2023 Quarter ONE Meal Plan
And here we are…another year begins. And yet, nothing changes if nothing changes.
I don’t how you feel when you reflect on the past 12 months or what thoughts come to the forefront of your mind, but I know for me, there is much joy…with it’s stark counterpart grief in tow step for step. In some ways, would we really know joy and abundance without loss and sadness? Would we savor the good as we do without having walked through the struggle? I don’t know. I guess regardless, struggle and trauma and the hard things in life leave their mark. And our choice isn’t usually in whether or not they happen, because they will, but how we handle and recover when they do.
This meal plan is part of my intentional road to recover. To look at the things that have indelibly left their mark and map the road forward in a way that is whole and good and sets the terrain for future hard things to come. The goal isn’t to erase them, I can’t and you can’t. It’s to heal the shockwaves of them. It’s to be stronger because of them. I know for me, the hard things very visibly show how they’ve changed me for good. It’s evaluating how they’ve very visibly and negatively impacted me that is the focus. To grow in those areas with future in mind.
If you follow me on Instagram you have seen me share that sickness has invaded our home and myself all fall. If you know me in real life, you have probably experienced at some point in the past 4 months the events I’ve missed and lack of presence because of it. And from seasons like that, we either take queues from our bodies or we don’t. We either look deeper or we don’t. We take ownership or our health, or continue to outsource it. Because I feel myself approaching a tangent, I’ll bring this to a head…
This meal plan is not a weight loss journey or January “new year new me” talking point. It’s a continuation to the past five weeks of hard work addressing habits around food and consumption, gut health and healing inflammation. To further that, after a lot of reading, I have decided to do an Autoimmune Protocol. Think Whole30 but without nuts, eggs, nightshade and a few other things. It’s 21 days followed by a 28 day period of slowly and intentionally reintroducing and tracking your bodies response to inflammatory foods. After that, we will just be doing Whole30, of course without any foods that were learned to be inflammatory during the 28 day period.
One of the things that has been wildly helpful for me is writing down the positives I have seen from changes made, and so maybe sharing those will encourage you where you’re at.
Quitting alcohol:
better sleep
MUCH more mental clarity
more patience with my kids even in that dinner prep time
less mood swings
less fatigue
better memory
Early bedtime:
prioritizing my time more which means more productive in less time
less procrastination
better follow through on commitments
more structured nights with richer fruit in relationships
Early wake up:
feeds my soul and my mind which sets my days up on a totally different note
more kindness in the mornings
excited for the days instead of waking up overwhelmed, behind or rushing
Those are just the high points, the stories and fruit within each of those has been so much motivation to keep going! And so again, here we are. A new year. Same you, same me, unless something changes.
Maybe you relate to the above and maybe you don’t. Maybe your circumstances are different but those positives I wrote down, are what you want. I’m not promising a magic bullet, I would never…and I’m sure not trying to sell anything because hello, that link below is just a free meal plan from one mom to another, but I am inviting you to a perspective shift of sorts. An evaluation of what’s working and what’s not, of good fruit and bad fruit, and maybe just maybe choosing to try something different. I know God promises to sustain us, and I know when I’ve applied consistent effort toward what He has set before me, He has multiplied the dividends from it. So maybe, this is a next step step of faith for me. Believing He’s not finished and that whole and fruit filled life that’s promised, in spite of the hard and with the hard, is right on the other side of courage to walk in it. Picking up that stone and flinging it as straight as I can to slay giants.
I am not a doctor or a nutritionist. But I know food is fuel and that God created us in the most complicated and magnificent way with everything we need to thrive. If you are comfortable navigating the eating plan, or have a nutritionist or doctor you trust who can walk with you and give input, then join me. I know I am expectant of so many continued positives!
Otherwise…head to last quarter’s “Meal Plan and Prepping” post for a 3 month meal plan NOT doing an AIP protocol. Either way, I‘m glad you’re here. I mean it! And I’m cheering for you this next year. If you’re in…click below!!