Hi friends,
It’s the end of the week, which means market day is tomorrow.
And if I’m unlucky enough to be cooking on a Friday night, there is a very real chance I am making a meal that only loosely resembles the recipe I originally planned.
If you know me, you know I LOVE a meal plan.
Like… emotionally attached to a meal plan.
(I have a dedicated Google Calendar just for dinners. This is not a joke.)
Back in NYC, I ran a tight ship. I had a 12-week rotating meal plan with a matching shopping list app. I could say to my husband,
“Can you go to Trader Joe’s and shop Week 6, please?”
And—like a beautiful domestic miracle—everything we needed for the entire week would arrive home.
Enter: living on a small island that imports about 90% of its food.
That system has collapsed.
Now I operate on a one-week-at-a-time plan. Sometimes a one-day-at-a-time plan. And by Friday, it’s a complete poop emoji show.
A typical week looks like this:
• Shop at our local organic farm on Saturday
• Meal plan on Sunday based on whats in season at the moment
• Send the hubs to the grocery store on Monday for “the rest”
And STILL, by Tuesday, I’m standing in the kitchen thinking, “How do I combine these into a meal?”
It also doesn’t help that I’ll reach for an ingredient only to discover my family has “snacked” on it. And between traffic, limited stores, and unpredictable stock, running out for one missing item is not an option.
If there were a reality show called World’s Most Determined Improvising Chef, I'd be a very strong contender.
Case in point: This week I made a veggie lasagna with:
• All the wrong vegetables
• The wrong cheese
• And a tomato sauce improvised from three different sources that were NOT tomato-based
Was it edible? Yes.
Was it good? Not at all.
Did it take 1.5 hours of my life? Unfortunately, yes.
Which brings me to the actual point (I promise).
This is exactly how our bodies work.
We go in with a plan. Sometimes it's a plan that we are emotionally attached to and it has been painstakingly been programed into our Google calendars.
Then life changes the ingredients.
Stress goes up.
Hormones shift.
Sleep disappears.
Injuries happen.
Recovery stops working the way it used to.
So the body improvises.
It compensates.
It recruits muscles that were never supposed to be this involved.
It finds a way.
In one respect that's kind of beaufitul. Our bodies will always find a way.
But just like my lasagna…
The movement might be functional.
But it’s not always efficient, sustainable, or satisfying.
This is where corrective exercise lives.
Not in perfection.
Not in forcing the original recipe to work.
But in noticing:
• Where the body is compensating
• What’s under-supported
• What’s doing WAY too much
Then gently rebuilding the foundation so you don’t have to keep “cooking” everything the hard way.
Adaptability and resilience are incredible strengths.
But they shouldn't be confused with optimal.
When working with me, the goal isn’t to keep improvising forever—it’s to restore access to the ingredients your body actually needs.
If you’re noticing that you’re compensating more than you’d like—feeling stuck, overworked, or unsure how to move forward—this is exactly what we do in 1:1 training. We slow things down, assess what’s really happening, and build a plan that works with your body and your current season, not against it. If that sounds supportive, I’d love to work with you.
Sending you patience, perspective, and a hope that you'll have a week full of all the right ingredients!
Coach Joanie
It may not look like much, but this is our sweet, little organic farmers market that we visit every week. I'm grateful beyond belief for this place!
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