Courtesy of Style-Architects.
Healthy salads and drinks
Dieting can be confusing. Some diets tell you a type of food is bad, while others say you should only eat that type of food. Christina Sandok was all too familiar with the mental tango of dieting as she recently took over local holistic nutrition company, Prescribe Nutrition, and reinvented the virtual healthy food program, Prescribe 20.
A new menu, offering 50+ additional recipes with vegan and vegetarian options for plant-loving folks, comes out on February 17th as part of the reinvented P20 program.
After getting her functional nutrition certification in 2018 and starting a family in 2014, Sandok’s interest in health and wellness grew.
Though Sandok worked in public relations most of her life, an interest in health and nutrition was always on the back burner. She went through the Prescribe 20 program, testing out a healthier diet, and when the previous owners of Prescribe Nutrition came looking to sell, Sandok seized the opportunity. She sold her Minneapolis-based PR and creative hub, Style-Architects, and its event-planning sister Style-Architects Weddings & Events, and started looking for her next step. “I wanted my next step to be something that had purpose and passion behind it,” she says.
In June 2019, Sandok took the reins of Prescribe Nutrition and started implementing her vision: making healthy eating easily accessible and enjoyable.
“We should all eat for energy and longevity and vitality, over weight loss,” Sandok says. “That feels like a healthier end goal than always chasing the scale.”
One of Sandok’s first steps was revamping the existing health plan, Prescribe 20. “I wanted the virtual program that they ran before to be something that could be sustainable, and I wanted to completely avoid trendy diets,” she says. “I don’t think trendy diets are something you can sustain your entire life, nor do I think they are a good example for our children.”
Restrictive dieting can lead to issues like anxiety about food, disordered eating, and avoiding social situations that involve food. With the new P20, Sandok wanted to promote healthy relationships with food instead of just another diet—meaning more unprocessed foods and less restricted eating. Think Whole30, minus 10. Eliminating common inflammatory foods like dairy and sugar for 20 days, and slowly adding them back in to see how they affect you.
The inspiration for a pure eating plan came from Sandok’s family. She found that eating healthy helped her daughter catch fewer colds and improved her husband’s health issues. She and her family have been through P20 and still follow many of the guidelines.
“We have desserts, and bread, and things that people wouldn’t necessarily think they could eat on a 20-day cleanse,” Sandok says. “They taste just as good as a sweet treat you would get at a bakery, but it’s all naturally sweetened and filled with stuff that’s going to give you energy all day.”
The new iteration of P20 has more than 50 new recipes, vegetarian and vegan options, and new features like a meal-planning tool, where users select recipes in the system for the week and it generates a grocery list—if only it could stock your fridge, too.
The additions make it easier for P20-ers to stick with it. But, when it comes to continuation, support is key. A community board on the Prescribe Nutrition website allows participants to get advice and give support to others on the program. Sandok recommends getting support from the home team too by making P20 recipes for family, instead of just for yourself.
Forgiveness is also important. No one eats healthy 100 percent of the time, Sandok says, and everyone makes mistakes—even nutritionists.
Sandok hopes to expand Prescribe Nutrition’s health coaching, add health supplements, and bring in more individualized nutrition aspects. She also hopes to create programs tailored to families and women.
“We should all eat for energy and longevity and vitality, over weight loss,” Sandok says. “That feels like a healthier end goal than always chasing the scale.”
Day in the Life of Christina Sandok:
Morning:
Courtesy of Style-Architects
Christina Sandok cutting vegetables
Prescribe Nutrition owner Christina Sandok adheres to Prescribe 20 standards for her meals after completing the 20-day virtual program.
“I often eat two eggs, half an avocado, and then maybe some sautéed veggies. I usually just take veggies from dinner from the night before and eat it with my food for breakfast—people usually don’t have enough time to like roast a pan of veggies in the morning.”
Lunch:
“That’s my biggest meal of the day. I really love—in the wintertime—soup. Soups that have rice, tons of veggies, and perhaps chicken or some kind of protein. Or a really big salad. I’m talking large because you want it to sustain you all day. So, lots of greens, and obviously protein, and again, healthy fats. If I had an avocado for breakfast, I’d probably add olives in it, or maybe a bunch of olive oil for my dressing, or even just a bunch of nuts and seeds. The fat and the protein are what keeps you satiated all day.”
Afternoon snack:
“I usually eat fruit, or a handful of cashews or walnuts … or I’ll have almond butter on apple slices, or celery.”
Dinner:
“We do lots of fish—white fish, salmon, steelhead trout, anything like that. We rotate in some red meat a couple times a week, but not every night. And we’ll have a big pan of roasted veggies. I usually make as much as I can so I can have some for breakfast. Then sweet potatoes, or rice, or some kind of whole grain that’s naturally gluten–free, rather than a processed gluten–free. And then a dark chocolate. Life’s all about balance, right? I do eat dark chocolate every day; it’s my little treat before bed. Or, I’ll have a glass of red wine here and there. It’s not about living a life that’s completely eliminating everything that you love, it’s focusing on the foods that give your body the fuel it needs.”
