Three weeks ago I made a decision. I decided that I needed to start taking care of myself the same way that I take care of my family.
I think as mother’s and parents, we all deal with this phenomenon where we put our children’s needs first and what we need is too often forgotten. For myself, that came in the form of food. I always make sure my kids have a good, healthy and filling breakfast. If we are out and about, I’ll make sure to pack lunches, snacks and water bottles.
Once that is done, along with us all getting ready and out of the house, we are either out of time or running late and that means mom’s breakfast is either forgotten or it’s something from the pantry. Or it would mean that mom’s meals get skipped and then I’m so ravenous that I’ll grab something quick and unhealthy or I’ll eat way more than I should because I am so hungry!
Night time’s are a whole different issue when it comes to food. I’m an emotional eater, so when I’m tired or upset or frustrated, I reach for food and usually not the healthy kind. Then the next day I don’t feel good, I have an upset stomach and I’m just not happy with this unhealthy cycle. I’ve tried so many times to make a change. I tell myself that tomorrow morning, I’m going to start being healthier and it’s off to a good start, but halfway through the day, it goes down the drain.
To be honest, I’m really tired of this roller coaster that is my eating. If you ask me to exercise, I’m all over it, I love it! It’s just the food that is hard for me.
I really want to be healthy for myself and my family. Since I haven’t been able to do it on my own, I enlisted some help from a local, organic, clean, healthy meal planning and delivery company called Eat Your Cake. That’s right, an awesome name with the promise that you can totally eat your cake and still be healthy.
When I started researching companies to help me with my goal of getting healthier, Eat Your Cake popped out at me. Not only is it run by a local mompreneur, it promised to help me achieve a healthy lifestyle with real food and a support system while saving me time and money. What more can a mom ask for?
I started this journey with my friend and fellow mom blogger, Jamie. Before we started, we headed down to the EYC kitchen to have a consultation to make sure we were on the same page about our reasons and goals as well as to ensure that the meals and program we would be trying were right for our specific preferences, health goals and lifestyle.
My first delivery was on a Sunday night. It was great so I could be ready for Monday morning. My bag came with breakfasts, two snacks, lunch and dinner. I also got a sheet that told me what the meals were as well as suggestions for night time, snacks.
I can’t fully explain how helpful this was but I will try! In the mornings, I didn’t just have the kids sit on the barstools in the kitchen as I rushed around them getting everything ready. Since my morning meal was prepared, we all actually sat around the dining table and ate together, it was so great! Some of my favorite breakfast were the chia puddings, potato latkes, vegetarian breakfast burger and the baked apple fritter! I love that everyday was different.
Then as we were setting out for the day, along with packing snacks for the kids, I grabbed my prepared snacks AND lunch as we headed out the door. It was great! When I found myself getting a little hungry, I grabbed a snack. That stopped me from that feeling of starvation at lunch time and I was able to enjoy my lunch in a good portion size.
For dinner, I like the family to eat together and to eat the same thing, so I tried some of the family-sized dinners that Eat Your Cake offers which worked out great.
At the end of three weeks, I can honestly say EYC has really made a difference. Not only has having prepared meals and snacks been a huge help with getting me back on track for healthy eating, it was honestly been a huge time saver, something every mom can use more of.
Even though being a mother often has you putting yourself last, it shouldn’t be like that. It’s so important to take care of ourselves because a happy and healthy person also makes for a happy and healthy parent, wouldn’t you agree?
*A big thanks to Eat Your Cake for providing healthy meals and showing me that you can definitely eat your cake too!
This sounds and looks great. Like you I too am an emotional eater. Prepared meals are always helpful since you avoid rummaging through the pantry and picking up unhealthy choices when you are hungry.
Having prepared meal can definitely be really helpful Shumaila!
I went through a bit of an emotional eating/ stress eating phase when I was about 17-19. I was at University, doing a course that I absolutely hated, and as a result ballooned from a size 10-12 (UK) to a large 14 (UK). Seeing myself in pictures was hard, and one I saw was the final straw and I realised that I had to do something about it. I started loosing weight in the spring of 2012 and did it sensibly and gradually and have gone down to a UK size 8-10. Having healthy prepared meals helps and removing temptation too!
Must be an epiphany with women recently, as I’ve also decided I need to take better care of me so I can be around a lot longer for my hubby, kids, grandkids, and others who care about me. This meal idea looks interesting and the food looks scrumptious!