[title subtitle=”words: Marla Cantrell
images:courtesy Clean Cookin’”][/title]
Several years ago, Stuart Rowland weighed 310 pounds, and even though he was 6’3”, that was a lot of weight to carry. His back was giving him fits. It got so bad that he contacted the Veterans Administration to file for disability. A mechanic by trade, he had to be physically fit to do his job.
Stuart suspects his problems started while he was deployed in Iraq, where he served for fifteen months during his six-year stint with the National Guard. He was a medic assigned to a convoy that transferred supplies from one point to another, a dangerous mission which required him to wear sixty pounds of armor. Whatever the case, he said he was diagnosed with a compressed spine and arthritis in his back.
The thing that stopped him from following through with his disability petition was a trip to the physical therapist who worried that Stuart was on his way to a life filled with pain pills. “That sounded like a one-way street I didn’t want to go down,” Stuart said.
With medical backing, he went to the gym, working out gingerly at first, taking care not to strain his back. He was able to lift relatively light weights, and his muscle tone gradually improved. As time went by, he was lifting heavier and heavier weights, and he eventually joined a CrossFit class.
None of that completely solved his weight problem. If Stuart wanted to slim down, he was going to have to learn how to eat properly. That realization sent him to YouTube, watching video after video about the Atkins Diet, vegan diets, Keto diets, South Beach, you name it.
Stuart, who loved to cook, would try each of those diets, making meals at night that were big enough to divide so that he could save the second portion for lunch the next day. “I attacked my eating plan like I attacked a problem with a car at the garage. I knew there was an answer if I researched it enough. And I started seeing patterns in all the diets, and the pattern is to avoid processed foods, to eat real food in equal portions, eating smaller, steadier amounts. I lost probably thirty pounds total off of that. Then I lost another fifty pounds in four months.
“People were like, how did you do that? Because usually when you lose a ton of weight really fast, you’re malnourished, you know? But the thing is, I was eating really high fiber, high nutrient foods, so my body wasn’t suffering, it was just correcting itself.”
Part of the correction was getting away from sugar, which has an addictive edge because it releases endorphins that give you a temporary high. “Sugar works like drugs in the brain,” Stuart said, adding that once you get off the sugar train, you’ll see how much better you feel.
His total weight loss topped out at ninety-four pounds, something that caused quite a buzz. At the gym in September 2016, guys in his class were asking how he did it. Since he was already making more food than he needed each night, he just increased his recipes and started taking extra meals to his gym buddies. Those meals were comprised of lean meat, roasted vegetables, brown rice, quinoa.
Those friends told their friends who wanted him to cook for them. That’s when Stuart knew that what he’d learned by trial and error was a viable business opportunity. For a while, he sold meals from his home to an ever-increasing number of customers.
He put a plan together to streamline the process of making frozen microwavable meals using the best ingredients he could find. Most of his meals would be gluten free, he’d rarely use dairy, and he’d use as many organic ingredients that he could. He came up with the name Clean Cookin’, and on October 13, 2016, he was confident enough to quit his job as a mechanic. He bought a food truck and opened on November 16.
The first few months were slow, but things quickly picked up. Now there’s a commercial kitchen/shop in Van Buren. Clean Cookin’s flagship store is also in Van Buren at 1405 Fayetteville Road. His meals are available at several locations in Fort Smith, and he has a shop in Fayetteville. His meals are also available through WAITR, the widely known food delivery service.
On Cyber Monday, Stuart said he sold 4,000 meals, a phenomenal accomplishment. He now employs fourteen people. His chef, Gabe McPeak, is his latest convert, having dropped seventy pounds since he joined the crew. “He is my biggest inspiration,” Stuart said.
He hasn’t raised his prices since opening, which are five dollars per basic meal, so that a wide cross-section of customers can afford them. He has an odd business philosophy. He hopes customers will learn to cook healthy meals for themselves, meaning if his plan works out, he’ll always need to be looking for new clients.
This concept encompasses the true nature of what he’s doing. He can still remember the way he felt when he topped the scales at more than 300 pounds. It was a lonely time, filled with worry about the future. He doesn’t want anyone else to feel as trapped as he did.
Food in its purest form, he believes, is perfect. “You don’t have to cover everything in butter. Baked potatoes aren’t your enemy; it’s the butter and the sour cream and cheese that are, so try sweet potatoes. You don’t have to season them at all if you cook them just right. They’re like candy. You can eat broccoli until you’re sick and not ever eat 100 calories worth. But you can get that same hundred calories from one teaspoon or a tablespoon of oil. Just eat high fiber, low-calorie foods that are high in nutrition, and stick with green leafy stuff.”
Stuart’s favorite Clean Cookin’ meal is his smoked chicken, roasted broccoli, and sweet potatoes. He loves his barbeque chicken and brown rice, but he’s also proud of his other twelve meals. He’s even branching out into low-carb and Keto desserts.
When he mentions desserts, he reveals the most ironic part of his story. Stuart is married to Stefanie Rowland, who co-owns Sweet Boutique, purveyor of decadent desserts. There’s even a Clean Cookin’ kiosk in her Fort Smith location, complete with the Keto cookies she supplies for the company, near the case that holds some of the tastiest cookies and cupcakes in the River Valley.
“I gained thirty pounds not long after I dated her,” he said, and then shook his head. “But I’ve learned to take everything in moderation.”
Moderation appears to be working, especially since Stuart eats so healthily so much of the time. He thinks what he’s learned through trial and error, through research that kept him up at night, can work for everyone.
Start small, he said, substituting one high-calorie meal a week with a Clean Cookin’ meal or a home-cooked meal that offers the same benefits. It could kickstart your journey to a healthier life.
Beyond that, learning about nutrition has far-reaching effects. Parents pass that knowledge down to their children, and those children, when they’ve grown up, can pass good habits along to their children. “That’s the way we change the world,” he said.
Changing the world may seem like an impossible goal, but Stuart doesn’t see it that way. He’s already seen incredible things happen, and all it took was someone like him reaching out and saying, “This is how you start eating better. This is the pathway to a better life.”
