Story by Renee Tratch | Photos by Emily D Photography
MSc. RD Registered Dietitian and Owner of Vibrant Nutrition
One of the first times I met Nish was on a wagon ride into a strawberry field with our kids. As we picnicked I remember eyeing with envy her kid’s lunch - so healthy and colourful and her little guy was eating it!
I was inspired - as so many people are when they meet Toronto mom Nishta Saxena.
Turns out, she really knows her way around food – healthy food. The mom-of-two is a Registered Dietitian and owner of Vibrant Nutrition, a practice that helps, among many other things, parents who are struggling to feed their babies, children and themselves affordably and nutritiously.
She knows her stuff and her work-life takes her into hospitals and Family Health Teams as a clinical RD and to U of T as a faculty member in the Department of Family and Community Medicine.
And you’ll often see her in the media busting the myths on the latest food trends with science-based nutritious ways to fuel you’re families. This week she spoke with CTV Your Morning about foods that can boost your child’s brain power in 15 min a day (yes please), a topic she has written on for an upcoming book.
But when you meet Nish, you know that her expertise is not just nutrition. She connects so easily with friends and neighbours as she does with clients. I love her honest approach to parenthood, the perfect dose of sarcasm that will always leave you smiling, and strong sense of community.
She has been a Torontonian in all parts of the city but you can now find her and her family enjoying all the awesomeness of the east end. This is how her mom and work worlds mesh and what she loves best about T.O.
Motherhood at the moment
Just like all moms, it is non-stop. Non-stop moving, talking, walking, scheduling, listening, playing, pooping, learning, being and eating - not in that order. I work in three iterations of being a paediatric and family dietitian, and in between my husband’s and my busy practice, there is very little down time. I feel a bit like there’s always a ball dropping somewhere around me at any given moment. So I just look at the ones that are up. I’ve really taken to celebrating the “small wins” of motherhood. It’s a great way to maintain positivity within the chaos.
Current kid challenge
I have two bright, vibrant kids - three- and five-years-old. They could probably play continuously for 20 hours if I let them. We are working on identifying and creating healthy boundaries, learning that our emotions need not dictate our response completely (especially when it involves throwing toys or pinching!), and helping them to think about their favourite experience daily to develop some gratitude. My daughter is a powerful and strong little person, so we are working on helping her get to her words before her emotions take her over. There is the struggle for both total independence and being little happening simultaneously!
Best decision
Trusting the vision and moving forward with my dream. In my profession, it can be easy to take a position that offers stability and guaranteed income. Leaving “The Institutions” for me was risky, but liberating beyond belief! My work is my passion and after my first child I made the decision to only pursue avenues of work that amplify my passion. I drastically cut hours in the academic and hospital-based realms after second baby and I haven’t missed it one bit.
Smallest change biggest impact
Letting go of the insignificant. Since becoming a mother, I am happy to have friends over to my humble house without making everything just so. Read: perfect hosting. It’s been amazing to realize we can all have a wonderful time, laughing, eating and being merry, without things looking Pinterest-worthy. It’s like when you agonized about the small details at your wedding and nobody noticed because they were all drunk and eating! I can be unapologetic now about the fact that guests may have to step over, or even on Lego pieces during their visit! I just let it go. Don’t get me wrong, the house is “technically” clean, and I promise the eats will be delicious and nourishing but if you wander upstairs, the beds definitely aren’t made. More importantly, I don’t care!
How does being a dietitian help you be a better mom?
Well, without sounding like a total cliché (read: jerk), my children have a great relationship with food and eating behaviour. They understand food is for nourishing and fuelling them. They understand to listen to their bodies, trust their bodies to tell them when to start, what to choose and what to eat most of the time.
Keep mom sane
Sane-ness for me equals movement. I was a dancer in my younger days and I have always found getting out of my head the best way for me to stay sane. It’s medicine for me. Lifting very heavy weights at Fortis Fitness, dancing to heart-pounding music with ridiculous lyrics (what happened to song lyrics?!), yoga or just plain walking really shift my mood and allow me to decompress. I also tend to have great business ideas when I am walking or moving, which is a bonus. A nice hot shower and good quality coffee also keeps me sane, just ask my spouse.
Favourite hood
I love the east end community - Leslieville, Riverside, The Pocket. I fully switched teams from west to east after having kids. I have a sense of community here, which is very important to my partner and me. It’s partly based on the high density of families and it’s pretty neat to watch how Carlaw Ave, where my office is located, has sky-rocketed and is now branded as Fitness Row and one of the coolest streets in T.O.
Favourite place to visit as a family
We love anywhere we can connect to nature and be a part of it. Evergreen Brick Works is an amazing experience literally any time of year. We recently had the most perfect sunny beach experience at The Bluffs at the end of summer - felt like we had travelled somewhere and left town. Every year we aim to take time to go on a nice fall walk for apple picking and pumpkin patching. Or we hike together to notice the change in colours, the crunch of the leaves and the crisp air.
Perfect day alone
Wake up. As in, not being “woken up.” Delicious coffee freshly ground from an independent (e.g. Tearo, Birds and the Beans, Ideal Coffee.) Head to gym Fortis Fitness (see above) then home for a hot shower. Have some random conversations with neighbourhood people. Later, maybe hit up new galleries or exhibitions or look at amazing fashion - I love the visual massage of beautiful things. Maybe sneak a trip to Bergstrom Originals or Gravity Pope and then after a few texts to BFFs, justify buying another pair. Eat something delicious and satisfying – like a well-executed sandwich, quiche, a warm perfectly crisped burrito, multi-ingredient grain or salad bowl. Urban Herbivore, Via Mercanti and Lady Marmalade are a few faves. More coffee and some reflection on how truly lucky I am, then chatting and unwinding with friends and hubby over some wine and good music.
As silly as this may sound, eventually I would want to see my kids again. So capping the day by seeing them would make it perfect.