Wellness with Vanda
A women's health podcast where we'll be talking about hormones, mindset, motherhood, & everything in between. The host, Vanda, is a functional medicine nurse coach that helps women overcome hormone imbalance so that they can achieve optimal wellness. In her private practice she specializes in HTMA testing and DUTCH testing. Throughout this podcast she shares tips for boosting energy naturally, improve mood, recover from mom burnout, ways to increase fertility, ways to improve sleep quality, tips for pregnancy, tips for navigating postpartum and the fourth trimester, and more!
Wellness with Vanda
A Peek Into my Fridge, Pantry, & Freezer!
In this week's episode I'm sharing a list of the foods I keep on hand at pretty much all times that make it easy for me (& my family) to incorporate more minerals into our normal-day-to-day-diet.
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Hey guys, welcome back to this episode of the podcast. So I have been excited to record this episode because something that I've been trying to talk more and more about is just how you can support your minerals easily with the things that you're normally already doing, and it doesn't have to be complicated. I think that there has become so much attention around minerals and HGMA testing and so many people are talking about it, and I think that that's great, but I've shared before that I think that has also made the process feel a little overwhelming and like it's something that you can only do if you've had HGMA testing and then also something that you really can only do with, like a bunch of supplements and drink packets and mineral mocktails and in that although there are things in that that are true like, yes, you can take a more targeted approach to supporting your minerals and what your body needs when you have HGMA testing. Yes, supplements are typically necessary to help fill the gaps that we're not able to meet with our diet, and there's a lot of reasons that go into, like why we might not be able to meet a nutrient requirement with our diet that are not always within our control. So, thank goodness we have supplements to help fill those gaps.
Speaker 1:But beyond all of that, I think that the message to like really just focus on the food that you're eating first kind of gets lost, and even because it's like because nobody's really talking about that so much, I think it makes it feel unattainable, like I think there's this preconceived notion and I'm not just like pulling this from my own mind like this is what clients have shared with me in the past that they felt this way before we started working together and before they learned more. But it kind of felt like you needed to be like super clean with your diet. You could only eat organic things, you couldn't eat a lot of like this whole laundry list of foods that I'm not going to get into today and I just really don't like that. That message and that like belief is out there, because I think that the majority of us are out here just trying to live a normal life where we aren't going to be perfect all the time, we aren't going to be able to freaking afford to buy all organic groceries, where we are going to be eating out from time to time or eating from the concession stand at the ballpark and we need to know how to be able to like balance it all and know that, while we're living this normal life, we can still do things that support our minerals and our overall health, without it being this like big, taxing job that we have to like put so much thought and effort into. So what I'm doing for this episode if you I told this last week, but if you didn't listen to last week's episode I made a list of the things that I regularly keep on hand at my home, in my fridge, in my pantry, in my freezer.
Speaker 1:That helps me to do this a little bit easier. Like you know, I think one of the big things that we can do to help ourselves in this process is to keep things on hand, readily available to where this is, you know, easier. It's like automatically what we have available when we're hungry or when we're meal planning or when we need a snack. All right, so, and I'm actually I just thought of two things that I didn't put on the list, but I'm adding to the list right now because I don't want to forget, and I'm going to be emailing access to this full list. It's nothing fancy, guys, it's literally just. It's a Word document, a Google document, with this whole list on it. But if you're like I'm driving, I love some of these ideas. I want to start getting these things from the grocery, but I can't write that down right now. Then make sure that you get my emails and you'll get it that way, okay?
Speaker 1:So I want to start with my fridge, because this is typically where you know you keep all of your fresh produce and the big focus that that I like to like put. What am I trying to say? Where I like to focus my attention when I'm supporting minerals is in, you know, fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, just not. What I'm trying to say is that you don't want to focus your attention on like these processed foods that are being advertised as being like a super healthy option, because oftentimes they have so many like additives and preservatives in them that they kind of counteract whatever nice additive it is that they're like advertising themselves for being healthy. So it is about having a focus on like whole foods and fresh foods. But as I read through this list, you're probably going to find that like these are things that you commonly eat anyway and I would just encourage you to maybe eat more of them or keep them on hand more frequently. Also, there's going to be some things in this list that I call out that maybe I don't eat, but I keep on hand because my kids will eat and I'll try to kind of call those out as I get to them. And it's not because I think that they're bad foods and I like don't want to eat them, it's just literally I don't like them. But they're still a pretty decent option for my kids. And since I work primarily with moms, a big question that I get is like how can I help my kids also support their vitamins and minerals without supplements? Because a lot of people don't want to give supplements to their kids or they're not of the age that they can even really take supplements yet. So you know you can pull from this list for that as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, starting with my fridge and I try to kind of categorize these a little bit so first up, I've got my fruits that I keep on hand. Everyone in my house is pretty big fruit eating people, my kids especially, but my picky husband also does pretty well eating fruits, so we keep a lot of fruit on hand at all times. So we have apples and there's typically a couple different types of apples in there. My favorite apples are Gala apples, but recently me and my husband have really been into Granny Smith apples. So couple different types of apples grapes, tangerines, or like the little halos. Me and my kids and my husband, we all love those kiwis. I typically just keep like the traditional green kiwis on hand because those are my favorite. But a friend recently was like, have you tried the sun gold ones? And I did and I really liked them and my daughter Kenley really liked them too. So sometimes we get those blueberries. Then these of course aren't in the fridge typically, but bananas In my vegetable drawer.
Speaker 1:I keep on hand every week cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, carrots which typically I either get baby carrots or recently I've gotten like carrot chips that are cut in like little slices avocados, romaine lettuce and bell peppers. And typically I have all the different colors, like I've got green, yellow, red and orange. And I do that because since I do work from home and even when I wasn't working from home I packed my lunch a lot I have these things as a side to my lunch pretty often and even like when we're having like, say, we're having a really busy day and we've maybe we're like heading out to go to baseball practice or something like right after we get home from work and I need to get a quick meal on the table and I fix spaghetti and garlic knots to go with that I can either fix myself a salad or, if I like sometimes it takes a little bit, you know to put a whole salad together. If I'm like, no, I just need something I can grab right now, then I'll get out those cherry tomatoes and those carrots, add a little bit of ranch, and I'm that way. I'm still getting in some fiber and vegetable and some minerals that way, and while I'm enjoying the spaghetti and garlic bread with my faintling. So I just feel like keeping those things readily available makes it really simple to add them to meals where maybe I'm lacking a vegetable or a fiber source.
Speaker 1:Okay, so then I typically keep on hand whole milk, plain Greek yogurt. I use this in my smoothies in the summer. But then there's other things that I can like, use this with, like I'll mix it with stuff, and sometimes I use it as a sour cream substitute. But I just do really like sour cream. So usually I'll just eat the sour cream, but you can make dips out of it, you can mix it with protein powder and like flavor it that way and eat it just like you would normal yogurt. You can do that same thing and use it as a dip for like fruit Lots of different things that you can use Greek yogurt for and it's a really good protein source and minerals and vitamins.
Speaker 1:We keep whole milk on hand. I, of course, have little kids that have been transitioning through, like you know, from breast milk to whole milk and we just I like whole milk the best now and you know it's packed with good nutrients. We always have orange juice. I've been recently always keeping on hand tart cherry juice because I really like it. I have a little mocktail that I make with that and it's so delicious. If you would like that recipe, you can hit me up to download my minerals for Mama's guide, because I share that recipe that I'm obsessed with in that guide. Then I'm not gonna say that at all times I have pineapple juice, but pretty regularly I keep pineapple juice on hand. I use that sometimes in smoothies for my mocktails, and then I sometimes make gelatin gummies and I will use those as a flavor source for that. Coconut water I keep on hand also for the mocktails that I create.
Speaker 1:I do keep on hand some flavored Greek yogurts and I have a couple of different versions of this, like, sometimes I have the drinkable ones, sometimes I just have like the regular cups that you eat it. I can't just eat plain Greek yogurt. I've tried. I can't do it as like breakfast. I don't like the taste of it. I think it is bitter and I'm just not a fan. So I will get flavored and yes, sometimes there's added sugar in those, but you know what. We just eat it and move on. It's not a big deal.
Speaker 1:Cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese sticks In the summer I like to keep fresh mozzarella pearls on hand because I do like tomatoes and those and some basil and anyway it's really good. Dillie, turkey, sometimes ham, but I lean more towards turkey when I have the option and it is a little bit healthier for you than ham. Not enough to really make a big difference, but anyway I prefer turkey. So that's what I keep on hand. And then lime juice and lemon juice and I use those for, you know, making marinades. Sometimes I just put them in my water. They go into a lot of my mocktails. It's a great thing to have on hand. So that pretty much takes you through my fridge staples and I'm not saying that they're not other things in my fridge, like there's absolutely other things in my fridge, but these are the things that I'm saying like nine times out of 10, you come to my house and you ask for this thing, I'm gonna have it, it's gonna be here, all right. So moving on to the freezer Frozen strawberries.
Speaker 1:Again, I keep these on hand for like smoothies, quick, like in the winter. You can't get good tasting strawberries where I live, so my kids really like strawberries and sometimes I need strawberries for recipes. I muddle them, I like heat them up and muddle them into some of my mocktails, so good to keep those on hand. I have frozen blueberries. There is a frozen like summer mix of berries that has strawberries, mango, pineapple and peaches. That in the summer I keep a lot of and actually right now I still have some from the last time I bought it because it's a big old bag, but I will use that in smoothies I like to keep in the summer.
Speaker 1:My kids like popsicles and I mean I'll just be honest with you, they eat the normal, just like you know they're like in a plastic tube popsicle that has like that and stuff that's not good for them, but I don't really like those and if I'm going to have like a treat, I would rather it be for myself. I'd rather it be something more I don't know at least a little healthier. So I keep the outshine frozen fruit bars and specifically I do like the ones that have no added sugar. But you know, even sometimes there are certain flavors that you can't get in the no added sugar type. So I will buy those. I like to keep true fruit, frozen fruit, and if you don't know what that brand is, it is expensive, it is definitely like a little treat, but it's. They have chocolate covered strawberries. They have chocolate covered raspberries, which I'm typically honestly not a big raspberry fan, but I love those. It's like they're tart and then the chocolate is sweet and it's just, it's so good. And then they also have a pineapple flavor that is pineapple chunks and it's got like white chocolate but kind of coconut flavored around it, and I don't typically like coconut things but those also are so, so good and, like I said, those are just like things that are a little bit healthier that I keep on hand for when I want a sweet treat but I don't necessarily want to grab for just like a straight up cookie or slice of cake or whatever.
Speaker 1:As far as frozen vegetables, I'm going to go through my pantry stuff in a little bit. That's like the next section but I don't. If I'm going to buy vegetables that aren't like fresh, I like to do frozen as opposed to canned whenever possible, because they are a little fresher and therefore still have more vitamins and nutrients in them, as opposed to canned options. Now, there are things that I still get canned and sometimes, if I can't get it frozen, I will get it canned. I'm not saying that you should not have canned vegetables. I'm just saying that, if I have the choice, I like to do frozen over canned. So I keep broccoli, florets, sliced carrots and green beans in the freezer pretty much at all times. My kids are really good about eating the broccoli and the carrots. I'm the only person in this house that eats green beans. But whatever, okay.
Speaker 1:As far as like meats that I keep on hand this is going to sound like a lot, but it's truthful. We have a beef that we like. We buy a beef every year. We buy a cow that has been processed and stuff. So in the wintertime, usually in like January, february we get our beef for the year, so I always have ground beef, I have steaks, I have beef roast always here and we use we do eat a lot of beef because of that. But then we also get other things fresh as needed or like as we want to mix it up. So I'll get you know chicken, pork chops, things like that. I just buy those fresh week by week as we need it. That's why I'm not including anything like that on this list, but a couple other things that we keep on hand in the freezer at all times some type of chicken strip, because I just find that that is like a good source of protein that every single one of us will eat and it's super quick and easy.
Speaker 1:Butterflash shrimp, or sometimes even popcorn shrimp but I'm trying to do the butterfly shrimp because it's healthier and me and my son both will eat those and he loves it and shrimp is a really good source of, like some of your minerals. And then, lastly, I like to keep on hand sweet potato tots. They're like tater tots, but they're made out of sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. There's nothing wrong with regular potatoes. Regular potatoes are a really good potassium source and I eat plenty of regular potatoes, but I did want to mention that because it's just kind of like a different option that some people might not be even aware of that exist and they're really, really tasty.
Speaker 1:Okay, next up we are gonna talk about my pantry. I didn't organize this list as well, so I did the other, so it's kinda all over the place, but I'll try to categorize it a little bit as I go. Something recent that I have stumbled upon that has been a big hit is that's it, bars like that's. It is the brand. We have two different flavors right now strawberry and strawberry mango. They're just like a good little snack.
Speaker 1:Apple sauce pouches I keep on hands for the kids. I don't really eat these. If I wanted some plain like apple sauce I totally would, but and I keep all different varieties on hand my kids love these. They're an easy snack, especially when you have nights where it's like they didn't eat dinner very well and they're kinda hungry before bed. It's kinda what my kids gravitate towards, that they want these and no like. They're not an excellent source of nutrition. There's basically no protein in them, but again, we're not always gonna be perfect. So I keep like the apple sauce ones, just like the plain apple sauce ones. But then I also do try to buy the blends that have fruits and some veggies in there, since little kids are picky and they don't always eat vegetables the best, and I love them.
Speaker 1:I almost always have canned black beans I am the only person in the house that will eat black beans but I like them and you can do a lot with them. Like I will kinda use them for like dips or salsa. Sometimes I will just cook some to have when we have like tacos or I'll put them in a taco salad, so those are good to keep on hand. I always have both canned chicken and canned tuna because, again, for lunch options, those are really nice for me to have here and be kind of a quick go-to that I can kind of change it up. I love to make chicken salad. I like to do chicken quesadillas, sometimes with the canned chicken and then with the tuna. I typically make tuna fish.
Speaker 1:Slim Jim's. This is one of those things that I don't like them. Honestly, I don't even like the way that they smell. My husband doesn't either. But my kids really like them, they love them. It's another thing that they will eat before bed if they like didn't eat dinner. Well, and I'm really okay with it because I know that there's like crabby ingredients in there, but it's also six creams of protein I think it is. Now I feel like I need to double check myself but I'm not going to. But it's a decent source of protein for like a Slim Jim's stick and, like I said, they love it. They don't get like they don't love a lot of things that are high in protein. So when I find a snack that's like got a decent amount of protein, even if the ingredients all are not optimal, we're going to stick with it.
Speaker 1:Whole wheat pastas again, spaghetti is one of the like go-tos in my house. Like we don't know what else to fix or we don't have a lot of time, we make spaghetti. So I keep a couple of different types of whole wheat pasta on hand. It's usually spaghetti noodles and penne pasta, because we can do a lot with that. Love to keep peanut butter on hand. I don't get so hung up on like the natural brands. I do like the GIF natural brand, like I think it's the best tasting one and it tastes, you know, the most like just regular GIF peanut butter, but the brand is really neither here nor there. You know peanut butter is a good protein and fat source.
Speaker 1:Then, in far as vegetables that are in my pantry, I do keep on hand white potatoes at all times. We eat a lot of potatoes baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes. We eat a lot of potatoes around here. I like red potatoes specifically if we're gonna be roasting them. And then I like sweet potatoes, either baked or cut up and roasted. But they're such a pain to cut up. But that's a different tangent for a different day. But I'm the only one that eats sweet potatoes, so I don't keep those on hand every single week. I just get them kind of as I know I'm gonna use them. And then onions I keep both yellow and red onions on hand at all times because you know I cook with them a lot and add them to things. Then I kind of have this like random section, seed section, oh, and there's a couple other things I did not mention here, so I'm gonna add those as I go.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I keep chia seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, whole flak seeds and a variety of nuts. So this typically is going to be either literally a can of mixed nuts or pistachios. Peanuts and cashews are kind of my favorite. I really just like to get the mixed can, because then you get a little bit of everything I do like. The chia seeds I'll put into smoothies. I dabble every once in a while into chia pudding. I just can't get myself in the habit of making it. I like it when I make it, but you do have to think ahead and make it ahead and I just kind of forget. I think I'm going to make some this week actually. But then the other seeds I will either like sunflower seeds I'll use as a snack or put them on salads. I'll mix the hemp hearts and the whole flak seeds into yogurt If I'm doing a yogurt bowl in the morning. And the nuts I do just like snacks.
Speaker 1:I like to combine nuts with mozzarella cheese sticks, like the, not the, you know like yummy, deep fried, delicious mozzarella cheese sticks. I mean just like literally the stick of mozzarella cheese. I think you guys know that. But I just thought the need to clarify what else. Honey and maple syrup I use both of those as sweetener and you know different things pretty often. Coconut milk that's a newer one for me and I don't always remember to use it, but it is a good substitute for, like heavy whipping cream in certain recipes, so I try to keep that on hand and then I have my true lemon and lime packets. You get these kind of like in the baking section at Walmart at least that's where they are in my Walmart and they're literally just lemon and lime that's kind of like been crystallized, and I put them in my water, like I'm never hardly ever drinking plain Jane water. It usually always has a lemon and lime packet in it or one or the other.
Speaker 1:I do keep a protein powder on hand at all times. My favorite brand currently is clean symbol eats, and they have a variety of flavors and I like a variety of their flavors. So you know, but traditionally I'll usually at least have a vanilla and a chocolate on hand, and then maybe some others and collagen powder. I like the perfect supplements brand for this, because it is like the only collagen powder I've ever had that's truly flavorless, will truly like dissolve and mix into anything, whether it be warm or hot. However, I have heard really good things about Jigsaw Health's new collagen powder and I am going to be trying it the next time that I run out and need to reorder.
Speaker 1:Okay, last section of foods. Here there are some seasonal fruits and veggies that, when they're in season, I also keep them on hand, but I didn't want to include them with the others and make it sound like I keep them on hand all the time, because I don't. So this is things like plums, peaches, strawberries, pineapples I love a fresh whole pineapple. I can't wait for it to be a little bit warmer so we can get those. And then veggie wise yellow squash and zucchini. We grow those in our garden in the summer, so then we always have some around, and I love to roast some yellow squash, zucchini and onion together. It's so good. Corn on the cob also something that we and my parents and my grandparents grow in their gardens, so we have a lot of that in the summer.
Speaker 1:Tomatoes I said earlier that I keep cherry tomatoes on hand at all times, but in the wintertime it's hard to find a good whole tomato here that like really tastes very good, so I kind of reserve that for the summer, and that's something that our families grow in their gardens and we typically do too, so we'll have those. And then butternut squash I go through phases with butternut squash that is kind of like a fall vegetable and I definitely put it into more of my like fall type recipes. But honestly, I love butternut squash and I can get it from my Walmart most of the time, so that one's kind of hit or miss. I get that one, you know, every few weeks. So I don't know if this was helpful at all. I hope that it was.
Speaker 1:I tried to think of all the different like categories of things and I just thought of one thing I didn't. I didn't think to do one thing else that I keep on hand, that I guess you could consider it a pantry food, maybe a, maybe a fridge food. I don't know. It's not even a food, it's a drink or body armor light drinks, because my kids will drink those and sometimes I drink them because they're good and they're made with coconut water, so they're a decent source of some some minerals and electrolytes. But anyway, like I said, I hope that this was helpful and gives you some ideas for maybe some things that you can more regularly keep on hand all the time. And you know, if nothing else, hopefully you heard that list and you're like, wow, my family's not that far off. We eat a lot of these things. I just maybe need to keep them around more often, or I just need to like think to cut up the apple to go with my lunch, or grab the carrots and throw some ranch with them and, you know, add that to my lunch, my breakfast or whatever. Sometimes it's just like we're already doing the right, the right things. We just need to take like one more step in that right direction.
Speaker 1:One thing that I wanted to talk about for mindset minute as I wrap up here. It's not really a mindset exercise, it's just something that I want you to give thought to over the next few days. This is something that Megan, with metabolism makeover, talked about probably six months ago, and when she said it, I was like, oh my gosh, yeah, this makes so much sense and I'm going to stop doing that, and it's so much harder than you think it's going to be when you hear what I have to say. So basically, she was just talking about how we like in in this industry, in this like I don't know area of health and wellness. We talk about how important it is to be in tune with our bodies and listen to what our bodies are telling us, and that is so important and I absolutely also like preach that message. She was like, if you think about it?
Speaker 1:How often are we making our body wait for something and we're just choosing not to listen to it? How often is it that we feel that we're hungry and we're like, no, I'm gonna wait an hour to eat? Or how often do we feel the urge to go to the bathroom, but we're working on something and we don't want to get up from our freaking desk and walk to the bathroom to pee, which takes like two minutes? I caught myself doing that this morning which is what made me think to talk about this today for this mindset minute because I was sitting here at my desk and I was working on a document and I needed to go to the bathroom and it just didn't get up and go and finally it got to the point that, like I had to go, I could not sit here any longer and hold it.
Speaker 1:And I was sitting there on the toilet and I was thinking about this and I was like you know, you really told yourself you were going to stop doing that, like you were going to listen to your body and give it what it needs when it needs it, like when it asks for it, and stop making your body wait when it's giving you a message, and I'm literally counted on my way back. I am 10 steps, 10 steps from the toilet and I still didn't just get up and do it. When I felt the urge, I still sat here and was like no, I'm working on this, and I wasn't working on anything that was like life altering or super duper important. I could have easily gotten up, walked the 10 steps, went to the bathroom and came back to my desk. It would have taken, like I said, like two minutes tops, but yet, and if you're honest with yourself and you think about it, you're in this habit too of putting things like that off and it's like why?
Speaker 1:Why do we do that? Nobody is telling us that we need to do that. We have to do that now. Some of you might have to, I don't know. Some of you might have special things with bathroom breaks at work, because I know that's a total.
Speaker 1:I know that's the thing which different topic for a different day, but a lot of the time, even when we're still in total control of our bodies and what we're doing, and when we're doing it, our body is giving us a signal about hunger or thirst or the bathroom or whatever it might be. I'm tired, I need to lay down like anything at all, and we're like, nah, I'm going to wait, I'm going to do that later, I don't have time for that right now. Like why, why do we do that? So give that some thought. This week, catch yourself in some moments of making your body weight on something when it's really not necessary. You don't have to do it, and maybe this week you'll double down on yourself and be like, no, we're not doing that this week. I need to pee. I'm going right now. But I hope you guys have a great week. I will be back next week with an episode and I'll talk to you then.
