Homeostasis is run by an Ottawa-based Registered Dietitian who specializes in weight management, spo Sara holds a Certification in Adult Weight Management.
Sara Awija BSc, RD received her Bachelors of Science Degree in Food Science and Human Dietetics from McGill University. She has completed her 40 weeks of internship (Professional Practice - Stage) which is sequenced and integrated into each year of study. Sara was exposed to a variety of practice settings including clinical nutrition, community nutrition, and food service management in Montreal an
d Ottawa. The program is designed according to the Integrated Competencies for Dietetics Education and Practice (ICDEP) and is accredited by the Partnership for Dietetic Education and Practice (PDEP). Sara offers nutrition counselling, weight management programs and creates customized meal plans based on food preferences, lifestyle and goals. Sara has a unique approach to her practice and provides advice that is realistic, easy to follow and emphasizes stepwise change, balance and flexibility. She is a firm believer that small, gradual changes to an individual’s eating and exercising regimen coupled with patience, commitment and a positive attitude can lead to permanent lifestyle change and a happier, healthier and more fulfilling life. In her spare time, Sara enjoys being active, cooking, travelling and experiencing the newest restaurants and food trends in Ottawa and across the globe. Sara uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Nutrition Education/therapy, and Experimental Techniques to aid her clients in challenging thoughts/behaviours to attain a healthy weight. Below are a few of the nutrition areas in which Sara specializes:
Weight Management
Sports Nutrition
Diabetes
Cardiovascular Disease e.g.Cholesterol Management, Blood Pressure Management
Gastrointestinal Disorders
Prenatal Nutrition
Infant Nutrition
Eating Disorders e.g. Binge Eating Disorder/ Compulsive Overeating, Night Eating Syndrome
Services - Nutrition Counselling
Initial Consultation
During the initial one-hour consultation, Sara will collect relevant nutrition, behavior, and medical information from you. Together you will determine your nutrition/health goals for treatment and how to implement small, realistic changes into your dietary pattern. Basic nutrition education is provided and a meal plan may be designed, if indicated.
*If you are under 18, a parent or legal guardian is asked to attend the initial consultation. Their presence is not required at future sessions unless clinically indicated. Follow-Up Sessions
During half hour follow-up sessions, Sara will review your eating and behavior patterns since your last visit. The two of you will discuss what went well and where you may have struggled. Strategies along with more extensive nutrition education will be provided to help move you closer to your goals. Grocery Store Tour
Walking through a grocery store can be a daunting and challenging task when you are unsure how to make healthy choices. The grocery tours walk you through each aisle and point out healthy options and alternatives; learn how to shop on a budget, and which aisles to avoid. Sara also teaches individuals how to properly read nutrition labels and discuss the differences between servings and portion sizes. The 60 minute tour is fun and educational and permits time for any questions you may have. We will also provide extra resources for you to take home and assist you with grocery shopping on your own. Booking a grocery tour can be an individual or group activity. Your Investment:
•Individual Session: $100.00
•Groups of 2-5: $130.00
•Groups of 6-10: $200.00
Restaurant Dining Group
Do you find yourself home, alone, because your friends are dining at a restaurant and you are too nervous to join them? Does looking at a menu heighten your anxiety? Do you find yourself picking only safe foods? Join others who feel the same way in Sara’s Restaurant Dining Group! About once a week this group meets at a different restaurant where members support each other while challenging their food choices and practicing normalized eating. After the meal, Sara and the members go to a local coffee shop and process how the meal went and learn new strategies for successful restaurant eating. This is a very popular group! Contact Sara to reserve a spot for the next outing! Your Investment:
•Individual Session: $100.00
•Groups of 2-5: $130.00
•Groups of 6-10: $200.00
Fees
A non-refundable 50% deposit is required upon booking in order to reserve your booking. Rest of payment is due at time of service, in the form of cash, or cheque. Your health insurance company may or may not cover services provided by a Registered Dietitian. Upon request, Sara can provide you with the necessary reimbursement paperwork to submit to your insurance company.
I'm super excited to be a guest speaker at the Garlic Festival held at the Carp Farmers' market. I will be there on Saturday August 12th AND August 19th!!
I'll be chatting ALL health benefits of Garlic as well as common uses and preparations.
I'll have some Q&A time reserved for all your questions, which also happens to be my fave part about coming out and talking nutrition!
Don't forget to come by, support local and check my talk out!
Carp Farmers' Market
2021 was quite the year! It brought many ups and downs, all the positive memories make me grateful🥰. It was a year where we worked really HARD and proud of everything accomplished.
This past year I learned that you're never going to feel ready. You're never going to find the perfect time and you'll always be nervous right before you start. And that you should just do it anyways.
I'm feeling grateful and excited for what this next year will bring for me and my private practice. I'm excited to help even MORE people now that I'm focusing solely on private practice in 2022. I look forward to fix all my current and future clients' relationship with food. Allow them to learn to live in the grey zone. Helping them understand it's not worth missing out on life to weigh 5lbs less, fearing dessert is less healthy than just eating a piece of dessert and that it's totally ok to eat real pizza rather than one made of cauliflower crust.
Thank you to all my clients for being my biggest supporters this past year and encouraging me to follow my dreams in the upcoming one! Happiest New Year to all of you 🎉
For many of my clients, this past summer and fall was spent putting on more miles 🏃🏾♀️ (since there wasn’t much else going on!), which in some cases, resulted in injuries flaring up again.
It can be easy to feel frustrated and think that it’s not a great time to focus on nutrition and fuelling.
However, just like injury recovery is a great time to strengthen muscles, improve imbalances, and get to the root cause of the injury, the same can be said for nutrition.
Sometimes a pause in your usual training is a great time to pay more attention to your fuelling, and learn strategies to help you recover faster, and then properly fuel when you do get back to training.
Not only that, but many of my clients find that getting through injuries can be difficult because you notice changes in your body. A decrease in miles can result in changes in body composition, and pair that with not having your usual stress outlet – it can really bring to light issues with your relationship with food. You might notice unhealthy patterns and thoughts in how you approach food.
I’ve outlined strategies here that might be beneficial with injury healing and prevention. 💪🏼
But above all, using this time to understand why and how we eat, challenge food restriction and food rules, and fully learn to have a healthy relationship with food – can be an amazing way to come through stronger on the other side! 🏃🏽♀️
✨Want to learn more about how nutrition AND a healthy relationship with food can take you to your next PR?!
✨I help athletes and active people develop an individualized fueling plan to optimize both health and performance, so that you can feel great and perform at your best level. Sound good?
Let’s get into some details about dietary strategies that can help you FUEL during your cycle to make the most of your training (AND feel great!) 🙌🏼
The first phase of the menstrual cycle is when you have your period (the start of your period is day 1 of your cycle).
As I mentioned yesterday, this is actually your lowest hormone stage of the whole cycle. However, your body feels like it’s going through some major stuff, am I right?! 😫
This is due in part to the changes in hormones, contractions caused by the shedding of the uterine lining, and minerals lost in the blood (iron, magnesium, and zinc) that often result in painful cramps, digestive issues like bloating, and headaches.
You can also feel extra tired during this phase😴, so focusing on getting enough sleep is important.
Dietary strategies that may have benefit during this phase:
🏃🏽♀️Iron rich foods
🏃🏻♀️Magnesium rich foods
🏃🏽♀️Zinc rich foods
🏃🏾♀️Omega-3 fats
🏃🏿♀️Curcumin
🏃🏽♀️Tart cherry juice
🏃🏼♀️Hydration and electrolytes like sodium
🏃🏻♀️Having a protein-rich bedtime snack to help with recovery
In some cases, supplements can be helpful to ensure you’re getting enough of these nutrients. It’s best to work with a healthcare professional to figure out if supplements are the best fit for you (hi! 👋🏼)
✨If you want to learn more about developing an individualized plan, if you have questions about how to apply this information, or wondering if you need to take supplements – book an appointment. During our session, I’ll answer your questions, provide individualized next steps, and make sure that you are on the right track to hitting your fuelling needs!
Many of the female athletes I work with initially say that their workouts feel so much harder in the week or two before their period. 😩 Once we discuss how hormone changes affect training and recovery, and how dietary strategies can help this – it often feels like the missing piece of the puzzle.
This week I’m going to be talking about how your menstrual cycle can impact training and strategies that can help you work WITH your physiology and not against it. 💪🏼
The menstrual cycle is broken down into 2 phases: the follicular phase and the luteal phase.
We’ll be going into specific strategies and changes in each phase in my posts this week.
The 2 main hormones at play are estrogen and progesterone. We are actually in our lowest hormone phase when we have our period. For this reason, it can be actually be a great time of month to push yourself, set PRs, and see an increase in performance.
If you’re thinking that sounds like a terrible time to compete, workout, or do anything more than try to get off the couch 😜, you’re not alone – and this is why it can be important to look at what types of symptoms you’re experiencing and how dietary strategies can help in order for you to make the most out of this low hormone phase.
In general, throughout the first 2 weeks of our cycle, we tend to have more energy, our muscles recover faster, and we’re better primed to do high intensity exercise, set PRs, and build strength. 🏋🏽♀️
During the last 2 weeks of our cycle, progesterone levels increase, making us feel tired, lower energy, and our muscle recovery is not as good. During this phase, we tend to be better at lower intensity endurance workouts, as our body utilizes more fat as fuel vs carbohydrate. 🏃🏻♀️
📱 Tracking your cycle is key to understanding what changes to make.
✨ Stay tuned for more info this week, and drop your questions here 👇🏼 or send me a PM!
Habits Habits Habits!
I can't emphasize this enough!!
Let’s talk about the truth behind body transformation because I think there are often misconceptions around it. We see the before and after photos that show women/men who are not only leaner, but also seem to exude a more confident vibe. And so it might leave people with this impression that transformation is super quick and fun.
So I want to give you a glimpse of what really happens behind the scenes. This is what you don’t see:
4am wake-ups to get the workout in
Planning and tracking all food before it goes into your mouth.
Learning how to navigate social situations
Being in social situations and sipping on water while everyone around you is drinking alcohol, juice, pop and asking you ‘omg why aren’t you drinking something???’
Disapproval from those around you who feel challenged by your new habits
Coming face to face with your need for approval from said people around you
Confronting unhealthy boundaries and co-dependency
Having less in common with friends and family
Going to the gym when you just worked 10 hours straight
Training HARD
Cardio on top of training hard
Discomfort.. all on repeat for months at a time.
I’m not saying this to discourage anyone, I’m saying it to keep it real. You new life is going to cost you your old one. But if you’re ready, it’s worth it.
Because a big reason why these women/men look more confident in their after picture comes down to the fact that they broke down their barrier stories and overcame A LOT.
It’s difficult, it’s challenging, it’s confronting, and that’s the reality. Wishing it were another way will be your downfall.
It’s the challenge that ultimately changes you. The people who expect it to be quick and easy are missing the point entirely. That’s it’s difficult is actually what makes it worthwhile.
😂😂
290 Hunt Club Road
Ottawa, ON
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Loutfi Ajaoun Expert Trainer Ottawa
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