How to Build a Delicious Lunch Bowl (AIP)

You may have heard me rant about "the boring salad" a few days ago, and I'm still on a mission to banish the idea that eating healthy needs to be sad, boring and bland. You do not need to angrily chew carrot sticks and choke down iceberg lettuce and resent the person next to you with the delicious looking stirfy from the food truck down the road. You do not need to sacrifice flavor and enjoyment. You do not need to feel deprived. At all. If you deprive yourself all in the quest to be "healthy" chances are this will backfire and you'll find yourself mindlessly eating pop tarts (yes they are still a thing and were in the hospital break room yesterday) because you feel sorry for yourself, or feeling so hungry and unsatisfied that you crack and eat anything in sight. There is so much more available to us in our food supply that is nourishing and healthy besides tasteless boiled chicken and raw broccoli! 

What I think? Life is too short to eat boring salads. 

The way to be successful in this mission and get out of this boring, healthy eating rut is to get inspired and think outside the box. Next up in the list of inspired lunches is my all time favorite: The Lunch Bowl. Bowls are the best way to get variety and create satisfying, filling, nourishing lunches that you can take on the go. 

This week's guide is in line with the Autoimmune Paleo Diet.  Depending on your needs and preferences you can add or subtract different proteins, nuts, seeds, gluten-free grains etc. It's up to you! This AIP lunch bowl serves as a great base balanced with protein, good fats, fiber and carbohydrates from veggies for you to customize to your liking. 

How to Build Your AIP Lunch Bowl

1. Start with a base of leafy greens: spinach, kale, arugula, lettuce, endive

2. Add unlimited raw, roasted, steamed or grilled veggies: beets, roasted asparagus, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms, zucchini, cabbage, fennel, cucumber

3. Add a starchy vegetable for carbohydrates: sweet potato, squash, carrot, celeriac, parsnip, radish, rutabaga, turnip, yam, plantain

4. Include protein: salmon, tuna, grilled chicken, turkey meatballs, good quality lunch meat

5. Healthy fats: avocado, olive oil or coconut oil drizzled on top

6. Top with dressings and sauces (the best part!): guacamole, lemon/ lime squeezed on top, mango salsa, basil pesto, avocado dill ranch dressing, tzatziki

Here is the Green Goddess Lunch Bowl recipe from my Autoimmune Paleo Batch Cooking Meal Plan here >>

 

Green Goddess Lunch Bowl

Ingredients 

Makes 1 serving

Shredded rotisserie chicken (bought previously made)

Greens of your choice (spinach, kale, lettuce)

Roast root veggies (get the recipe here >>)

Green Goddess Dressing (Vegan) adapted from karalydon.com.

1 garlic clove

1 avocado

5 tablespoons olive oil

6 tablespoons water

3/4 cup basil

1/4 cup parsley

1/4 cup chives

1/2 cup scallions (white parts removed) Juice of 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

Directions 

Add greens to a bowl. Heat shredded chicken and root veggies and then toss into bowl. Add in any other veggies you have on hand! Drizzle dressing on top and enjoy.

Dressing

Add all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

Get the rest of the 7-day AIP meal plan for free by clicking here! >>

In my free Autoimmune Paleo Batch Cooking Meal Plan you will receive: 

+ 7 day meal plan
+ Step by step instructions for how to cook an entire week’s worth of food in just two, 2-hour sessions (life changing)
+ Grocery lists
+ Twelve of my favorite, easy, AIP compliant recipes!

Enjoy making delicious and nutritious meals in way less time.  

Lizzie's Tasty Chicken Salad Wrap

Who has a "boring salad" for lunch when they want to be healthy? You pull it out of the work fridge and it looks all sad and wilty and your friends are heating up mac and cheese and and bringing back delicious looking pulled-pork sandwiches from the food truck seemingly without a care in the world and you start to seriously resent this stupid, healthy boring salad looking back at you.  

Does this sound familiar? Maybe you've even put it back in the fridge and gone across the street to buy something you really want...

Wanna know what I think about that? DEATH TO THE BORING SALAD. I'M DONE WITH IT. Eating healthy does not have to be sad and boring. You do not need to angrily chew carrot sticks and choke down iceberg lettuce. You do not need to sacrifice flavor and fun. You do not need to feel deprived. We need to flip the script on this one and telling ourselves this story about what "healthy" food  looks like. 

Make a pact with me right now that you will never force yourself to eat a gross boring salad again?  The way to be successful here and get out of this rut is to get inspired and think outside the box. I'm going to do a series of inspired lunches so you can get your lunch groove back and start to enjoy it rather than dread it! 

For me lunch looks mostly like leftovers from dinner the night before, or from food I prepared on the weekend that I throw together. I eat buttery salmon and salty, seasoned roast veggies with a tasty sauce, or big bowls full of pulled pork, greens and pickled goods. I always have a base of greens or vegetables but that shit is not boring. I eat good stuff, and I enjoy it because life is too short for another. boring. salad. 

My friend Lizzie is working to banish the boring salad as well and sent me through this awesome chicken salad recipe for you guys to try! The best part is that you can make a big batch and add it to bowls, salads, wraps etc. and you can throw in any thing else you might want to add to spice up your life and your lunch. 

Lizzie's Tasty Chicken Salad Wraps

Makes 4-6 wraps 

Dairy and Gluten Free

Ingredients

1 roasted chicken, shredded (Really easy if you just buy a rotisserie chicken)

1 small apple, diced (alternatively: a couple handfuls of seedless grapes, quartered)

Juice of 1 lemon

2 celery stalks, diced

2 scallions, thinly sliced

1 dill pickle, diced

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard

Handful of almonds or walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped (take the time to toast them in a 350 (F) oven for 5-10 minutes – it’s worth it!)

¼ cup - 1 cup mayo (look for a brand that uses olive or avocado oil and good ingredients or make your own)

Salt and pepper to taste

Wrap of choice (Lizzie used almond flour tortillas but depending on dietary needs/ budget you could use butter lettuce wraps or collard greens which are soooo good!)

Avocado 

Directions

Shred chicken and set aside in a large bowl.

Add diced apple to small bowl, top with lemon juice. (This will prevent apple from browning if
the salad sits in your fridge for a few days.) Add pinch of salt and ground pepper, stir to combine and let “marinate” while you prepare rest of ingredients. 

Add celery, scallions, nuts, pickle, mustard, and mayo to the bowl of chicken. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine.

Quarter avocado and smash each slice onto your wrap. Place a generous scoop of chicken salad on avocado. Roll up and serve.

Store leftover chicken salad in air-tight container in the fridge for 3 days.

I hope you enjoy this easy and delicious lunch! If you want some more easy recipes click here to download my free guide to batch cooking >> 

You’ll get:

+ 7 day meal plan

+ Step by step instructions for how to cook an entire week’s worth of food in just two 2-hour sessions (life changing)

+ Grocery lists

+ Twelve of my favorite, easy recipes!

Enjoy making delicious and nutritious meals in way less time! 

Transition from Work Routine

As a RN in the Intensive Care Unit I experienced some gnarly stuff on a daily basis. Caring for people on life support with all sorts of tubes and drains in their bodies, consoling family members in unthinkable pain after losing a loved one, concentrating so hard for 10 hours straight to ensure I didn’t miss a thing. At the end of these shifts I was done. I was an exhausted, stressed out, shell of a human. I would get home and it would take me hours to unwind, replaying things I did or didn’t do in my head and processing the events of the day.

I still do this even in a very different job setting. (When running your own business the lines between work and not work can get really blurry, ya know?) Or I guess I did do this until a few years ago when a practitioner suggested I start a “transition from work routine.” It was really evident that I was carrying around my physical and emotional stress from the work day into my hours spent outside of work.  It was taking a toll on my body and mind as I was never really able to turn “off.”

I started a new routine so that when I came home from work I would really intentionally “transition” into the rest of my day.  For me this looked like taking a shower with really nice smelling soap and burning some incense/sage while honoring what I did that day and moving on. It’s not like it erased the day, but it allowed me to get into a different headspace where I was able to be present and enjoy the rest of my day before bed without replaying everything I had just done and living in the past. 

This transition from work is a simple practice I now encourage all of my health coaching clients to implement. Most of us are busy, stressed and overworked and find it really hard to turn off. We may look forward to getting home after work all day (is it 5:00 yet?) but then proceed to check emails and carry the stress of the work day around with us consciously or unconsciously. (I say unconsciously because sometimes I would think I was just fine and would weep at a touching soft drink commercial because I hadn’t really processed my emotional stress from the previous work days. Please tell me I’m not the only one that does this?).  This stress can seep into all areas of life outside of work and affect relationships, mood, sleep quality, health and how you show up as a human in your everyday life.

This transition from work routine will look really different for each person.  The only thing required is that you do it mindfully, and with intention. Some ideas for a transition from work routine:

• Change into comfortable clothing

• Take a relaxing shower or bath

• Burn sage or incense to clear space

• Breathe in some relaxing essential oils

• Deep belly breathing (watch my 4-7-8 breathing video here >>) for 5 minutes

• Guided meditation (these are easier if you find it really hard to sit in silence after the work day. I like these ones from Deepak Chopra >>)

• Write down some of the most stressful things you experienced in a journal so they aren’t swirling in your head all night.

• Light some candles and relax for 10 minutes

• Make a cup of tea

• Do some hamstring stretches to release stuck energy

• Lay on your back with your legs up the wall for a few minutes

It doesn’t have to be anything long or fancy, it just has to work for you. These small shifts make the biggest difference. Try this for the next week and let me know how it goes for you!

If you want to talk more about mindful stress reduction and how to make it work in your life, I offer free 30-minute discovery sessions.  Schedule yours by clicking on the button below!

Is Your Poop Normal?

I know, I said poop. I’m a Registered Nurse and Nutrition Coach you guys, poop is a big part of the job. Our digestive function is absolutely critical to our overall health. Food does not simply go in your mouth and out the other end.  There are many complex processes that play a role in how food is broken down, absorbed and assimilated into the body.  Elimination give us so much information about how our digestive system is working as a whole and is definitely something we need to pay attention to.  

So today, we’re talking about poop.

Every nutrition coaching client I have fills out a 5-Day Food Diary complete with symptoms and details about bowel movements using the Bristol Stool Chart as a guide (I really am a nurse).

In this chart the ideal poop is a Type 4. Anything above it indicates some level of constipation, and anything below it means loose stools.

Where do your bowel movements measure up? When evaluating your poop you want to look at color, consistency, presence of undigested food particles etc. to tell you what is going on in your digestive system.

When it comes to troubleshooting elimination everyone is so very different and there are many underlying factors that it takes time to figure out. However, here is a quick and dirty guide with a few tips to get you to a Type 4.

If you are Type 1-3:

You should be having 1-3 bowel movements a day (yes, really!). If you are not having (regular) daily bowel movements, or find yourself straining, having pain or incomplete bowel movements - you are likely constipated.  

Common underlying causes of constipation:

• Food allergies/ intolerances

• Dehydration

• Lack of “good” bacteria in the gut

• Impaired digestion/ absorption

• Certain prescription drugs

• Stress or anxiety

• Lack of fiber in the diet

• Thyroid or hormone imbalance

A few general tips to improve constipation:

• Stay hydrated

• Consume more fiber (in the form of colorful fruits and veggies): Insoluble fiber from these sources helps to move stool along the digestive tract to be eliminated.

• Eat good fats: Good fats (olive oil, avocados, salmon, coconut) help to lubricate the digestive system and keep things moving.

• Try probiotic rich foods or supplements to help balance the good and bad bacteria in the gut.

• Exercise is key to keep things moving!

If you are Type 5-7:

If you are having loose, watery stools that occur more than 1-3 times per day and experience urgency, cramping or pain with elimination - that’s diarrhea. (I probably don’t have to tell you what diarrhea is, I feel like when you know you know am I right?) Diarrhea is a symptom of an underlying issue. Loose stools are usually a way to get rid of something the body views as toxic.

Common underlying causes of diarrhea:

• Food allergies or sensitivities

• Food poisoning or viral infection

• Lack of “good” bacteria in the gut

• Lactose intolerance

• Impaired digestion/ absorption (especially with fats)

• Antibiotics

• Stress and anxiety

To improve diarrhea you need to find the underlying cause (if you are experiencing severe, chronic diarrhea stop reading this blog and definitely talk to a doctor as you can experience dehydration and malnutrition).  Here are a few common examples:

• Stress and anxiety: The gut brain connection is a powerful thing. To address stress as the underlying cause first evaluate sources of stress and implement real stress reduction techniques such 4-7-8 breathing.

• Food intolerance: work with a practitioner to obtain food sensitivity testing or go through an elimination diet to uncover potential intolerances in a systematic way.

• Antibiotic use: antibiotics happen. They kill the bad bacteria making us sick or infected, but wipe out the good guys too. During a round of antibiotics make sure to repopulate the gut with probiotics rich foods or supplements.

Alright you guys, thanks for talking about poop with me. Here’s to perfectly consistent Type 4’s all the time!!!

If you want to talk more about optimizing digestion and finding the right foods for your body, I offer free, 30-minute discovery sessions.  Schedule yours by clicking on the button below!