Imagine this scene—a day in the life of a busy mom… It’s the morning witching hour. You’ve got two kids (or more!) to corral. They’re moving ‘slowly’. You have to get them dressed, fed, and out the door in time for the bus (not to mention wake them up because they don’t seem to be stirring with your frequent requests!). You’re running back and forth from their bedroom to the kitchen to the bathroom… well, maybe ‘walking quickly’! Is this a daily weekday event in your household? It is in mine!
I remember a time when I was a young child, some weekday morning during the school year, hearing the exasperation in my mother’s voice because my brothers and I were not waking up and ‘getting ready’. She literally threatened to throw cold water on us. My memory is a bit foggy so I’m not sure at the accuracy of the image, but I do vaguely remember her actually throwing a cup of cold water on my younger brother who was especially taxing on her in the early morning!
Now, let’s take a step back… How are we feeling? Certainly stressed! But what about hungry? Do we even take a moment to consider ourselves? Do we ‘grab a bite to eat’, albeit in a standing position, while quickly managing to pack our kids’ lunches? We make so many efforts to create health for our family, including taking time to think about food choices for our kids. But what about us? How much of our stress is augmented by the fact that we are too busy to really sit and eat a nutritious meal in the morning (quite possibly the most important meal of the day, as much of the research is showing today)?
Well, reality is always a factor. We do not have the time to sit down to a full healthy meal in the mornings. It’s just not realistic! But there are several strategies that can help us nourish ourselves through the day. Equally of importance, even if our meals are ‘non-traditionally’ timed, our food choices can help us be healthier and actually feel less stressed. Here are some ideas.
Strategies for Healthy Eating in a Busy Day
Find a quiet time to plan ahead for the week’s meals. For many people, the weekend is the best time for this. Maybe on a weekend morning, you can squirrel away a few moments to sit with a pad and pen. Create a shopping list for the week that includes the right amount of ‘protein’, ‘veggies’, and ‘starches’ for the week’s meals. It can be helpful to have a week’s calendar on a page, where you can list out the meals. In the absence of a calendar, you can just draw one on a pad and fill in the blanks with meal choices.
My husband and I have a routine that has worked really well for us over the past couple of years (as is the case with many of you, we also have two young kids that take up most of our time!): I make a shopping list on Saturday morning and he runs to the grocery store (because, honestly, if I had alone time at the store, I would probably never come home – I might just set up a tent at Whole Foods and ‘enjoy the atmosphere’, and probably our life savings as my husband likes to joke – he’s much better than me at just buying what’s on the list! At the store, he will pick 3-4 natural meats (more or less depending on how many nights we are planning to eat at home), equal bunches of veggies, and for starches generally, we stick to various types of sweet potatoes and winter squash such as butternut. At home, we already have various forms of grains that we can use as well. This is our base. Then comes the meal planning.
Another idea is to limit the ‘recipe creativity’ during the week and either use a slow cooker which you can prep the night before, or make the dinners very basic. For example, you can season chicken thighs with sea salt, pepper, and paprika; spray them lightly with olive oil; and roast them in the oven at 425 for 45 minutes. This makes a very delicious and supremely easy protein. You can simultaneously roast veggies and starches for the dinner, such as broccoli and sweet potatoes. Chop, wash, and dry the broccoli, then toss them in sea salt, pepper, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil, then lay them on a baking sheet with parchment paper and roast them at 425 for 20 minutes. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and toss them in sea salt, pepper, parsley (or cinnamon instead!) and olive oil, and roast them in a similar fashion to the broccoli. I’ve found that kids enjoy roasted veggies because they’re slightly crispy and have a more robust flavor. It’s a simple meal but delicious.
Also, keep in mind that as you are prepping dinner, you want to make extra to be used for lunch for yourself and your family on the following day. As a family, we don’t tend to have leftovers for future dinners because we use most of the leftovers for the following day’s lunch. This is always a consideration in our pre-week shopping list and meal planning. The process may seem daunting and a lot of work, but once you initiate it and get used to this exercise, it’s actually quite simple and can become ‘habitual’.
In addition to dinners and lunches, it’s helpful to plan early to ensure that you have enough healthy snacks on hand. Here are some ideas for you and the kids: natural jerky, roasted seaweed snack packages, cut carrots and celery with humus or sunbutter, sliced apples or pears with sunbutter, an orange, natural yogurt (there are a variety of dairy free yogurt options if you avoid dairy), trail mix (you can make it yourself with various nuts and seeds and dried fruit such as raisins and apricots), homemade granola (see the recipe below).
Lastly, because sometimes this is the hardest hour to think about ourselves, here are some thoughts on breakfast… a healthy meal, quickly:
- Morning shake: 1 cup coconut milk, 1 cup fresh or frozen berries, 15-20grams protein powder or 2 tablespoons nut/seed butter, and 1 tablespoon coconut oil or ground flax seeds.
- Make hardboiled eggs the night before and eat one or two in the morning with sea salt, pepper, paprika, and olive oil plus a cut up avocado or cucumber and tomato.
- Homemade granola with coconut milk and fresh berries (see granola recipe below).
Healthy Food Choices
When making food choices for yourself, consider that the healthiest food choices will help you feel more energy and less stress. In fact, by lessening inflammatory foods in your daily life, you can reduce pain and overall, improve how you feel on a day-to-day basis.
Here is a list of inflammatory foods to avoid:
- Gluten: wheat, rye, barley
- Refined sugar: avoid added sugars that are listed in package ingredients
- Processed and packaged foods and preservatives
Try to eat the following on a daily basis:
- 3 servings of natural protein daily
- 5 servings of vegetables daily
- 1-2 servings of fruit daily
- Healthy fats such as coconut oil, olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds
And lastly, be sure to drink lots of water. A helpful tool is to avoid all other drinks such as fruit drinks and just drink water throughout the day. Some people have found it helpful to put out on the counter in the morning what you are wanting to drink through the day such as a pitcher (or bring with you a large thermos of water) – this can serve as a reminder throughout the day to drink water.
Living the life of a busy mom obviously has its many countless benefits, especially on those very sweet moments when we can hold our children close and be grateful for having them in our lives. Taking the time to cherish ourselves equally only magnifies this very special bond with our children because it shows them how to be a healthy adult and still manage all of life’s responsibilities.
Homemade ‘Paleo’ Granola
This delicious recipe was modified from the February/March 2016 issue of Paleo magazine. I love it because it’s entirely grain-free, including no oats, and it is naturally sweetened with fruit.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup raw walnuts, chopped
- ½ cup raw pumpkin seeds
- ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
- ½ cup sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 ripe pear, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil
- ½ cup dates, pitted and chopped
- 1 cup raisins
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a food processor with steel blade, combine walnuts and pumpkin seeds and process until ground into coarse meal, about 15-20 seconds – then, transfer to large bowl.
- Now add to food processor the remaining ingredients except raisins. Process until combined and then transfer ‘wet’ mixture to large bowl and mix ingredients well. Mixture will appear like clumpy dough.
- Divide mixture between two prepared baking sheets. Spread out into even layers of small clumps.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until deeply golden brown and crisp, stirring every 10-12 minutes to ensure even cooking.
- Cool completely, then stir in raisins.
- Store cooled granola in airtight container at room temperature for up to 10 days.
Ayelet Connell-Giammatteo, PhD, PT, IMT,C is the President and Owner of Integrative Wellness & Physical Therapy in Bloomfield, CT, a wellness center specializing in holistic Physical Therapy, nutritional wellness and Functional Medicine, and Integrative Manual Therapy (IMT). Dr. Connell-Giammatteo is a Physical Therapist and Certified Integrative Manual Therapist. She has been practicing in the field of IMT for over 15 years. In addition to her IMT expertise, Dr. Connell-Giammatteo is a graduate of the Institute of Functional Medicine’s program “Applying Functional Medicine into Clinical Practice” focusing on nutritional wellness. Dr. Connell-Giammatteo is also a local of this community and has been living in the Greater Hartford area for many years, where she integrates a healthy lifestyle at home with her wonderful family.