Speaker 1: 0:00

Do you walk into your kitchen, pantry or fridge close to dinner time but walk away not inspired with what you can make for dinner? Does thinking about what to make for meals, especially dinner on the weeknights, give you anxiety? If this sounds like you, I can totally relate. This weekend I did something so overdue and I can't wait to share with you so you can make your meal planning more enjoyable. Thank you for tuning in to the Hot Mess Mom Health Podcast. Your starting messy is always better than perfect.

Speaker 1: 0:32

My name is Rebecca Santos and I am a busy mom just like you, trying to level up my health and reduce stress in this crazy life Since becoming obsessed with all things health and wellness. My mission here is to share information so that you can finally lose the weight you want and feel energized, because us moms all deserve to feel good. So grab that iced coffee and listen in to see what can help you feel a little less anxious about cooking meals. Hey there, welcome to the Hot Mess Mom Health Podcast. Do you wish you could find a sustainable way to get healthy and not feel overwhelmed in the process? Do you find yourself up late at night scouring Pinterest for meal prep ideas and quick workouts, do you wake up with big, ambitious goals, only to feel stressed out and disappointed when you fall back in your old habits? Drive through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru for the second time this week, all while the fresh produce you just bought goes bad. Hey, I'm Rebecca. I too am a working mom of two littles and self-proclaimed Hot Mess Mom. All my life I have struggled with trying to maintain a healthy weight and feel good in my skin. I could add yoyo diet or to my resume. After I packed on 50 plus pounds with two pregnancies, I decided to change for good. I wanted to stop obsessing about food, stay consistent and set a good, healthy example for my kids. But I kept telling myself that I didn't have the time, the energy or accountability to stay on track until I changed my mindset and created one healthy habit at a time. In this podcast, you will find simple, actionable steps that you can create a healthy lifestyle and get relief from the overwhelm. Spray that dry shampoo, grab your iced coffee, turn up the volume and let's get healthy. Hey there, happy Monday and welcome back to another episode of Hot Mess Mom Help. Thank you for tuning in and spending some time with me on another Monday. I wanted to share with you guys.

Speaker 1: 2:24

Sometimes it's just crazy how the world works, but I had been feeling severely uninspired when it comes to meal prepping or meal planning or just honestly making dinner in general. I do not know what came over me, but Friday night I was like well, I walked into the pantry in my house for something. I don't even remember what it was. I said to my husband that is it. I can never find what I want in the pantry. I don't even know if what we have is expired. Indeed, the kids just throw stuff all over. It's just there's too much crap in here and it was unorganized and just so many random things. And then every week you end up going to the grocery store and buying more stuff. And I was just feeling very overwhelmed when I went into my pantry. Also when I looked in my refrigerator and I don't make the fanciest of meals. I am no gourmet chef by any stretch of the imagination. However, usually I can figure out a pretty easy, quick protein side dish dinner and keep it moving. However, lately it's just been really just such an anxiety source for me where nothing that I look at is just making me not even want to eat. It's just making me walk away and just be done with it all or takeout. And I looked in my house and I said that's it. I'm tearing this apart, I'm destroying this area and making it functionally again because I am like just I can't, I just can't do it anymore.

Speaker 1: 3:59

So Saturday morning, you know, knowing our kid's schedule, is what we had going on. I didn't even attempt to do it in the morning, but I did it after I brought my daughter home from gymnastics and I just like went shelf by shelf by shelf and I just took out everything. I looked at expiration dates. I looked at, hey, when is the last? Even if it was in date, when is the last time I actually use this, went for it, or is it something that anyone's even gonna eat in this house? And if the answer were no, or if it was at a date, or what the heck is this, it went in the trash and I did not wanna be wasteful.

Speaker 1: 4:33

So, like anything that was expiring in the month of January that was like even half eaten is now on my counter and my kids are not allowed to go into the pantry or the refrigerator for any snack until they eat what is on the island, and I've done that with fruit in the past, where it's like, hey, this is kind of like in close to its days, like let's eat this and they will do it. So same thing is happening with the snacks. It's funny how that happens, and I took out everything like baking products when I was doing stuff over Christmas holiday and just breakfast stuff and canned goods and spices and a total tangent on spices. But PSA, to clear out your spice rack because I had stuff in there from like 2017. It is 2024 now. Not a good look. So and honestly, it was so cleansing and so just like such a source of joy it gave me.

Speaker 1: 5:26

It sounds crazy, but if meal prepping, meal ideas, making dinner, if anything like that is starting to just make you feel like you're suffocating, it's overwhelming. You don't even know where to start. I personally believe that this is an amazing first step to just getting eating and food organized in your mind, in your brain, in your life, where you know what you have, you know what to order from the grocery store or you know what to grab at the grocery store For meal prepping. It's so much easier now, like I have a couple of things in my pantry that I know are gonna expire in like February, march of this year, like diced tomatoes, like some spicy pasta sauce, like just other, like weird things. So it was just so much easier when I went to my I order from Instacart.

Speaker 1: 6:15

I don't like going to the grocery store, please don't judge me, makes my life so much easier. But I go to my little Instacart box as the check and I'm like, okay, what can go with diced tomatoes? So, as another thing that you can do, that is such a big help when you have things on your shelves or in your fridge that you just don't know what to make and you're just like what am I gonna do? You can go to chat TPD and a couple of things that I've learned, a couple of secrets that I've learned with this is to go and when you, before you start like typing and you can be meals with these things, say I am a busy mom and I need an easy idea. I am not a good cook. Like really call yourself out, like maybe you are a good cook or maybe you want something that you can make in 30 minutes or less, but be very descriptive and very clear about what you need and the ingredients that you have, and you will be amazed with the recipes that it gives you. It is mind blowing, honestly. But you can just kind of scan through them and, you know, ask them for clickable links to the recipes or sometimes it gives you like the spells the whole thing out and it really makes things a lot easier.

Speaker 1: 7:17

But I have to say, cleaning out my pantry and also my refrigerator, we went, I went crazy. I wiped everything down. I got rid of everything any salad dressings that were expired, anything that was in there. I mean some of the stuff that's almost like a black hole. I didn't even know it was in my refrigerator. So just getting this stuff out, and now I have a clear idea of what I have, a clear idea of what I need and a better idea of what size I have for the stuff that I already have in my house. So it was such a good cleansing experience that I wanted to get on here and share because I know this can help somebody.

Speaker 1: 7:51

If you are in the you know, beginning of your long-term health journey, this is a really good starting point too. If there's something in your pantry or in your refrigerator or your freezer that you know is like a trigger for you also getting rid of that. Donate it to a shelter or to a buy nothing group or to your neighbor or something. Get rid of that stuff. Purge the things in your pantry that don't make you feel energized, that don't give you energy, that aren't good for your kids or aren't good for you Like. Get rid of the stuff. Don't make it easily accessible.

Speaker 1: 8:25

And, like I said, just walking into that area now, I just feel way more peaceful, way less anxious, and I think that that is a general sense that most people would have if you walked into a really organized space and you felt better prepared. Because, honestly, now I'm better prepared on what I'm gonna eat this week and what my kids are gonna eat for lunches and dinners and all of the things. So I really help, I really help. I really hope that this will help somebody that's listening. I hope that it helps you find peace with the food that's in your house. And it sounds so silly, but I think sometimes it's these often overlooked things that we don't realize can make the biggest differences. And for me, having an organized space that might helps make my thoughts more organized is a big help for me and guiding my path towards health and wellness.

Speaker 1: 9:19

So I hope this episode finds you well. I hope it helps you in your kitchen and on your journey, and please reach out if there's any other tips or tricks that you'd like to know how I kinda operate with them. Let me know some ideas for shows. If you have anything that you're interested in, any guests that you'd love me to have, please reach out. I'm always here for you guys. It is Hot Mess Mom Health at gmailcom. Have an amazing week. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of Hot Mess Mom Health. If you'd love this episode, please leave me an iTunes review. It would mean the world to me and it would help me get the word out about helping other moms reclaim their health. Thank you so much. I'll see you next time.