97 - Intuitive Eating & Meal Planning: A Dietitian's Guide to Food Freedom with Michelle Russell

Embark on a transformative journey with Sabrina and Michelle Russell, a dietitian and nutrition therapist, as we challenge the conventional wisdom of meal planning. Shattering the myths of diet culture, we delve into a holistic approach that marries the concept of intuitive eating with the practicalities of organizing meals. Through Michelle's own narrative of overcoming an eating disorder to become a certified specialist, we uncover the compassionate path towards a peaceful relationship with food, and we emerge with a roadmap for meal planning that celebrates food freedom amidst our hectic lives.

In our latest episode, we tackle the misconception that intuitive eating and structured meal planning are at odds. Instead, we outline strategies to craft flexible meal plans that honor our body's hunger cues while providing a framework to alleviate stress and reduce waste. We share practical tips and resources, such as the Work Week Lunch program and Budget Bytes, that align with eating competence principles. Our conversation illuminates how a list of ingredients on hand can revive forgotten meals like a simple tuna salad and keep culinary creativity alive without the overwhelm.

As we wrap up, we address the modern conundrum of juggling home-cooked meals with the allure of dining out and the convenience of food delivery services. Our guest, Michelle, offers her expertise on how to navigate these choices in a way that suits our fast-paced world.


Mentioned on the show:
Ellen Satter's Eating Competence
All Recipes
Budget Bytes

Connect with Michelle:
Instagram
Facebook
Website

Register for her meal planning workshops

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:50

Hey, welcome back to the show. It is your host, sabrina, and I get asked this question a lot, both in the counseling practice and just in my everyday life, of meal planning from a non-diet, intuitive eating standpoint, because for a lot of people the two just don't seem to align. So when my colleague, michelle Russell, was advertising that she was having a meal planning workshop coming up, I knew that I had to bring her on the show. Michelle is a dietitian and nutrition therapist in Burlington, iowa, so here in our lovely state she is the owner of Food Freedom, a nutrition counseling practice supporting individuals struggling with eating disorders and all forms of stress and dysfunction around food, body image and exercise. Michelle aims to offer a compassionate approach to healing and encourages reconnection with our bodies and our relationship with food. Michelle holds specialty certifications, such as a certified intuitive eating counselor and a certified eating disorder specialist, and offers training and consultation to health care professionals looking to enhance their skills in the eating disorder field.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Michelle and I got to know each other through the Eating Disorder Coalition of Iowa. We're both members and we've attended several events together, and I just really love her just calm and genuine energy. I am so excited for you to hear her talk about pairing intuitive eating and meal planning so that you can add some food freedom to your life and just some relaxation amongst all of that chaos that we have going on in our lives. So, without further ado, let's get to my interview with Michelle. Michelle, thanks for coming on the podcast today. I'm so excited that you agreed to come on when I messaged it on Facebook the other night.

Speaker 2: 2:54

Yes, thank you for having me. I'm excited to chat with you further.

Speaker 1: 2:59

I am really excited. This is something that has been a topic in a lot of my sessions and it's nice to have a registered dietitian come on and talk more semantics about the whole meal planning process and how that gets muddied by diet culture and what we can do about it.

Speaker 2: 3:15

Yeah, yeah, I feel like diet culture has totally corrupted a lot of really helpful things when it comes to food and meals, and so it can be really sticky to develop a supportive process around meals. That's not dripping in diet culture, and I love to sort through that with folks too.

Speaker 1: 3:36

Awesome, Before we get into that. I'm curious more for maybe my own sake because we haven't talked about this before, but also because I think sometimes listeners are curious of like how do you become a dietitian? But how did you become a dietitian? What got you into this field?

Speaker 2: 3:51

Yeah, so my history and I always tell people.

Speaker 2: 3:55

When I was in high school I didn't know what a dietitian was Like.

Speaker 2: 3:57

A lot of people are embarking on their career aspirations in high school, and dietitian was never on my radar, and I was really developing an eating disorder around the time that I got out of high school and became really fixated on exercise and nutrition and tracking and all of that stuff and thought I was being really healthy. If you look at diet culture, that's what it says you should do to be healthy, and so it took a turn, though, and I struggled with an eating disorder and I was taking a nutrition class as I was interested in food, and I decided I'm going to be a dietitian and then really realized through that first year of schooling that I was really struggling, and so I entered treatment and always knew that I wanted to support people with eating disorders, but I wanted some space from my own healing before I did so. I worked as a high-v dietitian for several years before private practice, and then I got back into the eating disorder field and from training and not just personal experience, and it's so rewarding.

Speaker 1: 5:14

It is. It's neat to see somebody come in and be very sick and make slight changes over the course of treatment and then at the end have almost a whole different life.

Speaker 2: 5:29

Yes, yeah, it happens so gradually and I feel like sometimes it's hard to notice the progress along the way. And if we kind of compare that to the diet world, there's all of these metrics that are being tracked all the time of like here's your quote progress. But in recovery things are so much more nuanced and so, especially if we come from that world of looking at that data, it can feel like we just don't even know what we're doing and recovery is such a messy process.

Speaker 1: 6:03

Yeah, for sure, and it's definitely not linear. Yes, no.

Speaker 2: 6:08

Lots of ups and downs. Just when you think you've got it, you're like oh shit, what's this?

Speaker 1: 6:15

Curveball out of nowhere.

Speaker 2: 6:17

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:17

So both of us practice from a health at every size, intuitive eating, non-diet space. How did you find that space?

Speaker 2: 6:27

I love that question. So that first nutrition class that I took, that when I was really in a not so great place, the dietitian that taught it talked about intuitive eating and I remember thinking this is really great and it's not for me. It was like I can't do that. And lo and behold, as I went through the coursework to be a dietitian, in my nutrition counseling class we read intuitive eating again and this professor had us journaling about our own experiences and utilizing a lot of the non-diet books of the time, of which there are so many more nowadays. But it really helped me to understand, like how to actually integrate that in my life at kind of at the end process of my recovery and so that's. You know, I was introduced to it early on, but it kind of was in the background of my mind for many years before I was ready to actually implement it.

Speaker 1: 7:31

I'm finding a lot that dietitians are in maybe two different camps. There's the one camp way over here on this spectrum that is very much strict, rigid, prescribed therapeutic meal plans, and then there's those that are more like you, Michelle, that are more of this intuitive eating. Let's figure out how we can fill those nutritional gaps and still have peace with food and not fall into that diet trap.

Speaker 2: 8:05

Yeah, there can definitely be that dichotomy in the field and I think for the most part, a lot of dietitians are still taught that really prescriptive way and there's more and more in the curriculum that's introducing some of these concepts. But I was just having this conversation with the client that it really depends on who's teaching the coursework as to what students get exposed to. And then I can't tell you how many interns I've had over the years who have never heard of intuitive eating, never heard of any kind of non-diet philosophies, haze, anything like that. But when they do, they like suss this light bulb off and they're like, oh, this is fascinating, this sounds so natural. Why aren't we taught this? And I feel like when there's that exposure to it, it's an easy thing to slide into because it really supports people in trusting themselves rather than having to be so cognitive about their food decisions, which is not helpful?

Speaker 1: 9:04

Yeah Well, and for those of us that have an active eating disorder or a history of eating disorder, being so diligent and focusing so much on the food is really slippery slope and keeps us stuck in that disordered eating pattern where more of that intuitive eating helps us be free of that. So we're not always thinking about food.

Speaker 2: 9:27

Right, right, because there's so much more that we want to lean into in life and not have our mind consumed with food thoughts, and that preoccupation is just such a drag.

Speaker 1: 9:39

Yes, yeah, unless you are a chef, you should not be thinking about food all day, every day.

Speaker 2: 9:45

That's right, that's right.

Speaker 1: 9:48

So let's get to talking about what we came to talk about specifically, which is this meal planning from an intuitive eating non-diet lens, because I think it's really hard for people to tease apart the two, because we hear meal planning and meal prepping and we automatically think of a prescriptive meal plan and something that I have to follow to the tea, and I think I've kind of already alluded to some of this. But in your experience, how does diet culture show up in that meal planning process?

Speaker 2: 10:22

Oh man, it feels like it's everywhere. Sometimes I think of that very stereotypical chicken and broccoli cooked at the beginning of the week and then putting these containers and that's just what you have for lunch every day, and some people may really like that. So I don't mean to knock it, but I think a lot of folks would find that very boring, lacking variety, very restrictive, and that was what comes to mind for a lot of people, especially I think clients that you and I work with, that have dieted a lot or struggled with their eating so much they think of this in a really rigid way and so it's hard to separate some of that rigidity and restriction that comes with the diet culture, form of meal planning and prepping, which is, it's like, very regimented. I know I've had clients share resources that they've utilized in the past that are like these are you know, this makes five meals or something and you're supposed to portion it out just this way, but maybe that's not the amount that really fills them up. But they've been told this is the amount that should give you five meals, so this is all you should eat, and that's not really the type of meal planning that we want to do.

Speaker 2: 11:39

We want you to be able to decide what serving is going to be filling and satisfying and divide up your portions from your recipe accordingly, if meal prepping is something that is useful to you. So I feel like, in like so many conversations in recovery, it's such a nuanced topic that a lot of folks really need that individualized support to kind of walk through their own hangups with the planning process that they may be done in the past and have support to see. You know, maybe there were things that they did when they were dieting that are actually helpful now, but we want to put a spin on, like, the structure or the planning that they were doing, not to restrict them, not to lose weight, but instead to support their body and to reduce chaos around not knowing what they're going to have to eat. And so finding that new perspective on it, I think, is a major challenge that takes time to work through.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Yeah, and I talk about that a lot with my clients is it's like about the intention behind the behavior. If we're meal planning exactly because we need to have X number of calories or X number of macros, that's different than meal planning, because my kid is in five different sports and we're running from thing to thing to thing Monday through Sunday and I'm tired of eating McDonald's for every meal.

Speaker 2: 13:07

Right, yeah, it's like. So what can we do to mix it up and have it be more satisfying?

Speaker 1: 13:13

Yeah, so how can we and I don't want you to give like a lot of the details, because I think that's probably what your workshops are going to deal with here but how can we plan, then, do some meal prep without diet culture influence?

Speaker 2: 13:31

Yeah, and I think a lot of that will come down to organization within your own household, and so you and I work with folks who were working on individualized change.

Speaker 2: 13:42

So we're really working with like what works in their life, and I think so many times there's resources that people use that say this is the way to do it, and maybe take some of that with a grain of salt, maybe think about what's workable for an individual or their household or family.

Speaker 2: 14:02

If I say that it's helpful for me to pick a weekend day and to kind of go through my fridge and pantry and freezer and see what do I have and what do I want to make this week and kind of go through that process and go shopping, well, maybe not everybody has weekends off or maybe they've got all these other things to do and feeling like they should plan on a weekend actually doesn't work for them, and so that would just be one example of how we want to really individualize it Like somebody may have a random night of the week that they're like this is a perfect time for me to shop or to get my online grocery order in, and like really having that as what works for them.

Speaker 2: 14:48

This is something that a client had mentioned, like going to the grocery store at a certain time, like usually in the morning, it's like nobody's there, it's a lot less stress, and so, like even planning those things of like, I get overstimulated in the store so I really need to pick a slow time, like know yourself and know what things are going to be useful, so that you can really individualize your process.

Speaker 1: 15:12

I have similar experiences, michelle. I love the COVID pandemic, shutting down grocery stores and having online ordering, because that has just been a game changer, and I used to remember like I would plan my grocery trips for either Sunday mornings, when most people were at church, or when there was a big game going on that everybody would have been in getting their food beforehand, and then is now at home watching the game.

Speaker 2: 15:38

Yes, yes, strategize. Yeah, it's like it's just chaos and like I worked at HIV for several years and so, like the chaos of okay, you know, like the after work time or the certain, you know, weekend days and certain times, like it's just going to be super busy, and so if that's not your thing, then of course, plan accordingly, because it can just be overwhelming.

Speaker 1: 16:08

One of the push backs I hear from people when they first start intuitive eating and we start talking about meal planning meal prepping is I can't do intuitive eating and meal plan meal prep because intuitive eating means that I'm going to eat whatever I want whenever I want in the moment and how. I can't plan that on a Saturday for what I want on a Wednesday. Can you talk about that a little bit more and how those work together actually?

Speaker 2: 16:36

Uh huh, yeah. So I think there's another approach and I'm not sure if you've come across this term, because I feel like sometimes dietitians learn about it, but also maybe not. But is eating competence by Ellen Satter, are you familiar? Yes, okay. So I love to integrate some of her approach into this process, which I think, if you really look into intuitive eating, they do encourage planning and putting some organization together.

Speaker 2: 17:09

There's this maybe misconception that it's this on demand eating, where you're constantly surveying how hunker am I, what do I feel like, what would taste the best, and that is.

Speaker 2: 17:19

It's impractical to live our lives that way.

Speaker 2: 17:22

You know, we need to have a plan and can't be just the whim of our body signals, and so it may be really exciting if someone is newer and intuitive eating to have that permission, even if they have something planned, to say, oh my gosh, I have this really specific craving for tacos or something and I'm going to go out and get tacos, even though I had this planned, because I'm going to honor this, and then they can eat that other meal later, you know.

Speaker 2: 17:49

So there are ways that you're not locked in. It's not like, oh, I planned this and now I can't eat anything else, but I think what people find if they try to do that on demand eating is that it's chaotic and it's impractical and stressful, and so the planning process, which is probably outlined in more detail in Ellen Satter's eating competence model, is really really helpful. That there is a sense of safety that's built within us when we have this reliable meal and snack pattern and we can learn to trust our bodies so much when we know we've taken the time to plan and have food available, and it's really reassuring to our system. So it really promotes a healthy relationship with food, despite it being not exactly what you want to eat at any given moment.

Speaker 1: 18:45

And I'm not a dietitian, so I don't go deep into this work with clients. But when I'm talking with clients about how we can add some more time into their lives or meal plan, meal prep with intuitive eating, I look through some of their normal day-to-day foods and they find that they tend to eat the same thing within the course of a month. Okay, so I think some of this idea of I can't do meal planning or prepping or both with intuitive eating, because I need to eat on demand is really kind of holding onto some of that rigidity from diet culture, whereas I always say, okay, I make a meal plan for the week. We usually have three to five meals, depending on what's going on. I don't plan out Monday night we're going to have tacos, tuesday night we're going to have lasagna, and Wednesday night we're going to have leftovers, and then Thursday night we're going to blop.

Speaker 1: 19:45

Whatever it's okay, these are our meals today. Which am I feeling in the mood for? So right now I have a white chicken lasagna sitting in the refrigerator, all prepped, ready to go. It just needs to be popped in the oven. But we haven't been in the mood for that, so we haven't eaten it yet.

Speaker 2: 20:06

Yes, yes, it's that flexibility of like yes, we have a plan and it's a loose plan. Like you said, it's not this day we're eating this, this day we're eating that. You know, sometimes you might say, okay, this night we're really all over the place. We're going to have grilled cheese sandwiches. Okay, we don't have time to cook lasagna or whatever. That's great. But the flexibility of what does everyone feel like? How can we be flexible? We've got the ingredients for these variety of different meals and we can choose within that what sounds best.

Speaker 1: 20:42

It's a lot more practical. It is it is and letting things just be. And the only time that we really get a little rigid about it is if there's like fresh produce that needs to be eaten before it goes bad, and then I just hate letting the food go to waste. So I'm like okay it might not be really in the mood for the big salad that we had talked about making, but the lettuce isn't going to make it until we're in the mood.

Speaker 2: 21:07

Yes, yeah, and that's like just the practical aspect of when we've built a healthy relationship with food. We don't feel like that is a rule or a pressure that we're putting on ourselves. It's we know we can have the other thing that we maybe think would taste better another time, and that's okay. There's not that sense of urgency that have to get it now or I'm deprived. It's what do I need to use up? What actually makes the most sense?

Speaker 1: 21:41

So let's say that somebody listening to this is newer to meal planning, or maybe they have done the very strict, rigid meal planning from old diet days. Where would you suggest they start?

Speaker 2: 21:54

You know, I find myself thinking like okay, step one.

Speaker 2: 21:58

And actually I feel like there's a step zero, which is not when you need to go to the store and figure out what you're going to do for that week or however you want to plan your meals, but is to get some organization on the back end of things that you can then reference again and again. And so I'll often encourage people to, within their household, decide like what are our favorite meals, and this doesn't have to be like a written out recipe. It can be something like grilled cheese or whatever that you throw together and actually write this stuff down on a list and have it in one spot and have some sort of like recipe file of sorts. So I like hard copies of things and so I have a recipe binder and I use that. Some people like to have their stuff electronic and they can organize it.

Speaker 2: 22:56

Beautiful that I am not that techie. I like to have it in my hands, and so, for each person aside, you know where do you want to keep your meal ideas and or recipes so that you can reference them for when you might think like I don't know what I feel like making. I'm going to browse this and kind of see what, what our options are with what we like, and I think a big piece of that is oftentimes people will want to go and get lots of new recipes, like they'll just be like oh, I'm going to go to Pinterest and I'm going to get 20 new recipes that I can put in a stock, and that's fine. It also is maybe extra work that's not necessary. Like, let's start with what we have. That's an extra stressor to like reinvent the wheel there. So start with what you have and kind of get organized so that you can reference your list of things that your family likes to have and then utilize that each time you go to plan meals and put things together.

Speaker 1: 23:58

Okay, so first step, which is really step zero, is figure out meals that you guys are already eating on a regular basis, that your family enjoys, that you enjoy, and have those collected somewhere, electronically or hard copy, so that you can flip through them and help plan the meals.

Speaker 2: 24:17

Yeah, yeah, and I have like a one pager on my fridge that has like breakfast ideas no cook meals, I call them so things you just assemble, things that take 30 minutes or less, and then things that take longer, that are like more elaborate, like a lasagna or like a soup from scratch or something like that, and I have that on my fridge so that when I am in that rut of like I don't know what I feel like. It's like this one pager that's right there with this whole list of things that I know that I like, depending on how much time I have. And so that has been on my fridge for years and it's very, very helpful, and, of course, things get added onto it If I try something new and I'm like, ooh, I love this, I'm gonna put this on my list. So that's something that has personally worked really well for me is to have it in a really visible spot too.

Speaker 1: 25:15

I love that idea because the whole adage out of sight, out of mind, like if it's not here and we're not seeing it on a regular basis we forget that those things exist, especially when we're hungry and we just need something. I'm not thinking, oh, I can just whip up some tuna salad. That's really easy and quick.

Speaker 2: 25:34

Yes, but when you see it on the list you're like, oh yeah, and I have that in the cupboard.

Speaker 1: 25:39

And that sounds really good.

Speaker 2: 25:42

Yeah, yeah. So I feel like the kind of organization is a big piece. Otherwise people just feel like they're flying by the seat of their pants trying to pull things together. So getting organized can be a time saver in the long run.

Speaker 1: 25:58

I also really like your suggestion of not trying a bunch of new recipes at once. Like it's fun to try new things, but I think when we do 20 new recipes in one month we get a little overwhelmed and then we give up on the meal planning and just go back to our regular scheduling program.

Speaker 2: 26:19

Yeah, yeah, back into the slump. Well, one other piece of that is oftentimes when people are spending a lot of time looking for recipes or watching food videos to get ideas, it can be a sign of deprivation too. And I don't know if you're familiar with the Minnesota Starvation Study. That was back in the 50s, where people haven't heard of it. These conscientious objectors to the war volunteered to be starved and they observed a lot of interesting psychological and behavioral phenomenon from those study participants.

Speaker 2: 27:02

And one of the things was that even way back in the 1950s these men found cookbooks and magazines and collected recipes and hoarded them and that was part of their starvation. Like that was what the brain did in a state of starvation. And so we know, with eating disorders where restriction is almost always a piece, no matter what eating disorder someone presents with, restriction kind of takes hold in some way. There's this fixation and preoccupation with food and recipes, so videos and collecting things, and it can just be an interesting thing to be curious about. No judgment of like, if that's something that you're noticing you're doing, how might that be connected to you getting enough nourishment on a regular basis? So I always find that to be just a fascinating piece.

Speaker 1: 27:57

So interesting that you say that because I am having memories of my mom who used to love to read cookbooks and she would sign up for Taste of Home and get their magazines and get their like annual books and she would just like sit there and read them and I was like how in the world do you just like? There's no story, there's no plot, why are you reading the cookbook? And it wasn't until I was an adult and working in the eating disorder field that I was like that is how the eating disorder was showing up from my mom at that point, because she wasn't as restrictive then, but it was still showing up in different ways. And I light bulb moment when I put those things together.

Speaker 2: 28:36

Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating. I think it's often overlooked as a piece of the puzzle.

Speaker 1: 28:43

Yeah, yeah. And one of the things suggestions that I have is I signed up for I think it's like all recipes or something, and they send me like an email once a week or something with new things to try, because I found we were in a slump we were always eating the same thing week after week. I'm like can we just like get some different flavors in to try new foods? And I really like that because it just comes into my inbox and I just peruse it and go, oh, that sounds good, Case safe for later. And then when I'm sitting down to make my list on Friday night, Saturday morning, like, okay, let's try new recipe, which one of these sounds good this week?

Speaker 1: 29:24

But it's not the obsession where it used to be like I would collect.

Speaker 2: 29:28

Yes, yes, all of these recipes, yeah. I love that because it's like here's some offerings for you to consider with this email, and it's not the endless scrolling that we can all get caught up in in a variety of ways of looking for something new.

Speaker 1: 29:46

Yeah, and they usually have different themes and so I know pretty quickly of like, I don't. I don't eat pork, and so if it's pork, chops, ham, that type of thing, I'm like okay, let's just leave it.

Speaker 2: 29:56

Mm-hmm exactly, yeah, and like as you mentioned, that makes me think of part of step zero, of like organizing is also kind of categorizing, if that makes sense for someone. So like my binder has pasta, chicken, slow cook, or like different categories so that I feel like a certain thing or I know I want to use, like my slow cooker, for example, they just go right to that tab so that it's not just flipping through a whole booklet of things that are all mixed up.

Speaker 1: 30:31

Yeah, I think that's a great idea. So we've talked about Ellen Satter's book and we've talked about the email recipes that I get, and we've talked about your meal binder. What other non-diet meal planning resources are there?

Speaker 2: 30:47

Yeah, one of my favorites is called Work Week Lunch and I didn't know for the longest time. I'd heard of it again and again. It is actually aligned with intuitive eating. They talk about it all over their website that you know there's no like nutrition facts and things like that that people might get caught up in. It's like super practical. Here's some delicious meal ideas they have, you know, maybe things that are highlighted for the week or something. So that's Tim Sykes and it's just this huge recipe database and meal planning support kind of tool and it's all in line with intuitive eating. So that would be one of my first and favorite recommendations.

Speaker 1: 31:32

Awesome, and if you're listening to this and you're driving or you have your hands in the dishwasher, it will be in the show notes, so come back and I will make sure to put all that information there for you. Any other like top resources?

Speaker 2: 31:46

Another one that I like is budget bites, which especially I mean, oh my goodness, right now the cost of food is outrageous, and so we could all probably use a little bit of help on our food budget, and budget bites has budget friendly recipes and they'll tell you on there the approximate cost per recipe and per serving, and so it can really be helpful in managing your food budget. And it's also haven't seen a lot of diet culture stuff on that site either. Awesome. Yeah, another one that I love that I think can help a lot of people who are not into like it can feel like a laborious process to you know. Inventory what you've got on hand, make a list, shop cook. You know there's a lot of steps involved. Things like meal delivery kits can be really, really useful.

Speaker 2: 32:44

I've gone through phases of using Hello Fresh a lot. There's so many different options out there, but it's nice. It's a box. It comes with all the right amount of the ingredients for the recipe, so you don't have this waste or feel like I don't know what to do with the rest of this portion. Really simple and easy and tells you cooking steps. So I guess my one thing is sometimes you use like every pan in your kitchen. So like pay attention to if you're using those, like the recipe steps. Do you want to spend all evening doing dishes or do you want like a sheet pan meal or something like that?

Speaker 1: 33:20

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that, because I was going to try and throw you a curve ball and ask about your thoughts on those and you did it for me.

Speaker 2: 33:28

Thank you. Some people love those and I think it can be like a really nice thing, something, a trick that I've done with that when I've gotten Hello Fresh. I personally love leftovers. I find them really handy is you have to order a certain number of meals and I can just double up on them, and so then I just make it all at once and I have several leftovers, so that I'm not having to actually sit down and cook again because it was all able to be cooked together.

Speaker 1: 33:59

I think that's a great idea. Okay, and we have one more really big resource that I want to make sure we talk about before we wrap up today, which is like why I brought you on the podcast, and if you follow me on social media, you might have already seen that I've shared Michelle's post, but she has a meal planning workshop coming up and I will let you share all the details, because I don't have them memorized.

Speaker 2: 34:23

Yeah, yeah. So I have on Saturday, february 10th, 10 am here at my office in Burlington is the first meal planning workshop, and so we're going to go over some different methods of meal planning and everybody's going to get a chance to talk about some of their individualized, maybe goals or aspirations for how they'd like to be organized or how meal planning could help them. And we're going to sort through getting an actual one week menu kind of sample template in so that we're going to actually do some hands-on stuff. And so I'm asking everybody to kind of do that, that step one of like inventory your fridge, pantry freezer, like what are some things you have on hand that you might want to use, so that we can incorporate them into the menu that they're going to make. And then, if they decide to use that, they'll maybe have some of the ingredients already.

Speaker 1: 35:21

Awesome, and you just told me before we hit record that if you are listening to this and you are not in driving distance of Burlington Iowa, Michelle has an extra special surprise.

Speaker 2: 35:33

Yes, so I'm holding one virtually too. So two weeks later, on the 24th, same time, 10 to 11, 30 am, and we'll meet virtually. And I've loved doing workshops like that before, like I've done some body image things in person, and then kind of the same rendition of that online, because some folks you know, I have clients all over, many virtual folks that I work with too, and other people that just can't come here in person, and so I love having the kind of dual aspect there.

Speaker 1: 36:09

So how can people get registered for these workshops and how can they find you if they want more information?

Speaker 2: 36:15

Yeah, so the registration is on my website, so I think you were going to link in that because the link is a little bit long for the workshop page specifically. But on my website it's just on the workshop tab and then there's all the registration details right there. And I also do Venmo for work, and so people don't want to go through all the little nooks and crannies of the website. They can just Venmo at Food Freedom Michelle with meal planning workshop noted, and then I will get that registration processed.

Speaker 1: 36:53

Wonderful. Well, I thank you so much for coming on and talking to demystifying a little bit of the meal planning meal prepping process and I really hope that people take advantage of your workshops if they're feeling a little apprehensive of doing this meal plan thing on their own.

Speaker 2: 37:10

Yeah, I think it could be a great resource to help people sort through some of the kinks and the nuances. We're saying that they're a little muddy sometimes, yeah they are.

Speaker 1: 37:24

Any other final thoughts that you want to leave the listeners with?

Speaker 2: 37:29

You know I had one pop up and we didn't mention eating out or take out too much in your meal planning. And I think one thing with diet culture is it can assume that you need to have all these home cooked meals, and part of meal planning is often adding in what are the days that you really either don't want to cook or you don't have the time or you really want a certain thing, that you pick up or go out to a restaurant and planning that in. You know there's nothing wrong with going out to eat, there's nothing wrong with fast food. We can implement that into our meal plan and that whole you know, the whole planning process. It helps us save time, save money, have these reliable meals and hopefully in the end it's a really rewarding process because we're not restricting ourselves, we're caring for our bodies through having this plan in place.

Speaker 1: 38:23

Yeah, and that includes cooking at home foods that you enjoy and eating out foods that you enjoy. Yes, exactly yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that, thank you.

Speaker 2: 38:33

Yes, yes, it feels like an important piece.

Speaker 1: 38:37

It is especially in this day and age where I know a lot of people eat out or do or dash or some variation. Yes, yeah, nothing wrong with that Wonderful. Thank you so much for coming on, michelle. It has been a pleasure, absolutely. If you have any questions for Michelle, you can contact her on social media. I will put those links in. You can go to her website. If there's follow-up questions that you have and you want to do another episode, email me and let me know and we will get that going for you. Thank you, sabrina Bye.