Five Easy Things I’m Doing Right Now to Get Ready for Back to School

Be Well Living / 
Five Easy Things I’m Doing Right Now to Get Ready for Back to School

Back to school season has a way of sneaking up on you. One day you are camping in Big Sur with nowhere to be and the next you are standing in the kitchen at 7am realizing you have no plan and three hungry boys to feed before the bus comes.

I have been through enough back to school seasons now to know that a little preparation goes a long way. Not a lot of preparation. Just a little. The right kind. The kind that makes the first week feel grounded instead of frantic.

And this year I am keeping it even simpler than usual. Five things. That is it.

Here is what we are covering:

  • Easy recipes on rotation: Three to four blood sugar balancing breakfasts I can make on autopilot so mornings feel anchored instead of chaotic. No new recipes. No elaborate meal plans. Just a handful of Fab Four breakfasts that work and that I can make half asleep.
  • Bedtime and sleep: How I am shifting the whole family's schedule before school starts without a single meltdown. The ten minute trick that actually works and why waiting until the night before is always a mistake.
  • Ways to unwind, break up the day, and get outside: The habits I am building into our afternoons and evenings right now that support nervous system recovery, better sleep, and the kind of presence that makes the last days of summer actually feel like summer. This includes outdoor movement, screen-free time, and the simple rituals that help everyone in the house wind down before bed.
  • Stocking the kitchen: Three simple ways to make sure the right food is always in the house and always easy to grab without spending your entire Sunday in the kitchen.
  • Building your morning habit stack: The most underrated back to school prep is building your own morning routine before the chaos kicks in. When your habits are already on autopilot you show up better for everyone.

Here is exactly what each one looks like in practice.

1. Choose 3 to 4 Staple Blood Sugar Balancing Breakfasts to Anchor Your Mornings

The single most impactful thing I can do for my boys before they walk out the door is make sure their blood sugar is stable. A high protein, Fab Four breakfast sets the tone for the entire school day. It determines their focus, their mood, their energy levels, and whether they crash by 10am or stay steady until lunch.

I’m not trying to make something different every morning. I’m not scanning Pinterest or saving IG reels for elaborate back to school breakfast inspo. Instead, I’m nailing 3 to 4 breakfasts I know work, that my boys will eat, and that I can make on autopilot. 

Here’s our current rotation:

  1. Eggs and Sausage: The fastest high protein breakfast in our house. Scrambled eggs with grass-fed butter alongside Teton Waters Ranch breakfast sausage and a side of fresh berries. Twenty grams of protein before 8am. Everyone’s happy. And it’s 10 minutes from fridge to table for the entire family.
  2. The Fab Four Smoothie: My non-negotiable for rushed mornings. One scoop of Be Well Protein Powder, frozen berries, almond butter, flax seeds, spinach, and almond milk. Better yet? Double, triple, or adjust the ingredients to your family and make everyone’s in the same blender. It cuts your prep time by three quarters. Five minutes, four nutrients, one glass. I blend the night before on the most chaotic mornings and it’s ready to go straight from the fridge.
  3. Cottage Cheese Egg Bites: A make-ahead breakfast that’s just as nutrient-dense as it is grab-and-go friendly. And absolutely kid-approved!
  4. Protein Overnight Oats or Chia Pudding or Yogurt Bowls: You can mix the base the night before so you have a complete Fab Four breakfast waiting in the fridge before anyone wakes up.

For a deep dive into building blood sugar balancing breakfasts your whole family will love, check out my full guide on Easy High Protein Breakfast Ideas. It covers everything from 30 gram protein combinations to make-ahead options that make school mornings completely effortless. Pick your family’s three or four. Practice them this week to figure out what works. By the first day of school they’ll feel effortless.

2. Move Bedtime Up in 10-Minute Increments

This one is so simple and so effective and most families wait until the night before school to try it. Which is exactly why the first week is always rough.

Summer schedules are looser. Bedtimes drift later. Kids stay up watching one more show or playing outside until it is dark. And then suddenly we need them up an hour earlier than they have been waking up for the past two months. The result is a week of overtired, emotional, difficult mornings that nobody enjoys.

The 10-Minute Shift

Starting right now I am moving bedtime earlier by ten minutes every night. Not an hour all at once. Just ten minutes. By the time school starts we will have shifted the whole schedule naturally without a single argument or meltdown.

The science is clear on this. Circadian rhythms shift gradually not abruptly. Trying to move bedtime by an hour in one night disrupts the body's melatonin production and cortisol rhythm in a way that makes falling asleep earlier nearly impossible. Ten minutes a night works with the body's natural sleep drive instead of against it.

Ways to Unwind and Break Up the Evening

The ten minute bedtime shift only works if we are also winding down the day properly. Here is what our evenings look like right now and what I am building into the school year routine:

  • Get outside after dinner. This is the one I protect the most. A walk around the block, a bike ride, or even just sitting on the patio after dinner does something that nothing else replicates. Natural light exposure in the late afternoon supports the body's cortisol decline and melatonin production, which means everyone falls asleep faster and sleeps deeper. Fresh air lowers stress hormones. Moving bodies after a meal supports blood sugar and digestion. And it gives us unstructured time together without screens that I genuinely treasure.
  • Limit screen-free time in the last hour before bed. Blue light from screens suppresses melatonin production and keeps the nervous system in a low-grade state of alertness that makes falling asleep harder. I am not strict about screens during the day in summer but the last hour before bed is phone-free, tablet-free, and TV-free for everyone in the house. The boys read, draw, or do puzzles. I read or sit outside. It makes an enormous difference in how quickly everyone falls asleep.
  • A consistent wind-down ritual. The body loves predictability especially around sleep. A consistent sequence of events before bed signals to the nervous system that it is time to shift from alert to rest. For us that looks like a warm shower or bath, a few minutes of reading, and then lights out. For me it also includes Be Well Magnesium which has been a nightly non-negotiable for deeper more restorative sleep. The L-Theanine and GABA co-factors help my nervous system downregulate in a way that makes falling asleep feel natural rather than forced.
  • Limit sugar and heavy meals in the evening. Blood sugar spikes in the evening drive cortisol release in the middle of the night which interrupts sleep quality even when you do not wake up fully. A balanced Fab Four dinner and avoiding sugar after dinner makes a meaningful difference in how deeply everyone in the house sleeps.

For everyone in my house, Be Well Magnesium is a nightly non-negotiable for deeper, more restorative sleep. The L-Theanine and GABA co-factors help the nervous system wind down more naturally so falling asleep earlier actually works.

Struggling with bedtimes? Listen to Setting Your Kids for Sleep Success with Melissa Brown.

3. Stock Up and Set Up the Kitchen Before School Starts

Nothing derails a healthy back to school week faster than opening the pantry and finding nothing useful. Here are three simple ways to make sure the right food is always in the house and always easy to grab.

Do a 20-Minute Sunday Pantry Reset

Before the first week of school starts spend 20 minutes on Sunday doing one thing: making sure the right food is visible, accessible, and ready to grab. Move healthy snacks to eye level in the fridge and pantry. Pre-portion nuts and beef sticks into snack bags. Wash and chop vegetables so they are ready to grab throughout the week. Fill a bowl on the counter with fresh fruit.

The goal is to make the good choice the obvious choice the moment anyone opens the fridge. You are not adding more work. You are removing friction. And removing friction is what actually makes healthy eating sustainable for a real family with a real schedule.

Set Up a Standing Pantry Order

The families who eat well consistently are not more disciplined. They just have the right food in the house consistently. Set up a standing Thrive Market order with your back to school staples so they arrive automatically every month without you having to think about it. Grass-fed beef sticks, single serve nut butter packets, grain-free crackers, frozen berries, and Be Well Protein Powder on auto-ship. Once it is set up it runs itself and the pantry never goes empty at the worst possible moment.

Here’s what I am ordering before school starts:

Pantry Staples:

  • Siete grain-free tortilla chips and grain-free crackers
  • Simple Mills crackers and almond flour products
  • Mary's Gone Crackers
  • Lesser Evil organic popcorn snack packs
  • Chomps and Paleovalley beef sticks
  • Seaweed snacks in avocado oil
  • Single serve nut butter packets (Justin's or Once Again)
  • Thrive Market individual olive packets
  • Brami Lupini bean snacks

Fridge and Freezer:

  • Hard boiled eggs (or ingredients to make a big batch Sunday)
  • Organic string cheese
  • Teton Waters Ranch breakfast sausages
  • Jesse and Ben's beef tallow fries
  • Frozen berries for smoothies
  • Unsweetened almond milk

Stock Your Freezer Before School Starts

The freezer is the most underutilized tool in a healthy family kitchen and the one that saves dinner more times than anything else in our house.

What I always have stocked before school starts:

  • Jesse and Ben's sweet potato fries for a fast Fab Four side
  • Teton Waters Ranch breakfast sausages for quick high protein mornings
  • Frozen berries for Fab Four smoothies all week
  • A batch of protein balls and freezer fudge for after school snacks
  • Portions of shredded chicken or seasoned ground beef from Sunday prep

When the fridge looks empty the freezer saves dinner. Stock it once and it covers you for weeks without a single extra grocery run.

4. Print a Fab Four Snack List to Live on the Fridge

This is the hack I wish someone had told me years ago and it takes about five minutes to set up.

Decision fatigue is real and it is at its worst at 3pm when everyone walks in the door after school hungry, tired, and looking to me to figure out what to eat. When the right snack list is already on the fridge I do not have to think. I just look, grab, and done. When I am packing lunchboxes in the morning I can glance at the list instead of standing in front of the open fridge trying to remember what we have.

I am printing out a simple list of Fab Four snacks that hits protein or healthy fat in every combination and sticking it right at eye level on the fridge. The boys can look at the list when they get home and grab what they want. It builds independence and it removes the daily negotiation about what counts as a snack.

Here is what is going on our fridge list:

High Protein Options:

  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Chomps or Paleovalley beef sticks
  • String cheese or Babybel
  • Turkey roll-ups
  • Greek yogurt with berries

Fat and Fiber Options

  • Almond butter with apple slices
  • Guacamole or hummus with veggie sticks
  • Raw Almonds or Cashews
  • Olive and Roasted Veggie Packs
  • Avocado with grain-free crackers

Sweet Treats That Work:

For more Fab Four snacks and lunchbox ideas, check out:

Print it. Laminate it if you want to be extra about it. Put it on the fridge. Stop thinking about snacks.

5. Build Your Morning Habit Stack Before the School Year Starts

This is the one most people skip entirely and it is the one that makes everything else work better.

When the school year starts the mornings get harder, the schedule gets fuller, and the temptation to skip your own wellness habits in favor of everyone else's needs becomes overwhelming. The solution is not more willpower. It is building a habit stack so simple and so automatic that it happens before your brain even has a chance to negotiate.

Here is my morning habit stack that I am locking in right now before the school year begins:

  • Be Well Protein Powder next to the blender for a Fab Four Smoothie. This is the first thing I set out the night before. When the protein powder is already on the counter next to the blender, the smoothie gets made. When it is tucked away in the pantry, mornings get harder. One scoop of Be Well Protein Powder, frozen berries, almond butter, flax seeds, spinach, and almond milk. Five minutes, four nutrients, one glass. This is the breakfast that sets my blood sugar up for the entire day and keeps me full until lunch without thinking about it. I blend the night before on the most chaotic mornings so it is ready to go straight from the fridge.
  • Be Well Creatine in my morning coffee. One scoop, stir, done. Creatine for brain health, mood, muscle preservation, and sleep quality on training nights. The research on what creatine does for women specifically keeps getting stronger and this is the supplement I am most passionate about right now. Two minutes every morning and the benefits build over time.
  • Be Well Essential Amino Acids and LMNT. The immune-boosting morning drink that sets me up for the day. Amino acids for protein synthesis, energy, and immune function. LMNT for electrolyte replenishment after sleep. Together they rehydrate, energize, and support cellular function before I have done a single other thing.
  • Be Well Magnesium the night before. Not a morning habit technically but the habit that makes every morning better. Deeper sleep means better energy, better mood, better patience, and better everything the next day. I take it every single night without exception.

The whole stack takes two minutes. It works because it is already done before the day asks anything of me. Build it now while you have the space to make it feel automatic. By the time school starts it will be second nature.

Shop My Be Well Supplement Stack:

For my complete family grocery guide with every staple I keep stocked, where I buy each one, and what’s on auto-ship, grab the Be Well Grocery Guide.

One More Thing: Be Present for the Rest of Summer

Before you check one more thing off the list I want to say something that matters more than any of the five things above.

Go outside with your kids. Tonight if you can. Laugh until it hurts. Swim as long as they want to stay. Stay up a little too late around a fire. Let the evenings be slow and unscheduled and imperfect and exactly what they are supposed to be right now.

Sebastian, Taschen, and Julian are only this age once. And the way I feel going into back to school has everything to do with whether I showed up fully for the days before it arrived. Not half-present with one eye on my phone. Actually there. Actually noticing what is around me.

This is not separate from wellness. It is the whole point of wellness. The protein powder and the creatine and the magnesium and the Fab Four. All of it exists so I can be more present for the life I am actually living.

So before September arrives, go be present for the rest of summer. The prep will get done. The mornings will get easier. And the memories you make in these last few weeks are the ones your kids will talk about for years.

The Bottom Line

Five things. None of them are complicated. None of them require a full Sunday in the kitchen, hours of prep, or loads of money.

Nail your breakfast rotation. Move bedtime earlier gradually. Print the snack list. Stock the pantry. And soak up the last days of summer with the people who matter most.
Back to school is coming. And you are more ready than you think.

More Helpful Resources:

Looking for more back to school resources? Read The Ultimate Hub for a Healthy Back to School for my complete guide to family nutrition, sleep, immunity, and meal prep for the whole school year.

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