How‘s Your Relationship With Food When You’re Stressed? with Jason Levee

Are you fueling your ambition or unknowingly sabotaging your success? High achievers are notorious for pushing their limits, often neglecting their relationship with food in the process. But what if the key to sustained energy, focus, and productivity lies not in working harder, but in eating smarter?

In this episode, I sit down with Jason Levee, a registered dietitian and founder of Whole Family Health. He helps busy adults, children, and families navigate the challenges of maintaining healthy eating habits amidst hectic schedules. With his personal experience of weight loss and a background in finance, he understands the struggles of burnout and the importance of a positive relationship with food.

In this insightful conversation, Jason highlights the common pitfalls high achievers face when it comes to food, from stress eating and skipping meals to relying on caffeine and sugary snacks. We delve into the importance of understanding your individual relationship with food and how making small, sustainable changes can lead to significant improvements in your overall well-being. 

In this episode: 

• Understanding how your body uses food and its building blocks helps you make better decisions.
• Why do you need to focus on making one small, manageable change at a time instead of overhauling your entire diet?
• how our relationship with food affects our overall well-being, especially during times of stress and burnout.
• Why skipping meals, stress eating, or relying on caffeine and sugary snacks are common patterns.
• Why stepping away from work and getting some fresh air can boost energy levels and improve focus.

Connect with Jason

Website: https://wholefamilyhealth.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wholefamilyhealth.co/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlevee/

Resources:

Couples Goal Setting Workbook
Complimentary Relationship Assessment

Couples Goal Setting Workbook

Level 10 Relationship Assessment

Follow Katie Rössler on Instagram

Check out the podcast website

Transcript

Katie: Welcome back to the podcast! Okay, how is your relationship with food? And how is your relationship with food when you're stressed, overwhelmed, and burnt out? That's what we're uncovering today. I've got Jason Levee here, and we're diving into all of these things.

Welcome to the Balance Code Podcast, a place for high achievers to step outside the hamster wheel of day-to-day life and start learning tools for more balance. I'm your host, Katie Rossler, and I will be guiding you on this journey of discovering your balance code.

Katie: So, Jason, thank you for being here. Take a moment to introduce yourself, share a little bit about what you do, where you are, and who you serve.

Jason: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Katie. I'm excited to be here today and to talk to your audience. Um, so my name is Jason Levee. I'm a registered dietitian, and I'm also the founder of Whole Family Health. I provide nutrition counseling services to adults, children, and families, um, really focused on busy families. How do you make it work for yourself, your significant other, your kids, whoever's in the household? And how do you make it work from a nutrition perspective without burning yourself out, without running yourself ragged, while meeting everyone's different and changing tastes and needs and preferences? And, if you have little kids, they change daily!

So, um, I lived... I live in New York, um, New York City. I grew up just outside New York City and I've lived here for over a decade. Um, and I have three little kids. So I'm in this every day. So between running the company, seeing patients, doing things like podcasts, taking care of my kids, it's a... it's a busy life. Um, and I'm also a reformed investment banker, so I also get the burnout side of it as well.

So, um, excited to talk about it today because I think, you know, the relationship to food that we all have, and that we pass on to those around us, is of utmost importance. And, you know, it's something that we can... we can all learn a little bit more about.

Katie: I agree! And I want to explore, before we dive into it, tell me how you went from investment banking, right? Is that what it is?

Jason: Yeah.

Katie: Yeah, to nutrition. Yeah.

Jason: So, I followed a pretty traditional path in college. I was an economics major. Um, I graduated college in 2008, which was not a great time to go into finance, but, um, was really lucky to be... to be relatively young, cheap, and hard-working. That's why, um... so I wasn't impacted by it too directly, but I worked in finance, um, or you know, close to a decade.

And I would come home from work every day, and my wife would look at me and she'd be like, "You look tired and miserable, like what's going on?" And this is before we had any more kids. And I was like, "You know, like I'm like good at what I do, but I really don't care about it at all. Like I'm so unfulfilled by this." And she's like, "Well look, like you are 30 years old," or whatever I was at the time, I was about 30. And she's like, "You have probably another 30+ years of working. Like do you really want to do something that you're gonna hate every day, or do you want to like figure out what's actually gonna drive you, actually gonna excite you every single day?"

And I turned out like, "I think you should be a motivational speaker, like give up the teaching thing. When you're done, you gotta get out there calling."

Katie: Right, there you go. Yeah.

Jason: I was like, "Well it's the best thing, step out, except on stage." Right, but... but... but so I... I had a pretty difficult weight loss journey myself as a kid and through adolescence and into adulthood. And it was life-changing for me. I grew up really overweight, and when I was in college, I finally found a way to retake control over what I was eating and my behaviors around food. And I lost a bunch of weight, which was my goal.

So for me, that was a good thing. Um, and I felt a lot better. My confidence went up, and I just moved better, lived better... everything was better as a result, indirectly and indirectly. But I never saw a career... the dietitian field is like 95 or so percent female, um, in the United States. Um, and, you know, just didn't seem like the... the most approachable field for me as like an 18-year, 19-year-old at the time.

I also didn't really see this as a career path. So but, you know, you fast forward to... I guess about 7 or so years ago, and [my wife] was like, "Well, talk to a couple dietitians, do what they do, see if it's what you want to do, talk to them." Fell in love with it. Went back to school, got my master's at NYU, did all the training.

As an econ major, right, my science classes were like oceanography and like the age of dinosaurs... like not really into the human body at all. So, almost had to redo my bachelor's degree. And, fortunately, there's lots of options in New York for where you can do those types of things.

Um, so, you know, took all the classes, did all the training, um, did my internship at a great hospital down in Baltimore. Um, during the pandemic, that was... that was interesting as well.

Um... and I've been practicing as a dietitian now for the last three years... I guess four years, something like that. And I love it. It's... it lights me up every single day. Um, and I get to work with people and we talk about food. It's such an interesting lens to learn about someone's upbringing, or their relationship with the people around them, um, or their medical history, and how their body reacts to different types of foods.

Um, and it's fascinating! It can be a window into your culture, can be a window into, you know, kind of these long-held beliefs. Or I learned... I learned about how people learn information every single day, and sometimes you get it from good sources, and sometimes you get it from less reputable sources, we'll say. Um, and when it comes to food, I think, just like anything else, um, there's a lot of good information out there, there's a lot of bad information out there. And it's really, really hard to parse through it, especially when things are really slickly produced or made really easy to understand in ways that logically make sense, but actually biologically don't make sense.

Um, and so... so I think, you know... those are some of the things that I encounter every single day. Like I said, I mostly work with... with really, really busy people. So it's... yeah... I'm efficient with my words and efficient with the way that, uh... with that we attack problems that they're having or challenges that they're facing.

Um, and we take a really iterative approach to make sure that we're, you know, taking one step at a time in the right direction. And really taking a long-term approach.

Katie: So your own experience with relationship with food, and now you're working with others with their relationship... let's get into, you know, how we can't group all high achievers the same, right? Some stress eat, some just skip meals, right? Some go the all-sugar, all-salt, food route and caffeine. So starting out, when you have somebody [who] comes to you and it's like, "I've got so much on my plate, and I'm doing some... I'm doing all this, I've got that," right? Like you just said, "I've got my kids, I've got my career, all these things, I'm building everything." How do you get them to understand that, truly, food and them have a relationship to begin with? 'Cause most of the time they're just like, "Eh, food is just a thing." Like, no... no, you have a relationship with food whether you realize it or not.

Jason: So, I think education is the key. Learning how your body uses food, how it uses different foods, and what the building blocks of our foods are, um, really unlocks for a lot of people this insight into, "Oh, there is a direct relationship between what I ate an hour ago and how I feel right now." And as you kind of extend that, you can say, "Okay, let's think about what I ate or drank yesterday and how I feel today."

Sometimes, I make it as simple as, "Let's just talk about water. We're not even gonna touch food, let's just talk about water. How much water are you drinking?" And sometimes I'll get a response like, "Water? Like, I don't... I haven't just had water in a really long time."

But, okay, let's talk about anything that's not sugary or not caffeinated. So, like, herbal teas could be fine. Or like even like a zero-calorie, supposedly, a Gatorade Zero or something like that, which I would count roughly toward hydration. And we can talk about those types of things.

Sometimes, there's nothing there either. So we're running on coffee or like lattes or like all sorts of different types of either caffeinated beverages or sweetened beverages, energy drinks. Um, I think a lot of the energy drinks have been marketed in a way where people think that they can be hydrating, but the caffeine is a diuretic, so...

Katie: Right... tricky.

Jason: Pretty tricky.

Katie: Gotta calculate that.

Jason: Yep, yeah. So, so we talk just about that, and I'll say, "Okay, we're gonna go on a limb and say you're not drinking zero water, but you're probably not drinking enough. So let's... let's figure out, you know, roughly where you are, and let's just step it up a little bit, right? Let's... let's step it up. Maybe you're at, you know, 16 ounces of water in a day, let's go up by 8 ounces, let's just go to 24, right? So that's just one more cup of water."

You know, it... it feels approachable. "Let's do that for a week and let's see how you feel," right? So you come back the next week, talk about it, like, "Wow, like I didn't notice it, but like I actually end up drinking like 32 ounces of water a day. I didn't realize how thirsty I was because I've been doing this for so long that my body has stopped giving me these signals, or my body's still giving me the signals, but I stopped interpreting them as thirst. And I... I also realize, you know, as I started drinking more water, I wasn't necessarily eating as much, or eating past the point of fullness anymore, because my body was able to differentiate between hunger and thirst."

It's still really common, the concept of... not misinterpretation is, you know... you got the signal from your body, like, "Oh, I'm hungry." So you eat something, you're still hungry, so you eat some more, and you keep eating, keep eating, keep eating... But you're actually just thirsty all the time, right? So you're dehydrated, and your body is trying to give you every signal, um... and... and you're really just thirsty.

So we start with something that feels really approachable. Water is usually my first thing I think about. But if it's someone who is already well hydrated, then we can kind of talk about, you know, maybe it's [talking] about fruit and all the nutrients that are in it, and... and how that can impact your day-to-day, how [it] can impact, you know, whatever is important to you. If it's, you know, someone focused on their skin, we can talk about hydration and antioxidants and why that's really important for... for your skincare and your skin health.

Um, if [it's] someone isn't... who's concerned about energy levels, we'll talk about the, you know, the detrimental side of undereating or, like, skipping breakfast, nibbling on something for lunch, and then realizing you're starving at 3:00.

I see this a lot in kids also. Um, so realizing you're starving at 3:00, and then what happens then? And what happens [to] your energy level throughout the course of the day as you're... and having this really, really large meal after fasting for so long? And, you know, how can that play games with your blood sugar, even if you're not diabetic, right? So how do... how do we balance that out?

So we kind of take whatever it is that you're working on and simplify it down to one thing to work on. Let's make it one thing, 'cause you've got enough other things going on in your life. So we're not gonna attack it... we're not gonna attack everything all at once. And even if you have nothing going on, right? I would never say, "Let's tackle everything all at once." Let's do one to, maximum, three things, right? Usually it's one. And let's see how it goes.

...And so it's, you know, it's about building the relationship with the person [I'm] working with and helping them figure out what's the one thing that I can control right now, and then have that become their new norm. So that way, when life gets crazy again, or gets crazier again, um, you kind of lifted the floor on whatever it is.

So if it's water, you know, now that our new normal is drinking 32 ounces of water a day, do I want them drinking more than that? Yeah. But if they're dropping down only to 32 instead of 16, like that's a step in the right direction. And it's... it's a long-term game. It's not about what did I do yesterday, it's about what am I gonna do over the next week, over the next month, over the next three months. That's what's really gonna have an impact on your body.

Katie: And, you know, I'm going to bring in the mental health piece of this too, what you're just saying, because what needs to be explored then, as you're fixing the relationship [people] have with food and hydration, is why was I okay with starving my body? Why was I okay with limiting myself from these things and willing to push through and work more hours, or do whatever it might be, like skipping those meals?

Because there's this correlation between this feeling of like, "Well, I'll survive, I can get through it," and the long-term effect that it has on our bodies, right?

Jason: Yeah.

Katie: You know, and that's where you're coming in, you're like, "Hold on, mayday, mayday! Let's just start small, think small. Like, let's just get your health back under your control by improving the relationship you have with food and recognizing it. It's not the enemy."

Because it takes time to eat, right? Like, "I don't have time, I don't have time." Well, it's not the enemy, but that's not the right dialogue.

Jason: Yeah, yeah. And when we think about the time, like I often [hear that] the other people I'm working with will be sitting in front of a computer or otherwise distracted while they're eating. And they don't know... they don't realize what they're eating, or get to enjoy it, or really... not... surely registered that they've eaten anything at all.

At the end of lunch, we are notoriously bad historians of what we've eaten as just like... as a general public. Um... like if I asked you what you ate in the last 24 hours, you'd probably get somewhere between 60 and 70% correct. Um... and that's just for anybody, it's not... we're not very reliable. Um... and so, you know, if we're distracted, we're certainly not going to be reliable 'cause we aren't gonna remember it.

Um... so it's, you know, really about, "Okay, like you're gonna take 20 minutes to eat your lunch in the middle of the workday. That break is really gonna help you. Like, if you've just been staring at a screen for hours and hours and hours, and you haven't done anything else, and you're just going to sit there and stare at your screen while you're eating your lunch, you're not gonna be rested."

But if you take a 20-minute break, a 10-minute break, whatever it is, get up and walk outside for 5 minutes even, you'll come back, you'll have the blood moving a little bit, you'll be a little bit recharged. I'm not gonna say it's like... the same as sleeping 8 hours overnight, but you'll have... you'll have that mental break in the middle of the day. And it'll help you come back with a fresh set of eyes, and... and you'll be a little bit more productive. And maybe you'll be done with your work a little bit...

Katie: ...It's like the rest is productive, and eating healthy and hydrating is productive too. We can, like anything else, equate productivity, yeah?

Jason: Yeah. I can help you be productive. It can help you with your stress management, it can help you to prioritize, think a bit more clearly, focus... like there's so many benefits to eating [a] healthy diet. Um, but again, you know, taking one step at a time and, you know, incrementally improving and lifting the floor... part of the way that I like to think about it. Yeah.

Katie: I'd say... I like to give the tip of, like, you would normally say, "Okay, let's just start with water," right? Um, you know... notorious for high achievers is that afternoon slump, like, uh... need the energy, they go for the caffeine, they go for the sweets. Give us... let... let's get to the practical, give us some tools. What are some things we can... what could be that replacement that we try out next week and we go, "Okay, I'm gonna try this in the afternoon instead of XYZ."

Jason: Yeah. So water... water is certainly something we can reach for, I'm going for a walk, right? So if you, you know, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, it is spring now, and at least in New York, we start to have sort of better what... better weather. Um... but get up and go outside, go outside for 10 minutes, 5 minutes, whatever you can do to get a little break in the middle of the day, get some fresh air, get some sunlight, um, and move your body a little bit.

[I'm] not saying go, like, do a workout class in the middle of the day, but go outside and walk around for a couple minutes and see how much better you feel, right? If you can get a water to bring with you, great; if not, you know, that's okay too. Um...

If you're feeling hungry, instead of reaching for things that are, you know, full of sugar, or have a lot of added sugar... and look, I think there's a place for those things in your diet, [I'm] not going to say, "Don't have them." Um... but it's my... it's important to be mindful of the amount and the frequency. I think, you know, in nutrition, it comes down to: How often are you doing this? And when you do it, how much?

Um, so reach for something that is, you know, like fruit-based or vegetable-based... less something that has protein or fat. So the options could be like an apple and peanut butter, or if you don't want to have, like, peanut butter in the office, like apple and almonds, or banana and almonds, or some type of nut. Um...

If you can't have nuts, that's fine; have, like, a Greek yogurt with some fruit. Don't get, like, the pre-flavored ones, get the unflavored. Um... I don't care what percentage of fat you do, um... I think, in general, both that dairy can be pretty good for us, and not that dairy [doesn't] have its place.

Um, add some fruit to it to round out your genes a little bit more, and that's going to give you energy. And it's actually going to keep you full for a pretty long time as well. So it'll help you carry through the afternoon and into... into the evening, rather than taking you on this, like, energy journey of, like, "Okay, I caffeinated, my energy is really, really high, and now I'm going to crash. And so now I'm gonna go back and get another coffee, and now my energy is really, really high and probably not as high as it was before, and then I'm gonna crash again."

Um... and the same thing for sugar, where your blood sugar is gonna be, like, on this curve of, like, up and down, up and down, up and down... which, every once in a while, probably no big deal. Over the long run, we start to have concerns about, you know, what's that doing to your pancreas? What's that doing to your blood vessels?

Um, you know, [because] folks who are eating lots and lots of really, really high sugar foods over time, there can be a high risk for developing some... like Type 2 diabetes. Um, which, in some cases, is reversible, but in... if it gets too far along, not. And so, you want to make sure that we are kind of, you know, playing the preventive card and ensuring that we have a long, healthy life. Um, 'cause what's the point of all this other stuff if we're not having a long, healthy life that we can spend time with all the people we like?

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Katie: Um, what about... what are some tips you have for those who tend to skip meals 'cause they feel like, "Oh, I, you know..." 'cause they don't pre-plan, or things like that. What... what ideas do you have for that?

Jason: Usually, the first thing that people are skipping is breakfast. And so it's something... it's a learned behavior, first of all. Um, and so it... or it may be kind of influenced by some information around a different [inaudible] that may be improperly applied.

Um... so the first thing you can do is start to eat breakfast on purpose. Make a plan, sit down on... I don't care, pick a night, Sunday night, Wednesday night, whatever you want to do and map out... start with one day, not about one day of breakfast, like, what are you gonna have tomorrow? And make it something that's easy. Maybe it's something you can make the night before and just heat up, or, like, in the case of something like an overnight oats, you can just pull out of the fridge and [inaudible].

Or something like if you want to do, like, a shake or something like that, you can do that. Um, but find something that's easy, that's accessible, that you're not gonna wake up in the morning [and say], "Like the last thing I want to do is, like, I don't wanna make an omelet this morning." It's fine, don't make an omelet, make overnight oats the night before, or have, like, yogurt with some berries and nuts or granola or something like that. Um, something that's going to be easy, accessible, that you're gonna enjoy, that you're gonna look forward to, and see how you feel afterwards. See how you feel throughout the course of the day because you've given your body some fuel way earlier than you used to.

You may not realize it, but you stop paying attention to your hunger signals that hit in the morning. We are, naturally, for most people, hungry in the morning, not necessarily right after you wake up, but usually within a couple hours, that... that hunger is going to strike if you... you had dinner the night before, maybe a few hours before [you] went to bed. So it's probably been, I don't know, 8 and 12 hours since you last ate. And that's a pretty long time. Um...

And so we want to make sure that we're eating, you know, a couple hours after you wake up, something like that, to... to see how everything [inaudible]. Look, breakfast doesn't have to be huge. It can be as simple as [a] banana and peanut butter, which is, like, on my... brain because it's one of my favorite snacks. Um, but it could be as simple as that.

Or it could be as simple as like... there's, um, at least in the States, there's, like, Vans makes these waffles that are... and I'm not like sponsored by any products like that, um... Vans makes these waffles that have protein added. Um... and they are... they're pretty good. My kids love them, my wife loves them. I like them, not like a big waffle fan, but they're... the nutrient profile on them is relatively good.

You can add things like peanut butter or some butter, or whatever you want to it to change the flavor up. And that's an easy breakfast that's ready in, like, five minutes or less. You throw it in the toaster oven... frozen... and it is ready. And you have a nice, warm breakfast to either have on the go, sit down at the table, whatever you want to do. I would encourage you to sit down at the table if you can.

But, you know, start making a point of eating breakfast and see how you feel. If you feel awful after eating breakfast, maybe we change the foods that you're eating, or maybe you're one of, like, the small percent of people that truly is not, like, actually hungry in the morning. And that's okay. Like everybody's a little bit different. But, for the most part, we're gonna want to be eating pretty consistently throughout the course of the day, right?

Katie: Right. Now, I'm gonna point out that you never mentioned... and this is more for those in North America than Europe because fast food chains are not as... I mean, they're here, they're just... just not the same, I promise. It's just not the same.

But you never said, "Go grab that fast-food item," you know, like, "Oh, you know, on your drive, stop here" kind of thing. What I heard you talk about was like yogurt, almonds, apples... things we can have that are grabbable from our own fridges, right? Like then they could put it in your bag, kind of thing. So that's not to downplay, or not to downplay, but to attack anybody who, like, goes that route. And there can be fast-food places that have healthier options, but I think at the end of the day, it's about us preparing our food, us having things on hand that, you know... and thinking ahead. "Okay, this week's going to be crazy, let me make sure I have some of those Greek yogurts. Let me make sure I already have some apples."

We started buying apples by the boxes. So here in Germany we have a place called Metro, it's just like Sam's Club or Costco, and, like... and, like, we buy the boxes of apples because we just go through them so fast. It was like, let's just go and bulk purchase some of these things that we know we need on a regular basis, or breakfast, or snacks, or whatever it might be.

...And you know, if you're in the workplace, how easy it is to bulk-buy some of those almond packs, or whatever it might be, put them somewhere in your desk or in your bag so that it's always there until you need to buy again. Um, I think often we just think in the moment, "I need something right now," and not, "Hey, Saturday, Sunday, let me go ahead and prepare for the week ahead."

So things like that help us in... in the journey you're talking about, improving that relationship, is just... I don't think ahead, and... and make food a priority in a good way, because it is what's going to keep you fueled to be that high achiever.

Burnout, I believe, is related to a lot of things, and one component is food, and how we're not taking care of our health. And so it's great that you're saying, "Hey, let's just start with drinking enough fluid, like actual water. Let's just make sure, like, let's talk about shifting maybe some snacks, let's look at breakfast..."

You know, my own journey of switching to a savory breakfast and making sure [I have] protein and fiber and all these particular things... was my own health journey of going, "What I'm doing is not working, this doesn't work." Going in and getting blood work done to see what foods my body can tolerate and going, "Like, I'm all in on those, then," and... and making that an option that helps with my balance, that helps with me feeling regulated during the day.

I know you've had your own journey to figure out like what works for me, what works for my family. And, as you said, their kids... it changes. Like, one day they like bananas, the next day they don't like bananas, right? And you're like, "Okay, cool, whatever, I just bought a whole thing of it," but just recognizing what works for you, and then I think going all-in. [It's] like, "Okay, right now, for the next two weeks, I'm in on the almonds. Buy them!" And then you got it, right? And then, the next two weeks, [you're] into something else. Um...

Katie: May food [be] a healthy relationship in your life. I think that's the gist of what you're saying, Jason, is like... this needs to be something that... it's good, and it... it is part of you being successful, not a detriment to, uh... my time and my energy and my whatever. Use it as... like, [you'd] level up, like, playing, you know, video games, or, like... like, "Hurry up, you'll level up!" That's your thing, that's what you need it for, in a good way.

Jason: You can think, like, food, sleep, [and] stress management... those three things, taken together, support you. They lift you up, and they'll lift you up as high as you want to go, if you take care of those three. Those are kind of, you know, your... your base-level needs. Um... are, you know, you're making sure you're getting enough sleep, and... and good quality sleep, making sure you're managing stress and finding healthy outlets... where there is gonna be stress in life; it'd be kind of boring if there wasn't any.

Jason: How are you... imagine you're going to manage it by working out, meditating, breathing....you pick your... your healthy outlet for it. And then when it comes to food, finding ways to make healthy choices accessible, because we are human, we want the path of least resistance.

Jason: So if we make it convenient to have healthy options... like a perfect example, I'll go to the grocery store, and I will buy... my... and my kids love berries, so I'll buy so many packets of berries, so many cartons of berries that I can barely find gas in my fridge! But I will wash them, like, in vinegar a little bit, and then let them sit and soak, whatever... That way they're ready to go. Like, there's no, like, "Oh, I have to get them out of [the carton], I have to wash them," but they're ready to go.

[Same with] things like bell peppers. I will pre-slice them and store them in water so that they maintain their, um... maintain their, like, crispness, basically. They don't dry out. And that way, instead of saying, like, "Oh, I really want to cut it, take the seeds out, take the stem out," right? ...like, all that, like, the prep's already done before they've even gone in the fridge.

Um, so the more you can do things like that, you know, the better served you're going to be, because things are going to be more accessible. You can also buy the pre-cut veggies. Sometimes, like, take... like, let someone else do the work. You pay a little bit extra, but think about the trade-off in terms of the time that you would spend versus the little bit of extra money that you're spending. Like, you can think about the value of your time, and you know, what the trade-off is.

So if it's a matter of, "I'm going to spend a little bit more money to get the pre-cut onions, or I'm going to order..." there... like, you're better off actually spending the money on the pre-cut onions than ordering dinner, because, well, just from the financial perspective, you're gonna spend less doing that... like buying the pre-cut onions, if that's the... that's the block. Um...

Or buy frozen vegetables, like, they are just as nutritious, and in some cases more nutritious than fresh. Um, because they're picked at the peak of freshness or ripeness and then flash-frozen at the facility.

So, like, I'll buy the biggest thing I can find of frozen broccoli florets, because it means I don't want to break down, like, a crown of broccoli. I don't want to do anything to it. Um, I just cook it, I just steam it or, like, I'll buy and then roast it, or whatever the case may be, however I'm using it. But I don't have to deal with, like, breaking it down. I just have to plan ahead enough to know, "Hey, I'm buying, like, this 5-pound bag of broccoli; that's gonna last one meal in the house, 'cause I'm a dietitian."

You might get a little... perhaps that's a result. Um... but it's... it, you know... things like that, that's, like... that... they can [be] time-savers that don't cut corners on nutrition, but cut corners on, like, the actual prep work that you have to do.

So take the things you don't want to do and outsource them, and then do the things that you want to do, and the things that are gonna make you feel good that you can save time on and... and not burn yourself out. Like, think ahead a little bit, yeah, that's just a day ahead. Um, and do the, you know... use the tools that are at your disposal.

Like, I go to the grocery store still, but I also order groceries online all the time. Like, I'll use Amazon Fresh or FreshDirect, various platforms sometimes, um, because it helps me fit into my day. Where it takes me 15 minutes to order groceries, if I go to the store I'm there in 45 minutes, but my local grocery store is... the New York City grocery stores can be fun to navigate and decorate with. Um, but if I'm ordering groceries, it takes me 15 minutes, so I know exactly what I want, and I stay more on point with my list.

[Ordering online] is also a helpful thing for reducing impulse buys, um, and I can schedule a delivery for a time that's convenient. And, you know, it's one last thing that I actually did. Is there some degradation in terms of, like, the quality of the produce? Probably. Like I would probably pick better apples than what I then... what I get from a delivery service. But it's not such a... such a step down that it stops me. Um, so I think, you know... I think there's a time and a place for that as well, if that fits into your budget, if it fits into your lifestyle, you know, to plan ahead and take steps like that. You can also just eat your lunch, which is really helpful.

Katie: Jason, thank you so much. Thank you for the tips and the ideas, and... and really making it practical for our busy lives. If people want to connect with you, where can they find you?

Jason: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm... I'm always happy to chat about nutrition, chat about food. Um, you can find me on Instagram, I'm @WholeFamilyHealth.co Um, that's also my website, Whole Family Health dot co, and you can, you know, learn more about me and my practice there. Um, see some pictures of my kids as well. Um, it's three kids I have a... I love this. Five-year-old...

Jason: I have a five-year-old, three-year-old twins. So my... my hands are full all the time. but, you know, you can learn more there, see how we... how it works. Um... and we can start to work together as well.

Katie: Excellent! I'll make sure all the links [are] in the show notes.

When you mention the 5-pound, um... bag of broccoli, it's like... he's got lots of kids. Like, I do, really. I get this. I get it.

We're like, "Yeah, 'cause it's gone in one meal." Yep. And thank you again for being here. And dear listener, here's to finding our balance code.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Take a moment to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast platform. That helps other listeners just like you to find this podcast too. Want to connect and learn how we can work together? Check out the links in the show notes below. Discovering your balance code doesn't have to be a one-person journey, you can have a team, and I'd love to support you. So, here's to finding our balance code.