Go for a short walk after dinner to help digestion, especially if you eat late at night. The body doesn’t digest as well in the evening, and sitting on the couch makes things worse. A bit of moderate physical activity can be just the thing to help kick start digestion and prevent your dinner from sitting in your stomach like a rock. You might even sleep better, too!
When you need a foot massage after a long day, try using a golf ball. Sit in a chair and take your shoes off. Put a golf ball on the floor in front of you. Place one foot on the ball, and roll it around under the sole of your foot. Roll gently over any sore or tender places, or find some points that want more pressure and just lean in and hold still for a while. Finish your foot massage by rolling the ball all over the sole of your foot, touching each area once more. Repeat with the other foot.
Snacks are much more satisfying if you include some protein or fat. This kind of snack won’t spike your blood sugar and then later cause an energy crash, like carbohydrates do when eaten alone. Try smearing some peanut butter or another nut butter on apple slices, carrot sticks or a rice cake. Or have a handful of nuts with a banana or some dried fruit. A hard-boiled egg or a piece of raw-milk cheddar makes a wonderful snack as well. Happy snacking!
Make triple batches of any recipe that freezes well – soups, stews, sauces, rice and other grains, beans, pizza dough, muffins, cookies, banana bread. Freeze meal-size quantities in glass containers or freezer-safe plastic. Leave a little space at the top for expansion. Be sure to label each container with contents, quantity, and date. (Trust me, that soup will NOT look the same when it is frozen – “Is this the refried beans?”) It is also good idea to keep your freezer as organized as possible, so you can find things quickly and easily.
This technique allows you to save time in the kitchen, and avoid getting bored with trying to use up a big batch of something in the fridge. After doing this for a while, on a day when you don’t want to cook, you can just open your freezer and choose from a wide variety of homemade foods that were frozen at the peak of freshness.
Sauté a bunch of vegetables, enough for several days. Use a wide variety – onions, dark leafy greens, bell peppers, summer squash, carrots, mushrooms, etc. Keep them in the refrigerator, and add them to scrambled eggs, pasta sauce, and stir fry, or just use as a side dish. It is much quicker and easier to do veggie prep just once every few days, as the chopping is usually the most time consuming part of cooking. And if they are all prepped and ready to go, you are much more likely to get them into your meals.