Nearly every morning my boys ask for a smoothie. This smoothie in fact. My issue with the vast majority of smoothies is that they are pure sugar – fruit on fruit on fruit. This one is packed with protein, fiber, healthy fats and antioxidants – without spiking their blood sugar. Try my low sugar smoothie for kids! Why Most Smoothies Suck + Spike Blood Sugar Listen, I love a smoothie. They make a great snack or breakfast. They’re easy. They’re the perfect wait to load up a ton of nutrients into one neat little package. But most smoothies aren’t a ton of nutrients. Most smoothies are just fruit. Listen, I’m not a fruit hater. I’m down with fruits. But we have to eat them properly. Eating a ton of fruit in one sitting is NOT a good idea. Why? Because as great as fruit it, fruit still contains sugar and…
How To Prevent Pregnancy Naturally
When I was 22 I had an abortion. I didn’t want to go on the pill after that because of the side effects and risks of depression, so I figured out how to prevent pregnancy naturally. Turns out it’s INCREDIBLY effective. Read on to find out how! Why I Had An Abortion When I was 22 I had a boyfriend I had been dating on and off for a year and a half. We didn’t regularly have sex even when we were dating but we weren’t always super careful when it did happen. At the time I just didn’t know any better. I didn’t know about my cycle, my ovulation, or that you can only get pregnant a few days out of the month. I thought that if you had sex, you always risked getting pregnant. WRONG. So when I found my period was a little late, I took a…
How a Daily Journal Practice Changed My Life
Starting a daily journal practice is an easy way to re-wire your brain and change your life. Here’s how a daily journal practice changed my life. Why I Needed a Daily Journal Practice (and why you probably do too) We all grow up with trauma. Some of us worse than others. But we all have it. Everyone has faulty thinking and behavior patterns we’ve picked up along the way. And unless you identify them, it’s hard to know they’re present. For me, I grew up with an absent father, a violent, drug addict mother and in a very unstable, unsafe household. My brain was wired for fear. I am always hypervigilant, ready to fight or flee. As I got older and built a better life for myself, I was having a really hard time breaking the habit of fear and worry. It’s just what I became used to. It’s what…
Sea Bass with Herbs, Tomatoes & Capers
This gluten-free sea bass with herbs, tomatoes & capers is easy to make, incredibly healthy and fancy enough to fool anyone into thinking you’re a brilliant chef. Plus it takes all of 15 minutes from start to finish. I am a lucky person. We moved from DC to Charleston, South Carolina in June of 2020. No one thought we’d do it. My mother in law thought we were insane. But now, it’s 70 degrees on March 1st and I golf carted to the docks in my neighborhood to pick up fresh sea bass. Life is good. Fresh seafood is probably my most favorite category of food. Give me some oysters, a whole grilled fish, a crisp glass of white wine and I am GOOD. Not to mention that seafood is one of the absolute healthiest foods available to us as humans. Pair it with herbs, tomatoes and capers and you’ve…
How To Know If Your Kid Is a Strep Carrier
Luckily for all of you, I recently discovered my kids are strep carriers. Here’s how to know if YOUR kid is a strep carrier. Here’s the backstory: My oldest son, Everett, had some persistently swollen lymph nodes on his neck I was concerned about. Because Everett was born so prematurely (23 weeks, you can read that story here) I have to admit that I’m a little more vigilant when it comes to his health. Listen, when you’ve seen your kid almost die about a thousand times and have to be revived by nurses and doctors, it takes a toll on you. I’m not a hypochondriac, but I am vigilant. He had no symptoms of anything else, which is why it came as a shock when he tested positive for strep at the pediatrician’s office. The fact that he had absolutely no strep symptoms other than swollen lymph nodes should have…
The Best Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
These sugar cookies are easy to make and best of all absolutely delicious! You truly would not be able to tell they were gluten-free without being told. They’re seriously the best gluten-free sugar cookies! It was recently Valentine’s Day, and while it would’ve been nice to actually get this recipe out before the holiday, it just wasn’t gonna happen. Mostly because I actually had no intention of making anything sweet for Valentine’s Day, I was just going to do a nice dinner. But at 3pm on the day before V-Day, I realized I didn’t have enough bags of mini VD popcorn to go around for both of my sons’ classes. Not to be confused with venereal disease. Valentine’s Day, people. VD. So I ran to Whole Foods to buy more popcorn and lucky me – they were completely out of the cute little pink holiday bags. Which meant one son…
Easy Steak Tartare
This easy steak tartare is one of the healthiest, simplest meals you can make that will support both your body and brain. Bonus – you don’t have to cook it! You guys. I fucking love steak tartare. If I’m ever at a French or fancy restaurant that serves it, I’m getting it. There is something so absolutely delicious about it. And if you’re afraid of raw meat – DON’T BE. It is incredible! I’m telling you. Steak tartare is absolutely delicious, decadent and insanely healthy. Health benefits of steak: steak is high in protein that contain all bioavailable amino acids in the perfect balance (unfortunately, this cannot be said of plant proteins)B12 is naturally high in steakheme iron, the type of iron that is easily absorbed by the human body, is naturally present in high amounts in steakzinc, which is essential for proper immune function and help balance mood, is…
Why An Abortion Was the Best Healthcare Decision Of My Life
When I was 22, I had an abortion. It was absolutely the right thing to do. And here’s why it was the best healthcare decision of my life. Growing up… I grew up in a broken home with two addicts for parents. My father wasn’t around and my mother was physically, mentally and verbally abusive. She had my older brother when she had just turned 20 and me at 26. I could never for the life of me figure out why she had children. She didn’t like us, she didn’t take care of us, and most of the time I thought she hated us. I always wondered if she simply had us because she didn’t have access to abortion, or if abortion was just too tabboo back then to undergo. She passed away this year from her addiction, and I’ll never know. I just knew that I never wanted to…
The Healthiest Zero Sugar Multivitamin For Kids
After talking to my kids’ dentist recently about how gummy vitamins can cause an increase in cavities, I went in search of the healthiest zero sugar multivitamin for kids. Luckily, it exists, it’s affordable and my kids love it! My Quest For The Healthiest Zero Sugar Multivitamin For Kids Okay, I admit I’ve been giving my kids gummy vitamins for years. I don’t want to say negative things about other brands, because I think they are definitely well intentioned AND have good ingredients overall, but it always concerned me that gummy vitamins were basically candy. My kids would beg for them, fiend for them even. I recognized that this was the process with typical high sugar foods – they hijack the brain so you crave more and more. While I liked that they were taking multivitamins, I recognized that they reacted to them like they would candy. Wanting more and…
How I Prepared For The COVID-19 Vaccine
After intitialy being quite wary of the vaccine, I decided it was safest to get it. For me, the benefits outweighed the risks and I did numerous things to prep my body. This is how I prepared for the COVID-19 vaccine. I’ll be honest, when the vaccine initially rolled out – I was skeptical. Most vaccines take years to produce, fine tune, test for safety, ensure efficacy. Most of all I wondered how safe these vaccines were. I hadn’t heard of mRNA vaccines but I was thankful a viral vector vaccine was also available (Johnson & Johnson). I decided to take a wait and see approach for a bit. I wasn’t the first to line up to get the vaccine honestly. I still wore a mask everywhere, socially distanced and was responsible. But I didn’t know yet if I’d get the vaccine. To be truthful, I was scared. I don’t…