​It seems like socks never make it together in the washing machine and dryer. We always seem to have a bin of mismatched socks that look like this...

But with some dedicated time and effort, we can make a little magic happen and many of those socks can be matched and put away...

Going from the overwhelming chaos of the first photo to this one feels like "ahhhhh"...like sipping a cold drink on a hot day, or relaxing into bed at the end of the day and feeling your body melt into the mattress.

Learning how to meal plan feels like that too. Knowing what you're eating and when, especially on a busy night or chaotic holiday season (like now until the end of the year!) can make it less stressful, less time consuming, and less expensive. Meal planning can make your busy nights and chaotic holiday season feel more joyful, more calming, more enjoyable, more cost-effective, and more healthy.

You can do this! Let's talk. I've got space in my calendar so you can start your new year on the right foot...with matching socks (ha ha)

Book your complimentary call here- your confidence is waiting!

To know them is to love them.

Not convinced? Let me try.

Aside from the rhyme we learn as children, beans and other legumes are not as well loved in North America as they are in other parts of the world. Legumes make up a large part of diets around the world, from Africa to Israel, and are especially useful in regions where religion or poverty play a role in the kinds of food people eat, such as India.

If you do a quick google search you will find out many reasons why you should or should not eat legumes. I leave the final decision up to you.

In my role as a nutrition coach I stand firmly behind “common sense nutrition”. I think any food in excess is detrimental to your health and well being.

Pulses are part of the legume family. Pulses refer to beans and lentils (the seed part of the plant). Common legumes are alfalfa, soy, and peanuts.

I use both pulses and legumes as a whole often in our cooking. As a family we enjoy meals that are made strictly vegetarian but also enjoy meals where legumes complement traditional meat-based meals. For example, chana masala was my latest test-kitchen dinner for a client, and that’s a vegetarian dinner. My oldest son loved it in spite of it being a new recipe for all of us, and even went for seconds. We also eat chili a couple of times a month that incorporates both beans and meat.

Lentils can be pureed and added as filler to meatballs, meatloaf, or burgers. They add bulk with nutrition so the meat goes further, and they also give an extra boost of fibre and iron. Beans can be added to salads and soups. Roasted beans are a fantastic snack to keep with you to enjoy when you’re on the run and you know you’ll be hungry. They’re packable, require no special care, and a small amount is very satisfying. My roasted bean recipe will be posted on my Facebook page this week on #foodiefriday. Come check it out!

It's almost summer. Eating meals based on legumes and pulses makes sense in the summer because they can require no real effort beyond opening a can, rinsing them, and eating them cold. When cooking a hot meal with them they really only need to be cooked long enough to heat all the way through- much less cooking time than meat.

*Important Note: Beans and legumes usually require soaking, draining, and boiling. Always follow the package instructions or they can be toxic.

One of my final reasons to eat and enjoy this variety in our diet is a financial one. You get amazing nutrition from pulses and legumes at a fraction of the cost of meat. As someone who is the grocery shopper and meal planner for the family, I know I can attest to the cost of meat on the rise. It makes sense to branch out to seek our nutrition from a variety of sources if nothing else then to stretch the grocery budget further.

Fortunately for us, it’s not a hardship to enjoy this branch of the meat and alternates food group. Do you eat legumes and pulses on a regular basis? If not, I encourage you to schedule a few meals this summer that incorporate beans or other pulses into your regular meal.

Stuck for ideas? I’m only a message away.  

​Counting calories is NOT the best way to approach nutrition. It is only one measurement out of many.

You can count calories to lose some weight. You will definitely lose weight in some way on a calorie deficit, although it may not be the right kind of weight to lose.

For example, losing muscle rather than fat is the wrong direction to take. If you are not approaching weight loss as part of an overall goal to improve your health in general but from a place of frenzy, you will not keep the weight off. In fact, you may even gain. You will find yourself riding that roller-coaster of guilt, shame, and despair.

Friends, come close, lean in, and listen to me tell you something you need to hear because I care about you so much. 

You are enough, just the way you are.

​Really. Counting calories is not going to make you the person you always wanted to be. You will never be fully happy with yourself “after” you lose a bunch of weight if you aren’t there now. Trust me on this. I rode that obsessive roller-coaster for literally years, more than half my life.

It breaks my heart that the most common standard for health advertising for women is the constant promoting of weight loss. “Lose weight now” “Lose 10 lbs in 10 days” “Get that beach body now”. “Detox to Slim”

You want to know why I do what I do?

Because I’m so passionate about health. Your health. Your mom’s health. Your kids. Not just that they’re at the “ideal weight” (Don’t even get me started on BMI!), but that they are actually healthy,

• That when they have blood work done on their annual checkup it is confirmed that they have the right nutrition represented.
• That they can run around and play at recess without getting winded.
• That you can keep up with everything going on in your life and feel really “good”.

Nutrition is so much more than calorie in/calorie out. Science is beginning to prove that different foods are metabolized differently in our bodies. 

Are you sick of being sick? Or tired of being tired? Eating the right foods can take you from surviving to thriving. We only get this short life- don’t you owe it to yourself to really grab on for all you’re worth? Because you are worth it.

You are worth your time and commitment to taking care of yourself. Let me help you get started on your journey. I know it’s confusing, but I’m here because it’s my passion. Let me help make it more clear for you.

Click here to book a free assessment.

“How are you doing that?” my oldest son asked, leaning against the counter and watching me. I was grabbing random jars of spices and herbs from the pantry, taking their lids off, sniffing them, and keeping some out while putting others back.

He’d been watching me for a couple of minutes while I measured random amounts of spices, adding them to my prep bowl and tasting or smelling as I went along. It was a test-kitchen day, and I was working on a new recipe.

“I don’t know,” I answered after considering for a minute. “I just do it. I was born to do this”. And it’s true, I realized.

Before I cooked, and long before it was trendy, I played with essential oils. I used to blend perfumes and massage oils, bath salts and bath bombs. I devoured books and studied everything I could about beneficial properties of different oils, the best oils that worked together, and the different ways to use them.

I remember just “knowing” what scents would work well together, which ones would help when I had a chest cold, which ones would soothe sadness or a headache, which ones would wake me up during a mid-day slump at my boring office job.

Spices and herbs contain essential oils, and recipe development comes naturally to me. I truly was born with this ability, and it’s all I want to do. There are days where I’m desperate to start working on a project that’s been growing in the back of my mind, but I can’t because I don’t have the time. Those days frustrate me because all I really want to do is cook. Then there are the days where I get to spend the whole day in my kitchen, and those are the days that light me up.

This is my passion, and I’m so grateful I get to share it with you!

Please follow me Facebook and share me with your friends! Imagine what a world we could live in if we gave ourselves the gift of real food and greater health and joy.

If you need a hand figuring out how to make food and nutrition work for you, give me a call. We can chat for a few minutes to see if I can help. Sometimes you can't figure it out on your own, but I love that you are trying. If you're at the point where you know you've tried everything you can, hiring me might be your next step.

Enjoy your week, friends!
Stacy
​

I had the pleasure of sitting next to an author at Staples on #IWD2017 and we spent some time talking about what goes into publishing a book, because I've got a cookbook going in the back of my mind. It's going to take some time and dedication. I think there's a pretty steep learning curve, too. But I'm excited to take that step down the road.

These pictured cookbooks are two of my favourites, most loved, and well-used out of all my books. But to tell you the truth, I have only used a few recipes out of each of them. Most of the recipes don't suit my family- in either taste or preparation- or I just can't be bothered to try a new recipe when we have the ones we love already, or when recipe development is such a large part of the food my family eats.

Recipe Development is the kind of work that cookbook authors put into publishing their cookbooks. It's taking raw ingredients in their basic form and creating a dish around them. It's deciding to put together certain foods with certain spices or herbs and cooking them a certain way. It's testing the recipe, altering or changing it, and testing again. It's writing everything you did from start to finish, then reading and rereading to make sure you didn't skip any steps, that people can recreate your recipe even if they've never done it before. It's starting from scratch.

I met with someone last week who was a little shocked at the price I currently charge for personalized recipe development. But I stand by my pricing- if anything, I think I still undercharge. When my clients fill out their survey, I take their likes, dislikes, nutritional needs, medication profile, the kind of time they have to work with, how likely they are to try new foods, and so on into consideration. Each recipe I develop for them starts with those basic questions. I purchase the food, come up with an idea, mix random spices or herbs together with ingredients I think will pair well, and cook them in a way they are able to recreate in their home on their schedule. 

Purchasing custom-tailored recipes from me is sort of like buying a cookbook full of your favourite foods. You may not know if you like the recipes yet, but there's a better chance you will like them much more than a random cookbook purchase- because it's built specifically for you.

For a list of all my services beyond nutritional coaching, look here.

All the best today, friends. I will you a wonderful first day of spring!
​Stacy