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Quintessential Health + Nutrition

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Ballarat, VIC
Quintessential Health + Nutrition

Holistic nutritionist
Certified GAPS (Gut and Psychology) Practitioner
Certified MINDD Practitioner

16/06/2026

The latest Happy Way™ Protein & Supplements protein flavour launched today and we got to try it! ☕️ It just might be my favourite flavour and this milkshake was my favourite way to use it!

It was creamy and delicious and reminded me of what I imagined the whipped gran créma caffe we tried to get near the Pantheon but they’d sold out so I had to get this granita instead 😂

(By the way, I’m posting this in the morning but this was an afternoon delight. Far too sweet for breakfast! 😂)

One serve:
3 heaped tbsp Happy Way Tiramisu protein (I used the vegan one because we are dairy free but it also comes in whey)
2 scoops vanilla ice cream (once again, I used a dairy free one. Use Pana or the Streets / Blue Ribbon if you don’t like coconut)
1 or 2 shots of espresso (I didn’t add coffee to Asha’s - added some cacao instead)
1 tsp peanut butter
Pinch of salt
1 big tsp vanilla extract
Optional: cacao or coffee beans for decoration

Blend and enjoy

13/06/2026

I don’t have a cohesive social media strategy. I don’t have a strategy at all. 😅 I know you guys love the supermarket finds but other accounts do a much better job. I’m not an influencer or a recipe creator and I just can’t be arsed with trying to curate an ‘aesthetic’. I tend to post when I think of something. I do try to make it health related but I also feel that social media’s main benefit - even though it may not be its purpose - is connection. Many of us scroll because we feel lonely or bored or uninspired.

I know I’m a nutritionist and so my posts should be about nutrition but I’m also extremely introverted and words and images is an easier way for me to share who I am and what I do. So, on that note, what is health if not doing things that make you happy? Not the short lived type like fast food or a bag of lollies you eat without even realising … but the type that you experience with your whole heart.

The Australian Ballet did a stunning job of Romeo and Juliet. My god. 💔 The set. The costumes. I bawled in the balcony pas de deux. 😭 I did a few other heart restoring activities this weekend - a makeup class, wandered the streets until my feet throbbed, read a book in a cocktail bar until 1am and had a heart to heart with a longtime friend over divine food and wine. Surprisingly, I didn’t take as many photos as I normally would.

It’s easy to get bogged down with work and responsibilities and forget that life is supposed to be fun, I guess. If you believe health is more than just diet and exercise, you’ll get what I mean. 🥰

08/06/2026

There’s been a lot of chatter on social media about lab-grown chocolate, hey? Given that chocolate is one of my favourite things, I thought it was an important topic to discuss. 🥰 The key issue for me is safety and transparency in our food supply.

Any novel technology, especially those intended for human consumption, whether in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, or food manufacturing, deserves extremely thorough, independent scrutiny before it goes to market. We expect solid investigations into the potential impacts on human health, the environment, and animal and plant ecosystems. I know in the past, I’ve just assumed that is always the case because it’s the right thing to do. 😅 Ahhh take me back to a time when I wasn’t so cynical.

We’ve seen enough examples across Big Food, Big Pharma and industrial agriculture over the years to understand that innovation is not always aligned with long-term human health. It’s about profit, innit?💰

Of course, there’s no need for us to be scared of new tech. I come from NZ, the land of innovation and early adoption, but consumers are more than justified in asking questions of food manufacturers, expecting transparency, and preferring that the things we put in our bodies won’t do us any harm (without our knowledge).

Cacao is amazing. A true super food, if you think about it. It’s ideally produced through fair trade with minimal processing or adding of s**tty inferior ingredients. (Like the crap in the purple packets 🤨) I was looking at the chocolate I buy and realised that those of us who already choose chocolate based on those principles are unlikely to be the target market for heavily engineered or ultra-processed alternatives in the first place.

As with most things, it’s a case of buyer beware. We, the consumers, have to make sure that innovation doesn’t come at the expense of transparency, ecological integrity, and human health. I’ll continue to buy from Whitaker’s, Pana and small companies that are committed to integrity and quality. We can also make our own and know exactly what’s in it! 🫶🏽

07/06/2026

When you’re feeling down, it’s natural to want to hide away. Your capacity to handle people and their bo****ks is at its lowest, so, in many ways, it’s a survival mechanism to hibernate. However, in the modern world, we are bombarded with nonsense through our screens on an almost constant basis so it’s difficult to truly get away from it. I know it’s appealing to be drawn in by the doom-scroll when we don’t have the energy or the motivation to do anything else but we all know we feel worse for it. Most of the stuff we see is a facade and just ends up making us feel less productive and less motivated and less like we have our s**t together.

For the love of your health, if you’re reading this and your mood isn’t too good right now, put the phone down and step away. Well … read this next bit first. 😂

〰️Find a physical book and read it. Even if it takes a bit of time and effort to get lost in it.
〰️This won’t appeal to everyone but clean or tidy something. Make your bed if you haven’t already.
〰️Go for a walk - even if it’s just around the block.
〰️Dance - literally scientifically proven to lift mood.
〰️If that’s too much, go outside and just get a new perspective. I watched a couple of blackbirds hop around in my garden earlier. 👵🏽 So cute and uplifting!
〰️Listen to music. Hopefully it goes without saying to make it happy music. 😂
〰️If you can summon the energy to go further than your own backyard, go and see a movie (although, to be fair there aren’t many upbeat movies on right now.)
〰️Resist the urge to eat something high in sugar. That too is a survival mechanism from yesteryear. You have to override it because food is not something we need to hunt for days to find. If in doubt, make it protein.
〰️Remind yourself that we need contrast. I know it’s a bit of a cliché but we wouldn’t be able to appreciate the highs without the lows, right? This too shall pass.

Hang in there, buddy. 🫶🏽

04/06/2026

I adore my kids. I must’ve done something right in a past life, hey? 😍 The girls picked up this failsafe packet mix to make me red velvet cupcakes for my birthday yesterday. 🥳🧁They make the icing with quality butter so they’re not technically dairy free but they’re delicious! I’d give the ingredients a 7/10 but no one is expecting a cake to be much higher than that.

Gluten Free Flour Blend (Maize Flour, Maize Starch, Rice Flour, Tapioca Starch), Sugar, Palm Oil**, Raising Agents (Glucono Delta Lactone, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate), Emulsifiers (Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids, Mono and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Cocoa Powder (1.3%), Thickeners (Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum), Natural Flavour, Natural Colour, Fibre.

FROSTING:Sugar, Maize Starch, Tapioca Starch, Natural Flavour.

02/06/2026

Heyyy, I so appreciate the enthusiasm for my latest program. Thanks, guys! 🥹🥰 It’s not too late to join us for an eight week program designed to support women’s metabolic health. For less than you’d spend on coffee each week, you can receive support by email telling you what to eat and how to make easy, gradual positive changes to your diet and lifestyle. There are no video calls or interactive forums or time consuming meetings. I’ve designed this program in the least invasive way possible. I’ve also specifically priced it similar to my initial consult because I know not everyone wants to see a nutritionist one on one. This way, you can work at your own pace in your own time! It’s not as technical as my previous program but it runs for longer and has just as much evidence behind it. You’ll get through the worst of winter with improved energy, sleep and focus - not to mention feeling lighter and leaner. 🥳

01/06/2026

Ugh. I feel like I’ve only JUST encouraged a heap of clients to swap their cereal and low fat milk for eggs and I’m seeing the message that eggs aren’t enough protein for breakfast. 😩 Eggs are a nutritional powerhouse (don’t even get me started on choline) but if you have eaten a bowl of grains with skim milk for years and been hungry and grumpy all morning, only to chase down sugar for morning tea … eggs for breakfast is farrrrrr better than that. That “eggs aren’t enough protein” message isn’t for you. If the thought of 100g of meat first thing in the morning makes you want to skip breakfast all together, honestly, just don’t listen to the naysayers. Stick with the eggs. A savoury breakfast that is actually nutritious, albeit only 12-18g protein, is an excellent start to the day for many of us! You could bump up the nutrition with some collagen or WPI in water or even in your coffee, if you were committed to your daily protein target. That won’t add much bulk but you might find it really changes your food choices throughout the day.

27/05/2026

*The Busy Woman’s Reset 🥰
My last successful program was launched at a different time of year. January - when everyone is focusing on the crap they ate at Christmas and how they want to get back on track with their health. June is tricky down under. It’s dark and cold and it’s far easier to hibernate and eat comfort food. 😂 Don’t worry - there are some indulgences in this plan. I don’t even think of it as a diet (and I hate that word). If you want to see whether your blood sugar is on some kind of wild roller coaster every day, this is going to be the program for you. Link to get on board in my bio (or in previous post on FB)!

26/05/2026

*NEW PROGRAM! Personalised nutrition is an amazing way to support someone trying to optimise their health. I see clients for weight loss quite frequently but I realise there are a lot of women out there - and maybe you’re one of them - who might be trying to lose a few kilos, aren’t sure what to eat and perhaps don’t want to go through the process of working one on one with a nutritionist. You might be sick to death of all the noise online around what to eat and how much to eat and what the latest fad is.

I’ve designed the Busy Woman’s Reset for you! This is a simple but effective program with meals, recipes, email check-ins, a metabolic testing pathway and optional supplements to support weight loss goals for women who do not have the time nor the inclination for Zoom calls, group chit chat, or watching videos. The Busy Woman’s Reset starts 8 June and you can sign up here:

https://www.quintessentialnutrition.com.au/bwr

[Pic Anna Tarazevich]

24/05/2026

What I’ve noticed in a lot of women is that we tend to be all or nothing. When we’re happy and life is going well, we’re pretty good at eating well and working out and doing what we need to do to be our healthiest selves. When life isn’t going too well (and I’m not talking about the big things like grief and serious illness), we have a tendency to trip ourselves up. If only I could figure out the mechanism behind this!

I work to try and maintain a sustainable approach to nutrition and exercise because being super restrictive or aggressive with either is setting ourselves up to fail. Disciplined women *do* have more success but focusing on discipline alone makes some women too hard on themselves when they fail. That blind determination goes into the restrictive, robotic category that I think has nothing to do with health. I like to strip all of that back.

If you’re too hard on yourself and you think being healthy means being aggressively disciplined and depriving yourself of joy around food and life in general, we need to have a wee chat. 🥰 Nourishment and support and understanding is what we need. Not judgement and boundaries and words that make you feel like you don’t have what it takes. I’m no drill sergeant - I’ll never make you feel like you’re doing it all wrong - but I’ll try and understand you and find a solution that works for you.

Address

90 Little Bridge Street
Ballarat, VIC
3350

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 7pm
Tuesday	3pm - 6pm
Wednesday	3pm - 6pm
Thursday	3pm - 8pm
Saturday	12pm - 5pm

Website

http://quintessentialnutrition.com.au/

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