Picture the scene: It is 6:00 p.m. You come into the kitchen after another exhausting day of being a devoted wife and mother. The sofa is calling your name and all you want to do is sit down and relax. And then comes the tantalizing question: What’s for dinner?

Have you found yourself in this situation recently? It stands to reason, especially with the coronavirus pandemic, when our kids are home and need to be taken care of, not to mention the regular housework and job requirements. The days go by quickly, and before we know it, it is time to decide what to make for dinner again. After a long and tiring day, the last thing any of us wants to do is to have to figure out what to cook, go to the store if needed, and prepare an entire meal for our family. How can we avoid this dilemma that creeps up on us day after day? Here enters meal planning.

In the days before Purim, we are accustomed to hearing about avoiding dangerous drinking. But Purim is also a time when we are surrounded by plentiful and especially tasty food – from mishloach manos goodies to gourmet seudos – and keeping to their diets is a battle for many people. But does it have to be that way? That’s the question I face as a nutritionist.

It is no secret that today’s society has become obsessed with fad diets and losing weight. Being skinny has become synonymous with being healthy, which is certainly not always the case! Sadly, these ideals are affecting kids at younger and younger ages every year. In fact, research shows that “half of American children between first and third grade want to be thinner, and half of nine- and ten-year-old girls are already dieting.” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011) Just think about that for a minute. Is this really the message we want to be sending to our children? Is this what we want them to be focused on as something of value and importance? Even if we don’t verbalize these messages directly, our children are very clever, and you can bet that they pick up on our behavior and how we speak about our own bodies and ourselves as people.