them healthy,” Strickland said. “Some people order every night, some once a week for a date night. These days people don’t have time to cook, and that’s why we’re here.”
Strickland has a registered dietician on staff who manages the Birmingham location. The two of them plan the menu together each week. The meals contain a protein with healthy sides and sauce.
Strickland said although it seems expensive at first, there are ways to make it affordable.
“People soon realize they love it and time they get without having to do cleanup or grocery shopping,” she said.
Doug Hovanec, owner of Catering by
Bellini’s | cateringbybellinis.com
With his restaurants, Bellini’s and Revolve, Doug Hovanec also owns Catering by Bellini’s. In addition to catering, they also offer healthy prepared meals. Their two product lines are Paleo and gluten free.
Each week, the chef comes up with a new breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. They have both 1,200 and 1,600 daily calorie lines. The second line is the fresh-and-fit line that allows customers to choose a protein and two different sides. It’s consistent every day.
“One thing that makes us different from other food delivery services is that we allow the customer to choose what they want each day,” Hovanec said. “The menus rotate each week, and our customers like that everything is fresh made and they get a variety of options.”
Hovanec said they are customer-service oriented and are happy to take suggestions for different meal options. Catering by Bellini’s makes everything from scratch, and can accommodate any type of food allergies. Customers order their meals online and can pick them up at their storefront or have them delivered to their home or gym.