Plan Simple with Mia Moran

FLOW365 is so powerful and I love seeing the effect it has on our members. Sometimes it looks like somebody reaching a big goal that they set, but just as often it’s one decision leading to clarity that opens an unexpected door or the ripple effects making changes in one area of life to all the other areas. 

I’m going to introduce you to three women who have thrived in FLOW 365. You’re going to love these stories. 

PorshaPorsha is a massage therapist who had a small side hustle selling candles and jewelry. She was trying to decide about dialing back on the massage and leaning more into her creative business. She came into FLOW365 trying to make a decision about the direction to take with her business. She was struggling with some health issues and home renovations and struggling to balance it all. 

Then COVID hit. Massage took a back seat and Porsha put a up a website for her candle business. Her first email brought in over a thousand dollars in sales … and it’s continued to climb. She went from doing a few craft shows and people in town knowing her business to shipping things all over the country. Her candles are made of ingredients you’ll want to have in your house and are beautifully packaged!

Favorite parts of FLOW:

• Lists and planning—Doing an extensive braindump and then moving things around and matching it with the calendar helped keep focus on the business. 
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• Focusing on balancing FLOW—Working on different parts of her life helped Porsha lose weight and deal with some health issues—and that flowed out to changes for her husband too
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• Meal planning. Food has always been a part of FLOW. Sometimes it takes a backseat, but sometimes a plan and some meal prepping make a huge difference in busy days. Porsha talks about prepping for the week and how that helps when business is booming.  
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BeckyBecky invested in herself as she was turning 50 and doing a lot of thinking about what’s next. When COVID-19 cancelled a planned trip, she and her husband talked about how to reallocate that money … and investing in herself felt like the right thing. And she got to travel with her mind and meet all kinds of people she never would have met otherwise. 

Becky came in very organized (though you don’t have to be to be part of FLOW 365) and she had a goal. She wanted to majorly declutter, and she started doing that. But as she did, two things happened: she found old writing she had done and as she decluttered her space, she decluttered her energy. She decided she was ready to start writing, and started a blog.

Favorite parts of FLOW:

• The calls & the group—getting to talk to other people who were figuring out and working toward goals and getting feedback from Mia
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• Having everything in one place—All of our parts are part of one whole and having all of our planning in one place helps. Plus setting a vision and how you want to feel
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• 90-day planning—Having a bigger overview of the 90 days that you can refer back to as you go through month by month
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• Noticing & adjusting—Doing the FLOW process, makes it easier to prioritize a certain part of your life or to notice where you aren’t doing what you need. For Becky it was self-care and after the realization, she leaned into it. 
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JenniferJennifer works with entrepreneurs to find balance between their vision and their lives. She helps people by setting strategy, breaking down big projects, creating accountability, creating a safe space to look at the things that scare them or the places where they are sabotaging themselves so they can end up in a place of their own joy and success. She came into FLOW365 needing a lot of this herself — as we often do. 

When COVID hit, she came across a free planning class to deal with that time of change and loved the reality and grounding of the tools. From there she came into FLOW365. She didn’t start the program to write a book, but a dream she had had to write that had been pushed lower and lower on the list and then almost off the page resurfaced. She restructured her whole day to focus on her writing, do her work in less time, and be a better parent. 

Favorite parts of FLOW:

• Worksheets—”The planning worksheets were magic!” They helped Jennifer focus on what need focus at a time when a lot was up in the air.
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• The group—“The women in this group across the board are just really there for each other, really committed to whatever is important to them in their own lives and beautifully supportive and generous with each other in the group.” Being in a place where you can ask for help is amazing.
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• Accountability—It’s one thing to know what to do, another to actually do it. Having time set aside on the calendar when you are showing up with other people makes a huge difference.
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• Support and advice grounded in the real world. If you’ve heard the put your own oxygen mask on one too many times or know that more veggies are good for you but you roll your eyes every time somebody suggests it, trying and practicing small changes helps. And Mia has a very real way of talking about these things that help you hear things differently so that you can actually take action.
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• Seeing what we really want. When we get good at planning and putting the things we want on the page and prioritizing, it gets easier to say, “What I really want to do is …” And when you have support, it makes it easier to say, “I’m going to focus on what I want for the next season.”
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Fear is really about not feeling comfortable in the unknown, which is what trust is all about. 

–Jennifer Urezzio

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Jennifer Urezzio, about fear, intuition, and connection —  and how all of that plays into our planning. 

One of the reasons many of us plan is so that we can do more, fit more things in, or really, ideally fit the things that really matter in. One of the things we don’t always plan for is moments of om and connection. So we dig into that today. 

But we start with fear. Fear is really not feeling comfortable in the unknown and shows us where we need to learn to trust. In moments of fear, we need to connect with knowing we will be safe. We need to pause and connect this way many, many times a day, but when we do it is so powerful. 

We talk about: 

• How when you are connected you realize challenges aren’t about you
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• Learning to listen to your intuition by remembering the times it steered you right and asking: What do I need to hear today?
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• Getting really clear on your core values and how they are fulfilled internally
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• Your body as an indicator of how you are feeling about things
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• Learning to say no and how to communicate effectively (and how to do that around the holidays, especially during the current pandemic)
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• Not taking responsibility for other people’s decisions
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BIO

Jennifer Urezzio is the founder of Soul Language – a paradigm that puts tangibility to Soul so a conscious connection can be established to enable crystal clear decisions for success. Jennifer is also a master intuitive and the author of two best-selling books. Currently, she has trained over 30 practitioners worldwide in Soul Language. At this time there are over 5,000 individuals all over the world connecting to their Soul Languages.

LINKS

• Listen to the Podcast
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• https://www.soullanguage.us/
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• https://www.facebook.com/jenniferurezzio
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• https://www.facebook.com/SoulLanguage/
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• https://www.instagram.com/soullanguagefounder/
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• https://twitter.com/SoulLanguage
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• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferurezzio/
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• http://www.youtube.com/c/JenniferUrezzio
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FREE GIFT:

• https://www.soullanguage.us/sacredpractice/
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Creating a Sacred Practice That Works

Why do we need a sacred practice? When we feel separate from our higher power, that separation shows up in our lives as lack, pain, and suffering. Participating in a daily sacred practice that fits who you are will allow you to create in a more powerful way, feel more at peace, and know that you are safe no matter what challenges may appear in your experience.  As a spiritual renegade, your sacred practice needs to be flexible, fun, and innovative like you.

Doable Changes from this episode:

• PAUSE AND LISTEN. We get messages, but many of us have trouble hearing them. Pause and ask yourself: What do I need to hear today? Pause and listen. Go back to this practice throughout your day. 
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• TUNE INTO WHAT YOU KNOW. Do you ever dismiss your intuition because you think it’s always wrong? Start to learn to trust yourself by thinking about a time (or times) when your intuition was 100% spot on. Connect with that feeling and that space in yourself as you listen for your own inner wisdom.
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• NOTICE IN YOUR BODY. Start noticing what your body is telling you about people or situations. Your body is a great indicator of whether it is time to make a change, enforce a boundary, or create some space or go all in. 
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The tool that has served my family (and me) the most during the holiday season over the years has been our Advent/Countdown Calendar.

It is the tool that I use to focus on what matters most and get my family excited too. Hint: I am not talking about the chocolate-filled variety!

At this point I have 2 teens and a tween. Every year I wonder if we are done with the "magic" of the countdown calendar.

We have not had an easy few months in our house, but as we head into December everyone made sure I was making us an Advent Calendar...

So I have, alongside the members of FLOW365, and I would love to teach you this tool too!

When we learn to express ourselves in a way that is authentic, real for us, and powerful — that has influence — we can create amazing change in the world.  –Michelle Barry Franco

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Michelle Barry Franco, a speaking and thought leadership coach about communication and the impact it can have. She’s also the mom to three teenage girls and talks about the importance of her work in raising them. 

Michelle talks about the importance of creating enough space and quiet to know what we really want, that this is a critical starting point for good communication. Knowing what we want is the first step to asking for it. Then of course we get into asking effectively. We talk about thinking that we don’t feel like we deserve what we want. Many of these thoughts aren’t even ours. They are thoughts we’ve picked up over time. Thoughts are just thoughts. 

Michelle talks about your stand, which for entrepreneurs in your area of thought leadership, but which can also be a stand you take in your life, for example talking to your kids. Know what you want to say—situationally or as a consistent message. 

We talk about: 

• Knowing who you are talking to and being able to put them in context
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• Why so much miscommunication happens because we don't take time to understand where the other person is coming from 
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• Using the idea of understanding somebody to help through the holidays
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• Bring more love, compassion, and understanding to the conversation while still standing firm in our values
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• Being able to take a strong stand and change your mind
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• Knowing when you are done with something, letting go of limiting beliefs, and what that can open up
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BIO

Michelle is a speaking and thought leadership coach. Her mission is to support and inspire those who feel a powerful call to share their stories and expertise from the stage in stepping into their most authentic powerful expression as a speaker. Michelle has over 30 years of experience in the study and practice of public speaking. She has a Master’s degree in Speech Communication, a BA in Cognitive Psychology, and certification in the Whole Person Coaching. Alongside 10+ years of teaching public speaking at the college level, Michelle works with founders, leaders, authors, and transformational healers of all kinds to help them tell their stories and change lives with their message. Witnessing the ripple effects of their stories, lessons learned and expertise, as it serves our world so positively, is the greatest gift of her work life.

LINKS

• MichelleBarryFranco.com/
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• https://michellebarryfranco.com/freebook/
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• TRY UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT. Understanding is key to effective communication. Next time you face a challenging situation, take a little time first to try to better understand the person you are communicating with, whether it’s your partner, your child, your boss, a client, your audience.
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• GET QUIET. We come back to this one again and again. What happens if you get quiet? What do you learn about yourself and what you want?
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• CHECKING YOUR THOUGHTS. Are your own thoughts getting your way? Or maybe they are thoughts you have inherited, been handed by others, taken in so many times you believe they are yours. Try acknowledging they are thoughts but not you, not the truth, not in charge. 
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In this episode of the Plan Simple Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Dr. Valerie, the author of  Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women’s Happiness and Fulfillment. She named Patriarchy Stress Disorder (PSD) and describes it as everything that you thought was wrong with you and tried to fix it with personal development and therapy and medication and self-medication. And she talks about recognizing this as something that we carry in our system, something that we can heal and interrupt that cycle of transmission of trauma and fully liberate ourselves.

We start by defining patriarchy as a system of oppression that has been in existence for a very long time. In this system of inequality and oppression, all power—political, financial, and moral—has been in the hands of men. The only way for women to have access to any resource was through a man, which created a whole lot of trauma and trauma adaptations that still play out very strongly in our relationships, even in the most conscious and loving relationships. 

Dr. Valerie’s exploration of this area started with a question many women ask: What’s wrong with me? After a stroke-like incident that doctors attributed to stress, she began examining her life more deeply. It all looked good, but she started to connect the dots and realized she was responding to unseen trauma. 

We talk about: 

• Recognizing experiences of trauma that may not seem like a big deal and that unprocessed and repressed joy are a kind of trauma
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• It's not easy to minimize our own trauma, but that doing the work to heal ourselves opens us to participate more fully in the world
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• How the ripple effects of your own healing can affect others and that healing is passed through DNA, so change can affect the transmission of trauma
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• Shifting from What's wrong with me? to How good can it get? 
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• How the patriarchy lays claim to women's time and how to reclaim your time
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• The deep-seated fear of our own power
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BIO

Dr. Valerie Rein has discovered Patriarchy Stress Disorder (PSD) and created the only science-backed system for helping women achieve their ultimate success, happiness, and fulfillment by healing the intergenerational trauma of oppression. She holds an EdM in Psychological Counseling from Columbia University and a PhD in Psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Her bestselling book, Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women’s Happiness and Fulfillment has been heralded by Amazon reviewers as "the most important body of literary work of our modern times" and "perhaps the most important book of the century for women." Her cutting-edge programs have helped thousands of women shift from survival to thriving and master the game of "How good can it get?" in their work and personal lives.

LINKS

• Virtal Retreat—The Thriving Experience
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• The first chapter of Dr. Valerie’s book + resources
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• www.drvalerie.com
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• https://www.instagram.com/drvalerierein/
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• https://www.facebook.com/drvalerierein
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• STOP COMPARING. So often we get stuck in a game of comparison. We notice something traumatic in our own lives, but minimize it because there are so many worse things in the world. When you find yourself doing that, stop and acknowledge what is challenging you at the moment.
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• GET MORE RESOURCED. Learning is a doable change you can take to help you take the next step. Read Dr. Valerie’s book you can order it off Amazon through a local bookstore directly or via bookshop.org. And you can get the first chapter and additional resources from her website (see links below—where you’ll also find a link to her retreat).
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• RECLAIM YOUR TIME. One of the things many of my listeners struggle with is time. We don’t have enough of it. We’re busy all the time and yet can’t seem to get done the things we want to do. Reclaim your time. Start by simply asking: Who does my time belong to? Does my time belong to me? Do I own my time? 
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REALLY getting healthy as a family can be a big lifestyle change. But no matter how insurmountable it may feel, focusing on one doable change at a time can help you take small steps toward your big goal.

A healthy lifestyle is really made of lots of little things that when repeated regularly and added together over time make a huge impact on your life.

Choose one Doable Change every Sunday night — one thing that you are willing to play with for the week. The key is to keep it doable and fun! Write that thing on a sticky note or your phone so you remember it. Then put 3 things on your calendar that support it. 

Choose from the changes above or download a list of 101 Doable Changes we made for you.

Is what you're doing actually in alignment with how you want to feel and what kind of a life you want to live?  –Becca Piastrelli

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Becca Piastrelli, about belonging and connection. Even when we are doing, doing, doing, and around people a lot there can be loneliness or disconnect. 

That disconnect or lack of belonging can be a sign that we aren’t aligned with how we want to feel and the kind of life we want to live. So we need to look at how we are connected to the natural world, other people, and with yourself. You need to reach out to people, learn to love yourself, and build your belonging muscle. 

One of the big tools Becca brings to feeling more connected is using practice, rituals, and intentions. These things can be calming to the nervous system and bring a greater connection to our lives. Where do you start? Where you feel the most longing.

We talk about: 

• Recognizing discomfort as a place where growth happens
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• Planning for space as much as for doing and cutting back on what we do and honoring unstructured time
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• Having a closing ritual to your day (it could be as simple as closing your lap top and doing what you really feel like doing)
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• Avoiding counterfeit connection
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• Being realistic with how long things take
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• The benefits of not doing all the time
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BIO

Becca Piastrelli is a writer, land steward, womxn’s coach, and ancestral folk medicine keeper. She’s a storyteller, deep fertile listener, and gather-er of community. She’s dedicated to supporting womxn in experiencing a deep sense of belonging through connecting with the cycles of nature, ancestral wisdom, working with their hands, and being in meaningful sisterhood. She's seen it set them free time and time again, going on to start circles in their towns, quit their toxic jobs, and shift the dynamics of their relationships.

LINKS

• https://beccapiastrelli.com/
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• SET UP A CLOSING RITUAL. It’s easy in our ever connected world to work all the time. Create a ritual for yourself to close the day. It could be as simple as closing your laptop or shutting out all your tabs. If you work from home, it could be stepping outside before coming back in.
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• HONOR WHAT YOU REALLY WANT TO DO. Sometimes we go against what we really want in the name of self-care or self-interest. Maybe you love to paint or read. Or you set up time to see friends. But when the time comes you really just want to sit or nap. Try doing that. Try doing it even if you feel guilty or like you “should” be doing something else. What happens if you do that every day for a week?
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• PLAN FOR SPACE. We all need downtime, unstructured time, time to be still or do what moves us. Block off space in your planner for this kind of time. Write Me or Space or Top Priority. If it helps write Dream or Rest. Let that space be what you want it to be when you get there. Just don’t fill it with overflow from your day. Let it be unstructured, no to do lists, nothing to check off.
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There are definitely moments in time when each woman says “I'm sick of my own BS. I'm sick of feeling this way.”  –Martha Van Camp

In this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Martha Van Camp about weight loss. If you know my story at all, you know that my journey into

health and wellness and time management started with losing 85 pounds. Today we’ll talk with Martha about her story and methods!

Martha struggled with being the “big girl” most of her life and tried diet after diet. Finding herself raising 7 kids with a deployed husband, she gave up on herself for a while. She hit 40 and decided she wanted a change. She started researching foods and micro- and macronutrients and lost 50 lbs in 10 months. She calls herself her first client. From there she went on to enter bodybuilding competitions and started her own company. (Even if those aren’t your goals, she’s got a lot to share with us!)

There is never a perfect time, but there are moments when we can’t go on anymore. We wake up and we’re just done fighting the scale, walking into our closet, and finding nothing that fits. We look at all the piled up coffee cups and feel exhausted and know something has to change. If you’ve been saying “When the kids are older,” “When they go to school,” “When they go to college…” this is for you. Because the longer you wait, the longer the programming that says you aren’t important kicks in. What if today is the day, you say enough? 

We talk about: 

• Thinking about our own relationship with food, what we’re carrying from childhood and how that and anything else is showing up now
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• What else you fix when you fix your food (spoiler alert—you can literally change your whole life)
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• Different ways to look at food—Martha recommends focusing on the macronutrients: protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats
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• Getting to a caloric deficit, but that may not be what you think
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• The need to make changes in what you eat—and when—as your hormones change with age (we talk intermittent fasting here)
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• The importance of listening to yourself and what you know about yourself
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BIO

Martha VanCamp is the Founder and Head Coach for #beMarthaFit, an online wellness and weight loss coaching program.  She is also a NESTA Certified Master of Wellness and Weight Loss Coach.   Martha coaches approximately 500 monthly clients all over the United States and overseas military bases, via an established online platform.  She provides clients a customized meal plan, high accountability, and wellness/life coaching to achieve their goals.

Martha’s company also offers a subscription recipe website for anyone looking to lose weight.  The website offers low cal/macro-based recipes for all meals and snacks.  

Martha, who struggled with her weight from childhood until the age of 40, and was a self-proclaimed ‘diet junky’, finally conquered her own weight battle by doing extensive research on how the body processes food for energy.   Over a period of 4 years, Martha lost 100 pounds.  In addition, she has owned a CrossFit gym and competed in numerous bodybuilding competitions on the East Coast.   

Martha believes clients must focus on “fixing their food” first in order to not only achieve their weight loss goal but also to attain other life-goals.

Martha and her program have been featured numerous times on national television networks like CBN and TBN. Martha is a mom to seven children and resides in Tampa, Florida.

LINKS

• https://bemarthafit.com/
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• https://www.facebook.com/beMarthaFit/
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• Fat Positive with Nicola Salmon
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• PAY ATTENTION TO MACRONUTRIENTS. There are a lot of ways to think about food, but what if you start with three big components: protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats. Start by looking at labels. Notice how you are eating each of these (or what’s missing) at each meal.
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• PUT YOURSELF ON YOUR TO DO LIST. It’s easy to put everyone else first. Put something for you on your list. Even put it first. It could be a walk or workout or making the healthy meal you need vs. what your kids are clamoring for. Start each day with you.
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• LISTEN TO YOURSELF. Many of us hear a voice inside telling when something is wrong or not working or needing to change. Listen to that voice. Even if you don’t know what’s next. Start writing down what you hear. Use that to fuel your next step.
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As you get more intimate with your cycle and the rhythm for you, then you can have those moments where you are by chance out of sync and bring yourself back to homeostasis because you know how to take care of yourself through your rhythm.  –Lena Dolter

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Lena Dolter, about getting in flow with our own cycles, yes, those cycles. We’re talking about our monthly cycle, periods, and how to lean into them and plan with them instead of work against them. 

It starts for many of us with periods being something we don’t really talk about. There is a disconnect between the information we are given and what we experience in our own bodies, and in some cases, like Lena’s, that disconnect can lead to a disconnect from self. So connecting with your cycle and to what is happening in your body is first off a reconnection to self. 

One of the biggest mistakes we make when it comes to overwhelm and planning is assuming we have the same energy all month long. We don’t. There’s a part of the month we have more masculine energy (external, productive drive) and a week to 10 days of internal energy

We talk about: 

• To start to learn about our own energy, we can ask these questions: How do I feel physically? How do I feel mentally? How do you feel emotionally? How do I feel spiritually?
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• How our internal energy days are still productive they just look different and if we make space for them they can actually be quite creative
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• Recognizing that painful periods and PMS are not normal, though we’ve been led to believe they are
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• Having an inner rhythm, whether you get a period regularly, irregularly or not at all, and using the moon as a guide
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• Encouraging our daughters to embrace their cycle and power
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BIO

Lena Dolter guides women to reconnect with their deepest self-trust so they can honor what they need without guilt or shame. If you are a woman who wants to stop working against herself, who is open to connecting with her body to support her in life, healing, and accessing her highest self, Lena’s work is for you.

LINKS

• www.lenadolter.com
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• https://www.facebook.com/groups/570522799777930/
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MENTIONED LINK

• Moon Rythmn on PlanSimple 
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• Lunar Abundance with Ezzie Spencer
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• Living in Your Box with Sarah Jenks
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• Intuitive Tools with Sarah Walka
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR ENERGY. Regularly ask yourself these questions over a 3 month period: How do I feel physically? How do I feel mentally? How do you feel emotionally? How do I feel spiritually? Start tracking your answers. Overtime can you notice patterns?
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• GO INWARD. What happens if you don’t try to keep pushing when your energy tells you otherwise? What if you allow yourself to clear your schedule? What if you allow yourself to rest or get more support? Notice what happens to your energy, your creativity, and your productivity.
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• PLANNING BASED ON YOUR CYCLE. As you gather more information about your cycle and your energy, start using this information in your planning. Block off the days when you anticipate being lower energy or more inward focused. See what happens when you plan around giving yourself what you need on those days. Are you less overwhelmed because you fit projects into days when you have the energy to do them? Do you get more done because you make space for creativity? Do you feel more in flow?
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Walking is a great antidote for a crappy day.   –Joyce Shulman

In this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Joyce Shulman, founder of 99 Walks and author of Walk Your Way to Better about entrepreneurship, the power of walking, being intentional, and reaching goals and dreams. 

Joyce is a serial entrepreneur. From Rover to Macaroni Kids to 99 Walks, Joyce has used the power of walking to come up with great ideas and make them happen. So it’s no surprise that her latest mission is to get one million women walking. 

During the pandemic, a morning walk was important for me and my kids. Joyce and I talk about how walking is a great time to have a conversation with kids because they are shoulder to shoulder, not face to face. And when talking to teens, sometimes less eye contact is more effective. 

We talk about: 

• Walking for your mind, your mood, and your body and the difference between walking and exercise
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• Starting your day with a walk or using one to break up your work or stop a spinning brain
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• Setting intentions at night to start the next day off right
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• Choosing clothes the night before and other steps to start your morning right
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• Thanking your fear and taking risks
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• Understanding whether you have big dreams and are scared to move forward or if you are good with a different type of dream or goal than society usually pushes on people
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• Getting really clear on what you want your life to look like in 10 years
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BIO

Joyce Shulman is an idea junkie, an entrepreneur, a mom, a speaker and an author. She’s a recovering lawyer and spent the second decade of her professional life creating community and empowering women as the founder and CEO of Macaroni Kid, a multi-million dollar, hyper-local media company. Now she’s encouraging women to take ownership of their minds, their moods, and their bodies through the simple act of lacing up their sneakers and walking together. 

LINKS

• https://www.joyceshulman.com/
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• https://www.99walks.fit
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• Social @99walks
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• Walk Your Way to Better
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There's a really big and super important distinction between people who have really big dreams in their heart and are afraid of something standing in the way of them going after them and people who aren't wired like that, and society is telling them they should be.  —Joyce Shulman

Doable Changes from this episode:

• WALK DAILY. Decide which works better for you, getting out the door for a walk to start your day or using a walk to break up your work. Not sure? Try a week of one and then a week of the other. Make it nonnegotiable to see how walking for 20–30 minutes can affect your mind, your mood, and your body.
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• SET YOUR INTENTION. Try setting your intention as part of your bedtime routine. Think about how you want to show up the next day. Don’t get too much into the nitty-gritty to-dos of the day, think more about how you want the day to feel—is it about productivity, space, joy? Each will be different, but try setting your intention the night before.
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• PICK CLOTHES THE NIGHT BEFORE. Set out your clothes the night before, whether it’s workout clothes, something comfortable for walking, what you need for your first Zoom of the day. What else can you set up—coffee, a breakfast plan? Take more decisions out of your morning to let you roll into the first thing. If walking is your first thing, you can get up, get dressed, and get going before your brain tries to talk you out of it.
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Food is so connected to the human experience—it absolutely needs to be a joyous thing.   –Tess Masters

I have lost 20 pounds in the past 55 days!!! And I have our amazing guest to thank. I feel the best I have felt in my 40s! This is a must-listen if you want to get healthy now, which might just be the most important goal we can all have in 2020... 

In this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Tess Masters, the Blender Girl, about clean eating—and why it matters. Getting to a better place with our own eating can feel kind of daunting. It’s something we know we “should” do, but getting really clear on our own why and the real benefits can certainly help us make a real change. 

Tess and I talk about those benefits. Additional energy is a big one. I know I felt the change and Tess reports how much the people she works with comment on sleeping better, having more energy with their kids or partners or for the things they love to do, not feeling exhausted. Beyond energy, their digestion is better, their gut health is better. Plus your skin glows, your hair is more lustrous, you feel good in your body and often that shows up as more confidence and a sense that you can achieve your goals. 

Given all that, why don’t people make the change? It’s not easy, but it helps to start from a place of abundance. So often when we shift to healthy eating we focus on what we can’t have. What if instead celebrate what you can have? Tess helps people find foods that satisfy their cravings in a way that truly nourishes them.

We talk about: 

• Getting over the beginning hump and how your body wants to stick with these changes that feel good if you can stick out the beginning
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• How a 90-day focus gives you time to let go of previous habits or practices that aren’t serving you and shifting to new ones
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• How “falling off the wagon” can actually be helpful because it reminds your body how the things you used to eat or drink made you feel
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• Using your choices as data points about yourself, how you respond to food, your emotional trigger points, etc. 
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• Adapting foods you love to be healthier (and getting more comfortable in the kitchen)
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• Tracking your food, sleep, and movement
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BIO

Tess Masters is a lifestyle personality and author of The Blender Girl, The Blender Girl Smoothies, and The Perfect Blend. She is also the creator of The Decadent Detox™ cleanses and Skinny60™ weight loss program. You can find hundreds of easy recipes at theblendergirl.com.

Tess and her delicious healthy food have been featured in the L.A Times, Washington Post, InStyle, Real Simple, Prevention, Cosmopolitan, Shape, Glamour, Clean Eating, the Today show, Fox, Home & Family, and many others.

In high demand as a spokesperson, presenter, and recipe developer, Tess has collaborated with KitchenAid, Vitamix, Williams-Sonoma, Four Seasons, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Silk, So Delicious, Driscoll’s, Earthbound Farm, Vegetarian Times, and many others.

She lives in Los Angeles.

LINKS

• Join me in the Skinny60 »
• Download 20 Skinny60 Recipes »
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• Theblendergirl.com
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• An earlier conversation with Tess on the Plan Simple Podcast
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• NOTICE HOW YOU FEEL. Start noticing how different foods make you feel. Write it down. Do you feel tired or bloated after eating something? Do you feel regret or comfort? What do you crave? Start paying attention and noticing. This is all data that can help you shift to healthier eating.
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• CHANGE THE COMPOSITION OF YOUR PLATE. Use the 80–20 rule. That means 80% of your plate should be non starchy vegetables and 20% of your plate should be a mix of starch and animal or plant protein. If that feels like a huge switch (maybe your plate is currently reversed), try shifting close, like 50–50. Try experimenting with different vegetables to fit that part of your plate.
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• FOCUS ON HYDRATION. Drink more water-based beverages throughout the day. Pack a water bottle when you go out. Bring a container of water to your desk. Track how much you are drinking. If you want to snack, try having a drink first. Think about ways to make water more appealing—a glass you love, adding fruit or herbs. And don’t forget about high-water content foods—include them with each meal. 
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