TASTE
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ocal couple Carlee and Chris ‘Boris’ Marhefka’s passion project, Eat the 80, has flipped the perfection mentality to nutrition on its axis. Since launching Gainesville’s premier healthy meal delivery service, Chris and Carlee aren’t slowing down on their road to help 1 million people get healthy.
Years ago, Chris traded his suit-and-tie career in finance to handle even more meaningful investments – the health and wellness of over 2,000 clients to date. Chris first entered the fitness industry to help a friend open a Tennessee gym. Fueled by the process, he moved to Gainesville in 2010 to launch his own company, Body by Boris. Carlee met Chris in college at the University of Florida and supported him from the start. “I was one of his first three clients, and fell in love with his boot camp program, and then eventually him as well,” she said. Carlee and Chris were married in October 2015 as Eat the 80 grew to a local staple. With six years together and Chris’ 10-years fitness experience, they were prepared to bring a breath of fresh air to the wellness community with their 80-20 rule. Chris and Carlee live by an ethos that if you eat quality, nutritious food 80 percent of the time, you can enjoy the other 20 percent and leave diet guilt behind. Most often, well-intentioned diets fail because people go through on-and-off cycles that are
not sustainable for them, Chris said. On the flip side, the Eat the 80 plan doesn’t fail when you indulge in an office-party donut or try the foodie staple of a new city. As the Jewish-Italian daughter of a professional baker, Carlee is constantly surrounded by family and great food, she said. She advocates for living life in balance and not depriving oneself of the foods that add special flavor to life. Carlee and Chris take care of “the 80” by gathering local food, preparing delicious meals and delivering it right to customer’s doors. Their service rids their clients of food-label scrutiny, meal prep and even clean up. With a desire to spread their idea to the community, Carlee and Chris pitched Eat the 80 on a Tuesday and had a business up and running within a week. Before they dove headfirst into their new entrepreneurial venture, they first launched their service for four weeks. During their soft-launch, they quadrupled their membership. “There’s no way we can stop at this point,” Carlee said.
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