By Debbie Scally, TSI Office Guru
We are moving house next week, across state lines! Our home is chaos, we are tired, working very hard, feeling a bit overwhelmed, and ready for some quality rest. For the last 18 months we have been processing a bereavement, working from home, supporting an aging parent, running around after kids, getting our teeth crowned, feeling a few more aches and pains, job changes – you know what it’s like, it gets to a point where life is living you, when really it should be the other way around!!!
I’m tired and I want to feel better. I feel like I want to slow down, you know? Tap the brakes, stop the train, smell the roses. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now but haven’t really had much clue about how to work on this ‘feeling better’ that I am craving. I’m too busy to visit a hundred different websites to put together a plan for a thriving life – it’s so disorganized and complicated, I just need it to be simple.
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I’m sure that a lot of you know Bianca, she’s our nutritionist here at The Secret ingredient, and she works with you, our clients, to set your menus each week, customizing each recipe to make sure that all of your needs and preferences are taken into account, while providing delicious and nutritious meal options for you. Our chefs then turn all of her planning and preparation into the meals that are delivered to your home.
Bianca is not just a nutritionist, she is also a holistic wellness educator, an enthusiastic foodie, and she has just launched her new website, Nourish and Thrive.
Among the many wonderful offerings over there – wellness guides, weekly meal plans using whole foods, tools to help you take care of yourself, cooking classes – there is the most beautiful blog, where we can learn all sorts of amazing things. For me, her timing is perfect – I felt better just by visiting her website, and her Instagram is gorgeous, too! You should take a look, I bet you will feel calmer just from being there!
I had the chance to chat with Bianca about her new venture, and here’s what she said:
“In creating Nourish and Thrive my intention is to help people live healthier and more vibrant lives by embracing ancestral food wisdom and a more holistic lifestyle. There are two parts to this – returning to more traditional ways of eating/preparing food and embracing healing lifestyle practices”.
She talks about simple gentle ways to feel better, like spending time outside in your garden or in nature, using the power of sunlight to brighten your mood, prioritizing rest, accessing quality sleep – it all sounds like a dream life, but it’s all within reach, and Bianca is here to guide us through small changes that have big effects on how good we feel.
Her plans are expansive – there’s something for everyone, but it’s all in one place, and it’s easy to access.
In no particular order, here’s a little snapshot of what you might expect to see on offer at Nourish and Thrive.
Meal Plans to help with the ‘eat better’ – you don’t need a lot of cooking experience to access this, but a little bit of know how would be good! The recipes will be designed specifically for nutrient density and digestibility. There will be tons of tips, notes, etc. And shopping lists and a weekly calendar that helps with the timing of it all (such as soaking the night before, prepping stuff ahead of time if needed, etc.) will make it not just possible, but actually easy, for us to prepare delicious food that makes us feel better.
Education guides – I am so excited about these! There’s already a guide about planning nourishing meals, and there will be more guides in the future. So much to learn!!!
Classes –This fall, Bianca will be starting to offer Ancestral and animal-based cooking classes. Some examples of the type of classes she will offer include how to cook nose-to-tail (with a few fun recipes like pate, etc), sourdough bread classes, lacto-fermentation classes, and she is really looking forward to doing a whole series on nixtamalization (making masa and then making things like tortillas, tamales, etc). If you want to know a bit about what nixtamalization is – read this week’s blog post! The blog is a great resource, a collection of mini-lessons on things that we will be able to learn more about in class! I can hardly wait for sourdough class – I’ve been wanting to learn about this for years, but it’s a bit scary to try on your own. In a class though – nothing but fun!
And if you sign up for Bianca’s newsletter, it’s even easier – she will let you know when there is a new blog post, a new class, a new education guide, you won’t even have to remember to check, which means you will have more time for sitting outside in the sun, enjoying nature, checking on your sourdough starter, and sharing a nutritious delicious meal with friends and family.
