Summer Food and Wellness

What do you want from this summer? Summer, like the winter holidays, comes with a lot of baggage around what it should look like. I have had summers where I wanted to honor a big work project. I have had other summers where I wanted to be home as much as possible and still others when I just wanted to travel with the kids and see as many old friends as possible. Whatever the summer looks like, the change of season is a great time to re-evaluation and plan.

What is your core desire this summer? Your food, lifestyle, om and work goals need to reflect that core desire.

Food, Lifestyle, Om (spirituality and self care), and Work add up to FLOW, and I am going to spend four episodes walking you through the FLOW planning process for you and your family this summer.

Start every season by figuring out how you want to feel and what that looks like to you.

This season I have decided I want to feel reliable, which means something slightly different in each quadrant of my life. For food and wellness, being reliable means asking, “How can I use this season to move my Food Goals forward?” It means looking at the goal I have set for myself for my 90-day goal and where food fits into my 10 year plan. (You can still get all the prompts to create your 10 year plan on Instagram!)

My 90-day Food goal is a weight loss goal for the first time in 9 years. My long-term food and wellness vision is around eating really high vibration food that keeps my energy even and gets created with ease. So here are the different things I am planning for now, so that my summer supports my goals.

Farm to table

I want to eat as local as I can. I want all of us to experiment with new veggies. I will never forget the summer of Kohlrabi. I got this bulb that I had no idea what to do with and now it is the main component of one of my favorite salads.

I use this time to look at our calendar and figure out if it makes sense to do a farm share or visit the farmers market. This year I am doing a farm share. Last year I did farmer’s markets. No matter what you choose, the thing we need to do now it get dates in the calendar. Farmers markets, your share pick up dates. Other things you might consider is looking up farmers markets where you are vacationing or places where you can pick your own. Berries, peaches and tomatoes are items I love getting lots of to freeze.

High raw

With my weight goal, I have decided to return to my habit of high raw for the summer. Tune into episodes with Marie Claire and Eva Rawposa for the benefits and tips. Summer is just such a good time to do this! For me high raw is about creating new smoothies, innovative salads, yummy dips, getting fancy with the dehydrator (which does not heat up a kitchen like the stove).

This month, I am doing a decluttering project. How does that relate to food? Books are happening next week, and I will make a special section for books that have a raw food focus to use for menu planning.

Cook with kids

Or let them learn. So last summer I got this lesson from my then 14 year old son, who broke his foot mid May and totally changed his summer plans. We all wallowed for awhile in how many books could he read and if all our media policies would go to hell because 3 months of crutches is a LONG time! In the end, he taught himself to cook. He wanted to figure out how to make the perfect omelette, what sandwiches the French enjoy, and how to make the best oats. Not all his choices fell into my way of eating, but he definitely learned a skill.

For little ones, summer gives us the opportunity to involve them more. They can wash lettuce, cut a cucumber, shake the jar of dressing, maybe even measure what goes in the jar. Popsicles and ice cream are so fun to make, and I can make them in a way that I want to eat, which means there is none of the sugar like the ones I get at the store. We will get some of those recipes up on the Instagram and the website.

My summer is centered around feeling reliable. You’ll have your own goals and feel for the summer, but whatever direction you are going, these four tips will help you find your food FLOW.

Know your why

Remember to start by figuring out how you want to feel and what that looks like to you. Your core goals and how you want to feel guide the rest of your plan

Plan your meals (and snacks)

Although summer caters to a healthy lifestyle, it also brings more gatherings, barbeques and ice cream. Somewhere along the line, many of us equated the fun with the food or the drink, but I can tell you this is not true. But willpower at every turn is not fun either, which is why a meal plan is my favorite tool and the cornerstone of everything I teach and coach on.

I love the practice of meal planning for the whole family on Sundays, but if there is ever a time of year I don’t do that, it can be summer. Even if my planning slides over the summer, I do always plan what I will eat for a whole trip, and I always choose a day in advance.

This can be specific or vague. I am heading off on vacation now in a different time zone. In my notebook, I have written a plan that supports the idea that I am not sure what I will have access to. It outlines the hours that I want to eat, tells me how much coffee I want to have, that I don’t want to have alcohol. For the meals, I write down things like fruit for breakfast, even though I am not sure what will be the freshest, and a salad with protein, even though I am not sure what the protein will be. As I get more and more info, I can fill in the details, but I have a very clear framework. When I am home, I write every meal out, including snacks.

This season, I have a weight loss goal, so I am also practicing planning my meals first and then planning the family around that. Seems simple, but I know I am not the only mom who wants to cook what my kids will eat, even if it is not what I want.

Remember that meal planning is not about restriction. It actually gives you a lot more freedom. Knowing what to eat saves so much brain space. We think about what we are going to eat and then beat ourselves up when we eat the cake, or or kids go bonkers from too much sugar, or we forget to bring a treat for our allergic kid. Food is really hard in the present moment, but much easier with a plan.

Create an exercise rhythm

The summer season is different. If you are used to going to a gym or a yoga studio, your body might be asking for something else. The hours also change from school to camp to vacation, and you nned to think what that mean in terms of when you move your body. Start thinking through a rhythm and get it into your calendar.

Don’t sacrifice what you want in the name of vacation

Research stores, restaurants and markets when you travel. Find places where you can get the foods that make you feel good and fit your plan and goals.

Make food in advance for short trips or plane rides. Bring bars or buy fruits and veggies. Pack your blender for smoothies on the road. Take a no excuses approach to what you want.

Make food part of your summer plan.

This may seem redundant, but I really want you to start thinking about how food can actually feed (or not feed) your dreams.

I have a worksheet for you tomorrow for the lifestyle part that will include these questions, but you can certainly start to think about how to make food part of your family’s summer rhythm.

• Are there restaurants you have always wanted to try? When will you go?
• Are there recipes or techniques you have always wanted to try but have never found the time?
• Are grill nights or picnics part of your rhythm? Do you need any tools or knowledge to make that happen?

I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about the lifestyle part of your FLOW summer plan.