INSPIRATIONAL PARENT: ABBY SOARES

Thrilled to have the passionate and talented Abby Soares of Nourish Health as an inspirational parent, wow this mum is mind blowing with her amazing dedication to great food and excellent health.

Many moons ago I worked as a childrens nurse in Aucklands Starship Childrens Hospital.  I had the pleasure of meeting Abby through a mutual friend at the local gym. Since then Abby has created a wonderful Holistic Health Centre, where they support their clients with nutritional and lifestyle changes to reclaim their health and happiness, sounds like the kind of place I would LOVE to be.  Abby specialises in childrens and womens health and has a really awesome sound knowledge of gut health, immunity, fatigue, weight loss and pregnancy care.  I love following her on facebook and seeing what creations she has made (always super colourful) and who she has been collaborating with (remember inspirational parent Anita from The Kefir Company?!!)

I have watched Abby build her amazing business to truely help families thrive.  Her passion for real food and reversing sickness is astounding, I love how she made the changes initially for her own family and went on to help those around her.

So come, read all about it…..

HOW OLD IS YOUR CHILD?

I have three amazing boys who are 10, 8 and 6 years.  I love being a Mama, its absolutely the best job ever.  Being connected to them feeds my soul and makes me my happiest self (apart from the fights!!!)

WHAT IS YOUR FOOD PHILOSOPHY FOR YOUR CHILD

We aim to eat whole foods from nature for 90-95% of our meals.   We eat mostly organic and try to stick to the foods that are in season wherever possible.  I truly feel that nature always gets it right  when it comes to food and human intervention with food processing is so damaging to our beautiful bodies.

I believe that the gut is the foundation of our health so that is a major focus in our family.  We eat lots of soups and broths made from organic bones and meat in winter.  to keep our gut healthy.  We eat foods filled with good bacteria such as coconut kefir and sauerkraut to constantly repopulate the good bacteria in our digestive system.  We eat huge amounts of greens and veggies to feed the good bacteria and clean our bodies of toxins.  We eat eggs and meat from organic animals to build and strengthen  our bodies and small amounts of activated nuts/seeds and non glutenous grains.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO FEED YOUR CHILDREN THE WAY YOU DO?

 We has been on a massive journey recovering my eldest from Dyspraxia and allergies and my middle son from chronic sinus infections.  Their health and happiness is so important to me, if it means working a bit harder in the kitchen to nourish them to optimal health then I’m happy to do it.   All three boys are so healthy now, they’re gorgeous boys who very rarely get sick and have so much energy (too much sometimes!)

If they’re happy and healthy then I know I’ve done my best by them.

TIPS FOR TRAVELLING FAMILIES

Travelling locally I always pack the boys lunch boxes full of veggies, fruit, meat, raw baking etc.  I take extra snacks as well such as smoothies, fruit and nuts.  I usually have some emergency packet food such as bars that are made with nuts and dried fruit.  I usually google whole food cafes so that if we need to eat out that we can make good choices away from home.

Travelling overseas I do the same…take our lunch boxes and a mini blender with us.  Do a big shop at a local organic or whole food store when we arrive so there is plenty for everyone to eat.  I make lunch boxes every day and take them with us so we don’t get caught short.  We search for whole food cafe’s to grab a smoothie and some raw baking!  Being prepared and organised is the key to staying on track.

3 TOP SNACKS

– fruit

– veggies

– boiled eggs or cold meat

simple food is the way to go!

HOW DO I LOOK AFTER MYSELF AS WELL AS MY KIDS

I play heaps of sport.  I love horse riding, it makes me feel so happy to my core, just the smell of my gorgeous horse is enough to make me melt with happiness.  I surf when ever I can which isn’t nearly enough! Being in the ocean is the ultimate way to get away from all your worries, connect with nature, get some sun and exercise. I also play netball once a week with an awesome team of girls, I love it and play touch rugby in summer.

I eat really well, the same as the kids really.  I eat heaps of greens and veggies and good quality meats.   Greens are so amazing for energy so I have lots of smoothies and veggie juice, it keeps me happy and gives me enough energy to keep up with my sports mad tribe.

I have such lovely friends, a super caring and supportive husband and family so I have really good support.  Having that lovely network to share your problems, hopes and dreams with is so important.

WHAT BRINGS BALANCE TO YOUR FAMILY

Time in nature.  Being out of the house and at the beach, on the ocean or in the bush makes everyone feel happy and calm.  We try to re wild ourselves as often as possible.

Also being with our wider family, having all the kids together playing and happy, this connectedness is so important to our life balance.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOOURITE ACTIVITY TO DO AS A FAMILY

We all love the beach and love surfing.  I love doing day trips up North, spending the whole day at the beach.  All surfing and swimming and playing  beach cricket or touch.  I think I’m definitely made to be a Mum of boys!

Recipe

Kumara Brownie

posted in Recipes

Kumara brownie’s are a massive favourite in our house, they are delicious but also really filling and healthy! Make a double batch as they keep really well in the freezer and are perfect for lunch boxes or afternoon snacks when friends pop over.

Ingredients

• 1 medium sweet potato – 2-3 cups when grated
• 2 organic eggs
• ½ cup melted coconut oil
• ⅓ cup honey (or maple syrup)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract/paste
• ½ cup raw cacao powder, sifted (or cocoa if find cacao to rich)
• 1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2½ tablespoon coconut flour

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 185 °C (365 °F), make sure the oven is hot before you put in the brownies in.
2. Combine grated sweet potato, eggs, vanilla, honey and coconut oil oil in a large mixing bowl and stir together until well incorporated. Then add cacao powder, baking powder and baking soda and stir. Finally add coconut flour. Avoid adding too much coconut flour as it will absorb too much moisture which will result in drier brownies.
3. Once combined, pour the mixture into a baking tray lined with greased baking paper. I used a 9″/23cm square tin.
4. Cook for 25-30 minutes. Remove the tin and cool for 5-10 minutes before carefully removing the brownie cake form the tin. Cut them into squares and dust with a little cacao powder or melt some dark chocolate in a bowl over boiling water and drizzle it over the top. Serve with raspberries or strawberries and maybe some fresh cream or coconut yoghurt to be extra decadent.

Enjoy

from

Abby

x x x

THANK YOU Abby for your love of nutrition, family health and taking care of you too!!!

INSPIRATIONAL PARENT: Anita Whittingham

Movers and shakers, this mum is for you!!  Anita is super inspiring, I found her through the local Bondi Babies Facebook site when I saw a call out for mums wanting to exercise and be accountable for it.  Like  a mini support group.  I then followed her on her instagram page @anitawhittingham and loved her passion and enthusiasm for health, food, families, essential oils and exercise.

 

Her website anitawhittingham.com is beautiful and full of great nuggets of wisdom, some fabulous recipes and lots of motivation.  I love that she is so involved with surfing, something I have never done!  Such a busy mum co-ordinating the Bondi Surfing Mums Group, facilitating TERRAfit challenges and squeezing in some self love with regular yoga classes.  She holds regular essential oil workshops too, which I highly recommend popping along to to learn about the amazing benefits of oils and how they can benefit your health. Magic.

Let’s see what she has to say about being a mum, sit back relax and enjoy…

How old is your child?

My miracle rainbow daughter is 18 months.

 

What is your food philosophy for your child?

I share all my meals with Bella so she eats mostly real whole food. She loves cultured veggies and Kombucha. It’s awesome! I try to limit sugar in packaged products like crackers. Sugar is addictive so I limit where possible but I believe in everything in moderation. So she has cake at birthday parties/ special events but I like to make healthy treats at home like ice-blocks and bliss balls so she eats those. She loves fruit and my smoothies so I sneak in greens into my smoothies.

 

What inspires you to feed your child the way you do?

I strongly believe that our health is our number one asset so I try to model good eating habits. Living a healthy life free from disease and sickness is so important because being sick starts to affect other parts of your life.

 

What tips have you got for travelling families?

Research online before you go. Look up where you can buy healthy food and where there are markets so you can buy fresh fruit and veggies. Have breakfast at home. If you are in a hotel room you can buy some Greek yoghurt and sugar free granola and add fresh berries/banana to create a breakfast parfait in a mug. Take a knife with a cover with you (pack in your checked in luggage) so you can cut up carrot and cucumber sticks. Take or buy nuts as a healthy snack and look for boiled eggs to eat with your breakfast parfait or as a snack. Look up restaurant menu’s before you go. Create a rough plan in advance of where you want to eat. Ask locals for recommendations and suggestions.  

What are your 3 top snacks?

Mixed raw nuts

Banana

Raw veggies (cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks).

 

How do you look after yourself as well as your child?

Regular exercise, healthy food and essential oils. We use certified pure therapeutic grade essential oils to boost our wellness and protect us against environmental threats. I’m a bit of a raving oil fan. We use them in so many different ways at home. They have made a huge difference to our lives.   

 

What brings balance to your family?

Diffusing calming essential oils like Lavender Peace. Ah-mazing!!!!

 

What is your favourite activity to do together as a family?

Playing along the shoreline at the beach at 5/6pm. What happened to Summer?! It ended so abruptly 😦

 

Do you have a favourite inspirational quote that lights up your life?

I am open and receptive to receiving all good. It’s a Louise Hay quote.

 

Recipe:

Chocolate Mint Protein Balls

These delicious morsels are so freaking delicious you wont be able to stop at one. But that’s OK because they are packed full of super nourishing ingredients so they make a nutritious guilt free snack.

1 cup quinoa flakes

1 cup cashews

1 Tb chia seeds

15 medjool dates, seeds removed

2 scoops dōTERRA Slim and Sassy Chocolate Trim Shake

1/2 cup shredded coconut

6 drops dōTERRA Peppermint essential oil

2 Tb water

desiccated coconut to coat balls

1. Mix all ingredients together in a high speed blender

2. Pop desiccated coconut in a bowl

3. Roll mixture into balls (whatever size you desire) and coat with desiccated coconut

4. Pop in fridge or freezer.

 

THANK YOU Anita…and we must catch up!

The Answer to Temper Tamtrums

My child is 2.5 years.  He is delicious, engaging, social and calm.  Most of the time.  A few months back I ran out of zinc and he didn’t get any for 2 weeks.

I give zinc to help all the cells in his body to function at their best, and I believe our food is super deficient in this important mineral, therefore so are we.  Low levels of zinc inhibit neuron activity, thus affecting behaviour, increasing agitation, increasing anger, impaired immune function and wound healing.  There is a high correlation between zinc deficiency and ADHD, autism, depression, mood disorders and sleeping issues.

Back to my son.  After 2 weeks of no zinc supplements, he got VERY clingy, whingy, whiney, and was impossible to get to sleep.  It was driving me crazy, and bear in ind the penny hadn’t dropped yet for me.  I was taking him to the chiropractor and he was super rude to her.  Typical Terrible Two’s.  So everyone kept telling me.  Where had my calm little boy gone!  I was at breaking point.  Asking the teachers if there was anything going on at daycare, fighting my little guy every step of the way and giving in when he would just stand there and bawl his eyes out.

Then I remembered about the zinc.  I had a bottle i had forgotten about in the fridge, and I went to get it out.  Little guy followed me crying and screaming, and he got so mad at me HE THREW THE GLASS BOTTLE ACROSS THE KITCHEN!!!! WOAH!  Scrummaging in my supplement supply I luckily found a bottle of zincs drops, put my nursing experience to good use and held him down to drop some drops in his mouth (initially he hated it then he asked for more!)

Push forward to the next morning, and it was THIS INSTANT… a little angel of a toddler woke laughing and smiling, not the usual ‘GO AWAY’s’ we had been getting.

INCREDIBLE! I seriously wouldn’t have believed it if it hadn’t of happened to me!  So yes I made sure I ordered our preferred Zinc and he has it every day!

Please see a health professional to help prescribe the best source and dose of zinc for your child.

Food that contains good levels of zinc are red meat, chicken, pumpkin seeds, oysters, chickpeas, spinach, flax seeds, kidney beans.

RECIPE from Dr Libby

Brain Balls

Nutritional Information

This chewy, nutty treat is an excellent source of the monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids that have the anti-inflammatory properties so necessary for healthy hearts and brain functions. Keep these easy to make snacks on hand for the perfect after school snack for a burst of energy or as a source of vitamin E and zinc, beneficial for skin and the immune system.

Ingredients

• 2 cups walnuts, halves and pieces
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup coconut, shredded
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 8 fresh dates, pitted and coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons water
• Pinch of salt
• 1 to 3 drops peppermint oil (optional)

Method

1. Combine the walnuts, sunflower seeds, dates and coconut in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse for 30 to grind the ingredients.
2. Add the cocoa powder, salt, water and the peppermint oil to the bowl and process until the mixture forms a paste.
3. Form the paste into medium sized balls by rolling a portion of the paste between your palms. Place the finished balls on a tray lined with waxed paper and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

 

 

Thinking Thyroid

Optimal thyroid function is what we all strive for to maintain excellent health. What does this mean exactly? It means uncovering what lies beneath the symptoms and blood results of thyroid dis-function and really getting to the heart of the issue, truly listening to what our bodies are telling us.

Digging a little deeper in to our thought patterns and the stories we tell ourselves, can explain some of the disease processes that leads to thyroid malfunction. Maintaining optimal thyroid function is very important for our overall health. The thyroid is in charge of our metabolism and it is known to hold the power to the body’s entire internal performance, acting as an accelerator. When there is dis-function we can identify nutritional deficiencies and biochemical imbalances, and readily solve these issues with nutrients, nourishment and tweaks to diets to eliminate particular foods known to hinder thyroid performance. Our psychological and emotional response to stimulus can also be identified to influence our thyroid function.

 

To begin with, our thyroid sits in our throat, right where our throat chakra is

. When we aren’t saying what we really want to, when we hold our tongue and do not speak up for ourselves, our throat chakra can become blocked. This puts immense pressure on our thyroid, slowing down and holding back its performance. Louise Hay

links the psychological effects with the disease process, commonly referring thyroid issues to feelings of humiliation, feeling repressed or put down.

Louise also explains our thyroid is affected when our creativity is blocked, and encourages women especially to explore self-expression. A common feeling that comes up is ‘when is it my turn’. Shying away from what we want usually means ‘we do not feel we have the right to these things’, stopping us from speaking our truth and therefore blocking up our throat chakra.

Repeating affirmations is suggested as a way to help steer thoughts to a more positive way of thinking. The biochemistry of our cells is directly altered when we have a distorted thought pattern, therefore using affirmations and tuning in to what we really feel can positively impact our thyroid function. Using affirmations like “I move beyond old limitations, and now allow myself to express freely and creatively”, work by firing up neural pathways and shifting the energy blockers around your thyroid, to a more positive, abundant environment. A heavenly environment, which supports and nourishes the thyroid.

Finding the gold that shines within, and being true to you is what is going to have a positive effect on thyroid function. Saying goodbye to thought patterns that are harmful to the thyroids biochemistry would in turn tune you in to your greatness. Supporting your thyroid with delicious food, positive affirmations and spoonfuls of self care will tune in to your greatness and begin to express who you really were born to be.