Your Go-To Meals: How and Why to Make Your Own List [Ep. 8]

Welcome to Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well; the podcast for women who want to lose weight, but are tired of counting and calculating all the food. I'm your host, Lisa Salsbury. I'm a certified health and weight loss coach and life coach, and most importantly a recovered chronic dieter. I'll teach you to figure out why you are eating when you aren't hungry, instead of worrying so much about what you are eating. Hi, welcome to episode eight. We're getting on a roll here first. Thank you to everyone who shared the podcast. The last two weeks, I want to give a shout out to Donna for winning our first a hundred dollar Amazon gift card. She took a screenshot of the episode. She was listening to and posted it in her Instagram feed. So our next drawing will be in two more weeks on September 23rd. Right now, most of my listeners are already in my world. You are my Instagram followers and on my email list. So I really want to make sure other women in the world who need this information know about it. So please keep sharing and I will keep doing the giveaway until we get our first thousand downloads. And ongoing is anybody that leaves a review will get a Starbucks gift card from me. So just send me a screenshot of that because I know there are several. really kind. Reviews that I haven't been able to send a gift card to because you haven't sent me a screenshot and I don't know. Who you are. Just for fun. I'm going to read a review. This one is from geese goose 11. She said, I'm loving this podcast. I have done 1,001 diets and mindset programs. She shares some very practical ideas. My favorite part is that I can easily implement things into my family life with five kids. I can't wait for her next episode to drop. Thanks so much. Geese It's 11. I don't know who you are. So if you want to send me that screenshot, I'm more than happy to buy your coffee this morning. So let's dive into our topic for today. We are going to be talking about our go-to meals. I do have a free ebook on this same topic, but I think it's really important. So I wanted to cover it a little more in depth here on the podcast as well. So if you have that ebook, don't tune out there is going Way more information in the podcast. What is a go-to meal and why do I encourage you to have them? Those are the two main things that we are going to get into. First as a review, I do have my clients create a 24 hour practical plan for what they are going to be eating for the next 24 hours. Some do it in the morning for the day and some do it the night before for the next day. Doesn't matter, whatever time works for you just do that. The important part of the 24 hour plan is that you are using your higher human part of your brain, your prefrontal cortex to make your food decisions. This is the key. When we decide in the moment, it's much more difficult to access that part of the brain. It's not that we always make quote unquote bad decisions if we make them in the moment, it's just that we are more likely to be making our food decisions based on our longterm goals. When we make them in advance. I do have a whole episode on this it's episode two, if you want a refresher on the practical plan. Go-to meals are kind of a next step in the planning. When you are first planning, you aren't really sure what you want to eat. I tell my clients to plan what you are already And start making just a few small changes at a time, but still your brain can have drama about that. You might feel like you don't know what you like anymore after being on so many diets. And with so many different food lists, you're not even sure what your ideal food list or meal list might look like. So after a few weeks of planning and trying out different meals, You'll start to repeat things. That's the first sign you're ready to make a go-to meals list. Here's the great thing about go-to meals. They are always considered on plan. The reason is because you created that list of meals with your future goals in mind using your higher brain. C, just like when you are making your 24 hour plan. Your go-to meals are created and thought through with your prefrontal cortex, that human part of your brain that does all the So, you know that anything on your go-to meals list will be keeping you on track. When you have a day, then that your practical plan doesn't get made or when you sit down to make it, and you're at a loss for what to put on it, you can just reference your go-to meals list and boom you're right on plan. This is the main reason why we want to have this list created. Because it keeps you on plan, even when you don't create a plan. The other reason, I like my clients and listeners to do this. Is it keeps you out of might as well that's when, you know, you might as well eat that because you already ate this or I didn't make a plan. So I might as well just eat extra dessert. Having go-to meals means you always have a plan for what your higher brain would advise you to eat. Ultimately having go-to meals keeps you from making the excuse. I didn't know what to eat. So, how do you create this magical list of meals that are always on plan? Good question. Let's get into that. This actually involves a little more conversation about your 24 hour plan. As you are experimenting with that plan and trying different things. I hope you are also recording how you are feeling. I like you to write down your hunger. Hunger scale numbers, at least You might also write down any digestive symptoms you were having, if any. You'll notice when you are getting hungry for a meal sooner. Then you would like to eat either for convenience sake or because you are trying to consolidate your eating down to three meals a day. This all comes together to be the best nutritional study you've ever read because it's the one you're doing on yourself. The truth is you are living in the most sophisticated bio-computer ever your own body. By learning to listen to your body and discovering what she responds well to you'll figure out what you want to keep feeding her. And in what amounts. I have an older blog on my website called the breakfast experiment. I'll put a link to that in the show notes, but basically the idea is to try a different breakfast each day of the week and record how you felt afterwards. In this way, you can figure out what breakfasts work best for you. And that is the first way to find your go-to A second way to look at what should go on your go-to meal list is convenience. For example, leftovers is listed on my lunch go-to meals. this is convenient for me. and I figure if it was planned for dinner the night before, then it's a food that works for me. So I don't really need to specify what I'm eating. Leftovers is sufficient. Another convenience meal is something you always have the ingredients for my sister and I call these pantry meals. These are meals, you just standardly have the items. Comes on hand. For me, this would be something like spaghetti with Turkey, marinara sauce. I always keep spaghetti onions garlic canned crushed tomatoes in the pantry I buy ground Turkey at Costco, pretty much every time I go. Add in the spices from a well-stocked spice drawer. And there you go, spaghetti. That's a meal that I go heavy on the sauce for the protein and the great nutrition and micronutrients found in tomatoes and a little lighter on the If I'm lucky, I have some veggies in the fridge to throw alongside, and this just makes for a convenient meal for me, because I know how to make it without a recipe. And the whole family likes it. So i want you to think what meals fit that description for you and include those on your go-to meals as your convenience meals third, you can also find your go-to meals and past diets. I know you're like, wait, what? I thought we didn't have to diet anymore. You don't, but I know most of you out there have tried them. All right. You've been on too many to count and had food lists that were off limits and recipes you were supposed to make for every meal. Did you ever try one of those diets where they give you a meal plan with full recipes for every meal? Like who has time for Anyway, I consider myself a good cook and I had never made it through one of those for very long. chances are though you ate something in one of those That you're like, oh, this is good. And I feel good when I eat it. And I'm still satisfied hours after. One thing diet plans have in common. Is that they tend to be fairly heavy on vegetables. And usually depending on the diet, usually pretty heavy on protein. So these are the kinds of things that stick with you for a long time. And ultimately might contribute to you being able to lose weight. So think back with some compassion and curiosity to some times that you've been on a diet, don't look at your past dieting self with all that shame and regret that we normally do. Thank her for what she learned and see if there's anything in the past that has worked well for you. Let me give you an example of what I mean here. I did the south beach diet for awhile. Actually. I tried it several Anyways. There was this Turkey, breakfast, sausage, and one of the cookbooks I had, and it is so good. And remember how I said, I always buy ground Turkey at Costco. Yeah, I just use that. And spice it up with this old south beach diet recipe. And it's actually so good. Whenever I remember that I used to eat that all the time. I'm like, oh yeah, that was good. And I really liked the extra protein in the morning. That works for me. Keeps me full. Where I alter it. Is that I was supposed to eat that on the south beach diet with like a tomato on top. I just eat it with eggs and a piece of toast now, but I like it. So I still use it. Another example for me of accessing my old diet itself. I was a time when I was eating. Gluten-free. And, uh, uh, don't ask about that. It was a dark time in my life. Okay. But I saw someone put sloppy, Joe filling on top of a sweet potato. It appealed to me because even though I adore a hamburger or a pulled pork on a button, there is something about that slightly sweet tomatoey, sloppy Joe meat on a bun that just turns my stomach. But my family likes them. So I still make them in somewhat regular rotation. Anyway, I tried the sloppy Joe filling on a roasted sweet potato, and I actually loved So now, even though I definitely eat bread. I still have my sloppy Joes on sweet potatoes. And incidentally. Half my family prefers it on sweet potatoes now, too. So I always have buns and sweet potatoes for everyone. When I make sloppy One more type of meal that should go on your go-to list is going to be a little bit different. You may have a separate list for these types of meals, but that would be your go-to orders. If you say have like 15 restaurants that you go to locally for takeout or for lunches. You can create go-to meals for those restaurants as well. So if you are someone who orders out a lot, and that's something you want to keep doing for convenience, or because you don't like to cook or whatever reason. You also can create go-to meals. Or if your office orders lunch out every Friday. You don't have to worry what restaurant will be picked because you have an order for all the local places that was created by your higher brain much earlier. And that brain was not stressed in the moment. Annoyed by Julie down the hall or frustrated with a project that's not going well. That part of your brain was thinking about your long-term health goals. When she looked at the menus and selected one or two options for that restaurant. Or if you get home late from picking up the kids and you need to get takeout for dinner. You have already thought through the menus of your favorite restaurants and you easily can pick from that list. You might have just one order from each restaurant or maybe two to three, depending on the location. But see how this keeps you again from going into that might as well eating. Like, well, we have to order takeout because my kid got out super late from practice and I can't make dinner before my evening meeting, blah, blah, blah, whatever's going on. So I might as well get fries with that. Just because we aren't eating at home, doesn't mean we might as well eat in a way that does not serve our goals. Just because we aren't eating from a, from scratch meal. Does not mean we might as well get all the things that are highly processed, highly concentrated, highly palatable These foods. Do not serve your health goals. I promise you don't need to eat those things just because you were running late. Think through your favorite restaurant orders when you are in a calm planning mode. That is going to serve you so much better. Okay. So that's four ways to find ideas or types of meals that should be on your go-to meals list. Number one, the foods that work best in your body, these make you function at your best. And, you know, because you've tested them These are the things I want to make up the majority of your go-to meals list. Number two. The foods that are going to be convenient for you to make these keep you on plan mostly because they are quick to And you most likely have the ingredients on hand. This stuff is cheaper and sometimes can be even faster than getting Uber eats. Number three foods that have helped you lose weight in the past things from past diets. And remember, you don't need to follow that diet to still eat that one meal that worked for you. Just like I don't follow the south beach diet or think goodness, the gluten-free diet anymore. And lastly, your go-to orders from your favorite lunch places or dinner take out. And by the way, notice, this is just for repeat type restaurants. You don't need to do this for every restaurant you ever go to for date night or girl's night out. If you haven't downloaded my free ebook on go-to meals, you really are missing out because I actually put six bonus recipes in there for my go-to meals. Including my very favorite cashew coconut granola. My favorite breakfast right now is Greek yogurt with my granola and berries. My other breakfast I really love is my protein oatmeal. It has a whole egg in it. Plus some whey protein. It's really balanced with all the proteins and carbs and the fat from the egg yolk. It keeps me going all morning long. I really love it. That recipe is in there I'll admit this one takes some trial and error, both with your microwave as well as your protein powder. I've tried to make it with a unfamiliar protein powder and it was honestly a disaster. So not all protein powders will work. I will post a video of me making this one this week on Instagram. So watch for that. And I'll show you which protein powder I like. I also have my spaghetti sauce in that ebook and a few others that just might make it on your go-to list. There is a worksheet with my go-to meals filled in just so you can see an example and a blank one for you to use yourself. The link for that of course, is in the show notes. So be sure to go and get that one for yourself. I will talk to you next week.

Thanks for listening today. If you're ready to get some personalized help from me, I'd encourage you to schedule a free strategy session. Visit www.wellwithlisa.as.me or find a link in the show notes. We'll talk about where you currently are with your weight loss goals, and I'll give you some actionable tools. You can start implementing right away. Before you go, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes, right when they're released. And if you're learning something new, I'd love for you to leave me a review. Thanks again for joining me, Lisa Salsbury in this episode of Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well. I'll talk to you next time!