reevaluating mealtmes

Several months back a friend mentioned that she only cooked one meal per day and that her family snacked on the leftovers for the rest of the day when they were hungry. A light bulb went off. Eating healthfully has been a part of my life now for a while, and now it seems I may have gone overboard preparing a different healthy meal three times a day for 4 people. No wondered I am stressed out.

I think one reason I am embracing this new lifestyle is that I now have a different relationship with food. I still look forward to meals, but not with the same passion (or addiction) that I used to. I think meals used to be the highlight of my day. Now I see them more as a way to stay nourished and healthy and while I enjoy eating, I no longer view eating as entertainment or a way to fill any voids in my life (well, for the most part--it's a journey).

So for the last few weeks, I have been a lot more organized when it comes to meal planning and preparation. I create a list of potential meals and a grocery list on saturdays. My meals are mostly soups loaded w/ beans, veggies, meats in a rich beef, chicken, lamb or fish broth or some sort of crock pot dish. I am making 2 kinds of broth every week and a half or so. I have this meal on the stove the whole day and for several days most of the time(if we get tired of it, i can freeze it), and I also keep out a plate of cheeses, nuts/seeds, fruit slices, and kombucha on the table for us to snack on if we get hungry. I also keep US Wellness Meats prepared meats such as jerky, beef sticks,pemmican, liverwurst, and head cheese in a low drawer in the refrigerator and a jar of milk and kefir where the boys can easily get to them. I am hoping that the boys will now take a bit more responsibility with their food and become more self aware about when they need some nourishment during the day.

At this point, I am also still making breakfasts, although I have the idea to phase this out as well or at least prepare a larger batch of bacon or sausage at the beginning of the week and some hard boiled eggs. I am starting to do this w/ potatoes, pancakes and breads right now--making enough to last for several breakfasts and for ohter meals and snacks. So maybe then I would only make a smoothie every morning and just reheat already prepared foods in our steam oven for the rest of the breakfast meal.

Not only do I appreciate this way of eating for its convenience and the fact that it's allowing my kids to self-regulate their food intake, I also would love to move towards consuming food during an even shorter period of the day. The concept of the "fast-5" diet is really intriguing to me because I think it could be super healthy for regulating insulin, weight, food cravings and digestion (which obviously all go hand in hand). For more info there is a free download at www.fast-five.com. essentially while following this diet, one would only eat during a 5 hour period every day. i actually followed a version of it, called the warrior diet, as an experiment several years ago. i thought that i would hate it, but it was great! i had so much more energy because my body didn't have to digest food all day long.

so I guess I am coming full circle from a diet of unhealthy convenience foods to healthy and convenient food.