altyburger Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 I have completed the Whole 30, now reintroducing and I am SO THANKFUL for all the NSVs! However, I work full time and am also in grad school classes. While I loved every bit of my Whole 30, it pulled me away from my friends at times, and I felt that the little free time I did have was spent in the kitchen or the grocery store. I have strange work hours, and sometimes would get home at 9pm and cook until midnight. Again, I loved this. I feel that I found an appreciation for cooking for the first time in my life. But living Whole 30 for 365 days/year is NOT feasible or sustainable. I want to have a more precise plan on what I do now. I can't cook meals like I did for the past month. I wish I had all the time in the world to do that, but it just won't work for my lifestyle right now. So, how does one adjust? There needs to be more resources on this topic...maybe another book? Just a thought! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators SugarcubeOD Posted June 22, 2017 Moderators Share Posted June 22, 2017 1 hour ago, altyburger said: I have completed the Whole 30, now reintroducing and I am SO THANKFUL for all the NSVs! However, I work full time and am also in grad school classes. While I loved every bit of my Whole 30, it pulled me away from my friends at times, and I felt that the little free time I did have was spent in the kitchen or the grocery store. I have strange work hours, and sometimes would get home at 9pm and cook until midnight. Again, I loved this. I feel that I found an appreciation for cooking for the first time in my life. But living Whole 30 for 365 days/year is NOT feasible or sustainable. I want to have a more precise plan on what I do now. I can't cook meals like I did for the past month. I wish I had all the time in the world to do that, but it just won't work for my lifestyle right now. So, how does one adjust? There needs to be more resources on this topic...maybe another book? Just a thought! This has been discussed at lenght on the forum... I don't know that there's a resource or book out there that's going to make you more time... the more you get used to cooking and eating this way, the easier it gets and the easier it is to find 15 min in the day to do a quick little prep etc... You need to decide between social media and tv (for instance) over cooking/shopping/prepping... maybe your friends can hang out at your house on the patio and you can have food in the oven... that's the way a lot of people do it... bring the fun to you and then you can be cooking at the same time. Also, I'm not sure what you were doing cooking for 3 hours a night... not that this helps you but a lot of people here do all their weekly prep in 3 hours on a weekend so their cooking time during the week is minimal. Look up www.meljoulwan.com meal prep and see if that helps. You can google 'whole30 meal prep' too and see what other people do, but to be quite frank, investing in yourself and your health requires an investment of time and there's no book or resource that's going to change that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altyburger Posted June 22, 2017 Author Share Posted June 22, 2017 Yeah I gotcha there, and am so thankful I made that investment! The nights of 3 hrs of cooking were my meal prep nights for the week like I said, crazy schedule, so weekends did not work at first. I understand that time commitment is a reality, and there is no way to "microwave" that (literally and figuratively). But I guess what I am looking for are examples of people who eat healthy every day, but do not do that as their job. More of a "real life" example for a full-time working individual. I have been pulling so much good inspiration from Melissa and others through social media. (Side note: it's funny that you mention that because I definitely spend way too much time there ) Their recipes and advice have been so beneficial, but sometimes feels unattainable for the long term. Does that make sense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators SugarcubeOD Posted June 22, 2017 Moderators Share Posted June 22, 2017 29 minutes ago, altyburger said: Yeah I gotcha there, and am so thankful I made that investment! The nights of 3 hrs of cooking were my meal prep nights for the week like I said, crazy schedule, so weekends did not work at first. I understand that time commitment is a reality, and there is no way to "microwave" that (literally and figuratively). But I guess what I am looking for are examples of people who eat healthy every day, but do not do that as their job. More of a "real life" example for a full-time working individual. I have been pulling so much good inspiration from Melissa and others through social media. (Side note: it's funny that you mention that because I definitely spend way too much time there ) Their recipes and advice have been so beneficial, but sometimes feels unattainable for the long term. Does that make sense? Yes, it totally makes sense but I can honestly tell you that it's not a myth that it gets easier... I mean, to be fair I don't have a wild schedule like you do, but I used to eat toast for every meal and now I cook everything I eat and I don't live in the kitchen... it takes some time to find your groove but it happens for most people. My sister @ladyshanny wrote a great post a while back about meal prepping in two hours and how she does it... I do the same but the way she wrote it was great, so maybe spend a bit of time looking for that... she's on her honeymoon right now so she can't find it for you but it's there somewhere Really look up Mel Joulwan as she does a great prep. When you're cooking chicken for dinner, cook three times as much so you have leftovers... costco is your friend for veggies... when I first started out, I bought things like cubed squash and pre cut veggies... I don't do that anymore, but it's super awesome when starting out. Bagged coleslaw is great for stir fries and hashes and requires nothing more than scissors to prep. Buy the bags of french cut green beans from costco and throw them in the freezer... when you want some, take a handful out and snap them in half and dump them into a stirfry - they cook fast! salmon burgers, pork burgers, chicken burgers, burger burgers are all great because one prep of mixing the meat and then making patties takes about 10 min and then throw them in the oven or bbq and you have meat for many meals. Frittatta is great... load that puppy up with veggies, ground pork, your bagged coleslaw and a dozen eggs and into a 9x13 pan... if you put pork in, about 1/8 of the pan is a good serving size... if you just use eggs, you have to calculate about 3-4 eggs per serving unless you add other protein to your plate. Buy guacamole from costco, big jars of olives (costco sells the stuffed ones which are great!), bagged avocado (they come 5 to a bag so that's five days worth of avo... I use them during the week and do something else on my days off when I have more time). Make more individual proteins and veggies than 'recipes'... it's quicker and then you can eat what you feel like that night by taking out the protein (say browned ground beef), add some seasonings, reheat, put the veggies of your choice in, dump some mayo on the lot and voila! This is sort of an example of how it gets easy... I just thought of all this stuff in the time it took me to type it and I type 100 words a min... it will become ingrained and second nature, just keep plugging along and on the days when you don't have time, pop a can of tuna, mix with mayo, use cucumber slices to scoop it and call it a meal... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altyburger Posted June 23, 2017 Author Share Posted June 23, 2017 Thank you @SugarcubeOD ! I am so thankful for this forum and have found all you moderators SO helpful! I like the idea of cooking lots of separate veggies and protein! I definitely want to try that. One thing I learned from my Whole 30 is the importance of breakfast! I have nailed down cooking up some Turkey sausage links I get from fresh market, with diced tomatoes! I bake both in the oven at the beginning of the week, and combine in the skillet each morning for 10 minutes and the result is SO. GOOD. When I have breakfast, I feel much more focused and less frazzled at work. A no brainer, but I am seriously prioritizing this now! I definitely will look into Mel and @ladyshanny. so fun you guys are on this journey together as sisters! Can I come to your thanksgiving? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators SugarcubeOD Posted June 23, 2017 Moderators Share Posted June 23, 2017 17 minutes ago, altyburger said: so fun you guys are on this journey together as sisters! Can I come to your thanksgiving? Ya, we share a lot of recipes and when we first both started out, lots of tips and tricks... You CAN come to our thanksgiving but it's in Canada... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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