Denice Murray Health Coaching

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a HUGE fan of Meal PLANNING .  But there is a difference between Meal Planning and FOLLOWING a Meal Plan.  Also, full disclosure, I actually HAVE a sample meal plan that I created . And the entire time I was making the meal plan part, I felt awkward for all the reasons I’m writing about in this blog post. The first drawback (for me) with a Meal Plan is people thinking it must be followed TO THE LETTER . Like, there’s no wiggle room for personal preferences. If you don’t like broccoli, but the recipes in the plan call for a steamed broccoli side dish or adding broccoli to a casserole then you’re just stuck eating broccoli. Now, realistically, we all know that’s not true. Just switch out the broccoli for another veggie you like, and you’re done. But in reality, people who are following a meal plan want that plan to be tailored specifically to their tastes (and those of their family), and when they aren’t, when there are substitutions that need...

This is a completely common scenario. You only have so much time to get dinner together before you have to be out the door again, everyone is “starving”, etc. Or, in my son's case, you're a young, broke recent graduate learning to cook more because (shocked Pikachu-face) mom was RIGHT , and it IS cheaper to cook meals at home. (also forgot to get a picture while we were cooking dinner, so added this one instead!) But I digress.... You’re torn. YOU’RE trying to eat healthy, the kids need something at least semi-healthy , and your spouse may or may not care either way. What do you do? There are so many meal kits, pre-packaged meals, frozen dinners, etc., that you can heat and eat, or throw together in a minute. And when you’re also trying to save money or cooking on a budget, these meals are USUALLY still cheaper, per person, than eating out. However, when your budget is super tight, even those convenience foods can be too expensive. You may not have the time to coo...

Yes, it is. But there are two sacrifices to budget cooking: Planning and Time . They can be interchangeable at times. Planning involves things like knowing your family’s schedules, following sales flyers, tracking what your family does and doesn’t like, knowing what you have or don’t have on hand, etc. Time involves not only cooking the food, the Planning time, cooking more from scratch (which can take longer), the prep time and cleanup, etc. And a third thing I’ll add that is basically my opinion, is that you REALLY need to know what your family likes, dislikes, and what they will “tolerate”. Because, honestly, if you’re going through all the trouble to make a meal and your family hates most of the ingredients, it’s not going to work out very well. Example, if your family doesn’t like ANY kind of beans, then you’re not going to be doing much good making dishes that are bean-centered. It’s not super helpful when I make recipes that use ground meat when my sons don’t like th...

Well, not to sound doom and gloom, but inflation is on the rise. Prices are going up, and with that increase comes uncertainty around food and how to feed yourself and your family. So, how do you navigate the rising costs while still trying to satisfy your family, continue focusing on your health, and not be stuck eating beans and rice for every single meal? (Not that there’s anything WRONG with beans and rice, they are actually two of my favorites!) First, Make a Plan . It might seem pretty obvious, but it’s probably going to be the number one money saver at your disposal. Knowing your schedule, which nights you’ll be home and which nights you’ll be out and about, can be the difference between packing snacks/quick meals, or stopping at the drive-thru and blowing money you don’t need/want to be spending. This also applies to helping avoid impulse purchases at the grocery store. Planning ahead lets you take advantage of sales and deals happening in your area. And if you have the ab...

“Yes, eggs are ridiculously expensive right now. Yes, I still eat a ton of them anyways. I will never prioritize saving money on groceries over fueling my body with what it needs for optimal health. The cheapest food is not always the best food.” Okay. This is an anonymous post on a social media site. And while I genuinely appreciate the sentiment – fueling your body with what it needs for optimal health – I don’t think I agree with a part of it that seems to be kinda tone-deaf….in my opinion. While I agree with fueling your body, I also understand that not everyone has the ability to AFFORD the most nutritious options. This post stressed (and again, I sort of agree – to an extent) that making healthy food choices is their priority, and they will not compromise that value to save a few dollars. My disagreement is that everyone’s circumstances are different. At the time of this blog post, I was able to purchase boneless, skinless chicken breast on sale for $1.99 per pound. I ...

Got your attention? Okay.  Now that I’ve gotten the theatrics out of the way, I really am going to tell you the “secret”.  This applies to most, BUT NOT ALL , cases of people who are trying to lose weight, deal with medical issues, overall health, living longer, etc. Pretty much anything health related. WHAT YOU’RE EATING HAS A GREATER EFFECT ON YOUR OVERALL HEALTH THAN ANYTHING ELSE YOU DO . I managed to get myself into a debate on social media, which was unintentional and not meant to be disrespectful. But RESPECTFULLY, I completely disagreed with their stance that food and weight loss do not have an impact on health conditions.  Health risks related to diet .  Nutritional Deficiencies . Is exercise important? Yes, it is.  But you can be very active, eat terribly, and deal with all kinds of health issues. Or be active, but still overweight because of eating too much sugar, fat, salt, or too many calories overall, and have NO health issues (high blood pres...

This is your friendly reminder that just because you engorged yourself for Thanksgiving, doesn’t mean you’ve blown it and can’t get back on track. The turkey. The stuffing. The mashed potatoes and gravy. The rolls. SO MANY ROLLS . The pies. If you’re anything like our family, you probably stuffed yourself sick and woke up Friday morning regretting life (thanksgiving) choices. But fear not. This is not the end of your healthy eating journey. The key is to RECOGNIZE that you went overboard (and it’s completely reasonable and understandable that you DID – no shame or blame in it), and to regroup in a healthy, non-dramatic way. Don’t say, “Forget it,” and eat ALL the leftover pie the next day. You’re just asking for trouble. But on the flip-side of that, don’t go crazy with cleansing, detoxing, or fasting either (again, unless you just want to). It was food, it was a holiday, and it’s fine to celebrate for a day – or two. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to eith...

Recently I listened to a podcast where the host was questioning the validity of social media and the frivolousness of SOME of its use. Not gonna lie, I had mixed feelings about it. I see its’ use-FULL-ness, and I see its’ use-LESS-ness. But one of the comments really struck me. “Why do we have to post every little thing in our lives on social media? Why would I care what Great Aunt Sally had for dinner?! I don’t need to know that!” And I felt this one because, honestly, I’ve been posting a LOT of my meals lately. Why? In a word – ACCOUNTABILITY . And another word – Inspiration . Accountability because when you’re on a health/nutrition/weight loss journey, the importance of accountability cannot be stressed enough. Before I knew what I now KNOW , I didn’t understand what role accountability played. Frankly, I didn’t WANT other people to know what I was doing. What if I failed? What if I couldn’t meet my goals?  If I told people I was trying to lose 20 pounds, and ...

When we say Nutrition is Individual it means that physically, down to the genetic level, everyone processes foods differently. This is why some of us have great grandparents who lived to be 101 years old while smoking tobacco, drinking whiskey, and eating bacon and lard every day of their lives, and others can’t look at a cheeseburger without our arteries clogging. One person can eat a bowl of cereal with no problems and another can eat the same cereal and it can cause a serious spike in their blood sugar. Why is this so important? Because health, nutrition, and weight loss tend to get painted with the wide brush of “If it worked for her, it should work for me”. And this is simply not the truth. It MIGHT work for you.  It might not.  It might work for your neighbor, your sister, your friend, or your co-worker, but for you….not so much.  This is why as a health and nutrition coach I continue to stress the importance of finding what works for you on an individual lev...

The short answer is YES. The long answer is It’s Complicated. How’s that for being cryptic? There are a LOT of healthy foods (whole, unprocessed) that are available very cheaply. Beans, rice and other whole grains, vegetables, fruits, eggs, certain meats, yogurt, spices. Some of them can be more expensive than others, and COST must be considered. For example, a bag of certified organic brown rice is going to be more expensive than a regular bag of brown rice. Both are still healthy. One has extra steps to make CERTAIN there have been no chemicals, pesticides, etc., while it was growing. The other does not have that guarantee, but there are still laws and regulations in place to make that food as safe as possible. Same thing with any other healthy food you might choose – you are going to be paying more for name brands, certified organic, grass-fed/free-range, etc. The next thing you will pay more for is CONVENIENCE . Example: a package of pre-sliced chicken breast at my local...

This is probably going to sound a little contradictory, and quite frankly, it is. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, the 4 th of July, or any other holiday that revolves around food generally leads to overeating. This is not always the case, obviously, but many times it happens. So, what do you do? Do you give up and go all in on all the things you know you probably shouldn’t be eating? Do you swing the opposite way and try to avoid all the less healthy options? Or do you look for that balance somewhere in the middle between healthiest and least healthy? I feel like holiday meals are what you make of them, and with Thanksgiving only a couple of days away, these are a couple of tips and hints to make the holiday meal enjoyable without driving yourself crazy with guilt. Give yourself some grace .  Sweets and treats are going to be available more easily and you need to allow yourself to not feel terrible if you want to eat a piece of fudge. Giving yourself grace also means understa...