Did you know the digestive system and the nervous system are intertwined? And that they can actually talk to one another? You’ve probably felt this when you get butterflies in your stomach when you’re nervous, or when you have a gut instinct about something (or even when you have diarrhea from anxiety). 

Raise your hand if you were taught that all dietary fat is bad. It’s OK if you did; the sugar and anti-fat lobbyists made sure that was at the forefront of media conversation from the late 1960s until about 10-15 years ago. Fat is used to store energy, make hormones, and transport vitamins. It also insulates the myelin sheath that protects our nerves, makes up the cell membrane that protects our cells, and makes up 60% of our brain.

FODMAP is an acronym for “Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, and Monosaccharides and Polyols”, which are a group of highly fermentable short- and medium-chain carbohydrates (typically high in fructose or lactose) and sugar alcohols. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Enter lavender. Whether you’re inhaling its soothing aromas via essential oils, tasting it paired with strawberries in a slightly sweet fruit tart, rubbing the flowers between your fingers to smell its ever-so-faint perfume, or drying it out to put on display, lavender is calming, soothing, and emotionally uplifting.

I grew up in Orange County, CA - aka The OC - and went to the beach every weekend in the summer. I ditched school so many times to go to the beach (one time I sprained my ankle so badly while trying to catch the bus to get to track practice that I ended up being out for the rest of the season...and it was the first week). I even wear traditional bikinis because I DESPISE tan lines (I’ve unlearned everything I learned living there except for that). All of this to say, I love the sun.

My favorite way to make salads is in layers. Always have a green base, a protein (vegan or non-vegan, assume organic/grass-fed), a fat, more veggies/fruit to round it out, and fresh herbs to top it off. I usually make an apple cider vinaigrette to finish it off.

Your liver is responsible for regulating, storing, secreting, transforming and breaking down hundreds of substances in your body through over 200+ functions a day. It never stops working!

Whenever I come back from vacation, or feel like I need a reset, I make soup. There’s something about soup that just feels healthy, especially in winter when it’s too cold to eat salads.