Our Story

Hi — we’re Ryan and Amy Purvis.

We’re a husband-and-wife team who built Better, Not Perfect while doing the work ourselves.

• Amy is a veterinarian and a trained medical professional with an evidence-based approach.
• Ryan is a pilot who thinks in systems, checklists, and repeatable processes.

We’re not nutrition influencers, and we’re not professional diet coaches. We’re two people who needed a realistic way to eat better, feel better, and lose weight without living in “all or nothing.”

How this cookbook started

This book didn’t start as a book or website.

As we began losing weight and changing how we ate, people started telling us we should write something down. At the time, that felt premature—we were still figuring things out, and we weren’t trying to follow a perfect plan. We were just making small changes that felt manageable.

Over time we realized a simple truth: real lifestyle change doesn’t happen overnight. It happens one week at a time—sometimes one month at a time—through small, sustainable adjustments that slowly become normal.

That’s why this cookbook is written in versions. Not because it’s clever, but because it’s truthful. It reflects how we actually did this. We’re two people who needed a realistic way to eat better, feel better, and lose weight without living in “all or nothing.”

Where the less-processed path began

Our focus on less processed food didn’t begin as a weight-loss strategy. It began with health.

Amy was dealing with gastritis and worked early on with her GI doctor and a dietitian to guide her decisions. Through that process, we found that eating less processed food was the best path forward for managing symptoms and supporting long-term health—and it shaped everything that followed.

We’re a team. If one person’s health needs to be the priority, the household adjusts. That meant changing how we cooked and ate—not asking one person to navigate a completely different diet alone.

One of our first concrete commitments was simple: we started cooking everything at home. We cut out fast food entirely and stopped using drive-throughs—not to be extreme, but to regain control over what we were eating.

Buy-in matters more than motivation

Making changes around food is difficult enough. It becomes much harder when the people around you aren’t on board.

A lack of buy-in—whether from a partner, family, or household—can make even well-intentioned changes feel isolating and unsustainable. That’s why this book is built around small, flexible steps that can be adopted at your pace. The goal is to make everyday meals better without requiring everyone in your life to suddenly do everything “perfectly.”

Progress is easier when it doesn’t feel like a fight.

Why this became personal

What we learned (and what this cookbook helps you do)

We didn’t start out knowing any of this. We learned by doing, adjusting, and paying attention.

A few fundamentals proved impossible to ignore:

• Fiber matters (digestion, gut health, appetite regulation)
• Protein matters (satiety and meals that feel complete)
• Calories still matter (especially early on, tracking helps reveal reality)

What made a calorie deficit sustainable for us wasn’t willpower. It was building meals that were more filling at lower calorie levels, so we could be consistent without feeling miserable.

That’s what this cookbook is designed to help with.

Full transparency

How to use this site

You can read recipes online by category (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, Dessert) or download the full PDF.

Many recipes are designed to be cooked as batches. The most important step is simple: portion the finished food into servings before you start eating it. It keeps the meal working the way it’s intended and helps prevent accidental overeating—especially when something tastes good and the pot is still on the counter.

Why it’s free

This cookbook is free because we want it to be accessible. If it helps you, there’s an optional way to support the project through donations—but there’s no paywall and no pressure.

If this helps even one person build a healthier relationship with food—or helps one household move in the same direction together—then it has done what it was meant to do.