91. Phone It In, Win the Week: Your Emergency Plan for When Life Goes Sideways

Hey friend—ever have a Monday (or let’s be real… entire week) go totally off the rails?

In this episode, Dr. Stacy Heimburger gets real about what to do when life explodes and you have zero time or energy to plan your meals. Whether you’re stuck in airport delays, forgot to prep, or just can’t even—this episode gives you the ultimate “Phone It In Plan” to help you stay on track without overthinking.

We’re talking:

✅ Grab-and-go breakfasts with protein + fat (ahem, fat bombs in your coffee)
✅ Pantry staples that save your lunch
✅ Grocery shortcuts for dinner (hello, rotisserie chicken!)
✅ Fast food orders that actually work for your goals
✅ How to “drive without distractions” and order groceries with a calm brain
✅ Real-life examples and mindset tips for handling chaotic weeks

Plus, Dr. Stacy gives a fun update on her No Buy 25 progress and the “Tuition of Life” lessons she learned from broken shoes and surprise expenses.

👉 This is your permission slip to simplify, regroup, and STILL take care of yourself when everything feels like a mess. You’re not failing—you’re adapting.

💬 Mentioned in the episode:

• Starbucks protein packs & turkey bacon sandwich
• Panera’s avocado toast + salad combos
• Chick-fil-A grilled chicken + market salad
• Target lunchbox hacks (meat sticks, baby carrots, nut butters)
• Squirrel stash items: tuna pouches, sipping soup, nuts, olives
• Rotisserie chicken + bagged salad = weeknight win
  
  

🎯 ACTION STEP:
 What’s your favorite “phone it in” move? Tag @Sugar_FreeMD on Instagram or email support@sugarfreemd.com and let Dr. Stacy know your go-to!

💖 Love the episode? Share with a friend, leave a review, and hit subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Free 2-Pound Plan Call!
Want to jump start your weight loss? Schedule a free call where Dr. Stacy Heimburger will work with you to create a personalized plan to lose 2 pounds in one week, factoring in your unique circumstances, challenges, and aspirations. Schedule now! www.sugarfreemd.com/2pound

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

Hey guys, this is Dr. Stacey Heimburger, Sugar Free MD, coming to you with episode 91. And I want to talk to you about how to phone it in on a Monday when things are just not going well, when things are super busy and we're going to learn how to do the bare minimum so our whole week does not get trashed just because our Monday is a little crazy.

First, I wanted to update you on NoBuy 25. So I thought I would start giving you like a monthly update on what I did buy and where I avoided buying. So in June, we had a couple of weddings. I did buy a new pair of wedding shoes. So I had a great pair of heels that was comfortable that I had for my brother's wedding 11 years ago. They died. They died about a year ago. I bought another pair.

They did not work out. They were so uncomfortable and I knew I wanted to dance at these weddings. These were very special weddings. just, like, these were my family. I knew I was going to want to dance and have a good time. So I did go find a new pair of shoes that are just like really cute nude color heels that will go with lots of stuff. So I did get a new pair of heels.

I wore an outfit to the first wedding that I have had for years and years and years that no one has seen in probably 10 years. So I wore that. And then for the second wedding, I did try and thrift a dress. It actually came with a hole in it. So thread up is taking it back. But I had a wonderful neighbor lend me a dress and it was beautiful. And I got so many compliments. So I did not have to buy a new dress for either wedding.

but I got to look new for both with shoes that were super comfortable. So I was very happy with my reasoning behind that purchase and they'll last me hopefully another 10 years. So I think that was a good one. The second thing was I did get some earrings. I got just some, like a six pack for $12 off of Amazon of some statement earrings.

In retrospect, I probably could have asked to borrow those so that was maybe not as necessary But what's done is done. So and I actually got to lend a pair to my sister for one of the weddings So it was kind of a two-for-one. So we both got to use it use earrings for $12. So not too bad I also had to replace my carbon monoxide Detector so I have a travel one that I take to hotels with us

and I accidentally left it in one of the hotels and so I had to replace it. We actually, we had four trips in five weeks and so the second of the four trips I left it plugged in. I plugged it in somewhere where nothing else was plugged in. I did not do a good enough review of the room when we were packing up so a little bit of tuition of life there.

That cost me for not doing a proper look around before we left. But for $20, I feel like that was a fine repurchase, although not ideal. And then my final purchase was actually not my purchase. My husband bought me a pair of shoes because when we went to pick up the kids from camp, we got in the rental car and my foot felt like it was kind of getting stuck on the bottom of the...

of the car, the carpet, and I looked and my shoes had literally cracked in half. The rubber had just completely given up. Again, these were one of my favorite pairs of just casual black sneakers, rothies that I've had forever. I literally wore them to death. they got, I got all my money's worth out of them. They were wonderful. And...

Tuition of Life, I always pack two pairs of shoes and for some reason, because it was just a quick overnight, I did not pack an extra pair of shoes. So we did end up having to go and he bought me a new pair and they're wonderful and I will probably have them for another 10 years. So I love the shoes I have. I wear them to death if that has not become evident. So those were all my purchases for June. Just a recap for April, May, I did buy stuff for camp for the boys that they needed.

And then I bought some stuff for my mom's garden, for Mother's Day, and then some Father's Day stuff too. those were my, so gifts, which were allowed in my rules for No Buy 25, and then the stuff for Kids for Camp that I couldn't really thrift. They needed a couple of things. So that was it. So that's the update. Feel free to join me for No Buy 25. We still have plenty of time left in the year to do that. And I would love.

some support. So I would love you guys to reach out and let me know if you want to join in and how it's going. Today I want to talk about how to phone it in. The fact is life gets busy, okay? Things do not work out. Our flight home from camp, actually we were delayed for seven hours. So all my best laid plans of what was going to happen sort of that evening and really into the next, into the whole weekend.

really got scrapped because we didn't get in till one o'clock in the morning. The kids were exhausted from two weeks of camp and then they did not get rest that night. They had to come to work with me and my husband the next day, because we both worked on Saturday to kind of make up for not working on Friday. And so just everyone was a little overstimulated and things did not go as planned. So it happens a lot. The fact is we're all very busy.

We should expect that things are not going to go to plan a lot, probably more often than they go to plan. And so what do we do when that happens? So that's what I wanted to talk about today. The first thing I want to say is sometimes we just need to get out the door. OK, so I will give you some tips and tricks, real practical teaching today about what we can do to just get out the door.

Sometimes we're lucky enough that when we get to work or wherever we're going, they will have a healthy lunch option like a salad bar or something like that. In which case we really just need to get out the door, right? There will be food there. And if we have plans ahead, we know what's on protocol there and that'll be nice and easy. And then we can figure it out as we go. the getting out the door and making a plan, even if it's a loose mental plan is really essential.

We don't want to walk out just with no idea of what we're going to do because more than likely we will go to fast food for breakfast, fast food for lunch, and then dinner we'll just like not be feeling great, feeling probably a little sluggish and end up ordering something. And then we've kind of started our week with three not so great meal choices and the chances of the week kind of continuing in that direction exponentially goes up.

So the first thing I want to say is in the morning, we really want to try and get some protein and healthy fat in whatever way we need to do that. So let's say we've programmed our coffee maker and we're already one step ahead, right? We've got coffee. We can put some heavy cream in there. We can put a protein shake in there. We can put even some coconut oil in there, okay? Like fat bomb, right? I don't know if you've heard of that, but it's a thing. We can do any of that just to get some fat and or protein into that coffee.

maybe grab like some mixed nuts, like a little pack of nuts and head out the door. And that can be enough to get us out the door. If we've got slightly more time, right? I always like to have the already peeled hard boiled eggs in the fridge. You can get them at any grocery store. You can grab that and take one of those in the car with you. Maybe we have a protein bar. I'm not a huge fan of using protein bars or protein shakes, but in this case, if that's like our emergency safety net item,

by all means let's do it. And let's say maybe I've got even a couple of extra minutes, right? So maybe I have some egg bites in the fridge that I take those and I warm them up when I get to work. Maybe I am packing a lunch and I've got some ready to go items. So some of my favorite ready to go items, Target makes a little protein pack. It's just little cheese, little meat, right? I can grab one of those out of the fridge. I almost always have them for the kids lunchbox.

I can grab a cheese stick, I can grab a meat stick. Again, these are things I have for the kids lunchbox, just easy grab and go protein. One of the grocery stores by us, a local grocery store makes the little baby carrots in individual packs. So you can get five individual packs. So I can grab a baby carrot, I can grab a hummus to go with that, I can grab a ranch dressing. And those are all already individually packaged, okay? So these are the things that I always have because things are not going to go well at some point.

So I've got individual little hummus, I've got individual little guacamole, I've got individual ranch dressing. So those are all individual packaged. Yes, we can talk about plastic and environment another day, but for right now, that is what works for us. And so that we're not fighting that fight today. So grab any of those, throw them in a lunchbox, head out the door. Also little bags of nuts. I usually have pre-portioned little bags of nuts.

and then maybe something else, okay? So an apple, I also have pre-packaged peanut butter, right? The little pre-dish, like pre-servings. And they make those in all kinds. They make the natural one, they make like Justin's almond butter, right? In the little pack. Any of those, throw that with an apple in that lunchbox and you've basically made a beautiful charcuterie, poor man charcuterie, whatever you want to call it. And we can have that for lunch.

We can maybe add some of those things to a salad off the lunch bar, right? So we can add those nuts on there. The other thing is to maybe act like a squirrel. If you have a desk or an office that's yours that you get to keep stuff in, we can have some sipping soup in there. We could have little, the bags of tuna. We can have nuts in there.

feel free to shout out some other things, right? When you hear this, like, I can have this, I can have that, right? Can I have some little bags of olives? I can have little bags of wasabi peas. I can have some roasted soy nuts, right? There's all different things we can sort of have in our little nest at work, squirreled away for, and this is what it's for. It's for these emergency times, right? So I can just run out with my coffee.

and then know that once I get to work, I've got something there and it's going to be okay. So think about things like that that I can have at work that I can keep that are sort of shelf stable or some things I can have in the fridge that I can quickly, quickly throw in. I think I did a reel on this once and it took me like less than 20 seconds to pack my lunch bag. So super, super easy if we already have these things sort of ready to go. And then the other thing I wanted to suggest was,

When we're driving to work, to drive with no distractions, meaning let's just not turn our radio on, let's not listen to a podcast, even if it's me, I give you permission to not listen to me on Monday morning, don't listen to any academic stuff, I want you to drive to work and just think about what can I order grocery-wise or pick up on my way home for dinner tonight and then what's a loose plan for the next two nights?

so that when we get to work, we already know and we can order groceries in like less than five minutes. So we can order groceries to be delivered to us, to be delivered to, so time it for when we're getting home or if someone's going to be at the house or we can pick it up, like target pickup on my way home, right? So what can I get that's easy, easy, easy, ready to go? My favorite for nights like this is just to grab a rotisserie chicken and maybe a bagged salad.

and we do that, or maybe breakfast for dinner, right? Or maybe just any protein, right? We could get a shrimp cocktail platter and throw that on a salad. We could get the already made doubled eggs, right? There's lots of things that are protein heavy without a lot of extra stuff that we can just throw on a salad or just eat by itself. So I want you to think, that's what I want you to be thinking, like Monday night dinner, just what is simple, easy on protocol.

that I do not have to think about too much. We are not going to be doing a lot of food prep if our week is starting sort of out the box. But we also want to get stuff for Tuesday night and maybe even Wednesday night. So I want you to think of three nights so we have like, my gosh, the world is ending, I have two seconds for dinner. And then like, okay, now maybe I've settled into my week a little bit, what can I do more?

So for us that almost always would look like rotisserie chicken for Monday and then stuff for tacos on Tuesday. And then usually leftovers. I will just make extra of those two things. Like I will get two rotisserie chickens if I need to and then we will have extra for, and then we'll do leftovers on Wednesday. This does not need to be gourmet meals, right? Not every week is going to be like this. This is like we're phoning it in because shit has hit the fan. So it is okay to just.

Easy breezy, okay? We can get frozen meatballs. We can get zucchini spirals that are frozen in a jar of sauce and we have dinner, okay? Start thinking about easy, easy, easy things to have. And that's what I want you to order when we get to work on Monday so that they're ready to go. So let's say, Stacey, that's even all too much. Okay, I got you, all right?

I still want you to get the rotisserie chicken for dinner, or if you're pescatarian, just get the shrimp cocktail, pick it up with a salad, bag salad, that's going to be dinner. I still want you to get that for Monday night while we have time to recenter ourselves and just get Monday started. And the reason I want you to think about this on Monday morning is because when we're feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated and overstressed and like, oh my God, nothing's ready for the week, just by knowing this is what I'm going to do Monday night.

can really just recenter us and then we can think with a clearer brain about Tuesday and Wednesday. So what are some things we could do if we just have to run out the door? So if you're a coffee drinker or any type of, you're like, you're going to want to stop somewhere. And I totally get that. And sometimes we need to do that. So what I'm going to suggest to you is to pick a place where you can also just go ahead and pick up your lunch. So there's lots of places that you might not realize you can order lunch at the same time.

So if you go to Starbucks, right, Starbucks has a turkey, bacon, egg white sandwich. You can have that for breakfast. is like totally on most of your protocols. And then we can get a protein pack for lunch. They have two different varieties, right? So we can get one of their protein packs for lunch. Is it going to be gourmet? No, but is it going to get the job done? 100%. I think they also, they used to have oatmeal. I actually haven't checked recently to see. But they have oatmeal, that's a great breakfast option too.

So you could even grab a sandwich from there or something. You can get all their entire menu at any time. So you can get your lunch at breakfast time. Same thing if you go through Panera. Okay, so let's say we go through Panera. They have an avocado toast, great breakfast option. You can get any of their salads at breakfast time. You can not get their soups, but you can get their salads. So we can go ahead and just order ourselves a salad and bring that with us for lunch. Chick-fil-A.

Same thing, okay? We can get, they have like their grilled chicken you can get with egg white with or without the chicken, or you can take that chicken and like have that for lunch. So I have not double checked on their salad to see if you can do that. I haven't, but we could always get another breakfast for lunch, okay? Nobody says it has to be lunchtime food, okay? We can get a second breakfast for lunch.

And then I want you to start just looking around at the places by you. There's a place called the Abita Brewing Company by me. They do this protein bowl for breakfast. It's delicious. It's got sausage and egg and it's wonderful. So we can do something like that and just grab ourselves a breakfast to go. I do want you to be mindful that if you've had fast food one day for breakfast, our brain is going to be like, that was...

That was fancy, right? And it's going to want fast food breakfast more than once. And so I really don't think it's a great idea to do this more than two days in a row, right? So one day, like get our shit together and then maybe not the next day, okay? So those are some easy, easy, breezy things to do. Fast food, not my favorite option, but like stuff happens. I get it. So if you're going to do that, just go ahead and get yourself lunch too.

There's one less decision that you have to make. And then as soon as you get to work, do a pickup order or a grocery delivery order, even if it's just for a few things, okay? We're not trying to save money. Like these are emergency weeks. We just want to get through by doing the best thing for ourselves that we can and staying on track as much as possible. So we're going to use like grab and go individual packaged things as much as possible.

We'll do fast food if we need to, but we want to kind of like grab an order for dinner for at least Monday night, if not Monday or Tuesday. And I'm saying Monday, but we all know this can happen anytime during the week, best late plans, right? So anytime like just things have gone in the toilet and things are not going well, I want you to go ahead and use this phone it in plan. If you've got more tips and tricks, I really want you to tag me on Instagram.

SugarfreeMD or I want you to Email me support at sugarfreeMD.com and I want to hear all about your tips and tricks If you think this was helpful share it with a friend if you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe I would love that. I'm new to YouTube, but I would love to get some followers. I think that would be fun So please share please rate review the podcast Please subscribe on YouTube and please comment and let me know just what other like quick

little squirreled items or other fast food places that I didn't think about. I just kind of went with the ones that are close to me, but if you've got other ones, it can really help everyone if you share. So until next week, I'll talk to you later, bye.