Latest / Midlife Glow Up: Simplifying Fitness, Nutrition and Healthy Habits for Women over 40 / 32. The Power of Food Prep in Midlife

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32. The Power of Food Prep in Midlife · Midlife Glow Up: Simplifying Fitness, Nutrition and Healthy Habits for Women over 40

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Nutrition in midlife is hard.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: We are busy navigating careers and kids and grown kids who still need us and aging parents who also need us and hormones and schedules and everything in between.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as we covered last week, nutrition in midlife is hard and it is not a you problem.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a willpower problem and it's not a discipline problem.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is a system problem.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is a preparedness problem.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And until that changes, until you change that, nothing else is going to stick.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Not the new diet, not the new app, not the new Monday morning resolution, none of it.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because what we're talking about today is not about dieting.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about perfection.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about being good or bad or back on track or off the rails.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is about creating ease in your life.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is about creating ease in your life.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is about setting yourself up for success.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is about building a life where healthy eating is the easy option.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Midlife Flow Up Podcast, where we simplify fitness, nutrition, and healthy habits for women over 40.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Joan Dandineau, your midlife health and wellness coach.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are ready to feel strong, consistent, and confident in this season of life, then you are in the right place, my friend.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Food prep is not just about food, it changes how you move through your entire day.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And today I'm going to walk you through three specific transformations that I have seen food prep create in my life and in my clients' lives.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because once you see them, you're never going to look at food the same way again.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the first shift is from reactive to intentional.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So right now, I'm guessing that your day probably looks something like this.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: You wake up, you get straight into the morning chaos.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: You get yourself ready, maybe you get kids out the door, or you jump into work, and you're not really thinking about food until you're already hungry.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time that you're deciding what to eat, you're already in the red.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're already too hungry to think clearly.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you grab whatever is fast, not what's going to make you feel good two hours later.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: You open the fridge, you stare inside, you grab the first thing you see, or you just skip it altogether and tell yourself, oh, I'll just figure it out later.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not really that hungry.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe if I just don't eat this meal, then I'll lose weight, that last five pounds I've been trying to get off for years now.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then later comes, and now you're even more hungry and even less patient, and you grab something again that was not part of the plan.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And every single meal becomes a tiny emergency that you have to deal with.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you're constantly negotiating with yourself: like, should I eat this?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Is this okay?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is there time to fix anything?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do I have anything else that I can have?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Decision after decision all day long.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in midlife, decision fatigue is real because you're already making hundreds, if not thousands, of little decisions before noon.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So food becomes the easiest thing to let slide because everything else feels more urgent.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: But here is the shift.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: When you have food prepped, when the protein is already cooked, when the veggies are already chopped, and the options are already in the fridge, and even better, in the fridge in a container, then you have already made the decisions.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Past you took care of future you.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when you open the fridge at noon, starving, you're not negotiating.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're just choosing should I have this meal or that meal?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Think about what it actually looks like.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretend it's a Tuesday afternoon and you're slammed with work and you have 20 minutes in between calls.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of standing in front of the fridge feeling overwhelmed and just grabbing crackers and cheese and calling at lunch, you pull out the chicken that you cooked on Sunday that you not only cooked, but you chopped up.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: You added some roasted veggies, you have both of those, you throw them on a plate, you microwave them, and you have a real meal.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: All you had to do was assemble a few things.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is it.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: When food is ready, you stop negotiating with yourself all day long.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you move from reacting to your day to actually being intentional, being in control.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that feeling of having it handled, that's what we're after.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, shift number two is from overwhelmed to simplified.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So most women believe that healthy eating requires hours and hours in the kitchen, lots of complicated recipes, unlimited time.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: You need the fancy equipment, you need the nice blender and the brand new sheet pan, and you need eight ingredients that require you to go to four different stores.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it just feels like so much.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: When life gets busy, which it is, I think, always gonna feel that way, the default becomes I don't have time to cook.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the day gets away from you and nothing changes.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: But here is what I want to share with you.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Eating well in midlife does not have to be complicated.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be this big production.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: It does not have to require a plan that falls apart the second your week gets hard.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: It just has to be simple enough to work on your worst day.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because when the barrier is low, when healthy eating feels easy, that's when everything shifts.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you stop overthinking it and you stop dreading it and you stop avoiding it.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, we are not trying to be chefs.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're just trying to be consistent.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a much simpler way to get there.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And when you simplify the whole process, it becomes automatic, it becomes flexible, it becomes doable, and it becomes part of who you are.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Shift number three is from inconsistent to consistent.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this is my most favorite one because as you know, consistency is the magic pill that everybody wants.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: But it's hard to create consistency.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: We feel like we want to just try harder.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you're trying hard now.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you are putting in the effort.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably had some good stretches, the days where you were on it and things were clicking and you felt like yourself.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then life did what it always does.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: You had a late meeting or a sick kid and a week that went completely sideways, and suddenly you feel like you're starting over again.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the story that you're telling yourself through that is I just cannot stick with anything.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to reiterate again and again, it's not you.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: You are not lazy.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: You are not unmotivated.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: You actually care deeply about feeling good and taking care of yourself.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you have proven that every single time you get back up and try again.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yet somehow you keep ending up in the same place, back at the beginning, frustrated, feeling shameful, and wondering what is wrong with you.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear me on this: that nothing is wrong with you.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is not your follow-through, the problem is your environment.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean by that.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine it's Thursday evening and you are tired and you did not sleep great and you had a long day.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And in one version of your life, you open the fridge and it's empty or full of random things that require a lot of thought and effort.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you order takeout or eat whatever's easiest and you feel a little defeated going to bed.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: But in another version, you open the same fridge on that same tired Thursday, and there's something already cooked, ready to go.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's some cooked chicken and some cooked veggies and a sweet potato.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's already something that you can pull together in a matter of minutes, and then you eat well.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you had more motivation or because you had more energy.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you tried any harder, but because your environment made it easier.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency becomes automatic when your environment supports it.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: So hear me when I say you don't need more motivation.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like a stuck record, but I just want to keep iterate, reiterating that because I hear it all the time from my clients, like, oh, I just wish I could be more motivated.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the problem.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is you need a system that works on your busiest, most tired, most overwhelmed days.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because those are the days that actually matter.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because those are the days when you will normally throw in the towel and say, this is just too hard.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: When the food is in the fridge and the prep is done, then being consistent is not a willpower exercise anymore.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is just what happens.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: You did the work, you spent the money, you bought the food, you spent the time to prep the food.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you stop white knuckling it and you default to the easy option, the fast food, if you will, that is your healthy food that's ready to go.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the part that I love most about this shift.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: When you become the type of woman who just eats this way, not someone who is always trying to get back on track, not someone who is starting over every Monday.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: You become the woman who just is consistent.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes part of who you are.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: You just need the system to get you there.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you take nothing else away from today, here's what I want you to remember.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Forget willpower, forget motivation, forget discipline, and think about prioritizing preparation.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Food prep moves you from reactive to intentional.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you stop putting out tiny food emergencies all day long.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it moves you from overwhelmed to simplified.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because eating well does not have to be complicated.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: It actually needs to be simple enough to work even on your worst day.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, it creates consistency without having to output more effort.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because when your environment supports you and your healthy lifestyle, then you can let go of motivation altogether.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: That is the system.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly what I am teaching inside of my two-day workshop called Nail Your Nutrition in Midlife.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is completely free.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's live, it's on Zoom, and I built it for the exact woman that I have been describing in this entire episode.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Day one, I'm going to teach you the exact process that I use, my simple system for food prep.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to break down the real difference between food prep and meal prep.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to teach you how to implement my four by four fist method to hit your protein target without obsessing over it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Day two, you are literally going to step into my kitchen with me.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to prep together in real time.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: You will see the system work in front of you.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: You will see how simple it can actually be.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to prep alongside me, you are more than welcome to.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you will walk away from day two with actual food in your actual fridge.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you have been feeling stuck with your nutrition, or if you just have a really hard time staying consistent with healthy eating, or if you're just tired of your nutrition causing decision fatigue, then this workshop is for you.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you don't need a new diet, you don't need a new cookbook, you don't need tons of new recipes, you just need a system.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So head to the link in the show notes now to reserve your spot.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: It takes just a second to sign up.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can think of a friend who would benefit from this as well, please send it her way too.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: You are not someone who cannot do this.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: You just need a system that actually works for the life that you are living.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And inside of my free two day workshop, I am going to teach you my exact food prep system.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I hope to see you inside.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, my friend.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, progress over perfection and consistency over intensity.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep growing, keep glowing, and bye for now.