HSOS #15: Plan with Me: Simple Meals, Stronger Weeks

Meal planning doesn’t have to mean color-coded containers or spending your whole Sunday chopping vegetables. In this episode, Kim shares how one cozy bowl of chicken tortilla soup inspired her to create a brand-new 7-day high-protein meal plan that’s as realistic as it is delicious. Learn how planning with intention (not perfection) helps women in midlife hit their protein and fiber goals, keep blood sugar steady, and take the stress out of eating well—all without dieting. 

Let’s talk. 

Welcome to Her Season of Strength—where women over 40 reclaim their bodies, their energy, and their voices, without apologies. I'm Kim Duffy—registered dietitian, personal trainer, mom, and your biggest hype woman when it comes to aging like you mean it. 

This show isn’t about chasing skinny or counting wrinkles. It’s about building real strength—physical, emotional, and hormonal. Each week, I’ll share straight-talking nutrition tips, sustainable fitness strategies, and conversations that help you feel powerful in your skin once again. 

Menopause is not an ending, it is only the beginning. This is your season of strength. 

📝 What I Cover 

• That Saturday afternoon chicken tortilla soup moment that turned into a new 7-day high-protein meal plan 
• How small tweaks—extra chicken, black beans, Greek yogurt—make recipes more satisfying and macro-balanced 
• The new plan details: just under 1500 calories, 100+ g protein, 23 g fiber, and zero guilt 
• Why meal planning isn’t about perfection—it’s about giving your future self a little help 
• How planning ahead keeps energy stable, cravings down, and takeout apps closed 
• My no-stress, step-by-step meal planning routine (pick your day, plan around protein, prep once—eat twice) 
• The one big takeaway: being prepared beats being perfect, every single time 
• Grab the free 7-Day Meal Plan here

Links & resources for this episode:

Fit After 50 Plus Program: 8-Week Nutrition Coaching & Fitness Program for women 50+. Next session starts winter of 2026. Join the interest list today for the best bonuses and discounts offered.

Free cheat sheet: "20 Tips to Crushing Menopause"

Join my free weekly newsletter list and get a new high protein recipe sent to your inbox every Thursday.

Find me on social media: Instagram I Facebook I Tiktok

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi there, and welcome to her season of Strength, where women over 40 reclaim their bodies, their energy, and their voices, without apologies. I'm Kim Duffy, registered dietician, personal trainer, mom, and your biggest hype woman. When it comes to aging like you mean it, this show isn't about chasing skinny or counting wrinkles.

[00:00:20] It's about building real strength, physical, emotional, and hormonal. Each week, I'll share straight talking, nutrition tips, sustainable fitness strategies. And conversations that help you feel powerful in your skin. Once again, menopause isn't an ending. It's only the beginning. This is your season of strength.

[00:00:39] Hello. Hello friend. Welcome back to her season of Strength. I am so happy you're here and thank you so much for taking just a couple minutes to hang with me. I want you to picture this. It's Saturday afternoon. It's cold and gloomy outside and I'm in the kitchen making this amazing chicken tortilla soup.

[00:00:56] This was last weekend. You know the kind that makes your whole house smell like [00:01:00] heaven and your stomach starts growling before it's even done. But of course, being me, I can't just leave a recipe alone. No, I'm tossing in an extra chicken for protein. I'm adding black beans for fiber. I'm talking topping it with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

[00:01:14] If I can make something more filling and macro balance, you better believe I'm gonna do it right, and as I'm stirring the pot, I thought, you know what? More women need meals like this. Easy, delicious. Satisfying and supportive of their goals, right? You eat it and you don't have to worry like, oh gosh, you know what?

[00:01:33] I'm gonna have to do an extra, hour long session of cart cardio to to burn this off, or, make you feel, not feel as good, make you feel heavy. You want a meal that's delicious and satisfying, but it's got, good for you type things in it. So I went ahead. I created a brand new seven day high protein meal plan.

[00:01:53] So I had created one here, gosh, it was probably about a year ago, and I've had tons of people who've grabbed this [00:02:00] meal plan and I thought it's time for some new recipes to give out. And this one is so good. It's got, it's got this chicken tortilla soup that I made. It's got pumpkin peanut butter cups.

[00:02:11] It's got cinnamon roll mug cake and other really good recipes. So things that you don't, you're like, oh, wait, those don't sound overly healthy, but they are. And you know what? They're tasty too. So you'll have to grab that. I will put the link in the show notes. Each day of this meal plan is gonna average just under 1500 calories.

[00:02:31] It's gonna give you over a hundred grams of protein and at least 23 grams of fiber each day. And the best part's totally free, right? You can grab it in the link in the show notes, like I said. But today I wanna go beyond recipes. I wanna talk about something that can completely change the game when it comes to consistency, and that is meal planning, not the rigid.

[00:02:50] Pinterest perfect, like crazy complex recipes, but real life planning that keeps you full fueled and feeling good all week. So grab [00:03:00] your coffee or maybe your grocery list and let's jump into it. Okay, so let's start here. When I say meal planning. People usually fall into two camps. They either light up and say, oh, I love planning my meals, or they break out in hives.

[00:03:13] Just hearing the word plan, it sounds like something that requires color coded containers and label makers, right? But here's the truth. Meal planning isn't about perfection. It's about intention. It's simply just giving your future self a little helping hand because let's be honest, protein and fiber don't magically land in your lunchbox by accident.

[00:03:35] Next to that peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So let's break down what meal planning really means and why. It's one of the most powerful tools for hitting your nutrition goals without feeling like you're on a diet. Meal planning, it's not about being rigid or restrictive, it's flexible. Okay?

[00:03:52] It's the opposite of dieting. It's just about being prepared and prepping beforehand in advance. It's planning for success but [00:04:00] not perfection, and it's about reducing that decision making fatigue. That we all get, especially by the end of the week, we're tired, we're stressed. We don't wanna even think about what we're gonna make for dinner at the end of the day.

[00:04:14] 'cause it's been a long day. So it's about reducing that decision fatigue and increasing consistency because the more repetitions that we get in there, the easier it's gonna become and it's gonna become more of that habit, right? It doesn't mean though, that we have to prep every single bite ahead of time.

[00:04:31] It just means that you go into the week with a loose roadmap instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best when it comes specifically to women in midlife or post-menopausal. Here's the thing, you know when we plan ahead, we take the stress out of eating well, it's gonna help us to just be more consistent when life gets busy.

[00:04:49] 'cause we know life always gets busy. There's always something going on. If you still have kids in the house, you're running 'em to activities. Is there yard work to do? [00:05:00] Is there snow shoveling to do, but there's always something going on. But it's gonna help us to hit our protein and fiber goals, which are also gonna help us to keep our blood sugars steady and our energy stable all day.

[00:05:15] It's gonna reduce our cravings and it's gonna especially reduce that late night snacking. We're not gonna have those days where it's oh, I didn't get a chance to eat, or maybe I didn't pack lunch so I didn't eat anything all day. And then you get home and you're absolutely famished and you can't stop eating 'cause your body's trying to make up for, not eating anything all day.

[00:05:34] This is gonna save time and money because we all know that when we come home and we're, don't know what we're gonna make, we're much more likely to order that DoorDash or to say, let's just go out and grab something to eat. And typically those things are, it's not gonna be as quality. We're gonna probably eat more than what we normally would if we had made something at home.

[00:05:55] Not to mention, then we have to think about it. Whereas if we have a plan in place, you know what [00:06:00] we're saving on some of that brain power. It's gonna help us to feel more in control of our nutrition and our energy levels. And for women in midlife, this is huge because protein and fiber are our power duo.

[00:06:12] They're gonna help preserve muscle, they're gonna help to support those hormones and help us to feel full and focused. So now that you know why meal planning matters. Let's make it simple enough that you'll actually want to do it because you don't need to turn your Sunday into a full blown meal prep marathon or create a spreadsheet worthy of NASA.

[00:06:31] Let's make this doable. Grab your notes app because I'll, I'm about to walk you through my easy, no stress meal planning process. First of all let's pick our planning day. Put it into your calendar, whether that's you know what, whatever days that you have off work for the week, it's probably going to be the beginning of those days.

[00:06:50] If you have Saturday and Sunday off, maybe it's Friday evening, maybe it's Saturday morning, you're gonna take maybe 15 or 20 minutes to look at your week and plan your meals [00:07:00] around your schedule. Maybe that means pulling out some simple recipes. Maybe that means just. Taking a look around your refrigerator in your freezer to see, inventorying what you have so that you know what you need to get at the grocery store.

[00:07:15] One nice thing about the seven day meal plan that I created, it actually has a grocery list. So there's eight recipes, all in all, and basically those eight recipes you're gonna be eating on all week long. So that's gonna give you three meals a day and two snacks a day. And it ha creates a full grocery list of everything needed for all of those meals, right?

[00:07:36] Just to make it super quick and easy. But you can do the same thing. So maybe you're gonna pick that planning day, maybe you know that you're gonna make. I don't know, chicken enchiladas or chicken tortilla soup like I made. So then you figure out what do I need to buy? What do I have in the house?

[00:07:52] And your second step is to start small. If you are brand new to meal planning, don't start by thinking you need to [00:08:00] make. Yeah, every single meal for every single day and prep every single snack, right? Because you know what? That's gonna be a lot. And you are, it's not gonna be sustainable. And I'm afraid that you're gonna say, screw this.

[00:08:12] I don't wanna do this. This is too hard and you're gonna quit. So I want you to focus on what meal one meal. What meal is your biggest struggle? Is it that you never grab, get breakfast because you're always running out the door, so maybe you decide I'm gonna make breakfast muffins.

[00:08:29] So that I can throw 'em in the freezer. Maybe I just grab a couple, I warm 'em up in the microwave, eat 'em on the way to work. Or maybe you eat 'em at work or maybe you actually can sit down and have 'em before you even leave for work. Is it that you know you wanna save a little money? 'cause you're always going and grabbing fast food at over the lunch hour because you never bring something from home.

[00:08:49] So maybe it's lunch, maybe you wanna have leftovers that are ready to just grab and take and and then warm up at lunch. And the nice thing about it is that, [00:09:00] lunch and dinner, you can be eating the same types of meals for both. You pack up a bunch of lunch and dinner meals and they're ready to go and you can intermix 'em.

[00:09:08] So maybe. You had one for lunch, you're gonna have a different one for dinner, and then tomorrow you're gonna switch it over. That's what I like to do in a lot of my meal plans is that, if you had chicken tortilla soup for dinner one night, maybe you have it for lunch the next day and you have something different for dinner.

[00:09:24] So when we're doing simple meal planning, I want you to start with that protein first. Protein is always the anchor. You are gonna build everything around it. So if you're a meat eater, figure out you're gonna have chicken, you're gonna have fish, you're gonna have Turkey, you're gonna have beef, you're gonna have pork, you are gonna have eggs dairy products, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, soy products like tofu, edamame, nato, or beans like lentils, black beans, chickpeas, those are all good sources of protein.

[00:09:53] So you can build your meals around those. Or you can intermix, maybe you have some meat, maybe you have some beans as well. [00:10:00] Then you're gonna add your fiber and your color. So that's where your veggies and fruit come in. So we wanna aim for at least 25 grams of fiber per day. My meal plans have 23, I believe is an average, excuse me, has, is an average per day in the meal plan.

[00:10:19] Just so that you can see, okay, how can I get there? 'cause fiber, we know that, that's so important. If you'll go back to episode 10. What is your gut trying to tell you? I talked about the importance of, you know what are the key ingredients we need to maintain that gut health and why gut health is important.

[00:10:35] But fiber is a big one. It's gonna help to support our digestion. It's gonna slow down how fast we're digesting food, so that's gonna help to create that nice blood sugar stability, and it's also gonna help us to feel full and satisfied. Okay. It is key, not to mention just all the good antioxidants, and it's super important, in our bodies to help to decrease inflammation.

[00:10:58] And five, we're gonna [00:11:00] talk about smart carbs and fats. So think complex carbs like beans, sweet potatoes, quinoa, brown rice or other, those high fiber carbohydrates and choosing, trying to stick to maybe one portion if you can. So maybe a half or two thirds of cup. Of one of those, and then adding in your healthy fats, serving your healthy fats.

[00:11:20] So maybe that's olive oil, ghee, avocado, oil, nuts and seeds. That's just gonna help, as we said, to give you that steady energy and to help support those hormones. Step six. I want you to prep once, but eat twice. What does that mean is I want you to cook double portions of whatever you're making, whether it's a meal prep or maybe it's just double portions of your, of the protein that you're making, or maybe you pick two different types of proteins and I want you to chop or make extra veggies as well so that you always have something quick and easy to be able to throw together.

[00:11:57] Okay. In a pinch, so maybe [00:12:00] on Sunday you roast, a pan of veggies like Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, squash cubes. I don't care just to be able to throw into dishes or you steam just a bunch of broccoli or you saute some asparagus. I don't care, whatever is your favorite veggies.

[00:12:14] Just always having those to be able to throw into your meals. And and then you always have something that you can throw together in a pinch. And then lastly, I want you to actually reflect at the end of the week what worked. Oh, that recipe was awful. Nobody liked it. Don't make it again.

[00:12:31] What? That recipe was delicious. My whole family loved it. So write it down, track it so that you can make it again, right? So set it aside and that list is gonna grow. And then next thing you know, you're gonna have a rotation of your favorite meals that you make. So each week you're like, oh, yep, we're gonna make beef bulgogi this week, so I need to make sure that we have some nice lean steak.

[00:12:53] We're gonna make chicken parmesan another day. I need to make sure we have some good chicken breast and rice. [00:13:00] Just to have those and track what worked well and what didn't work so well, and so that you can save yourself time knowing that Oh, yep.

[00:13:08] I really liked to roast that big pan of veggies. It really made it easier during the week to be able to throw into things. Because meal planning can evolve. Your job is to make it fit for you, right? Not the other way around. You don't have to fit the meal planning or fit that mold like what everyone else is doing because that might not work for you and your family.

[00:13:29] So figure out what works best. Maybe you just pull out three pounds of chicken breast and you throw 'em on the grill, you slice 'em up, and then that helps you to be able to throw 'em on salads or throw 'em in dishes. Everybody, it's different for everybody and what works for everybody.

[00:13:47] So it doesn't sound so bad, does it? A few simple steps. And suddenly meal planning, it doesn't feel so much like a chore. It feels more like a little freedom. Once you do it a few times, it can become more [00:14:00] habitual, more second nature, and you're gonna notice that you're eating better and that you're able to reach those health and wellness goals easier because you're not, falling prey to.

[00:14:11] Ordering DoorDash or running out, and grabbing things for dinner or maybe throwing that frozen pizza into the oven as often it's gonna help to ba quiet those cravings down because you're eating more quality food. Food that is more satisfying and filling. And that also that what's for dinner?

[00:14:29] Panic. It starts to disappear, because you have that plan. The main thing I want you to take away from this is that meal planning, it's not about being perfect, it's just about being prepared. It's one of the simplest ways to make sure your nutrition supports your goals, your hormones, your energy, especially now in in midlife.

[00:14:50] And when we're prepared, everything else feels easier. Okay, so that's a wrap on today's episode. Remember, meal planning, it doesn't [00:15:00] have to be fancy. It's a simple way to make your week smoother. It's to make your energy steadier and your goals more achievable. And if you want a head start, don't forget to grab your free seven day high protein meal plan.

[00:15:10] It's got simple, delicious recipe, recipes, grocery lists, and full macros. So it has a full nutritionals to keep you on track. So just check the link in the show notes and hey, you know what? If this episode made you laugh, learn or even just feel seen, share with a friend who's trying to get her groove back too, and leave a quick rating or review.

[00:15:30] It really does help more women to find the show. And if you do wanna see some more. Meal prep, yummy recipes. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook at Strengthen Nutrition llc, and as always, progress over perfection. We are in this for the long haul and this is your season of strength. Have a fantastic day.