Eat to Win
One local personal trainer views pizza with such disdain that she calls it “baked fat.” And anyone who’s enjoyed a slice of deep-dish or stuffed pizza from the Green Mill Restaurant and Bar (see review) knows that the doughy, cheesy concoction isn’t a health food.
But another trainer, Todd Markley, confesses a fondness for pizza. He eats it (New York-style, with extra cheese) only once a week, on his “cheat” day. The other six days, the 33-year-old Markley — who has the robust good looks, deep tan and dimpled chin of a Hollywood leading man — eats the ultrahealthy preparations made by the staff of his one-year-old company, Success Meals.
Markley grew frustrated when, no matter how hard he tried to convince the people who hired him as a trainer to “feed the muscle and starve the fat,” they couldn’t seem to stick to a diet. “And it is hard. Who wants to come home from work and eat diet food?” says Markley, a former body-building competitor who still cringes at the rigid diets of canned tuna, protein bars and baked potatoes he forced himself to eat. The ideal, he says, is to find foods that “feed the muscle, starve the fat, but do not insult the palate.”
Hiring chef Valarie Boles, Markley rented kitchen space and began producing a line of “gourmet foods” that were low in calories and fat and could be made fresh daily and dropped off each morning to “committed clients.” Those disciplined souls agreed to six- or twelve-week programs in which they would eat five small meals a day, beginning with a decent breakfast and ending with a light dinner and some kind of healthy dessert. “We even make a healthy version of pumpkin pie and cheesecake,” Markley says, grinning. Using personal trainers as his sales reps, Markley has a client base of sixty customers. The meals average about $7 each or $35 a day.
“I’ve had some great success stories,” Markley says, adding that not all of his clients exercise and lift weights every day. In fact, he’ll tailor a meal program for “someone with a totally sedentary lifestyle.” If the idea sounds palatable, call Markley at 913-310-2444.
Mexican fare is just as fattening as pizza, but that hasn’t stopped fans of longtime restaurateur Bobby Chavez from finding him at his new location, Los Chavez Taqueria (4300 Roanoke Parkway, the site of the former Hunan Wok). Chavez sold his seven-year-old namesake restaurant in Lenexa three months ago (although it’s still called Los Chavez). The new place is tiny, with only a handful of tables and a limited menu, but it still has enough room to whip up tacos, enchiladas and burritos. And Chavez has plans to open several more of the taquerias with his son, Bobby Jr.
“These places are the wave of the future,” Chavez says. “The labor costs are low, prices are reasonable and most of the business is carry-out.”
Nothing on the menu costs more than $6 and, since most customers take the food home, they can eat in front of the TV. Or on the treadmill.
