Nourished not Famished

Healthy Made Easy: Simple, Nourishing Solutions to Healthy Eating and Living

Featured

Six Simple Steps to Stop Restricting and Start Thriving

By

Are you ready to ditch the binge and restrict cycle?

Let’s bust some myths, and drop some truth bombs about what really works to ditch that torturous diet cycle (that doesn’t work anyway!). Instead, live a life of sustainable habits that actually help you thrive.

I get it. I’ve been there. I used to make ALL of the classic mistakes. Undereat to lose weight, then wonder why I had such intense cravings. Worry about how many calories my workout had burned. Laser focus on diet and exercise, and TOTALLY miss how my terrible sleep habits and poorly mananged stress was sabotaging me every step of the way.

And I now know that I was making everything more complicated than it needed to be. I honestly didn’t know just how straightforward the solution could be.

  • No, you don’t need to atone for what you think you did “wrong” or “bad” over the weekend regarding food. Depriving and restricting yourself today in the form of undereating or overexercising, or completely restricting entire food groups will just perpetuate the binge and restrict cycle!
  • Getting yourself to a place where you feel good, you feel energized, and in your optimal health zone DOESN’T require pain and suffering.
  • It doesn’t require a hyper-detailed meal plan or elaborate fitness routine. (Unless you’re an elite performance athlete. In that case you do you!).
This week, challenge yourself to simply do your best to meet your body (and mind’s!) needs, in ways that fit your bandwidth right now.

And it’s not all about food and fitness! (Repeat that to self as needed.)

It’s all about working with your biology instead of against it.

1. 😴 Prioritize sleep. For real. #sleepisthenewcaffeine

2. 🌞 Start your day with a few minutes of natural light before you reach for a screen. Minimize screen use at night (a hard truth, I know 🤷‍♀️). Right there, you’re book-ending your day in a way that actually supports your biology, helping every cell in your body feel and function its best. This helps you feel more energized, mentally sharper, and makes hitting your health and body composition goals happen more easily! #circadianrhythm

3. 🍲 Build your plate with real, whole or minimally refined foods, and include protein, slow-acting carbs (a.k.a. unprocessed or mininally processed), veggies & fruits, and some fat at each meal. But don’t get all rigid about it either. Save the fine tuning for later (or maybe never?). Check out my recipes and meal prep tips for inspiration. Not sure what a slow carb is? Check out this explanation, and why it’s important to priortize slow carbs over fast-acting carbs.

4. 😋 At mealtime, let yourself eat the amount your body truly needs to help you make it through to the next meal. If you really need a snack to tide you over before the next meal, no big deal. Just be honest and check in with yourself when you feel like having a snack. Ask yourself whether it’s truly hunger (typically a hollow sort of feeling in your stomach), or if it’s something else you need that isn’t food. Maybe you simply didn’t eat enough food at that last meal. Or maybe you’re bored, anxious, or stressed (hello, 2020!) and your habit has been to reach for food to ease those feelings. (Hey, that’s completely normal! Welcome to the club.)

If you’ve been out of tune with your hunger and satiety cues for a long time (dieting will do that), be patient. It takes time to “hear” those signals in there again, reliably. It will probably be messy at first. Persevere, and maintain an overall focus on nourishing your needs in mind, body, and spirit. In doing so, you will help restablish your connection to those cues. And this is how you will finally eliminate your need for external cues like calorie counting to best determine how much you need at a given meal. *Accept that this skill is a work in progress, always.*

5. 🚶🏽‍♀️💪 Get some movement into your day, in whatever way it will fit. If you can break up long stretches of sedentary time, even better. Create opportunities to maintain your strength and build some muscle mass. It’s life-saving. Literally. Research is showing that muscle mass is the new vital sign! You don’t need to work yourself to the point of utter exhaustion to see benefits (in fact, killin’ it to the extreme day-in and day-out is counterproductive to seeing results).

6. 💑 Connect with your people! Do what you can to build in time to connect with the people in your life that lift you up, get you laughing, and have your back.

Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. Grow from there.

Like me, you might just discover that it is a lot simpler than you thought to break that binge and restrict cycle. You got this.

You in? Drop a comment . . . what are you doing this week to work with your biology instead of against it?

Peace,

Jen

Sheet Pan Frittata

By

Repeat after me:

A fueling, tasty breakfast ready and waiting in my fridge definitely makes it easier to get out of bed in the morning! 

Okay, okay. No, you don’t have to repeat that. But, yes, I am trying to sell you on just how good it feels to wake up knowing that you already have breakfast figured out and done. It’s a beautiful thing.

When this is ready and waiting in your fridge, you know it’s going to be a good breakfast.

I don’t know about you, but having a ready-to-eat breakfast is my favorite way to start the day. On a busy weekday morning, I don’t even want to think about any kind of meal preparation. Getting out of bed is hard enough on its own! Prepping a big batch of breakfast foods like this sheet pan frittata really helps me solve that challenge. And when breakfast feels this easy (and delicious), it somehow makes me feel a lot more prepared to plow through the rest of the day’s challenges and tasks. 

If you want to auto-pilot your breakfast, and you’re also looking for easy ways to add more veggies to your plate, this sheet pan frittata is your solution.

You can make this at the beginning of the week, and dip into it for days, in lots of different ways:

  • Pair it with some fruit on the side.
  • Slap it on a piece of whole-grain bread (like this Mestemacher rye I love), or tuck into a wrap.
  • Use it to build a brunch-worthy meal by enjoying it with some Greek yogurt, berries, (and maybe oats, too?) on the side.
  • Heck, you can even enjoy it as a snack!

To make this recipe even easier, feel free to rely on pre-chopped/shredded veggies, or your leftover cooked veggies for your add-ins. This can save you one step on the prep.

So, the basic steps look like this (see recipe text below for full instructions):

Add-in ideas:

  • Mushroom, arugula, and feta: 10-12oz sliced mushrooms, several big handfuls of arugula, ¼ cup feta
  • Western omelet-style: 1 large onion chopped, 1 ½ green bell peppers chopped, 1 6 oz. package Canadian bacon, chopped
  • Broccoli, sliced tomato, and oregano
  • Whatever veggies you have on hand that you need to use up! 
  • Really, whatever combination sounds delicious to you.

I’d love to know how it goes if you add this to your meal prep this week! What did you use for your add-ins? What did you pair it with to make a meal? 

Print Recipe
 Sheet Pan Frittata
Easy, sheet pan frittata that helps you hit your veggie goals, and sets you up with a delicious breakfast option for several days. No judgment if you eat it for lunch and dinner, too.
Course Breakfast
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Course Breakfast
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. If necessary, cook any veggies you’re adding to frittata. You can cook in a heated skillet (using the two teaspoons of oil) until softened, or gently steam, or microwave briefly. Leftover roasted veggies are also a great option for your veggie add-in.
  2. Set aside cooked veggies to cool.
  3. Preheat oven to 400F.
  4. Grease sheet pan *thoroughly*, including every speck of every corner, and up the sides, too.
  5. In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs. Add egg whites and whisk to combine. Whisk salt and pepper into egg mixture. If you are adding any spices or herbs, whisk them into the egg mixture.
  6. Pour egg mixture into pan.
  7. Gently add cooked veggie (and whatever else you’ve got in there) mixture into egg mixture on sheet pan. The easiest way to do this is just to add a little bit at a time, by hand or with a spoon. Distribute the veggie mixture evenly across pan surface. (If you prefer, you can instead, add veggie mixture to the sheet pan first, and then pour egg mixture over that. Your call.)
  8. If adding cheese, sprinkle across top.
  9. Very, very carefully transfer pan to oven. I will be honest - you need a steady hand for this so you don’t end up spilling liquid eggs all over the place. I recommend sliding the oven rack out slightly before you place the sheet pan on it. And, once you’ve placed the sheet pan on the rack, slide the rack back in very slowly. (Trust me. Learn from my mistakes!)
  10. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until eggs are set. Let cool before slicing.

Easy, Pantry-friendly Bean Salad

By

I have always been a cheerleader for a “recipe-ish” approach to cooking, because I discovered that it makes all things meal planning and meal prep so much easier. Sure, recipes have their place, and are so helpful when you want to try a new dish, a new ingredient, or a new technique. Recipes are wonderful training wheels that help you gain momentum with your cooking skills. But when it comes to your day-to-day, in the trenches, get-it-done cooking, a recipe-ish approach is a LOT more sustainable.

Instead of strict steps to follow, recipe-ish is about letting a template guide you. It’s easier and quicker than fussing with a recipe, and also gives you the flexibility to work with what you’ve got. Doesn’t that sound like just what you need right now?

bean salad made with Great Northern beans, EVOO, red wine vinegar, parsley, cumin, and mirepoix (celery, carrot, and onion)

Here is my basic recipe-ish approach to a simple pantry-friendly bean salad. It’s so easy to make, and keeps for DAYS in the fridge. It’s a wonderful side dish, is delicious added to a big salad, and also can be gently heated in the skillet and served with a fried egg on top. You could even repurpose it into a soup by reheating with some broth and additional veggies and/ or starch.

This template allows you to work with whatever you’ve got on hand (or not!):

BEANS – Canned is fine, or cook up your own dried beans. (Here are my super-easy instructions for cooking dried beans in your Instant Pot.)

+

AROMATICS – Aromatics are those humble beginnings that elevate all of the other flavors in a dish. Here I’ve used celery, carrot, and onion. Feel free to add other veggies like diced red pepper, garlic, or substitute with some scallions, red onion, leeks, chives, ginger, etc. There are endless combinations to try, and each with a different regional influence. And technically, “aromatics” often refers to the foundational spices and herbs that might also be included . . .

+

HERBS – Use what you’ve got, fresh or dried.

+

SPICES – Dig out those jars. There you’ll find the perfect addition to bring something interesting to your dish.

+

ACID – Vinegar or citrus are great options. There is a whole wide world of vinegars out there – red wine, balsamic, white balsamic, champagne, sherry, rice vinegar, and tons more. Experiment to discover your favorites!

+


FAT – Here I’ve used extra virgin olive oil. Work with what you’ve got, and if you can, try to stay away from highly refined oils.

Combine all ingredients, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy immediately, and store leftovers in the fridge for repeat joyful eating. And no blah leftovers here – I’ve noticed that a good bean salad tastes even better the next day or two!

What do you have on hand that you think you could toss together to make your own bean salad?

Print Recipe
 Easy, Pantry-friendly Bean Salad
Course Salads & Side Dishes
Servings
Course Salads & Side Dishes
Servings