Let's Be Healthy Latinas!

90. You Meal Plan Every Sunday But Still End Up Ordering Food Delivery by Wednesday

• Naihomy Jerez • Episode 90

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Discover why Pinterest-perfect meal prepping might be the biggest obstacle in your wellness journey, creating cycles of guilt and failure rather than sustainable healthy habits.

• Rigid meal prep plans often lead to boredom, waste, and eventually abandoning the entire process by mid-week
• Cultural disconnect occurs when traditional foods are excluded from "healthy" meal prep examples
• The time investment required for perfect meal prepping is unrealistic for most busy people
• Learning multiple new skills at once (cooking techniques, unfamiliar foods, meal planning) creates overwhelm
• Sustainable meal planning requires flexibility, honoring your cultural foods, and understanding your actual capacity
• Taking leftovers from family gatherings can be a legitimate part of your meal prep strategy
• Creating personalized systems based on your lifestyle is more effective than following influencer-style meal prep

If you want support with one-on-one food and hormone health coaching, book a consultation call with the link in the show notes or send me a DM on Instagram.

Thank you so much for listening!


Speaker 1:

Hello friends, welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to talk about all those beautiful little pins that you have on Pinterest about meal planning, all those safe posts that you have on Instagram and everywhere else probably TikTok, right. You have all these safe posts on how to meal prep and it's probably the number one thing holding you back on your health and wellness journey and it's, believe it or not, setting you up for failure and guilt instead of success, friends instead of success, because sometimes they're just really complicated. It's not meant for you. You're not a content creator and you feel like in order to stick to a meal plan or to eat right, not get takeout, you have to have your meal prep done, like these influencers are getting it done on the internet. And let me tell you something that leads to burnout, it leads to frustration and then again, like the failure and the guilt, like, oh my gosh, I cannot keep up with these people and how are they doing this? And here we go with the immigrant mentality, right Of like now we're wasting food. Now we're wasting food because you've probably tried to meal prep like this before. Maybe you bought all the groceries and they're just sitting in your fridge and come Wednesday you're not cooking anything and you're ordering takeout. You're ordering from Uber, eats, doordash, whatever it is regular old delivery service or you're picking up and meal prepping goes out the window and all your pins go out the window, but it creates this circular sense of failure, because now you probably did these groceries as well and everything is just sitting in your fridge going bad because now you have so much fresh products in your fridge as well. So we're going to get into why this actually doesn't work for you. And are there different ways to meal plan so that it's not so rigid, it's more flexible? You don't feel like a failure and, at the same time, the only example of meal prepping that you have is not this perfect little you know 30 second reel of how to make the perfect meal prep.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's get into some of the reasons why this is not working for you and it's because you're not capable. Okay, let's get into some of the reasons why this is not working for you and it's because you're not capable. Okay, let's just get this out of the way from the beginning. It's not because you can't do it and it's not because you're not capable. It might be other reasons. Right, you might be so bored. Okay, even if you get to make these meals, maybe you have 30.

Speaker 1:

I let me tell you something. The first time I saw like 30 containers being filled up with the same foods over and over again, and half of them frozen and half of them in the fridge, I was like no, thank you, I don't want to do this and maybe I'll never meal prep if this is what it's going to look like Because, as a true foodie probably you are too. If you're here you actually like variety in your meals. You like to switch things up. You don't want to eat the same thing over and over again. You probably don't like leftovers because that's essentially what it's going to be Because you're going to be reheating up this food on day four and five, like you can maybe take two days of these things, or like freezing them, like having space to freeze all these meals, like it's just a lot. It's just a lot. And let's bring in the fact that probably what you're meal prepping is not even food that you like.

Speaker 1:

All right, a lot of these people meal prepping are prepping foods that are not familiar to you. It's probably the quinoas and the kales, and I don't even know what else to bring in y'all in here. But those are the first things that come to mind. And then you're like, but where's the arroz and where's the frijoles? And I don't eat rice like that, and usually my rice comes with beans. It's not just plain, and I like seasoning in my food.

Speaker 1:

So now there's this whole cultural disconnect of the foods you're preparing and there's also this whole concept of you're preparing so much and then you're going to have to eat all of this on a consistent basis. If you could see my face right now, maybe it's coming through in my voice, but it's like almost a disgust. Look from inside out. It's like ugh. How much of this can you take? And let's not mention how much time it takes to create so much freaking food. All right, it takes so much time to prepare, and now half your Sunday is spent in the kitchen trying to make these beautiful meals that you pinned and these new recipes using new techniques.

Speaker 1:

And you're in the pits of hell because you're like why in the world did I start this? Now you're midway done. You don't want to stop. You spend all this time not just doing the groceries, preparing cleaning up food, cooking the food, waiting until it cools down to put it in nice containers, and then by Wednesday you're not even eating that. Okay, you're not even eating it, and this is why trying to meal prep in this way just leads you to go and grab takeout and there's nothing wrong with takeout, actually but I know that what's happening is that you feel like a failure for ordering takeout by midweek, when you're sick and tired of this food that you've prepared. It's not tasting good anymore and you're over it and you spent so much time making it.

Speaker 1:

Now there's also the concept of you're going to prep the food so you can cook it during the week. Okay, that also becomes kind of taxing because you're not even taking into consideration everything else you have going on that week. And cooking is a job. If not, there wouldn't be tons and tons and tons and tons of restaurants and takeout places and fast food places. Every human needs to eat and to prepare food takes time, takes technique, takes dedication and sometimes, even if we love cooking and making these things, we might not have the energy to do so every single time during the week.

Speaker 1:

So freaking tired by the end of the day, of long work days, of trying to get other wellness things done like go to the gym or go to sleep early or hang out with a friend, right. So it's just not that effective when we're trying to really force ourselves to follow a specific plan with no flexibility. And this brings us back to the all or nothing cycles that we create in wellness. The one that we know so well is with exercise. It's like either we're going to the gym seven days a week or we're not going to the gym at all, like there's no in between. And then it becomes the same when it comes to rigid meal planning of exactly what you're going to eat, then having flexibility within that, and then when you decide to make other decisions because your capacity is totally tapped out, like ordering food, then it's the whole blaming game. Like you see, we can never do this. We can't stick to it. It's not for me. I cannot do it. But what you can't do is rigid. What you can't do is not leaving any room for flexibility or joy within the week of what you're going to eat. It gets boring so fast and it gets overwhelming so fast when it's so much work. And let's not even talk about oh my gosh, you're going to prepare this food A lot of stuff that comes in with preparing new foods is that you're doing so many new things at once.

Speaker 1:

It's not just I'm going to meal prep, but you're also probably learning how to shop for new foods. You're learning how to eat new foods. You're learning how to cook new foods. You're learning new cooking techniques. You're learning plating styles, probably because you want it to look as beautiful as it does on Pinterest or these posts, and that has you hung up. So not only are you coming from a space of being super busy, capacity running low, knowing that you need to eat, you know that you want to make better food choices. You think the answer is going to be to make this massive meal prep that looks beautiful at some capacity and follow through with eating it and enjoy the process.

Speaker 1:

That's a lot, if you ask me. That's a lot. There is no space for fun. There is no space for you eat lo que se te antoja ese dia, like what you're craving that day. There's no space for flexibility. There is no space for ordering that takeout without the guilt and the shame. So what happens? You quickly go back to the other habits that you had before, again going back to the zero, because the 100 felt like too much and too overwhelming. So you go back to the zero whatever's quickest, whatever you can get your hands on, whatever's convenient, whatever's tasty, and now the whole let's say mindfulness of what your goals were goes out the window. All right, because it's just not as sustainable to spend four hours in the kitchen on a Sunday and be so overwhelmed by the process. You know it's like creating these meal plans that took you hours in the first place to create the plan and then they're so hard to execute when your capacity is out. And you know what? Also, maybe the disappointment of you putting all this work in and the food just not tasting good or not looking like. You expect that and, trust me, I've been there Before.

Speaker 1:

I used to experiment a lot with recipes and I remember one time I made this baked lemon chicken and like this vodka what's it called? Like penne alla vodka pasta and it tasted so incredibly bad and I was so disappointed at the result because I had spent hours trying to make these food from scratch. That's another thing. There's no flexibility between like what can you buy that's already pre-made to give you a hand? A lot of these recipes are also like make tomato sauce from scratch, make granola from scratch, make yogurt from scratch. Like we don't have time for all of that. Friends, we are busy. People Like what else can we incorporate to help us? So I totally get it. It was so bad that I told my partner I was like we're going to go get Wendy's, like we literally I was so sad and we drove to get Wendy's and I ended up repurposing the beef. Um, later on, like I chopped it up so small that it looked like ground beef and then we used it in tacos.

Speaker 1:

But when you're in the middle of the week and, mind you, this was a time where I really had nothing better to do Like I was just playing around in the kitchen. We didn't have children, like we had nada que hacer, right, but oficios, you know, like the chores that you're like, you know when you're laying around and your mom is like, oh, you don't have nothing to do, go do your chores. Yeah, it was like that kind of stuff. Um, but man, that's disappointing when you spend so much time and then nothing tastes good, right, and then nothing tastes good, right. So look, during the week and when you're busy is not the time to be trying to create whole new skills or processes from start to finish, okay.

Speaker 1:

So I just want you to know that sustainable meal planning is really about flexibility, and having different tools and different levels of meal prepping is not about the perfect execution that looks flawless from start to finish. It means you understand what foods you actually like, what foods you can cook really well, right, and a lot of that might be your cultural foods that you're telling yourself you cannot cook anymore because, quote unquote, they're not healthy or they won't help you lose weight or they won't help you reverse your prediabetes or what have you. Because a lot of our cultural foods do not appear on those lists of quote unquote healthy foods or they're really demonized, you know, by the medical system. They're never given as examples, they're always stripped away. It's like oh, don't eat no more rice, right, don't have no more tortillas. So it becomes very confusing out there.

Speaker 1:

So, just starting off by like, what are you comfortable making in the kitchen? What are the foods you actually enjoy eating? How much time do you actually want to spend doing meal prepping on the weekend or during the week? How much capacity are you going to have to actually make food after you come home from work? Like, those are all things that need to be taken into consideration. It's not like, oh my gosh, all these containers look real cute because the end result always seems appealing. It's like, oh, it's so easy to take a meal out of your fridge and eat it, but how do you get that meal in the fridge in the first place? These are things that you need to think about.

Speaker 1:

So, having options like how do you stock up your pantry, how do you stock up your freezer? What are some of those meals that you can make that are quick and easy and delicious? What does a quick meal prep look like? What is your capacity to handle these things and what are other resources out there to support you? Like what does takeout look like? What does ordering pre-made meals look like? What does ordering like cooking services look like?

Speaker 1:

For example, the HelloFresh Fresh's of the world and there are other ones that of my clients specifically, have felt like if they're not cooking 100% from scratch, then it's cheating, it's not actually a healthy meal. They are not putting in hard enough work, right? So this is exactly where I start to support you to understand how many different styles of meal prepping there actually are, to understanding your food right and knowing how food works in the body so that we start to like, kind of step, take a step back at blaming our cultural foods for causing, you know, disease, for causing us not to feel well, for being demonized at something that cannot support us with our health goals. So these are things that we work on one-on-one. We work on what's your family unit right Like? Are you the one doing groceries? Are you the one that's in charge of cooking every day? Is there other loved ones who are in charge of cooking in your home, right?

Speaker 1:

A lot of Latino and Hispanic homes, immigrant homes, are multi-generational. So is grandma the one in the kitchen making meals and all of a sudden, you're telling grandma that you can't eat that and you're going to do a three-hour meal prep when grandma's making delicious ass foods on a daily basis? Is it your partner that's cooking, right? So how can we learn how to enjoy these foods in a way that is sustainable for us? How can you build in flexibility, fun, culture while you work on your goals? How is that part of meal prepping? I'm telling you, part of my meal prepping is that if I go to a party and you know a lot of Hispanic parties they have the containers for you to take home with you. They encourage it. They order food for the entire village most of the time and they're like oh no, te va a llevar un plato, like you're not taking a plate. Let me tell you something, honey Taking leftovers from parties is part of my meal prep, and it should be part of yours too. All right, so there is no one way to do this meal prep.

Speaker 1:

When you understand number one how food works and when you understand what is your capacity for getting meals done, do you like to cook in the first place? Maybe not, so why would you subject yourself to four hours in a kitchen? Do you want to learn new skills in this kitchen? Do you want to buy new appliances? Or do you want to understand how to get takeout from your favorite place that does that same meal perfectly and delicious, and you don't have to learn how to do it? I mean, I work like that. I order a lot of things at restaurants that I have no desire as to how to make at home. I don't want to learn that skillset, not in this season of my life, okay, and I'm a person who loves experimenting in the kitchen, and I used to love to bake and all that and it's not that I don't love doing those things is that at this moment, I don't have the capacity to do those things and I make it okay. So if I want a delicious baked good, I go to the freaking bakery. If I want I don't know what, what stuff did I buy in a restaurant? Usually steak or stuff like that. I don't really cook that at home, but I have it when I'm out.

Speaker 1:

So how do we get your time back? How do we get you to enjoy the process again? How do we detach yourself from this sensationalized Pinterest perfect way of meal prepping that just does not align with your lifestyle, that does not align with your season, that does not align with your family dynamic all right. That does not align with what brings you joy. All you know is that you need to eat and you have goals that you need to meet, whether that's weight loss, reversing illnesses, just feeling good in your body. You don't want to bloat every single time that you eat. You don't want to ruin your sleep. You want to look really good for vacation. Whatever that is, your goal is your goal. You're allowed to have that goal. How and you know and understand how important your meals are to reach these goals. Like you, are a savvy ass wellness person. You know that it takes food and it takes exercise and other wellness habits like mindfulness and sleep and hydration, and all that to reach your goals.

Speaker 1:

So how do we not overcomplicate such an important part of the process as it is eating? Because I know you've heard the saying abs are made in the kitchen. They say it all the time abs are made the kitchen right, and, trust me, it's it's insanely hard to get abs in the first place. But, however, going along with that notion, I know you understand how important food is to meet your goals and you want to build some sort of discipline and you feel like the discipline is building these insane, cutesy meal prepping. You know designs and styles that just do not meet your needs on so many levels, culturally, time wise, um, skill wise.

Speaker 1:

Another thing is right and this is the last example I'll mention too, is like what about if you're not just meal prepping for yourself? Like what about if you also have to feed other people? And it's like well, are you cooking two dinners, three dinners? Right, because what? The foods that you're having is not necessarily foods that your kids would eat or your spouse would eat, or other family members that you have living with you. Like, then, what do you, what, what like? What are you going to do in those situations? Okay, so, let's lighten the load. You do not need to be making all of these different versions.

Speaker 1:

And that I've mentioning all these examples because all of these examples have come up, or all of these circumstances have come up with my clients in coaching Not just with my clients in coaching, but also with myself, and we have figured out ways to meet their needs. While abuela is the one cooking to meet their needs, while their spouse is the one making meals to meet their needs, when they're the ones responsible for cooking not just for themselves but their whole family, to meet their needs, when they're just cooking for their damn self, right. When they enjoy going out with their friends, when you enjoy going out solo. So it's this major skillset that you're going to learn that actually is personalized to you, to your lifestyle, to your family dynamics, to the foods that you enjoy. And this is why my clients have such insanely great results, because, all of a sudden, so much guilt, pressure, perfectionism gets lifted from their experience and the stuff that they think and they should be doing to get the results, because that's what you've learned on Pinterest and TikTok and Instagram and all this, instead of just like scaling it back and being like, hey, what works for me in this season with this capacity, with this stuff that I like to do and not like to do? Okay, and when you get that type of personalized support through one-on-one food and hormone health coaching with me, you really start to take root in sustainable habits. That then gives you and provides you with that consistency that you've been looking for, because you cannot reach consistency without making the system work for you. It's just really hard. Then you go back to all those like thoughts and emotions about yourself that are simply not true. It's just not aligned with the way that you work, and those are two different things, friend. Okay, so the key message here, literally, is that when you plan for your actual life instead of this ideal made up version of life that you might be inserting yourself into the like, the influencer's life or how other people do things, if you actually make a system that works for you, even when life is going sideways, or you're not the main person making these meals or you don't have the capacity that week, then it just makes it so much easier to make choices that you are proud of, that you are consistent with, instead of always leaning on the immediate, fastest, quickest takeout fast food order that you can get, even if it is that you get to make a decision from a position of power and education right, educated decisions, and how do these decisions align with your goal. So I'll leave you with that.

Speaker 1:

Friends, if you want support with one-on-one food and hormone health coaching, I invite you to book a consultation call with the link in the show notes. You can send me a DM on Instagram. In the show notes you'll find ways to get in contact with me and start the conversation. I cannot wait to talk to you on a consultation call where we get to go over what your goals are, what your challenges are, what you've been doing all of these years that has just led to frustration, and how to get you on the path of where you've been wishing you were today for all these years. Okay, and it just has not been personalized to you and your lifestyle, your season, your circumstances, your likes. Okay, and that's exactly how we're going to work on together. That's exactly what I support you with and how my clients have gotten such amazing results. All right, so I'll see you on the next episode. Have a great week. Bye.