Life as a Holistic Nutritionist

From clinic work to ocean dips to recipe creation: a little sneak peek into what my daily life has looked like lately.

Hello my lovely subscribers. I thought it was time for a little life update, to give you guys some insight into what my day-to-day looks like lately, and hopefully inspire your own daily wellness habits. I’ve had some recent work changes (aka starting at Clementine Natural Health), been testing a TON of nourishing recipes, and of course, enjoying all the amazing summer activities that BC has to offer.

what life has looked like the past few weeks: cold dips, berry shopping, beach afternoons, recipe testing, clinic days, lake dips, Life Minded photography, solo bike rides, and fresh smoothies

Working in a clinic

I recently joined the team at Clementine Natural Health as a Nutritionist. Working in a clinical setting was always the goal for me — I know there’s just so much to learn from the Naturopathic Doctors and that there’s immense value in seeing clients in person. The work at Clementine so far has been a dream come true. The clinic values align so well with my own professional and personal ones, and I’ve loved working in a space full of like-minded (👀) professionals. I still work for myself via Life Minded, so rest assured I still see clients virtually all over the world — I just also now have the amazing opportunity to take clients in person through the clinic. If you prefer in-person nutrition help, want the support of Naturopathic Doctors on your team, and live in Vancouver BC, come see me at Clementine! 🍊 You can book with me here.

Lab testing

I’m in the process of continuing my education to understand + analyze lab tests so that I can utilize functional testing in my practice. This will include things like mineral analysis, GI maps, and hormonal testing. As a Nutritionist, I’m not qualified to conduct lab testing/blood draws. However, once I complete this continued education, I will be qualified + authorized to read and interpret lab testing, and to create targeted nutrition plans based on these results. For my clients, this means that we can really dig deep to the root cause of your symptoms because we can see all the data right there in your lab tests. Lab testing isn’t always necessary (symptoms can tell us a lot about what’s going on), but for many people, it’s the key to unlock what’s truly going on for streamlined results, especially for those of you who have tried everyyyything and still aren’t seeing positive results. I can’t wait to incorporate this into my 1:1 practice, both at Clementine and Life Minded.

Daily life stuff

Summer in BC is something else. It’s funny because I’ve spent most of my life on the eastern coast of Canada (I grew up in Ontario and did my undergrad in Halifax) and had never even visited BC until 2020, but somehow I always knew I was supposed to move out here. And the BC summers continue to give me reasons to stay. There are just so many things to do in nature out here and it’s so easily accessible. I feel trapped when I’m too far away from the ocean, so this is definitely the spot for me.

It’s been soooo hot and my apartment has tons of sun and zero a/c, so regular dips in the ocean/rivers/lakes have been keeping me somewhat sane. I’ve been trying to prioritize getting in the water at least 2-3x/week. The other thing I love so much about this ritual (other than the significant cooling effect) is that it’s a grounding activity that calms my nervous system. There’s research that shows that even just LOOKING at a body of water stimulates calming effects in the body and promotes whole-body wellness. (Apparently any body of water works, although I feel like a puddle on the sidewalk probably won’t do much for you.) For even more effective nervous system regulation, I’ve been getting in the water to swim regularly, which has a grounding effect. Grounding in nature has a ton of research behind it and has been shown to reduce inflammation, stress, and risk of chronic diseases. One of the many ways to utilize nature’s free wellness activities.

I’ve also been doing my best to take my bike out more often this summer (last summer I only touched it a few times). I’ve been going on lots of solo sunset rides, which have been so nice to spend time with myself, enjoy nature, and just get a little more physical activity in after spending all day at my desk writing client protocols. There’s nothing wrong with doing things solo—in fact, I’m a huge advocate for taking yourself on solo dates whether you’re partnered or not. It helps you get in touch with yourself, boosts confidence, and is overall just super empowering to know that you don’t need to wait for someone else to do fun things.

Recipes on repeat

I do my best to eat seasonally, which means that the summer comes with a ton of fresh fruit + veg. I don’t buy everything organic (I do my best to reduce pesticide exposure, but unfortunately the prices are just too high to be perfect at this right now), so I make sure to soak my produce in a baking soda solution for 15-20 mins before putting it away in the fridge. Hot tip: stop soaking your produce in vinegar. The studies show that an alkaline solution is actually the most effective as reducing pesticide residues up to 99%. Vinegar is acidic and doesn’t have the same effect as baking soda (which is alkaline). And please, god, PLEASE, stop soaking your produce in combined baking soda + vinegar. Yes it makes a cool foamy sound, but that solution is just neutralized and isn’t doing anything for your pesticide exposure.

to reduce pesticide residues on non-organic produce, add 1 tsp of baking soda for every 2 cups of water. let soak for 15-20 mins, rinse, then dry before storing in your fridge.

Smoothies are a must every summer and I’ve been drinking this blueberry smoothie on repeat after my workouts. Just omit the nut butter in this recipe for post-workout because it contains fat, which slows digestion. Normally we love this effect for blood sugar balance, but after a workout, you actually want to absorb those carbs + protein as quickly as possible to refuel your glycogen stores and repair your muscles for optimal growth. So to summarize: easily digestible carbs + protein after a workout = optimal.

The past week has been 30+ degrees (that’s 86 or above for all my American followers) so I’ve made a vow to never use the oven again. As a result, I’ve been eating a ton of cooling foods, including these Prawn + Tofu Vermicelli Rolls with a homemade Miso Peanut Sauce. They’re full of fresh veg + cooling herbs (like cilantro and mint) and require minimal cooking. Not to mention they’re so delicious and I honestly spend all winter waiting for the heat to hit so I can have these. Win-win-win. They’re pretty easy too— you just julienne a bunch of your favourite veg (I did carrots, peppers, cukes, cabbage, lettuce, cilantro, and mint), cook up some prawns, tofu, and some vermicelli noodles, and wrap it all up to be dipped into my amazing Miso Peanut Sauce (recipe below).

these prawn + tofu vermicelli wraps have been the only thing getting me through this BC heat wave

Miso Peanut Sauce

This recipe is full of gut-healthy ingredients, making it a great addition to these rolls. And soooooo yummy.

Ingredients: