Healthy Eating
Too Busy & Hot to Eat Healthy? Summer-Proof Your Meal Planning.
Four simple steps to eat and feel better.
Planning, shopping, prepping. When it comes to eating well, this makes all the difference.
If there’s one thing that seems to thwart even the best healthy eating intentions, it’s lack of organization and preparation. This is extra true come summertime, when staying cool and having fun take priority.
And yet, truly enjoying the summer season means staying well and feeling your best. Like it or not, what we eat is a huge part of this!
For most folks, a little meal planning and prep on the frontend makes summer more carefree and helps them feel lighter and more comfortable in their bodies.
I’m not necessarily talking a full-on meal plan here (which can be nice, but can also be hard to sustain in summertime or over the long haul).
I’m more just talking about taking solid steps to ensure you have good, healthy, doable options on hand — enough to last several days minimum.
Want to play with the specifics? Curious to try low carb or intermittent fasting? Go for it!
I definitely encourage you to engage in mindful investigation about how different foods and eating patterns affect your body. Whether you’re working with a coach or going it alone, this is all a self-experiment!
That said, with some clients, I’ve seen the forest get lost for the trees.
I’ve also seen fixation on details while missing the bigger picture lead to frustration and overwhelm…which then derails the entire process of changing eating patterns and reaching wellness goals.
That is NOT the stuff of summer fun!
Better to keep things really simple if the alternative may sabotage efforts to get where you want to go.
What does this look like? First, focus on real, whole food. Also make sure to include plenty of high-quality protein, healthy fats, and veggies.
These three are your top food groups and the priority.
From there, you can consider what’s in season come summer as well as which foods and cooking methods are more “cooling.” (I’m not talking cool to the touch here but, rather, their impact on the body after eating.)
In Chinese Medicine, this means:
- Summer is a time to eat less, light, and simply. Avoid the heavy, dense foods of winter, instead choosing simple proteins surrounded by plenty of veggies. Seasonal berries and greens are an especially good choice, as are local tomatoes and cucumbers. Keep food combinations and preparation simple, easy, summery.
- Cook foods for shorter duration at higher temperatures. Shorter cooking at higher temperatures makes foods more cooling. Again, by cooling, I’m not talking about whether foods are hot or cold to the touch. Rather, I mean their intrinsic thermal nature and influence on the body.
- Add a dash of pungent foods and spices, which move outward and up. The expanding, rising qualities of the pungent flavour support the expansive, outward nature of summer. Pungent also brings heat to the surface, helping vent it through the pores. Think: small amounts of onions, leeks, radishes, spicy greens, ginger, garlic, pepper, and mint. Just don’t overdo these — especially ones that are fiery!
- Stay hydrated (but not how you might think). When weather’s hot, drink plenty of room-temperature or warm liquids. Might seem strange, but too much cold weakens digestion. It can also cause contraction in the body, trapping heat inside. Trust your thirst and avoid drinking too much liquid with meals.
The above are general guidelines, and the optimal diet for summer or any season won’t look the same for everyone.
Indeed, the optimal way of eating is individual, responsive, and relational. By all means experiment!
As you do, hold the details lightly and with an expansive perspective. Also know that you can always default to those top three: high-quality protein, healthy fats, veggies. They, in themselves, are pretty fantastic!
In practice, this isn’t always easy — at least not at first.
But once you develop a system and have a regular routine in place, it becomes, if not second nature, at least a whole lot easier.
Hmm, a system. That sounds big, complicated, and definitely NOT like summer.
Doesn’t have to be! Keeping the above parameters in mind, here’s what you do.
1. Make time.
Yeah, I know. That may sound impossible already. But it doesn’t have to be a ton of time, and it’s totally doable if you decide health’s important.
You might have to cut back somewhere else — scrolling social media, for instance, or watching television. But please give yourself the following time each week:
- Planning: 15 minutes for mapping out a rough meal plan and making a shopping list (Ideally, do this at the start or end of a week, before a Big Shop.)
- Shopping: 60 minutes or so for a Big Shop, getting most of what you’ll need in one go (You could also do two shops a week, if that’s a better fit. These are suggestions for you to make your own!)
- Prepping and cooking: 30 minutes each day, including time to pack/prepare grab-and-go lunches while making dinner (You could spend way more time than this, but 30 focused minutes will do — promise. You could also carve out time for a longer weekly cook-up, which will make the daily stuff a snap.)
Schedule your time systematically, with as much consistency and regularity as possible.
For example: Do 15 minutes of meal planning every Sunday after lunch, followed by your Big Shop.
Each evening, allot 30 minutes for making dinner, at the same time packing or prepping lunch for the next day.
Having a routine in place will take conscious effort the first week or two. But eventually, it will make making time for planning, shopping, prepping, and cooking seem automatic and just “part of your day.”
You’ll save extra effort on procrastinating, or um, decision-making. And you’ll set yourself up for success with every task that follows.
2. Plan.
So you’ve set time aside for planning, right? Well, now decide what the heck you’re going to eat!
This can get really complicated (searching for new, summery recipes and creating detailed meal plans, for instance). Or it can be super-simple (deciding on main proteins, seasonal veggies, snacks, and perhaps a summer greens soup to last a few days).
You can also mix it up — going elaborate one week and easy-breezy the next…or planning one new summer recipe but otherwise sticking with what you know.
Whatever your approach, the key is to:
- Have a plan (whether elaborate or simple).
- Make a list.
Please DO NOT head to the grocery store with nothing but vague ideas — all the more so when temperatures and tempers start rising!
For a ready-made shopping list, I do include a printable Guide to the Grocery Store here. You could also craft your own list, then print a bunch so they’re ready to go.
3. Shop.
Plan and list in hand, it’s time to hit the store. I recommend a Big Shop once a week (or two biggish shops, if that’s a better fit). In summer, this may involve a stop at your local farmer’s market or produce stand!
If you need to pick up something perishable mid-way (fresh veggies or animal protein, for instance), that’s cool. But plan for that and make sure you get as much as possible ahead of time, on Big Shop day.
Along with food for meals, include items that make for light, easy, healthy snacks — berries, cucumbers, nuts, olives, sardines, and hardboiled eggs, for instance.
If you have a local CSA or other produce delivery service, those are wonderful ways to support small farmers, eat in-season, and save time on shopping.
Bonus: Intentional shopping habits protect against hungry, overheated impulse buys. They also reduce food waste and grocery spending (all the more important, these days).
Once again, consistency and regularity are game changers.
It may seem like a bother to get a solid shopping routine in place. But once it’s established, summer will go so much smoother.
4. Prep (and cook).
Along with a Big Shop, another great thing to do each week is a Big Cook-up. This is where, once a week, you prep and/or cook food for the days or week ahead.
This may take a lot of time (say, a few hours) on the frontend. But think of how relaxed you’ll feel in the days following, when you can just reach into the fridge, grab some ready-made deliciousness (or prepped, summery ingredients), and create wonderful meals without thought or fuss.
You could, for instance, cook some base veggies, such as cauliflower rice…along with at least one meat or fish dish (enough to last a couple of days). To that, you could add hardboiled eggs and plenty of chopped, seasonal veggies for eating raw or sautéing during the week.
Can’t (or don’t care to) manage a weekly cook-up?
No worries — especially in summer! Just means you’ll need to allow 30 minutes each day for prepping and cooking.
Here too, establishing a routine will take effort at first but will be so worth the payoff.
If you know you’ll be packing lunch as you prep dinner, get in the routine of setting out lunch containers. Then add a helping of all or some of the dishes you’re making for dinner to the containers, along with any extras.
Throwing meats and veggies on the grill is also an option. As part of Big Shop day, organize your fridge so that everything is nicely arranged and ready to go!
Planning, shopping, prepping, and cooking for the week doesn’t have to be complicated.
Often, simple is better — in hotter months, all the more so. Plus, you’ll be laying foundational routines to tweak for the coming seasons.
Establishing these routines will likely feel tedious at first — taking a bit of effort and some trial and error to get it just right.
But ultimately, it may be the most important step toward reaching and sticking with wellness goals — this summer and throughout the year.
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Thank you for reading. I’m a doctor of Chinese Medicine and write about sobriety and soulful living. Find all my links here:
