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Free 7 Day Healthy Meal Plan (April 13-19)

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy. A free 7-day, flexible weight loss meal plan including breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas and a shopping list. All recipes include macros and Weight Watchers points. Free 7 Day Healthy Meal Plan (April 13-19) Springtime brings warmer weather, longer days, and evenings packed with sports, practices, and school activities! With schedules filling up fast, dinnertime can easily become a challenge. That’s why having a few trusty slow cooker meals waiting at home, like my Slow Cooker Chili, Pulled Pork or Chicken Enchiladas can be a total game changer. Prep it in the earlier in the day, and by the time practice wraps up, dinner is ready to go! If you’re new to my meal plans, I’ve been sharing these free, 7-day flexible healthy meal plans (you can see my previous meal plans here) that are meant as a guide, with plenty of wiggle room for you to add more food, coffee, beverages, fruits, snacks, dessert, wine, etc. or swap recipes out for meals you prefer, you can search for recipes by course in the index. Depending on your goals, you should aim for at least 1500 calories* per day. There’s no one size fits all, this will range by your goals, your age, weight, etc. There’s also a precise, organized grocery list that will make grocery shopping so much easier and much less stressful. Save you money and time. You’ll dine out less often, waste less food and you’ll have everything you need on hand to help keep you on track. Lastly, if you’re on Facebook join my Skinnytaste Facebook Community where everyone’s sharing photos of recipes they are making, you can join here. I’m loving all the ideas everyone’s sharing! If you wish to get on the email list, you can subscribe here so you never miss a meal plan! Ultimate Skinnytaste Meal Planner Get the Skinnytaste Ultimate Meal Planner! The 52 week spiral bound meal planner has weekly meal planning grids you can tear out and put on your fridge if you wish, a 12-week meal plan, 30 (15 new) recipes, and tear-out grocery lists. I love starting my week with gratitude, affirmations and intentions, so I included a space for that as well. I hope you will love this as much as I do! Buy the Skinnytaste meal planner here: With grocery prices soaring, many of us are having to adjust, scale back and/or get more creative with our meals. One of the absolute BEST ways to stay within a budget and maintain healthy eating habits is to MEAL PLAN. You can get more 5-day Budget Friendly Meal Plans by signing up for Relish+ (get a 14-day free trial here!) Meal Plan: Breakfast and lunch Monday-Friday, are designed to serve 1 while dinners and all meals on Saturday and Sunday are designed to serve a family of 4. Some recipes make enough leftovers for two nights or lunch the next day. The grocery list is comprehensive and includes everything you need to make all meals on the plan. MONDAY (4/13)B: Chorizo Egg Bites with 1 cup pineappleL: Spicy Canned Salmon Rice BowlD: Pesto Pasta with Asparagus, Asparagus, Peas and Pistachios Total Calories: 1,131* TUESDAY (4/14)B: Chorizo Egg Bites with 1 cup pineappleL: LEFTOVER Pesto Pasta with Asparagus, Asparagus, Peas and PistachiosD: Best Chicken Enchiladas with 1 ounce avocado and Black Beans and Rice Total Calories: 1,190* WEDNESDAY (4/15)B: Chorizo Egg Bites with an orangeL: LEFTOVER Best Chicken Enchiladas with 1 ounce avocado and Black Beans and RiceD: One Pan Roasted Potatoes, Sausage and Peppers Total Calories: 1,114* THURSDAY (4/16)B: Chorizo Egg Bites with an orangeL: LEFTOVER Best Chicken Enchiladas with 1 ounce avocado and Black Beans and RiceD: Ground Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry with ¾ cup brown rice** Total Calories: 1,279* FRIDAY (4/17)B: Berry Cottage Cheese Breakfast BowlL: Spicy Canned Salmon Rice BowlD: Drunken Noodles Total Calories: 1,108* SATURDAY (4/18)B: Green Smoothie Bowl (recipe x 4)L: Loaded Nachos with Turkey, Beans and CheeseD: DINNER OUT Total Calories: 790* SUNDAY (4/19)B: Crustless Quiche with 1 cup strawberriesL: ¼ White Bean SaladD: The Best Turkey Meatloaf with Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus with Dijon Vinaigrette Total Calories: 1,165* *This is just a guide, women should aim for around 1500 calories per day. Here’s a helpful calculator to estimate your calorie needs. I’ve left plenty of wiggle room for you to add more food such as coffee, beverages, fruits, snacks, dessert, wine, etc.**Make an extra cup of rice for lunch Friday *Google doc Print Shopping List Shopping list Produce 1 small pineapple 2 medium mangoes 2 medium oranges 4 medium bananas 1 (1-pound) PLUS 1 (2-pound) packages strawberries 2 (6-ounce) packages fresh berries (your choice) 2 medium limes 1 small PLUS 2 medium lemons 1 large (7-ounce) Hass avocado 1 small PLUS 1 medium English cucumbers 1 ½ pounds asparagus 2 medium PLUS 1 large red bell pepper 2 large cubanelle peppers 1 medium jalapeno (optional, for Loaded Nachos) 2 large heads garlic 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger 3 large heads broccoli florets 3 ½ pounds Russet potatoes 2 large bunches scallions 1 medium PLUS 1 large bunch fresh cilantro 1 medium bunch fresh culantro (if you can find it. Optional, for Sofrito) 1 small bunch fresh Italian parsley 1 large bunch/container fresh basil 1 (5-ounce) bag/clamshell baby spinach 1 (5-ounce) bag/clamshell baby arugula 1 (1-pound) container Campari tomatoes 1 container fresh Pico de Gallo (or ingredients to make your own) 1 small red onion 1 small PLUS 3 medium yellow onions Meat, Poultry and Fish 9 ounces thick cut deli ham 1 pound Italian chicken sausage 1 rotisserie chicken (or buy 1 pound raw breast and cook yourself) 1 ⅓ pound 93% lean ground turkey ½ pound 99% lean ground turkey breast 1 pound 93% lean ground beef 1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp Condiments and Spices Extra virgin olive oil Canola oil Cooking spray Olive oil spray (or get a Misto oil mister) Kosher salt (I like Diamond Crystal) Pepper grinder (or fresh peppercorns)…

From People-Pleasing to Self-Trust: How to Come Back to Yourself

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” ~Carl Jung Where did I want to go out to eat? The question was straightforward, and the answer should have been easy. But as my mind flipped through the options, my thoughts weren’t focused on what I wanted. Instead, I was preoccupied with making the right choice, the one least likely to cause tension. Yes, my partner had asked where I wanted to go. But over time, I learned that answering honestly often came with consequences. My choice might be questioned, dismissed, or turned into a debate. If I tried to stand my ground, I spent the rest of the evening on edge—hyper-aware of the service, the food, the noise, and even the temperature—waiting for something to go wrong. More often than not, I avoided deciding altogether. Ironically, my indecision led to being told I was boring or had no opinion at all. I hadn’t always been this way. Up to my early twenties, I was known as feisty and opinionated. I knew what I wanted and went after it with quiet determination. In fact, it was this confidence and strength that initially drew my partner to me when we met during freshman orientation in college and, not long into our marriage, became a source of tension. Over time, frequent arguments, distorted facts, and the constant questioning of my judgment chipped away at my confidence. I became anxious and second-guessed myself constantly. Keeping the peace in our household became my primary focus, and I went to great lengths to ensure that my partner’s needs were met. With my awareness focused outward, I slowly lost touch with my inner guidance. My survival instincts kicked into high gear, and I became the quintessential people-pleaser. This way of being spilled into my professional life. I believed everyone was smarter, more capable, and better skilled than I was. Whether setting a strategy or executing a project, I overthought every action, wavered on each decision, and deferred to the person with the most authority. In my personal life, my relationships became one-sided. Convinced I was rigid, quiet, and generally uninteresting, I slipped into the role of the easy, low-maintenance friend. I believed that if I expressed disagreement or had strong preferences, the relationship would fall apart. Eventually, I extracted myself from my partner and moved back to my hometown. It was through reuniting with old friends that I clearly saw the person I had become. Having known me before my descent into survival mode, they were surprised by what they saw—my hesitation, my lack of opinions, the way I seemed to shrink from simple preferences. Through their eyes, I remembered the person I used to be. And I recognized how far I had drifted from myself. Though painful, that realization gave me hope. If I had learned to constantly ask myself, “What will keep the peace?” perhaps I could learn to ask myself a different question instead: “What feels true for me right now?” If you are feeling a dawning realization that the person you are now feels smaller than the person you once were, know this is not because you’re weak. It is because somewhere along the way, you learned that shrinking felt safer than standing firm. And if you are wondering what life could be like if you began to notice your preferences and voiced your opinion, read on. Rebuilding Self-Trust Use your body as a barometer. Asking yourself, “What feels true for me right now?” is a powerful question. However, I found myself so out of touch with my wants, needs, and desires that the answer often dissolved into a whirlpool of options and consequences. In an effort to move beyond my confused mind, I turned my attention to my body. A tightness in my chest often meant I was about to agree to something that didn’t feel right. A wave of nausea signaled an emotional response that wasn’t aligned with my true feelings. By practicing tuning into your body, you can begin to pause long enough to notice these physical signals. And they will become a quiet guide, helping you interrupt the automatic urge to override yourself. Start with low-stakes decisions. With time and practice, I began using the physical sensations as guides to what I wanted. I was surprised to discover that I still had desires, needs, and opinions. They hadn’t disappeared—they had simply been buried. But getting re-acquainted with myself was one thing. Using my voice to express what I discovered was another. Speaking up didn’t feel natural. It didn’t feel safe. So I started slowly. I identified the people in my life who would be least likely to push back or dismiss my preferences. I also made sure I didn’t overwhelm my budding decision-making ability by burdening it with anything too heavy. I chose a friend I’d known for twenty-five years as a starting point. Reaching out with a dinner invitation, I included the phrase “I’m really in the mood for Italian.” As my truth rolled off my tongue, I had to resist adding the caveat “but whatever you prefer.“ During dinner I paid close attention to my body and the impulses that surfaced, including the urge to ensure that the evening went smoothly, as if the efficiency of the service, the quality of the food, and even my friend’s experience rested on my shoulders. As you begin this process, you may notice how strong your habitual hypervigilance can be. The weight of trying not to make the “wrong” decision can feel paralyzing, and the impulse to pull back may be almost overwhelming. But with each small, honest choice, that intensity begins to soften. What once felt dangerous starts to feel possible. Practice disappointing others without abandoning yourself. As I expanded into my rediscovered self-awareness, inevitably conflict arose and cooperation was required. I was pleased to discover that I could compromise what I wanted to allow someone else’s needs to be met without losing myself….

Phone Down, Eyes Up: How to Really See the People We Love

“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh Judy was three the first time I missed it. She had spent a solid ten minutes stacking every couch cushion on our living room floor in Vancouver, building what she clearly considered an Olympic-grade landing pad. She climbed up on the couch, stretched her arms out wide, and gave me that look. You know the one. The look kids give you right before they do something that makes your heart jump into your throat. “Baba, watch!” she yelled. My phone was in my hand. It was always in my hand. I was reading a Slack message or an email or maybe nothing at all, just the reflex of pulling down to refresh. I have no memory of what it was. Zero. Whatever it was dissolved completely about four minutes after I read it, because that’s what 90% of notifications actually are: things that feel urgent and then vanish. “One sec, habibti,” I told her. My thumb kept scrolling. She jumped. I heard cushions scatter across the hardwood floor. When I looked up, she was already gone, walking toward her room with a stuffed elephant dragging behind her by one ear. I went right back to my phone. That moment didn’t register as anything at the time. Kids jump off furniture, parents check their phones, nobody files it under “things I’ll regret.” But that was the beginning of a pattern I wouldn’t recognize for years, because the pattern was made of absence, and absences are nearly impossible to see while they’re forming. Over the next two years, the requests kept coming. “Baba, look at this.” “Baba, come see.” “Baba, watch me.” Each one a little quieter than the last. Each one met by a version of me that was technically in the room but had his mind parked somewhere inside a 6.1-inch screen. I ran engineering teams for a living. My entire professional identity was built around responsiveness, around keeping fourteen threads going simultaneously, around never letting a message sit unread for more than a few minutes. I was genuinely proud of how fast I could context switch. I thought it was a superpower. I carried that mentality through our front door every evening and never once questioned whether it belonged there. What I didn’t know, what took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out, was that Judy had been keeping score. There was this Saturday. She was about five. She’d set herself up at the kitchen table with markers and a big sheet of paper, and she was drawing while narrating the entire scene to me in that wild way kids narrate things. The purple dog lived on a rainbow, and his best friend was a cloud named Martin, and they were both invited to a birthday party on the moon, but the purple dog was nervous because he’d never been to space. I was saying “wow” and “oh cool” and “then what happened” at what I thought were convincing intervals. My phone was under the table. I was reading a thread about a deployment that had gone sideways. She stopped talking. I didn’t register the silence immediately. Fifteen seconds went by, maybe twenty, before I noticed and looked up. She was watching me. Her face was completely neutral. Not upset, not hurt in any obvious way. Just watching me the way you watch someone when you’ve confirmed something you already suspected. That’s the face I think about. That neutral, knowing face. Five years old and she had already done the math. Children are paying attention even when, and especially when, you think they aren’t. They don’t need you to announce that your phone is more interesting than they are. They pick it up from the half-second pause before you respond. From the direction your eyes keep drifting. From the way you say “tell me more” while your thumb is still moving. Sarah, my wife, was the one who made me see it. Months later, Judy in bed, both of us sitting at the kitchen counter with our laptops open. Sarah said, “She doesn’t ask you to watch anymore.” Four seconds of silence. “Have you noticed that?” I had not. I sat with that for a while after she said it. I tried to trace it back. When was the last time Judy had grabbed my shirt and said, “Baba, watch”? I could not find the moment. It hadn’t ended. It had evaporated. The way a sound fades out and at some point it’s just gone and you can’t say exactly when it crossed the line from barely there to not there at all. What I understood, sitting at that counter with my laptop still open and glowing in front of me, was that Judy hadn’t stopped wanting me to watch. She had stopped thinking I would. That is a different thing entirely, and it is the worst thing I have ever felt. I did not sleep well that night. I stared at the ceiling and ran through a kind of inventory that I did not enjoy. How many times per day did I pick up my phone? I started counting the next morning and lost track before lunch. I reached for it while the toothbrush was still in my mouth. While the kettle was heating. While walking from the car to the front door, a distance of maybe forty feet, because apparently forty feet of not looking at a screen was too many. At red lights. During meals. In bed next to Sarah while she told me about her day. That one hit especially hard when I actually forced myself to see it. I wasn’t hooked on any particular app. It was the checking itself. The constant pull toward somewhere else, someone else’s conversation, someone else’s emergency, someone else’s opinion about something I would forget within the hour. My phone had turned into a door I walked through a hundred times a day,…

Music and Epilepsy: The Perfect Roommates in a Life Shaped by Seizures | by Guy W. Stoker | Apr, 2026

What happens when the brain that creates music is also shaped by epilepsy? Music and epilepsy might seem like they belong to completely different worlds. One is expressive, creative, and deeply human. The other is neurological, clinical, and often misunderstood. But for some of us, they exist side by side. Epilepsy affects tens of millions of people worldwide. It is not a single experience, but a spectrum. Some seizures are visible and dramatic. Others are subtle and can pass almost unnoticed. A brief pause. A flicker of the eyes. A small, repetitive movement. For those who live alone, particularly if seizures occur during sleep, the condition may remain undiagnosed for years. Beyond the medical reality lies something less visible, but equally significant: stigma. Across cultures, epilepsy has often been misunderstood. In some communities, it is still interpreted through fear or myth rather than medical understanding. In others, a diagnosis can affect independence, employment, and personal relationships. Music, in its own way, is also subject to assumption. People are often judged by what they listen to or create, as though it defines them completely. These assumptions are often inaccurate, yet they persist. So where do these two worlds meet? At first glance, they seem entirely separate. One is artistic and expressive. The other clinical and neurological. But the relationship between them is more complex than it appears. For some people, music becomes part of the seizure experience itself. Certain focal seizures can include musical hallucinations, where melodies or fragments are heard without any external source. In other cases, music can act as a trigger. A rare condition known as musicogenic epilepsy means that a specific piece of music, or even a single moment within it, can provoke a seizure. The trigger is often tied to a strong emotional response. My own life sits at the intersection of these two worlds. I am a pianist, composer, and songwriter who was born with epilepsy. Yet, because of the variability of my seizures and the absence of clear results in clinical tests, I was not formally diagnosed until my late twenties, shortly after my wedding. The diagnosis brought clarity. It also brought consequences. I lost my driving licence, which made it far more difficult to work as a professional musician. Travel became complicated. Opportunities became less accessible. Some people began to worry about the possibility of a seizure during a performance. Alongside this came the long process of finding the right medication, and the reality of its side effects. Fatigue. Anxiety. Cognitive fog. Emotional instability. Suddenly, there was a growing list of things I was advised not to do. Yet one thing remained unchanged. Music. My ability to play. My ability to create. In 2009, while attending the First International Conference on Music and Emotion at Durham University, I encountered the concept of musicogenic epilepsy for the first time. That moment marked the beginning of a new direction in my life. It led me to researchers, collaborations, and eventually to my own work exploring epilepsy through music. What I discovered was striking. While epilepsy had been represented in various art forms, music itself as a direct and intentional response remained relatively underexplored. So I set out to explore it. This resulted in Ictal Variations, a twenty track musical project examining epilepsy from four perspectives: the patient, the carer, the medical profession, and the outside world. Some pieces are intentionally uncomfortable to listen to, reflecting the disorientation and intensity of certain seizure experiences. This journey continued through further work, including Purple Universe, a song based album that gives voice not only to those living with epilepsy, but to epilepsy itself. Because sometimes, what cannot be spoken can still be expressed. Epilepsy is complex, deeply personal, and often difficult to articulate in words. Music, however, has the ability to reach beyond language. As neurologist Dr Stephen C. Schachter once observed, we can often learn more about a person’s experience of epilepsy from what they do not say than from what they do. For that reason, I have come to believe that music and epilepsy are, in many ways, the perfect roommates. Press enter or click to view image in full size Source link

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