Thank you for visiting and welcome to mama warrior. I am a mom of four beautiful beings, healthy lifestyle lover & grief optimist. I have experience, a love of research and a passion for helping others through food & wellness. I’m currently creating a healthy recipe & lifestyle book which is due out by the end of this year. You can also find healthy recipes and health, lifestyle & wellness tips throughout this website. In addition, I am writing a book on grief which focuses on grief compounded, parenting with grief and children & grief. (Visit my GRIEF page for information on a documentary on kids & grief that our family was apart of.) If I can share my experience to help and inspire any of you to live a healthy lifestyle – through food, parenting survival, wellness &/or bereavement – then I’m a happy girl.

Mama warrior was a name that I thought was perfect as it references the hardest job – but the best job – being a Mom. Motherhood caught me by surprise; it became my passion – to raise our kids in a healthy environment and to help them soar, teaching them to make wise food choices and to take responsibility for their health & wellness. I have a love of creating and transforming delicious recipes into delicious, healthy recipes and providing options (like modern-wheat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free) for the multitude of health issues and diets out there. I am excited to help you and your kids learn and thrive.

The name, mama warrior, also references the hardest part of my life that I made it through – losing our 3rd born baby at full term before delivery. After we found out our baby boy, Bazil, had died, we went home to pack a hospital bag but I wouldn’t leave until I heard back from my Naturopath, as all of a sudden my birth plan had changed (I had done natural deliveries for my first two children). She told me to forget about everything else and just focus on delivering my baby – to go down there and be “mama warrior”. I can still hear the silence as we drove to the hospital, as I looked at the people on the street, carrying on with their day to day lives, I silently and slowly repeated to myself over and over “mama warrior…mama warrior…mama warrior”. My Dad – who was my go-to for my grief, died suddenly 6 months after Bazil and also his Mom – my Granny, followed by more pregnancy losses, including one in the second trimester. I was told by Stephen Jenkinson, a pioneer in changing society’s attitudes from fearing & avoiding death to accepting & embracing death, that ‘someone’ believed i had the muscle to flex, and I know now that he was right. I see how hard it is for most to talk about their struggle. It has become my passion to help those in bereavement, to share what I learned and what helped me and my family, and to hopefully help change how society as a whole handles grief. There is much strength, beauty and growth that comes from such suffering.

In my determination to have another baby, I researched all of my options thoroughly and want to spread that knowledge to help anyone else who may be suffering pregnancy losses; as, I believe that much of what I learned helped bring us our 4th born baby gem, after having suffered 5 pregnancy losses in a row. I loved every stage of pregnancy and infant/baby/toddlerhood and have lots to say about each, from behaviour tips to getting your infant sleeping through the night.

I have learned firsthand how even healthy foods can be problematic, for my kids and myself. How we fuel our bodies plays a large role in our ability to control our health & wellness, from contributing to our children’s behaviour by the food we feed them to getting to the root of many health problems by simply altering your diet. I started seeing my naturopath and removed wheat and dairy from my diet in 2000 and my life-long chronic headaches and sinusitis disappeared. We removed gluten from my 8 year old son’s diet in the spring of 2015 and his chronic headaches disappeared as well many other unexpected changes from an increase in focus and energy (which were never a problem to begin with) to what amazed me, he stopped talking in his sleep. Changing your diet can be daunting, but it’s worth it. Don’t assume you’ll always suffer, that it’s just ‘you’. Don’t settle for anything outside of feeling great! Little effort can reap huge rewards and you’ll never look back. I want to help you feel that you deserve to feel your best.

I graduated in Fine Arts at Bishop’s University followed by Graphic Design at Sheridan College. Both, of which enabled me to take all of my own photography (including for my books), design, develop and program (not easy!) this website. In the winter you can find me on the ski hill, in the summer you can find me by the water. I continue to learn, everyday, on the never-ending schooling of motherhood, food, life, loss and love. I always know, at the end of the day, everything will be ok. Life is good.

Mama warrior encapsulates strength, growth, softness and a love of life; teaching others, and the determination to give the best to my kids and those around me, to encourage overall wellness & healthy living for a healthy lifestyle. A place to learn and share about grief and loss, a place to feel and look your best. I hope that I can share – spreading happiness, health & wellness – while teaching all of you what have become passions of mine. Thank you for taking the time to read my page. Spread the love

cropped-mw_text_xo_fav.jpgAnna

Eat well. Live more. Love deeper. Trust your journey.