Just a reminder that good bodies is a podcast for entertainment purposes only. It is not a medical podcast and does not constitute medical advice. Always seek the advice of a physician or a health professional.
Hello, and welcome to Good Bodies. I'm Lauren. And I am Emily, and I don't even know how to describe what just happened. We had a bit of a false star. I had a brain fart. Lauren basically, she said hello and welcome to Good Bodies, but then she didn't say this is Lauren. She didn't introduce herself, so I was just sitting there. And I was like,
What the fuck is going on? You're like staring at me. And so I kept saying it different ways because I thought you didn't like how I said it. Because I show a lot of judgment in my face, I guess. But like the thing is, I was just waiting for her to be done. I was so confused. Anyway, this is the two of us. We're.
doing okay. This is Lauren and this is Emily as it always is. And we're back with another Thursday episode for you guys. And Lauren wanted to share another food hack with me that just I'm very shy, but I'm brave. Let's let's just take a moment and just take a deep breath and just prepare because I feel like all of her food hacks are like, Hey, this thing that you could get for
75 cents. Why don't you spend an extra $2.50 to have it sliced up and put it back? I love, I love convenience. Yes, which I don't hate on convenience foods, but I feel, but in some situations, namely, ooh, namely the sliced apples, the pre-sliced apples that Lauren's been buying from the supermarket. It's just something I can't get on. I keep buying them and I keep eating them and I'm not going to stop.
Enjoy having less money. There's nothing I can do. And that's another lesson that I'm trying to really learn this year in the new year. It's like, you can't save everyone. You can't save it. You can't control your friends. You can't. Even if you know what's best for them, you can't force them. Pre-sliced apples, that's not part of my journey. But if it's part of your journey, I have to respect that. And I have to just let you learn your lesson. And I have to accept your harsh
Judgment. Okay, what's this food hack you wanted to tell me about? I think, oh, is the name of this segment Lauren's convenience corner? Because it's about convenience. This is Lauren's convenience corner. I like that, Lauren. That's amazing. Now you can't be mean when I say something that's convenient. No, now this is my favorite segment ever. Okay.
Let's kick off Lauren's convenience corner. What is your new favorite convenience food? Okay, so my food hack convenience corner, whatever. I've been doing this for a while and I only recently realized that this is so good for the podcast because there is one area of my life in which I love Weight Watchers. Yeah, you heard that correct. I'm sorry. What? Can you repeat that for the people who didn't get it?
I love, wait, no, no, no, we don't even, we don't need that sound, but having been raised in a Weight Watchers family, I also grew up with the smart ones, frozen dinners. I know this brand, I've never had it, but I've seen it in the frozen food section. It's on each box, it'll be like seven points. And it's like a little frozen dinner. And that's why it's smart, right? Yeah. It's not a lot of points. I love one. If you're skinny, you're smart.
Well, I love like, like Smart Pop is a popcorn, right? It's like, that's kind of what it always means, right? It's a. I don't even actually know that I think of it. I don't know that Smart Pop is like low calorie or anything, but I, but that is a real thing that like they'll put smart on something and what they really mean is skinny. So that exactly.
Yeah, we're putting intelligence, we're equating intelligence with a body size and we're getting pretty deep on it. But that's real. And I've never thought about it before, but that's another way that anti-fat bias has seeped its way. You know, it has sunk its little claws into everything we consume that smart equals skinny, like even in the branding of that.
Yeah. Okay. Well, anyway, so, so you grew up on these smart ways. I did. And they're intended to be meals. They are not meals. Also, hot take a lot of the frozen dinners that are not marketed as diet meals. Those are also not meals. If you look at the, it's all marketing. Like if you look at the calories, sugar warning calories, if you look at the calories on like a Stauffer's versus a lean cuisine, because that's like,
the best comparison I can make for like a non diet frozen entree versus a intentionally marketed diet one. The lean cuisine versus stovers. It's, it's barely a difference. Like please go break your brain and look at the nutrition facts. If you're in that space to do that and look at how little of a difference it is. Like that's actually crazy. Yeah. Is it just, um,
like when you look at the macros is it like the lean cuisine has like less fat like are we still stuck in the low salaries it's like but how but like half the calories barely that's what I'm saying like a like I wish I pulled up an example but like for example like a chauffeur's spaghetti and meatballs might be like
five 40 calories, but a link was in spaghetti meatballs might be for 40 or something. Like it's like it's really could be that like maybe they're putting like a little less. Yeah, like it's probably that it's just a little less. But it could also be like maybe it's like a turkey meatball instead of a beef meatball. Like maybe it's like a like slightly less fat or something. Maybe less sugar. I don't know. But the putting is not big of a
It's not that big of a difference. So if you're a convenience girly like me and you like a frozen dinner here and there, just get the regular one. You don't need to get the diet one, which you might be wondering, OK, well, Lauren, why do you like smart ones, frozen dinners? I will tell you why, because they're great snacks.
They're they're great snacks, not as a meal. Yeah, I'm not trying to be a hater, but like these things are 290 calories and it's a meal and it does make me very sad. I'm like, there are people who are sitting down and eating this for dinner.
Well, actually, it's funny that you say that because Trader Joe's has an incredible frozen food section. I know you're aware of that, but there's one product that I kept over the years, like everybody just raved about. So I was like, oh, I need to try them. They're chicken soup dumplings. They're frozen chicken soup dumplings. Oh, I love those. Yeah, they're so good. I love them.
But I didn't look at the nutrition information. I just bought them to try them. And I had them for dinner one night. And then like an hour later, I was starving. And I'm like, why am I so hungry? And I took the box out of the recycling bin to look at it. And I was like, oh, it's only 200 calories.
I thought it was a whole meal. Guys, look in a positive way. Look at your nutrition labels on these frozen dinners because a lot of times it's like not a meal. Like it makes me think of the Minnesota starvation study where it's like technically they were studying starvation, but these men were still eating 2,000 calories a day. And if you're having three meals a day and each meal is 290 smart ones or whatever, that's worse than starvation.
Right, which is not, everybody has different caloric needs, but I think we can safely say that 200 calories is not a meal. It's not a meal, you know? But it is a fun snack for me, and I wanted like, get out of the mindset of like, and I know we're gonna talk about this in a second, but like, a hot little dinner can be a snack, you know? Like, yes, what made me think of it was looking at the calories, because there's a, what's my favorite one? It's a frozen, it's a smart ones frozen dinner, chicken and chalata, suisa.
It's like these two tiny little enchiladas over a bed of rice with like some veggies in it. It's so good. Yum City. And there's like, there's like a good amount of protein and there's 12 grams of protein, but it's 290 calories. Okay. That's not dinner, but that is a very delicious snack when it's like maybe I've had a small breakfast. I'm going out to lunch later, but I'm hungry or maybe it's like five o'clock and I need something to wet my whistle. And it's like easy. You just pop it in the micro.
Yeah, these things are my favorite snacks. Yeah. Okay. It's it's funny that you thought that maybe this would frost my cookies or like, you know, that I would fight back on this. This makes so much sense to me. Oh, good.
Yeah, okay. Yeah, because this, I've actually always said this about these frozen dinners. They're so unsatisfying to me. Yeah. Like as they are intended, which is as a meal, it's so unsatisfying. And I understand why people gravitate towards them because it's like this pre-made meal that you just, you know, it's a convenience. You stab it with a fork and it's ready, which like, you know, obviously there's a lot of other things you could make as a snack for that many calories, but it might not feel as though like somebody prepared a meal for you.
So that makes a lot of sense. But also something I've tried to untangle in my own brain is like, I categorize foods as this is a snack food. This is a meal food. And the meal food cannot be eaten as a snack. And the snack food cannot be eaten as a meal. I have grown so much.
further from that thinking, but it used to be debilitating. It used to be like, and it kept me from listening to my cravings because I oftentimes, you know, I'm kind of a sweet scale. Like I might like be craving, this is a random combo that I crave a lot. I love a banana, like a sliced banana with chunky peanut butter and then like some chocolate chips. Oh yeah. And like mixing it all together and eating it like it's chocolate cake. Like I love that shit.
To me, sometimes that's a little bit too much for a snack. It's a little too dense. But I wasn't allowing myself to have that as a meal, because to me, that's not a meal. You don't eat bananas and peanut butter, but why not? Why the fuck not? You can always have a snack two hours later. 100%.
I think like doing away with the labels and similarly, if something is a meal, an example off the top of my head is a sandwich. To me, a sandwich, you eat that for lunch.
And oddly enough, in my mind, you don't eat that for dinner. That's another weird sandwich is like only belongs at lunch. Right? That's how we think of it. So that's another thing that I've tried to break out of. I actually have a hard time with that because like making a turkey sandwich for dinner feels wrong. It does. But my point is,
Why can't you just have a half a sandwich and call it a snack? Yeah. Why do you have to have the whole sandwich and call it a meal? And there's no other time of day that you can dain to eat a sandwich. I find that strange and wrong. It is strange and wrong. And people do think it's a meal. You can get a plate and you can put two pieces of bread.
with some slices of ham and cheese and it cut it diagonally. That's the only way to cut a sandwich. It tastes better. It tastes better. And a couple chips and they'd be like, this is a meal. No, it's not. That's a snack. Yes. And take the labels out of it. If you want a sandwich and chips, have a sandwich and chips, don't obsess over, well, this isn't enough calories to make them. Just eat it. That's what you want. You'll get hungry later. Have something then.
I really like how I'm breaking out of the things having to be snacks or meals. Why do we torture ourselves this way? It's a food roll. It's just another thing from... Is this from diet culture? It's from diet culture. I think so because I think it's... But it's not logical in any way is what I'm saying because it's not always the thing that's necessarily more filling that you think. So here's another example.
Pizza, to me, is a meal. That's dinner. You order a pizza, you have two, three slices. That's a meal.
Andy eats pizza in between his meals. Like if he's hungry and he's out walking around the city, he'll stop in a slice shop, get a slice and that he considers that a snack to me. Yeah. So like when I first learned that about him, that like we would go out to dinner and then maybe after or maybe we were planning to have dinner in an hour and he'd stop and get a slice like to tide him over. I was like, what's the
fuck are you doing? To me it was so insane and it's no longer insane to me because I think back to like all the times I had pizza for dinner and like it's not really like a slice is really not that much.
No, it's really not. So like it makes total sense. I don't know why my thinking about this was so rigid. I was just like, you're stopping for a slice at 4.30 in the afternoon. Like to me, that was crazy. It doesn't seem natural that it is.
But it is there's nothing more natural. There's nothing more natural. What a great snack. A slice of pizza. A slice of pizza. And I'm not like like a slice. That's really, truly just enough to tide you over for a couple hours. Like it is the perfect snack. Now that said, I still don't do that. Like if I'm hungry, I still don't stop at a slice shop and grab a slice of pizza. I'm like scared of you respect it, but you don't practice. I respect it. I don't practice it. Like I'm scared that it'll spoil my appetite. Yeah.
But then logically, I'm like, but it won't.
Here's what's new. One bonus episode with even more emails and advice, and another where we follow up with past email writers who could be you. While we won't be releasing new meditations in the new year, don't worry. All of our past meditations will stay available on the feed for you to enjoy any time. Plus, we'll have a new meditation playlist for our Spotify listeners. To sign up now, head to subscribe.betches.com and select oversharing.com the fuck down.
We're so excited about creating this new bonus content, talking to more of you, hearing your stories, sharing some of our own and reminding us all to calm the fuck down. Okay. So I think one of, I've been thinking about this and is one of the factors that made up factors, by the way, that we use to separate a snack from a meal. Is it heat?
You know, oh, interesting. Like a hot, hot food to me is like a dinner food or a meal food, but a cold food. Yes. You know, like, like cheese and crackers and olives is a snack, but like pasta is dinner. Well, this is, this reminds me of when girl dinner became popular. Oh, I have so many thoughts about the charcuterie plate as your dinner or whatever. No, but you're so right. I think that is it because going back to the sandwich thing,
a turkey sandwich with mayo and cheese and tomato lettuce. That to me is so clearly lunch. And if you suggest that it's dinner, you're so wrong. You're so dead wrong.
A Philly cheesesteak, however. That could be dinner. That's a dinner, and I think it's just because it's hot. I had that for dinner last night, actually. I love Philly cheesesteak. It is so bomb. A Philly cheesesteak, or if you're in the New York area, a chopped cheese, pretty much the same thing. I love a chopped cheese. I love a chopped cheese. When I'm never in the Bronx, but if I ever am in the Bronx, that's like the first stop is at a bodega get a chopped cheese. Oh, yeah. Because that's where they invented it.
in the Bronx. Yes, and yes, allegedly, we should go. Yeah. Girls trip to the Bronx get her chopped cheese. I don't know if I've ever been to the Bronx. I used to I used to have a hair person a colorist, but I would and she lived in the Bronx and I would go
to her house in the Bronx so that she would color my hair. And I would stop at the corner. There was this really good bodega and they would make the most incredible chopped cheese. Eat it on a park bench and then I would go get my hair done. It was just like the best day ever. Actually, this is a good food. We have a listener we have to get back to. She sent me like a personal DM. Like I'm coming to New York. Like I would love. I saw that. Keep forgetting. So anyways, if you're listening to this, get a chopped cheese. They're different everywhere. They're very delicious if you eat meat. And you can get it at a bodega.
Yeah, although some of them, you gotta make sure the grill is clean. I guess do some research. Make sure the grill is, if the grill is dirty, then it's not gonna be good. It's gonna be too greasy. It will taste even better. It will taste like all the other sandwiches that I'm kidding. Do you really think that? No, because I think there are people who really feel that way and I don't. I feel like it needs to be like on a,
Whatever, we're getting so far. Anyways, but heat. I feel like heat is one of our biases when it comes to what's a snack and what's a meal. Like, I'm trying to think of something hot. Soup. That is a snack. Oh, I was trying to think of another thing. A soup is not a snack. But it should be. But it should be. A cup of soup is a great snack. That's such a good. Oh, my God. I'm going to have soup as a snack. That's a good idea. Especially now, it's fucking freezing.
Warm up your bones with a miso soup. Oh, so good. This show is just Emily making me hungry every episode. Jazz, do you have an idea for a snack that could be meal or meal that could be a snack? When I think of hot snacks, my mind, you think of me,
She had to, she had had to do it. You teeter up. My brain goes immediately to like 90s nostalgia snacks, like a platter of like pizza bagels and like, totinos. Oh, that's a hot snack. Or like the little like, where are those things they were like? I mean, rings.
She's making a circular motion with her finger. Like they're like wrapped up. They might be Totinos, but they're like little, like they're like tacos. Are they filled with something? Yeah, they're like tacos with their taquitos. Yes. My next door neighbor used to always have taquitos in her freezer. We never had shit like this. Like in my house, we did not have that in my house. Like when we came home from school or like after school snack,
You know, it's like you just throw some shit in the oven or the toaster oven from the freezer, but it wasn't like dinner. Hell yeah, or pizza bagels. What that iconic commercial, pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at supper time. When pizza's on a bagel, you can have pizza anytime. Fun fact, I did not realize it until literally two years ago that that was based on a real song.
It makes so much more sense when you're talking about pizza. That's the song about meals being snacks and snacks being meals. That's our anthem. Pizza in the morning. Pizza in the evening. You cook in the morning. Soup in the evening. Super in the evening. Super in the evening. Yeah, it doesn't really. Wait, what's your favorite kind of soup? Just random? Oh, I like a Greek lemon chicken rice soup. It's called a word. I can't say the word. It's such a long name. I have a little tomato.
Oh, Jazz knows what it's like. Our Greek princess. Sorry, can you say what it is? Can you say this is my favorite soup? Avril lemono soup. Yeah, okay. That's my favorite soup. I'm Greek and so you're welcome. Do you like that soup? Oh, love. It's so good. My dad would always make it for me when I was sick growing up and it is so good because Greeks notoriously love to over lemon everything. Yeah, it's delicious. It's what I get it from Zorba's. I took you there.
Yes. Actually, I got it with you. Yes. No, I honestly, it's such a good treat. Like, whenever I go to a Greek restaurant, that is a very nice treat. I am a fan of, and I'm like hesitating right now because I feel like people don't like this soup, but it's my favorite soup. Split pee. Do you like split pee soup? Split pee soup is like, um,
It's like avocado to me and that I always thought I didn't like it because I didn't try it. And so I haven't tried it and I think I don't like it. But who knows? Maybe what's interesting is both those things are green and I feel like often when something's green, people decide they don't like it. I have a bias. Yeah. I have a green bias. You should see Wicked. Elseables.
ugly, not kidding. She's a fabulous. She's amazing. No, but I love the split pea soup. And part of it, I think, is nostalgic because my mom and I used to go to the mall and there was an obon pen in the mall. Are you familiar with the obon pen? No, nobody says it like that. That's because this is America. How do you say it? Obon pen. It's where it's nobody says croissant. Like it's a croissant because we're speaking. So how do you say it? Obon pen?
That's literally the same thing. But the way you were saying it was like, oh, that's OK. That's how you say it. If we were walking down the street and you were like, let's go to a bomb. Wait, wait, wait, how do you say LePancotidien? Oh, I just don't even try. I don't even try. I sent an ad because I did used to go there a lot. So I will agree with you that it may be like a French founder and maybe that's why. But it's a terrible name because nobody can pronounce it. Like something needs to be
easily pronounced by everybody in order to be a good name. So I don't enjoy saying it, but I do say it in the correct way. I'm sorry. So there was one of those in ABP in the mall. And my mom and I used to get this. They had a split piece soup with ham and we would get it in a bread bowl. And then we would also get their caprese sandwich. And we would like split both.
Yeah. So I think I have that positive nostalgic association with Split P soup. I love it so much, but I recently heard somebody talking about like how it's nasty or like how like nobody likes that soup. And I was like, wait, I thought everybody liked that. Like you just don't think about these things. I feel like it's not a commonly popularly loved
soup. It's not. But it's so good, especially when it has like little pieces of ham in it that gives it that flavor. I mean, I like peas and I like ham. So let's go get some split peas here. We'll find a proper establishment for us to get some, especially
a bread bowl. It's a fucking good. Anyway, you also you listed a few things on here that you already said cheese and crackers, you know, you can really and all of and all but also like, um, like chopped meat or, uh, like cold cuts, like a charcuterie plate. I think we've all accepted can be made into a meal. Totally. And
It's quite often the most delicious meal that you can do because it's like a choose your own adventure. You're like making little combinations and that is what we're talking about when we talk about the satisfaction factor. It's kind of like playing with your food a little bit. Yeah, it's fun. Like making different combos. I've been buying concoctions. Manchego blocks lately because
It's like, I love Manchego, but I just, I always wait till I'm at a restaurant to enjoy it. And it's like, you can just buy it at any grocery store. No, get that shit at home and also get some fake jam. Spread it on a cracker, put a little chunk of Manchego. I'm all over it. You might as well be at a five-star restaurant. I'm all over it. The starter course. You also wrote a protein shake as a snack. Okay, I agree, but I also disagree. Okay. I think in a pinch, it can be a meal replacement. I think it's better than nothing. It's better than just drinking coffee.
Yeah, okay. Like I would say if you're the type of person that you're always on the go and you stop and get like a latte and you think that's gonna sustain you, try pouring a protein shake into your coffee instead of milk. Yeah. And that like boosts it up and makes it more of a meal. So easy to convince on things. But I'm like, I don't, but not, but I agree with you in that like not every day. Like that's giving slim fast.
Yeah, exactly. A protein, a protein shake as my lunch every day, like that's giving ED. Because they call it, it is giving ED. They call it meal replacement shakes, you know, and it's like, I feel like it's not a meal.
the snack. And if you're a fitness girlie and you're trying to build your muscles and you're going and you're having like weightlifting sessions, a protein shake is a great thing to drink after the gym when it's not dinner time yet or it's not lunch time yet, but you need sustenance and it's really going to aid in muscle recovery.
Um, so that's very much not a meal replacement. That's just like a supplement to supplement, you know? So I'm with you on that. However, I think in a pinch, it's better than just like, you know, grabbing an apple or pre-bagged apple slices. Um, I had to dig in there.
Can we to close? I would love to circle back to girl dinner. Yeah. Girl dinner. Girl dinner. Girl dinner. Girl dinner. Girl dinner. They did so many remixes to that and then it just like went away. You know it's Alonamar's sister is girl dinner.
Well, like she branded it. Yeah, she was that she is girl dinner. What do you mean she's girl dinner? Somebody started the trend and it's alone a Mars sister. So she started it. It went viral and then everyone started. So is that her voice when the girl that's like, this is my meal and I call it girl dinner? Yep, that's her. Oh, that's so funny. Isn't that fun? I love that. Yeah. Wow, the Mars sisters are really killing it out here. They really started a movement.
Yeah. Um, although it is kind of like she more so started the commentary on a movement that had been happening behind closed doors for a long time. We've been having girl dinner for ages and I'm not anti girl dinner. Um, I'm actually extremely pro pro. Yeah, I'm pro girl dinner because it's like, yeah, let's take things that we usually associate as snacks. You can have it as a meal. Like if you're hungry, eat what's around.
And it's like fun things that are actually appealing to you in the moment rather than saying I need a protein and a carb and a veggie. And I need to like fit my meal into this rigid system that I think is correct. It's like, no, I can actually put like fun foods all together that I really want and make it a meal. What I don't like is when people take
a measly little, you know, cheese and cracker platter and they call it girl dinner, but you're like, that's not enough. Yeah, I've seen it. See, I think when Olivia Marr invented girl dinner, I think she did it in a very positive way, but I have seen iterations of it where it's like somebody's antidepressant and like half a candy bar and like a baby bell cheese. And it's like, this is girl dinner. I'm like, that is not
any kind of right or like people will make fun of it kind of and show like
clinking wine glasses and be like, girl dinner. Like to imply our dinner is the drink. So the girl dinner trend has been used for evil, which it's going to happen with anything. That's going to happen with anything. But I think the spirit of the trend is the positive. So I kind of want to start a new trend. OK, so we've obviously heard of girl dinner. I would like to present to you. I don't know why I'm Italian right now.
She's doing a lot of hand gesturing. I would like to present to you, big girl dinner. Okay. It's girl dinner, but bigger. And you don't have to be a big girl to have big girl dinner. Stick with me. So, for example, we were just talking about how diet frozen dinners, you know, they are not a full meal, but they're hot, you know, it's like a hot meal.
So a big girl dinner would be, and I thought of this because this is like what I had for dinner the other night, I had like a 290 calorie smart ones frozen dinner with two slices of reheated pizza. And it looked like, Oh God, that's too much food. No, it's not. It's girl dinner, but it's big girl dinner. It's like two meals, but it's two little meals.
It makes big girl dinner. Okay. So you don't need just one main. You can have two main. Right. So rather than putting snacks all together and making girl dinner, you're putting things that typically would be thought of as meals, but they're small and they're not truly satisfying on their own. You get it. That's
Big girl, I totally get this. It's like, maybe you went to Boston Market the other day and they gave you a side of mac and cheese. And then, and then you also have like leftover rotisserie chicken. Yes. And maybe you have some leftover pot roast and you have a little bit of that and you put it as big girl dinner. You know, things always occur to me while we're recording this that I'm like, should I even say this out loud? Like I'm showing my psycho. I also have. Oh my God.
I have a mental block with eating multiple different proteins at a meal, like eating chicken and steak. I'd rather have more chicken than mix the proteins, and it's a severe mental block that I have to make zero sense. No mixed grills for you.
Right. So it's always in that situation that I'm like, I don't know, like, I don't really want to get the platter with the lamb and the chicken. And it's like, why though? Why? So this is something I could try is like, I have a little leftover steak. I have a little leftover chicken. Put that together. Big girl dinner. Big girl dinner. I'm so excited for this with other stuff because it can't just be bad. Oh my God, guys, tag us. Big girl dinner. And then, you know, me and Emily too.
I got in your big girl dinners. I love this. I really do love this. I feel like you need to take this to take talk, even though it's going to be bad. We'll make this a clip. Okay. Yeah, yeah. We'll make it a clip. Nice. You guys got a peek behind the curtain today. Do you have anything else to add or are we set? I think we're set. Okay, guys, that's it for today's episode. Be sure to send your questions to goodbodies at veggies.com to get them answered.
Follow us at Everything's Fine on Instagram. If you liked this episode, please write us a review. Rate, review, subscribe to the show, and follow me at Lauren Hope Press. Follow me at Lubination, and remember, the next time you have a hot snack, remember, you are what you eat. Ooh, girl.
Good Bodies is produced by Shannon Sassone and Lauren Hope Crass, editing by Will Maxwell, social media by Lauren Hope Crass, guest booking by Allie Friedlander. Be sure to follow everything's fine on Instagram and send us your emails to goodbodies at betches.com.