202 Allison Schaaf: How To Batch Cook For Better Health

Well, I think that the first piece is people think they have to do it or they need to do it and they want to do it, but they can't find the time. And so I think the first piece is really becoming clear on, hey, this is going to save me time later on. And this is why I want to do it and this is why it's important to me. And in general, right. Like, we should get away from like, oh, I should do this to the point of I want to do this, and this is what I do because of these reasons. So just really it's a mindset shift, number one. And then from there, you know, there's a lot of different blockages, but that first piece of mindset shift, I think is the biggest one.

That's Alison Schoff. And this is episode 202 of Wellness Force Radio. What's up, my friend? It's your host, Josh Trent. And welcome back to another episode for your weekly access to global experts in all things wellness as we discover the physical and emotional intelligence we need to live life well. In this episode, we talk with the founder of prepdish.com Alison Schaaf for her return to Wellness Force Radio about a much needed and practical skill set for our modern times that is batch cooking. Now, when it comes to cooking your own food, a recent report from Harvard shows that 90% of Americans now don't actually like to cook and it's costing them thousands of extra dollars every year. In the Harvard Business Review, research from over two decades determined that Americans fell into one of three groups. 10% said they loved to cook, 45% said they hate to cook, and 45% are ambivalent about cooking. So what's going on with this fundamental skill set that's so important to living our life well, yet is massively declining? Well, the answer is simple. And it's one of the few times on the show where with the right knowledge, we're going to make simple actually easy. The answer is learning how to batch cook. This is why I'm happy to welcome back Alison Schaf to the show today where we explore this topic for a nuts and bolts conversation around exactly how to do this. When you travel when you have a busy day, you'll learn From Allison how prepdish.com can help you transcend the overwhelm of eating healthy, especially while you travel. The four segments of prep dish that help people eat healthier, no matter their cooking ability or crazy schedule. The process of self reflection. She has faced herself when it comes to nutrition learning what works for her and what doesn't. Safety concerns. This is a big one around meats and veggies to be aware of while you're cooking and storing your food. If you're a vegan or vegetarian, how you batch cook effectively and tendency typing what foods we can eat to lower our stress while still eating healthy and so much more. So you can probably tell this sounds a little bit different today. By the way, I am recording this in a yoga room at a rock climbing gym in Austin, Texas out here for a podcast media trip and I'm looking down at my backpack right now. I have a packet of organifi torn open for my green juice powder that I just poured into my water jug. This is what I do. This is how I roll. When I travel. It's become a daily ritual for me to get in my micronutrients, my adap, my ashwagandha, my chlorella. You know it's true when you travel we're all stressed out more, we're under attack more, our immune system and our stress levels. This has become my insurance policy. I drink a ton of water. I put in my double dose of organifi twice a day. So if you've been feeling this low energy lately or if you have travel coming up, go over to organifi.com wellnessforce get yourself some well needed and well deserved insurance policy that can help you with better energy throughout the day. And of course because you're here with the Wellnessforce family, you get the H20% off your entire order and get some good health in the process. Use code WellnessForce to get 20% off your entire order over at Organifi.com WellnessForce today. Also try adding this to your coconut ice cream. Trust me, just do this. It's like a Matcha Green ice cream. Especially if you use the coconut cream or a dairy free ice cream. It's amazing. Trust me, just try it. Okay, no further waiting. Let's dig into this practical episode. Make sure you share this episode with your friends if they have trouble cooking. This is a really great way one and so important because as Allison says, batch cooking ultimately helps you set yourself up for success. Choose a consistent day and time each week where you can do your meal prep. Even if you just chop vegetables in advance, it really makes life easier and makes you more likely to include vegetables with every meal if they're already prepared ahead of time. Let's step in with Alison Schaf. So transcending overwhelm starts with being proactive, designing our environment to win and taking true ownership of the way that we eat, move, and sleep. So to help, help us do this when it comes to food and batch cooking, setting up our house and our workplace so we can really win when we eat. Coming back on the show for the second time is registered dietitian, founder of prepdish.com and passionate chef Alison Schoff. Allison, welcome back to Wellness Force Radio.

It's so good to be back two years, but it's good to be back.

Episode number 37. We talked about meal prepping, something that you specialize so deeply in. But tell us, like, what's changed for you the most with Prep dish since 2016? It's hard to believe it's been two years. But what's changed the most for you, Alison? Has there been any new refreshing of inspiration, or are you still operating from that same head to heart line you were in 2016?

You know, at the core, it's still the meal plans with a grocery list and really focusing on meal prep. And how can you do some of that work ahead of time? You know, we've played around with some ways to make it more efficient and to really listen to the audience and made a few tweaks here and there. But at the core, we're still the same old prep dish.

Same prep dish, new year, paleo and gluten free meal plans. There's so many topics that you can really dive deep into, but today, how to batch cook. I dealt with this recently. I got back from a big trip and I realized I didn't buy any food. So when I came back, there was like a tomato and some almond milk in my fridge. Do you get emails and questions about people that are traveling, how to balance grocery shopping and foods? As we dive into this batch cooking topic, I'd love to explore just your general impression from your community at Prepdish. Do people write in about transcending this overwhelm when they travel?

Oh, yeah, all the time. I mean, you know, people that are traveling and on the go or, you know, maybe it's even just a busy mom and they're always at sports games. It's like they feel like they don't have any time. You know, they. They set aside all this time to go on the trip, but then it kind of eats into the time when they usually spend doing things like, you know, preparing their meals. So it's like, how do you, how do you win at this game? Right?

Yeah, totally. How do we win? And you created Prep dish with four go in mind. We'll link number 37 in the show notes. Great podcast, but you did prep Dish with this mindset of saving time and decreasing stress, ensuring that healthy and gluten free meals also taste great. Bringing back the family dinner, which that's a dying art form. And then lastly, creating happier and healthier people. How did you come up with these four segments? And do those still, by the way, do those still feel just as true as they did when you started?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, when you look at how do you get meals on the table? You know, my whole kind of life's work has been devoted to figuring out how to kind of hack that for people and how to make that simpler. Whether it was back in the day when I was actually cooking meals for people to present day, where I'm giving them the online tools of like, here, do this. I've done all the thinking for you. Here's how you can make it easy. And I end up using it myself. There's weeks where I get busy and I'm like, dang it, if I didn't do my meal prep. I'm struggling at 6 o', clock trying to figure out what the heck to eat.

Yeah. So you actually follow your own lines on this because you deal with a lot people that are entrepreneurial. A lot of people listening to the show are coaches, therapists, ntps, practitioners, nutritionists. They have a similar mindset when it comes to how do I set up my environment to win. Maybe we can talk about setting up our environment first. From the way that you used to be classically trained in working with clients. What are some of the beginning steps then for somebody to just kind of set up their home to win and we can talk about shopping and then also the way that they can actually design their kitchen.

Well, you know, kind of even before that, I think it's taken a step back and thinking through, like really being conscious of how do I want to approach my meals? Like, do you really? And sometimes I look at this as like being reactive versus proactive. You know, how do you want to approach that meal time? Do you want to wait until 5 o' clock and just kind of like scramble and figure something out last minute? Or, you know, what if you took that step back and really you were more thoughtful about it? I mean, I don't know about you, but most things in my life, if I really kind of want to take them to the next level, it's putting in that thought and doing some work up front. And the cool thing about that is, yeah, that upfront work may take A little bit of time. Like, okay, I'm going to sit here and think through, you know, the meals I'm going to eat for the week, and I have to write down a list and make my grocery order. But then throughout the week, it actually saves time. So it's like, you may put off doing it, but once you do it, you find that, like, gosh, it really saves time in the long run. You know, that time spent up front and, you know, there's just so many places in life where you see that's true. If you spend some time up front being thoughtful about it, in the long run, everything runs a lot more smoothly and you save time later on.

Yeah, I love that you pulled the E break there and took us to the even deeper question, which is, well, how to be proactive. And we do relationships, our life, our work, our food. It's the same thing. Like, how we do one thing. I'm clearly convinced Alison, is truly how we do everything. It's not just some paradigm shifting sentence that people speak on a personal development stage. It's like, we understand if we don't plan Valentine's Day and you show up with no gift for your husband or your wife, you're probably going to be in hot water. It's like the same thing applies to the way that we eat healthy foods every day. So do you recommend that people do a week's worth of shopping at a time? How does that plug into longevity and healthy eating habits? How many days per week do you personally shop?

So I live in the country now, and we're about 30, 35 minutes away from the closest grocery store. So I don't have Whole Foods right around the corner like I used to. So I've, you know, some weeks, once a week is really kind of the goal. And with prep dish, that's kind of the goal is one, one time a week going to the store and kind of preparing for that week ahead. But then also after that, like actually going through and doing some of the work, which is what we're, you know, talking about today with batch cooking is like, what types of things can you do in advance? So then, you know, Wednesday night when it's dinner time, you don't have to start from scratch. You only have to kind of piece together a lot of bits and pieces you've already done for yourself.

Yeah, I love that you brought up reactive versus proactive too. Because really, this relationship with food, it does come from a space of calm confidence and deep breathing or transcending overwhelm when you're scraping cheese off of a pan at 10 at night, and the kids are screaming like, there's a big difference between the two. So looking at the mindset of reaction versus proaction, has there ever been a time in your own personal life, you know, before you founded Prep Dish, going through your struggles, going through your learning journey of what it is to be a successful human being that runs a business, did you ever have to do a self check on reaction versus Proaction?

Well, I mean, in just a simple example of mealtime, I mean, it still happens, right? You know, last week, I don't know if I did my meal prep, and then it was like, dinnertime, and I'm like, well, shoot. I'm having to kind of, like, throw things together, and maybe there's not as many vegetables as I would have liked if I would have thought about it ahead of time. And so that still creeps up on you. And when I first started Prep Dish, I mean, that was the issue that I was solving is as a personal chef, I was getting home and it was dinner time, and instead of putting together, like, a full dinner, I was kind of just like, snacking on, like, you know, fruit and cheese and, you know, whatever was easy. And that wasn't, like, the best way. And so I'm like, well, gosh, like, you know, healthy eating is important to me. And I kind of made a rule, like, I have to eat as healthy as my clients. And in order for me to do that, it really took that meal prep because I couldn't get home from a day of cooking all day and prepare myself a meal from scratch. So, like, I just had to implement that system in order to reach the goals and kind of, you know, live the food life.

Yeah, no, that's so. I appreciate that. It's so honest, too. It's like I'm thinking about doctors that go through their own struggles with health. And a lot of us in the health and wellness industry, we teach what we're still in the process of learning. I mean, just because you've mastered the art of cooking, it doesn't always mean that for every single day, you're perfect. And this is what I liked about you last time we talked, Allison. This is what I'm feeling from you. Again, this relationship with food, kind of how we make it, how it makes us feel. This relationship with food. How has that relationship evolved for you? Before we talk about batch cooking, let's just dive real quick into the relationship with food. How do you see food in your life now?

Yeah, you Know, really, I think last time when we talked, I talked a lot about really kind of tuning in and I talked about how at one point in my life I gave up gluten and found out, well, gosh, that was really causing a lot of health issues. And so I really try and continue to tune in on that. The latest one that I've been a lot more aware of are sugar and caffeine. And I hate to come on and take out all the fun foods, but it's just been really interesting and playing around with removing those from the diet or maybe saving them for more as a treat. And then the more I do that, I went to a birthday party a few weeks ago and they had a gluten free cupcake. So I had one and nothing wrong with that at all. But I was like, I crashed later that afternoon. I was exhausted. I'm like, yeah, I think it's because I ate the cupcake. So I think just the more you can listen into your body and how the foods are reacting and making you feel, that could be more motivating to just kind of stay on the healthy eating path.

It's funny you mentioned sugar and caffeine, two really popular things in America. I'm thinking about sugar. We all know that sugar, you know, a teaspoon of sugar can suppress our immune system for four plus hours, which is a fun fact, but a not too fun fact is that we can become so addicted to caffeine that it starts to give us skin issues, it starts to give us adrenal fatigue. Were you experiencing in the past anything with caffeine and deleterious health symptoms?

You know, no. Although I do think I've always been a little sensitive to caffeine. I've never drank coffee just because I do get really jittery and I feel like I'm pretty sensitive. And so really the only thing I was, I drank tea, but then I kind of got to the point where I was drinking more and more. And for me personally, I'm trying to really, we're hoping to have a family someday and kind of focus on some fertility things. And while it's totally fine to drink a limited amount of caffeine when you're pregnant or something like that, it's just kind of one of those things that I was like, well, let me play around with removing this from my diet. So I'm always just kind of trying things out and seeing how I feel. And there was one day where I had a really bad headache all day. And then after that I noticed that my energy levels were actually more sustained throughout the day. I feel like in the afternoon I didn't crash as much. And I actually think for me that was cutting out the caffeine in the morning. So, you know, it worked and it was just kind of an experiment.

Well, Allison, it's this process of self reflection that we're all going through. It's like, look, what worked in our 20s and 30s won't work in our 40s and 50s. And so this continuum of learning, I think batch cooking plugs into that perfectly. It's funny, you know, batch cooking is actually what our ancestors did for a lifestyle. They didn't always have the whole foods in their neighborhood like you talked about. So how do you see batch cooking right now? What's your true definition and kind of take. What's your vantage point point on batch cooking in 2018?

Yeah, you know, it's taking that time up front to do as much as you can. And I call it setting yourself up for success. So here's the things that really are good for batching. So chopping vegetables. Most any vegetable can be chopped in advance. Some are a little better than others, but like carrots and sweet potatoes you could do on Saturday and not eat them until Friday. There's a few that maybe don't last quite that long in the fridge. But for the most part, you can do all of your vegetable chopping. And if you, even if you just get that done, it makes the week so much easier and it makes you much more likely to like prepare a vegetable with dinner each night if it's already chopped. And all you have to do is like throw it in the oven. So if I don't do a prep dish meal plan, that's kind of like my go to, I'm like, well, okay, if I'm not going to even follow a plan this week, let me at least chop all my vegetables. Like I find all the vegetables in my pantry and fridge and just chop them because I know, you know, and I have like a chef brain, so I can easily throw together meal last minute. And if the chopping's done, it's like the no brainer. So chopping the vegetables is like the first thing because that's, you know, the most important part of a healthy meal. So just get that, that piece done.

How long can you store them? Some vegetables store longer than others, right?

Yeah. So, you know, really up to about a week. I mean, some things like chopped carrots, I mean, you could probably keep for two weeks and they're gonna be Fine. And, you know, sometimes it depends on, you know, how fresh the vegetable was when you bought it. So that can be a little tricky. But, you know, any of the root vegetables and all those five to seven days and then things that like white potatoes, you don't want to chop ahead of time still turn brown, but you can soak those in water. Things like, you know, mushrooms and some of that stuff you might want to use up a little bit sooner. But again, it's hard to put an exact number on all of them because it will depend on, you know, how fresh the item was when you. When you bought it.

I love that you mentioned root veggies, too, because those are things that all of us can have way more surpluses of in our diet. We talk about fiber in root veggies. I'm thinking of lettuce, though. You know, lettuce is one thing where it doesn't taste that great once it's been wilted.

Well, and lettuce is the one that I think of when I'm like, well, how long does it last in the fridge? Because I've bought a tub of lettuce that has lasted me a week and a half in the fridge. And then the next week I'll buy, like, the same brand tub of lettuce, and it lasts like three days in my fridge. So there's some tricks. Like romaine lettuce tends to last a little bit longer. You can wrap the romaine lettuce in, like, a wet PA towel or put a wet paper towel on top, and that'll kind of hold in the moisture. It's like with romaine lettuce, sometimes what I'll do is just rip the leaves off. So I have, like, little wraps. So if I want to do, like a burger, kind of like little, you know, sandwich, wrap it with lettuce. I'll just do that and put a wet paper towel over them.

Oh, my gosh. You're making me remember my grandma. That's what my grandma used to do. She would wrap her lettuce with wet paper towels. I'm like, grandma, why are you doing that? If it's good for grandma, it's good for us. So talk about freezing with us. Because batch cooking and freezing, is this a go to strategy? How do we implement freezing in the batch cooking process? Freezing foods?

Yeah. So I really wish people would use freezing more often and kind of a few things there. One is, whenever you're making a recipe that will freeze well, I just automatically double the amount. And that way you can freeze Part of it. So, you know, people don't want to eat. I get it. You don't want to eat the same thing day after day after day. But, you know, say you make a big soup and you have it for dinner one night, lunch the next day, freeze the rest. Well, you know, if you have it, you know, a month or two later, it's not going to feel like it's a leftover. It's going to feel brand new again. So definitely I like to use freezing for soups and casseroles and frittatas, baked goods. Freeze well. Trying to think what else. I make chicken. I make bone broth a lot like chicken and beef broth. So anytime I make broth, I always try and have some extra in the freezer because that just always comes in handy to have for multiple reasons. And you know, even sometimes leftover like, you know, mashed sweet potatoes or things like that will freeze well too.

Yeah. I also seen you do a lot of things using muffin tins and containers and storage. Let's talk about storage a little bit too, because if I'm gone for two weeks, I just got back from a two week trip and I want to store something. Can anything even last in the fridge for two weeks or if I do put it in the freezer? Allison, what do I use for storage when I'm freezing? Stuff. So I can actually defrost that in a healthy way.

Yeah. So the glass storage containers are key. Container Store has some that I love. Amazon carries them. But I have to say the Container Store ones are better because the. Anyway, it's a little thing, but the Amazon one has like a mix and match of like 10 different types. And I'd rather just have like two or three types so they all stack well and organize a little better. But anyway, they're glass containers with like a BPA free lid that like snaps on. And really that makes a huge difference in keeping it fresh in the fridge. And then the nice thing in the freezer, it's a tempered glass, which means it can go from freezer to fridge to oven. Now, you don't want to do it too quickly because too extreme of temperatures, it can still burst. But the tempered glass is something you want to look for if you're going to be freezing just because that means that it's been tempered and will freeze without bursting as easily, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Having those glass containers and having plenty of them so that you can have some for the fridge and the freezer. And then the other key there is to label Them. So I have, there's some reasonable labels you can buy. You just write on them with a Sharpie, even a piece of tape and a Sharpie work. But if you label them, I always think just like, oh, I'm going to remember what it is. And then the next month I'm looking at that, like, what's in there? Yeah, especially with the freezer. I mean the fridge, you know, is not as important, but the freezer definitely label because. And put a date on there. So then, you know, because it may feel like it was just, you know, two months ago, but it was really eight months ago. And at some point, you know, you need to keep track of that too.

One of the ways that people, you know, everyone's in the process of learning this physical and emotional intelligence. When it comes to physical, I think food is probably our biggest input as well as our breath and our water. So looking at the way to set up our environment at home, it's probably a mirror of that for work. I mean, what are the big transition or are there any common threads in transition from eating and storing healthy foods at work versus eating and storing healthy foods at home? When we look at batch cooking.

Yeah. So you mean foods you would take into the office.

Yeah. Are those foods similar? Do some foods do better on the road with us, in transit and travel compared to just having them stored at home?

You know, the main thing there is at the office, does it need to be heated up? And if so, there's some, you know, if you only have access to a microwave, there may be some things that for one, you'd want it to be cooked all the way through. So really what I like to do if someone's taking in meals for the office is to just use leftovers from dinner the night before. That way it's already been cooked through and you don't have to worry about, you know, cooking a piece of fish from scratch or something and then you can, you know, heat it in the microwave. But you know, really for lunches, I love things like salads, they don't require any heating up. Or soups, because soups, you can't really overheat those and overcook them to where they're rubbery like you would maybe a piece of fish or chicken.

Yeah. And I love the fact that we talk about storage. I mean, look how you store things at work or home, it's a big deal. These products that have BPA in them, this is an estrogen dominant product. I mean, these three pieces that are in there, it really alters our nervous system in a negative way. And actually there's a lot of studies that show that this is actually what can produce cancer for some people and especially for when we look at total estrogen content. How big of a deal is these storage containers? I really want to focus on this for a second when we talk about batch cooking, because the way the food is stored and the health that that food will have, in my opinion, I'd love to get your take on this is just as important as the container it's stored in.

Oh, no, it's so important. And I'm really glad you pointed that out because it's what not. It's not like something you're doing occasionally, right? Like if you're storing it every week and doing this, that's regular exposure. So it's really, really. And then you're probably putting it in your dishwasher. And if these, you know, if you put in those plastic storage containers in your dishwasher, they heat up and the particles can land in like your water cups and then you're, you know, ingesting it that way. And I mean, it's just really important if you're going to be storing and prepping food ahead of time on a regular basis to just get some, you know, have like, you know, maybe your birthday or Christmas, like ask for a gift or something, or stock up all at once and just make sure you're set to go.

So glass is really the way to go in the 90s, they started to phase out. There was plastic BPA and sippy cups for a long time. And I think we're always in the understanding that as we move forward with our food safety and everything that you learned from decades in, you know, being in kitchens, being in some pretty high profile kitchens, are there any other safety concerns that we can look at for people that are batch cooking for storage? One that comes up for me too is can you put hot food in the fridge? Do you need to close the lid or should you leave the lid partially open? When you go from extreme hot to.

A fridge, you can put it in there. I usually I wait and put the lid on later. Me and my husband actually have the debate on like how soon you can, how much you need to let a food cool off at, you know, room temperature before putting in the fridge. Because if it's a big pot of soup that can actually warm up the entire fridge. So it is good to let it set at room temperature. I mean, it's kind of like that two hour time period is how long you have before you need to get something out of what's called the temperature danger zone, 40 to 140. So you want to, like, not have anything out for more than two hours. There's not an exact science there, or I guess there is because there's numbers. But, yeah, it's usually just like, let it cool down and then put it in. And really, the only time it's a big issue is if it is like, that huge, like, pot of soup that's going to warm the entire fridge. Just leave it on the counter for a little while, or, you know, stick a few ice cubes in it maybe, and let it cool down before you just stick it in the fridge and warm everything else up.

So it's been only, you know, 20 minutes or so here, and we've already done, like, a mini masterclass on batch cooking, from temperatures to chopping root vegetables and freezing for doubling the amount. But I want to see this through the lens of ancestral health. So you've been tied into the paleo community for a long time. How do we approach prep dish and doing this continuum of batch cooking? If you're vegan, how does that come up for people that are vegetarian or vegan? What are the key differentiators between using prep dish and batch cooking for vegans and vegetarians versus meat eaters?

You know, a lot of it's the same because a lot of those, you know, with the vegetarian and vegans, like, if you're making grains, you can make a big thing of, you know, you can change that up each week. So one week do a thing of rice, one week do a thing of quinoa, but just kind of make that at the beginning of the week and you can kind of fill in as needed. You know, I do that a lot with sweet potatoes. If I just put in the oven. I actually have some in my fridge right now. But I put a bunch of sweet potatoes in the oven and bake them for, you know, an hour. And then throughout the week, I can kind of peel. And they peel so much easier once they're baked. You just peel it and use it for mashed sweet potatoes as a side or at breakfast or just wherever.

So, okay, let's talk about this speed implementation method. We look at batch cooking. The instant pot is like the biggest rage. I think Amazon sold out of the instant pot last year. All my friends, by the way, that are, like, close to where PaleoFX is actually hosted in Austin, Texas. Like, probably 10 of them are posting about their instant pot. Is this something you've had experience with yes.

So I have an instant pot and we will give suggestions on how to make recipes in an instant pot. But we always have an alternative method only because I want to make sure it's user friendly for our subscribers. And this is something I was really curious about. And so I did a survey a few months ago and asked about a bunch of kitchen tools because I'm like, I want to make sure that if we require use a crock pot, that everyone has a crock pot. I don't want to just assume that because sometimes you kind of start assuming things and you find out like, oh, no one has crock pots or something. So with my audience, 50% of them have an instant pot. So it's a good percentage, but you know, that's not everyone. So I'm not going to have a recipe that requires it, but I do modifications sometimes enlist them. But we have a community on Facebook and all the time people are posting, well, this is what I did in my instant pot and this is what I did. So, you know, they kind of take care of that themselves. They're good at. And then I get notes from them because I use mine, but I'm not a pro. And so sometimes they'll give suggestions for using it. I'm like writing down notes and like copying what they're doing.

So yeah, the interesting part about that too is like, no matter what tool you're using, just make sure that you also have the recipe first. This is like a key piece of prep dish. I actually sampled prep dish for about a year when I was working with clients one on one. It's what we used in 2016, 2017, when I was still coaching clients online. The first step is the grocery list. This is something that, you know, you're a registered dietitian, you've been in food for 20 plus years now. How many years have you actually been in the food and beverage industry?

Yeah, 20 years. Because I was in high school, I was working as a personal chef.

So this is 20 years of wisdom distilled down to these practical steps you can take. The second is the prep day. This is where you get more of the step by step instructions and then dishing day. I mean, that's up to the customer, that's up to the people in the community. These three steps, the list, the prep and the dish. This is the piece that people need honestly most help with is step one and two, the grocery list and the prep day. Talk about those things, how this plugs into the batch cooking aspects.

Yeah, so I mean, with the grocery list, that's just, that is so key because that's where so much time is wasted throughout the week is. If you ever have to make an extra trip to the grocery store, there's really some lost time there. And there's some really cool things now that can help make the grocery shopping, and I kind of like put that in quotes, like a lot more efficient because there's grocery delivery now. There's also just online things like using Thrive Market for your pantry goods, using a company like US Wellness Meats or Butcherbox for your meat and seafood, you know, those types of services. I really encourage people to look into them and see like, hey, could this really help, help save me time? And the cool thing is those kind of force you to do that. Think ahead because it's like, oh, I have to put in my order. And especially if it's a meat order, you usually like, kind of want to think out for a few weeks. So it kind of helps you plan it out a little bit just because, you know you're putting that in. So I think it's really cool that there's all these different options for shopping. And so what we try and do is, you know, we have this grocery list, it's organized, people can go to the store and purchase their items. But then we give a lot of other options of like, hey, if you do this, it can make it a little more efficient. If you struggle to find grass fed meat in your small town, here's some options. If you have grocery delivery, we put the list in a different format so they can just copy and paste it into their, you know, grocery delivery service. So we're always just trying to think of ways how to, how to make that grocery shopping experience super efficient. But it all starts with having a list. Right before you even do that, you have to have the list. And then how do you from there just make it go really quickly?

You put a lot of thought and honestly a lot of heart into these lists as well. This is not just things that are thrown together at the last minute, like herbs, veggies, fruits, dairy, meats, frozen spices, oils, nuts, seafood, eggs, and pantry. These key segments, these are the ones that are color coded. If you're a visual person like me, I enjoy pictures, so I like to see pictures. And, and that's kind of how I learn. I learned through pictures and through sound, which, you know, you're listening to a podcast. This is probably a big one for you as well. How do you continue to learn though, Allison? How do you Continue to grow your intelligence when it comes to shopping and food are there. Go to resources that you depend on that you talk about with the prep dish community?

Well, yeah, you know, with shopping and resources, honestly, a lot of it's just listening to my community. You know, those people that, you know, they're in the trenches, they're doing the work. And so just hearing things that work for them is one of the best resources for me is to listen to them. But, you know, I also like, you know, I try out other services. A few weeks ago I tried out a meal delivery service of, you know, pre made meals and you know, I try out the meal kits and I just see like what other people are doing. And then I think, well, gosh, this is cool. And you know, is there anything they're doing here that we can. That can be an idea that we could improve? You know, we can improve prep dish by using it.

You do the secret. You're a secret shopper.

I guess so. I think when I put my name and my email address, I'm like, they really want to find out. I don't like, make it that secret.

Okay, well, this is really fascinating too because I think about the way that people are stretched. We talked about that at the very first minute of the show. Everyone I know has more on their plate than ever before. No pun intended. But we look at the way that this applies to the seasons batch cooking. It also applies to what grows normally at season, certain times of the year. Summer, spring, winter, fall. What are some of the things right now when this episode is coming out will be in the middle of spring. Can you share with us some of the vegetables and fruits that we can do batch cooking with in the spring versus other times of year?

Yeah. So spring. One vegetable that comes to mind is asparagus. And I love asparagus because it is the easiest vegetable to prep. It takes one movement with your knife. All you have to do is like, you know, you keep them all in their little bundle and you just chop off the ends. All of a sudden your asparagus is ready to go, like, and then you just have to toss it with some oil and put it in the oven for 10 minutes. So asparagus, honestly is one of my favorites in terms of like, quick and easy, but still tasty. Strawberries started to come in season this time of year. So we start doing, I think, I think we sell this on the menu, we take things off the menu, but I think we have some balsamic marinated strawberries that I really like and and it's kind of on that in between phase of like, we start bringing in some salads, but we still have a few soups. We have some sort of kind of like a zucchini soup that's really good this time of year. So. Yeah.

Yeah. And also I'm thinking about carrots too. The strawberries, which I love, but the carrots, really, these root veggies, this is the one that we've already touched on where get in that natural source of fiber. It doesn't have to be just because it's spring that you start pounding down the fruit. Do you have a general guideline that you go off of that you guys talk about in your communities in regards to fruit versus vegetables? There are some coaches out there that are like, eat as much fruit as you want. There's no way you could overdose on fruit. And then of course, there's equal voices that say, don't eat more than two pieces of fruit a day. Where do you stand on this fruit versus veggies?

I don't know if I have an official stance, but I'm definitely like, eat all the vegetables. I think I start from a place of eat all the vegetables. And then, you know, the fruits kind of like added in. We do have a dessert on the meal plans and so a lot of times we'll use fruit as a dessert or, you know, maybe on a salad just kind of to make it more appealing, especially for kiddos and stuff like that. And I'm not anti fruit, but I'm definitely like not. You know, it can be pretty sugary. So I try to kind of limit it somewhat, I guess.

Yeah. This is why I think, you know, Paul Chek talks so much about food rotations, eating with the seasons, because let's be honest, in the winter, strawberries aren't out there. They're covered with ice. Do you find that your meal plans and the people that consume healthy foods are just naturally eating more sugar during the late spring and early summer? Late summer, because that's what's actually growing. That's what we're designed to eat at those times of year.

I do notice that our plans have like in the winter months, we don't have as much fruit on the plans. You know, like, we don't do a fruit salsa or anything like that. So now I kind of want to like go back and look at a big picture view and see if we like, overall use a lot less, less fruit in the winter months. Because that might be the case.

I think so. Definitely. I noticed that myself, like When I'm going to. When it's warm outside, I don't really want hot soup. I want, like, a piece of fruit, kind of lighter foods. And I'm curious for you, too. Like, when we look at tendency typing, you know, if somebody is under a lot of stress, what are foods that they can eat that will calm their stress, but also that are still healthy? Is it more the fiber and the fat and protein foods, or can we implement some of those foods that might be a little bit high in sugar, but they also have fiber?

Yeah. Well, I think also the question before even asking that is, like, if you're stressed, you know, are you talking about food for a snack or, you know, like, really, we shouldn't be turning to food when we're stressed. So I think that's kind of the first thing is, like, you know, if you're looking just for a snack when you're stressed, well, maybe there's like a reaching for a glass of water or going for a walk or something like that. Because. Because if I'm looking for a snack, I'm usually, like, not looking for something healthy. So, you know, that would kind of be the first thing. And then from there, you know, just general foods, like. Yeah, I mean, having. That's when it's most important, to just have something there that's already healthy and put together, you know, that has your vegetables and your protein and your healthy fat. And you have a meal that's put together.

Yes.

Because if you're stressed and you reach for a meal that doesn't have those core pieces, then you're gonna kind of like. Then your blood sugar is going crazy. So in addition to the stress, then your body's, like, feeling this, like. Like wacky, like, blood sugar, like another kind of stress, and it just kind of all builds. So really, I think the most important thing is just, like, having that healthy meal that's kind of your core meal, whether you're stressed or not. But when you're stressed, it's really gonna, like, keep you from, like, overloading on stress, because you're not gonna be, like, having those foods that send you on a spiral.

I am so glad you said that. And I think, like, that right there was the basket of truth that held all of these bullet points and takeaways we've gone over on the podcast today. It's like, if we're eating because we're bored or we're stressed, then we're not gonna make the healthy choices. I mean, the lens of stress and overwhelm is what we started this conversation about. And that is a really big, important part, probably the most important. When we look at batch cooking or anything else as we wrap the show, I wanna ask you a few personal pieces that we all can get to know you a little bit deeper on. You know, we talk about this physical and emotional on the show so much. What is a physical practice, Alison, that you're currently leaning into? In other words, do you have a training or a meditation or any kind of body work practice that you're leaning into to develop your further journey in your physical intelligence?

Yeah, so two years ago, I did the transcendental meditation training, and so I still practice that pretty. Pretty consistently. So two times a day for 20 minutes. And it makes a huge difference.

What have you noticed?

You know, I feel like I'm just more calm and, you know, kind of thoughtful in my approach overall. And, you know, things just. Things flow better. And if you really want to notice the differences, like the days that I skip, then you kind of start to notice the difference more so. But I think things fall into place a little easier when I'm meditating. It's. It's kind of hard to describe, but it definitely. It's a better feeling of, like, more calm and more grounded.

Yeah. Especially when it's matched with the breath. That's one thing. You know, taking a deep breath before you even step into a store, learning that skill set of breathing through meditation, how is that gonna positively affect all your food choices? So thank you for reminding us about that. And for people that are listening to you, it doesn't have to be just tm. It can be headspace, it can be muse. There's so many different ways to get out of your head and back in your body. What about emotional, though? We talk about emotional intelligence, our thoughts, our feelings, our actions for emotional intelligence, how are you leaning into that in this stage of your journey?

Gosh, you know, the thing that came to my mind when you said that was, you know, I really. Here in Austin, I have a few groups that I'm a part of. One is, like, some, you know, fellow women, business owners that we meet up once a month. And another is just another group of women that we meet up on a monthly basis. And really having that support system of people that you can talk, you know, do a checkpoint every month and review where you're at with your business, but also your life and personally, and things that are good and things that are bad. So, you know, really having that community has been important for me.

The more we learn about food and our body and our mind and everything else, our emotions. The more we realize, Allison, don't you believe that we're just going back to the original ancestral way of being human connection? You know, women, I feel like you women, you show us men how to connect, like this is the world we live in, you know, And I feel like, like there's such a huge bridge between people meeting in groups. And thank you for reminding us about being in groups, how powerful that can be. I'm sure the food conversation comes up quite a bit there as well too, right?

Oh, yeah. I mean, there's a lot, a lot of different things that come out in those groups.

So self awareness is something that we're always learning to be self aware. We, we also can avoid pitfalls. Give us one or two or, or three, whatever comes up for you around the pitfalls that people experience when they're setting up their environment for batch cooking. What can we be self aware about to avoid dropping into those pitfalls?

Well, I think that the first piece is people jump into it. They think they have to do it or they need to do it and they want to do it, but they can't find the time. And so I think the first piece is really becoming clear on, hey, this is going to save me time later on. And this is why I want to do it. And this is why it's important to me. Instead of feeling like it's something you should do, kind of get away in general, we should get away from, oh, I should do this. This to the point of like, I want to do this and this is what I do because of these reasons. So just really it's a mindset shift, number one. And then from there, you know, there's a lot of different things, blockages. But, you know, that first piece of mindset shift I think is like the biggest one.

Yeah. And this is why I feel compelled to show your work is because you're not just talking about, hey guys, eat more veggies. There's a much bigger thing that we tackle first and that's, that's honestly our, ourselves, that deeper emotional work. We'll link some things in our show notes with Allison around that emotional work as well today. Last question. Alison. Wellness, this continuum of learning also combines this physical and emotional and self awareness. How do you see wellness now? Two years ago you answered this question, how do you answer the definition of what is Allison's wellness to her?

Yeah, so I looked, I listened back, and last time I said, eating real food, that makes you feel good. And while I still think that's true. I think wellness, you know, it's kind of, I have a more holistic view of like it's your food, it's your, you know, like we were just talking emotional and physical well being. And it's also, I think the other important piece that I would add this time around is that it's kind of an active process. It's not like you've arrived. It's kind of just always checking in and evolving into something better.

I love the word evolving because that's what we're all doing. And if we think we're not, then we're probably dying because this learning continues, always goes forward. Where can people dig in? Where can people get Prep Dish? Where can they get involved? You said you have a community on social. We'll put all of these links. You can just tap your phone right now actually, if you want to connect with Allison. But Allison, tell us for the people that love to hear, where can they find you?

Well, first of all, we have prepdish.com wellnessforce where we have a two week free trial set up so folks can go there to try it out. And then, you know, from there we're at Prepdish on all the social pages. So Facebook and then Instagram. I. I'm personally on Instagram a lot, kind of doing stories and stuff. So but just find Prep Dish all over.

Awesome. Thank you. Well, I'll make sure I add you on Instagram right now. I've been on Instagram a lot more lately. I feel like people want bite sized information and Instagram stories are only 15 seconds long. Do you do stories on Instagram?

I do. They're a lot of fun. They sometimes can be a time suck, but they are a fun way to kind of connect.

Well, Alison, this has been such a joy, you know, seeing how you have expanded with Preptish and just the Wellness Force community. Community has grown in the past two years as we look forward for 2018. Do you have anything that excites you you could share with us?

Yeah. So, I mean, we haven't done an official announcement, but I've kind of told a few people we're doing an in person event this year and still figuring out exactly what that involves. But I'm very much looking forward to connecting with people in real life, as they say.

I love that. And that's what we all get to do a lot more of, whether you're female or male. Listening to this conversation on the podcast. Join us. We're going to continue this conversation with Allison about batch cooking, how to be successful, and understanding why our brain does what it does when it comes to food. You can join us over@wellnessforce.com group. That'll give you access to the private Facebook page. Alison, thank you so much for sharing all these bullet points, all these tactical things we can do every single day to increase our relationship with food. Thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you so much for having me me. It's always a joy talking to you.

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