I’m sharing one of my favorite salad bowl recipes - Mediterranean Salad Bowl (inspired by a BeingBrigid recipe) - that is packed with fiber, protein, healthy fats, but also rich in colorful, antioxidant-rich veggies that help promote longevity and better immunity (among many other benefits). It’s easy and delicious, and one of my favorite meals for a hot summer day, or when I’m ovulating.
Read MoreMatcha Pistachio Vanilla Protein Energy Balls - english & spanish recipes
I’m a huge dessert addict, but in order to stay healthy, not spike my blood sugar, and not gain weight, I make sure my desserts are mostly homemade and always: nutrient-dense, packed with superfoods, protein, healthy fats and low in sugar (NO added sugars for me!).
These balls are also a great source of FIBER (primarily soluble fiber) which helps to:
promote a healthy digestion and good, regular poop
lower cholesterol
slow absorption of carbs (supporitng healthy blood sugar) and increase satiety
support hormonal balanced hormone
And they’re SO delicious! Check out the recipe - in both English and Spanish!
Read More5 Foods to Combat Stress & Anxiety
When people think of stress, they think mostly of work and deadlines. But there are so many other forms of stress that are impacting your health. And one of the biggest ones comes from the FOOD that you’re putting into your body.
The foods you eat can affect your hormonal balance and create inflammation in your gut, all of which can stress out your body.
Generally, when your body experiences any type of stress, its primary focus becomes controlling that stress. Your body will secrete more cortisol and adrenaline, which tells your system to “restock on the energy supply” even if it’s not really depleted. As a result, it makes you hungry and encourages fat storage. Yikes! (This is why I say, “stress can make you fat!”) Note: everyone is different and people respond differently to stress, but this is what most commonly happens.
And what’s interesting is that certain foods contribute to stress on your body, while others help alleviate it.
What are the key foods that creates stress?
Coffee, alcohol, sugar, and generally, all heavily processed foods. They increase your stress hormone levels, and will feed the bad bacteria in your gut, causing stress in both your hormones and your gut.
What are the foods that actually help your body stay healthy and combat stress?
Read my blog for 5 categories of foods that help your body cope with stress and anxiety, from the inside out!
Read MoreHealthy Burgers - 4 ways (gluten free and low carb!)
One of the main ways I like to enjoy red meat is making homemade burgers.
Burgers can actually be very healthy, as long as you choose lean, grass-fed beef, make them at home, and use healthier alternatives to serve your burgers (vs. standard bread and french fries!).
I alternate making burgers with healthier, more nutrient-dense and lower-carb alternatives for bread, including:
grilled eggplant “bread”
roasted large portobello mushroom “bread”
roasted sweet potato “bread”
large plantain “tostones” as bread (air fried vs. deep fried)
Also, I ALWAYS serve my burgers with salad and/or extra veggies, and use organic ketchup with no sugar added, mayo with avocado oil (with NO highly processed vegetable oils!), and organic mustard.
Here is my go-to burger recipe, with 4 different replacements for bread (Note: the plantain “bread” is the least healthy / most carbs, so it’s the one I make more for my husband!)
Read MoreWorld Health Day: 4 ways to embrace it and support your health
Happy World Health Day - a special day (April 7th) that serves as a reminder to prioritize our physical, mental and social health and wellbeing.
For me personally, my definition and understanding of health has changed a lot over these past 20 years since I’ve been immersed in the health and wellness world.
Given my journey, personal experience and years as a health caoch, this year I’ve drawn 4 key conclusions on how we can best prioritize our health (and then I share 4 things you can start doing today to put in practice)!
Read MoreMy Half-Way Pregnancy Update
This week on Women’s Day I reached my 20-week half-way pregnancy mark, and I feel amazing, so I wanted to share some of the things that have helped me. I share both all of my daily lifestyle practices, and a deeper dive into my diet.
Read MoreMarch: National Nutrition Month - 6 nutrition tips for optimal health
March is National Nutrition Month, a month to help increase awareness about the importance of good nutrition for improving your overall health. Making healthy food choices and improving your eating habits (in combination with incorporating more physical activity and stress reduction into your lifestyle) can help prevent many chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And of course, it will help you LOOK and FEEL better, have more confidence and be happier!
Here are 6 of my best tips to help you make healthier nutrition choices (to minimize risk of disease, reach and maintain your ideal weight, and feel better in your body overall).
Read MoreIntermittent Fasting: 5 Tips to Make it Work for You
I’m a big fan of fasting, for the right people. It can have some impressive results, but after extensive research on the topic, and experience with many of my health coaching clients, I’ve realized it’s not for everyone.
Even if it IS for you, you might be doing some things wrong and not getting the full benefits.
Today I share and/5 key tips to optimize your Intermittent Fasting, and make it work for YOU. (Plus I explain when it’s just NOT for you, or how you can tailor it).
Read MoreTwo ingredients to include in your healthy snacks (and 5 easy snack options for you and your kids!)
MOST of your typical go-to snacks, even that banana (and especially those packaged crackers/cookies/bars, etc. that are filled with sugar and preservatives) can lead to a large glucose spike. And this is something we need to minimize if we care about our health and our weight!
So today I’m sharing with you 5 of my go-to healthy, easy “sweet” snacks - for both me and my toddler.
NOTE: For all of these sweet snacks, in order to support blood sugar regulation, I add two KEY INGREDIENTS:
NUT/SEED BUTTER (and/or a little nuts/seeds)
a pinch of CINNAMON
Find out WHY, and get my 5 easy to prep snacks for when you’re on the rush and ant to be prepared for when the sugar craving comes in.
Read MoreMulti-Seed Chocolate Protein Granola (recipe in ENGLISH & SPANISH)
I’m a HUGE fan of granola, but the reality is that most granolas are NOT healthy. Most are packed with sugar and consist primarily of oats, making them very high in carbs and lacking in protein and healthy fats - so they’re very likely to create a big spike in your blood sugar.
For this reason, I like to make my own, using a few tweaks to make it lower carb and super nutritious.
Today I’m sharing a delicious and super healthy granola recipe that is supportive of stable blood sugar, and an excellent option for a sweet breakfast or snack, given its high level of protein and fiber. I add tons of “superfoods”, including pure cacao to make it a chocolate treat. Check out my recipe below!
Read MoreReady to Improve Your Health This Year? Start with these 7 Steps
If this year, you’ve realized YOUR HEALTH is a top priority, you know you want to positively and definitively upgrade your health this year (in a way that does not require suffering nor excess restriction, and actually LASTS), but you’re not sure where to start, I’m here to help!
After a decade of experience as a health coach, I can share 7 key steps to embark on a successful health journey.
Read More3 Easy, Quick, Low-Carb Dinners
After a long day of work, we’re tired and have little brain capacity left to think of what healthy meals to make, so we often go for the easiest, quick, carb-based dishes like tortilla with cheese, or pasta, or order takeout from restaurants (which often contains processed carbs, even hidden sugars and inflammatory oils).
But these dinners can wreak havoc on our health!
Plus, we are generally, more susceptible to blood sugar spikes at night, so it’s even more important to be careful with carbs at dinner time. Focusing on blood-sugar balancing meals at dinnertime is KEY for our metabolic health, our weight, our sleep and our energy levels.
The good news is, there are many healthy, delicious low-carb dinner recipes that are also super easy, quick, and loaded with flavor and nutrients to support our health, and filling enough to satisfy us after a long day.
Today I’m sharing 3 of my favorite low-carb dinners (actually 4 recipes!) that keep my blood sugar stable and are super quick and simple to make! PLUS, they are moslty detox-friendly!
LETTUCE CUPS – two ways
LETTUCE CUPS WITH EGG SALAD
LETTUCE CUPS WITH TUNA SALAD (OR CHICKEN OR CHICKPEA SALAD)
EGGS WITH GREENS AND BEANS
CREAMY ONE POT CAULIFLOWER SOUP - WITH SEED CRACKERS AND VEGAN CHEESE*
*the soup is the only recipe that takes more than 10 minutes, BUT the recipe makes 3 to 4 portions so it’s great to make once and enjoy twice in the week (and its still one of the quickest soups to make, and all in one pot).
Read More15 Healthy Snacks for Kids
Today i’m sharing my basic guidelines for holisitic nutrition - aplicable for toddlers and kids - plus 15 healthy homemade snack ideas for babies and kids, and 8 more healthy packaged snacks to buy (with links to amazon!)
Read MoreSeed & Tea Cycling for Hormonal Balance
Both Seed cycling and Tea cycling are 2 of the easiest ways we can help support our hormones in a gentle way (especially when combined with other diet/lifestyle habits to support hormonal balance). The idea is to use different seeds and teas to help support our hormones in the different stages of our cycle to help regulate our cycles and minimize PMS. It can also be beneficial for women with PCOS and women trying to get pregnant naturally.
Read MoreA Day of Healthy, Blood-Sugar Stabilizing Meals
The foods we eat have SO MUCH power over our blood sugar, hormones, weight, mood, energy, and essentially, our overall health and happiness. If we want to FEEL good (and LOOK good!), we have to focus on eating heathy, balanced meals that help keep blood-sugar stable.
What does a day of glucose-stabilizing meals look like?
Here is one of my go-to days of blood-sugar balancing delicious meals (which I enjoy in large portions, with dessert, too!):
Upon rising: Lemon water + probiotics (and sometimes glass of AG1 greens)
Pre-workout (after my meditation and playing a bit with my daughter); Matcha latte
Breakfast Post-workout (usually a 30-45 min barre or power yoga class): Green Protein Smoothie Bowl or some version of this one (and I’ll have any vitamins I’m taking)
Lunch: green appetizer salad (usually lettuce, avocado, microgreens, sauerkraut & Tahini dressing) follwed by zucchini noodles with meatballs OR this delicious veggie & protein-packed lasagna
After lunch: decaf “mushroom” coffee with cinnamon and almond milk + 1-2 squares dark chocolate
Dinner: A huge bowl of my Chickpea Vegetable Minestrone Soup OR this delicious Lentil Vegetable Soup (a favorite of my daughter Chiara), sometimes with a side of an avocado toast
Dessert after dinner: Chocolate Avocado Mousse (my keto version with no banana) - topped with cacao nibs, coconut & almond butter
How to Eat Carbs Without Fear
Carbs can be found in SO many foods, ranging from highly processed foods (with NO meaningful nutrition!), to vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains that are rich in fiber and essential vitamins and minerals.
Some carbs are definitely more beneficial than others - though many factors play a role in determining this, including portion sizes, presentation, preparation, and even your own gut. To keep it simple, generally, the less refined the food, the better.
It’s important to remember that in moderate amounts, whole food carbs like fruits, vegetables, beans/legumes and whole grains can be excellent for our overall health, especially if we eat them right.
Read my blog to learn the different categories of carbs in terms of how often to eat them (ranging from always, often, less often to avoid) and TIPS for eating them to better support our metabolic health.
Read MoreA Key Element for a Healthy, Happy Brain (and 5 steps to take now)
The gut-brain connection is extremely powerful, which means that a huge part of having a healthy mind is having a healthy “gut”.
If you’ve ever felt butterflies in your stomach when nervous, or nauseous when scared, you KNOW your gut is sensitive to your emotions and stress. And the reverse is also true. The health of our gut has a direct effect on our brain and mood. Poor digestion from too much processed foods, bad food combinations, or poor elimination (ex. not pooping properly) can have a huge negative impact on your mood, energy levels, mental clarity (and more!).
SO if you want to have a healthy, happy brain, you need to start by having a healthy GUT! Here are 5 steps to get you started…
Read MoreHolistic Health & Bioindividuality Principles: 11 Steps
I like to share various “health & wellness tools” that have worked for me and many of my clients. I may educate on reserched benefits of some of nature’s superfoods, as well as share tips and suggestions that generally support a healthy DIGESTION, HORMONAL REGULATION, BLOOD SUGAR BALANCE, and overall better health. However, everyone is different and it’s so important to honor your bioindividuality, so if anything doesn’t ring true to you, then do NOT apply it!
Try to place more focus on being healthy and FEELING good versus just losing weight. Enjoy your (healthy) food, enjoy your exercise, and view any/all of your healthy habits as ways to give LOVE to your beautiful, unique body. DO NOT do anything that is making you suffer.
With that in mind, here are 11 health & wellness “guidelines” that I follow and believe in…
Read MoreConstipation Relief Smoothie
For those days when you feel a little “backed up” and need some help going to the bathroom, this delicious green smoothie is a great way to support your digestion and get you some good bowel movements!
Read MoreLow Sugar Smoothie Bowl for Energy, good Digestion and Immunity
How you start off your morning HUGELY impacts how you feel the rest of the day - in terms of digestion, energy, motivation and your metabolism/weight.
Today I’m sharing a delicious smoothe bowl recipe that helps STABILIZE BLOOD SUGAR, BOOST ENERGY, BALANCE HORMONES, IMPROVE IMMUNITY and can support WEIGHT LOSS.
Read More