How to Eat Healthy When You Work At Home with Ashley Stephens of MacroEd
Episode 177: Show Notes
Today on the podcast we’re covering a little bit of a different side of being a business owner and working from home. Our guest today is Ashley Stephens. She is a mom, a teacher, a tech geek, a bossy big sister, an amateur home cook and the average girl next door – all bundled up into one great big personality. Ashley co-founded a company called MacroEd which is a program dedicated to helping you become your healthiest self, focusing on real food nutrition while controlling your insulin levels for long-term health benefits.
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We are so happy she is here today to tackle a subject a lot of us struggle with; how to take better care of ourselves, eat healthier and invest in our own macro nutrition – while trying to be boss business women and super moms! We all make excuses for why we don’t make healthy choices and in this episode, Ashley shows us how to make this lifestyle change without changing our lives much at all! We’ll be breaking down what macro nutrition means and how we can take better care of ourselves (without living on kale smoothies)!
The Carb, Fat, Protein Ratio: Finding What Works For You
MacroEd aims to help people become more aware of what it is they are putting in their bodies. They aim to educate and help people get their fats, carbs and proteins to a ratio that makes sense for each person because each person is different and it changes for everyone as they go through different phases of life. MacroEd uses the MyFitnessPal app to assist in knowing this ratio. With this app, you can scan the barcode of what it is you are eating and it comes up. You can do the same at a restaurant by estimating the ratios on your plate and inputting the ingredients in your meal. Although the goal is to weigh and measure these things for yourself, it is also not to live in a constant state of analysis! You do this while you are still learning the ropes and it is just to gauge where you are at.
Macro Hacks: Changing a Little Can Change a Lot
Ashley is a real southern girl and has had recipes passed down to her from generations and of course, Ashley wants to feed her family in the same way she was fed in order to carry on some of their traditions. But she has developed a way to make the same recipes, just a little or a lot healthier, by doing a few small hacks. Making food palatable was a missing piece when Ashley first started MacroEd because it’s often hard to hit the protein to fat to carb ratio standards. But today, just a couple years into business, they have hundreds of recipes! With MacroEd, you will get everything from 10 recipes a week, a shopping list, a meal prep plan and a snack prep plan. The diets are naturally designed to reduce inflammation and take into account specific dietary requirements, like gluten intolerance for example.
Tips For Easy Meal Prep and Snacks
Getting into a rhythm of preparing your meals takes time and you have to get into a flow. According to Ashley, if you can get a breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared for the first day – you’re golden. If you can get your first day down, it will motivate you to keep going. If you can have protein and fat for breakfast, you won’t start the carb wave cycle. When you’re working from home, it can be easy to convince yourself not to cook or if you’ve missed lunch and it’s now 2:30 pm, you know there’s only three hours until you start preparing dinner so you might just smash a whole bag of Cheetos to keep the hunger at bay until then (eh hem, Emylee)! This is not really a healthy choice, but it happens. In terms of snacks, rather than grabbing the crackers, chips or fried snacks, Ashley says, “Go for any type of vegetable with every type of dip you can imagine!” Hummus, blue cheese, pesto, creamy ranch dressing – whatever. “And get the full fat for the love of Pete!” Low-fat is often high in sugar and close to being a Frankenfood and a lot of people are short on their fat ratio at the end of the day. So go for that full fat. A lot of people who are hungry in between breakfast and lunch are often craving proteins and this is where the carb rollercoaster often kicks in – when you’re looking for that snack. Ashley advises proteins and fats for the mornings and to keep that fruit for the afternoon!
Making Healthy Choices For Your Kids
For Emylee and for a lot of other parents out there, they don’t want to start their kids off with a negative aspect towards food, as opposed to an empowering aspect. Ashley advises when your own food choices improve, your kids’ will too. When Ashley and her kids go to a restaurant, they often won’t order the mac ‘n cheese but will get the chicken and the broccoli because that’s what they’re used to. As you start eating healthier, you crave healthier stuff and your kids will be that way too. If you are completely changing your habits around, the first two weeks will be tough but they will get used to whatever you get used to, to a point. At school, it can be tough and this is where a lot of moms can struggle with the more negative micromanaging. It is your choice whether to be “that” mom of saying “No, you can’t have popsicles,” when everyone else is eating them. But if you are in charge of what your kid is taking to school – you can bet your ass it’s going to be something healthy made out of dried fruit. At the end of the day, as long as you are eating together, it is going to be mostly positive. Family dinners are the first step to healthy choices.
There is a Difference Between Cauliflower Mash and Potato Mash
Making healthier choices can be tricky as a couple. In Emylee’s case, they would make dinner and split it down the middle. Her husband would still be hungry and she would be too full. Or if he got up for more food, she would get up for more food without really being too hungry. It’s just a battle of checking in with yourself, “Are you actually full or do you actually want more? What is it that you want?” Emylee’s husband tends to get super offended if she’s like “We’re having mash potatoes for dinner!” And then she goes ahead and makes a healthy version with cauliflower mash instead. So the question is when it comes to making healthy changes for your partner, do you just need to call it what it is? Rather than try to “sugarcoat” it? Ashley’s answer is yes! She believes everyone can morph out of their bad eating habits in just six weeks because you feel good. But having to do something because a diet said so doesn’t work well for a lot of people, herself included. But if you are making the healthy choices yourself, that is empowering. Knowing you’ve worked hard and earned a treat that’s good for your spirit and your mind – that tastes better. Ashley’s programs try to be as functional in people’s lives as possible, she doesn’t want to change your life but she just wants a little bit of wiggle room so she can come in there!
Learn More About Ashley’s Programs
There will always be a foundation class in MacroEd’s programs and it is between 8-10 weeks where they walk you through the different stages of these carbs, fats and proteins because everyone is different. This course will help you find the sweet spot between your lifestyle, your emotions and what your body will allow. Partners can go through these courses together and it includes meal plans which are seasonal. They are all macro friendly but also family friendly. For some people, even if they didn’t get to their goal weight loss, they still learned how to cook and that’s always what people tend to be really proud of too. Afterwards, they have a really cool masterclass where people just seem to stay on forever! And it’s not hard because it’s food that fits. The details of these courses can be found on her website at the link below.
Quote This
As you start eating healthier, you crave healthier stuff.
Highlights
The Carb, Fat, Protein Ratio: Finding What Works For You. [0:04:22.1]
Macro Hacks: Changing a Little Can Change a Lot. [0:13:15.1]
Tips For Easy Meal Prep and Snacks. [0:18:42.1]
Making Healthy Choices For Your Kids. [0:30:15.1]
There a Difference Between Cauliflower Mash and Potato Mash. [0:33:40.1]
Learn More About Ashley’s Programs. [0:42:32.1]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:47:20.6]
Learn about the macros and the stuff that you love.
Purge, toss out the crap and stock up on things you like.
Get the snacks that make you happy!
Healthy cheesecake? Try one or two of Ashley’s recipes.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Ashley Stephens
MacroEd
Website | Instagram | Facebook
If you took a teacher, tech geek, mom, bossy big sister, amateur home cook and the hometown girl next door and threw them into a personality blender, you'd get me. :) And somehow, I've been lucky enough to find a tribe of people who think that's just right. I'm Ashley, the co-founder of MacroEd.
KEY TOPICS
Macro, MacroEd, Fats, Carbs, Proteins, Ratios, Healthy eating, Eating habits
