I’ve been promoting eating clean among my friends and family ever since I had my own “aha” moment over a decade ago. When I discovered that my low energy, fatigue, tummy aches and the blood sugar roller coaster I was on could all disappear just by eating real food, I knew I had found my calling to help others feel their best as well. I enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and was inspired to learn from a community of experts and peers that, although one diet doesn’t fit all bodies, “eating clean” is beneficial to all bodies and minds and ultimately has the ability to transform your health from the inside out.
Since then, I have witnessed amazing things happen to loved ones and clients all across the country. One of my best friends was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis many years back, when I was just starting my own healthy journey. Her doctors put her on heavy doses of steroids and eventually chemotherapy drugs, which helped manage her pain but didn’t reverse the disease. She asked her doctors along the way if there were any dietary or lifestyle change she should be making, and they all told her to “eat healthy” but that this was a degenerative disease and she couldn’t change the course of it. Eventually, they told her, your joints will be useless, and you should move where someone can take care of you. My friend left New York City after that, and moved home to be closer to her mother and father. There, away from the hustle and bustle of NYC, she took it upon herself to take this disease on herself and make the changes she knew could only be positive. She began meditation and yoga regularly, going on to become a certified instructor, and most importantly, she began a 21-day elimination diet, taking out the things from her diet that she had read could be triggers for her disease. Fast forward to the present where she is considered in remission for the disease because she experiences zero symptoms, and she has her own thriving practice as a functional medicine practitioner helping others manage and heal their pain through a combination of modern medicine and healthy lifestyle.
It’s stories like hers that continue to inspire me everyday. When I started Provenance Meals, I knew that the fastest way to get someone from point A to point B in their wellness journey was to provide them with the food they would eat 3 times a day. Every meal and snack is an opportunity to do something good for your body, or to harm it. By removing those potentially toxic triggers like gluten, dairy, and refined sugars, we all have an opportunity to examine what is the best diet for us, what makes us feel good and have energy, and what weighs us down and keeps us from reaching our goals.
While I’m not a purist when it comes to eating gluten-, dairy-, and sugar-free (it's all about balance, right?), I do believe that following an elimination diet like the one my friend tried when she needed to reboot her body is something that everyone should try at least once in their adult life. All of our clean eating programs focus on an anti-inflammatory, elimination diet and are great options to experience what it feels like when you prioritize your nutrition by eating clean. Try it out for just one week straight. Then slowly re-introduce the foods you’ve avoided one by one and pay attention to the results, you can learn a lot about what you body responds positively and negatively to.
There are a lot of meal delivery companies out there these days, and I’ve seen many food startups come and go in the 5+ years since I started Provenance. We’ve played around with a lot of different ideas, created multiple types of cleanses and detox programs, have moved in and out of different kitchens, and have seen our business increase almost 500% over the last 4 years. Compared to other companies in this space, we’ve taken a slower and we like to think more responsible approach, while honing our values and our mission. There is a food revolution going on, as consumers demand higher quality and safer ingredients , and small businesses respond, even while the larger food corporations continue to peddle their influence in government and industry. We try to help participate in the broader food movement to reduce the serious (and expensive) problem of obesity and poor physical and mental health in our country.
We invest in our customers, employees, and our farmers, and we protect our regional foodshed with all the energy we can muster because it’s what’s important to us. We can change lives with the power of food and its healing properties. There is so much stress about diet and weight loss in our society, when the focus should be on feeling your best, having energy and the confidence to put your best foot forward everyday. I believe that this is possible for everyone. I believe in the power of real food and this is why we do what we do.
Caroll Lee - Founder of Provenance Meals
Caroll is an avid cook, mother of two, Board Certified Health Counselor and the founder of Provenance Meals. Her passion in life is to feed people real food -- food that is raised, grown and prepared in traditional ways that are good for your health and good for the planet. Caroll practices holistic nutrition, understanding that a healthy diet must be combined with other sources of nourishment—loving relationships, enjoyable physical activity, meaningful work and spiritual connectedness—to reach true health and happiness.