Get to know the owner of FreshPrep, an organic food store in Orange – Beaumont Enterprise

About Paleo

The paleo diet is based on foods that were eaten during the Paleolithic era, which dates from 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. This diet focuses on eating meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and eggs that were available before modern farming practices began.

As Carrie Richard started implementing CrossFit into her regular routine, she wanted to improve her eating habits even more to help fuel her body.

That’s when she discovered that “clean eating,” which is different than simply eating healthier, would do the trick. That in turn led the Orangefield native to open FreshPrep, a store with fresh and organic food items, in Orange in June 2015.

The Enterprise sat down with Richard to discuss FreshPrep, how the foods the store offers can help improve one’s overall health.

Q: What inspired you to open FreshPrep?

A: My research on food, basically. I started working out probably about 12 years ago. I started CrossFit, and the way of eating on CrossFit is paleo (diet). When I started learning about paleo, I started learning about how different food is. There’s good versions of food and bad versions of food, and it grossed me out.

So, I started leaning toward actually the good versions of food, and that’s where (FreshPrep) came from. Everything in here is the good version, like the best version of food you can buy — organic, the grass-fed beef — no hormones, stuff like that.

Q: Do you think the Orange County area was lacking a place like this?

A: Yeah, absolutely… There is no other food place like this around here.

There’s meal prep places, which is what we do, but we go a step further than that. We have clean food, rather than just prepped food.

We’re an open kitchen, so you can come in here and watch us cook or see what ingredients we put in the food, anything like that. We’ve been invited to do things, presentations (on food prep). I’ve spoken at a lot of different health and wellness conventions.

Q: When it comes to healthier eating, in what way did you try to set FreshPrep apart?

A: There’s a different between healthy eating and clean eating. You can eat healthy, but not be clean.

Where the clean (eating) comes in is where there’s no hormones in your food, there’s no preservatives in your food. It’s all God-made food…

I just based (foods) off starting to learn what paleo diet was, and that’s what made me see that there’s a difference between zucchini and organic zucchini… or beef that you buy off the shelves at the grocery store and (organic) grassfed beef.

Q: In what ways did CrossFit help influence what kind of foods would be at FreshPrep?

A: When started learning how to do all that, that many years ago, I wanted to work out so I could eat.

Then when I learned what the food is actually doing to my body, I wanted to eat to clean so that it would fuel my body properly.

Whenever you eat this way, your body knows exactly what to do with all this food. So, it digests properly, you’re not fatigued, you’re more clear-headed because you don’t have all that brain fog where your body’s going crazy because it doesn’t know how to break down what you’ve just eaten.

Everything just runs a whole lot smoother. You have more energy, all that stuff.

Q: Beyond weight loss and getting leaner, how can clean eating help address things like brain fog?

A: Your body’s not trying to break down what you just ate. If you ate something that has a bunch of preservatives and things like that in it, your body doesn’t know what to do with it. Your brain has to work a little harder to figure it out on how to break it down.

When you eat things that don’t have that stuff, your body knows exactly what to do with it.

Q: Who is your main customer base?

A: Anyone and everyone. We have meals off the shelves that we make every week. Our menu changes every week, so we’re not making the same things over and over and over again.

Then, I have special meals that I make. Whatever you need, I literally make it for you.

I do make meals for people that have goals, and I do make meals for people that just want to do better.

Q: What does a typical FreshPrep meal look like?

A: In the meals that I make individually per person, there’s going to be a protein, a starch and a vegetable in each of the little containers. The meals we make off the shelves, like (the week of March 20), we made Thai turkey meatballs… (With it), I would’ve made cauliflower mash or potato mash…

We do ground beef, we (do) sausage, we do chicken, we do pork, we do roast beef. And every one of those are going to be the better versions of the food.

Like the pork… it’s going to be pork loin rather than pork shoulder or pork butt. It’s going to be the best version of the pork that we use… All the sausage and bacon products, and ham products, we make sure that they don’t have nitrates in them.

Source: beaumontenterprise.com