Meal Planning and Eating Seasonally

Thanks to Ella’s (<3) comment on a post, we’re discussing Meal Planning and Prepping tactics this month! Being more intentional about your meals and groceries can save so much time and money. An hour spent at the beginning of the week saves hours of uncertainty later including multiple trips to the store. Plus, you won’t have any more of those “oh crap, I'm out of x” moments. ;) Wasting less food and eating out less often really helps the budget as well. We go to a pretty fancy market and still manage to save money versus shopping at the grocery store!

There are a few things I do to make meal planning simpler and more useful. I’ll talk about them over the next few posts. Meal planning doesn’t need to be overwhelming or a huge shift from your current routine. Maybe you’ll find an idea or two to incorporate that will make cooking and shopping a little easier or a little more fun! The first tip is one of my favorites and probably the simplest, depending on where you live.

EAT SEASONALLY AND SHOP AT THE FARMER’S MARKET
I do most of my weekly grocery shopping on Tuesday morning at the Farmer’s Market. Greg actually comes along and we make a date out of it. Somehow, grocery shopping went from being a dreaded chore to a joyful outing that’s all about connection: to my food, my partner, my farmers, and my city.

Now, I’m lucky to live in this magical place with great markets and great local food... avocados and cherries, almonds and olive oil. Seriously? But most cities have markets these days and summer is the best time of year to start!

Start by figuring out how many fruits and vegetables (and depending on the market, even meats and cheeses) you eat in a week and use that as a guideline for what to buy. For example, five servings of fruit, four of vegetables, two of dark leafy greens and 4 oz of cheese. Then go walk around the market and notice what looks good or maybe even tastes good! Buy within your list and enjoy. Your choices might be limited but that can actually make meal planning easier. 

Buy local food if you can. The experience is nicer, the food has better flavor (omg, those tomatoes!) and you’re helping to support your local farmers. Out-of-season food has to be shipped across the world. Make sure it's worth it. 

Do you have any tricks that help you enjoy grocery shopping?

June Habit: Mindful Drinking and a May Habit Recap

+ Yay! It’s the last post of the month which means a new monthly habit and a recap of last month’s! These monthly experiments help me build healthy habits, break unhealthy ones or just learn more about myself so I can figure out what’s essential for my best life!

Hello! I’m packing to go on my first retreat this weekend… it’s a yoga/pilates/reset your nervous system thing and I’m super excited. Anyway, I’m going to try to keep this post short so I can hit the road.

Mindful Eating May has been pretty successful! I think it’s made more of an impact on Greg and he’s going to start adding lunch as well this month. I’ve decided to keep with the theme but shift it a little bit. So, for the month of June, I’m going to practice Mindful Drinking. The goal is to drink more water to help me feel better but also to better enjoy my non-water beverages. We sometimes chug other, presumably less healthy, beverages (coffee, alcohol, soda) and forget to slow down and enjoy what we love about them.

For Mindful Drinking June, I will be:
+ Drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day: 2 before each meal and 2 mid-afternoon.
+ Using mealtime as a trigger and setting an alarm on my phone for the 4pm break so I can remember to refill my bottle.
+ Keeping an 8-cup pitcher of cool, sometimes flavored water in the fridge so I can track my consumption.
+ Following the Mindful Eating rules for any non-water beverages: particularly to check in with my intentions, how desirous I am, and also to slow down and savor each sip.

I’m hoping to feel more hydrated and more grateful for the buzz of an evening cocktail or the first fizzy sip of a burgertime soda! Care to join?

Reflections on our May Habit: Mindful Eating:
As I mentioned earlier, Mindful Eating May was pretty successful. I’ve had a 75% completion rate and it has helped improve my relationship to the food I eat! To be fully honest, I did have a few mornings where I was super hungry or really upset and I could have cared less about the habit. I let it go and tried my best to start again the next day.

To recap, we practiced a few things at breakfast time:
+ Taking a moment before loading up our plates to think about how hungry we were and how desirous we were.
+ Pausing before starting to eat to be grateful for the people and animals responsible for our meal.
+ Savoring each bite through the scents and flavors of the food. Taking it slow with pauses and breathing in between.
+ Considering how full we were and trying to stop eating at 80%.

I think to feel more of a difference, I’d have to commit to mindfully eating every meal. This month was a little too full and stressful to take that on... so maybe later. Another thing to note, Mindful Eating really makes you think about your food, where it comes from and how it tastes. This does make it more difficult to eat and enjoy unethical food or food that doesn't taste great. It’s kind of a blessing and a curse. (I think Greg eats better food than me ;)

I did enjoy the slow start to the day and the renewed practice of a sort of grace before breakfast. Hooray gratitude! And man, we eat some delicious food!!

++ That first image is one of our favorite breakfast recipes: Raspberry Ripple Buckwheat Porridge! And yes, half of my photos of Greg are of him eating ;)