Wellness, Nutrition and Smoothie Blends for All Stages of Mothering with Lisa Mastela

In today’s episode of the Gentle Parenting Show, Kim sat down with Lisa Mastela, MPH and RD. Lisa is passionate about nutrition. With her experience as a registered dietitian and as a mother of 2, she saw a huge gap in wellness for moms. She founded Bumpin Blends, a company that makes and delivers dietitian-designed smoothie blend cubes to support the many symptoms all women go through. From headaches and bloating to anxiety and trouble sleeping, Bumpin Blends has delicious smoothie blends to address all these symptoms.

How Bumpin Blends Was Created

When Lisa first started Bumpin Blends, she created it specifically for postpartum moms. But after a few months, there was a demand to create more blends for ailments that all women face, regardless of their phase of mothering.

So, what are Bumpin Blends? They are individual cubes of hand-selected produce to be blended with liquid. Each cube is made of pure and organic ingredients. Each blend is custom-made with natural ingredients to address whatever symptom a woman is facing.

What is even more unique is that each Bumpin Blend subscription comes with a 24/7 on-demand nutritionist that can be reached through text. Lisa knew how many questions women can have when it comes to health and wellness and that having these questions answered immediately can be a huge relief.

What is Inside the Custom Smoothie Blends?

Unlike a lot of smoothie blend mixes on the market, Bumpin Blends are not created with any powders or supplements. They are made of pure fresh and organic ingredients. Lisa and her team have created blends for energy (the most popular), milk supply, anxiety, and even sex drive (which is a best seller!).

Lisa and her team are very conscious of sourcing quality ingredients. They pick the produce when they are ripe-fresh and freeze them immediately. This is so important because to get the full benefit to help with whatever symptom you’re facing, you need the purest and best ingredients.

For example, the sleep smoothie blend is made up of cherries, basil, and bananas. Each of these ingredients has a naturally occurring ingredient to help with sleep. Cherries and basil have natural melatonin. Bananas have magnesium. If you were to eat one of these ingredients alone, it wouldn’t quite have the same effect as the blend together.

How a Nutritionist Can Help

As mentioned above, any subscription to Bumpin Blend comes with an on-demand nutritionist. So, what can you ask your personalized nutritionist? Lisa says they receive so many different questions and can help with almost any need. Women have asked questions about everything from what to feed their kids to postpartum weight loss to milk supply. The questions you can ask your nutritionist aren’t limited to JUST the blends.

Lisa was passionate about making the nutritionist available 24/7 because she knows how it is as a mom. Mom’s can’t be limited to the typical 9-5 schedule, they need answers around the clock.

How to Get Started with Nutrition and Wellness

Just like the “expert” opinion is always changing with all things baby, it’s also always changing with nutrition. Because of this, Lisa says to do what works for you. Kim fully agrees as this is what she promotes with sleep coaching.

If you want to eat all organic or all homemade, that’s great! But, Lisa has great advice: “I’m a big fan of moderation, in terms of don’t do anything 100%, do everything at 10-15% and add on slowly.”

How you approach nutrition for your family can also change based on your phase of life and other commitments. For example, with Lisa’s own kids, she approached mealtime differently. She had a lot more time on her hands with her oldest and focused more on baby-led weaning and making homemade baby food. But with her second child, it was a busier season and she relied more on purees and premade food. She says that “as a mom, you have to put your own mental health first when it comes to feeding. Do what works for YOU!”

Something that you can do no matter the stage of life is to introduce your kids to a wide variety of flavors. Give your kids different flavors and textures. Lisa also advises against making a completely separate meal for your kids. Find a way to take what you’re already eating and make it work for your baby or toddler.

Finding Balance as a Working Mom

Kim asks Lisa how she balances having a successful business, being a mother to two children, and navigating this new lifestyle in a pandemic. Lisa says the most important thing she has done is to make her mental health a priority. She’s had to accept that life is no longer “normal” and to roll with the punches.

Kim is curious about what dinner at Lisa’s house typically looks like. Like Lisa suggests about using moderation, her family eats moderately plant-based. Lisa loves to make a sauce out of whatever vegetables she has in the house and to serve over pasta. She also loves making lentil tacos. Although they try to eat plant-based, they still have meat and dairy on occasion when dining with extended family.

Both Kim and Lisa agree that with cooking, nutrition, motherhood, sleep training, EVERYTHING, you need to find what works best for you and your family. Don’t get caught up in an idyllic lifestyle, thinking that you have to be one way or another.