By Joanna KotsopoulosM
aking smart food choices can be difficult in today’s
world. The torrent of information and advice on how
and what to eat has some restricting their diet beyond measure
and others over-indulging; both wreak havoc on health. This
is where Eat Train Live, a lifestyle company, comes in to
offer healthy food choices, physical training and naturopathic
services, which relieves some of the uncertainty and helps you
put your health first.
It all started four years ago when Lonie Murdock left a secure
position at a telecommunications firm to follow her passion
for bringing healthy “clean” meals to the masses. Like many
entrepreneurs, Murdock had been working her “side gig” on
top of a 9-to-5 job for several years. She has worn many hats in
her 20 plus years’ experience in the health and fitness industry
as a personal trainer, sports nutritionist and personal chef.
Each role fueled her passion for providing people with good
health and wellness options. The idea of leaving her day job
to pursue what she loved started to become more of a reality
when she helped her niece win a weight-loss competition. Her
holistic approach to preparing her niece’s meals, using all-
natural ingredients that tasted great, became a huge hit and a
winning formula. The response to her meals was so positive,
she decided to create a test kitchen where she invited fellow
trainers and friends in marketing to evaluate her product
idea. The success of Murdock ’s test kitchen led to a two-week
contract with the Suicide Squad film crew in Toronto, during
which she proved to herself that her “side gig” could become
her main gig. She never looked back.
Eat Train Live provides macro-balanced meals; all portions
are under 500 calories and always include a balance of protein,
carbohydrates and fat. Lonie’s customers order meals online
weekly, which are delivered twice a week to ensure fresh-
ness. Menus change on a weekly basis to keep the selection
interesting. “Most people, after they try the meals, realize thatEat Train Live
How Torontonian Lonie Murdock turned
her passion for healthy eating into a
successful online meal-delivery servicethey are so clean, with no gluten,
soy, dairy, peanuts or shellfish.
Any issues they were having or
sensitivities disappear,” Murdock
says. In the early days, she did
it all: “I would go to the food
terminal, pick up the food, prep
it, pack it and deliver it.” She
went from zero customers to
20 overnight, with many of her
personal training clients signing
up. Every week she is grateful to
see customers coming back to see
what their week of clean eating
will bring. Murdock personally
spends time with each prospec-
tive client to determine their
individual health requirements:
meals that suit their dietary
needs, referring them to the right
trainer and having clients meet
with the in-house naturopathic
doctor to deal with more chal-
lenging issues.True to her West Indies roots,
she has managed to make clean
eating taste great by incorpo-
rating chicken curry, rice and peas
into her meal plans. “There’s
a good balance between keeping
things really fresh and flavourful
but also respecting the nutrient
balance, keeping macros in check,
keeping it low in sodium, keeping
good fats and enough protein
without sacrificing f lavour,”
Murdock says. “People stress
about food, and get frustrated,
but their relationship with food
becomes so much better when
they recognize how good they
feel after eating clean meals. It
can have such a huge impact .”Joanna Kotsopoulos is a writer, editor
and running coach with Boardwalk
RC, a youth running club based in
The Beach area of Toronto.Lonie Murdockrunningmagazine.ca Canadian Running 11canadian creations