Celebrating 5 years in style!

What a fabulous party we had to celebrate five years of the Arlington/Alexandria chapter of Holistic Moms Network!

Thank you to all the many volunteers, exhibitors and donors to our raffle and silent auction!

And thank you to all the members, former members, and visitors who came out to support us!

We enjoyed:

family yoga with one of our longtime members, Sylvia, who teaches at  Lil Omm, Sun & Moon Yoga, and Saffron

live music with Marsha Goodman-Wood

 refreshments provided in large part by MOM's Organic Market, along with South Block Juice & Smoothies, MTO Kombucha, Nourish Market, and Z-Pizza

 a raffle with tons of great prizes and a silent auction with many wonderful services to bid on

goodie bags (donated by Whole Foods Market Arlington) that were filled with coupons and discounts from local area vendors (including Studio Body Logic, My Whole Self, Mind Your Body Oasis and Portrait Playtime) along with samples of Divine Mama bars, Go Chews from Momme Meals, and muscle rubs from Acupuncture Alexandria

conversations with over 25 practitioners and businesses, and lots of time to play and socialize.

Thank you to FUMC for hosting and to everyone who joined in the fun.

Please join us for

• our special daytime meeting on April 2 with Shep Saltzman on "Thyroid Health" at 10:30 at Shirlington Library and 
• our April evening meeting on April 24 (a week later than usual because of spring break) with Dr. Rene Hackney on "Siblings and Birth Order" at AUMC, 716 S. Glebe Road. This will be our last meeting at AUMC, which is undergoing changes. Please let us know if you have another meeting site in mind for us!

VA and MD chapters of HMN

Looking for a chapter of Holistic Moms Network in the DC Metro area?

Arlington/Alexandria Chapter
Meets the third Thursday of the month, 7-9 p.m. and occasional daytime meetings
Chapter blog: http://holisticmomsarlalex.blogspot.com/
Chapter site: http://chapters.holisticmoms.org/chapters/va-arlington/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HMNArlingtonVA

Burke/Springfield Chapter
Meets the first Monday of the month 7-9 p.m.
Chapter site: http://chapters.holisticmoms.org/chapters/va-burke-springfield/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holistic-Moms-Network-BurkeSpringfield-VA-Area-Chapter/489228161127642

Loudoun County Chapter
Weekday and weekend meetings in Ashburn, Sterling and Leesburg
Chapter site: http://loudounctyva.holisticmoms.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holistic-Moms-Network-Loudoun-County-VA-Chapter/111192005648907

Northern Virginia Chapter
Meets the second Tuesday of the month in Fairfax, 6:30 p.m.
Chapter blog: http://hmnofnova.blogspot.com/
Chapter site: http://chapters.holisticmoms.org/chapters/va-northern/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HMNNOVA

Montgomery County Chapter - launching April 16!
Chapter site: http://chapters.holisticmoms.org/chapters/md-montgomery/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HMNMontgomeryMD/

Information is subject to change; always check the chapter site for updated information. The national site for the broader Holistic Moms Network is HolisticMoms.org

Update: There are new chapters in the works in Gainesville, Richmond and Virginia Beach. If you know someone who might be interested in co-leading one of these chapters, please contact hmnmentorlisa (at) holisticmoms (dot) org

Don't see a chapter near you? Start your own chapter! Join a great community of Holistic Moms Network leaders!

Celebrating Five Years: Anniversary Party March 20!

The Arlington/Alexandria chapter of Holistic Moms Network is thrilled to be celebrating five years of community in 2014! It's time for a party!

Please join us Thursday, March 20, 6-9 p.m. at Fairlington United Methodist Church, 3900 King Street, Alexandria, Virginia for what promises to be a great night of celebration, connection, and community.

We'll have refreshments for everyone and crafts for the kids, plus family yoga and entertainment.

Many of our past speakers will be on hand to chat and share information in a mini holistic living expo.

There will be lots of raffle prizes and items for bid in a silent auction (cash or check only). We will also have goodie bags with additional discounts and fun stuff.

Auction proceeds will go toward chapter expenses and also be donated to the Helping Moms in Need program, which sponsors HMN memberships for low-income families across the country.

This event starts at 6:00, an hour earlier than our usual meetings, to make it easier for children to join in the fun!

Schedule:
6:00: Doors open. Holistic Living Expo opens and silent auction bidding starts.
6:15: Family yoga with Sylvia of Lil Omm
6:45-7:15: Music by singer-songwriter Marsha Goodman-Wood
7:15: Announcements & thanks, followed by socializing, networking, food, & crafts
8:00: Silent auction closes. Raffle winners announced
Purchases of silent auction items (cash or check only), more socializing and networking
9:00 Event concludes

Exhibit area will include the following businesses:

Acupuncture in Del Ray, Alexandria Wellness Center, Apurva Wellness Center

Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment, Big Green Purse, Body Connect Health & Wellness, Center for Natural Cures, Cornerstone Chiropractic, Coach Scott Fox (EFT Practitioner, Everyday Health and Wellness, Freedom Wellness Global, Grow Your Health Festival 2014, Health Builders, Healthy Self, LLC, Holistic Intuition, Lil Omm Yoga, My Whole Self, Neck Back and Beyond, Power of Movement, Pure Living, LLC, SleepWell Sleep Solutions, Steinmetz Center for Integrative Medicine, Sun & Moon Yoga, Teal Center for Therapeutic Body Work, TRUE Health and Wholeness, Whole Dental Health Center

MOM's Organic Market of Alexandria is providing a major portion of the refreshments. Thanks, MOM's!

Thank you to all of our donors! Come see what great offerings they've made for the silent auction and raffle
The Teal Center for Therapeutic Bodywork Harris Whole Health
TRUE Health and Wholeness
lil omm yoga
Sleep Well Solutions
Northern Virginia Midwifery
Marybeth Walsh of My Whole Self
Steinmetz Center for Integrative Medicine
MtoM Consulting
The Gellar Law Group
The Center for Natural Cures
Whole Health Dental Center
Acupuncture Alexandria
Silver Diner
Elevation Burger Arlington
Mind Your Body Oasis
House of Steep
Live Well with Liz
Divine Mama Bars
MTO Kombucha
Nourish Market
revel birth services
Maryland Institute of Integrative Health
Local Motion Studio
St. Elmo's Coffee Pub
Encore Stage & Studio
Brigid Schulte, author of Overwhelmed
Momme Meals
Mindful Healthy Life of Metro DC 
Dr. Cindy Durakis at The Healing Tree
Honest Soul Yoga
Jan Watkins Counseling
Dr. Margaret Gennaro
Neck Back & Beyond
Solar Publishing
Holistic Intuition
Big Green Purse
Whole Foods Market Arlington
Richard Fischer, DDS
HealthBuilders
Sally DiCesare of Your Blissful Journey
Apurva Ayurvedic Healing
Alexis Knox NYR Organic 
Love & Carrots
Cornerstone Chiropractic
Body Connect Health & Wellness
MOM's Organic Market  

Plan Your Garden!

Thanks to Guy Kilpatric, director of horticulture at Love & Carrots for sharing his organic gardening wisdom with us at our February meeting. We talked about soil, sun, and seed and had a great conversation about how to involve children in gardening.

 

 

We're working on scheduling a Moms Night Out on the topic of chores and shared household responsibilities which can also address integrating gardening into home life.

Guy also sounded open to an on-site follow-up mini-meeting, perhaps in summer when he point things out during full bloom.

To learn more about member-only events in addition to the public monthly meetings, join our chapter at http://membership.holisticmoms.org/

Starting the new year off right! Meal Planning panel rocks the house

Our Meal Planning panel was a ton of fun! We could have talked all night!

Thank you to Christi Flynn of http://www.christiflynn.com, Lindsay Huttman of TRUE Health and Wholeness http://www.true-hw.com/, Michelle Pfennighaus of FindYourBalanceHealth.com  and Christy Przystawik of Feeding Families Well http://www.feedingfamilieswell.blogspot.com for sharing with us your insights as health coaches and as moms. We all learned a lot and had some great conversations. It was great to share our struggles and successes, whether we were followed vegan, Paleo, dairy-free or Traditional foods diets.

If you'd like a copy of the notes from this meeting, email jessicahmnarlalex (at) gmail (dot) com to request them.

And stay tuned for a follow-up Moms Night Out and daytime meeting (for members).

To join our chapter and to participate in our additional programming outside of monthly meetings (which are open first-time visitors), visit http://membership.holisticmoms.org/ and choose Arlington/Alexandria. For questions about our chapter in general email holisticmomsarlalex (at) gmail (dot) com, and for questions about membership in our chapter, email membershipHMNArlAlex(at) gmail (dot) com.

Lindsay Huttman has our panel in stitches. Being a mom and a health coach provides lots of funny material!

Rachel shares the way she gets her kids excited about responsibilities and roles.

Lots of people want to know about meal planning!

Lindsay Huttman and Christi Flynn

Christy Przystawik and a visitor

Monica sewed an apron that Rajae won as a giveaway. Nina wants lessons!

Christy Przystawik with Kim and her neighbor

Michelle Pfenninghaus with Alejandra

Christy Przystawik with Sylvia

Meal-Planning panel discussion on 1/16

If one of your New Years resolutions has anything to do with food for your family, our January 16 Meal Planning panel discussion is just the thing to start your year off right!

We will be joined by at least three holistic health coaches who are all moms. They will each share some of their insights from their own experience, their training, and their work with other parents. They'll offer us different approaches to planning healthy meals for our families. We'll also have the chance to share with one another.


Our Meal-Planning panel includes:

• Christi Flynn of http://www.christiflynn.com/
• Lindsay Huttman of TRUE Health and Wholeness http://www.true-hw.com/ 
• Michelle Pfennighaus of FindYourBalanceHealth.com 
• Christy Przystawik of Feeding Families Well http://www.feedingfamilieswell.blogspot.com

This meeting will be back at our regular location:
AUMC, 716 S. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22204
7:00-9:00 p.m., Thursday, January 16, 2014

See you there!

Available Speaker Bios:

Lindsay Huttman is a certified Personal Trainer and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. Once stressed and sedentary in a corporate job, Lindsay began personal training and through that experience, decided she needed a career change. Life is too short to not be doing what you love, and from that realization, she became passionate about helping others realize their health goals. Lindsay has trained individuals of varying experience and athletic levels. Her coaching experience includes clients seeking chronic disease support, increased athletic performance, and increased energy. Lindsay also specializes in pre, postnatal and child nutrition. 

• NASM Certified Personal Trainer
• Nutritional Therapy Association (NTA) - Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP)
• American Association of Nutritional Consultants (AANC) - Certified Nutritional Consultant (CNC)
• CPR/AED certified

Lindsay works at TRUE Health and Wholeness - a multifaceted fitness and wellness business serving Arlington and Alexandria, Virginia.

Michelle Pfennighaus is a Nutrition & Health Coach certified by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She suffered for years with debilitating IBS and anxiety, until finally healing herself through changes in diet and lifestyle. Since then, she has used food as a catalyst to transform the lives of thousands of clients worldwide. Her life’s reinvention has been documented in the movie “Lemonade” and she’s been featured on ABC, NBC and NPR with her inspiring story. Learn more at FindYourBalanceHealth.com.

Formerly the executive chef at one of DC's best restaurants, Christy Przystawik started three of her own businesses (including a restaurant), and assisted in opening three others. Ten years ago she started teaching people about eating healthy local foods and how to cook them. Going from the glamorous restaurant scene to people's humble homes was an amazing and significant step. She now works with two groups of people: parents and children. She teaches parents how to feed their children, from 6 months to 18 years. And she teaches children life-changing words like "local" and "in season" and how to chop, prep, and cook the most amazing foods. Aside from her own company, Feeding Families Well, she also works for The Breastfeeding Center for Greater Washington and teaches the FoodPrints programwith FRESHFARM Markets at Peabody Early Childhood Center.

Delicious and inspiring talk with Stacy of Paleo Parents!

If you ever thought grain-free eating wasn't hilarious, you clearly have never seen Stacy Toth speak. The PaleoParents.com blogger and co-author (with husband Matt McCarry) of the gluten-free kid-friendly cookbook Eat Like a Dinosaur and the lushly photographed why-adults-should-eat-sustainably-and-mindfully how-to Beyond Bacon gave a wonderful presentation to our group on December 19.

In a candidly witty conversation, Stacy explained how she came to find the Paleo diet and what it has done for her and for her family. She addressed practicality as well as philosophy. Many of her tips came from her soon-to-be-an-e-book pamphlet available for just a little while longer at http://paleoparents.com/paleo-parents-pamphlet/

We all learned a ton and enjoyed snacking on Stacy's brownies and pumpkin muffins in addition to fruit and nuts and nut butters (and Artisana coconut butter), guacamole and veggies, and lots of other Paleo-approved treats like Lara Bars, Hail Merry cocoroons, various types of kombucha. With such delights for the palate and such an entertaining presentation, it felt like a true night out!

We are grateful to Stacy for coming to talk to our group and glad so many folks could join us!