TRIGGER WARNING: Eating Disorder

If you’re feeling burnt out from cooking different meals for each person in your house or from spending hours in the kitchen every week, this episode is here to help. 

On today’s episode, Jenn is joined by health coach and mom, Kiran Dodeja Smith. Kiran talks about accommodating a variety of eating preferences and needs from one kitchen, especially when you’re not a chef! Oftentimes, the more people you have in the household, the more difficult meals are to prepare because people have different preferences, food allergies, or someone may be avoiding certain foods for personal reasons. Kiran discusses how she cooks meals with six people in her household, giving great ideas for easy meals and tips for how to make a basic meal not boring, so that your time can be better spent connecting with your family. She talks about adjusting to life with a child who had an eating disorder and how that impacted her family. Tune in today to learn how to successfully have one kitchen with many eaters. 

The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store.

IN THIS EPISODE: 

●  [5:37] Kiran shares her story with us and how she got into her current career.

●  [11:03] What is 100 days of Real Food?

●  [12:50] What are the variety of ways that the people in Kiran’s home eat?

●  [14:00] How can you make one meal and make it work for everyone’s dietary preferences?

●  [16:13] How do you avoid being a boring cook?

●  [18:16] Kiran shared how she manages breakfast and lunch for her family. 

●  [20:50] As her children have aged, how does Kiran guide them to make the best choices for themselves and when it comes to packing their own lunches?

●  [26:05] How did Kiran’s daughter's challenges with an eating disorder affect everyone else in the household? 

●  [32:49] What role does family dinner play in Kiran’s household and how do they adjust as the children are getting older?

●  [35:23] Kiran shares her final thoughts when it comes to one kitchen, many eaters.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

●  Your definition of healthy will change, and it often follows what you are seeing in the media or learning from the adults around you. You get to ultimately choose what you think is healthy for you, don’t feel like you have to follow the plethora of information going around on social media. What works for one person doesn’t work for everyone.

●  Creating meal bars can be a great way to accommodate everything, such as a taco bar or a salad bar. Everyone gets to eat according to what they enjoy and they get to choose what’s in it. 

●  Do what works for you and your family and allow yourself to release the control of perfection. If everyone can’t eat together every night, or you need to eat in a different way because someone has sports, that’s ok. 

QUOTES: 

“At the end of the day, keeping things basic is the easiest way to do it.” - Kiran Dodeja Smith

“Have stuff prepared, and that means at some point, I like to say over the weekend, you have to cut up some vegetables and fruits and just have them on hand, that's for adults and kids likewise, make it easy on them.” - Kiran Dodeja Smith

“What works for you right now, it might not look the same next year, in 5 years, but do what’s best for you in the moment.” - Kiran Dodeja Smith

"Nobody's house is perfectly anything; we just think it is from what we see.” - Jenn Trepeck

RESOURCES:

Become A Member of Salad with a Side of Fries

Jenn’s Free Menu Plan

A Salad With a Side of Fries

A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch

A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram

GUEST RESOURCES

EasyRealFood Instagram 

EasyRealFood Facebook

EasyRealFood Website

100 Days of Real Food

GUEST BIO:

Kiran Dodeja Smith is a health coach, blogger, and marketing expert who has been interested in health & fitness since the age of 16. After moving to Charlotte in 2000, she worked with a regional bridal publication before creating her own local print magazine, Little Ones, which she successfully ran for 8 years. She is a lifelong learner who keeps a pulse on the latest health and lifestyle trends and has over 13 years-worth of experience teaching group exercise classes.

After transitioning from her print magazine, Kiran moved into the digital space, working with the large food blog, 100 Days of Real Food, long before the social media influencer marketing trend took root. While there, Kiran was responsible for creating, managing, and promoting partnerships with multiple healthy food brands. Over the past 10+ years, she has fine-tuned her definition of healthy eating for her entire family, including her four kids who range in age from 12 to 19. Always the entrepreneur, she started her own blog, easyrealfood.com, to share gluten-free (and other food-sensitivity inspired) recipes that are easy and achievable for busy families to recreate.

Kiran has a passion for encouraging healthy eating and living for all. She believes that everyone can have a starting point—it’s never “too late”—and that while everyone’s journey may be different, the small changes that we make can lead to profound results.

Kiran enjoys running, hiking, yoga, and Pilates and holds an equal passion for cooking, empowering others to cook (including kids), traveling, and family time. She resides in South Charlotte with her husband, their four kids, dog, and bunny. Kiran holds a BS in Accounting and an MBA from Kent State University.