Illustration by Lisa Tegtmeier
It’s Friday! It’s officially summer! My weekend plans include a cold bottle of rose, pizza and likely a little Pride. But first, here are the best things I read on the internet this week, hand-picked for just you.
Shark Week Round-Up
My vintage copy of Our Bodies Ourselves
Welcome to the first instalment of Shark Week: your weekly round-up of period stuff, female wellness and whatever else I thought was cool on the internet this week!
Creating Inclusive, Accessible Wellness Spaces
Last weekend I attended a workshop with Dianne Bondy, yoga teacher, social justice activist and leading voice of the Yoga For All movement (and also my new bff), hosted by the New Leaf Foundation. The workshop was titled “The Path to Empowerment, Self-Love and Body Acceptance” and I signed up as I have personally been struggling with these three things since the birth of my daughter in 2015. Going into the workshop I assumed that I would leave with some tools to help me learn to love this post-partum body that I’m still getting used to – and I certainly did. And perhaps more importantly, I also left with a new perspective on the wellness industry and the real issues it has with inclusion and accessibility.
Menstrual Products that Aren’t Gross
When I was pregnant I found myself in the feminine hygiene aisle at the drugstore, looking for panty liners. I grabbed a box off the shelf and headed to the checkout. Waiting in line I started reading the box and noticed that “fragrance” was listed as one of the ingredients in the liners
Fragrance? WTF is fragrance doing in a panty liner?
Do you HAVE to give up [insert delicious food] to be healthy?
A few weeks ago I had my first session with a new client. At the end of our time together I asked her how she felt about my recommendations and she replied, “Good. Really good, actually. I was afraid that you were going to tell me I had to stop eating meat!”
8 Books That Changed My Life
I’ve been an avid reader since I was a little girl, and so it’s no surprise that books have played a big part in my life. While most of what I’m reading these days is for pleasure and entertainment, here are a few of my favourite reads that have made a big impact on my health, my mindset and even my career over the years!
Decoding Nutrition Labels
The most nutritious foods are the ones that don’t come with packaging or labels such as the fresh foods found on the outside perimeter of your grocery store. While I recommend that you avoid the packaged foods that you find in the middle aisles as much as possible, I know that in real life relying on a box or jar can often mean the difference between a home-cooked meal and the drive-through.
The Whole30 Cookbook: Dukkah-Crusted Brussels Sprouts + a Giveaway!
Disclosure: I received a copy of the Whole30 Cookbook by Penguin Random House Canada for review purposes.
Even though everyone says it’s not, the Whole30 is a diet – the very definition of a diet is restricting the food that you eat – and if you’ve been here for awhile you know that I don’t do diets.
But I do make an exception for the Whole30 because we could all benefit from 30 days without sugar, processed foods, gluten, dairy, soy, alcohol and even grains, beans and legumes. Continue reading
The Perfect Diet
On a summer’s evening, a month or so before I started nutrition school, my guy and I drove out to our favourite old-timey ice cream place. I ordered my usual – a hot caramel sundae with nuts – and since it had been a tough week, hell it had been a tough 30 years, I upgraded my sundae to a size medium even though it was always too much and left me with a stomach ache.
As I sat there eating the ice cream I didn’t even want, ashamed that I was once again overeating, I thought to myself, “when I’m a nutritionist I’ll finally have the perfect diet.”
What does a healthy period look like?
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably spent a fair amount of time — for better or for worse — in front of a mirror, wondering if your body is normal. The shape of your thighs, the size of your feet, your uneven breasts. But have you ever stopped to consider if your period or menstrual cycle are “normal?” Is there even a normal when it comes to this stuff?