Episode Transcript

The Nourished Mama - Ep 20

Transcript 

I am so excited to have Georgia on the podcast today. Georgia is a naturopath with over 25 years experience.

She's the founder of Well-Nourished, a platform for family health and wellness, and she's also the founder of Well Nourished Kids, an incredible platform that she did co-found with psychotherapist Jane Faulkner, in order to help and support parents struggling with fussy eaters.

Georgia, we have so much to learn from you, and I cannot wait to get into all my burning questions. But before we start, can you just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit more about you. How did you get into nutrition, naturopathy, and health? Yeah. So thank you for having me. First off. look, it was a journey that started a long time ago.

I was raised by a very health conscious mom and my nan, who I spent all of my school holidays living with and every weekend with, 'cause mom was a single mom, she used to work on weekends. Wow. And my nan, was instrumental in teaching me to cook and love food, love growing food, love cooking. when I was, in my early teens, or just about early teens, I developed a heart condition that, baffled the medical community.

The short version is I was on many medications, a lot of which did nothing to support me. And I was given a really terrible prognosis that I would probably not lead a very long life. I would definitely never be able to have children because my heart wouldn't cope. With the strain of bearing children and the added blood volume of pregnancy.

and I was on and off different medications for like almost a decade actually. And it got to the point where the only drug that worked or supported me to live a fairly normal life, there was some question, big questions around its safety. And so I tried to come off it many times and then I ended up seeing a naturopath, which in those days there were few and far between.

Yeah, there was one I was brought up in Perth. There was one naturopath in Perth and I went and saw her and my whole life changed from that point onwards. Wow. I just graduated from university, and I just at that point just thought I. I wanna help people the way that she's completely changed my life.

Like I went into remission and I've never had touch wood 50, nearly 54, and I've never had an issue with my heart since then. So Wow. That's what really was the catalyst behind me becoming a naturopath. So I studied naturopathy, sacrificed another four, four years of my life. and yeah, and the rest is history.

I feel like I've been able to go on and support a lot of people through difficult health conditions where they were offered,not great prognosis as well by the medical community. Yeah. and that's what I really focused on when I graduated and started practicing. Wow. What an incredible story.

I didn't know that. Yeah. And are you on any medication now? Oh, no. God no. I haven't been since I came off it. I've never, ever remitted, I've never ended up in hospital for that reason. No symptoms at all. No, no. That's going a little bit off tangent, but what was the biggest thing that she opened up your eyes to in terms of, natural medicine?

Look, just that holistic health really matters. Like I had, as I said, I was raised by a really health conscious mum, so my diet was really good. Yeah. But my heart literally broke when, we, I lost someone. That was extremely important to me at that time, and I really honestly, now looking back on it, feel it was a grief response.

Yeah. That my heart literally broke. Yeah. So for me, she really helped me to work through, I. The grief. yeah. Even though it was nearly a decade on, and yeah, as I said, supported my nervous system, supported my cardiovascular system. It was a whole body. Like we really, she really just broke everything down in a way that made sense to me.

I did what she asked me to do, which was a lot of, there was herbal support, some nutritional support, but mostly herbal support, homeopathic support. And yeah, that's basically, where it was the answer that I was looking for. And as I said, look, I'd tried to stop my medication. So many times, and I always just ended up back in hospital.

and you know, at one point, pure desperation. My stepdad at that time, was English. I even spent some time in the Brompton Heart and Lung Hospital, which is a specialty heart and lung hospital in London for children. Yes. we really left no rock unturned or they, they left no rock unturned.

So yeah. Wow. What an incredible story. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that, Georgia. You're welcome. I do find, I can relate in a way because I feel like sometimes what happens, and especially as mums, I know this happened to you in your teens, but a lot of time we wait until something.

Really bad happens Yes. To support our health. And, in my circumstance, I ended up developing an autoimmune condition until I started realising, okay, I need to start focusing on my own health. I need to look at my food, I need to look at my stress levels, my nervous system. Yep. and I, something that I also wanna touch on there as well is that even being a nutritionist, I solely understand the power of food and believe in the power of food.

But my life didn't fully transform until I really took control of that mindset piece, which is such a big aspect of our health journey. And I say to a lot of my clients as well, I can give you all the meal plans, all the recipes, but unless you work on your mindset, you won't have a consistent health routine.

'cause it's your mindset that will carry you through and hold you. So I love that you touched on that as well. Yeah, a hundred percent. And I even went on actually, funnily enough to develop an autoimmune disease between my two kids as well. Wow. And that was, again, despite having an incredible diet, but I was doing the whole super mum thing, went back to work when my daughter was five weeks old.

When I look back on it, wow. I just think, God, I was nuts. I was juggling clinical practice and my husband was working 70 hour weeks and I just literally ran myself into the ground. Yeah. And then my body, forced me to stop. And once again I developed this autoimmune disease.

Poor prognosis, wouldn't have a second baby. All the things. And I chose that time not to take any medications and really worked, not only, look, there were things that I tightened up perhaps nutritionally. Not really a lot 'cause there wasn't a lot to tighten up, but a hundred percent we moved interstate, we moved to Queensland.

Had a real lifestyle change. And I focused heavily on healing and rest and all of the things that are important for mums because unless we're healthy and happy, our kids aren't going to be either. So yeah, that really changed me as a young mum. Yeah. I'm glad you said that. It's similar to me.

I did develop that autoimmune condition and was basically told at the age of 29 that I was gonna be on medication for life. Yes. And I thought. There is no way that, that's not the life I'm living. there has to be another way. And that's when I actually delved into the world of nutrition, went and studied, understood how to use food as medicine healed my gut rebalanced my hormones.

and I've never had a flare up ever since. I don't talk about this a lot on social media, but I also took medication for three months and never went back on it. And I'm 36 and so 29 to 36, I've never taken medication and I was told I was gonna be on medication for life. There was no other option.

Yeah. So there's always options. Always, there's always options. Yeah. And I know this is, again, a little bit off tangent, but there, I think there needs to be more research into why so many women, especially mums, are the ones that are diagnosed with autoimmune conditions. Yeah.

I think the number is over 80%. Yeah. Now of women are diagnosed with autoimmune conditions. Yeah. One of the biggest things for me, the biggest eye openers for me was when I was diagnosed, it was pretty much just a phone call saying, this is what you've got, this is your script. Go get your medication, and that's it.

Yeah. Whereas no one ever spoke to me about inflammation, um, gut health, any of those things that Yeah. Are huge triggers of autoimmune, flareups. Yep. I think it's like over 80% of autoimmune flareups are linked to an inflammatory response in the body. No one ever told me that. No one ever spoke to me about that.

so yeah. I'm glad you touched on that as well. Now just to go back on what we are chatting about, but you have helped countless families basically simplify nutrition and eat healthier together, which is what I love. What would you say is the best place to start for a mom who is looking to do this?

Look for me, if you don't already cook, you need to learn how to cook. cooking for me isn't just not optional, and it doesn't mean you have to be perfect or a culinary expert. You can keep it really simple. But I think the most important thing that everyone needs to be doing is finding their way and learning how to enjoy cooking.

And I really hope that, my recipes and my philosophy around food supports people to do that in a really simple way. I think often I got asked the other day, what sets my recipes apart? Or Why do you think my recipes work? Or why are people drawn to my recipes? It's I said, I think it's because I'm not a chef.

Yeah, and I do my own dishes, so I'll always find the simplest, easiest, quickest possible way. So I think us mums are actually really great recipe developers because we know that we have to find shortcuts, and I'm very good at doing that. So I think if, yeah, as I said, if you don't cook already, you need to learn to love to do it.

And we've all learned, none of us were born knowing how to cook. We've all learned, and it's an incredible gift that you can also role model and share with your children. I also think if you're looking for an actual starting point, I know a lot of people think automatically they'll go to dinner, whereas I think breakfast is the place to start because, if you eat a decent breakfast, like a healthy, nourishing filling.

Whole food based breakfast, you are gonna be more motivated and feel a whole lot better throughout the day. You're not gonna be snacking and reaching for sugary things. Your energy levels are gonna be sustained right throughout the day, and you're gonna feel more like cooking dinner. Yeah. Than you had a crappy breakfast in the morning.

So for me, breakfast again, a lot of people just do really well with their dinners and then it all falls apart at breakfast. So yeah, start with breakfast. First really is, and I know it's so cliche to say it, but it really is one of the most important meals of the day. It really is, especially for mums, I find, because when we are waking up first thing in the morning, our nervous system is out of whacker.

Cortisol levels are really high. Everything we do in the morning is gonna determine how the rest of our day plays out. And one of the most effective things that we can do is fill our body with whole foods, protein, healthy fats, because all of those things reduce cortisol. They satisfy our hunger, they give us the energy we need, and it's that sustained energy that will carry us through the day.

So I love that you said that. And also And blood sugar as well. Yes. Yeah. You said, yeah. Which is so important for mums. It really, yeah. Now our world is filled with so much information on what to eat and what not to eat. What are some of your main tips for really understanding what's good for us and what can be necessarily bad for our health and our family's health?

Yeah, look, I don't subscribe to any food fad or particular way of eating. I feel like we are all so individual, so what might feel really good for one person doesn't feel good for another. So it is important for us to definitely tap into, become conscious of what we're eating and how it makes us feel. and that only happens, as I said, it's again, a skill that you, you develop just by, as I said, tapping in.

But. I suppose if I were to align with a diet, it would be, what I call a low HI diet, which is a low human intervention diet. So eating food as close to what nature provides as possible, as real as possible and as minimally processed as possible.

And you just can't go wrong. You really can't, just think of what your grandparents would've been eating, before there were supermarkets and before there was this industrialisation of our food chain and going back to our roots And just keeping it simple, as I said.

Yeah, I love that. Keeping it simple. Eating with the seasons if possible, if that's available to you. Yeah. and yeah, just eating what, like I look at the diet my nan used to, we used to eat. It was pretty basic. Yeah. But, it always had some sort of good quality protein. Always some sort of veg with it, albeit often overcooked compared to the way I eat it now.

My nan used to boil the buggery out of beans. I dunno why. but yeah, it was still, we still made cakes and, but I just feel like year by year our food system just ventures further and further away. I feel like the. The things that we ate as children, even processed foods. They're very different now.

Very different. Very different. Yeah. Yeah. Something I tell my clients to do is when you go to the grocery store, focus on 80 to 90% of your trolley just being Simple. Whole foods. Yeah. Foods in their natural state. Yeah. If you are, if 80 to 90% of your trolley is that? Yeah. You're winning. Amazing. And there are, it's so hard and, we'll get into kids and all that stuff around food and packaged foods.

But, at the end of the day there are so many foods on the supermarket shelves that we want to believe are not harming our health, but the reality is they are. So we need to have a really good understanding of this. And sometimes, just even interpreting an ingredients list can feel like a science experiment.

and something I say to people is it's trying to find that right balance when you focus too much on restriction, that's also can be, that can also be really damaging towards your relationship with food and your kids' relationship with food. But when you switch that around and say, I'm just gonna focus on adding in more of the good stuff, more of the natural stuff, more of the whole foods, that's where you can really start transforming your mindset around food.

And even just having that food accessible in your home, you're opening your fridge and it's full of veggies and fruits and there's fruits and veggies on your bench top. kids seeing that, that makes such a big impact to your whole family's health. Yeah, just making it normal. My teenagers always open the pantry, and if they're in a mood, they'll often say, oh my God, we just live in an ingredients only house, which we don't.

I do buy super supermarket, like I've got a freezer full of things that I've made, but I also do buy supermarket snack and things that as backstops. There is plenty more than ingredients in our pantry, Obviously, yeah. Yeah. The kids aren't always happy with the choices that I make, we compromise and like you said, it is that 80 20, you've got Yeah.

your good, better, best, and Exactly. one thing I'm really proud of in parenting, my kids have definitely not done everything perfectly by a long shot, but they both have a really great understanding of food, how it makes them feel. Yeah. And they have an incredible, knowledge of health and a really healthy relationship with food, Yeah. We don't have foods that are off limits in our house, but. They just naturally don't come into our house. Yeah. Just, they just aren't part of the equation. So Yeah. I love that. And I think that's what it comes down to, making sure that fruits, vegetables, and whole foods are normal to them Yes.

From such a young age. Yeah. which is so important when we are thinking about what we're actually buying at the grocery store. Not so much about what we shouldn't be buying, but what we should be buying and adding in. Yeah. Yeah. And crowding out, if you can crowd out that need for, I know if I've eaten or my kids have eaten a really good solid breakfast or a good solid meal, there's no room, there's no desire for anything more than that.

We crowd out those unhealthy choices, yes. Just naturally by having a good quality meal. And that also goes back to, starting to cook more at home. Definitely. And even just, understanding how to build those balanced meals, which is so important as well. Definitely. And it doesn't have to be fancy.

No. As long as you've got some proteins, some carbohydrates, some veggies, fruits, healthy fats, that is how, you satisfy your hunger, your children's hunger, and they're not asking for a snack 20 minutes later. Absolutely. Which is, yeah. And that it's a cardinal sign that the meal hasn't been nutritionally balanced if someone's hungry an hour after eating a meal.

Really. Exactly. Yeah. I know your kids are a little older now, but can you share some of the challenges that you may be faced with feeding your family and how you were able to overcome these when they were a bit smaller? Yeah. Look, my biggest challenge, I really reflected on this question, because I couldn't, like everything else that you had.

mentioned that you were gonna run by me. I was like, oh yeah. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Didn't have to give it a lot of thought. This one, I was like, what were the challenges? And for me, look, not having any family support was a challenge without a doubt. but we lived semi remotely, so we didn't have a supermarket or a shop that wasn't a mission basically.

Yeah. So if I forgot ingredients, I had to be very prepared. And it was actually a really good thing in the long run because I was forced into being prepared for meals, having a well stocked fridge pantry. we had a massive walk-in pantry, when we built the house so we knew where we were building it.

So we made sure we had lots of shelf space for, stocking up. So I used to bulk buy. Everything, nuts, seeds, grains. Like I never run out of anything. I had a system around never. I always have backups and then when the backups are gone, preparation was absolutely key. And that has continued right the way through.

I,post a lot of me packing my son's lunches now, which are just,he's 17. He's a, an elite athlete. He literally takes an esky full of food to school every day. two big bento lunch boxes, and then usually a meal on the side, and then something like a chia pudding.

Like he has a lot of food. And I often post the lunches and parents of younger kid mums like, oh my God, is this what we're, we've got? Well, I'm like, well, yeah. You know. Um, but those lunches. Sometimes people get nasty with me and, not very often, but they're like, oh my God. they must take you out.

We don't all have hours in the morning to do. I've timed myself many times and even done live packing lunches, never spend more than 10 minutes max. I can on a bad day. on a good day. Sorry, I can pack a lunchbox in five minutes because I'm prepared. and that's a whole food lunchbox, a hundred percent whole food lunchbox.

And as I said, I do have backups, but preparation really was the challenge for me, learning how to be prepared. Because before I had kids, I actually didn't bake. I learned how to bake with my nan, but it's not something that I did in the meantime. And then once I had kids and they wanted, tiny teddy biscuits or something I wanted to be able to make, I.

Like I started making my own tiny teddy, my own versions and stuff. So yeah, look, preparation was a challenge and one that I'm really proud to say that I've overcome and has really shaped me to be able to lead a healthy life really simply and easily. Yeah, and you know what, at the end of the day, the hard truth is that there is always time.

And I get a lot of pushback on that as well because I share my, not every day goes to plan, but I share myself exercising, doing my meditations, making whole food meals, preparing, lunchboxes for the kids and things like that. And I often do get that backlash and I get it, we all have different priorities and I have, I have that I'm lucky that I'm able to work from home.

But at the end of the day, I work a lot of hours. Me too. But I,if I know that I've got a really big day, I've got a lot of afterschool activities with the kids, then I'll wake up earlier and do it. Yeah. And this is the hard truth. and I never wanna offend anybody 'cause it always comes from a place of love, but.

You are a mom and you are, you're in the trenches. You feel like there's no time. Sometimes you just need to, step back, reassess your whole day, and then start preparing. Think about that preparation that you can make ahead of time. and I promise you, if you just step back and look at your days, think about the small things that you can do that make a massive impact to the rest of your week.

For me, for example, is I'm not a big batch cooker. I've never liked batch cooking. Yep. But what I'll do on a Sunday is I'll do little things. So sometimes I'll poach two, chicken breasts that I know I can use in the kids' lunches. I'll make a big sheet of roasted veggies that I can use for my lunches.

I'll, wash and clean all the fruit and veg and the salad stuff. It's stuff like that that makes such a big difference to your entire week. And there is always time for that. Yeah. At the end of the day, there's always time. Yeah. And like you said, it is about prioritizing. Health. Your health, and I think the gift of suffering with an illness in your lifetime Yeah.

Is that health just becomes a priority. It's a non-negotiable. And, I saw a beautiful quote not that long ago that said,when you're healthy, you have thousands of worries. When you are not healthy, you only have one worry, and that's your health. And that is 1000% true. because as I said, I've lived a lot of years where.

my health was not good. And, and yeah, so health is 100% a priority for me. I don't ever wish for, anyone to have to spend a minute in hospital, let alone weeks and months of their life. yeah. Yeah. It is important. Yeah. It's nothing like a health scare to really shake you Yes. And really understand what health means to you.

And The biggest message for me is always, I wanna share my journey in order to, stop that in someone else's tracks. Totally. Make sure that someone else doesn't go through that. Because reality is that it is extremely common for mums to go through burnout, develop an autoimmune condition Yep.

And be given a lifetime prognosis. The reality of that is, unfortunately, extremely common. So for me, if I can share that journey and make sure that I'm helping people before they get to that point, it's so important. But you have to take action. And that's what I always say, at the end of the day, as a mom, you are your biggest advocate.

No one else can make this time for you. But you've gotta ask for help. You've gotta demand help. Yes. and make sure you prioritise your own wellbeing. Yeah. It's like that saying of fitting the oxygen mask to yourself first. Yes. You are no good to anyone if you are. Yeah. Unwell yourself. Yeah.

And yeah, as I said, I know that autoimmune diagnosis for me was a huge wake up call because I thought I'm naturally someone that has a lot of energy, a lot of vitality, and I can go and go and go. And even now, at my age, I go and go and go. So for me, my challenge is actually, is rest.

For me, yes, I can do all the things. I can cook all the meals, I can do all the exercise. I've got no issues with any of that because I rarely feel tired. But, yeah, it's knowing when your body also needs the rest. Yeah, absolutely. I'm getting better at it. It's only taken me 50 odd years, but I am getting better at that.

And it's also about, finding that balance between challenging yourself and knowing when you need rest. Yeah. Which is so important as well. yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Anyway, we've gone on a bit of a tangent again, me and you, but, something I wanna ask you about is you have some incredible experience around fussy eating and, feeding our toddlers and young children.

Can you share some tips and strategies around this, because I know there are probably so many mums that will benefit from hearing some of your strategies around this. Yeah, look, it started for me where I, when I was in clinical practice, my practice was located very near the main children's hospital in Perth.

And I saw a lot of unwell children. And the one thing that they had in common was that they either had very poor, highly processed diets or very restricted diets. There were only very small selection of foods that they would actually eat. as someone who actually, you know, when I first started practicing, I didn't have kids.

Yeah. So I didn't have that firsthand kind of exposure to children and how to go about treating them. But it was a big lesson in upskilling. And then when I had my own kids, I learned very quickly that the way that my kids ate was not normal. In that they were pretty accepting, across most foods.

Like my son's favorite food. When he was probably two, I remember him chucking a tantrum at the butcher 'cause he asked what was what I was doing at the butcher and I said, buying some meat for dinner. And he screamed that he wanted chili muscles for dinner. He's got this 2-year-old flailing about saying he wanted chili muscles for dinner.

And my daughter also, I can remember being in a French restaurant actually, and she would've been about two at the time. My husband ordered snails. Wow. And,there's not a lot in snails. It's quite a, like a small, tiny, little portion. Yeah. So the snails come and went very quickly and yeah, next thing she's again, flailing around screaming that she wanted more snails.

but yeah, I figured out that my kids weren't normal and I really started to examine what I did that was different to what other parents were doing. Again, no judgment, just Yeah. just how I did things and I had this burning desire to share. Everything. But I felt like there was a big missing piece of the puzzle.

Like I had expertise in, in one part of the picture, but not the other part was, which was the behavioral and the boundary kind of side of things so much further down the track. I actually teamed up with a psychotherapist who works with youth justice kids and she works with kids that,are not in a great place and we both wanted to be able to help parents from the get go.

Like she wanted to rewind the clock. So we put together a very comprehensive program called Raising Well Nourished Kids. And and I feel like it's incredibly valuable, but it's complex. raising well-nourished kids is not straightforward, but there are plenty of simple things that parents can do.

So just a few kind of non-negotiables, for your audience would be that we need to educate our children around food.they're not born understanding food. In fact, they're hardwired to be quite skeptical of a lot of food.there's a term for it. It's called neophobia. And a lot of kids actually, when they're very young that, a lot of parents will report they were great eaters and then they got to two or to three, that there's always a point at which things went pear shaped.

And so we need to be able to, expose our kids to foods before they even hit the dinner table. I know we live semi rurally, so for my kids, they're involved in growing food at the time, which is ideal, although I completely understand. Like I live on a tiny little 400 square meter block now and I know how hard it is to grow anything.

But, there are many ways that you can do that. And growing is one of many and we run through all of the different ways in the program. But, even just discussing food, one of the things my kids love doing is playing a game. And we'd do this on the long drive home from school every day.

we'd have a little quiz of was it a fruit, a vegetable, or or a fruit or a vegetable. that was as basic as it, it started and we just started discussing whether things, and I'd shout out something and my kids would say, that's a fruit or a vegetable. Then we, sometimes we'd talk about does a grind, a tree or a vine or underground.

Yes.really basic things that are just, can be in, as I said, we did this in the car on the way home from school Yeah. Of an afternoon.food needs to be joyful, pleasurable fun. I think so many parents are. there's so much emotion around food and it really is a trap. our responsibility as parents, is to provide the food that we want our kids to eat.

And it is their responsibility to, to eat it if and what, how much they eat.but you find that so scary, the thought of that, but it really is about letting go of that control. It's really, it's your job to provide the food. Yeah. It's their job to eat. It really is. I often see, the spoonfuls going in and, and again, no judgment, but you just wanna go.

No. Just let them experience the food. Yes. Even if 5% of that food gets into their mouth and the rest is on the. Floor on their body. That is an experience for them, that is building a positive relationship with food for them rather than you putting the mouthful in, distracting them with the tv, with the phone.

yeah, it's really hard to watch that. Yeah, it is, probably a piece of advice that I was given as a young mom, and it was nothing to do with food, but I felt it really did apply to food. I think this well-meaning lady was actually talking about me, like doing things like ironing my husband's business shirts at the start of the week.

but she said to me, start as you intend to continue. And as I said, she was referring to me, if I started ironing my husband's shirts now I'd be doing it for the rest of my life. But I also took that approach with my kids. And there, look, there was a time, as I said, I was back at work when my daughter was five weeks old.

Yeah. And I had this pressure of having a waiting room full of people that were paying good money to have my full attention and my full focus in a consultation. And I took that responsibility really seriously. And, I had a wait list of people, waiting to see me. I couldn't afford not to be switched on.

I couldn't afford, I. To be unwell or not turn up to work. and so I can remember a time when my daughter was little and started pushing back on eating and me panicking and thinking, oh my God, she's not gonna telling myself all these stories. She's, if I don't get enough food into her, then she's gonna sleep through the night and I've gotta be at work.

And I've got an eight hour day of consultations and, pumping breast milk in between. And yeah, it was crazy, as I said when I look back on it. But I told myself all those stories and I remember one day setting her up in front of the TV and dancing around, trying to shove food in her mouth.

And then I caught myself and I thought, oh my God, this just isn't sustainable. I can't sustain this. And obviously changed my ways. And you know what? There wasn't a single occasion where she said went to bed without hardly eating anything where she did wake up. It just didn't happen. But, another non, they eat when they're hungry.

They really would, she'd wake up and she'd have a massive breakky. Yeah. And it's gen. It's honestly as simple as that. They will eat when they're hungry. It's a hundred percent that. And if you follow that mantra and just let them do their thing, they will eat when they're hungry. Yeah. They really will. A another thing as well, I think that's a really important mi missing piece of the puzzle, is that our children crave connection and one place that, that they connect with us and they have our sole focus and our soul attention is when we're sitting down to dinner.

And, kids do as we do not as we say, and if they're sitting there and watching, I've heard of people who work with young children, who have difficulty chewing. They've never seen their parents chew because they sit by themselves and eat dinner. And I understand it's not always possible when they're really young and dad's getting home later and mom wants to eat with dad and.

But we have to find a way to share family meals because family meals matter. Yes. On so many different levels. And to this day, our family sits together. It's not every night of the week, but We share as many meals as possible. Breakfast this morning was one of them. We just out, everything aligned.

we all get up in the morning, everyone goes and exercises and does their thing, and we all happen to be home at the same time and sat and ate breakfast together. it's such a beautiful experience when you look at it as well. It really is. And there is so much scientific research around family meals, isn't there?

Absolutely. And not just about children's relationship with food No. But about their whole life skills. Yes, absolutely. Conversation. The way they, yes. The way that they absorb information at school. Yes. All of that is linked back to family meals, which is crazy. I think there's an amazing book about it. I can't remember the exact name of it, but there's a whole book about everything that's linked to family meals.

I'll try and find out. There's even, there's even research that demonstrates that children who have eaten meals with their family through their lifetime or through parts of their lifetime, particularly teenagers, less likely to develop risky behaviors, drug taking alcohol. Yeah. drink driving, those kinds of things.

So like you said, yeah. And that mention the, the mental health aspect of it. Yeah. The flow on effect is massive. And I know, actually we've just recorded a podcast, Jane and I, about, connection. we often, when we're talking about topics for the podcast, she was saying that she is seeing so many teenagers and young adults, late kind of tweens and teens who can't make friends.

They can't hold a conversation and they can't, like older, the older people in their twenties unable to form relationships with partners because they. Aren't able to communicate their needs, they aren't able to hold a conversation. And yeah, it's really sad. And I really do feel like it comes back to the dinner table.

I, I can remember a teacher saying to me once when Jesse was really young, maybe prep, I can really tell that your son has been spoken with, not spoken to. And I thought, isn't that interesting? 'cause I'm not, believe it or not, like a super chatty person. Like I'm not someone that just yas onto my kids for the sake of yabbering on.

I thought that's dinner time. Yeah. we have great conversations at dinner time, even when they were little bubbas. Yeah. Yeah. And even just, simple things is going around the table. I say to my kids, what's two things that made your heart happy today? Yes. Beautiful. simple things like that.

and we all go around and we talk about it and they get excited to share. And it also is things that they might not have recognized in the moment. Yeah. But it forces them to recognize it at the dinner table. Yeah. I love that. It's beautiful. So it's, yeah. Simple things like that, that you can, weave into your, the way that you would do it in your own family home.

Yeah. but just the impact of that on their entire life is a hundred percent. Yeah. Absolutely. Amazing. And, like we recognize and we address this, throughout the program is, Life isn't always, things often go really pear shaped at dinner time. So we step people through strategies for what to do, when things do go pear shaped, yeah, what's going on underlying, the underlying, causes behind.

Yeah. what, what's actually happening. Jane's very good at digging down into those kind of deep, behavioral, yeah. And connective kind of causes of a lot of dramas at dinner time. But, yeah, it's something I'm really passionate about. And yeah, we have a podcast called Raising Well Nourish Kids, that people can listen to, but there's so much intention.

The program is where you really get your handheld, because we make ourselves available for questions as well. which is a really, I think, probably the most valuable part of the program. yeah, definitely have access to us. Especially because everybody goes through their own experience and everyone's unique.

Exactly. Yeah. Every fight family dynamic is unique. we get all sorts of questions, things about, what happens when you know dad is not on the same page as mum. And yeah, there's so many variables. What happens when grandparents get involved and there's just so many variables when it comes to feeding kids.

And, many roads lead to Rome as well. There's not one way of doing things. There's no perfect way for everyone. So yeah, that's why we built that into the course. Yeah. Yeah. And I know that, this is probably something that you get very often and if there's one strategy that you could share with this is if you've got, if someone has a child who's on that beige diet, who's loving all the rice, the carbohydrates, the pastas, but with no sauce on it, no meat, and really rejecting, that type of food, what's one little thing that they can do to start to transform?

Form that beige to hire. Again, this is so many, but yeah, this is a really, there are so many things. The first thing that comes to mind, because as I said, I come from a very nutritional kind of perspective, is there are many nutritional deficiencies that, can affect the palate of children. Gut health is massive in affecting the palette of children.

Do you know your microbiome actually has an appetite for certain foods. Yes. And if your child, is eating a lot of processed foods, it will grow a microbiome with bacteria that actually have a preference for processed food. And so then they're biologically driven to seek out those foods.

we are all biologically driven to seek out high energy, refined carbohydrate. But things like zinc deficiency, iron deficiency, they need to be assessed by practitioner, preferably, but they also play a massive role in appetite and the development of taste. And, often there is just that absence of taste.

There are behavioral reasons around that. looking at sometimes those kinds of diets develop out of illness as well. So many things. Yeah. Yeah. So many things. I love that you touched on the deficiencies because I think a lot of the time people don't realise that can be a huge, massive part of it.

A lot of the time mums blame themselves Yes. for the, and for the entire process. But a lot of it does come down to a deficiency as well. The gut bacteria. Yes. Yeah. So I love that you touched on that. Yeah. Now, I truly believe that nourishing our family does start with nourishing ourselves first.

And as a mom, we are the heart of the home. Do you believe our health and eating choices directly impact our children? Without doubt. Yeah. A hundred percent. because, our kids don't do, as we say they do as we do. They might, you might not realize that now, but I can tell you with a 21-year-old and an almost 18-year-old, that is 100% the case.

Like we didn't, Jane actually interviewed my daughter, who was a very difficult child to raise. So she's feisty. She's headstrong. She's, she was the tantrum queen. Oh my Goodness. Yeah. I really wondered what hit me when she was born or when she got to toddlerhood. Actually. She was a great baby, but everything changed at Toddlerhood.

but my daughter has pushed back on. everything for the sake of pushing back. She's one of those personalities. And Jane actually interviewed her on the podcast recently after this with parents. Yeah. It was actually, we did it for parents with young kids who are just butting up against their kids with, them pushing back on health healthy options and things like that because now she's full circle.

she got into late teens and definitely really started to become a role model and valued health enormously. It's amazing what vanity will do to a teenage girl. she realized that if she ate heaps of sugar, her skin would break out. we always talk about, with educating kids in, well-nourished in our program and on the podcast it's about planting seeds.

Yeah. And make, helping them to make connections. But, Totally gone off tangent here. Yeah, no, but I know what you definitely like. She'd come around full circle and now she fully embraces and is as much as she really, as I said, pushed back and was not happy with me. as a teenager and as a young a child, she now really appreciates and values the fact that she was raised with valuing health.

Yeah. And she can see how her life. Has benefited enormously, for that. and they might not appreciate it, early on. They don't appreciate it at the time. They never will. Yeah. And, but they do come around because they do embody what, everything we do is what becomes normal to them Yes.

In the future. and that's why, despite food, something that my daughter really struggled with was when I would go for my jogs, I love jogging. Yep. And she would stand at the door and say, please, mommy, don't go. I don't want you to go. And, oh my gosh, it was so hard leaving. And there was a handful of times that I didn't go because I felt really bad.

And then I said to myself, no, because I don't want her to do that. Later on. Totally. I want her to see me prioritising my own health and walking out, because I know not only is that going to become normal to her, she's gonna embody that later on. But also when I come back, it means that I'm such a better mom to her.

I'm more patient, I'm more happy, I'm more vibrant, I can play with her without getting frustrated. I am a better human because I've done that. Absolutely. So many aspects to it. But even coming back to food as well, something that I personally found really helped me and my kids is that I would put food on the table and I, there's so many things, I'd let them plate up their meals and all that stuff, but one of the biggest things I did is I would talk to them about the food that I was eating.

So I would say, oh, I love broccoli. That's so important. Broccoli, yes. And I would just let them watch me eat it. Yes. I would put no pressure on them to put Incredible. Put it on their plate. Yep. That in itself has transformed my kids' relationship with food. A hundred percent. It's them watching me eat it.

Hundred percent I see with that, yeah. it became normal to them. Yeah. And it's funny, they do what you do, not what you say. So there's no point you saying you should eat this, you need to try this is good for you. Kids don't care if something's healthy or good. One thing we always say is never, ever label food healthy or good.

Yes. 'cause a lot of kids I know with my daughter, she didn't wanna be healthy or good. She'd never experienced illness in her life. Yeah. So she had no concept of what health actually was like. Being unwell was, yeah. You can refer to health if your children have experienced health issues. Yeah. Yeah. But without that means nothing to them.

Totally. Without that, point of reference, it means nothing but one. It's interesting you talking about the jogging though. one thing that I realized actually my daughter really reflected back to me. It was one day she walked in the house and I was sitting on the couch and she stopped and she said, what's wrong?

Are you okay? And I was like, yeah, I'm just having a rest. I'm sitting on the couch. She's but there must be something wrong. Yeah. And I thought, oh my God, I have really done her a disservice because I've role modeled to her that resting and sitting on the couch is not something that mums do. Yeah.

And I felt so sad. I felt like such a failure. It's one area, as I said, I'm, but not by a long stretch. Perfect. As a parent, yeah. But it really made me, at that point really reassess my kids', understanding that I need rest, that rest is important, that I need to role model. That, that resting and like I said before, fitting the mask to myself first and like you said, I'm a better person for taking a few minutes out of the day to, sit mindfully, meditate, whatever kind of comes at the time.

I'm still a work in progress with that. yeah. and at the end of the day, we are their whole world. Yes. For such a long period of time, we are what creates their normal. Yes. It's funny now as well, my daughter's in this phase where she imitates me meditating. Yeah. So she'll imitate me or if she knows that she's done something and I am gone.

Maya, what are you doing? She'll go into a funny meditating pose and it's part of her imitating me and my husband Michael always laughs and he goes, I don't think she's taking that part of what you do. Seriously. And I actually said to him, no, I'm glad. Yes. I'm glad that she does that because you know what, at the end of the day, whether she imitates it, whether she gets involved, it's normal to her.

Yes. And the fact that she can even make a joke out of it. Yeah. To me, I feel like I'm proud of that because to her I've made it something that's normal. Yes. That's part of what I do. So hopefully later on that's something that, that's part of something that she does. Yeah. Beautiful. Like simple things like that.

Just what, letting them watch you, do all the things that nourishes you. Yeah. One thing that Jane talks about a lot is that our children, can't regulate their own nervous systems. Their nervous systems are tethered to us, to the adults in their lives. So if our nervous system is dysregulated, our children's nervous system is gonna be dysregulated.

I wish I'd have known that sooner. When I was younger, I could never figure out why. When I was stressed or I was taking a phone call, that would be the time that my daughter would really act up. And it was because I was dysregulated at that point and her nervous system was feeding off of mine. And, there's a lot of research.

Even in the area of neurodiversity and children, how, just how important it is particularly,with children who struggle a lot to, to regulate their nervous system. How it is really important that the people around them have regulated nervous systems. Yeah. I love that. And now what's one quick tip that you can give to a mom who's currently in the trenches feeling burnt out, fatigued, has no idea where to start, what's something that she can do to start prioritizing herself?

If it's within your means, get help. I was really crappy at asking for help. And it doesn't even have to be paid or hired help. It can be. I think we all underestimate exactly what our kids are capable of. And I heard a quote the other day, not the other day, it was a couple of months ago, that rocked me to my core and the person that was speaking, and I wish I could credit them, I can't remember who it was.

for the life of me, I've been trying to find who it was that said this because I have, it was it had such a profound impact on me. And they basically said that, when we do things for our kids, we're robbing them of their own self-esteem and we're actually building our own self-esteem.oh my God.

I was kind of like, that is holy hell. Like I have been robbing my, I always, not always often guilty of Yeah. doing all the things for my kids. yes. And I've realized as they've gotten older how I've actually disabled them in many ways. So that's really hit me too because yeah, I just so guilty of that.

You're actually contributing, you're building yourself up 'cause you feel good 'cause you can do all the things, but you're actually robbing your kids of self-esteem. So I wish I'd have got my kids to do more things for me. As well. Yes. because I think, as I said, we probably don't credit our kids with what it is they can actually do to contribute to the household.

I had, my daughter was a swimmer from a young age,and competitive from a young age. So our days would start at four o'clock in the morning. She'd be in the pool at five, home by six 30, quarter to seven. 'cause as I said, we lived a million miles from the pool and it was literally like, I would do everything.

I'd have her breakfast already, I'd have lunch packed, and I now look, sometimes I'll say to her, Hey, you need to do this, and she'll have a fit about it. And I think, oh my God, it's because I just have completely Yeah. Disabled her. She just expects that's something I'll do for her. Yeah. and I feel.

Look, I've really tried to turn that around. As the years have gone on, I've definitely got better. I've never rescued my kids. That's one thing I've been quite good with is rescuing them through difficult situations. I've really allowed them to find their own solutions. Always supported them, but yeah.

Yeah. but that, that piece about chores and contributing. So yeah, if someone's in the trenches, I would really implore you to seek help Don't be too proud to seek help. Ask for help. Yeah. whether it's from your partner or family members or hired help or your children. Yes.

And a lot of the time what I find with mums isthey feel like they, someone is expected to make that time for them and to give them help. So then when they don't get it, they start getting bitter and, feeling resentment. but a lot of the time they just simply haven't asked for it.

And something that I'm so big on is you are your biggest advocate. You have to demand that time. You need to ask for it yourself. No one else can make that time for you. 'cause a lot of the time mums, they'll tend to wait around for someone to offer. Yep. and we just can't do that. It's not, yeah.

Yeah. I was very guilty of it. It's, yeah. I don't have too many regrets in my life, but I definitely regret not seeking support that I really needed when my kids were young. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And just quickly, what are some of your non-negotiable daily health habits? Look, my kids are older now, so those habits have improved exponentially to what they were when they were little.

but yeah, for me, my day always starts with, a good long walk on the beach. Or along the coastline. I live in Queensland, so I'm really blessed to be able to get out in nature. So for me, I feel like nature is just one of the biggest nervous system regulators. look, even when my kids were little, it would mean just me standing on the grass in bare feet while they jumped on the trampoline, getting some sunshine on my body.

so I suppose I have weaved that into my life over the years. It's just always looked very different. Yeah. we all, even my kids, like we all are up early and we start our day with some sort of fitness. Routine, it looks differently for all of us. Yeah. and look, not negotiables for me is having some level of preparedness for the day ahead.

So I try perhaps the night before I give a thought to, I might not officially. Meal plan as such, but I always have an idea, at the very latest in the morning, but usually the night before, I'll think ahead to what we're gonna be having for breakfast, more or less. Doesn't have to be exact.

Yeah. But, and then what's gonna be for dinner that night? Because I'm busy, like I work long hours. my kids, you think as they get older. it gets like less busy, but you know, there are, yeah, it's been busy. There's a lot of driving wouldn there. There's a lot of driving. my son's got his license now, so yeah.

My life has completely changed. Wow. Yeah. But, it's amazing how those hours of the day fill up. Yeah, I can imagine. I love just the way that, you know, just starting the day on the right foot. Yes. And I think no matter how old your children are, there are these little things that we can do that are gonna really change how the rest of our day plays out.

But it does always start with the morning. I find, I tell mums simple things like, hydrate before you caffeinate. Don't drink coffee on an empty stomach. That in itself, have a big glass of water, rehydrate your body with water. Go outside, get some sunlight on your skin.

Even if you need to take your kids with you, that's totally fine, But these little things make such a big difference to our hormones, to our whole appetite, to everything. Yeah. And I always say to people, you can't, they're the basics. They're the foundations for good health. You cannot out supplement or out meditate or out exercise you, you cannot outdo any of those basics in there's no replacements for eating well consistently.

It just needs to be part of your routine and you need to find ways. and as I said, it looks differently for everyone, but there needs to be, some thought put into that because it all, it does, it takes thought, it takes planning. It does. much like it, it always fascinates me because we put so much planning and thought into like kids' activities and social events and things.

But then when it comes to the important things that sustain us on the day to day, often there's no planning, there's no thought, there's no simple nourishing meal Yeah. That your body needs. Absolutely. Many mums are walking around with so much depletion. Yes. the nutrient deficiencies, the Yeah.

and then we blame those symptoms on hashtag mum life, Totally. Brain fog, cognitive function. A lot of that comes down to an Omega deficiency. Yeah. Not hashtag mum life. No. so we need to bring it back to the basics and make sure that we are giving our body the basics, like simple meals and Yes.

And things like that. Yeah. Georgia, can you tell us a little bit more about your incredible program? So where can people find you, how can they join that amazing program you have? Yeah,the website's, wellnourished.com.Auwe have hundreds of free recipes on the site, but, we also have a membership called, the well-Nourished family.

And that is, included in that membership are thousands of ad-free recipes. meal planning technology. We have an app so that everything is on the go. Lots of educational pieces, master classes. we've got short courses that teach you how to meal prep in the simplest, easiest possible way. I mean, my whole mission in life is to help people to eat well consistently.

Yeah, and I suppose the membership contains tools to help you find it's very versatile. we provide a lot of things like, done for you meal plans and so forth, but, everything is customizable to suit individuals and families. As I said, we have raising, nourished kids, which is a program.

that you have lifetime access to. That is very purpose. everything I do is purpose driven, to be honest. But, yeah, and I've also got a very short course called The Lunchbox Formula because of that whole piece of, people asking, yeah, asking about how, I mean, I, I have packed over 5,000 lunchboxes in my lifetime.

Yeah. I know how to do it. I've got it down to a fine art. So that course is me sharing everything that I know about lunchbox packing, and you know what to pack when you have nothing prepared. And it goes through all of the different scenarios. So, yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's me in a nutshell. we'll share all of that in the, show notes so you can find Georgia, and all her amazing resources.

Georgia, thank you so much for all that incredible knowledge that you've shared with us. I know so many people will walk away with so much from this oh episode. Awesome. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Georgia.