There is nothing like cold pizza. I cannot tell you how many times in my early adult years I woke up and grabbed a slice of cold cheese pizza out the fridge. Once I turned 30, life changed drastically for me, beginning with the loss of my father. Weeks later, after doing my yearly physical, I was notified my cholesterol was slightly elevated and I instantly knew it was time for a change. My wife and I vowed to start eating healthy and were in search of a healthier lifestyle mentally, spiritually, and physically. We wanted to be living examples for our daughter.
It is so easy to get caught up in your busy lives and hunger strikes that somehow put your health on the back-burner. I have spent thousands on lunch. Looking back, I used to spend nearly $100 weekly on fast food. It is so easy to make the decision to stop at fast food restaurants during lunch or on our way home from work. It's almost inevitable to resist a Chick-fil-A fish sandwich, a big Mac or even a box of Popeyes chicken.
But we must ask ourselves, are these the healthiest options we are choosing to consume?
Courtesy of Chef Anthony Thomas
I spent a whole year dedicating myself to a healthier lifestyle. Step one began in the kitchen. Instead of stopping at my favorite fast food restaurant on my way home from work, I started stopping by my favorite grocery store. It was a joy to pick up fresh vegetables, wild caught fish and organic meats. The next step was mastering meal prep.
As a chef, so many customers have told me they spend countless hours in the kitchen meal prepping their food, ultimately to give up. I know it may seem like it is time consuming setting aside time to prepare meals ahead of time but meal prepping can alleviate any poor decision-making for your food choices in the future.
Here's a quick list of lean proteins healthy vegetables and great carbs to choose from when going to the grocery store:
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
- Fresh Wild Caught Salmon Filets
- Fresh Wild Caught Cod
- Wild Shrimp
- Brown Rice
- Whole Grain Protein Pasta
- Sweet Potatoes
- Fresh Green Beans
- Asparagus Tips
- Fresh Kale
- Spinach
- Romaine Salad
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Brussel Sprouts
- Zucchini
The food that we consume not only is a part of our daily routine, but it also influences our daily actions and emotions. In addition, a clean diet will help aid in the process of weight loss. I know for most ladies, weight is a subject of conversation daily so counting calories really helps.
Something else that can help on your health journey is a book I created to help with meal prep, "Meal Prep is the New Leftovers: Making Healthy Eating Fun Again". This book is a step-by-step guide on how to help one meal prep from beginning to end and help alleviate some of the mistakes we have with meal prepping. It also includes a 22-day meal plan that tells you what to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks.
To give you a taste, a few of my favorite meals from my book's meal plan can be found below:
Lemon Garlic Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Courtesy of Chef Anthony Thomas
Egg White & Spinach Cupcakes
Courtesy of Chef Anthony Thomas
Buffalo Cauliflower
Courtesy of Chef Anthony Thomas
Chef Anthony's book "Meal Prep is the New Leftovers: Making Healthy Eating Fun Again" can be found on Amazon (here) and also comes with a 22-Day Meal Plan guide to keep one on track. You can follow @chefanthonydc for more fun, friendly and healthy recipes.
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak