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Nutrition Nuggets

Posted: April 5, 2017
By: Kate

Kate's Blog

BIO: Kate Fritz is a 2004 graduate of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City.  She is passionate about helping moms with small children who are ready to make a gentle shift toward feeding their bodies and their souls.  Kate’s guidance focuses upon the four Primary Foods as taught to her at the Institute.  As she works with each client, she assists them in growing in Relationships, Career, Spirituality and Fun.  As the mother of six-year-old Anna, Kate believes strongly in the need to guide children toward wise eating and life-enhancing food choices.  She loves helping mothers grow in confidence in supporting their families toward a more healthy lifestyle.  In addition to her nutrition background, Kate is also a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology as an interpreter for the deaf, a certified EFT practitioner, and a long-term promoter of Young Living Essential Oils.  She incorporates her many talents into her nutrition sessions and loves watching her clients blossom into their true selves.

Nutrition Nuggets

A person would be hard put to argue with the assertion that we live in a microwave society.  We have become used to immediate access to most everything in our everyday lives.  From computers to smart phones and right down to instant food, we have become demanding of instant gratification.

Any busy mom juggling children, work, home, school and other responsibilities finds it extremely difficult to carve out the time to cook meals from scratch, much less research what is best for their growing tribe.  It is so much easier to make a quick dash to the store and hurry down the middle aisles containing ready-to-eat items ranging from snacks to one-step “meals?” in a box.  Just add the ground meat of your choosing, and off you go!  What quietly rests on the perimeter shelves is very often passed over in the race to beat the clock and make it through yet another harried day.

The steadily rising rate of Type 2 diabetes, Attention Deficit, and other labels found in children in our revved-up society gives one pause for thought, as does the amount of obesity, and hormonal disruptions coming from our tainted food supply that seems to be becoming the norm.  Any mom checking in on these disturbing trends may well be searching for a way back to more nutritious eating for their families as well as for themselves.  What does nutritious even mean anymore?  After that thought comes, where do my family and I start to implement real, lasting lifestyle changes?

As with any decision to make a change in lifestyle, returning to whole foods as the focal point of eating needs to be taken in little bite-sized steps (pun intended!).  If you and your children have become accustomed to consuming the majority of your daily calories through packaged processed foods, rediscovering the taste for real food may take awhile.

So, where to begin? We are so often taught to suppress our emotions and not listen or tune in to what actions or messages they hold for us. These intuitive messages can bring with them a much-needed truth that comes with committing to honoring ourselves and these feelings.  When the body is ignored and symptoms suppressed, we can never really fully arrive at our own nutritional truth.

Remember, starting with simple awareness is a gift you can bring to the table of life. Just the fact that you want to improve the health of you and your family is a magical key to unlocking your creative thoughts and using them as a guide on your own personal nutritional journey.

Make your kids (any age will do) a part of the process.  My little one loves writing lists for grocery shopping.  Some might not be what I would have on my list, but we talk about it together.  I ask her why her body feels it needs that food and try to “one up” that choice.  For example, Lucky Charms could turn into Barbara’s organic Gorilla Munch cereal or another GMO free organic selection.

Get a big GLASS pitcher (I say glass because plastic can leach chemicals) and fill it with pure water.  Have your little friends decorate that glass jar.  They can paint it.  They can write special messages on it of uplifting words.  Ours say Thank You, Love, Passion, Peace, etc.  It’s amazing, when they look at it and see that they have been the creative gurus in the process, how much they will want to drink more water!  It gives them ownership of their health. This is a great start. Drinking this first essential glass of water each morning is something you and your kids can do together.  Make up a silly water song and dance and drink it down in a communal, fun environment.  This is a great way to wake the body/mind in a carefree atmosphere.

Another important tip to implement a healthier food change for you and your family is shopping the perimeter of the store.  This is the section of the markets where you will find more whole foods and less boxes, and packages which, in turn, means cleaner choices.

When we go to the market we always try to make each section a different island.  The kids can go to the tropical greens of the produce, sail the seas with the captain at the seafood department, etc.  

There are all kinds of ways to help them discover things at the markets.  Really pay attention to what they pick up and why they feel connected to a certain food.

I invite you to discover your inner passions and your relationships to the many foods in your life that are filling you and that lay before you.  Empower yourself around a path of truth and freedom for you and your family.  If you are ready to stop reading the latest fads and diets and figure out what works for YOU and YOUR family, then you’re ready for an enlightened journey of self discovery and gentle awareness that just might give life a whole new outlook on food and how it nurtures our lives.

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