It's time to raise our glasses in celebration!

“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.”

Clement Moore

It’s the time of year where indulging in hearty meals, rich chocolates and festive drinks is unavoidable. You keep asking: ‘What can I do to avoid the extra calories? And is there anything ‘natural’ for a hangover?’

I want to remind you that the holidays only come around once a year so enjoy them. Don’t spend your time consumed with what you’re consuming!


It’s time to raise our glasses in celebration and be thankful for the past year, those around us and the upcoming new year.

To ensure we all get through it with fond memories and not time spent sweating through stuffed bellies and painful hangovers here are some recommendations to cut calories and get through the headache, nausea, stomach discomfort, fatigue and dehydration experienced the morning after a few too many drinks.


Plan your day ahead:
• Keep your non-festive meals light. Enjoy some cottage cheese with a fruit or a green salad with freshly squeezed lemon dressing.
• More than likely starchy foods will be apart of your festive meal so leave them out of your other two meals.
• Avoid heavy creamy drinks or have as few as possible.
• Make sure to get your 8 glasses (8 oz = 1 glass) of water in! Drink some water before bed and the morning after to help clear out the extra salts consumed. Your best bet is to match each alcoholic drink you have with one glass of water while drinking and a glass of water every hour the day after.
• Eat slowly and stop when you’re full!


Too much to drink???
• For breakfast the next morning avoid acid-forming (greasy and fried!), fried eggs, bacon, black tea, coffee and white foods (bread). Choose foods that are lighter on the stomach and easier to digest such as brown rice, cooked vegetables, rice milk, nuts and seeds.
• Ginseng tea is found to clear alcohol from the liver, detoxify the system, reduce blood alcohol levels and take care of nausea.
• Alcohol tends to deplete B vitamins from the body. Replenishing these vitamins will help with your body’s recovery, fatigue and memory. B rich foods include sunflower seeds, bell peppers, cauliflower, spinach asparagus, lentils, salmon, green peas and whole grains.
• Alcohol tends to rid the body of antioxidants. Replenish by incorporating blueberries, pomegranates and oranges into your day.
• Extract of milk thistle can reduce the ‘morning after’ feeling. You can find this is capsule or tea form.
• Vitamin C helps strengthen the body and give you energy. You can get this through effervescent tablets in a glass of water. Incorporate vitamin C rich foods into your day.
• Alcohol dehydrates the body. Water! Water! Water!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!

I wish you all only the best of everything and may this New Year be filled with wonderful memories, laughter, love, joy and happiness!

May all your dreams & wishes come true…

Stay Healthy!

To your health and well-being!

“Your body is the harp of your soul. And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.”

Khalil Gibran, Lebanese American artist, poet and writer

I finally made it to the Science Centre and saw the Body Worlds exhibit. I must say it’s an exhibit worth visiting. Through the displays, pictures and videos our extraordinary make up is shown. Not only does it serve as a collection of facts and details about the human body, but it also addresses the idea of the heart as the centre of emotion and passion for humans.

Dec. 2009, BlogTo

This exhibit is a reminder of the importance of taking care of the body.

Here are a few ideas and suggestions that will nourish your body and help you look and feel great!

1) Limit your intake of meat: It’s been estimated that a third of all cancer patients developed disease as a result of insufficient whole plant fibre in their diets. You don’t need to give up meat just limit it.


2) Stop eating dead food: Its dead how do you expect to get any nutrients out of it?!?!? Choose fresh, whole foods. Avoid canned and preserved items they have little to no nutritional value.


3) Whole grains: When considering foods such as rice, pasta and bread always choose brown over white. Modern research has found that refined white products lack in nutrients, whereas whole grains are effective in lowering high blood sugar, rich in nutrients, contain B vitamins and antioxidants.


4) Sea vegetables: These have been found to prolong life, prevent disease and impart beauty and health. Seaweed contains more calcium than milk, more iron than beef, more protein than eggs and is rich in micronutrients. These vegetables include nori, kelp and dulce.


5) Essential Fatty Acids: Omega –3 is found in cold water fish, fish oils, walnuts and flaxseeds (ground and oil form). Omega-6 is found in borage oil, hemp, evening primrose oil and sunflower and pumpkin seeds. EFA’s help lower cholesterol, keep cells functioning properly, keep aging brains healthy, combat inflammation, revitalize skin and strengthen nails and hair.


6) Stop eating when your 80% full: Eat slowly and pay attention to your portion size. Stop when you’re satisfied not when you’re stuffed. Keep in mind – You shouldn’t have to unbutton or unzip anything!


7) Protein at every meal: Protein provides essential building blocks for the daily repair of nearly every single cell in your body. Good sources include skinless white meat such as fish, chicken and turkey, fat-free milk, yogurt and cottage cheese, egg whites, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds and tofu and soy.


8) Keep hydrated: Make sure to drink 8 glasses (8 oz = 1 glass) of water every day. It’s essential for your body to keep hydrated to stay strong and fight disease and illness. Also, compare your skin when your hydrated to when your not. Hydrated looks a lot healthier!

“And in the end, it’s not the years of your life that counts. It’s the life in your years.”

Abraham Lincoln

Stay Healthy!

A Nutritionista's Guide to Gift Giving!

'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas; soon the bells will start, and the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing right within your heart.'

With just over a week to Christmas, malls are chaotic, line-ups are long, parking lots are full and last minute shoppers are searching for gifts for their loved ones.

Here are a few of my favourite gifts ideas...

For the Love of Chocolate: Purdy's Hedgehogs; milk chocolate, dark chocolate or sugar free.

Vampires & Werewolves: Twilight books and accessories for the Twilight enthusiast. For fans of the paranormal who need time off from Edward and Jacob My Soul To Take is a Harlequin must read.

Tea Please: The Tea Leaf for classic favourites and David's Tea for tasty twists.

Discovering TO: Toronto has a lot to offer! Give gift cards to the Ontario Science Centre, ROM, Bata Shoe Museum and AGO.

Canadian Pride: Support our athletes by giving the gift of Olympic apparel. My favourites: Full Zip Hoodie and Torchbearer Mittens.

Positivity goes a long way: Inspirational coasters, The Secret and Louise Hay help recharge positive vibes on days where positivity is hard to find.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!: For those that love to workout or those who want to try something new how about a Hot Yoga gift certificate? Moksha Yoga has locations all over the city.

Pages of Memories: Scrapbooks are fun to make and great to get.

Good Luck & Happy Shopping!

Stay Healthy!

Quick & Easy Recipe for Tonight's Dinner!

I've been thinking a lot about Label Reading Shoppers versus Grab & Go Buyers. Thanks to one of my good friends, I realized as the words came out of her mouth that: "People think being HEALTHY is a lot of work! Who wants to spend hours preparing a meal when theres so much to do? Quick and easy is what we need."

What if I told you healthy meals could be quick & easy??? What if I told you that most of the 'healthy' meals I make will take you just as long to make as it would to run to a reastaurant or fast-food chain???

Have I caught your attention?!?!?

I've decided to share some of my quick, easy and tasty recipes with you. Every so often I'll add a recipe to one of my future posts for you to try out.

Today, will be the first of many...

Last night, I got home late after a long day of work, work and more work... As most of you can relate: It's just that TIME OF THE YEAR!

With so much on my mind and with thoughts of a warm shower and my warm bed tempting me to grab the fastest thing possible  for dinner, I decided on a quick and tasty homemade dinner instead! I'm glad I did because the result was yum!


I made a lemon & dill salmon steak and sauteed mushrooms with a side of mixed greens and goat cheese salad... Hungry?!?!

Lemon & Dill Salmon

- Slice one lemon and cut off the peel

- Place the peel free lemons on the bottom of you oven pan

- Place your washed and skinned salmon steak on top of the lemon slices

- Chop dill and place it on top of the salmon

- Slice an onion and place the slices on top of the dill

- Put the pan in the oven at 450C for about 20-30 minutes

Sauteed Mushrooms

- In a cooking pot drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar

- Put on medium heat

- Slice mushrooms; I used buttom, shittaki & oyster mushrooms

- Throw them in the pot and sautee

Mixed Greens & Goat Cheese Salad

- Mixed greens: I grabbed the prewashed boxed mixed greens from the grocery store

- Throw the mixed greens in a salad bowl

- Add dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds

- Add low-sodium goat cheese

- Add bean sprouts and cherry tomatoes

- Drizzle olive oil and apple cider vinegar

If you try this one out & I recommend you do... Let me know what you think!

Stay Healthy!

Mocha Mocha gets 2 THUMBS UP!

I had dinner tonight with my best friend Nour. She suggested  Mocha Mocha Cafe. One of her favourites and a place I hadn't tried yet.

Mocha Mocha Cafe, located on the Danforth, is set up as a modern day cafeteria.

You walk to the cash register, browse the menu hanging behind the register, order, pick a seat (I recommend a table by the window!) sit, then wait for your food...

Nour had the Warm Brown Rice Salad: Cooked brown rice with black eyed peas, black mushrooms and ginger on a bed of mixed greens, shredded carrots and cabbage with sliced tomatoes.

I had the Avocado Salad Plate: Sliced avocado on a bed of mixed greens, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and shredded carrots with a boiled egg.

And, we shared a Vegetarian Club: Sliced avocado and grilled eggplant with shredded carrots, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and mayo on toasted organic seven grain bread.

Our meal was DelIcIoUs!

The Dishes: Beautiful to look at.

The Food: Healthy & Full of Flavour.

The Ambiance: Comfortable, Warm & Welcoming.

The Company: Fabulous, of course!


All the ingredients to a brilliant dinner out! 

If you don't feel like a salad or sandwich try one of their other menu choices... Bean Burrito Platter, Vegetarian Lasagna, East African Chicken Stew, or maybe a Vegetable Mozzarella Crepe???

Everything coming out of the kitchen looked and smelled sCruMPtioUs!

This may have been my first time to Mocha Mocha Cafe, but it will definitly not be my last.

I'm thinking next time I try out the East African Chicken Stew...

Mocha Mocha you've got my seal of approval!

Stay Healthy!

Are you a Label Reading Shopper or a Grab & Go Buyer?

At the grocery store today a woman with two children captured my attention...

Picture this:

The younger of the two children stood in the cart, holding a headless chocolate Santa in one hand and a bright red jelly candy in the other, stomping on a box of Fruit Loops crying, "No! No! NO!" The other child, also holding a poor headless Santa and a jelly candy, sang "la, la, la" while pushing packaged items off the shelves... Delightful, no?!?

What then caught my attention was what accompanied the squashed box of Fruit Loops in this woman's cart... Processed, high in sodium and high in sugar foods. She had absolutly no fruits, no vegatbles, no real food...

This made me think... Here I was a healthy woman without children spending time reading labels and thinking about my health. Does this woman know that excess salts and sugars link to high blood pressure, hyper-ness, moodiness and/or ADD and ADHD in both adults and children? Did she read food labels? Did she compare and contrast the nutrients of any products? I needed to know, the Nutritionista in me took over and I followed this 'delightful' little family into the next aisle...

To my horror, this woman read nothing and checked nothing... She was what I refer to as a Grab & Go Buyer. Look at the shelf and grab whatever appeals to you... Grab & Go!

I wanted to SCREAM:

"But that's full of sugar, and that's full of salt, and that one has artificial sweeteners in it, and that pretty bright red one...that's food colouring and the oily one MSG!!!!!"

On my drive home all I could think of was how, when health is so important and illness and disease so high, can people ignore their bodies? What about their childrens bodies?

Has life become too quick and too busy that our health has fallen down the priority list?

Are Label Reading Shoppers turning into Grab & Go Buyers?

Is salt really the new flavour of choice?

This made me think of a newspaper article I read earlier in the week, Cheesy, eggy and packed with 510 calories.  It discussed food labeling and the need for nutritional facts on restaurant menus. If clearly labelled packaged foods at grocery stores aren't being read will nutritional facts on menus make a difference?

I think when you consider calorie and sodium intake, nutritional facts and labeling start to climb up the priority list.

Let me highlight some NuMBeRs...

Calories
Women, inactive: 1,600 to 1,800 calories/day to maintain a healthy weight.
Men, inactive: 2,000 to 2,200 calories/day to maintain a healthy weight.

Sodium
Adults 19 to 50: 1,500 mg/day
Adults 51 to 70: 1,300 mg/day
Adults 71+:  1,200 mg/day

Here's the fun part:

A regular sized Greek Salad: 1,040 calories and 1,960 mg of sodium

That's 1/2 your daily calorie requirement and more than a day's worth of salt!

Breakfast Sandwich: 510 calories and 950 mg of sodium

Foot-long Meatball Marinara: 1,160 calories and 3,040 mg of sodium

Makes you think...

Let me rewind for a second...

Why is excess salt BAD for you?

High blood pressure is now an epidemic in our society

Premenstral symptoms may become more severe with too much salt

Water retention

children with high blood pressure are more likely to have learning/attention problems

What can YOU do?

Avoid High-Salt foods and look for Low Sodium and MSG Free foods:

• Salt from the shaker
• All smoked, salted meats, such as bacon, hot dogs, bologna and sausage
• Soy Sauce and MSG
• Brine-soaked foods, such as pickles and olives
• Canned and instant soups
• Salted and smoked fish and caviar
• Processed cheeses
• Condiments
• Ready-made gravies and sauces
• Snack foods such as chips, salted peanuts and popcorn, pretzels and crackers
• Any foods with added soda

You can also use online calorie counters and sodium food charts.

SO are you a Label Reading Shopper or a Grab & Go Buyer???

Your immune system...

It's that time of year again...

Outdoor Christmas lights, decorated store windows & Santa's in town!

ReD, gREen, SilVeR, bluE, GolD

Hot chocolate, pumpkin pie, candy canes, snowflakes...

And unfortunatly:

colds, runny noses, coughs, sneezing, fevers and how can we forget...

H1N1!!!

Since TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, etc., etc., seem to have this 'pandemic' covered I've decided to focus on something else...

Your Immune System

Your immune system is responsible for destroying bacteria and viruses that invade your body and make you sick. Many peoples immune systems break down because of stress and bad nutrition. Stress depletes the body of vitamin C, B vitamins and many immune strengthening minerals.

In order to help your body fight intruders, you need to work on your immune system. This includes incorporating immune boosters into your diet.

Immune Boosters

1) Eat from a variety of colourful fruits and vegetables.
2) Fruits and vegetables should make up the majority of your daily diet.
3) Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day.
4) Pay attention to your fat intake. Avoid trans fats and fatty foods.
5) Avoid having animal protein everyday. Try to limit consumption to 3 times a week.
6) Supplements: multi-vitamin, vitamin C, calcium and B complex
7) Try to get your 8 hours of sleep.
8) Juicing!

Foods to Incorporate

The following foods are rich in nutrients that boost the immune system:

Juicing

Many fruits and vegetables can be turned into a concentrated form of nutritional energy by juicing them. Raw, fresh juices provide the easiest way for the body to ingest vitamins and minerals found in these foods. Fresh juices are also alive with enzymes, which deliver vitality and energy to every cell of your body.

Some of my favourite immune boosting juice combinations are:

Blueberries + Grapes + Apples

Carrot

Orange + Carrot

Give them a try and see how you feel...

Stay Healthy!

A testament to good nutrition...

On Friday during a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) to see the much anticipated Vanity Fair exhibit...

For insight into our ROM visit check out: Not a Model

I started to feel sick and, shortly after, the sniffles began. By the time I got home my sniffles turned into a fever that included sneezing, watery eyes and a runny nose. With a week from hell in short sight I needed to kill this intruder. I needed to get ready for Monday!

I made my plan of action! This was war. This uninvited intruder was going down!

My action plan:

(1) Water, Water, Water; to flush out those germs!

(2) Mom's warm soup made with LOVE...

(3) Lots of tea (Earl Grey, Camomile, Peppermint, Lemon Thriller  and Gingerbread Spice) + Honey in my favourite m&m mug; for a feeling of warmth & comfort!

(4) COLD-FX to help reduce the symptoms and boost the immune system.

(5) Oil of Oregano to strengthen the immune system and help kill intruders!

(6) A box of ultra kleenex with a beach view; a "mood enhancer."

(7) DayQuil and NyQuil to deal with the fever and knock me out in the evening!

(8) My laptop; A 'sick day' doesn't exist in the world of PR...

          

At this point I'm sure a lot of you are thinking: DayQuil & NyQuil!??!?! That's not very HOLISTIC of you!??!?!

Here's my response and an add on to my intro blog...

I'm an RHN with a twist! Meaning: I believe that you need to pick your battles. Pick the better of the two evils. I'm not perfect, but I thrive for optimal health and I'm realistic about it.

I was really sick, I had a high fever and could not sleep... Remember, This was WAR!

I needed to be:

well, functioning and ready for Monday = the choice made

That evening I drank lots of water and tea. Whenever hungry, I had mom's 'get well' soup and I went through two 'beachy' boxes of ultra kleenex. I spent the night working away on my laptop and answering the calls from my mom who wanted to make sure I was still alive and that what I had was NOT H1N1.

The next morning, I woke up:

(1) ALIVE!!!

(2) Without my 'sickly' symptoms!!!

I won the battle...

I may not be a full 24/7 Health Guru that sticks to every nutrition rule that exists, but I do watch what I eat and try to incorporate good nutrition into my life.

I believe that this lifestyle is what helped me fight this cold and get over the horrible symptoms quickly...

I feel better today and I'm ready for tomorrow; No sick day needed!  

Stay Healthy!

A little introduction...

I want to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about myself and introduce you to my blog. Diary of a Nutritionista is my way of letting you into a part of my world. The world of health, nutrition, wellness and, my favorite, food.


What qualifications do I have? Well, I'm a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (RHN) who's currently studying PR. I worked in the wonderful world of health and wellness for many years before deciding to get into PR. My love for nutrition is the reason why I have decided to start this blog.


After meeting me and my RHN credential, most people are confused and, some, frightened by the term holistic. Let me start by saying:

RELAX & BREATHE!

I am NOT a Voodoo Dr., not a witch, I do NOT think drinking blood helps revitalize the body and nor do I believe eating grass should be a mandatory daily detox ritual!!!

Now that we've got that out of the way let me explain what holistic is...

HOLISTIC is looking at the whole system rather than focusing on individual parts. This means looking at the body as a whole: the physical, along with the emotional, mental and spiritual.

BODY + MIND + SPIRIT

I am excited to get started and I hope you like what you read. I welcome all questions, suggestions and ideas so by all means throw them my way...

Stay Healthy!