Simplify Week 3: Meal Plan and Prep

Posted on January 21, 2019 by My Two Hats

I got so many questions about my meal planning and prep strategy after the nutrition post last week that I decided to focus on it for this week’s simplify theme. I did most of the leg work on this task last year- but I did take some time to go through my recipes and start writing down my list of go-to’s that are always winners by category, which I think will be really helpful. I also tossed any recipes that I hadn’t made in the last few years and found a couple of old cook books to take to Half Price Books. Now to the real stuff.

First, a few caveats (this is the most important part):

One size does not fit all when it comes to meal prep. If you see all of those Pinterest worthy posts of pre-prepped breakfast, lunch, and dinner boxes and it is totally overwhelming then don’t do it that way! There are lots of ways to approach this. If you even do one of the steps below, I promise it will simplify your life.
I personally think the meal planning is THE MOST important part. It is a huge stress reliever not to come home after work and only then start thinking about the age old question of “what’s for dinner?” or end up stopping for take out on the way home because I know we don’t have anything. If you only do one of the steps below, make it Step 1.
Having a chest freezer where I keep prepped freezer meals, frozen vegetables, back-up staples, etc is KEY.
My approach requires a love of leftovers and being okay with eating the same thing a few times a week.
Give yourself a lot of grace. I do all of the below when we have a fairly free weekend and it makes the next week 100% better. But, if I have a lot of work or we are traveling or life is very full, I just do what I can and leave it at that.

So, here goes. Meal Planning and Prepping 101:

Step 1: I sit down sometime on Saturday and pull out a few cookbooks and my Pinterest page and plan out dinners for the following week. I’ve lately fallen into nightly themes, which takes some guesswork out of it. Sunday Grill, Monday Meatless, Tuesday Fish or seafood, Wednesday Simple, Thursday Leftovers, Friday Take Out, and Saturday Variable. I check my calendar for the upcoming week to see if I have any evening events, in which case I leave that night blank. When choosing recipes I’m lately really emphasizing trying to use ingredients already in my kitchen- both to save money and also accumulate less stuff.

Step 2: I plan my work lunches and my son’s school lunches. Sometimes I know I’ll have enough leftovers for lunches, but most often I actually plan a separate recipe and pack 3-4 lunches when I do prep on Sunday. I usually eat the same thing for lunch all week- see caveat #4. And, the honest truth is that my son eats school lunch most of the time- I aim for packed lunch a couple of times per week, but school lunch is free, easy, and he likes it- so despite the fact that my packed lunches are quite likely more healthy, I often cut my losses on this one and try to make sure all of his other meals are nutritious. This is an area for improvement, for sure.

Step 3: Craft grocery shopping list based on above recipes + any needed staples and lots of produce. We heavily emphasize fruits and veggies when it comes to snacks. I use the @evernote app for grocery lists (and everything else 🙂 ). I love that it syncs phone and laptop so I can add items whenever I think of them.

Step 4: Grocery shopping! Stick to the perimeter where the healthy stuff is and go heavy on the produce.

Step 5: Meal Prep: Things I prep- workday lunches, Monday night dinner (I LOVE coming home on Monday to an already cooked dinner), my son’s breakfasts and (some of) his lunches, and (when I have time) any sauces or grains for other dinners that week. All of this typically take me under two hours start to finish (including distractions). Things I don’t prep but have on hand ready to go- my breakfast (which is typically a smoothie), and my afternoon snack (which, as my co-workers can attest, is almost always carrots and hummus).

Step 6: Relax! The above may look like a lot, but once you’ve got a system down, it is a huge stress reliever. It saves me time, money, and mental gymnastics at the end of busy weekdays when I’m already feeling decision fatigue. We eat far healthier now than before I started doing this regularly. I love sitting down on Sunday evening feeling ready to tackle the week.

What are your strategies?

Simplify Week 2: Nutrition

Posted on January 20, 2019 by My Two Hats

This week I focused on simplifying nutrition. We already eat pretty healthy around here, thanks to some changes over the last couple of years, but I have found this area to be one that requires continual attention and tweaking in order to stay on track.

Last year I really focused on meal planning and prepping, which was a total game changer in improving my ability to eat healthy lunches and dinners and seriously minimized work day stress. It sounds like it could complicatethings, but it actually makes everything much simpler. If you ever want to talk meal prep- I’m your girl! I’m a meal prep evangelist. 😉

This year I’ll be doubling down on lessons learned last year- notably the importance of meal prepping and decreasing sugar- but will be adding:
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1. More VEGGIES!: I already eat a decent amount of veggies, but this year I’d like to focus on incorporating more meatless meals. All of the evidence is that this is better for our health AND better for our planet. When my son told me one of his goals this year (which I share due to fears about rapidity of climate change) was to do “more for the environment”, little did he know this meant more vegetables. 😂If you have some favorite meatless meal recipes, that still have a decent amount of protein, please send them my way! So far we’ve had a butternut squash soup (that wasn’t a huge hit) and tomorrow we’ll be trying lentil curry (which I’m pretty excited about).
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2. More FARMER’S MARKET: We have one not far away, but I rarely get there. To be honest, I sometimes just forget because it is not in our routine. Working on changing that, because Farmer’s Markets are win/win/win when it comes to good nutrition.

Okay, so I’ve realized that my first two simplify goals have been pretty, well, simple. I love thinking and learning about nutrition and yes, I actually enjoy organizing cupboards. I’m going to start having to tackle more treacherous terrain like simplifying “paperwork”, “email”, and “legos”. If you have strategies around these areas, send them my way!!

Simplify

Posted on January 13, 2019 by My Two Hats

At the start of each new year I not only focus on goal-setting, but for the past five years or so I’ve also chosen a word or set of words that I hope will frame the upcoming year. Often these words become a mantra of sorts; and when I reflect back they do often seem to influence the direction of my life in that time period.
For 2019 my word is “simplify“. This was a no contest, very easy word-picking year. 2018 was not my favorite- it was messy and complicated in many ways. It also taught me a lot and it helped draw into clear focus what is truly important.
So, I’m ready to build on that focus and simplify. It may not look all that different from the outside- I still have work and home responsibilities that aren’t going anywhere- but I’m really hoping that internally things will look different. From finances to fitness, from my daily routines to long-term planning, from how I interact at work to how I interact with the environment, I’ll be asking myself what is truly aligned with my values and necessary to think about and what can be tossed, automated, or pared down. Simplified.
The goal? Mental space and time to spend on the good, juicy, important stuff and with the people I love and who need me to be at my best. I’ll let you know how it goes! What is your word for 2019?

Routines, amended

Posted on March 29, 2017 by My Two Hats

Last week our family got a new puppy. We had talked about this for a very long time- years in fact. One of my major reasons for holding out so long was that I knew it would be a lot of work. A big change. But, we finally felt we were ready.

You know how people tell you that having a baby will completely change your life and rock your world, and you nod and say that you know and that you’re ready, but that you can’t really know and then it happens and you’re suddenly thinking “oh, that’s what they meant”? Well, it turns out getting a puppy is sort of a milder version of that. You can prepare, and buy supplies, and read about house training, but until you’re actually in it, you can’t know.

Well, now we know. Adding a puppy to our lives is an amazing mix of love and fun (seeing her with my son completely melts my heart) and a serious dose of chaos. She’s a fluffy tornado of affection and activity who requires constant supervision until she suddenly collapses asleep on the floor and we all take a breath until the next round. Hmm, this does sound a lot like having a baby.

Any change, even a joyful one, can present challenges. I, for one, am a creature of habit. I love my routines. My early morning workout session before the rest of the house is awake. My coffee and audio book on the morning commute. Reading to my son at bedtime. These routines approach the sacred for me. And there is decent evidence that sticking to certain routines can be very healthy and productive. Yet, there are times we must be flexible. This is one of those chapters.

So, I’m trying to open my mind to the possibility of amended routines. I’m thinking about how these new routines might even be better than the ones I had before. Initially I was sort of resenting the amount of time I was standing around outside waiting for the puppy to do her business, until I realized that I was standing around outside. I’ve seen a few beautiful sunrises that I would otherwise have missed. I’ve heard the morning birds. I’ve noticed things in our yard that I have never seen before. I’ve started taking a book outside with me and appreciating the extra reading time. I may not reach this level of acceptance at midnight, but it is working well the rest of the time.

So, maybe I’ll have a morning workout buddy who sometimes wants to join in on the yoga mat or chew on the weights (not happening, ma’am), but I’m still out there doing it. I may never sincerely enjoy house training, but I’ll take the trade-off of unconditional love that our little puppy is already sharing over my strict routines any day of the week. Just remind me of that around midnight. I’ll be standing around outside.

The calm between the storms. 🙂

Excuses

Posted on March 15, 2017 by My Two Hats

Until very recently I was among the nearly three-quarters of American smartphone owners who sleep with their phone next to their bed. I routinely spent a fair amount of time scrolling just prior to sleep. This, despite recommending to parents at least weekly in clinic that they get their child’s gadgets out of their bedroom if they wanted to increase sleep quality and quantity.

For about a year now (okay, let’s be honest, at least two) I’ve been telling myself I needed to make a change. I wanted more peaceful thoughts running through my head when I closed my eyes each night; instead of the myriad news stories that Facebook put in front of me, or the work email that I just couldn’t shake. I wanted to control my phone instead of it controlling me. I had done pretty well with this in other ways- taking periodic digital sabbaths and gradually decreasing my overall screen time by tracking it.

But taking this final step was elusive. I had an excuse. A rationalization. A road block. The thought that runs through your head when you know you need to make a change, but cannot do it, and so convince yourself that it makes sense to maintain the status quo. In this case? I didn’t have an alarm clock. I really needed my phone to be my alarm clock.

Then my son got a tablet for Christmas. I had pretty mixed feelings about this but it is a fairly simple model that he uses for homework (and of course his “videos”). We set up some screen time rules around its use and one of those rules is that the tablet has a bedtime. It charges in a docking station in the family room. Here I was, telling my son that his tablet had a bedtime but I couldn’t give my phone the same.

So I bought an alarm clock. Ten dollars later and I am free. It’s been almost two months since my phone joined the tablet at its docking station each evening and, wow, I’m never going back. Better sleep. Peace of mind. More reading. Less parental guilt. And no more excuses.

10 Things I’m Doing Right Now

Posted on January 30, 2017 by My Two Hats

Credit: David Sipress, The New Yorker

I’ve seen this graphic shared a number of times recently and I think it is something many are feeling these days. I know I am. I certainly do not have all of the answers (by any stretch) but here are 10 things I’m doing right now to try to find balance and peace.

1. Reach out to one friend or family member each day. Whether via text, email, call, or in-person, it feels like an important time to maintain our existing personal connections and build new ones.

2. Meditate 10 minutes (minimum) each day.

3. Place boundaries on social media. Now, more than ever, I need to control my media consumption instead of it controlling me. Giving my phone an early bedtime was the first (very effective) step.

4. Stay informed but carefully choose my sources. Facebook will not be my primary news source.

5. Place one call to a legislator each day. It is hard to know whether this will make a difference. But I do know one thing that will definitely not make an impact- doing nothing.

6. Read a little each day. If it is fiction, so much the better. Write a little each day. Whatever comes to me; and however short- not for any particular reason except that it makes me a better person.

7. Continue to get to know my Dallas community. Serve others locally as often as I can.

8. Dig deep into my roles as mother and pediatrician. Our children need us to be fully present with them; to support, guide, explain, and above all, to listen.

9. Practice and share self-care and wellness strategies. For me these include daily exercise, prioritizing sleep, and good nutrition.

10. Double down on radical love and kindness. There is no other way.

My Two Hats

Thoughts on health and wellness from pediatrician/mom, Dr. Heidi Roman

Category Archives: Wellness