Latest / The Cyclical Doula Podcast: Fertility Awareness, Charting Cycles, and Reproductive Health Education / Nourishing Motherhood Without the Crunchy Stress with Violet Parcha
Transcript
- emmamma: Welcome back. I'm so excited to have Violet with me today ⁓ talk about all things, ⁓ about food and postpartum ⁓ But are so excited to hear ⁓ from Violet about all these things. So can you tell us a little bit about who you are ⁓ as outside of your work outside of all those things, just who you are as a person? Emmamma: hey, just popping in real quick to say sure you're subscribed to the Cyclical Doula podcast on whichever platform you're listening to. ⁓ Thanks so much for being here today on the cyclical doula podcast. If this episode resonated with you, the most powerful thing that you can do is to share it, send it to a friend, text it to your sister, forward it to that group chat. This is how conversations about our bodies start changing, quietly, organically, woman to woman. you are listening and thinking, ⁓ ⁓ want help applying this to my And don't miss upcoming conversations. If this episode is resonating with you, please share it with a friend, rate it and write a review. This is how this movement grows, not through algorithms, but through women talking to women. All right, let's jump back into it. Violet Parcha: Yeah, obviously I'm a mom, I'm a wife, and I love my family. I love spending time with them and all that. I really love the outdoors, hiking, anything outside. We just bought a house this past year and one of things I've been most excited about is starting a garden in the spring. So anytime I can get outside, I love it. My Christian faith is really important to me and with this whole health focus for me, Emmamma: I offer free cycle clarity calls. It's a relaxed conversation over Zoom we talk through your goals, your charting practices, and kind of support that would actually make sense for you. can book one at emmamma.com / free. And if you already, make sure you're following or subscribe to the Cyclical Doula - podcast so that you don't miss future episodes. Violet Parcha: really a big part of it is just helping myself, my family, and others live healthy so that they can really pursue the things that they care about, the things that give purpose and meaning to life instead of being held back by health issues or struggles with fertility. Things that just kind of distract from and that I really believe shouldn't be too difficult, should just come naturally and we should be able to all live healthy lives to at least to at a pretty big degree. Emmamma: And if you feel called to leave a rating or review, it genuinely helps more women find this work. So thank you. You deserve to understand body. You deserve to feel confident in your reproductive choices. And you ⁓ have to figure it out alone. I'll see you next week. Thanks for being here. Violet Parcha: And I just love being able to support people in that so they can really live their purpose. emmamma: Amazing. I love that. what one rhythm or ritual that you ⁓ love in this current season that you're in in life? ⁓ Violet Parcha: So lately we've been in a really busy season and it's been kind of hard just figuring out, really getting into good routines. That's been a struggle. But for me, really the biggest thing has been just doing anything possible that I can while the kids are awake and saving the time when they're asleep for doing my own things. So for me, afternoon nap, that's doing my own business, blogging, kind of doing my own creative stuff. emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: And then in the evenings, it's also great because then I can have time to read, spend time with my husband, we can relax, and I'm not worried about doing dishes or cleaning up the house. So I just really love making sure that the time when the kids are asleep is my time to do the things that are important to me and not have to worry about the little side tasks. emmamma: Yeah. I love that. That's so good. So tell us a little bit about how you got into ⁓ what you do now in your blog and all of those things. Violet Parcha: Yes. So I've always kind of had a little bit more of a natural perspective. Even as a teenager, I loved kind of creating recipes and trying to make them a little bit healthier. I noticed pretty early on that it's very processed foods, especially white sugar and processed gluten just didn't make me feel the best. So as a teenager, I was always trying to kind of swap those things, see if I can min my sugar in my baking, things like that. But I didn't really go much further than that. But after my husband and I got married, emmamma: Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: after my husband and I got married, He really went through a crisis with Crohn's disease. He'd been diagnosed at 13 and had tried pretty much all the natural things he could figure out, but he was on his own just kind of going in the dark, trying random things. we got to a point within the first couple of years of our marriage where it just wasn't working and we needed something else. He really went through a crisis with Crohn's disease. He'd been diagnosed at 13 and had tried pretty much all the natural things he could figure out, but he was on his own just kind of going in the dark, trying random things. And we got to a point within the first couple of years of our marriage where it just wasn't working and we needed something else. So we decided to give the natural health a really fair shot. And then we figured we would, after that maybe we could look into medicine, it emmamma: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Violet Parcha: That always made us uncomfortable just because of the high side effects and all of that. So we decided to go through a functional medicine program and this was primarily for him. Really the goal was for him, but I got all the benefits from it too. Being married to him and doing some of the work alongside of him. And that really changed our life. We learned, we thought we knew what healthy eating was and we didn't. I completely changed my cooking. I changed my routines. emmamma: Yeah. Emmamma: Welcome to the Cyclical Doula podcast. I'm Emma, a certified fertility awareness educator, miscarriage doula and the founder of Emmamma Violet Parcha: even how I cleaned my house, everything changed overnight. Well, not quite overnight, but it changed within a few months. And it really started a cascade of effects. Like for me, I felt like I was healthy and I was overall healthy. But then once I started realizing that the things that were affecting him, maybe that day or the next day or the next week, those same things were making me have lower energy or emmamma: Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: Maybe I didn't feel the effects now, but the more I learned, I was like, I might feel this in 10 years. This might affect future pregnancies. This is affecting my hormones in ways that I thought, you know, everyone has slight hormonal issues. kind of thought, so this was just normal. So once I started realizing how those things were affecting not only his health, but my health, that really started us on a journey to make these changes long-term and really develop a new lifestyle where these things were sustainable. emmamma: Yeah. Right. Yeah, that's a- Violet Parcha: And then now it's been really exciting to get to help others get to that place so they can experience more health. emmamma: That's amazing. So you mentioned food and like eating and all of those things, just that like more natural lifestyle affecting your hormones. Can you tell us a little bit more about like what that looked like either for you or what you see for a lot of other people too? Emmamma: This space is for women who want to understand their bodies deeply, not just memorize information, but actually feel confident in interpreting their cycles. Here we talk about ovulation, hormones, cervical mucus, basal body temperature, and all that's messy in between emotional layers that come with being woman. We talk about trying to conceive, avoiding pregnancy ⁓ hormones. Violet Parcha: Yeah. So for me, my hormones were pretty good, but then like, like most Americans, American women get married or at some point when you're a teenager, you get put on birth control because that's just what you do. And I had kind of done that too, without thinking much of it. was told there's no side effects. Everything's good. So I did that. And then within probably a month of us starting this program that came up, obviously he wasn't on that, but that was part of the curriculum. Like if. emmamma: Yeah. Emmamma: postpartum transitions, pregnancy loss, perimenopause, and everything in between. Because body literacy isn't just about charting. It's about the autonomy. It's about informed consent. It's about not outsourcing your reproductive decisions to guesswork or fear. Each week, you'll hear conversations with women's health professionals, ⁓ workers, ⁓ Violet Parcha: you take anything for hormones, you need to get off. So we decided like overnight, like I'm done with this. And through that, I realized that I needed to detox my body because even if I wasn't experiencing anything major, my body had been under a lot of stress and I, my hormones are way off. So I needed to balance things again. So I pretty much overnight ditched like all artificial fragrances. I was like, we're done with. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah. Emmamma: and researchers along with solo episodes where I teach practical skills you can apply to your own cycle right away. if you have ever felt like you should have learned this information sooner, if you have ever felt disconnected from your cycle, Violet Parcha: All of this, I, my eating was already being cleaned up, but I was like Googling, like how to detox excess estrogen from your body, all that. So I went really high into like cruciferous vegetables. I just really focused on getting my body back to a stable place. And honestly, I feel like I got healthier than I had even been, you know, in my earlier years where, you know, things were, I felt like my hormones were normal, but I struggled with painful periods. Just kind of. emmamma: Yeah. Emmamma: If you want to raise the next generation without shame around their bodies, you are in the right place. So grab your tea, open up your notes app, and let's build a cycle confidence together. Violet Parcha: the typical things most Americans struggle with. within just a few months of doing that, I got pregnant, had an amazing pregnancy. And since then, I really haven't had any hormonal issues, like very easy pregnancies, postpartum experiences, getting pregnant again has been fantastic. And I really believe that if I would have just continued that path that so many people are on, like you stay on birth control for maybe 10 years until you feel like, ⁓ emmamma: Yeah. Violet Parcha: You know, we have everything in order. Maybe now we feel confident enough to have kids and then you get off of it 10 years later and then things have happened to your body that you never expected. So I'm really thankful that I was able to realize those things and we made the decision like, okay, like kids are great. We're, ready for that. Even though it's a little bit earlier than we were maybe expecting, but it was turned out to be a really good thing. And I feel so much healthier now than I ever have. emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, I think that's something that I really hear from a lot of the clients that I work with. that when I'm when I'm working with clients, and they're coming to me to learn about alternatives to hormonal birth control, and like we're talking about tracking cycles with a fertility awareness based method. That's one of the things that people realize right off the bat that like, once they come off that hormonal birth control about how much like their body is changing, and how much they're those side effects that they like didn't really realize where they are, are are gone. And it's amazing, like you said, being able to also have that focus on like, okay, like, how can I nourish my body well, both like physically with food, but also just like, emotionally, and with exercise and all of those things, when you're off that when you're coming off of it, and in that transition, and that having that food aspect to it is, is really important and being able to like detox from estrogen and all those things can really benefit that. Violet Parcha: Yes. emmamma: process. So thanks for sharing that part of it. And I do think like, it's amazing how, like you shared about how your pregnancies and postpartum have been so like, even compared to a lot of people who have a lot of fluctuations in their hormones. ⁓ that's really interesting, too. Do feel like the a lot of that comes from, ⁓ that like crunchy ⁓ kind of experience Violet Parcha: Yes, I think that's been a huge part. Obviously everyone has different things and everyone's body is a little bit different, so you're going to respond differently depending on just your unique makeup. But I do think for me it's been huge just seeing so many people around me have such different experiences. And yeah, it's a combination. It's nourishing your body well. It's just living less stressed, ⁓ being able to make food from scratch, which is... emmamma: Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: Yeah, it's really nourishing, but it's also, I feel like, just a healthier lifestyle. And I think that has made a huge difference. emmamma: Absolutely. That's awesome. I wonder, you, you're working with other people who are going through this and kind of like leading them through this process too. What's one of the things that you like to talk with women and moms who are like at that stage where they're just like stretched thin and like rehauling their whole life with this sounds overwhelming. Violet Parcha: Yeah, it definitely is. Like I remember the first, like when we first started diving into this, was, we were like, what do I even make for dinner? Like we felt like we had nothing in the pantry that I could even make at this point. And it was so overwhelming and we were just at like step one. So for me, a big thing is just one thing at a time. So pick one thing, whether that's just learning to cook one nourishing meal, the whole family likes from scratch and doesn't have to be complicated. Like. emmamma: Yeah, great. Violet Parcha: Tacos are one of our favorite meals. It's super easy. Like, you could do taco salad, taco bowls, or just get healthy tortillas or make homemade tortillas. Just a really simple meal that everyone loves. Or maybe for someone else, it's just cutting out some sugar. Like, if you drink a soda a day, swap that and try water or try tea. And just really realizing which area you feel like is most doable for someone to start with. and then just doing one thing at a time and not trying to do everything, not trying to look at all the information, stretch yourself really thin and try to do everything because that's not sustainable. But if you can start slow, that's going to lead to lasting results. emmamma: Absolutely. That's amazing. are are you doing anything different ⁓ with like, ⁓ with like versus your like pregnancy Are you feeling like you have established like a specific routine and like you're good about ⁓ what that looks like around like food and care? ⁓ Violet Parcha: So as I've learned that my capacity has grown and I've been able to do more and I've really noticed the effect it's had on pregnancies. Like my first pregnancy, well, was for most people, it would be considered a very easy, smooth pregnancy. did struggle with morning sickness, extreme fatigue in the first trimester, things like that. My second pregnancy, I had about half of that. And, and I think that was just due to me being a little bit more active physically. And then also. emmamma: Mm. Violet Parcha: my diet and lifestyle evolving a little bit more. And then this pregnancy, I decided I was going to do everything I could to combat morning sickness and fatigue the first trimester. So as soon as I got that positive pregnancy test result, I was like, I am not doing any processed food. And we limit it. Like I don't buy processed food. But if I'm out and about, I'm not going to refuse something someone puts in front of me. I'm not going to like go over to someone's house and pick and choose what I eat. emmamma: Yeah. Violet Parcha: I'm just going to eat it all and we'll go out to restaurants sometimes and I know there's seed oils in there or processed white flour and I don't really think about that. But this time around I was like, I'm just not doing this for the first semester and I'm going to see what happens. And it was really amazing. I probably had maybe five episodes where I felt a little bit queasy out of an entire first semester where it had been every single day. And those times where I felt queasy were related to like, emmamma: great. That's pretty good. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: ⁓ There was like once or twice during that time where we did end up going out to eat and I was like the next day I just didn't quite feel right and Once I think we went out for ice cream. We just need chance to get out the house And then the next day I felt a little bit off. So it was really interesting how that affected me I also Really upped some nutrition stuff like I did vegetable juicing which I don't always do but I was like I'm gonna I'm gonna give that a go right now so I did that and then ⁓ emmamma: Yeah. Yeah. Violet Parcha: I did more fermented foods than I'd done before, which I always do some fermented, but I was pretty strict. Like I'm doing this multiple times a day, doing yogurt, sauerkraut. I did some beet kvass. So it was really like just my body is full of everything healthy I can and limit, limit anything that might be bringing myself down. And it was pretty incredible how much that changed and changed just how I felt. And as soon as I hit like 11, 12 weeks. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah. Violet Parcha: I did lighten up because the way I was living really wasn't super sustainable for our lifestyle. Like we like going out to eat once a month or so. We like, you know, going places and eating with other people and not ha and I don't want to be super strict all the time. But I, but I really decided to give it a go and see if that would make a difference. And it was pretty amazing the difference it did. So that's definitely something I'm going to be continuing in the future. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's awesome. I love that. think like, what a what a different ⁓ like mindset shift around it instead of being like, ⁓ like, like, there's morning sickness during pregnancy, like to really be like, okay, like, how can I like really try hard to make it the like least as possible and being able to have the resources to do that is amazing. And making that a priority. What is, ⁓ are you doing anything different for like postpartum this time around that you're planning on doing different? Violet Parcha: Yeah, so with my first two pregnancies, I had originally kind of planned to do the ⁓ five-five-five rule, which I'm sure you've heard about and a lot of your listeners have heard about. And that was kind of the original plan. But after I got past those first 15 days with my first, and that was kind of a complicated, and she ended up being a surprise breach born at home. So everything turned out great, but... It was a little bit more complicated to thought, well, this is just this time I need a little bit longer to recover. And I did take that time, but I was always like, okay, I want to get back to things I want to keep. I want to get back to my routine. I want to cook. And I got kind of frustrated at times with it, but it ended up working out fine. And I did take the time I needed off. I just wasn't necessarily in the best mindset for that because I really wanted to get back quicker. And then with my second, it was a super easy birth. Everything went perfectly. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Violet Parcha: So I was like, okay, this is going to be, this is going to be where I can really do the five five five rule in 15 days. I'll feel like myself. I'll be ready to go back in. And again, even though everything went great and I felt healthy, I just could tell my body wasn't ready for my full routine again. And then a few months later, after all this, I started calculating, okay, how much time did I take for both my pregnancies? And the crazy thing was one was like, emmamma: Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: It was right between like 38 and 41 days, which a lot of people, well, some people in like traditional cultures go by like the first 40 days. And it was really amazing to me that just by listening to my body, I went about exactly 40 days of rest with both my postpartum periods. And obviously that wasn't just resting on a bed or in a bed, but it was taking a break from my regular routine, not going grocery shopping all the time, not cooking. emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: complicated meals from scratch every night, really just limiting myself and doing what I needed to do, but prioritizing rest. So a big thing I'm doing this time around is expecting to have that first 40 days instead of just saying like, I'll be out for 15 days. I'm like, no, I'm going to take 40 days. And because of that, I'm taking meal prep a little bit more seriously because obviously I won't be able to have everything cooked for 40 days, but I do want. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. Violet Parcha: I do want to have food so that it's, I do have certain things that are done for at least close to 40 days and certain pantry staples on hand for 40 days, not for three weeks, things like that. And also just expecting to have 40 days, I think will help a lot mentally so that, you know, at three weeks I won't be stressed out because the floor needs mopping or because I want to clean, clean something else in the house or get the kids outside more. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah. Violet Parcha: It's like, no, I have these 40 days and I can relax in that. can rest in that and focus on healing and then move on after that. And who knows? I know every labor and postpartum experience can be a little bit different, but just based on my history, I feel like 40 days is a reasonable expectation for me. And I'm really trying to plan on that this time. emmamma: Yeah, that totally makes sense. feel like what a what an amazing opportunity to really be able to focus on yourself and be able to focus on the new baby and like, being able to ⁓ just like sit in that time of recovery. Because I think like, that's something about our society that is not does not do a good job in the United States of making sure that women and families can really like have that time that like you can call it like a baby boom time of this time, like after the baby's born that you kind of like close in and get to know each other as, as that time and then go out into the world and then do other things. And like, how awesome that it is that like, you can really be able to focus on that. And again, like, it's, partially just that mindset shift of like, Violet Parcha: Mm-hmm. Yes. emmamma: okay, like, I'm gonna take 40 days and like, if at day 35, you're feeling fantastic, and like all that then like you can change your plans, right? Like, and like, that's good. But having that mindset of like, okay, like, this is what our family is planning for, and can be really helpful, I think for sure. I do think like, I would go more of that route. If I if we had another kid of like being able to like, take that time for sure. Violet Parcha: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, I think it really makes a huge difference in healing. emmamma: Yeah, absolutely. What's some of the things that you love talking to other moms about about all of this? Violet Parcha: Yeah, so for me, a big thing is just really finding easy ways to cut processed foods out of your diet. I feel like that is a huge thing that really seems overwhelming at first, especially in our culture where it's so easy to just run by fast food or pick up packaged snacks, things like that. But I really feel like it doesn't need to be complicated and it also doesn't need to be expensive. I hear so many people talk about how it's too expensive to eat healthy, but we've compared our budget to kind of the average American and it were our food budget is right there in the middle and obviously maybe if you know, we didn't eat quite as healthy we could cut more but we're buying 75 % organic local food and we're still spending what the average American spends and if you're on a tighter budget like just skip the organic but stick to real foods if you need to and that's gonna make a huge difference. That's honestly probably a bigger difference than emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓ Violet Parcha: going straight toward, like the difference between processed food to just natural foods is I think the biggest step in the natural foods to organic is another good step, but it's not the first step. It doesn't need to be if that's not where you are budget wise. So I really love just helping people figure out how to make this easy and doable and budget friendly because it really is budget friendly. The most expensive foods anyone buys are typically your processed foods. Like just look at, Lunch meat. Lunch meat per pound is a lot more expensive than just buying chicken breasts or a whole chicken. And it's so much healthier. So just start there with eliminating the processed foods and knowing that it doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't have to be complicated. emmamma: Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's amazing. I do think that's one of the things that a lot of people think about is like, okay, like, the the price point of it, or like the time that it's going to take me to, to not do buy a processed food or not have an easy thing, and is something that is one of the reasons why people are hesitant to start to begin with. And I think that that's reassuring to kind of see like, okay, like we're, we can we can do this, we can have this different approach to that. What's one of your like, easiest switches? Obviously, like it totally depends upon like, who the person is. But is there one specific type of food that you feel like is the easiest for people to start with to switch? Other than like, just process? Yeah, it's like, yeah. Violet Parcha: That's, yeah, like you said, that's a little tricky because it depends on, depends on the person and what you eat. I think breakfast is a great one to start with because it's so easy just to, you know, grab a bowl of cereal or something like that that really provides pretty much no nutrition. But it's really just as easy to grab a bowl of yogurt and some frozen fruit. And maybe if you have some extra time, make a big batch of homemade granola. emmamma: Mmm. Yeah. Violet Parcha: and you can freeze that. It'll freeze for a few months or you can keep it just in your pantry for a few weeks. So that's one food we always like having on hand is homemade granola. But like a breakfast like that is so much more nourishing, so much healthier than just a bowl of cereal and milk. And it really doesn't take any extra time. So breakfast is one of my favorite places to start because it doesn't have to be time consuming. And you can also prep it in advance if you like. emmamma: Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. I do think the other big thing that comes up for me, other than ⁓ not knowing, ⁓ I feel like, yes, it's so easy be like, I don't wanna eat processed food, I know that whole foods and all these things are better for me, and then it's like, okay, now what do I even do? How do I even start with all this cooking aspect of it? ⁓ And I think that that's something that like, you have recipes, when you have other people in your corner who are like cheering you on for all of this, it like makes it so much easier. Do you, I guess it also depends on like where people live, but do you have a favorite place to find foods that are like high quality and good whole foods? Or are you just shopping at like your regular grocery store? Violet Parcha: For us, Costco has been about the best thing. I think we got a membership like a month into our marriage and it's really amazing how much money it saved us. And then they also have a lot of good high quality fresh food. There's obviously a lot of processed food you could buy too, but their produce is great. They often have good deals on meat, dairy, vegetables. You can pretty much find anything you need there for a good price. emmamma: Yeah, us too. for sure. Violet Parcha: When we were first deciding about our Costco membership, we were comparing prices and all of that. And we found that often Costco's organic prices were the same, pretty much exactly the same as Walmart's conventionally grown. So that was an instant no brainer. Like, okay, we could buy organic for the same price as conventionally grown. We're going to Costco. So that's been, that's our go-to. But then the second one for us that's been big is Azure standard. I'm not sure if you've heard of them, but it's. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. No, I haven't. Violet Parcha: It's actually a food co-op, it's no fee to join. So it's super easy. They have drops and I think all 50 states now, they do charge a slight shipping fee, but they're basically like a health food store that, but better prices and you can buy things in bulk. So there are certain foods that I buy in really big bulk, like we make our own peanut butter. So I'll buy peanuts and huge bulk. I'll buy sprouted rice in big bulk. emmamma: That's great. Violet Parcha: Just a few things like that. You can get wheat berries in bulk if you like to grind your own wheat. Right now we're starting to move that way. So right now I just buy their whole wheat flour in bulk. But certain things you can get for a really good price. And we actually lived out west for about the first four five years of our marriage. And the culture out west is very different from the culture on the East Coast, like Southeast, where we live now. And it was a whole lot easier to find whole foods and organic. emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: and bulk foods for good prices because it's just a higher demand out West. So when we moved Azure standard became like how we survived almost like obviously Costco is huge still, but Azure standard became really a key part just because we can get things from them that you honestly probably can't find in the entire South, at least not easily. So we love Azure too. emmamma: Yeah. Absolutely. That was that was for sure one of our problems to moving from the northeast to the southeast of just like, all right, like some of these staples that we usually have gotten like are way hard way harder to find. Yeah, that's good to know. But that's good to know. I don't think I've heard about that. So I'll look into that for myself too. But let's talk a little bit more as we kind of like wrap up a little bit. Violet Parcha: Yeah. emmamma: When you're working with people, do you find that there's like one particular way or like a particular process that you like to walk women through about like being able to both focus on nourishing their family well, but also like being able to like function as human beings and like regulate our nervous system and like all of those things honoring our family spending time with our family all of those things. Violet Parcha: Yeah, it's definitely important. think if you spend obviously spending all day in the kitchen is not good for anyone. I enjoy spending a lot of time in the kitchen. It's like a hobby. Sometimes I'll like right now we're actually spending time with family for the holidays and and they're like my mother-in-law's like, ⁓ we need to give you a break in the kitchen. I'm like, ⁓ I have more time. I'll just go find something fun to cook. So that's a hobby for me. But I know that's not for everyone. And even for me, I like to minimize that time when I can. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Violet Parcha: when I don't have that energy. So a big thing for us is meal prep. So just some simple things like I never pretty much never will cook enough for just one meal. It's we always have leftovers and that makes it easy for whether it's lunch the next day dinner that next day. Usually I'm probably only cooking three ish dinners a night. I meal prep my husband's lunches for about three weeks in advance and freeze them. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: When I'm doing postpartum meal prep, I'll just like make a batch of something for dinner and freeze half of it. And I really focus on bulk cooking because it really doesn't take much time, much more time to cook a double or triple batch of recipe than just one. Then toss it in the freezer. You have a freezer meal for a night where you're just busy or a day where you don't have the energy or something just comes up. Yeah, it isn't sustainable to cook three meals a day from scratch. emmamma: Mm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: But I really believe it is sustainable if you're willing to meal prep and if you take some time to develop a plan that works for your family. I know a lot of people love having Sunday meal prep days. We tried that for a while and while it worked, it didn't work that great because we like having our Sunday afternoons off. So at this point, what really works for us is just making big batches. So like maybe Monday night, I'll make tacos, but I'll cook five. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Violet Parcha: plus pounds of meat. And obviously a family with two adults and two toddlers is not going to eat five pounds of taco meat. But we could freeze half of it and have another couple meals in the freezer and maybe have leftovers the next day. Things like that really make it a lot more sustainable. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah, that's helpful. think as we're talking about this, like I'm like, ooh, I should be taking notes. Like this is great. Cause my husband's the chef. He's the chef of our family. He loves to cook, ⁓ is awesome. Except the fact that he's a flight attendant. So he's gone multiple days in a row. And I'm always like, I feel like I need more ideas or more things to, more things to do. Cause I am, I'm definitely the culprit of just ⁓ we've gotten. ⁓ Violet Parcha: How nice. emmamma: and throw in like the best the best chicken nuggets that you can find, but the ones that are like in the frozen section in Costco of just like that's what we're eating for dinner tonight. ⁓ But yeah, having that having it all like prepped and like ready to go just sounds great. So I love that. ⁓ Violet Parcha: Yeah. Yeah, it definitely makes things easier. I know like plastic isn't great. Like we shouldn't be putting hot food in plastic and all that. However, sometimes like if you're trying meal prep a lot, you probably can't afford or don't have space for that many glass containers. So while we always start with our glass containers, I also sometimes we'll just go to plastic freezer bags. ⁓ make sure I put cold food in them or at least room temperature food, but emmamma: Yes. Yeah. Violet Parcha: Honestly, like if that's what it takes to make it easy for you, just don't worry about it. Honestly, you probably bought the food in plastic anyway. So putting it in plastic a second time, well, maybe not the best. If it's gonna help you have a nourishing meal on a night where you're busy, go for it and don't worry about it. Like little shortcuts that you can make for yourself, it's really worth it in the end, even if maybe it's not perfect. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah, yeah, that's so good. I love that. What else do you want to share with listeners as we're wrapping things up today? Violet Parcha: Yeah, I just really want to encourage listeners that it doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be expensive. You really can do this no matter what your budget, no matter what your time. Maybe you can't do it to the same level as the person beside you because everyone is in a different season, but you can make one small step and it's those small steps that build. Like once you learn to cook that one meal that your whole family loves, you start making it in bulk once a week and then maybe If you another month, the next month, maybe you'll find something else you like and you can learn to make that. Or maybe you find a really good deal on, you find a place where you can buy organic vegetables for a good price and you can make that switch. It really is just about those slow, sustainable steps. And one step at a time makes a huge difference. It doesn't have to be overnight and it doesn't have to be perfect. emmamma: Yeah, I love that. That's so good. Where can people connect with you Violet Parcha: Yeah, so my recipes are all on my blog, rightathome.blog. Super easy to find. I a lot of recipes. They're all geared around like clean eating, healthy lifestyle, all of that. But I know a lot of people get into that through allergies and sensitivities. So I also have a lot of allergy friendly recipes, whether you're gluten free, egg free, dairy free. I have things that will work for you without all the weird additives people try to throw in to make it. emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm Violet Parcha: taste like it has dairy or tastes like it has gluten. So that's a great resource just for good, easy recipes. They're all recipes I make with two toddlers. So definitely easy, easy things you can start to learn and cook for your family. And then I'm also on social media at right at home with violet. That's my Instagram. You can find me on Facebook as well. Then I also have for listeners, if you go to rightathome.blogslashpostpartum-meals. You can get a free printout PDF with 10 really easy freezer meals. It has breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a few snacks that you can just make and in your freezer. Whether you're going into postpartum season, whether you're pregnant and just want something to put in the freezer for low energy days, or maybe you're not even pregnant and you just want some easy meals that you know will freeze well. That's a great resource just with some super simple things with pantry staples, nothing complicated that you can just go get and start learning to make a few of those dishes. emmamma: That's awesome. I love that. We'll make sure that that's in the show notes and I probably will download that myself later because that sounds awesome to just have some new ideas in there. Always looking for some new stuff. thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate you sharing your experience and what you help people with and just just the knowledge around all of these recipes. I feel like people are going to be able to have a lot more information around some ideas and being able to dive into that. So thanks for being here. Violet Parcha: Yeah, thank you so much for having me Emma. It's been fun getting to chat with you and your listeners about this.