In my interview with Dr Orlena, we talked about how to create or maintain healthy eating habits and lifestyle for the whole family including kids. Dr Orlena is a pediatric doctor turned “Healthy Life Coach” now helping busy mums to create a healthy and balanced life. 

A few years ago, together with her husband and 2 children, Dr Orlena and her family moved from England to Spain. Since then, her family has expanded to 4 children. 

Our conversation began with life transitions, how one thing lead to another and how her career has changed. It was really one adventure after another. Many of us experienced the same thing, it may be about a career change or relocation or simply expanding our family. 

As a health life coach, many of her clients come to her because they want to lose weight, there are lots of diets and helpful activities out there that work, but at the end of the day, what Dr Orlena finds to be most useful is to have a good foundation, here are the top 3 elements:

3 Tips on Healthy Habits 

Know What You Enjoy 

Have a good understanding of what we like and don’t like, whether it is about food or exercises. There is no point to force ourselves to do things that we really don’t enjoy. She recommends the Mediterranean diet because many people just simply enjoy those foods. You may find another diet suits your taste and cultural upbringing better. 

Find Your Smart Routine 

Since being consistent is key, we should think of ways that we can create habits that support a healthy lifestyle. Dr Orlena talked about her habit of dropping her children to school and then head straight to the swimming pool every Tuesday and Thursday. This becomes a weekly routine and it is certainly a healthy habit. I found group exercises help too as we like to work out with others and get an opportunity to socialise as well. 

Have Plenty of Fresh Veggies and Fruits

Simply have more fresh vegetables and fruits around at home, make them visible and easily accessible. Visit the farmers market can be a great thing to do as well as stock up some healthy produce. Whenever we go to the supermarket, it is so easy to get packaged and processed food that there are certainly not as healthy as fresh food. 

Healthy Eating Habits for Children

In terms of creating a healthy lifestyle for our children, and especially for fuzzy eaters, first and for most, we need to have healthy behaviour for them to model from. Dr Orlena shared with us some great tips for doing that: 

* We need to eat healthy if we want our children to do the same* If your children have sweet tooth, perhaps have rules or set up special nights for dessert or treats, but then say no on other occasions, so it is more of a treat, not a norm. * Portion control is another thing, we often overestimate how much they actually need to eat. They may not like certain vegetables but happy with others, and that is ok, there is no need to force them to eat. * When we reduce the amount of sugar or salt we eat, we can actually taste our food better so it is something we can learn and grow into and appreciate more and more. * Plan ahead and keep things simple is another good habit to keep* Just have plentiful fo fruit and vegetables around and that can never go wrong! 

If you want to get in touch with Dr Orlena or learn more about healthy habits,