Episode 104: Can Meal Prep be a Part of an Intuitive Eating Lifestyle?
Listen to the episode
Watch on YouTube
Episode Description
In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah dive into the concept of meal prepping (and meal planning). When you hear these phrases, you probably have some preconceptions already appearing in your head of what this should look like. The girls break down how to make this concept not seem as overwhelming and provide helpful tips to make life a bit easier for you.
-
0:33
Hello everybody welcome back to a Brand's banking new episode of the upbeat dietitians podcast
0:39
hello everyone we are so excited to chat with you guys again today we're going to
0:45
be talking about all things meal prepping and meal planning we've dabbled
0:51
in this a little bit before but we're gonna really hone in on kind of like can you incorporate these into an intuitive
1:00
eating lifestyle that doesn't turning to a domino effect into some
1:07
disorder eating or any obsessions there it'll be a fun one not anything too wild
1:14
but I feel like meal prepping can be kind of intimidating so we're going to talk about it a little bit more
1:21
so let's just start off with like what is meal prepping slash what is meal
1:27
planning and this is a very vague statement and in the world of dietetics that's just kind
1:34
of where we live in that fun great space it depends
1:40
that should be our um what was it good vibes and diversity
1:45
yeah it depends let's just change it it depends I know I always tell patients and clients I'm like I know you're gonna
1:51
hate this answer but it depends and they're like they groan yeah I say it
1:57
probably every day to every patient at least once yeah or like no it's not ex you don't have to be
2:05
extreme or yeah that's always when but anywho anywho let's not or already but
2:15
I'm sure like when you hear meal prepping right now I want you to think about like what do you imagine when you
2:21
hear the word or the phrase meal prep what do you imagine like what would the
2:27
old version of you imagine I guess I'll ask you that the old version of me given our history of
2:34
being too Tai Che enthusiasts if you don't know who tayche is she is a Purdue
2:42
Alum but you probably if you do know her you know her more from her social media
2:47
presence um are we gonna call her an influencer oh for sure yeah she has a degree in
2:54
dietetics but never became a dietitian yeah and she has like a clothing line athletic wear line now yes
3:02
but she was really into bodybuilding and I if I heard meal prep like I would
3:07
religious where would they even watch those because I don't think I watched her YouTube that often but I knew what
3:13
she was maybe I did watch her I watched her YouTube and I don't I don't watch many like influences on YouTube so we
3:19
were like we were hardcore fans we've been there before the proposal
3:26
literally that's kind of crazy to think about we are we know too much about her
3:31
life but I would imagine the tupperware's of
3:38
prepped food and I imagine them like I would never do this but remember when
3:44
they bring like food on vacation and their coolers and like they would like
3:51
pre like they would package protein powders like into Ziploc baggies yeah and they'd measure them out and
3:57
everything yeah and we're saying they we're including Steve her her husband in there too yes they've been together
4:04
since we've been following yes oh yes we we were there when her sister
4:09
Chloe was there I'd see Chloe at the gym all the time at Purdue at Purdue yeah Bobby actually
4:16
had a class with her I think oh yeah yeah so we're quite close this is so
4:22
irrelevant to anyone listening to us who has no idea who they are this is way too Niche but if any soaked enough
4:30
um I feel like a lot of purdudes would recognize her name but I mean I feel like if I like you know like on
4:36
Instagram you go to someone's page you can see who of your like friends follows them a ton of people that we know follow
4:41
her yeah but it's kind of wild to think that we I never had a conversation with any of
4:47
them but it we were in the vicinity yeah
4:54
it's pretty crazy crazy stuff so anyway yeah that's what I picture too when I
4:59
always talk to patients of clients about meal planning and prepping I always say I know you probably envisioned like
5:05
big old bodybuilders with just gobs of muscle spending all day Sunday making their chicken broccoli and rice and
5:13
that is one version of meal prep and if that works for you it really does that's great
5:18
but that's not for everybody we'll kind of go over why it can be kind of harmful to do it that way and why you maybe feel
5:24
like if you have tried to do it the way that you've envisioned it should be done air quotes on the should it's felt like
5:30
it hasn't worked for you but there is a version of meal planning and prepping that does work for you I can describe
5:36
this later but I always talk about it as like a spectrum like there is the far
5:42
end of the the bodybuilders and the chicken broccoli and rice it's also like someone who just simply gets groceries
5:48
and like that's their version of like their planning and prep for the week and that's okay too yeah it's doesn't have to be wild but
5:55
that's a spoiler alert so let's talk about exactly like how it can feel
6:00
really restrictive and potentially lead to some
6:06
not super healthy behaviors so
6:12
it can first and foremost like just meal preppy in general can set really unrealistic expectations so
6:19
if like you feel really overwhelmed and stressed out just like thinking about meal prepping and then you start to do
6:25
and you're like oh my gosh I need to make all of my lunches for the next four
6:31
to five days I'm gonna have my chicken rice and broccoli that because we're just really honing in on that meal nothing there's nothing wrong with that
6:38
meal it can taste very good but that's what we think of um you can also maybe like expect
6:44
yourself to cook every single night you're like I'm gonna cook seven days a
6:49
week this week um little do you know that like maybe you're gonna have a really late night
6:56
shift a night and you won't have the energy or or you do know that you go in
7:01
knowing that but you're gonna be like Oh I'm still gonna cook like stuff like that where you're not
7:07
just necessarily giving yourself Grace on those days um you might not allow yourself to eat
7:14
out if you like really get into meal prepping you're like committing you're like no more eating out we're gonna
7:19
start saving money and I'm only gonna eat things that I cook
7:25
as we talk about I'm like eating out plays a huge component like your social
7:31
life and trying different Cuisines and also like when you are tired and don't
7:37
want to do anything it can be a great option for our convenience that's that standpoint as well in time yeah uh where
7:44
you don't have to spend like 45 minutes cooking it's ready in 10 minutes or 20 minutes
7:50
um and then something else with the unrealistic expectations meal prepping can set is like expecting yourself
7:57
to have a taste for everything you planned out I feel like this is kind of be this can be kind of tricky because
8:02
like you don't know how you're feeling in four days but if you're planning out for it or if
8:09
especially like I can say this because I grew up this way where like I can eat the same thing
8:16
for lunch for six months straight and I will be okay
8:22
I feel like there's something missing in my head
8:30
that allows me to do that so this will be okay with that yeah something's not
8:36
right up there um but expecting yourself to be able to like
8:42
eat your five chicken rice and rock meals if like you'd never done that before might not be the most realistic
8:49
yeah yeah I want to kind of back up for a second and specify the difference
8:54
between like meal planning and meal prepping because I feel like they often get used interchangeably and I know it
9:00
might sound so obvious but of course like the meal planning is like planning out what your meals are going to be
9:06
that's step one so like figuring out and again it's a Spectra we'll talk about it later too but like whatever degree of
9:12
meal planning you do picking out whatever meals you've got to pick out that has to happen before you first go
9:19
to the grocery store is actually step two so it kind of goes meal planning shopping and then meal prepping is like
9:25
once you actually have the food to prep so even we might kind of use these things interchangeably but they are a
9:32
little bit different and like the amount of like meal planning
9:37
and meal prepping you do every week can look different if you even decide to do like a weekly routine
9:42
some prefer to like plan their whole month of meals out and they maybe do like their prep every four to five days
9:48
based on like the plan they have that I guess does go back to the whole Spectrum thing where like your version's
9:53
gonna look different but um I think if you are trying to like maybe like start from scratch figure out
9:59
like kind of your best version of all this I would think about the planning and the prepping piece
10:05
pieces separately to kind of figure out like which parts of each of those is going to work
10:11
best for you does that kind of make sense yeah it definitely does and I think that's a good clarification to
10:17
make because like it's in the name but it is good to like
10:23
differentiate like the plan comes first yeah there's the action of attaining the
10:29
food and then the prep with with and like there's a lot that can happen
10:34
in both of them exactly like all these steps look different for you versus like
10:40
me and also like even like dated or not day to day like weeks a week it'll look different too for most people let's talk
10:45
about our next point of how the meal prepping can feel restrictive so Emily went over a few great examples of like
10:52
just creating those unrealistic expectations but of course I think time is one that I hear a lot they're like I
10:58
just don't have the time of day to meal prep which if you're thinking about the scenario of all day Sunday
11:06
making all your meals for the week of course you probably don't have time for that that's a crazy amount of time you've just been to do all that
11:13
um so again if you are kind of starting from scratch if this episode's inspiring you to reevaluate your meal planning and
11:19
prepping routine I would ask yourself first like how much time do you have if
11:25
it's 10 minutes for like the actual prep like you have 10 minutes that's totally fine
11:31
um I think it's again being realistic with yourself and just thinking like what could I actually do in those 10
11:36
minutes that would still be helping me like the whole point of this is to actually alleviate future stress not
11:41
make your life more stressful so if just the thought of all day Sunday is adding
11:47
just gobs of stress to your life that's not helpful the reason why those Jim Bros who do spend all day Sunday doing
11:55
it is because likely it is helping them alleviate the future stress of like deciding their meals later in the week
12:01
that could work for them now there's definitely a lot of cases probably where it is disordered eating they just don't know it
12:07
um but I'm sure there's cases too where that truly is like their perfect version and that's okay
12:13
oh yeah did you know it is I think a national men's Mental Health Awareness
12:20
Month oh I did not know that I found this out recently I stumbled upon it in
12:26
a way that was not a good way to stumble upon it because it was being utilized as a weapon against women's Mental Health
12:33
but no we're that's that's a whole thing I know I know but I feel like this is good to note so
12:41
happy National men's mental health awareness month as we bring up the Jim Bros who
12:46
are stuck and also a victim of the patriarchy and feel like
12:54
they need to be as big and swole I've also never used the words you have been
13:00
like really expanding your vocabulary I don't know about the ways we want it's
13:06
really much like the Gen z words that I feel like you're pulling out or like the really old Millennial words you've pulled some of those out
13:13
going all over the Spectrum yeah I'm showing my age I guess but like
13:19
which one like are you an old Millennial or like a little gen Z I don't know I don't know either I don't know but yes
13:27
I second that we actually have an episode coming out not till July but it's all about bigoraxia which is
13:33
exactly that like that desire to a fault to like get as big as possible so stay
13:39
tuned for that one in July with a really great guys exciting but yeah I think the time is the biggest
13:45
thing time is a resource that just like doesn't get factored in enough
13:50
whenever like it comes to nutrition especially it takes time to like do all
13:55
this planning and prep but again the whole point is to alleviate future stress so
14:01
I think it is important to like find a version of this that works for you instead of just neglecting it and then you end up just eating whatever and it's
14:09
stressful to not know what you're gonna eat all week um but it shouldn't be to the degree that is just like
14:14
taking a whole day away from you and your family or whatever else you like to do it's again supposed to be a helpful thing I feel like the last point about
14:21
how meal prepping can feel really restrictive is something we've been talking about constantly already is like
14:27
the Tupperware cage and like the Tupperware trap the Tupperware trap I
14:33
love that I'm totally gonna use that from now on yes um but like only imagining like your
14:39
chicken rice and veggies in your little Tupperware is piled up in your fridge across and that's all you're gonna eat
14:46
like it's does not have to be that way it can be some like a little bowl of
14:52
like washed berries or like a little container of your washed and chopped
14:57
vegetables for the week that you're gonna use later or maybe like the proteins like you cooked a couple of
15:03
chicken breasts for the week or you cook some rice in in bulk and you're a good
15:10
then that's actually something I should do I like cook rice only like the amount I need
15:18
and I'm like sick of it this is this public service announcement for me if
15:23
anyone would like to send me a rice cooker I'd appreciate it I keep doing it
15:28
on the stove I just don't have the patience for that it's so great I use my insta pot which is basically a glorified
15:34
rice cooker it's great it's you dump everything in your liquid your rice
15:39
maybe seasonings if you want to push a button and walk away yeah that's my dream comes out perfect I have to like
15:45
watch it and time it I'd recommend an instant pot I really
15:50
like mine I use it for a lot of stuff I know I'm just too cheap yeah I'm like hoping that it'll magically get gifted
15:57
to me I'm manifesting this it's almost your birthday I think it could happen yeah
16:03
that's true I had to create my birthday list yeah don't forget the instapot but also I
16:09
know you said counter space of course it's always to be considered and they have like those cute little rice cookers that are super counter friendly Ross got
16:15
me one I went to college because he knew I was going to be in a dorm super cute and it broke because it
16:21
was you know not the most high-end thing in the world right but it lasted me all through college and it worked super well
16:27
you just throw it in there push a button and it's good to go might have to look into that I think it
16:33
was like 15 20 bucks which I know is still money spent but yeah versus like it could save you time and one counter
16:40
space exactly might have to look into it one thing I want to add to this is like my
16:46
version of all this is I tend to do what's called like ingredient prep so basically what you just described like I
16:53
don't prep like full-fledged meals usually though like you just pop in the microwave when they're when it's time to eat I tend to prep ingredients so that
17:01
way I can still eat the meals fresh usually for dinners I eat like a fresh meal so to speak and like lunches leftovers the next day but by like
17:09
cutting the vegetables up putting the chicken in a marinade whatever maybe I
17:14
will even cook chicken sometimes but I just like do like a little bit of prep that way it's easy for me when I get
17:19
home for the evening or whatever I have going on that day first is like having to like start from scratch and cut every single vegetable
17:25
let the chicken sit in a marinade for 30 minutes it just it's really helpful to like just
17:30
have bits and pieces like I got I said already like the whole point is to make it easier for yourself and that's like
17:35
my version where stuff's been sometimes doing it but it's like maybe maybe an
17:41
hour of prep every week yeah yeah and that's realistic and attainable smart
17:48
goal smart goals oh man well that's actually a good segue
17:53
into our next point which is we're going to give you all the tips on some other positive ways to approach all this so
18:00
again my best tip is always talking about ingredient prep so instead of doing full meals just like prep certain
18:06
ingredients that's going to help you um throw your meals together quicker I think again the first step is though
18:13
to just like ask yourself what's realistic for you like how much time do you have how much money can you put towards all this if you don't have
18:20
containers can you get some of that help you would it help you to get an instant pot like can you budget that out would
18:26
that be like an actual helpful tool for you if so that's great because there are some kitchen gadgets that really can be
18:32
helpful like a crackpot for example is kind of the cliche one which actually is very helpful instant pot same thing for
18:38
Emily a rice cooker we would love yeah I don't really know any Brands but we would love if they
18:44
would sponsor us still yeah just said you were maybe they'll find us we're just gonna manifest it
18:50
yeah please I'm not that picky about my rice clearly as I make it on a stove yeah
18:57
every time by myself and it comes out very in different forms
19:03
have you like mastered it or is like always like a different texture well I don't mind it there have been complaints
19:10
from the peanut gallery in the household about it
19:15
apparently I'm much better at making quinoa than rice even though I treat them essentially the
19:22
same except for I wash the rice so I feel like that plays a part in it yeah I don't know if the sacrilegious for you
19:28
at all but do you ever do like the Minute Rice like the microwaved rice I
19:35
yeah so budget tip for me I get my rice from my
19:42
parents they buy the like Costco huge bag and I literally just bring my little plastic container home and fill it up
19:49
there that's great so I don't spend money on any rice I probably would I
19:54
like the little ones but I'm just already have I already have a um
20:00
a dealer a nice dealer that's so funny well that's actually a really good tip generally though like if again makes
20:07
sense for your budget convenience thing like minute rice or have you ever heard of the brand dozen cousins
20:15
no they would be 12 cousins no it's like just like these little bags it's kind of
20:20
like the minute rice but it's beans so like they're like flavored like Cuban beef I love those I there is a
20:28
what is what it's the like red lentil and like something soup the packets from
20:34
Costco I would die for those yeah you just throw it in the microwave and exactly like a minute
20:40
and there's my protein I'm done yeah exactly so like if those things work for you of course like it's not as cheap as
20:47
buying just lentils those are super cheap but it takes a minute versus like that'll take forever to cook
20:54
so again like whatever version works for you that's great we're not shaming lentils and like their purest form
21:00
that's fine too but yeah there's also way easier options if that would just work better yeah and then I feel like I
21:07
also talked about this a little bit but yeah and not even a meal prep standpoint just from like assistance and food
21:13
standpoint um you don't have to do all this on your own with the meal prep hopefully you're
21:18
not unless you live by yourself um but then if you have the money for it
21:23
maybe you can like order like a meal delivery service but if that's if you have the money for
21:29
it um and you don't want to like buy any of it already and also a lot of it's already
21:35
prepped for you so I don't know how much of the meal prep there is in that but you still have to cook it
21:40
but like if you live with like a family member or you will have a partner or
21:46
roommate and you're getting like really overwhelmed or stressed it's okay to
21:52
like divvy up responsibilities something Bobby and I do and we're still
21:58
working on it because I don't love cooking or cleaning
22:06
is normally we try to split it 50 50 depending on the week with like cooking
22:12
and then someone cleans the other well the other person yeah Cooks
22:18
but oh work is that's like that's like the perfect world example does that always
22:24
happen no because I don't always like doing dishes but that is my honest truth and I'm sure
22:32
there's someone else out there who also doesn't like doing that I would clean
22:37
toilets before doing the dishes I hate doing the dishes yeah I mean I do them so we have to like get them done but I
22:43
hate it every time and you know like eats off of something yeah exactly just like let them
22:49
that pile up yeah yeah I've talked before about how
22:54
our situation is a little different because of just the schedules that we have but
23:00
I tend to do most of like the plating and prep but if it's a day that I am in the office Ross sometimes will have like
23:07
dinner that he'll cook it just depends and that's part of this too like if you have a routine where
23:13
it's very consistent you totally can like split those roles and stick to it for
23:19
the most part but it's okay too if it's ebbing and flowing I think as long as there's like a mutual understanding there yes
23:25
yes it's it's tough to navigate when you first
23:31
cohabitate with someone I know it's weird yeah and also you're like being an
23:38
adult yeah and taking care of yourself well you have to like feed yourself making three times a day it's like they
23:45
don't tell you that I mean they do you know that rationally but actually taking action on it's very tough yeah a wild
23:51
world we live in yeah how did yeah um anyway anyway I was gonna go on a
23:59
teenage but I'm like this doesn't matter this this is just me saying things I mean I think they're here for the
24:05
tangents they it's something I don't want to hear myself say so I'm gonna say I'm gonna
24:10
see you guys thanks the the time
24:15
um I think the last what I honestly find like the most helpful is like making a plan that's
24:21
like the best way to approach meal prepping for myself um and it doesn't need to be like
24:26
planning out every single meal and snack and thing you're gonna eat what time when on every single day it can just be
24:33
like a couple action steps like maybe like you're gonna challenge yourself to
24:41
clean the celery or like clean the carrots like when you
24:48
first get them it doesn't need to be all the vegetables or like if you know you like to snack on like apples it'll be
24:54
like rinse off the apples and like cut an apple or two if you want to get wild
25:01
like finding a couple steps that are within your reach for where you're at right now
25:08
will not only make you feel more like yes I accomplished this I can do this
25:13
but it's much more realistic than like I'm going to cook all of my carbs
25:20
whether it's like my rice or my pot I've never heard of anyone cooking pasta ahead of time I just I'm like
25:27
yeah I feel like it's usually just like it's quicker it's like 10 minutes for most yeah just as I feel like versus rice can take forever if you are doing
25:34
it like on the stove especially yeah or like you just decide to like tap all these different things that might not be
25:41
the most realistic if you weren't doing that before or anything close to that so like make a couple steps that you feel
25:47
like will challenge you enough that you'll feel
25:53
a little bit stressed a little bit good stressed um but not enough that it'll turn into
25:59
bad stress and overwhelm me and be like why did I do this screw Hannah and Emily
26:04
they told me to start meal prepping we are not telling you to start meal prepping we're telling you there are
26:11
ways that I feel this is also a spoiler to our next part there are ways to incorporate it without being obsessive
26:18
and deity yeah yeah before we get into that I want to add my point on this and
26:24
he basically already said it but I have to get my take of course so the podcast is right yeah
26:29
um so I tend to like plan out like mostly just dinners for the week although it is
26:35
a little different for me because I plan different recipes for my membership so I
26:40
hopefully have like a little balance there between like breakfast lunch dinner snacks drinks um of course I like try to post new
26:45
things and they're like a little bit different so it's not always just like dinners every week but aside from that I
26:51
typically tend to plan out mostly dinners like I said I do lunch as leftovers the next day
26:56
and then for me like breakfast just kind of always works out somehow I don't know I like always smell it
27:03
somehow it works out I've like I don't plan breakfast usually um I almost always just have stuff for
27:10
breakfast and I'm not like Emily I could not just like plan to have avocado toasts for six months like I need to
27:17
have a different breakfast every day usually so I don't really know how I've made it work out I think just like having a
27:23
stocked Pantry which is definitely a privilege like I've got oatmeal I've got cereal I've got bagels I've got protein
27:29
powder if I'm like really in a crunch for I got like frozen fruit for smoothies so definitely a privilege
27:35
there but if you can just like have things available too which even goes for lunch and dinner like I almost always
27:42
have like some kind of frozen veggies in the freezer like a frozen Trader Joe's meal yeah because like we've kind of
27:49
probably already said a little bit your plan won't always include like homemade meals and that's okay like you could
27:55
literally plan like your version of meal planning could be pizza every Friday like that still counts as like part of
28:00
that planned you we're prepping for that exactly exactly
28:06
so I think Emily kind of already said it but it's okay if it's not you planning out breakfast lunch dinner snacks drinks
28:12
like it can just be whatever meal what I always tell people is to like identify which meal you really struggle with the
28:18
most I feel like it usually is dinner if you're feeding more than just yourself because you have like an expectation
28:23
there to like make a more elaborate meal but like again like for me for breakfast I can just kind of throw whatever
28:29
together because I'm usually just feeding myself for breakfast um so yeah I'll have to say that it's okay to just like pick just dinners and
28:37
focus on that and kind of like let the others fall into place if that works for you usually a little bit easier if you are a family of like one two or maybe
28:44
even like three versus like a big family like my parents
28:49
could probably not get away with that because there's a million kids there but it works for the two of us here yeah
28:56
yeah I know your situation yeah your environment
29:02
let's talk about where meal prepping comes in when it comes to an intuitive
29:09
eating slash like non-diety approach and we've kind of alluded to this all
29:16
throughout is like it comes down to like your intentions behind it so like the first thing to note is like
29:22
are you doing it because you feel like you have to do it and it's just like you're you're subconsciously doing it
29:30
every week and that you're you don't want to like think about your food choices if so that's not really
29:35
intuitive you're kind of just going through like a cycle of external sources of like what to make
29:41
your food decisions on so like let's just bring in our good old friend chicken and egg chicken eggs chicken oh
29:48
eggs made their way in there or we can go take a route and do chicken sweet potato and peanut butter powder I was
29:55
literally about to bring up her which is in fact really good say that one was really good it's really
30:02
good she was on to something um also whenever she adds putting powders to things that was on to
30:08
something I do that now like I add smoothies I do like protein I do like a protein shake with pudding mix like a
30:15
protein pudding that's really good yeah she she might have always had the greatest
30:21
intentions due to her history but and the environment she was in yeah but
30:29
she came out with some good stuff this is like this is a segue of course but
30:35
like it just goes to show that intuitive eating is not just like abandoning like all nutrition education
30:43
and like meal planning and prepping or like maybe some kind of like Diet
30:48
culture-esque like meal and snack ideas like the protein pudding there are plenty of
30:55
diet cultury people recommending that as like a weight loss food for example but like I love it I make it quite a bit
31:02
Yeah but I'm not eating it as like a weight loss food I'm just like eating it because it tastes good it is high in protein so it's very filling yeah I like
31:09
to add a little gentle nutrition and like add some strawberries on top or whatever I was gonna I was gonna say
31:15
that part or like just because like has more protein in it or like it has
31:21
fruits or vegetables does not mean that it's diet culture written it doesn't own
31:27
everything diet culture does not own Foods yeah culture doesn't own our protein yeah our fruits or vegetables
31:35
yeah and you're gonna feel good eating those and your meal planning and prepping hopefully does include those things so you do feel good yeah like
31:42
intuitive eating when tying it into meal planning is not going to be like you
31:47
planning to eat pizza every single day of the week that would feel terrible it means you can totally include Pizza
31:54
but it likely won't mean that you're having it every day and it also means giving yourself the permission and freedom to
32:00
like stray from it as well like yeah if you have a I always give
32:05
this example for some reason like if you have a chili planned for Tuesday but come Tuesday either you're exhausted don't want to make chili
32:12
or it doesn't sound good like you can stray from that and that's totally fine
32:18
you already talked about lit this like how like it sounds like we're taking away
32:23
almost like structure to people's lives that they felt like are like control that they had over their life but like
32:31
it can help you like build trust with your body again and like just think about like
32:37
you don't have to think about like oh my gosh what is
32:42
my if you're like really really really really really deep into it like how many grams of protein do I need at every meal
32:51
like really into that mindset it doesn't have to be that
32:58
deep but it is okay to like think about like I need protein right I would I
33:04
would like protein or I'd feel better or I know myself better I feel better if I had a protein Source exactly at these
33:11
meals like it's a lot of like just making you think a little bit more about your food decisions which like Probably
33:18
sounds like we don't want you to do that because like we often talk about like the obsession around food but it's more
33:25
of like going to the basis of like what can I eat throughout the week or
33:31
like what are some options I can make or like prep for myself that will either like help me feel satisfied or
33:39
like craveled or like on her craving that I might have or even like
33:46
give me that easy convenience piece but still feed me there's like a lot
33:54
that goes to into it there's a lot that goes into it but at the same time there's like net that goes into it or
33:59
like it doesn't need to be all these different things you're thinking about yeah I feel like speaking of diet
34:06
culture like it really has co-opted like meal planning and prepping but like we've been doing this forever it's just
34:12
like how you think of it now is probably different because diet culture has painted that picture likely of what we
34:17
described at the very beginning of Jim Bros and the black Tupperware with
34:22
the plastic lids and chicken broccoli and rice but yeah people who have been feeding themselves
34:28
forever have been doing some amount of some degree of meal planning and
34:33
prepping and shopping but yeah like Emily said a little bit
34:38
earlier like um if the planning and prepping is making
34:44
it so you're kind of like on autopilot and it kind of makes it so you don't think about how food is affecting you that's
34:51
not very intuitive sort of like how like if you're just picking Foods based like a calorie
34:57
amount like that's not intuitive like you're using external sources to determine like how much you're eating
35:03
versus like actually asking yourself like what's going to sound good what will satisfy me what does like a balanced plate for me
35:09
look like like those would actually be getting better and touch like your internal
35:15
cues and everything I think the other big benefit too is it really can help
35:22
with building that trust back with those hunger and fullness cues in the sense of like if you have
35:28
absolutely no idea what you're gonna eat because you don't do any degree of like planning or prepping like maybe it's
35:34
like don't ever even go to the grocery store or if you do you just like go and grab whatever usually
35:40
when you feel like a hunger cue strike if you're at home you might like have literally no idea
35:45
like what to eat and then what happens is either you just like ignore it and it just keeps getting worse and worse and
35:50
worse or you just like grab the closest thing but it's not actually satisfying you and
35:55
so you're still just kind of like munching on whatever but if you kind of have a little bit of structure a little bit of idea of like what you've got
36:01
available it'll make it easier to honor that hunger when it comes because you'll know what you have to choose from and
36:09
hopefully your version gives you a lot of options if you have the privilege to have a lot of options I
36:16
said earlier um you can kind of pick and choose but even if it is just knowing like okay my snacks this week are going to be Greek
36:22
yogurt and granola like you'll know like when you're hungry that could be the snack that you go to versus having no
36:27
idea and then ignoring your hunger or eating something that's less than satisfying yeah
36:33
so our final tips how to meal prep as an intuitive eater
36:40
so first and foremost Focus kind of what Hannah said already but focus on like
36:47
the choices and options if you have that privilege like if you don't have a wide
36:52
array of options that's completely fine like even if like you have like one
36:57
thing that you know you could like depend on or like two things that's okay or even if like you don't
37:04
know necessarily like what your options might be um first if I was just focus on getting
37:10
yourself fed that's like that is the overarching message here we just want you to get his best yeah that is the
37:17
idea but if you do have the accessibility to have multiple
37:22
options focus on those try not to focus on the calories and categorize it more
37:28
so as like proteins slash meats and then dairies fruits veggies grains stuff like
37:36
that rather than this many grams of fat or this really
37:41
good versus bad healthy unhealthy yeah more of like food groups will describe
37:49
them more like objective versus subjective yes which might be hard to
37:55
differentiate it could take a little bit time to learn but you can challenge Yourself by starting off by like what is
38:02
a protein what is a dairy product what is a green stuff like that and like experiment too
38:08
with like what amount ish of each like makes you feel good like does it help if
38:14
you have a little bit of protein a little bit of edge a little bit of grain like do you think that does make you feel good when you have all three of
38:20
those at a meal and like what amount of the protein makes you feel good yeah again like it's tough but it's like
38:28
learning about how food serves you versus like how you could just like follow these food rules yeah
38:35
um next tip is to of course I've already experienced this a little bit too but use leftovers this is what I usually do
38:40
is I plan dinners cook dinners most nights and then we have leftovers for lunch the
38:47
next day it just makes us we don't like plan out lunch and dinner but again we're cooking for two only
38:53
here so it does work out for us it might not for you that's okay too it's just a nice method if it does happen to work
38:58
for you and then lastly being flexible is very important because
39:05
your plan most likely will not go as you'd like it to be whether something
39:11
pops up and you have to change what you're eating or maybe you bought too much food or you bought too
39:18
little food or you didn't want to eat whatever it was that day
39:23
um or maybe your kid get does not like what it is or maybe
39:31
why am I thinking like you're head has to go to the vet and you can't I know it's like my mind oh man jumping
39:39
in different places like something could come up or something could change in your own preferences that
39:45
just does not follow the original plan you had and that's okay or what you prepped like The Importance of Being is
39:52
being flexible and then making the best of the situation I feel
39:57
like that's why I tell my patients all the time I'm like whenever they like think I'm upset with them which I don't
40:03
think I've ever been upset with them um and they're I'm like and they're like I'm doing the best I can and I'm like
40:11
that's literally all I can ask I always say even then like I don't need you don't owe me anything I
40:19
have this conversation with my social worker a lot this is a whole nother conversation so I'm not going to go into it a lot but
40:25
it's very interesting to hear what he has to say about the healthcare field from both of our different perspectives
40:32
but he often times brings up like how
40:38
it's like their own like they are The Advocates of their own health and they don't owe anyone anything like when I
40:46
bring up like oh can you like he's and it's not like the challenge like any of us it's like
40:53
just a good point to think about is like if like they didn't want to come to
40:58
treatment for one day or they are struggling with this like there could be
41:04
consequences of it but it's like they are the sole decision makers and they have like a lot of power in their hands
41:11
so this is kind of like a tangent from being flexible but doing the best you
41:18
can is all we can ask for but also it's you don't owe that to anyone yeah and
41:24
like your version of the best that you can will look different even every single week so it's okay if
41:30
this great meal prep you did last week you just simply could not do it this week that's okay too yeah
41:37
I love it well guys that's meal prep and meal planning and it's reading fine what
41:43
a fun time I hope you enjoyed it yes we love practical tips and whatnot and then
41:49
we also love drama when we talk about our personal lives so the intersection
41:54
between drama and practical nutrition too that's what this podcast that's our
42:00
third slogan yes yeah so definitely go listen to our become a
42:08
tud bud go become a subscriber of the beat Deeds for that exclusive content
42:15
because we're going to be go talking about some riveting bonus questions after this or a bonus question more so
42:22
we don't have multiple plans but you know us we probably will find a new bonus question or in the bonus question
42:27
yep but we appreciate you guys so much thanks so much for a hundred this is a
42:34
104 so like we're already past it but we appreciate you guys not we could not do
42:40
this without you and we will see you next week let us
42:47
know what you want to know about meal prepping or what we're going to do is we
42:52
will post this on social media as well is we'll try to announce like the topics ahead of time so you guys can submit
42:59
questions because that would just be more fun if like we're talking about things that you actually want to hear
43:04
and we can say like like Justine just asked us this let's talk about Justine's question today like we can totally like
43:10
if you guys want to ask or like include your names we could always like shout you guys out too in our episodes if that would be fun that would be very fun for
43:18
everyone involved Ted is always thinking of new things to make it more
43:23
just riveting to get your education in we are against boring nutrition
43:30
education yeah we're not gonna tell you how many carbs to eat no even
43:37
though we're not allowed to do that because individualized Medical Nutrition but we
43:42
wouldn't do it even if we were allowed yeah yeah all right guys thanks for listening we will see you in the bonus
43:49
question hopefully but if not we'll see you next week all right bye guys
The Beet Deets Bonus Segment
Listen to our ad-free premium content for a low monthly cost!
So you've got flying, invisibility, telekinesis, mind control... but what would the dumbest superpower be? Tune in to get a glimpse of just how chaotic the girls' minds can get.
Welcome to another installment of The Beet Deets Bonus Segment! Listeners of The Up-Beet Dietitians Podcast know that each episode ends with Hannah and Emily and guests having a (usually) friendly debate or answering a "would you rather" question. By becoming a subscriber of The Beet Deets, you will have first dibs on future products as well as exclusive access to future ebooks and courses. We can't wait to keep growing this TUD Bud community!
