Figuring out my food
One of the biggest challenges for me recently has been figuring out how to feed myself. The chaos in my life has not allowed me time to cook, plan, or do proper grocery shopping. I’ve resorted to a lot of take out, delivery, and convenience foods that have not been good for me or my bank account.
Now that things have settled down and I’m getting my routines in place, this needs to change. I need to find a way to cook for myself and eat more healthy, filling food to get me through full days of work and child care.
Step one of this change is coming up with a meal plan. A simple list of what I am going to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day of the week. For myself, this is pretty straightforward. I’m not easily bored. I can usually eat the same things each day for a week with no problem. So I’ve determined that the plan that will be most successful for me right now is to pick one breakfast, lunch, and dinner and repeat for 7 days. This allows me to cook once and have quick meals readily available for the whole week. This strategy probably won’t work for everyone, it may not even work for me 3 months from now, but right now it seems like the perfect option and I can adjust moving forward as life and my tastes evolve.
In terms of what this meal plan will include, I’ve made some decisions there as well. I’ve chosen to move towards a mostly plant based diet. I will not call myself strictly vegan but whenever I am cooking for myself, in my own kitchen, I will not use animal products. If I am eating out or if someone else is cooking for me, I will eat whatever I want. I’ve been toying with the idea of being vegan for years now and the hardest part is always the social aspect. There is rarely good food available at restaurants and friends and family never know what to make for me. I’ve realized now that it doesn’t need to be all or nothing. I decide what I eat. I don’t need to be limited by the label of “vegan” and feel like a failure if I venture outside of that.
In terms of why I want to eat more plant-based foods, health is my biggest reason. Eating less meat and animal products has been shown to help prevent heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, among other things. There is also the ethical and environmental concerns around animal farming and the harm it can cause.
Ultimately, what you eat is up to you. What works for me, likely won’t work for everyone. Experiment and make decisions based on your preferences, beliefs, and experiences. One thing that can help is just keeping track of how you feel after you eat. If you ever feel sluggish or unwell, jot down what you’ve eaten recently. It could be completely unrelated to food but you may notice trends after a while.
To give you an idea of what a meal plan looks like for me, this is what I am eating this week:
Breakfasts: Overnight Oats
Lunches: Chickpea salad sandwiches
Dinners: Slowcooker Peanut Tofu & Broccoli served over rice
These are all things that I can easily make in advance or batch cook so it takes minutes to get a meal ready to eat in the middle of my work day. On Sunday night, once my son goes to sleep, I spend some time prepping for the week. This week I prepped my oats, made the chickpea salad, and got everything chopped and mixed in the slow cooker so all I had to do on Monday was start the cooker to have a hot dinner.
As I get more settled in my routine and comfortable with cooking, I may look to add in more variety each day, but for now, this basic approach of eating the same meals for a week is working for me and I am looking forward to moving away from the constant take out and convience foods.
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