Jessica is a Byron Bay based clinical nutritionist, herbalist and natural health educator. She is the founder and consultant at Sage and Folk, a business which she started through her passion for womens’ and pediatric health. After years of reading and researching for her own health, she quit her corporate media job and decided to embark on formal education in nutrition and herbal medicine. In 2011, she became an accredited and practicing nutritionist and herbalist.
During her pregnancies and after the births of her two children, her passion for women’s and children’s health was ignited.
“I have now made this the focus of my practice and I am wholeheartedly passionate about nutrition and natural health for mothers and their offspring”.
As a practitioner and a mother, she has dedicated her work to empowering and supporting women to nourish and nurture themselves and their children throughout the motherhood journey.
Sage and Folk offers a range of nutrition and health services including convenient online consultations, meal planning, and the recently released e-guide: The Nourished Toddler.
First Wake Up
l wake up before the kids at 6am and the first thing I will do is have some apple cider vinegar in warm water. This helps to promote healthy detoxification of the liver, stimulate digestion and increase circulation. I’ll then try to do a little yoga stretching or meditation before checking some emails and planning the day.
Breakfast
Everyone is awake by 7am and we will usually all eat breakfast together. I keep our mornings very simple, we alternate daily between something I’ve made a big batch of, like my choco-granola, and eggs. We also all have a ‘shot’ of kefir for some extra probiotic goodness; I am a huge advocate for functional foods.
If we are not at work or kindy we will spend the morning at the beach, river or at one of our local farmers’ markets- where I buy the majority of our produce. I am passionate about consuming as much fresh, local and sustainable produce as possible. We are very fortunate to have an abundance of incredible farmers and producers here in the Byron Shire and I make full use of this!
Morning tea
I have one espresso coffee per day and will usually grab this wherever we are headed for the morning (in my keep-cup of course!). We have some morning tea around 10am consisting of a piece of fruit or a carrot, and maybe some buckwheat and banana bread (I usually make a loaf of this and some sweet potato pikelets at the start of the week). On my consulting days, I will have a smoothie with some, cacao, banana, coconut milk, protein powder, collagen and some wholefood supplements.
Lunch
Lunch is often dinner leftovers such as meatballs and salad; or I might make something fresh like rice paper rolls, or even gather some fridge items (such as pickles, sauerkraut, cheese, olives, hard boiled eggs, avocado and veggie sticks) to make a “ploughman’s” style plate. I usually try to do a bit more work in the afternoons while the kids play in the backyard.
Afternoon Tea
Our afternoon snack is at 3pm, either consisting of veggie sticks with homemade pate, or I might have some smoothie based icey-poles in the freezer (this is a great way to reduce food waste). I make up a weekly batch of gummies that contain wholefood supplements and this is when the kids will have one.
Dinner
I plan and source ahead for our dinners. Realistically, although I love to cook, I can ’t spend hours in the kitchen every day. I find that meal planning is so useful for juggling the chaos of family life, whilst making sure that we are eating nutritious healthy meals and also minimising waste. Some dinners will take a little more preparation and cooking, whereas others may require no cooking or just reheating. I always have freezer meals on hand for when our day just doesn’t go to plan.
I love to mix it up and experiment, so dinners could be anything from fresh fish tacos, to a quick veggie stir-fry or a simple slow cooked lamb stew. On Fridays we usually meet up with friends and eat sourdough wood fired pizza in a local paddock! Byron has some wonderful pop-up eateries and this is one of our favourites. My husband and I have a glass of organic wine with dinner on weekends too.
The kids either have my homemade jelly cups or some biodynamic yoghurt with my gut-happy stewed apples for dessert (both recipes in The Nourished Toddler e-guide). They are also currently having a dose of cod liver oil at this time, to help strengthen their immune systems before school and kindy start back.
Dessert
My husband and I will usually skip dessert, but if we are feeling like a sweet treat we’ll have some locally made chocolate.
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