Children who eat nutritious, balanced snacks and lunches and who stay hydrated throughout the day experience less fatigue and have better focus, engagement, and fewer meltdowns.

Here are 7 simple steps to a healthier lunch and more nutritious day for your little ones:

1) Breakfast starts with a capital B for BEGIN here…

It may sound cliché, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The main reason being that it helps to regulate blood sugar and sets the tone for cravings and energy throughout the day.

Some quick and delicious breakfast ideas for a healthy start to the day:

• Chia Oat Jar Parfaits (See recipe below)
• Smoothies (See recipe below)
• Oatmeal Protein Pancake (See recipe below)
• Oatmeal with fresh berries and hemp seeds
• Sprouted English muffin with nut or seed butter and cinnamon
• Fruit salad topped with coconut yogurt
• Eggs and sprouted toast

2) Fully embrace your school’s no-waste lunch policy and invest in a great quality lunch container…

Did you know that it is estimated that the average school-aged child using disposable lunch containers and bags generates 67 pounds of waste per year? That adds up to 18,760 pounds of waste for the average-size elementary school! I have two lunch boxes that are my absolute favourite for my kids (and they love them too).

Check out Laptop Lunch Boxes and Planet Box. My children (aged 7 and 9) each had of both these containers since their first birthday and they are still in fantastic shape!

What makes these containers so incredible is that everything is portioned out in compartments just like a bento box and you know kids–if it looks like something fun and is organized in a cool way they are way more cooperative and likely to be on board for actually eating the food within the compartments.

3) Focus on adding in fresh fruits and vegetables to their lunch…

… And sprouted grains (or those that are naturally gluten-free such as rice, quinoa, buckwheat, and millet). Choose breads and wraps that are sprouted and or have true food ingredients that you can understand. Add in more plant-based foods like beans and lentils and small portions of lean protein like organic eggs, lean chicken, turkey, and grass-fed beef. Opt for healthy fat sources such as seed butters and avocados, and when dressing for pasta and quinoa salads choose oils like olive oil or pumpkin seed oil. Work to limit their intake of processed foods, deli meats, and canned fish as well as white pasta or processed breads, sodium, added sugar, anything with artificial colours, flavouring or additives, and especially tartrazine.

4) Balanced morning and/or afternoon snacks…

Some of my favourite balanced snack ideas:

• Fresh fruit with sunbutter for dipping
• Fresh fruit with cinnamon
• Veggies and hummus
• ½ sandwich or wrap from their lunch
• Smoothie in a no-spill container
• Applesauce with hempseeds
• Edamame with sea salt
• Salsa with organic nachos or guacamole
• Homemade granola with coconut yogurt
• Homemade muffins or bars
• Lower-sugar store-bought granola bars
• Goat cheese and sprouted crackers
• For fun, occasionally offer one ‘air-snack’, like veggie stick chips or popcorn.

5) Pack lunches they will eat – and that will satisfy them…

Here are my top 5 go-to lunches that I know my kids will gobble up:

• Quinoa Salad (with or without beans)
• Chickpea Smash Wrap (see recipe below)
• Vegetable Pasta Salad
• Grilled Chicken Greek Salad
• Goat Cheese, cucumber, tomato, hummus wrap

6) Make two meals at once…

Probably hands down the easiest way to take an extra job off of your hands and get lunches made quickly and easily is to make enough at dinner that you can automatically have enough for leftovers. I place the kids’ lunch boxes behind their dinner plates and as I serve up their meal, I also serve up their lunch!

7) Keep them hydrated…

Make sure your children are hydrated throughout their school day by sending them with a water bottle of at least 750 ml. I can’t stress enough how very important this is.

Good Start Breakfast Recipes:

Chia Oat Jar

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond, rice, cashew, or coconut milk
• 1/4 medium banana, sliced (freeze the rest for smoothies!)
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• pinch cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp chopped nuts for topping

Prep and Cook:

• Place all the ingredients in a jar, shake, cover and refrigerate overnight.
• In the morning, add your favorite crunchy toppings such as nuts, granola, etc. and enjoy

Chocolate Monkey Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 Tbsp almond butter
• 3 Tbsp hemp seeds
• 1 scoop protein powder
• 1 tsp cacao or cocoa

Prep and Cook:

• Blend and enjoy

Oatmeal Protein Pancake

Ingredients:

• ½ cup oats
• 3 egg whites + 1 whole egg
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ¼ cup berries

Prep and Cook:

1. Blend or mix oats, eggs, and cinnamon and cook as pancake.
2. Top with berries and 1 Tbsp maple syrup

Chickpea Smash Green Wrap

Ingredients:

• 1 cup organic chickpeas (Eden organic is the only company that states they use no BPA in the lining of their cans), rinsed and drained
• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley or cilantro
• 1/2 1 small garlic clove
• 3 Tbsp goat cheese or feta
• 1-3 collard leafs
• sliced cucumbers, orange peppers and tomato slices
• 1/2 avocado, smashed
• whole-grain wrap

Prep and Cook:

1. Add all ingredients together in a food processor and blend until combined. Adjust seasoning, adding some paprika, salt and pepper if desired.
2. Layer a couple of collard leaves and spread the mixture down the centre, layering a few cucumbers, orange peppers, and tomato slices on top. Roll up the leavess into a wrap.
3. Lay down a whole-grain wrap and smear the smashed avocado on top. Put the collard wrap in the center over top the avocado and roll the two together.

The post 7 Simple Steps to Back-to-School Lunches appeared first on SavvyMom.

Aside from cooking in the kitchen with my children and husband, I love yoga to help bring us closer together and build a healthy foundation within our bodies. The lessons yoga can teach us are gifts that will keep on giving and nourishing us. I have personally witnessed a greater sense of body awareness and watched both my son and daughter learn how to calm themselves and cultivate an overall greater sense of empathy, caring, and understanding for others around them.

Yoga–as a family or practicing one-on-one with your child–should be an activity that allows children to be completely, wonderfully, magically free to be themselves. Unlike many sports and other extracurricular activities, there are no grades, no gold stickers, ribbons, or medals. There is ZERO judgment or pressure, and no competition.

In two words: NO STRESS!

Here is a sample series of postures I do with both my children that are simple and can be done anywhere, anytime (although my family has incorporated yoga into our bedtime routine).

Click the links to see the poses in action.

Simple Yoga Poses for Kids:

1. Calm Seated Posture
   Begin in an easy seated pose with your eyes closed and hands either in prayer pose at your chest or one hand over heart and one hand over belly. Notice your breathing and tap into how you are feeling. Stay here for 5-10 deep belly breaths.
2. Cat/Cow
   From hands and knees, also known as table top position, exhale and press up rounding your back in cat pose. Inhale and drop your belly towards the floor, looking forward and sticking your bum out in cow pose. Repeat 3-5 times.
3. Downward Dog
   With your hands and feet on your mat shoulder/hip width apart, lift your body into an upside down ‘V’ position. Let your head rest comfortably and think about creating a long upper body from the tip of your head to you tailbone and a long lower body from your hips to your heels. Breath deeply and stay for 5-6 breaths.
4. Plank
   From Downward Dog shift forward with shoulders over wrist and full body engaged in plank pose. Hold 5-10 breaths.
5. Cobra
   Lower yourself to your belly, rise up through your arms and upper body into a slithering cobra.
6. Hop to Frog Pose
   From Cobra press your hips back to your heels, look forwards to your hands and hop your feet outside your hands into frog pose.
7. Standing Forward Fold
   Slowly lift your bum in the air and walk your feet hip distance apart, rest your hands on your shins and breathe relaxing your neck and head.
8. Roll to Rise to Standing
   Carefully bend your knees and slowly roll your body up to rise.
9. Airplane
   Carefully step one leg behind you in the air and use your arms as airplane wings for balance. Repeat on the other side.
10. Standing Forward Fold
    Return to your standing forward fold.
11. Seated Butterfly
    Lower to your bum sitting with your soles of feet together in butterfly pose. Close your eyes and take a few breaths or bow forward touching your head towards your toes.
12. Rest
    Lie together in Floating on a Cloud Pose (also known as Savasana)
13. Connect
    Give your child a hug and thank them for practicing with you.

I also recommend The Kids’ Yoga Deck: 50 Poses and Games by Annie Buckley for any families looking to do more yoga at home.

The post Simple Yoga Poses Any Kid Can Do appeared first on SavvyMom.

Who saves pancakes for Sunday morning breakfasts anymore? Homemade pancakes are treats that eat like a meal. These oatmeal pancakes make great snacks.

Good to know:

I make a few of these at a time and freeze them for a quick breakfast that I can pop in the toaster for the kids. Sometimes I make an almond butter and jam sandwich out of the pancake and they eat this in the car on the way to school.

Servings:

Makes one large pancake that can be split between two children

The post Oatmeal Pancakes appeared first on SavvyMom.

Substitute a seed butter for the almond butter to make these snacks safe for school. Add chocolate chips to make these an even sweeter treat.

Good to know:

These almond bites will keep in the fridge for up to a month or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Yummy, Healthy Almond Bites Recipe

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Here are my top 5 tips for happy, nourished winter bodies and avoiding (and getting out of) a winter funk…

How to Avoid (or get out of) a Winter Funk

Proper Nutrition

One of the best ways to set yourself up for success this winter season is to ensure you are filling your plate with an abundance of colourful plant-based foods. Look for a balance of complex carbs, lean protein, and healthy fats. Ancient whole grains, naturally gluten-free grains, fruits and vegetables, lentils and legumes, lean poultry, grass-fed beef, wild fish, organic eggs, raw nuts, seeds, avocados, coconut oil, and nut butters.

Get Outside

Remember when you were a child and your parents would literally have to drag you in the house when the sun went down? Your hands would be freezing, your snow pants and boots soaked from playing in the snow, and your cheeks red as a tomato? That was being a kid! Nowadays children are having too much screen time. Every body thrives on activity and fresh air but their young bodies even more so. Create time for them to play outside or make a family event out of it!

Get Some Supplement Support

Not everyone wants to take supplements (or needs to for that matter) but in our cold, dark Canadian winters there are just certain things our bodies need more of and really can’t get naturally (no matter how much of a certain food you eat!). Here are the top four supplements that my family takes through the winter months:

• Vitamin D. Probably the most underrated superstar of our daily health routine. Supporting many functions and synergistic actions in our body, I recommend a liquid form versus a tablet to ensure high absorption (and kids find it easier to take).
• Probiotic. More than two-thirds of your immune system lives in your gut and more than half of the neurotransmitter hormones (your free anti-anxiety hormones) are produced in your gut too. Taking a daily supplement of probiotics is my FIRST foundational piece of support to offer anybody at any age (yes. Kids too).
• Fish Oil. Omega 3 fatty acids are also critical for proper brain development and mood support. I find a liquid is best for children as you can sneak it into a smoothie.
• Mood Balancers. In the darker months even the best of us can get a little down and sometimes experience fatigue and irritability. My secret to keeping a balanced mood throughout the long winter season is a herbal remedy called Neurapas Balance. It’s a unique combination of St. John’s Wort, Passionflower, and Valerian from Pascoe that I recommend to almost all my clients who are feeling blue in the winter months.

Sleep

I cannot stress enough how important sleep is to building and maintaining a strong immune system. For school-aged children they should be getting at least 10-12 hours of sleep, and for Mom and Dad we should be getting at least 7-9 hours each night.

Stress

My final and most important tip yet is also the one that usually feels the most challenging: decrease your level of stress. We overschedule our kids and ourselves, work late, stay up scrolling Facebook or Instagram, or binging Netflix. It’s a big problem. Take a breath, slow your pace, find your chill zone, and visit it often! Perhaps it’s a walk with the family or a friend, maybe it’s a game night or date night, maybe yoga, meditating, journaling, colouring, or a cup of herbal tea.

The post Beating the Winter Blues: How to Get out and Stay out of a Winter Funk appeared first on SavvyMom.