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The One-Meal Plan That Actually Sticks - Stopping the Lunch Chaos · Doctor Turned Health Coach

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Doctor Turned Health Coach Podcast. My name is Dr.
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  Ashuri, a family medicine physician, board certified,
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  licensed in California, who has turned into a health coach, somebody who's going
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  to support you on your entire health journey, help you with decisions,
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  habits, and everything you need to do to stay healthy and avoid the common chronic
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  diseases of the modern world.
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  In a recent podcast episode, we talked about the purpose of meal planning.
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  Why you should do it or why you should consider it.
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  And now we're going to talk about the nuts and bolts of it, how to actually
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  do meal planning, how to get it started so it's successful, how to stick with
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  it so that you don't burn out from it.
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  As with any new habit, I've said this many, many times and I'll repeat it often,
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  if you start big, if the new habit is a big change, unfortunately there's a
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  high chance of you burning out from it, failing it, because your body will try to resist new habits.
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  But if the habit is very small, hardly noticeable, and very consistent,
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  and you create a reward system for yourself, then oftentimes it's much more
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  successful and it's going to stick around.
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  It's, in fact, quite unlikely that you'll stop it.
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  So with that in mind, when we think about meal planning, we want to start with
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  something hardly noticeable.
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  And for each of us, it's going to be very different. for some
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  of you it's going to be the days that you're on the road for
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  work for other people it's going to be the weekend when
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  there's a lot of different people around and maybe you're very social for
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  somebody else it might be their breakfast time where they just are in such a
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  rush that they don't get to choose or pick the right foods or you might be at
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  work and in the middle of the day it's so busy so slammed there's no way you
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  can get something good in you so you just go to the cafeteria at your work and
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  get something undesirable.
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  We start with any of these. So for example, let's do the middle of the day.
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  Busy, classic one is a doctor.
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  They're in the hospital. They're rounding and there's no way.
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  They don't have any time.
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  Maybe they'll get a few seconds to walk down to the cafeteria and then they'll
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  go to the section where the line is shortest.
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  They'll grab something small. They'll probably package a chips and something
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  else that's unhealthy they scarf it down and then they're like i shouldn't have
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  had that so let's plan for this lunch section.
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  I would start with a list of the top three things that you really enjoy in that setting.
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  So, for example, it might be a small glass container that's filled with all
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  of your favorite things.
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  Let's just say, for example, giving me my food preferences, it would be some
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  brown rice, it would be some baked beans, and it would be some sort of a curry
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  or some slaw that would be great for me.
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  Maybe even some tofu, some tempeh. I would love that.
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  And as long as I can just kind of heat that up, I'm good to go.
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  Maybe I have a sauce on the side that I can pour on top of it,
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  or it's got the right sauce, I can just put it in the microwave,
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  as the kids say, new kit, and it's going to be good to go.
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  If I want that to be readily available, I need to prepare it ahead of time.
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  So I would pick my grain, whether it's brown rice, white rice,
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  quinoa, millet, and I would make a large batch of that.
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  I would then need to purchase these food containers, the proper type,
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  thinking ahead of how am I going to heat this.
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  I'm probably going to put it in the microwave. It can't be metal. It can't be plastic.
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  So purchasing those, order it on Amazon, go to Target and get that ahead of time.
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  I need to get a bunch of canned beans and I probably need to do something to them, right?
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  Put a little bit of onion powder, garlic powder, some tomato paste,
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  you know, some taco seasoning. Good.
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  That's ready to go. You can make a large batch of that and put that into the
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  glass container, your Tupperware.
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  And finally, you want either something fresh on the side.
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  So it might be some sort of a coleslaw or it might be some steamed vegetables that you put in there.
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  So you could do a bunch of steamed broccoli or cauliflower or you can do oven
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  roasted root vegetables and put that next to it.
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  Finally, I got to make a sauce. So I'm going to make a big batch,
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  of course. of all those root vegetables or roasted vegetables in the oven.
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  And I'm going to put that in each of these Tupper containers.
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  I might have like 20 Tupperware containers in front of me.
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  And then I'm going to make a sauce, something simple, like a tahini lemon garlic sauce.
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  It could be an avocado, basil, pesto sauce.
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  You could purchase your own sauce. But of course, with anything you purchase,
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  there's a lot of caution because it's got a lot of salt and it's got a lot of
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  fat. So I always try to be mindful of that.
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  So with my meal planning, I usually try to make it at home.
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  It could be a hummus that you dilute, and all of a sudden that becomes your
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  sauce. Just add a little bit more spices.
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  And I put that on top. I close the top. I shove these in the freezer.
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  They're ready to go. I can put that in my bag and take it to work.
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  And that's meal planning. I got one meal planned every day of the week.
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  For some people, that's too boring. So then, of course, you can just change it up.
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  Instead of beans, you pick tempeh or tofu.
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  Or if you like chicken if you like fish if you like beef if you like pork then
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  you add those on the side instead they're still going in the freezer you can
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  do a little bit of mix and match.
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  Another level to this would be to have all of this stuff ready and that same
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  day you just mix and match what you like so you might have some uh cooked asparagus
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  you might have some cooked broccoli so you have big containers of those in the
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  refrigerator and you take a little of that.
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  You take a little bit of the cooked millet that you have, you add that.
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  That to me is one, you got to be consistent with something like that.
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  I prefer to just pre-package them, put them in the freezer and you're done.
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  You have that to go. And once you eat that, I always say, once you've eaten
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  the right thing for the day, go ahead, eat.
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  Maybe you do want to get something from the cafeteria. Maybe you do want to get a bag of chips.
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  There's no point in restricting yourself once you've
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  eaten something healthy go ahead give yourself a treat and
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  eat what you like of course over the long
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  run the goal is to have a good healthy nutrition plan and that's something you
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  figure out over time so that's the logistics of planning now when you go to
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  the grocery store you just make yourself a list of those items people are not
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  accustomed to making these things in large amounts.
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  I highly recommend investing in large pots, learning how to cook in big batches.
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  It's something you learn when you cook for a lot of people over time,
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  but it's actually not that different.
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  But you do need to have the right pot to, for example, make six cups of quinoa,
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  or if you're going to do a bunch of brown rice,
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  or if you're going to do a bunch of lentils,
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  you just need the right size pot and you got to bring it up to a boil and
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  you got to cook it for long enough but once you do that
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  you are good to go so it's just
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  about having the right tools a few new skills that you'll develop and having
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  the right tupperware containers ready to go you know it's not going to leak
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  the nice thing is if it's frozen it's less likely to leak and it's ready you
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  just take it to work guys that's it um i know it sounds easy but in practice
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  i know it takes a little bit practice.
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  And that's what I do with my health coaching clients. I guide them through this
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  process in the beginning until it becomes the kind of habit that sticks.
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  Thank you for listening and go to the website drrashori.com to find out more.