Amara Wellness

New clients often ask me to help them come up with "kid-friendly" recipes so they can get their kids to eat, and I always have the same answer which is: kid-friendly food is not in my vocabulary. I know this isn't always a popular answer but I feel pretty strongly that only offering children salty, beige food because that's what they gravitate towards rarely serves anyone.

So, if I don't do "kid-friendly" recipes, how do I support moms who want to get their kids to eat better?

There are several factors I take into consideration when I create a customized plan with a client. I always look at the energetics and expectations around mealtime. The ages of the child(ren) definitely determines how we approach shifts to family eating habits. And one of the most important pieces in the plan is to work on the parents' eating habits and relationship to food.

In order to create a family environment where the children learn to experiment with new foods and nourish their body in a healthy way, it's essential that the adults are doing those things too.

If that feels like a lot of work, it's probably because you know you need to make some shifts yourself and I TOTALLY get it (I myself struggled with a poor relationship with food for the majority of my life). Here is what I can promise you, it's NOT all or nothing. For most of the families I work with (my own included) the children learn with the adults. It's not about perfection, it's about growing together as a family.

If this is something you would like support with, please send me a DM and let's make a time to chat. A connection call is simply an opportunity to get to know each other better and to see if I might be able to help you (no strings attached!) and I'd love to hear from you!

I married a man who is the only child of an Italian immigrant mother, who didn't work outside of the home, and was a phenomenal cook. When I met my husband he told me "he doesn’t do leftovers”.

I, on the other hand, was the only child of a mentally ill single mother who worked very long hours outside of the home. Let’s just say, I didn’t turn my nose up at a home cooked meal (leftover or otherwise).

When we got married and I started doing most of the cooking, I knew I would need to get creative. There was no way I was making fresh chicken cutlets or lasagna five days a week, but we both enjoyed food and wanted to eat well.
That was really the start of my creativity in the kitchen and my cook once; eat thrice philosophy.

Fast forward almost two decades and most of our meals ARE leftovers, but with creative sauces and spices, they feel like something new and fresh the second (and sometimes even third) time.

And thankfully that husband of mine is now also grateful for leftovers (he's a pretty smart guy 🤣).

For me, deciding WHAT is for dinner can be way harder and more stressful than actually making the dinner, and I know I'm not alone in this because it's one of the things that clients come to me for help on ALL THE TIME!

Here are three things I do to feel inspired when mealtime decision making fatigue (MDMF) creeps up:

1) At the beginning of each school year I ask every family member for a list of at least 4 meals they enjoy eating and want to see in our rotation. We have four people in our household so that means I have four days of meal ideas each week for four weeks.

2) I go through the menus of our favorite restaurants and make a list of the things I know I'd want to order (or feel inspired to recreate).

3) We have one straight-up leftover meal a week. I call it "a little bit of this; a little bit of that" (how's that for inspired creativity 🤣) and I heat up what we have in the fridge because not every meal can be a masterpiece and if I worked hard to make a home-cooked meal I don't want to waste it.

At the start of each week I meal plan our menu of dinners using the above for inspiration. Let me know if you've experience MDMF and what you find helpful...

For my husband's birthday this year I wanted to make him one of his favorite meals of red wine braised short ribs but since his birthday is in the middle of August I didn't want to have to have the oven on all day.

I browned the ribs in my dutch oven, added some carrots, onion and garlic and deglazed the pan with wine and stock and then I put the lid on the simmering liquid and it all spent five hours in my (which requires no heat and no electricity) and by dinnertime we had beautifully tender braised short ribs.

There's no such thing as perfect when it comes to eating (or anything else for that matter) AND ALSO if we're doing our best to instill healthy eating habits and a positive relationship with food in our child, it's important that we look at what WE are modeling for them.

As much as we may hate to admit it, our children usually do what we do more than they do what we say. If that makes you 😬 let's make a time to chat. Supporting moms to create a healthier relationship with food is kinda my jam.

It is a little known fact that the primary consideration in choosing where to take our family vacations is amazing local cuisine. While it's also true that a beautiful beach is a close second, fresh, seasonal and delicious food is always key for us. Whenever possible we also try to find accommodations that allow us to visit the local markets and cook our own food (we consider experimenting in the kitchen together to be a fun family activity and it's definitely less expensive than eating out every meal).

These are a few of the dinners we made a few weeks ago while in Cape Cod (one of our favorite spots!)

And P.S. If you're thinking that I'm lucky because we don't have any picky eaters in my family, look closely in the background of the lobster photo and you'll see that on that night the eldest member of our family made his own sausage sandwich 😂🤣

I remember those very long days with young children and how physically taxing they were on me. One of the things that I always prioritize when I work with a family is how absolutely essential is is that the caregivers are well nourished in order to thrive during this time.

We spend so much time focusing on what, when, and how our kids eat and too often we leave ourselves as an afterthought. Nourishing yourself well IS absolutely essential and, btw, your kids are watching you too. If your own relationship with food is not one you'd want them to model, it might be time to make some shifts. Reach out if you'd like support.

One of the most wonderful ways to foster a child's natural curiosity is to get them involved in growing a vegetable garden.

Moms often come to me feeling so overwhelmed by all the things they think they need to do in order to get their family on a healthier track (never mind the fact that so much of the advice they've heard seems to be contradictory). Here's what I can tell you based on my nearly 20 years of experience coaching moms on supporting their family's health with food and holistic remedies...

The more you can tune-out all the "experts" and begin to tune-into what you and your family needs right now, the better off you'll be. That doesn't mean that the choices you make in the next few months will be the same choices you'll make in a year or two, but consistent baby steps make a huge impact.

Lettuce wraps are definitely in the rotation for hot summer weeknight dinners.

I love supporting my clients to get started with a small vegetable garden because there are SOO many benefits to growing your own food. One of the most important ones is that children learn where food comes from and how amazing fresh, ripe food tastes.

If you cook a lot you WILL eventually burn yourself. I highly recommend keeping cantharis homeopathic remedy in your kitchen for minor burns. It's literally saved me so many times when I've had a house full of hungry people and accidentally burned my hand taking something out of the oven.

it's great for sunburns too!

My least favorite question is "so what do you do?"

Even after all these years (almost 20!) it's still so hard for me to answer because I do SO MANY things. Here's what I can tell you...

My practice is dedicated to helping mothers support and nourish themselves and their family in order to feel more energized, confident, successful, happy and healthy. My mission is to help you be the best version of yourself right now.

And how we do that together depends on so many things. Sometimes it's simple tweaks in what you're already eating; sometimes I recommend a holistic remedy/supplement; usually there's a little learning curve about how to choose and prepare foods; sometimes what's keeping you from the best version of yourself is more about your inner dialogue and beliefs; and sometimes (often actually) it's a matter of figuring out how to work with your family to get everyone else on board because changes, even little ones, can be hard.

I support mamas in all of this! Please reach out if you'd like to chat about how I might be able to support YOU.

I come from a family of beach lovers and (thank goodness!) my husband and kids love the beach too, which means that most of our vacations are spent (yes, you guessed it) on the beach. So much time on the beach also means that we have to make sure we're protecting our skin against sunburn.

At home we eat lots of red fruits and veggies and I try to make sure we also do on vacation, but it's not always as easy so before we go I buy a "red powder" of dehydrated red fruits and vegetables to take along. It's become one of our our traditions that every day when we get back from the beach, while everyone is showering and getting ready for dinner, I make us a delicious red smoothie with a scoop of the red powder and some frozen fruit. It's cool and refreshing and also great for our skin!

Below is a link to the red powder I like to bring (as well as some of my other summer travel remedies): https://us.fullscript.com/protocols/amarawagner-summer-remedies

This is one of my FAVORITE salads this time of year. Cut watermelon, some finely chopped basil and mint, a little sprinkle of feta and a squeeze of fresh lime just before serving. The flavors go so well together and, as a bonus, the antioxidants in the watermelon also help protect your skin against sun damage.

I'm giving a workshop on "superfoods" next week I'd love to hear, what does this term mean to you?

(P.S. it's not a regulated term so there's really no wrong answer)

I recently asked my kids what were their favorite dinners from the past few weeks and, surprisingly, salad bar came in a winner!

What have been some of your favorite weeknight dinners lately?

Cooking a lot means that eventually you WILL cut yourself and burn yourself (sometimes a lot). Recently I sliced right through the bed of my fingernail when my knife slipped and, with the help of helichrysum essential oil, two weeks later you would never know. I've also burned myself more times than I'd like to admit and cantharis homeopathic remedy has saved me every single time (I also keep an aloe plant for burns). I literally keep both of these in my kitchen at all times (I travel with them too!)

Many clients come to me because they have transitioned to a gluten free diet but aren't seeing the health improvements they had hoped for. The majority of time I can tell immediately what's going on and it's actually their gluten free diet causing the issues.

While gluten free has potential to be a very beneficial diet for some people (and literally life-saving for others), the fact is that there is an abundance of gluten-free processed junk food. Many of the gluten-free packaged foods are highly processed, high in sugar, often genetically modified and have ingredients that I do not recommend.

If you’re looking to transition to a healthier diet, please don't make the mistake of just switching to everything in the gluten free aisle. I'm here to help if you need support.

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So far this morning ALL of my coaching clients with young kids have shared some version of either feeling a little let down by Mother's Day or that it was nice but now they have to "play catch up" to get everything done AND ALL have expressed some guilt/shame around not being grateful enough because they really DO know that they are blessed.

If you're feeling this way, you aren't alone. This mothering gig isn't easy.

Mother's Day, just like mothering itself, is too complicated and complex to distill down to one day or a social media post. My wish for you today is simply that you feel loved and mothered, today and every day.

This morning I received this message in my inbox...

"Hi Amara, I am hoping you can help me. We just found out that my daughter has to eliminate dairy, eggs and gluten from her diet and now I have no idea what to give her. Help!"

This is of the most common reasons a mom reaches out to me for a consultation and it's a challenge I LOVE to take on. Whenever you (or a family member) learns that certain foods need to be eliminated from the diet it's perfectly normal to feel like there's nothing left to eat but I promise you, even when the list of foods to eliminate is long, there ARE things you can eat. Sometimes it's a matter of learning to work with new ingredients or cooking styles and also being patient with yourself. Having an outside perspective and some creativity, along with support by someone with lots of experience, makes transitioning to a new way of eating much easier. Reach out if you're in this boat and need some guidance!

I've received a few private messages with questions about how "difficult" my cleanse will be and I wanted to share my answer here...

The recommendations in my cleanse are not complicated and most of them you have probably heard before. It is not a secret that if you want to support your body (particularly your liver) removing processed foods, alcohol, and sugar from your diet, drinking more water, getting more sunlight, eating some green leafy vegetables and resting more are helpful.

Most of the time we know what to do but struggle with actually doing it. Our minds like to complicates things. We’ve been conditioned to mistrust our bodies and to believe that things have to be hard in order to "work".

I've created this a simple five day cleanse process to walk you through the steps that we know work because we focus on what YOUR body is asking for.

https://www.amarawellness.com/store/p/guided-spring-cleanse-and-workbook-2023

One of the main reasons I created a cleanse workbook and workshop is because I feel disturbed by so much of what I see promoted as "detoxes" that are really (in my opinion) an extension of toxic diet culture.

Your body doesn't need you to suffer in order to detox. Quite the contrary actually. Your body already has all the mechanisms it needs to cleanse itself. Of course nourishing our body with food can be helpful but it's certainly not the only component of supporting your body.

My workshop and accompanying digital workbook is so much more than a list of foods you should avoid (in fact, there are NO hard rules about off limit foods!) I share small shifts you can make that will support your body in it's natural detoxification processes as well as walk you through a process to get clear on what's important for YOU. This isn't about fighting your body or forcing it to do something, it's about working with the magical vessel that your body already is.

If you're interested, my Five-Day Simple Spring Cleanse is available on my website at: https://www.amarawellness.com/store/p/guided-spring-cleanse-and-workbook-2023 (link also in my bio)

I mentioned in an earlier post that each year my own spring cleanse looks a little different because my own needs and lifestyle evolve and shift, just like yours does. I don't believe in cookie cutter cleanses because I truly believe that nobody is more of an expert on YOUR body than YOU and what's ideal for one person may not be for you.

I'm excited to make the Five-Day Simple Spring Cleanse virtual workshop + accompanying digital workbook available so that you too can easily create a customized cleanse that suits your individual needs and body.

You can purchase the cleanse workshop & workbook on here for just $38. There's a ton of info but it's all super easy to follow and put into practice and, of course, if you need more support and hand-holding, I'm here for that too.

5-Day Simple Spring Cleanse Guided Online Workshop & Workbook — Amara Wellness This workshop offers very practical, step-by-step instructions so you can begin your own spring cleanse, designed for your life and your specific goals in mind.

Each year my spring cleanse looks slightly different, depending on what feels important for me to release both in my external environment (my home, computer files, car, etc.) and also physically and emotionally within myself. Often my cleanse involves temporary elimination of some foods and the addition of some supplements to support the body's elimination pathways but what is ALWAYS more important than any food or supplement is my mindset. A cleanse should NOT feel punishing (sometimes challenging, yes, but not like a punishment) because the entire point of a cleanse is to support you body, not fight it. If you're going into any cleanse, I encourage you to keep that as your mindset.

Spring is nature's new year and a time when you may begin to think about clearing out clutter and releasing what no longer serves you.

What are you releasing this season?

A new season doesn't only bring a change of weather (here in NJ we had a super mild winter too), but it also brings a shift in energy and (especially if your kids play sports or do seasonal activities) a change in schedules.

Last week I looked at our schedule to plan the week's dinners and wanted to cry. Between my two teens' activities and my own commitments, it felt impossible to find time to make, let alone eat, any meals as a family. Once I got past the paralyzed with overwhelm phase I sat down and remembered that we can be flexible and that I've done this before (many, many times).

For us, spring meals are mostly a little lighter and focus on more raw than cooked foods than in winter, which means less cook time.

Sometimes it's not easy to get yourself out of the phase where you feel paralyzed with overwhelm, especially if meal planning and eating mostly home-cooked meals is newer to you. I'm here to help if you need support, just send me a DM and we can schedule a call to look at your personal situation.

Now that spring is here I almost always have a jar of seeds sprouting in my kitchen. I love to add them to salads and sandwiches. Sprouting is also a great activity to do with kids!

Will you shift how/what you eat as we move into Spring?