Latest / Midlife Glow Up: Simplifying Fitness, Nutrition and Healthy Habits for Women over 40 / 33. My 20+ Year Food Prep Story (From a Woman Who Doesn’t Love to Cook)

Transcript

33. My 20+ Year Food Prep Story (From a Woman Who Doesn’t Love to Cook) · Midlife Glow Up: Simplifying Fitness, Nutrition and Healthy Habits for Women over 40

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, my friend.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Before we dive in today, I want to make sure that you know about something that is happening in five days from today.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I am hosting my first ever free two-day live workshop called Nail Your Nutrition in Midlife.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: This workshop is all about food prep, how to build a simple, repeatable system so eating well can start to feel automatic instead of always feeling exhausting.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: This workshop is completely free.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited about it, and I would love for you to be there.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you can grab your spot using the link in the show notes, or you can head to the link in my bio on Instagram, or just send me a DM on Instagram at Jones Fitzone, and I will get you all the details.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So today's episode is actually the perfect lead-in to that workshop because I want to tell you the story, the behind the scenes of why I built this workshop, where food prep really started for me, how it became my thing, and why I'm so fired up to share it with you.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just dive right in.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Midlife Glow Up Podcast, where we simplify fitness, nutrition, and healthy habits for women over 40.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Joan Dandano, your midlife health and wellness coach.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are ready to feel strong, consistent, and confident in this season of life, then you're in the right place, my friend.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to be very upfront about something right away, and it might surprise you what I have to say, but I don't love to cook.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: My husband loves to cook, and my middle daughter, she loves it too.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they approach it like an art project or a science experiment.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: They spend their free time shopping, picking up recipes, you know, prepping it, plating the food, making the food.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's genuinely like relaxing and enjoyable for them.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's great for them, but that is not me.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: For me, food prep has always been about solving a problem.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was not really taught how to cook growing up.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: My mom was a fantastic role model for me when it came to healthy eating.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: We never had soda or junk food in the house, and she fed us very well.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so grateful for that foundation.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: We had interesting meals, we had varieties of things.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: She loved experimenting in the kitchen, but I never felt empowered.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was sort of her thing, her kitchen.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to figure out cooking skills on my own.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't really start doing that until my early 20s.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So what pushed me to start really learning how to cook and become comfortable in the kitchen was my job.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: After graduating from college, I went to massage therapy school.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And in my early 20s, before I got married, before we had kids, I was a personal trainer.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was a massage therapist.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was a group swimming lessons instructor.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was a group exercise instructor.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And what that meant was early mornings, late nights, long days.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I have what I call food FOMO, the very real fear for me of being hungry and not having food.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I refused to rely on fast food or microwave meals or being hungry.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that is when food prep became the obvious solution to set me up for success for my long days at work.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And my life, as I got older and got married and had babies, kept adding reasons for me to keep relying on food prep.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was a non-negotiable for me.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I had three kids at one point under four years old, and I was running a business.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I needed to stay fueled in order to operate at my best.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that was not going to happen by accident.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So prepping food for me was really a non-negotiable.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it just kind of became how I live my life.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So let's rewind back to my early 20s.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was working at a health club that was about 20 minutes from my house if there was no traffic.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I was living in Atlanta, Georgia, where traffic was a given.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I taught a 5:30 in the morning spin class most mornings of the week.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that meant I was out the door by 4:45 in order to get there in time, which meant I had to bring my lunchbox with my breakfast, my lunch, and my snacks to get me through the majority of my workday before I would head home, grab a little nap, grab a little snack, and then head back for my evening shift.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So these were really long days, really early mornings, and I needed food that would carry me through all of it.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: At the time, I became obsessed with a magazine called Oxygen Magazine.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are not familiar with this, it was full of health and fitness, and professional competitors were who were featured in the articles and the photos, and they would share what they ate.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just really intrigued by this whole concept.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept noticing the same two ingredients showing up over and over again: egg whites and oatmeal.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I started experimenting.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I made muffins, I made overnight oats, I made baked oatmeal, anything I could think of.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the protein pancake was the recipe that won.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was super simple, just a half cup of oatmeal and a half a cup of egg whites, and I would add in different types of fruit and a little splash of vanilla, a little dash of cinnamon.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it was super simple, tasted really good, and was something that I could make several at a time so I could set myself up for the whole week to have breakfast ready to go.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I have been making that pancake ever since.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it so much, and I still do, that I could not keep it to myself.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was too good not to share.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I started telling anyone and everyone who needed a breakfast ready to go that was balanced and healthy and delicious and simple.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that is honestly how my whole food prep journey really began.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: My coworkers would see this pancake and they started asking questions.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, I shared the recipe with them and the recipe started getting passed around the gym, but people kept saying, It's so hard to flip that pancake.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I need how do you do it?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Can you just show me?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I started inviting my coworkers over to my house to show them exactly how to make this pancake and a few other things that I would make to bring to work.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I made a little social out of this, invited the coworkers over.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then the downside of sharing all of this is that I would let them taste the food, and then all of a sudden, the food that I had prepped, I had nothing left to take to work.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I quickly learned that if I was going to do this, I really needed to make this an actual event.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what I started doing.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So what started as an informal kitchen hangout with my gym friends eventually became the official food prep demos that I have been teaching for a long time now.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: At first, I offered them just as a free benefit to any of my fitness clients.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: But when I moved here to Seattle, I realized there was a real need out there.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Women were wanting tangible, simple, actual, delicious strategies for eating well.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started running these as paid events once or twice a month for over a decade.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I got it down to a science.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I know exactly what I'm going to make.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I know how to walk people through it, how to make this whole process feel approachable.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And now looking back, those food prep demos were honestly some of my favorite events that I have ever hosted.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's just something so special about inviting women into my kitchen and meeting them exactly where they are with their mindset around healthy living or their insecurities around body image or their insecurities around, I don't really know how to cook, things like that.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just we had such a common ground.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what the women's stories were, that what their backgrounds were with nutrition, we were able to all connect on the fact that this is hard, but it's also a necessity to learn this skill and set ourselves up for success, not just for today, but for years to come and also not just for ourselves, but to be able to take these skills and go and teach them to our children.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny because I often have people from my past um send me a picture or reach out and just say, Hey, I just want you to know I make that protein pancake every day.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I taught my kids how to make it, and they're now teaching their kids how to make it.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how crazy is that?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times women would bring a friend and come into my kitchen.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: It became a fun alternative to a girl's night out where instead of drinking wine and playing bunko, we were more learning that healthy food could actually be delicious and it doesn't have to take over your entire week to prep ahead.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: I love being social, I love hosting, I love meeting new people.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think my favorite part was experiencing a woman realizing that she is actually quite capable of this and that this is doable and that healthy can taste good, and it doesn't have to be super complicated.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: I just absolutely love empowering women in the kitchen.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Before recording this episode today, I looked back at the handout that I have given every woman who has walked through my door for those demos.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when I look at it now, I'm honestly a little struck by it because I wrote it a long time ago.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I would write every single word of it the same if I were to do it again today.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is, it was never really about just the recipes.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's about fueling your body and stabilizing your blood sugar and building an abundance mindset instead of a lack mindset.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's about changing our relationship with food, not going on another diet, but looking and feeling your best, not as a temporary fix, but as a way of life.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I wrote things like, listen to your body.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hunger is a good sign.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: There is no perfection in healthy eating, but there is always progress.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And at the very bottom, I wrote, healthy living is a journey.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: We never arrive, but we always strive.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Your habits become your lifestyle, and your lifestyle becomes your identity.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what I teach when I am talking about food prep.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I recently asked some of the women who have attended these food prep demos over the years to share some of their takeaways from the event.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what became apparent to me is that these are perfect for sharing some common misconceptions and what these ladies learned.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, one of the biggest things that I hear from women is they don't have time to food prep.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I get it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like one more thing to add to an already very full plate.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: But Nancy, who came to one of my food prep demos more than 10 years ago, will tell you now that the opposite is true because what she walked away with was understanding that spending a little time at the beginning of the week actually saves you time in the long run.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And what she didn't realize before attending was that prepping food ahead of time not only saves you time later, but also prevents you from getting off track when you are in the thick of a busy day, when you might normally make an unhealthy option.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Another one to hear all the time is that cooking healthy food is just too complicated.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Too many ingredients, too much shopping, too much chopping, too much cleanup.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: But my friend Jill cracks the code on that one because she has been making my ground turkey or ground chicken with salsa almost every week for two years now since attending the demo.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason it works is because the cheat code is the salsa really adds all the flavor and the veggies.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of chopping onions and peppers and creating the seasoning, it's just all already there.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because simple does not mean boring.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It just means sustainable and doable.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then there is the woman who just does not know where to start when she is creating a meal.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: She's looking at her plate and it's she's like, what do I eat?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And how much and what do I include?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So my client Mary took home one mindset shift that really changed everything with for her, which was start with protein and then build your plate around that.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that one simple reframe gives her now a starting point at every meal.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you start with protein and then you build your plate around it.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Lottie came to me as a vegetarian with a very fast metabolism, and she was always grabbing sugary snacks throughout the day just to keep her hunger at bay.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted to change this.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted to eat healthier, but she just wasn't quite sure how to do so.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: After the demo, she started using my recipes for breakfast and lunch and dinner and snacks.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And she told me that the constant reach for the junk food stopped and that she just feels so good.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that now she makes these snacks and these meals for her kids as well, and they love it too.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And she's grateful knowing that she's having a positive influence on her children.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: They're adopting this habit and enjoying nutritious foods as well.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she is satisfied and able to keep up with her hunger throughout the day just by doing a little bit of prep at the beginning of the week.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, for the woman who knows what she should be doing, but she just can't seem to make it happen or seem to make it happen consistently.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Life is busy.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Kids need to eat, pets need to be walked, houses need to be cleaned, laundry needs to be done.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And somehow our nutrition can end up on the back burner.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that was my friend Carrie.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: So Carrie came to me because she really wanted to get her overall health in check.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Before working with me, before attending the food prep demo, she was microwaving meals in a hurry, eating whatever she could find, maybe finishing the kids' leftovers, having some stress eating.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And she told me that she felt sluggish and moody and just not her best.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: But after attending the food prep demo and implementing this on her own, she learned the importance of having food ready ahead of time.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Her takeaway was really healthy eating does not take as long as you think.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And she said that attending the food prep demo and really implementing what she learned was one of the best things that she has done for herself in years.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what it's all about.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a complicated system.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: It is not hours and hours in the kitchen.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's not eating boring, bland food.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's just setting yourself up for the day so that the day does not get the best of you, so that you are showing up as your best self because you're fueled.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really what it's all about.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's never about perfection.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's never about a complicated system, but rather just setting yourself up so that the day does not derail you.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you are eating well, you have energy, you have patience, your brain works.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're not running on fumes and wondering why you can't seem to keep it all going.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: You are fueled, you are energized, and that really can make all the difference.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, alongside all of those wins, the other feedback that I got most consistently over the years was that the food prep demos felt like drinking from a fire hose.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I completely understand why.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I had two hours with these women and I wanted to give them everything, every strategy, every shortcut, every recipe, every tool, 20 years of learning packed into one afternoon in my kitchen.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I would send them home with a recipe book and a grocery list and so much information.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And a few things would stick.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: They would implement those things and see results, but the rest would quietly fade into the background.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And after hearing that feedback for years, it planted a seed.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I really want to do is create something that women can come back to, something that you can use and actually implement the concepts, not just in the moment of learning them, but something that you could come back to over and over again, something that's not going to disappear the second life gets busy.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly why I created my virtual workshop.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Over the past couple of years inside of my business, I have shifted more of my focus to my online offerings.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I have stepped back from running the live in-person food prep demos, at least for now.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying I'm done with them, but for now I'm really excited about what this shift has made possible.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing: for 20 years, I have been teaching the amount of women who could comfortably sit around my kitchen island, and I have been teaching what I could cram into a two-hour window.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm ready to take this further and I'm ready to reach more women.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have refined this system.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I have taught it over and over and over again.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I now know what lands and what doesn't.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I now really understand what women actually need versus what I thought they needed.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I now want to take all of that and share it in a way that is structured and digestible and available to every woman who needs it, not just the ones who live down the street from me.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings me back to what I mentioned at the beginning of this episode.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: In five days, I'm hosting a free two-day live workshop called Nail Your Nutrition in Midlife.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And inside, on day one, we're talking about the foundation, why you feel inconsistent with nutrition, and why it has nothing to do with discipline.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: I will be sharing my simple structure that I personally use and I share with my clients to make healthy eating feel almost automatic and how to build balanced protein-forward meals without overthinking it or spending hours in the kitchen.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then day two is the one I'm giddy about.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: You get to come join me inside of my kitchen in real time.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be walking you through exactly how I turn simple ingredients into multiple meals for the week.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about how to batch prep, how to mix and match, how to store food so it actually gets eaten, and you will see how this can become your easy button, especially when life is busy.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: This workshop is for you if you know what to eat, but you struggle to stay consistent with healthy eating.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you start the week off strong and then fall off by Wednesday, or if you open the fridge and feel like there's nothing to eat, even when you just went grocery shopping.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you are tired of relying on willpower and you want a simple, repeatable system, even if you don't love to cook, I promise this workshop is going to be for you.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: After our two days together, you're going to walk away feeling clear, prepared, and in control of your nutrition instead of reacting to your day.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: You'll walk away with a system that you can repeat week after week without needing motivation or willpower to show up for yourself.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's completely free.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's on Zoom, and I would absolutely love to see you there.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can grab your spot by using the link in the show notes, or if it's easier for you, you could DM me on Instagram at Jones Fitzone or head to the link in my bio on Instagram at Jones Fitzone.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'll also include my email in the show notes if you would rather email me there.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is the last podcast episode that will air prior to the workshop.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone who is registered for the workshop will get the replay video.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can't make it to the live event, no big deal.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: You'll still have all the information that you will be able to refer back to anytime you want.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: I really, really hope to see you there.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, my friend.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, progress over perfection and consistency over intensity.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep growing, keep glowing, and bye for now.