I’m trying to keep things more consistent on here, so I’m going to start writing a Friday article all about how to eat well, live well and truly flourish without making extreme compromises on health.

Here is my first Flourish Friday. Welcome, friend.

I love food.

My version of leisure time is sitting down once the kids are asleep, with a warm cup of tea or hot chocolate and watching homemaking cooking vlogs on YouTube.

I love the process of collecting fresh vegetables, herbs, spices and meat and making a hearty meal out of it.

I love sharing that said meal with my loved ones and watching their faces light up, hearing nothing else but mouths munching and forks clanging on bowls while we all dig in.

I love whenever I bake a well-loved apple crumble or cookie recipe and I can smell the sweet, warm notes waft through the house.

There’s just something about homemade food that makes me happy, satisfied.

A gift from God.

But if you hop on social media for more than 10 minutes, and your algorithm is always showing up with some sort of new diet, or new study about sugar consumption or supplement that you should be taking; you will get overwhelmed by what you should and shouldn’t be doing when it comes to food.

That was me.

Even as a Holistic Nutrition Consultant, I have impulsively bought a supplement way out of my budget or culled my pantry of any food containing excess sugar, simply because I was influenced to do so.

Isn’t that just the way these days?

We are more influenced than we are intuitive.

We have grown numb to any sort of God-given intuition because of the influence of so many voices especially online.

And this goes for anything, not just our way of eating.

As mothers, our role is to nurture and nourish our children.

The nurturing comes pretty easily.

The nourishing we like to outsource.

My piece of advice: let’s simplify nourishment again.

I’m going to give you three practical ways you can do this today. Make sure you stick around till the end, because I’ve got something pretty special to show you.

Make a plan to eat well.

I could give you many different healthy habit hacks, but it won’t work unless you have a plan.

Even if you are not a type A person, going with the flow when it comes to nourishment means you will just spend excess money and waste too much time.

One thing I have begun to do is create four weeks’ worth of meal plans with the grocery list attached to each week, so I know exactly what I am cooking for every meal and I know exactly what I need to buy (without taking unnecessary extra trips to the shops).

Whatever your version of ‘meal planning’ looks like, have some sort of plan, even if it is simply writing your dinners down on a piece of paper.

Eat what is in season.

Have you ever thought about why different fruits and vegetables grow at different times of the year?

While the changes in climate encourage variations of produce to grow, fruits and vegetables in season contain nutrients that our bodies actually need.

Think of oranges grown in the winter time that are packed with vitamin C.

So next time you go grocery shopping, avoid buying produce internationally imported and opt for local produce in season.

Eat the good everyday and the fun sometimes.

Good foods to eat everyday:

Fruit and vegetables in season
Meat and protein at every meal (beef, chicken, fish, eggs, beans)
Whole carbs over refined (whole grain bread, sourdough, sweet potato, brown rice)
Good fats (extra virgin olive oil, nut butter, avocado, ghee, grass-fed butter, coconut milk/oil/cream).
Bonus: eat for your cycle

Fun foods to eat every now and then:

Sweet treats
Sodas and soft drinks
Take away/restaurant foods
Refined carbs

The point is, to simplify eating to what’s good and what’s real. But don’t overcomplicate with a lineup of supplements, lavish meals that take two plus hours to cook or veering to the other extreme and simply skipping meals altogether.

Let’s eat to feel good and nourished again, but let’s not overcomplicate it.