Cooking is Not the Only Way to Engage Your Child into the World of Cooking

by | Mar 29, 2019 | Cooking, Parenting

Kim Calichio, owner of The Connected Chef, joins us today to talk about the ways to incorporate kids into the world of food without necessarily cooking with them.

Engaging in a two-way conversation around whole foods is the first step to establishing healthy and independent food choices for your child.

Cooking doesn’t have to be the only path to healthy eating though.

Beginning a conversation around food is the first small step any parent can make when wanting to establish or change the choices that their child (or family) is making around food.

 

Here are some great ways to BEGIN the food conversation in your family…

 

  • Take some time throughout the month to talk with your children about what real food is.

That’s it.

No matter the age of your child, these are conversation can and should happen regularly.

  • Name the ingredients you have!

Even if in just passing or when cooking, state the name of the ingredients you have around and are eating.

You can expand with the color, shape, and size or the various foods.

Comparing flavors is a great way to extend this conversation with older and younger children. We talk about salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami in all of our classes!

  • Talk about where your food grows

Connect the things your child eats with our planet.

This is a vital step to your child understanding that their food choices are bigger than themselves. Connecting them to the source of their food, even if in conversation, will bring a greater respect for the product and mindfulness over time.

What regions do your ingredients grow?

Does it come from the sky? The soil? A tree or bush?

 

  • Discover what nutrients are in different ingredients

Google different ingredients and find the nutrients they contain & the benefits each different food has on your bodies.

Frame this conversation with pure curiosity. “I wonder why it’s good to eat cucumbers?”

This will likely be a learning experience for you too!

 

We invite you to come along and be a part of our community for additional support and opportunity for continued connection. Sign up HERE.

The Connected Chef works with families to use food as a way to connect with one another. Our children’s gardening and cooking classes and individual family programs both allow us to work with clients to problem solve the struggles of parenthood and food. The results: Kids who feel empowered to make independent & healthy food choices and develop a natural respect for their environment and community; Parents who are able to take a breath and connect with their kids instead of engaging in the ever-present struggle of mealtime.

Join our community and stay connected by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

What a Concussion Looks Like

by | Mar 26, 2019 | Mental Health, Parenting, Self-Care, Truth-Telling

Sign up HERE to receive the latest news on my Mommy Rebellion book release!!

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Two Things I’m Giving Moms Permission to Do

by | Mar 21, 2019 | Affirmations, Grounding, Mental Health, Parenting

 Have you ever felt like your needs don’t matter as mom? 

Megan Day, founder of Rooted & Vibrant is here to tell you that that’s normal and that it is possible to take back some control over your life with 2 basic, but not easy, skills.
When you take back control of your day to day activities, you increase your personal power and THAT can feel very liberating. 

I often hear mom’s saying that they feel overwhelmed. That there is not enough time in the day. That their house is a mess. That they don’t have time to cook healthy meals.

All human beings have a basic need for attention and power. Once our needs for food, shelter, love and safely are met, these are the next things we are concerned with. This is based on Adlerian psychology.

Have you ever felt like your needs don’t matter as mom? Like you are worrying about everyone else except yourself? Well, I’m here to tell you that that’s normal. I’m also here to tell you that it is possible to take back some control over your life with 2 basic, but not easy, skills. When you take back control of your day to day activities, you increase your personal power and THAT can feel very liberating.

 

  • The art of the NO

Why is NO such a loaded word? For me, I am a recovering people pleaser. I want to be seen as agreeable. If I really drill down, I think this stems from being an overweight pre-teen and just wanting to be the “nice” girl. I didn’t want any undue, negative attention, so I stayed quiet and agreeable. As I have matured and my self-confidence has improved I have come to recognize that this is not serving me.

Maybe you have a little people pleaser inside of you? How is that working for you? It can create overwhelm and unbalance. It can also create resentment.

 

  • Also the Art of the ASK

Asking for help. My gosh, is this difficult! When it comes to my family, I am full of pride and a bit of control freak. I recently took a parenting personality assessment that proved this. My sister and I are working through a program called Positive Parenting Solutions (more about this amazing program another day because that’s a blog post on its own). This program highlights the fact that any discipline issues you may be experiencing with your kids have two sides. You, as the parent, are 50% of the issue!

Argh! Did this hit home! I kind of already knew this but when I took the parenting personality assessment my results were staggering. I am a triple threat. I had a 3-way tie between controlling, people pleasing and superiority complex. My poor kids!

My point here is that I am a controlling parent who thinks she does things better than anyone else. Sorry! (Not sorry) This makes it challenging to ask for help. To admit that I want to do something but will need the grandparents to come and help watch the kids is hard. 

Even harder, is asking friends for help. For some reason, this takes a certain amount of vulnerability. I have gotten better at this in the past year, now that my youngest is over 2 and I’m not nursing, but trust me, it is still challenging. 

As a coach who works with ambitious and heart-centered moms, I see this internal struggle all the time between wanting to succeed in your career or business BUT also deeply desiring to be a connected parent. Finding that balance between both can be challenging. I call it the elusive quest for balance.

Together we work on developing a definition of what “success” means to you. Success means different things to different women.  Then we work on ways that you can be more successful by your own definition. Sometimes it is a mindset, illuminating your worth and uncovering your confidence. Other times, it is peeling back the layers of unrealistic expectations you have put on yourself or that you have unconsciously picked up from society. Either way, what happens is a blossoming. You take back control of your life and you step into your power as a woman and a mother. It’s a beautiful thing.

To help you take that first step in your journey, I’ve created a free online quiz for mamas. This quiz highlights what a piece of your self you may be missing. Finding ways to express that part of yourself can bring you back to who you are and what you really need to feel whole. Find the quiz HERE.   

Megan Day, MSc, CLC, is a Certified Life Coach, Meditation Instructor and the founder of Rooted & Vibrant. Her mission is to empower women to find their life’s work and to help ambitious moms create fulfilling lives.

In 2017, Megan made the decision to resign from her 10 year career in healthcare to start her own business and explore her calling. She values family, community, connection and adult conversation. She has found her life purpose in helping other moms find theirs.

Connect with Megan at www.instagram.com/rooted_and_vibrant and www.facebook.com/rootedandvibrant/.  

Reducing Stress is Prevention

by | Mar 14, 2019 | Affirmations, Mental Health, Parenting, Self-Care

Jenn Greiner of Green Thinking, shares the benefits of self care and how you can incorporate essential oils into your practice. 

We can feel Spring in the air!  Us New Englanders take this as the sign to get out our summer clothes and try not to get sick anymore.  The kids start having more energy and are able to be outside more. Us adults may become overwhelmed by Spring cleaning & Spring Fever!  So what can we do to take care of ourselves when the stress increases with warm weather just around the corner?!?

Heightened states of stress causes a few things to happen in our bodies:

  • Increased release of our stress hormone, Cortisol.  

    *This hormone is only meant to be released for short periods of time during a fight or flight response.  

  • A very important protein (Immunoglobulin A – IgA) goes down.

    *This protein helps ‘healthy immune function and the internal defense system (Dispenza, 2017, p. 42).  

    *This lowered protein makes us susceptible to sickness.

    • Our bodies believe they are stuck in this stressful environment.  

    Dr. Dispenza studied this IgA protein and wondered if our mood could increase our immune system.  

    His study showed that if you can elevate your mood, even just for a few days, your body starts to believe it’s in a new environment and can increase the protein up to 50% and decrease Cortisol by 16%!!

    Maintaining a low to null stress level is part of preventing illness!  We can do this in so many ways. One way I’ve found myself talking about a lot is mindfulness.  

    I have gotten into the habit of meditating every morning and the impact I see that it has made on my life is invaluable.  If I don’t meditate, I feel irritable, moody and do not have very good days overall. When I do meditate, I have a sense of calm, lower stress and feel that I can better manage whatever the universe throws my way.

    Another great way to lower stress is self-care.  Making time for yourself to do the things you enjoy and make you feel good.  It could be small things like showering or eating. It could also include crafting, cooking or being in the outdoors.   It doesn’t have to be done on your own either! Have game night with your family so that you’re full of love & laughs!

    Another way to help prevent illness, is using essential oils.  You can use essential oils to manage your stress. Use lavender for calming, Wild Orange for anxiety, Rosemary for focus, Cedarwood for grounding and so many more!  (See my blog for how you can use these oils.)

    In my opinion, the best oil for preventing sickness is On Guard, the Protective Blend.  It helps kills germs and boost our immune systems. There is a wide variety of On Guard products.  I use the Foaming Hand Wash in the kitchen and bathroom and the Concentrate to clean my surfaces.  Starting around this time, I start putting one drop of On Guard oil on the bottoms of my feet.  I also carry my Immunity rollerball with me during travel.  Also check out some of my favorite diffuser blends for kiddos.

     

    • How do you help keep you & your family healthy?
    •  Which is your favorite On Guard product?
    •  Do you have a self-care routine?

    Jennifer Greiner began discovering her passions and areas of interest at a young age which developed through her academic career.  She has always enjoyed learning new alternative, natural methods to integrate into her own lifestyle.

     

    In 2014 she received a graduate degree in Art Therapy and began working in the mental health field with children and families.

     

    Through integrating essential oils into her own lifestyle, she saw her overall health & wellness increase and became eager to include these tools for her clients. She developed Green Thinking in 2016 so she could enjoy sharing methods and tools with her clients and growing community. She offers mental health counseling to address personal development goals.