Podcasts Health Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry LLP121: Meal prep and simple solutions for good nutrition with Dr. Lisa Folden

LLP121: Meal prep and simple solutions for good nutrition with Dr. Lisa Folden

Published: Aug. 14, 2019, 10 a.m.

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Let\'s Talk about Meal Prep for Good Nutrition...

On this week\'s episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry I got the chance to talk with Dr. Lisa Folden. I love her story as she is a physical therapist in training but soon realized the importance of nutrition and the lack thereof was having on her practice as well as her personal well being.

Dr. Folden has her own practice Healthy Phit Physical Therapy & Wellness Consultants where she marries the art of physical fitness with nutritional behavior. She is on this week to talk about one of the most commonly noted but overlooked aspects of lifestyle modification which is meal prepping.

As I have made lifestyle changes of my own, I know how difficult it can be to not only make the change to better eating but then to plan out those better meals but Dr. Folden does an amazing job giving us easy & actionable tips to get our journey started. We also got a chance to talk about her book "Healthy Made Easy: The Ultimate Wellness Guide for Busy Moms\\u201d and her upcoming book on meal planning.

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Download Episode 121 Transcript

Episode 121 Transcript..

Introduction

Dr. Berry:
Welcome to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. I\'m your host, Dr. Berry Pierre, your favorite Board Certified Internist. Founder of drberrypierre.com as well as a CEO of Pierre Medical Consulting. Helping you empower yourself for better health with the number one podcast for patient advocacy, education and promotion. Today we have another amazing guest on the podcast. Again, the theme this month is nutrition. And I thought, what better place to start when we talk about nutrition is meal prepping. Again, if you Google nutrition, you Google trying to lose weight one way or the other, you\'re gonna come across a blog post or a page or a video that talks about the importance of meal prep. And I get this question a lot. Honestly, I\'m in the process of trying to be more diligent when it comes to meal prep and myself.

So I figure, let\'s talk to someone who\'s been there, right? And really speaks about wellness and nutrition as a whole. And really is trying to hit it home. Out the park. I mean, when it comes to meal prepping and meal prepping for patients and her clients. This week we have Dr. Lisa Folden. She\\u2019s a licensed physical therapist, naturopathic lifestyle coach. She\'s a movement expert, women\'s health advocate, and she works to educate the general population on exercise safety as well as other aspects of physical wellness. And I thought it was very important to have her on the show because not only does she talk about the aspect of physical wellbeing. And obviously her being a physical therapist that makes a way, that may just as obvious, right?

But she understands and she had almost like an epiphany that because she was dealing with just one side of the table, she was only doing half the job.

When she wasn\'t educating her patients and our clients on the actual function of nutrition and how nutrition plays such a big role on the physical aspects of health. She knew she had to make a change. And right now she owns healthy fit physical therapy and wellness consultants in Charlotte, North Carolina where she works with clients of all ages, recovering from orthopedic as well as neurological injuries. She\'s also been featured on the Oprah magazine, Shape magazine, Lift Strong, bustle, because she\'s a writer as well too. She loves writing and she actually has her own book Healthy Made Easy: The Ultimate Wellness Guide for Busy Moms that we get the chance to talk to her about that as well as well as an upcoming book focusing again, hint on meal prepping.

So again, I definitely decided for you guys to catch this episode. Again, like always, if you have not had a chance to go ahead and subscribe the podcast. At least leave us a five star review. Let us know what you feel about the podcast. Let us know what you feel about the episode. And then, tell a friend and tell a friend as always go. Again, I don\'t expect you to tell 50 people, but as long as you tell one person, that\'s all I can ask for. So again, get ready for another amazing episode here on the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry.


Episode

Dr. Berry:
Alright, Lunch and Learn community. Again you just heard another amazing introduction. You know the theme this month, we\'re talking about nutrition. We\\u2019re getting ourselves together when it comes to the subject of nutrition. And of course you know I ain\'t the expert, right? So I bring experts onto, you know, now kind of get you guys to get myself right as well too because I learned just as much as you do. So again, Dr Lisa, thank you for joining today\'s podcast.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Berry:
So Dr. Lisa I got a lot of my guests and a lot of my listeners who like to skip right past the introduction. They like to fast forward, past stuffing. They like to go straight to the meat and potatoes, given the pan, right? If they just missed your bio, let\'s say to even read your bio, what is something that made me not be in your bio, but says, you know what? This is what really kind of expands the person who I am as far as Dr. Lisa is concern.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Yeah, well, being in the health field, I obviously have a passion for helping people. I think most people in our professions do. But for me personally, I\'m just so passionate about health and exercise and making things fun and making nutrition and life manageable. So some of the things that don\'t go on my bio, a little tidbits about me. Number one, I love to dance. Like I could dance all day and if I thought that, if I had a little more confidence in myself as a dancer, when I was younger, I would probably not be a physical therapist. I\'d probably be a professional choreographer or dancer. Because it\'s something I love, I incorporate it into my fitness lifestyle because I enjoy it. But yeah, that that\'s, you know, one of my things, I\'m a neat freak doesn\'t have as much to do with nutrition necessarily, but I like to have things organized. I read organizational books and I follow organizational logs. And I\'m the type of person that gets really excited going to the container store. You know what I mean?

Dr. Berry:
Wow. Okay. I love this. Okay that makes sense. I didn\'t even know there are organizational books, but now I\'m even more intrigued by that aspect. And again I think it calls to the discipline and I\'m pretty sure, and we\'ll talk about it. I\'m pretty sure you understand how important discipline is with the subject of nutrition and getting ourselves together. For those who may not know or still may be just kind of coming into their own, when we talk about nutrition and its overall benefits to our health. What would you say it is? The grand scheme of things?

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Well first I\'d like to say I don\'t consider myself a true expert on nutrition. My education and physical therapy, we have some nutrition training, but it\'s not, I definitely, I\'m not a nutritionist by any means. So I never like to tell my clients or my audience people that I\'m working with that I am the authority on nutrition. But I have a good grasp of it. Just from my work experience and history. And then of course living my own life and trying to figure it out. So what I have learned is that nutrition is so much more important than we were taught growing up. It\'s probably, as it relates to weight loss or weight maintenance, it\'s probably 80% honestly. And that\'s hard for me because I\'m like an exercise and like I love to work out. So you know, you get in that mindset for a long time like, oh I\'ll eat that, but I\'ll just work it off.

And that is no, not how it works. And I learned that the hard way for years and years. So I just think nutrition is, it\'s really primary. What you put into your body is, you\'re going to be a product of that. So it\'s, it\'s really important and it\'s hard in this country to find the right stuff and the good stuff. And sometimes when you think you got the right stuff, you read an article on Google that says not the right stuff. So it can be very confusing and very challenging. But it is very important to put at least a decent amount of effort into defining a nutrition plan and program that works for you, your family, your lifestyle.

Dr. Berry:
And what I love, and I think this is especially because we looked at it, you touched on it in the beginning is I think a lot of times, especially in when it comes to health and just health care in general, really just knowledge in general is that a lot of times, we kind of attribute the aspects of like, you know, having some type of degree or paper and at like sponsor us as experts when we all know job applications all day. Talk about what is your experience associated with what you\'re trying to do. And here, like especially in health, I see it all the time and you already know, it takes someone, they do a couple months of training and all of a sudden they propound themselves as this the expert de facto, right?

Unfortunately, there isn\'t. If someone follows them and someone believes they are the expert, that\'s where it is. So I don\'t think, I never put too much, I put some on this right. And onus of meeting certain degrees certificates or something like that to say like, Oh, I\'m an expert. But I always put more focused on like, oh, are you in the trenches? Are you getting down and dirty when it comes to it? Because that\'s the person I want to listen to you. I want to listen to the person who\'s had struggles. I want to listen to the person whose hats assessors. I want to listen to the person who is then able to initiate and then pass that knowledge on.

Especially in Lunch and Learn community, I think that\'s always been a big thing for us, is understanding that those paper degrees is fine. But tell me what your life is about and that way. Because unfortunately most people are more likely gonna follow that type of person. A person who got whole bunch of degrees on the wall but don\'t talk about nothing, can\'t talk about nothing because they can\'t teach us. And I think it\'s interesting because you talked about the fact that you had to go through your own aspect of learning that, oh nutrition actually is the real deal. It was it because you are so active and you were able to balance it out. Was that someone you kind of leaning on the fact that you\'re so physically active and you are able to kind of get away with, maybe some of the nutritional discretions in the past?

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Well, I think it\'s probably most of us when you\'re an adolescent and you\'re exercising and moving all day and your metabolism has not yet come to a bit of a halt. You can live a lot more freely and do a lot more of whatever you want. You don\'t see the repercussions of it and then you\'re not even talking so you\'re not even thinking about it at that age. So for me, I was always very athletically built. Always very athletic in regard to the activities I chose. I ran cross country. I was a dancer in high school. So when I went into college, I think that was, that first shift, they talk about the freshman 15 and this and that. But I think that was my first shift and seeing like, oh, my body is changing a lot, growing up.

But also based on the foods that I\'m eating. What was accessible to me, with a lot of stuff that I don\'t think I normally ate. And so I saw changes happening. Wasn\\u2019t able to pinpoint exactly what to do about it at that point. But that\'s when I became more aware. And it wasn\'t until I got into physical therapy school and I started learning a little bit more that I started to understand, oh, okay. But even still, I mean that was like 15 years ago. And you still, because of you know, the way that you grow up sometimes you still have this desire to like, okay, I can just work it out. So I played that game for years and years and I think it was probably starting to have children and then seeing real changes. It\'s like, oh, okay, I cannot eat the things that I was eating at the rate and the consistency that I was eating them before. If I want to be healthy and be able to function and not continue gaining more and more weight.

It all came to a halt I think with children. So I leaned on my youth and yeah, my activity level and then just not really understanding what was happening all the time. I did put on a little weight, which is fine. And I like to mention that I don\'t do a lot of heavyweight focused in my practice when I work with people for wellness needs. If you have a goal of changing your weight, I\'m cool with that and we\'ll work with that. But I try not to make the primary focus to do with your weight because it can be so misleading. Some people are just naturally thinner, naturally smaller, naturally, way less. And it does not speak to their health as far as what they\'re putting in their bodies and what their body is able to do, what their lab work would say. So I don\'t focus heavily on that, but sometimes, oftentimes, weight is the most visible descriptor of what\'s happening as far as what you\'re eating. So for me, yeah, definitely seeing changes and fluctuations in my weight and then also when some activities that I could do before it became more challenging. And it\'s like, hold on what\'s going on here?

I don\'t remember needing this much water in a day. But now if I don\'t get my 64 to 98 ounces, something is wrong. You know what I mean? So yeah, just being more aware of those changes and seeing being their effects on my body.

Dr. Berry:
And when I look at, and I know you talked about being a physical therapist. I\'m pretty sure with a lot of just on that aspect of your work and in seeing where you know and if a person\'s nutrition, isn\'t optimal. And makes that side of the job part of it as well. What were some of the things that kind of led you to say, what I think I want to take a more proactive role. Not only in myself but in others when it comes to nutrition.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
I was working, let\'s see, I graduated in some so long ago, 2007 from physical therapy school and I started out doing contract work. So I would just work at a location gym for 13 weeks or so and then move on to another. And I enjoy that because I have a tendency to get bored. So it\'s nice to kind of switch up my environment, switch up my caseload. I got to see adults and children. So I have a pretty wide spectrum. But what I noticed is when I kinda got into the field of and staying more consistently in a location, it just became like the same thing over and over again. So and so need for this. Run them through a program real quick and then six months later they\'re back for something else.

So I started to feel like a factory worker and I was just kind of repairing the same people over and over again. And it dawns on me, and this was around the time that I started contemplating starting my own practice which I eventually did. It just dawned on me that we spend a lot of time on rehab and no time on prehab. So I started\\u2026 (Oh, I love that. Hey, alright, okay). It goes with our American system, right? We\'re not necessarily a healthcare system, we\'re more of a secure system. And so it became annoying and frustrating to me that I could probably instill some knowledge and people that would prevent them from having these injuries over and over and over again. And a lot of it, a lot of the injuries is of course related to weight or just poor nutrition in general.

And so that\'s when I contemplated to start more practice a few years later. I did and I immediately my practice is like wellness. We\\u2019re going to do physical therapy, absolutely. You get injured, I\'m happy to help you. We\'re going to do wellness. So almost all of my clients know that we\'ll be finished healing their injury, the very acute thing that\'s happening in them. We moved right into, okay, what\'s next? It\'s like alright now, now the core is strong. How are we going to keep it that way? What are we going to do? So I just make that, my focus now is really getting people to consider how they don\'t want to come back for the same thing or deal with the same issues. So how we can sort of revamp what you\'re doing. And I do that a lot with my moms.
I have a fit mom program that I work with and I help women, especially after babies. It gets real challenging. Your whole world gets kind of turned upside down. And I have a heart for that because I\'ve been through it myself three times now. And so I work with them on their nutrition and making things very simple, easy, creating some grabable meals, things that are healthy and fulfilling to their bodies that they don\'t feel like they\'re in the kitchen, slaving over, for hours and hours and hours. So, yeah, I just, all of that, you know, that whole experience and seeing people do the same thing over and over again, and me being there to facilitate it, it was like, this is insanity. Let me, let me figure out a new plan here. So.

Dr. Berry:
And I love that especially because the fact that, and I think a lot of times when we hear of nutrition, people always go to a weight. If your nutrition is bad, your healing\'s bad, right? If your nutrition bad and mentation is bad. There\\u2019s so many other things associated with nutrition that like weight becomes more of a byproduct more than the actual targeted aspect and goal. And so one of the reasons why, I definitely want to highlight here, is because obviously in this day and age we\'re in August, right? I had a previous guest tell me 80% of people who had new year\'s resolutions have already kind of failed and dropped them right in. They\'re already thinking about next year\'s resolutions. (Yeah. Unfortunately). One of the big things, especially when people start thinking about, trying to get better as far as with their eating right, is the onus and is the practice of meal prepping. And again, full disclosure, Lunch and Learn community members, I am going to be like kind of taking down notes as well because I have trouble with justice. The just getting behind the mindset of it. Let\'s talk about meal prep and why is this such an important aspect? Because I know you\'re big on it as well too.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Yeah. I spent a lot of time meal prepping and revamping my meal prep process because it is more than a notion. I always tell people start small because it takes some effort and some energy and some thought. But I like to look at the idea of meal prep like this. You know, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, right? And you have to take that same thinking into your food. If you are just going to fly by the seat of your pants. And that works for some people. So I don\'t, not the process. You have to find your own process. But most times if you\'re going by the seat of your pants on your eating, then you\'re not going to be eating good. And that\'s just the bottom line. If you\'re not planning out what are going to be my breakfast options this week, my lunch, my dinners, then you\'re likely ordering fast food, carry out, going out to lunch multiple days a week, or eating a bunch of snacks.

We\\u2019re human, right? And that is usually what it lends itself to. So for me, the construct of meal prep starts in the mind. It\'s like, all right, let\'s think this through. What do I know to be good for my body? How can I incorporate as much of that into my daily eating as possible? How can I avoid spending my money and eating things that are probably made from mostly, not great products and putting them into my body every single day? And so I look at it from that standpoint and then I create affirmations around it.

Dr. Berry:
We love affirmations out here. We love it.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Right now on my bathroom mirror, I have like five or six affirmations associated with my eating. And one of them is my taste books are not more important than my physical health. Right? So sometimes I want some cheese cake or some Oreos and those things are fine in moderation obviously. But I know myself, I have a moderation problem.

Dr. Berry:
I love that. See, we\'re right here with it, right? We know that we can\'t even, like now we can\'t even go to, because we just don\'t stop.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
I can eat a whole, like a whole row of Oreo. So for me, I don\'t bring it into my home. Now from out somewhere and there\'s a cookie, oh, I\'ll take one, that\'s fine. But I don\'t bring those foods into my home so that my whole concept of meal prep just revolves around that idea that my being healthy and eating fuel and food that is good for my body and it\'s going to make my body work better is more important than that temporary satisfaction of a taste. And so I plan for it, I create affirmations around it. I write out a menu, I shop forward, and I meal prep and I go from there. And when I do step outside of it, because I\'m meeting friends for lunch or dinner or whatever, it\'s not a huge deal because the vast majority of the time during the week I\'m sticking within my plan. So that\'s how.

Dr. Berry:
So what would you say and you talked about preparation. What other benefits are really associated with those who are looking to get into meal prep, or doing meal prep or are in that process like you know, a lot of times, for us, we gotta mentally kind of put ourselves in that process first before we can take that.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Yes. As you should. I suggest that because like I said, if you just, sometimes when you jump into it, it\'s like overwhelming and it\'s too much. But the benefits of meal prep, I mean they\'re numerous. Number one, you\'re more aware of what you\'re eating, right? So you know what\'s going in your body. If you\'re a calorie counter or someone who likes to be very mindful of how much they\'re eating. You plan it out. You literally portion it out. You size it out. You make sure you\'re getting the right serving sizes. Number two, of course you save tons of money. I don\'t even like to do the math sometimes. If I\'m all not doing my meal prep, I check my bank account and I see what I\'ve spent on carry out and like a week or let alone a month. I have a family of five so it gets real bad.

Dr. Berry:
Same here, same here. I got two twins and an older daughter. So we just can\'t just go out.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
It\\u2019s depressing to the bank account. So what I do, obviously you saved a lot of money when you meal prep. To me like I said, it just keeps you organized and you know, that speaks to my inner organizational person. I love the idea of knowing, all right, here\'s the kid\\u2019s lunches. These are my lunches. These my husband lunches. Here\'s the freezer prep for the next four meals. It saves time. Meal Prep can take you several hours obviously, but it saves you so much time during the week when you can come home, get off work and all you have to do is throw your dinner in the oven. You know what I mean? It\'s so easy if you can get up in the morning and get your kids off to school or wherever they\'re going and all they do is grab their already premade lunch out of the fridge.

It free up so much time. And for me the personal benefits are when you free up that time, then you get to do more things you love. Like spend time with your family, go figure right or shoot, lay out on the couch and watch TV if you want to. You know what I mean? It gives you the ability to spend more time doing things that you enjoy because now you\'re prepared and your week is set as far as your nutrition goes. So, of course the weight benefits, the nutrition, making sure you\'re eating good foods, all of that is there. But saving money and time and restoring memories and things that you don\'t always get to make because of our busy, busy lives. Those are the big benefits to me.

Dr. Berry:
I love it. I love all of them. But Dr. Lisa, you already know, and I\'m pretty sure you probably ran through most of them. You going to have people, going to hit you with the excuses. (Yes). What are some of the more common, I\'ll call it misconception, but you know really what are some of the common excuses you hear for people who say, Oh, I can\'t, I can\'t do that.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Oh, there\'s so many. Let me pick out my favorites. First, let me say, excuses are tools of incompetence. (Let\'s talk). Okay, so the reality is this, if you want something bad enough, you\'re willing to work for it. And I take that into every aspect of my life. Period. Family, schooling, education, career, nutrition, health, fit, all of it. It goes into every category. The most common excuses I get are time. It takes too long. I\'m not interested in that. And I respect that one because time is valuable, for me too. And so for people like that, I suggest we take a small. Maybe instead of meal prepping once a week where you\'re spending three or four hours, maybe you meal prep twice a week. So maybe on Sunday you meal prep, a few things to get you through Wednesday and then maybe on Wednesday you meal prep, a few things to get you through, you know, Thursday, Friday or the weekend, whatever. I also suggest that people take time off. Like sometimes meal prep, it can be a lot when you\'re doing it consistently every week. So to give yourself a breather, take a week off. That week, just make sure you shop for things that are healthy and grabable. And then you plan your curiosity around sort of your healthier food options in your neighborhood or wherever you work or live. So there\'s ways to get around it. But that\'s the biggest excuse that I don\'t have time.

Another excuse I get is, their families. People who have like picky eaters with kids and I have a whole chapter in my book about that, so I\'m ready for that one too. And it\'s just sometimes people don\'t, you know, we\'ll Google everything, right? I got a scratch on my arm or let me look this up. Sometimes people forget when it comes to meal planning and recipes and things like that. Use the internet, use Google, find some things that sound attractive to your kid. Find ways, if you know what your kids like, find ways to incorporate things they like into the meals so that you\'re not, you know, meal prepping and basically being wasted. So picky eaters can be tough, but there\'s definitely ways. I hide food, hide vegetables inside of food all the time.
My kids have no idea. You can say, my kids don\'t eat vegetables. I\'m good for making them like a cheese and chopping up fine, yellow bell peppers and they have no idea, that way it blends in with the cheese. I\'m all for that. I\'m all for problem solving. But yes, picky eaters. And then I say the third most common meal prep excuse I get is, well, two, one people think it costs too much, which, you know, I can totally refute that it does not your fast food and your carry out is way more expensive.

Dr. Berry:
Way more. Quickly too. At least for me, I know one session and then I\'m like, oh my God, what are we doing right here?

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Exactly. But that one is easy to get rid of. But the other one is for people who are single and you know, live alone or just don\'t feel like, oh, I don\'t want to eat that. I don\'t wanna eat the same thing all the time. Or I don\'t want to cook all of that food. And I totally get that. But I think that the single person, the person that just meal prepping for themselves has a great advantage. You have the opportunity to really switch your stuff up because you\'re making such small portion sizes and grocery stores have gotten real hip now. They got a lot of single serving options for you. So to me it\'s not really a reasonable excuse anymore because there are ways around it and there\'s ways to take a meal prep it, just pull out a couple for your week and then freeze the rest. And that can be a prep for later in the month or whenever. So there\'s ways to get around all of that. So I\'m ready for all the excuses. But those are probably the top three or four that I get.

Dr. Berry:
It\'s a little incompetent. I love it. I love it. When you started and you made that transition where nutrition was important, where meal prep, was this like a tag team combo where like when you were making the nutrition turn, you said I need to do it while meal prepping or did that come at a different timeframe?

Dr. Lisa Folden:
That\'s a good question. They came very close to one another. Yeah. I think within the month or so of me feeling like, hey, I need to really step up my nutrition game. I think I was like, yeah, meal prep is just a natural part. It was sort of a natural progression to me. Because it was like for me, I\'m a planner anyway, so it\'s like, okay, if I\'m going to eat right, how am I going to make sure I eat right? It\' I can\'t just rely on what\'s here because we\'re always gonna go for what\'s quick. So I may have all the healthy ingredients in my cabinets and refrigerator. But when I get off work and I\'m literally exhausted, I don\'t want to make that. I don\'t want to stand in the kitchen. So I will order food. Post mates has been seen like the best and worst creation ever because I will post mate in a second. All of those. So for me, they came very close to each other because I realized even though I want to eat better and I know a little bit more about how to eat better and I shop a little better. If I don\'t have stuff already prepared, I\'m going to still reach out to the stuff that\'s not great for me. So yeah, so they were close. They were close together.

Dr. Berry:
Now of course the minds are gonna want to know, what is Dr. Lisa eating when she\'s meal prep it, right? Like what? Because you do these Google searches, right? They got these immaculate looking meal.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Let me just say a little disclosure here and people who will follow my Instagram. They already know this. I wrote my book last year and it\'s called Healthy Made Easy: The Ultimate Wellness Guide for Busy Moms and I touch on meal prep and exercise and tons of things in there. The sequel to that book, I guess in a way, and this was by popular demand, was a recipe book. And let me just say, I am about three quarters of the way through the recipe book that was supposed to be released in May and it has been more than a notion and it\'s because of just what you said, it is so hard to put out a recipe book that does not look like the stuff that you see when you Google. And I\'m like, so it has been a huge stress to me to where I\'ve been contemplating whether or not I\'m going to release it. But yes, it can be overwhelming when you see these great looking whatever to flay.

Dr. Berry:
They have it lined up and some got chicken. Some type of protein, red meat. Then you got your asparagus you got, and I\'m looking like, I look nothing like that. What am I? Okay. Alright.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Well here\'s the thing. Neither do I. My stuff is simple. For the most part, I pretty much, I have this go-to garlic and herb seasoning that I use on almost everything and it\'s literally like I just buy it in bulk at this point. Because I can, I do not have time to be doing like 15 ingredients dishes. Now there\'s times when you want to splurge and go crazy or I saw this cool thing, I want to try it, but my regular, no. So my things are simple. At least two weeks out of a month. I am eating egg muffins for breakfast. It\'s so simple. I literally cracked 24 eggs in a bowl, sprinkle some pepper, and then I make a decision. Is it going to be bell pepper this week? Is it going to be a little Turkey or chicken sausage? What am I going to put in this egg? I scrambled them up and I pour them into a muffin pan, two muffin pans, and I bake them for 20 minutes on three 50. I throw those in a Ziploc bag and my kids and I and my husband, we grab them every morning for bread. I don\'t even want mine up.
Super simple. So everything I do, I try to keep it very basic. When I step outside of the confines of basic, I typically find myself annoyed or frustrated. So I put myself back in.

Dr. Berry:
Because it takes a little bit longer or is that the?

Dr. Lisa Folden:
It takes longer. The stress associated with it. It\'s like, oh I want, you know, you see this on Google and its like, oh this is a beautiful, I want to do that. And it\'s like, you know, it doesn\'t have to be that way. Just make some food that\'s edible and tastes decent and go for it. I tell my kids all the times, we are not living to eat. We are eating to live. Okay. (Yes). So everything is not going to be the very best thing you\'ve ever tasted, but we\'re going to get through it. I try to make my food tastes good just as a disclaimer. So I try to keep it very simple dinners. I mean we tip, I don\'t do red meat and it\'s really just been a preference since I was like 12 years old.

So I don\'t eat red meat. I don\'t eat pork. But we have a lot of chicken dishes, a lot of ground Turkey or Turkey breasts, dishes, and then a lot of fish. So we do a lot. We have one fish meal at least every week. So this week we had a shrimp stir fry that was so easy. I literally bought the frozen raw de veined and unsheltered shrimp from my local BJ\'s and then I bought a couple bags of frozen stir fry vegetables. I put them in a Ziploc bag together. I sprinkled some low sodium soy sauce on them. It\'s my famous garlic and herb seasoning. A little bit of olive oil. I kind of wish the bag around, throw it in the freezer. Yesterday when I came home from work I threw it in a pan and we ate it. It was so easy.

Dr. Berry:
I love it because you keep knocking down now, time, come on.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
It doesn\'t take time if you do it wisely. It doesn\'t take a lot of time. Some people love cooking. So some people meal prep is cool. It\'s like an expression of their art and they don\'t mind being in the kitchen for a long time and making fancy stuff. And I\'ll say more power to you. I\'m not that person. I cook because I have a family. If I did not have a family, I\'m sure I will be ordering like hello fresh or one of those. And I often recommend that to people. I\'m like, I meal prep. I think it\'s the best thing ever. But you know what, it\'s not for every single person in the way that I do it. So if you can afford it and fit it into your budget, order from a digital delivery service that you have researched and found their ingredients and their options to be healthy. Do it that way. And a lot of those, you still have to do the cooking and they just give you the fresh ingredients kind of prepped. So whatever works, I\'m here for whatever works for you. And you know, everybody.

Dr. Berry:
I love it. I love it. I have to make that. Mentally, I see myself, I just haven\'t made that leap where I got in. Of course, but those who may not know. But you should already know. Like I\'m dealing with the fact that like I\'m still in my rehab process. I\\u2019m only got one leg. I\'m just willing around in places, but like I already know mentally, once I get on my feet and figuratively, that\'s definitely gonna be the direction I want to go and go there. Because it makes so much sense and aware of it, if you prepare. And I love that I\'m still thinking about that one line.

Because we got to eat. We know we eat. It\'s a surprise that I\'m going to be hungry Wednesday night. I\'m going to eat Wednesday night, so if you\'re going to eat, why don\'t you just go ahead and prepare the food now and not have to spend that money going out and eating and I\'m 100% I here for that and we got here on record that she\'s going to be finishing her recipe book soon. So we\'re gonna keep pushing it. My friends know me, I will DM every week and like, hey, what\'s going on? How\'s that book going? Everything alright? We waited for the book to come out. So I am going to be on Lunch and Learn community. You don\'t have to worry about and that you gotta get that book out of it because it I think is definitely needed. Especially if people asking for it. You gotta give it to them.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
I will. I definitely will. And I appreciate the accountability. So I will. I will get it together.

Dr. Berry:
Especially in your line of work, when you\'re working with people and you\'re working with the whole aspect of wellness, whether it be planning and goal setting. What has been some of the benefits and what has it been some of the successes that you\'ve seen thus far and the whole kind of onus of it?

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Oh, I mean, it\'s so many things. A lot of my clients who make the decision to transition to a lifestyle where they\'re just being accountable and being knowledgeable about what they eat, planning for and things like that. I mean everything. From the very obvious weight loss, inches lost, fitting into clothes they hadn\'t before to more internal and personal benefits. I have clients that are like, I couldn\'t walk from the back of the parking lot before, you know what I mean? Or I couldn\'t do the stairs without my knee rubbing or I couldn\'t even see myself getting back to the gym. So tons of tons of things when people make a decision that they\'re gonna change and do something to better themselves no matter how hard it is, that\'s the key.

We\'ve got to get over that hump apart. Because most of the stuff that\'s worth having is harder to do. So once they get that mindset and we sit down and we set a plan, the positive results are just so many. There\'s just so many good things. And it\'ll be like, because everybody is not like, oh I need to be a size five. I got to lose this weight. Some people are very, very genuine about like, I just want to be able to chase my grandkids around. I don\'t want to be out of breath. You know what I mean? I want to feel better. I don\'t want to be sleepy every single day, all day. My clients come to me dragging sometimes. You know what I mean? I\'m exhausted. I was up to two in the morning working.

I didn\'t have breakfast. I didn\'t go extra. It\'s like Jesus, I can\'t live, that\'s enough pressing way to live, for so long. So it just so many benefits to just getting that action plan set, getting your life in order. And it translates to everything we do. Every single thing. You are going to be a better worker, you\'re going to be a better husband, father, wife, friend, everything. You\'re better when you\'re taking better care of yourself. And it\'s a big part of the self-care journey, so big on that.

Dr. Berry:
I love it. We love self-care here. A love affirmations. We love preempting the inevitable and that\'s where the meal prepping and Prehab and everything else kind of comes in. And I know you talked, especially with your practice where you focus on you, obviously you have patients you know who have some physical ailments that you take care of and then you kind of deal with the ones. Do you also just take care of patients on just strictly who may not have physical ailments but like, oh I just need to get my wellness together?

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Absolutely. So I offer just straight wellness. Several people, they will contact me and they will say I want to get into the gym but I\'m uncomfortable. I don\'t really know what to do. Or maybe I just lost a lot of weight and you know, now I want to kind of tell but I don\'t know where to go or what to do or how to keep it off or you know, I get all kinds of stuff. So yes, I take people straight for wellness. I also offer kind of a newer service is called a Mobility Visit. And this is a whole separate podcast, I\'m sure, but I have a true passion for teaching people the benefits of stretching and mobility in their body with regard to the muscles and joint and, Oh God, I want to say maybe 80% of us like don\'t stretch unless we\'re maybe about to do something.

Dr. Berry:
Again, Lunch and Learn community, we do full disclosure here. I had to go to, I went to Disney with the kids, right, because that\'s what got to do. I\'m in Florida. There\'s one of the rides or that wasn\'t even a ride. It was just some session that we went to. Where you got to sit like Indian style. I couldn\\u2019t even sit Indian style. I didn\'t even know how hard it was to see. I\'m like, oh my, I used to be able to do this. And mind you, I\'m going to the gym and I thought I was doing something but clearly I wasn\'t working the right muscles because I tried it and I couldn\'t do it.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Some of the most athletic strong aesthetically perfect looking people are the tightest and never stretch. It\'s amazing. So I spent a lot of time offering a new service called the Mobility Visit where you literally come in, have 45 minutes, but I\'ll do a very quick assessment. And then I take you through guided stretches for every major muscle group in your body. And then we end with a little bit of soft tissue work just at the base of the skull, right in the neck. And people get up and they literally feel like a new person. And it\'s like this is something you could have almost all done on your own. But it\'s a service I\'ve had to offer because people don\'t know how to stretch. They don\'t know how long the whole stretches. They don\'t know what position is best to stress stretch particular muscles. So that is one of the wellness services I offer. It has nothing to do with physical therapy or injuries necessarily. It\'s not a service that they can necessarily cover with their health insurance. But it\'s a wellness service that I offer.

Dr. Berry:
Clearly needed. I had to put my leg, let us stretch one leg out because I couldn\'t not do that any side. I\'m like alright, okay.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
It\\u2019s very common though, especially among men.

Dr. Berry:
I said okay, I got to get myself, need to get this type of some type of yoga, someone need to teach me how to stretch. That\'s what it was. That like someone just probably gotta like try to do that like some online thing like you gotta probably like formulate like some a video step process. I think that would definitely do well for you. Before I get you out of here. Because again I\'m very nosy. (Me, too. That\'s fine). Let\'s talk about healthy made easy and I want to talk about all of your business ventures because I\'m always impressed by my guests and all the amazing things that they do. Like I said, they helped motivate me, they kind of get me together. Let\'s talk about that first book, the motivation behind that first book and obviously, and they were going to kind of spill the beans on every, again you talked about the mobility. Let\'s talk about everything that you\'re doing. So the people who are listening can know, where you\'re from here, location wise?

Dr. Lisa Folden:
So I\'m originally from Detroit but I have been living in Charlotte, North Carolina, eleven years. So that\'s where I am and that\'s where my practice is.

Dr. Berry:
Okay, perfect. So what made you write the book? What was the driver forced, you know what, I need to get a book out here.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Yeah. It\'s so funny. So a lot of things. I blog a lot, I write a lot. I\'ve always been into writing, but usually short little things, essays. So what I was finding in my practices, I was repeating a lot of the same information, especially to my moms, to people who were trying to sort of organize their life and combat that primary excuse for healthy living right time. I don\'t have time to work out. I don\'t have time to go to the gym. I don\'t have time to meal prep, my kids this and I do this and work in that and that, dah, dah, dah, dah. All of that sounds like, you know what? I started jotting down some thoughts and I was like, you know what? I need to write a book. So this was maybe early 2018 and put it off, put it off, and then I finally just went to town.

I think I wrote the bulk of my book proudly in a two month timeframe because I was literally coming home from work just I was typing on my phone in between patients, you know, so it\'s called Healthy Made Easy: The Ultimate Wellness Guide for Busy Moms. And I say that, mom\'s a big market, but it\'s really for busy people. I mean honestly it\'s anybody who has a lot going on in their life and doesn\'t feel like they can make time to exercise. So I have a chapter on meal prepping where I talk about how to make it easy, what to do. I recommend some websites for recipes. I have a chapter on incorporating your children and your family into your new lifestyle, especially when you have picky eaters. Talk about ways to, you know, hide foods and make the meals attractive to children or to your spouse or whomever.

I talk about social eating. People don\'t recognize how challenging it can be to go out with your friends or family when you\'re trying to eat a certain way. And so I give some very, very simple tips for that. I talk about that. That\'s mostly the part of the book on nutrition. Second half of the book is all about exercise and fitness. So I have workouts in here, sample workouts for when you\'re taking your kids to the playground or you have your kids at a sports practice, give suggestions and tips and things you can do. I try to, I have a chapter talking about incorporating fitness into your everyday lifestyle, like making exercise double as family time. So you guys all go for a hike or things like that. Everybody involved because it\'s a lifestyle. Right? And if you go to my Instagram, you\'ll see my kids are on there with me exercising all the time because they see me do it and it\'s just a normal part of their lives.

I talk about having navigate gym equipment and I have some very unpopular thoughts on the unpopular opinion on some of the equipment at the gym. I\'m more of a home workout person myself, but I do appreciate the gym but only for certain aspects. And then, the last chapter in the book talks about focusing on your fitness without comparing your journeys to other people. We so often, especially as women, and I think men do it as well. We see someone else and it\'s like, well I want to do that, I want to look like that. This is your body and your process and you need to want to look like you. And whatever byproducts of being healthy and fit is for your body will thankful for that. But trying to formulate a plan to look and be like, someone else is always wrong.

So I talk about that in the book. But I\'m very proud of it. It\'s available on Amazon and through my website. It was my little labor of love and it took me a little under a year to complete. So that a good tool for people but especially for women, people with children, pets, if you\'re taking care of elderly, family members, you got a lot on your plate. It\'s a good book for you to understand you\\u2019re making time for your fitness. My practice here in Charlotte, it\'s called healthy fit, physical therapy and wellness. And I have a little spell fit, the normal way. It\'s actually spelled P, H, I, T and that was just a play on words, the P and the T for physical therapy. So, but yet we see clients literally ages zero to a hundred.

I see pediatrics adults. I consider myself a generalist. Though I do have a lot of work in the pediatric world as well as low back pain. That\'s a very, very, very common diagnosis that I get. So I do a lot of lumbar stability and core strengthening, things like that. And I\'m here for all of it. I refer out if I feel like you know, what you got going on is a little bit more in depth than I feel like. So have some people I refer out to, but in general I see most patients. So if you go to my website, www.healthyphit.com. You can sign up for my mailing list and I have a free posture packet that you will receive via email. And that\'s been really good for people because most people don\'t really know what good posture is. When I see a client and I tell them to, let me see your best posture. What I typically get is some exaggeration of that posture.

Dr. Berry:
Yes. Lunch and Learn community, I can\'t see, but mentally I was actually, once she said that I was actually about to sit up. Oh she looking at my posture? I don\'t know.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Whenever someone says posture, I\'m like whoa. So I usually see some exaggeration of good posture where they\'re like in that military stand or you know.

Dr. Berry:
Is that even a good posture though? Is that? Okay.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
It is not. So I send out to sign up for my mailing list, I send out sort of a sheet that that shows you some of the common poor posture positions and then the best ideal posture. And the goal is to get as close to that as possible. Our bodies are our bodies. Everybody\'s not going to be the exact same, but just some general ideas and then some information about areas of back pain and what might be causing themselves. I like to share that information with people for free and that also have on my website, if you go to our shop tab, I have a couple of trainings. I\'ll have some more up. I have one that I\'m working on now that is for like managing chaos in your life. Simplifying and making things smoother. But right now what I have on the site of training for people interested in physical therapy.

So I kind of go through that whole process of initial interests through school and then journey into private practice. And then I have another one. Yeah, that\'s a good one. I was fortunate enough to do a presentation for the North Carolina health occupation, students of America, their conference here. And so I basically did that presentation. So I just rerecorded it, kind of condensed it a little bit and offer it for people on my website, for a much reduced amount. And then also because I do a lot of writing and I have been very blessed to be featured in a lot of great places. Some of my tips on health and fitness. I have a Webinar that is up on my website right now recording that is for people who are interested in that. So if you\'re interested in having your blogs or you\\u2019re just your writing featured in major publications like Oprah or shape magazine or Reader\\u2019s Digest.

Dr. Berry:
Drop the names on it so they know you\'re not playing out here. Because I read the bio, they might\'ve skipped the bio. Let folks know what just some of the places that you\'ve been in so they know.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Thank you. Yeah that webinar is for people. It\'s just five steps to getting your writing speeches but yes, I have been fortunate enough to be featured in the Oprah magazine. I was a big one for me because you know is Oprah is Oprah. I\'ve been teaching in shape magazine. I\'ve been featured on livestrong.com, Bustle, She knows, oh, there\'s so many. I mean I don\'t have my list in front of me, but I love writing and that is why I love writing and it\'s so cool because I\'m writing about health and fitness related things and exercise. And so literally, I mean the topics from, I got emailed an article today from, what is it? I can\'t even recall, but I was talking about foam rolling. So I love to put my 2 cents out there about some of the latest health trends and give people tips and tools and things from someone who has some experience, with those things. So yeah, if you want to be featured and do that type of work, I have a webinar on that and yeah. And I\'ll have more, I\'ll be loading more as weeks go by just having to sit down and make times for recording.

Dr. Berry:
Too busy. I hear we gotta to get you like a VA or somebody to have direction.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Just had that conversation. I totally need one of those. Put that in the show notes.

Dr. Berry:
We need. Because we can get the second book. You don\'t free up some of her time. So we need to be able to try to free up some of your time to get the second book out here. Love it, love it, love it. And you talked about the second book so this is going to be essentially a kind of a recipe book just based off the meal plan. Okay.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Yap. So it\'s going to be just basic recipes that I\'m going to right now the format I have is sort of a set section for breakfast, recipes, lunch, dinner, and then I\'m going to have sort of a bonus section for kids\\u2019 lunch ideas. Because I tried to get very creative with my kids because I\'m not really the sandwich maker. I get very bored with that. So I try to get creative with their lunches. And so sometimes when I post them to Instagram I have people like what is that? How\'d you do that? So I\'m like, you know what, let me just throw a few. So I\'m thinking maybe five to seven kid lunch idea. So you guys have some options for that too. Because sometimes it\'s nice to make their stuff fun. You know, we\'ll do like Turkey dogs skewers with like piece of Turkey dog, some string cheese, Turkey dogs, cool stuff. You know, it doesn\'t take long. I\'m not that mom, I don\'t have a whole lot of time. But sometimes I try to give them little cutesy ideas for that. So yeah, we\'re working on that. I\'m gonna maybe if I say it out loud, I\'m gonna set a tentative deadline of. (Let\\u2019s go, let\\u2019s go). December, by the end of the year.

Dr. Berry:
Alright. You heard it here and again, I\'m one of the best accountability partners. I\'ll be in the DMs. I\'ll be in the comments like, Oh hey, Christmas is coming around. That\'d be an amazing Christmas gift.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
I\'m going to get it and I\'m going to send you one, that\\u2019s what I\\u2019m going to do. That gonna be Christmas present from me.

Dr. Berry:
I love it. I love it. Before I let you go, I always ask my guests, how is what you\'re doing helping to empower others to take better control of their health?

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Well, what I hope and what I believe based on some of my client feedback and see that I\'m leading by example. You know, I\'m not just sitting here giving you a list of impossible things to do that I have not done or tried myself. But I\'m actually being very honest. I\'m being tried to be very honest about my own shortcomings and my own struggles with this whole journey of wellness and nutrition.

Dr. Berry:
It is a journey. I think that people need to realize that this isn\'t like a stopping go. The journey contained some ups. It does have some downs as well.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Absolutely. And it\'s ongoing. So my goal is to just be authentic and transparent and open so that people can see that I\'m doing this with them and leading by example. And I\'m trying to do my part because my goal is to provide some level of inspiration. If it\'s just enough to get you at the starting block. We\'re doing something, we\'re going somewhere. But I teach people to be accountable for themselves and to recognize that your happiness, your joy, your health is only your responsibility. These kids that we love so much, they will drain every ounce of your energy and they don\'t care what you eat, okay? They\'ll find if you eat cheddar cheese popcorn all night and hang out with the people in your life that love you the most, are not necessarily checking for your health and it\'s your responsibility all the time.

So I just try to, I put it back on them. This is your life, your body, your health. You only get to do this once, right? As far as we know, at least in this space. So you gotta do it right? You\'re trying your best to do it right. And that does not mean perfect. Like I said, we all fall short. We all have tough days, weeks, sometimes a month, right? But the point is you get back up, you keep going. So that\'s my goal and I hope, you know, and I\'ve had some people say it, but I hope that I continue to inspire people to do this on their own and just and take the reign and say this is my life and I don\'t have to be governed by what I was taught growing up or what I saw growing up or what the people around me are doing. I can carve out a plan and a direction for my life that I think is better for me and that\'s it. And I\'m not better than the next person because I\'m doing it. I\'m just trying to be good to me. So.

Dr. Berry:
And where can people find you? Where can they track you down working stock and make sure when that book comes out, they know where to purchase. And again, remember Lunch and Learn community, all of this information, it will be in the show notes so you don\'t have to like write it down scurrying down. Now it will be in the show notes. But wait, where can they find a website? All that. I know you said it before, but for our late stragglers.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
So I love Instagram. I tried to limit my time on there, but I am on Instagram all the time. So that\'s at healthy phit. H. E. A. L. T. H. Y. P. H. I. T. That\'s me on Instagram. I\'m also on Facebook. I will be honest, I do smaller interactions on Facebook, but everything that I post to Instagram goes to Facebook so you can see my posts there as well.

Dr. Berry:
Just go to Instagram. Some great pictures.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Thank you. And Twitter is the same way. I don\'t really spend time on there, but everything I say that I can get to my Twitter page goes there as well. So everything is at healthy phit. And then, of course, my website, which is healthyphit.com. You guys can email me if you have questions. info@healthyphit.com and yeah, join my mailing list cause I send out my blogs, which is also on our website and I send out specials and you guys are the first to know and when I do release something or when a webinar\'s available and things like that. So.

Dr. Berry:
I love it. I love it. Dr. Lisa, again I want to, and I thought we\'d talked earlier but I do want to show the graciousness of being able to take time and get me together. I get our Lunch and Learn community members together on a topic that is so important. Once you Google lifestyle changes, you know, meal prepping, nutrition is such a big thing that pops up and just the fact that you\'re able to simplify it and really give that personal touch. We really appreciate me taking the time to talk to us today.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Thank you. I\'m so glad you had me on. I appreciate it and I love your podcast. I will be a continued subscriber and listener.

Dr. Berry:
I love it. So you have a great day. Again, thank you. And again, guys, remember, she said December. So we gotta, we\'ll plan a campaign around November time frame to start like just dropping comments, and so we can get a good little Christmas gift like that. That\'s going to be us. We want that Christmas gift. We want, we want it the book to come out and again, again pick up the book is as on your website now as well as Amazon? (Yes). Right. Okay. I always tell my listeners if you can get a chance, always get the books off the person\'s website, right? Because Amazon, you know, they try to take all that money, right? Like so you can get the book off the website first, right? If you have to, right. If you gotta get it kindled out, whatever, that\\u2019s okay.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
I understand. We don\'t care how you get it.

Dr. Berry:
Just get it. That\'s probably the goal. We don\'t care how you get it. Just get it done. And you know, we\'re gonna appreciate you for it. Thank you again for joining the podcast.

Dr. Lisa Folden:
Thank you so much.

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