Whenever I talk about our habits and rhythms some people look at me with a slightly startled, bewildered look in their eyes like maybe I’m a bit crazy.

There are others (like many of YOU) who GET IT. You have a vision for how you want you days to go (and therefore YOUR ENTIRE LIFE) and you know having gentle self-discipline and doing things a bit against the grain are going to get you there.

Eating on vacation is one such area of life for us…when we mention we don’t really eat out on vacation most people are utterly confused. Well then, what DO YOU EAT?

We eat home cooked meals, just like we do at home!

This post is mostly geared towards vacations in a rental home with access to a kitchen, not the kind where you eat a cup of yogurt on the edge of a hotel bed before walking around a city for 12 hours straight. That’s an entirely different beast.

We LOVE going to the beach. We have our lovely beach trip down to a T. In these years of parenting when a beach vacation is the only trip that actually FEELS like a vacation rather than work, we tend to take them as much as possible.

Now, I want to relax while we’re here, but I also want to FEEL GOOD. This means eating out every single meal (stressful enough with kids without the stomach ache afterwards) isn’t really an option. I also don’t want to spend my entire vacation in the rental kitchen with dull knives and stained plastic cutting boards.

SO, without further ado, this is what we do :)

First, I make sure the place we stay has a grill. Grilling out doesn’t feel like work, it feels like vacation so I plan meals around that method of cooking.

Second, I pack one large skillet from home that I can cook most meals in.

Third, I bring a collection of reusable plastic Tupperware useful for packing beach lunches every day.

Fourth, I make a meal plan BEFORE we arrive. This is key for me. It’s the same thing I do at home. I LOVE going into a week already having meals figured out so I’m not scrambling every day to magically produce a meal every 3-4 hours for 7 days straight.

Fifth, I make a grocery order (or one HUGE grocery shop) right when we arrive so the fridge is stocked and we can just swing by the local shop to pick up extras when needed, but it’s never necessary.

Now, what exactly DO we eat you may ask? Well, again, a lot of the same things we eat at home! All of the recipes in Simple Seasons are created for the purpose of being as hands off and efficient as possible while still being balanced and delicious. I do take a few more shortcuts here and there (I draw the line at baking on vacation ;), but mostly we’re eating real food prepared simply.

The dinner formula? A meat, a carb, some fruit or veg, and a sauce. That’s it! So simple and delicious and satisfying! I also like to keep our meals very balanced and minimal so we can have fun with our snacks and treats without having belly aches to contend with ;)

I usually pack a small ziplock with basic seasonings. A jar of olive oil, a small jar of balsamic vinegar (for salads and chicken marinade), a bag of salt, a jar of garlic powder, italian seasonings, smoked paprika, and a few packs of taco seasoning.

My favorite dinners to make (all of these recipes are in the Simple Seasons recipe archive ;):

-Shack burger bowls (a bed of lettuce and roasted potatoes, grilled burgers, shack sauce, and watermelon on the side)

-Taco bowls with ground turkey, cheese, yogurt, salsa, and lettuce (the kids take theirs as tacos in these tortillas :) scooped up with tortilla chips

-Hot dogs with cucumbers and watermelon

-Sheet pan chipotle chicken tacos (can also be grilled!)

-Beef & Black bean quesadillas with chipotle lime sauce

-Grilled balsamic chicken with lemon garlic aioli, balsamic salad, and roast sweet potatoes

-Tuna melts with potato chips and grapes

-Weeknight Bolognese with jovial pasta

-Then, I’ll grab one or two frozen pizzas for a pizza movie night (or two) as a special treat!

I always, always double the recipes so we can reheat and eat the leftovers for dinner the next night. That way we can stay longer at the beach without worrying about dinner!

What about breakfast and lunch?

Well, we keep breakfast SUPER simple just like at home.

Breakfast is the one meal we actually like to eat out for, but we still try to limit it to 2-3 outings (it gets a little spendy :).

I grab a box or two of cereal (this is our fav) and a gallon of milk. Serve with raspberries and its a good vacation breakfast once or twice.

I also grab a box of these waffles to replace our weekly yogurt waffles at home!

The other days, I’m making my staple breakfast: over easy eggs, buttered toast (we buy this bread on vacation ;), yogurt with honey and blackberries.

Lunch is tougher for me because I’m a hot lunch gal through and through. At home we do mostly leftovers, but often we pack lunch to take to the beach on vacation.

I can’t do sandwiches EVERY day, so I like to mix it up a bit.

We cycle through 3 different lunches:

-Tuna pickle salad with crackers or pretzel chips to scoop

-Italian turkey sandwiches (with pepperoni and turkey, mayo and italian seasoning on these rolls)

-Tarragon Chicken & Apple Salad (without the tarragon bc it’s vacation :) scooped up with crackers or chips (usually I make PB&Js for the kiddos when we do chicken salad bc it’s not their favorite and slice up a cooked chicken breast for a bit of protein on the side!)

I always bring fruit as a side, either berries, watermelon, or grapes and potato chips for those who are more peckish.

We snack on apples, beef jerky, siete cookies, popcorn, beef sticks, and bobo bars. That’s it!

Dessert is where we go a bit more processed…we pick out some ice cream bars to eat on the porch after dinner, we go out for ice cream on the golf cart to watch the sunset, we bake pre-made cookie dough and enjoy every bite.

We truly LOVE eating this way on vacation and feel SO GOOD (and still relaxed) after our trip, not feeling like we’ve gorged ourselves all week long.

I hope it gives you a little inspiration for YOUR next trip (or just a really busy week ;)

Big hugs,

Jillian

I mentioned in an instagram Q&A the other day that I DON’T aim for 10k steps daily and got a deluge of questions about it. I get it, it’s sold as THE WAY. The way to have more energy, to effortlessly lose weight, to calm your nervous system after years of running and HIIT workouts.

There seems to be this age old middle aged motherhood quest for losing weight…often, we’ve birthed a few babies, passed the stroller years, and find ourselves moving less than ever.

The truth is that middle aged mothers are easy prey for marketing wizards to sell us a solution to all our problems (weight related) problems…

Recently, we’ve seen it with GLP-1 medication. A literal magic pill that people have been dreaming of for years. Take this and lose weight, like magic.

Except, there’s no such thing as something for nothing. There’s no such thing as pure reward without the work and patience it takes to get there.

I’ll leave my thoughts on GLP-1s for another day, although if you know me at all I’m sure it’s not hard to guess :)

What I’m seeing in my sphere of influence (the middle aged-ish mother searching for a healthy and gentle way to feel comfortable in her hard working body) is the golden ticket of 10k steps a day.

Now, I’ll stop here and say THERE IS NOTHING INHERENTLY WRONG WITH TAKING 10K STEPS A DAY. Phew, that’s out of the way.

What I’m seeing is that we’ve put the goal of daily steps SO HIGH that we’re stressing over getting those last few steps in, we’re stealing time from other wonderful things in our lives to get them in, we’re putting ALL our weight loss and health goal eggs in the basket of 10K steps.

I tried it, of course. I bought the pedometer (I’m old school ;) and took early morning walks, afternoon walks, after dinner walks, all the walks to reach 10K steps. It sounds lovely right?

Except when my kids begged to come with me, I would quietly say no because I knew they would slow me down (and therefore, lower my step count). I would take the flattest routes in my neighborhood so that the hills wouldn’t slow me down. My knees and hips felt achey and I found myself cutting my strength training sessions short to fit more steps in.

Despite all of this, I still found myself feeling SO BAD when I failed (yet again) to hit 10K steps for the day despite feeling like it was all I tried to accomplish that day! It took the joy out of walking for me, one of my favorite activities that always filled my cup and refreshed me.

That’s when I realized that I needed to set the pedometer and walk away. Stop counting my steps, stop idolizing an arbitrary number of steps as the end all be all of my fitness goals. (here's where the 10k goal originated…)

I wanted to be active, yes! But I also don’t want to totally fixated on one single aspect of my fitness. I love walking, but I also love strength training and know that muscle is THE BEST armor against aging badly. I want to be flexible and stretching feels soooo good. I didn’t just want to spend all my free time chasing steps.

So, here’s the good part, what I did instead.

Well, first I stopped making it a goal to get any “steps” at all. I widened my perspective and made goals that actually made sense for where I wanted to end up.

Goal 1: Strength train for 30ish minutes 3-5 times a week. This gets my heart rate up like a fast walk, but also builds muscle and joint strength as I age. I’m not doing HIIT here, this is actually loading my muscles and working them almost to failure in a controlled slow way. I follow a balanced plan and repeat workouts often to try to progress in weights or reps. Our bodies need CHALLENGE and CONSISTENCY, not just random hard workouts that we’ve saved on instagram when we have the motivation. Honestly, this has done more for the “shape” and fitness of my body more than anything else.

Goal 2: Walk for 30 minutes 5 times a week. These aren’t sauntering, stroll type walks. These are heart pumping, cardio training walks. It’s like a run without the steep toll on my cortisol levels and muscle recovery. 3 of the walks are intervals walks meaning I alternate between an uncomfortably fast walk, and a slightly more comfortable fast walk. I usually do 2-3 minutes and then switch for 30 minutes straight (3 minutes FAST, 3 minutes recovery, and on and on). Think of this as heart training. I’m not able to hold a conversation without huffing and puffing. The other two walks are at a comfortably fast speed. I don’t listen to podcasts because we have ENOUGH information flowing into our brains than we can process already. Instead, I listen to my favorite music and I feel like a million bucks when I’m done.

Goal 3: GET OUT AND MOVE IN A FUN WAY. This is a hike with my kids once a week, a walk down our long road to the mailbox with my four year old while she stops and literally smells the roses, kicking the soccer ball with my 10 year old, hula hooping and jump roping with my 8 year old, having dance parties with my family while we clean up after dinner. I’m still making every effort to move my body often, but it’s no longer a GOAL, it’s fun. I can include my family without feeling like I’m being slowed down, I laugh and play instead of grumpily pacing my driveway at 9pm to get those last steps in.

I often feel so good that I want to do a bit of pilates, deep core work, or stretching throughout my day. I call these little movement snacks, not workouts. Little pockets of intentional movement that open my body and connect me to my wonderful muscles that keep me moving through my days.

If you add up the time I spend doing actual WORKING OUT (including my walks) it’s about 5 hours a week broken up over the course of 6 days. I don’t feel like my life revolves around getting my exercise in, but I feel the strongest I’ve ever felt at age 39.

Now, I can finish my workout and feel like I’ve done enough. I can go live my life, drink a cup of coffee on the porch, read an extra chapter of my book. It feels like freedom in more ways than one.

I hope this has given you a picture of how lovely it can feel to challenge your body in a REALISTIC and gentle way…I sure wish I’d known it was possible at age 25 when I was wearing my body down with HIIT and running!

Big hugs,

Jillian

As a homeschooling, work-from-home, home bodied family we are home A LOT.

We also may or may not be a family of introverts which means we NEED quiet time every afternoon.

While we LOVE our kids to have space and time for boredom and play, we also understand that sometimes we need a bit of incentive to stay in our rooms for and hour and a half every afternoon.

Enter, the Yoto player.

Here’s how we’ve used ours for the past 5 years:

First things first, CHOOSE YOUR BOUNDARIES. Anytime technology comes into our home we need to carefully set boundaries before they become integrated into our lives. It’s much harder to back track after habits have been set.

Our boundaries?

Each child gets a yoto player on their 4th birthday. Before that there is too much assistance needed or potential for accidents which defeats the purpose of the player for us!

They are only to be used during quiet time in bedrooms (unless mom & dad give permission). There is NO listening in common areas when family members are around unless we are all in agreement that we want to listen while we work on something else. Having this boundary set means they stay special and they look forward to getting to listen to their story during quiet time!

No yoto players in the bathroom (yes, we’ve had one dropped in the toilet ;)…

ALWAYS get the protective cover (yes, we’ve had one broken when it falls ;)

We only listen to audiobooks of books we’ve read together (I want the be the one to see their faces light up at a new favorite book!). This means we’re only adding new cards every so often, not weekly!

ALL the cards are kept in one location (the drawer of our family room cabinet) besides the ones being used which teaches responsibility and allows everyone an equal chance to use the cards! Also, we’re not wasting time searching for a certain card all over the house ;)

Now for the practical everyday stuff!

Where do I get our cards?

Well, I’ve only bought ONE premade yoto card...Winnie the Pooh! I find the selection on their site too limited for our purposes.

Instead, I purchase audiobooks from Libro.fm after we’ve finished reading a book together and make our own cards!

Here’s my rhythm for making new cards:

About every 3 months, I go back and look at what chapter books we’ve read together and note which would be good audiobooks to listen to.

Some books have heavier themes, squabbling siblings, or parts I had to skip over while reading aloud so those aren’t the best to have our children listen to over and over!

Next, I log onto our Libro.fm account and search/download those titles. We have a membership which gives us 1 audiobook per month and an additional 30% off other audiobooks. If a book is over $15 I use a credit, if it’s under I buy it with the discount! I spend around $50 every 3 months which is WAY less than I would spend buying new yoto cards all the time ;)

If there is more than one version of an audiobook, I listen to the sample to see which voice I like best that has good production quality. Not all audiobooks are created equal!

Next, I upload all of the mp3s to our Yoto library (here) with photos I download of the book cover from a simple google search. This is SO simple. I have zero tech savvyness and I can figure it out :)

Side note: I always try to download a picture of the cover that matches the edition we have on our home shelves so it feels familiar to them!

Next, I use a Canva template and upload those same book cover photos I used in the Yoto Library. Then I use sticker paper to print out the book “stickers.”

Finally,

I “make” fresh cards with make your own cards (yes, you CAN re-use them and even fit two entire books on them!) it’s as simple as holding the card over your phone and pressing “make a card” in the app. There are super simple directions on the yoto website here.

It feels like magic.

I stick the book cover stickers on the card so they can easily see what card it is, and BOOM, we’ve expanded our library of good & lovely stories to listen too.

After 5 years, we’re up to 65 books that we keep in this simple card holder!

It’s made it possible for our non-readers to listen to a beloved story over and over again after we’ve read it together.

(my daughter has listened to the Little House series FIVE times and my son has listened to the Chronicles of Narnia FOUR times)

It also makes it possible for our children to have a lovely hour and a half each afternoon to rest in their rooms, with space and time to create, write, rest, stare out the window watching the trees blow in the wind all while listening to stories...and I get that time to work or rest knowing they are filling their own cups as well.

Here’s the short(ish)list of our favorite audiobooks that we’ve downloaded from Libro.fm:

Little House series (narrated by Cherry Jones!)

Chronicles of Narnia series

A Little Princess & The Secret Garden

Frog and Toad (and other Arnold Lobel books)

Beatrix Potter Treasury

The Complete Brambley Hedge

Charlotte’s Web (and other E.B. White books!)

Homer Price

In Grandma’s Attic series

James Herriot’s Treasury for Children

Winnie the Pooh (and Now We Are Six)

Mother Goose

The Wild Robot

Betsy Tacy series

Paddington Bear

Alfie & Annie Rose (and other Shirley Hughes!)

The Green Ember

The Hobbit

Strawberry Girl

Thimble Summer

Pippi Longstocking

Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away

Miracles on Maple Hill

The First Three Box Car Children books

The Moffats series

The Saturdays series

Sophie Mouse series

Sarah Plain & Tall series

The Phantom Tollbooth

My Father’s Dragon series

The Jesus Storybook Bible

The Cricket in Times Square series

Bears on Hemlock Mountain

The Courage of Sarah Noble

A Lion to Guard Us

and we plan to make more as we read more beautiful books together!

This was a BEAST of a article to read, so if you made it to the end you must be my kind of people ;)

If you have ANY questions, please ask away!

Big hugs,

Jillian

P.S. Here’s a list of the links for our most used supplies/websites all in one place in case you missed them while reading ;)

Mini Yoto Players (with protective case)

Make Your Own Cards

Yoto Make Your Own Library (and instructions on making your own cards)

Libro.fm membership

Card Holder

Sticker Printer Paper

Yoto label printable template

Let me know if I missed anything!

At the risk of becoming a bit of a pest, I’m here to share another peek at my day of eating.

Why?

Well, I feel pretty strongly that women have been hoodwinked into thinking that you either have to eat things you don’t actually like in order to feel good in your body OR you can eat whatever you want and just “give up” on being in shape.

Let me tell you, friend: IT’S JUST NOT TRUE.

I have a loooong (overly informative) post all about how I learned to eat anything I want, but not everything I want, but this isn’t that.

This is how I actually PRACTICE these lessons in my real life.

This is how I eat all the lovely foods my body craves, but also truly feel the strongest and most satisfied I’ve ever felt (after 3 babies and entering my 40’s no less ;)

Spoiler: When I actually started EATING what my body needed and craved, it started becoming what I always wanted it otherwise be…strong, satisfied, and energized.

Here’s a look at what I actually eat in a day:

Coffee (and water ;) before I cook family breakfast: Usually I would have a little sunrise snack before my workout, but today was a rest day which means I get to sleep in a little! Since we had a little more time this morning, we made our once a weekly special breakfast. We eat pretty boring breakfasts all week long and save Friday or Saturday for our “special breakfast.” I made a whole milk latte with a spoon full of sugar to enjoy while getting my head wrapped around our day ahead! flipping pancakes on our griddle.

Family breakfast: We had the yogurt hotcakes from Simple Seasons for breakfast and I topped mine with a big old serving of skyr and raspberries. It was SO filling and I felt so satisfied afterwards! I love flipping pancakes on our griddle. It makes it SO FAST.

Morning matcha latte: I usually have two hot coffees, but today I was feeling an iced matcha! I use Pique matcha and use about 2 ounces of hot water with a packet of matcha and a spoonful of sugar. I let that dissolve and mix with an electric whisk then I pour it over a glass of iced whole milk and add a drizzle of honey that settles on the bottom like caramel. YUM. This counts as a balanced snack for me!

Leftovers for lunch: Taco Bowls! I LOVE making messy, scoopable taco bowls with leftover taco meat. This is ground turkey cooked with my homemade taco seasoning from Simple Seasons. I add a spoonful of yogurt with Siete botana sauce, a scoop of salsa, some greens of herbs if we have them, and scoop it all up with tortilla chips. It tastes like a protein packed seven layer dip…SO GOOD.

Afternoon snack: I had a little sample of this insanely good zucchini loaf cake that I was testing for a Simple Seasons menu and found myself eating WAY more than I needed to. I had just finished a walk and should have had a more balanced snack before taking a nibble. Definitely not beating myself up, but I didn’t feel great after housing two slices HA! Perfection isn’t the goal. I would have loved to have one piece while sitting down with a little glass of milk to make it a more intentional and enjoyable snack! Two thumbs up for the recipe though…TOO GOOD.

Family Dinner: Slow cooker gyros with cucumber dill salad and tzatziki with homemade naan from Simple Seasons. I love that the meat and sides are SO easy to make so I feel like I can spend the extra time to make homemade yogurt naan with my kiddos. I like to make the dough an hour before we need it and then we portion out little balls and the kids take turns rolling them out while I cook them on the griddle. The leftovers are SO good and the kids love any meal that comes with homemade naan ;)

Bedtime Snack: In the past, I would have “punished” myself for eating more zucchini cake than I meant to. That would would mean skipping dessert even though it brings me so much joy! It’s actually a little emotional to think how 10 years ago, this would have been inconceivable to me…now, I let it go and move on with enjoying my life ;) I had a scoop of strawberry froyo (in the Recipe Archive!) topped with mini chocolate chips and enjoyed every. single. bite.

It’s my DESPERATE hope that these posts encourage you, rather than make you feel discouraged. That they INSPIRE you, rather than overwhelm you. That you would feel EMPOWERED to start making a change today, instead of waiting for some arbitrary day in the future to start enjoying your life.

If you ever need a hand to hold, I’m right here, friend! I’ve walked (and am STILL walking that road with you!).

I created Simple Seasons as a way to see food and feeding myself (and my family) as something to celebrate, not dread. If you want to see a glimpse of what a weekly menu looks like you can download it here and take a peek! I hope you love it ;)

Big hugs!

Jillian

I’m a mom of three hungry kids who likes to do things other than stand in the kitchen cooking and doing dishes.

I’m also an almost 40 year old woman who likes feeling GOOD in my body, but also likes my food to TASTE GOOD.

It all seems like an impossible task, doesn’t it?

We see “day of eating” content alllll the time on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, all over the place really. There’s something itresistable about seeing what another person consumes in a day…especially when it’s weird. And all I can say is, it’s getting weirder and weirder out there.

We live in a world of extremes these days, the idea of moderation in all things has officially flown the roost.

It’s all or nothing, it’s “cooking is hard so don’t even try”, it’s “take this magic pill so you don’t even want to eat at all”…

Well, I’m here to be a little voice of reason saying you CAN eat good food without cooking all day (just a bit of it ;), you CAN feel good in your body and also enjoy the food you’re eating.

Moderation still works and I’m living proof ;)

Here’s a look at what I actually ate yesterday to give you an idea of what NORMAL could look like:

6:30ish Sunrise snack: A banana while I stretched before a 30 minute early morning workout. I don’t do super strenuous workouts in the morning, just 30 minutes of strength training to challenge my muscles juuuuust enough to grow and stay strong. I don’t need a full meal, just a little gas in my tank to make it to breakfast.

7:30ish Coffee: Yep, I drink coffee before breakfast. Nope, it hasn’t ruined my hormones yet ;) Yes, I load it with whole milk and sugar so it’s actually like a little post workout snack.

8:30ish Family Breakfast: We keep it real simple for breakfast 6 days of the week and save the pancakes and waffles for Fridays. My current favorite breakfast, that I genuinely enjoy, is packed with 30 grams of protein, sweet and savory, full of fats and fiber. It’s a bit of Painterland Sister’s plain skyr with honey and vanilla powder topped with berries or kiwi and one slice of toast (either homemade sourdough or this brand) with a bit of butter and two heavily salted over easy eggs. I could eat this every day for the rest of my life and die happy.

11ish Mid morning snack: Around about 10ish the kids are getting peckish and I’m feeling ready for my second coffee of the day. They get a muffin and milk (these are the maple banana nut muffins from Simple Seasons!), I get another latte. We’re all happy.

1ish Leftovers for lunch: 99.9% of the time we’re eating leftovers for lunch. I always double dinner (meaning I make enough for 8 normal sized servings) so that we can eat a hot lunch (almost) every day. If we’re out and about with friends we’ll pack a lunch to eat out, but at home, it’s leftovers. This is the Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Thighs with coleslaw and homemade potato chips (all from Simple Seasons!) with a side of Bubbie’s Bread & Butter Pickles (my fav).

3:30ish Afternoon snack: After dinner we all have quiet time, the kids are in their rooms with an audiobook, a stack of art supplies and toys, or just a bed to snuggle in while they listen and I’m furiously typing away on my computer (like right now!) for an hour or so wrapping up work. When we end quiet time, we all grab a snack and go outside until dinnertime! We had a HUGE container of watermelon so we all ate to our heart’s content for an afternoon snack. The kids played in the yard while I went for a sweaty interval walk.

5ish After walk, making dinner drink: When I have a particularly sweaty day, I’ll pour a glass of water with a splash of cranberry juice and a scoop of Just Ingredients Raspberry Lemonade electrolytes. Look, I’m not saying you can’t live without electrolytes…of course you can be perfectly healthy without them! I do like to add a bit of minerals and flavor to my water as a treat after a hot day though and this is a good option without sketchy ingredients! I like to sip on my fancy drink with some fun music on and do a little food prepping while I make dinner to multitask my time in the kitchen!

6:30ish Family Dinner: We’re all showered and dinner is ready and WE are ready to eat! I love a big dinner…I love feeling full and satisfied at the end of a long day. This day we had the Beef & Black Bean Quesadillas (with peppers & zucchini in the grown ups :) with Chipotle Lime Crema (from Simple Seasons, of course :). Every single person in our family ADORES this meal so we repeat it often! I always keep these tortillas in the freezer for a quick dinner option!

8:30ish Bedtime Snack: We’ve been making ice cream once a week all summer long and are having SO much fun experimenting with flavors. This week we made a classic Mint Chip Ice Cream (the recipe is coming to Simple Seasons next week!) and I experimented with the ratio of cream to milk. This was perfectly creamy, but not too rich. I had a few scoops as a bedtime snack while reading my current bedtime book, Sense & Sensibility (in preparation for the movie coming out this fall!).

You may look at this day of eating and think WHOA she eats a lot (and I do!), but this is my friendly reminder that we get to chose HOW MUCH food we put on our plates. We can have BBQ chicken and potatoes, eggs and toast, ice cream, quesadillas, all the yummy stuff but how much we eat is so important!

I’ve learned the portion sizes I need to maintain my 15 pound fat loss journey last year and it’s not as hard as the internet world makes it seem, I promise!

I would LOVE to hear any questions you have, brands, portion sizes, cooking/reheating questions…lay it on me!

Shamless plug… if you EVER feel lost in the kitchen, out of ideas for what to cook, generally OVER the whole thought of feeding yourself and your family…that’s exactly what I created Simple Seasons for.

I created it for the mom who genuinely wants to enjoy cooking and eating, but also highly values nourishing food, but ALSO doesn’t want to spend her whole life in the kitchen. (Hi, that’s me!) I would love to see you there and would LOVE to cook together every week :) If you want a peek at what each weekly menu looks like, you can get a whole week for free here.

Big hugs,

Jillian

It’s no secret that I’m not the most consistent of “content creators” on your feed…

I’ll regularly pop in a few times a week for a month or so only to drop off the face of the internet for months at a time.

Where do I go? Well, mostly I just get lost in my own mind.

Yes, I run a business and squeeze full time hours into an hour a day while my kids listen to audiobooks in their rooms every afternoon (with the not so occasional interruption from my 4 year old).

Yes, I homeschool my children full time, no co-ops, no grandparents, just us. A lifestyle that we joyfully choose and simultaneously question our sanity for choosing on a daily basis.

Yes, I’m mostly just tucked in my home being, well, a homemaker, a role I wholeheartedly delight in and have longed for since well before my babies came along.

The funny thing is that I can easily make time to jot down my thoughts in between these roles, I’m a natural processor, a planner, overly intentional about every system, commitment, purchase, and way of doing things. (Yes, it’s as exhausting as it sounds ;)

My husband jokes that I was an “influencer” before influencers were a thing. I was the one getting texts from friends, cousins, acquaintances asking what brand of (fill in the blank) I use because “they know I’ve researched it to death.” HA. Why yes, yes I have.

I truly DELIGHT in sharing my discoveries, my experiments, my systems that I’ve tweaked in my 10 years of motherhood. Ask me a question about something I’ve been researching and you won’t be able to get me to stop talking about it!

Here’s the thing, I never allow myself to sloppily jot down my thoughts here or on instagram. When I hear other people talking about how they can create 10 pieces of content in an hour I scoff…it’s more like 10 hours to create ONE PEICE of content for me.

I put a lot of pressure on myself to make it as clear as possible, as polished as possible, as helpful as possible, worth the valuable 15 minutes of your time it will take to read it.

Then I start thinking, oh, I don’t have the right picture to go with it! Maybe I need to switch up the font! Do I need to add more practical application?!

OOF. I think you know the end of this story…99.9% of the time I DELETE it. Yep, that’s right. It goes right to the trash.

I cringe writing that because as far as an internet “following” goes, I have the kindest, most supportive, interesting and engaged group of gals I could genuinely ever ask for.

I wish we could all be real life friends, drinking tea around my kitchen table while the kids play in the yard outside…

To bring this full circle, I think that’s what I’m longing for. A conversation. I share my discoveries, my struggles, my newest thing I can’t stop researching and then I get to sit and hear about YOURS.

Is that the soul that content creation is missing? I’m not sure.

All I know is that there’s the friend Jillian that just wants to come on here and be like, HEY, I just read this book and it kind of changed my life and I cried about it for like 2 hours because I kind of feel like I've been doing it wrong for the past 10 years, but I’m not sure. What do you think?

That’s unpolished, but is it helpful? I’m not sure yet.

All I know is that yes, I have honed in on so many systems and organized my homemaking routines and have our daily rhythms nailed down and meal plan every week (and share them with you!) but I’m almost 40 and shouldn’t I feel like I’ve arrived already?

Before I press “go live” I feel that familiar flicker of doubt…everyone already knows this, nobody else needs help with this like you do, your business is bound to fail, no one wants to hear your thoughts on this, who am I to say I’ve got this figured out?

Well, I’m think I’m just going to start saying, OH WELL.

If I struggle with (insert topic here) there’s at least one other person that does.

If it felt good and fun to write about, I’m sure it will feel good and fun for someone else to read about it.

Whimsy has a place in motherhood and it’s not out of touch to talk about it.

It’s not pretending we don’t all have a load of laundry we’ve washed three times because we keep forgetting to switch it over or groceries going bad in our fridge because we ignored the meal plan again this week.

It’s BECAUSE we have those things that we need to create little pockets of lightness and FUN in our ordinary, daily life.

It’s BECAUSE of those things that it’s helpful to hear the tips and tricks that work for other moms.

It’s BECAUSE of those things that I’m so grateful to have a place to come and get inspired (and inspire others!).

This is my virtual handshake saying that I’ll keep showing up, unperfected, a bit messy, maybe a bit too wordy at times, not always with a neat and tidy “link to purchase.”

I’m so glad you’re here and I’m SO, SO glad when you talk back :)

Here’s to removing the pressure of polish, of a glossy 10 step system and jotting down a random list of 5 things that I do every night that make my days go so much smoother (and I know because when I skip them, the day goes to you know what).

Thank you for being here and thank you for being the antidote to that doubting voice in my mind that says, “who cares.”

You’ve proven that YOU DO.

Big hugs,

Jillian

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.”

From Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (a lovely book to read at this time of year:)

This is how August feels to me, that strange moment while you’re on a swing when you aren’t going up or down but feel suspended in mid-air.

Even the air outside feels still, like it’s between an inhale and an exhale, a pause between two pages of a book.

We’re in peak summer weather, sweltering and sticky by noon, but the whole world seems to be gearing up to get back to their normal routines. I remember being a child in the midwest and school was out until after Labor Day…that seems unthinkable nowadays. In our part of the country, schools are already back, not even in the double digits of the month yet.

I feel like summer has really just begun and it’s already being treated as though it’s over with school schedules, fall decor, summer-ween, and fall fashion being forced on our plates.

I think that’s why August feels like the top of the ferris wheel, we’re living with one foot in summer and one foot in the rhythms and routines that typically come with fall.

My goals this month?

Enjoy summer. Be a little lazy. Stay off the social medias and live my real life. Do art projects with no real end goal. Close the curtains and watch our favorite summer movies on boiling afternoons. Make easy dinners with lots of leftovers. Eat all the summer produce with as little cooking as possible. Slowly plan our fall school rhythms with lots of margins for rest and curiosity.

I was so delighted that you all liked my idea for a “joy curriculum” last month that I decided to do it again.

What’s a joy curriculum, you may ask? Well, basically an antidote to the grumps that come with a life full of HAVE TO DO’S and woefully lacking in time spent on WANT TO DO’s.

I’ve spent the last 10 years in a bit of survival mode, growing, birthing, and raising three delightful children. Keeping home, moving home, building a life in a new city. Job changes, master degrees, starting a business, getting life insurance…grown up stuff, ya know?

I’m on the verge of my 40’s and I just don’t want my kids to remember me with a crinkle between my forehead slogging away at the next thing on the do list day after day. I want them to remember me smiling, laughing, dancing, working hard, yes, but HAVING FUN TOO.

So, without further ado, here’s my August Joy Curriculum. A to-do list of fun things to add to my non-fun to-do list (with equal importance to cleaning the toilets and buying groceries ;) that bring me loads of joy. I’m leaning hard into the whimsy of this last month of summer before the cool breezes of September rekindle my motivation to cross off my to-do list.

1: Using our basic art supplies every single day.

I’ve been unpacking the last few boxes from our move last fall (I know…) and finally sorted through all of our arts and craft supplies that we used to keep stored in our attic for lack of closet space at our old house.

I hemmed and hawed over how to keep them accessible but still organized and finally decided to buy an “art cart” to keep them in. Best decision ever. The kids have been creating and crafting every spare moment they have and it’s been SO fun to watch them explore.

The funny thing is they still gravitate to the tried and true art supplies: crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, colored pens, markers, printer paper and cardboard from our recycling bin. I use this cart and these baskets to keep it sorted in our school closet.

2: Get outside early.

In the hottest days of the year we try to get at least an hour of outside (and exercise!) early in the day so we can shower and chilllll after lunch. I finish up my workout around 7:30 and head out to the front porch before making breakfast to enjoy the early morning temps and the kids go out to run around, draw with chalk, kick the soccer ball, ride bikes, play in their tree fort, make mud cakes, catch butterflies, pick flowers, all the summertime delights. I usually let them have a post breakfast popsicle while them roam the yard feeling bored before the ideas kick in.

3: Eating peaches, tomatoes, and melons by the pound.

After man years of being disappointed by grocery store peaches, I discovered a local farm that sold peaches by the bucketful at our farmer’s market. When we moved, we couldn’t get to the market regularly. I bemoaned the idea of a summer without a real ripe peach. Enter The Peach Truck. Sure, they aren’t organic, but they’re real Georgia peaches delivered right to my doorstep once a week in peak peach season. Worth every single penny. (Sorry, I know they are sold out for this summer, but sign up to get notifications for next summer!)

All the tomato recipes are coming out this month. BLTs for dinner, homemade pico with our tacos, bruschetta pasta with grilled chicken, pesto pasta salad with ripe cherry tomatoes, chicken parm with fresh tomato sauce. (all these goodies are in Simple Seasons, of course ;)

4: Watch our favorite summer movies together (and not care quite so much about screen time).

We recently re-watched Secondhand Lions and realized that we’ve entered into a new phase of family movie night. The kids are old enough to handle more than simple animated movies that we’ve watched over and over. We can watch movies that mom and dad actually want to watch!

We usually do one movie a week as our screen time, but since we’re on summer break we’ll probably get crazy and watch two movies a week on those sweltering (or hopefully rainy!) afternoons where either a pool or an air conditioned room are the only options.

Here’s what’s on our line up to watch this month before summer gives way to fall: Pete’s Dragon, Charlotte’s Web, The Parent Trap, The BFG, Old Yeller. All summery family favorites.

5: Play LOTS of board games.

Part of our “get our house settled before the fall” is to organize all the little closets that we unpacked and left a bit of a mess while we got the living areas settled. We cleaned out our game cupboard and have been rediscovering old favorites like Ticket to Ride First Journey, Outfoxed, Sorry, Dragonwood, and Sleeping Queens. Classic summertime stuff.

6: Read books upon books.

I devoured The Book Witch and Our Perfect Storm earlier this month and have been slowly reading through The Someday Garden (not loving it yet, but love her other books) now.

I’ve also been slowly thumbing through Holy Hygge and enjoying the quiet reminders to create and environment of home in everything I do.

I love flipping through The Summer Book instead of scrolling through instagram and leave feeling inspired, not overwhelmed.

The kids and I have been reading Summer of the Monkeys a chapter per night and my 10 year old son is IN LOVE.

Of course, our library card is getting a workout with stacks of picture books (you can see our recent favorites here).

7: Have some summer vibes music playing at all times.

We’re listening to this August Album in the background all morning to set the relaxed tone for the day. It makes me feel like I’m living in the 1930’s in the best of ways, very Rachel McAdams & Ryan Gosling in The Notebook vibes.

This Slow Summer playlist is my favorite while working out or going for a morning walk. It’s practically the same playlist I curated while working Saturday mornings in a dusty old antique shop by the beach as my summer college job.

We’ve been having after dinner dance parties while cleaning the kitchen to this Dixie Chick’s Radio Station which feels like peak 90’s southern summertime (aka my childhood). My four year old is IN HER ELEMENT as soon as this playlist starts up, it’s the best.

8: Escape for one last late summer beach/lake/creek/river (any body of water!) trip.

We save our beach trip for the end of August when the crowds have cleared and prices go way down. We look forward to it every year, a chance to slow down right before all of the sports and extracurriculars gear up.

Even if you can’t escape to the beach or a lake, giving yourself a few days to recharge before the hustle and bustle starts is a lovely gift to your family!

As usual, I’d love to hear what you’re into at the moment and how your embracing the last breath of summertime in your neck of the woods!

Big hugs,

Jillian

It’s surely summer here in the good old south, which means the heat and humidity is draining the little energy I have remaining after a full to bursting day of momming, working, homemaking, and living life at 100 degrees.

I LOVE summer, I’ll take 100 degrees and sunny over 29 degrees and sleeting any day of the week. It does, however, have a way of making you feel half awake, half capable of completing the millions of tasks it takes to keep a home running smoothly. This includes the monumental task of feeding my family.

Usually by 4:30 I’m ready to shower, pop on my pjs, curl up on the couch with a good book and wishing that a bowl of cereal counted as a balanced dinner. Alas, growing bodies need more than puffed rice and whole milk to meet their nutritional needs.

So, I’ve been leaning into “boring dinners” a bit this summer. Throwing together whatever we have in the fridge that doesn’t make my toes curl when I think about cooking it.

In the spirit of camaraderie, I’ll share the little cooking tricks that have been helping me through the dog days of summer (when I truly wish I could just lay on a blanket in the shade all day), but you have to promise not to judge me!

Deal? Ok, here they are ;)

1. Potato chips and watermelon slices count as sides. Sometimes I can muster just enough energy to season up some chicken breasts and flop them on the grill for 15 minutes. That’s where my surge of inspiration stops. I’ve decided that we’ll always keep a big bag of these potato chips (or these ones!) from Costco on hand and a giant watermelon ready to be sliced up. Protein, carb, seasonal produce, and healthy fats…dinner is done and I’m ok with it.

2. Waffles for dinner are an option. On Tuesday nights my hardworking husband goes to play tennis right at dinner time and I’m usually grasping at straws to think of what to serve for dinner. Here’s what we’ve started doing: the kids get waffles (the yogurt waffles from Simple Seasons), I eat whatever leftovers are left from the weekend (usually burgers or meatballs), and my husband gets Chipotle or Cava on the way home. The kids are happy, I’m glad not to have to come up with a dinner idea and reheat it when my husband gets home, win, win!

3. When in doubt, grill it. I mentioned my love for grilled chicken breasts above (we get ours in bulk from Wild Pastures), but we use our grill in all the ways during the summer. The clean up is so much easier and it doesn’t warm the house up. Bonus points for getting to sit on the porch with a cold drink while dinner cooks itself. Burgers, steak, chicken breasts or thighs, pork tenderloin, pork chops, you name it, we grill it. Even the sides can be grilled, usually a pile of veggies to serve alongside the main course. Whip up a yogurt based sauce and boom, good to go. I have recipes galore for all of these in Simple Seasons!

4. There’s always tacos. Tacos happen on more than just Tuesdays in my home. We usually eat them at least twice a week! Breakfast tacos, shredded chicken tacos, ground beef or turkey tacos, pork tacos, fish tacos (all in Simple Seasons ;)…I love that the meats are usually simple to cook and the toppings are usually waiting in our fridge to add a bit of pizzaz. My favorite sauce to add is a chipotle lime sauce which is just greek yogurt, hot sauce, and lime with a pinch of salt. SO GOOD.

5. Always have (easy) meat thawing. I usually keep two packs of chicken breasts and two packs of ground turkey thawing in the fridge and always use them up by the end of the week. Instead of eating out for dinner (which is a longer production for us now that we live outside the city), I can whip something up and get dinner on the table while in my pjs. My favs to make with chicken breast are grilled balsamic chicken and slow cooker salsa chicken. My faves with ground turkey are ground turkey tacos and meatballs any way. All of these are in the Simple Seasons membership!

6. Pop meat in the instant pot while cleaning up after breakfast and put it on a bun at dinnertime with fruit and slaw. Oh, how I love the feeling of knowing dinner is already done by lunchtime. It feels like a vacation, having the rest of the afternoon free to fill how I want. My favorite way to do this is to pop a chuck roast in the instant pot. Later in the day I usually throw some baked potatoes in the oven and whip up a simple salad dressing so dinner is ready when we are.

7. Cook double, rinse and repeat. When I do make the effort to make a special dinner you’d better believe I double it. Lunch the next day is already done or you can freeze it for an easy button dinner next week!

8. Make up for it with dessert. It’s funny how I can lose the motivation to make dinner, but I perk up at the idea of making homemade ice cream (with our ice cream toppings bar!). In the summer, especially, I don’t mind having a lackluster dinner if dessert is delicious.

9. Make a sandwich. There’s something very summery about letting a delicious BLT or even a grilled Monte Cristo be dinner with a big bowl of watermelon on the side. A tuna melt can even pass here if the bread is sturdy and filling enough! If I have a loaf of sourdough bread at home, sandwiches for dinner is a no brainer. Let dinner feel easy!

10. When in doubt, have pizza and apples with popsicles for dessert. Which is exactly what we’re having tonight. :) My favorite easy button dinner is a Whole Foods take and bake pizza (in the prepared foods section) with sliced apples (or peaches or watermelon or strawberries, whatever we have!). We keep a few in our freezer and do this in lieu of eating out a few times a month when dinner just isn’t happening! They are $10 and feed our entire family, WAY cheaper than eating out or even buying frozen pizzas and the ingredients are a million times better!

If anything I hope this is a reminder that none of us are making multi-course, Pinterest inspired recipes for dinner night after night (even when your job is writing recipes!). Sometimes, we just need to feed our families and we want it to be semi homemade and balanced. It can be a bit boring, a bit weird, a bit processed. If it relieves a bit of the stress of getting dinner on the table day in and day out, it’s worth it!

Oh, and a bit of a shameless plug here, but when I have zero inspiration for dinner I use MY OWN meal planning membership. I pop into the recipe archives and search whatever ingredients we have on hand and it always gets me excited to cook! For $12 a month, even saving us from eating out once a month makes it pay for itself. You can join us here if you haven’t already, but what are you waiting for?!

I’d love to hear what helps YOU get dinner on the table when you just don’t want to, please share! We all need a bit of help from time to time ;)

Big hugs,

Jillian

It hurts a bit to write this sentence, but when I dream about my children reminiscing about their childhood I cringe a bit.

Will they remember me with eyes crinkled in a wide smile? (or with a crinkle between my eyebrows as I frown my way through the pile of dishes…)

Will they remember me slowing down enough amid the hustle and bustle of the day to crack open a book? (or rushing through my day to cross tasks off my to-list, forever chasing the non-existent feeling of enough…)

Will they remember me sitting down and painting a picture with them after I set the paints up? (or scurrying away to check my phone or needlessly tidy a room somewhere while they’re occupied…)

My biggest fear is that I’ll look back and think, “man, I wish I would have enjoyed that more.”

Ooof. Yea, these are the thoughts that keep me up at night.

So, I decided what if I made a checklist of FUN and treated it with the same sense of urgency that I reserved for “the important stuff”…

A to-do list of things that aren’t productive at all, but I do for the sheer joy of doing them.

My Joy Curriculum.

I’ve decided I’ll make a low-effort little list each month of things to do that bring me joy and actually do them even though there’s no prize at the end.

Actually, there is a prize…joy.

It will likely look a little different every month because seasons are fun to lean into, my whims and interests are always flowing, because it’s fun to switch it up.

Here’s my little list for this month ;)

Cook a fun recipe every week NOT FOR WORK. Listen, I love my job…truly. The problem is that I reserve all of my cooking energy for Simple Seasons recipes. Not a bad thing, but sometimes a recipe pops in my head that isn’t a good fit for the membership. Sometimes I want to return to an old recipe and tweak it a bit. So, I’ll reserve one day a week to cook for JOY, not for productivity. The wonderful by product is that we still get to eat it!

Things I want to cook this month: chocolate covered rice crispies with sprinkles on top, a blueberry and peach tart with homemade vanilla ice cream, giant meal salads with whatever farmer’s market veggies I bring home topped with grilled chicken and served with a side of garlic bread, a pot of jam at the end of the week with all of our leftover berries.

………….

Curate an overflowing book basket of picture books beside our couch and read a book or two to the kids in the in-between times instead of reaching for my phone. I’ve been sharing our weekly book baskets on Instagram for the last few weeks and I’m telling you, my kids have spent hours each week flipping through the books. It makes my heart so happy every time I peek over and see them all with a pile of books in their laps.

See our recent stacks here, here, here, and here. Or dig into my ever growing book list here.

………….

Watch the sunset on our screened porch every night.

Sometimes I get a bit morbid and think, what if I never get to see another sunset? I know, thinking about death isn’t the most joyful thing, but it can lead us to joy! My father passed away when he was three years younger than I am now…I think of that often. How I’ve gotten to enjoy more sunsets than him, more time with my children, more summers to soak up God’s creation. I don’t want to waste even one opportunity to watch the summer sun sink below the trees with my kids by my side.

…………

Eat at least one meal outside every day.

We have this idyllic screened in porch that we dreamed about using while building our house. Well, we live here now! Our house is done! We can finally use that porch with the table and couch we bought! But, you know what happens? Life. We get sucked into the busyness of our days and forget to disrupt the pattern of our typical routine. Well, NO MORE. My favorite meal to eat outside is breakfast. It’s still cool enough (read: not 95 degrees yet) and it’s the perfect change to get some morning sun in our eyes before we dive into our day.

Pro-tip: We use these enamel plates for daily porch dining just in case they get dropped en route to the table by little hands ;)

…………

Read four summer-y books (two for me, two for the family).

My July reading list: Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune, The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink (as a family) and Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls (as a family)

………..

Go berry picking and make something afterwards (take NO PICTURES).

This is all about doing something for the sake of doing it, not documenting it. We went blueberry picking last week and I resisted the urge to take a photo of my adorable kids picking berries off the trees. We came home and make blueberry muffins the next day and ate them warm on the porch with a cold glass of milk, no fan fare, no flat lay, no silent applause from the social media world. It was pure enjoyment. Of course, now I’ve told YOU so I need to repeat this activity without writing about it ;) Maybe you can find a local you-pick farm on this website?

………..

Paint something twice a week and let it be bad.

Yep, let it be bad. As part of school twice a week I have my kids paint a picture inspired by a favorite story and then narrate their thoughts on the back. I always remind them not to get frustrated when it doesn’t turn out like they imagined. Practice makes progress. Well, I need to take my own advice and sit down and paint badly with them instead of going to do something “productive” instead. This week we painted whales while listening to humpback whale songs and it was weirdly SO SOOTHING. We usually need something to look at while we paint so I prop up a book from our book stack using this.

……….

Always have music.

We have this decade old speaker on our kitchen counter that I adore. I don’t know what I’d do without it. My incredible fun-loving husband will find me in the kitchen cooking or cleaning and instantly put some music on for me and I feel my shoulders relax and a smile grace my lips. I always wonder, why don’t I start with the music playing? So, whenever I head into the kitchen to start cooking or cleaning I’ll put some music on. I like a good curated seasonal playlist (of course :) and have a heap of them on my Spotify.

Here’s what’s on tap for the month of July: My July Album full of oldies, but goodies that just feels like peak summer, this Nancy Myers movie collection for dinnertime prep, and this upbeat Classical Playlist for school time when we want music but no words.

(Oh, and my beloved speaker isn’t made anymore, but this is the updated version of it and the one I’ll buy if ours ever stops working!)

………..

Notice, not one of these costs money. Not one takes hours of my time.

It’s all about intention and bringing the pace of life down a couple of ticks.

It’s about measuring my days by how much I enjoyed it, not by how much I got done.

I hope you join me and here’s to not being a grumpy mom!

Big hugs,

Jillian

When it comes to moving my body, I’ve done it all.

Early 2000s: The Beachbody videos, the YMCA cardio machines and the SELF magazine workout routines

The 2010s: Marathon training, the 12 minute Bodyrock HIIT routines (that I would stack together to make an hour of sweating), Orange Theory heart pumping workouts, Crossfit WODs that left me feeling like I was going to throw up, and the Booty by Bret structured body building & heavy lifting routines that left me feeling a bit stiff and bored

I’ve been a certified personal trainer since 2010 so I’ve seen MANY workout trends come and go. Mostly, trying them out in my own workout routine over the years.

This brings me to the 2020s and my late 30’s…the instagram fitness era. It seemed like every fit 20 year old had ONE RIGHT WAY to get in shape and honestly none of them seemed to make sense in my phase of life.

My body couldn’t handle jump and pump workouts that left my stress hormones SKYROCKETING when I already felt like wrangling 3 small children was a day (and night!) long high intensity workout in itself.

I couldn’t make it to the gym for 90 minute lifting sessions even 3 days a week.

After having my third darling child in 2021, I entered a phase of “just move your body” and keep the habit of movement going. I’m not trying to break any records or be a swimsuit model.

It looks like lots of slow walks while listening to the Pride & Prejudice soundtrack, going to our little home gym (really a glorified garage) and laying on the mat stretching while trying to convince myself to do more than one set of the planned workout for the day.

I knew what I should be doing to rebuild strength and get my pre-baby body back, but I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm.

Then, last year a friend expressed interest in getting into a habit of working out again, but she had no idea where to start. I had stopped training clients during my third pregnancy and didn’t plan to start again. Sadly, I had kind of lost my workout spark somewhere along the way. I offered to have her come over at 6am once a week for the next few months and we would do some strength training together as a way for her to learn some movements that she could do on her own.

Well, turns out I hadn’t lost my workout spark. I just needed a goal, a progression, a reason to make it fun and challenging again.

It was during this time that I decided to go on my fat loss journey (see this post here and here). I’d been in the nutrition and fitness world for long enough to know that cardio wasn’t the way to lose fat sustainably, it’s MUSCLE that will help you do that.

So, I made a strength training plan, but one that sounded FUN and fit my current phase of life. Six months later, I had not only lost 18 pounds, but had traveled for 2 months of it and kept my movement habit because it was so enjoyable and DOABLE.

Before I tell you what I did, I would love to give you a few reminders before you skip off to start your movement journey.

1. YOU HAVE TO LIKE IT OR YOU WON’T DO IT FOR LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. The key here is to move your body forEVER, not for 6 weeks, not for 6 months, or 2 years, literally until you are done with living. Of course, you can modify, adapt, try new things, switch it up, extra challenge yourself for short phases, etc, but if you aren’t going to be able to get yourself into workout clothes and actually DO what you plan then don’t even start.

2. Do less than you think you should. I know, this one sounds a little crazy. We’ve been bamboozled into thinking that if just enough is good then MORE IS ALWAYS BETTER. Nope. That’s a lie. We’re looking for the minimum effective dose of movement that will give us the results we’re looking for. You don’t need to walk 10k steps or strength train 6 days a week or workout for an hour at a time. You need to do just enough to make progress without burning yourself out, ya know? So, start slow and add on as you go. It should be easy to show up because you’re not terrified of the huge mountain you’ve signed up to climb.

3. Decide what you're working towards and stick with a plan to get there. If you don’t want to be a body builder, you don’t need to train like a body builder. If you don’t want to run a marathon, you don’t need to run 6 days a week OR AT ALL. If you want to feel feminine and fluid, heavy barbell lifting probably won’t be a good fit for you. If you need to build a good amount of muscle (hint: all of us ladies dooooooo) then doing only yoga and pilates won’t get you there on their own. You can have two, maaaaaybe three goals, but don’t try to do it all. Don’t train for a HYROX and also try to be a yogi and also follow a structured body building plan. You won’t make much progress in ANY area and honestly, that’s a lot to keep up with.

4. You DO need to strength train to stimulate muscle growth as you age because your body is rapidly shedding lean muscle mass the older you get. Truly, if you don’t use it, you lose it. And you really, really need muscle to age well, maintain a healthy weight, be able to do the things that bring you joy, and all of those good things.

Ok, now that I have those little tidbits out of the way, I’ll tell you what I started with last year and where I’ve ended up now.

The goal I started with:

1. Move my body for 15-30 minutes 5-6 times a week. This could be yoga, pilates, a full body strength workout, or a split workout focusing on leg or upper body strength. At least 3 of them had to include weights to stimulate muscle growth.

2. Walk for 30 minutes a day. There were no step goals, no distance goals, no running goals. Most of the time I was wearing birks and walking beside my 3 year old on her scooter. This was for mental health as much as it was for physical health. I found myself adding time to my walks and squeezing in a short one wherever I could because they were relaxing, but also increased my non-exercise activity level.

That’s it. I kept it so very minimal and non-threatening that it felt easy to show up. That was the whole point…

What was the point of KILLING myself in a workout on Monday, only to find it impossible to get back to working out for the rest of the week? Six imperfect workouts are so much more effective than one insanely hard one…

Over the summer, I went down to 15 minutes of moving my body with a 30 minute walk. We were traveling a lot and I found that 15 minutes was the minimum effective dose and I actually had BETTER results doing this! My body felt good, less stressed out, less injuries, less recovery time but after 6 months of that I felt like I wanted to challenge myself again and build more muscle after losing a bit in my fat loss phase.

The clincher in all this is there is no END. Your body adapts and gets used to the same stimulus so you need to switch it up to make progress. If you are good maintaining where you are, GREAT! You don’t need to change a thing. If you want to make more progress than you need to actually PROGRESS.

This brings me to where I am now, my PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD phase.

That’s a fancy phrase that means, keep doing similar stuff over and over, but make it feel harder. Add more weight, add more reps, do one more round, use better form, hold it for longer, add little pulses, just make it a bit more challenging than the last time you did it.

So, here’s what I do now:

I program 3 or 4 weeks of workouts and repeat them 3 or 4 times. That means I’m planning about 15-20 workouts, but have my workouts planned for the next 3 months or so. Each time I repeat a cycle I try to make it a bit harder, it’s as simple as that!

What does a week of workouts look like right now, you may ask?

Monday: 20 minute Upper Body Strength (this is with heavier dumbbells and body weight exercises like pull ups and push ups) and 10 minute deep core flow with 30 minutes of interval walking

Tuesday: 30 minute Lower Body Strength (I use dumbbells and try to increase weight or reps) and 30 minutes of relaxed walking (this can be all at once right after my workout or spread out throughout the day)

Wednesday: Stretch and 30 minutes of interval walking (for me, this is 3 minutes at an easy effort then 3 minutes at a huffin’ and puffin’ level, then repeat for 30 minutes :)

Thursday: 20 minute Upper Body Pilates Style Flow (this is with lighter weights, higher reps, lots of pulses) and 10 minute deep core flow with 30 minutes of interval walking

Friday: 30 minute Lower Body Strength and 30 minutes of walking

Saturday: 20-30 minute pilates style flow with 30 minutes of interval walking

Sunday: Complete rest day with a bit of stretching if I feel like it ;)

Do I do this 100% perfectly every week, nope, not even close! I’m not sure that I’ve ever completely done this routine BUT that’s ok!

I don't make it a goal to be 100% perfect, I make it a goal to get as close as each week allows and don’t make myself believe that I’ve failed FOR EVEN ONE SECOND.

I may move days around, skip a walk, or just do a whole bunch of pushups or glute bridges throughout the day instead of my planned workout (see my post on movement snacks ;) and that’s what life is, adapting, staying flexible, getting the job done even when it’s not exactly what you planned.

Even hitting this 80% of the way is SO MUCH BETTER than not trying at all…that’s the goal.

Doing your best and getting back on the horse every time you fall off, that’s not failure, that’s perseverance, that’s consistency.

Your weekly workout rhythm may look like 2 or 3 full body strength workouts with walks on the other days, or 5 days of pilates strength workouts, or runs sprinkled throughout workouts. My advice: do something that makes you feel stronger and keep trying to get a little bet better at it every week. When you get bored, switch it up, but don't do completely random workouts every week. You’ll always be scrambling to decide what workout to do, always struggle to find the motivation, instead of just doing what you’ve planned for the best version of yourself.

Now, I know you’ve got questions and I would LOVE to answer them to the best of my ability. Bring ‘em on!

Big hugs,

Jillian

This is a “this is what I eat” type of post.

I just want to make that clear. You may look at this and think, man, that looks like the opposite of a good time to me. The point is that I LOVE eating and I actually eat what I like. I also really, really like feeling good in my body and this way of eating hits BOTH for me. What a gift to finally be here as I enter my 40’s.

I’ve run the gamut of diets. Not always to lose weight, but in the pursuit of perfect health.

Ah, the ever impossible goal that the age of internet information has convinced us of: a perfect way of eating.

What I finally realized was that:

1. I can eat whatever I want, just not EVERYTHING I want. (meaning, I couldn’t have it all, all the time, moderation actually works my dears)

2. I don’t want to eat anything just because I should. Food is for fuel, yes, but it’s also for joy.

3. A balanced plate and a balanced day will actually make you think LESS about food. I look forward to each meal, I LOAD my plate up and enjoy every bite. If my plate is well balanced and BIG ENOUGH TO FUEL MY BODY I don’t think about food until the next meal rolls around. No constant snacking, no counting the minutes until I can have another handful of almonds. Food is truly a joy.

4. Eating what I actually craved instead of trying to “resist” gave me a better relationship with food, the obsession was gone. No more food noise, no more constant cravings, no more bingeing on the tub of ice cream when you said you’re giving up desserts for 3 months. Eat a bit of the ice cream, every day, I promise, you won’t feel uncontrollable around it anymore.

5. I get to eat WHAT I WANT. What a gift.

In a nutshell, I stopped listening to what every one else was doing and paid attention to what my body actually craved and felt good eating.

Here’s what a random day this week looked like:

Sunrise snack: sweet & milky black tea with a banana. I don’t always eat first thing in the morning, but sometimes I wake up SO HUNGRY. I like to do a short workout first thing in the morning, but I don’t do any intense training so I’m totally fine waiting until a big breakfast. This morning I wanted a little bit of something before my workout, so I had a cup of tea with milk and sugar and a banana. Nothing fancy, nothing crazy.

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, a scoop of cottage cheese with s&p, a handful of berries and a piece of buttered toast. This is my current favorite breakfast and I eat it probably 5 times a week. It keeps me full until lunch, it’s full of good protein, fats, fiber, and that most important nutrient, deliciousness.

Morning coffee: whole milk latte with a big old scoop of sugar. I never skip my morning latte. I do a double shot, 6 ounces of whole milk, and a big spoonful of sugar and enjoy every single sip. Sometimes I’ll have another between breakfast and lunch if I’m feeling it.

Lunch: leftover shredded beef with sauteed peppers & onions, a handful of greens with balsamic vinegar, and potato salad. We always have leftovers for lunch. It makes it easy to replicate a balanced plate when we’re repeating what we had the night before. I just throw it all on a sheet pan and pop it in the oven to warm. This potato salad is a perennial favorite and the recent warm weather has me craving it again! You can find the recipe in the Simple Seasons recipe archive! The shredded beef and peppers were leftovers from the Shredded Beef Sandwiches from Simple Seasons. I usually don’t like to double up carbs at meals so I skipped the bun and had a big serving of the potato salad instead!

After lunch treat: a few of these GORGEOUS dark chocolate discs . We love a little dark chocolate after lunch and these discs are so delicious and affordable. Everyone in the family has a few and we enjoy every last bit!

Afternoon drink: cranberry juice, aloe vera juice, acerola powder, a splash of orange juice, a pinch of salt, and lots of sparkling water. This isn’t an everyday occurrence for me, but I was feeling a bit depleted and dehydrated so I made a big jar of this pink drink to sip on while I worked outside. It hit the spot! The aloe vera juice is so soothing for my digestion, so I do try to drink a few ounces daily.

Dinner: Baked turkey meatballs in marinara with lots of parmesan, baked Japanese sweet potato, and more greens with balsamic (I was craving them this day!). We eat these meatballs every other week, easily! They are so easy to whip up and eat however you’d like. I wasn’t feeling pasta this day, so I roasted up some Japanese sweet potato instead. The family had it served over pasta. You can find the recipe for my go-to basic meatballs in this article and Simple Seasons has TONS of meatball recipes!

Bedtime treat: homemade dark chocolate froyo with blackberries and mini chocolate chips. I make a batch of homemade ice cream or frozen yogurt every week for an after dinner treat and NEVER deny myself the joy of dessert if I’m feeling it. It used to be impossible for me not to binge a tub of ice cream if I kept it in the house, but now that I know I can have it whenever I want, I can skip it easily if I’m not feeling it! I literally NEVER thought that could happen. This dark chocolate froyo (from Simple Seasons ;) is my current favorite and I love it topped with blackberries and mini chocolate chips. SO GOOD.

I tracked this day of eating in Cronometer to see what it ended up looking like and here’s where it landed for calories and protein (the only two metrics I track, see this post for more info ;)

Calories: 1943 & Protein: 141 grams

That’s RIGHT on track for a 250 calorie deficit for me which is the perfect amount for gentle FAT loss. The amount of protein is perfect for maintaining muscle mass and nary a protein powder in sight ;) I had coffee and tea, bread, potatoes, chocolate, and ice cream and felt fully satisfied after every meal!

I hope this helps you see that it’s VERY possible to eat A LOT and still lose fat, to get enough protein without using protein powders, to satisfy your cravings without going hog wild.

Big hugs friend,

Jillian ;)

The steps I’m outlining below ARE NOT A WAY OF LIFE. It’s merely a tool to wield for a short time to reach a goal and then we MOVE ON. I did one 12 week “fat loss” period to lose about 12 pounds and was then able to keep some of the habits (without tracking so closely anymore) for the next 6 months and lose another 8 pounds. This wasn’t meant to be a “six week shred,” but a way for me to relearn how much fuel my body actually needs to be at it’s healthiest after years of pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way…I have a clarification to make. Fat loss IS NOT the same as weight loss.

Losing weight without maintaining as much muscle as possible will NOT give you the outcome you’re looking for. End of story. If you focus on general weight loss only, you’ll be down 20 pounds wondering why you feel just as unhappy in your body as you did 6 months ago even though the scale is going down. Well, that’s because losing WEIGHT instead of focusing on FAT LOSS will just give you a slightly smaller version of the same body you have now. It will still be a shape you don’t love, soft and jiggly in places that don’t feel comfortable, weak and vulnerable without the strength to give it structure.

There are certain very important little details about how I went about losing 20 pounds last year that allowed me to maintain (and even build!) muscle while losing as much fat as possible. Weight loss strategies like EAT LESS and MOVE MORE will actually help you lose weight, but I promise you won’t be happy with what you feel like anymore than you do right now!

We’re going for flexible, firm, strong, agile, fast, flowy, and shapely in all the best ways. That means we need to PROTECT our muscle at all costs while still maintaining an energy deficit (I’ll explain this below ;).

Here’s a brief rundown of how you can do this (I’ll give a full blow by blow recap below!)

1. Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure using this calculator. You’ll need to know your current body weight and have a rough idea of your activity level.

2. Eat at a slight calorie deficit (meaning you’re eating 250-500 calories below your maintenance calorie level).

3. Still eat adequate protein (around .8-1 gram of protein per pound of your GOAL body weight).

4. Eat however many grams of carbs and fats feel good for YOUR BODY as long as you stay under your overall calorie goal.

5. Move your body in a way that challenges your muscles (ahem, more than just walking, sorry ;) 3-5 times per week.

6. Do that for 6-12 weeks and reevaluate your caloric needs based on your new body weight. I recommend eating at your maintenance calories (again, use the TDEE calculator and eat around that amount of calories) for about 4-6 weeks (no, you won’t gain it all back!) to let your body adapt and settle at the new weight. This means you WON’T GAIN IT ALL BACK as soon as you “stop dieting” because you’ve done it gently, sustainably and you’re allowing your body to learn a new normal instead of instantly reverting back to OLD habits, like eating WAY more than your body needs for your weight and activity level.

7. If you have more fat to lose, repeat steps 1-5 again until you are at a “happy weight.” Your imagined happy weight might be MUCH different than you think. A muscular and healthy 150 pounds looks much different than a 150 pound body with a lower body fat and higher muscle mass.

That’s it! It’s really quite simple…but that doesn’t mean it’s EASY. That’s why people give up in the first few weeks. They go too hard, too fast. They feel overwhelmed by learning portion sizes and tracking their food intake. I promise, the first 2 weeks have a steep learning curve, but keep your meals as simple as possible in those first 2 weeks and you’ll have it down in no time!

Now, let me break steps 1-4 down a bit more and give you my thoughts on how to make it more doable without getting totally overwhelmed and quitting by day 3.

Hint: Make sure you read my lessons learned to watch out for little pitfalls and discouragements that could pop up along the way.

Finding your current “maintenance” calories. This one is actually pretty simple. Enter your details in this calculator (if you have a rough idea of your body fat that will help, but if not, no big deal) and hit calculate. This is the amount of calories your body needs to stay right where it’s at right now.

For instance, if you are 39 years old and weigh 170 pounds with a moderate activity level, your body needs 2,292 calories to stay at that weight forever if you maintain the same activity level.

Now, here is where we see how muscles are IMPORTANT. If your body fat percentage is at 30% a more accurate maintenance calorie level is 2,381. If your body fat percentage goes down to 25% at the same body weight, you can eat 2,510 calories and stay at the same weight. That’s 150 calories more that your body burns just being at rest because you have more muscle. That’s because muscle is more “calorically expensive” than fat. It requires more energy to hum along in the background.

This is why KEEPING YOUR MUSCLES ARE SO IMPORTANT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO EAT LIKE A BIRD.

Anywho, we need that maintenance number for the next step.

Eat at a slight calorie deficit by subtracting 250-500 calories from your maintenance calories. The math here is that burning 250 more calories than you eat every day will add up to a 3500 calorie deficit over two weeks. That’s one pound lost in two weeks. Well, most people would say, why not just make the deficit BIGGER so we can lose weight FASTER. Well, I say, because a cascade of bad things happens when your body gets TOO low in incoming energy (ie food) everyday.

First, if gets a bit greedy and let’s go of the most “expensive” things first, like MUSCLE.

Second, it gets sneaky and subtly tells your body to move less, conserve energy, this manifests as fatigue and lack of motivation.

Third, your cravings (for actual calories) will get so intense that you will binge and eat MORE calories than you would if you just ate at maintenance thus ruining any effort you put forth.

Now you see why I say no more than 500 calories. I personally, never went below 250 calories because I wanted to have energy for my workouts and I really hate feeling ravenously hungry (which I never did during my deficit phases).

If you have more than 20 pounds to lose, you can go up to a 500 calorie deficit because you maintenance number should be quite high.

If your deficit calorie calculation is lower than 1800 (and you are more than 5’2”) you may want to aim for a higher goal weight or settle for a longer “fat loss” phase.

If we use our example of Susan up there, if she had less than 20 pounds to lose she would aim for 2,042 calories daily. If she had more than 20 pounds to lose, she would aim for 1800 calories daily.

Make sure to eat adequate protein, around .8-1 gram of protein per pound of your goal body weight.

Again, our goal is to lose fat, keep muscle. That’s our mantra here. Protein is our friend in that goal! Not only does it provide adequate material for muscle growth, but it signals to our bodies that we WANT that muscle to stay. If we just focus on eating less calories, we would likely eat very low protein which would leave our bodies without the right tools to keep and build muscle.

Another perk is that protein is SUPER filling for how low the calories are. A five ounce serving of chicken breast (about one and a half chicken breasts) is only 211 calories and 43 grams of protein. By contrast, 12 ritz crackers have the same calories and 3 grams of protein. Which do you think would fill you up for longer?

So if your goal weight is 135 pounds, you would aim to get 108-135 grams of protein each day. If you are finding it hard to hit that target, make sure to get at least 30-40 grams at breakfast lunch and dinner and you’ll be there in no time!

Here’s the kicker, not all proteins are created equally. If you’re ONLY tracking protein and loading your plate up with alllll the stuff you will likely be going over your calorie goal. That’s because some “high protein” foods are also very high in fat (which is the most calorically dense macronutrient of all ;).

Some high protein foods that may trip you up:

-non-lean ground beef (I stick with a leaner grind like 90/10)

-cheese (I still eat it, but save it for when I’ll really taste it, like on pizza!)

-whole milk (I still drink this every day, just consider it more of a fat than a protein!)

-any sausage (yes, even chicken sausage has more fat than protein!)

-whole eggs (again, I eat two eggs every single morning for breakfast and love the 12 grams of protein I get, but I also need to take into account that it also has 10 grams of fat)

Practically speaking, you’ll get the most mileage out of proteins that are a bit lower in fat so you can use your fats on foods you really, really enjoy!

My favorite proteins:

-Chicken breast (grilled or cooked in the slow cooker and shredded)

-Whole greek yogurt (I can’t stand non-fat yogurt, but it’s still higher protein than fat!)

-2% cottage cheese (if you like non-fat or 4%, go with what tastes best to you!)

-Ground turkey

-Lean ground beef

-Pork tenderloin

-Chuck roast

Of course, I mix it up a bit more, but these are my most eaten!

Eat whatever ratio of carbs and fats you’d like once you’ve hit your protein goal, as long as you stay under your total calorie goal.

This one gets most people tripped up. It’s really hard hitting specific targets for all three macronutrients!

Here’s my hierarchy of importance:

1. Hit my protein goal every day.

2. Hit my calorie goal. (sometimes I’m over, sometimes I’m a bit under, but I think of it as a weekly average)

3. Let my fats and carbs fall where they may…it’s different every day depending on my cravings and what meals I have planned!

I personally feel best with a higher ratio of carbs to fats. Of course, I still eat a good amount of fat, but my energy levels stay higher when I have more carbs from whole foods like sweet potatoes, white potatoes, fruit, sugar, rice and sourdough bread.

GASP, did I say sugar? Yep. It’s a great energy source for our bodies as long as it’s balanced out with adequate protein and fats ;) I like a big old scoop of sugar in my two coffees every day and I feel great! I also have dessert most days, so that accounts for some of my carb intake as well.

Now, you may be wondering, how in the world do I keep TRACK of all of these numbers?

Well, you have your calorie deficit goal (250-500 calories below maintenance ;) and you have your protein goal (around 1 gram per pound of your goal body weight), now you need to choose a tracking platform to keep it all straight every day.

I personally use (and recommend) Cronometer. I find it really easy to use and navigate and it’s free! I use the desktop version, not the app because I don’t need another reason to look at my phone every day ;)

Here’s a brief rundown of how I did it.

1. I meal plan for the week. This gives me an idea of what we’ll be eating every day. I used exclusively recipes from Simple Seasons. I found it simplest to stick with meals like chicken, sweet potato, and green beans or ground beef tacos or something that has simple separate parts. A casserole is much harder to track because it can be difficult to separate all of the ingredients out and get an accurate serving size of each. Remember, this is a SHORT phase here! I do input recipes on the Cronometer website and then divide it by the number of servings. I’ve done this for my meatball recipe, my favorite desserts, homemade pizza, and other family favorite meals that we eat often! That way I can still have a pretty close idea of how much protein and calories I’m getting in them.

2. I "pre-track” 2-3 days at a time. Since I have a meal plan, I know approximately what I’ll be eating those days. I enter in my non-negotiable first, these are the things I have every day. For me, it’s two lattes and dessert. Then I enter in my protein for each meal. Now I can roughly fill in the rest of the foods I’ll be eating. I don’t track foods like lettuce, cucumbers, mustard, etc that are super low calorie! That would be a bit much for me! Now, I have a rough playbook for my day and if I go off the plan that’s totally ok! I’ll just go back and adjust the differences. The goal isn’t to hit this 100% perfectly, even if you hit your targets 90% of the time that’s going to get you SO MUCH FURTHER than not trying at all!

3. Now, you eat! Don’t try to skip meals or cut out whole food groups, that way lies disaster. Try to eat in a way that would be sustainable for the rest of your life. This isn’t meant to feel like torture or punishment. If it does, I promise it won’t work out. I use this simple scale to measure my foods so I can see the actual portion sizes. Don’t skip this step…portion sizes can be verrrrrry deceptive. Again, it’s a great tool to make sure you’re eating enough, but not too much. Eventually you’ll be able to eyeball portions but don’t do that starting out! When my kids asked why I weighed my food I would calmly explain that I was working on relearning what the right amount of food was for my body after a lot of years of growing babies! I would phrase it in a way that emphasized that eating ENOUGH food was just as important as not eating too much.

Ok, that was A LOT of information and I hope I did a good job of explaining it well but not so much that you feel overwhelmed!

Please, please, please let me know below if you have any questions at all!

I’ll be back next week with part 3: movement! If you have any questions about exercise drop them below and I’ll be sure to answer them in my post :)

You guys are the best and I’m SO honored that you spend your time here with me!

Big hugs,

Jillian

The 4 M’s: Meatballs, Muffins, Magic, and Meat…catchy, right?

I realize it’s my job to make weekly menus…I love it! The thing is that loving something doesn’t always mean that you’re overflowing with inspiration to actually do it all the time.

In my school days, I remember the feeling of sitting down to start a 20 page paper and feeling so stuck. All the negative thoughts started flooding in and crowding out any chance of a good one. How do I write a paper again? What was the book even about? Man, I’m really pretty rubbish at this…

It always helped to start with an outline, bullet points, a fill in the blank rubric of sorts that gave me a structure to build from. Meal planning is just like that for me.

Some weeks I’m overflowing with inspiration and excitement, most weeks I’m met with that blankness that shortly after fills with negative thoughts. No one wants to be in that spot.

That’s why I have my 4 M’s…when my brain starts filling with those questions (What does my family even like to eat? What even IS a balanced meal? What’s the point of cooking so much when no one even enjoys our family meals anyways?) I take a breath and start building off my rubric.

Once I’ve got those filled out, the rest starts flowing. Let me show you how…

1. Meatballs: Ground meat is inexpensive, versatile, and quick cooking. Meatballs by extension fit all of those lovely descriptions as well. If I make a double batch of my basic meatball recipe and pop it in the fridge I can mix it with all different kinds of sauces and/or sides to satisfy our cravings (and time restrictions) that week. Most of the time, I’ll pick a meatball recipe and roll with that, but when I feel really stuck I just make the most basic version and decide on specifics later.

Here’s my basic meatball formula (which makes 8 servings)

2 pounds ground meat (I tend to use ground turkey, but mix it up with ground beef too. You can also use half ground pork for extra tenderness)

2 eggs, whisked well

1 cup of breadcrumbs

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix the eggs with the breadcrumbs, garlic powder, and salt well. Then add the meat and gently mix it all together. We don’t want tough little meatballs! I use this handy scooper and scoop the meatballs up (I usually get around 40 meatballs) and plop them on the tray. You can, of course, scoop with a spoon and roll them in your hands, but I’m a lazy efficient chef, remember? Now, make sure the meatballs aren’t touching each other and give them a drizzle or spritz of olive oil. Pop them in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Voila, meatballs ready for saucing and serving.

My favorite ways to serve them?

In a pumpkin curry sauce over rice. Simmered in a jar of marinara over pasta. With roast potatoes, cucumber salad, and garlic yogurt sauce. Tossed in a sticky honey ginger sauce with roasted broccoli and bone broth rice. Drizzled with BBQ sauce and served with a salad and sweet potato fries.

The list goes on (and it really does in Simple Seasons ;). I have SO MANY meatball recipes there for just this reason.

If I’m feeling really ambitious (and rich in ground meat) I may even make a quadruple batch and freezer half after baking for a REALLY busy week!

2. Meat: This is a vague one, I realize, but really (besides meatballs) I like to prepare meat in one of two ways. First, a slow cooked, braised hunk of meat that I can shred and serve in a million different ways. Second, a quicker cooking cut of meat that I can marinate ahead of time and then pop in the pan or on the grill just before eating. I usually decide what to do based on what we have in the freezer (lots of pork tenderloin? I’m usually making balsamic roast pork. lots of chicken breasts and very little time? I’m usually making slow cooker salsa chicken. Both of which can be found in the Recipe Archive of Simple Seasons) Once I’ve decided on the meat, the sides are easy to choose! Shredded meat is great on a bun or stuffed in a taco and I’ll never turn down some roast potatoes and a green salad to serve with some grilled or seared meat.

3. Muffins: This one is dual purpose. Muffins are one of those chameleon foods that can serve many roles throughout the day. Split in half and toasted with butter they make an excellent partner to some scrambled eggs and a scoop of cottage cheese with fresh fruit for breakfast. Served with a glass of milk they make an excellent “it’s not quite lunch time, yet” snack. Tossed into my kid’s hand with a beef stick while they’re headed out the door, they make a great “get you through soccer practice” snack. Hey, you can even warm one up and serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. I won’t tell anyone it’s a humble muffin! I rotate through our favorite recipes every season, but the process is the same. Make a double batch, freeze half in ziplock bags to pull out for muffin emergencies. I might pull them out later in the week when we’ve gobbled up the first half of the double batch or they may bide their time until they’re needed (like when friends are coming for a playdate and I have ZERO food to offer in the house ;).

   My often repeated favorites: Double Chocolate Banana Muffins, Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, Chocolate Zucchini Muffins, Cobbler Crust Pumpkin Muffins, Apple Cottage Muffins, Lemon Blueberry Muffins…the list goes on! All of these can be found in the Simple Seasons Recipe Archive!

4. Magic: This is the wildcard section. One would think that rationally, if we’re feeling a bit overwhelmed and lacking in inspiration, we should just stick to the bare bones. NOPE. We need a little whimsy sprinkled in! I NEVER LEAVE OUT THE MAGIC. What is the magic, you may ask? Something sweet, of course. A special treat that adds that “my life is like a movie” quality to your day. Homemade ice cream served with all the toppings from the pantry, a berry tart with those overripe berries from the back of the fridge, a giant chocolate chip cookie to serve with vanilla ice cream, one bowl brownies to devour with a cold glass of milk, popsicles to eat on the porch on that first hot afternoon.

   My husband always laughs that I may not always have dinner prepared by 5pm, but you bet your bottom dollar that we’ve got homemade moose tracks ice cream for dessert!

Magic is important, it may not seem URGENT like getting dinner on the table, but we aren’t just creatures of productivity. We need whimsy, sweetness, a little something to bring delight and wonder to our day. Going off the list of MUSTS adds that little sparkle and shine to our often monotonous days. This is why I ALWAYS include a little sweet treat in my meal plans every, single, week without fail. It’s not always elaborate (frozen cookie dough balls = a fresh baked cookie at your beck and call), but it is always a bit frivolous in its unnecessary nature. Necessarily unnecessary? Can I coin that phrase?

Once, I’ve taken 10 minutes to parcel out recipes (or even just a bare bones idea) for each of the M’s the rest of the week’s menu starts to fall into place. I’ve gotten the ball rolling and you know what they say…the first step is always the hardest.

All of a sudden I realize, oh yes, we’re eating out on Wednesday night after soccer practice so I’ll make extra shredded chicken for sandwiches the next day for lunch. Then I remember that we have homemade pizza and movie night on Fridays. I remember that we have those pork tenderloins in the freezer that would be perfect with some roasted veggies for Thursday dinner after the farmer’s market. I think, I’ll whip up some ice cream that morning to use up the rest of the milk before we pick up our new gallons.

BOOM, before I know it, my whole week is planned out. Not with arbitrary Pinterest recipes that deep down I know won’t actually get cooked, but food that my family will actually eat, food that I’m looking forward to eating, meals that I know won’t stress me out to get on the table.

This is the beauty of make a weekly menu that actually works for your life, not Tiffany or Susan or Kimberly…YOURS.

Your rubric may look much different than mine, but honestly, it’s a pretty good one for this phase of life. The one that requires snacks on hand, flexible proteins that may need to served up in different ways to please the masses, and a schedule that feels a bit like a fun (and exhausting) game of whack a mole!

I hope this helps next time you’re staring down at a blank meal planning page, wondering where to start. Just get the ball rolling with the 4 M’s and the rest will fall into place. As always, I create weekly menus filled with inspiration for nourishing and delicious family friendly meal (and treat :) ideas every week in Simple Seasons. The goal is to enjoy cooking (read: making as few dishes as possible!) and to actually look forward to eating what you’ve got planned!

Biggest hugs!

Jillian

Cooking is a joy for me, truly. I mean, I’ve gotten multiple diplomas that revolve around food. I’ve created a livelihood that focuses solely on COOKING FOOD.

Trust me when I say that even a food loving mother doesn’t always have infinite energy to answer those three big questions EVERY SINGLE DAY:

What’s for breakfast?

What’s for lunch?

What’s for dinner?

(oh, and the dreaded “Moooooom, I’m huuuuungry. Can I have a snack?”)

Day in, day out, rinse and repeat. It can all get a little bit…much?

Now, I take it as a great honor to be the lead on nourishing my family. Honestly, I love dreaming up meals and snacks and treats in my spare time. Curating the food culture in our home is a delight.

That doesn’t mean that I’m hopping off the couch and skipping to the kitchen with joy at 7:30, 12:30, and 4:30 everyday to get a homemade meal on the table.

Since I’m an undercover lazy chef with high standards, I’ve found little short cuts and magic ingredients that I always keep in my fridge to make those questions just a bit easier to answer day in and day out.

Without further ado, the 10 (not very exciting) things I always have in my fridge that make feeding my family a homemade meal MUCH more likely to happen.

Boiled Potatoes

We eat at least 8 pounds of potatoes a week. That’s a lot of spuds.

My favorite way to whip up a carby side is to boil a few pounds of baby potatoes at a time and store them in the fridge.

I’ll dice them for a breakfast hash cooked in a bit of butter, slice them and toss them in olive oil for quick roast potatoes, or pop them back in boiling water for boiled potatoes topped with butter and greek yogurt.

Easy button activated.

Chicken Breasts & Ground Turkey

Duh, right?

Well, I always seem to forget to thaw out meat for dinner until it’s too late.

So, I started putting 2 pounds of each in the fridge every Sunday night instead.

I can always find a way to use these two meats to get dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes.

I buy Mary’s organic ground turkey (the 95%/5% usually) and keep it in the freezer. We order pastured chicken breasts in bulk from Wild Pastures!

30 minute Chicken Breasts Meals: (all found in my Simple Seasons membership!)

Instant pot shredded tacos

Instant pot shredded BBQ sandwich

Grilled and served with garlic yogurt sauce and cucumber salad

Pan seared and topped with tomato sauce & mozzarella

Pan seared and simmered in coconut curry sauce

30 minute Ground Turkey Meals:

Tacos or nachos

Cooked with a bit of garlic, ginger, coconut aminos, and coconut sugar and served over rice

Meatballs ANY way!

Seasoned and pattied for turkey burgers (I have so many good ones in Simple Seasons!)

Whole Greek Yogurt (my favorite)

Aside from a loaded yogurt bowl for breakfast and snacks (which happen often here) greek yogurt makes it’s way into 90% of my baked goods.

My fav yogurt based baked goods (recipes in Simple Seasons!)

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

Yogurt Hotcakes

Flaky Yogurt Biscuits

Yogurt Waffles

Yogurt Naan

I also love mixing yogurt up with some pantry staples to make a meh dinner more exciting with a little saucy-sauce!

My fav yogurt sauce mix-ins:

lemon & garlic

horseradish

lime & hot sauce

grated cucumber & cumin

paprika & garlic

herbs & garlic/onion powder

Half & Half (or Heavy Cream)

A splash of half & half in a jar of marinara makes instant restaurant quality pasta sauce.

Cream in the fridge means whipped cream for topping dessert or waffles.

Either can be used to make homemade ice cream in less than 30 minutes.

Storebought Sourdough Buns (my all time favorites)

Whenever I lack creativity for dinner, I put it between bread.

Burgers.

BBQ Sandwiches.

Meatball Subs.

Chicken Parm Sandwich.

Blackened Salmon Sandwich.

Add a veggie and a sauce and dinner is done.

Why not make buns, you ask? Well, because sometimes I just can’t muster the energy, time, or enthusiasm.

I always buy a few bags of these amazing buns from Whole Foods (I’m sure you can find them elsewhere too!) and pop one in the fridge and the rest in the freezer.

It just makes life easier and the ingredients are what I would use at home!

Lemons & Limes

Citrus is the secret weapon to make lackluster homemade meals rise to the level of restaurant food.

Often, a meh meal just needs a bit of brightness to liven it up.

A lot of times we keep adding salt thinking that’s what will make it taste better, but a squeeze of lemon or lime is what it really needs!

A Lot of Eggs

Well, breakfast for obvious reasons. A pan of scrambled eggs can be eaten 10 different ways to make a filling breakfast.

BUT, I also use eggs for baking, for boiling, for ice cream, for most everything.

If all else fails, an egg sandwich for dinner could be a lot worse.

Arugula & Butter Lettuce

The perfect combo for a simple side salad.

When I don’t have the will to make another side for dinner this is what I do:

toss butter lettuce & arugula

with a drizzle of olive oil

a splash of balsamic vinegar or lemon juice

a pinch of salt & pepper

top with some shaved parmesan and you’re in for a treat.

Also, I love whipping up a quick arugula pesto for topping chicken, pasta, or to spread on a sandwich.

I don’t always have basil on hand, but you can barely taste the difference!

Just blend a few handfuls of arugula, 2 garlic cloves, a good amount of fresh grated parmesan, a squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of salt, and enough olive oil to get the blender moving.

BOOM. a delicious homemade pesto in 5 minutes...

Chicken Broth

Soup is the obvious use here and I do use it for that often! However, I find myself using it to add liquid to the instant pot when I’m cooking meat, deglazing a pan after searing meat with a bit of flour to make a pan gravy, and adding it to cooking rice for a boost of nutrition!

My go to rice ratios:

1 cup basmati rice

1 cup broth

1 cup water

a pinch of salt

Bring to a boil, add a lid and bring to a very low simmer for 15 minutes. Turn the heat off, but LEAVE THE LID for another 5-10. Fluff it with a fork and add a pat of butter. Boom, the best rice you’ve ever had.

Parmesan & Mild Cheddar Cheese

If I buy a different cheese without a plan to use ALL of it, it will go moldy with 100% certainty. With a block of raw mild cheddar (we buy ours in bulk from Azure Standard) I can make grilled sandwiches, quesadillas, nachos, top a taco, make cheesy eggs, make a snack plate, and on and on! In a pinch I’ll buy a block from the grocery, but it’s much more expensive! Fresh grated parm gets added to 50% of our meals and gives it an instant boost of flavor. It makes it taste much more complex than it actually is! Bonus points for both of these lasting in the fridge for months since they are already aged!

Welp, that’s about 75% of our fridge contents…now, I need to hear your obvious dinner savers!

Big hugs,

Jillian

(some photos from the 3 years after my third pregnancy, I truly think I look beautiful in these if not a little tired, but I just didn’t FEEL good)

I think many of us find ourselves in this place of “how did this happen?’ as we enter middle age. It doesn’t always happen when we look in the mirror, see a picture of ourselves, or even put a bathing suit on.

For me, it happened in running shorts on the beach last winter when my son asked me to race him to the boardwalk. I’ve never been a great runner, but fitness has always been a big part of my life. I prided myself on my commitment to consistent movement throughout the ups and downs of a decade of child bearing. I took off like a shot thinking I had this in the bag, he’s only 9 years old for goodness sake.

Three seconds in my ankles started hurting, I chalked that up to no proper warmup (although we’d been walking for 30 minutes already).

Thirty seconds in my heart was pounding, I told myself cardio had never been my strength, muscle was where it was at.

Forty-five seconds in, I realized how heavy and sluggish I felt. Now matter how hard I pushed, I could make my body move any faster.

I looked down at my feet to gage how fast they were going because I started to feel like one of those cartoon characters that was running without actually going anywhere and noticed how soft my legs seemed, where did all that muscle go?!

It was one big slice of humble pie.

It had nothing to do with how I looked…in fact, I had put on my bathing suit earlier that day (which happened to be my 38th birthday) and thought, not bad for a late 30’s mom of three! It had nothing to do with how much I weighed. I’d sworn off the scale during my second pregnancy 8 years ago and never looked back.

It had everything to do with how I felt. I had been suffering from a bit of denial, you see. Telling myself that, sure, things were getting a bit softer, but I’m still fighting fit!

My pre-motherhood clothes still fit!

I eat so good! All homemade, plenty of balanced meals and snacks!

But when I actually started looking a little closer in the dark corners and cracks of my habits, I realized it had been a while since I’d actually seen any progress in my strength.

I remembered all the times that I found it almost unbearable to run around the yard with the kids kicking a soccer ball for even 5 minutes without just wanting to sit down.

I started adding up how much movement I actually did in a day and realized I spent most of my time sitting. Ouch.

When did I become that mom?

Well, it happened slowly over the course of 10 years of pregnancy, breast feeding, toddler raising, repeat.

I was the proverbial frog in boiling water. It happened so slowly that I didn’t even realize that I was carrying extra weight in places I never had before. Didn’t realize that raising school age kids rather than toddlers meant WAY less movement in my day.

Add in the general stress of just figuring out life in your 30’s and oh boy, did I feel it.

I looked up and had a 3 year old rather than a newborn, a 7 and 9 year old instead of preschoolers and realized that I actually had time to figure out this new me.

I could actually see a bit of margin to dedicate a bit of time towards relearning what a proper portion size was (when not eating for two or dealing with ravenous breastfeeding hunger).

I could actually imagine programming a workout cycle for myself that would allow me to track my progress to make sure I was challenging myself enough to see growth.

Now, I’m a homeschooling mom of 3 who runs a business in my “spare” time. I don’t have a cleaning staff, I make most of our food from scratch, I like sleep. I didn’t want this to put a dent in my life as I knew it.

I just wanted to navigate a gentle path to feeling GOOD in my skin, feeling more vibrant, more athletic, a bit lighter on my feet.

I wanted to relearn what the appropriate amount of food for my body looked and felt like.

At first, I bristled at the idea of tracking my food intake, restricting anywhere, pushing myself too hard in my workouts. This is what you and I have been taught to do when we want to change our bodies.

I realized I would have to chart my own course…those weight loss posts on instagram are made for 20 year olds without a family to feed or kids waking them up at 5:30.

The posts aimed at mid-thirties moms blamed hormones and perimenopause which honestly, felt like a bit of a cop out. It was too nebulous, too intangible.

As a side note, even if you ARE going through perimenopause, you can do this simply and sustainably without loads of supplements and hacks.

I had entered my “gentle fat loss era.” Note, I don’t say weight loss. I wasn’t interesting in just getting smaller, getting lighter at the cost of my hard earned muscle. I wanted to keep every bit of that muscle and maybe even replace some fat with even more muscle over this journey!

This would take more intention than just: eat less, move more.

I know many of you are cautiously curious about entering a gentle fat loss era yourselves and I never gate keep. I’m going to share with you guys exactly how I did it, but I want to share a few massively important lessons I’ve learned along the way first…

(first photo was last summer after losing 10 pounds and getting a tan, second photo was 8 weeks into my 3rd pregnancy, third photo was with a 6 month old)

1. My numbers and amounts may look vastly different than yours. I’m 6 feet tall with a good amount of muscle which means my caloric needs are likely higher than the average female! Don’t compare, just work with what your suggested numbers are and tweak as you go.

2. This is NOT meant to be a forever thing. I followed these steps for 12 weeks exactly. After that I carried the habits and information I learned into regular life and lost the other half of my goal over the next 6 months.

3. Be patient. Going harder won’t make your progress faster. It will burn you out and you will gain every pound back (and then some) causing the cycle to start all over again. We’re aiming for a once and for all type thing here. Learn habits we can imagine doing forever and go on with our lives.

4. Be realistic. I knew I couldn’t make separate meals for my family and eat a different meal myself. I had to tweak our family favorites to fit everyone’s needs. Also, I know I can’t live without my whole milk lattes (two a day, thank you) and dessert every night so I didn’t expect myself to. I planned for them and made trade offs when necessary.

5. Trade offs are a fact of life. I think somewhere along the way we thought we could have anything and everything we wanted without consequences. As I tracked my food intake I realized that if I wanted to have ice cream for dessert, maybe I needed to leave off that handful of cheese on my tacos. If I wanted to grow stronger, I needed to get to be a bit earlier so I actually had the energy to push myself in my workout the next morning. I couldn’t expect to sit all day and then feel energized and athletic as I moved through my day. Sometimes we bristle against the idea of boundaries, but really they are a kindness to ourselves. How can we expect to end up where we envision without a path to follow consistently?

6. What gets measured, gets managed…think of this as checking in with your monthly budget, your retirement goals, your child’s school assignments. You can’t just ignore them and hope for the best. Sometimes we have to check in for a time and make sure everything is on track. There is nothing unhealthy or obsessive about that. Now, when you start feeling anxiety or fear over weighing yourself or going “off'“ the plan that’s a sign that maybe you need to take a step back and examine why.

7. Take your measurements, weight, pictures, etc. only once a month. Daily and weekly fluctuations can totally throw your focus off. Stick to the plan, remember why you are doing this…it has nothing to do with a number on the scale and everything to do with how you FEEL in your skin. Are you getting less out of breath playing with your kids? Are your favorite jeans feeling a bit more comfortable? Can you feel your leg muscles engaging when you walk up the stairs? Do you feel more energetic around 3:30 when you’d normally be digging in the pantry for dark chocolate? Those are the daily surprises that will keep us going when we’re tempted to throw the towel in.

8. You don’t need to be perfect. If I planned 6 workouts for the week and hit 4, I was ok with that! If I hit 5, I was pretty pumped! The real truth, I almost never got all 6 in (my yoga day usually got skipped in favor of sleeping in and stretching later ;). I would aim to hit my protein goals, but sometimes we would eat a frozen pizza for dinner instead and that’s ok. Hitting 80% of the perfect plan is SO MUCH BETTER than not having a plan at all. I promise, change doesn’t require perfection. It just required consistent imperfect action.

9. Momentum is EVERYTHING. Motivation is fleeting. You can be gung ho about your big goals at 7am and totally over it by 7pm. By keeping the bar low, you make it easier to just keep moving forward. Once you get the ball rolling, it’s easier to KEEP it rolling. Before you know if, you start seeing progress and you actually want to keep it rolling. You’ll get off track and that’s ok, I’d be shocked if you didn’t! That’s life. Just try to get the ball rolling again as soon as possible. If you missed a workout one day, try to at least get a walk in the next day, the next day get back to the plan. If you totally fell off the protein wagon one day (or three ;), that’s ok! Have grace, but just get back to it. No negotiations, no feeling frustrated, no beating yourself up. Just get back to it.

10. I can’t stress this one enough. MAKE IT ENJOYABLE. Find a way to make meals that you can’t wait to eat. Include dessert every night if that’s your thing. Don’t cut out your beloved lattes. Plan to eat out once or twice a week. Find movement that you enjoy. Keep your workouts short and sweet so they don’t take over your life. We’re fitting this INTO our lives, not molding our lives around this. Feeling good in our skin is a worthy goal, but not at the expense of our joy. If you’re a grumpy mess every day, you’re doing it wrong!

I’ll be back next week with the exact 5 step simple, gentle plan I followed to feel good in my skin BUT here is a little project for you to ponder on in the meantime.

What do you picture when you imagine your most vibrant self? Is she a runner? Is she flexible? Does she eat gorgeous, bountiful, colorful meals? Does she enjoy a coffee and croissant at her favorite bakery without guilt or fear? Does she wake early to stretch and greet the sun with a cup of tea? What clothes does she wear and feel most beautiful in? Why does she want to feel lighter, more energized?

I want you to really think through what is holding you back from being her.

Are these valid concerns that need to be addressed and dealt with or are they stale, recycled excuses that have outlived their life cycle and are ready to get tossed?

With so much love and the biggest of hugs,

Jillian

(feeling so much more myself these days, lighter, more energized, more carefree…)

Honestly, this in-out-back in again transition to spring is usually not my favorite time of the year. It was strangely (and eerily ;) warm here in Tennessee earlier in the year which made the cold snap this week that much harder to bear!

Instead of relying on circumstances (and chance of sunny weather ;) to define my mood, I’ve been keeping little lists of tiny, normal things of daily life that bring my joy.

Here’s a little peek at what’s been giving me life in the last few weeks:

FAVORITE READS

I’ve hit a bit of a rough reading patch the last few weeks. I hit a record for DNFs (did not finish) and it’s always a bit demoralizing. I feel strongly that there are too many good books in the world to read past 75 pages of a book that I’m just not feeling. Instead of giving you the gory list of books I didn’t like, here’s what I did enjoy reading this month.

Non-Fiction:

The Overwhelmed Mom

I’m not going to say that I feel overwhelmed, but I’m also NOT going to say I’m not feeling overwhelmed most days. I know I try to tack on too much, I know I need to be OK just doing a little bit everyday not trying to tackle the entire to do list in one afternoon, but sometimes I need an outside reminder of these things. This book was practical, relatable, and honestly, realistic about motherhood just feeling like A LOT sometimes!

Schole Everyday

This one has been on my list, but I felt a bit scared to dive in. I was worried it would make me feel like I needed to add 100 things to my already teetering pile of “to do’s” in a day. I was wrong! While it did encourage me to continue pursuing my self education as I educate my children, the authors filtered reading through a lens of productive leisure (or schole) that was just the “chill out, Jillian” I needed to hear.

Fiction:

Emma M. Lion vol. 3

I needed a cure for my three chapter in book abandonment streak I found myself in and Emma Lion never disappoints. I read it in three days and had to hold myself back from picking up volume 4. I’m trying to savor them slowly this year like a fancy box of chocolates.

Something to Look Forward To

I’ve read everything Fannie Flagg has written. Is this deep literary stuff? Nope, but boy, is it just nostalgic for me? Did anyone else grow up watching Fried Green Tomatoes? Well, she wrote that (and a whole lot of other wonderful Southern fiction) and I adore her for it. This one was a collection of short stories that was easy to pick up and snack on in the in-between times of the day when I found myself wanting to pick my phone up. A good cure for phone addiction!

The Wedding People

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book or not, but I ended up LOVING IT. I think you either love it or not, maybe you’ll like it? It was a reminder that life is what we MAKE IT.

Family Reads:

Danny the Champion of the World

We are Roald Dahl super fans in this house and are slowly reading through his collection. This one was just as good as all the others and made us laugh out loud!

These Happy Golden Years

Again, Laura Ingalls Wilder super fans over here (especially my 8 year old girl) and we’ve been slowly reading through the series. She listens to the audiobooks over and over and over in between reads. We only have one book left and we feel a bit sad about it!

The Odyssey part 1 & 2

We’re studying Greek history for school and have been slowly reading through these Odyssey adaptations during lunch one chapter at a time. The kids are enthralled and honestly, I’ve learned SO MANY Odyssey references that I’ve heard over the years.

In the Bible:

Proverbs, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians

I’ve been slowly re-reading the Bible after devouring the Bible Recap reading plan last year. I felt the pace was too fast to really soak it in so I’ve been reading one chapter a day and choosing one verse to copy in my scripture notebook every morning. It’s been delightful and encouraging.

FAVORITE WATCHES

I must admit that my evening routine has been a bit off this month with a HUGE work project that I’ve been chipping away at for an hour every night (see below ;). This usually means that we plop on the couch for a short time to unwind and eat a little treat before crawling into bed to read before passing out.

Mostly, we’ve been catching up on the last two seasons of F1: Drive to Survive (on Netflix) which seems super random for me, but I LOVE FORMULA ONE, ok? Do I watch the races live when they happen? No, I do not. I do, however, love watching the story of the season unfold on the show. It’s weird, I know.

We’ve been on a bit of a Scottish kick as a family lately. Do you ever find that you tend to gravitate towards themed things like that? It always happens in our family. We started reading our book of Scottish Folk & Fairy Tales for school and that blended into reading the Water Horse (and watching the movie). Then we watched Brave as a family and the parents watched Braveheart. All of this on the heels of my much enjoyed romp through Call the Nurse last month. Isn’t it funny how that happens? Anyways, all of our Scottish accents are pretty solid by now, ye ken?

FAVORITE EATS

We’ve been leaning into simpler fare right now with extracurriculars ramping back up again. I’ve been making good use of our instant pot to make slow cooked chicken tacos, BBQ beef sandwiches, and the Sweet and Smoky Chuck Roast Nachos (from this month’s Simple Seasons) for make ahead dinners.

As for desserts, these PB cookies are SO simple to make and grace our dessert table weekly.

We’re pulling the ice cream maker out for the first time since moving and I can’t wait to make a batch of raspberry frozen yogurt with mini chocolate chips.

OH, MY MOST EXCITING NEWS IS THE UPDATES TO SIMPLE SEASONS THIS MOOOOONTH!

I feel like Oprah screaming from the rooftops. We have a recipe archive coming to the membership site with ALL 400 RECIPES I’VE EVER WRITTEN FOR SIMPLE SEASONS INSIIIIIIDE.

That means every time I casually name drop a delicious recipe you will actually be able to find it in the membership! I seriously can’t wait.

FAVORITE LITTLE JOYS

Grabbing for my favorite dresses collected over the last 6 years. Every year I save my pennies up and buy one or two gorrrrgeous heirloom dresses to add to my collection. I used to be the gal who’d snap up a pile of new dresses every year only to be disappointed with them less than a year later. Of course, they all ended up in the donation pile and the cycle would start all over again. A few years ago I decided to spend LESS on my clothes overall (which meant curbing my shopping habits), but spending MORE on individual pieces of clothing. I can gladly say that those first dresses I’ve purchased are still in my daily rotation. My two favorite stores to buy life-long favorite dresses that hold up to daily wear and machine washing are Doen and Christy Dawn. My husband jokes that I may be the only woman in the world that scrubs toilets wearing a Christy Dawn dress, but hey, they bring me joy!

We finally found these cute little mugs to expand our collection (of one) after I bought the last one in stock a few months ago. I use this mug at least 3 times a day, so having a little stack is so wonderful.

Sitting in the suuuuun. I always say that I must be cold-blooded because when I see the sun peak out from behind the clouds I rush outside to bask in it. I can literally feel my batteries recharge. I usually don’t need any sunscreen this early in the year, but I’ve already stocked up on our usual stuff in anticipation of the strong summer rays.

As always, I would ADORE to hear what you’ve been loving in the last few weeks. Let’s spread the sunshine, shall we?

Big hugs!

Jillian

Unfortunately (not really, we love our days) our schedule ramps up BIG TIME in March. With extracurriculars starting back up, the end of the school year staring me down (yes, even homeschoolers feel the pressure to finish the dang math book but the end of the year ;), and just all the extra sunshine waiting to be soaked up I find that my time available for, you know, standing in the kitchen for hours on end is pretty non-existent.

Fortunately, it’s kind of my full time job (it actually is!) to plan meals that are balanced and nourishing BUT ALSO simple enough to throw together quickly AND ALSO utterly delicious (even to the skeptical kiddos in the fam).

Here’s what our family is actually eating this month, all from our Simple Seasons membership and stay tuned for a little bonus recipe that is on constant repeat right now.

Dinners

Weeknight Chicken Pot Pie. I love that this pie is PACKED with protein but also the coziest thing I’ve ever eaten. If you’re using a rotisserie chicken, it also takes less than 30 minutes to throw together before chilling in the oven for another 30. It makes SUCH good leftovers and I find it perfect on those “why does it still feel like winter?” March days. Bonus points for doubling the recipe and freezing one for later (or bringing to a friend ;)

Turkey Monte Cristo Sandwiches. My number one, I-don’t-know-what’s-for-dinner-dinner. In fact, that’s what we’re eating for dinner tonight because I forgot to thaw out the chicken breasts, yet again. These ALWAYS hit the spot and we ALWAYS have the ingredients on hand. P.S. My freezer bread slices always come in handy here.

Lemony Whitefish with Very Green Pasta. This delight is one of those meals that you would THINK takes forever to cook only to have the kid’s refuse to eat it BUT NO. It seriously takes less than 20 minutes AND the kids gobble it up, every, single, time. The leftover sauce (if you have any) is equally good drizzled on an egg sandwich or spread on a turkey sandwich.

P.S. we ALWAYS keep frozen wild haddock from Whole Foods stocked in the freezer.

Herbed Apple Turkey Burgers. These take a bit longer to pull together, but they make the most insane leftovers that can be used for breakfast, lunch OR DINNER so I always make a double batch to stash in the fridge. These are so good with scrambled eggs on the side for a protein packed breakfast.

Hint: I get asked EVERY TIME what buns we use and I’m never without a pack of these sourdough buns in the freezer for the easiest sandwich maker.

Chicken and Lentil Stew with Yogurt Biscuits. We always need a soup on the menu because it makes the perfect cook ahead dinner for those late practice evenings. This stew is perfectly savory and cozy and always tastes better with these yogurt biscuits that magically appear on our table at least twice a week.

P.S. You can double the biscuit dough and pop half in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow. Just cut and bake them as usual!

Sweet and Smoky Chuck Roast Nachos. I LOVE throwing a hunk of meat in the instant pot at 9am while I’m cleaning up after breakfast and when 5 o’clock rolls around it feels like little kitchen elves have made dinner for me. These nachos couldn’t be any easier, but if you want something even EASIER just tuck the meat in a tortilla with some toppings and call it a day!

P.S. We usually roll with Siete chips or these organic flour tortillas, both of which (you guessed it) we keep stocked for easy meals!

Breakfast, Snacks, and Treats

Swedish Pancakes! We have SO many celebrations this month, so of course, we need a special breakfast. But, also, did I mention we’re a bit busy at the moment?! These Swedish pancakes come together in minutes and are actually so high in protein which is always a struggle with sweet breakfasts. We’ll be whipping these up on busy birthday mornings (and soccer Saturdays :) this month.

P.S. I top mine with heaps of honey sweetened greek yogurt to up the protein quotient even more. My kids usually go with a peanut butter-banana combo or strawberries and yogurt.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Granola. We need snacks and honestly, a handful of granola just kind of hits the spot. We’ve been buying huge bags of shmurely smelizabeth granola from Costco (I know that’s not the name, but I’m not trying to get sued) and this tastes WAY better and I don’t have to pick chia seeds out of my teeth the rest of the day.

Hint: I like to pack up baggies of this for friend hikes and soccer game mornings where a little boost of carbs is what’s needed to get through until lunch. It pulls double duty as a topper for a yogurt bowl on those “we needed to leave 10 minutes ago” mornings.

Strawberry Chocolate Chunk Loaf. My love of snacking cakes knows no end and a slice in the afternoon is the perfect throw at the kids as they run outside to play snack. This cute little loaf is perfect for that.

Hint: It can also be baked in a cake pan to pull doable duty as desert with whipped cream or ice cream!

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies. Finally, our number one repeated recipe in the simple seasons kitchen are these peanut butter blossom cookies. 5 ingredients, 20 minutes, the best peanut butter cookie you’ve ever eaten. It’s our end game cookie if I’m honest. Because we love it so much, I want to share it with you here!

P.S. We always keep a jar of this peanut butter and these chocolate coins in the pantry for cookie emergencies.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups peanut butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

dark chocolate or your choice, you can use squares, chips, discs, whatever you’d like!

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl whisk the egg with the brown sugar and vanilla. Add the peanut butter and stir it verrrry thoroughly. Keep going, I promise it will come together! Use a scoop or a tablespoon and scoop balls of dough. Place them on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. They don’t spread much while baking but will get flattened a bit when we add the chocolate! Pop them in the oven for about 16 minutes. This will depend on the size of your cookie! You’ll want the edges to juuuust be turning brown. They may seem a bit soft, but they will harden up as they cool on the baking sheet. Take your chocolate and press into the center of the cookie until it flattens the cookie a bit. The chocolate will melt and puddle in the little dip. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until the chocolate is firm again and enjoy!

I’m not relying on frozen pizzas, Chipotle, and scrambled eggs for dinner when we could be eating THIS GOOD. As always, it would bring me untold amounts of joy to see you in the Simple Seasons membership so we can cook our way through the menu this month! See you there ;)

Big hugs,

Jillian

Luckily, my dual entry to motherhood and my 30’s (and now on the cusp of my 40’s!) have taught me a better way.

It’s called consistency over intensity.

Instead of just KILLING myself doing an hour workout every day, what if I just, didn’t?

What if I found the minimum effective dose necessary to keep maintain my muscles, stay stretchy, get those endorphins going, and feel pretty darn good at 39 years old?

That, my friends, is how the movement snack founds its way to my days.

I do truly love strength training and aim to do about 30 minutes 3-4 days a week, using the other days for yoga and walking. But, what happens when even the energy (or time) required to do 30 minutes just isn’t happening?

Enter the movement snack. A flow of 3-5 exercises I can move through (usually without equipment) in my regular every day clothes that takes less than 10 minutes. Sometimes I do three rounds through right then, sometimes I sneak a flow in 5 minute increments throughout my day, sometimes I make it through once right after the kids go down for bed and that’s enough.

If I planned to do upper body that day, I keep the flow more focused there. If the plan was a lower body strength, I focus there. Sometimes, it’s full body or core focused depending on how I’m feeling!

The point is: all or nothing usually leaves us with NOTHING. Or we could get a nice little bit of movement on the books and move on feeling SO MUCH BETTER than if we’d forced ourselves to push it or just gave up on it entirely.

Here’s an example:

I missed my lower body strength workout this morning because 2 of 3 of my kids can’t go more than an hour with throwing up today (hello, stomach bug, you’re not my favorite).

Instead, I get on the ground when I have a moment and work through a short series of glute bridges that leaves my core engaged, my glutes worked, and a little flush to my cheeks from the blood pumping to my muscles. I stand up and feel equipped to get on with my day.

Maybe I’ll get another little pocket of time to repeat it again, and maybe another. These little bite sized intentional moments add up to BIG changes over time.

Momentum is THE most important part of staying consistent.

Just keep going, move one grain of sand every day to the bucket if that’s all you can manage. Before you know it, the bucket is full.

Now, the caveat, if we really want to BUILD muscle we can’t really just do random little movement snacks and expect to MAJORLY GROW with pushing ourselves with more reps, more rounds, more time under tension.

The REAL change comes when we have grace with ourselves and use these little booster to keep the consistency ball rolling while pairing it with a more structured strength program that allows us to progress over time.

They say the best workout is the ONE YOU WILL ACTUALLY DO. I think, instead of skipping a workout you just can’t manage, swap it for one you can. We ALL have time to get on the floor (in our pjs or jeans!) and do 5 minutes of glute bridges, etc.

Here’s a recent little movement snack that I think you’ll LOVE. It’s one I use regularly and it always leaves me feeling so good.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this…are you an all or nothing-er like my former go-hung self or do you allow yourself to do the minimum effective dose of exercise?

Here’s what I make instead when that happens:

1. Swedish pancakes stuffed with greek yogurt and berries (don’t forget the powdered sugar). These are SO quick to make (like less than 2 minutes each) and the batter lasts for days in the fridge so you can cook a few up and pop it back in for tomorrow. The recipe for these is coming to Simple Seasons on Sunday! If you join now, you can get February’s issue AND March for the price of one month ;)

2. Butter fried eggs on toast with ham (and jam). When the scrambled egg heebie jeebies hit, I instantly pivot to fried eggs! Frying them in butter with good salt is key. We love them served on toast with ham layered underneath for an open faced sandwich situation. I personally like a swipe of raspberry jam on the toast for that little pop of sweetness ;)

3. The Best Frittata. Yes, this is capitalized because truly it’s the best. Sure, it has eggs in it, but it doesn't have that overcooked egg taste that most frittatas get because it’s cooked at a low heat. I blend up the mixture, pop it in the oven and drink a cup of coffee by the time it’s ready to serve. How good is that? You can find this recipe in Simple Seasons!

4. Make a baked good WITH scrambled eggs, because bribery works! When the groans start at the mention of scrambled eggs, I slyly mention we’re also having donuts or cinnamon rolls and YEA, they’re into it! We have a pretty solid, we eat what we’re served rule in our home. They know that our bodies need BALANCE so sweets alone isn’t an option. If scrambled eggs are really gag inducing, we’ll serve just a bit with a tall glass of milk for extra protein. You can find our favorite donut recipe here!

5. Stuff them in a tortilla with bacon and cheese for fun breakfast tacos! Sometimes just switching up the vehicle is enough to spark enthusiasm. Bacon doesn’t hurt either ;) Our favorite tortillas to keep in the freezer are La Tortilla Factory Corn & Wheat Tortillas and Siete Cassava tortillas.

6. Dutch pancakes! These puffy little delights take less than 5 minutes to get in the oven and have 2 eggs per serving! I usually make 2 to feed our whole family ;)

   Here’s the recipe (usually serves 2)

   Ingredients:

   4 large eggs

   1/4 cup sugar

   1/2 cup whole milk

   2 teaspoons vanilla

   a pinch of salt

   2/3 cup flour

   3 tablespoons butter

   Directions: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Now let’s make that pancake! In a large bowl, whisk the eggs andnsugar until light yellow in color. Add the milk, vanilla, and pinch of salt and keep whisking. Your arm is getting a workout! Add the flour and keep that whisking going until it’s super smooth with a a few lumps here and there. Let that sit for a minute while you pop an oven safe 8-10 inch skillet in the oven with the butter in it. Let it melt and get a bit foamy. Take the pan back out and pour the batter in and immediately return it to the oven. Let it cook for about 15-20 minutes, until the edges are golden and it’s nice and puffy! Make sure you watch it because it’s so fun to watch it puff up like a balloon! Take it out of the oven and serve it immediately. It will start to deflate right away and that’s ok!

7. Yogurt Waffles (or pancakes) with honey sweetened greek yogurt. Usually, a scrambled egg protest is cured with a sweet breakfast for a break! We make these higher protein pancakes or waffles once a week to shake it up :)

Here’s our Yogurt Waffle recipe from Simple Seasons!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour (I used all

purpose Einkorn)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/4 cup coconut sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup greek yogurt

3/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

Preheat your waffle iron. In a large bowl, mixthe eggs with the sugar and vanilla extract. Add the yogurt and milk and whisk again. Whiskthe butter in. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl and fold through. It should look like a slightly thick batter. Pour about 1/2 cup of batter onto the waffle maker and close. Cook for about 3 minutes, until fragrant and golden. Serve wita dollop of yogurt and the berries. Enjoy!

Here’s our ceramic waffle maker (it’s due for a replacement as all “healthier” non-stick cookware needs often!)

8. Cheesecake yogurt bowls. Mix greek yogurt with some honey and a dash of vanilla powder, add some mini chocolate chips, crumbled graham crackers, and some berries and BOOM, cheesecake for breakfast but way lower sugar and way higher protein!

9. Eggs in a basket. Cut a hole in sourdough toast (I usually have leftover bread in my freezer ;), cook it in butter, crack and egg in the hole, flip and cook the egg. Don’t forget to toast the little bread rounds…they’re the best part!

10. Muffins with a hard boiled egg and a glass of mineral milk! I shared the recipe for our favorite muffins and chocolate milk in this post! I love that all of these can be prepped in advance to make breakfast THE EASIEST EVER.

11. Keep some breakfast sausage in your freezer to serve alongside sweet treats. This one gets expensive since organic frozen sausage is pricey! We limit this one to once a week, but it’s nice to have in a pinch ;) Our favorite sausages are Applegate Chicken and Maple or Jone’s Farm Organic Chicken breakfast sausage (we get it from Costco!)

MOM DISCLAIMER: While many of these have plenty of protein for a child, often as mamas we need a bit more protein in our breakfasts because our body weight is higher! I usually add eggs, more greek yogurt, a scoop of cottage cheese, or sliced turkey to these to get 30g of protein total ;)

The key is to keep it fun, mix it up, but keep it SIMPLE friends! I hope you love these ideas and they help you get out of the dreaded scrambled egg rut.

I’d love to know what you serve to your family when scrambled eggs just isn’t going to cut it anymore!

PUT MY PHONE ON AIRPLANE MODE AND IN A DRAWER for most of the day.

Yea, it’s that simple…

Now that social media and smart phones have been around for almost 20 years, we’re starting to see the bleak outcome of CONSTANT stimulation, CONSTANT comparison, CONSTANT streams of information, CONSTANT distraction and it’s not great.

As someone who loves pen and paper, the feel of cracking open a new book, the scent of a homemade baked good cooking in the oven, and the feeling of a sparkling clean house from the sweat of my brow I STILL struggle with the pull of social media.

Studies show that even just having your phone in the same room as you (in your line of sight) while trying to accomplish a task is distracting enough to slow your productivity (and certainly enjoyment) down.

I’ve seen so many people (moms especially) find that they have a hard time resisting the urge to pick up their phone; they find themselves picking it up and clicking that colorful little app icon without even realizing it and before they know it they’ve lost 20 minutes, the house is in chaos, and the kids are wrestling. Man, I know because ME TOO. Cue irritation at ourselves for getting sucked in (YET AGAIN), cue self loathing for not being strong enough to resist the temptation, cue snapping at our kids and angry cleaning the house in a flurry because now we’re behind. We’re always feeling behind, because our attention is constantly being hijacked towards the bright, shiny, pretty, grass-is-greener side of curated pictures, captions, and videos.

It’s no wonder we’ve seen a rise in phone blocking devices like Brick and expensive app blocking apps that lock us out of our phones for a set period of time. Man, it’s hard using our phones as tools without getting USED by them in return.

One day, I got fed up with my lack of self-control, my seeming inability to actually DO THE THINGS I WANT TO DO, the feeling at the end of the day knowing I could have used my time more wisely, the shame that came from knowing that I was too weak to keep my screen time at an acceptable level.

Enter airplane mode. The little toggle switch that comes on every single smart phone that renders it unable to connect to the internet or cellular. I knew that there was a chance that I’d miss a text or call, that was inconvenient, but what was MORE inconvenient was ending every day with the sinking feeling of know that my gaze rested less on my beautiful children, my beautiful life and more on a little screen that was created to steal my attention. OOF. I started putting my phone on airplane mode at the kid’s bedtime and taking it off after breakfast, and man, it was embarrassingly hard. I found myself reaching for it and then having an internal battle with toggling that little switch off just to look up this ONE THING.

So then, I put it in my kitchen drawer. Man, that made it easier. Not seeing it every time I entered the room, not feeling that little twitch to pick it up made it 100x easier to go about my life with zero willpower required.

Then I thought, what if I stretched it to more time of the day. So, I would check my texts and calls right after breakfast and then put it back on airplane mode and back into the drawer. I found our school time went so much more smoothly because I wasn’t tempted to fill every single empty moment (while the kids were going potty, or finishing their math worksheet, or running to blow their nose) with checking my phone. I started thinking more clearly, actually enjoying our time together rather than racing through to get to the next thing.

Of course, I’m not a luddite. I run an online business! I can’t just throw my smart phone out the window and never look back, nor do I want to. I wanted to train myself to use my phone as the tool it was created to be and make it WORK FOR ME.

Once we got lunch cleaned up and the kids settled in quiet time, I could check my texts and calls again. I would create my post or whatever I needed to do, then set it aside. The pull is still there, the allure of pretty pictures, life hacks, the FOMO of bettering my life in some way that someone out there has figured out and generously shared on the internet.

The change is that when I put it on airplane mode and put it in a drawer I remove the temptation for those hours. The willpower I have can be concentrated on those 2-3 “connected” hours which means it’s a whole lot stronger.

Do I find myself getting sucked in from time to time and lamenting the loss of those minutes, OF COURSE. Do I still allow myself to soak up the wisdom of other women on instagram for a set time of the day, YES. There is actually so much beauty and wisdom to be found if you’re diligent about who you follow. A curated instagram feed full of encouraging, genuine, and wise women is a GIFT. It’s when we’re drowning in “inspiration” and unable to scrape enough time together to USE the inspiration that it becomes toxic.

Here’s a little cheat sheet for how I’ve managed to curb my screen time and use those hours (yes, hours :) for the things I actually want to do with my life.

Put my phone on airplane mode for periods of the day that require my presence at home.

My first chunk of “airplane mode hours” are from 5pm (with a just quick check of texts/phone calls after the kids go to bed) until after breakfast. This allows me to focus FULLY on dinnertime/bedtime/my reset evening time without the fatigue of the day weakening my willpower to resist the siren call of the numbing effect of social media that actually makes me feel MORE exhausted and irritable.

I check my phone after breakfast before we dive into the next part of our day while the kids are brushing teeth and making beds. Then it’s back on airplane mode on school days until after lunch!

Once the kids are set in quiet time, I take my phone off airplane mode and check texts, post to social media, etc. and then it’s back on airplane mode when our evening routine starts.

I use my phone camera for all of my content so I take it out of the drawer (still on airplane mode) to use it, then it’s back in the drawer.

When I want to listen to music, I connect my Spotify to our bluetooth speaker and put the phone back in the drawer.

When I want to add something to a grocery list, or think of something to buy on amazon, or get the urge to research something that can 100% wait I WRITE IN A NOTEBOOK and get back to it later. I know, old school, but honestly, my life FEELS old school in a good way.

I do everything that I can on my computer there, instead of my phone. I keep my laptop at a desk (no beds or couches!) so that it’s much harder to get “sucked in.” Sure, we can still get sucked into our computers but not NEARLY as easily. It’s uncomfortable sitting at a desk for longer than you need to so I tend to complete what needs done and move on. Checking emails, grocery orders, requesting library books, online shopping, Pinterest browsing, googling anything, that’s done on the computer. When I do these on my phone it alllllways leads to scrolling.

I NEVER double screen. There is absolutely no watching TV while on a computer or phone. Multitasking is a myth!

I bring my phone into the bedroom (on airplane mode) because I use the alarm. I put it on red light background when I put it on airplane mode before dinner so the jarring blue light doesn’t get me!

My screen time hours are still close to 2 hours on work days because I edit my photos, videos, reply to comments, and messages on it but it is PURPOSEFUL, not distracting me from other work.

In case you aren’t sure how to do it, getting to airplane mode is simple, just go to SETTINGS on your phone and the first item says “airplane mode” with a toggle switch next to it. Boom, done.

I’d love to know, do you think this is something that would change your life too?