332: Easy, Culturally-Inclusive, and Budget-Friendly Meal Planning with Jasmine Hormati

332: Easy, Culturally-Inclusive, and Budget-Friendly Meal Planning with Jasmine Hormati

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[00:00:00] Welcome to the award-winning grad school Femtoring podcast. The place for first gen Bipoc to listen in on inclusive grad school stories and learn about personal development and productivity tips. This is Yvette Martinez Vu, a certified coach, consultant and author, and I will be serving as your Femtoring, providing you with insider knowledge to help you reach your personal and professional goals.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Grad School Femtoring Podcast. This is your host, Doctora Yvette. Today we are talking about budget friendly and culturally inclusive, meal planning and prepping [00:01:00] for grad students, and we have a returning guest. Her name is Jasmine Hormati. Jasmine is a registered dietician and certified intuitive eating counselor based in New York, New York.

She is the founder of Mending Ground Nutrition and insurance-based virtual private practice of weight inclusive dieticians who are passionate about helping adults heal the relationship with food and their bodies using a non-diet, culturally and justice informed approach. I mentioned that Jasmine was previously on the show.

She was here for episode 277 That was one of our top episodes last year. So please check it out, especially if you're curious to learn more about topics related to food, movement, body respect as radical self-care. Please check it out. And for those that didn't get a chance to check out that episode, I'd love to hear a little bit more if you could. Reintroduce yourself and share more about [00:02:00] your approach to food and nutrition.

Jasmine Hormati: Yeah, of course. Well, thank you so much for having me back and yeah, this, the last conversation was so wonderful, so I'm happy to come back and talk more about food and, and everything today. But yeah, like you shared already I'm a registered dietician based in New York City. I'm originally from Los Angeles, California, born and raised there.

And I am the daughter of Iranian immigrants. And so that is sort of my lived ex. Experience of balancing multiple cultures and, and all those things kind of growing up. And yeah, I live in New York now with my partner and our new dog. We got a dog now and his name is George. We've had him for about like a month, so definitely adjusting to that, which has been really fun.

And yeah, I mean, I love the work that I get to do as a dietician and, and a small group practice owner where we're helping people really just come back into their bodies heal their relationship with food and body and even movement. And, you know, we really try to view food as like everything can kind of fit into your sort of dietary pattern and eating pattern and that your body is worthy as it is right now.

[00:03:00] You don't have to change it. We don't sort of prescribe any kind of like restrictive behaviors or diet. Diets or things like that so that people feel like they have to like, change their bodies and quote unquote thin, ideal. And we really kind of see food as a way to sort of nourish our bodies so that we can kind of get back into the other things that we're trying to do in our lives that maybe are important or things that we really enjoy doing.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I love your approach to all these things, from your diet, to your movement, to even your relationship with food and your body, and I think that's why so many folks resonated with your episode last time. And so for today, I thought it would be really nice to have you talk about topic t hat's coming up a lot.

A lot of folks are busy, a lot of folks are also on tight budgets. And one of the first thing that comes to mind is, okay, figure out what to do about our meals, meal prepping meal planning. And [00:04:00] so I'm curious. If you can share your input or your insights or your definitions of prepping, meal planning, and then how to approach these things in a way that feels accessible and sustainable for busy grad students and busy professionals.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah, that's a great question. And I do wanna start off our conversation with a little bit of honesty here. So I don't love to cook. I'm like, I don't, I'm a dietician, but I don't love spending time in the kitchen. There are times where I feel more inspired and I'm more excited about, like a new recipe or something like that.

But like I, I don't wanna spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Sometimes I just wanna get, make something a little bit nourishing so I can get back to like whatever it is that I was doing before that or like get back to work or, you know, things like that. So I just wanted to share that for. In case anyone else feels this way of like, okay, like I don't wanna cook, but like, I know I need to 'cause that will help me.

Right? And so I, I wanna frame this conversation too, as like a way to think about meal planning and prepping as like a way of taking care of ourselves [00:05:00] through food because. Yeah, we do have to eat throughout the day. We have to do it multiple times a day. And that is sort of the reality of things. And so how can we do it?

That we can meet both our body and our brain, sort of like fuel needs in a way that yeah, fits into our time constraints, our budget constraints and capacity as well. And. I think when it comes to meal prepping and planning, I think a lot of times people will picture like what they might see on social media, right?

Like, I gotta do all my meal prep on the weekend. I gotta like have these like, you know, matching sort of Tupperwares and proportion out everything and just like, eat that for the week and like that's it, right? And if that works for you, great. Do that. And if that doesn't work for you, then we're gonna talk about some other strategies and things like that.

Today, but for meal, for me, like the meal planning is kind of like the brainstorming and sort of strategy for the actual meal prepping, right? When you're actually gonna like cook the food and. We wanna do this in a way that's gonna help kind of reduce, like decision fatigue. 'cause like if you're a student, if you're in [00:06:00] grad school, if you are, you know, working as a professional, like you're already making so many decisions in your life.

So like, let's make the cooking process a little bit easier. And in order to do that, I think flexibility is also important, right? Because we need to again, like assess your capacity and how much time you have. And also thinking about like. What is a sustainable sort of like system for you to create, right?

So let's make it a little bit more accessible and more sustainable for the long run. So before we even get into like all the nitty gritty of tips and things like that, I want you all to think about two main things. One is what type of cook are you? Are you the type of person who wants to do like a bunch of prep on the weekend?

Maybe you're cooking some things or maybe you're sort of like pre-wash and chopping some stuff on the weekend and getting it ready for the week. Or just say, yeah, cooking everything on that day, or are you the type of person who wants to maybe make things throughout the week and does that work for your life and your schedule?

Or maybe you wanna do like a hybrid approach at the two where it's like you're pre, pre making some things on the weekend. Like, [00:07:00] you know, maybe breakfast foods are easy, right? Like overnight oats or like a bunch of boiled eggs and like you have that for the week and then you can. You know, prep things throughout the week for the other meals that you're gonna have, right?

So maybe it's a hybrid approach. So that's like the first thing I want everyone to think about first. And then the other thing is, okay, what does your schedule look like right? When you're in school, you might have a more consistent schedule of like when your classes are, when you have like, maybe extracurriculars and meetings that you're going to.

But from there, like when do you actually have time to cook? Right? How much time do you actually have, and then I like, that's kinda like a more general sort of schedule, but like what's happening this week, for example, right? Are you going to any events that are coming up are there any events that provide food?

So that might be one less thing that you meal that you have to make, right? Are you gonna be going out with friends? So things like that sort of. Help you with the meal planning process, right? Another big thing too for students is like, do you have exams or a big deadline coming up, right? What kind of expectations are you putting on [00:08:00] yourself?

If you have a lot of stuff that's due this week and you're also expecting yourself to like, cook all your meals from scratch, right? Like, it's not really fair. So. Let's look at like, what's going on in your life. Let's look at what your schedule actually looks like and cook based on like the time and capacity that you actually have.

And this might also look like getting some help with this, right? Like, so do you live with people who can also help you cook or shop or clean up after you cook? Can we get groceries delivered, right? I know that's an added cost. And so that is something to factor in when it comes to the budget.

And. If that's maybe like the easiest way to get something delivered, or maybe you do it every once in a while to make sure that you actually have some things on hand to cook, then we use that every so often, right? Or using some like convenient options, right? Like getting some things that are pre-washed and pre-chopped, right?

Yes. That's gonna be a little bit more expensive too. Then like if you were to buy it and wash and chop everything yourself. And if you're tight on time, if you're tight on energy, that could be something that's really helpful to help you kind of nourish [00:09:00] your body. So. I just wanted to share all of that as like a starting place before we get into like more of the nitty gritty of like how to, I guess.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I like that you started out with talking about, like this framing around this is to help you with reducing decision fatigue. This is to provide you with a flexible and sustainable system. And then you went into a couple of ways to do this. So like figuring out what type of cook are you. And I really appreciate that you said, you started out with saying, first off.

I don't love cooking because I felt so heard and so seen in that moment. I have never enjoyed cooking, so just FYI, I actually didn't learn how to cook until I got to college, and it was for many reasons. But when I was a teenager, I was a very rebellious teenager and I resisted doing anything that was associated with domesticated labor. And so I resisted learning how to cook, which [00:10:00] was silly. I realized in retrospect because cooking is a life skill. But in any case, I learned in college and to this day, I'm like, I'm a mom of two. I cook regularly because I have to and I don't love it. So just figure out what type of cook are you?

You said are you the type of person that wants to get it all prepped over the weekend? Are you gonna just plan but not do the prepping or are you gonna have a hybrid approach? And I like that. I think that for me it's usually that hybrid. I like to have certain things handy like I'll cook quinoa or I'll cook rice and just have it available during the week to pair with other meals.

So I appreciate that you mentioned that because you gotta figure out, well, what's what's best for you, your circumstances, your energy level.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Mm-hmm.

And

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: then you talked about your time and your schedule, like what's

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And it reminded me of something that I do with my partner, with my husband, is we'll meet at least once a week just to figure out what are we gonna make during the week?

And we look at what [00:11:00] we have going on in the week, and if we've got days that we're out for our kids extracurriculars and we're gonna be back late, we're not gonna have a lot of time. We're like, what's quick and easy? Okay, we'll do that on those days. And sometimes it is convenience foods. Like for me it might be like canned lentil soup or something.

You know, like just something simple that works for us and for our kids. And then the last thing you mentioned that I appreciate you acknowledging is getting help, especially for those of us with lower energy or less time. Does that mean getting groceries delivered? Does that mean convenience foods, I do get convenience foods and for me, it's worth the time that I save.

So I'm glad that you said that. And I also am glad that you mentioned like you don't have to have everything perfectly. You don't have to have all the matched containers. I'm so not a Pinterest mom.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah, same. Yeah, but those like bento boxes and stuff, I mean, it puts a lot of pressure on people.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I, I do have bento boxes, [00:12:00] but I don't make 'em look cute.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's, that's great. Yeah, no, I mean I feel like as you were sharing also, like just growing up not really cooking much like that was the same for me. Like I feel like my parents, they took so care of so much of that that I would sometimes help them, but like I never learned how to make a lot of the foods that they were making for me growing up.

And they also often relied sometimes on like, picking up food 'cause maybe they were tired or had like a busy day and like didn't have time to like cook too. So. I was sort of thinking about that too, of like, yeah, there's times where like ordering in and just picking up food on your way home is like an act of self-care and like you just do that because you need to eat something and you're exhausted from the day where you don't have time to like make something.

So yeah, all valid.

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And I appreciate that you're not like guilting anyone over the decisions 'cause we have to make decisions that work for us. And even if that means picking up something like you said along the way, it's what works for you. And speaking of. This idea of going back to the tools of not having to have everything perfectly set up and, you know, just work with what's available.

Are there any essential tools or food staples that you would recommend having on hand? And if so, what are some of them?

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah, that's a great question. So, yeah, I mean, I think like it's always nice to kind of do like an assessment and get a lay of the land of like what's going on in your kitchen right now. Right. Equipment wise, but then also food wise. So when it comes to kinda like equipment, you know. Maybe you have a stove and an oven, great.

If you have a microwave, great. Also, those that can be really convenient if you don't have one, it's not the end of the world. Right? But some other sort of basics. I feel like sometimes, again, like we feel like [00:15:00] we need to have a lot of different tools, but really when it comes down to bare bones, if you're like just starting out kind of.

Trying to figure out like how to get started with cooking and stuff. I would say like a cutting board is the first and foremost, like need to have one of those having like a decent chef knife. I think that's really great. It doesn't have to be super expensive. And you don't need to have like a bunch of different kinds of different knives.

Like just one solid like chef's knife will, will take you a long way. Some pots and pans. A baking sheet is always really nice 'cause then you can use your oven a lot more. A meat thermometer if you are cooking, kind of using like animal proteins can opener can be really helpful if you have cans that don't have like the pop, you know, sort of option.

And then like kind of cooking utensils, so like a spatula and like those kinds of things can be really helpful. So I feel like those are kind of like bare bones minimum, like that, that's what you kind of need to start out. Getting like one of those like mini food processors or a blender, like those would be nice.

Of course. A blender's really great for smoothies or mixing up different, kind of like making different sauces or [00:16:00] like, you know, even like hummus and things like that. And then those food processors can be really nice for just helping you chop up a bunch of stuff all at once. So you know, those are added in nice or air fryers and one of those things where it's like added a nice to have but like not necessary.

So, yeah, those would be like the essentials. Or like starting places, I think in terms of tools. And then, yeah, definitely got some ideas in terms of food we could get into as well. But I wanted to pause there. Is that okay? Like anything that you wanted to,

When you

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: said tools, I'm like, wait, you didn't mention a rice cooker?

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): I mean, yeah, a rice cook is also great. Yeah. I mean, rice again like, but it's not an essential thing. You know, where I feel like. You can make rice on the stove, right? It's totally possible. You can make decent rice. It's, it's not like that hard to do. And yeah, a rice cooker is definitely convenient. And you know, I think something that I like to think about when I'm cooking too is like if I'm trying to save a lot of time using multiple kind of equipment pieces at once, right? So I could do something on the stove while I have something in the oven, right? If you have a rice cooker you can have that go into, and then you're kind of like doing this, these things [00:17:00] simultaneously and like saving some time that way. So having different ways that you're cooking different things can be really helpful in the, in the process in terms of like your time that you're spending in the kitchen, for sure.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Right. And then you're right. It is about what is essential. The rice cooker may not be essential or may not be within budget for everyone. But I appreciate that you're sharing, you know. are things that you can do with or without these tools, like you can make rice on a stove and for, for a while for me personally, I have lived in different environments and I have had, and not had certain tools. So I haven't had a, a microwave in so many years, and so now I forget that people have microwaves and I forget when I go over at people's places and they have a microwave, my tendency is to wanna use the stove. So yeah, it's just about making it work. And if something is really gonna be that game changing for you, it might be worth it to save and, and, and make that purchase or that [00:18:00] investment on that one tool that you really feel like you couldn't live without because it's gonna make your life that much easier.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Exactly. Yeah, exactly. If there's something that you feel like you are going to get a lot of use out of, it's totally worth it. I think something that I definitely keep in mind for us is like we live in New York City, like we actually have a decent sized kitchen for a New York City apartment and like we still have to be mindful of like how much equipment we.

We end up buying. 'cause it's like we only have so much counter space and like storage space for those things. So, yeah, so I think that's like something to think about too is like your space and like how much do you have to store all the different things, whether it's the food items or like the equipment that you're using.

So, yeah.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Yeah.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And then for the food staples, were there things that came to mind for that too?

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah, so I think like this is gonna again, come back to a little bit of like, what type of cook are you? Because if you are someone who's following recipes and sort of like looking at what you're gonna make for the whole week, you know, you might make a list. Space off of that and kind of have like a stocked kitchen in that way.

If you're doing things a little bit more [00:19:00] spontaneously and you kind of already have like a bunch of recipes, sort of like in the back of your mind of like things that you've already made, you might wanna stock your kitchen to gear towards that. Right? So I think a good starting place here is like thinking about like what are the staple items that you usually use when you are making your meals right?

For me, it's things like rice and beans and lentils and noodles and pasta and tofu. Chicken chickpeas like lemons, oats, like olive oil, your spices, like all these things to like, that I need to have in my kitchen in order to be able to put something together. 'cause that's kind of the style of cooking that we do.

If you're not really sure, like how to make this list, I would start off with like writing down different recipes or meals that you. Typically make and then break those down. So for example, something that we make a lot, which is like an easy pasta dish, is pasta lamoni. It's like lemon pasta. Doesn't take a lot of time, doesn't take a lot of ingredients.

It's pasta, lemon. You can use butter or olive oil. And [00:20:00] then Parmesan cheese, which I think could be optional. I really like it with Parmesan cheese, but like it's not an essential, it tastes great without it. And then parsley again, I think tastes great with it, but also optional doesn't have to be there.

And so I'm taking this, this recipe that I typically make and breaking it down into these different ingredients. And this is something that I wanna make sure is like stocked in my kitchen all the time. Especially a pasta. 'cause my partner's Italian, so we're making a lot of pastas in our house. So.

Yeah, so taking these different meals that you typically make and, and then break it down into the ingredients of what you need. And that could be a great starting place to think about, like, what are the staples that I always need to have stocked in my kitchen? Because that just makes, again, that reduces that decision fatigue of like, oh, what am I gonna make?

Oh, I wanna make this thing, but then I don't have the items, so now I have to go to the store. Like it, it makes it a lot easier, so you don't have to do all that. So that would be like a starting place. And then I think also thinking about, going back to, I like convenience options, like canned and frozen things are your friends, you definitely have some of these on hand 'cause it does make life so much [00:21:00] easier.

Right? So getting things like canned beans or canned tuna, canned fish fruit cups, even tomato sauce. Other shelf stable items like instant rice or rice itself, cereal these kinds of things will make life easier. And then in the freezer, like you can do so much and put so much in the freezer, like your protein.

You can like buy a bunch of stuff that's maybe on sale like chicken and beef and shrimp and fish, put that in your freezer and then take it out as you need it. Frozen fruits and vegetables are also really great to have, 'cause then you don't have to worry about them going bad. And that's kind of going back to the, the money aspect of like.

You know, sometimes we buy things and they go bad, and that kind of sucks. Like it feels like we kind of like lost some, some of our food dollars there and the food itself. So sometimes frozen and options are really nice 'cause like you don't have to worry about it going bad and then you have it on hand, right?

So things like frozen spinach, frozen peas and carrots, frozen bell peppers at a mame. All these things very easy to kind of take outta the freezer. You could microwave to defrost a little bit or could put it onto a pan and cook it really [00:22:00] quickly and add it into your meals. And then like fruits are always nice too.

'cause you can add that into like desserts or breakfast or a smoothie. And they're very easy to use in that way. And I always love to recommend to all my clients actually, like, having some backup, like food options that are in the freezer, right? Things that are microwaveable or things that you can like, toss into the oven, right?

So like frozen pizza, frozen lasagna, or like any other sort of like, you know, item that you like. I know Trader Joe's has so many fun things, so.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You read my mind. I was about to say that. I don't know if I would've survived college without frozen Trader Joe meals.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah, I mean, it's like they're delicious and they don't take a lot of time to prep. Yeah, they're super helpful. So yeah, I'm, I'm a big fan of having those things on hand, especially too, like, again, like if you just need to throw something quickly together, like having those frozen options are so helpful and canned options are so helpful 'cause it just.

Matter of opening it, spending a couple minutes, maybe cooking it and that's it. Or maybe not even to needing to cook it at all really. So [00:23:00] depending on what it is.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Yeah, I also would love to hear your thoughts on ways that we can not only be mindful of our energy and our time, but also be mindful of our food traditions in the way that we plan and prep our meals. And I'm thinking especially, there's so much pressure with like what we hear in the media around. Health foods or like trying to stick to quote unquote healthy meals. Or even some dieticians will recommend certain types of foods without accounting or acknowledging for like differences in cultural traditions in the types of foods that we eat. And so that can make you feel like, oh, well I can't have my foods because they're not. The quote unquote healthy foods that this person is recommending. And so, yeah, I just wanna hear your thoughts on, on that, on honoring food traditions, [00:24:00] while still planning in ways that work for us.

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Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah. Yeah, that's super important. And I think kind of like my, my bigger picture in a different soapbox that we won't get into today is like how so many of our traditional food ways are deemed quote unquote unhealthy or, you know, like I feel like we always hear in like more public health type messaging or just like the media, like, oh, the Mediterranean diet.

Like that's really healthy. You should do that and you should eat that way. While I don't, I mean I like the Mediterranean, I'm not like against it or anything, but there's been more research done on that than like. Different cultural foods. Right. And food ways. So I think there's an issue that we have here of Yeah.

Cultural foods being sort of put down and other foods being put higher [00:26:00] up on a pedestal. Right? So that's a whole nother topic that we won't fully get into, but I wanna acknowledge that because I think it does make us tend to feel bad about our cultural foods. But it is actually. Very possible to eat your cultural foods as they are.

And you don't have to like healthify them, right? Like you don't have to swap out your white rice for your brown, for brown rice. You can enjoy your cultural foods as they are, because to me, like while food is nourishment, it does provide us with nutrients and fuel and all that stuff. It also is so much more than that.

It is. Tradition and it can be comforting, right? When I think about like Iranian food and making it myself or when I grew up having it, like it's very comforting for me. And so I think it's really important as like you're going through school or going through a stressful time, like being able to turn to these foods that just bring comfort is, is so.

Healing and helpful. So I think if you do have some cultural foods that are, like meals that are your favorites, like start with that. Right? Bring that into the rotation if you can. Right? [00:27:00] If you don't know how to make these things. Start to learn very slowly, but surely, you know, you can, you can do that with asking family members or friends.

Or maybe you find a couple of chefs or cooks like online. I mean, there's so much like food content out there nowadays. But finding out one or two people that you really like and, and start learning how to make these things. And that's actually the kinda the way I went about doing it because I'm.

Pretty far away from like my family and, and so it is not possible as easy for me to like hop on a call and just like learn how to make Persian food now. So yeah, like I started to reconnect with my culture through food and by learning how to make Iranian dishes. And I've been going on YouTube and different places and kind of keeping notes of how they're making the thing and how do I like it, how do I want it to taste?

And making those adjustments to my sort of preference. And sort of bringing that into the rotation. One thing I will say is sometimes our cultural foods might take a little bit more time to make, like Iranian stews for example. Like they take hours. So I don't really plan to do those during the week 'cause it's gonna [00:28:00] take a lot of time.

But I might do that on a weekend and I might double the recipes that I can like, make a big batch of it and then freeze half for like another time. Right. And I think in general, finding shortcuts is really helpful here too. So like if I need to marinate some like chicken or something like that, I might do that, you know, in the morning if since I work from home, I have the time, kind of like do that in the morning and then I have it ready for the evening.

Right. Or do it the night before. So that way I can just pop that into like the oven when I get home and I can do that while I'm making my rice. Right. So finding like little shortcuts here and there and I mean, one of my other favorite ones is like. Sauteing a bunch of onions all at once and then freezing them.

I learned this from my mom actually. She. Would just like, you know, either like just chop 'em herself by hand or put them in the food processor, saute a bunch of it, and then freeze it. And I'm like, wow, that makes so much sense. Because how many meals start with sauteing onion? It's like so many of them and it's a huge time saver 'cause it takes like 10, 15 minutes maybe.

So if you [00:29:00] wanna like nicely caramelize them and stuff, so like, that's like one little tip that I'll share. 'cause I feel like it shows up in a lot of different a lot of cultural foods too. So. Yeah. So, yeah, I think those are a couple of things to think about. I do wanna mention that. Something that is hard at times is finding ingredients.

That is something that I sort of struggled with at first when I moved to New York. So I just wanna acknowledge that sometimes it's not easy to find our ingredients at the stores. So yeah, that's where things need to get a little bit creative like either. Ordering it online or when you go home to visit your family, if you can get a punch and bring it back or, you know, just trying to like do some searching to see if there's like, stores in your area that do have it.

Sometimes it means kind of going outta your way to get those things, so that kind of sucks. But just wanna acknowledge that our ingredients aren't always accessible and that is very frustrating.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I am glad that you mentioned that, that, because I know that there might be folks listening who are thinking to themselves, well, must be nice, but I don't have access to whatever their cultural foods are like. For [00:30:00] instance, when I lived in Portugal, it was really, really hard to find Mexican ingredients. I couldn't find tomatillos. I couldn't find chiles. Like it was just, I couldn't find tortillas. It was hard to survive without access to cultural foods. I also know there are some folks who live in food deserts, and so for them it's really hard to even get access to fresh food.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Mm-hmm.

Fresh

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: produce. And so I, yeah, I think it's important to recognize the differences in terms of the access and the privileges of what we can have, you know, within proximity of where we are or within, not just within proximity, within budgets, et cetera.

So I think it's, it's great that you're acknowledging that. And also like there's, there's things that you can still do about it, whether it's. you stock up because you drive a little farther to get access to the things. Maybe you freeze some stuff maybe you order online. But yeah. Just like figuring out what could work for you given [00:31:00] your circumstances.

And I'm curious actually, like. You know, touching on, continuing on this topic of honoring your cultural traditions, food traditions, what are your thoughts on, you know, finding ways to do this while also being able to enjoy foods that feel nourishing and that kind of work for you? 'cause I, I know this is tied to also this conversation of intuitive eating and it almost might sound contradictory to be like, you should. Plan in advance, but also eat what you feel like eating and what, what you feel like eating changes, and that's not what you planned. So in any case, this is a conversation about, intuitive eating, about planning ahead, about making sure that you're eating nourishing foods that also still honor your tra.

This is comp, this is complex and nuanced. So wherever you wanna go, I think I, I just took you all over the place with one question.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): No, I love it. I think it's great. I think it's, it's it's important to think about [00:32:00] all these different components because yeah, they're eating is, is as much as we want. Like, have it be simple. It's not always that simple. And so I think something here that's important is like flexibility because yes, intuitive eating.

Like if we're following it to like a tea, which I don't feel like you'd need to do it would be quote unquote ideal. Yeah. To eat whatever we want whenever we want. But that's just not possible. Right? It's not feasible. 'cause of all the things that we've already said of like time, budget, fact, like, you know, all these different factors that we have access to the things.

So when that's not possible, right. We kind of need to do a little bit of planning and have a little bit of a loose structure in order to set ourselves up for success. Right. And when we're talking about the meal planning and prepping, like we need to do a little bit of that so that we have access to things that we can ha make meals with, right?

Like having a stocked kitchen does help having. Some tools in the kitchen does help. Sort of looking at the week ahead and sort of thinking about what am I gonna make this week? It does help with that whole process. So having a rough [00:33:00] idea and then also knowing that we can switch things up. Right. You know, when we're talking about even the cultural foods, I was also thinking like, yeah, sometimes when we don't have access to a certain ingredient, like maybe we make a substitution, maybe we get a little creative and try something else, because like that's what's available to us.

Right. Or like if you're heading into school or work and you've packed your lunch and maybe your snacks for the day and you know, like you're kind of guesstimating what it is that you think you'll want at that time, what you're gonna feel like eating at that time. But like, I. You packed your lunch and you eat what you brought because like you need to eat something instead of sort of like scrambling at the last minute to find something to eat.

And then you're able to move on with your day, right? But then again, like that flexibility piece does come in. 'cause like you do have permission to change that plan. You might come home after a long day at school and just be like, totally spent, totally tired and you had a night. A plan to cook dinner that night.

You've got your meat defrosting in the fridge, like you're ready to go for all the things, and then you just don't have the capacity. [00:34:00] And that is okay. You can come home and pull out that frozen, you know, meal from the oven or from from the freezer and put it into the oven, or you can order something and just take care of yourself in that way.

So I, I, I wanna start off with that because I think that, yeah, with intuitive eating, it's. It can get a little complicated and sometimes like it can almost feel like we have to follow these like rules of intuitive eating, but it's really guiding principles and again, like flexibility and a loose structure helps a lot I think when it comes to eating.

And then also the planning and meal, meal planning and prepping part.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I appreciate you emphasizing the flexibility piece of it because it reminds me of the work I do in a weird way around helping people to find sustainable ways to do the work that they do. And one of the things that comes up a lot work is like helping people with time management. And sometimes folks come up with their schedules and they view it as this like rigid thing that they have to [00:35:00] stick to.

Otherwise they, they have failed at the time manage management piece of it. And I often tell them, well, why not treat it like a template? Meaning in an ideal world, you would follow it. But it's a loose template, and if something's changed here and there, that's okay. And that's what this reminds me of when we're talking about food and what you're going to eat. The template is today it's gonna be a busy day, I'm gonna have lower energy, so I need a low energy meal. Something that's easy, and maybe you plan to cook something that's easy, and then at the end of the day you have crashed. And so you're like, okay, I'm, it's flexible enough that I pull out that pizza from the freezer and put it in the oven, as you said. Like the key is that flexibility, but also having y our, whether you wanna call it a template, but like your set things in terms of your options that work for you. Yeah.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah, exactly. And then I think the other part of this too is like making sure that your meals are like gonna sustain you [00:36:00] and gonna keep you kind of like nourished and full for the period of time that you're kind of hoping for. So I. I think sometimes like, yeah, like kind of having that template, like you were saying is really helpful.

Like, I think about like meals as like having at least three of these components, having carbs, fat, and protein. If my meals have those things, I know that that's going to help me feel satisfied. I. Fiber, like fruits and vegetables is great and I love to see those in meals. And I see them as the bonus item though, because those other THI three foods, carbs, fat, protein, like those actually help.

And like when we break them down in our body actually sends signals to our brain that's saying like, yeah, we're eating a meal and we feel satisfied versus like, fiber. Does have, yeah, fiber, and it does have vitamins and minerals and it provides bulk, which is great. But like, it's not gonna necessarily provide us with like a lot of energy and, and fuel in that sense.

So when you're thinking about like your meals, making sure that there are some carbs. So it could be like rice, there's some fat, which is maybe your, whatever you're cooking with, like the [00:37:00] oil or butter that you're using. Maybe it's a sauce that you're making too. So there's that fat and then protein being like fish or chicken or tofu or beans.

And then your fiber, right? Which might already be like the beans has fiber in it, if you're adding any vegetables or having fruit on the side or something like afterwards, you know? So. Kind of having that like template, that kind of like recipe idea of like, then you can plug and play different stuff, right?

You can, you can play with this in a lot of different ways and be able to make really delicious meals. Like one of my favorite things to do is like, again, kind of like I was saying earlier, kinda like using multiple pieces of equipment at the same time is like, I've got rice going on the stove and in the, in the oven I've got like salmon and asparagus.

Easy done. Or like a one sheet pan meal like sausage bell peppers and potatoes all in the oven. I don't have to worry about it. You know? So those kinds of things are really helpful.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Those are my favorite meals. The set it and forget it meals.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Alright, well I'm curious if there was any [00:38:00] question that you were hoping I would ask you touching on these topics.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): I mean, I feel like yeah I think like your questions are always like so thoughtful and so great. Like I, yeah. I, when I was even thinking about things to talk about for today, I was like, these were along the lines of what I was hoping to touch on. And yeah. I know meal planning and prepping is not always easy, so, yeah, I think that's great that we're like, kind of talking about these things and the questions that you've asked have been really, really great.

Yeah.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Thank you. Well, just any final words of advice or encouragement for the busy folks listening who are trying to build a more nourishing and easeful relationship with food.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest thing I would say is just like, be kind to yourself. You do not need to cook all of your meals from scratch. You do not need to spend hours in the kitchen in order to nourish your nourish yourself. Remember that convenience and the freezer, like those are gonna be your friends opt for convenience, especially in times when you have low.

Time or capacity or energy [00:39:00] and that eating something is better than not eating at all. So I'd rather you have something even it's like, yeah, take out whatever it is, fast food. Like I want you to eat something at the end of the day. And I think honestly like help you know, figure out like.

What's going to help you with the meal planning and prepping? So maybe asking some of these questions that we sort of talked about at the beginning. Figure out what's going to work for you and if you need help with that, like we're here for that. We talk to our clients about this stuff all the time and we really help them come up with like a plan and a strategy that's going work for them and their lives.

And so I think, yeah, if you need some help, that is okay. Ask for that help.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And on that note of asking for help, for folks who wanna learn more about you, your work, maybe wanna work with you, support your work, how can they learn more?

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Yeah, well you can follow us on Instagram. You can also join our newsletter. We send out like tips and stories about like once a month. We actually do have a free resource on our website as well about meal and grocery [00:40:00] shopping. It's on our website, mendingground.com/resources. And then, yeah, if you're looking for some more support, like I said we are happy to work with you.

You can just visit us on our website and schedule a free connection call and we can get started.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Thank you so much again for joining us. Jasmine, I am pretty sure this is gonna be another solid top episode. I had so much fun chatting with you, so thank you again. I appreciate you.

Jasmine Hormati (she/her): Likewise. Thank you so much for having me. It's always, it's always fun.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: ​thanks so much for listening. If you liked what you heard, here are three ways you can support the show. The first is to make sure you're subscribed and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. The second way is to get your copy of my free resource kit linked in my show notes. This kit includes tools, playlists on all things grad school, productivity, [00:41:00] and personal development.

The third way to support my show is to follow me on social media. You can find me on Instagram with the handle at gradschoolfemtoring and on LinkedIn by searching my name. Thanks again for listening. And until next time.