WFH Snacking Secrets

Hi, welcome to Inside Scoop. I'm Paula Rizzo. Today we're talking food, one of my favorite topics. But listen, doing, uh, work from home, it's, uh, you're right near the kitchen all the time. You could always slip away in between video calls and grab a snack, but are those snacks the best snacks you can possibly be getting for yourself? Maybe not, right? We're going to talk about it. I have an amazing friend of mine, Nagina Abdullah, who is a weight loss coach from masalabody.com. She works with busy entrepreneurs all the time, and she's going to give us some tips and tricks on how to not overindulge, but also how to plan out your week and plan out your meals and plan out your snacks. I'm a big planner. I'm a big list maker, as you all know. So I am thrilled to chat with her. I think it's going to be really, really fun to be able to, you know, kind of take control of the food situation a little bit, because guess what? But work from home is not going anywhere. We're still going to be doing this. Hybrid working is now going to be a thing where you're half in the office and half working from home. So it's going to be even more important to be thinking through your food plans so that you make sure that you come home and there's something to eat and you're not, you know, crazy at the end of the day. I want to hear from you throughout this video. If you're watching live or if you're watching the replay, ask questions, tag a friend below, share this with somebody who you think will value this conversation and want to ask questions. I also have a freebie for you if you go to paularizzo.com/list. It is my list-making starter kit, which is a great way to get started with lists and to be able to be more efficient, more productive, and less stressed. Because that's what we want. We want less stress in our lives for sure. I'm also a LinkedIn Learning instructor and I have tons of courses. I have 4 courses. I have one more coming out about hybrid work, but the one that I think will be really interesting for you is this one. One. It is about organizing your remote office for maximum productivity. So if we're talking about work from home, this is really important to be able to set up your office space, even if it's a desk in the corner of your room or your kitchen table, set it up for success. So if you go to paularizzo.com/LinkedIn, that is where you will find all of my courses and be able to check those out. And I know that it will be very, very helpful for many of you who are, you know, straddling, going between both worlds here. And, uh, you know, we're talking today all about work from home snacks. So I'd love to introduce you to my guest, Nagina. Nagina Abdallah, thank you so much for being here. I'm thrilled to have you.

Hi, Paula. I am so thrilled to be here with you. Hello.

We're usually together. We, you know, we'd meet up in New York City and, you know, maybe have a cocktail or something, but this is going to have to do for now. We're going to have to do it this way from now on.

I love seeing you any way that I can, Paula Rizzo. So I'm so excited to have this conversation with you.

I love it. I love it. Well, my first question is about obviously work from home, but how important is it to have the plan in place for your snacks and for your food? How important is that? Because a lot of times people will be like, oh, I don't want to overplan, you know, but talk to me a little bit about, about that and what you see.

Yes, absolutely. So when, you know, as a busy entrepreneur, as a busy professional, there is a certain line between how much you can plan. And that's the thing, we hear about meal planning and we hear about needing to plan our meals, needing to plan everything out, but when it comes down to it, when do you actually have the time to create that plan? And so that's why, you know, instead of having a strict plan, I like to approach it in a way where you have, you make it, you make your, your, your week mindless and you make it simple. You create a system that's very simple. And so what I mean by that is that, you know, we have always been taught all through all these different methods that we're supposed to eat different foods every single day and we're supposed to have all all the colors of the rainbow. And while that is great, and that is great when you can, um, you can still do that but still do it simply. And what I mean by that is that if you can choose one breakfast, or if not one, then two breakfasts that you can go in between, then you don't spend your morning thinking and spending your energy thinking about what you're going to eat. Instead, you can actually spend it on being creative, on getting more work done, on being more productive. And that way you won't skip your breakfast. So I love this.

So to give— to limit the choices that you give yourself, right? To limit— it's so interesting because I do this with a lot of other things. I don't know, I do it with food. I eat oatmeal a lot. I don't know how you feel about oatmeal, but I eat oatmeal a lot. I know you and I have talked a lot about eggless breakfast because I can't have eggs, and so you've been very kind to send me some eggless breakfast through the years. But it's interesting, you know, this is a very, very simple concept, but something that I really want to drive home for people is to limit your, the amount of things that you have to think about so that you just have like, here's 2 or 3 breakfasts or 1 breakfast that you're always gonna have. So what are some good ideas for the breakfast, let's say?

So the top item that I can recommend, you know, right away that works so well for busy professionals and entrepreneurs especially is to have a smoothie in the morning. And there's lots of different types of smoothies, but the secret about a smoothie is that it only takes 2 minutes to put together and it takes 1 minute to drink. You can carry it around with you if you're at home, you can set it down one place, move it. You don't have to, you know, have it for an entire— you don't have to have it all at once. You can have it over the course of your morning, but you just need to prepare it right before you get started for your workday. So it's important to just give yourself 10 minutes for you to put together your smoothie, for you to pour it into a beautiful glass, and then you're done. And to make this shortcut even go further, I advocate using the concept of what's called smoothie sacks. And what that means is, is on a Sunday or on a Monday morning when you're making your first smoothie, you make— you get Ziploc bags or any other kinds of bags that you have, and you— the ingredients that you're making for one, you just make it times 5 or times 7. It's even better if you can make it through your weekend because then it's really easy to not feel tempted on the weekend with typical weekend cravings, at least in the morning. So you get all your ingredients in there. It may be, you know, fresh berries. You may have some really nice greens that you're putting in there. It's very important. To add what I call the secret ingredient, which is flaxseeds, which keep you full for longer with less calories. You can put like carrots in there. You can put, you know, whatever it may be. And then you put your smoothie sacks and you can even put it in the freezer. So if you have frozen berries, they're just in the freezer. Then what you do is when you're ready to make your smoothie, you fill up your blender with the water that you need or the almond milk. You dump in the ingredients that you already planned, and then you add protein powder if you like protein. Protein powder and you blend it all up. And so if you don't like protein powder, you can use Greek yogurt or you can also do your protein on the side if you feel more comfortable with that. So, got it. It's all in one and then you're set. So every morning when you wake up, this takes— this brings you such a relief and a burden off your shoulders because you're not thinking about what to have for breakfast. It's easier to have what you already made and then you're set all the way until lunchtime without any cravings or being hungry.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I love the idea of doing things ahead and being able to— almost in the same way, you know, people love their coffee, they love their tea. That's really easy to make. You just pour water and you add the things and then you just drink it, right? It's the same concept, right? You want to be able to have these smoothies ready, ready to grab and just pour them. I did notice you said you freeze this concoction first and then you add the protein powder afterwards, right? You're not going to add it to the frozen bits.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, because— and it's just because it's nice if it's fresh. It's really easy just to add one little scoop in it. And plus, it's hard to get it— like, it'll be— it could be— it could just stick to all the ingredients. So you— I mean, you could freeze it as well, but it usually comes in a powder. It's really easy just to put it in there like that. And you also don't even have to freeze the ingredients. You can put it in your fridge. But when you put it in your freezer, then they all act as ice and it makes your smoothie colder and it makes it more like a milkshake. So, it is a nice, it is a nice kind of flavor. So, you know, planning is doing things like that, like simplifying. Now, for lunch, something you could do is, I love the concept of sheet pan meals. So, what we are doing is we are creating a very simple way of systemizing what we are eating. And so, on Monday, what you could do is if you eat salmon or if you eat chicken, you could spray with cooking spray or with a little bit of olive oil, spray your baking pan, heat the oven up to 400 degrees, and then you just put salmon or chicken with any spices that you feel like. In fact, even using some low sodium Mexican spice blends are really great for, for chicken, and just salt and pepper for salmon are great. And then you put a lot of veggies on the side, you put it in the oven for, for 20 minutes, and then you have meals that can last you all the way through Wednesday. And then when you eat that chicken or that salmon with the side of like spicy mustard or salsa, you're looking forward to that meal and you love the fact that you get to just go to your fridge, take it out and warm it up. And so, prepping ahead of time, but being simple with it and not changing up your meals every day brings you consistency. And this is key in terms of being healthy and also giving ourselves the energy that we need to be our most productive selves, which I know that is your, one of your, one of your expertise is Paula Rizzo, is being more productive.

So yes, yes, absolutely. And I, I love the idea of— I mean, again, maybe I'm gonna give out another list for some people to make. Make a list. You're watching this right now, you're investing the time to sit here and do, and do this. Make a list of the things that you love to eat for all of the different meals so that you have really healthy choices to go to. You know, I had a roommate in college, you know, who like a very short term she was there and then she was gone. She used to make lists of the food that she liked to eat, and I always thought she was nuts. But then I was like, you know what, I get why she does that. Because in the moment, you're like, I'm starving, I'm just gonna grab some chips. She was actually really, really smart because she had that list of go-tos of things that she really liked to snack on and food she liked and all of that. The limiting those things is really, really helpful. Um, Julie Relevant is, uh, here. She's a podcaster. She loves to talk about food too. She's a journalist as well. She says great story. So I'm glad that she's here chatting and here with us. So yeah, limiting your choices, making that list of things that you like and prepping ahead. Very, very important. Let's talk a little bit about snacks because that's something that you can also plan for. And do you advise women, because I know you work with busy entrepreneurs all the time, to snack and what, what are the rules around snacking and how much snack you can have and what, what, what actually is a snack?

Oh my gosh, I love this. So, I am going to actually say something that goes against the grain, and that is that I actually want you and recommend that you plan to have your snack before you are hungry. OK? Before you are hungry. And this is really key because many of us get hunger pangs around 2:45 or 3 PM in the day, in the afternoon, or we may even get them in the mid-morning if you haven't had a substantial breakfast. So, when you plan to have your snacks, you are knowing that you are going to have cravings around 3 PM or 2:45 PM. Once those cravings strike, Paula Rizzo, it's really hard to control yourself. It's really hard to say like, okay, now I'm going to have carrots and hummus. Now I'm going to have celery and peanut butter. Nobody really feels like having that when you're feeling those sugar cravings. And if you wait too long to eat, those sugar cravings are very uncontrollable. And so, what I recommend is when, you know, when you're simplifying your meals, you know when you're going to get hungry because you already know how long that meal will keep you full. You're not experimenting every day with different meals. You know that that meal is going to keep you hungry till about 2:30, 3 o'clock. And so, you want to plan to have your snack right before you get that. And then, that way, you sail right through those cravings all the way through dinner. And everything is right about having the right snack. It's just about having sugary, like very easy to digest foods that that's where it becomes really, really, really challenging, meaning like high in sugar, high in carbs only. Sure. So, yes.

What are some good, smart snacks to keep around? I mean, obviously, hummus and veggies, so you're getting fiber and protein, but what's a good mix?

So, I'm going to tell you some really smart, easy snacks to have, and then I'm going to tell you how you can spice up your snacks too.

Okay.

And these are things that you can also do to spice up your breakfast and your lunch where you are not necessarily— like, some of us want to have fun with our food, but you can have fun by adding flavors to what you're eating. So, some of the easy things to have on hand, or that are really popular with my clients that work really well on their journey to get healthier, is, you know, some of the— some things like carrots and hummus, or celery and peanut butter, or an apple with peanut butter. So when we're talking about peanut butter, you really want to have 1 to 2 tablespoons of it just because it's really dense in calories. And I usually don't talk about portioning or your food amounts and restricting them, but with healthy fats, you want to eat the right amount because it's healthy, and then all of a sudden it's not healthy. Yes.

So the same thing with coffee. You know, coffee is really good for you. You know, I was a health journalist for many, many years and we would do lots of stories about how good, you know, coffee is good for you. And then people go mess it up by putting all these high-fat milk and lots of sugar in it. And it's like, well, now it's not healthy anymore. You're actually, you know, those health benefits are going away when you put all of this extra stuff in there.

Absolutely. That is so true. That is so true. And, and actually coffee, a lot of people wonder, is coffee something or tea something that you can have in the afternoon or should you just have your one glass? Well, actually coffee when you drink it in the right way, meaning you add the right things to it. For example, adding almond milk or having it black with cinnamon, because cinnamon, it gives you that sweet kick, um, but it lowers your blood sugar and it helps you store less fat. And so you're getting that sweetness, but you're not using sugar for it. So when you have that in the afternoon, it's actually a really great strategy to stay healthy because you're drinking something. Sometimes you just want to use your hands, you want to put something in your mouth like that, but you're doing it with something that is boosting metabolism, and that's very low calorie if you make it in the right way. So, so those are a few things. But another kind of like some different snacks that, that, that are super easy to make is one of them I call Grandma's Healthy Apple Pie. And, and with Grandma's Healthy Apple Pie, what you're doing is I always talk about protein more. And so you really want to have a protein, protein-filled day. You want to have protein in your breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. And, and so when you have your lunch or when you're having your snack, When you, when you have protein, you're boosting your metabolism and you're staying full for longer, eating less. And so it's a trick on how to stay and how to keep your body running efficiently. So one really great way to do that is with this, with this snack that I call Grandma's Healthy Apple Pie, which is you have a half cup of cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is amazing. It has almost 19 grams of protein in a half cup. Then what you do is you cut up a fourth of an apple into small pieces. And then you take a fourth teaspoon of cinnamon and you mix it all around. So it's like cinnamon apple cottage cheese. That one snack has curbed so many people's cravings and made them feel so satisfied that it takes them all the way through dinner. And then they start just feeling healthier and more energetic all day. So that's an example of how you can kind of flavor up these, these foods that might, may seem bland and really, really bring it together in a snack that you look forward to, and that's also really good for your body.

Well, that's, that's the interesting part. It's like, hey, we're putting in some spices. When you and I first met, I was a health producer at Fox News Channel, and, you know, we— you had just started, you know, working on this business and working with, with people, and you were doing these, um, amazing dinner parties. And I remember going to this dinner party, and you were all about the spices. And I was like, this is amazing, we need to do a story on just how all these spices can basically change your life and make you lose weight, remember? And, and it ended up being, you know, you talked about spices for a very, very long time.

Oh my gosh, that was amazing, Paula Rizzo. You brought in your whole camera crew from Fox News, and we did a whole thing on spices and all the delicious foods and flavors that you can have. Because what spices do is it's a different way, it's a natural way to boost your metabolism and to make all of your food taste delicious without adding sauces that are high sodium or high sugar, without feeling like you need to add butters and creams. You're adding spices and you are feeling light and you're boosting your metabolism and your food is tasting so good. So that apple cinnamon cottage cheese or healthy, healthy, Grandma's Healthy Apple Pie, you know, is one really, really easy example. Yeah. And I can share one more if you, if you would like.

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Well, that one, that one was sweet. Do you have a salty one? Because I'm a salty, I'm a salty snack kind of girl.

Oh, OK. So perfect. So this one is actually like a, this is a quick drink that actually has been shown to really completely curb sugar cravings. And so this is called the apple cider detox drink. Apple cider detox drink. And so what you do with this is you get a cup of hot water. It doesn't have to be hot if you don't want it to, but it's nice if it's hot or warm. Then you put in 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and that is— it really detoxes your body. You then add like 1 lemon, you squeeze 1 fresh lemon or half a lemon, and then you put a teaspoon of either— you could put like any kind of like cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice and then a small pinch of cayenne pepper. So you get a small pinch of cayenne pepper. And what happens is when you drink this drink, like all your cravings go away and it can become a habit where every day you're having this around 2:45 or 3:00 and it's soothing, it's comforting, it's kind of spicing you up a bit. And then, and then it's like destroying any cravings that you have. And if you want, you can also have that cinnamon apple that the grandma's healthy apple pie on the side as well.

Yeah, you're, you're an apple fan. Apple cider vinegar is actually very, very good for you. We have a comment here. Thanks a lot for these tips. I'm so guilty of salt and sweet snacks. Yes, I think a lot of us are. You know, it's also, it's interesting because, look, we're all looking for a little bit of comfort from, you know, working from home and making sure that we're doing everything that we're you know, have to do. Well, I want to talk a little bit about meal prep for families. You have, you have kids, you have a husband, you're all working, everybody's doing things from home, you know. How do you sort of attack that? Because that's a lot too if you have people who like different things. Or I know you, you eat mostly fish. If your family doesn't, how do you sort of do that?

Oh yes, absolutely. So there are— I feel like if I can do it, anyone can do it, because in my family we have 2 children. My son is 11, my daughter is is 10. My daughter and I, I'm now vegetarian, so we're both vegetarians. My son is like a carnivore. He has to have meat or he complains. And my husband, he's pretty flexible. So, so what we do is like we will, we will make a base. So we'll have a base that's similar. So yesterday what we did is we did a very simple Thai stir-fry curry where we used a Thai curry paste. And then we put— there was one pot where we had turkey in it, ground turkey, and then another pot where we had vegetables. We had squash and bell peppers. Put a little bit of coconut milk in it, a couple of their flavors, mixed it around, and then served it with rice or, or some other grains. And that was a full meal that was available for vegetarians and for non-vegetarians using the same base. And so it was very simple to make. Another thing that I found works really well for families, including mine, is to assign themes. To different nights. And yes, and so this is because, you know, I was finding myself as well as my clients were feeling like, you know, you have to start from scratch when you're thinking about what to make for dinner, or you have to follow a meal plan. And following a meal plan doesn't always work. If you could do a meal plan, but you may not have that opportunity to get so prepared. So another thing that you could do is assign every night, or maybe even just 2 nights a week, for a theme. So for example, Monday could be crockpot night. So you learn some recipes from the Crock-Pot. You start, it kind of becomes exciting actually. You are looking at Crock-Pot recipes.

Yeah, it is fun.

You are looking at all these cool, fun recipes. You are like, that will taste good. I want to try that. I want to do that. So you do Crock-Pots on Monday. Tuesday is a classic Taco Tuesday night. You could do a Mexican theme. You could do fajitas. It is so easy for vegetarians, non-vegetarians, or for any preferences, even if you don't eat gluten or or if you don't eat carbs, you can do a taco salad. And then another night you could do stir-fry night. And so this way you are changing up the ingredients week to week, but your cooking method is similar. And so you're not really having to think so much about it and do that. And so that's been, that's been something that works really well. And one more way of thinking about it is if you have a partner and you have kids, is, is just like swapping nights. So saying like, Okay, one night we're gonna do takeout. So, so I always think Mondays are harder to get going in the week. Yeah, so like, why not do takeout on Monday, and then Tuesday and Thursday one partner does it, and Wednesday and Friday another partner does it? And that way you're not feeling overwhelmed by you having to do everything, and you're getting served too, you know? Like, we deserve— whoever it is, the husband or the wife, we all deserve to have some being served as well. So, um, and you can also do like a couple's night if you, if you have that time, if you're able to do that. That. So really simplifying it by creating themes and categories, um, is a really great way. Um, you know, and of course using tools like the Crock-Pot, the Instant Pot, or sheet pan meals where you put everything in a sheet pan like I described for lunch is really, really great strategy.

It just puts some nice structure around it, you know, so that it's instead of like you could eat anything you want from any cuisine, any place in the world on Monday. It's like, oh my gosh, like, no, we're just gonna stick to Mexican food, or we're just gonna stick to different kinds of tacos. It's like, okay, that we're clearing it, you know, to have just a little window of things that I'll, that I'll eat in that, in that, you know, in that realm. So that's exactly very, very helpful. Totally helpful. And we have a question here, um, from someone from LinkedIn who says, what spices do you recommend to give veggies some pizzazz?

I know you probably have tons Yes, absolutely. So, one of the first spices that I recommend is to sprinkle some coriander on your spices. And what coriander does is it's fresh and tangy, and so it's really great. And coriander is actually— comes from cilantro seeds. So, it's very similar to that, and it also decreases water retention. So, when you're having that on your vegetables, you're also helping to flatten out your belly a little bit, and that's always nice. So, doing that, you can also add some to your veggies. You can also do some cayenne pepper, or if you don't like that much spice, do some paprika. And one of the things I love doing is getting the spice blends like from Trader Joe's, which there's one that's called Everything But the Bagel. So that one's really amazing. There's another one that's really great called Chili Lime. And that is really because you just sprinkle on everything is done. So getting a few spice blends that you like, Lemon Pepper is another spice blend that's available everywhere. And that's a really great way to add that flavor to your vegetables and give it, give it that, you know, just make it taste good because it's important. This is a great question because veggies are one of the key ways to stay healthy, and you must learn to make your veggies tasty in order to actually want to eat more vegetables.

So yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, it's, uh, one of those things I'm always— I get at my husband all the time. I'm like, did you eat any vegetables today? What vegetable did you eat? You know, and, and he— because he's not veggie first, you know what I mean? I love veggies.

I love beans.

I like that's, you know how it is, like the way you grew up or what you're used to, it's just different. So for some people it will take making that list of here's some foods that I want to incorporate into my life and incorporate into my diet that are healthy and then be able to figure out, okay, where am I going to stick these in my day and all that. And, you know, thank you guys for your, for your questions and continue to please give us your questions. You know, Nagina is here with us live and obviously on the replay we'll be able to also answer some of your questions. But Nagina, I want to ask you, you know, lastly about about, you know, how you're helping people to curb— when we talked about sugar, but sugar is a big one for a lot of people. It's really tough to give up. You know, I know dark chocolate is good and I love dark chocolate, but I don't have the issue with sugar that most people do. I like salty. So, but talk to me a little bit about sugar and why that is so hard to give up.

Yes. Oh my gosh. And I'm actually the right person to talk about it because I actually started off for my first 30-something years of my life thinking that I would never be able to ever have control over what I was eating because I had such sharp sugar cravings. In fact, I would be— I remember I would be in some of my classes when I was in college and I would just be thinking and dreaming about mochas and about chocolates and chocolate cakes. And I would think about it all the time. And so, you know, the reason that sugar is a big— is such a big thing is because, you know, there's multiple reasons. But the number one reason is because we're not actually balancing our meals the right way. And so, as a result, we're feeling like we are having cravings for sugar, but what's really happening is that we're not having enough protein in our diet. When you don't give yourself enough protein, you start to feel— your body calls out and cries out for something to satisfy itself, and it comes out in the language of sugar. But what it actually means is that if you had a balanced meal to begin with, meaning you have enough protein, you have like about half of your plate half your plate with veggies, and then you have some healthy carbs or some healthy fats with it, you're going to find that your sugar cravings will actually disappear. And so many times we have the conversation about how do I fight my sugar cravings? But the better conversation to have and the better way to stop cravings is to say, how can I actually, like, how can I actually avoid getting the cravings to begin with? And it is possible, even if you've been struggling with a lifetime of sugar cravings. It's about eating these meals that we've talked about today. Creating, like eating your snack before you're hungry and having things that are go-to meals. Because when you, when you don't eat for a long time, that's when the sugar cravings really, really attack.

Yeah, for sure. Oh, it's so smart to just like, let's do this beforehand. Let's think ahead, you know, make sure that you're, you're, you're going to combat this before the hunger sets in or before the, the sugar craving is there. This is all amazing. But it's also It's a mindset switch for a lot of people. People are used to being reactive. They're used to, "I'm hungry now. What's here? Let me eat it." This is a different way of thinking. I love it. I love to plan things, so I love the idea of the themed days because that takes a lot of stress off the "What's for dinner?" idea. You do have a freebie for everyone watching if they go to masalabody.com/insidescoop. You have something very special there for everyone to go ahead and grab. Do you want to tell us about that real quick? Quick?

Yes, absolutely. Well, this is my free Sweet Spice Cheat Sheet where I talk to you about the sweet spice. I talk to you about 5 ways to use it in your day, and then I give you a really delicious fat-burning tea recipe to have at the end of your night, which is often the time where we start to crave unhealthy foods. Even if you feel like you've been healthy all day, at the end of the night we often say, well, I want to treat myself, I want to reward myself. Well, this recipe will help you overcome any of your late-night cravings that you have. And so that's my sweet spice cheat sheet, and that's at missalavati.com/insidescoop. And I'm so excited to share that with you, with all of you.

Yeah, I love that. Thank you for generously giving that, those recipes, because you know what, I've been following again and again, and I have known each other for many years. I've been following your entire journey of creating your business and all that. You have great recipes. I knew from the beginning, the first day that we met when we created meals together, I was like, this food is really good. So you know your stuff, uh, and you're gonna eat really, really well if you follow, you follow her, uh, her recipes. So thank you, Nagina, for being here, and thank you all for watching. I love spending time with you here, and definitely leave us, you know, some questions as you think of them, and I will see you soon. We'll be able to, uh, next week we'll chat again. See you later.