24: How To LOVE Your Anti-Inflammatory Food

Juggling perimenopause, family, and weight loss goals can feel overwhelming, especially when it seems like "healthy" and "anti-inflammatory" food means "no fun."

In this episode of The Family Fork, we're tackling a common struggle: how to love the food you eat, even while navigating perimenopause, raising a family, and working towards your health and weight loss goals. It's absolutely possible, I promise!

This episode is packed with actionable tips to help you rediscover the joy of eating. We'll explore:

Volume Eating: Discover the power of big portions of nutrient-dense foods to satisfy cravings
The Perfect Snack: Learn how to create a go-to snack that you genuinely look forward to every day
Creating Variety: Combat food boredom! We'll explore ways to bring variety to your meals
Mealtime Connection: We'll explore how focusing on connection can shift your focus, to create a more enjoyable experience

You deserve to love the food you eat! Let's make it happen.

Links mentioned and ways to connect:

- Find value, joy, and variety with the recipes and meal plans in The Supper Club!

Ashley Malik is a women's health and life coach, helping busy moms lose weight in perimenopause. You can learn more and discover how to work with Ashley, by clicking here.

*** Ready to lose 15 lbs in 10 weeks? The Method will give you all the tools to make it happen! We start April 2nd. To learn more about The Method, click here!

Transcript

Hello there and welcome back to this week's episode of The Family Fork. I am super excited you're here and I said this last week that I was talking about something fun, which is food. We're going to do the same thing today, but we're going to have a little bit of a different take on it. So I want you to know that I see you. I see you. I see you trying to eat really healthy, make healthy choices.

You're in the middle of perimenopause, you're trying to raise your family and get them to eat healthy as well. I see you. It takes a lot of effort and I know that. And maybe you've figured out through this podcast or other resources that eating an anti-inflammatory diet is one of the best ways to support your body in perimenopause, especially if you are trying to manage your weight or lose weight.

But I get it. Eating an anti-inflammatory diet can actually feel really challenging. And it's like you cook something for yourself because that's what you need and what you want. But then you kind of find yourself needing to cook something different for your family because they don't want to eat what you're eating. It is just so frustrating.

Or maybe you are in this place in life where you just feel deprived. It's like you've made the effort to eat healthy foods so that you can lose the weight, but now you feel like you're not allowed to eat your favorite foods and you can't eat like you used to. And that just feels really frustrating. Interestingly, what's happening here is that your nervous system and your brain are reacting to

the new foods that you're trying to eat, the new recipes that you're trying to make. But what your body recognizes is that new means it takes effort. And it also means uncertainty. If you're changing the way you're eating and you're changing the foods that you're eating, your brain is constantly wondering, is this actually going to help me to lose weight? Is this really going to help me to feel more energetic and feel better in perimenopause?

And so what happens is your brain, because your brain's job is really to avoid hard work and your brain really dislikes uncertainty, that brain of yours starts convincing you that eating healthy or anti-inflammatory foods, that it's just too hard and it takes too much time. And so what happens in the end? You just give up.

Instead, wouldn't it be great to wake up every single day knowing that you are absolutely going to love the food that you eat? Believe it or not, with just a little bit of planning, this can be your reality. So today in our episode, I want to look at a handful of ways that you can actually love the food that you eat, even when you're eating to lose weight.

even when you're in perimenopause, even while you're feeding your family too. I promise you, you can love that food.

All right, let's kick it off with one of my favorite tricks for really loving your food, and it's called volume eating. Volume eating is really having big portions of nutrient-dense foods. Because when you get to eat a lot, it's harder for you to feel deprived. When you see a big plate of food, you're like, wow, this looks really good.

So what I recommend when you're trying to do volume eating is to increase the volume of your low starch veggies, which are things like broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, kale, green beans. You know, I put in my breakfast bowl, pretty much every day, I put two cups of green beans into that breakfast bowl. Just try it at home. Try measuring out two cups of green beans in a bowl and you'll see, my gosh,

that is a lot of food. And then I add that with a healthy carbohydrate, usually brown rice, and then a really healthy protein like some grilled chicken. And so when I look at my food in the morning, I'm like, whoa, this is a ton of food. It kind of tricks your brain into thinking, we're not deprived, we're eating a ton of food. But the cool thing is that you actually are eating a lot of food. You can also volume eat with things like

low sugar berries, so strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. It doesn't always work for things like carbohydrates or healthy fat. are the areas where volume eating can get us in trouble. But if you want to love what you're eating, how could you not love these meals when it appears to your brain that you're just getting to eat tons and tons of food?

So make sure at every meal that you're really maximizing that volume eating with your low starch veggies and your low sugar fruits. All right. Another way to really love your food is to have a favorite go-to snack that just really satisfies you. So every single day, my mouth gets so excited for my afternoon snack.

And I don't really deviate much from this because I love it so much. So what I do is I take some plain Greek yogurt and I mix it up with a little bit of vanilla protein powder. I use prime protein or it's from the company called Equip and it's just a delicious, very clean protein. So to that yogurt mixture, I add brown rice, blueberries and almond butter.

One of the things I do with the blueberries is that I warm them up and I don't make them hot, but I do warm them in the microwave. And there's this like yummy thing that happens when you have hot blueberries and cold yogurt. my gosh. This dessert, promise you like, with the almond butter swirled on it, it is creamy and sweet and it completely fills me up. And I have started calling it

my blueberry cheesecake treat or my blueberry cheesecake snack, because with all of those textures, the brown rice brings something really different. It almost feels like a crust in your mouth and like a pie crust and the creaminess of the almond butter and the yogurt and then the tartness of the blueberries. It is so good. See, doesn't that sound good? Right? Is your mouth watering right now? So if you have a snack, a go-to snack that really satisfies you,

you're always going to love the food that you eat and you're really going to have something that you look forward to.

Another daily treat that I have without fail is dark chocolate. So I really like the dark chocolate from Hu Kitchen because their basic dark chocolate bars are made with three different ingredients. That's it. And they use coconut sugar. And when you're using coconut sugar, it doesn't kick off cravings like white or refined sugar. The reason that works is coconut sugar doesn't spike.

your glycemic index or your blood sugar. And so you don't have that like really high up and then a really quick down with your blood sugar. So I can enjoy two pieces of dark chocolate every single day. I have them every day after lunch. And again, I get really excited about it because it just tastes so good. It's really creamy and delicious. And with the kind that I like is the dark

with salt. And so it really just satisfies any cravings I have for something sweet, but it doesn't derail any sort of health or weight loss goals that I've got going on.

Now, maybe sweet is not your thing. So if you love savory foods, that absolutely works too. You're just going to want to take some healthy options that are savory and create a really nutrient dense snack that your body will really, really crave every single day. The key here with your snack is to make sure that you're staying within your eating guidelines for the day. So,

whether you follow macros or you use portion containers or some other way that you're gauging how much food you're eating every day, you just want to stay within those guidelines because honestly, when you're eating something that tastes so good and you love it so much, but you also know that it fits into your calorie or your macro count for the day, I promise you it's going to taste even better.

Now, along with that favorite snack, it's so, so important to give yourself variety every single day. And you can do this in so many ways. You can change up the cuisines that you eat. Like, what are some types of cuisines that you really, really love? You know, the recipes in the supper club are just filled with variety. We have Indian, American, Mexican, French.

Asian inspired and many others. And so there's a lot of variety there so you never get bored. One really great way to get lots of variety is to aim for 30 different plants every single week.

If you decide to do this to up your level of variety, I really want you to track it. Start making a game of it and you can actually get your family involved. I've started doing this with Suraya, my six-year-old, and she has so much fun. Every time we sit down to dinner, we have a list and we'll talk about what she had during the day, at school, snacks, and then we'll look at our dinner plates and we can actually tally up.

how many different plants did we have? Now, remember, because this was me at the very beginning, I was like, plants, that's a lot of like green stuff. Plants are not just green veggies. So I want you to think outside of that box for your plants. Think brown rice, strawberries, kiwis, radishes, parsnips. Like those are probably not things you're eating on a regular basis. So I really want you to get creative with your variety.

A really fun way to do this is to just spend some time browsing your produce aisle for things that you've never really tried or that you haven't eaten in a long time. I know both of my kids have loved going to Whole Foods. And when we do this, when we just hang out in the produce section, because the employees will let you try some of the things that are there. So if you've never tried dragon fruit, for example, find an employee at Whole Foods, ask them to cut it open for you.

you can try a piece of dragon fruit and that's pretty exciting. So it's definitely a great way to get your kids involved to sort of make eating a game because then when you just have that additional variety you're going to get more excited. You can also create variety in the recipes that you use but I also caution you not to have too many new recipes. So new is great

And again, it'll keep things exciting and fresh and delicious. But what I have found over the years and in my work with all of my students, every time you start putting in a lot of new recipes to try, you start getting overwhelmed. And when you get overwhelmed with how many new recipes, new ingredients, things that are unfamiliar to you, you end up quitting. So the key is to really find a good

balance of how many recipes you might make a week that are new and different to you.

A really good balance for me and for our family is that breakfast, lunch, and snacks are pretty much the same all week long. And that's OK, because again, like we talked about the snacks, like I get really excited about the snacks that I have and the lunches and everything. If you get excited about your food, you'll look forward to it and you'll enjoy it. But then I actually get really excited about trying some new recipes for dinner.

When we do this, it lets me be creative, which I love, being creative in the kitchen. I also take time to get my kids involved. So Suraya, she doesn't really love cooking, but she loves learning about different things that I'm using, different ingredients, or different dishes that we might be trying.

And when you're trying a few new recipes over the course of a couple of weeks, it's going to make your taste buds really happy. You're going to have some really delicious meals to look forward to. So what is not to love about that? And again, you can do all of this while you are working on weight loss or just healthy eating overall.

All right, now, if you are not loving the food that you are eating, I want you to make sure that you are having more of your meals with friends and family. In our house, we prioritize family dinner as many nights in a week as we can. And this is sort of a holdover from my own family, my own childhood growing up, but here in our house, we eat dinner at six o'clock every single night.

And we take that time, we sit down at the table, we talk about our day, we share favorite parts of our day. That's one of Suraya's favorite things to do. And we just try and have some really good conversation.

When you focus on sharing a meal with people that you love, eating becomes less about the food and more about spending time and having good company with the people that you love. And when you have more focus on your company, you are going to be less likely to overeat, which if you are trying to lose weight, this is a really great tool.

If you enjoy the people that you're sitting with, you enjoy the conversation, eating is just sort of a byproduct of what's going to happen while you're sitting at the table. And I know the research is out there. There are so many tremendous benefits of eating as a family, especially as your kids get older into their teenage years and even beyond. You know, sitting as a family, it's really going to nurture those relationships. And I know

I've had a teenager who he's now almost 24, but teens don't always say a lot at dinner. But by knowing that you are modeling healthy eating and you're there and available for conversation with your kids, they're going to start feeling this like sense of stability, the sense of safety and predictability. And remember, we talked about that brain really wants life, food.

anything to be predictable. And so if you can create a habit of sitting down and having a family dinner, having some good conversation, it's really going to help your kids to feel safe and secure in your family.

Not to mention also, like you're going to learn some great life skills. You know, I have Suraya set the table. I used to have Jack, my oldest, set the table every single night. I wanted them to have that skill as they went out into the world. They have to use their manners. We don't lean back in our chairs. You know, we chew with our mouth closed. Like these are all things that we want our kids to know. So by sitting down and having that family dinner,

and everybody's doing the same thing, eating a healthy meal together, it's going to set your kids up for understanding how important it is to eat healthy on their own when they move on. And you're going to feel really fulfilled when you're eating that family dinner and having great conversation.

And a little bit of real talk, if your kids won't eat with you, which I know that that happens when we have teenagers, there are still some options for you.

You can actually get a small group of friends together in your neighborhood. Invite everyone to just bring a healthy dish so that you can share in that community and conversation. You could make a weekly date with your partner to sit down and eat together, to make sure that you don't have your phones or your computers or you're not watching TV, but actually sit there and talk with each other. And you could even call a long distance friend

or have dinner together on a Zoom call with someone that you don't see very often. So there's lots of options. And I know, I get it. Everybody's families are busy. You can't always have a family dinner every single night. You've got sports and dance practice and homework and all sorts of things. But really the goal is to enjoy who you are eating dinner with over what you are eating.

it's really going to be such a great way for you to love the food that you're eating and to really love your meal times.

And finally, if you are really ready to love the food that you eat, even while you're eating healthy for weight loss, I want you to eat food at a table on real plates. I don't know about you, but this is just a huge pet peeve of mine. It does not have to be anything fancy, but I promise you the food that you make is going to look so much more appealing when it's sitting on a real

plate. If you think about all the time that they spend styling food for magazines or blogs or even on Instagram, you never see that food on a paper plate. And when you are eating food that you've prepared on real plates with real silverware, you are more likely to enjoy that process. You're going to eat slowly and you're really going to enjoy your food.

Eating slower is really one of the best ways to avoid overeating. What happens in your body is that your stomach might start getting full, but it takes a few minutes for the satiety sensors in your brain to catch up with what's in your stomach. And so if you're just quickly eating and eating so fast, you are going to overeat and that is going to make it really

hard, almost impossible to hit your weight loss goals.

So I know, I get it, disposable plates and silverware, sure, they're more convenient. And if you have a big family or you're feeding a lot of mouths, it can feel like actual dishes would create a lot of work at the end of the meal. But the goal here is to love your food, right?

So if you are putting in all of that effort to make a delicious meal, I really want you to take a few extra minutes to take time and put that meal on a real plate. Then after dinner, if you've got a big family, you should be getting everyone involved in cleanup. It's going to go so much faster.

Okay, there you have it. Just a bunch of fun ways to start loving the food you're eating, even when you're in a season of weight loss. I have this saying, if you don't love the food that you're eating, then you're doing it wrong. If you think about it, it's true. There is always a way to really enjoy your food and to hit your goals all at the same time. So,

If you're not loving your food, you should take some of these ideas as action items and get them started this week.

Also, most of the solutions that we talked about today are wrapped into the Supper Club, which is my monthly membership that is designed to help you feed yourself and your family while still hitting your health and weight loss goals. I will link to the Supper Club in the show notes so that you can try it out this week, because if you're feeling stuck and you're not loving the food that you're eating, you're doing it wrong. The Supper Club, I...

I promise you it's going to help you to do it right.

If you loved what you heard here today, I would be so grateful if you would leave a review on your podcast player. This really helps the family fork to be found by more midlife moms who I know are doing their best. You're doing your best to eat healthy while hitting your goals at the same time. Also, I want you to be sure to subscribe while you're there putting in your review. This will make sure that you're the first to get notified.

when a new episode goes live every single Tuesday. You can count on me. I loved spending time with you today, and I really can't wait to hear which of these solutions you are going to try this week.