Time Saving Secrets for Family Dinner

Kathy Kaehler:    It goes back many years. In a nutshell, I thought I was going to go in the direction of teaching physical education and ended up in corporate wellness for a little while, which got me into one-on-one training and taught me how to deal with people on a personal level. I met the right people and, shortly after that, I was interviewing with Jane Fonda for a position on her property, where she had a spa. That introduced me to a handful of celebrities and was the starting point of my own business in training one-on-one. I was then brought onto the Today Show. Since then, I’ve enjoyed success with books, columns and magazines; endorsements of products; and DVDs done with a handful of celebrities. I am still training a celebrity, Julia Roberts, and I still teach two classes a week. I just signed a deal for my eighth book. Then there’s the Sunday Set-up website and program we’re hoping to have on television in the fall.

 

 

Kathy Kaehler:    Well, Sunday Set-up really started as part of an interview process. I would get calls for interviews where the focus would be on exercise. Then, the final interview question was always, “How do you tell your clients to eat?” Or, “How do you eat?” And once I had my kids – three boys: my twins are 14 and my youngest is ten – it just got to be very hectic. My husband and I both own our own businesses and we were finding that we were spending less and less evenings per week at the dinner table together. We were on the run eating and I really started to not like that part of my life. So, I started making a lot of stuff on the weekend so that I had things to choose from during the week that I could throw together into a meal. I’m not a trained chef; I’m just a cook. I’ve been cooking all my life. 

 

My marketing company, who was actually looking at something else in my business to market, really saw this as a diamond in the rough. We have now turned this into a celebrity kitchen tour. So, I’ve been traveling in and out of celebrities’ kitchens, teaching them how to do the set-up, and creating a coffee table book. We’ve just signed with the production company to create the show.

 

In this country, we lost the ability to have staples. And, by that, I mean staples in the refrigerator that consist of fruits and vegetables and grains and proteins that are always there. I know there are a lot of people that go out on the weekends and hit the farmer’s market or get to Whole Foods or the typical shopping market to get their fruits and vegetables. They stay in the plastic bags on the bottom of the refrigerator and a week later no one can recall what they purchased that is now yellow and runny.

 

 

Kathy Kaehler:    I’m still on the fence on those bags because there is that whole technology of them. I’m very much about the old-fashioned way, going back to the basics, being natural as much as we can. The idea is also to consider European countries, especially France, where they don’t have kitchens the size that we do here. They don’t have pantries, but they buy their food and eat it that same day. Now, it may not be economical. It may not be practical. It may not be within our time parameters, but I feel it’s important that you buy your food and eat it as soon as you can. That’s why Sunday Set-up works similar to my message of exercise: I’m saying eat well and exercise most days of the week. I understand life; there are going to be business meetings, there are going to be birthday dinners, there are going to be lots of different things, but we can establish healthy bodies by moving our bodies most days of the week and eating well most days of the week. And you can do that by setting yourself up Sunday afternoon.

 

 

Kathy Kaehler:    Well, there are a lot of things that you have to incorporate into what you do. I’m fortunate to live close to my youngest son’s school, so we’re bike riding to and from. My older sons are into horses and so the jobs that they don’t get to do before school, I will finish up and that’s my physical labor. I also teach a class as part of my career and that ends up being some of my exercise. You just have to make up a list of priorities. The word “priority” was taught to me very early on. I’ve been very good at that in my life. You have only one body, so you have to make it a priority. It’s not overwhelming and daunting if you stay on top of it. And when you stay on top of things and stay organized, it gives you this underlying sense of energy that really keeps you going. You don’t become overwhelmed.

 

Also, take what your daily schedule and routine is and make something fit in. A lot of conscious moms sit at soccer practice. That’s a perfect time for you to do your workout. You don’t have to be in workout clothes. You don’t have to be at a gym. You don’t have to be doing anything formal. Just go do something. Go walk, do pushups, do lunges, walk the lines doing lunges, walk and pick up a rock, walk further and put a rock down. There are a lot of different things that you can incorporate into your daily routine: taking stairs, talking on the phone while you’re stepping up and down on the lower step at your house. These are just little things that do add up. We have to remember and embrace the fact that it adds up.

 

 

Kathy Kaehler:    I think there are a lot of answers to that. A lot of times we’re not seeing them exactly at the time that it appears to be. It may be that they’ve withheld photos. We don’t know how much the photos are retouched. We don’t know exactly how many hours they’re spending on exercise. We don’t know what they’re eating and what they’re not eating. There are a lot of different variables to that question. Everybody is different. There are just as many celebrities who struggle with getting their bodies back in shape as there are celebrities that pop back as if they never had a baby. We can’t compare ourselves to others. We just have to look to the practices of health and wellness that are going to benefit our own body.

 

 

Kathy Kaehler:    Once you’re in your thirties, it’s so important that you have strength training in your routine. It really needs to be a little bit more in terms of the amount of time spent. Cardio exercise has always been stressed. It’s very important because it strengthens the main muscle of your body, which is your heart. But we’ve gone overboard. We think that the longer we go, the more fat we’re burning, which is really not the case, especially when we have gotten into our thirties when we start to lose bone and muscle. Muscle is what’s going to keep you at your ideal body weight. A combination of doing 20 to 25 minutes of cardio along with strength training is key. I would recommend that you buy a book, get a weight training video or hire a trainer at the gym. Sometimes, they’ll just do a one-time thing and show you the machines or give you a program. Utilize that hour so that you are burning calories with cardio and burning calories with weight training and increasing your muscle mass so that your body is more efficient at rest.

 

 

Kathy Kaehler:   You can look at the ACE, American Counsel of Exercise. They have a whole section on finding local personal trainers.

 

 

Kathy Kaehler:    I think it was, as with all of my books, basically a timeline of my own life. That book is really talking about the changes in women as they go through the decades; being open to the changes because they all happen to us at different times. There are ways to enhance your lifestyle in these decades with fitness, nutrition and lifestyle. It really is about looking at your life more as a whole and looking at how to improve the quality of your life through diet, exercise and lifestyle.

 

 

Kathy Kaehler:    It really comes from a comment made by my sons: “I wonder what the house is going to look like when we get home.” I typically change my living room or some other part of the house once a month. That’s my indulgence. Believe me, I have many more, but that one is a little off the wall.

 

 

For information on Kathy Kaehler and her Sunday Setup program visit her website