Snack Prep for Success

I forget to eat. It’s not that I don’t WANT to, I just get caught up in life.

I see this with clients all of the time. The majority of private clients I work with do not eat enough and it’s the combination of a couple things:

• Life is busy, we get caught up in all the tasks of the day and we either forget OR we don’t prep food to bring with us when we’re out.

• Society, the media, things of the past have drilled into our heads that to “be skinny”, we have to starve.

Both totally screw us over.

When you workout, your body needs fuel to support that process. Going into that much of a caloric deficit (for some women) can create a hormonal response that makes your body think it’s starving and then you end up gaining weight because your body is holding on to every little thing that comes its way.

Couple that with being starving and then once you can eat, you’re going to shove every single thing you find in your face because you’re just that hungry.

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All of a sudden, cheese sticks have become your dinner. Along with your kid’s leftover Mac n cheese. The gross one from the blue box.

Looks like prepping my snacks needs to start happening again. 

Just as you are intentional with your workouts, you need to be intentional with your food as well. If you’re leaving what you’re eating, even if it’s for a snack, to chance, you won’t win. Then all that hard work you’re putting in, all that time sacrifice you’re making to workout, will be for nothing.

Who Doesn't Love Waffles?

I love waffles. That’s like my favorite breakfast food. I attribute it to staying at my grandparents house and my grandma making these amazing Belgian waffles that you would smell when you woke up in the morning. All crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, covered in syrup or strawberries and whipped cream. Well shit now I’m hungry. 

Seriously my obsession with waffles is crazy. To the point where my next dog will probably be named Waffles (I mean a corgi named Waffles? Like COME ON).

Alas I’m outnumbered in my house on the waffle front for breakfast. Lame. My people are more the savory sort who love anything that involves bacon. I know what you’re thinking. Why not just have a side of bacon WITH your waffles? I KNOW. Me too. But they’re not here for it. 

So I’ve had to get creative on my breakfast front so I can feed the masses and be excited about what I’m eating as well. 

My compromise is linked below!

Does This Mean I Have to Cook Again?

Ugh the holidays are over so I guess this means I have to cook again. 

And I love to cook. I love being in my kitchen making dinner, listening to music and hearing about my family’s day. It’s my happy place.

But it’s been nice during the holidays to have a little bit of a change, dinner with friends and ugly sweater parties. Really all that equates to for me, is not cooking dinner on a regular basis.

Now that the holidays are over and I’m having to get back into the routine of life, I have to make sure I have my healthy dinners back on point. The easiest way for me to transition back into this routine is by falling back on recipes that I know are solid, tried and true recipes.

I know you’re in the same position as me. So I wrote down some of my favorites to share with you so you won’t be totally screwed transitioning back into “real life” too!

My Top 5 Dinner Recipes When Meal Prep is Leaving You Frustrated

Look, I get it. Meal planning oftentimes is one of those best laid plans that sometimes fall to absolute shit. I say it because I’ve been there. It’s like post child bedtime and you should be planning what your family is going to eat next week but the prospect of combing through recipes, finding new recipes, or writing anything down is daunting AF. You know in that moment that you’re just going to end up discouraged and frustrated because what you would rather be doing is zoning out to something on your DVR that’s NOT Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

The caveat to this is that you also know that anything you choose to cook your family in this moment will be met with dismay by said family when you put it on your table. There’s nothing more frustrating than that. I love cooking, don’t get me wrong, it’s such a source of selfcare and I attribute cooking to being the only reason why I still know fractions. But when you bust your ass in your kitchen for any length of time to put dinner on the table and then your family bitches about said dinner…well. That’ll make you want to cut someone. Like how quickly can I slam my head into a wall level of frustration.

Those moments drive me crazy. Really, I got super blessed because those moments were few and far between when it was just me and the hubs. We’re both not picky eaters, so as long as the meals were reasonably healthy, he didn’t care what was put in front of him. He really is a dream in that respect (and many others) because not only would he eat it, but he would also compliment my cooking and be excited about the food.

But then I had Grace. Who has a HUGE opinion sometimes. Especially about food, as most small humans tend to do. 

All of a sudden, I’m stuck between the rock and hard spot of force feeding her something for dinner, or making multiple dinners. I’ll give her this, she’s generally a fairly adventurous eater, she’ll try lots of things but she definitely gets into modes where no new food is welcome. She’ll look at me like I’ve insulted her if I try to introduce something new. Like GOD FORBID.

Annoying as that is, I’m trying to provide her with all the healthy nutrition I can, so when she gets into those moments, I fall back on these recipes. For everyone’s sanity I have to, otherwise things at the dinner table would get super ugly.

Seeing as how adulting is hard AF and parenthood is a straight up ThunderDome, I feel like the least I can do for my fellow adulting their asses off adults is to share the recipes that have worked for my family, in the hopes they work for your family as well.