My Current Routine, October Book Reviews, and Meal Delivery Favorites

Hello and welcome back to the Yoga Magic Podcast, friends. I'm your host, Ashley Sondergaard. Thanks so much for tuning in. We are back after a short break. Thanks so much for your patience. Life has just, you know, been lifing per the usual and I've been trying to give myself a little bit more grace here in this space, but we're back with new episodes and I'm so excited. Today we're talking current routine. You know, what is the routine? What am I doing in order to fit all of the things in? I personally love hearing about other people's routines. Like Lauren from the Skinny Confidential did one a couple of weeks ago and I think I listened to it like four times. I just find it so intriguing and almost kind of like ASMR in a way to hear what people do regularly in their morning routines, like in their day to day. And I just find it so interesting. So I thought it would be fun to do the same on this show. Current routine. And I have to admit, it's changed a lot in the last year, even in the last few months, having shifted my work and some of the things that I'm doing. So it's been wild. It's been kind of a discovery. We're also talking October book reviews, all the fun things that I read in this last month. And then some tips for meal planning with busy schedules. I've been doing a lot of research on this through, you know, meal deliveries, like what are the best ones and wanted to share what I found. The yoga magic. I'm so grateful you're here. This is a show all about self-care and self-discovery. And you know, I really hope for it to be this accessible take on those practices, right? On those wellbeing practices. I love to help others build practices that actually make sense for them. I love to use astrology to get really specific. And you know, what is it that you value? What are your motivations in life? Like what makes you feel safe? And then pull that all together to put together some plans for your day-to-day life. So I'm looking forward to it. It's that really actually work for self-care. And I use this myself a lot. And again, by listening to other people's routines and sharing my own, I hope that it just gives you some ideas. Please know that, you know, this does not have to be perfect. There's so much hype around self-care, health and wellness that, you know, you have to do all the things and you have to do it every single day. And that is just, that is not the truth. We know that life ebbs and flows, that there's times when you're just super busy and there's times when you're not able to do it. And so I'm looking forward to it. Not fitting all those things in, but it's those little moments that make the biggest difference. And I'm really, really honoring that right now. So again, if you're brand new here, thank you so much for tuning in. Let's talk about the current routine over here in Ashley's life. Weird to talk in third person. Okay. So I, in the past, used to love waking up really early and doing meditations and getting right into the day. And lately, my body has not been able to do that. I've been able to do a lot of things. I've been feeling that whatsoever. It has not really been waking up early in the way that it used to. And I find that to be really telling. You know, I love, I love the idea that, you know, we can stick to a routine forever and ever, but that is just, that's not the case. And I've noticed that my body is just craving a little bit more sleep, probably due to the change in seasons, the darkness. But I'm waking up a lot later than I used to. Right now I'm waking up closer to 630, sometimes seven. And I use one of those alarms that are like, lights. Um, I think it, so we have the Phillips one and it just gets like slowly, gradually lighter and lighter every few minutes. And then it's really bright. And that's what wakes me up. So I don't actually hear a sound, an alarm sound. It's just the bright light. And I find that that to be such a nice gradual wake up some mornings, I will wake up a little bit earlier and like hop to it right away. But most days it's that slow wake up again with the light. And that means I'm getting a little bit more sleep. So I'm just waking up a little bit earlier. So I'll turn on, um, I love amazing Kelly, my friend, Kelly Smith, uh, for mindful in minutes. She has a podcast where it's daily meditations. Those are really great ones. I love turning on to be magnetic meditations as well as if I have a little bit more time. Um, Joe Dispenza has a morning meditation. I think that's closer to 20 minutes. So if I have time, I'll do that before everyone wakes up. But some days, honestly, most days I'm not getting to it right now and that's okay. So just getting a little bit more sleep in slow, bright light alarm. And I feel so good when I wake up, I immediately go to the bathroom and I scrape my tongue. Um, this is something that I've learned from other herbalists and the idea of like removing the bacteria from the tongue is so, so helpful. Um, before, you know, brushing the teeth, I do think it like has improved breath. That's like, sounds kind of gross, but I do think it has. And is this like kind of a fun routine? Ayurvedic practice of getting rid of all that gunk on the tongue right away in the morning. And then I brush my teeth. So after I scrape my tongue, brush my teeth, I usually will grab some silicone under eye pads. Um, I love these for just being able to reuse under eye pads. I found some that I really like the Dermaclara are, are some that I like they're, they're really, they're for like wrinkles. So they're medical grade silicone and you can reuse them up to 30 times. So I'll put them under my eyes as I'm like getting, waking up, grabbing my coffee. Um, and I do think it's like helping with a little bit of those wrinkles under my eyes. I have honestly haven't gotten to the point where I've done any like Botox or anything like that. Absolutely. Totally down for it. Just like haven't done it yet. Mostly because I'm trying to save money, but I find that these are, these are working. So if you find, if you've been curious about those silicone pads, Dermaclara is the ones that I really like. And so I put those under the eyes and I go downstairs and I make my coffee. So I love, love, love this half calf coffee by, um, four sigmatic it's half the caffeine. And then it also has ashwagandha. And I was noticing a while ago that I was feeling really, really jittery after one to two cups of coffee. And to be honest, I do drink coffee on an empty stomach. I know you're not supposed to do that, but I just really look forward to that cup of coffee in the morning. And that's like the first thing that I want to grab. So I'm sticking with it, but having a little less caffeine has made that jitteriness just calm down. So it's the four sigmatic half calf coffee with ashwagandha love, love, love. And it tastes really good. It's so, yeah, they have the K cups if you have a Keurig and then they also have like bagged as well. And so I use both of them depending on how much time I have that day before I actually drink my water. I drink a really big glass of water right away in the morning. I we've been, you know, we're always dealing with sickness with little kids. Like it is so inevitable around here that like at some point, somebody has a cold. I currently have a cold where we're just cycling through things. Luckily for the kids, it's making their little immune system stronger. Um, but for us adults, I'm just like, Oh my gosh. Anyways, I do find that when I'm hydrated more regularly, especially with that, like first in the morning, I'm able to kick some of these colds illnesses that we get regularly faster. You know, the body's literally just like flushing it out quicker. Um, and there's lots of resources to say, you know, hydrating, especially early in the morning is one of the best ways to do it because then you're over the course of the day you're hydrated and you can cut off water towards the end of the day so that you're not getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. So drink the big water glass and then to have my coffee. And I truly do like that is one of the favorite parts of my day. You guys, it's the simple pleasures of having coffee and just like taking a beat. Um, so, so nice. So if I were getting a meditation and this is when I would do it, I sit on the couch, I got one of those little happy lights. Um, they're like, they used to be these huge things. And now you can just get like a really easy, portable, happy light, which is just a bright light, um, to put on. I actually meditate with my eyes open in the morning because I want that bright light in the summer. And when it is light outside in the morning, I'll go outside and do my meditation, but because it is Minnesota and it is very dark most of the day right now, that happy light is just giving me a little bit, of sunlight, bright light into the eyes in the morning while I do my meditation. So I sit down, turn on my light, maybe do five to 10 minutes of meditation if I can. Okay. That is the extent of that early morning before chaos erupts. The kids are waking up at this point. The baby needs her milk, all the things, and we're just going for it right away. So we'll have breakfast together. Lately, I've been doing the same breakfast every day. And I'll talk about some of the things that I'm really loving right now. Um, some things that have helped regulate blood sugar, but if I know like, okay, these are the stable items that I'm going to eat, and then I can make food for the kids. I'm not having to like worry so much about like, it's that decision fatigue piece, right? Of, oh my gosh, what am I going to eat today? I just have it ready to go. I've been eating the same thing regularly. So chaos erupts, we get breakfast. We've been using these little checklists for the girls in the morning so that they know what they need to do before the bus comes. Brush their teeth, make their bed, make their breakfast if they can do it, um, take their little morning supplements, but it gives them a little bit of autonomy. I'm not sure if we're there yet. Like I love the idea of my kids doing all of these things for themselves, but they're kind of needy Queens. Let's be real. So we get everyone ready. And then finally get out the door, get the kiddos on the bus. And it's a second to breathe. This is when I will take my supplements. Um, I'll do a little bit of like tidying up if I need to, but mostly it's like assessing the day. Like what is next? What's the most important thing that needs to happen today before going forward. That second, that little bit of like that gap between, okay, the kids are gone and now I have to, you know, tackle whatever it is for that day is another self-care moment. It's one of those moments that I really, really value of just assessing like, what are the needs for today? What are the big things? Where do I need to stay focused? Where do I have moments of rest? Two to three minutes, that's all. It's just to kind of make a game plan in my head of what needs to happen. And it's really goes a long way. So again, when I talk about all these things on the show being simple, it's those little moments that can make the biggest difference. Okay, so once I've had that moment to figure out this is what's going on today, if it's a normal day, I don't even know what a normal day is, let's be real. On an ideal day, we'll call it that, I try to get a workout in around this time. Theoretically, I'm working out five days a week. Is that happening? No, not really. It's probably closer to four. And it's a variety of workouts, whether it be hopping on Peloton bike and doing a 30 minute high intensity ride, or getting to the gym if I can to do a lift, or just tacking on it if I teach yoga that day, a yoga class before I actually teach. Some days it's just a walk. And I try to set myself up at the beginning of the week for those workouts, where I come up with a game plan to say, okay, on this day, you're doing this workout on this day, you're going to go to the gym, you're going to get a walk in and so that it is there's somewhat of a game plan. Obviously, that changes depending on life, sickness, all the things, but that there's a general outline of workouts for the week. And that it's it's a priority. This has been a really big shift everyone around around working out. And I've changed my mindset on this because one because it makes me feel so good. And two, it's really, changing the physical body, it's helped regulate my blood sugar. And it's just it needs to be a priority priority for my health and wellness. And so I'm treating my workouts almost as important as the podcast as my job as the things that I'm doing on a day to day basis is basically it's like another job. It's one of those things that like it has to happen. And shifting that mindset a little bit that this is so key to my overall overall well being to my performance and the other things. that I do has made it a little bit easier knowing like, okay, yep, I have to get it in one way or another, with some flexibility. And you know, if I can get in that like four days a week, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm doing I'm setting the goals out and I'm accomplishing them. So morning workouts feel good for me. I cannot do early early morning workouts like a 6am. I used to teach yoga every day at 6am like all the time, pre kiddo life, and it was fine. But I actually like look back and I think about it's kind of it was hard on digestion for me. It was just one of those things that like cortisol was really high in the morning. And I found it, you know, over time, that just wasn't conducive to my lifestyle and to what my body wanted. And so that like 830am time of working out has been so awesome. And it keeps the cortisol up in the morning. And then it allows my circadian rhythm throughout the rest of the day to just kind of calm down, right? Because you do want your cortisol high in the morning, but you want it to slowly, kind of come down towards the end of the day so that you can set up for rest in the evening. So I find that working out, not first thing in the morning, but generally, you know, a little bit early morning has been really good for that circadian rhythm. And then I'm getting it done, I'm getting it in before the day ensues. Usually after that, I'll try to get in a shower. Rinse off usually is what ends up happening. If you were a fitness professional, you know that the rinse off is needed. It is like, you're just gross. And there's not enough time to do like a full shower. That just doesn't happen. So a quick rinse off most days, if I have time to like take a full shower, that is a luxury. But it's usually two minutes, rinse off and like, let's get ready for the day. I would love to tell you that my beauty routine is long. And then I have a lot of time to like do my hair and put makeup on. But nope, that is not a priority at the moment. I think my skincare or I should say my makeup routine is literally three minutes, a little tinted moisturizer, a little mascara, maybe some eyeliner and we're out the door like that is that. And try to put a little curl in my hair. I wash my hair two to three times a week, maybe. And so it's just, it just keeps kind of looking the same every day. Good news, you know, a slick back bun is totally in and that has changed the game, right? We don't have time to do all this. And it still looks very chic. So that's, that's the the morning, get ready with me. After that, it's time, it's time to go to either the yoga studio, if I'm teaching, or to the clinic, Minneapolis Integrative Medicine, hop and write to it. Or maybe it's a podcast episode for the day doing some recordings, doing some interviews, writing content, taking private clients for health coaching. So it can be a lot of different things. But I find that lately, as I've gotten busier, adding in work in a variety of areas, having a job that is, outside of my home now, has actually made me more productive, especially at work. And this has been really kind of revolutionary. I, when COVID struck, and like over the last few years, was noticing that when I had more time to myself throughout the day, I thought, oh, great, right? Like I'll have, I'll have more freedom of time, and I'll be able to squeeze more things in. And this is just personal for me. And I don't know if you've experienced this as well. But I find that when I have more freedom of time, I end up kind of wasting it, more. And that when I have less time, because I'm going into the office, I'm teaching yoga, I'm working with interviews, working with clients, that those hours that I might have, like maybe one hour in between sessions, I can really get some stuff done. And I think it's almost like just that getting in the mindset of like, you don't have endless time, right? So you have to just do it. It's eating the frog, as my husband always says to the girls, getting the hard stuff done right away, just tackling. It is been really good, has been really good for me, it has made me more productive. You might not know it, as I haven't done the episode in three weeks, but still getting to the things that I want to get to, and feeling really focused in that time. So I try to work really hard from that like 10 to five spot. And then after that, have that freedom of time to be with kids and not working. Now, this has changed a lot. And I'm curious if other people are in this world of, you know, we now live a more flexible work life, theoretically, right? Many of us do. Some of us have shift work, that's not always the case. But if you are, you know, somebody who does work from home a little bit, or has a job where you can leave, you know, a little bit earlier, say four o'clock, you're still able to get all the things done. If you're maybe hopping back online and getting a little bit more work done after the kiddos go to bed. And I actually really find this to be kind of freeing, in that I know I have to get certain things done in the day. And I also want to spend time with my family, right? Like I want to get home to pick them up from school. I want to have time, a really dedicated time where we eat dinner together, where we talk about our day, I can put them to bed. And if there's still work to be done after that, I'll hop on for another hour. That is something that, you know, has been really freeing. Most nights, that is the case, right? Where it's that like, work hard from 10, to 4.35, have that family time, and then there's still some work that needs to be done. And I don't know if that's, you know, super great long term, but I think it's helpful. It's putting priorities for family in there as well. And I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be able to work remotely to do some things that I want to do, whether it be for the podcast, whether it be for clients, after kiddos are in bed, and I have just a little bit more time to finish up. So we're leaning in. We're getting all of it done. That family time is really, really nice. I try so hard not to look at my phone. I'm not very good at it, I'm going to be honest. If I put it in a drawer where I can't see it, that helps a little bit, but it's hard. And so that's a goal I'm working on, is to be super focused with the kids when they are home, and spend that uninterrupted time with them away from technology. But we're always ebb and flowing, growing in that area. We eat dinner together, and then I usually stop eating. I just, thinking about fasting, at seven o'clock. And that allows me to fast for at least 12 hours, seven to seven, so a circadian fast, to allow the body to really rest and digest over the night. I find this to be pretty easy, because I'm not super hungry at night. I know this is something, I talk to a lot of clients, my husband likes to munch at night, is not always the case. But I like having just like, all right, after seven o'clock, just there's no snacking. What I'll do is I'll actually brush my teeth right after dinner. And then I just don't really like want to reach for any food, because I've already brushed my teeth. And we'll do that 12-hour circadian fast. And then at seven, I'm so hungry the next morning. Definitely not somebody who can fast into the morning. My fast is at night, for sure. It allows me to be really hungry and to reach for protein and fat in the morning. But that seven to seven has been really good for just like my general digestion. After everyone gets, to bed, like I said, I'll finish up some work. And then start a really brief evening routine. Um, a little bit of skincare, wash my face, put on my retinol because girly is almost 40. We're doing pretty, pretty simple things. I love a humidifier. So filling out my humidifier at night, um, taking some time to do some reading. I usually read from about nine to 10 and just getting the lights low, dimming the lights, turning them off completely. I love to use my Amber reading light, um, at night. Sometimes I'll even put on, I have some red glasses that are like the blue box evening glasses and just calming things down, moving the screens away. I try to plug my phone in downstairs away from my bed at night so that I know a signal to the body that it's time for rest. And then I'm in bed by 10 and it's time for sleeping. It's definitely, you know, sleep wise changes all the time, whether it be, it was kind of a stimulating day and it takes a little longer to fall asleep. But, um, I find that that evening again, just turning down the lights, doing a little bit of reading, signaling to the body that it's time for bed does help. We keep the bedroom super, super cool. I've talked about this in some past episodes of like having a cool bedroom. Um, you know, having those, those simple, like repetitive practices that signal to the body that it's time for bed does help with sleep hygiene. And then it's, it's bedtime and we're onto the next day. That is the current routine, everyone. Um, as you've noticed, like short snippets of self-care in there, little things that, that make a big difference that I like to prioritize in order to feel really good. And it has really helped make me more productive, um, more excited about all the things that I'm doing and be able to fit them in where I think, you know, why I think this is important to share and why I brought it up in the first place, why I wanted to share this. Cause I'll be honest, sometimes just coming on and talking about myself on the show feels a little bit weird, but I, I I'm so inspired. Like I said, I'm hearing other people's routines. And what I've noticed over time is that it's really a gift to have the energy throughout the entire day in order to do all the things that you want to do. And it's something that I've worked really, really hard on over the years, worked it through, you know, trying to get my health in a good place so that I have sustained energy throughout the day, managing stress so that I know I can get to all the things and feel resilient enough to do it. And I think that's really, really important. And I think that's really important. Prioritizing those little practices so that the, the bigger grind pieces throughout the day, aren't so grindy, right? Because you've had just a moment of rest before that. And hopefully, like I said, I hope it inspires you to do just some little things throughout your day so that you can, you know, it's not selfish. It's impacting your other work. It's making you more productive. It's helping you get to your goal list. It's helping you, you accomplish more at work, more with your family, be more present. It's those little simple moments make a big difference. Let me know what you think, how you feel. Is there anything that you're loving with your current routines? Always, always this changes, right? It changes all the time and it doesn't have to be perfect, right? Not every day looks exactly the same, but having just a general sense of even looking back and saying, Hey, what am I doing right now? Can be super, super helpful. Next up is October book reviews. It's coming at a perfect time as today, I'm just checking my Amazon and it looks like the second fourth wing book is coming. It's arriving tonight. It comes out, I think on Kindle at like midnight tonight. So it's going to be a good month as far as books go. November. Can't wait to tell you about that one. I imagine most of you are reading it because literally everyone in the world is reading the fourth wing books and that second one comes out today, but it's exciting. Anyways, let's talk about October. Here's the things that I read this past month. So we left off, we're going to talk about the book that I read this past month. Left off. I had just finished the third Lucy score, knock them out books. Um, this one was good. I liked it. I gave it four stars. I think that she, Lucy's score is so funny. Like she adds funny anecdotes in her books. Um, but some of it's like a little bit silly. So that's why I didn't give it five stars. It's just like, okay, like a little, she's a little wordy, but the characters in this particular one, again, this one is called things we left behind were really likable. So it's a childhood romance or childhood sort of like lust after that manifests in adulthood. It's, it was sweet. I think it was a good way to tie up the last of this particular series. I need to take a break from Lucy's score again, just cause she's so wordy, but I do enjoy a good like enemies to lovers trope. I'm just looking through my list, you guys. And I've literally only read romance novels this month. Remember how I told you I was branching into not romance, into romance novels. I'm just looking through my list. I'm just some other things. Well, I didn't do very good on that. I read a book called twisted love, which is very big on book talk. Everyone loves this series by Anna Huang. This is the first one twisted love in the series. It was fine. Again, some of these stories like romance novels are so interesting because I feel like they're just not realistic and maybe that's okay. Like they don't have to be realistic. They'd probably be boring if they were super realistic. This one was unrealistic. Um, and it's a lot to do with like the trope is the brother's best friend. But then there was like this whole other part of the story that was like some thriller as a part of it. Like the dad had this backstory. It was all, it was a little bit much. Um, the thing is, is like, I don't think I love when a character is super possessive when like the guy in romance novels is super possessive. So I don't know. I gave this one four stars. The series, I think is a little bit hyped. I'm not giving very good reviews today. Let's talk about something that was, that was good. Hopeless by Elsie silver. This was the fifth book in the chestnut spring series. I've talked about these before. These are the cowboy books that we've talked about. This one was sweet. I liked it. I liked that. Um, the characters were like different than some of the other ones. I feel like in these books, it was all like the, the city girl and the cowboy boy. Whereas this one was, they're both from the same town. They like grew up together. And they kind of helped each other out. It was sweet, hopeless. Number five of the chestnut spring series by Elsie silver and a good ending to that particular series. And so a lot of these are ending these series. And then the other one, the last one that I read was called Travis by Mia Sheridan. So if you've read the book Archer's voice by Mia Sheridan, this is the second one, or this is a book that follows that one. Archer's voice is so hyped on book talk and on everywhere. People love that. I was like indifferent. I found it to be again, this sort of like not realistic, but I actually really liked this one. Um, I, I, I like four and a half stars for Travis. So Archer's voice is about this young man who can't speak and he falls in love with this other girl who, who moves to this town and she kind of helps him come out of a shell. So anyways, this book is follows that particular book. And it's another character named Travis who is, is really working through his demons and meet someone, um, that has also moved to this town and they kind of like work through their demons together. I I'm finding that I do like that trope, right? Is like mutual self-development through, through love. Um, this one actually felt like it could happen in real life. And I, I think that's what I feels good. I like that kind of a storyline. It's pretty good writing compared to a lot of other romance novels. And I think it'd be fun to read them both. So Archer's voice. And then again, Travis is the next one. A lot of, a lot of romance novels. I have to mention one that I just read that it was not good in my opinion, right? We're, this is all very personal, so take it or leave it. But I read to hate Adam Connor by LMA's my Zay. This is the Jason Thorne book. I don't even know why I didn't read that one first. I just happened to fall on this one on Kindle first. And so I, I read it and it's like a celebrity trope. So celeb is living next door. He has a son. This girl is looking over the wall and she sees his son is drowning. So she goes and saves him and they like fall in love. It was kind of bad. You guys, it was not good. The writing wasn't great. The storyline was silly and I don't know. I just, I would not recommend. But take it or leave it, right? Celebrity tropes can be fun. I think they're kind of like good at escaping. Like they're just, they're not realistic, but they're kind of fun. So if you like a celebrity trope, I bet the first book is better. Maybe, maybe I'll still read that. We'll see. Um, but didn't love to hate Adam Connor. Okay. What are we reading next? Obviously Iron Flame, which is the second book in fourth wing starting that tonight at 10 PM. I'll be waiting for the Amazon delivery person to bring it in hoping to get to some not romance. We'll see. I have my girly friends coming back on hopefully here within the next couple months. They don't know this. So if they're listening to this, I'm going to be getting, sending them an email to schedule it all, but hopefully you'll get a different perspective than just me and my romance novels on, on books. All right. The last topic at hand is meal planning. Now I'm a health coach. I love health and wellness, but I'm really terrible at cooking. Like I just, mostly cause I don't feel like I have the time to sit down and like prepare a meal. A lot of the meals that I prepare, prepare tend to be like snack plates or just easy spaghetti or something like that. My husband does a good job of cooking, so kudos to him. But I wanted to do some research around meal deliveries over the last few months because it was a good option as I needed things to go for lunch or even if I was eating outside of the time that my family was eating and I just needed to get some good nutrients in. I did a couple different meal deliveries, tested them for you, and found some interesting discoveries. I'm really happy with what I learned. So the first one that I did was Saqqara. I've actually done this a few times. Saqqara is vegan. It's really beautiful food. It comes in different like little bowls. You can get breakfast, you can get lunch, you can get dinner. And again, it's all very nutrient dense, but it's vegan. And it was a fun thing to try. I've done it when I was pregnant, I think last time. Nice to just try, especially in terms of like a little bit of a detox moment, wanting to eat really clean. But it is expensive. I've wanted it to be quite a bit more expensive than other meal deliveries. And I didn't feel satiated with the food. I do eat meat. And so not having meat wasn't fulfilling what I needed. And so it wasn't the best bet for me. But I do see why people like it. And again, it's really like nutrient dense vegan food, and it's really beautiful. Like beautiful food can be more enticing to eat. But I think it's something that I probably would pass on in the future. Another one that I've tried is called Origin. Origin is actually local here to the Twin Cities, so they deliver it locally. And it's more of your like paleo, dairy-free, grain-free options. And I really like this one. I think it's such a great option to have if you're here in the Twin Cities, because they will literally deliver it to your door. So it's really fresh. It's made really fresh. My only downside is that there's only so many meals that they make. So it's kind of a lot of repetition. And I just kind of got sick of certain meals after a while. But it's a great option if you know you have a busy week, and that you know, or like postpartum. I feel like having a meal delivery for postpartum is so awesome, where you can try on even if it's just a couple meals, like if you want to get four to five meals a day, you can try on even if it's just a couple meals, like if you want to get four to six meals for the week, and you have those taken care of, and you know that your body is being nurtured in that moment, it's a really great option. Another one I tried was Territory. Territory is more like low-carb options. I didn't love this one. It wasn't super delicious. It's similar in Origin that it doesn't have like, it has like only certain foods or certain menu items, so you can get kind of sick of it. But it just wasn't all that tasty. The one at the top of the list, though, friends, that I did really like was Factor. Factor is a lot of like nutrition-dense food, nutrient-dense foods. It's put together by a dietician. You can go different routes if you want to do like high-protein options, if you want to do paleo, if you want to do dairy-free, like there's different options. But it was just really good. It was really tasty, and it did have like some more higher-fat-carb options. If you're going low-carb, this probably isn't the best one for you. But if you're just wanting really good, jam-packed, nutrient-dense food, that's the one that's going to be for you. So if you're going low-carb, this probably isn't the best one for you. Pretty fresh, because again, these are made fresh, and then they're frozen, and you heat them up. I loved it a lot. It was really probably, yeah, my favorite. Factor at the top of the list. Pro tip when you're getting any sort of meal delivery is if you're going to heat it up, take it out of the plastic. So take it out of the plastic and put it on a dish, warm it up in the microwave or on the stovetop, and you're not going to get any of those microplastics and toxins as well. So this is meal planning gone easy. Our meal deliveries, if you're needing some of that. And then the other piece of it that I was kind of alluding to at the beginning of the episode around meal planning is that I have found specific foods that I really like, and I kind of eat the same thing every day. So for breakfast, I learned recently that eggs make me break out, make my skin break out quite a bit, which was a whole journey in itself. So I used to eat eggs all the time, but I can't now. So I had to find something new. And I really like cottage cheese. I like the Good Belly cottage cheese. And I put that on a piece of toast, getting some fat, getting some protein. And I like a little bit of carbs in the morning. It feels good. It like nurtures me if I'm going to go do a workout. And I eat the same thing literally every day. It's a piece of toast with lots of cottage cheese, maybe a little bit of fruit. And that is that. You know, again, I don't have to decision fatigue around it. I don't have to make a decision about what to eat. It's the same thing. And if I get sick of it, I change it up. No problem. For lunch, I like to do a smoothie. I like Kelly Levesque's recipes. I love her protein powder. She has a vegan option and a non-vegan option. And they're both awesome. They're super clean, very minimal ingredients. And I have them on subscription so that I can save a little bit of money because good protein powder, you guys, is expensive. And so if I have it on subscription and it comes every month, I can save a little bit with that discount. And I really love just putting together minimal ingredients for an afternoon smoothie. If I have meal delivery at the time, because I kind of will play with it. Sometimes I'll have it and sometimes I won't. Just again, from like a budget standpoint, it can be kind of expensive. On a super busy week, I'll just have that ready to go. But on a week where I know I have some time to make a smoothie over lunch, that's what I'll put together. In the smoothie, I'll do usually almond milk and I'll do the protein powder, a little bit of greens. I'll just throw some spinach in, some fiber. Usually I'll use like an acacia fiber or some flax seed or even some chia seeds. And then what am I missing? Fat. Oh, I usually put peanut butter in there. So just a tablespoon of peanut butter, blend it all up. And it's so filling, like a really good smoothie that's minimal in fruit. Just a little bit of fruit can be fine, but like if it's all fruit, it can spike your blood sugar. And so something, a smoothie that has a lot of protein, has some fat, has some fiber, and a little bit of fruit is so satiating and it makes me really full. And I don't feel like I need another meal until, you know, maybe like four or so need a little snack before dinner, but it keeps me full a lot longer. And then dinner is really just like up to the family, whatever it is we're eating. Again, we do a lot of snack plates here, snack plates, some nuts, jerky, fruits and vegetables, throw it all on a plate and everyone just kind of munches on it. And that's, it's one of our easy go-to dinners. My husband's gotten really good at putting together meals that work for our family. We're navigating some new food allergies in our family. So that's been interesting, but no matter how much we eat, knowing again that I have some of these other things on lockdown for myself has been so, so helpful. So a lot of this today that we're talking about is really just talking about you, the individual, how to keep yourself going. It's a whole nother combo when you're talking about how do you keep everyone else going? But what we know first and foremost is that when you take care of yourself and you do these things, these simple things for yourself, you're that much more capable. You're that much more able to take care of your loved ones because you are nurtured. You're satiated. You're feeling fulfilled. You have the energy to do the things that you need. Fun little brain dump today. Thanks for engaging everybody. Next week, we're back with some interviews. Can't wait to share with you some of these conversations that I'm having, but per the usual, I'll be bringing more solo episodes, book reviews, things that are working for me. And I'd love to hear from all of you. What is it that you're working on in your self-care? What are your practices? What are you doing? And as always, if you want to work together, if you want to dive into your health and wellness, maybe you want to understand how does your chart impact your lifestyle, your wellness habits, please reach out. You can find me at ashley.sondergaard and we'll be back next week. Thanks so much, everybody.