Immunity Boosting Menu for January

This month’s immunity boosting menu features foods to boost your immune system, keeping you hale and hearty through the deep freeze of January!

Breakfast: Spinach, Tomato & Goat Cheese Egg Scramble (round out with a broiled grapefruit half)
Lunch: Butter Chicken and Cauliflower Rice (make ahead; when ready to serve simply reheat and stir in some chopped baby kale)
Snack if needed: Golden Turmeric Latte (these can be addictive)
Dinner: One Pan Salmon with Rainbow Veggies (on the table in no time)

Join The Nutritional Reset community here to receive this month’s menu today (as well as each month to come)!

December 27, 2018

Eat anything you want. Just cook it yourself.

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Eat anything you want. Just cook it yourself. With holiday feasting and 2018 coming to a close, thoughts inevitably turn to resolutions to be healthier and lose weight in the new year.

The plethora of diets out there (Paleo, Keto, Low FODMAP, Low Carb-High Fat, Low Fat-High Carb and more) can easily leave you calorie counting, confused and/or stressing over micro-managing your macronutrients (“gee, how many grams of fat, protein and carbs should I eat?“).

So let’s cut straight to today’s pearl of dietary wisdom, expressed so eloquently by New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan and captured succinctly in this 3-minute video…
Eat anything you want. Just cook it yourself. And I want to help.

As a member of The Nutritional Reset community, each month you will receive a day’s worth of delicious and nutritious recipes to inspire your home cooking – sign up here for free. And then, go ahead… Eat anything you want. Just cook it yourself. read more

December 4, 2018

Feast Festively without Piling on the Pounds

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Did you know that the average North American gains 7 to 10 pounds during the holidays? Fear not – you can feast festively without piling on the pounds!

Click here to join The Nutritional Reset community and I will email you Healthy Holiday Eating, a selection of holiday recipes which show that you can eat meals that are both healthy and delicious – not only at the holidays but all year round!

And read on for a few healthy eating strategies to make this holiday season your sveltest yet…

November 12, 2018

Sweet Potato Porridge: a warm hug to start your day.

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail It is officially starting to feel like winter out there, with the “feels like” temperatures sliding into negative digits and sporadic, swirling flurries promising snowfalls to come. At this time of year, it is natural to crave warming and comforting foods. Porridge is like a warm hug to start your day. This Sweet Potato Porridge is a favourite of mine, which also happens to be grain-free (for all you Paleo devotees out there).

When I first came across it, I thought “this sounds bizarre”. But, as a holistic nutritionist, that tends to pique my curiousity and spurs me give ‘er a try. After all, what’s there to lose? Turned out it was absolutely delicious and is one of my go-to breakfasts! So if you are thinking the same thing I was after reading this recipe, I heartily encourage you to give it a try.

April 9, 2018

Put some Spring in your step with essential oils!

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail

While the calendar may have long heralded the advent of Spring in Toronto where I practice, Mother Nature has not…brrrr!!! By now, like most here, I am pretty tired of the relentlessly chilly temperatures! And the fact that it has been dragging on so long has been, well, a drag. So to lift my mood, I’ve turned to one of my favourite remedies, essential oils.

The uses of essential oils are many and miraculous in my opinion. And I love diffusing them throughout my home. Both my bedroom and living room host a diffuser – specifically this very sleek, hand-crafted black stone diffuser from Vancouver’s Vitruvi. I also own pretty much their entire catalogue of essential oils so I’m ready for anything! Being a science geek, I admit I was drawn to their bottle labels, which are styled after the periodic table. The black glass bottles are both aesthetically pleasing and they are excellent at protecting the oils from light. But what I love most about Vitruvi is their steady flow of creative ideas on how to use their oils, like this one… read more

February 20, 2018

Posture Perfect: Say Sayonara to Slouch Asana

First, a confession…forgive me, it has been over 2 months since I last blogged. I have had the “too busy to blog blues”. This has been due to some very good things. I was in the UK for 2 weeks over Christmas visiting family. And a few weeks after that I spent 11 glorious days in Bocas del Toro, Panama at the best yoga retreat ever at Bluff Beach Retreat, hosted by the irrespressible Christine Dennis of Prashanta Yoga (my “local”). And throughout I’ve had the pleasure of doing custom consultations with some incredible women, creating plans to optimize their health and well-being. Nothing gives me greater joy; it is why I became a holistic nutritionist. But being too busy to blog has had its downsides too. One is that Google is not very happy with me. The other is that researching, creating educational handouts and designing diet, supplement and lifestyle protocols and custom meal plans requires me to spend a lot of time at my computer. Enter “Slouch Asana”, as Christine so aptly named this poor posture. We spent a lot of time at Bluff Beach working to counteract the effects of this pose.

December 8, 2017

Winter Herbal Latte Mixes from Wholehearted Eats

As a holistic nutritionist, I’m always on the lookout for simple, healthy and delicious recipes to incorporate into meal plans for my Toronto clients. This week, I came across a stand-out blog post entitled Winter Herbal Latte Mixes from Sophie at Wholehearted Eats. These herbal lattes are not only nourishing and nurturing, they are also festive!

These winter herbal latte mixes are great to have on hand in your pantry on chilly winter days. Just combine with your favourite milk (dairy or non-dairy), heat, sip and enjoy. A steamy herbal latte is perfect for some instant “cozy bliss”, as Sophie puts it.

They also make fantastic gifts as they are easy to mix, creative, and sure to be a hit with the giftee. They are great for stocking stuffers, hostess gifts, in gift baskets or for friends or work colleagues.

Check out Sophie’s Winter Herbal Latte Mixes post this week on her blog where she shares her recipes for Double Chocolate Chaga Cocoa, Golden Moon Milk Mix and Ayurvedic Sleepy-Time Mix.

November 22, 2017

Vitamin D for the dark days of winter!

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Vitamin D This morning as I was getting ready to head outside, I lamented/cursed having to layer on just about everything in my closet. Yes, I am a wimp and I really do not love the cold. As I covered up every exposed bit of me (I would have donned a balaclava if I owned one), I thought that now would be a very good time to remind folks to up your vitamin D supplement if you haven’t already.

The reason I say “up it” is because vitamin D is a good supplement to take all year round, particularly if you are a vegan or vegetarian, as the only good food sources are animal products. Of these, the richest sources are fatty fish (and cod liver oil…yum!) and, to a lesser extent, beef liver, egg yolks and milk.

That said, the human body doesn’t really need to get vitamin D from the diet. In fact, it is quite difficult to get adequate amounts from food even if you aren’t a vegan/vegetarian. Our bodies, however, are quite adept at synthesizing it from cholesterol in our skin in the presence of sunlight.

November 14, 2017

Does pomegranate seed oil douse the fire of hot flashes?

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Could pomegranate seed oil be an effective treatment for menopausal hot flashes? According to a 2017 study conducted in Germany, perhaps the answer is yes. I recently attended a symposium at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine entitled Advances in Women’s Health, presented by supplement company Nutritional Fundamentals for Health (NFH). One of the featured speakers was Dr. Tori Hudson, who provided an excellent update on recent research conducted into women’s health issues. Dr. Hudson is an esteemed naturopathic physician and proponent of women’s health (in practice for over 30 years in Oregon), author of the Women’s Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, researcher and Program Director for the Institute of Women’s Health and Integrative Medicine.

The pomegranate seed oil study she mentioned particularly caught my attention because I was preparing for my Meno-Party menopause workshop at Prashanta Yoga at the time. Published earlier this year, Pomegranate (Punica granatum) Seed Oil for Treating Menopausal Symptoms: An Individually Controlled Cohort Study tested the efficacy of pomegranate seed oil as a remedy for several symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes, disrupted sleep, depression, exhaustion and irritability.

October 8, 2017

Event: Meno-Party at Prashanta Yoga November 11, 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Peri-menopause and menopause can be a very challenging time in a woman’s life. And while you can’t turn back the clock, you can wind it up again!

Join me and Christine Dennis of Prashanta Yoga for this fun, informative and interactive seminar focusing on effective strategies and tools incorporating nutrition, supplements, exercise, yoga, mindfulness and other achievable shifts in lifestyle to restore your energy and enthusiasm for life! This workshop is open to all women interested in this topic!