November 5, 2024 • 49 mins
In this episode, Jo welcomes organizational expert Tracy Hoth to discuss how to organize the meal planning process. Tracy, who runs Simply Squared Away, pairs practical organizational steps with mindset coaching to aid clients in various aspects of life. She explains her five-step SPASM method—sort, purge, assign homes, set limits, and maintain—and applies it to the task of meal planning. They discuss the importance of mindset in tackling organizational challenges and share practical tips for efficient meal preparation.
Follow Tracy on Instagram @tracyhoth
Join Organized Life Academy here.
00:00 Introduction and Special Guest Introduction
01:13 Defining Organization and Its Importance
02:24 Mindset and Organization
03:55 The Five Steps to Organizing
09:28 Applying Organization to Meal Planning
17:05 Dealing with Obstacles and Maintaining Organization
25:12 Overcoming Thought Obstacles
26:14 Balancing Enjoyment and Health in Meal Planning
26:54 Developing Meal Planning Skills
27:40 Tracking and Overcoming Obstacle Thoughts
30:09 The Importance of Nutrition in Weight Loss
31:11 Teaching Children Healthy Eating Habits
31:33 Compassion and Skill Development in Cooking
32:22 Practical Meal Planning Tips
43:51 Organizing Your Life for Better Health
45:42 Join the Organized Life Academy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi everyone.
(00:00):
It's Joe with Couture Coachingtoday.
So today we have a specialguest, Tracy Hoth.
Tracy is an organizing expert.
And so I will let her describeher business and the services
that she provides but today weare going to talk about
Organization of meal planning.
I know that meal planning andtrying to figure out what's for
(00:21):
dinner is vaccine for almosteveryone, especially if you're a
busy mom with kids.
Especially if you're trying toimplement a new nutrition plan.
So Tracy is going to break itall down for us from an
organizational expert.
So Tracy, do you want tointroduce yourself?
Tell us where listeners can findyou and then Tell us what we're
going to talk about today.
(00:41):
Yeah.
So my name is Tracy Hoth.
My business is Simply SquaredAway and I've been helping
people organize since 2008.
I've went into people's homesand offices and in 2018 I got
certified as a life coach.
So now I'm really combining thepractical steps of organizing
with the mindset piece and theidentity piece and putting those
(01:06):
together to help people getorganized in their home and life
and also in their businesses.
But yes, I, we wanted to talkabout.
Organizing and let me just startby saying organization or being
organized just means that youknow what you have and you can
find it when you need it.
(01:28):
Super simple definition.
It doesn't mean it has to looklike all the Instagram pictures
or Pinterest, all those photos.
It doesn't mean that yourprocess has to look a certain
way.
It's just knowing what you haveand being able to find it when
you need it.
Okay, applying that to the mealplanning concept.
What this sounds like is simplymaybe knowing what's going to be
(01:50):
a dinner for maybe a set periodof days and having it in your
house.
The components of that in yourhouse and knowing we'll just
store it and where to find it.
So it really can be that simple.
And that's why you see peoplethat have, little boards up that
have their meals written onthem.
Like they know what they'regoing to have and they can find
it.
So yeah.
And they're having their kitchenorganized.
(02:10):
That's helpful in finding whatyou need for the meal, but all
of that, it can be very simplewhen you're Just start there.
It releases all this tensionthat organization looks a
certain way and you have to doit that way.
Yeah, I do want to step back andtalk just a little bit about the
mindset piece.
And I do think probablyorganization and then also
(02:32):
getting healthy or getting fit.
It really does start with yourmindset, right?
Because if you're listening tothis, telling yourself, I'll
never be able to meal plan.
I'm a disorganized mess.
It'll never change.
It's going to be so hard.
You can have all the practicalknow how, but if you're stuck in
that belief system, that's whereyou need to start first.
Do you agree with that?
(02:53):
Yes, totally.
And the organization steps thatI'll teach in just a minute help
you organize your mind in thatsituation.
So we can use these steps inevery area for a project, for
your stuff, for your digitalfiles, for every single thing,
we use the same exact steps.
So the more and more you usethat, the better and better you
(03:14):
get, but it also helps youorganize your mind.
Just like a space in your house.
You take all those thoughts out,all those beliefs that you have
and get them out.
You look at them, you decidewhich ones you want to keep,
which ones you want to get ridof, what new ones you want to
bring in, and then you assignhomes to them and decide, okay,
(03:36):
this is when I'm going to.
Think this and practice thisthought and find evidence for
this thought.
And you all of a sudden, have anorganized mind, but it like all
of it takes maintenance.
So you have to continually dothat in order to maintain the
organization in your mind.
Yeah.
You're going to tell us what thesteps are, how to organize.
(03:56):
Yes.
The five steps they spell theacronym spasm.
So goofy, but if your muscleshaving a spasm, you're going to
think about organizing now.
So the first step to organizinganything is to sort.
And it's a lot of people go intoorganizing, they decide they're
(04:17):
going to organize something andthey just, they start trying to
make a decision right away.
Don't start there.
Just start by sorting like itemswith like items.
And this releases, all thepressure of having to make
decisions on whether or notyou're keeping something.
And I say, just start with thefirst thing under the light
(04:39):
switch or the first thing yousee right in front of your toe,
pick that up and put it likewith and then the next step is
to purge.
Now you have piles of thingsthat are like items with like
items, and then you purge.
So you pick your favorites isone of the methods of purging is
to decide what you use and loveand then making decisions after
(05:02):
that.
And there's lots of questionsyou can ask and things you let
you could be thinking.
So for example, we justorganized our storage space and
in the purging process, I keptreminding myself, I could be a
hoarder and keep this item, eventhough I've had it for 15 years
(05:22):
and haven't used it, or I couldbe super abundant and generous
and allow someone else to use itright now.
And I kept thinking that thoughtand it was so helpful for me To
let go of things because Iwanted to bless someone else
with them and for them to beable to use it So purge, sort,
purge.
(05:42):
Now you have only what you'rekeeping.
So you're going to assign homes.
to everything that you have.
And this is the puzzle piece.
you may try something here.
You may not like it.
It may not be accessible.
So you might want to move itinto a different spot, but group
things in zones.
Maybe if you have a readingnook, have a reading basket and
(06:03):
a lamp and a pens and a littlecase of whatever you need for
that, or in the kitchen, have abaking zone and have all your
baking supplies in one, or Ihave a beverage drawer.
I try to keep beverages in thatdrawer, coffee, tea, like hot
cocoa, everything goes in thatdrawer.
And then the next step is to setlimits.
(06:23):
This is the step people usuallystart at.
They go by containers.
This is the containing step, orthe using drawer dividers or
getting shelves or furniturepieces that work.
But setting limits, don't dothat until you know what you
have and where it's going tolive.
Don't go buy any containers.
So now that you know where it'sliving, you know exactly what
(06:45):
size container you need.
So I might've thought, Oh, I'llput my beverages over by the
coffee maker, but they don't fiton that shelf, so I have them in
a drawer and now that I knowthey're going to be in that
drawer, I know what sizecontainer I want to put in that
drawer to separate them out orto contain them in different
ways.
And then the final step is tomaintain.
(07:09):
So sort, purge, assign homes,set limits, and then maintain.
So that might mean going backand checking your calendar every
night, you're maintaining yourcalendar.
Or the key thing for me is totie it to something you already
do.
So when I plug my phone in atnight, I look at my calendar for
the next day.
So that's the maintenance step.
(07:30):
Or when the seasons change wemight want to go back through
the organizing steps orsomething super simple.
When I grocery shop, I bring itinto the house and before I put
it into my refrigerator, I cleanout, wipe down the shelves.
Get rid of anything that's inthere.
That's not useful.
And so I'm maintaining theorganization in my refrigerator.
(07:53):
So those are the 5 steps.
Any questions on that?
No, we've talked about thisbefore that the probably.
The biggest.
Issue that maybe people have isthat maintenance piece is that
you never just get organized foronce and for all and how that's
really parallel to getting fitand staying healthy.
You don't get fit and thenabandon all of your habits.
(08:15):
This is really more of alifestyle.
I'm hearing you say the samething about being organized.
Things are always coming in.
We're bringing new things intoour house.
Kids are leaving and things areshifting and we might inherit
our parents stuff and now wehave all that stuff in our house
and what do we want to keep andmake room for and get rid of?
And it's just like life neverstands still, just like a
(08:37):
garden.
There's going to be weeds thatgrow up and we have to maintain
everything, but we can tie it tosomething that you do so that
it's less of a problem.
If that's not working and you'renot maintaining, put
appointments on your calendar tomake sure, and If you start at
the beginning it doesn't have totake a long time.
(08:59):
I think that's part of it.
We just don't plan for it, or wethink that it shouldn't have to
happen, or we think something'swrong with us because our spaces
don't stay organized and reallyit's just because we haven't
maintained it.
We haven't put that as apriority or appointment on our
calendar.
I think abandoning the idea thatyou're going to organize your
closet.
(09:19):
And it's then forever going tobe organized and purged and not
something you'll ever have torevisit.
So right.
Very valuable advice.
Now you're going to tell us howto apply all of this to meal
planning.
Yeah.
So let's look at it.
This works for any project thatyou want to create or do or
accomplish.
So you use the steps we do it.
(09:41):
Every month in Organized LifeAcademy, we have a planning call
where we use these exact stepsto plan our month, or we can use
them for a project.
I do this all the time.
Whenever I'm feelingoverwhelmed, I use the
organizing steps and I sort.
So the first step, if we'regonna create a meal plan, is to
(10:01):
sort.
And we're just gonna get Everystep, every idea, every thought
in our mind out on paper.
So you would just write outlike, what are the steps to meal
planning?
And if we walk through it, maybewe have to do an internet
search.
We need to plan each meal.
We need to find a meal plan orfind recipes.
(10:24):
We need to check the macros.
Maybe if we're tracking in thatsort of way for each recipe, we
need to find, recipes that havemacros already on them, and then
we need to create a grocerylist.
We need a grocery shop.
We need to prep the food.
Then we need to follow the plan.
And then we need to plan forobstacles.
(10:46):
The worst case thing that couldhappen on our meal plan.
We're going to have urges to eatsomething outside of what we
planned.
What are we going to do forthat?
So I am just trying to throweverything that I think of when
it comes to the meal planproject down on paper.
What's my current thought aboutmeal planning?
(11:08):
Hate doing this.
I want someone to do it for me.
All those thoughts you can writedown.
So when you have thesecategories, maybe there's a
category that you would sortinto called planning.
Maybe there's one calledexecuting.
Maybe there's one calledmindset.
Maybe there's one calledobstacles in the categories that
(11:31):
you put them in.
Don't really matter.
It's you.
Just.
getting it all out and saying,Oh, what's this and I want to
say, there's two ways.
You can just write all this downin a list.
And then go back through thelist and say, okay, this happens
pre, before the week starts.
This happens at the very firstday of the week.
(11:52):
This happens, here's theobstacles.
So you could sort it out afterthat.
Or you could get in the practiceof when you're sorting, you put
them into categories as you takethem out of your mind.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, I can see where you couldsort it by day of the week and
activity.
So maybe, Saturday is groceryshopping day and Sunday is meal
(12:19):
prep, like food prep, Monday,Wednesday.
Is some other part of the stepand then Friday would probably
be where the obstacles come inbecause you want to go out to
eat or things like that.
Yeah, I can see how you could doit by day of week or by task
type of task or, yeah, thing.
Yeah, so now that we haveeverything that has to do with
(12:39):
this project of meal planningdown on paper, the next step is
to purge.
So we're going to go backthrough.
If we have them in categoriesand try to purge, so I think if
I have a category of before theweek starts, like the planning
category, and I, when I think ofpurging, I like to think, okay,
(13:04):
could I delegate anything?
Could I delete something off thelist?
Is there something I can delaybecause I just don't have time
this week to do it?
I might delay it for next monthor next week, or is there
something for sure that I wantto do?
(13:24):
Maybe I decide I'm going todelete that and instead I'm
going to purchase a meal planthat's already made.
So you've just cut off maybe twohours of trying to figure out
what to plan and what to makefor each meal and then creating
a grocery list.
Maybe it's just I'm going tofind a meal plan that fits my
macros and I'm going to just buythe meal plan.
(13:45):
I will tell you.
I know the macros bloggers thatI follow all have many of these
options.
I know 1 has a cookbook thatit's called planned and it has a
shopping list for each week.
All the meals are going to taketo do what you're going to do
1st day of the week.
The 2nd day of the week.
Everything's already enteredinto my fitness pal.
Really.
You just have to execute.
It has all three meals.
(14:06):
Like I said, the shopping list,everything.
And so I'm just tellinglisteners most of the macros
bloggers have something likethis.
And it too, that you can buy ameal plan that get delivered to
your.
Yes, each month.
So there's certainly.
Ways that you can make thiseasier on yourself, right?
(14:28):
That's so cool to have that.
So let's say that's what youhave.
You need to look over the mealplan.
You need to decide I'm no wayeating that meal.
I need to substitute it forsomething else.
You still have steps you need todo, but they're different now.
Then that's the other thing Iwas going to say, when you're
the shopping and prepping stage,you could delegate that out and
(14:49):
hire your daughter to go buy thefood and prep it.
Or I know some mother, motherscome and prep their food, or you
would.
Keep that task.
Let's say you really like it andyou want to listen to a book
audio book during that time Soyou would keep that task.
So you're just gonna go througheach step each category and
(15:12):
delete delegate delay or dothose steps.
So now in each step you have theitems that you're going to do,
that you need to do.
So the next step, so we sortedand then we purged, and then the
next step is to assign homes.
This is the step where you pullout your calendar and you assign
(15:35):
an appointment for each of thetasks that you need to do.
And the next step is to setlimits When you're planning
time, these two steps aresomewhat connected.
So you're going to set the limitfor the time it's going to take
you to assign that task and todo the task.
Now at first you might have noidea, so you're just really
(15:57):
guessing.
It's going to take me an hourand a half to food prep and
really it takes three hours.
So after you do the task and yourealize my one and a half hour
appointment did not work for me,next time you'll know better
what to plan and you're justgoing to look at it curiously
and say, why didn't that work?
Because literally it takeslonger or because I was
(16:19):
distracted on my phone half thetime or because looking at
recipes on my phone didn't work.
And next time I want to printout a prep list in advance or
write it out, maybe that's why.
And so whatever adjustments needto make, you can make those
adjustments.
So you've set limit or you'veassigned homes on your calendar
(16:41):
and set a limit.
By giving the appointment a timeframe.
And then the final step is tomaintain.
So you're just going to go backto your calendar, go back to
your food plan.
And check in.
Am I on track?
Am I following my plan?
Yes.
Why?
No.
Why?
And make any adjustments thatyou need to.
(17:02):
Okay, a couple of questions foryou.
So in the sort phase, you talkedabout like thoughts that come up
or obstacles that come up.
So how do you advise yourclients to deal with those
things?
So maybe a thought is.
I freaking hate meal planningand this, I'll never like it, or
this is never going to work.
(17:23):
What do you, where do you assignthat?
What do you do with that?
And you have a whole category ofthoughts.
You've sorted those thoughts.
Yes.
Category.
What like practically speakingwhere do you go with them after
they've shown up in the sortingprocess?
One of my thoughts in thatcategory is I've tried this a
hundred times and I'm notfollowing it.
(17:43):
So I take those thoughts and Ithink, there's a few different
things I would say is just tolook at those and first say, are
they useful?
So is that helping me reach mygoals by continuing to think
about this?
Thought to continue to thinkthis and believe that this is
true.
And if it's not helping me toreach my goals, I can, now that
(18:06):
it's on paper, I see it and Ican realize how much it's
keeping me from the goal that Iwant to reach.
And so I might say to myself, Ilike to do this thing called
loosening thoughts.
And so if the thought is I hatemeal planning, the opposite of
that thought is I love mealplanning.
(18:27):
So when you think that.
immediately for me, resistancecomes up.
So you know that's not yourthought.
Then I like to, so the circle ismeal planning's in the center of
the circle.
That's the fact.
And your thought is I hate it.
Another option of a thought is Ilove it.
But there are about a hundredother options of thoughts that
(18:47):
you can think.
So I like to think about someonethat's really good at it.
What might they believe?
Meal planning helps me reach mygoals.
Meal planning is a time I takecare of myself.
I love doing what's best for mybody.
So you just make up a bunch ofthoughts.
Meal planning is I'm stewardingmy health the best that I can.
(19:12):
So you just start writing someoptions down and then test them
and see how does this one feelwhen I think I love doing what's
best for my body.
I believe that and I want thatso I can think that on purpose
versus I hate meal planning.
I may still not like mealplanning, but I love trying to
(19:36):
do what's best for my body.
So then you decide, okay.
I'm going to take those thoughtsI don't want to believe because
I know they're not helping meand I'm going to insert instead,
I'm going to make a home forthese other thoughts.
I like saying maybe.
So you think, I hate mealplanning when you sit down cause
(19:58):
it's your time to meal plan andyou're like, maybe, but maybe it
could be fun.
Like just being goofy with yourbrain and questioning it a
little bit and saying.
Maybe, or I hate meal planningright now, but I still am
someone who follows my calendar.
And that's what's on my calendarright now.
(20:19):
So you can add an ending to thesentence that you're believing
that's not useful and make itsome, turn it into something or
add a part of it that is helpfulor loosens the hatred up a
little bit that you have.
And talking with you, you haveone of your favorite thoughts as
well.
Might as well.
(20:40):
I think probably all of this isso anxiety provoking because
we're imagining That we're goingfrom 0 to preparing a Martha
Stewart table scape everyevening for our family.
And that's not really it doesn'thave to look like that.
Or I would guess most people's.
Mule planning does not actuallylook like that, but the might as
well just takes the pressureoff.
(21:02):
You get credit for even trying.
So I like that one as anantidote to can't do it
perfectly.
So why even try?
So that's one given me that Ireally like.
We talked about that in yourgroup.
Yes.
You have a thought and then youthink, but I might as well.
Might as well do it right now.
Might as well.
It's on my calendar, that isfun.
(21:22):
So it sounds like with some ofthe thoughts and such maybe they
go and you look at them and youdecide to delete them because
you realize they're not helpfulor you're just aware and they go
in a category and you just knowthey're going to come up.
And maybe you have an antidotefor them.
But they don't get to supplantthe calendar appointment you've
made with yourself to chopvegetables or whatever.
(21:44):
I think it probably helps yourbrain see Oh, that's really not
a reason to blow off, doing thefood prep because I was just in
this other category and it'sprobably not true anyway.
Or have you ever heard where youcan say, okay, I've been doing
this in my business.
Like sometimes you just want toquit.
And so I think someone suggestedthat I wait to think those
(22:05):
thoughts until five o'clock,like when I finished working in
my business, if that thoughtcomes up, I'm like, Nope, I
gotta wait till five o'clock.
Nope.
I can't do that till fiveo'clock.
And so it's just my way ofbuffering is to think the
thought.
about quitting.
And so I pushed that off untilfive.
(22:25):
And then at five, I don't evenremember that I was going to
think that, but at least mybrain has an option to put it,
or some people do that in theshower or they have a worry
hour.
You could have a hate mealplanning hour.
You think that at 7 PM onMondays.
And then, okay, what happens?
So this might get into theobstacles, like when you've
(22:47):
sorted and you come up withobstacles, which is kid gets
sick.
Baseball game runs longemergency meeting comes up.
So what happens as you're goingalong with your plan and you
can't stick to it?
something comes in from leftfield.
And I would say probably formost people, this is going to
(23:07):
happen at least once a week.
So what do you do with thoseobstacles?
When you're planning a projector planning using the steps to
organize anything, you thinkbest case scenario.
This is how it's going to go.
This is how it's going to look.
But then you always go to worstcase scenario.
So worst case scenario, allthose things you mentioned are
going to happen when you'replanning.
(23:27):
You want to consider all thosethings and plan for them in
advance.
So maybe that means that, thatyou're going to have at least
two meals that are grab and gotype of meals.
And those are, you don't planthose for Tuesday and Thursday
necessarily, but you plan thoseand have those as options for
(23:47):
when the obstacle comes up.
So it's something really easy.
What were some of your otherobstacles?
Just meeting runs long kid getssick.
Just, you don't feel like it.
That's probably a more realisticobstacle to or one that maybe we
don't want to admit is a realobstacle, but probably
something, like it just soundsbetter to go down to the
neighborhood grill and get aburger and a beer.
(24:09):
Yes.
I go down for lunch every dayand I'm like, Oh, I don't want
to eat a vegetable.
This doesn't sound good.
easy meals versus the otherthing or cooking two meals on
Monday night so that you haveone ready in case something
happens during the week orcooking like a huge batch of
soup every Sunday night forthose meals where you need
(24:31):
something quick.
But then the other part of thatis the thought process or the, a
thought obstacle, so you'regoing to have a thought
obstacle.
All of these, no the ones arereally practical.
Like your game runs over or ameeting comes up.
Those are practical.
But then the thought obstaclefor me is I don't want to eat
that.
And what am I going to do when Ifeel that obstacle to have a
(24:54):
plan in place?
So I am going to walk over.
And maybe inside my cabinetdoor, I have some thoughts that
I'm intentionally practicingthinking, like I love doing
what's best for my body.
Even when I don't feel likeeating vegetables, I might have
that thought taped up there.
So every time I go down into mykitchen and I have that thought,
(25:15):
I'm going to open the cabinetdoor.
That doesn't mean I'm going tochange what I do necessarily.
I don't have to believe that I'mjust going to go to the cabinet
door, open it up.
Take three deep breaths, readthe thoughts that I want to
practice believing, and thenmake a decision after that.
So even mindset plans that youhave in place can be super
(25:38):
helpful for overcoming thoseobstacles, the thought
obstacles..
Because it's get your brain intoproblem solving mode.
It just gets it out of its rut,which is really the first step.
First step actually is awarenessthat you're even having the yes.
Maybe they're not true.
It may feel true in the moment,but there may be something else
(25:59):
equally true.
And then letting your brain goto at least a different space
rather than being in this oldcycle of, Oh, that salad that I
planned doesn't sound good.
So I'm going to hop in the carand run to Chick fil A or
something like that.
I think that's also a key tosuccess.
Successful meal planning is worksome fun stuff into your meal
plan.
(26:19):
I make it a balance of thingsthat healthy, but also things
that you enjoy.
I know for me, realistically,we're going to eat out probably
at least one night during theweekend.
And so there's less guiltassociated with it.
I probably will make betterdecisions when I get to the
restaurant, if I know that it'snot, I'm not doing something bad
or I'm not such a, when it's,everything is happening by
(26:41):
default, then you tend to notfeel good about your choices.
if you plan some of thosethings, I think into the week,
your chances for success aregoing to be so much better.
Yeah.
And you can think of a lot ofthis.
A lot of this is the journey andit's the skill that you're
creating, the skill of using theorganizing steps, the skill of
(27:02):
planning a meal, because it's askill you're going to need for
the rest of your life.
So might as well look at thisjourney of practicing these
things as a skill you'redeveloping and being really,
Present in the moment, notthinking you're just trying to
get it done.
You can think I'm developing myskill right now.
(27:23):
Remind me the 80% rule is if youcan follow your plan and, follow
this project process 80%, that'sa win.
Like you're, you don't have tothink all or nothing.
That's a win to do that.
The other thought I had wastracking your obstacle thoughts.
(27:45):
If in your, I always like to useinside the cabinet door just
because nobody sees it.
Your kitchen stays neat, but youhave a place for it.
So you open and it's just apiece of paper taped in there.
You have the thoughts you wantto be practicing at the top, but
what if you start writing downthe thoughts that come up that
keep you from following yourplan, your obstacle thoughts,
(28:07):
and you just keep track of them.
It's fun to see and measure howyour brain is changing.
And maybe their top three alwayscome up no matter what.
So you know to expect that.
But maybe, one of them startsgoing away and the other one
you're planning for startsshowing itself stronger and so
(28:28):
you can see your progress.
It's so fun to be able to seeit.
So that's a way to overcome ormake it more of a.
I think the other thing I knowit's just a lesson that I keep
learning over and over is thatGetting into action and
ultimately change your thoughts.
So I know that before I got intokind of got my health together.
(28:49):
And before I got intobodybuilding the choice of
eating protein at breakfast or adonut.
The donut always sounded better.
It doesn't mean I always ate itbut that's what sounded better
and sounded more, Enjoyable tome in the moment.
Now, I won't say that an eggwhite omelet sounds better than
a donut right now, but I wouldnow choose the omelet because I
know how I'm going to feel forthe rest of the day.
(29:11):
And It's more valuable to me tohave good energy to have
stabilized blood sugar.
Like I make different choicesnow because I've taken action
that lets me experience whatdifferent choices gives you, if
that makes sense.
So sometimes some of this isjust a huge experiment and you
might hate meal planning now.
(29:32):
A month, two months from now,you might say I just still don't
really love meal planning, but Iknow what it gives me.
And so it's totally worth doingit.
And I will choose to do it, butyou will never know that if you
don't give it a try.
Yeah.
You're developing a skill.
It's such a good use of yourtime versus spending the same
amount of time being stressedout over not knowing what you're
(29:54):
going to eat or being mad atyourself for not having the food
you need in your house.
So there is the same amount oftime spent, maybe even more on
the negative side versus justdoing the meal planning part of
it.
Yeah and I will say as a healthand nutrition and fitness coach
I would say the biggest obstaclethat the clients that I work
(30:16):
with have, in terms of getting,having success nutrition is
always the thing.
That is the thing that is, it's90 percent of weight loss or
changing your body is nutrition.
It just is.
and that is really the biggestobstacle for most people.
They don't know how to cook.
They don't know how to getgroceries in their house.
If you say you need to eat ahundred grams of protein a day,
(30:36):
they're like, I don't even knowwhat that means.
I don't even know what to dowith protein.
What is protein?
I don't cook protein.
They're just no.
Practical skills in the kitchen.
They may be amazing and, make500, 000 in their professional
career, but like totallydeficient in this area.
And it's a real confidencekiller.
(30:56):
And I don't think that you'regoing to get a handle on that
until you get some skills in thekitchen.
I'm not saying that you have tobecome a gourmet chef.
But there does need to be someplanning and having healthy food
in your kitchen.
So it's a non negotiable.
And the other thing, if you're aparent listening to this, it's
the best life skill that you canteach your children, nourishing
(31:17):
your body, it's a nonnegotiable.
Everyone has to eat, everyonehas to give their bodies fuel.
And so even if you hate it, ifyou can give your child some
good habits around this, youwill set them up for a really,
this will impact their healthfor the rest of their lives.
Yeah.
And that just shows you, you canhave such compassion over it for
(31:37):
yourself.
And even with organizing, a lotof people, they're like, nobody
ever teaches you how to do it.
If you didn't have a parent thatwas teaching you how to cook,
it's not something younecessarily learn.
so be so compassionate withyourself through this process
and through developing theseskills, because There's no
(31:57):
reason why you should know howto do it, but you want to reach
a goal in your life.
And it takes learning some ofthese skills.
It's going to be a process andyou're just going to follow the
steps over and over until youget better and better at it.
That's another point is you canuse learning how to meal plan
and organizing your meal plan asjust a way to learn how to
(32:18):
organize better.
Lots of skills and life skillsthat we can be developed through
this process.
Okay maybe we can end with justsome, if we can both share some
practical tips that we mighthave around meal planning and
getting dinner on the tableevery night.
So would you like to go first?
We just thrown out some ideas.
I did just read someone thatsaid, I want to get 30 grams of
(32:41):
protein in the morning before Idrink my coffee.
And this morning I had 20minutes before I was meeting my
daughter to work out.
And I was like I'm not going todo it.
Like I didn't do it.
And I was like, why?
I should have just had someprotein first thing.
But I thought that was, that'ssuch a fun kind of game to play.
I'm going to get 30 grams ofprotein in before I have my
coffee.
(33:01):
So that's one tip that I amtrying to put into practice.
Okay.
So meal planning.
I like to, now my kids are now20 to 25.
So my two girls still live athome, but what my husband and I
do now, which is different thanwhen I planned all the meals and
had all the kids home was we tryto plan out four meals.
(33:23):
And then we get all thegroceries for those four meals.
so to go back to that, we're notstrict on what day we have the
meals.
We do what we feel like orwhatever, but we have all the
ingredients for those fourmeals.
The other thing I've been doingis I have two options for
breakfast.
Either an egg, something, oroatmeal, or some sort of like
(33:44):
grain type thing.
And then for lunch, I try to dothe same.
So any way that I can reducedecision fatigue on what to eat,
but I don't have it necessarilyplanned out, more strict plan
versus just having those optionsthere.
And there was something else Iwas going to say.
Oh, and what I've been doinglately is at the end of a week
(34:06):
or two weeks, I just throweverything in a pot, all the
leftovers and make soup.
And literally it's blown my mindhow I've done this probably, I
don't know, the last, fivemonths or something every single
time.
It's amazing.
And I always think this is notgoing to be good and it is so
delicious.
(34:27):
And we eat off of it for acouple of days.
We take it to my the three otherpeople in my house go to school
or work.
And so they take it for lunchesand then we eat it for dinner at
least once or twice.
And so it's been so fun.
I think at my house.
That might cause food poisoning.
stuff that gets left over in myfridge, but that's why I have to
(34:48):
do it every two weeks beforesomething goes bad.
That's funny.
that's a good idea though.
I will give you six, like kindof practical ways.
Oh yes.
I can't wait.
Easy nutrition.
So it.
And my couture coaching, our bigthing is protein, at least a
hundred grams a day.
so if you don't love eatingprotein, my number one tip is
drink your protein.
(35:09):
From your protein shakes, fairlife shakes, I have a protein
coffee every morning and it isliterally the easiest it's all
pre made.
I take like cold brew coffee,put it over ice.
Pour a protein shake over it andmix put a cold foam on it and
just drink it down while I'mgetting ready while I'm on my
way to the gym.
Easy way to get in 30 grams ofprotein.
(35:29):
Okay, wait, when you say aprotein shake, do you just mean
like protein powder or is itliquid already?
So like premier protein thoseare like the little containers.
Okay.
Yes.
I love that.
And honestly, this to me tasteslike something I would get at
Starbucks.
And it's like I said, it's aneasy way to get 30 grams of
protein in.
(35:49):
So drink your protein.
You can make it your own, youcan use protein powder and put
some almond milk or milk in itand, blend it up and make it
that way, What I'm saying islike a straw in the I can drink
things much faster with a straw.
So that's just to me, or thatyou could have this in the
afternoon as a snack.
So drink your protein.
Yeah.
Protein shakes are a greatsource of protein.
(36:12):
And just an easy way to get in30 grams.
And there's really very little,if you buy the shakes pre made,
there's no excuse.
Most of them are also shelfstable.
So you can throw one in yourpurse.
Okay.
This makes me think, I wonderif, cause I make, we have a very
good.
Espresso machine.
And so I make an espresso latteevery morning and I'm in love
(36:33):
with it and it's hot.
So especially going into winter,I wonder if you can froth or
steam a protein shake, can you?
And then I could add my.
My shot to that.
Yeah, you can just, I would do apre made shake that way, like a
and just put it in your milksteamer.
Yeah.
(36:53):
Okay.
I'm going to try that.
I will let you know.
It's a large amount of liquid,so you'll probably have to play
with it a little bit, but Yeah.
Just, it's the key with proteinshakes is heating them up.
I think the pre made shakes heatup a little bit better than
using a protein powder.
It can get gloppy, but yeah, Ihave steamed, I have a milk
(37:18):
frother, I have steamed proteinshakes.
I need to cut it with somethingthat's not sweet.
I don't like super sweet coffeeor, teas or anything like that.
So I always use like a non sweetcold foam or something or just
some regular milk or almond milkto cut the sweetness a little
bit.
Okay.
So when you say cold foam, youmean like you foam something or
do you buy cold foam?
(37:39):
You can buy it and like rightnow I have a pumpkin spice cold
foam.
Now that's a little bit sweet,but you can buy cold foam at the
grocery store.
It's comes like in a can, like awhipping cream But So drink your
protein.
Costco has some great mealoptions.
It's usually like Kevin's orother brands.
The macros are really amazing.
And some I've looked at some ofthe things and I couldn't beat
them at home.
And so I always have two orthree in the freezer.
(38:01):
There's an Indian chicken that Iget at Costco that my kids love,
And I always have non like fromTrader Joe's on hand and that's
a meal that comes together inabout 3 minutes as long as it
takes to heat the meal.
And it's really high in protein.
I also always keep a big bag ofbroccoli, from Costco, they come
in 3 or 4 servings and you justliterally throw them in the
(38:22):
microwave.
Rice, broccoli, and some of theIndian chicken at Costco is a
full meal and gets on the tablequickly.
So I always have that as anoption.
I love that.
I'm taking notes.
Yeah.
Cause we shop at Costco and weusually buy meals from there,
but I don't know that I've evertried Kevin's Indian chicken.
So I can't wait.
That's not Kevin's, but if youjust go and look at, You want at
(38:43):
least like 20 to 30 grams ofprotein per serving, but there's
great options.
Yeah.
So I make all my meals do doubleduty.
So it really takes no more timeto cook a double batch of soup
than it does a single.
And so I might freeze the otherhalf or we'll just have it for
two meals in a row.
my family will eat leftovers orI'll eat it for lunch, If I'm
(39:03):
going to make a soup or acasserole or anything that
requires, any prep, I double it.
I'm used to cooking for a lot,but now everyone takes a lunch,
so if I don't make a lot, nobodywants to make a sandwich
anymore.
so we always have leftovers.
My fourth tip is delegate.
Actually I think it's a tallorder to do all of your shopping
(39:25):
well.
It would be a tall order to findyour recipes.
List out all the ingredients, dothe shopping and then come home
and food prep.
That's in my opinion, way toomuch to do in one day, not a
reasonable expectation, but youcan split that up in some ways.
And like I delegate, my husbandis not a good cook.
He literally cannot.
Even really boil water, but hecan go to Costco.
(39:46):
So I delegate like Costco to myhusband and just tell him what
to get.
And that's one part of the stepI don't have to do.
So anything, even if you havesome non cooks in your home, or
maybe you're the non cook so youcan ask your husband like, Hey.
If I come up with a list ofmeals, or can we come up with a
list of meals together, I'll godo the grocery shopping.
If you will prep it, you cansplit it up that way to make it
(40:09):
a little less overwhelming.
The next one though, is I do,I'm almost cook all of my meals
from, I have three or fourmacros, black bloggers that I
love.
All their stuff is in my fitnesspal.
So if you're tracking, you'renot going to be putting an
entire recipe into my fitnesspal and trying to figure out the
macros.
I learned that a long time agothere, the food is delicious.
(40:33):
It's just has a great likenutrient profile.
So most of their.
Options are going to be higherin protein, lower in fat,
reasonable amount of carbs.
And so that's mainly where Icook from.
And I've done dinner parties,cooking that food and people are
like, Oh my gosh, where did youfind that recipe?
So that's really key.
Don't make it harder on yourselfthan you need to let someone
(40:53):
else, those macros bloggers havedone the work.
That's part of it.
Brand is to have all the macroscalculated for you and an easy
entry in my fitness pal.
I think that's the biggestobstacle for me because I want
to, reach a couple of goals.
And my biggest obstacle isentering into my fitness pal.
So the time in my past that Ihave had the most success was
(41:15):
when the meals were already inthere.
So do you share those bloggersor do you share your favorites
or I'll share three right now.
I love Lily eats and tells Ilove her.
Recipes.
Oh, snap macros is anotherblogger that I love.
And then Lauren fit foodie.
Oh, I think all three of themhave some sort of meal planning
(41:36):
service that it's veryaffordable.
That they've organized it, youget a shopping list, you get
meals.
And sometimes I think decisionfatigue sets in and I'm like
that looks good, but do I reallywant to try it?
But if they're just saying thisis what you're going to cook for
the week, here's the shoppinglist.
You'll probably try some newrecipes that you love and never
realize that you loved.
(41:56):
Yeah.
My last tip is I have three orfour breakfast bakes that I just
put on repeat.
So one is I, like my biggest tipfor getting protein in the
morning is to make your oatmealwith egg whites, which means
you're standing next to themicrowave or I just bake it.
I make it like an oatmeal eggwhite bake.
It's literally pouring packetsof instant oatmeal and then
(42:20):
three quarters of a cup of eggwhites for each packet, mixing
it up, throwing it in the ovenfor three 50, you can add stuff
to it, like pumpkin or cheeseseeds or things like that.
And I have a biscuits and gravybake.
That's like high protein.
And so I just.
Rotate through those because tome, getting breakfast in and
getting to the gym in themorning and getting to work on
(42:42):
time, I don't really have a lotof time, to make a gourmet
breakfast.
So yeah, I don't really care.
It's just breakfast to me as aprotein delivery device.
This is my protein deliverydevice.
I love it.
Yeah, so those are my tips it'sreally, in like my lifestyle,
it's getting enough protein andgetting the right kind of food
(43:02):
in my body.
this has changed because the 1stcoach I ever worked with fitness
coach gave me a meal plan.
And I gave that meal plan themiddle finger.
I was like, no way this does notsound good.
But now I'm to the point that nothis is worth.
Yeah, it's worth eating thisfood and most people don't eat
that much of a variety of food.
(43:23):
So you can find six or sevenrecipes and put them on repeat.
Yeah, that's probably whatyou're eating anyway.
So that's my tip.
I love cooking and I lovehealthy food.
I also love junk food.
But I love getting on a plan.
I love having a plan becausethen I don't have to think and
(43:45):
that's with anything.
I always want someone else tojust tell me what to do because
it's so much easier.
This has been great.
I do want to end with I, again,another thing that really
stymies my clients from gettingresults is their life is very
chaotic.
There's an organization thatneeds to happen in a lot of
different facets of life just tobe able to have the time and
(44:06):
space to devote to their healthand wellness goals.
So I recently joined yourorganization coaching.
I haven't come live to any ofthe calls I've listened to them,
but like for this month we'refocusing on the garage now.
I have not done everything onyour list, but what I was able
to do during this month isdefrost the freezer and purge
(44:30):
that in my garage, which now.
I don't want to cry every time Iwalk by it.
I think there was like somemanifesting here because we had
this table that we were tryingto sell.
I got a new kitchen table.
Not even one person interested,but as soon as I joined your
program, we started focusing onthe garage buyer came from
Facebook and just showed up withthis truck and paid me for it
(44:51):
and took it off.
So I've gotten kind of two bigthings done in the garage.
I did go through and make a listof things that needed to get
done this month.
Just did a, brain dump of allthe things that needed, and I
sorted them.
So you are good.
Look at you.
So this doesn't look likeperfection out of the box, but
do you want to tell people aboutthat service that you offer?
(45:13):
I really like it cause it's verylow pressure.
I feel like do as much as, or aslittle as you want.
It's not a huge.
Financial investment, but itjust keeps you focused and like
moving along.
I'm sure the more I put into it,the more I will get out of it,
but I think this will be veryhelpful for people who are just
overwhelmed by their life.
Maybe everything has crashed.
(45:33):
They feel like their house is amess.
Their health is a mess and theyjust don't even know where to
start.
They're so overwhelmed.
So do you want to tell us aboutyour food service?
The program is called OrganizedLife Academy and 2025 we'll be
starting our fifth year of doingthis program.
So I've tried different thingsevery year.
I changed things up a littlebit.
(45:53):
This year has definitely been myfavorite because each month I
choose the area.
Now you're always open to chooseanything you want, but having
the area and I make a calendarthat we're decluttering and I
put tasks on there.
Some of the ladies in thereprint that.
Calendar out, they put it in asheet protector, they hang it in
the area.
(46:14):
And they, the focus isdecluttering.
We always have a mindset focusas well.
So we're looking at some part ofour mindset in our life and
we'll have an expert guest atthe beginning of every month.
We have a planning call.
So we're planning our month andthat doesn't mean we have to
plan something every day of themonth.
(46:34):
It just means we're intentionalabout what we're organizing and
what we're focused on.
In 2025, we're going to befocused on routines.
And so we're going to havedifferent routines.
We're going to focus on aquarter at a time.
So we're going to use theconcepts from the 12 week year.
So all through the year, we'reusing these skills.
(46:54):
We're using our organizingskills and our planning.
We're using them in declutteringand organizing and in the
projects that we're trying toaccomplish.
registration opens the 29th ofOctober And as soon as you join,
you get access this year as wellas next year.
So it's a year long program thatyou are a part of.
this year we did our first liveevent here in Kansas city.
(47:17):
I'm planning the live event fornext year.
we have an amazing group ofpeople in there that are
changing their life and all ofthem will say it's the mindset
piece.
Not only do I give them what tofocus on and teach them the
organizing skills, but it is themindset piece and how they're
now thinking of themselvesdifferently.
And they're gaining these skillsand getting better at it.
(47:39):
And it's great.
Yes.
I invite your listeners to joinus.
Yeah, I'll put a link in theshow notes for sure.
But yeah, I would almostdescribe it.
It's very practical, but it'salmost like a spiritual practice
too.
So to conquering overwhelm,you're just going to start
learning some tools to deal withanything that's overwhelming in
(48:00):
your life.
So learning to process that,manage it, having a productive
way to deal with it is reallyhelpful.
So I encourage, and like I saidit's not in my opinion, a huge
financial, no, it's scary.
It's almost, yeah.
Get in this year before the yearstarts and you're going to get
the best deal for sure.
Thank you for all of yourwonderful advice.
(48:22):
Okay.
Joe, thanks for having me somuch.
Thank you.
Hi everyone.
(00:00):
It's Joe with Couture Coachingtoday.
So today we have a specialguest, Tracy Hoth.
Tracy is an organizing expert.
And so I will let her describeher business and the services
that she provides but today weare going to talk about
Organization of meal planning.
I know that meal planning andtrying to figure out what's for
(00:21):
dinner is vaccine for almosteveryone, especially if you're a
busy mom with kids.
Especially if you're trying toimplement a new nutrition plan.
So Tracy is going to break itall down for us from an
organizational expert.
So Tracy, do you want tointroduce yourself?
Tell us where listeners can findyou and then Tell us what we're
going to talk about today.
(00:41):
Yeah.
So my name is Tracy Hoth.
My business is Simply SquaredAway and I've been helping
people organize since 2008.
I've went into people's homesand offices and in 2018 I got
certified as a life coach.
So now I'm really combining thepractical steps of organizing
with the mindset piece and theidentity piece and putting those
(01:06):
together to help people getorganized in their home and life
and also in their businesses.
But yes, I, we wanted to talkabout.
Organizing and let me just startby saying organization or being
organized just means that youknow what you have and you can
find it when you need it.
(01:28):
Super simple definition.
It doesn't mean it has to looklike all the Instagram pictures
or Pinterest, all those photos.
It doesn't mean that yourprocess has to look a certain
way.
It's just knowing what you haveand being able to find it when
you need it.
Okay, applying that to the mealplanning concept.
What this sounds like is simplymaybe knowing what's going to be
(01:50):
a dinner for maybe a set periodof days and having it in your
house.
The components of that in yourhouse and knowing we'll just
store it and where to find it.
So it really can be that simple.
And that's why you see peoplethat have, little boards up that
have their meals written onthem.
Like they know what they'regoing to have and they can find
it.
So yeah.
And they're having their kitchenorganized.
(02:10):
That's helpful in finding whatyou need for the meal, but all
of that, it can be very simplewhen you're Just start there.
It releases all this tensionthat organization looks a
certain way and you have to doit that way.
Yeah, I do want to step back andtalk just a little bit about the
mindset piece.
And I do think probablyorganization and then also
(02:32):
getting healthy or getting fit.
It really does start with yourmindset, right?
Because if you're listening tothis, telling yourself, I'll
never be able to meal plan.
I'm a disorganized mess.
It'll never change.
It's going to be so hard.
You can have all the practicalknow how, but if you're stuck in
that belief system, that's whereyou need to start first.
Do you agree with that?
(02:53):
Yes, totally.
And the organization steps thatI'll teach in just a minute help
you organize your mind in thatsituation.
So we can use these steps inevery area for a project, for
your stuff, for your digitalfiles, for every single thing,
we use the same exact steps.
So the more and more you usethat, the better and better you
(03:14):
get, but it also helps youorganize your mind.
Just like a space in your house.
You take all those thoughts out,all those beliefs that you have
and get them out.
You look at them, you decidewhich ones you want to keep,
which ones you want to get ridof, what new ones you want to
bring in, and then you assignhomes to them and decide, okay,
(03:36):
this is when I'm going to.
Think this and practice thisthought and find evidence for
this thought.
And you all of a sudden, have anorganized mind, but it like all
of it takes maintenance.
So you have to continually dothat in order to maintain the
organization in your mind.
Yeah.
You're going to tell us what thesteps are, how to organize.
(03:56):
Yes.
The five steps they spell theacronym spasm.
So goofy, but if your muscleshaving a spasm, you're going to
think about organizing now.
So the first step to organizinganything is to sort.
And it's a lot of people go intoorganizing, they decide they're
(04:17):
going to organize something andthey just, they start trying to
make a decision right away.
Don't start there.
Just start by sorting like itemswith like items.
And this releases, all thepressure of having to make
decisions on whether or notyou're keeping something.
And I say, just start with thefirst thing under the light
(04:39):
switch or the first thing yousee right in front of your toe,
pick that up and put it likewith and then the next step is
to purge.
Now you have piles of thingsthat are like items with like
items, and then you purge.
So you pick your favorites isone of the methods of purging is
to decide what you use and loveand then making decisions after
(05:02):
that.
And there's lots of questionsyou can ask and things you let
you could be thinking.
So for example, we justorganized our storage space and
in the purging process, I keptreminding myself, I could be a
hoarder and keep this item, eventhough I've had it for 15 years
(05:22):
and haven't used it, or I couldbe super abundant and generous
and allow someone else to use itright now.
And I kept thinking that thoughtand it was so helpful for me To
let go of things because Iwanted to bless someone else
with them and for them to beable to use it So purge, sort,
purge.
(05:42):
Now you have only what you'rekeeping.
So you're going to assign homes.
to everything that you have.
And this is the puzzle piece.
you may try something here.
You may not like it.
It may not be accessible.
So you might want to move itinto a different spot, but group
things in zones.
Maybe if you have a readingnook, have a reading basket and
(06:03):
a lamp and a pens and a littlecase of whatever you need for
that, or in the kitchen, have abaking zone and have all your
baking supplies in one, or Ihave a beverage drawer.
I try to keep beverages in thatdrawer, coffee, tea, like hot
cocoa, everything goes in thatdrawer.
And then the next step is to setlimits.
(06:23):
This is the step people usuallystart at.
They go by containers.
This is the containing step, orthe using drawer dividers or
getting shelves or furniturepieces that work.
But setting limits, don't dothat until you know what you
have and where it's going tolive.
Don't go buy any containers.
So now that you know where it'sliving, you know exactly what
(06:45):
size container you need.
So I might've thought, Oh, I'llput my beverages over by the
coffee maker, but they don't fiton that shelf, so I have them in
a drawer and now that I knowthey're going to be in that
drawer, I know what sizecontainer I want to put in that
drawer to separate them out orto contain them in different
ways.
And then the final step is tomaintain.
(07:09):
So sort, purge, assign homes,set limits, and then maintain.
So that might mean going backand checking your calendar every
night, you're maintaining yourcalendar.
Or the key thing for me is totie it to something you already
do.
So when I plug my phone in atnight, I look at my calendar for
the next day.
So that's the maintenance step.
(07:30):
Or when the seasons change wemight want to go back through
the organizing steps orsomething super simple.
When I grocery shop, I bring itinto the house and before I put
it into my refrigerator, I cleanout, wipe down the shelves.
Get rid of anything that's inthere.
That's not useful.
And so I'm maintaining theorganization in my refrigerator.
(07:53):
So those are the 5 steps.
Any questions on that?
No, we've talked about thisbefore that the probably.
The biggest.
Issue that maybe people have isthat maintenance piece is that
you never just get organized foronce and for all and how that's
really parallel to getting fitand staying healthy.
You don't get fit and thenabandon all of your habits.
(08:15):
This is really more of alifestyle.
I'm hearing you say the samething about being organized.
Things are always coming in.
We're bringing new things intoour house.
Kids are leaving and things areshifting and we might inherit
our parents stuff and now wehave all that stuff in our house
and what do we want to keep andmake room for and get rid of?
And it's just like life neverstands still, just like a
(08:37):
garden.
There's going to be weeds thatgrow up and we have to maintain
everything, but we can tie it tosomething that you do so that
it's less of a problem.
If that's not working and you'renot maintaining, put
appointments on your calendar tomake sure, and If you start at
the beginning it doesn't have totake a long time.
(08:59):
I think that's part of it.
We just don't plan for it, or wethink that it shouldn't have to
happen, or we think something'swrong with us because our spaces
don't stay organized and reallyit's just because we haven't
maintained it.
We haven't put that as apriority or appointment on our
calendar.
I think abandoning the idea thatyou're going to organize your
closet.
(09:19):
And it's then forever going tobe organized and purged and not
something you'll ever have torevisit.
So right.
Very valuable advice.
Now you're going to tell us howto apply all of this to meal
planning.
Yeah.
So let's look at it.
This works for any project thatyou want to create or do or
accomplish.
So you use the steps we do it.
(09:41):
Every month in Organized LifeAcademy, we have a planning call
where we use these exact stepsto plan our month, or we can use
them for a project.
I do this all the time.
Whenever I'm feelingoverwhelmed, I use the
organizing steps and I sort.
So the first step, if we'regonna create a meal plan, is to
(10:01):
sort.
And we're just gonna get Everystep, every idea, every thought
in our mind out on paper.
So you would just write outlike, what are the steps to meal
planning?
And if we walk through it, maybewe have to do an internet
search.
We need to plan each meal.
We need to find a meal plan orfind recipes.
(10:24):
We need to check the macros.
Maybe if we're tracking in thatsort of way for each recipe, we
need to find, recipes that havemacros already on them, and then
we need to create a grocerylist.
We need a grocery shop.
We need to prep the food.
Then we need to follow the plan.
And then we need to plan forobstacles.
(10:46):
The worst case thing that couldhappen on our meal plan.
We're going to have urges to eatsomething outside of what we
planned.
What are we going to do forthat?
So I am just trying to throweverything that I think of when
it comes to the meal planproject down on paper.
What's my current thought aboutmeal planning?
(11:08):
Hate doing this.
I want someone to do it for me.
All those thoughts you can writedown.
So when you have thesecategories, maybe there's a
category that you would sortinto called planning.
Maybe there's one calledexecuting.
Maybe there's one calledmindset.
Maybe there's one calledobstacles in the categories that
(11:31):
you put them in.
Don't really matter.
It's you.
Just.
getting it all out and saying,Oh, what's this and I want to
say, there's two ways.
You can just write all this downin a list.
And then go back through thelist and say, okay, this happens
pre, before the week starts.
This happens at the very firstday of the week.
(11:52):
This happens, here's theobstacles.
So you could sort it out afterthat.
Or you could get in the practiceof when you're sorting, you put
them into categories as you takethem out of your mind.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, I can see where you couldsort it by day of the week and
activity.
So maybe, Saturday is groceryshopping day and Sunday is meal
(12:19):
prep, like food prep, Monday,Wednesday.
Is some other part of the stepand then Friday would probably
be where the obstacles come inbecause you want to go out to
eat or things like that.
Yeah, I can see how you could doit by day of week or by task
type of task or, yeah, thing.
Yeah, so now that we haveeverything that has to do with
(12:39):
this project of meal planningdown on paper, the next step is
to purge.
So we're going to go backthrough.
If we have them in categoriesand try to purge, so I think if
I have a category of before theweek starts, like the planning
category, and I, when I think ofpurging, I like to think, okay,
(13:04):
could I delegate anything?
Could I delete something off thelist?
Is there something I can delaybecause I just don't have time
this week to do it?
I might delay it for next monthor next week, or is there
something for sure that I wantto do?
(13:24):
Maybe I decide I'm going todelete that and instead I'm
going to purchase a meal planthat's already made.
So you've just cut off maybe twohours of trying to figure out
what to plan and what to makefor each meal and then creating
a grocery list.
Maybe it's just I'm going tofind a meal plan that fits my
macros and I'm going to just buythe meal plan.
(13:45):
I will tell you.
I know the macros bloggers thatI follow all have many of these
options.
I know 1 has a cookbook thatit's called planned and it has a
shopping list for each week.
All the meals are going to taketo do what you're going to do
1st day of the week.
The 2nd day of the week.
Everything's already enteredinto my fitness pal.
Really.
You just have to execute.
It has all three meals.
(14:06):
Like I said, the shopping list,everything.
And so I'm just tellinglisteners most of the macros
bloggers have something likethis.
And it too, that you can buy ameal plan that get delivered to
your.
Yes, each month.
So there's certainly.
Ways that you can make thiseasier on yourself, right?
(14:28):
That's so cool to have that.
So let's say that's what youhave.
You need to look over the mealplan.
You need to decide I'm no wayeating that meal.
I need to substitute it forsomething else.
You still have steps you need todo, but they're different now.
Then that's the other thing Iwas going to say, when you're
the shopping and prepping stage,you could delegate that out and
(14:49):
hire your daughter to go buy thefood and prep it.
Or I know some mother, motherscome and prep their food, or you
would.
Keep that task.
Let's say you really like it andyou want to listen to a book
audio book during that time Soyou would keep that task.
So you're just gonna go througheach step each category and
(15:12):
delete delegate delay or dothose steps.
So now in each step you have theitems that you're going to do,
that you need to do.
So the next step, so we sortedand then we purged, and then the
next step is to assign homes.
This is the step where you pullout your calendar and you assign
(15:35):
an appointment for each of thetasks that you need to do.
And the next step is to setlimits When you're planning
time, these two steps aresomewhat connected.
So you're going to set the limitfor the time it's going to take
you to assign that task and todo the task.
Now at first you might have noidea, so you're just really
(15:57):
guessing.
It's going to take me an hourand a half to food prep and
really it takes three hours.
So after you do the task and yourealize my one and a half hour
appointment did not work for me,next time you'll know better
what to plan and you're justgoing to look at it curiously
and say, why didn't that work?
Because literally it takeslonger or because I was
(16:19):
distracted on my phone half thetime or because looking at
recipes on my phone didn't work.
And next time I want to printout a prep list in advance or
write it out, maybe that's why.
And so whatever adjustments needto make, you can make those
adjustments.
So you've set limit or you'veassigned homes on your calendar
(16:41):
and set a limit.
By giving the appointment a timeframe.
And then the final step is tomaintain.
So you're just going to go backto your calendar, go back to
your food plan.
And check in.
Am I on track?
Am I following my plan?
Yes.
Why?
No.
Why?
And make any adjustments thatyou need to.
(17:02):
Okay, a couple of questions foryou.
So in the sort phase, you talkedabout like thoughts that come up
or obstacles that come up.
So how do you advise yourclients to deal with those
things?
So maybe a thought is.
I freaking hate meal planningand this, I'll never like it, or
this is never going to work.
(17:23):
What do you, where do you assignthat?
What do you do with that?
And you have a whole category ofthoughts.
You've sorted those thoughts.
Yes.
Category.
What like practically speakingwhere do you go with them after
they've shown up in the sortingprocess?
One of my thoughts in thatcategory is I've tried this a
hundred times and I'm notfollowing it.
(17:43):
So I take those thoughts and Ithink, there's a few different
things I would say is just tolook at those and first say, are
they useful?
So is that helping me reach mygoals by continuing to think
about this?
Thought to continue to thinkthis and believe that this is
true.
And if it's not helping me toreach my goals, I can, now that
(18:06):
it's on paper, I see it and Ican realize how much it's
keeping me from the goal that Iwant to reach.
And so I might say to myself, Ilike to do this thing called
loosening thoughts.
And so if the thought is I hatemeal planning, the opposite of
that thought is I love mealplanning.
(18:27):
So when you think that.
immediately for me, resistancecomes up.
So you know that's not yourthought.
Then I like to, so the circle ismeal planning's in the center of
the circle.
That's the fact.
And your thought is I hate it.
Another option of a thought is Ilove it.
But there are about a hundredother options of thoughts that
(18:47):
you can think.
So I like to think about someonethat's really good at it.
What might they believe?
Meal planning helps me reach mygoals.
Meal planning is a time I takecare of myself.
I love doing what's best for mybody.
So you just make up a bunch ofthoughts.
Meal planning is I'm stewardingmy health the best that I can.
(19:12):
So you just start writing someoptions down and then test them
and see how does this one feelwhen I think I love doing what's
best for my body.
I believe that and I want thatso I can think that on purpose
versus I hate meal planning.
I may still not like mealplanning, but I love trying to
(19:36):
do what's best for my body.
So then you decide, okay.
I'm going to take those thoughtsI don't want to believe because
I know they're not helping meand I'm going to insert instead,
I'm going to make a home forthese other thoughts.
I like saying maybe.
So you think, I hate mealplanning when you sit down cause
(19:58):
it's your time to meal plan andyou're like, maybe, but maybe it
could be fun.
Like just being goofy with yourbrain and questioning it a
little bit and saying.
Maybe, or I hate meal planningright now, but I still am
someone who follows my calendar.
And that's what's on my calendarright now.
(20:19):
So you can add an ending to thesentence that you're believing
that's not useful and make itsome, turn it into something or
add a part of it that is helpfulor loosens the hatred up a
little bit that you have.
And talking with you, you haveone of your favorite thoughts as
well.
Might as well.
(20:40):
I think probably all of this isso anxiety provoking because
we're imagining That we're goingfrom 0 to preparing a Martha
Stewart table scape everyevening for our family.
And that's not really it doesn'thave to look like that.
Or I would guess most people's.
Mule planning does not actuallylook like that, but the might as
well just takes the pressureoff.
(21:02):
You get credit for even trying.
So I like that one as anantidote to can't do it
perfectly.
So why even try?
So that's one given me that Ireally like.
We talked about that in yourgroup.
Yes.
You have a thought and then youthink, but I might as well.
Might as well do it right now.
Might as well.
It's on my calendar, that isfun.
(21:22):
So it sounds like with some ofthe thoughts and such maybe they
go and you look at them and youdecide to delete them because
you realize they're not helpfulor you're just aware and they go
in a category and you just knowthey're going to come up.
And maybe you have an antidotefor them.
But they don't get to supplantthe calendar appointment you've
made with yourself to chopvegetables or whatever.
(21:44):
I think it probably helps yourbrain see Oh, that's really not
a reason to blow off, doing thefood prep because I was just in
this other category and it'sprobably not true anyway.
Or have you ever heard where youcan say, okay, I've been doing
this in my business.
Like sometimes you just want toquit.
And so I think someone suggestedthat I wait to think those
(22:05):
thoughts until five o'clock,like when I finished working in
my business, if that thoughtcomes up, I'm like, Nope, I
gotta wait till five o'clock.
Nope.
I can't do that till fiveo'clock.
And so it's just my way ofbuffering is to think the
thought.
about quitting.
And so I pushed that off untilfive.
(22:25):
And then at five, I don't evenremember that I was going to
think that, but at least mybrain has an option to put it,
or some people do that in theshower or they have a worry
hour.
You could have a hate mealplanning hour.
You think that at 7 PM onMondays.
And then, okay, what happens?
So this might get into theobstacles, like when you've
(22:47):
sorted and you come up withobstacles, which is kid gets
sick.
Baseball game runs longemergency meeting comes up.
So what happens as you're goingalong with your plan and you
can't stick to it?
something comes in from leftfield.
And I would say probably formost people, this is going to
(23:07):
happen at least once a week.
So what do you do with thoseobstacles?
When you're planning a projector planning using the steps to
organize anything, you thinkbest case scenario.
This is how it's going to go.
This is how it's going to look.
But then you always go to worstcase scenario.
So worst case scenario, allthose things you mentioned are
going to happen when you'replanning.
(23:27):
You want to consider all thosethings and plan for them in
advance.
So maybe that means that, thatyou're going to have at least
two meals that are grab and gotype of meals.
And those are, you don't planthose for Tuesday and Thursday
necessarily, but you plan thoseand have those as options for
(23:47):
when the obstacle comes up.
So it's something really easy.
What were some of your otherobstacles?
Just meeting runs long kid getssick.
Just, you don't feel like it.
That's probably a more realisticobstacle to or one that maybe we
don't want to admit is a realobstacle, but probably
something, like it just soundsbetter to go down to the
neighborhood grill and get aburger and a beer.
(24:09):
Yes.
I go down for lunch every dayand I'm like, Oh, I don't want
to eat a vegetable.
This doesn't sound good.
easy meals versus the otherthing or cooking two meals on
Monday night so that you haveone ready in case something
happens during the week orcooking like a huge batch of
soup every Sunday night forthose meals where you need
(24:31):
something quick.
But then the other part of thatis the thought process or the, a
thought obstacle, so you'regoing to have a thought
obstacle.
All of these, no the ones arereally practical.
Like your game runs over or ameeting comes up.
Those are practical.
But then the thought obstaclefor me is I don't want to eat
that.
And what am I going to do when Ifeel that obstacle to have a
(24:54):
plan in place?
So I am going to walk over.
And maybe inside my cabinetdoor, I have some thoughts that
I'm intentionally practicingthinking, like I love doing
what's best for my body.
Even when I don't feel likeeating vegetables, I might have
that thought taped up there.
So every time I go down into mykitchen and I have that thought,
(25:15):
I'm going to open the cabinetdoor.
That doesn't mean I'm going tochange what I do necessarily.
I don't have to believe that I'mjust going to go to the cabinet
door, open it up.
Take three deep breaths, readthe thoughts that I want to
practice believing, and thenmake a decision after that.
So even mindset plans that youhave in place can be super
(25:38):
helpful for overcoming thoseobstacles, the thought
obstacles..
Because it's get your brain intoproblem solving mode.
It just gets it out of its rut,which is really the first step.
First step actually is awarenessthat you're even having the yes.
Maybe they're not true.
It may feel true in the moment,but there may be something else
(25:59):
equally true.
And then letting your brain goto at least a different space
rather than being in this oldcycle of, Oh, that salad that I
planned doesn't sound good.
So I'm going to hop in the carand run to Chick fil A or
something like that.
I think that's also a key tosuccess.
Successful meal planning is worksome fun stuff into your meal
plan.
(26:19):
I make it a balance of thingsthat healthy, but also things
that you enjoy.
I know for me, realistically,we're going to eat out probably
at least one night during theweekend.
And so there's less guiltassociated with it.
I probably will make betterdecisions when I get to the
restaurant, if I know that it'snot, I'm not doing something bad
or I'm not such a, when it's,everything is happening by
(26:41):
default, then you tend to notfeel good about your choices.
if you plan some of thosethings, I think into the week,
your chances for success aregoing to be so much better.
Yeah.
And you can think of a lot ofthis.
A lot of this is the journey andit's the skill that you're
creating, the skill of using theorganizing steps, the skill of
(27:02):
planning a meal, because it's askill you're going to need for
the rest of your life.
So might as well look at thisjourney of practicing these
things as a skill you'redeveloping and being really,
Present in the moment, notthinking you're just trying to
get it done.
You can think I'm developing myskill right now.
(27:23):
Remind me the 80% rule is if youcan follow your plan and, follow
this project process 80%, that'sa win.
Like you're, you don't have tothink all or nothing.
That's a win to do that.
The other thought I had wastracking your obstacle thoughts.
(27:45):
If in your, I always like to useinside the cabinet door just
because nobody sees it.
Your kitchen stays neat, but youhave a place for it.
So you open and it's just apiece of paper taped in there.
You have the thoughts you wantto be practicing at the top, but
what if you start writing downthe thoughts that come up that
keep you from following yourplan, your obstacle thoughts,
(28:07):
and you just keep track of them.
It's fun to see and measure howyour brain is changing.
And maybe their top three alwayscome up no matter what.
So you know to expect that.
But maybe, one of them startsgoing away and the other one
you're planning for startsshowing itself stronger and so
(28:28):
you can see your progress.
It's so fun to be able to seeit.
So that's a way to overcome ormake it more of a.
I think the other thing I knowit's just a lesson that I keep
learning over and over is thatGetting into action and
ultimately change your thoughts.
So I know that before I got intokind of got my health together.
(28:49):
And before I got intobodybuilding the choice of
eating protein at breakfast or adonut.
The donut always sounded better.
It doesn't mean I always ate itbut that's what sounded better
and sounded more, Enjoyable tome in the moment.
Now, I won't say that an eggwhite omelet sounds better than
a donut right now, but I wouldnow choose the omelet because I
know how I'm going to feel forthe rest of the day.
(29:11):
And It's more valuable to me tohave good energy to have
stabilized blood sugar.
Like I make different choicesnow because I've taken action
that lets me experience whatdifferent choices gives you, if
that makes sense.
So sometimes some of this isjust a huge experiment and you
might hate meal planning now.
(29:32):
A month, two months from now,you might say I just still don't
really love meal planning, but Iknow what it gives me.
And so it's totally worth doingit.
And I will choose to do it, butyou will never know that if you
don't give it a try.
Yeah.
You're developing a skill.
It's such a good use of yourtime versus spending the same
amount of time being stressedout over not knowing what you're
(29:54):
going to eat or being mad atyourself for not having the food
you need in your house.
So there is the same amount oftime spent, maybe even more on
the negative side versus justdoing the meal planning part of
it.
Yeah and I will say as a healthand nutrition and fitness coach
I would say the biggest obstaclethat the clients that I work
(30:16):
with have, in terms of getting,having success nutrition is
always the thing.
That is the thing that is, it's90 percent of weight loss or
changing your body is nutrition.
It just is.
and that is really the biggestobstacle for most people.
They don't know how to cook.
They don't know how to getgroceries in their house.
If you say you need to eat ahundred grams of protein a day,
(30:36):
they're like, I don't even knowwhat that means.
I don't even know what to dowith protein.
What is protein?
I don't cook protein.
They're just no.
Practical skills in the kitchen.
They may be amazing and, make500, 000 in their professional
career, but like totallydeficient in this area.
And it's a real confidencekiller.
(30:56):
And I don't think that you'regoing to get a handle on that
until you get some skills in thekitchen.
I'm not saying that you have tobecome a gourmet chef.
But there does need to be someplanning and having healthy food
in your kitchen.
So it's a non negotiable.
And the other thing, if you're aparent listening to this, it's
the best life skill that you canteach your children, nourishing
(31:17):
your body, it's a nonnegotiable.
Everyone has to eat, everyonehas to give their bodies fuel.
And so even if you hate it, ifyou can give your child some
good habits around this, youwill set them up for a really,
this will impact their healthfor the rest of their lives.
Yeah.
And that just shows you, you canhave such compassion over it for
(31:37):
yourself.
And even with organizing, a lotof people, they're like, nobody
ever teaches you how to do it.
If you didn't have a parent thatwas teaching you how to cook,
it's not something younecessarily learn.
so be so compassionate withyourself through this process
and through developing theseskills, because There's no
(31:57):
reason why you should know howto do it, but you want to reach
a goal in your life.
And it takes learning some ofthese skills.
It's going to be a process andyou're just going to follow the
steps over and over until youget better and better at it.
That's another point is you canuse learning how to meal plan
and organizing your meal plan asjust a way to learn how to
(32:18):
organize better.
Lots of skills and life skillsthat we can be developed through
this process.
Okay maybe we can end with justsome, if we can both share some
practical tips that we mighthave around meal planning and
getting dinner on the tableevery night.
So would you like to go first?
We just thrown out some ideas.
I did just read someone thatsaid, I want to get 30 grams of
(32:41):
protein in the morning before Idrink my coffee.
And this morning I had 20minutes before I was meeting my
daughter to work out.
And I was like I'm not going todo it.
Like I didn't do it.
And I was like, why?
I should have just had someprotein first thing.
But I thought that was, that'ssuch a fun kind of game to play.
I'm going to get 30 grams ofprotein in before I have my
coffee.
(33:01):
So that's one tip that I amtrying to put into practice.
Okay.
So meal planning.
I like to, now my kids are now20 to 25.
So my two girls still live athome, but what my husband and I
do now, which is different thanwhen I planned all the meals and
had all the kids home was we tryto plan out four meals.
(33:23):
And then we get all thegroceries for those four meals.
so to go back to that, we're notstrict on what day we have the
meals.
We do what we feel like orwhatever, but we have all the
ingredients for those fourmeals.
The other thing I've been doingis I have two options for
breakfast.
Either an egg, something, oroatmeal, or some sort of like
(33:44):
grain type thing.
And then for lunch, I try to dothe same.
So any way that I can reducedecision fatigue on what to eat,
but I don't have it necessarilyplanned out, more strict plan
versus just having those optionsthere.
And there was something else Iwas going to say.
Oh, and what I've been doinglately is at the end of a week
(34:06):
or two weeks, I just throweverything in a pot, all the
leftovers and make soup.
And literally it's blown my mindhow I've done this probably, I
don't know, the last, fivemonths or something every single
time.
It's amazing.
And I always think this is notgoing to be good and it is so
delicious.
(34:27):
And we eat off of it for acouple of days.
We take it to my the three otherpeople in my house go to school
or work.
And so they take it for lunchesand then we eat it for dinner at
least once or twice.
And so it's been so fun.
I think at my house.
That might cause food poisoning.
stuff that gets left over in myfridge, but that's why I have to
(34:48):
do it every two weeks beforesomething goes bad.
That's funny.
that's a good idea though.
I will give you six, like kindof practical ways.
Oh yes.
I can't wait.
Easy nutrition.
So it.
And my couture coaching, our bigthing is protein, at least a
hundred grams a day.
so if you don't love eatingprotein, my number one tip is
drink your protein.
(35:09):
From your protein shakes, fairlife shakes, I have a protein
coffee every morning and it isliterally the easiest it's all
pre made.
I take like cold brew coffee,put it over ice.
Pour a protein shake over it andmix put a cold foam on it and
just drink it down while I'mgetting ready while I'm on my
way to the gym.
Easy way to get in 30 grams ofprotein.
(35:29):
Okay, wait, when you say aprotein shake, do you just mean
like protein powder or is itliquid already?
So like premier protein thoseare like the little containers.
Okay.
Yes.
I love that.
And honestly, this to me tasteslike something I would get at
Starbucks.
And it's like I said, it's aneasy way to get 30 grams of
protein in.
(35:49):
So drink your protein.
You can make it your own, youcan use protein powder and put
some almond milk or milk in itand, blend it up and make it
that way, What I'm saying islike a straw in the I can drink
things much faster with a straw.
So that's just to me, or thatyou could have this in the
afternoon as a snack.
So drink your protein.
Yeah.
Protein shakes are a greatsource of protein.
(36:12):
And just an easy way to get in30 grams.
And there's really very little,if you buy the shakes pre made,
there's no excuse.
Most of them are also shelfstable.
So you can throw one in yourpurse.
Okay.
This makes me think, I wonderif, cause I make, we have a very
good.
Espresso machine.
And so I make an espresso latteevery morning and I'm in love
(36:33):
with it and it's hot.
So especially going into winter,I wonder if you can froth or
steam a protein shake, can you?
And then I could add my.
My shot to that.
Yeah, you can just, I would do apre made shake that way, like a
and just put it in your milksteamer.
Yeah.
(36:53):
Okay.
I'm going to try that.
I will let you know.
It's a large amount of liquid,so you'll probably have to play
with it a little bit, but Yeah.
Just, it's the key with proteinshakes is heating them up.
I think the pre made shakes heatup a little bit better than
using a protein powder.
It can get gloppy, but yeah, Ihave steamed, I have a milk
(37:18):
frother, I have steamed proteinshakes.
I need to cut it with somethingthat's not sweet.
I don't like super sweet coffeeor, teas or anything like that.
So I always use like a non sweetcold foam or something or just
some regular milk or almond milkto cut the sweetness a little
bit.
Okay.
So when you say cold foam, youmean like you foam something or
do you buy cold foam?
(37:39):
You can buy it and like rightnow I have a pumpkin spice cold
foam.
Now that's a little bit sweet,but you can buy cold foam at the
grocery store.
It's comes like in a can, like awhipping cream But So drink your
protein.
Costco has some great mealoptions.
It's usually like Kevin's orother brands.
The macros are really amazing.
And some I've looked at some ofthe things and I couldn't beat
them at home.
And so I always have two orthree in the freezer.
(38:01):
There's an Indian chicken that Iget at Costco that my kids love,
And I always have non like fromTrader Joe's on hand and that's
a meal that comes together inabout 3 minutes as long as it
takes to heat the meal.
And it's really high in protein.
I also always keep a big bag ofbroccoli, from Costco, they come
in 3 or 4 servings and you justliterally throw them in the
(38:22):
microwave.
Rice, broccoli, and some of theIndian chicken at Costco is a
full meal and gets on the tablequickly.
So I always have that as anoption.
I love that.
I'm taking notes.
Yeah.
Cause we shop at Costco and weusually buy meals from there,
but I don't know that I've evertried Kevin's Indian chicken.
So I can't wait.
That's not Kevin's, but if youjust go and look at, You want at
(38:43):
least like 20 to 30 grams ofprotein per serving, but there's
great options.
Yeah.
So I make all my meals do doubleduty.
So it really takes no more timeto cook a double batch of soup
than it does a single.
And so I might freeze the otherhalf or we'll just have it for
two meals in a row.
my family will eat leftovers orI'll eat it for lunch, If I'm
(39:03):
going to make a soup or acasserole or anything that
requires, any prep, I double it.
I'm used to cooking for a lot,but now everyone takes a lunch,
so if I don't make a lot, nobodywants to make a sandwich
anymore.
so we always have leftovers.
My fourth tip is delegate.
Actually I think it's a tallorder to do all of your shopping
(39:25):
well.
It would be a tall order to findyour recipes.
List out all the ingredients, dothe shopping and then come home
and food prep.
That's in my opinion, way toomuch to do in one day, not a
reasonable expectation, but youcan split that up in some ways.
And like I delegate, my husbandis not a good cook.
He literally cannot.
Even really boil water, but hecan go to Costco.
(39:46):
So I delegate like Costco to myhusband and just tell him what
to get.
And that's one part of the stepI don't have to do.
So anything, even if you havesome non cooks in your home, or
maybe you're the non cook so youcan ask your husband like, Hey.
If I come up with a list ofmeals, or can we come up with a
list of meals together, I'll godo the grocery shopping.
If you will prep it, you cansplit it up that way to make it
(40:09):
a little less overwhelming.
The next one though, is I do,I'm almost cook all of my meals
from, I have three or fourmacros, black bloggers that I
love.
All their stuff is in my fitnesspal.
So if you're tracking, you'renot going to be putting an
entire recipe into my fitnesspal and trying to figure out the
macros.
I learned that a long time agothere, the food is delicious.
(40:33):
It's just has a great likenutrient profile.
So most of their.
Options are going to be higherin protein, lower in fat,
reasonable amount of carbs.
And so that's mainly where Icook from.
And I've done dinner parties,cooking that food and people are
like, Oh my gosh, where did youfind that recipe?
So that's really key.
Don't make it harder on yourselfthan you need to let someone
(40:53):
else, those macros bloggers havedone the work.
That's part of it.
Brand is to have all the macroscalculated for you and an easy
entry in my fitness pal.
I think that's the biggestobstacle for me because I want
to, reach a couple of goals.
And my biggest obstacle isentering into my fitness pal.
So the time in my past that Ihave had the most success was
(41:15):
when the meals were already inthere.
So do you share those bloggersor do you share your favorites
or I'll share three right now.
I love Lily eats and tells Ilove her.
Recipes.
Oh, snap macros is anotherblogger that I love.
And then Lauren fit foodie.
Oh, I think all three of themhave some sort of meal planning
(41:36):
service that it's veryaffordable.
That they've organized it, youget a shopping list, you get
meals.
And sometimes I think decisionfatigue sets in and I'm like
that looks good, but do I reallywant to try it?
But if they're just saying thisis what you're going to cook for
the week, here's the shoppinglist.
You'll probably try some newrecipes that you love and never
realize that you loved.
(41:56):
Yeah.
My last tip is I have three orfour breakfast bakes that I just
put on repeat.
So one is I, like my biggest tipfor getting protein in the
morning is to make your oatmealwith egg whites, which means
you're standing next to themicrowave or I just bake it.
I make it like an oatmeal eggwhite bake.
It's literally pouring packetsof instant oatmeal and then
(42:20):
three quarters of a cup of eggwhites for each packet, mixing
it up, throwing it in the ovenfor three 50, you can add stuff
to it, like pumpkin or cheeseseeds or things like that.
And I have a biscuits and gravybake.
That's like high protein.
And so I just.
Rotate through those because tome, getting breakfast in and
getting to the gym in themorning and getting to work on
(42:42):
time, I don't really have a lotof time, to make a gourmet
breakfast.
So yeah, I don't really care.
It's just breakfast to me as aprotein delivery device.
This is my protein deliverydevice.
I love it.
Yeah, so those are my tips it'sreally, in like my lifestyle,
it's getting enough protein andgetting the right kind of food
(43:02):
in my body.
this has changed because the 1stcoach I ever worked with fitness
coach gave me a meal plan.
And I gave that meal plan themiddle finger.
I was like, no way this does notsound good.
But now I'm to the point that nothis is worth.
Yeah, it's worth eating thisfood and most people don't eat
that much of a variety of food.
(43:23):
So you can find six or sevenrecipes and put them on repeat.
Yeah, that's probably whatyou're eating anyway.
So that's my tip.
I love cooking and I lovehealthy food.
I also love junk food.
But I love getting on a plan.
I love having a plan becausethen I don't have to think and
(43:45):
that's with anything.
I always want someone else tojust tell me what to do because
it's so much easier.
This has been great.
I do want to end with I, again,another thing that really
stymies my clients from gettingresults is their life is very
chaotic.
There's an organization thatneeds to happen in a lot of
different facets of life just tobe able to have the time and
(44:06):
space to devote to their healthand wellness goals.
So I recently joined yourorganization coaching.
I haven't come live to any ofthe calls I've listened to them,
but like for this month we'refocusing on the garage now.
I have not done everything onyour list, but what I was able
to do during this month isdefrost the freezer and purge
(44:30):
that in my garage, which now.
I don't want to cry every time Iwalk by it.
I think there was like somemanifesting here because we had
this table that we were tryingto sell.
I got a new kitchen table.
Not even one person interested,but as soon as I joined your
program, we started focusing onthe garage buyer came from
Facebook and just showed up withthis truck and paid me for it
(44:51):
and took it off.
So I've gotten kind of two bigthings done in the garage.
I did go through and make a listof things that needed to get
done this month.
Just did a, brain dump of allthe things that needed, and I
sorted them.
So you are good.
Look at you.
So this doesn't look likeperfection out of the box, but
do you want to tell people aboutthat service that you offer?
(45:13):
I really like it cause it's verylow pressure.
I feel like do as much as, or aslittle as you want.
It's not a huge.
Financial investment, but itjust keeps you focused and like
moving along.
I'm sure the more I put into it,the more I will get out of it,
but I think this will be veryhelpful for people who are just
overwhelmed by their life.
Maybe everything has crashed.
(45:33):
They feel like their house is amess.
Their health is a mess and theyjust don't even know where to
start.
They're so overwhelmed.
So do you want to tell us aboutyour food service?
The program is called OrganizedLife Academy and 2025 we'll be
starting our fifth year of doingthis program.
So I've tried different thingsevery year.
I changed things up a littlebit.
(45:53):
This year has definitely been myfavorite because each month I
choose the area.
Now you're always open to chooseanything you want, but having
the area and I make a calendarthat we're decluttering and I
put tasks on there.
Some of the ladies in thereprint that.
Calendar out, they put it in asheet protector, they hang it in
the area.
(46:14):
And they, the focus isdecluttering.
We always have a mindset focusas well.
So we're looking at some part ofour mindset in our life and
we'll have an expert guest atthe beginning of every month.
We have a planning call.
So we're planning our month andthat doesn't mean we have to
plan something every day of themonth.
(46:34):
It just means we're intentionalabout what we're organizing and
what we're focused on.
In 2025, we're going to befocused on routines.
And so we're going to havedifferent routines.
We're going to focus on aquarter at a time.
So we're going to use theconcepts from the 12 week year.
So all through the year, we'reusing these skills.
(46:54):
We're using our organizingskills and our planning.
We're using them in declutteringand organizing and in the
projects that we're trying toaccomplish.
registration opens the 29th ofOctober And as soon as you join,
you get access this year as wellas next year.
So it's a year long program thatyou are a part of.
this year we did our first liveevent here in Kansas city.
(47:17):
I'm planning the live event fornext year.
we have an amazing group ofpeople in there that are
changing their life and all ofthem will say it's the mindset
piece.
Not only do I give them what tofocus on and teach them the
organizing skills, but it is themindset piece and how they're
now thinking of themselvesdifferently.
And they're gaining these skillsand getting better at it.
(47:39):
And it's great.
Yes.
I invite your listeners to joinus.
Yeah, I'll put a link in theshow notes for sure.
But yeah, I would almostdescribe it.
It's very practical, but it'salmost like a spiritual practice
too.
So to conquering overwhelm,you're just going to start
learning some tools to deal withanything that's overwhelming in
(48:00):
your life.
So learning to process that,manage it, having a productive
way to deal with it is reallyhelpful.
So I encourage, and like I saidit's not in my opinion, a huge
financial, no, it's scary.
It's almost, yeah.
Get in this year before the yearstarts and you're going to get
the best deal for sure.
Thank you for all of yourwonderful advice.
(48:22):
Okay.
Joe, thanks for having me somuch.
Thank you.
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