simple meal planning

Eat food.
Mostly plants.
Not too much.

Michael Pollen's Food Rules seem simple enough, but the fact that books had to be written about them at all shows how challenging it can be to nourish our bodies while doing all the other things we have to do in a day.

The pattern we'd fallen into was that we ate a good breakfast and then not much during the day. Our jobs have us arriving home later in the evenings, and we were often going to bed with aching stomachs after eating too much too close to bedtime. 

I've always thought that eating the bigger meal in the middle of the day made sense. So, we decided to try it out.

:: Goals ::

• fill up on whole foods in order to knock out cravings for processed food
• focus on getting enough (or at least more) protein + calcium throughout the day
• eat more in the middle of the day + less closer to bedtime 
• spend little time meal planning + cooking
• enjoy what we're eating

:: Thinking it through ::

Before we began, I made lists of how many grams of protein + calcium are recommended for each of us. I listed out foods + amounts that could realistically help us meet those recommendations. (It's hard to meet those recommendations.) My first priority was to focus on nourishment + quitting processed food apart from a focus on weight.

After a couple weeks of eating this way, I counted the calories + added them up too. We both feel like we'd feel better if we were a few pounds lighter. I feel like it's very important that this be secondary, however. Long term wellness is the real goal.


:: What we're eating ::

I decided to pack a good lunch that we could eat over the course of the afternoon, if we feel that it's too much or don't have time to eat it all at once. I hoped that this would curb the craving for other snacks + keep our energy going.

This meal consists of: 

• greens
• grain (quinoa for the protein + fiber)
• vegetables
• protein (chickpeas, beans, tofu, eggs, chicken, salmon, tuna)
• flavor (current faves: hummus, chimichurri, cowboy salsa, tamari, tahini, lemon, za'atar...)

Flavors can shift significantly with changes to any or all of these elements. We are currently using these 24 oz. Le Parfait Jars in order to have a wide mouth to eat over + a little extra room for stirring. 


:: Meal Prep ::

Once a week, we shop. Back home, he mows the lawn + I:

• roast a couple of sheet pans full of veg + then put them in a glass dish
• make the whole container of grains (2 cups dry) + put them in containers, freezing what I don't think we'll eat in a week
• drain chickpeas/beans + putting them in jars
• make a sauce, if necessary

Along with a big container of greens + any premade sauces I may have bought...I have the makings of all our main meals for the week. 

I make our lunches each morning while he makes our coffee.  :)

Here I am joking about my risky behavior: eating beets while wearing white overalls at work. :)

We've been eating this way for a few weeks now + we LOVE it!

:: Feedback ::​

• I feel so liberated from the stress of thinking about different things to eat or if we're getting enough nutrients- we may not be getting the total recommended grams of everything, but we're doing so much better than we were
• we have more consistent energy throughout the day
• our stomachs don't hurt when we go to bed
• we're better at saying no to processed food

I love doing experiments like this! I think this one is actually a system that works now, and I couldn't be happier!

Love,
Jane