Hi everyone! This week I’m unlocking this paid subscriber post from October about composing simple meals since I’ve been turning to these guidelines throughout my gut and liver protocol. I find this way of eating is supportive of digestion, sleep, optimal energy, and is a gentle way to reset your palate, and relationship to food. I hope these guidelines serve you as well as they have me, and if you’re revisiting this piece, that you find a new insight or practice to include in your day-to-day.
The last two weeks have been a doozy to put it lightly. I’m sure you can relate. In retrospect, all of the weird things that happened to me the first week of October feel completely trivial given the harrowing events that we’ve been witnessing and experiencing in the world, but it's all relative to our context at the present moment. As you know, I live in accordance with all of the cycles in the natural world, and a new month always helps me to reset, but it seems like some greater force has been testing me. Monday morning I went to make a fresh juice after an indulgent weekend of friend and family visiting, and a part of my juicer that I had just replaced after 10 years broke; Tuesday morning I woke up to a power outage; Thursday morning I noticed my grandpa's truck that I have been using while they are on vacation had a flat tire; and to top it all off Friday morning I went downstairs to discover that my Birkenstock had been chewed by one of the dogs. I obviously feel petty as hell typing this all out but I was in total fight-or-flight each morning which is not a great way to start your day. Then of course the mass violence and subsequent war has spawned a wave of reckoning around colonialism, apartheid, and divisive political discourse.
I know we are all feeling anxious, and despair. It’s hard to go about our daily lives when our nervous systems are on high alert. When I’m overwhelmed, I find the most helpful thing to do is to pull back where I can. While most of us aren’t able to defer our responsibilities or put them on pause, we can be strategic with our energy. The solar eclipse that took place over the weekend asks this of as well: to release outdated patterns and reprioritize. I took the weekend to log off of social media, and made a new commitment to be alcohol-free until the holidays. This has already opened up so much space and energy. I spent all of Saturday frolicking in the garden, harvesting food, pulling weeds and dead plants, planting garlic for next year, and being extra witchy in the kitchen making chaga elixirs and an herbal mineral-rich stock from roasted turkey bones. It’s amazing how quickly you can connect to nature when you remove two of the things that can separate us from our consciousness. Speaking of the kitchen, aside from my weekend projects, I have felt the call to dial it down over the past few weeks as the new season sets in. My to-do lists are getting longer as I get ready to launch my business in a more formal way, and I haven’t had it in me to follow a recipe, or make elaborate meals. Instead, I’ve been leaning on the garden while it’s still producing, and embracing simplicity in my preparations. This has helped me to slow down, and connect with my food and my body, and find center in the chaos of life lately. Here are some of my guidelines to pairing down the plate.
Use a Framework: I always strive for a balance in my meals, but when I’m pulling back, I rely on the blood sugar-balancing formula - protein, fat, and fibre - to guide me. I find that having a structure helps to make decisions more easily and by ensuring that I have components from all three categories, I know that I’ll have steady energy, improved focus, and a stable mood.
Eat Seasonally: I live by this guiding force that has made meal-making so much easier. Embracing the season and eating foods that are locally available helps with decision fatigue, and guarantees nutrient density as it is fresh from the ground, and hasn’t traveled miles to get to you. I lean hard into squashes and root vegetables in the fall in winter for grounding and coziness.
Quality Over Quantity: Particularly when it comes to animal proteins and fish, try to always choose the most sustainable, humanely raised or foraged options - this tends to limit the range of variety you have to choose from. Also, a serving size of protein is about 6 oz, or a the size of a deck of cards, so a little goes a long way.
Minimalist Techniques: I’ve been relying on steaming, simmering, and roasting; seasoning with little more than salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice. When you are using quality ingredients, you don’t have to do much for them to taste good, so it’s an opportunity to reset your pallet and fall back in love with the taste of whole foods. It’s also an easy way to repurpose leftovers since they aren’t heavily seasoned, you have a blank canvas to work with that lends itself well to many whole food combinations.
Permission to Repeat: I’ve been eating a similar bowl of oatmeal for the past two weeks, aside from varying the spice, seed or nut. I have also gotten into the routine of having salmon with a root vegetable and sauteed greens on Tuesdays when I’m alone for dinner. I’ve come to look forward to these little rituals and it cuts out the guesswork of what to make.
Hydrate: drink plenty of pure filtered water to ensure optimal cognitive function, mood, sleep quality, energy, circulation, digestion, absorption and elimination. Loose leaf herbal teas also count :)
Eat mindfully: savor your food by eating without distraction in a relaxed environment, ideally in the sun while we still can, and don’t forget to chew!
Curious, what’s in the chaga elixir? I’ve been adding the powder in with an herbal tea blend (chamomile, thyme, and rosemary)