Transcript Episode 7: How to Overcome Feeling Concerned & Meal Plan with Confidence

Karla Moreno-Bryce: "Even though I've been vegan for a few years and feel great, I'm still sometimes concerned my baby isn't getting all the vitamins he needs. It's a constant fear of not being good enough."

Maybe you can relate? This quote is something a vegan parent shared with me. They mention feeling concerned even though they have their own nutrition under control. The constant fear of just maybe not providing the right foods, portion sizes, and other important nutrients that support the growth of their vegan baby. The lack of confidence in themselves to know they’re doing things right. 

I can understand where this vegan parent comes from and I want to bring some peace of mind by sharing 2 stories of past clients who battled feelings of worry and concern. Where they pushed through them by learning the foundation of how to feed their kids at each stage of growth so that they can come out on the other side.

One where they have more clarity and confidence on exactly what to provide to meet the nutrient needs of their vegan kids so that they continue to thrive on a vegan diet. And more importantly, one where they feel proud as a vegan parent to not only live a lifestyle that brings meaning and purpose to their life but one that they can also raise their children on.

In today's episode, I'll be sharing the stories of these two past clients but I'm also going to share with you one piece of advice that you can begin to practice at home so that you can move forward in knowing you're meeting your individual child's nutrient requirements.

The first story I want to share with you is from my past client Kim. As a first time mom to an adorable 8-month old at the time, Kim knew following a vegan lifestyle with her family was important to her. After following a vegan diet herself for several years, she knew she wanted to continue on this path with her 8-month old. However, she had doubts as to whether what and how she was feeding her family was adequate. Maybe you can relate? At the end of the day, she wanted to feel good about what she was providing to her family, knowing that it was everything her baby needed to grow strong and healthy on a vegan diet. And more importantly, she wanted to enjoy mealtimes with her family. 

Fast forward, Kim felt relieved and confident in feeding her family after working together. It wasn’t long until I was actually getting meal ideas from her, which inspired me to create a Green Pea Cherry Smoothie and you can find the link to that recipe in the show notes. But before Kim experienced that success, she experienced anxiety around many things related to feeding her family. Leaving her feeling unsure about her meal and supplementation routine. 

And perhaps you may be experiencing something similar but Kim leaned in to her own belief that she can do this. She had the tools, knowledge and resources to successfully feed her vegan family, she just needed that reassurance. And I’m going to read to you what she said: “Working with Karla truly empowered me. I went from being anxious, dreading meals, laying in bed at night wondering if I was providing my son with all of the vital nutrients, to feeling confident and happy when we sit down to eat. Food is such an important part of my family, we love to eat. It was such a relief to once again enjoy sharing meals as a healthy, vegan family.”

Empowered. Relief. Confident. Happy. These are adjectives that Kim used to describe how she felt after our time together and while I’m so proud of the transformation that she had, I know this can happen to you as well. 

Next up, meet Fernanda. As a first time mom, Fernanda felt lost on what to make for her selective vegan daughter. I remember our first interaction, her biggest challenge was answering the question of “What do I make?” causing a lot of stress and feeling worried about her daughter’s growth simply because of food preferences at meal times. 

This idea of feeling stuck on what to make or what to meal plan seems to be a common feeling for many vegan parents I’ve worked with. To be honest, it’s something I’ve experienced too. 

Fernanda went from feeling overwhelmed with her meal planning to feeling relieved and more at ease preparing meals for her family. She found meal prep a lot easier and enjoyable with the foundation for feeding her daughter a vegan diet. 

But let’s go back to that question of “What do I make?” Fernanda was preparing new plant foods everyday for her daughter. She knew the importance of variety of foods and wanted to provide the very best for her daughter. This caused a lot of stress because she was cooking several times per day, leaving her tired and just overwhelmed with the fact that she was spending an incredible time in the kitchen. She wanted help and she wanted a much simpler way of meal planning. 

Meal planning also felt overwhelming because her daughter was selective with her food. This made meal planning more challenging because she didn’t know what to prepare or how to flavor meals to “get” her daughter to eat and meet her nutritional needs. 

So, together we brainstormed and came up with a plan using inspiration from dishes she was already making, so that she could break free from the overwhelming question of what to prepare for her family. When she visually saw how this meal plan would work for her family, she said and I quote “I can’t believe it’s that easy!”. Meal planning felt like too much work. It felt stressful but she found herself feeling relieved. 

She no longer carried that stress of not knowing what to make because she had the foundation of what meals should look like for a vegan child. But beyond that, she had the tools to know how to help her daughter at meal times through her picky eating. And in the end, she found reassurance that she was already on the right path. That meals didn’t have to be as complicated as she made them out to be and that a little step back in not taking her daughter’s intake a responsibility was all it took to feel confident. 

The truth is, feeding your vegan child is much simpler than you think. We can simplify meal planning for ourselves and still meet our child’s nutritional needs. It’s easy to get caught up in feeling doubt of your own meal planning but even when that feeling starts to creep up, it can certainly be quieted knowing you have the foundation to feed your family.  

I want you to know that you can attain the same success and clarity that both Kim and Fernanda did. You don’t need to be superhuman, you just need to believe in yourself. 

So, remember at the beginning of the episode I said I’ll be sharing with you one piece of advice so that you can break free from those paralyzing feelings that keep you feeling stuck on what to meal plan? Well, I want you to stick with what’s already working for you and your family. When you focus your attention on what’s working, on what feels like a good balance for you, that’s when things start to shift toward becoming a little less stressful. You begin to spend much less time thinking about “am I doing enough” or “am I doing the right thing”. 

I want to validate your thoughts around questioning whether you’re providing everything that your vegan child needs because they are valid. They are your inner thoughts that are potentially leading you to feel hesitant about your meal planning and thus wanting change so that you can break free from uncertainty. 

So, let’s say that your vegan child only likes to eat white rice but you want to provide other types of grains in their diet because you’re worried that they aren’t meeting their nutrient needs on just white rice. Well, what if you just switch how you serve white rice or what you pair white rice with that meal? Would this bring a little bit more relief and less stress around what to meal plan? Would this help simplify meal planning for you? Would this bring a little bit more peace of mind that your vegan child actually eats something at dinner? 

Meal planning can always be improved. But I’m sharing with you just this small piece of advice to help you simplify meal planning by following what’s already working for your and your family at this given moment. You don’t have to take great leaps to feeding your vegan kids when small, gradual adjustments can help reach your goals in the same way. 

So when those doubts, concerns, or any other feeling of overwhelm begin to rise to the surface, I encourage you to be aware of them and then remind yourself of what’s working in your feeding dynamics. 

When you change the way you view things, things become a little bit less stressful. You can have more clarity and certainty of how you feed your family and I am confident that this is something you can accomplish. I know that because many of my past clients have. 

With the right foundation for feeding your vegan kids and a more desirable approach to take at meal times, you can feed your family in a way that’s much more enjoyable. And this is something that I teach inside the Vegan Kids Nutrition Blueprint where you have the nutritional foundation and feeding dynamics at your fingertips so that you can leave behind the overwhelm of meal planning and have more clarity and confidence with what you provide to your vegan kids. 

Meals don’t have to be stressful. You can look forward to them and enjoy them with your family, the same way Kim and Fernanda have.  And I am confident you can achieve that. 

If you want to get started on your own path there, I invite you to grab my free Essential Starter Kit for Vegan Kids. You can download your copy with the link in the show notes. In this guide, I show you what nutrients your child needs, what and when to begin certain supplements, as well as other feeding practices that help support a proper growth and development for your vegan child. 

Alright my friends, I hope that today’s episode helps you know that you are enough. That meal planning can be simplified without adding more work or stress to your life. Talk to you soon. Bye for now.