Plan Simple with Mia Moran

"Technology is distracting us all the time. It’s incredibly effective ... because the people that are designing these apps understand how our brains work better than we do."

– Sharon Maxwell

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Chelsea and Sharon Maxwell, an amazing mother-daughter duo. Sharon Maxwell is a clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience. Chelsea has a masters in education and has been working with her mom for 5 years to bring information about sexuality in the digital age to families and schools—and a larger message about navigating parenting in the digital age.

I first met Sharon about 7 or 8 years ago when she spoke at my son’s school about talking to your kids about sex. (It starts earlier than you think!) Since then, I feel like so much has changed. Sharon believes that we have less control over the environment our kids are in on a daily basis: “If you want to be the person that acculturates your child and give them what your values are as a family, your capacity to do that has diminished.”

Sharing values is really important because it affects how we approach all kinds of questions. One of the ways Sharon and Chelsea like to frame this discussion is with the phrase, In our family, so In our family, we believe that ..., in our family we think this is what’s important … Beyond values, it’s important for kids to understand how their brain works and how apps and other technology are designed to manipulate them. 

We talk about: 

• Talking with teens about ways in which technology is actually manipulating how you spend your time and how you think about very important issues. 
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• Understanding how your brain works, so you can understand why it’s hard to stop playing a game or disengage from devices
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• Learning to exercise self-control, including tools like what to do with the energy of wanting something
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• Phones and other technology as a distraction from doing hard things and the effect on developmental milestones—and how parents use these things as distraction too
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• Teaching kids to use technology, the same way you would teach them to drive a car
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• Being a creator, not just a consumer
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• Talking with your kids about values, specifically around entertainment, information, and communication
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BIO

Sharon Maxwell, Ph.D., is a psychologist, author, and educator. She’s a a practicing clinical psychologist, specializing in adolescent and family therapy. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Talk: A Breakthrough Guide to Raising Healthy Kids in an Oversexualized, Online, In-your-face World, and is currently working on a new book with her daughter Chelsea about raising healthy and responsible kids in a media-driven culture. She and Chelsea bring her Sexual Health and Responsibility Curriculum, to public and independent schools.

Chelsea Maxwell, Ed.M., is a learning designer and educator. After receiving her BA from Vassar college, Chelsea specialized in curriculum development as well as technology and innovation at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is currently focused on educating students about healthy relationships. Bringing years of experience as a director of mentoring for children and teens, Chelsea creates interactive and dynamic learning experiences for students of all ages. She has begun developing a series of online courses and is working with her mother, Dr. Sharon Maxwell on a book about raising healthy and responsible kids in a media-driven culture.

LINKS

• www.maxwelled.com
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• Scratch
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• DON’T AVOID UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATIONS. For one week, pay attention to when you turn to your phone to avoid uncomfortable situations. That may checking messages instead of talking to other parents at pick up, or scrolling though Facebook because you don’t feel like making dinner, or picking up your phone with no plan because you are bored and don’t know what to do. Sharon and Chelsea talk a lot about helping our kids with technology use, but start with yourself. Simply notice how you are using your phone and other technology.
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• PRACTICE SELF-CONTROL. Start by being aware of desire. Ask, on a scale of 1–10, how much do you want this? Feel the energy of different desire levels in your body. What can you do with that energy of wanting? How can you transform it into something else? Could you create something with it? Save it up? You can try this exercise with your kids … or try it yourself next time you find yourself really wanting something.
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• TALK ABOUT VALUES. You can start with In this family …  to frame the discussion. Try focusing on communication, information, and education. Sharon offers some questions to get started. Communication: What are your values around communication? Does what you say reflect who you are as a human no matter what media you are using? Information: How do you know something is true or not true? What are your values in terms of passing on information that you’re not sure is true? Entertainment: When is it okay to entertain yourself with another five minutes of Candy Crush versus when is it not okay? How are you going to integrate this new capacity to be entertained or distracted anytime you feel like it? Are you just avoiding the hard things by going online for five more minutes watching YouTube videos?
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We have different energies at different times of year, at different times of the month, at different times of the day.... Every day can look a little bit different and you can start to learn what that might be as you’re planning in advance.

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m so excited to talk about planning your week, and the weekly 3 for moms. As I get ready for another year of FLOW 365 and prep changes for the next round of the FLOW Planner, I’m thinking a lot about how I plan and why it matters. I am also gathering as much of the science behind planning as I can.

As we shift into summer, I’m thinking about setting up for a summer that feels good for my whole family. I recently did a whole series on summer planning. If you missed the planning sheets, you’ll find the link below.

Planning the summer can help you have the summer you want, but it’s important to think about each week too! I’ve been reading Michael Hyatt’s Free to Focus, and I really recommend it, but … there’s a lot of masculine energy around it. Based on my own experience of finetuning how I plan and helping so many women plan their days, weeks, and seasons to get more of the life they want, I’m sharing some of his ideas with my own tweaks.

Planning Your Week Steps

First, I’ll say that I love to plan on Fridays. Michael Hyatt says he usually plans on Friday, Sunday, or Monday morning. For me, Friday works best. It gives you the weekend to prep for the week and set up and support you need.

• Find your magic moments
• Michael talks about wins, but in the FLOW process, we find the magic moments each day—in all the areas of our life.
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• Review your week
• Analyze how things went. See what you can learn. Get curious instead of judgemental. Again, look at the whole picture of your life—your work, your family, your food, your self-care ...
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• Make a master list
• Michael talks about reviewing your list and notes. This step in the FLOW process is Masterlist. It is therapeutic to get everything out of your head onto paper. Plus once things are on paper, you stop using up brain space holding on to it and you have it in a format where others can see it, whether for accountability or support or whatever. There’s also another step that matters—a process for reviewing that list and crossing things off or saying no to things that don’t serve you and your goals right now.
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• Check your goals, projects, events, meetings, and deadlines
• We’ll talk about how Michael presents this … and a more female version based on different types of cycles.
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• Set your 3 Big Rocks
• One of the key things here is to remember that some of your big 3 might be about work, but some might be about family or home. We set ourselves up for more success and feeling better when we look at our life as a whole. That also means leaning into our own cycles of when things get done.
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• Plan your rejuvenation
• This is step 6 for Michael, and it’s an important one. For me, there is certainly a need to plan for rejuvenation—in the FLOW process, there is a whole strand called OM, which is about spirituality and self-care and downtime. But part of the planning process is also about understanding the ebbs and flows of your energy, throughout your day, your monthly cycle, or the seasons of the year.
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I really loved reading Free to Focus for the process, but also to really highlight for me some of the ways that my FLOW process really fits for women and moms.

I love seeing what happens when women embrace the planning process and get the support and accountability they need to make big changes. And those changes are so different—getting a huge project done or getting more sleep at night have big impact. I’ve interviewed four of the amazing women from FLOW 365, and you can hear their thoughts on the process and program and the changes they implemented!

The next cohort of FLOW 365 starts in August! Want to join us?

Also coming up soon:

1. An amazing new master class
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5. An updated FLOW Planner
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9. A sale on the old FLOW Planner (numbers limited)
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If you aren’t on our email list, join to make sure you get updates on all this good stuff!

I mentioned a lot of resources and episodes. Here they are:

• Plan Simple Summer Planning Sheets
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• Michael Hyatt’s Free To Focus
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• Living in Your Box with Sarah Jenks
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• Practicing Awareness with Robin Sandomirsky
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• Perfectly Unfolding with Julie Hannon
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• Spinning Plates with Megan Flatt
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• FLOW 365 – Meet Hélène Defrance
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• FLOW 365 – Meet Brandi Bonica
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• FLOW 365 – Styling a Year with Sue Rock Tully
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• FLOW 365 – Divinely Sensitive with Heather Dressel
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• FIND YOUR MAGIC MOMENTS. Take time at the end of the day to find your wins. Key piece of this doable change: look at all aspects of your life. Calling your mom or snuggling with your baby count as much as signing that new client. Look for little moments and big that were sins for the day.
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• NOTICE YOUR ENERGY. Our energy changes throughout they day, throughout our cycle each month, throughout the different seasons of our year. Planning based on your own energy cycles is smart, but the first step is starting to notice your own energy patterns. Just notice your energy throughout the day. Are there times of ay you have more energy or feel more creative or contemplative? Are there specific routines or activities that drain you? How does your energy feel throughout the week? Where are you in your cycle? Track your energy to see what you can learn about your own rhythms. As you start to see patterns, you can adjust your planning.
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• SET YOUR BIG ROCKS. Does your planning for the week start out with a list of appointments and meetings and places your kids need to be? What happens if you start with the 3 big things you want to focus on and fit other things in around it? Look at your week. Block off time for your three big rocks—the 3 things you most want to move forward. Then start to fit in other projects and responsibilities. You may find things you need to leave out or adjust or ask for help to make things work around your big rocks, but by putting them in there first, you get them in.
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I’m not interested in the sort of practices that serves as an escape from life or my humanity. I want to deepen into connection with my life and my humanity.  

– Robin Sandomirsky

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Robin Sandomirsky, who I find guru-esque, and she’s taught me to be present. I’ve learned so many tools from her and as we tap into our OM, I think she can help us in so many ways.

We start out talking about what a spiritual practice even means … or if that’s the best way to say it. Robin likes the term awareness practice or simply being. Because both of these things can feel hard when you are a busy being a mom and working or running a business, we dig a little deeper into that this looks like. Robin finds ways to invite ourselves to land fully in our body and in the “now.” One of her tools is her Souls of the Feet meditation (free on her website) that we have linked up below.

This is one of many awareness shifting practices. Practices are something we protect, something we aim to do regularly. A daily practice can be life changing but, but it is also a commitment and can feel daunting. Anything between a minute and an hour a day could be a daily practice, and you can always start small and build.

We talk about:

• Getting out of our thoughts and how that can transform a day (or even your life)
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• The difference between ceremony, practice, and glimpse
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• Looking at practice as building a new skill
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• How so much tension we’re experiencing is our not being okay with what’s going on, and learning to put down judgment and simply acknowledging how you feel
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• Recognizing the story we tell ourselves in challenging situations (Robin shares a professional and a personal story about that)
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• Getting a teacher to teach you tools, give you resources, and help you develop a practice
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BIO

Robin Sandomirsky’s mission is clear: to discover the most awake and compassionate expression of herself, and to support any other living beings who are interested in doing the same. She is a guide, collaborator, teacher and guru whose spiritual and intuitive and practical and magical work allows her to directly access the inner workings of her clients, in a way that gives them true inner peace and freedom, is life altering for those who get to work with her. She works 1 on 1 and with groups. She is also a single mom to a 13-year-old son and almost 11-year-old daughter.

LINKS

• soyala
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• Instagram robin.soyala
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• Facebook
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• Free downloadable practice: Soles of the Feet
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• Shift Into Freedom by Loch Kelly
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• Lotuswei
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• Wei Of Chocolate
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• UNHOOK FROM THOUGHT. One of the practices Robin suggests is unhooking from thought and dropping your awareness into your feet. Get the free download from her site and try this practice. This practice just takes a few minutes. Try it, then repeat throughout your day.
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• PRACTICE DEEP BELLY BREATH.  Pause and gently fill your low belly and then empty it fully and completely. Focus on that area of the body dropping your awareness down there. Take a few deep belly breaths, allowing yourself to focus on the breath and sensation in the body. Repeat throughout the day.
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• USE YOUR SENSES TO HELP YOU UNHOOK FROM THOUGHT. Taking a minute to unhook from thought is a way to shift something in your day. You could use smell or another sense. Spray yourself with an aura mist, choose an essential oil for your diffuser, let a small square of infused chocolate melt in your mouth. Let this shift a moment in your day and see what comes of it.
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The FLOW process exists because I needed to prove to myself that I could work while also eating well, making lifestyle choices that feel free, and having time for me.

This balance is perhaps hardest for me in the summer — well, until I acknowledged what a big transition it is from the school year to the summer, and realized that I can feel any way I please if I train my brain to feel that way.

It starts with a word.

My seasonal “flow” is always an important guide in my life, but I especially feel its significance in the summer with work. I have had summers where I wanted to feel ease and my work bucket was overflowing with challenging work. I have had summers where I wanted to feel productive and all my projects were on hold until the fall. (Luckily I had the sense to write a book that summer!)

I am super clear in summer what I want to feel like and the best way for my work to support that. My word for this season is reliable. My creative juices have been flowing. The next cohort of FLOW365 is ready to get going in late summer. The next version of the FLOW planner needs some love, attention and creativity, so it is ready to hit the market in September. It all feels so exciting… until I remember that there are 3 kids home all summer and trips that are already planned.

So this is what I do.

I am super clear about what I want to do workwise this summer, and what can wait until late August. I make choices in May instead of as I go in July. (If you are listening now, it’s not too late. Make the choices now that will guide the rest of your summer.) I do this by dividing a paper in two and writing — one half is summer work and the other is fall work. I draw arrows, cross things out, and let myself go until I know I have a plan. Sometimes I rewrite nicely. This summer there is work that really wants to make its way in the world, so I have built in lots of work hours. I tell everyone in my life in advance what to expect and what not to expect of me.

I batch more than usual. I find the summer is way more about chunks of time vs. consistent daily tasks. This means it makes way more sense to create all social media posts one day and spend the next day creating 5 podcasts, so the next two days I can spend at the beach with my kids. It is really hard for my brain to start and stop creativity, so I try to test that as little as possible.

I practice presence. When I am working, I want to be 100% looking for my amazing clients in the eye (on Zoom), not being asked to watch my daughter do her new and improved cartwheel. When I am with my kids, I want to be able to watch that cartwheel with every cell in my body and ignore the notifications coming from my phone. This is in part being clear with my family and knowing when I need to leave the house to work somewhere else so I am not distracted by kids. This is also in part leaving my phone on the charger or putting my computer in its case and fully engaging in the grass and energy of the kids running through it — knowing that there is work time scheduled in the not too distant future because it is on the calendar.

I figure out two work retreats. I very much practice presence. I am far from perfect. Because I know this about myself, I have created a ritual that has my back. I schedule two weeks where all of my kids are out of the house, and I have the whole day and night to get done what I need to get done. Sometimes this means all the kids go off with my husband. Sometimes I divide them up between grandparents. Last year one went away to camp. It is a puzzle, but it is so important for my sanity and staying in business!

I bring my journal everywhere. I shared two extremes to share my focus on practicing presence, but there are many in-between moments. I take the kids to the beach and my husband takes them all on a walk. I take the kids and friends for a swim at the pool, and they are hanging with their friends. In both scenarios, I may indulge in the swim or the walk, but I always have a journal or sketchbook in case inspiration hits. (My kids do too. Every summer I buy everyone a fresh summer notebook.)  This ensures that I am trusting my own creativity, they are trusting theirs, and we capture important ideas. This work always informs and helps the transition to more work in the fall.

How are you going to make work work for you this summer?

• Grab a piece of paper and start jotting down what is for summer and what is for fall. Don’t worry about being messy or crossing things out and moving things around. Play with it until it feels good to you.
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• Think about what your days look like? Are they the same as during the rest of the year? Do you work longer or more intense days to have more days off? Do you work for different hours?
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• Set a boundary around work time. How will you be present when you are at work? How will you be present when you are “off”?
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• Schedule a work retreat for yourself.
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Get the previous episodes:

• Summer & Food
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• Summer Lifestyle
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• Summer OM
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Summer is definitely a time that we can forget to take care of ourselves and our spirit. I give some super practical tips and a planning sheets in the  Summer Lifestyle Episode and some food strategies that can definitely support a spiritual practice in the Summer Food episode, but we get to go deeper here.

First off, let me redefine what I mean by Om here.

The website doyouyoga.com explains Om really well:

“There are many different translations, uses and regards of the word Om, but in “simple” terms (HA!) it is the basic sound of the world, used to contain all other sounds. The sound of God, of the universe, etc. It’s a Sanskrit vibration or mantra made up of three different sounds (aa, au, and ma) that is used often at the beginning and/or end of yoga classes to not only join students with teachers, but also to connect us deeper with the entire universe.

While it’s believed to be the sound of creation, many like to think of it as the sound of silence. I know, crazy right? But I’m not talking about the kind of silence you might experience in an empty house or down a quiet street. I’m referring to that silent sort of vibration you may experience when you’re completely still. So, when we chant OM by ourselves or with others, we’re in a way tuning into that silence, that vibration inside of us to resonate with the silence and vibration of the universe.

It really is quite a beautiful thing, if you think about it, opening your mouth to make one simple sound, just to be reminded that you’re an integral part of existence right here, right now.”

I very much experienced this sense of quiet every time I go to my yoga class where we start and finish each class with OM, and over the years I have been able to bring that quality to other parts of my day.

Another observation is that I hear the “perfectness” of the sound much better at the end of class than the beginning once my body and mind have calmed down.

And this is why this category is such an integral part of the FLOW process… because I really need the calm to make good choices about food, parenting, my home, my marriage, and my work.

So let’s consider OM and summer.

I don’t know about you, but summer can feel “full” before it even starts.

My friend Amy gave me her spreadsheet template that goes through summer week by week, weekend by weekend, and person by person. When I filled it in and looked at it, I felt so good that I know who is doing what when, but it is easy to get too focused on what we are “doing.”

The first thing I do to support the idea of OM in the summer is going through the calendar and put in all of the downtimes. For us, this means weeks of no camp, a weekend in nature camping, and the days where we unplug. It is not the road trip to New Orleans, the week with my parents, or even my biz retreat week (more on that in the next episode). Those weeks all promise to be fun and summery, but they are not all about restoration. Be bored. Creativity, connection with ourselves, deep calm are all fostered by true boredom for ourselves and our kids.

The second thing I do is brainstorm all the ways that OM can enter my daily life, even when we are on an adventure. What creates that deep sense of OM – and how can you work it into your day? For me, it usually means building my morning routine around OM-centered activities. This summer I am working on a 30-minute daily meditation practice, working with oracle cards (a very new practice), a daily walk, my morning pages, and reviewing my food for the day. If I do these 5 things, the day can have many twists and turns, and I can still keep my cool. My morning routine actually gets easier for me in the summer. My kids sleep a little later. My husband has a little more flexibility to help out in the mornings. I hop out of bed with less grogginess. That said, it is so easy to forget or fall out of my usual patterns when traveling, so I try to set myself up for success. This can look like setting an alarm or getting a cute travel pouch to hold my morning routine stuff, or asking for my family to support me.

I use to travel and the open-ended days of summer to learn and grow in my OM practices. Summer is a great time to experiment with new yoga classes or exercise teachers. It is a great time to read about new (to me) methodologies, practices, or enjoy memoirs of others’ spiritual journeys. It is a great time to experiment with our own practices, so I keep a journal of the things I learn and play an implementation game — what new practice I weave into my life this week?

I use the fact that I see a lot more of my kids in the summer season to share practices with them. We know that kids learn by example. What if you are the example of calm and ease? What if that calm and ease become contagious? I will never forget the summer that my now 15 year old found meditation. I think he was 13. It changed so much for him so fast. I give him 100% of the credit for finding it, but I can’t help but acknowledge that seeing his mama sitting criss-cross applesauce on the living room floor with her eyes closed some mornings, and him noticing those days had less nagging or yelling,  had something to do with it.

We unplug and connect with nature. The amazing computer that we carry around in our pockets has so many good qualities — it is filled with relaxing meditations, it has the answer to any question, it never lets me be lost in a new city — but it is a really easy way to buffer and indulge and miss the natural rhythm of the world around me. I mentioned a very purposeful tech-free camping trip we do. I try to work outside in the yard when I can. And I visit a beach and leave my phone in that car or go on walks and listen to the birds. I find technology can get me going at a rhythm that is not mine. Connecting to nature connects me to my higher self, my inner knowing, my OM. Summer is a great time to experiment with taking time off from tech.

Go add some OM time to your calendar, whether it’s days when you don’t have anything planned, an hour every morning to move at a slower pace or practice your morning ritual, downtime after lunch every day … whatever you need. And make a list of OM practices that you want to be part of your summer.

Get the previous episodes:

• Summer & Food
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• Summer Lifestyle
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Make sure to listen to all four episodes in the Summer series — Food, Lifestyle, Om, and Work. These four episodes are a series that I created as an “extra” as we transfer from the school year to summer. If you feel a bit overwhelmed by the busyness that can be summer, you aren’t alone and this episode is for you.

Summer has way more transitions than in the school year: a different camp every week (or maybe no childcare at all), but you still have all the same responsibilities you had when the kids were in school. That can make it hard to have the “easy” summer you might dream about, the one of beaches and vacations and laid back fun.

When I started planning my summer, thing changed. By planning I don’t mean overscheduling, but it does mean thinking through what you want out of the season, what needs to happen, and how it can happen. Since I started my summer planning, I have crafted summers that are a refreshing combo of dedicated work time and full on kids time. Mixed in with some me time and some date moments. I no longer dread summer, and I hope after a little planning you won’t either!

The planning sheets, which I highly recommend downloading, look so simple that you may forget to do them, but I can tell you from personal experience that they can completely change the feeling of the summer.

You can do this work even if you have your whole summer planned out. This is really about filling in the little details so you make time for the things that matter – on rainy days and sunny ones.

These are four things I’ve done to make a huge difference in my summer.

We set summer goals.

• We sit down as a family and map out some of the things we want to do together and individually over the summer. As always, I look for balance (that’s why I created the worksheet that balances rainy day things with sunny day things, individual things with family things, social events with quieter time.)

I let go of too much scheduling. This may sound the opposite of planning, but not being overscheduled is a key to our summer. My kids are older now, but even when they were all camp age, I often chose a babysitter over camp. Why?

• Not having to get us all out of the house in the morning buys me all kinds of freedom. I get to go to yoga or on a run at 6:00am because I don’t have to be back to pack lunches and have everyone out the door by 7:30.

I make extra time for food. There are so many ways we can foster healthy family eating in the summer:

• There are farmers markets everywhere, so I can easily shop local and eat in season, and the kids can pick out produce and meet farmers. We can also visit farms to pick our own berries or tomatoes.

I make time for friends. There is something that happens during the school year where I see enough people at school, at birthday parties, and for work, and I crave alone time. But the summer months can be kind of isolating! So as part of our intentions, we make a list of dinners we want to have and friends we want to see – both as a family and individually. Sometimes summer events happen by default: work events, family reunions, the place you have visited since childhood. But what would happen if mixed in with those social events you made time for the friends who are in your position and lift you up?

These four things are part of a summer plan, and the planning sheets create the framework for you to take the action you need to take to be personally responsible for what you really want out of this season. They do the same for your kids. And then they help the whole family really understand and accept in advance what it means to be part of a group — your family.

I talk through how to do the sheets on the episode. Listen to the episode.

Download the sheets.

And have a blast making your summer feel amazing!

Get the previous episode: Summer & Food

Make sure to listen to all four episodes in the Summer series — Food, Lifestyle, Om, and Work. These four episodes are a series that I created as an “extra” as we transfer from the school year to summer. If you feel a bit overwhelmed by the busyness that can be summer, you aren’t alone and this episode is for you.

Summer has way more transitions than in the school year: a different camp every week (or maybe no childcare at all), but you still have all the same responsibilities you had when the kids were in school. That can make it hard to have the “easy” summer you might dream about, the one of beaches and vacations and laid back fun.

When I started planning my summer, thing changed. By planning I don’t mean overscheduling, but it does mean thinking through what you want out of the season, what needs to happen, and how it can happen. Since I started my summer planning, I have crafted summers that are a refreshing combo of dedicated work time and full on kids time. Mixed in with some me time and some date moments. I no longer dread summer, and I hope after a little planning you won’t either!

The planning sheets, which I highly recommend downloading, look so simple that you may forget to do them, but I can tell you from personal experience that they can completely change the feeling of the summer.

You can do this work even if you have your whole summer planned out. This is really about filling in the little details so you make time for the things that matter – on rainy days and sunny ones.

These are four things I’ve done to make a huge difference in my summer.

We set summer goals.

• We sit down as a family and map out some of the things we want to do together and individually over the summer. As always, I look for balance (that’s why I created the worksheet that balances rainy day things with sunny day things, individual things with family things, social events with quieter time.)
• The list lives on the fridge. If I am working, and my kids can visit the list and see that one of their goals is to make a book and can escape to do that. If we wake up and we thought it was going to be a beach day, but it is raining, we already have many possibilities to choose from.
• We also include rituals that we want to implement, like allowance, pickling, and canning, which are easier to become habit when we are relaxed. And come September we are relaxed, satisfied, and have fresh jam for the winter.

I let go of too much scheduling. This may sound the opposite of planning, but not being overscheduled is a key to our summer. My kids are older now, but even when they were all camp age, I often chose a babysitter over camp. Why?

• Not having to get us all out of the house in the morning buys me all kinds of freedom. I get to go to yoga or on a run at 6:00am because I don’t have to be back to pack lunches and have everyone out the door by 7:30.
• It allows me to work a few very full days and have a whole day at the beach at least once during the week.
• Most importantly, it lets my kids just decompress and be kids after a full year of learning and a stricter schedule. I feel like they get time to actually integrate what they learn! When we do schedule things, we make sure there is downtime on either side!

I make extra time for food. There are so many ways we can foster healthy family eating in the summer:

• There are farmers markets everywhere, so I can easily shop local and eat in season, and the kids can pick out produce and meet farmers. We can also visit farms to pick our own berries or tomatoes.
• I can cook with the kids in a more relaxed manner. And we enjoy family dinners that don’t always come together as easily during the school year, because the days are longer and bedtime can be more relaxed.
• We make healthy smoothies and popsicles, and lots of pudding. I feel like there are more meals in the summer (though there aren’t!), but on the flip side, that gives us more opportunities to eat well!

I make time for friends. There is something that happens during the school year where I see enough people at school, at birthday parties, and for work, and I crave alone time. But the summer months can be kind of isolating! So as part of our intentions, we make a list of dinners we want to have and friends we want to see – both as a family and individually. Sometimes summer events happen by default: work events, family reunions, the place you have visited since childhood. But what would happen if mixed in with those social events you made time for the friends who are in your position and lift you up?

These four things are part of a summer plan, and the planning sheets create the framework for you to take the action you need to take to be personally responsible for what you really want out of this season. They do the same for your kids. And then they help the whole family really understand and accept in advance what it means to be part of a group — your family.

I talk through how to do the sheets on the episode. Listen to the episode.

Download the sheets.

And have a blast making your summer feel amazing!

Get the previous episode: Summer & Food

What do you want from this summer? Summer, like the winter holidays, comes with a lot of baggage around what it should look like. I have had summers where I wanted to honor a big work project. I have had other summers where I wanted to be home as much as possible and still others when I just wanted to travel with the kids and see as many old friends as possible. Whatever the summer looks like, the change of season is a great time to re-evaluation and plan.

What is your core desire this summer? Your food, lifestyle, om and work goals need to reflect that core desire.

Food, Lifestyle, Om (spirituality and self care), and Work add up to FLOW, and I am going to spend four episodes walking you through the FLOW planning process for you and your family this summer.

Start every season by figuring out how you want to feel and what that looks like to you.

This season I have decided I want to feel reliable, which means something slightly different in each quadrant of my life. For food and wellness, being reliable means asking, “How can I use this season to move my Food Goals forward?” It means looking at the goal I have set for myself for my 90-day goal and where food fits into my 10 year plan. (You can still get all the prompts to create your 10 year plan on Instagram!)

My 90-day Food goal is a weight loss goal for the first time in 9 years. My long-term food and wellness vision is around eating really high vibration food that keeps my energy even and gets created with ease. So here are the different things I am planning for now, so that my summer supports my goals.

Farm to table

I want to eat as local as I can. I want all of us to experiment with new veggies. I will never forget the summer of Kohlrabi. I got this bulb that I had no idea what to do with and now it is the main component of one of my favorite salads.

I use this time to look at our calendar and figure out if it makes sense to do a farm share or visit the farmers market. This year I am doing a farm share. Last year I did farmer’s markets. No matter what you choose, the thing we need to do now it get dates in the calendar. Farmers markets, your share pick up dates. Other things you might consider is looking up farmers markets where you are vacationing or places where you can pick your own. Berries, peaches and tomatoes are items I love getting lots of to freeze.

High raw

With my weight goal, I have decided to return to my habit of high raw for the summer. Tune into episodes with Marie Claire and Eva Rawposa for the benefits and tips. Summer is just such a good time to do this! For me high raw is about creating new smoothies, innovative salads, yummy dips, getting fancy with the dehydrator (which does not heat up a kitchen like the stove).

This month, I am doing a decluttering project. How does that relate to food? Books are happening next week, and I will make a special section for books that have a raw food focus to use for menu planning.

Cook with kids

Or let them learn. So last summer I got this lesson from my then 14 year old son, who broke his foot mid May and totally changed his summer plans. We all wallowed for awhile in how many books could he read and if all our media policies would go to hell because 3 months of crutches is a LONG time! In the end, he taught himself to cook. He wanted to figure out how to make the perfect omelette, what sandwiches the French enjoy, and how to make the best oats. Not all his choices fell into my way of eating, but he definitely learned a skill.

For little ones, summer gives us the opportunity to involve them more. They can wash lettuce, cut a cucumber, shake the jar of dressing, maybe even measure what goes in the jar. Popsicles and ice cream are so fun to make, and I can make them in a way that I want to eat, which means there is none of the sugar like the ones I get at the store. We will get some of those recipes up on the Instagram and the website.

5 Food and Wellness Tips to Plan Your Summer

My summer is centered around feeling reliable. You’ll have your own goals and feel for the summer, but whatever direction you are going, these four tips will help you find your food FLOW.

Know your why

Remember to start by figuring out how you want to feel and what that looks like to you. Your core goals and how you want to feel guide the rest of your plan

Plan your meals (and snacks)

Although summer caters to a healthy lifestyle, it also brings more gatherings, barbeques and ice cream. Somewhere along the line, many of us equated the fun with the food or the drink, but I can tell you this is not true. But willpower at every turn is not fun either, which is why a meal plan is my favorite tool and the cornerstone of everything I teach and coach on.

I love the practice of meal planning for the whole family on Sundays, but if there is ever a time of year I don’t do that, it can be summer. Even if my planning slides over the summer, I do always plan what I will eat for a whole trip, and I always choose a day in advance.

This can be specific or vague. I am heading off on vacation now in a different time zone. In my notebook, I have written a plan that supports the idea that I am not sure what I will have access to. It outlines the hours that I want to eat, tells me how much coffee I want to have, that I don’t want to have alcohol. For the meals, I write down things like fruit for breakfast, even though I am not sure what will be the freshest, and a salad with protein, even though I am not sure what the protein will be. As I get more and more info, I can fill in the details, but I have a very clear framework. When I am home, I write every meal out, including snacks.

This season, I have a weight loss goal, so I am also practicing planning my meals first and then planning the family around that. Seems simple, but I know I am not the only mom who wants to cook what my kids will eat, even if it is not what I want.

Remember that meal planning is not about restriction. It actually gives you a lot more freedom. Knowing what to eat saves so much brain space. We think about what we are going to eat and then beat ourselves up when we eat the cake, or or kids go bonkers from too much sugar, or we forget to bring a treat for our allergic kid. Food is really hard in the present moment, but much easier with a plan.

Create an exercise rhythm

The summer season is different. If you are used to going to a gym or a yoga studio, your body might be asking for something else. The hours also change from school to camp to vacation, and you nned to think what that mean in terms of when you move your body. Start thinking through a rhythm and get it into your calendar.

Don’t sacrifice what you want in the name of vacation

Research stores, restaurants and markets when you travel. Find places where you can get the foods that make you feel good and fit your plan and goals.

Make food in advance for short trips or plane rides. Bring bars or buy fruits and veggies. Pack your blender for smoothies on the road. Take a no excuses approach to what you want.

Make food part of your summer plan.

This may seem redundant, but I really want you to start thinking about how food can actually feed (or not feed) your dreams.

I have a worksheet for you tomorrow for the lifestyle part that will include these questions, but you can certainly start to think about how to make food part of your family’s summer rhythm.

• Are there restaurants you have always wanted to try? When will you go?
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• Are there recipes or techniques you have always wanted to try but have never found the time?
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• Are grill nights or picnics part of your rhythm? Do you need any tools or knowledge to make that happen?
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I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about the lifestyle part of your FLOW summer plan.

Before you set any financial goal or any goal in your life ... really understand and have a clear picture of what you want your life to look like

– Sandra Grahame

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Sandra Grahame about balancing business and mothering in the summer alongside the bigger topic of women with money. I personally have been working with Sandra because I’m really focused on upgrading my money situation this year.

Summer is fast approaching, so we are diving right into getting into summer mode for your business and with your kids. We talked about getting ahead of things and how different summers can feel different energetically and how to lean into the energy of the season. That means planning ahead. If you want to take your foot off the gas in the summer, you need to ramp up earlier in the year. If you want to be launching in the fall, you need to do some prep work over the summer.

Sandra helps people upgrade their money experience. It started for her with talking with a friend, reading all the books she could, and starting a “club” to deal with debt and other money issues. She points out that it wasn’t just about debt, but about the rich life she and her friends wanted to be living … and the payoff when far beyond paying off debt.

We talk about:

• Setting a clear picture of what you want your life to look like before you set a goal
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• Putting money where your heart and dreams are instead of spending impulsively
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• Thinking aloud with your kids about your thoughts about spending
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• Developing “spending awareness” (it’s not about knowing where every dollar goes)
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• The importance of an abundance mindset and what an abundant mindset means (it’s not 1000 lattes) in business and life
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• Starting a money group
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• Looking at summer as an incredibly rich opportunity to kind of have those slow summer days and give yourself some time to plan and think about upgrading how you deal with money, how you look at your business or exploring what that might look like
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• Being intentional about time in the summer
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After being invited on Oprah and co-authoring two books to share her own success story, Sandra has made it her mission to help others discover how inspiring and amazing it is to make your wildest goals happen. She is a mom, wife, entrepreneur, and 100% believes we can all bring our richest goals to life.

LINKS

• Profit by Design webinar
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• Smartcookies.com
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Doable Changes from this episode:

• CREATE A VISION. Before you set a goal, create a vision for the life you want to lead. I often create a ten-year vision. Sondra does a three-year and one-year vision. Either way, take some time to get quiet and really picture the life you want. It doesn’t have to make sense or seem possible. You don’t have to know how to get there, but getting really clear on what you want helps you start setting goals and making small changes that get you there.
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• THINK ALOUD ABOUT SPENDING. Talking through your thought process when you are thinking about spending can help you and your kids be more aware of money, spending, and goals. For example, acknowledge something that appeals to you or that you feel pulled to buy. Talk about why you want it, why you need it or not, how it affects your goals.
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• GAIN SPENDING AWARENESS. Go through your bank account and see where you are spending money. Ask questions like: Does this give me joy? Is there a return on investment for business expenses? Does this move me toward my goal? Is it appropriate given what I’ve said is important to me? You can do this by yourself or get a friend who wants to work on money to do it with you.
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I want to create a movement #PelvicFloorAwareness. – Kathy Kates

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m so excited to have Kathy Kates here. Kathy is an experienced Family Nurse Practitioner with a specialty in helping patients to alleviate pelvic pain and we’re going to talk about something I think doesn’t get talked about enough: pelvic floor health.

Kathy is the first to acknowledge that this is an area most women don’t know enough about. After surgery and chemotherapy to treat breast cancer, Kathy was in surgical menopause … and a lot of pain. She thought that because she is a nurse practitioner who takes care of women that she should be able to figure it out. It took her own nurse practitioner to tell her that she needed pelvic floor therapy.

Sometimes things we think are just normal … aren’t. Like leaking urine during or after pregnancy. Kathy recommends preventative care and thinks women should see a pelvic floor specialist before pregnancy as well as during and after. One of her key messages – get rid of the shame and get aware of your pelvic floor.

We talk about:

• Baby spinning (she explains what it is) to promote balance in the pelvis
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• Avoiding painful sex in the post-partum period or during menopause
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• Incontinence and prolapse
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• The effect of posture (the position of your screens affect more than you think)
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• Making sure your abdominal muscles, glutes, hamstrings and quads are strong and doing their job so you aren’t adding pressure to your pelvic muscles
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• What an internal exam to help with the pelvic floor is like
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• Engaging your diaphragm when you breathe and being still
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BIO

Kathy Kates is a bilingual Family Nurse Practitioner at a Boston area community health center and a specialist in pelvic health. In addition, she is a speaker and teacher on the topic of pelvic health. Kathy is the mom to a 12-year-old. Prior to her medical training, Kathy was a professional musician, playing locally with the Boston Pops and also traveling the world. Together these career paths have fostered a lifelong curiosity about the body from a biomechanical perspective. Her passion lies in educating others on how they can function optimally in order to live their healthiest lives. Kathy offers a unique perspective, not only as a medical provider but also as a patient who has experienced pelvic pain after treatment for breast cancer.

LINKS

• PelvicHealthSupport.com
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• On Instagram @pelvicfloornp
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• Theraspring - Myofascial Release Healing Center
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• Pelvic Guru
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• International Pelvic Pain Society
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• John Barnes Myofascial Release
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• Pleasure