My Healthy Meal offers fresh fuel for busy people

Thomas Edison - or maybe it was Nikola Tesla - may have figured it was better to light one incandescent bulb than to curse the darkness, but all Candace Bailey was looking for was a decent meal.

Bailey's life is rather tightly scheduled as a matter of course. She has real estate and hotel-management businesses, and in her spare time participates "just for fun" in triathlons, which means a lot of training. But when things ramped up even more and she found herself traveling back and forth to Phoenix several times a week, eating right became a problem.

"She was able to get into the gym," said Jonathan Vose, Bailey's personal trainer. "She was able to do her cardio, but it was always a challenge for her to eat."

And so Bailey found herself spending every Sunday cooking and packaging food for the week ahead - and musing that there must be a better way.

She found it - or actually founded it - in My Healthy Meal, which opened in Summerlin in mid-December and had a grand opening earlier this month.

My Healthy Meal, which is at 10220 W. Charleston Blvd. (between Hualapai Way and Town Center Drive; 310-3707; www.myhealthymeal.com/) isn't a restaurant per se, although there are tables and stools for those who choose to eat in. It primarily offers grab-and-go meals and snacks.

Before launching the business, Bailey did her due diligence, organizing focus groups to find out exactly what potential customers were looking for.

"I learned nothing," she said. "Everybody wanted something different." And so My Healthy Meal offers not only dishes that are low in calories and fat but also selections for those who can't consume gluten; who follow a vegetarian, vegan or raw diet; even those who are looking to bulk up.

"It's kind of taken its own turn," Bailey said. Her most popular items, which sell out every morning, are the Peanut Butter Protein Balls, designed for body builders.

Bailey said the mornings tend to be busiest, with most of her customers stopping in to pick up breakfast and lunch.

"As a busy professional, it's just easy," said Vose, who is himself a customer. "You just go in; you can grab two, three days' worth of meals."

During the grand opening, Bailey said, a woman who'd been in before came in with a wheeled cooler, filled it up and rolled it on out.

PORTION CONTROL AND NEEDS

Many of the dishes are available in two sizes, to take into account differing dietary needs. They're marked with symbols indicating whether they are, say, low in calories or carbs, high in protein, raw or vegan, or suited to those who can't consume gluten; some of the choices cross over into several dietary areas. There are choices such as red-pepper hummus with pieces of squash and zucchini cut substantially enough to be useful as dippers, and things as prosaic as cottage cheese and fruit. On the other end of the spectrum is the quinoa linguine that, along with broccoli, is served with the chicken marsala.

Quinoa and quinoa pasta are featured with many dishes, not only because it's gluten free but also because it's high in protein. All of the food is all-natural and organic, and prepared daily in a central kitchen in Las Vegas. And maybe most important is the portion-control aspect.

"Our mentality is we're supposed to overeat," Bailey said. "Mom said, 'Eat everything on your plate.' "

Many people, she said, are somewhat surprised when they become aware of what a portion should be.

"Once they get adjusted, it's totally different," she said.

She said recipes are formulated by executive chef Gene Villiatora and then tweaked to adjust nutritional aspects.

Snacks and meals are priced from $1 to $13.95.

My Healthy Meal also offers meal plans in partnership with some local gyms. People can choose a five-day challenge, she said, or a 30-day challenge, and get three meals and two snacks per day.

"They need nothing other than water," Bailey said. Five-day challenges are $155 for small meals, $185 for large; 30-day challenges are $895 for small meals, $1,050 for large.

PUBLIC RESPONSE

Josh Truex, who owns the Juicin' snack bar at the City Athletic Club, said response to the challenges has been good.

"People are responsive to committing to it and the response to the food has been good," he said. "They like the packaging. We had been with another company before, and she's doing it so much better."

Truex, who said he's been a trainer for 10 years, said accurate nutritional information is especially important to him.

"That was a big thing we had an issue with," with a previous vendor, he said. "The nutrition has been spot-on."

Bailey said all recipes are uploaded to a U.S. Department of Agriculture website for nutritional analysis, and they use a software program as a backup.

Jake Hafen, who's also a personal trainer, is My Healthy Meal's nutritionist.

"All my clients really love it," Hafen said. "To be honest, I really haven't heard any negative feedback about any of the food."

He said he thinks the fact that it is suited to a range of diets is one of the best things about My Healthy Meal.

"When we started looking at the food, we fit in so many different meal types and diet plans, there really isn't an excuse for anybody anymore to say, 'I can't find the time to get a healthy meal,' " he said.

"I think once we get a lot more locations, you're going to see a lot more people able to eat a lot healthier."

Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.