Author Archives: Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

I Run My Family Like a Company to Keep Us Together

I’m busy, so busy that it could be easy to not care about family meetings. Yet, I believe in running my family like a business to an extent. All good organizations need meetings to reflect, plan, celebrate, and grow. From extended family meetings at my grandparents’ to the one I run now in my own house, family…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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I Had to Fail as a Mommy to Succeed as a Momtrepreneur: Getting Over Guilt to Get Things Done

As a child, I resented spending so much time with a nanny instead of my mother. She built and heads her own food service and manufacturing company, which has multiple operations in different cities. So, as a teenager, I swore I wouldn’t ‘outsource’ my childrearing when I started my own family, but that promise has…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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6 Things Mommies Can Do Each Morning to Set a Productive Tone for the Day

Do you ever feel like life just keeps ‘happening’ to you? Like each day you’re just waking up to find out what it’s going to be today. Of course, sometimes things go your way. But, for the most part you’re just floating through the days and waiting for a miracle to snap you up from…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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Have We Been Conditioned to Panic? 3 Myths About Pregnancy Over 35 Debunked

About a month after my 30th birthday, an elderly woman, who was admiring my 2-week-old daughter, asked my age and if I’d had any other children. When I told her this baby was my first, she warned, “Do your best to take care of your little girl because you might not have another one.” I…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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16 Toys That Encourage Engineering Skills in Kids

I’m grooming my daughter to become an engineer. No, I’m not going to tell her what career or fields of study to pursue. But, I want to train her brain to tinker away at the world as she manouvers her way through it. When I wrote about encouraging her S.T.E.M. education during infancy, I shared a…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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How to Practice Mindful Eating in the Midst of Stressful Living

The first time I came across the idea of ‘mindful eating’, the article had something to do with using chopsticks to eat. But, since I am living in Japan and already using chopsticks daily, I flipped the page and moved on to something I felt was more relevant. At that time, I never imagined that…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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Why Satisfying Sex Should Be Part of a Mother’s Self-Care

“Sex? Don’t look at me! I’ve got more important things on my mind.” Sound like you? Most of us became mommies because we got hot, sweaty and (hopefully) satisfied. Yet, once those beautiful babies are born, a lot of mommies put sex on the back burner. Some mamas just take it right off the stove,…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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How to Lose Weight Without Feeling Hungry

When we talk about weight loss and diets, the question that everyone asks is, “Am I going to be hungry?” Let’s be honest, no one likes to be hungry, and hunger can cause the best intentions to fail. But with meals featuring whole grains, you won’t feel hungry. That’s because whole grains are full of…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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9 Ways I Survive as a Black Woman Mothering Without a Village

Carrie Mae Weems : The Kitchen Table Series, 1990 From seeking advice about teething and feeding,  to getting help with the laundry and babysitting,  family members and friends make up the village most women depend on to help them bring up their child(ren). But, the reality for some of us is that we have made our homes in foreign countries or other locations that make it hard to see our loved ones regularly. Some of us are in this…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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12 Healthy Breakfast Options for the Time-Strapped Mom

Tired.  The perpetual state of being for many mothers. You’re already waking up before the sun rises and burning late into the night on most days, so breakfast is usually a choice between the sugary cereals you love-to-hate, toaster pastries or the sausage and biscuits from your local fast-food joint. After all, it’s much better than not…

Didan Ashanta

About Didan Ashanta

Didan Ashanta is the author of "Jamaican Green Smoothies" and a LifeDesigner who blogs about eating your way to vibrant health at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in the Tokyo, Japan with her husband and 3-yr-old daughter.

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