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Julie Duffy Dillon (00:00)

Great news, the Find Your Food Voice book is ready for pre-order. You can get to it at julieduffydillon.com slash book. Again, the Find Your Food Voice book, the book you need to help you reconnect to your own innate eating wisdom and help you break free from diet culture. I have written this book for you and I’m so excited to bring it to you. Get to it at julieduffydillon.com/book.

 

Julie Duffy Dillon (00:25)

Hey there, welcome to episode 403 of the Find Your Food Voice podcast where we’re talking about anti-diet meal planning. Let’s get to it.

Julie Duffy Dillon (02:01)

Hey there, fellow voice finder. I am Julie Duffy Dillon, registered dietitian and your host. And this is an episode that I’m very excited to bring to you. I am chatting with Colleen Bremner and Rachel Popik. Those are two people that work with me behind the scenes in the podcast and in the services that we provide to those of you who are also voice finders, hoping to reject diet culture and to reclaim your peace. Today, we are sharing our thoughts on meal planning. Now, I know you and I have been taught something very specific when it comes to meal planning that is not going to vibe with anti-diet or non-diet types of tools. But how do you make sure you have what you need at home to take care of yourself and to have enough to eat? And that’s where anti-diet meal planning comes in. So here’s a breakdown about what we’re talking about. First, we’re talking about traditional meal planning and how we basically turn it on its head to make it more aligned with how we wanna live as non-diet voice finders. And go into the nitty gritty on how we make grocery shopping lists, when we grocery shop, where, what are the staples that we make sure we always have at home to be able to build meals and snacks to make sure we have enough and so much more that comes into play. There is a really fun surprise at the end, so make sure you stay for that. But we are going to get to this episode after just a few announcements. 

And of course, the Find Your Food Voice book is going to be out in just about one month from today. And you know I’m excited. And I know you’ve heard a lot about it, but the pre-order time period is critical for any author to be able to have their book in a bookstore or just available. So by pre-ordering the book at julieduffydillon.com/book, you can order it from my own personal favorite local bookstore. And you also can order it like Target, Barnes and Nobles, any of those places. Of course, Bezos on Amazon, always convenient, I know. There’s also a link there to order it that way. But ordering it however it makes sense for you is going to help me and the team to be able to have the book available in more places. So we appreciate your support. However, you can give that to us so much. We appreciate it so, much. So you can get to it again at julieduffydillon.com slash book. All right, we’re gonna have a very quick ad break and then we’ll be back with our discussion on anti-diet meal planning.

Julie Duffy Dillon (04:47)

This is why we talk about meal prep, right? There’s just days that are harder than others. So welcome team, so glad to see you. we’ve had some fun tech things happening and that’s just life. And I want to get started talking about meal prepping. And before I do that, I want to let you all know I have a surprise to share with you at the very end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I’m gonna make you wait though. Okay, so Colleen, get us started.

Coleen (04:50)

Yes. Ugh. Hey.

Rachel (04:54)

Hey!

Coleen (05:10)

love surprises. Yay. Okay.

Rachel (05:11)

I love surprises.

Coleen (05:16)

Yes. Oh my gosh. Well, I’m so excited and interested to hear your thoughts on this. So I’m thinking about, as we approach this topic, what do we think of when we hear meal prep IRL? And what have we done in this space to reclaim it? So Julie, do you have thoughts?

Julie Duffy Dillon (05:39)

Of course, yeah. The first, yeah, I can do that. So what I think of with meal prep, as a dietitian especially, I think about somebody who’s holding a barbell in the gym, who’s telling someone to eat like chicken and broccoli, you know, something like that. I also think about, no, no seasoning, no. That will cause bloat, I’m sure of some sort, you know. But then also I think about Pinterest pretty…

Rachel (05:56)

with no seasoning.

Julie Duffy Dillon (06:08)

containers that are really like a disguised tool to keep us from eating too much. You know, it’s like a way to keep us on task and focus and eating our vegetables. So that’s what I think about traditional meal planning. Did you ask about also the other kind? Okay.

Coleen (06:09)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, like what have we done to dismantle it? Or should we, do you want to answer this first? Maybe Rachel, we pop to you and then like go to what we’ve done to dismantle.

Rachel (06:33)

Yeah, I mean, very similarly to Julie, think of like pre-planned, pre-measured, pre-portioned, repetitive meals and very like restrictive in that whatever you pre-portioned, that’s what you can eat even if you’re hungrier, doesn’t matter. Like that is your food for that period of time. The end.

Coleen (06:56)

I think I’m on the same page as both of you. Like, I just think of like portioned out. I think it’s interesting. We’ve all mentioned like this portion piece, set amounts of food, but also I have this feeling in my mind and it comes from my own dieting days I would eat the same foods for seven days in a row, very calorie restricted I got so tired and sick of eating the same foods over and over, like same breakfast every day, same lunches every day, same dinners every day, no snacks. Like, and like thinking about that time in my life, it like stirs something in my nervous system again. yeah. So now we’ve done a lot of work here to.

Julie Duffy Dillon (07:30)

Mm-hmm. Yes, that’s a diet trauma. That’s diet trauma. Yep.

Coleen (07:44)

kind of reclaim what meal prepping means. And I know we all have our different like thoughts on that. Rachel, I feel like you’re like our meal prepping food person extraordinaire. So I definitely wanna hear your thoughts on this.

Rachel (08:02)

Yeah, so I think for me it was very much like this transition from away from dieting to won’t do anything close to meal prepping because it was too wrapped up in dieting for a long time. But then I kind of, know, life gets busy and now I view it as this almost form of self care for my future self setting myself up for the week, particularly if I have a very busy week. So to me, it’s more like looking at my week ahead and kind of making a decision. Tuesday, Thursday, I have really busy days, so I’m going to pre-prepare something or, basically, it’s a form of self care to my future self. And it’s a way to set me up to make sure that I am eating enough as opposed to eating only a certain amount.

Julie Duffy Dillon (08:51)

Yes, yeah, yeah. That eating enough, I think, is the big piece that makes it different in my point of view to go from the meal prep that Diet Culture has trained us to use to what we are thinking about in how a voice finder would meal prep is. How can you make sure you have enough food? Because that is always a priority. And when we were talking about diet culture’s version of meal prep, something that I could hear from all three of us is like this robotic, disconnected and zero pleasure. Like there was no like, what do you actually wanna eat? It was just this is what you get, here’s your slop basically. the difference is how can you basically take care of yourself? Colleen, anything you wanna add to that?

Coleen (09:24)

Mm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I’m on the same page as Rachel. Like this is really a way that I view how to save time and like mental capacity later in the week when I have less to give at the end of the day because I’ve been, you know, working an eight hour day and my brain at that point is just fried. It’s not able to think about what sounds yummy to me right now. in certain moments it kind of helps me just share the load throughout the week. I still need to feed my family. I still need to feed myself. So it is like Rachel said, it’s truly an act of self care versus a way to restrict and set strict food rules. if you’re listening to this, we want to give you unconditional permission to eat and meal plan based on your budget and taste preferences. A site that I wanted to mention that I use is budget bites and I will give a warning, they do list the calorie content. I wish they didn’t, but feel free to ignore as I do. But it is a really great website that helps meal prep on a budget. And I am very into that because groceries are expensive right now and I feel like they’re going up. it’s a great way for me to plan for my family too, which is nice.

Julie Duffy Dillon (10:29)

Hmm. Right, right, agreed.

Coleen (10:51)

on that note of grocery shopping when do we do our grocery shopping and when do we do our meal planning?

Julie Duffy Dillon (10:57)

So this is something that has changed a lot for me over the years. And maybe as the oldest person in this chat, I can just shine a light of how it may change. we have different seasons, right? And before I had kids, it was basically whenever, it was whenever we needed food. And I was living with my husband at the time. And then it was usually Saturday or Sunday during the day, kind of probably whenever we woke up without an alarm. And then when we had kids and it was a two-parent household, it was almost always kind of like later on a Saturday or Sunday. But now I have my kids by myself for 10 days and then I have four days off. And so what I usually do now is right before I pick my kids up on a Sunday, I’ll go to Costco and try to get as much as I can. And so I then that Sunday morning, go through, see what I have at home and things like that to try to use the Costco bulk option. And so I always get like the rotisserie chicken, it’s just $5. That lasts me usually the week for like lunches and I eat that more than my kids do and I use it. Yeah, like for when I’m home working and stuff like that. Berries, lunch items and then during the week, one of my kids goes to tutoring that’s right next door to an Aldi. So I then, if I need anything during the week, I just keep a list. I’m like, okay, when I’m at Aldi next time, I can pick it up there. And that for the last year and a half has kind of been my flow. The thing that’s been the game changer for me is I have a list that, like as a pre-printed kind of list where I can check items off. I know it’s so easy, but like that’s the thing that’s helped me to be able to make sure. When I go to the grocery store, actually get the things I need to have enough at home. So yeah, that’s me.

Coleen (12:51)

Rachel?

Rachel (12:52)

So my husband and I usually talk, we don’t have kids, so we have a little bit more flexibility. We usually talk over the weekend, kind of looking at our schedules ahead for the week to make decisions if one of us is out one night or Chris is working from the office or I teach a lot of cooking classes in the evening, so there’s a lot of nights I’m gone, kind of who needs to cook what, when, and if we can be super flexible in our week or if we have to be a little bit more planned ahead. And then based off of that and Lim, we just kind of talk about like vibes, like what are we craving? What are we feeling for the week? What’s honestly, for me, a big thing is what the weather is gonna be. Like I very much like to eat based on, you know, the weather outside.

Julie Duffy Dillon (13:32)

yes, that’s a good one.

Rachel (13:42)

and then I usually do most of our grocery shopping on Mondays. I hate going to the grocery store on the weekend. It’s crowded. makes me cranky. I’m lucky enough that I have a flexible enough schedule that I can go on Monday mornings when no one is there. So that is when I do the bulk of the shopping and then, you know, if there are random cravings or things I live in the city. So I have multiple grocery stores within walking distance from me.

Julie Duffy Dillon (14:08)

Mm-hmm.

Rachel (14:11)

Like I’ll pop out to the grocery store to grab last minute items.

Coleen (14:14)

It also makes me cranky to do grocery shopping on the weekends and I have to do that. I wish I was going with you grocery shopping, Rachel, on Mondays.

Julie Duffy Dillon (14:17)

Yes, it’s horrible. It’s too crowded. Yes. Yeah.

Rachel (14:20)

Yeah, I recognize that I am very lucky.

Coleen (14:32)

Also, like, I don’t know about you all, but like, I actually love to grocery shop. Like, I love filling my pantry and fridge with foods. Like, I don’t know, it feels good. It also, I think, feels good for my personality type because I like checking things off a list, like, and it just feels very satisfying to be like milk, check eggs, check. I just really like that.

Julie Duffy Dillon (14:45)

I know that’s, we need to plan something like that. That would be so fun. I see us skipping through the aisles, just having so much fun.

Coleen (14:56)

We do our big grocery shop on Friday evening, usually, depending on if it’s a bath night or night or not. And if it is a bath night, we’ll typically do that on set our shopping on Saturday during the day. it’s it is crowded and it does make me cranky, too. But we usually meal prep or plan on Sunday when we have a little more downtime than we do during the week. Again, I feel like my mental capacity during the week is just like shot at the end of the day. And I just don’t have the wherewithal to figure out what we’re gonna eat. So just dedicating Sunday to that, talking through the week and kind of our schedules and everything, it helps me also figure out what our family schedule is. Like if I’m out one evening or my husband’s out another evening, like, okay, we’re gonna do something quick and easy and just keep it simple. But I also love to cook. So a transition that’s been different for me is figuring out like those nights that are not bath nights are the nights that I get to cook and to cook. So it kind of I still get to spend time with my family because our kitchen is daughter’s play area is like right next to the kitchen. So I still get to be with them and be with the family, but also get to cook, which are two great joys at the end of the day. So yeah, I’m curious as we’re grocery shopping, what some of our like, main staple foods are that we have in the pantry at all times. I know in our household, like we are a big whole fat Greek yogurt household because we love the fullness that we feel from yogurt. And it’s a we love the snack with the fruit element. I feel like also yogurt is just it’s so universal. We can add it to almost anything. we just love how versatile whole fat Greek yogurt is, and the consistency. We’re big on textures, so we just really like that. Some sort of grain is in our pantry at all times, whether that’s farro or rice or quinoa, couscous, you name it, barley. Something is in our pantry at all times. Meat protein of some sort, so whether that’s ground turkey or ground beef or. sometimes we do the Impaasa burgers too, things like that. So just whatever we can quickly add is helpful. Spinach or baby kale, I love spinach and I’m sure you all know this, but when you buy a giant thing of spinach, collapses to nothing in a meal. So we really to have our like spinach and baby kale thrown into, I feel like any dish we just like add it in there love how it adds some like nutrients to our meals too, And then whole wheat bread, like we’re, big on carbs in our household and bread is just now that my daughter is eating solids too, it’s so easy to slap stuff on a piece of whole wheat bread and have her, munch on that. So yeah, those are kind of our staples. I’m curious to hear what yours are.

Julie Duffy Dillon (17:43)

one thing that I make sure I always have is similar to Rachel. Like it’s kind of based on seasons because hearing about the Greek yogurt, I was like, yeah, in the summer that is a staple, but right now that it’s cold, no. I don’t want to have that. But first and foremost, I always have to have my coffee creamer. I have to have that. So whenever at the grocery store, I’m like, am I sure if I have enough? I’m like, I’m getting it just in case. And the other ones is really just how I can like make something into a meal if I don’t have any time or bandwidth. And so one is noodles, the Barilla protein, whatever shape. I always have to have something like that at home because I could always then make a meal out of that with me and the kids. Same with arugula or some kind of arugula mix. I’m obsessed with arugula. It’s like one of my favorite foods right now. The peppery or the better. I have a neighbor who grows it. And whenever they’re out of town, I’m like, let me take care of your arugula, please. Because they let me take as much as I want. The other thing is any kind of berry. That’s something that my kids always are like, if they don’t like what I make for dinner, if I have milk and some berries, and then usually some kind of carb, whether it’s like noodles or bread or something, they’re fine. They won’t be whining that much. They still may, but whatever. Then the other thing, there’s two more things. So I have six.

Julie Duffy Dillon (19:15)

One is some kind of enjoyable frozen meal because future Julie is going to have a dinner or a lunchtime where I have like no time and I’m starving that I just need to not have to think. it’s like what I, every time I go to the grocery store, I’m like, where’s the easy meal? Where’s the easy one where I don’t have to do anything besides put it in the oven or microwave? And then the last one is some kind of like canned fish, again, like tuna, salmon, sardines, whatever, I don’t know, any kind of canned fish of some sort is another one that, especially if I’m home by myself and no kid is gonna be like, ew, what’s that? I can make something with that as well. So, which reminds me of my dad, because I used to always say ew when he ate his sardines with saltines. But now I’m like, oh yeah, I get it. Rachel, tell us about yours.

Rachel (20:04)

I wish I liked canned fish better because canned fish is very in right now in the food world. yeah. It’s so trendy. And also it’s just like such a good affordable protein and fat source. Yeah.

Julie Duffy Dillon (20:06)

Yeah. it is? I’m trending. Yeah, I could stock up on it and keep it forever. Whenever it’s on sale, I’ll just grab a couple. And yeah, yeah.

Rachel (20:21)

Yeah, yeah, so I really wish I liked canned fish better than I did, but I don’t. I had a really hard time with five things on my list, and my list is a little bit longer, but yeah. I always have canned beans, like always, always. Particularly, there’s this brand called Hay Day, and they make this, they make like pre-seasoned beans. So think like, you know, like refried greens or like baked beans kind of thing.

Julie Duffy Dillon (20:25)

Mm-hmm. We’ll give you some leeway. I took six, so don’t worry.

Rachel (20:49)

but they have this harissa seasoned chickpea that I turn into shakshuka just by cracking an egg in it and like throwing some spinach in it and it’s so good. So always canned beans, always pasta, particularly the Goodles brand because it has extra protein and fiber in it and it tastes like pasta, like it tastes like quality pasta. It’s not like chickpea pasta or, you know.

Julie Duffy Dillon (21:00)

Okay, I love that

Ooh, wow. Yeah.

Rachel (21:18)

alternative pasta. Eggs, always eggs. Well, so I’m lucky in that I take care of chickens, so I don’t pay for eggs, which is good, which is like really good right now. But I always have eggs. I usually always have edamame in the freezer. I really like that as a snack or to like bulk up a meal frozen. Cheddar cheese is like my favorite food in the world. So I always have cheddar cheese, which I consequently like put on popcorn a lot, which is a little strange, but it’s really good. And then I always have sourdough in my freezer.

Julie Duffy Dillon (22:00)

Yes, I love how our lists are just different. It’s so great.

Rachel (22:04)

Yeah, yeah. And I also always have Greek yogurt and spinach, but.

Julie Duffy Dillon (22:08)

Yeah, your staples may have more depth than Colleen and I, but that’s okay. That’s okay. That’s just the difference, right? Before we wrap up, because we need to go, any other kind of like practical things that you have found helpful in like 30 seconds?

Rachel (22:22)

the one thing I was thinking about when one of you were talking earlier is I keep, I switched from having like a physical list to keeping a running list in my phone of things that I need. And that has been a game changer for me when I like pop into the grocery store. So that was, yeah, exactly.

Julie Duffy Dillon (22:32)

I love that. Yeah.

Coleen (22:32)

Mm-hmm, me too.

Julie Duffy Dillon (22:39)

So it’s already there so that you can just go on a whim if you have a moment. I love that.

Coleen (22:42)

It’s nice too, because I do the same and I can share it with family. So it’s nice to be able to have family be like, take ownership as well over what is part of the grocery shopping. So it’s not all on me.

Julie Duffy Dillon (22:47)

good. Can you get this? Yes. Yes. Yes. The thing I think I would encourage the listener to think about, especially if you’re new to this way of thinking about meal planning, is what could your future self benefit from? How can you make your life easier over the next week, whether it’s looking at the schedule, looking at the weather, looking at what kind of childcare you’re going to be doing, what the workload’s like, and how can you make it just 20 % easier on yourself, just a smidge easier? Make sure you have enough. Don’t forget with that grocery list your breakfast and lunch and snacks.

Rachel (23:29)

snacks. was the other thing. Meal prep includes snacks.

Coleen (23:33)

Yeah. Love that. Yay! I forgot about it.

Julie Duffy Dillon (23:33)

Amen. Amen. Are ready for a surprise? Ready? Look what came in the mail. I can’t. Yeah, it’s a real book now.

Rachel (23:35)

Yeah. Yes.

Coleen (23:43)

Can you like thumb through it for the like tactile? Yes, the tactile person in me. it sounds so good.

Julie Duffy Dillon (23:47)

ASMR

Rachel (23:52)

So exciting!

Julie Duffy Dillon (23:52)

It’s, my daughter’s like, it smells good. She already has tabs and highlighting in hers, because she annotates all her books, so why not mine? So it’s here, it’s here, so if you’re on YouTube, you can see it, and pre-order it. I have six copies myself, that’s all I get.

Coleen (23:58)

Aww. I can’t wait to get my physical copy. Can’t wait to put my hands on it. Yay.

Rachel (24:12)

I know.

Julie Duffy Dillon (24:13)

March 25th, March 25th, you’ll get it.

Rachel (24:17)

Yay! I can’t wait.

Julie Duffy Dillon (24:18)

you. Thank you, thank you. It was so fun. was like, oh, I can’t wait to share this with them. So thank you. Anyway, we gotta go, but it was a pleasure as always. Thank you for sharing and listener, what are your tips to help you get through meal planning? Let us know. We would love, love, love to hear it. You can put it in the comments below. Bye for now.

Rachel (24:38)

Bye.

Coleen (24:38)

Bye.

Julie Duffy Dillon (24:40)

So there you have it. I hope this conversation was helpful for you as you are navigating a new way to take care of yourself as it relates to meal planning. And you don’t have to make it pretty. You don’t have to make it so you can post it on Instagram. it’s okay if you include snacks in your meal planning. So before I go, I want to give you a heads up. Next week, we have a really wonderful episode with Lisa Ellis, who is someone who has written a book about moving away from like the good food versus bad food mentality. So that’s what we’re talking about. So if you’ve ever said, I feel bad for eating that, or I am bad for eating that, that episode will be for you. That’s coming up next week. And as I sign off, thank you in advance for pre-ordering the Find Your Food Voice book. I am so excited for you to have it in your hands as another tool to help you to navigate diet culture and to reclaim your piece. You can get to it at julieduffydillon.com/book. All right, I look forward to seeing you next week. Until then, take care.