Meal Planning Tips and Advice When You are Disabled

Let's face it: meal planning and preparation when you have a disability can be challenging. There are legitimate logistical problems in the entire process that most non-disabled people take for granted. From the task of actually grocery shopping to putting groceries away, the meal prep itself, and oh, let's not forget the clean-up!

Both what I eat and how I prepare it have evolved over the years. For the what I eat part of that equation, I used to be very hung up on the idea that I had to eat following the "food pyramid" as a guide. I was also preconditioned to think about the “proper” portioning of my food. My mind would have one idea of how much I thought I should eat, but my stomach could rarely accommodate that much food. As I've gotten older, I've realized (and accepted) that being a petite person means I don't need to eat large meals. When I let that be okay, it was so liberating. I feel physically miserable when I overeat. Why am I going to do that to my body just because I have grown up in a society that tells us that three square meals a day are the only way to go? The bottom line is, I'm not.

So, on a typical day, I will have a small bite for breakfast, something like a cheese stick with a bacon strip. For lunch, my favorite lately has been pita crackers and jalapeño hummus, or something similar. And for dinner, something simple like a large salad or a bowl of mac and cheese, but rarely both in one sitting.

Before I move onto meal prepping. I do want to add that proper nourishment is important to remain healthy. If you are like I am and you've adapted your meals to make more sense for your body, make sure that you are eating a somewhat balanced diet and getting all the vitamins and proteins you need. If you can't accomplish this through food, daily vitamin or protein smoothies can be a good option to supplement what you aren't getting through food.

When it comes to meal preparation, I have followed a similar pattern of modifying my process over the years. I remember when I got married, I had this idea that I had to serve a sit-down three-course meal for Andrew and me every night. Well, as I mentioned, I have a small appetite, and actually, so does he. So that meant either a lot of leftovers, wasted food, or both. Additionally, preparing those more complex dinners was a lot of work! I would be exhausted by the time I got the food on the table and so cleaning up would never happen until the next day. When I let go of the very conventional Betty Crocker ideal of a three-course meal, it freed up so much of my time and energy. Sometimes I even try to make meal preparation into a game: how can I make this meal using the least number of dishes and/or ingredients?

Recently, I have been batch prepping meals, or parts of meals, on the weekend to eat throughout the week. I have found this to be very helpful. There is a cookbook called Cook Once Eat All Week. In it, there are some easy, healthy, and tasty recipes that provide some great eating all week long with just a few hours in the kitchen on a Saturday or a Sunday.

And yes, I know some of these challenges can be solved with convenience foods (aka frozen dinners), and we do have those on occasion. However, frozen dinners are made with a lot of sodium and preservatives we cannot eat. And besides, I do enjoy food-- preparing it and eating it. I just want to do it on my own terms.

Examining my eating and meal preparation routines and practices was a very intentional process. It's not something that just happened overnight, either. It took time, trial and error, and a lot of self-awareness. Once I realized what was and wasn't working, I opened myself up to changing the way I was doing things with the hope of redefining what works best for me.

Seven Basic Tips To Help with Meal Time and Meal Planning

So if you are looking for some basic tips to help you in your process of redefining mealtime and meal prep for yourself, the following may be able to help:

Keep things in perspective. Don't allow meal time to be the major ordeal that you think it has to be. This means maybe recalibrating your expectations. How far is the gap from what you can do from what you want to be able to do? Soul-searching on some of these questions can help lead to some important insights that will help you establish your plan moving forward.

Lean into convenience as you are able. This goes for how you get the groceries to your door and how you make the meals. If you can afford it, having groceries delivered is a huge time and energy saver. A similar option is still ordering online but picking up your groceries curbside if your store offers that. As for mealtime itself, ordering pizza once in a while is okay. So is popping in that frozen dinner. Maybe one night you make the pork chops, but you use one of those pre-made salad-in-a-bag kits for your vegetable. You get the idea. There is no all-or-nothing in my mind.

Don't be shy about asking for help. I know this can be a tough one for us sometimes. We like to be independent. But there is no shame in asking for help. If you live with someone, ask them to pitch in. Do you have a neighbor who has offered to help? Take them up on it. Sometimes the smallest gesture of support can end up making the biggest difference.

If you are the primary food preparer in your kitchen, set the rules for your kitchen, and don't feel bad about doing so. Harness the power in wearing the apron. It is not fair or right that those in your household who benefit from your effort of shopping and meal prep should be able to dictate how things get done. I believe you teach people how to treat you. If they want more say in what gets put on the dinner table, make them put some effort into how it gets there.

Create routines. This has probably been one of the most significant positive changes I've made around my meal-prep activity. I shop on a consistent routine, and I buy many of the same things repeatedly, so I am familiar with preparing them. I meal-plan my week according to what activities I have that day. Busier days mean a simpler meal. Bigger or more complex meals get saved for the weekends. And don't forget meal prep has to include clean-up. Leave yourself enough time, and energy to clear off the table, put away the leftovers, and do dishes. I rarely have the energy to do the dishes until the next day. So I make time the following morning to do them, and I'm okay with that.

Declutter your space. Nothing can make working in a kitchen more frustrating and energy-draining than a messy and cluttered kitchen. Try to see your kitchen with new eyes. Meaning, how would it look and feel if all of your counters were clear? If your pantry was thinned out so you could actually see all of your food staples? If you didn't have to move two pots to get to the third in the back of the cupboard? All of these things make a huge difference in how motivated and successful you are in meal planning and prep. Take some notes and start small. Again, sometimes the smallest changes can have the biggest impact.

Make your kitchen space as accessible as possible. Last but certainly not least, I am a strong advocate that all disabled people should make their kitchens serve them, not the other way around. This means making as many accommodations as possible. I know making permanent changes to a rental space can be challenging, if not impossible. And even if you own your home, remodeling can be expensive. But there are still small things you can do that can significantly impact your kitchen's functionality. Things like: changing out drawer and door pulls, adding pull-out shelving to cabinets, replacing standard faucets with touch faucets or universal fixtures, and placing heavy appliances more permanently on the counter that you use the most often. One trick I used to do before we remodeled our kitchen was put my Kitchen-Aid mixer on a plastic cutting board, and then I could slide it forward on my counter when I wanted to use it. These are just a few simple changes. Of course, more permanent solutions include lowering kitchen counters and/or cabinets, carving out spaces for wheelchairs to roll under, and buying appliances that are ADA compliant.

Lastly, I am not a dietician or health expert. Any advice given in this post is just from my own experience. Please do what you feel is best for your body and your own circumstance. I believe we can learn from each other's experiences. Please comment below if you have struggled with meal prep in your life and how you deal with it.