Healthy Work at Home Tips For Homeschooling Families

The article below was written by Jen Laemmel, a holistic nutrition and wellness coach. She available for consultation by phone and can help you with your nutritional needs anywhere in the country. Her contact information is at the bottom of the post.

Hello, my name is Jen Laemmel. I’m a Mom of an almost 6 year old daughter, a wife, I run three businesses and am in the throws of starting another (business that is.) I mostly work out of my home and wow is it ever a busy life. My expertise is in nutrition and I am constantly trying my hardest to practice what I preach! I have found myself famished in the afternoons and realize that I forgot to feed myself. I was so busy making breakfast, packing lunch for my daughter, cleaning up and heading right up to my office that I forgot to eat. Isn’t breakfast the most important meal of the day? That sure is what I was taught and what I tell my clients. So, I’m turning over a new leaf and it truly is making a difference in my days and my life. I would like to share with you some of the very basics of what we all need nutritionally as well as some of the tricks I have come up with to actually meet those needs.

We all know eating well is so important and that we will be much happier and healthier if we make better dietary choices. Unfortunately, we all have that “busy” thing in common and it oftentimes gets in the way. So, I propose that we all pay attention to a few things at a time, such as making sure we ALWAYS eat breakfast, steer clear of those simple carbohydrate kid snacks, add some healthy fat to our meals, take out the trans fats (aka partially hydrogenated oils), try eating three healthy meals a day with good snacks in between, stretch and meditate for 10 - 20 minutes each day, stop eating 2 hours before bedtime, get plenty of sleep, drink more water, eat 80% organic, eat less red meat, exercise at least 3 times a week, and so on. I have found it best to only pick a few things to start with. Do it for a month. Really FEEL the difference it makes and then gradually add a few more good-for-you things as time goes on.

Although all of us are unique, our basic dietary needs are similar. Seven to ten servings of fruits and vegetables is a great number to follow. Focus on a variety of colors and various cooking methods. Fresh raw and lightly steamed vegetables are best with fresh frozen next and canned last. I also strongly recommend organic due to the higher nutrient content in these foods amongst many other reasons. We also all need whole grains in our diet. My rule of thumb is to buy bread that has been the least amount processed and has the smallest ingredient list. Stone ground and whole grain bread and pasta are wonderful once you get used to them and so much better for you! Choose brown rice over white rice as often as possible with white rice as an occasional treat. We need around the same amount of servings of grains as we do of vegetables and fruits per day. Dairy and protein requirements are about 2-3 servings per day. I would suggest lean means, nuts and legumes for your protein requirement and organic dairy or dairy alternatives. Good fats (essential fatty acids) are very important as well. Don’t be afraid of fats, especially the healthy ones like olive oil, flax seed oil and avocados.

So how on earth do you cram all of those foods in during the day? Well, first of all it doesn’t leave much room for the bad-for-us snacks does it? I always make a giant salad each night so there is enough left over for myself and my husband to take to work the next day. I put them in separate containers so they are ready to go. I also always have a big bowl of fresh fruit on my counter. If I have time when I get home from grocery shopping I pull the stickers off the fruit and wash them before putting them in the bowl. Anything to make it easier to grab and go, right? Before I leave the house I try to pack a bag of healthy snacks for my daughter AND myself. I also pack water bottles for us. This is key to keep from grabbing quick non-healthy items from the convenience store. We all deserve to treat ourselves well and be healthy. We all deserve to take time out for us. We all deserve to feel good and enjoy a long quality life! With just a few changes, you can truly notice a difference in your wellbeing!

Jen Laemmel, BS. MS. is a holistic nutrition and wellness coach.
She lives at almost ten thousand feet in the Colorado mountain town, Crested Butte. She lives there with her husband and daughter and together they enjoy a life of recreating, hard work and peace. Jen gained her passion for nutrition several years ago when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. This journey with her mom made her more and more aware of how important diet and wellness are. She received her bachelor of science in food science, human nutrition and dietetics. She recently completed her master in holistic nutrition and is currently undergoing a PHD. program in philosophy of nutrition. She recognizes how important continued education is, especially in an everchanging field like nutrition. Education is also the main focus of her practice. By giving people the information and clearing up the confusion, clients are able to use these tools to make better decisions for themselves. Her practice also focuses on the positive. So many times, people worry about what they should NOT do, what they should NOT say, what they should NOT eat. Let’s focus on what we do well and what we can do and good things will come our way. So working with Jen will be positive, exciting, new, and a bit oovy groovy, but it will also be scientific and will provide the most current information available. Contact us today and get started on your path to wellness!

contact Twist Nutrition by clicking here

If you’ve ever been to Europe you may have noticed that the European’s relationship with food is very different than ours is here in the US.  Here, food is often whatever we can throw in our mouths easily while also doing something else.  In other countries food is about nourishment of both the body and the soul. Meals are prepared, tables are set and people eat sitting down (at a table, not in the car).  The eating of food in old world cultures is about more than just calories, it’s about social connection and taking time to honor oneself and be thankful for the bounty on the table.

When you think about it that way, our quick dash through the drive-thru or the toaster tarts we eat standing up for breakfast, begin to appear rather obscene. In keeping with the theme of good nutrition for busy moms,  how do we keep all of our balls in the air and also change our relationship with food?  To begin I think we need to change our belief system. You are worthy of a sit-down lunch. Many months ago I wrote a post about taking care of yourself. One of the ways to do that is to honor yourself with a real meal and time to eat it.

It may be a meal by yourself while your kids are outside or working on their schooling, or it may be one where you all sit down together. People are becoming more interested again in creating time for family dinners, I’m also talking about breakfast and lunch. Think of the message you are giving your children if they see you making the effort to cook a nice meal for yourself and then sit down and eat it without doing anything else at the same time. Isn’t that the way you want them to treat themselves when they grow up? As I’ve written before, modeling a type of behavior is the best teacher.

So start small tomorrow. Decide which meal it will be. Pick a menu. Have the kids help you cook. Arrange your business appointments with a block of time set aside for a meal. Use glass dishes and put flowers on the table. Chew your food and savor the flavor. You’ll realize that the extra 1/2 hour you just spent gives more to your day and to your life, than it takes away.

Even with the best intentions it’s often hard to get all the nutrients that we need. Watch this blog for an upcoming post by a Master’s Degree level nutritionist. She is will be writing an article about how to choose healthy foods and cover all your nutritional bases. In the meantime, there is a vast amount of evidence that shows the necessity of at least 7 servings of high quality fruit per day. High quality means fruit that is grown organically or wild, and in non-depleted soil. The fact is that this is not the fruit we purchase at the grocery store. Our supermarket fruit has often sat in trucks and warehouses for weeks before ending up in our homes. It is often grown with large amounts of pesticides, in soil that has not had a chance to regenerate in many years. There is a product that I drink every  day that solves this problem. Just 2 ounces twice per day gives me the equivalent of 7 servings of wholesome/organic fruit in terms of antioxidants and phytonutrients. I really love this juice. If I skip it for a few days I can feel my energy level dropping. The product is called Monavie. Here is a link to read more about it. You can also purchase it directly from the company, on this website if you would like to try it. Click here to learn more.

OK, be honest here…how many of you eat the bread crusts your children leave behind and call it lunch? Or what about the half eaten apple, or the very bottom part of the banana? I have a friend who makes beautiful box meals for her kids when they are away from home for lunch but she is lucky if she remembers to throw some almonds in her pocket when she is running out the door. At least it’s almonds and not M & M’s!!

Let’s look at the difficulties involved with eating nutritiously as a busy mom. Personally, I’m not a food lover so if I am really busy, feeding myself is the first thing I “forget”. I also have a child who likes to eat constantly. I figure that if I nibble on her small left-overs, that should be enough to hold me until dinner. Thank goodness my husband likes to cook, and likes to eat meals as well. No corn flakes and milk for his dinner. So every night he cooks us a nice meal and we all sit down and eat together. Family time and nutrition in one easy package.

I do not feel I am alone in this manner of eating. When we have a ladies night out, we often share stories about nibbling on the lunch box remnants in the car on the way home. Are we really that self-sacrificing that we cannot take time to nourish our bodies? Work at home moms are especially prone to this problem since we are often don’t spend much time with other adults. If you work in an office, at lunch time most people eat. They either go out, or sit together and enjoy the meal they brought from home. Lunch at the office is both nourishing and social. Office people also take coffee breaks. Even though excess caffeine consumption can be a concern, these breaks are primarily about snacks and socializing.

At home most of us do not do this. We are so focused on our children, our home schooling (if we are doing that), our home business and all the other responsibilities of caring for a family that we often do not create a schedule that includes breaks for ourselves specifically designed for eating.

So what’s a mother to do? Stay tuned to the next few post and learn some nutrition basics, some time savers and some healthy eating tricks. By the time this nutrition series is done, hopefully we will all be taking better care of our bodies and our health.