The majority of my posts center around cooking – but what if you live a busy lifestyle and don’t have time to shop for and cook recipes from scratch? I’ve tried just about every vegan meal delivery service, and none compare to the deliciousness, simplicity, and convenience that is Purple Carrot. If you’re trying to end a toxic relationship with food for good, read on to find out how Purple Carrot might be able to help.

tandoori cauliflower steak

What is Purple Carrot?

  • A fully plant-based meal delivery service. Unlike traditional meal delivery services that only offer premade refrigerated meals (which often get soggy), Purple Carrot delivers both premade frozen meals AND, more popularly, pre-portioned out ingredients that you cook yourself and eat fresh.
  • A convenient approach to cooking. Purple Carrot measures out the ingredients for you cutting the tedious prep work out of the equation. The meals take no more than 30 minutes to complete!
  • Healthy recipes. All of Purple Carrot’s recipes are packed with nutritious whole foods and are placed into categories including under 600 cal, gluten-free, type of cuisine, etc.
  • Feed the whole family. Upon creating your account, you can select whether you’d like meals for 2 or 4 people, and whether you’d like to cook or have frozen prepared meals. Prepared meals are a great option if you really don’t have time to cook, plus the meals are frozen so if you don’t get to it that week you can save it.

If you want to try Purple Carrot use code COLLECTIVE30 at checkout for 30% off your order!

crispy quinoa cakes and brussels sprouts

Easily Transition to Plants

My most asked question is, “I want to be vegan but I don’t know where to start!” The plant-based lifestyle may seem daunting at first, especially if you don’t know any vegans. Purple Carrot is a great learning tool as their recipes are so diverse and balanced, and you do the cooking yourself. Don’t worry, the instructions are fool proof (they contain pictures!) Purple Carrot’s website is a great resource too – they have hundreds of free recipes, all of which are reputable and healthy. Click HERE to check out the recipes.

vegan corn and crab dumplings

Ending a Toxic Food Relationship

It’s a brand new year, and with that come goals and attempted lifestyle changes. While setting New Years resolutions can be a positive thing, for the most part they don’t work. If you want to do something as big as live a healthy lifestyle, you can’t rely on a date to push you to do that. You need to change your overall perspective. What worked for me was understanding that I’m not trying to lose weight and be healthy to be well-liked, get attention, or for any type of shallow reason I had wanted in the past. It’s to end a lifelong toxic relationship with food. 

Healing a toxic relationship with food means:

  1. Nourishing your body with nutritious, whole foods.
  2. Not eating past the point of being full.
  3. Learning to say “no” & overcoming social pressures.
  4. Understanding and respecting where your food came from.
  5. Accepting that change will not come overnight.

With all of that comes the weight loss and good health. Lifestyle changes are hard, especially when they center around something like food which is impossible to avoid. I would say it’s easier to give up smoking than changing your diet – with smoking, you can say goodbye and never touch a cigarette again. With food, you have to eat multiple times a day to survive. That means you have to make the right choice multiple times a day with no mistakes. Plus, lots of the additives in our foods (in the United States at least) are as addicting as drugs. It requires patience, bravery, and 24/7 hard work and dedication. You must see it not as a diet, but as a means to healing a toxic relationship in your life.

chipotle tofu tacos

Good Calories vs Empty Calories

One of the most difficult parts in my journey was planning my meals and grocery shopping – I didn’t understand how calories worked, so I’d often overeat and not understand why I wasn’t losing weight. There are good calories that fill you up and will keep you full for hours, then there are empty calories that will keep you full for no more than an hour. Choosing the 400 calorie brown rice & veggie bowl is a better choice than eating 400 calories worth of fast food because of the nutrients or lack of nutrients. The brown rice & veggie bowl is packed with nutrients that help to keep you satiated. The fast food doesn’t contain ANY nutrients making them empty calories – you will be hungry again in an hour because you really didn’t consume anything beneficial.

With that said, it’s still difficult to figure out what foods you can eat, and how much. More than that, is it possible to be healthy and enjoy the taste? Will I have to endure a life of eating boring foods? For the longest time I didn’t think it was possible, which made a healthy lifestyle so unattainable. Purple Carrot was huge in helping me with that initial transition to a plant-based diet, and was a key factor in the reason I’m still vegan to this day. It taught me that plant-based foods aren’t boring, in fact I enjoy food now more than I did pre-vegan! It also taught me portion control, which is a big struggle for many.

vegan corn and crab dumplings

For 30% off your first box, be sure to use code COLLECTIVE30. You can certainly end your toxic relationship with food without help, but I have been there and having a service like Purple Carrot was instrumental in my success. 

Disclaimer: I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. This comes at no extra cost to you and helps keep the site running.