Hello Everyone! I recently started my clinical rotation at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central in Colorado Springs. This is at least a one hour or longer commute (depending on traffic and weather) on top of an eight and half hour day. With my other many demands I was going to need a plan in place to help me make sure I stay healthy. Heathy is a vague word and everyone’s definition is a little bit different. For me it’s about the balance of rotation demands, home demands, internship demands (assignments and projects), exercise/activity, meals, and socializing. I first started with the challenge of getting meals organized looking for ways to have meals prepared in advance. Some ideas I checked out were a personal chef, prepackaged/processed commercial meals, pre-plan menus with weekend cooking, and picking up something on the way home. I had some issues with all of these possible solutions; personal chef was way too expensive, prepackaged/processed commercial meals have too much sodium, and take out is not a good solution for every day eating as it can be expensive and high in calories. The solution of pre-plan menus and cooking on the weekend is what I have done in the past and would have normally worked out. However, my schedule is crazier than it normally is and now my weekends are spent working on assignments and projects as well as time with my husband and maybe some socializing if time permits. During my search for a personal chef I came across a local company that prepares and packages healthy meals from scratch which are then cooked at home. The meals are prepared with ingredients I’d use and it seemed to be a good balance of cost and convenience. This has been a wonderful solution for us. The directions for cooking the meals are easy to follow, the time needed to cook them has been minimal, and they taste great! As I work on solutions for my other challenges, like exercise/activity, I no longer have to worry so much about meals.
