Tag Archive for: cookbook

How to Meal Plan from an Intuitive Lens

After years of dieting, many of my clients resist meal planning. And I totally get it. They’ve made the decision to stop dieting and learn to eat intuitively, and planning meals just reminds them of their dieting days. But is there a way to meal plan through an Intuitive Eating lens? Yes, there is.

First, let’s understand the benefits of meal planning. There are many.

Benefits of Meal Planning

  1. It saves time and stress.

Let’s face it, when you come home at the end of a long day tired, hungry, and stressed, the last thing you want to think about is “what am I making for dinner?”

By knowing in advance what you are going to prepare, and having the ingredients on hand, you cut out the stress and the time trying to figure it out. Take it from me, a working mom who needs to feed her family, the only way to get a balanced meal on the table is to think ahead and plan.

  1. It avoids unnecessary food waste.

When you plan meals ahead of time, this ensures that the ingredients you bought in the grocery store has a purpose – no need to worry about items in your fridge going to waste! This is great on your wallet and the environment

  1. It helps maintain a balanced diet.

With meal planning, you can be sure that you are having a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats since you have thought about what you are making well in advance, as opposed to throwing together whatever you can and as fast as possible when you come home ravenous!

  1. It saves money.

Having planned meals or snacks prevents you from spending money on buying take-out, running through the drive-through, or picking up last minute to-go meals at the convenience store. Many of my clients are amazed at how much money they save when they start planning meals in advance and stop buying out because “I don’t have any food at home.”

Meal planning also allows you to buy food and ingredients in bulk, which can be another great way to save money.

But the question remains, is meal planning  the same as dieting?

Meal Planning is NOT Dieting When…

  • …There is flexibility.

If you’ve put together a menu for the day and for some reason, you aren’t able to prepare or eat what is on the menu (say for example the food spoiled), and you are cool about it and say to yourself “okay, what else do I have that I can eat”, that is meal planning through an intuitive lens. However, if you break out in hives and a sweat because you couldn’t follow the menu you planned for the day, this is dieting!

  • …There are foods on your menus that you like and enjoy versus foods you “should be eating”.

Meal planning that is dieting forces you to think about eating and the foods you eat in a very “black and white” way. For example, these are the foods I can eat because they are healthy, and these are the foods I can’t eat because they are unhealthy”.

Meal planning from an intuitive lens allows you to eat foods you enjoy and that satisfies you versus restricting those foods or limiting them.

  • …There are options.

Meal planning that is dieting is very rigid and structured with not a lot of opportunity to explore new dishes or experiment with foods because “they aren’t on your meal plan”.

Meal planning through an intuitive lens allows you have to options and variety in your meals because you’re listening to what your body wants versus only thinking about what your body “should” need or want.

 

In summary, there are many benefits to meal planning! If you find that planning meals is very rigid and isn’t giving you any room for options or alternatives, you are still dieting, and your diet mentality is running the show.

 

If, however, you are meal planning with the mindset of being prepared, this allows you to be flexible and adjust to whatever situation may come up (i.e., not enough ingredients, you forget an ingredient, food spoiled etc). This, my friend, is meal planning through an intuitive lens.

Let’s dive deeper and start the meal planning process. Come join me at 12:15 pm EST in my Facebook Group for a LIVE training on How to Meal Plan through an Intuitive Lens.

3 Strategies to Help You Nourish Your Body (While Eating Intuitively)

Are you finding it challenging to nourish yourself well these days? The pandemic is certainly bringing up food challenges for people and the result is a lack of structured meals and haphazard eating.

Now that you are home all the time, you might be waking up later, or earlier, finding yourself skipping meals, or have a decreased appetite. Now more than ever, it’s important to nourish your body and protect your immune system with nourishing foods.

3 Strategies to Help You Nourish Your Body During the Pandemic

  1. Plan ahead and Shop Wisely

With social distancing as the new normal, we know it’s best to stay home and go outside as little as possible. So figure out in advance what meals you would like to cook for the week ahead. Look up new recipes online or flip through your favorite cookbooks- like mine😊, Enjoying Food Peace: Recipes and Intuitive Eating Wisdom to Nourish Your Body and Mind, available on Amazon.

Once you have your menu, create a shopping list of all the ingredients you will need so you can get everything you need during one trip. And, don’t forget to take advantage of online grocery shopping!

  1. Prep your meals in advance

If you are working from home, it involves a lot of time and dedication, which makes cooking and eating balanced meals a challenge. Make one day, such as Saturday or Sunday, the day you cook all your meals for the week so you can ensure you will be nourishing your body consistently. Package the meals up in small sectioned containers, label them and freeze!

  1. Create a flexible eating schedule

Being stuck at home all day may feel like there is a lack of structure to your day. Each day seems to blend into the next and your appetite might be fluctuating. Consider setting up an eating schedule that is flexible, so you can make sure your body is getting the nutrition it needs while honoring your inner hunger and satiety signals. Yes, you can still eat intuitively when you have structure in place. The key is to make it flexible, and not rigid (which is what dieting is!)

Please know that it’s totally understandable if you are struggling with food and your eating right now. I hope these strategies can help you.

If there is anything you’d like to share with me, or if I can support you in any way, just click HERE to contact me!

Keep Your Eye Out For…

A brand-new training to help you end emotional eating.

I recently sent out a survey about your biggest food and eating challenges. If you haven’t yet completed the survey, you can do so here for one more day, until April 30, 2020! I’ll be sharing the results of a survey along with info on a new free training, so check back here in a few days so you don’t miss it!

What’s for Dinner?

How do you decide what to eat for dinner (or any meal)?

 

It seems like a simple question, but for the chronic dieter who has lost all trust in their body and ability to make food decisions, this is actually a very difficult question that is faced with anguish.

 

There’s the food that you think you “should” eat, and the food that you really want to eat. You have 2 voices in your head. Voice #1 – “Eat this, you know you should, it’s what your diet prescribes, it’ll help you lose weight”. Voice #2 – “No, choose this because you know it’s really what you want. You haven’t eaten this in ages.”

 

Either decision you make creates a negative feeling around food. If you follow voice #1 and eat what the diet tells you to eat, you have minimal to zero satisfaction when you are done. The entire time you are eating, you are thinking about the pizza you could have been eating. Your belly may be full, but your mind is not satisfied. You now look around the kitchen, open all the cabinets for something just to “finish off the meal”. You are searching for something to fill your psychological void. You are not happy.

 

However, if you follow voice #2 and eat the pizza, you fall into the diet mentality trap of “I messed up, I shouldn’t have eaten the pizza. Okay, I’ll just have one more piece and I promise I won’t eat it again for a long time.” You end up eating several slices, feel physically uncomfortable and emotionally guilty, full of shame, disappointment in yourself and disgust. You did it again. In the end, you didn’t derive the satisfaction you were looking for because the physical and emotional distress took over.

 

What’s the answer to this dilemma?

 

Pausing long enough to remind yourself that you are learning to give yourself unconditional permission to eat when you are hungry. This means all foods are available to you. Once you take the “should’s” and “shouldn’ts” off your food, you will realize that you can eat the foods you love without the worry of overeating.

 

This takes time, especially if you’ve been dieting for decades. But you have to start somewhere, so why not start today, with this very meal.

 

What is one food or meal that you would LOVE to eat for dinner tonight but would never dream of allowing yourself to have?

 

Go out and buy that food or make it for yourself for dinner tonight. Sit down without distraction and savor every bite knowing that eating this food now does not mean you could never eat it again. It means that you could eat it now, later, tomorrow, next week…whenever you want it. Just knowing this will help you stop when you are comfortably full.

 

Stuffed Potato Skins, Spinach Parmesan Lasagna, Pita Pizza, Fettuccini with Vegetables, Peanut Butter Bran Muffins, Double Chocolate Chews, Cinnamon Coffee Cake…

these are just a few of the recipes in my new book: Enjoying Food Peace: Recipes and Intuitive Eating Wisdom to Nourish Your Body and Mind.

 

Start to eat what you love without a side of guilt!

Enjoying Food Peace Book

Get your copy today on AMAZON!

 

Or, get a SIGNED COPY directly from me HERE!

Why I Wrote My Book, Enjoying Food Peace (Coming Soon)

For years I’ve been helping clients and patients make the changes necessary to live a healthier life. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, it’s an amazing feeling to hear from a client how I’ve impacted them in a positive way.

 

Yes, I make a difference and I help people. Man, this feels good.

 

But one day it occurred to me. While many of my clients were making lifelong changes, there was a group of individuals who were struggling. After digging deeper, I realized why.

 

These wonderful and caring individuals were not at peace with food or their bodies. They were striving to live up to society’s standards of the “thin ideal” and would do anything to achieve this unreasonable goal, all the while being miserable. They were eating foods that they thought they should eat, and not foods they loved. And, if they ate something they loved, they often felt guilty afterwards telling themselves “now I’m going to gain weight.”

 

If you’re here reading my blog, I imagine you resonate with what I’m talking about. Food is not something to be feared, food is to be enjoyed. Yet, too many people in this world are brainwashed to believe that there are “good-for-you” foods and “bad-for-you” foods and it wreaks havoc on their lives.

 

Labeling Food

Good/bad, healthy/unhealthy, legal/illegal etc. It doesn’t matter what label you give food, just the fact that you put a label on a food is elevating some foods and demonizing others.

 

Of course, there are some foods that are more nutrient-rich than others, I don’t argue that. But there is a purpose for all foods. Some foods fuel you and some foods give you great taste pleasure. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

 

Making Peace with Food

I’ve been in private practice for over 30 years! I’ve seen a lot of people lose weight and regain that weight plus more through some form of dieting. It was time for them to stop relying on what others told them to eat and start to eat what they truly wanted.

 

So, for the last 8 years I’ve helped chronic dieters and emotional eaters make peace with food through my Intuitive Eating Program. Once the food fear was gone, they were able to enjoy all types of foods made in all types of ways from all types of cuisine. They truly recaptured the pleasures of eating.

 

Enjoying Food Peace Was Born

I wanted this peace for people all over the world that were struggling with their food. So, I decided to write a cookbook called, Enjoying Food Peace: Recipes and Intuitive Eating Wisdom to Nourish Your Body and Mind.

 

Get a sneak peek here!

 

This book is not just for chronic dieters looking for food peace. It’s also for people who are obsessed with “eating healthy” to the point where they have cut out major food groups or nutrients and have just a small selection of foods they feel safe eating. It’s a segue back to balanced eating.

 

Enjoying Food Peace is also for everyone who enjoys a good meal.

 

It’s taken me 6 years to write this book! I put together an amazing team of nutrition interns who helped test the recipes. We met every Tuesday in my test kitchen to taste the foods that were prepared that week. Then we would evaluate and critique. “It needs a little more of that, a little less of this, ah, it’s perfect!”

 

The Wisdoms

After completing the recipes and putting together the book, I felt I wanted to add more. One night it came to me…write a chapter introducing intuitive eating and share some “Intuitive Eating Wisdoms” throughout the book. So, that’s exactly what I did! Not only will the recipes nourish your body, but the wisdoms will nourish your mind.

 

The creative genius and photographer behind the design of the book and the color photos you’ll see inside is my amazing assistant Samantha Baturin. This book would not be coming to life if it wasn’t for Samantha! I am forever grateful to her!!

 

Enjoying Food Peace provides the reader with over 150 tasty recipes and Intuitive Eating Wisdom to eat what you love, without a side of guilt.

 

I hope you’re as excited as I am for March 20th launch day! Keep your eyes peeled so you can get your copy!

 

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside Enjoying Food Peace (free recipe included!).