When The Whole Week Goes Wrong.Expect The Unexpected - When Things Go Wrong (Part 3)

Expect The Unexpected - Your Emergency Plan For When Things Go Wrong (Part 3) - When The Whole Week Goes Wrong.

We've been talking about some of the unexpected challenges people have told me about this week.

• A migraine
• A death in the family
• An injury
• Fridge died
• Troubling news about  a friend

Some will sound familiar.

When things go south, it is normal to want to put your tail between your legs and let your old habits take over.

But here's the thing: these are the times you need self-care more than ever!

Recognize it when things go bonkers and accept it.  This is the hand you were dealt. Now you have to figure out how to play it.

Simplify.

Do the simple things.  Go for a walk for a few minutes to get a breath of fresh air and get moving (if you can). It doesn't have to be a rigorous walk (although if you feel motivated to do that, go ahead).  Set up a week's worth of overnight oats and chia seeds so you don't have to think about it. Give yourself some grace, and do the easy stuff!

Pick a few easy things to make.  It doesn't have to be complicated.

All you need to feed yourself for a week is a the overnight chia/oats and berries, a salad, a double batch of dressing, one soup, and one casserole.  You can even ask someone else to shop for you, or  to help you cook - or even to do it for you (more about that in Part 4).

Yes, that is literally 5 things:

• overnight chia/oats with nondairy milk and berries
• salad stuff chopped up for the week (and you can get pre-washed greens)
• a double batch of dressing.  Or just some vinegar and eat a few nuts with that salad.
• one batch of soup will last a week or more if you are having a small serving with your lunch salad, or about 4-6 days if  you are having it as a meal at dinnertime.  Make Dr. Jill's Stone Soup: Throw a few cans of beans, a few cans of diced tomatoes, a chopped onion, a spoonful of minced garlic, a bag of baby carrots, your favorite spices, 4-6 cups of water, and a bag of kale in the instant pot and set it to 15 minutes and you are done (or in the slow cooker for 4 hours).
• one casserole - likely 6 servings

Okay, if you are cooking for 2 you will need a little more. But if there are 2 of you, that implies maybe the other person can help a little bit - unless of course the unexpected event is something that happened to them and you were caught in the crossfire. But even then, you only need to cook a few times a week. And if you also have a few things in the freezer from prior weeks, you can use some of those, too (as we saw in part 2 of the series).

NOTE: this is also what you would do if you knew in advance you had a busy week coming up.   If you know you won't have time to cook, just have a few simple things ready to go so you don't have to think about it.

Keep it simple!

Next up tomorrow in part 4: Ask for help!