E7: Energize Your Digestion with Smart Meal Planning Tips

Ever feel like life's running a marathon around you, and you're struggling to keep up with a slice of pizza in hand? I'm Karlee, your gut health guru, and I've been there, sprinting through life's chaos. But I've latched onto a secret weapon that keeps my energy high and my gut happier than a kid in a candy store – meal prepping. It's not just about saving time; it's about pampering your microbiome with the nutrients it deserves, all without chaining you to the kitchen. Tune in and let me show you how to easily fill your fridge full of gut-healthy delights.

This episode is a mini masterclass in crafting a meal prep strategy that sticks. We'll tackle everything from how to eat less packaged foods to my favourite breakfast hacks. You'll get the scoop on how to whip up meals that'll make you and your gut feel amazing. And, because stress is damaging your gut more than you may realize, we'll cover how to simmer down the pressures of life to keep your digestive tract on track.

And the cherry on top? The Spring into Gut Health 7-Day Challenge! Imagine a week where your meals are planned for you, loaded with seasonal fruits and veggies, and aimed to skyrocket your energy levels. You'll get meal plans, daily encouragement, and a community that's as enthusiastic about improving their eating habits as you are. So say goodbye to the tummy rumbles and join me as we transform your approach to food, one delicious, perfectly-prepped bite at a time.

Mentioned in this Episode:
E5: Are Food Additives and Preservatives Really "Safe"?
E6: 8 Reasons Why You Should Eat Seasonally

Struggling with bloating and tired of strict diets and expensive supplements? Download my free Ultimate Guide to Bloat Busting and discover simple, effective strategies for a healthier, bloat-free life. Learn about mindful eating, hydration habits, gut-friendly foods, and stress management. Get your free copy today at beyondbloated.com/ultimate-guide. Transform your gut health and feel lighter and more energized!

Get Started for FREE:
Ultimate Guide to Bloat-Busting: Free Download

Contact Info:
Website: www.beyondbloated.com
IG: @beyond.bloated
Email: karleeclose@beyondbloated.com

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Transcript

Karlee: 0:02

Welcome to the Beyond Bloated Podcast. I'm Karlee, a certified health coach, helping women under 50 ditch their bloat without having to follow super strict and stressful protocols. As someone who's struggled with all sorts of digestive issues for over five years, I know exactly how you're feeling. I also know that there's a way to feel better, and it doesn't have to involve tons of expensive supplements and insanely restrictive diets. Join me as I share all of my bloat-busting wisdom to help you say goodbye to that bloated belly and regain your confidence. It's time for you to move beyond bloated.

Karlee: 0:36

Has anyone else been insanely busy lately, or is it just me? I have been prepping for my webinar. That happened a couple of weeks ago, so that took up a bunch of my time. And then from the webinar, I moved directly into promoting my spring challenge. That's happening May 13th, so I had to get all the materials ready for that. Then, at the same time, my fastball league started, so I had a four-game tournament on the weekend in April and then we directly moved into the season. So now I play every Monday and Wednesday night. And on top of that, I'm turning 30 tomorrow, so I had planned a birthday party for myself in Kelowna. I had planned a birthday party for myself in Kelowna. So me and some friends are going to Kelowna for a Thursday to Sunday and I planned all the activities and made sure everybody was organized and things like that. So all these things, of course, are happening at the same time, because that's just the way life goes.

Karlee: 1:49

So in between working and getting my challenge for spring ready, playing my fastball games twice a week, planning my birthday party, I have to eat. But I honestly have not had the time to make all of my meals from scratch like I normally do. So I'm normally the type of person to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. I don't eat a lot of packaged, processed foods. Of course I do on occasion, but the majority of my meals are made from fresh, whole food ingredients and since I'm so busy right now, I'm not able to do as much as I normally would in the kitchen. So does that mean that I've been eating like absolute garbage for the last few weeks? No, it does not, because I cannot afford to eat poorly in a time like this because I'm so busy. I need my brain working, I need my body to be physically ready for softball, I need to be recovering after games. I can't afford to feel terrible when I'm busy like this.

Karlee: 2:53

So I decided that I have no time to cook and I just need to pick up takeout or I need to get frozen meals from the grocery store and just eat those for the majority of my meals throughout the week. My body would not respond well. I'm used to eating very well. Like I said, I make most of my meals from scratch. So if I just threw all that out the window and started eating ultra-processed foods day in, day out, I would not feel well. I would be exhausted. I wouldn't have the energy or the motivation to get done everything that I need to get done in this time period. So it's kind of a catch-22, because I'm so busy right now that I don't have as much time as I normally would to make the meals that my body needs and craves in a busy time period. But because I'm so busy and have all these tasks and events that I need to feel well, for it's more important than ever that I am eating well, because I don't want to get sick or, like I said, my brain will stop working if I'm not nourishing myself well.

Karlee: 4:05

This is when meal prep is clutch. So I'm not talking about like super fancy meal prep, where, if you've seen the videos online with the people who like prep their entire week's meals in like super fancy special containers, they have them in the fridge and they're like special compartments with fancy labels and it looks very nice and appealing. I'm not that type of person. It looks awesome If that's what you're striving for, power to you, but I just know that I'm not going to be able to do that. It's not something that I need in my life, as fancy and cool as it looks.

Karlee: 4:46

So I am a very simple meal prepper. I'm actually pretty lazy when it comes to cooking. I love eating. I love eating healthy foods. I don't like cooking or baking per se. I like the result that cooking and baking gives me, but I don't want to spend all my time in the kitchen. I have other things that I would rather be doing. I'm not like a recipe developer. I think that's a super cool skill and I don't have it. So I don't want to be in the kitchen for longer than I need to be. So when I meal prep, I make sure it's super simple, it's fast and it's easy. I don't want to spend hours in the kitchen and I also hate cleaning up the mess that cooking makes. So if I'm cooking all my meals from scratch every day of the week, that's so many dishes and just like the counters get all cluttered and messy. So on top of cooking now you have to clean all that up, which adds more time to the process. It's not something I want to do every day. I really don't.

Karlee: 5:56

So today I'm going to share with you some of the meal prepping tips that I use and how this way of eating is going to support your gut health. I'm going to start with the benefits of meal prepping. So why do we want to eat this way? First, and most obvious, it's going to save you time. So this is the main reason why people meal prep. I don't think people think like I'm going to meal prep to support my gut health. They think I'm going to meal prep because this is gut health. They think I'm going to meal prep because this is going to save me tons of time throughout the week, and it does. So you can spend a lot of time in the kitchen if your goal is to reduce your ultra processed food intake and make most of your meals at home. Now this is what we want to do. We want to reduce our ultra processed food intake and make most of our meals at home.

Karlee: 6:48

So this is also a reason why people aren't able to stick to their healthy eating habits. They don't have the time it takes to make the nourishing from work or on the way to the softball game, because the thought of spending 45 minutes or more in the kitchen when they get home from an exhausting day of work is literally the last thing anybody wants to do of wanting to eat healthier, reducing our ultra-processed food intake. It ends up failing for a lot of people because of the time crunch. They just are like I want to do this but I literally can't. Because I have kids, I have a job, I have hobbies. I can't spend the time it takes to make all of my meals at home. Grabbing takeout is way easier. But let's pretend.

Karlee: 7:52

On Sunday you have a pretty chill day, you don't have to work. Maybe your kids are at a friend's house, you have some time. So on Sunday you make a home-cooked meal for dinner for the whole family and you make extras. So instead of making one portion for everybody, you make three portions for everybody. Now, on Monday, when you get home from work, you don't have to make food, it's already there, you just have to reheat it and dish it out. Tuesday same thing. Because you made three portions on Sunday. So you've got dinner for Sunday, monday and Tuesday. It doesn't take you more time on Sunday to make these extras, you're just adding additional portions to the process. So, like say, you made chicken, quinoa, veggies Easy. Instead of making everybody one chicken breast, you made everybody three chicken breasts, so you stack them in the oven. However you make them. It's not really taking more time for you to do that, but you're definitely saving time later in the week when you don't have to make those meals again.

Karlee: 8:58

Meal prepping is not only going to save you time, but it's also going to help improve your digestion and your overall gut health. And there are several reasons why this is. I'm going to break it down for you. Number one the consistency and control that meal prepping gives you allows you to plan ahead and prepare your meals in advance, so you're thinking ahead of time what do I want to eat Sunday, monday, tuesday for dinner? So now you're ensuring that you have access to a nutritious and balanced meal for three nights of the week, and you're also consistently eating at a same time, because sometimes I know in myself lunchtime hits, I don't have anything prepared. I'm like it's going to take me 30 minutes to make lunch. I don't have 30 minutes right now, I'll do it later. So I keep pushing off when I'm going to make the lunch because I don't have the time to do it at that moment, whereas if I could just reheat something, then I would eat it at that moment because I'm like, oh, it'll take me five minutes, I'll eat it and then I'll get back to whatever I was working on. So you're pushing off your lunchtime.

Karlee: 10:11

So you're no longer eating at a consistent schedule, which our bodies really like it. When we eat at consistent times, if you eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and if you have a snack throughout the day around the same time every single day, this helps regulate our hunger hormones which control our appetite and how long we stay full for. So eating meals at regular intervals signals our body when to expect food. So our body knows she eats breakfast 7 am, then she eats lunch at noon, dinner at 6, maybe there'sa snack in there at 3. This consistency is going to reduce the likelihood of overeating or snacking excessively in between meals. So if that's something that you struggle with. I'd highly recommend you try to stick to a consistent meal and snack schedule.

Karlee: 11:04

We're also going to be avoiding erratic or unhealthy food choices by planning our meals in advance. So the control and consistency of knowing that we're going to be eating what we made on Sunday for Monday and Tuesday prevents us from panicking Tuesday night and being like oh my God, I didn't take anything out for dinner. We don't have anything to eat, I'm tired, I don't want to cook, I'm going to hit up Taco Bell and bring that home for the family. Which moves me into the second benefit, which is balanced nutrition. So by meal prepping, you have the opportunity to incorporate lots of different nutrient-dense foods into your meals. So plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats. These are all really good for our gut health. A well-balanced diet supports the growth of our beneficial gut bacteria, so we're feeding our good gut bugs, we're diversifying our microbiome and this is going to help improve digestion.

Karlee: 12:27

Be a great way for you to branch out, because you can think in advance like, okay, what's something that I can make Sunday night that I can eat Monday, tuesday? You can go online and look up recipes. You know, find things that reheat well, or if you're trying to find something that kids like you can look that up. Basically, you can just start to expand your palate and this is going to help diversify our microbiome. Because if we're eating the same four fruits and vegetables every single day, that's fine, we're not hurting ourselves. But if we expand that to be more like we're eating 10 different fruits and vegetables every week and then the next week maybe we switch a few of them out for different ones that we want to try, or we want to experiment with a new recipe and it includes something that we don't really cook with, but we're going to try it. This is a great way to diversify your microbiome and that's going to improve digestion even further.

Karlee: 13:26

The third benefit, which I've touched on a little already, is the reduction of ultra-processed food intake. So, of course, by meal prepping, we're minimizing the consumption of takeout and snacks from the grocery store that come in a box or come from the freezer Basically just processed convenience foods that are high in unhealthy fats, sugars and other additives that are not so good for our guts. These foods disrupt the gut microbiome and contribute to digestive issues like bloating, gas, constipation, that uncomfy feeling that you get after eating. Likely, you get that feeling after eating foods that come in a package or come from a fast food restaurant. A couple weeks ago, I did an episode all about the impact of additives and preservatives that are in tons of our packaged foods. So if you haven't listened to that episode yet, I recommend you check it out. It's just really going to demonstrate to you how these foods may be impacting your gut health, how they may be triggering your bloating, your other digestive issues, and really give you motivation to cut back on them and replace them with whole gut nourishing foods that are going to feed your good gut bugs and not cause you pain and discomfort.

Karlee: 14:58

The next great thing about meal prepping is that it's going to help increase your fiber intake. Prepping is that it's going to help increase your fiber intake. Approximately 95% of Americans are not eating enough fiber, so that is a problem when it comes to our gut health. For sure, because foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains these are all rich in fiber, and the fiber is is essential for promoting regular bowel movements and supporting a healthy digestive system. The fiber also serves as a prebiotic, which provides the nourishment and food for our good gut bugs. So by not eating enough fiber, we're not feeding the good bacteria in our gut, so they can start to die off, and then that's when imbalances in the microbiome can occur. That's called dysbiosis. Dysbiosis leads to a whole whack load of gut problems.

Karlee: 15:58

So fiber is essential, and the fact that the majority of us are not eating even close to enough fiber is an issue. The Food and Drug Administration recommends 28 grams of fiber for an adult eating about 2,000 calories a day, and the average American is getting around 16 grams of fiber, so really not close. And by meal prepping we're eating more whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains that are filled with fiber, and less of the processed stuff, because takeout packaged foods pretty much have zero fiber in them. If you look at any of your packaged food labels unless you're buying health products, of course the fiber is very minimal. So if that is the majority of our diet, it's no wonder that we're not getting enough fiber, and the standard American diet is filled with ultra-processed foods. That is the norm, unfortunately. So it totally makes sense why we're not getting enough fiber, but we need to improve that if we want to improve our gut health.

Karlee: 17:17

The fifth benefit of meal prepping is portion control. So of course, when you meal prep, you're kind of portioning out how much you need for the next three days or however many days you're planning in advance. So that's going to help prevent you from overeating and that's going to promote optimal digestion. When we overeat, we can put a lot of strain on the digestive system, which will lead to discomfort and bloating and gas and all the things, whereas if we're eating portion-controlled meals, this is going to support a lot more efficient digestion. On the flip side of that, we need to make sure that we're eating enough. So when you're meal prepping, you're making things in advance. So you need to kind of estimate and it's probably better to overestimate than to underestimate, because you could have extra leftovers but you don't want to not have enough food. So if you're meal prepping and you're noticing like I'm still kind of hungry after I'm eating my leftovers, then you need to make more.

Karlee: 19:45

Meal prepping is not meant to restrict and it's not a diet thing. It's to save time, to help you eat better. But we're not trying to starve ourselves. We need to be making sure we are eating enough so that we feel satisfied after eating. We don't want to still feel hungry and we don't want to feel stuffed. We want that happy medium of feeling satisfied and energized after my meal. The last benefit of meal prepping that I'm going to talk about today is the reduction of stress. So planning and prepping meals in advance is going to take so much off of your plate. That's a good pun, actually.

Karlee: 20:29

The stress associated with making last-minute food decisions and being like, oh my god, I didn't take anything out. What is my family going to eat? I'm just going to have to pick something up. But now you're stressed about that because you're trying to eat better and you're like, oh, I don't want to give this to my family. We're trying to eat better and you're like I don't want to give this to my family, like we're trying to improve our eating habits. It's just like a whirlwind of stress when you're not prepared. Eating is important. We can't just be like I'm just going to not eat tonight. We need to eat. We need to eat healthy as much as we can, and meal prepping is just going to take all of that weight off your shoulders. You don't have to think, oh my God, what are we eating tonight, because you've planned it out, you've made it in advance and it's ready.

Karlee: 21:14

Stress is so terrible for our gut health, for our digestion and our just overall health. People underestimate how much stress impacts their symptoms. I actually have a client who was so chronically stressed she was having so many gut issues and we've been working on improving her stress levels so working on stress management and she told me recently that she's been meditating. She's kind of resolved some of the things that were causing her mega stress in her life and her bowels have improved significantly. And that is the only thing we have done so far. So please do not underestimate the power of stress when it comes to digestive issues. When we are chronically stressed, our bodies cannot digest a single thing. We are in fight or flight mode and no matter what you're sending down there, your body is not prepared for the digestion process and you're going to have some sort of symptom that you don't want.

Karlee: 22:26

Okay, so now we know why we should be meal prepping. We know it's going to save us time and it's going to help our gut health out a ton. Now we're going to learn how to meal prep and we're going to do it in a super simple, easy, fast way, because we're all busy. We're all busy powerful women and we don't have time to be in the kitchen all day, night long. So what you're going to do is start by planning out your meals, and this is super important.

Karlee: 22:58

Pick meals that you enjoy. Do not pick something that you think you should be eating or you think is healthy, but you don't really like it or you don't want it. Pick something that you're excited about. There are ways to make even our favorite, most unhealthy meal a better version of what it was. I used to eat so much processed, trashy food and I still like those foods, but I now like the healthier versions, like I make my own pizza. I'll still eat burgers, like I still eat the things that I loved back when I was unhealthy, but I've just transformed them into a healthier version that nourishes my gut, but I'm still super excited to eat it and I still want to make it.

Karlee: 23:47

You want to try to make sure these meals are something that can be made in advance, something that reheats. Well, maybe it can be frozen. I feel like most things can be frozen. So if you're making like a lot of something, we don't want to leave that in the fridge for too long because it's going to go bad, so instead, what you can do is put it in the freezer and then maybe pull it out next week and let it you know, de-thaw in the fridge and then you can eat it. So we're picking meals that we enjoy, we're excited about. They have good, healthy, gut-loving ingredients, can be made in advance, or at least a large portion of it can be made in advance. If you need to add the sauce and some lettuce to it, that's fine, but as long as the time-consuming part of it can be made in advance, that's a great option, something that's easy to reheat and if you want to make a lot, a lot, it can be frozen.

Karlee: 24:47

I recommend doing this before you go grocery shopping for the week, so that way you can make your grocery list. So, based off of the meals that you're going to make for the week, decide what ingredients do you already have, what do you need, write it out and stick to your list when you go to the grocery store. So this is going to prevent impulse buys and also food waste, because if you're purchasing just a bunch of fruits and vegetables randomly, you're probably going to have too many and if you don't have a plan for what you're going to do with those fruits and vegetables, it's really easy to just like forget about them or keep putting it off, being like I'll figure out how I'm going to use those tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow I've been there, and then they go bad and then you're like shit, I just wasted all this money and I had good intentions but I didn't have a plan. So plan out what you're going to eat and make a list before you go to the grocery store and try to stick to that list as best as you can to prevent food waste and impulse buying unhealthy things that you don't really need or want. Then you want to look at your schedule and pick days and times that you know you can spend an hour or two prepping for the next few days or for the entire week if that's what you'd prefer to do. So I personally don't prep for the entire week, but I also don't have children, right, I'm cooking for myself and I know like on Sundays I can make meals for Monday, tuesday, wednesday, and then I know Thursday, like I don't have softball or anything going on. So I can make meals for Thursday and for Friday that day. But your schedule might be way different than mine, and I guarantee you that it is, so maybe you only have one day a week where you have three hours and you're like, yeah, I know, every Sunday I have this three hour time block to myself. That's when I'm going to get shit done. Or maybe you're like I don't want to do it all at once. I'd like to space it out, but my Mondays and my Tuesdays are really crazy busy, so I'm going to do Sunday night for Monday and Tuesday, and then on Wednesday I'm okay with making a meal for dinner. I'll make extras for Thursday and Friday as well. You can space it out whatever suits you and your schedule. There's no rules for when you have to meal prep or for how many days you have to do it, for you could meal prep every other day if you just want to do two meals at a time and you have the time and the capacity to do that. Do whatever suits your lifestyle and that you're like yes, this is manageable for me. Some of my favorite ways to meal prep that I said are quick and easy because I ain't cooking all day long.

Karlee: 27:47

Number one batch cooking. This is my go-to. It makes me meals for like the next three or four meals, so I don't have to think what am I eating for lunch and dinner the next day, and I don't eat the same thing by doing this either. So what batch cooking is is basically you're making multiples of an ingredient in a batch, right? So example I'm going to go back to my chicken quinoa example I'm going to make four chicken breasts and I'm going to make two cups of quinoa.

Karlee: 28:21

On Sunday night, let's say, I eat one chicken breast at a time. So Sunday night I'm going to eat a chicken breast, one chicken breast at a time. So Sunday night I'm going to eat a chicken breast, quinoa, veggies and some soy sauce or something. I don't want to eat that again tomorrow for lunch, but I also don't want to cook again. So I'm going to take that same chicken, but I'm going to shove it in a taco shell. I'm going to put the veggies on top. I'm going to add a different sauce, whatever taco ingredients. I feel like that's the same protein that I made Sunday night completely different meal.

Karlee: 28:57

Now let's go dinner for Monday night. I've got quinoa ready. I don't really feel like chicken, so instead I've got a can of black beans. That's super easy. I'm going to toss that in there, add some veggies, maybe I'll add some sweet potato, make like a bowl of some sort. That's super quick and easy. I already had the quinoa ready and now my chicken is still left over for the next day. So I think you get the point. You want to make like the time-consuming ingredients in a batch so that you can eat them throughout the week, but you don't necessarily need to eat the exact same meal every single day.

Karlee: 29:36

Number two is pre-cutting and washing your vegetables. So when you go to the grocery store with your list, you buy the fruits and vegetables on that list. Make sure when you get back home you're preparing them so they're ready to eat. You do need to be careful with this method because some fruits, for example, like berries. If you wash those in advance and then put them back in the fridge, they'll grow mold way faster. So look up storing methods for these things to make sure you're not quickening the process in which they're going to go bad. But carrots is a great example. So you buy a bundle of carrots, wash them, chop them up, stick them in a container in the fridge. Now they're super easily accessible If you want to buy like a hummus or some sort of dip to go with your carrots. It's not going to take away the nutritional value of the vegetable and now you have a super easy, ready to go snack that is nutritious, in the fridge. So you just you're hungry pop up in the fridge, grab your carrot container, grab your hummus. There's a great snack and it didn't take you any time to make it.

Karlee: 30:46

My third tip is another classic. For me, making breakfast in advance is like a huge lifesaver. Breakfast is super important, they say most important meal of the day, and they're not wrong. We need to be eating breakfast and we need to be doing so in a timely fashion. So within like an hour of waking up, you should be eating your breakfast, and if you're not, because you're like I'm busy, I don't have time to make breakfast within an hour make your breakfast ahead of time. It is a game changer.

Karlee: 31:20

Oats are great for like overnight oats or baked oats. Those are two of my go-tos For overnight oats. You literally make it the night before. So you put your ingredients in a mason jar or a glass container, put it in the fridge. The next morning it's ready. All you have to do is add any toppings you'd like. You can make multiple at a time. So if you want to eat overnight oats for four nights, do it. One night. You make four batches of it, put them all in the fridge ready to go. Baked oats similar. You're going to make a big batch of baked oats in the oven, slice it into however many sections you want, store it in the fridge. It reheats really well. And same thing. You just take it out, reheat it, add your toppings. Boom, breakfast is ready.

Karlee: 32:09

If you want to get your toes wet and start to learn how to meal prep, I have a challenge coming up called the Spring into Gut Health 7-Day Challenge to Ease Bloating, happening from May 13th to 19th, which is a Monday to a Sunday. In this challenge, we're going to follow a seven-day meal plan to improve digestion, reduce bloat, increase our energy levels and, overall, just feel better. This is going to happen because we're replacing our ultra-processed food intake and takeout things like that with whole, gut-nourishing meals that are based on spring produce. So if you listened to last week's episode, I talked all about the benefits of eating seasonally, so check that episode out if you haven't heard it yet. Everyone participating in the challenge is going to receive a plant-based meal plan and an omnivore meal plan. You're definitely able to mix and match the meal plans if you prefer the plant-based breakfast over the omnivore meal plan. But you are an omnivore. There are no strict rules on this challenge. The point is to just eat seasonally, reduce our ultra processed food intake for seven days to really reap the benefits of how eating this way can make us feel.

Karlee: 33:32

Where does meal planning come into this? So the meal plans that you're going to get are not like make every single meal from scratch every day of the week. They include breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, and it's laid out so that you don't have to make every meal from scratch. So, for example, breakfast it might have you make overnight oats for Monday and Tuesday, so that way you have two breakfasts done at once. You might make a dinner and then you'll eat that same dinner for lunch the following two days. It's laid out in a way that you're practicing your meal prepping skills as well as learning how to eat more whole foods. The benefit is that these meals are in season, so you're also reaping the benefits of seasonal produce on top of just regular whole foods.

Karlee: 34:25

Included in the challenge are tons of different spring-inspired recipes. You're also going to get a convenient grocery list for each meal plan, so you don't have to work out what groceries you need for the week for either plan. It's handed to you. You're also going to get accountability emails from me every day of the seven-day challenge to make sure you're staying on track and you're really getting your maximum benefits from the challenge. These emails are replyable, so you can send me an email back and I read them all and I can help you.

Karlee: 35:02

If you're struggling with meal prepping or you want to replace an ingredient because you don't like it, you're allergic, whatever the reason is, I'm more than happy to help you sort out your meal plan to make sure it's something that you're excited about and you actually want to eat. And the cool part is you get to keep these meal plans. So you're going to experiment with and the cool part is you get to keep these meal plans. So you're going to experiment with these new recipes for seven days and I guarantee you're going to find something that you love. So you're going to find a new recipe or several that are now going to become a part of your weekly routine. So these might be like breakfasts or snacks, dinners that you love, and now you're going to start eating these weekly and that's going to help you increase your homemade meals because you found something that you love and you're looking forward to making for you and your family.

Karlee: 35:50

You can register for the challenge at my website, beyondbloatedcom slash challenge. That's where you'll find all the information about the challenge as well, so if you're looking for more details, head there. Check it out. That's also where you can register Again. The challenge is starting on May 13th, so make sure you are registered before then.

Karlee: 36:12

This challenge is really going to be a great way for you to start learning how to meal prep, learning how to eat more whole, gut-, gut nourishing meals at home, reducing your ultra-processed food intake, and, in turn, it's going to improve your gut health significantly.

Karlee: 36:29

The skills you learn in this challenge are things that you can take with you well beyond the challenge, so that you keep experiencing more and more improvements in your gut health. Your good gut bugs love fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean proteins all that stuff we talked about. So sign up for the challenge, get a meal plan filled with all of the good, delicious foods that your microbiome is going to thrive on, and I'm going to be there with you every step of the way, so you're not going to be alone. I can't going to be there with you every step of the way, so you're not going to be alone. I can't wait to support you on this journey, and I will see you on May 13. Thank you for listening to the Beyond Bloated podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review, and don't forget to share this podcast with your fellow gut goddesses. If you'd like to chat about today's episode, send me a DM on Instagram at beyondbloated. Until next time, bye.