Mindful Meal Planning and Prep for Busy People

00:00 - 00:39 Speaker 1: Because this week's episode is all about mindful meal planning and prep, I thought why not start with a little story about planning. You see, there were these 3 fish that lived in a pond. Their names were, The first 1 was Plannerhead, the other 1 was Thinkfast and the third fish was called Wait-and-See. They overheard a fisherman talking that the following day he was going to cast his net in their pond. Plannerhead said, that's it, I'm swimming down the river. Thinkfast said, I'm sure I'll come up with a plan. And Wait and See lazily said, I just

00:39 - 01:15 Speaker 1: can't think about it right now. The fisherman cast his net in their pond the next day, and Plan Ahead was able to escape from the net. But Think Fast and Wait and See, well, they obviously were caught by the fisherman. Then Think Fast suddenly rolled on his belly upside down and pretended to be dead. This fish is no good, said the fisherman and cast him aside. However, wait and see, ended up at the fish market. So, I don't need to explain the moral of this story, but you can see what happened to wait and see and

01:15 - 02:14 Speaker 1: I'll think fast. And I'll think fast. So that brings us to today's episode all about mindful meal planning and prep. We've all been there, caught up in the whirlwind of excuses. I don't have time for that. It's all just so overwhelming. I'm clueless about what to eat. I absolutely loathe cooking. Does this sound familiar? Well, if it does, you're definitely not alone. In fact, let's just talk science for a quick moment. Ever heard of this study that was done about long-term weight loss? Now the statistics say 85 to 95% of people who lose weight end up

02:14 - 02:50 Speaker 1: putting the weight back on in certain timeframes. The whole purpose of the study was to find out what the people who kept the weight off had in common and also some of the similar traits and behaviors of the people who put weight back on. Of course I put the link in today's show notes, but 1 of the eye opening findings was that many folks who shed weight found themselves gaining it back because of, this is 1 of many reasons, but 1 of them was of course lack of planning. But fear not, today I'm going to help

02:50 - 03:28 Speaker 1: you turn planning into 1 of your superpowers. We're really delving into the art of mindful meal prep and planning and of course we're always going to sprinkle that little dash of mindfulness around. So why does mindful meal planning actually matter? It's more than just a chore. It's a real game changer for your health, happiness and longevity. So let's first talk about time. I get it. Life moves fast and finding time to plan meals can really just be another item on our endless to-do list. But here's the thing, a little bit of planning up front can save

03:28 - 04:06 Speaker 1: you heaps of time and stress down the road, especially in those, oh, I'm so hungry, what can I eat right now moments? Or, oh my gosh, I have a craving, what am I gonna do? And it could really mean a difference of succumbing to that craving and choosing another option. Of course, if you own my online program, Mindful Eating, Mindset and Metabolism Mastery, you've got plenty of craving tools there. You know exactly what they are, why they occur and how to combat them. But today it's all about planning. So by mapping out your meals for the

04:06 - 04:40 Speaker 1: week, you can really streamline your grocery shopping, cut down on those last minute trips to the store that you can literally never get out of Woolies or Coles without spending 50 bucks and say goodbye to the dreaded, oh, what's for dinner tonight at like 05:00 when usually you have dinner ready by 5.30. I don't know about you, but I hate this question. And the answer in our house and everybody knows it is just go and check the plan. Go to the fridge, check the plan and you'll find out what's for dinner tonight. So it's not just

04:40 - 05:24 Speaker 1: about saving time but also reclaiming our health. Remember the study I mentioned a few moments ago, the 1 about weight loss maintenance. Well, it turns out those who maintain their weight loss long-term were masters of planning. By thoughtfully preparing their meals ahead of time, they set themselves up for success, making healthier choices and avoiding impulse eating. So now that we understand the significance of mindful meal planning, let's just roll up our sleeves and dive in a little bit further. I'm going to share with you today a step-by-step guide to kickstart your journey to mindful meal planning

05:24 - 06:04 Speaker 1: and preparation. I'm going to share this step-by-step process first, and then I'm going to take you through it in real time and share with you how it comes to life in our family. Maybe you already plan and prep and that's amazing, but hopefully I'll add a few little insights to your whole process today. So we're gonna start with the first 1, which is simply set your intention. So before even diving into planning, we take a moment just to reflect on our goals and our intentions. We wanna ask ourselves, what do we hope to achieve through mindful

06:05 - 06:44 Speaker 1: meal planning? So whether it's improving our health, saving time and money, or reducing food waste, really clarifying our own intentions will guide our planning process and really keep us focused along the way. This is where we can also bring in our own family values as well when it comes to wellness and food. So what are our family values and even our personal values? The second 1 is to really know your schedule. Like we don't want to do pie-in-the-sky planning here, we want to do real-life planning that's actually going to work. We need to consider our work

06:44 - 07:23 Speaker 1: commitments, our family obligations and any social events and activities that might impact what we eat and how much time we have to plan or cook our meals. Really knowing our schedule will help us plan meals that seamlessly fit into our routine, ensuring that we have the time and the energy to both prepare and the most important part, enjoy them. The third 1 is assess your preferences and dietary needs. This is a no-brainer but we really need to take into consideration what our dietary needs are. So of course that's going to be any food allergies or intolerances,

07:23 - 08:03 Speaker 1: but most importantly what our favorite foods are, different cuisines we'd like to choose or try and cooking methods that fit with our schedule. It's all about creating a plan that's both delicious and nourishing, but it's tailored to our own unique tastes and nutritional requirements. Number 4 is taking stock of our pantry. So we really want to get to know our pantries and our fridges on an intimate level. We want to make a list of our staples that are in there and any staples that need to be replenished weekly. Now Having a well-stocked pantry and fridge make

08:03 - 08:46 Speaker 1: it so much easier to whip up and enjoy the meals you love without those immediate gratifying choices when we have a craving or whether we're stressed or going into an emotional eating cycle. Step 5 is all about mindfully choosing our recipes. This is always the fun part, the food part. There's always awesome recipes that come up on Instagram or maybe even your old cookbook. Browsing websites and apps for inspiration and keeping things exciting is always important. We aim for a mix of simple fuss free recipes and we can experiment every now and then with elaborate dishes

08:46 - 09:25 Speaker 1: to keep it exciting. It's also good to consider things like seasonality and ingredient availability when selecting our recipes. Now look, we're up to step 6. We haven't even made the plan yet. So of course step 6 is actually make your plan. We do this on a weekly basis. So once we've chosen our recipes, what we have actual time for, then we start mapping out our meals. We take into account breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and maybe throw in a few desserts in there as well. We always want to make room for flexibility, the F word, we got

09:25 - 10:04 Speaker 1: to stay flexible and spontaneity and allow ourselves to swap out recipes or improvise based on what's available and how you're feeling that day. The final 1, step 7 is prep ahead. We set a little bit of time aside for meal prep. This could be chopping veggies, marinating proteins, cooking grains in advance. So we really streamline that cooking process for during the week when we're busy. By prepping ahead, we save heaps of time and also energy, ensuring we have healthy ingredients always on hand. So there you have it. It's the beginner's guide to mindful meal planning and

10:04 - 10:44 Speaker 1: prep. Now these steps are your roadmap to cultivate a healthier, happier relationship with food and also cooking. Now I'm going to give you like the real-time, a real-life example of how this plays out. I'm going to use me and my family as an example because of course I know me better than anyone else. Number 1 is our intention and our family goals. So my kids health is our priority. It impacts their immune system, brain development, motor skills, energy, of course, and pretty much everything and more. So our family goals are to minimize but not completely eliminate

10:45 - 11:22 Speaker 1: ultra processed food and making nutritious yet delicious meals for them. My husband and I, Paul, we're older parents. I'm 45, he's 49, we've got a 2 and a 6 year old. So we really wanna stay fit and healthy as we age for 1, ourselves, each other and our boys. So this is part of our intentions and our family values. We really want to minimize food costs so we can use our money for fun things like holidays and different outings. We also want to save time so we can do fun things like actually play with the kids,

11:22 - 11:57 Speaker 1: enjoying their childhood. We want to exercise and just get outside and explore the world a little bit more. So that's our family values and our intentions. This is just the perfect way to really set the dynamic and the flavor of why you're doing something. Your why is always so important. So step 2 is really knowing your schedule. Pretty much every night of the week, Monday to Friday, we've got something on. My husband, Paul, well, you know, we're not married, but I just call him my husband. He's a shift worker. So that changes every week. And I

11:57 - 12:37 Speaker 1: actually mark his shifts down on our weekly meal planner. Now, Monday and Tuesday, I either have clients or teach classes, Wednesday is the kids swimming, Thursday is boot camp at the park for all of us and Friday is Paul and his brother's home workout and the weekends are usually free unless Paul's at work. So it's a big week right? So this all impacts what we eat and also when we prepare the meals. Alright step 3 is assess your preferences and dietary needs. Our kids can be fussy and what they like eating can literally change from week

12:37 - 13:08 Speaker 1: to week. Like the other day my 2 year old ate 3 bananas in 1 day and I tried to give him a banana yesterday and he says no yuck and I'm like seriously dude you ate 3 bananas the other day like what the heck you don't like bananas now apparently and then there's me so for the most part I avoid dairy and gluten and my husband well he pretty much eats anything literally even like 3 week old random objects that are in the back of the fridge. He just gives them a sniff, oh that smells alright

13:08 - 13:47 Speaker 1: and eats it. I'm like man, that is toxic waste, why are you eating that? But he has an iron stomach. So anyways, Our focus is really mostly eating whole foods, yet we do have some processed kids snacks like rice crackers they call chips, cheese sticks and other random things. They like Oreos too. So our focus is mainly whole foods, but we try and embrace the whole balance thing. All right, so step 4 is stocking your pantry in fridge. So we all have those staples, those things that are always in the pantry in the fridge. Now a

13:47 - 14:25 Speaker 1: little while back I downloaded a pantry staples list off the internet and just edited it to make my own. So you might want to do that as well. But then I added things that I know that we always want and need. So things like organic apricots, almond flour, millet flour, cacao, rapadura sugar, coconut sugar, lentils, lentil pasta, all of that kind of stuff. So I added the things that align with our eating values and what we want for our family. Now I just put that on the fridge so when we were doing up the shopping list

14:25 - 14:57 Speaker 1: it saves thinking time and energy. It's all about working smarter for me not harder. So we just go through that staples checklist and see what we need. I also love having these things stocked up because I'm the worst. Like if I see a healthy recipe and I don't have the ingredients already, then it's done. I scrap it. Rather than like a normal person, we'll just put the ingredients on the shopping list and buy them next time they're at the shops. I'm like, nah, we don't have the ingredients, can't make that. So I'm a bit of a

14:57 - 15:30 Speaker 1: shocker. Now we just bought a bread maker. Actually, I bought it for Paul's birthday and Paul says it's kind of like when Homer Simpson bought Marge a bowling ball so he could use it. And I'm like, no dude, you love making bread. That's why I bought it for you. And he's like, yeah, I love making bread, but I don't want to make it every day. I'm like well you're making it every day. Anyways the bread maker makes loaves and cakes as well. So I am all about making things as quick and easy as possible. All I

15:30 - 16:03 Speaker 1: have to do is chuck ingredients into this thing and it mixes and cooks. So literally 5 minutes it takes me 5 minutes to make banana bread or these gluten-free chocolate cake. It's the best it suits my needs. I am not a big fan of cooking but other people love cooking. They love the process of being in the kitchen and making something from scratch. So you've got to know yourself and what you really love to do. But I like that whole quick and easy, have all the ingredients there, be able to chuck it in the bread maker

16:03 - 16:39 Speaker 1: and boom it's done. Now step 5 is mindfully choose your recipes. Now we have this kind of food rotation system. You probably do especially if you have kids, You know the things they like and you know the things they don't like. So we've got a few weekly staples Tuesdays always taco night, Wednesday nights always Guzmán y Gómez because it's swimming night and we're out and that's our family fun night. Fridays we usually do some sort of Weber roast and veggies, because my brother-in-law comes over, the boys put the roast on, they do their workout, I prepare

16:39 - 17:13 Speaker 1: the veggies, and then the roast is usually done when their workout's done. So we have this like a little system going. So that's 3 days every week that are pretty much predetermined. So when my husband's on shift, these are simple days. I don't like big, long, elaborate dishes that I have to make, especially when I'm dealing with the kids on my own. So, besides the bread maker, the air fryer is my best friend. So, we might just have something simple like meatballs or salmon. The kids like, they hit and miss on the salmon. Sometimes they just

17:13 - 17:46 Speaker 1: have fish fingers and we'll have it with veggies or homemade potato chips. So, sometimes I use organic normal white potatoes. Sometimes it's sweet potatoes. So that's all pretty simple. It's super easy. Like when people say I don't have time to cook or I hate cooking. I'm like Dude, it's called an air fryer. You don't even have to do anything except open the meatball packet and throw it in there and press a button. Literally my six-year-old can do it. And when I say literally, he does do it. He prepares food. So on top of that, We rotate

17:46 - 18:20 Speaker 1: through a list of about 10 different things. We know what we like and about once a month we do homemade pizza. The boys make the dough from scratch and the whole pizza is made from scratch. It's like our little family treat. Now then there's breakfast. I have about 3 things that I rotate through depending on if I have to work, what time I got to drop kids off, all of that kind of stuff. The easy version for me is fruit and keto cereal. Pretty much Keto cereal is just like nuts and seeds combo. Sometimes I make

18:20 - 18:54 Speaker 1: a smoothie and sometimes I do an omelet. If I'm choosing to eat eggs, I try and minimize the amount of eggs I eat. It's a whole medical medium protocol kind of thing. Now the kids either have wheat beaks and honey or oats and honey or scrambled or poached eggs. Now they love the savory breakfast, my kids, and they would have a savory breakfast every morning and I'm all for that, but some mornings we just don't have time. So this is where wheat beets and honey make their debut. I generally have salad for lunch every day and

18:54 - 19:30 Speaker 1: I make it fun by mixing up the ingredients, mixing up the different natural dressings. I love making an easy hummus and I rotate through different veggies, I batch cook quinoa and I have different salad toppers. So this is how I keep it all fun and interesting. Those pre-cut salad mixes, they're my best friend. Like you got the rocket and the baby spinach mix, you've got your kale mix, you've got your coleslaw mix. In a perfect world, I would be making everything from scratch, but it's just not what happens. So I buy those pre-cut salad mixes. Now

19:30 - 20:04 Speaker 1: this allows me just to set and forget my lunches, right? So every day I know I'm having a salad, but I mix it up a little bit every day to spice it up. I love this because it just becomes mindless healthy eating. How about that? Mindless healthy eating. So mindless selection of eating healthy, like it's a no-brainer. I know, I'm having a salad for lunch. Then I mindfully eat the salad and of course think of ways to spice it up. So here's a couple of fun things to think of when choosing meals. You could include fun

20:04 - 20:43 Speaker 1: meals. You can include things that evoke fond memories of your past or a bit of joy or just kind of fun cooking things. It's all about just keeping it interesting and exciting. For me, the excitement is all about these salad dressings that my sister introduced me to. She bought me 2 and they're delicious. I've run out. I've got to order more, but you've got to do them online because they're like a gourmet salad dressing. Another thing to think of is soulful meals, like things that comfort and uplift you and satisfy you on a deeper level. So,

20:43 - 21:19 Speaker 1: they could be traditional dishes from your cultural heritage, family favorites, recipes that evoke this sense of warmth and nostalgia for you. My thing is, it sounds ridiculous, my mom on holidays always cooked a crock pot, you know, like a stew. She puts it on in the morning. It's cooked by the nighttime and we just eat it like out of a bowl or sometimes chuck it on a piece of bread with butter. So, when we have stew, it is just that soul food for me. It reminds me of my family having fun on holidays. Pretty simple, a

21:19 - 21:56 Speaker 1: stew, but that's what it is for me. Also our monthly pizza, because I love pizza. I'm gonna tell you a quick story about pizza. So I was always trying to make the pizza as healthy as possible. I tried all the cauliflower bases, all the gluten-free bases, all the different things for pizza bases. 1 day Paul just said, Larissa, you've got to stop. Stop this. Honestly, we have pizza once every 4 to 6 weeks how about you just enjoy a real pizza made how I make it and just have a few pieces just enjoy it it's not

21:56 - 22:33 Speaker 1: like we have pizza every week or every day and I'm like okay you're right So now I just eat the pizza without worrying about all the, oh my God, it's not gluten free. I need to make this crazy base or whatever. Right. That's me. And I'm happy with that now. I had to surrender. Now we can make seasonal meals. So different times of year, different times of the year, I should say we crave different things and there's different fruit and vegetables in season. So go into a farmer's market and choosing in season produce is also another

22:33 - 23:11 Speaker 1: thing to really consider when you're creating your meal plans. We all need a quick and easy meal like when we don't have time and we forgot to plan. It's great to have a list of go-to meals like something that takes like 15-20 minutes to cook. Mine is the Cleavers organic meatballs and veggies. I just throw these meatballs in the air fryer. I cook the veggies And my kids also like couscous. They eat couscous. I don't eat the couscous, but the kids like the couscous. Super easy. Good for those lazy nights or weekends. You know, it's just

23:11 - 23:45 Speaker 1: like, oh, let's do it. And then there's, you can have an adventurous meal. Like the ones where you kind of like, oh I've seen this recipe there's a lot of steps to it, but I'm gonna step out of my comfort zone and Challenge myself to try something new So these are all things we can incorporate and consider when we're creating our weekly meal plan. Now we're going to move on to step 6, which is actually make the plan. Now we just buy a bunch of those pads from Kmart that have Monday to Friday. We create the

23:45 - 24:22 Speaker 1: meal plan first every single week. I mark out, you know, taco Tuesday, the Friday roast and the Wednesday night swimming, because money Gomez, and they're already done 3 meals a week. Every week they're already predetermined. And then I marked down what days my husband's working because then look at his roster. I check our family diary to see whether we've got anything on. Like the other day I had first aid and it went to 5.30 in the Arvo. So I wasn't home till a bit later. So that changed what we ate that night. So we do all

24:22 - 24:55 Speaker 1: of these things and then we plan around the schedule. Now because we've planned, we know what to buy when we go to the shop. So it's going to save us money. And also because we've planned, we also work out when we need to prep or even make the meal. Like Thursday nights, we've been going to bootcamp at the park. So me and my husband and his brother-in-law come, we do boot camp and the kids ride around the park at the same time on their bikes. Now, we want the kids to eat before we go because they'll

24:55 - 25:26 Speaker 1: get way too hungry. So they eat at 5, boot camps at 6, we get home at 7 and then we eat, then we shower, put the kids to bed. This is our Thursday nights now. So we know that we have to have the meal either pre-cooked or cooked earlier on in the day I should say. So what we eat and when we prep or make it revolves around our schedule. Now of course the last 1 is plan ahead. Now Paul, my husband, he actually does the majority of the cooking in our house and as you can

25:26 - 26:02 Speaker 1: hear I'm not a huge fan of cooking. I don't know why, I just None of my sisters are. All of our partners and husbands have always done the majority of the cooking. My mum thinks we're pretty lucky. Whole planning ahead is prepping. So you might cut things up in time. But what Paul does is He will never literally cook 1 meal at a time. So when he's cooking the taco mints, which it's not our taco mints is more chickpeas, black beans and kidney beans than mints. He literally cooks 4 meals in 1. So not 4 individual

26:02 - 26:41 Speaker 1: servings. He's bought this massive pan and cooks 4 family meals of taco mince. So it's cooked once and you're done for the whole month. This saves a ridiculously immense amount of time. He does the same thing with spaghetti, he does the same thing with curries. He cooks 2 different curries at once and that gives us 4 different family meals. We freeze them and when we want the curry all we do is take it out and cook the rice. Ridiculously simple. Honestly, if families aren't doing that, they're just wasting precious time on cooking. This is what I

26:41 - 27:15 Speaker 1: say, right? Because I'm not a big fan of it, but some people love cooking. So if you love cooking, don't do that. Now we even do this now when we go on holidays. So we go on holidays with family for 2 weeks in the year and about 6 weeks before we go away, he even cooks extra. So on top of our normal extra batch cooking load, he cooks extra. So we go away for 2 weeks, we bring 10 pre-prepared dinners. They're frozen. And then all we have to do is just heat up the, make the rice

27:15 - 27:46 Speaker 1: or the heat up the taco shells, whatever it is. And that's it. We don't even have to worry about Cooking when we're on holidays so easy. Oh, and then we just put then we just put it in a big angle fridge thing But we set it to freezer, and that's it We plug it into the car and we've got meals that we just heat up in my mum's microwave. Super easy. Now twice a week I make, now I'm using the bread maker, gluten-free banana bread or this gluten-free all-natural chocolate cake for the kids. I like to

27:46 - 28:31 Speaker 1: make that because then that's snacks for them so they're not eating like Arnott's biscuits or biscuits in general that are full of trans fats, sugar, emulsifiers, flavorings, you know all the crud that we should minimise. Now we still have these things in our house but we minimise them and the best way to do that is have other options on hand. Okay, so This works for us. It saves us time, it saves us money, it saves food, and it stops those impulsive food choices that don't align with our individual or our family health goals. Now, you might

28:31 - 29:11 Speaker 1: wanna do it differently. You may already do it differently, but this is just work, this is what works for us. To start this whole process, we just had to sit down, work out what our family and individual values, like health values and health goals are, and really work out how we wanted to prioritize our time, working around kids, kids sport, shift work, evening work for me, so clients and teaching yoga, meditation, and also our workouts as well. So as we come to the end of today's episode, I hope you're feeling a little inspired and empowered to

29:11 - 29:51 Speaker 1: embark on your own journey of mindful meal planning and prep. Remember, meal planning isn't about perfection, it's about progress. It's about showing up for yourself, your health, 1 meal at a time. So remember, we be gentle with ourselves, we embrace the process and celebrate all the small victories along the way. Whether you're a seasoned chef or a novice in the kitchen or kind of like me, it's kind of like I'm not a big fan of cooking, I encourage you to approach meal planning with curiosity, creativity and compassion. So really bringing all of those attitudes of mindfulness

29:51 - 30:37 Speaker 1: into your mindful meal planning and prep. Experiment with new ingredients, flavors and cooking techniques and embrace the joy of cooking and savor the satisfaction of nourishing yourself and your loved ones. I always say the parents are the gatekeepers of their kids' health. And most importantly, we Remember that mindful meal planning isn't just about what you put on your plate, it's about the intention and attention you bring to the entire experience of eating. Slow down, savour each bite and cultivate gratitude for the abundance of nourishment and food that surrounds you. So let's take a little moment for

30:37 - 31:23 Speaker 1: reflection. Take that long deep breath and connect to your own health goals and values. So in what ways do you want food to nourish and enhance your life and also your family's? What are your intentions for your family's health and your own health? And then what is 1 thing that really sparked your curiosity or your interest today? Maybe it could be 1 idea or a little tweak you could make to your mindful meal planning and prep journey To enhance your connection to food, save time so you can do more of what you love. Unless it's cooking

31:23 - 31:58 Speaker 1: itself. Now remember if you ever get overwhelmed or stuck with this I do 1 on 1 consults so please feel free to reach out at any time. I'll pop the link in the show notes. If you found today's discussion valuable in any way, feel free to share it on your social media platforms or with someone you love. If you want more, follow this podcast or even leave a review. I'd love you to connect with us online. I mainly use Instagram and Facebook and I also have a private Facebook group that you can be a part of

31:58 - 32:35 Speaker 1: as well. If you like to read or go back to a certain part of today's podcast, I always include this transcript of the podcast including the timestamps in the show notes. If you want to find out more about Mindful Eating, how it can help you and when you can get started, feel free to grab my free training. It's called Mindful Eating, How Can It Help Me and When Can I Get Started? I'll pop the link in the show notes as well. And remember, your commitment to your wellbeing is a powerful force and I'm here to help

32:35 - 32:53 Speaker 1: you every step of the way. So until next week, take a nourishing breath, savour the journey and embrace the opportunity to live with everyday inspiration. From my heart to yours, thanks for listening. Have a great week. I'll see you next week. Bye for now.

Thank you. You