If you found me and you’re reading this, I’m guessing we have a lot in common. Who knew 25 years ago that coaches, not doctors, would be the ones giving patients a prescription to sustain healthy habits, as well as the ones holding you accountable to healing your body and mind naturally?
After my psychedelic-awakening in 2014 I was driven to dive deeper down the rabbit hole into the world of nutrition, and in 2017 enrolled into the world’s largest Nutrition School. Today I hold two masters and 3 additional certifications in nutrition, hormone health and coaching. I also spent over a decade in the hospitality, tourism industry while on my own time practicing herbology and permaculture.
Yes, it was a struggle for me to clean myself up and stop eating sh*** food-like products, but it became my mission to teach others that eating at the Golden arches, paves their way to the pearly gates. The truth is my path has been full of scary obstacles, but I always believed that I am worthy of feeling my healthy best!
My personal dream is to own a homestead that seconds as an Airbnb where I will model permaculture in the warm months and travel with my family collaborating on retreats the rest of the year. I have this consistent vision of using my Hospitality & Tourism Degree to host retreats on each of the planet’s energy centers. Also, of integrating my passion for herbology (including entheogens) and permaculture by conserving land for food forests. In creating this life, I am adding beauty and life-force energy to this world – and I will settle for nothing less!
Primitive people had energy, way more than today’s society and I truly felt as an Aboriginal mother I had to tap into all our ancestors’ teachings. Food is not just calories, it is information. It talks to our DNA and tells it what to do. The most powerful tool to change your health, environment and entire world is found growing naturally outdoors. Wild food and wild environments are the key to us thriving as a species.
Our gut bacteria, our cells, our blood, our being is determined by what we let in us. Our food is our body’s direct link to the external world. Everyday we enjoy our meals, our snacks and everytime we digest that food becomes our body, becomes us.
There are much less people on a natural food diet today then the SAD (standard American diet). There are lots of foods in a natural food store that aren’t that natural too. Western medicine today is saying to people “carry on, indulge, consume, and when you get sick come see me and I will give you a magical pill or several. If it’s really bad don’t worry we have surgeons and other treatments that can take care of that”.
The reasons for this National health crisis are complex, however, a sedentary lifestyle with large portions and eating habits that exceed caloric needs, combined with the low-cost and convenience of processed foods that are high in sugar and fat are likely at the core of the problem.
“People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health… And are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.” ~ Wendell Berry
Food-like products are a problem! Cancer, obesity, mental health, addiction… are all rooted in global industrial disease. The facts are that nearly 30% of the world’s population are obese, even more are diagnosed with other preventable disease and yet only 3% of our healthcare dollars are spent on preventing diseases. Here are some more fun facts: 1 in 3 American adults have high blood pressure (preventable), 70% of deaths are caused by chronic conditions each year (preventable), and less than 20% of physical doctor visits include any nutrition counseling. Truth is, when you change your food, everything else changes!
We start out with this perfect body, yet after years of overworking, forgetting to hydrate, not getting enough quality sleep, and eating foods that aren’t suitable for human consumption our body can’t keep up. Between the monoculture farming, fancy labels, and mixed messages the truth has been lost. The truth is that food gives us life force energy. Food is something we have to love and nurture.
When we sprout seeds, nuts and beans we create life and increase nutrients up to 10x. When we plant seeds, each produces 10x more seeds, or more. The way I see it, if I’m going to build my cells and build my body like how I’m rebuilding my inner-self I want that life force energy inside each living cell.
Today, our society is overwhelmed with emotional pain, opioids, alcohol and addictive food like substances. Sugar is 8 times more addictive than heroin, more addictive than gaming, social media, and Netflix too. Yet our medical advisors are diagnosing our totally normal reaction to societal pressures and sh*** food as an illness. In this, the dominating forces get you addicted to inferior substances and fear for the rest of your life. The average American takes 11 prescription drugs each year, each with its own set of side effects, while solutions are found in nature. Whole foods heal, they strengthen us from the inside out and will naturally reduce the need for medical intervention down the line.
If you add toxic ingredients such as prescription drugs, alcohol, caffeine and processed sugar to a diet you’ll have a recipe for an imbalanced body. An unbalanced diet can lead to poor digestion, inflammation, pain, mood swings, brain fog, inability to focus and make decisions, and low energy. Processed foods are designed to make consumers crave them. In fact, the food industry created what has been described as the “Bliss Point” the perfect combination of sugar, salt and fat that makes processed food difficult to resist. Often this combination is created mathematically to appeal to the most people.
I also want to bring attention to the fake fads like “low-carb” diets because our body requires fiber found in whole foods. Whole grains have been a central element of the human diet since early civilization – it’s estimated in fact that humans were eating grains as far back as 105,000 years ago. If low carb diets make you fat, then Asia would be full of obese people, and if a diet high in protein really makes people fit then we would see the results of that in North America.
Today, a person’s daily existence can be troubling to the point of numbness. We are anxious, depressed, lonely and addicted. The pharmaceutical industry is worth a minimum of $400 billion dollars annually because they are keeping people living a lower quality & dependent much longer than ever before in history. Most of the time Pharmaceuticals treat these symptoms, but are for many creating more problems because of the side effects and decreased efficacy after long-term use. These drugs are known to cause well over 125,000 deaths per year in the United States when taken correctly as prescribed.
Soil, like our gut, has its own microbiome. This supports the health of the plants growing on Earth. This is a fractal of our consumption of highly processed foods and overuse of chemicals. Antibiotics have destroyed key microbes in the human gut, we have also carelessly damaged the soil microbiome through overuse of chemical herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers and fungicides. Heavy plowing and tillage, as well as the failure to add organic matter back into the soil it’s been harvested from is causing big problems both internally (our gut) and externally (our home planet).
We have an abundance of free food and medicine growing all around us, yet choose to poison our herbal medicine and pluck it out of lawns. We separate the parts of a whole and patent the parts. We remove nutrients and add in chemically modified substitutes. We farm and drug animals and then consume the distress locked in their flesh. We rely on doctors to heal and governments to dictate what’s right and wrong for us, even though we are all so unique.
As I said above two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight, and childhood obesity has grown into a national epidemic. The craziest stat here is that this is the first time in human history our children’s life expectancy is less than their parents. It’s insane to me that North America is #28 for their life expectancy rate, yet trillions of dollars are spent treating disease. This is not so surprising when you consider the average drug label lists 70 potential adverse reactions.
Overall drugs are 62,000 times more likely to kill you than nutritional supplements and 7,750 times more likely to kill you than herbal remedies. I am not a doctor, but I recommend you go to your pharmacy and get a list of all the symptoms of all your prescriptions. Then call your doctor if you have any of those side effects, because medicine should make you feel better and not worse!
The answer is not in a pill bottle! The answer is out there growing in the garden! No matter what you are looking for you’ll probably find it at the bottom of the smoothie glass – energy, stamina, focus, fat loss, digestion, beautiful skin and hair, longevity… all of these things can be achieved and even improved upon by adding more colourful whole foods and water to your day.
The fastest way to get healthier is to find the healthiest person you know and spend as much time as you can with them. I know because it’s how I continue to get healthier, happier & wealthier naturally using this advice! Enrolling in The Institute for Integrative Nutrition was such a powerful experience for me that I feel obligated to let everyone know about it.
In this course I learned about over 100 diets and theories that I would have never learned if I was simply researching on my own. I went from knowing a little bit to becoming just as knowledgeable as most experts, all because of the high standards that this program follows.
I often get asked if I find that it was worth the price of the tuition and my response is always yes! I really enjoyed going through the program and found it very valuable. Plus, the pay structure is flexible, so anyone can afford to get the world class health coach training and business structure. I found that I was provided with just enough accountability and deadlines to stay on track while still maintaining a sense of independence and freedom to complete things on my own time.
Whole foods, wild foods, that’s the nutritional support, our gift from mama nature. When you upgrade your software with the right food, the food we consume gives specific instructions for our cells to grow and thrive. Scientific studies have shown that whole foods evoke a greater benefit to our bodies than consuming any one particular nutrient. That’s because the whole is always greater than its parts.
The more you work with plants the more you will pick up on their vibe – food, calories and medicine are all one. Most people today don’t even understand how bland their diet is, our gut needs diversity from the soil, plants and bugs – you cannot live without plants and a diverse supply of them! Eating whole Foods reprograms the cells in our bodies and helps us to become the beautiful people we are meant to be, it’s like breastfeeding from Mother Earth.
The body is a bio-computer that knows when to go to sleep, when to wake up, and when to go to the bathroom. Our body maintains the temperature of 98.6° f, repairs itself when wounded, and breaks down food into usable energy and nutrients. Our heart never misses a beat and our lungs never miss a breath. Our body is consistently processing information and monitoring our environment(s) to make necessary adjustments so we can keep balanced (homeostasis).
Here are a few ways to troubleshoot and optimize your bio-computer naturally:
Microbiome & Gut Health: Probiotics are your troops; prebiotics are your troops’ food. We have more gut bacteria than we do cells in our body and these bacteria make up 98% of our serotonin (happy chemicals). You will experience health & happiness through a balanced gut microbiome.
Kombucha is a fermented tea that aids digestion and is a probiotic, it detoxes the liver, used to prevent and treat cancer and candida yeast, also increases mental clarity, anxiety, and mood stability.
There are many fermented foods too like Kimchi, which is a traditional side dish in Korea, made from napa cabbage, radishes, scallions, garlic and ginger. Fermented foods are recommended for weight loss and improve numerous symptoms, including depression, anxiety, brain fog, skin problems, hormonal issues, immune weaknesses, digestive problems, and fatigue.
Plant Life: The more you work with plants the more you will pick up on their vibe – food, calories and medicine are all one. Most people today don’t even understand how bland their diet is, our gut needs diversity from the soil, plants and bugs – you cannot live without plants and a diverse supply of them!
A mineral called iodine in seaweed helps protect your body from radioactive pollution, basically giving you Superhero Powers. When you eat more seaweed, you keep your superpowers strong. You can eat seaweed with rice, eat it in soup, eat it in smoothies, as a salt alternative, or as a salad. You can try Wakame, Arame, Hijki, Marsh Samphire, Bladderwrack, Dulse, Sea Lettuce, and Kelp.
Hemp’s essential nutrients make it a superfood. This once illegal plant contains 20 amino acids, including 8 essential amino acids our body can’t produce, making it a complete plant protein. Hemp also includes EFAs (Essential Fatty Acids) — more than flax or any other nut or seed oil, it’s Omega-3s and omega-6s, are in an optimal 1:3 ratio. You can read more on what makes hemp a superfood HERE.
Spring and summer are wonderful times to harvest flowers. When flowers are in bloom all the plant’s life force is shooting up into those flowers, following that, seeds. Echinacea is a flower used to prevent fall colds, Mullein for ear aches, St John’s Wort for mood enhancing tea, and Clover to name a few.
Clover is a rich source of protein (26%), and contains vitamins A, B, C, E and K and minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, phosphorus and zinc. Red clover contains plant estrogens, similar to human hormone estrogen. This can help with symptoms of PMS, menopause, hot flushes and fibrocystic disease.
Whole Foods / Superfoods: Turns out mother nature (Gaia, God…) provided us many hints as to what and how certain foods can be used to nourish and heal our bodies, this is known as the Doctrine of Signatures. The most remarkable part about DOS is that it has been adapted all around the world and pretty consistent from culture to culture.
Today, in the midst of fad diets, misleading nutrition information, and questionable food quality, there is no better time than now to reconnect with mama nature and all the whole foods she provides us.
Superfoods include, but are not limited to; Cacao (Raw Chocolate), Goji Berries, Maca, Hemp Products, Spirulina, Bee Products, Camu Berry, Sea Vegetables (kelp, dulse, nori, hijiki, bladderwrack, chlorella), Medicinal Mushrooms (Reishi, chaga, cordyceps, maitake, shiitake, lion’s mane, etc.), and Superfoods Supplements like; MSM, Digestive and Metabolic Enzymes, Mangosteen powder, Marine Phytoplankton, Activated Liquid Zeolite, Ormus, MegaHydrate, Crystal Energy, Krill Oil.
We often buy young coconut for its abundance of coconut water, the coconut meat, nutrients and price point. Coconut is also nature’s juice box. Bananas are loaded with essential vitamins and minerals such as potassium. Potassium is an essential mineral which maintains proper heart function and regulates your blood pressure. The high content of potassium in bananas makes it a super fruit.
Mushrooms: Mushrooms mimic human skin in the way that they absorb more vitamin D when exposed to the sun. Portobello and maitake mushrooms are excellent sources of vitamin D. We need to harness mushroom power before everyone becomes chronically ill and disconnected.
The Chicken of the Woods mushroom is typically known for its taste as a choice edible mushroom however it does have some medicinal benefits as well. Its taste and texture when it’s cooked is just like chicken, and it has a whopping 21 Grams of Complete Protein! Lion’s Mane mushroom is backed by science for improving mental health, reducing chronic inflammation, boosting your immune system, increasing energy levels, fighting cancer, and balancing our nervous system.
Reishi Mushrooms are awesome too, they have been used since ancient times as a tonic for longevity, and used both internally and topically.
Crusade Cravings: The only part of your body that wants sugar is your taste buds and it takes two weeks to change them. If you want to thrive over survive getting off sugar is a good spot to start. When the body is craving sweets, chocolate, or alcohol, it’s probably not making a mistake. Is trying to create a balance for something that’s out of sync in the system.
The best way to navigate your cravings is with mindfulness. Acknowledge cravings as they arrive, explore the origins of cravings with non judgmental curiosity and proceed from a place of empowerment. You can also try eating more root vegetables which are energetically grounding. This helps to balance out the spaciousness people often feel after eating other kinds of sweet foods. Adding in sweet vegetables helps to crowd out less healthy foods in the diet.
The Perfect Diet: Our bodies don’t know how to break down chemicals very well so eating real food from nature instead of from a box is actually the key to the perfect diet. The elephant doesn’t look up the elephant diet. My greatest tip is to turn down the volume on the media and really get in tune with yourself. Any diet that doesn’t touch on men or women eating differently or eating different in different seasons is missing a huge component.
Our food is our body’s direct link to the external world, everyday we enjoy our meals, our snacks and everytime we digest that food becomes our body, becomes us. Life force food, vibrant colorful whole Foods… This is what the body craves. I am so happy and grateful I began counting nutrients, not calories, and took the time to understand the ingredients in the foods I purchase.
The vibrant colors of fruits and vegetables aren’t just visually appealing; they are also indicators of abundant protective nutrients. You’ll likely have a healthier diet if you use color as your guide in choosing fruits and vegetables. And while there’s nothing wrong with eating a lot of green vegetables, research has suggested that the wider the variety of natural colors you have on your plate or in your daily diet, the better your nutritional needs will be met.
The rainbow diet is a colorful, intelligent and intuitive system for putting together your plate and living in a holistic way that brings you vitality, energy and peace of mind. Here is a quick breakdown so you know what to expect:
🍎 Reds: Provide us with powerful antioxidants
🍌 Oranges/Yellows: Protect the body from oxidative stress
🥦 Greens: Are a great source of vitamins
🍇 Blues/Purples/Blacks: Protect against carcinogens
🥥 Whites: Contain immune-stimulating properties
You may also be interested in some of my books which include whole food recipes using all the colours of the rainbow. Be The Change, Is your guide to Elemental Growth through nature, love, food, and movement. This is the only book available that uses nature to nurture the process of change so you can step into your highest potential with ease.
My plant-powered menu brings you over 40 NEW recipes nurture your body, mind and spirit as you change with the seasons. These 4 simple menus will turn your home cooking experience into a powerful expression of LOVE so you can build a high energy body and cruise through life with the windows down and a smile on your face. Eating well is a form of self-respect!
Get Eco-Thrifty: Becoming a conscious shopper is quite an eye-opening journey. For example, I see plastic everywhere, everything seems to come in wrapping or containers that get thrown out. When cutting down plastic use you can label the bottom of mason jars with the exact weight of the jar when stocking up at bulk stores or mesh bags which are so small and light.
I love to find ways to use my garbage and even kitchen scraps. One way I do this is by re-growing sweet potatoes, lettuce, green onion, kale and herbs in water and then potting them.
To be even more eco-thrifty I freeze other scraps from onions and herbs for soup broth. Also, leftover tea leaves, coffee grounds, and water from steaming vegetables as fertilizer for my plants. You can read my top ten eco-thrifty hacks HERE. You may also be interested in my article around connecting with local farmers and other alternatives to grocery stores HERE.
No one is more passionate about what I’m sharing than I am because these are the very concepts that changed my life. Our gut bacteria, our cells, our blood, our being is determined by what we let in us. We do literally become what we consume! When it comes down to it, the only knowledge that really matters is. Vegan may not be for everyone but whole-foods are for everyone. They have the information our cells need built in.
Upgrade your software with the right food. Real food gives specific instructions to our cells. Given half a chance the human body will heal itself by itself. The body is programmed to be healthy when provided with the right building blocks, such as organic whole foods.
At the end of the day what works is what you do, but Mama Nature does feed us information from the growth stage, through harvest and consumption, to elimination. Mama Nature is conscious and gives us the power to tap into our own consciousness.
Do you know how to source / purify water? How to grow your own food? How to cook & preserve food? How to build & maintain a home? How to connect to your infinite energy, or how to love unconditionally?
Also, you might want to check the Ultimate Fasting Guide for Psychonauts, specifically for those of you practicing with psychedelics.
