Every Day Nutrition
with Hollie Crome
This is an unedited transcript.
Welcome to this week’s episode of The Mondays podcast. And I am excited and blessed to be able to talk to Holly today another Holly. When I was in school, I always made people spell my name h l IE because I just thought my name was boring otherwise, and I didn’t know another Holly. I never knew another one growing up. So I’m excited to have another Holly on the show today. Holly is a nutrition and wellness coach who is obviously, we know that people on this show are empowering women to increase their mental clarity, their physical well being. Nutrition movement and mindset practices are the main I think pillars of what you do. And I love that because you can’t have one without the other. And it’s really, right. So you’re also a mom of three. So you definitely understand what it takes to take care of his bodies and how hard it can be so welcome. And he can go ahead and set about maybe some of the things you’d like to do and what got you going on this journey.
Yeah, so like you said, I’m a mom of three. But that was something that in the past was up in the air for me, about 12 years ago, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, and basically told that I wouldn’t have children without medical intervention. And that’s kind of what led me in a roundabout way to being here. Because when I was diagnosed with PCs, and told that I would need medication to get pregnant, they said, Come back when you’re ready to get pregnant, by the way, the waitlist is two years. So basically planned two years in advance. And at the time, I was like 24. So I was like, okay, so I decided to take that time to try and figure out my body, essentially figure out what was going on. I thought at the time that nutrition and movement were the only things that mattered in terms of your health. And I thought I had that under control. You know, like a really healthily I went to school for nutrition. I moved my body every day. So I just thought, Well, I don’t know why my body is behaving like this. Because I’ve got all these things on point. I had no idea how much mindset played into that and how much your mindset can in fact, impact your body in so many ways. So I decided to use that two years, I put myself on the waiting list straight away, because I was like it was two years. Yeah. So I decided to use that two years to try and figure out my body and figure out what was going on. And I decided to take holistic approach, which meant changing some of the things in my diet, and some of the ways that I move but also adding in stress reduction strategies, mindfulness meditations, and overall just changing my mindset about things because initially when I was diagnosed with PCs, it was kind of like, my body doesn’t work. And that means I don’t work and I found that I kind of resented my body in that way. So I took that time. I changed a few things in my diet, and you’re gonna laugh Because not Two months later, I was pregnant. So it was, it was a surreal ride, because you’re sitting in a doctor’s office being told, you know, you’ll never get pregnant. And that’s a blow for a woman who wants children, right. And I found myself pregnant very quickly, I attribute it to the nutrition and lifestyle changes that I made. And in particular, the stress reduction strategies and changing my mindset and outlook on life, which a lot of people think is something that can be very hard to do. But you can actually do it pretty quickly. If you utilize the right strategies, right. So I went through that pregnancy, it was beautiful, I had my first daughter, and and then I just kept going with that I kept on the holistic lifestyle and eating the way that worked for my body. Because one thing that I tell all my clients is the way one person eats works for them, it might not work for you, right, and you have to find your own way and the own your own things that your body finds nourishment from and things that your body doesn’t particularly like. So then fast forward four years, I had my son, again, completely, you know, holistically with eating nutrition, movement mindset practices, daily meditation was huge for stress reduction, which if you have polycystic ovarian syndrome, your body’s particularly prone to more stress levels. So it’s particularly more sensitive to stress levels. So stress management was a big thing. And then we were done having kids. So we had our two kids had a boy and a girl, and it was great. My son was 15 months. No, he was 12 months old, he stopped breastfeeding on his birthday. And I was heartbroken about that, because, you know, it was my last baby. And then the pandemic hit, and I legit made a joke to my husband saying, I shouldn’t be allowed to like pandemic babies like Oh, man, right, because we’re all at home. And not three weeks later, I found myself pregnant. So now we have three kids. My son and my youngest daughter were born on the same day. They’re exactly two years apart. And I find that really ironic, given the fact that at 12 years ago, I sat in a doctor’s office being told I would never have kids without medication. I now have three kids without medication, and they were born on the same day. While Yeah, and it’s just it just goes to show that you are in control of your body. And you can totally make the decision to heal your body. Right if you’re experiencing any kind of chronic illness, such as polycystic ovarian syndrome or something, otherwise, you can make the choice to change your nutrition and your lifestyle and your mindset to heal your body. Because your mindset plays immensely into healing your own body. Right?
Oh, much so and I love that you brought that up. Because I know we’ve talked in the past a little bit about mindset work and things like that. And that’s why it’s so important that we have all the components for that holistic approach. Because as someone who’s gone through secondary infertility, I was actually in the same boat. As you before we were planning on having kids, I had lost my cycle completely. due to stress, and we my family doctor sent us to a fertility clinic not to get pregnant, but just to figure out what was happening. Yeah, we were told them to that, you know, never was told you need to manage your stress. You need to you know, work on mindset need, like never was told any of this, check your diet? No, we were simply told, well, you know, you’ve lost your cycle, your body’s not handling life. Well, that was pretty much the sentence I was given. And you’ll need to come see us when you’re ready to have kids. And that same feeling of like what you know, I’ve always been healthy. My cycles have been like clockwork, what’s going on? And it wasn’t until I talked to you know, friends who were much more holistic minded, and practitioners in different you know, different things like that. And they all were like, Well tell me about your work. Tell me about your lifestyle. Tell me about this. What’s going on in your life? And I’m going but no just fixed my body. Yeah, at the end of the day realizing it is so tightly wound to our cycles or hormones, and that crazy cortisol, you know, full but crazy, you know, effects that it can have on our thyroid and all that kind of, yeah, it’s a ball of wax. So I appreciate that. You are talking about that because it really I you know, especially with PCs, I suffered with endometriosis for a little while and was able to heal my body of that really easily surprisingly, I did catch it quickly so I was able to work on it. But I also have a lot of moments that I work with who have been struggling with it for many, many years and feel like they’ve tried everything. Absolutely know what are it Can you give me a couple of now we’ve talked about we know it’s nutrition. We know it’s mindset, we know it’s movement, we know we have to have in line, but what are some and that nutrition is based You know, there’s a, there’s basic needs for every body but that our bodies are going to talk to us individually. But what are some? Are there any? And what are some across the board things that you go, especially when you’re struggling with some of those inflammatory issues that you should probably eliminate and see what your body does? Are there anything? Yeah, it was like that we could do.
Yeah, for sure. So in terms of nutrition, and an inflammatory condition, eliminating gluten is pretty much your first port of call. Because gluten when it enters the body, it does turn into a sugar, but it can be inflammatory for our gut. And if our gut becomes inflamed, then we have more problems with our hormone production. So gluten is number one, that eliminating gluten straightaway usually sees some increased positive effects. The secondary one to that is dairy. So dairy can also be pretty inflammatory. You can also see if you’re particularly sensitive to dairy or gluten through your skin, so if your skin is dry, or if your skin if you suffer from eczema, then chances are your gut is inflamed due to some kind of food sensitivity, such as gluten or dairy. The other reason in terms of metabolic issues such as PCs, is the fact that gluten and lactose and dairy turn into sugar in our bodies, which raises our blood sugars. And when you have PCs, you want to keep your blood sugars nice and steady, instead of always going up and down. Right. And when you’re consuming gluten, in particular, it comes from carbohydrates, it comes from wheat, your blood sugars are going up and then they’re coming down all the time, up, down up down where you want to keep them at a steady level. So eliminating gluten will help you keep them at that steady level. Dairy, again, can be the inflammatory, it can also do the same thing. So for example, when I eat yogurt, my blood sugar levels go like up like this, like people can’t see me. Pretty they go up pretty quickly. So I I avoid yogurt for that reason. But I can eat cheese, no problem. So dairy is one of those ones. That’s like, yeah, give it a try and see what works for you. But I would say gluten is the number one. If you have any kind of inflammatory illness, then eliminating gluten would be your first port of call.
Yeah, I have to agree. And I’ve been on that journey myself. So I know, I know my body and what it says to these things. But I like that you mentioned the skin because our skin is our first speaking spot, if you put it that way, and it’s the same with our babies and our kids, a skin output is your guts first way to say something, and pretty quick to like slap a cream on things, right? You know, and let’s just get rid of the output not deal with where it’s coming from. And when you know that your skin is directly tied to your gut, your gut has to be in good shape to conceive your gut also has to be in good shape just to manage hormones. So yeah.
And like I have a perfect example of that my son has eczema. My husband had eczema when he was a kid. So when we saw Zima come out, we were just like, oh, he’s just he’s got exuma. Like, that’s, that’s just what’s gonna happen because my husband had it. And but the weird thing was, is that it would be rife all through winter, he would have it all over his neck all over his torso all over his back in the crux of his arms, etc. And through winter, and then summer would come and it would go away. And we were like, okay, seasonally related, right. This year, it was not the case it was really, really bad. So I said, Okay, it’s time to start eliminating some foods. He’s now been on solid foods for a year, it’s time to figure out what’s bugging him. So the first thing we eliminated was milk. And sure enough, his edema cleared up. Then he had a few days of eating eggs. And he had exuma come up on his neck again. So I said, Okay, eggs route, he’s sensitive. He’s not allergic to these things, right? He’s sensitive to these things. So basically, that means that he can eat them, and it’s not going to bother him gastrointestinal Lee, but it’s going to come up in his skin that his body is treating that as an invader in his system. Right, right. And then most recently, we’re looking at taking wheat out of his diet for exactly that a gluten sensitivity because he can flare up there. So watching your skin is definitely like the first port of call and not putting a hydrogen hydrocortisone cream on it straight away. take something out of your diet and see if it comes down first.
Yeah, get it takes a bit of time. Like we did this with my daughter. She’s nine now but she’s one that took me on this journey of what dairy free looks like and we’re like, oh my gosh, what a challenge. But it was amazing what it did for all of us, and how we cleaned up our cleanup, allergies cleaned up, you know, gut thing, skin conditions, all this stuff just by eliminating a couple of things that we learned with her especially with one of the specialists we worked with at sickkids that the whole elimination side of things is usually a lot longer than people think. You agree to that. I know I’ve had friends or clients and say, Well, I took it away for three weeks, or I took it out for a month. That’s great. And that’s a start. But unless you’re going to be food journaling every day, or you’re going to be, you know, really tuning into your body, it actually does take a couple of months minimum. Yeah.
Yeah, and, you know, that’s where every person’s body is different and why Holistic Health is something that should be looked at by many people, because, you know, it depends on the level of inflammation in your gut to buy these foods. So if you have just a slight inflammation, you might find relief relief after three weeks. But if you have a pretty severe inflammation, it could take you three or six months to start feeling and seeing those effects after eliminating a certain food, which is why now my son’s two and a half, and we’re still taking things out of his diet, putting them back in, right, seeing how he reacts to them, and so on.
Yeah, trial and errors is one of the easiest ways in one sense, but it can also be frustrating, because you’re like, first, you have to be on top of it. Right? Have you Do you ever suggest that people do a food sensitivity? You know, like something with a naturopath or that type of testing? So not not? No, not
I’ll just say I actually had the food sensitivity test done between my first daughter and son, just to see. And it was interesting, it came back and that I was highly sensitive to pistachios, mushrooms and potatoes. But I don’t like mushrooms. And I don’t eat pistachios. So in that sense, when I got the results, and I discussed it with a naturopath, they said like, I don’t eat these things. So how is my body showing a sensitivity to that? And she said, it could be because you don’t eat those things, that it’s knowing a sensitivity to that particular item. So I was I found that really interesting, right? Because you’re like, I’m going to do this to figure out what I should be avoiding. But then the foods that you’re already avoiding might come up as your highest triggers. So it’s definitely something that is interesting. Yeah. But you do kind of have to look at it with a certain level of object objectivity, and how it relates to your own diet.
Yeah. And it really helps to have someone who’s going to walk you through it and ask the question, because like you said, like, I did the same thing. It was like, exactly the word very interesting, very eye opening. Because I was able to have the conversation then with my naturopath and say, Okay, here’s what I do eat, here’s what I don’t eat. What do you think? And you know, if you have someone good, who’s helping you out, or someone like yourself, who can walk you through? What does your intake look like? What does your look like? What How does this all relate together? So I know, some people don’t know there is that option, they only know of traditional allergy testing. So that’s why I usually say, Hey, if you’re really feeling like you don’t want to go down the road of elimination and figuring it out on your own 100%. You could always start there. And then yeah, the station and say, let’s, let’s take a look at what we can do. So absolutely, yeah, yeah. Okay, I want to know, we’re busy mamas. Right? Oh, I want to know how we can make nutrition easy. How can we make some of these maybe substitutions, maybe it’s just eating properly for our body throughout the day, maybe it’s breastfeeding moms. Give me your best wisdom on that. Yeah, so
the easiest thing and I mean, I sound like a broken record, when I say this is to make sure that you’re prepared, right? Like as moms and you know, a mom of three kids and being at home with homeschooling, and a two year old and a baby, it’s it can be crazy sometimes. So making sure that you’re prepared. And that doesn’t mean you know, every Sunday night cutting up all the vegetables, it just means making some smart choices at the grocery store. So for example, I buy the many peppers, the ones that I can reach into the fridge and grab and just eat like me to pepper like an apple right? Or I buy the they have now organic baby carrots that literally you can take out and you can eat them. So being prepared in that sense, really helps. Now if you wanted to talk about Sunday night meal prep, that is also a very useful skill to get into if you’re talking about dinner time, because dinner time can be chaos. I don’t know if your house is as chaotic as mine at dinnertime, but it is wild. I usually have somebody stuck to me while I’m trying to make dinner. And so what we do for that is we have Tupperware containers, they’re about maybe this the length of a ruler. When on Sunday night, I cut up all the vegetables that I need for them. I make the marinade for the meat or the toe for the 10 day that we’re using. I’m marinate the meat and the tofu or whatever it is I’m using in that marinate in a plastic bag and all of it goes into the container and then the container sits in the fridge because then that way when it comes time to make dinner, I literally take the bucket out and I dump it into the pan and 20 minutes later I have dinner instead of me trying to figure out how to manage all of the kids while getting all of these vegetables cut and that takes a little bit of timetabling in terms of your Sundays, but finding a time that works for you. It doesn’t have to be Sunday if it’s a Wednesday night like cool just work your meals on a Wednesday night rotation right
on based on your you know, maybe your work schedule or your spouse’s schedule or whatever that looks like, knowing that you have that available time or what that window when maybe grammar comes over or you know, hubby’s home or whatever it looks like, you’ve got the kids for the next hour, I’m prepping for the next five days, or four days, whatever, I think it’s brilliant.
Yeah, even if that’s not possible, I always say to clients, you know, like, if you’re starting to make this lifestyle change of making healthier choices for nutrition, because ultimately, I’m not selling you a diet, I’m selling you a lifestyle change, right, you’re working with me to change your life for the better. Because ultimately, my ultimate goal is to see you at your optimum health and wellness, whatever that means for you, right. And so if you think, gosh, meal planning is going to be really hard, because it’s going to take me three hours in the kitchen, to prepare everything, then you start with one thing until that thing becomes easy, right? So if all you’re doing is getting into the kitchen, on a Sunday night, or whatever night, and you’re cutting the carrots, and then you have carrots in the fridge for the week, you do that until it’s easy. So every Sunday, you’re going to cut the carrots until it’s easy. And then once that’s easy, and it’s no longer got to get in the kitchen to cook this, you’re going to add in your next thing, right, so now you’re going to go in and you’re going to do your vegetables and your marriage aids, or whatever, until it’s easy, because that eliminates the sense of overwhelm that we can feel when we’re trying to make these changes.
Absolutely. I love that one step at a time for some of us, some of us are like, you know, the all or nothing people to when going all in, I’m just gonna get it all done. But it’s true. I know. Like we talked about chopping things that is really, especially if you’re holding one, you know, baby, or I’m trying to I used to have my babies, we’re wrapped on your way, like being at the counter trying to chop around and whatnot. Right? Yeah. But I fell in love with my food processor, when my kids were really little, just for I honest to goodness, had it for years and probably used it a handful of times, I don’t know to make salsa or something. And my mom was over the one time when my youngest was a baby. And she’s like, yes, see this plate, the metal disc that you can change. I’m like, Yes, I don’t know how to do that. She goes, watch, she puts it up at the top on it sticks a whole carrot in and I had shredded carrots and I’m like, Man, you can shred you shredded cheese. I sliced cucumbers. And I’m like, so you know, little things like that where maybe we haven’t recovered or maybe we don’t. And it’s it’s such a simple tool to have on hand, you just bust through and get everything chopped and ready. So I love finding kind of shortcuts.
And that’s what I always say to my husband too, like, a lot of there’s this huge misconception that nutrition has to be hard. But taking care of your body and putting good food into your body is something that’s hard work. And when I look at how we eat in my house, it’s very simple. And it’s not time consuming. And the minute you can wrap your head around the fact that no, this is easy. There are things out there that can help me make this easy, the easier you will find to have a diet that optimizes your health and wellness. Absolutely. I want to know what your thoughts are on meal kits, you know, like the companies that do deliveries. What do you think? Yeah, I’ve never tried them. No, I I enjoy cooking and I enjoy trying out different things. I’m always posting something to my Instagram of something I’ve made. I’m totally the person that gets in the kitchen is like I don’t know if this is gonna work. But yeah, and my husband has had a fair few meals. He did not reset. You don’t know until you try. Right? Exactly. And he fully supports the journey because I said to him, you know, I’m going to write a cookbook one day about all this. So I have not tried the meal kit. And I have friends that have and I read their ingredient labels and they look pretty clean. And so that could also be an option for people who feel like schedules are too busy to be in the kitchen prepping stuff.
Yeah, I know. So I did it and true when we were traveling a lot, so a couple years ago, and we actually tested all as many of them out there. So I did like three months of each company. But we were a dairy free family gluten free dairy free. So I found that very challenging, because a lot of the substitutions weren’t available. So just recently we’ve been doing for the last actually for the past since last August. A vegan one because like you said, healthy doesn’t have to be complicated but I felt like it was really difficult. I just any recipe I pull up that was a vegan and I just go vegan option. We do have meat but I did the vegan options because then I knew for sure I wasn’t getting dairy and I was getting some other you know, like healthy clean soy products and things that our bodies needed. And I was learning how to cook them because I had no clue. But they also things like that was really I found that really helpful because they’re only sending you the amount you need. I always got extras out of it. You can choose two to three meals a week, and my 13 year old is learning how to cook Um, so I mean, I can hand them a recipe card and he makes dinner. So you know if that’s in the budget, and it’s something you can look at I, I love them. I love to cook, I’m not a big fan of meal, you know, meals, what I don’t want to be, but meals that are pre made. And I’m not a fan of that, because I want to know how it was made. I want to know what went into it and every single ingredient, but I love the fact that I can get everything’s already chopped for the most part or everything’s already in a bag. I just grab it and make it. Yeah, that’s a fun one. We have one, I’ll name them. The one that we use is called plant prompt. So what was a really great one? Yeah, tofu and how to make like vegan ricotta. And it was fast and easy. And there’s not a single meal. And though that’s more than 30 minutes to make. So
yeah, and I would say the same thing. Like when I get into the kitchen, okay, there’s some days where it might be 45 minutes to an hour. But most days, the cooking that we do is 30 minutes or less. And you should be really good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I find that the simpler you get in terms of your ingredients, the faster it is, right. So I make, we’re gluten free in our house as well. And for the most part dairy free, like my kids still have yogurt and stuff. But, um, but I make spaghetti squash Pad Thai. And with the exception of the spaghetti squash, which you literally put in the oven for 40 minutes and you leave it alone. It takes probably 20 minutes to me. Yeah. And you’re like, Okay, how many vegetables do I have in there? Because my noodles are vegetables too. And there’s a man made and you can make it with tofu or you can make it a chicken or I think I’ve made it with shrimp one time. Like, what? 20 minutes, right? The simpler your ingredients, the more nutritious it is. And the less time It usually takes you.
I love it. Yeah, we have one. I’ll tell you our favorite one that my again. It’s my older oldest child who loves to do this and he’ll be like, hey, tonight, can I make dinner? I go, what do you make me he’ll say, I’m making tomato soup and grilled cheese. So we’re like, okay, cuz we all love it. But he didn’t say scraping pan and he’ll use like even tomatoes that are getting squishy like it’s the best way that he just throws them with whole cloves of garlic. He cuts the top off, covers the middle olive oil throws them in the oven with a little bit of onion, a little bit of whatever else he wants, but the soup, but he just roasted in the oven. So like 30 minutes until we’re set on high. They get really dark and mushy and really great. Oh my gosh, it’s so good. And then he just throws it all in a blender with a can of coconut milk. Blend it up. And it is the creamy, his most delicious tomato soup, garlic and the whole deal. And then he just uses are very free to use and away we go. So I’m so good. Yes. Yeah, it’s just
so simple, isn’t it. And there’s even like contractions, call them contractions that you can buy to help you with these things like my mother in law. She lives in Scotland, and she sent us a soup maker. And it sounds exactly like something that might be appears on the street because you literally take everything you put it in, you plug it in and turn the timer on or whatever. And it heats and cooks all of the vegetables first and then it automatically chops. Oh, that’s so cool. Why use it? Because that’s not the right.
That’s amazing. I know we’re in the UK, we’re up. We actually went when we were anytime we’re in the UK, we buy like the NutriBullet. Yeah, oh, by what it was like the cheap little box set ones so that we can make your quick, you know, smoothies in the morning or whatever. We got, yeah, different outlets. It’s all fun. I love it. Okay, I want to know on overall. So we’re going to focus on our nutrition, we’re going to focus in some mindset. And those again, those are things that you work with people on, and if if anyone listening wants more help on this, you know where to go, you can talk to Holly about this. But overall, if we’re doing you know, we’re taking some time in the week to do some planning, we’re taking a lot of stress out of our meals and you know, prepping so that we have healthy stuff on hand overall, what do you think, you know, would you say how’s that going to help us like in the big picture?
Mm hmm. Well, obviously, it’s going to help your nutrition and what you’re putting into your body. If you’ve got all of this stuff planned out, it’s something that you’re actually going to act upon. So when you’re when I’m talking to clients or to anybody, and they’re saying I’m struggling with XYZ, I always say revert back to your planning, you’re going to make a plan. So if you’ve already done the meal prep, and you’ve got all of this stuff, you’re more likely to then act on that item. So instead of getting to Tuesday night and being like oh, I really don’t feel like this, I’m going to go ahead and order pizza. Because you’ve already prepped everything, you’re gonna be like, Oh, it’s already there, like this is super easy. I’m just going to get it on the stove or in the oven and call it a day, right? So you’re going to be more likely to lean towards that avenue. But the other thing too is it’s going to reduce your stress. Because you’re going to have all of this stuff already prepared. You can go into every day knowing that you’ve got a good nutritious meal for your own body and for the body of your kids or your family members that are living with you. And the stress reduction in today’s day and age is So important, like, it’s, it’s critical, right? So if you can do anything you can to reduce that stress level, then that’s going to help you in your mindset about everything as well. And if you’re not feeling stressed about your food, you’re not feeling overwhelmed about your food, then you can approach your food and your nutrition are your lifestyle changes with a positive aspect of I am doing this to help my body. I have less stress, because I’m doing this and it turns into that positive thoughts. Right? Amazing.
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s funny, I was talking to your friend the other day, and we were kind of laughing about how we had both gone out. I forgot what we ended up getting our kids burgers or something, which is so rare in our family. The kids even were like, what is going what’s going on with you? Why do we have burgers? I don’t eat them. And they’re like, Okay, thanks. Um, but I was laughing. I’m like, I went to bed with mom guilt. And we were laughing about it. Because she’s like, oh, seriously, you know, you guys seem so clean. You eat so good. Like, you’re right. It’s true. I mean, we’re always going to have those moments where something might feel here, but it’s 100% accurate, what you’re saying, I swear by the fact that if it’s available in your fridge, it will be what you reach for. And that’s negative or positive, right? If it’s in your cupboard, you will reach for what’s there. And I always jokingly tell my kids I own the car keys. I’m the one who’s doing. So I cook it, you eat it? That’s the end of the story. Are you Are you someone who would cook multiple meals? Or would like you know, modify it for every single person in the family? How do you feel about that? When I’ve got mamas who are like, Oh, my husband? Yeah, like his Well, he thought, yeah, so. Yeah, it’s
an interesting one. There are some times I’m like, not like that’s it, especially for my son, because he’s two and a half. And he’s just No, he’s no all the time. Like, it doesn’t matter where you get from? He’s no. And so with him, I just kind of throw whatever we’re eating in front of him, because it’s all gonna be no. Yeah, my daughter who’s almost seven, it’s a little bit of a harder negotiation with her. But we’ve always always maintained the it’s put in front of you, you need to try it. Because one day, you might like it. And we’ve explained to her, and that’s one of the big things in building the mindset of your kids to is, we explain everything to her. So it’s not just you know, eat this carrot, because I want you to it’s eat this carrot, because I know you didn’t like it yesterday, you might like it today. And perfect example is she has not eaten a sweet potato in years. She loved him as a baby when she got to the age of No, because she went through it too. Yeah, it was no sweet potato, and is still no sweet potato, but a couple weeks ago, puts her on a plate. She’s an old dude. Oh, like, you know, when kids do that voice? And I’m like, try it. And she’s like, because I might like it. In her mind now, right? And so then she tried it, she goes, Oh, Mommy, I like it, she still wouldn’t need more than two pieces of it. But she said she liked it. And that, for me was a total amazing. Yeah, the only time that we will make something different for them is when we are having the spaghetti squash pad tie, because that is something that just doesn’t go down well, and I’m a firm believer of, I’ll pick my battles with that I would rather you know, if I’m making spaghetti squash Pad Thai, it’s not much extra for me to put on like some brown rice pasta for them. Particularly if my son in the stage of no has not eaten much all day. But it’s not usual that we will make them something else or something to suit every flavor. Particularly because I’m usually making something up as I go along anyways, and I want to know people.
What do you think of it? Exactly. I love that. Well, and I think we we also as moms, we sometimes get into the convenience factor of Well, I don’t I’m not gonna bother making this because they won’t eat it. You know, they’ll only eat, you know, chicken fingers and fries, or they’ll only eat mashed potatoes and whatever, you know, vistex it. It’s easy. That’s just the truth. I mean, I can fall into that. It’s very easy to just do what you know, you don’t have to have a battle over. Yeah, but like you’re saying when it becomes just a routine of respect, almost in your family routine of having dinner, breakfast or lunch, my kids will know that breakfast is free for all they can choose whatever they want. They want leftovers, which they usually do they have leftovers for breakfast. Yeah, that’s what our house is like to Yeah, they figured and I get when they’re really little. I mean, you might have baby led weaning going on, you might be following some of those steps of introducing solids. That’s all wonderful. And you know, there’s whole other things too, that involved on like our own food preferences coming out when we’re teaching foods to our babies, and even being cautious of that. But I think even as adults as parents, with kids as they’re getting older, being you know, I think being conscientious of our likes and dislikes and being very aware of how we present that, but also knowing that they’re a little individuals to like you said they may not like something right now, but it doesn’t mean and I’ve heard this lots of times where me and my husband had done this where we were like we’ll tell someone else Oh, they just don’t like that. help myself because I’m like, No, they actually made me do I don’t know, I don’t make it like that maybe they will like. So what we say watching our own responses to things? Yeah, really powerful. Yeah,
I think as well like, you know, when you’re talking about all this stuff, I was just like, hang on a minute, I make something different for me almost every week. So I choose not to eat rice. Just because again, we’re having a metabolic disorder like PCs, and there’s some certain concessions that you need to make. And so one of them is I do not consume large amounts of rice because it spikes my blood sugars. So I make cauliflower rice. And every time we have rice, I make cauliflower rice, and my daughter watches me have cauliflower, rice, well, they all have regular rights. So it’s like, well, I make something different for me. So what’s stopping my daughter from coming into the kitchen and being like, I don’t want the spaghetti squash Pad Thai? Can I make this item? instead? I would say go for it. You know, she’s gonna come into the kitchen and be like, can I make this for myself? Absolutely.
Oh, very empowering. Yeah, I think that’s fantastic. And again, it’s what do you have on hand that they have an option for? are you packing things in the cupboard and in the fridge that are good options that are alternatives or a packet of the stuff that you’re not really wanting them to? have very much of? And I honestly, I think we all do it at certain stages. We all have our junk covered or, or whatever. Yeah, I know. He’s got the chip covered. But it’s funny because I just made it into daddy’s cupboard. So my kids know they can’t just have a free for all and go through daddy’s cover. Yeah, that’s, they know the rules. They know what they’re gonna get out. But I think you’re right. It’s super important that we have that kind of that just routine that works for our family. But knowing that, Hey, kids are going to not want to something or like something at certain stages, or they’re going to be at the new stage. It’s completely normal. And don’t give up. You know, don’t throw in the towel and say we’re just never having this again. Yeah, it was a really bad recipe that bomb then maybe
I made this fish dish. Oh, it was so bad.
Okay, what was the worst recipe was? Oh, it was definitely it was bad. You laugh about it when you’re doing it too. Like I know. Well, like I was
so okay, I’ve been on this journey to try and make fish and chips without flour. Because we are going Yes. Yeah. And so my husband Scotland I lived in Scotland for six years. Fish and Chips are like the best thing of life when you live in the UK. And we have yet to find a great fish and chip place here. And that you know really just justice so I’ve been on this journey and I was at Canyon to try almond flour that didn’t work. I’m gonna try this and that didn’t work so then my husband was like let’s usually fish batter Holly like you need to not bake it because at first I was baking it and you know you need to put it in a bathroom right I’m like okay, you want to make the batter so I made this batter of like God knows what was like almond milk and almond flour and I can’t remember what else to put in it and I dipped the fish in it sure enough and I put it in I Friday and coconut oil because if you didn’t know you should be frying in coconut oil because it is the most stable at a high heat yeah and put it in the coconut oil and it is felt like the fish stayed the same but the all the batter just kind of like melted off of it into the oil. And then like so I had to try and save it right
for you skinny. Oh, I got out all the batter and then like kind of like mashed up the fish and made
this cream pass the sauce. Okay, yeah, that does sound like it wouldn’t let me also the mushy peas and fish and mushy.
38:57
I did find you a good fish recipe after that I learned from the steak. And now that is I’ll tell you the trick to good fish and chips when you’re making it at home and trying to break. This is a trial and error right this is why trial and error is so valuable. So you get your fish we buy frozen fish because where we live we live just up on Georgian Bay. Most of the fish comes in frozen, which chances are if you’re in Ontario, most of your fish comes in frozen eat frozen anyways. So we buy the frozen fish. I let it thaw out and I press it between like a kitchen towel to get all the water out. Then you dip it in egg, dip it in and then mixed together coconut with almond flour. The dip it in the egg then dip it in that mix and then fry it. It comes out so crispy that my Scottish husband approves of it. Yeah, yeah. So awesome. Yeah.
That’s incredible. We had the best gluten free fish and chips in England when we were there. We’d only find one place in the little town where we live there. That does it but they were phenomenal and it was definitely not cheap. But remember Asking them and they were they’re Turkish and I was like, just tell me how do you do this be like, nope, nope, nope. It’s our special recipe I’m not telling. Yeah, it’s
so interesting, isn’t it? Because and that’s the value of trial and error with anything right? And
you just have
to laugh when things aren’t going well because if you’re not laughing, you’re crying around but having that laughter but it and then you get on situations like this and you’re like, Wait till I tell you about this mess. And
I had one the other day I tried to do we got a new I got a new waffle maker for Mother’s Day because we love doing waffles but I’m like, Okay, great. We’re gonna try gluten free waffles. Let’s do this. So we actually did strawberry rhubarb waffles and I just chopped everything up really tiny. And I had a mix. I just I’m like, I’m not gonna be super brave and make it from scratch. I’m gonna get a waffle mix. So I did it was great. Put it in but the timing is for regular waffles. So when I follow the timing, I opened it. It looked beautiful. I went to take it out. They were like crackers me. Or they were light as air but they were hard as rocks. Oh, man. You don’t need to cook them as long I’ve discovered. I’m like these cook masts.
I probably were like, well, we
can dip them in tea or something. Oh, like a scone. They’re like, now.
I’m like, oh, maybe I came up with something better. But they Yeah, it was that was a fail. We tried it over again. And we figured out the timing. But the first round. I’m like, they’re like little briquette oh my gosh, so funny. To laugh. Yeah. But you know what, that’s the fun. I love getting in the kitchen and playing my kids love getting in the kitchen and playing. It sounds like you do the same. And that’s honestly, even if it’s just a couple times a week where you you know you take the time and if you have kids old enough to help you out, get them involved. Because Absolutely. Like you said, you’re gonna empower them to make some good choices and feel comfortable in the kitchen. I think that was one of the best things my mom did for me was Yeah, Hey, come on. Come help me make dinner. You want to peel my six year olds been peeling vegetables for me? Yeah, from the time I felt safe giving them a peeler like, yeah, loves to feel that love to talk them, you know.
And you know what, it actually just reminded me of a client I’ve been speaking to lately, because she’s trying, she wants to get her health back on track. And she said that she tries not to do things in front of her daughter, she tries not to engage in carb counting and stuff with her daughter. And I’m like, okay, that’s cool. I don’t believe in counting any of that stuff. Anyways, like I’m an intuitive eater, and I teach people how to eat intuitively. But it’s more of the fact that invite your daughter in so that she’s learning or your son if like anybody that we’re speaking to invite your child in so that they’re learning about healthy attitudes. It’s not that you’re teaching them that you need to eat these things to lose weight or to, you know, solve the health issue. You’re more teaching them the healthy components of living a healthy and active life. And when you can change your mind to I’m doing this because I just like this about my body too. I’m doing this because I love my body. And I’m teaching my kids that these are the components of a healthy lifestyle, then everything changes for you. Right, and it’s the same thing my daughter comes into the kitchen, can I help make the salad? Absolutely. And we talk about why romaine lettuce is good for you and why carrots are good for you and all of this kind of stuff. And she has she’s gonna be seven in September. And she has, like the best nutritional knowledge I’ve seen in a six year old in my entire life because she’s in the region all the time, right?
Yeah, yeah. My youngest is six and he last week it was some time he just out of the blue decided he’d be vegan like 100% he’s I mean, he’s my carnivore like he’s the one is wants all the meat. And he must I think he watched something. He was telling you about it later. He’s like, yeah, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a vegan and these other UFC fighter and we don’t watch this stuff, but I think he saw a documentary advertised. Because, like, the way I saw it later, the advertisement and like, that has to be what he was talking about. Like, yeah, I’m gonna be strong, and I take care of my body. And we talk the same way. Like that’s just how respecting your body is the only one you’ve got, you know, if you treat it well, at the age you’re at now, when you’re my age, you know, you’re not have to deal with some of these fertility issues or inflammation issues or whatnot. And he was it because he was so committed for three days. That’s a long time. Like, so that time when we went and we went to burger priest, and he goes, I’ll just have a salad. And I’m like, No, we don’t have salad here. He’s like, Oh, well, can I make a salad when we get home? I’m like, absolutely, yes. Have a buddy. It’s like it was like six o’clock at night. We were in berry way to still drive home. I’m like, dude, he goes, Well, do they have a veggie burger? I’m like, Yeah, yeah, they do. And I’m like, that’s what you want. And he goes, Yeah, can I have it wrapped in lettuce? I’m like, 100% you can thank our man. Like, I was like, Listen, I will make this happen for you. Let’s do it and he was so happy with it. Which was night and day for him really, it was a big difference. And then same thing the next day we ended up doing we had company, we ended up having takeout, and we just did our own, like everybody got the order what they wanted from a restaurant in town called northwind. And they really good quality food, but he always ordered chicken wings from there. And so I’m like, buddy, do you want I mean, if you want it, I’ll get you to check him. He’s He’s like, nope, he goes, do they have crispy cauliflower? I don’t like they do, but it’s really spicy. And he doesn’t like spicy. He’s like, he goes, That’s okay. He goes, do you have crispy cauliflower still in the freezer? I like I do and they make cauliflower. That’s what he likes. There’s Yeah. And I’m like, they’re too spicy. I like I know. I can’t even eat them. They’re so hot. And it’s already hotter, so they can’t take it off. Anyway, so he’s like, okay, we have leftover wraps. And he’s like listing out he goes to the fridge. Oh, and there’s lettuce and we made blocks. So there’s block there. Okay, I’ll just make my own cauliflower wraps mom, no problem, cool. table and our friend like people are eating like ribs. And like, Maria is making up this little college. That is just so cool. And like, I’m like, buddy, I like I just kept telling him I’m like, I’m really impressed with your commitment. Like, I never made a big deal out of you good for you for being vegan. Like that wasn’t I don’t ever feel like I need to push any eating, like you said any kind of eating style. But it was more about hey, this is a conviction, you suddenly have strongly. I’m going to help you do that. And it faded over the next few days. But he still comes around and he’ll be like, oh, okay, well, is there a vegan option? You know, like, we we made burritos today. And he chose the vegan crumble instead of beef. So I was just anyway, it’s fun. It’s paying off in your own choices. And you see the duplication that’s happening because they watch they listen to my walks, right.
And that’s why I would say like, don’t be afraid to show your kids that you’re starting a new lifestyle. If you’re choosing to cut gluten or dairy, to help an underlying issue that you’re having in your body. Or even if you’re just deciding, you know, today’s the day that I’m going to, you know, make healthier choices for myself. Don’t hide that from your kids. Let your kids see that because a will teach them how to lead a healthy lifestyle. But it will also show them that they can make their own choices. Yeah, they don’t have to be bound to what other people are doing. And it’s the same thing with exercise and movement. My daughter knows that I go downstairs everyday and exercise I get up before they get up. But we’re downstairs everyday to exercise. When she asks me why or when I asked her why. She’s like it’s so you can be stronger. Like Absolutely. And so I can take care of my body. And so developing those ideas within our children because they’re watching. That’s amazing.
Yeah, that’s pretty badly diet culture. Like Yeah, such a strong. I get on a soapbox about all the time, because you can easily take what you just said and turn it to a negative and saying, Well, I have to lose another 10 pounds. Yeah, right. I want to I want to be skinny for swimsuit season, like the things that we can very easily say because maybe that is why I’m what our motivation is. Maybe that is how we’re feeling about it. But as soon as we start voicing that to our kids, you’re just perpetuating that whole diet culture instead of like you said, I’m getting stronger, or I’m respecting my body or I feel better when you know. Yeah,
absolutely. And you know, that’s it’s a great point. Because when you look I you know, we as women, you so often hear because I want to fit into my bikini or because I need to lose 10 pounds or having a baby, I need to lose the baby weight, or whatever. When you dig down deep enough to that. This is more an issue of you doing an elf an act of self love. You want to love yourself, right? You desire to love yourself. And you feel that engaging in this type of exercise is an act of self love. And it absolutely is. The minute that you can take your brain away from I want to lose these 10 pounds to I’m exercising because I love myself and I respect my body. Not only are those 10 pounds, probably going to fall right off of you. Yeah. But you’re also showing yourself that you are worthy. Yeah. And when you go on that journey, that’s when you start to really experience the health and wellness that you’re after.
That’s the whole mindset key right there and so beautiful. Love it. Okay, we could talk forever about this. Right? So, okay, so we’re gonna talk again, and I want to dig into mindset with you next time. So we’ll come back and do some mindset work and I’ve got someone else’s coming on one of my mindset coaches as well, but you guys are so complimentary. It’ll be beautiful together. Yeah. Amazing. I’m so excited. Where can people find you if they want to work with you? Yeah, so
you can find me on Instagram at Holly chrome holistic wellness, and I’ve also ventured into tik tok at Holly club health.
I love it. I think you and I need to do a duet or something at some point. I’d be fine. Okay, I’ve got some ideas. Okay, great. Yeah. Get some good ones we can work on.
Alright, that’s it.
I love it. This was so amazing. So we will chat some more. I will definitely You know, put you into the summer mindset work and we’ll check further. All your links will be up and they can find you and talk with you and see what you can do to bring us back where we need to be.
Yeah, get in touch if you guys want to increase your health and wellness, love. Awesome. Good times. Well done. Thanks. That was fun. Yeah, I know I get going. Sometimes I’m like, oh probably wind it up.