With the season of family and friend get-togethers, delicious food and great wine behind us, many of us welcome January bloated, fatigued, moody and a few pounds heavier. Naturally, we promise ourselves to improve our lifestyle: to go to bed earlier, to take short breaks from social media, to exercise more and to eat healthier. And we seriously mean it!
 
Well, if you’ve already tried and failed to get your eating habits in check, then you know how frustrating “dieting” can be. Undereating and failing to properly balance your meals can make it impossible to get back on track.

Here are five essential steps to begin your transition towards healthy eating and feeling energized!

Family-Friendly Customized Meal Planning

It's that time of year again, school has started! And with it, after school activities have begun as well. You rush your children to dance, hockey, music, or perhaps martial arts a few times a week. And then there is homework, signing papers for school... and many other activities and duties that leave you with no time for anything else. It will take a few weeks until you establish a routine and get everything running normally again. Until then, you have to figure out how to help your children adjust to their new routine, how to avoid the infections that start spreading in the classrooms at the start of the year and how to stay calm and organized in the midst of all this chaos.

Providing nutritious meals and avoiding last minute meal pickups, that are far too often rich in calories and void of nutrients, are essential during this hectic time. It provides your kids with energy for the whole day, enhances their learning abilities and boosts their immunity.

If you feel overwhelmed and need some help with healthy meal ideas, try out my family-friendly customized meal planning program. I am going to share with you a month-worth of detailed recipes, a shopping list, prep guide and tips for creating custom meal plans so you can not only organize and run the family schedule but also save some time for yourself to relax and re-charge!

 With September quickly approaching, many of you fellow parents start thinking about how to plan the hectic back-to-school weeks before you settle into your new routine.
 
Let me offer some help for all of you Moms and Dads who need some inspiration with healthy meal ideas to pack in your child's lunch box. As a mother of two adult boys, I still remember how I felt when my nutritious foods were brought back almost untouched after school.  It took me some time to come up with creative meal ideas which were successful (at least, most of the time!).
 
In this post, I would like to share a few tips that worked for me and offer the free Nutritious School Lunch Recipes booklet to you with helpful meal and snack ideas. The recipes within this booklet will provide your child with energy throughout the school day, enhance concentration and strengthen his/her immune system.
 
 You can access your free recipe booklet here.

Spring is almost here! We can feel the warmth of the sunshine, the snow rapidly melts away, the days are longer and yet, many of us cannot enjoy these early signs of spring. The short and cold winter days took their toll on our general well being. We feel heavy, fatigued and our driving force is gone. Sounds all too familiar?  

There's help.

Tips for resetting your diet and getting your vitality back!

Our bodies are in tune with the change of seasons, so naturally we crave less for starchy foods, warm stews and hearty soups, which are so essential for the cold winter days. At this time of year, we need to focus on the energizing nutrient-dense lighter foods based on seasonal vegetables and fruits.

Start your changes with eating less grain-based food such as pastas, pizzas, breads and pastries. Reduce your red meat consumption and replace it with lean poultry, fish and eggs. You can also add some plant-based sources of protein such as  beans, lentils, peas, nuts and seeds.

The arrival of shorter daylight and the foggy, gloomy weather is a sure sign that we are getting closer to my favourite time of the year, the holiday season. I still remember the special time when the entire family gathered around my parent's dinner table to celebrate. An essential part of these special gatherings was my Mom's delicious homemade meal, cooked from scratch.  As a child, I did not realize how much time, effort and creativity she had to put into preparing these dishes which contributed to the jovial, unforgettable atmosphere of Christmas.

Many years have passed since then and I now have my own family and friends to gather around our dinner table. Every year, I strive to re-create the festive atmosphere that still lives deep inside me. I prepare some of the traditional recipes that my Mom passed on to me and the ones that my family loves. They eagerly await for my special fish recipe on Christmas Eve, roasted duck or goose on Christmas Day, but mostly for the holiday pastries that I bake once a year only. Needless to say, all of the baked sweets would be gobbled up shortly after they cool down if I allowed them to eat as much as they wanted. Fortunately, the holistic nutritionist in me is well aware of the detrimental impact that all the white flour and sugar has on our waistline and overall energy. Therefore, to please my family's expectations and improve the nutritional content of my goodies at the same time, I started to experiment with substituting some ingredients for healthier alternatives. Here are some helpful tips that may help you in transforming your favourite recipes without compromising much on flavour.