Weekly Q & A - Anna Lisa

Hi everyone. Oh, hi everyone. Welcome, welcome. As you're coming into the Q&A, start thinking about your weekly wins. I always like to celebrate you for the accomplishments you're making. It's also great to have gratitude. That changes our brain, how we function. So, hi, Becca. Hi, Hardeep. Hi, Mary. We'll wait a few minutes till we have additional people coming in, and we'll get started. Just trying to get some music working.

Hi, Annalisa.

Hey, how are you?

I'm good.

How are you?

I am excellent. Good. What can I get? Treat your skin. Swallows Coconut and Cocoa Butter Body Wash. Ever more moisture, more care. Our 24-hour lotion that smells like— is it? All right. So, hey, good to see you, Mary. Love your background. Oh my gosh, that's so amazing.

Thank you.

We have those flowers that come up in our garden and oh my gosh, we have pink and that same kind of bluey purple. And they're just like big pom-poms. They're gorgeous. Do you have any in your garden?

No, they're hydrangeas, right?

Oh, hydrangeas. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I don't have any in my garden, so I put them in my background instead.

That's okay. It's always nice to have beautiful flowers around. All right, so let's get started today with, uh, thinking about your weekly wins. What are you celebratory for? What did you Think about those things. They could be small wins. Often, we focus on the negative. Most of the time, our brain usually finds 80% of what we think about is negative. And our goal is to help shift, whether it's before your meals, you have gratitude for the meal, just little things during the day that just help us keep a positive attitude as we're moving through our day. So, Mary, since you're on, Cameron, why don't we share? Why don't you start off, start us all off with celebrating your win for the week?

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that this has been my first week, so it's hard. It is hard. It's a big adjustment. But the one thing that I found that I'm so grateful for and talking to Alice about and getting a better understanding is electrolytes. Um, when I do electrolytes in the morning, I don't like the powders, I don't like that stuff, so I just down, uh, Himalayan salt and water, just down it. And I, I feel good. It makes all of the difference in the world in terms of my energy levels, in terms of my cognitive function. So like, I'm just grateful to have that hack and to know the importance of it. We You know, so because it gives me energy for the day, which I didn't really have some days. I was really struggling.

So awesome. That's great. And we do, as we go through the first week in particular, we're wasting salt from our body as the body transitions, becomes to become more metabolically flexible. So taking that additional salt in helps, but it also lets you know that your adrenals need it. And so by taking it, it's helping to support those and to give you that rise or that energy that you're going to need for your day. So fantastic, congratulations! And that's good knowledge for everyone, right, as we go through our day and the things that we're doing. Fantastic. Um, Patty, since you're on camera as well, what's your win for the week, Patty?

So hi, I, uh, for half the week I was traveling. I was actually coming back from the West Coast, um, of, uh, the U.S., and I live on the East, in the East. So, uh, kind of getting reacclimated. I was gone for week. Um, and I was, um, tapped by my team. I play tennis. I play team competitive team tennis. And, uh, I was tapped by my team, my captain, to play singles in a match, which I'm not a— I'm not normally a singles player. I usually play on the doubles court. Um, but I will say I had a, a grind-out match that was 2.5 hours long. And I got to say, I was fresh as a freaking daisy out there where my competitor was running. She was— she, after the first set, she was like, I'm almost done, right? We had full sets. We had one break of serve each set and into a tiebreak. And I won.

Yay.

So I was really happy with getting the win. I am, uh, I was— let's see, this is my 18 and over team, 18 years old and over. I'm 61 years old. Um, I played a 25-year-old a couple weeks ago and barely lost to her. Uh, and this one, she was 20 years my junior, she was in her 40s, um, and I won. So I'm like, uh, I'm Yeah, and everybody's like, but Patty, you are a singles player. I'm like, really? No, please don't, don't count on me regularly for that. I may be able to, to play singles. That doesn't mean I am the single— I'm a singles player for you. I, I can do it in a pinch, but I'm so— I'm proud of myself that I got the win. I'm proud of myself that I had all the energy to go out there and do what I needed. And like I said, I was fresh as a a spring daisy out there.

That's awesome. And I— that's exciting to compete against 25-year-olds and like get out there and just do it and keep up, right?

Just do it. Just do it. I do, I do more than keep up. I'm definitely out there to compete.

So yeah, you're like, you're like almost ready to overtake. Let's go.

Yeah, let's go. So just, and, and just trying to have fun with it and having fun, you know. I, I'm not that over-the-top person. I'm like, Yeah, look, if I get the win, I get the win. I'm gonna go out there, I'm gonna do the best I can.

Yes.

And if my— hopefully my energy, which it did, my energy carried me through. I had enough energy, I didn't cramp up, I didn't— I wasn't overly— I'm very tired, uh, overly sore the next day. I got on my foam roller and did all the things.

But yeah, awesome.

I, I was like, yes, my body says I gotcha.

And the recovery, that's so important. You know, often that tells you you've got a lot of stress resilience in your body. You're able to recover. I know a lot of times when I, I have had Hashimoto's and, uh, when I was really sick, it was very hard to recover from things. Um, you go to the gym and work out, you know, you couldn't— your body was having difficulty just being able to make it through the day. I used to have to have a nap in the afternoon to overcome the amount of stress. So that in itself, being able to just go do and not think about it, right? Just get on the court and do it. That's amazing. Congratulations. That's so exciting. Becca, what's your win for the week? If you can't come on screen or if you're driving, you can— well, if you're driving, you can't put it in the chat, but—

Oh, I can talk. I put it in the chat, but no, I just got back from Austin, Texas with actually Deepa and Sachin and Anyway, I just did well with just my food choices. It's a little bit easier being around health-conscious people, of course, but that's a big win for me because, you know, sometimes when I go on vacations, I'm like, oh, vacation.

But it's—

and oh my gosh, that place that Deepa recommended, I think it's called— I can't remember— Sweet Greens. I guess it's a chain. I wish they would have some place like that in Oregon and Washington, but, um, oh my gosh, I'm like, I love this food. It's like, this is— it's how I eat anyway, which is like a big giant salad with, um, your protein on top and a bunch of dressings. But they just had so many flavors, I was just like, okay, I can make my healthy food way tastier. So it's a big win for me. I just got to get a little bit more creative with, um, I don't know, is that something that you share, um, uh, Annalisa? Is maybe like, I just, it was just so fascinating. It had like a Korean barbecue with kimchi in there. Like what, in a salad? And it was amazing. Um, and then they had other all types of dressing and there was no seed oils in that place in that restaurant. Everything was really clean. So I was pretty inspired.

Oh, awesome. And that might be just to go look up the menu and look up some of the recommendations or the ingredients or just some of the dressings that they have that I know in our manual, we have a number of recipes for dressings. Those dressings are more specific to our release phase. You can use them in maintenance and just add in oil because most of the dressings that are in the manual are omit oil because of the release phase. But that may be just researching that. Just go online, put it in, and see what you can find that might be easy. And we're going to talk a little bit about today meal prepping. And one of those meal preps is dressings and sauces and having them in the fridge so that you're not having to make them or think about making them right before your meal, because often we won't do it if it's like last minute. And we're trying to get a meal on the table. Or, uh, so we're going to talk a little bit about that today. So congratulations, that's exciting and a great opportunity to spend time with them. And I saw the pictures with all the different people you guys were with. Amazing. Um, what a great opportunity. Uh, Jen, if you can unmute and share your win for the week, that would be awesome. Oh, I can't hear you. Uh, I don't know if it's your—

oh, it's my mic. I'm sorry, that, that was my headset.

Sorry.

Anyway, I'm doing a video shoot. this Sunday, so I'm looking forward to that.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah, I think the only one I got is like I did, um, I got inflammation tests, so I looked at it with DT. Actually, I'm going to turn off my camera because you can't really see me. Um, so yeah, and so I got some interesting results. I'm surprised I'm like more sensitive to berries, but I guess that's something. Oh, eggs and cow's milk, that's definitely confirmed. That's an absolute no-no. But sad, but it is. It is. It's good to know for sure.

Yeah, absolutely. I know I used to, when I went into maintenance and started introducing eggs, I kept getting stomachache and a rash on my leg. Since I've taken eggs out and part of that was— yeah, egg whites is on my list of inflammation. So as soon as I took it out, things just went back to normal, which it's, it's important to know because that helps also heal the gut. Because if your gut lining is constantly bombarded with things that, um, sensitivities or food that causes the breakdown, and so you definitely want to take those things out, especially for a longer period of time. I know on the inflammation test, it does give you the top 5 as kind of the ones that you have to take out, like, pretty well forever. And then there's just a few others that on occasion you can have, it's not such a big deal. Um, but yeah, it's good to know those top ones so that you can continually get success in healing. So congratulations, that's good to know. But berries is not fun. Is it all berries?

Uh, luckily strawberries is okay, but I'm like severely reactive towards raspberry, which is weird. Uh, blueberries is like a mild reaction, so I guess I can have it from time to time.

Yeah, mine too. I had the same.

Yeah, I'm assuming like that's like a from time to time thing if I have a mild reaction.

Yeah, yeah, it's usually, uh, once every kind of 3 to 5 days. You don't want to have it every single day or, you know, multiple times a day. Maybe like every 5 days, give the body time to rest from it. Um, from that perspective, awesome.

I have a lot of mild reactions to it, Melissa.

Uh, oh, I don't have a lot. I have a few.

Was your gut wall open? It is.

Yeah, so that's why you're having more of a reaction. Do the work that you need to do to close the gut wall and you'll start to see things will change over time.

I'm just asking, Annalisa, so what is the inflammation test? Like, what is this that Jen's talking about?

Oh, so Deepak offers a food implementation test where we look at a couple of different things. The test will look at whether your gut wall is open because often, in the case like for me, I have an autoimmune condition. It was interesting to know that it's closed because then there's proteins that shouldn't be getting into the body aren't getting in anymore. It also looks at whether you have Candida or occludin, which also looks at how well the gut wall is healing and restoring. So, are you going in a degrading or a good path, knowing— because your gut wall has this mucous layer, and that mucous layer is what protects the gut cells. And you only have one gut cell, right, before you get into the body. And so having that mucin layer is really important for the protection. So it looks at how well that is healing, and then it looks at— through— and it's all done through a blood sample. It looks at, I think it's like 175 different foods and then it will give you red, yellow, and green lights. So the red ones are usually the top 5 that you pretty well have to take out. If you keep taking those, it's going to keep breaking down the wall and keep activating the system. So you can take those out completely. Those, like, for me, it was gluten, blueberries, egg whites, ginger, of all things. I mean, it's so— it's good foods and not so good foods. So those you take out, and then the yellow ones you can probably have on occasion. It's not something you want to do every day or maybe every week. You have it like on occasion. And then the green ones you can have all the time. So, um, Patty, if we had the test 5 months ago and are on a gut healing protocol, when do we retest to see if we are healed and maybe no longer sensitive to some foods? I would need to ask Deepa that, so let me ask her and confirm. I'm not sure that timing specifically, um, because you don't want to do it too soon because of the cost. And, you know, um, is the test a— yes, it is, Claudia. It's a blood test. Yeah, you just, um, and it gets mailed to you. You do it. Um, I can give you guys the link. Um, let me just do this. Yeah, I'll post the link in, in a minute. I have so many windows open. Um, uh, let's get here. I'll give you both the, uh, US. So it's similar to if you need to do another round, it's included on these pages. And if you click, you can see the details about the testing that's there because there's two different tests that we offer off the, our à la carte. It would be the food implementation test and then also the DNA test. So Claudia, did you want to go on celebrating your wins? I love your blue color. It's gorgeous on you. Oh, let me just see if I can get you to unmute. I'll pop up the thing. There you go. Yes.

My win this week is that I am done with lean days. I am on maintenance. And after my first day of adding in oils, I lost another pound.

Yay!

I don't know how, but I'm happy.

Yeah, the body will continue. For many people in maintenance, the body just continues in that process of continuing to lose. You don't— I don't find in maintenance you lose as much or as often that you may lose in release phase. But if you continue to add in some of the— like, once you're finished that first 7 days and you add in your exercise, that will start to help keep the body being metabolically flexible and moving forward. So congratulations, that's so exciting, and congratulations on finishing the release phase. That's so good. Your skin looks amazing, like your face. Yeah, do you feel younger?

I do.

So awesome. Congrats. Um, if you're on and can unmute, do you want to, uh, talk about your celebration? Hello.

I'm outside walking my dog, but if you can hear me—

Yes, we can hear you.

I haven't actually started the program, and I'm planning on starting it either tomorrow or on Monday. I'm in the process of, uh, well, this week is a wedding week, and it's an Indian wedding, so there's lots of food. So this was my, like, I thought it would be my celebration of eating, but no, I haven't. I haven't felt like having a lot of, um, greasy and fried foods. But I was told by Alice that I should go ahead and indulge because the first 2 days of the loading phase is like eating a lot. So I should be eating a lot.

Yes. Yes. Just help your body, your stomach. If you're, if you're not used to eating a lot, your stomach is a bit smaller. So even a day or 2 before, if you can eat a bit more than you maybe normally eat.

Okay.

The loading phase easier because the loading phase is the hardest part of the program. Like, okay, if I asked everybody who's on camera, they would say, ah, okay, okay.

So, so should I be making my loading phase like tomorrow's the wedding and, uh, Monday's the reception? Could I make my loading phase the wedding and reception, I guess?

Because, oh yeah, sure, yeah, it's just you'll feel a little uncomfortable. Um, okay. Eating a lot more than you would normally. But just, you're going to be active if you're at a wedding, you're walking, dancing, doing other things. So that will help with just moving things through. Make sure to drink your water just to help keep things moving going through. But yeah, if you're in the situation, just do— I would do a little bit of planning. So look at, you know, you have to get to 5,000 calories. So think about starting early. You eat frequently throughout the day. The question I would have for you, are you okay with family or people seeing how much you're eating?

That's, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Yes, that can deter you mentally if you feel like people are going to be saying, oh my God, you're eating again. What is your problem?

Right.

So I just caution you on that as to how you proceed with that. But yeah, doing it where you have lots of food available is good too.

Right. I'm almost thinking I might wait till Monday because you're right.

Yeah, because then that puts a negative feeling in you.

Yes.

Right. Because everybody's looking at it and then you, you won't be as successful.

Right.

Okay.

I think I'll wait till Monday, but I will indulge this weekend so my stomach's ready for it.

Okay. Enjoy and actually have things that you are going to miss. Right. It's 6 weeks of release phase. I'll tell you by the end of the release Phase, you won't miss them anymore when you move into maintenance. It's like your body changes, your taste bud changes. I have a gentleman that did the program and he said, you know, I never knew apples tasted as good as chips.

Okay, well, that's what I want to hear because—

exactly.

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

You're absolutely welcome. Um, who else? Uh, we have, uh, did Deb go? I always get confused with who's gone and who hasn't.

Hi, Deb.

Let's celebrate your win for the week. Oh, I'm starting in the next few days. I haven't started yet. That's okay. What was your win for the week? Making the decision to start? Well, I've been trying to get some garden construction done before I start because that's a real high-level activity. So, Yes, I got a couple of raised beds completed this week, so that's my win. Awesome. Congratulations, Deb. That's awesome. And then do you, in those raised beds, are you planting flowers or vegetables or herbs? What's your— Vegetables. What vegetables do you plant? Right now I have sugar peas and lots of greens. Oh, awesome. Great. That's going to be healthy for you. Awesome. You'll be able to use that as you go through. Congratulations. I'm also doing a pole bean teepee for the grandkids. Oh, that's so much fun. They could just go out and pick them. Amazing. Good job. Congratulations. Oh yeah, they love green beans. Excellent. Excellent. So, Paris, we celebrate your win for the week. Oh, I don't know if Paris can unmute. I don't see Paris. All right. So I think we've got every— did I miss anybody? I think we've got everyone. So let's start with— I'm going to share my screen. Let me just do that. And we're going to do a little bit of meditation, so let's get comfortable in a position. And let me just— this full. Let's go through this, and then after this we're going to talk about meal prepping.

In times of division, it's important that we cultivate the light within us. And the light in the world around us. That's exactly what this meditation aims to do. There is a universal flow of light radiating from our sun at every second, and that universal flow of photons travels across our globe to every plant, to every animal, to every human being. I encourage encourage you to find a place of comfort, whether that's sitting or laying down, perhaps with some pillows underneath knees to take the pressure off the back. Let's start by taking some deep breaths in through our nose, out through our mouth. As we continue to deep breathe, we're going to release any tension we might be holding in our jaw, in our temples, in our neck. Releasing any tension we might be holding in our shoulders, in our back, in our abdomen. Releasing any tension in our pelvis, down our legs and feet, down our arms and hands, letting that tension go. Go. And as we continue to breathe deeply in through the nose, out through the mouth, at whatever rhythm is comfortable for us, we're going to bring our awareness to our heart center, that area right in the center of our chest. We can even place a hand there. We're going to fill that area with our breath as we take notice of the light that is emanating from ourselves, that collective cohesive dance of light radiating from ourselves, not randomly, but a coherent collective emission of light, an acceptance of this universal light, a radiance of our own light. And as we continue to breathe and build that collective cohesive dance of light within us, we feel that warmth, we feel that grounded sense of safety. We feel that sense of awe and gratitude we have in the world around us, the world inside of us. As we continue to breathe into that light, as As it expands throughout our body, we're going to let it expand into the world around us, into the space around us, into the ground beneath us, into the air above us that we're breathing. We're going to let it connect to that flow of energy that is passing through every plant, every animal, every human being on this planet. We're going to let that light within us radiate and expand, that warmth, that conscious expanding outward, connecting to the light in the world around us. Connecting, growing, expanding. We're going to bring our awareness back into our heart center, feeling that gratitude, feeling that awe, feeling that sense of contentment. Return to this practice anytime you wish to feel that sense of gratitude and awe and expand the light within you and the world around us. Thank you so much for joining me.

So during your day, if you could just take those little few minutes, whether it's to go for a walk, like 10 minutes, Often I have to tell myself, it's 10 minutes, I'm just going to go out and go for a walk for 10 minutes, and then I end up going for 30 minutes. So, it's the way to trick your brain. Same thing with sitting down for a 5-minute meditation. It's those little self-care things that we can do throughout the day that just calm our system down. It's also the practice if you deal with anxiety or you have issues related to stressful situations, situations. It's taking yourself out of those situations and practicing. When you've practiced this, it's easy to do it in the situation if something comes up. So today, we're going to be sharing on meal prep. Let me just get my screen here. And meal prepping is key, or really can help with the daily— do this— just the daily routine of getting meals ready. And I know for me, I'm lucky. I have a mother that cooks for us. So it makes it somewhat more easier for me to get things done, but I always like to make sure that we have meal, or at least the things that we're gonna put into the meal, vegetables or things like that, that are easy for her to be able to collect and put together. So let's go through some of the suggestions and things, and I have a bunch of tools that I'm going to provide to you that can help you with your meal prepping. For those that are getting started in the release phase, These are the listing, you know, when you look at your plate, always thinking about what you're going to put on your plate. I know in the beginning, I always recommend thinking about what 4 ounces of protein am I going to put on my plate? What 4 ounces of approved veggies am I going to put on my plate? What unlimited free veggies am I going to include? And then you have your condiments or spices or things that you're going to add in. So it's, it's visually seeing the plate that can help with making the transition from maybe what you're used to doing to what you're going you're going to be doing now. And then as you move into maintenance, you'll be adding in additional things. But why, why even just do meal planning? Well, of course, it's time efficiency. Often when we're getting ready to prepare a meal, it can take quite a while to— if you're cutting up different vegetables or, and you're not used to doing that. So either you purchase vegetables that are already done for you, can make it easy. Often Costco, you can find organic vegetables that are frozen. They're already in portion size. I often buy the broccoli because it just makes it easy, and broccoli goes off so quickly. And it's a couple of minutes to put into the, you know, a little bit of water or steam it, and it's done. So it doesn't take long. There's no real prep. It helps you also to make healthier choices. If we get hungry or feeling hungry, Often we can make worse decisions because we'll just grab something that's there versus having things that are already prepped and ready to go. Financial benefits as well. If you buy ingredients in bulk, you prepare them and get them ready for using, then you'll have less that you'll be wasteful with and you'll only purchase what you need. And again, again, it's those daily decisions that we have to make. It can help to reduce the stress because we know what we're doing from a planning perspective. Getting started with your weekly prep. So often what we do recommend is just, you know, whether you set aside a little bit of time on a Sunday and prepping your meals for the week. Decide when you're going to do it. Some people will do their shopping on Saturdays and Sundays, you're doing a little bit of prep and getting things organized. So that if you are working during your week, your week goes smoother. Also looking at your— I heard there's a group that does the Sunday fridge. They go in, they clear out all this stuff from the week, prep things, put new things back in the fridge, and that allows them to see what's like— keep things moving because sometimes things get shoved to the back of our fridge and then we forget about them. And so If you can do a Sunday fridge clean out where you're just checking to make sure whatever's there, or sometimes my mom does it on Fridays, is like, okay, let's take everything out and whatever we have in here we're eating, and if we don't eat it, it's gone from that. And then plan your menu. I, I saw someone take popsicle sticks and they wrote their most favorite recipes that they like to make on popsicle sticks and put them in a container, and then they would plan their meals for the week by just pulling the sticks out. And then go, okay, I'm having this, this, this, this for the week. We often recommend too, with meal planning, especially when you're first getting started in the release phase, what you cook for dinner, you have for lunch the next day. So you make a little bit extra, so that can help with the preparation. You're doing all the prep at one time, and then that's for 2 meals. So really, you're only prepping 1 meal a day, which is awesome. Smart Cooking strategies include batching foods. I know one lady, she always, you know, if she was going away on a weekend, or she likes to make sure that she has in her freezer batch-cooked meals. You can make, whether you cook things together that are like-minded, if you're in the maintenance phase or lifestyle, you can always do your roasting on a pan and do a bunch. And that my osteopath, when I used to see him, he recommended just roasting a bunch of vegetables on a tray and having them in the fridge. You just take them out as you need them and you do it one time. You don't have to roast every single day. Prepping your protein. And often clients will get their protein, clean it, cut it, get it ready and store it in 5-ounce vacuum-sealed packages or in glass containers. And so then all you do is take out, you know, that's your protein amount, your 5 ounces uncooked and 4 ounces cooked, and then you're ready to go. So it just makes it easy, especially on those days where you're busy and you come home and you're thinking, I just want to order in. You have things ready to go. And so it makes it easy to get it done. Same with your pre-cut, as I said before, buying vegetables that are already pre-cut or even fruit. That are like berries or different fruits that are available in your release phase or maintenance that are ready to eat. I also like it for, for fruit. I just buy and have bowls on the table and so everybody can grab whether it's an orange, an apple, or a pear, they're there, and some bananas, whatever the family needs. It's changed how we eat. Everybody now, pretty well my whole family other than my son, we've all done the program. And so teaching them the habit has helped increase and change their health long-term, which is amazing because now they're, instead of reaching for a bag of chips or a bag of, you know, whatever, they're reaching for fruit, which is amazing, or nuts. I like to keep nuts available too. Flavor enhancement techniques. So we talked a little bit about this at the beginning, is adding in or preparing a homemade dressing. There are so many dressings and things online, just going online and putting in, you know, a set of spices that you may have in your cupboard, and it will come up with a recipe for you that you can incorporate. Or if you like to try new and different cooking like Korean or Italian or Mediterranean or Greek, or, you know, trying those seasonings and seeing what appeals to you. Once you find a couple of recipes that you like, then just have those available. And get in a habit of preparing them. Maybe you pick one this week that you really want to try, and then if you like it, you keep that on your list. And so you, you learn how to make it, and then you make it consistently for a little while, and then it's easy because you don't have to go to a recipe anymore. You memorize it. It's like the songs in our head, right? If you listen to a song over and over and over again, eventually you learn the words. So it's the same concept with preparing and learning how to put these things together if this is not something that you normally do. But if you do do this, try something different. If there's something new, something— I know with spices, turmeric is a really good anti-inflammatory spice. Start thinking about adding in some of those healthful things. And if you don't have an herb garden, highly recommend that you do that. We have it right outside our back door. And we just have a few things in there. And fresh herbs are so delicious and just give you that added flavor. I love dill. It's just such a nice— I used to put it in eggs, can't eat eggs anymore, but I put it in other things and vegetables, that kind of thing. The other thing is shopping seasonally, because that will give you your freshest of your vegetables and your fruit. It'll also give you your highest nutritional value. We have a couple of farmers markets where they're bringing in stuff that was picked that day. They're bringing it in on the farmers markets. If you can find those in your local area and go, it's a great outing. Often you can find different types of foods too. There's a lady that does gluten-free, dairy-free pizza crusts that are delicious, and she makes them with flax succeed. So often you can find different people doing different things at your local farmers markets. And then of course, cost savings. Seasonal foods are in, they're usually at a lower cost, and so it can help you there. Now, I'm going to share these with you in a moment, but these are a couple of tools that we put together to help you in preparing different types of meals. So we have jar salads. Often you can prepare these ahead of time. If you wash and prepare your veggies, there's a set way to put it in. You want the dressing in the bottom. You don't want to pour it in on top because if you keep them for a couple of days, they will definitely go soggy. Learned the hard way, and then you don't want to eat it. So starting with the dressing as your first layer, and then you're going to add in your hard veggies because they won't go soft in the dressing. And then your next layer is going to be your veggies. Add in your starchy carbs and then your protein, veg, meats, and then your greens are the last thing to go in on top. And then once you prepare the jar, you can store them. I've prepared normally for my husband because we're busy. I'll prepare a bunch of different ones, put them in the fridge. You can use the— what are those called— the mason jars. And then you just take it out, you dump it on a plate, and you're good to go. Your meal is done. And so it's less prep. She planned meals, particularly she planned is great because there's minimal cleanup. You just cut everything, you put it all on. You can even include your proteins on there and let— just beware of the timing for when things cook. Often we'll put meat on one and veggies on others because sometimes the veggies will be done sooner than the meat, or I'll put the meat in first and then put the veggies in later just because of the timing of how long it takes for cooking. And that's a complete meal, and all you're— all you have to do is clean two pans. Like that makes it so much easier for prepping and preparing and getting things done. The other one here is your power bowls. I love these in just incorporating your 4 to 6 ounces. Someone had just asked me a question on— there was a post in the Facebook group on protein, and we're sort of adjusting our protein 4 to 6 ounces depending on your day. If you have a more active or more strenuous job or you're playing tennis like Patty, you're going to want to increase your protein amounts to 6 ounces at both meals to encourage— so make sure you're getting enough protein in your diet. But picking a protein choice, figuring out what unlimited veggies you want, adding in those herbs, some dressing, and then also your approved veggies. So I just took from the, the release phase chart, one of the things that you can incorporate. So I'm going to share these tools with you in a minute, just so you'll have these that you can use to prepare things that are on the release phase or maintenance and help you get started. So building your meal prep toolkit includes definitely going from plastic to glass. That's the biggest change I made when I started this program. Is being— or picking up glass containers and storing our vegetables and our fruit. A couple of tips: when you're— if you clean vegetables and you prep them and you put them in the fridge in a glass container, put a paper towel in the bottom, put your vegetables in, and put another paper towel on top. That will help to keep the moisture out of the vegetables and help them to stay longer. For you using sheet pans, as we talked about, easy cleanup. You have your measuring scale is really helpful in ensuring, of course, in the release phase, you're going to use that to make sure you're getting that 4 or 6 ounces of protein and your 4 ounces of your veggies and your fruit. But as you move into maintenance, because you've been doing it for such a long period of time, visually, it's going to be easy for you to see how much you're doing. What I do recommend in maintenance, if you do find your weight is going up, go back to measuring your quantities. Often, that's the issue. We're adding in more than our body needs. And so instead of burning it, we're, we're going to be storing it. So just pay attention as you're going through, and then find something that works for you for meal planning. If you're doing weekly planning and looking at, you know, this is what I'm going to be cooking for the week, so you know what to buy or pick up, whether you do it on an app or you do it on paper, just quickly jot down what your plan is for the week, and that will just help you get the right things available and just make it easy. And long term, when you move into lifestyle, keeping the, the habits that you're learning is going to be key to your success long term. I'll be sharing your meal prep that we have that has a list of things that we recommend having available. And I'm also going to put together or share with you a weekly release plan, one for putting together your plan for the release phase and one for putting the plan together for maintenance, because of course, maintenance, you add in your fat and what you're going to be incorporating. So start slow and small with making the decision on what's one thing you can take from today that you can incorporate into your meal planning habits. Once you master that one, then pick something else. Add in, you know, over time we get success by taking one thing, adding it in, and becoming successful with adding that one thing. And that builds our confidence and our success as we go through. And then over time, you know, think if you look at over a year or over, you know, the course of the 10 weeks, if you added one thing in each week, that's 10 new things that you're incorporating in as sustainable habits that you will have for a long term. And that's the key is we want to look back and say, I got 1% better on a regular basis that just allowed us to incrementally grow and get better each week. So that's what I had for meal planning. Let me share with you. I'm going to do this. I'm going to share the different tools with you. This one has a bunch of the Power Bowls, the Tools, I'm going to share this one. It also has all of the sheets that we went through. And then this one is a, for seasonally, there's both the Canadian and the US one that gives you kind of a view of seasonal fruits and vegetables. So you have an idea of what those kind of what's in seasonally, and that can help you if you're looking to save money at all. Or want to make sure you have the highest nutritional value for your foods, that you can use those to help you. So did those links work, Patty? Did you— were you able to— yeah. Okay. Why is glass better than plastic? Well, microplastics are toxic to our body. And so when we store our foods in plastic, the foods can absorb those microplastics. And then that can get into our body and our system. And yeah, same as what Patty said, to reduce plastic exposure and microplastics. Yeah, correct. Oh, Jen, that's right, eat more than usual. Yeah, yeah, that doesn't, doesn't help when your parents or somebody else's recommending. Any questions for today? I know we've all— or any suggestions for meal prepping that you do that you've found have been successful in helping you, you know, just get better at doing things. I know, Patty, go ahead. Crockpot. Crockpot. Yes, absolutely. And your air fryer. That—

air fryer. Yep.

Oh, my mom brought an air fryer, and for the release phase, oh my gosh, it is definitely, uh, you know, the only way to cook. And even now, I love to do, um, sweet potato fries. I take a sweet potato, cut it all up, put a little, um, cinnamon, like a little oil on it, but cinnamon and, uh, a little bit of salt, and put them in, and then they come crispy on the outside, but it's so like soft and delicious on the inside. Yeah, great suggestion. Crockpot is so good from a timing perspective just to get things done quick. Just throw it in and you can do it in the morning. Just throw everything in and by the time you're ready for lunch, it's done. And that is another way where you can have for lunch and dinner the same thing. Some people don't like to have the same freezer and freezer.

Freezer is your friend. So if you're If you're cooking for 2 or cooking for 1, use the— utilize the freezer. You utilize the Crock-Pot for batching it and then cut it in half. I say cut it in half. Half goes in the fridge, half goes into your freezer for next week, the week after. Then all of a sudden you're like, what am I going to do? Oh, I have frozen.

I have that.

And by 2 weeks, you're ready for it again.

Yes, you're right. Absolutely. Great, great, great suggestion. Just makes it so much easier to prep and get things done. Love that.

One of the—

gosh, I've forgotten her name. Shouldn't. But she, she did that. She will prep on a weekend. She puts all her things in the glass containers, puts them in the freezer, and then she's ready for whatever is coming up for the week. If she's traveling, she can just take them out, put them in a cooler, and take them with her, and then just put them in— if she's in a hotel, she just sticks them into the fridge, and then she has them for the week for what she needs. So yeah, it makes it so much easier to prep. And one thing that I've learned too with vegetables and things that you bring in, often, especially even if they say like you're, you're greens, and they say they're triple washed. If you put them in some water in a, like, a colander or with a, in a bowl and with water and a little bit of vinegar and just help swish them around and then lift them out, you could see all the sediment that's still in them. I didn't realize that. I thought triple wash meant it's good, but it's not. But just washing your vegetables too gets all the stuff off them before you go and then laying them out to dry. The water is, and moisture that gets in when you pack them can really affect how long they're going to last. And so definitely, yeah, definitely want to make sure that you are, whether it's paper towels or things just to absorb them, or if you are going to put them in the freezer, vacuum seal them. It can also be a way to store them that way, and then you can just take them out. Like, I've seen people do complete meals that they store in a vacuum seal. They'll store the meat separate from the vegetables, and then you just open everything and dump it into the Crock-Pot and you're done. So you've done your meal prep and you just, you have all your sauces, everything is in there. You just dump it in and you're ready to go. So it can make it an easy way to get, uh, meal preps or getting food on the table. And then that just keeps you consistent as you're going through. So any questions for today? I was just kind of curious, um, what you guys put in the freezer, because I only have a few things that I that I feel like can freeze well, and if it's like without vegetables, basically, but I was just curious. So, I often buy things that are already done only because my mom likes to cook. Okay, Patty, take care. Have a good weekend. The freezer, often we do our meats separately. So, I freeze those. I do normally have berries that are frozen. I have broccoli frozen. Everything else I kind of do fresh. But what I have seen other people do is they'll do, they'll even put spinach in with all the vegetables. Whether you cut up carrots, although carrots are 3 ounces, you have to make sure that you're doing your ounces. And putting it all together. So you do your approved veggies, your unlimited veggies, and then you can have your meat as a separate, as a— so that all you do is you take everything out, you put it in your crock pot, and you're ready to go. Does that make sense? Yeah, I can't remember who else was advocating, but she sounded like she, she might have ideas as well. Yeah, she just left.

She just left.

Darn it.

That's all right.

But no, it makes sense.

Thank you. Yeah. What we can do, I can put a post in the Facebook group and see if other people have ideas on what they would recommend. I know there is a Jen that she, one of our Jens that has gone through the program. She was often doing meal prep and putting things together. So I'll tag her and see if she can give you some recommendations too. She's our queen of meal prep. Sweet.

Thank you.

Okay, you're welcome. Any other questions for today about getting started or going into maintenance? All right, well, everyone have an amazing weekend. It's supposed to be beautiful here in Toronto or Ontario. Hopefully it's amazing where you are. Enjoy your week and really focus on those small wins. They encourage dopamine. We feel good about the things that we're accomplishing, and that will help you be successful long term. So have a great weekend, everyone. Take care. You're welcome, Hardeep. Take care.