Okay, so this may sound a little dramatic. My marriage wasn’t necessarily on the rocks, however, many arguments have ensued over what’s for dinner. My husband, Travis and I run a busy life. Who doesn’t right? He is a fast mover. Always on the go and ALWAYS HUNGRY. He loves to eat out. When we first met over the 13 years ago, we would hop on the Harley and find a great restaurant on our ride for some good food and drinks. We weren’t concerned about eating very clean then. Ahhh, those were the honeymoon days. A few years into our marriage, however, I started training for my first fitness show and was introduced to meal prepping. Suddenly we weren’t eating out as much, because there was no point for me. I had a strict diet plan I was following, plus I was SO new to meal prepping, I would only make enough for me. Many times in fact, I didn’t even make enough for me and found myself in the kitchen many hours a day trying to keep up the cooking. Here’s where things started to get complicated. Travis lost his dining out partner and there was no food in the fridge for him. He is not a cooker. He can be a great cook, but he just doesn’t make time for it. We had to find a solution.
Our first thought was to just make more. Make more chicken, more fish, more ground turkey, more sweet potatoes, more rice, more asparagus and broccoli. So I did. I would cook all day and put them in large containers. One for the chicken, one for the fish, ect. ect. The fridge would get full of good, healthy, clean food. The problem now? The fridge stayed full. For one- Travis still likes to dine out. With or without me, he’d at least be going into Chipotle almost everyday. Two- he would open the fridge and stare at the containers, but it seemed to be too much work to pull out each individual container to make a full meal with a protein, starch, and veggies. Needless to say, much of the food would get wasted and have to be thrown out.
If you’re a parent, I’m sure you can relate. No doubt we’ve all found frustration at some point in making food for our kids. We make something we thought they liked, and they all of a sudden can’t even stand to look at it. Or you make a large batch of something for the whole family, and the leftovers sit in fridge and get pushed to the back until you decide to clean things out and have to throw it away. After a while, you just get fed up with wasting your time, energy, and money on food that just goes to waste. That’s where I was at with my husband. For several years, we battled back and forth.
Last year, in the beginning of 2019, Travis and I both got on a strict meal and workout plan to prepare for a couples fitness photoshoot. This was the first time he had to portion out his food and eat according to a written plan. I agreed to meal prepping for both of us again, but I didn’t realize how much work I signed up for. It was extremely time consuming. Between grocery shopping almost everyday, cooking, baking, portioning everything out into individual meal containers, actually eating the meal, and doing dishes… I was burning out quick. After our photoshoot, Travis wanted to continue to be consistent with his exercise and diet, but again, we needed a better solution to free up more of our time.
During my time at WBFF Worlds in Las Vegas in 2018, I would watch my coach, Caroline De Campos, receive boxes of Icon Meals straight to the Bellagio. I thought, how convenient to be able to have meals shipped anywhere you are, that are clean enough to eat right up to show day. I checked out the website and realized you could customize your meal to the exact portion size of your choice of protein, starch, and veggies. They also had featured weekly meals with more variety, but we were mainly excited to try the custom meals. Once we ordered, they were at our doorstep within two days. They were also vacuum-sealed to a tray to keep them fresh with no preservatives. Finally- we tasted them. We couldn’t believe how fresh and clean it all tasted. We were sold.
Since making Icon Meals our solution, the only argument we have is over who will run to the store to replace the bottle of Primal Kitchen Unsweetened BBQ sauce. We have now been relying on Icon Meals for over 14 months. We get 48 meals every two weeks to share as a family. The kids love the kobe beef burgers and the bison. We have been full-time traveling the country in our motorhome for 10 months now and to have something so healthy, that’s also quick and easy, and doesn’t take up a lot of space is invaluable to us. We do still enjoy dining out here and there, but we are so grateful to be able to come home and know we have icon meals in the fridge to keep on the 90/10 lifestyle diet. 90% of the time we eat clean with our Icon meals, and 10% of the time, we eat what we crave. Travis and I are the healthiest we’ve ever been and now we have more quality time than ever for the important things like making memories as a family. It’s been a marriagesaver!
Stay connected with Brittany and Travis Just and their family on Instagram at
Want to be featured as an "Everyday ICON?" Submit your stories to info@iconmeals.com or send us a DM on IG or Facebook!