Want to Balance Your Hormones and Optimize your Weight? Take these 4 steps!

Hormonal balance requires a holistic approach, including:

  • DIET: nourishing your body with a nutrient-rich diet

  • EXERCISE: engaging in regular physical activity

  • REST & STRESS MANAGEMENT: prioritizing sleep + managing stress, and

  • MINIMIZING TOXIC LOAD: reducing exposure to environmental toxins (as well as internal toxins!); start by switching to cleaner household products, clean beauty, etc.

I delve quickly into each of these points, giving you actionable steps in each category so you can start to improve your hormonal balance and overall health ASAP!

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Best Healing Postpartum Foods + 4 Favorite Recipes

I recently shared 10 tips that helped me recover after birthing my children, and now I want to delve a little deeper into the FOODS that have helped me during this “4th trimester” to nourish myself, heal, promote healthy digestion, and keep up my energy (despite sleepless nights).

I promise that what you eat makes all the difference in your recovery! A healthy nourishing postartum diet is important to: 

  • Replenish nutrients depleted during pregnancy 

  • Support a successful and speedy recovery from birth 

  • Create a healthy supply of (and good quality) breastmilk 

  • Support hormonal balance

Here are the key HEALING FOODS that I was eating daily in my first 40 days postpartum (and continue to enjoy almost daily during my “4th trimester”), and 4 of my go-to recovery RECIPES.

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10 Tips for an Excellent Postpartum Recovery

As I’m coming close to the end of my “4th trimester” after birthing my second baby, I want to share some tips to help with HEALING after giving birth (natural or c-section) - also applicable to help heal from any surgery or trauma. These are things that I myself applied and helped me immensely to have a great recovery.

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A Day of Anti-Inflammatory Meals for Sustainable Weight Loss

Chronic long-term inflammation (what SO many people are facing today) is extremely harmful to our health. Not only does it lead to weight gain, but also contributes to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and other health conditions.

Thankfully, there is a lot we can do to reduce inflammation in the body just through our daily diet.

Some anti-inflammatory foods that I recommend to eat regularly include:

  • leafy greens (lettuces, arugula, kale, spinach, etc).

  • fermented foods like raw sauerkraut, kimchi and unsweetened organic yogurt or kefir

  • colorful vegetables (orange veggies like organge bell pepper, sweet potato and butternut squash, yello veggies like yellow squash, yellow peppers and onions, purple vegges like purgple cabbage, eggplants and purple potatoes/carrots/cauliflower, white veggies like cauliflower and radish, red veggies like beets, and of course ALL green veggies, including brocoli, green beans, zucchini, all green herbs, ETC).

  • colorful fruits - in small amounts at a time (blue/purple including blueberries, blackberries, plums; red including starwberries, raspberries, cherries and red apples; orange including oranges, nectarines, some varities of peaches; green including green apples and pears, etc.)

  • omega-3 rich proteins like wild-caught fish and seafood, organic grass-fed meats and poultry, as well as organic eggs.

  • nuts and seeds - ncluding walnuts, almonds, chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, etc., as well as nut and seed butters

  • other healthy fats including avocados and extra-virgin olive oil

  • fiber-rich legumes including: lentils, chickpeas, peas and all beans, as well as small amoutns of whole grains such as quinoa, wild rice, brown rice, millet, amaranth, teff, buckwheat, etc. (*only if your tolerate these ; reguardless I recommend sticking to small portions and cooking properly, always soaking before cooking).

Today I’m sharing a day of healthy, delicious and easy “anti-inflammatory” meals to get you started on your anti-inflammatory lifestyle!

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Easiest Protein Yogurt Chia Parfait

I’m sharing one of my favorite quick and easy healthy breakifasts for those days when you don’t have time to prep your usual breakfast.

NOTE: This recipe is amazing for both gut/digestive health and for balancing hormones (and is of course pregnancy and pospoartum friendly).

Yogurt Chia Almond Butter Berry Bowl

Ingredients (serves 1):

1 cup unsweetened vegan coconut yogurt OR plain Greek yogurt if you tolerate dairy

  • ½ - 1 scoop unflavored (or vanilla) protein powder or collagen peptides *(see note below)

  • 1 ½ tbsp chia seeds OR ¼ cup chia pudding *(see note below)

  • 1 to 1½ tbsp almond butter (option to swap for another nut/seed butter)

  • ½ cup frozen blueberries, strawberries OR cherries, microwaved for 30 seconds (can also use fresh!)

  • optional: 1-2 tablespoons low-glycemic granola

Instructions: Add all ingredients to a bowl and enjoy! *see blog for many tips, subsitutions, etc.

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Healthy dinner recipes - salmon with pesto, kale salad, and a quinoa-veggie salad

Today I’m sharing an entire 3-part menu (including four healthy recipes), which is perfect for a family lunch or dinner, or for hosting a few friends or another couple.

This menu is PACKED with omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and fiber, making it great for your digestion, for longevity, immunity, and for hormonal balance. It’s also very balanced in protein, healthy fats and healthy low-glycemic carbs, making it ideal for keeping blood sugar stable.

Menu (all gluten-free and dairy-free):

  • Kale, Fennel & Avocado Salad

  • Quinoa Bell Pepper Salad

  • Roasted Salmon with a Pumpkin & Hemp Seed Pesto

Watch the video to learn how to make these recipes easily, and get tons of cooking/prep tips! And check out my recipes below. Enjoy!

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A delicious, colorful & flavorful salad you'll love

I’m sharing one of my favorite salad bowl recipes - Mediterranean Salad Bowl (inspired by a BeingBrigid recipe) - that is packed with fiber, protein, healthy fats, but also rich in colorful, antioxidant-rich veggies that help promote longevity and better immunity (among many other benefits). It’s easy and delicious, and one of my favorite meals for a hot summer day, or when I’m ovulating.

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10 Ways to Support Your LIVER and help you detoxify

Our liver removes all toxins, clears medications from your body, breaks down our food so we can properly process it, and even helps us with hormone regulation - so it is absolutely crucial that we take proper care of this essential organ!

In this blog, I share my 10 most important steps to take to better care for your liver (via simple lifestyle and diet habits).

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World Health Day: 4 ways to embrace it and support your health

Happy World Health Day - a special day (April 7th) that serves as a reminder to prioritize our physical, mental and social health and wellbeing.

For me personally, my definition and understanding of health has changed a lot over these past 20 years since I’ve been immersed in the health and wellness world.

Given my journey, personal experience and years as a health caoch, this year I’ve drawn 4 key conclusions on how we can best prioritize our health (and then I share 4 things you can start doing today to put in practice)!

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Five Reasons For Your Bloating & How to Cure It

I used to constantly struggle with a bloated belly, where I often felt like I was 3 months pregnant.  It was terrible, but nothing I did seemed to make it go away,  so it became normal for me.  I tried many diets, and maybe a 2 or 3 day juice cleanse would help temporarily, but of course, a few days back to my normal eating and the bloating would come back.  

It took me a long time - essentially one year of nutrition courses and lots of additional personal research and experimentation - to finally realize that the bloating was not normal, and was totally curable.  

So if you’re in the same camp as I was, struggling with constant bloating and maybe occasional gasiness, it’s important for you to know that there is a cure to get rid of this for good.  Like most things, it all starts with identifying the root cause behind your bloating.  So let’s take a look at what I have found to be the key triggers of bloating, gas and constipation:

  • Imbalance in your gut bacteria

  • Gut infections and/or Food sensitivities

  • Lack of digestive enzymes / low stomach acid

  • Lifestyle: Stress, Eating rushed, and Not chewing your food properly

  • Diet: Eating inflammatory foods, Improper food combinations and Not prepping/cooking your foods properly

Read more at my blog to discover the 5 steps to cure your gas and bloating both short and long term!

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My Half-Way Pregnancy Update

This week on Women’s Day I reached my 20-week half-way pregnancy mark, and I feel amazing, so I wanted to share some of the things that have helped me. I share both all of my daily lifestyle practices, and a deeper dive into my diet.

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March: National Nutrition Month - 6 nutrition tips for optimal health

March is National Nutrition Month, a month to help increase awareness about the importance of good nutrition for improving your overall health. Making healthy food choices and improving your eating habits (in combination with incorporating more physical activity and stress reduction into your lifestyle) can help prevent many chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And of course, it will help you LOOK and FEEL better, have more confidence and be happier!

Here are 6 of my best tips to help you make healthier nutrition choices (to minimize risk of disease, reach and maintain your ideal weight, and feel better in your body overall).

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Intermittent Fasting: 5 Tips to Make it Work for You

I’m a big fan of fasting, for the right people. It can have some impressive results, but after extensive research on the topic, and experience with many of my health coaching clients, I’ve realized it’s not for everyone.

Even if it IS for you, you might be doing some things wrong and not getting the full benefits.

Today I share and/5 key tips to optimize your Intermittent Fasting, and make it work for YOU. (Plus I explain when it’s just NOT for you, or how you can tailor it).

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Two ingredients to include in your healthy snacks (and 5 easy snack options for you and your kids!)

MOST of your typical go-to snacks, even that banana (and especially those packaged crackers/cookies/bars, etc. that are filled with sugar and preservatives) can lead to a large glucose spike. And this is something we need to minimize if we care about our health and our weight!

So today I’m sharing with you 5 of my go-to healthy, easy “sweet” snacks - for both me and my toddler.

NOTE: For all of these sweet snacks, in order to support blood sugar regulation, I add two KEY INGREDIENTS:

  1. NUT/SEED BUTTER (and/or a little nuts/seeds)

  2. a pinch of CINNAMON

Find out WHY, and get my 5 easy to prep snacks for when you’re on the rush and ant to be prepared for when the sugar craving comes in.

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Ready to Improve Your Health This Year? Start with these 7 Steps

If this year, you’ve realized YOUR HEALTH is a top priority, you know you want to positively and definitively upgrade your health this year (in a way that does not require suffering nor excess restriction, and actually LASTS), but you’re not sure where to start, I’m here to help!

After a decade of experience as a health coach, I can share 7 key steps to embark on a successful health journey.

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3 Easy, Quick, Low-Carb Dinners

After a long day of work, we’re tired and have little brain capacity left to think of what healthy meals to make, so we often go for the easiest, quick, carb-based dishes like tortilla with cheese, or pasta, or order takeout from restaurants (which often contains processed carbs, even hidden sugars and inflammatory oils).

But these dinners can wreak havoc on our health!

Plus, we are generally, more susceptible to blood sugar spikes at night, so it’s even more important to be careful with carbs at dinner time. Focusing on blood-sugar balancing meals at dinnertime is KEY for our metabolic health, our weight, our sleep and our energy levels.

The good news is, there are many healthy, delicious low-carb dinner recipes that are also super easy, quick, and loaded with flavor and nutrients to support our health, and filling enough to satisfy us after a long day.

Today I’m sharing 3 of my favorite low-carb dinners (actually 4 recipes!) that keep my blood sugar stable and are super quick and simple to make! PLUS, they are moslty detox-friendly!

  1. LETTUCE CUPS – two ways

    1. LETTUCE CUPS WITH EGG SALAD

    2. LETTUCE CUPS WITH TUNA SALAD (OR CHICKEN OR CHICKPEA SALAD)

  2. EGGS WITH GREENS AND BEANS

  3. CREAMY ONE POT CAULIFLOWER SOUP - WITH SEED CRACKERS AND VEGAN CHEESE*

*the soup is the only recipe that takes more than 10 minutes, BUT the recipe makes 3 to 4 portions so it’s great to make once and enjoy twice in the week (and its still one of the quickest soups to make, and all in one pot).

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A Day of Detox Post-Thanksgiving: 9 Steps to Feel Lighter

After your Thanksgiving meal (or any large dinner) you will likely feel lower in energy, heavy, bloated and a bit guilty. I urge you to let go of the guilt, be thankful for your delicious meal, and instead, just focus on getting your body back on (a healthy) track.

The day after your big meal, follow these 9 tips to boost your metabolism, aid your digestion, and get yourself feeling light again!

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WHY ITS HELPFUL TO REMOVE CERTAIN FOODS FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME

While I am a big believer in an inclusive, varied and balanced diet, there are times when we are unknowingly consuming foods that are taxing our beautiful bodies and causing us to gain weight or just not feel our best.

For this reason, I am also a big believer in doing a periodic cleanse (like my 10 day detox) as a mini RESET, and an opportunity to check in with our bodies and see what might be affecting us.

The thing is, many of the foods we eat every day contain a ton of pesticides, and/or have an acidifying effect on the body, and/or are mucus-forming, and/or are simply difficult to digest. By avoiding these foods for 10+ days, you give your digestion a pause from these potentially inflammatory foods (while nourishing your body with an extra dose of superfoods, vitamins, minerals and proteins that help your body detox), and will be in a good place to re-introduce potentially triggering foods and see how they affect you.

LEARN MORE about what we eliminate and WHY (it’s useful info so don’t miss out!) in today’s blog…

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A Healthy, Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!! This is such a fun time especially for the kids, but candies and sugary treats are floating around everywhere, and the sugar temptation is huge! It's once a year, so enjoy this funky spooky holiday... but make this year a HEALTHIER one - for both you and your family.

It CAN be done with just a bit more AWARENESS. Today I’m sharing TIPS on keeping your body healthy this Halloween, plus better alternatives to traditional Halloween candy (and more). Check out all my links, and please share with your family and friends so they can stay healthy, too!

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15 Healthy Snacks for Kids

Today i’m sharing my basic guidelines for holisitic nutrition - aplicable for toddlers and kids - plus 15 healthy homemade snack ideas for babies and kids, and 8 more healthy packaged snacks to buy (with links to amazon!)

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