Nourishmint Winter Wellness

Winter is a tough time for us all…

We tend to be a little unhappier, prone to catching colds and generally throw our healthy eating habits out the window. All these things can cause the best of us to be less than our glowing, positive selves. Recently I was fortunate enough to attend the Nourishmint Winter Wellness Workshop that was hosted by three of the loveliest ladies that I have met to date.

The event was held at Soul in Woodstock, a perfect venue which created a very intimate feel for all of us that attended. On arrival we were spoilt with some much needed coffee. A 9am start on a Saturday morning is no joke. For the more health conscious of us there was also a choice between mint tea or mint hot chocolate. Let me also just point out that the pretty mint coloured tea cups were a real crowd pleaser.

After the usual chit chat we all proceeded to sit down and readied ourselves to get into the real nitty gritty. Not only did our very own much loved founder of VitaSoul, Lucy Kues, give us the low down on The Essential Winter Supplementation, but we were also wowed by the inspiring Carmia Annandale, founder of The Happy Medium Company, as well as the lovely Cindy Prodgers, Founder of Nourishmint Consulting and the hostess for the event.

These three passionate ladies made a perfect team for the talk. Each one bringing their own passion and excitement for their chosen fields to the event. I remember sitting there and thinking to myself, “Wow, they just compliment each other so well.” All our winter woes were addressed and I left feelin empowered,positive and ready to conquer the rest of winter with my newly learned battle strategies.

First up on the agenda was the lovely Lucy. She shared an incredibly inspiring story of her own journey and how VitaSoul started. It all started when her son was just over a year old and was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Lucy, being the fighter that she is, decided that she wasn’t going to let it end there. This is how she started on her journey to give her child the best possible chance of recovery. It was during this time that she was determined to source the best quality natural supplements to support them. Through this experience she has built communities, empowered individuals and launched her own business. Fast forward six years and this is what the doctors had to say:

“Even though Autism is a lifelong condition, my son no longer presents with any of the symptoms. My son was the seed of inspiration and the community helped the dream blossom.” – Lucy Kues, founder of VitaSoul.

She explained how she believed that everyone should be on three basic supplements every day. Specifically, a good Vitamin C, a Multi-mineral and a good Omega 3. The reasoning behind these is because they are difficult to come by in your natural diet. Notice how she recommended a multi-mineral and not a multi-vitamin? This is because our soils are very depleted of minerals. The medications that we take also affect our mineral levels and that’s why it’s important to supplement these on a daily basis. She the detailed the various options she had for winter supplementation and natural medications for both wellness and dealing with illness at the onset.

Next up was Miss Sunshine, Carmia, a Life Skills Coach and the founder of The Happy Medium Company. We liked to refer to her as Miss Sunshine because if a person had to look like a golden ray of sunshine, they would look like her J. For her young age she is quite wise and a truly inspiring and happy person to encounter. If you ever come across one of her talks, I would highly recommend that you attend. She touches you in a way that is difficult to describe. She’s honest, witty, mesmerising to listen to and the way she jolts you out of your slump is a welcomed bolt.

She believes that our bodies and minds are designed to work together. Her talk was based on the belief that like the weather, we have various seasons throughout our lives. The goal is try and sustain the feelings of summer throughout all the seasons of our lives. As a group exercise we had to come up with ideas to ‘cope’ with winter. Some of the suggestions were the following:

• Sleep whenever you can
• Move your body everyday
• Drink lots of water
• Hang out with happy and positive people
• Laugh more
• Eat healthy food
• See something positive in a bad situation
• Compliment someone else
• Don’t cut out, add in
• Be Grateful. Pray

In closing she reminded us that there is a definite difference between joy and happiness.

“Happiness is externally motivated.  Joy is internally motivated.  Joy comes from deep immense feelings from sustained inner satisfaction.” Carmia Annadale, founder The Happy Medium Company.

Last, but certainly not least, was Cindy, founder of Nourishmint Consulting. Cindy herself spent most of her life battling with her weight and all the nasty self-dialogue that comes with endless dieting cycles. Looking at her you would never believe it though. She pointed out that food isn’t the problem, it’s our relationship with it that is. Think about it. We eat all the time but do we ever eat and enjoy it? We never cherish our meals. Most of the time we’re rushing from one task to the next and stuffing whatever we can into our mouths in between. Then we blame the carbs, or the fat, or our slow metabolism, or simply kill ourselves at the gym.

Interestingly she also pointed out that our emotional state affects our eating habits and our ability to properly digest our food. We need to deal with the psychological side as well as establishing good eating routines. Cindy is not a dietician. She is a student of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. This brings a more scientific approach to her company, Nourishmint, which focuses on Mind Body Nutrition.

In her words, “Your mind and your gut are linked.” They don’t function separately from each other. There is science and a psychology behind your weight issues and both have to be worked on together. Find yourself Binge eating? It is possibly a symptom from suppressing your passion or your desires. Find yourself unable to lose weight? It is possibly a symptom of fear based thinking and not being able to let go.

Here’s some of Cindy’s Winter Weigh in on Life Tips:

• Let go of the scale and weight. Instead get a piece of clothing that you want to wear and use that as your guide
• Eat real food
• Move more. Find something that you enjoy and move

“You are not a number on a scale. Set a feel good.” – Cindy Prodgers, founder of Nourishmint Consulting.

There was much excitement as the prizes were handed out. VitaSoul’s suppliers were generous enough to sponsor R10,000 worth of products which were randomly handed over to a few attendees.

I’m very excited to see where these remarkable ladies end up. So much passion in a room is a rare find. I wish them only success for the future.

Justine Saunders (VitaSoul Blogger)