My Spoonie Sisters
Welcome to My Spoonie Sisters! If you're wondering what a "Spoonie" is, it’s a term lovingly embraced by those living with chronic illnesses, based on the Spoon Theory. It’s all about managing our limited energy (or “spoons”) while navigating life’s challenges.
Each week, join us to hear from your "Spoonie Sisters" host, co-hosts, and our inspiring special guests as we share real-life stories, tips, and encouragement. Whether you're here to learn, connect, or feel less alone, you’ll find a supportive space filled with understanding, laughter, and strength. Let’s journey through chronic illness together!
Tune in and join the sisterhood!
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Disclaimer: While we are not doctors or healthcare Practitioners, we want to assure you that this podcast is a credible source of information. It's based on our guests' personal experiences and the strategies we've found effective for ourselves. However, everyone's body is unique, and what works for one person may not work for another. If you have any health-related questions, it's always best to consult your Primary Doctor or Rheumatologist.
Remember, our goal at My Spoonie Sisters is to connect people and provide them with the support and tools they need to live better lives.
My Spoonie Sisters
Your Recovery Plate Matters More Than You Think
Nutrition might be the most overlooked aspect of surgical recovery, yet it fundamentally shapes how quickly and completely our bodies heal. In this deeply practical conversation, the Spoonie Sisters welcome holistic nutritionist Jacqueline Lovett to explore the powerful connection between what we eat and how we recover.
We dive into why protein becomes critically important when your body is rebuilding muscle tissue damaged during surgery. Jacqueline shares her expertise on anti-inflammatory foods that prepare your body before procedures and support healing afterward. For those struggling with the magnetic pull of comfort foods during recovery (hello, ramen and chips!), we offer satisfying, nutrient-dense alternatives that don't sacrifice flavor or satisfaction.
The conversation takes a uniquely practical turn as we discuss pre-surgery meal preparation strategies. Learn about freezer-friendly options like homemade bean soups, smoothie packs, and protein-rich meals that require minimal energy when you're focused on healing. We introduce the concept of the "recovery busy box" - a toolbox containing not just activities to keep you occupied during downtime but also shelf-stable, nutritious snacks.
Perhaps most valuable is our discussion about breaking free from restrictive nutritional patterns. Recovery becomes an opportunity to expand your relationship with food, trying new flavors and textures that support healing while bringing joy to the process. As Andy wisely notes, "We don't grow in comfort, we grow while we're being stretched."
Whether you're preparing for an upcoming procedure or supporting someone through recovery, this episode offers a blueprint for using nutrition as a powerful healing tool. Share your own recovery nutrition tips with us, and remember - true healing happens when we give our bodies both the nutrients and the time they need to rebuild.
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Welcome back to my Spoonie Sisters. Today we're going to dive into the most important but often overlooked part of recovery from surgery, and that is nutrition. And today we are joined with Ms Jacqueline Lovett and also with Jen Say. Hey, Jen, hey. We are going to dive super deep into what that looks like and how you can help yourself heal as you are healing, and how you can do that through food. So I am super excited to just chat with my good sis, because we do some things, we love some snacks, we love some plants, and so Jen, if you didn't know, will be having a procedure soon, and so we're going to help her pre-plan what recovery looks like and in hopes that it helps you do the same if you ever find yourself having to go under the knife, as they say. So, without further ado, I would like to start with Jacqueline. Hey, jacqueline, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself for those who don't know who you are?
Speaker 2:All right, I am so happy to be here. I am Jacqueline Lovett. I'm a holistic nutritionist, amongst other things, multifaceted, that's what they call it right? So my journey for nutrition holistic nutrition truly began when I got sick in 2018, I am a grave disease warrior, therefore, I am a swoony sister and, like I said, that really got my journey going and I work with others, you know, trying to help them get onto the path of eating more plants along with your snacks and, yeah, just living a more healthier lifestyle movement, wellness, overall wellness. Yeah, so that's a little bit about myself.
Speaker 1:All right, ladies, are you ready to dive in? So ready?
Speaker 3:All right, let's do it.
Speaker 1:So let's talk pre-surgery preparation, right, Jackie? What role do you think that nutrition plays in preparing your body for surgery? Can we just talk about the importance of what you put in your body before they cut up your body and how that helps with how you heal. The importance of what you put in your body before they cut up your body and how that helps with how you heal. The importance of what you eat and how you heal.
Speaker 2:Ok, so I'm sorry we don't want to scare Jen, but yeah, so what we put in our body. So if we're putting, I personally feel if you're putting food in your body that cause inflammation, cause inflammation, and if you have a food allergy and you're eating certain food before surgery, things like that can trigger eating cause. I don't want to get into the medical side because I'm not the nurse here, but I will say from what I've seen, it can increase bleeding. You know eating foods that cause inflammation. So you know, those weeks or even months leading up to surgery, it's very important to try to stick with anti-inflammatory foods. Stay hydrated. Like I am big on hydration, I know we all are, but hydration is very, very important because you will lose fluid during medical procedures. So, yes, I think it plays a very important part.
Speaker 1:One of the things I like to stress with people that are going to have procedures is the importance of protein in your recovery journey, and a lot of people we're on a lot of medications and we go. I don't have an appetite and so I tell them if you have to eat, if you're going to eat, the first thing you prioritize is the proteins, because your body has to restore, the muscle has to restore, and if they have operated on you and they've gone through layers of your skin right to get to whatever it is that they're fixing, that's layers of muscle, and muscles are protein fibers, right. So you have to prioritize the protein, as you are prioritizing your hydration, because dehydration is not fun, but that's one of the things that I specifically tell the people that I work with. Do you have any favorite nutrient, dense foods or specific nutrients that you love, jackie, that help with inflammation?
Speaker 2:OK. So some people say frijoles or beans Sorry, throwing in my Spanish, I'm working on Spanish, y'all Learning Spanish but the beans, we need them. They have a lot of protein. Some people are sensitive to them, though, so you have to figure out what works for you, but when it comes to protein, that's number one on my list. It fills me up. It gives me, like you said, the strength that you know that I need. I can't say enough about being leafy greens. Of course, leafy green, definitely. We want to make sure that iron is up as well. Yeah, yeah, we need our iron to be up.
Speaker 1:So for y'all that don't know, jacqueline and I have not always been non-meat eaters, okay, and so I've been a non-meat eater, plant-based vegan, for double digit donkey years now. Right, I had a hard time with some swaps, and so I want to talk about what are some swaps that could be done for people on restrictive diets, the things that they don't normally consider in their post-recovery healing, right. So if they were craving salts, post-recovery healing, right. So if they were craving salts but they've had a cardiac procedure, what's a salt replacement? It's the little things, right. And so, for those who are on low sodium, a salt replacement that gives your brain the same concept of salt is lemon. Do you have any fun swaps like that, jackie? Yes, I do.
Speaker 2:And then for the salt.
Speaker 2:You're saying for the sodium part, or just in general, in general, I like to make a beet juice, and if you don't want to purchase anything, it's fine. But with the beet juice I like to add, instead of the white salt, I personally like the Himalayan pink salt, just a little bit, not too much, because we don't want to, like you say, heart related, we don't want our sodium to be too high. And then I add, or pineapple, add some pineapple juice to it. But those are just things to fix. You know, those are hydration drinks. I guess I'm thinking more hydration.
Speaker 1:Well, we got to be hydrated. That's a real thing.
Speaker 3:I'm going to throw myself under the bus first. I've had many procedures over the years. I've had a hysterectomy, I've had my gallbladder out, kidney stones and, to be honest, I know that I go for the same kind of foods after every procedure. It's those things that are comfort. I think we all tend to go for the comfort things, and so I find myself eating a top ramen and potato chips, oh, a good root beer. All the things we should not be eating and that's partly why I wanted to sit down and have this conversation is because I know that a lot of us have these unhealthy diets and these go-to foods that are our comfort food, whether it be after surgery or after an illness. This is for both of you. What would you say would be a good swap out for all these comfort foods?
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of things you can do. You can make your own granola, you can make your own granola bars, and those things are cheap to make because oats come in bulk and you can get nuts in bulk but you can make your own trail mix. You can make the things that can become pantry staples, and you can get nuts in bulk but you can make your own trail mix. You can make the things that can become pantry staples and you would be grabbing that that has your balance, the fiber, the healthy fats, the energy stores that you need, without going over and ODing right. But there's a lot of things that you can do that are pantry staples that will keep you from grabbing a sack of potato chips.
Speaker 2:Would you agree, jackie? I agree, yes, I definitely agree. And when you said top ramen, let me tell you something I love me some ramen, okay. So what have I been doing? Making my own?
Speaker 2:at home, because then I can cut out you know that little package that comes in the ramen. I cut it out, and then those little dried vegetables, I put frozen vegetables instead, like mushrooms, your peas, your green beans, and then for my rumming, the flavor, I try to focus more on herbs, organic. I don't want to always say organic because no, what is it? It's a seasoning, a no salt seasoning. So I season it up with that first and then I'll add a little bit of the pink salt. But, yeah, you can make your own. It'll cut that sodium down so much. And some people, instead of the, depending on your sensitivities, I can't do too much gluten, so I do the rice noodles instead. And they have protein.
Speaker 1:Jen, this is a perfect way for you to use your Costco sheet pan vegetables. Yes, pop them in some soup. Yes. What are your favorite? Like make-ahead meals or snacks that you do before you prepare to have a procedure? Like there's a lot of freezer staples that are easy. Jackie, what are your go-to freezer staples? I know I'm about to do this, so I'm not going to have the energy.
Speaker 2:Right here I go Back to those beans. You can freeze beans, you can cook them ahead of time, you can put them in soup chili. I also like to make smoothie packs ahead of time. So, whatever you want to go in your smoothie, go ahead and freeze it so you won't have to worry about running out to the place and getting this smoothie that doesn't have real fruit. I'm not food shaming y'all. I'm not trying to food shame, but those are expensive and they have a lot of stuff that we don't even know what's in it. But, yeah, freezer packs for my smoothies. The beans, I freeze those.
Speaker 3:What are your go-to favorite beans?
Speaker 2:For me it's the black beans or the red beans, the dark red kidney, yeah yeah, those are my favorite, my favorite. Yep, yep, are you a blueberry?
Speaker 3:type of girl? Not really. I'm more of pineapple, strawberries, mango, grapes, kiwi, all those okay, those are good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just mentioned the blueberries because of the antioxidants that are in them.
Speaker 3:You know, the darker the berry so, okay, I like them in smoothies, just fine, but for some reason I do not like eating them by themselves, got you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, overnight oats. That's my other favorite thing. I still eat that now. Yes, and I know Andy's like. We agree to disagree on that one.
Speaker 1:Still love you. It's the texture. I can't do it. I tried it, I tried it, I tried it and you make it look so delicious. You just be at the table eating in slow motion, you nom nom nom and shoulders just moving and I'm like but it's cold and the texture, I don't know why my mind.
Speaker 1:I know. But I'm trying, jackie, I am really trying to just be okay with the texture because it should be fine. Right, it should be fine. It's the same concept, but I don't know why it's not the same concept right here.
Speaker 3:Okay, what about chia seed pudding? Do you all like that?
Speaker 1:I love a good chia seed pudding.
Speaker 2:Yep, I put it in my oats. In my overnight oats I put chia seed.
Speaker 3:My goodness I love to make your chia seed pudding with a little bit of honey. Coconut raspberries I like all kinds of cheater things, right?
Speaker 1:So you get the little mason jars. So when I was trying to transition everybody over to plants right the slow things I wanted you to be able to feel like you still had some stuff in there, right? So I started cutting like the jello pudding with chia to give it more oomph. And then I started lessening and lessening the pre-made stuff until all I was doing was adding, like dark chocolate, cacao powder or whatever and some vanilla until they got used to that texture. But it makes fabulous desserts and if you decided that you wanted to up the protein content while you're recovering, you could pop some collagen in there. Seven days you're num, num, num. Now you have a protein packed and got some chia texture and all the things in there.
Speaker 1:There's so many ways that you can sneak protein into your diet. You particularly it's easier for mostly meat eaters, or people who primarily eat meat, to get all of the things that they need. It's all in now how you stage it Like. What do your staple pantries look like? Do you already have a list of what your recovery snacks are going to be? Do you have those in a specific location? Are you prepping yourself for a smoother transition?
Speaker 1:And it's kind of like prepping for recovery from surgery is kind of like packing your hospital bag to go have a baby and what that looks like when you're coming home and I think Jackie can relate because you know also her wheelhouse. How we take care of mom and baby should literally be how we're taking care of us post any procedure regardless, or in general, how we would take care of ourselves post having a baby. Should be the same way we're handling ourselves with care throughout our life. We just become too busy to do, or so busy doing for others that we forget that we have to prioritize us too for the best outcomes of our recovery.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1:I feel like we have procedures and we come home and we're so quick to get back to doing because we don't know how to sit. Still, I'm so bored just sitting here, I just need to do. And so for anybody who was like that, sit in the stillness and let your body recover, because you'll have more energy and more longevity to continue to do all the busy stuff after your body has healed. But understand, not listening to your body and allowing it to run its course to do the things that it needs, you could be halting or slowing down your recovery in general and you can re-injure yourself. So when I tell you to sit your tail down, sit your tail down.
Speaker 3:You are so calling me out. But just so everyone knows, I'm going to be forced to sit down. That actually is probably going to be a good thing, because I'm going to be in a cast no standing up for me. I'm going to have to sit, I'm going to have to recover and rest and heal. I'm going to be in that cast for four to six weeks.
Speaker 1:So, oh my goodness, how am I going to?
Speaker 3:even handle this. I don't even know.
Speaker 1:We're going to have to hold you accountable, because I already see you scooping around. Okay, with your knee on the low knee scooter. I already see you scooping around being a busy body. You tried it, though, and I love that for you, but you just tried to gaslight me, and I'm going to tell you to stop it, because I already see you in a reel doing some fun trick on your scooter, tossing a spoon. I already see it. Sit down.
Speaker 3:Maybe towards the end of the cast, not at the beginning. You know, I'm actually looking forward to being forced to sit my butt down and catch up on some movies or something, on some movies or something. But I also feel like I'm going to be going crazy and calling everyone I know and saying, okay, talk me down, talk me through this, because this sitting thing is killing me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to get you a busy box and I'm reaching over because this is one of my busy boxes Get you a busy box.
Speaker 3:I'm so excited for this. What is in your busy box?
Speaker 2:Well, this is one of them, but this one has pictures and stuff like that, because that's my scrapbooking. But come up with things to do scrapbooking if you're into journaling. And what am I saying? Of course we're in. All those things that we, we encourage other people to do, you got to do it for yourself. That's going to be your time to really be the role model even more. So do it for yourself Like true story, because I'm also a doula, and so I had a client who jumped back up because she was trying to snap back so quick and it pushed her out even further.
Speaker 2:And now the situation is not good. It's not good. And so, yeah, she was two weeks in, she got into doing too much, she fell, and then now all of that has started over. So her six to eight week recovery, which, in my opinion, she was two weeks in, she got into doing too much, she fell, and then now all of that has started over. So her six to eight week recovery, which in my opinion, is still not long enough. Yeah, now it has been pushed out even further. Now we have an injury on top of that. So, yeah, just something to keep you busy. So this busy box.
Speaker 1:Jackie, I love that, I love that idea. And now I'm like I got a box and I know what I'm about to put in mine. This busy box, jen, because you're going to spend a lot of time sitting because you're not scoot, scoot, scooting. Put one in multiple locations one in your common area, one in your bedroom. Shelf stable snacks, because you got all of those we were in your pantry the other day. So you have shelf stable snacks. Put your healthy, recovery-friendly snacks in this busy box. You can grab it. You get little bitty things you like to paint. Put rocks in the little bitty paint kits in there and you can sit and you can paint. Lay it out to all the things, but all in one. Put some snacks in there, a bottle of water, some electrolytes. It's a one-stop shop. You have an activity, you have a nice kindergarten all over again. You have an activity, you have a snack and you can take a nap.
Speaker 2:See how that looks Perfect day, yeah, and you can fit a blanket in there too. I've already had, I had one in my other one. Yep, it fits.
Speaker 3:I like the direction you both are going with this and I think I have the perfect thing that I'm going to do. We have one of those plastic like it's like a TV tray kind of thing and it has little slots in there that I can slide things in and sometimes when I'm crafting I'll slide big containers of beads in there and then it has two cup holders too, so I can make sure I have my protein drink and my water and my snacks as well, and then I can have, like Andy said, I can have my rocks and my painting, I can have some jewelry making supplies, and maybe in my common room, like in the living room, I'll have those kind of projects and a book and then maybe in my bedroom. I probably won't do the crafting per se in there, but I can have some different kinds of maybe coloring or something like that in there, but I can have some different kinds of maybe coloring or something like that.
Speaker 1:So bento boxes or snackle boxes are going to be your best friend, because sometimes you get tired of the same texture, and that's me, and so when I'm recovering from surgery or just in general, I love a good snack. I carry around bento boxes in the backpack. They slide, they're flat, they stack on top of each other Cool, it gives you a variation of textures and sweetness and salty, all the things. So if you made your own granola and you did your own trail mix and you did crackers or whatever, you can make your own snackle box. It could be sweet, salty, savory, but you have all of the taste buds zones Like, hey, I'm here, heart lid snaps on, I'm done snacking, I'm back to my crafts. That way you don't have a whole bunch of wrappers all over the place and you give your but yeah, you could anti-inflammatory trail mix, that's your homework.
Speaker 3:Okay, I like that. I've never made my own granola mix. I love eating everybody else's.
Speaker 1:So why I've never made it myself? It's so easy.
Speaker 3:I don't know yes. Okay, and I think I want to run this one by you. I'm thinking, hopefully you guys like this one, but my husband likes to make. We call them protein bites. You know, they have the nuts and the peanut butter and the cocoa. Yeah, yes, that'll be okay.
Speaker 1:Yep, okay, and that would go really good in your snackle box because that gives you your cakey texture and then you would have your trail mix. That gives you trail mix and granola that gives you your crunchy Right. And if you're feeling froggy, what you do is you use your granola for some yogurt, because that's protein. Bam and bam, you got protein and fiber. And then you have your protein balls for your little snackety snacks and then you have your nuts later. You know that is anti-inflammatory and also some protein, healthy fats, fiber. You're welcome, completely balanced. You don't eat the whole rainbow and you were satiated and your tum-tum says thank you.
Speaker 3:Just talking about all this is making me hungry, yeah, what? About egg bites. How do you feel about egg bites?
Speaker 1:I'm not a fan, and also I'm vegan, but I'm not a fan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm sorry. That's why I was just thinking Well, how about this For people that aren't vegan? For people that aren't vegan? It works, it's convenient Make your own, as many quiches make your own.
Speaker 1:It's so much cheaper to make your own. But it's essentially a crustless quiche, a little mini quiche, a little omelet and a muffin tin. I don't eat them, but essentially it's an omelet and a muffin tin.
Speaker 3:We make our own. Yeah, we make our own and we freeze them, yep, so that's a good thing for you to do before surgery Batch prep those they freeze very well.
Speaker 1:Then you always have a high protein balanced breakfast, English muffin. Now you've got a sandwich. Okay, man, balanced breakfast English muffin.
Speaker 3:Now you got a sandwich. Okay, man, all the ideas, all the ideas. What would you say are your favorite smoothie recipes?
Speaker 2:It's so many. Yeah, there's probably like 50. Yeah, but I try not to put too much stuff in my smoothie because then things start canceling out the next thing, right? So if I'm doing a tropical smoothie, then I'll try to stick with mango. So I have a tropical one where I put mango, I put the pineapple, random, but I'll throw a little bit of kale or spinach in there, and then that's when I want to put in me some flax seed and, you know, your chia seed. If you desire, there's your protein and I make it with water. Or if you want to get fancy, you can use some type of milk. I like the almond milk which I like to make myself, but you know it's not hard to do it all. So, yeah, I try to not put too much stuff, but that's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:Trappable.
Speaker 3:That sounds great. What about you, Allie?
Speaker 1:I'm very vanilla okay, because I'm over here making desserts and so, but I'm very vanilla. Mine is going to start with half of a frozen banana and then I'm going to probably use a vanilla protein base. Some cinnamon, some oat milk, some oatmeal goes in it. I have some flax that will go in it, but when it's done it tastes like a frosty or a McDonald's milkshake. It's because of the sweetness of the banana and the vanilla it tastes like a Frosty or a McDonald's milkshake. It's because of the sweetness of the banana and the vanilla it tastes like a McDonald's milkshake. And so I try to kind of keep it simple. I got a chocolate variation of that. I got a Reese's peanut butter cup variation of that. I love a good smoothie. I got a whole book that got some smoothies in it. I love a good smoothie. I love a good.
Speaker 1:Drink your calories, because sometimes that's all you can do. And if all you can do is drink your calories, at least it should be fun to your taste buds, right? So I went through a long period of only being able to drink my food. How much fun can I have doing that? And without me getting bored or annoyed with my recovery? Right, make it fun.
Speaker 1:I encourage people to experiment. You don't have to eat in this box. There is so much life and vibrance, all kinds of other things and different cultures and different textures of food. Stop eating in a box. We spiral when we're in this box. I only have to eat these things. That's the gym goers that only eat broccoli and chicken breast and brown rice. There's so many other things that gives you that same amount of protein, but we kind of eaten this shell because we just saw it and that's what they've talked about the longest. Allow yourself to grow nutritionally while you heal physically, right, and give your body the things that it needs, that it's probably always needed, but you never slow down until you have to recover to give it to yourself, right, and so after recovery, hopefully that is never the case that something has to slow you down enough for you to pause to give your body the things that it always needed.
Speaker 2:Okay, so Andy has a cookbook I do I call it a cookbook that she, that I use. I use it with my nutrition client and and it has smoothie recipes in it.
Speaker 1:It does. Tons of smoothie recipes.
Speaker 3:You had a cookbook.
Speaker 1:Soups and stews and all kinds of things.
Speaker 3:I still use it. Have you been gatekeeping for me?
Speaker 1:No, that's been out for some years.
Speaker 2:It's been out for some years, but she has in fact been gatekeeping. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Jackie, you did it but it is really good and I'm telling it's a reset. It's as she mentioned. You don't want to keep eating in that box. It gets boring. That's why so many people that I have worked with um have told me in the past they've given up. They were like, oh, I thought I could only eat this and I'm like and it's not about being vegan right here, but I'm just saying if you're eating, it's so many great foods available that are healthy out there, so many things. You can put together the struggle. Meals turn into really good recipes.
Speaker 2:Yes they do. You just start putting stuff together.
Speaker 3:Think, when people don't know and don't understand all of the information, that's what they do. They put themselves in this box, and I've been guilty of it. So what would you say is a good way to get out of it? How does one start working themselves out of the box?
Speaker 1:You try something new. It just takes you making one different decision. When you're faced with decisions where one is familiar and one is not, it's the step that you choose the thing that's unfamiliar, not the thing that keeps you in the comfort zone. We don't grow in comfort, we grow while we're being stretched right, and that's in every aspect of our lives healing from the surgery or just life in general. We don't heal where we're comfortable. We have to be uncomfortable first, before the recovery happened, and we don't grow where we're complacent, and so we have to be stretched in order for us to grow. And we don't grow where we're complacent, and so we have to be stretched in order for us to grow. And we don't bloom unless we grow, so we have to be stretched, sometimes removed out of, moved out of the pot and replanted so that we can grow and bloom. But it means that we have to sit still so that we can grow and bloom and know your why?
Speaker 2:Know your why? I want to just add to what Andy just said your personal why, why do I want to do this and keep it in front of you, Write it down, Make a video to yourself. You know about your why I take pictures of my food. I still do after all of these years. I still take pictures, not for the gram but for me, and that way I can know if I really like this I'm going back to it, I'm like yeah.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I journal it. So that's part of journaling taking pictures, writing it down. How did I feel after I ate this? You know how did it make me feel. But yeah, I love. I love that what Andy said Get out of that box, get out the box.
Speaker 1:We weren't supposed to be in a box to begin with. We put ourselves there, OK, For validation, to seek just fitting in. We put ourself in the same box that we climb out of, okay. And I just need people to understand that I didn't always realize that no one put us in a box, just like nobody put baby in the corner. For real, we put ourself in the box and then we try to climb our way out. We never addressed the root of how we got in that box. We walked into it because we wanted to fit in, because we wanted to feel validation, because we felt like maybe our why is aligned. That's life, that's health, that's business. That's all the things. You can climb out the box. You can grow somewhere else.
Speaker 3:What do you say to the people that don't like to cook, the people that don't even step into a kitchen, or the people that aren't allowed because their husband takes over the kitchen? Not saying that I'm throwing my husband under the bus, Well if he takes over, he'll be like sweetie.
Speaker 2:Can you test this out for me? Yep.
Speaker 1:So are you asking, what do you say to the people who think they can't cook? Because the thing is, it's not that we can't cook, we prepared something.
Speaker 3:Don't try.
Speaker 1:No, it's that we prepared something that was not tasty and we're scarred because the thing didn't go right and we're like I'm never cooking again. I'm an awful cook. No, maybe you just needed more clear instructions. That resonated with you when you read it and it fired you up to say let me try it again. I don't think that people are bad cooks. I think that people are unexperienced and then once they figure out what works for them and what their palate likes, it doesn't have to be overwhelming. I think they go. I'm a bad cook because of all of the things that they could cook.
Speaker 1:They go on to Pinterest. I see this. This whole board has a bunch of ingredients you probably have never seen in your life and you're like well, I can't, it's gonna be gross. Sometimes it's not always gross. Sometimes we have vanilla taste buds because we've been used to not seasoning our food and we hit a recipe that actually requires some seasoning and it tastes a little weird. See what I'm saying. So it's about perspective. If you tell yourself you can't, you really can't. If you tell yourself it's awful, it's going to stay awful. If you tell yourself I will try to make this better for me and I am trying to do the best I can do for me in this allotted 24 hours. That's every minute, that's every hour. I'm trying to do the best for me that I can do for me this hour. That's it. It's the best you can do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and don't cook everything on high.
Speaker 1:No, don't cook everything on high. I've seen people that are like right, that are practically fail-proof. Lasagna it freezes well. Shepherd's pie it freezes well. Meatloaf it freezes well. It's high protein, got all the things it freezes well. Enchiladas freeze well. Burritos you could do black bean burritos roll those janks up, freeze them and then air fry them. They freeze beautifully. Tons of things that you can do that are super simple, that does not require you to dirty up your entire kitchen, that you can prep in 20 minutes or less Little bitty black bean or pinto bean, refried bean, whatever. Taquitos it's a pack of tortillas it's 10 minutes of your day and you put them in the freezer, thaw them out when you get ready to eat them. Tortillas it's 10 minutes of your day and you put them in the freezer, Thaw them out. When you get ready to eat them, dip them in some guac, healthy fat, call it good.
Speaker 2:I'm so hungry right now, I'm so hungry.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I think I've made everyone hungry in this last 45 minutes and it's my apologies. But, jen, you got any other questions?
Speaker 3:No, I just feel I feel ready. I feel ready and I guess what I'm saying to listeners now is if you have questions, we've got answers. So send in all your questions for future episodes, because I'm not going to have all the questions, but they might. I love.
Speaker 1:that Sounds good to me. So with that, we hope that we left you with some tools, some tricks, some tips of how you can better prepare you for every day, but also how you can prepare you before you go in for surgery so that you can have a speedy recovery. So with that, I hope you have the most amazing day that you have, the day that your energy attracts, and it is good on purpose and with purpose. Don't forget your spoons.
