3 Tips to Increase Your Inner Peace During The Holidays

November 28, 2016 by Kathryn 22 Comments

Staying calm, peaceful and balanced is hard at the best of times, but during the busy holiday season it can sometimes feel impossible. This year especially, stress is taking its toll on my well-being more than ever as we settle into a new house in a new city, prepare to shop for our forever home, get the boys settled in a new school and deal with the overall hustle and bustle of the upcoming holidays. That’s why I’ve decided to take steps to reclaim my inner peace and find my Zen so that I can enjoy the holiday season to its fullest. And these are the three ways I’ll be doing that!

Early Morning Meditation

Daily meditation offers a plethora of benefits, including increased mental focus, improved immunity, reduced blood pressure and improved memory. But finding the time to meditate when life gets busy can feel almost impossible. That’s why I’ve started setting my alarm fifteen minutes early so that I can use that extra time to reflect and prepare for the day. By meditating first thing in the morning, I don’t feel like I’m stopping my work flow or losing time. And those few minutes of self-reflection also help me to feel more peaceful and energized throughout the entire day. [Read more…]

New Eat Smart Plant Powered Protein Salad Kits Make a Perfect Energy-Packed Lunch

September 25, 2015 by Kathryn 66 Comments

I’m a nut for vegetables and because of that, I’ve loved the salads from Eat Smart for quite some time now. The convenient bagged kits include fresh greens, healthy superfoods, add-ins such as croutons, nuts or berries and a tasty dressing so that creating the perfect fresh and healthy side dish takes just seconds. Now, Eat Smart has taken lunch to a whole new level too with a new line of scrumptious salads packed with plant-based protein!

I was a vegetarian for over six years in my twenties, and while I did start eating meat again after having children, I still eat quite a lot of vegetables, legumes and other plant-based foods. At the same time, I also favour meals that are high in protein and low in simple carbohydrates. The new Eat Smart Plant Powered Protein salads looked like the perfect lunch choice for my dietary goals and I was thrilled when I got the chance to try them out myself. [Read more…]

You Can Earn Free Groceries When You #EatMoreStars with #GuidingStarsCA #PCStars

September 7, 2015 by Kathryn 7 Comments

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is its own reward when it comes to good health, and over the last few months my family has had the chance to do just that thanks to the PC Guiding Stars Program. The new initiative makes it easy to find healthy food with a simple rating system that awards one to three stars to healthy food based on expert dietitian advice about the foods’ nutritional content. I love how easy the program makes healthy eating, and my boys love looking for food that has the most stars!

When I became a part of the program, I started logging in to check my progress using my free PC Plus account. And it wasn’t until I did that I realized I’d been missing out on potential points that I could use towards free groceries. Each week, I have the option of loading my exclusive offers onto my card to get great bonus points on my purchases. The offers are tailored to me so that the more I shop, the more points I can earn. One week I earned over 2000 points just buying cheese! [Read more…]

Wake Up with an Easy Three-Star Breakfast Berry Parfait

August 13, 2015 by Kathryn 29 Comments

Everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and to ensure that I have the energy I need when I’m especially busy, a good breakfast is a must. This month, as part of the President’s Choice Guiding Stars program, I was challenged to create a recipe using only ingredients that the program has awarded three stars. Since so many women find it hard to enjoy a nutritious breakfast, I decided to share my quick and easy Breakfast Berry Parfait recipe! It’s filling, packed with nutrition and uses all three-star ingredients!

Breakfast Berry Parfait

Easy and healthy breakfast parfait with berries and granola!

Course Breakfast

Keyword berry parfait, breakfast parfait, healthy breakfast

Prep Time 5 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Servings 1

Author Kathryn

Ingredients

1/2 cup Oikos Greek Yogurt plain
1/2 cup Kind Healthy Grains Cinnamon Oat Clusters Granola
1/2 cup mixed berries fresh or frozen

Instructions

Layer ingredients in bowl or parfait glass.
Serve immediately.

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Challenge Yourself to Choose More Stars with #PCStars #GuidingStarsCA

July 9, 2015 by Kathryn 6 Comments

Last month I had my first introduction of the PC Guiding Stars program and I absolutely loved how easy the system was to use. Simply look for foods with one, two or three stars to ensure you’re making healthy choices for your family. The more stars a food has, the more nutritionally dense it is. Since learning about the Guiding Stars, I wanted to go further and improve my eating habits with help from the program. So I signed into my free PC Plus account and opened my Guiding Stars profile to see what improvements I could make.

As it turned out, I was already at the highest possible level, a Level 5! We tend to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables in the house along with lots of lean protein, so it was exciting to see that those habits were ones that the Guiding Stars program recognized as healthful. But I knew we could do even better, so I set out to substitute some of our usual weekly purchases for products with higher stars.

[Read more…]