Mama G's Lifestyle - About Mama G Header

Gina Cousineau, aka Mama G, has been a fitness professional for over 35 years. Married for 39 years, she and her husband Mark are blessed with four children along with two grandchildren, Olivia, and Kellen, and reside in San Clemente, California. With her AA in Culinary Arts and bachelor’s degree in dietetics, she started her career as a chef’s apprentice with the Hilton Corporation. As a young mother, she opened a prenatal/postpartum fitness program. From there she became a group exercise instructor and personal trainer, moving into management, always using her education in nutrition, and love of food and exercise, to affect change in her clients. Her Master of Science degree in Integrative and Functional Nutrition, as an empty nester, along with her extensive experience working with clients for over 30 years, allows her to customize a lifestyle plan that empowers each one to flourish in their very busy and diverse lives.

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In this day and age, when people are obsessed with “weight loss”, and have little time to commit to cooking, her job is most challenging. Her mantra is to “cook once and enjoy more than twice”. That paired with a simple and easy game plan and more than 200 recipes available on her virtual recipe library of all cultures and themes, helps get clients into the kitchen using real, wholesome food to not only hit and maintain their weight goals but significantly improve their health.

At sixty years of age, Gina practices what she preaches and preaches what she practices, understanding the value of using “food as medicine” paired with a little calculated exercise in one’s daily life, but also the importance of “preventative care screening” and having a medical provider that believes in shared decision making. Because so many lifestyle diseases today are both increasing our disability and shortening our longevity, in order for individuals to have a sustainable lifestyle shift, there are many facets that go into a successful approach, including interactive nutrition education AND a practical approach to putting science and evidence-based nutrition on one’s plate.

Anyone can lose weight by partaking in a restrictive and punitive diet approach, BUT keeping the weight off and more importantly, improving one’s health is the ultimate goal, so Gina provides daily accountably/interaction with her clients, weekly nutrition lessons and coaching sessions, along with video tips and tricks from her kitchen, virtual cook-a-longs, and more to build healthy habits that stick.

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Gina works with a wide spectrum of individuals through all phases of life and circumstances, including high school athletes, young adults, and growing families through the senior years, but she finds no better joy than reversing chronic lifestyle diseases that most are told they will never succeed at. “To help an individual suffering from high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes, and are at risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and more, is life-altering, to say the least”, beams, Gina. It is amazing to watch people transform their lives when they felt so utterly hopeless.

If you are interested in finally losing weight for good, improving your health, boosting your performance capabilities, wanting to gain control of your chaotic lifestyle, or are truly sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, Mama G is your gal.

Let’s hop on the phone for a 30-minute complimentary chat so you can share your story and then allow Mama G to communicate how together we can reach your goals for good.

To learn more about Mama G, click the button below.

 

Listen to this powerful podcast to learn what makes Mama G tick and why she lives to help others with the Mama G’s Lifestyle.

Learn more from Mama G’s Wisdom

Getting Comfortable with Getting Uncomfortable

In the midst of Heart Disease Awareness Month, I have to take this opportunity to help you realize the value of owning your heart health in this moment, even if it feels uncomfortable. To make changes in life, we must get comfortable with getting uncomfortable. Ask...

Advocacy Save Lives March 9, 2023

Preparing to write, I found myself looking up "the art of" meaning, finding the explai1ation as "to beco1ne very adept or proficient in some area, activity, or pursuit." This is my jain-the art of saving lives. My hope within every monthly column is having the ability...

Reality Check for the New Year

On a flight hon1e from the East Coast last week, I counted more than a dozen TV commercials promoting their new and proven diet programs. In opposition to the January weight loss obsession, one popular gyn1 went so far as to state it is not accepting new members in...

Why You should Consider a Healthy Eating Pattern

Facts are facts. By losing only 5-10% of one’s body weight, our health will improve. But most people have much loftier goals, dreaming of what they once weighed in college or when they were just married. Secondly, as we age, our body composition shifts and metabolism...

What Is a Healthy Eating Pattern?

I walk through life worrying about other people. Whether it is my husband, a client, or a stranger, I happen to have information that can shift the trajectory of their lives, increasing years of longevity and decreasing disability, but most don’t seem to care.  ...

Know Your Cholesterol Numbers

With September touted as National Cholesterol Education Month, it provides me with yet another opportunity to remind my readers of the critical importance of their heart health, and my desire each month to provide continuing education on how to move toward a healthier...

Calm or Chaos

I am hyperaware of people’s food choices. That being said, I am concerned only with my own plate during my meals, planning for all scenarios, especially when away from home. When I am dining with others, though, it seems that they become “more” aware of their food...

Weight Loss or Health Gain

As a nutrition expert and trained chef, you might think I am outside of my scope of practice when I tell you my goal is to save my clients’ lives, not only one plate at a time, but also through teaching them how to advocate for their health.     Read more...

When Life Hands You Lemons

After what was truly the trip of a lifetime with my youngest daughter to South Africa, we both contracted COVID-19 at the very end of our trip. Not exactly the souvenirs we planned on bringing back home, especially after avoiding it like the plague for the past...

Eating Around the World

I am writing from Cape Town, South Africa. I have been very blessed to have the opportunity to travel around the world, and this trip I get to share with my youngest daughter. I had zero assumptions about the adventure, which has totally exceeded all expectations. I...

Nutrition Chaos

I love to hike, so I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to free docent-led hikes for all fitness levels with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy group at letsgooutside.org. While there are awesome trail systems right here in our own backyard, I love the...

Consuming ‘Priority Foods’ More Regularly

This month as we enter National Nutrition Month, I will continue to share “lifestyle shifts” that will move you toward improving your health, which in most cases will involve helping you reach your weight goal. We are going to focus on Mama G’s “priority foods” this...

Prioritizing Heart Health

Nationally, we observe “American Heart Month” in February to raise awareness to the importance of a healthy heart and encourage healthy habits meant to reduce our risk of heart disease. This campaign encourages individuals to take up a healthy habit, educate...

Winning for Life

In the sports world, we clearly understand that without a good defense, games will be lost. As a nutrition professional and sports enthusiast, I often use this concept to motivate clients on their health journey. As we move into the new year, resolutions and...

The Ultimate Gift: Your Health

Every day, my clients tell me how difficult this time of year is with all the holiday events and not-sowholesome goodies placed in their paths. Human beings are fascinating, as we cling to the nostalgia of Christmas’ past and continue to return to particular foods and...

What’s on Your Holiday Wish List?

Every year about this time, we make that wish list, encouraged by love ones who want to get us that perfect something. In typical Mama G fashion, I will continue to highlight the importance of self-respect and the need to put your health at the top of that list. But,...

Finding Your ‘Blue Zone’ Lifestyle

There are five regions in the world with the highest concentration of male centenarians—men who are at least 100 years old. These regions where people live the longest, and are healthiest—referred to as “Blue Zones”—are in Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya,...

Advocating for Your Health Can Save Your Life

As a nutritionist, most people come to me for weight loss, but due to my training in integrative and functional nutrition, my goal is to help my clients live long, healthy, independent, joyful lives. So, along with a sustainable nutrition approach to lose the weight...

Just Another Manic Monday

How many times have you woken up on a Monday morning stating, “Today is the day I am going on a diet”? Perhaps you were nursing a hangover from too many indulgences including food, drink, and play, and decided, “Today, I will make a change.” Summer is here, and as we...

Are you Desiring Weight Loss or Health Gain?

A prospective client who seeks me out largely does so for weight loss, initially. My hope once we begin working together is not only to help them achieve their weight-loss goal, but also to gain the ability to advocate for their health. In today’s society, we put too...

Macros, Calories and Exercise…Oh My! Part 2

Hopefully, you can hear me chanting, “Lions and tigers and bears … oh, my!” as you read the title of this month’s column. People continue to be “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs” when it comes to the latest and quickest way to weight loss. I am completely capable of helping my...

Cooking Your “Weigh” to Health and Happiness

As we enter the holiday season in these uncertain times, I feel compelled to help you see that your food choices cannot only bring joy to you and your entire family, but can be curative at the same time. While I had every intention of writing this month about how your...

A Fresh Start This Fall

Every time I’m in a situation where people find out I’m a nutritionist, they want to ask me very specific questions about differing diet approaches. Last week was no different. As I was preparing for elbow surgery, from overuse, the pre-op nurse asked me about a diet...

Healthy Aging Habits For Staying Active

Too often we take “advice” from so-called “experts,” who don’t practice what they preach, nor do they necessarily have the knowledge to do the teaching. In this area, I have experience working with many seniors over the years, and I, too, am a senior, albeit a rookie...

Your Health and Fear Over Contracting Covid-19

No fewer than six times this year, I have written my monthly column with COVID-19 at the forefront, as its effect on our lives, both physically and mentally, cannot be denied. As a nutrition professional, people typically reach out when they are finally “sick and...

You Are Your Child’s Nutrition Influencer – Take The Role Seriously

You can’t deny that we parents are the ones who control what our children eat the majority of the time, especially in the midst of a pandemic, when we are together 24/7. While I am an evidence- and sciencebased practitioner, when it comes to nutrition and our food...

COVID-19’s Effect on the Environment and Your Health

As the months go by, we can’t help but see the effects that COVID-19 has had in our lives. As a culinary nutritionist and fitness professional, I know individuals who have embraced the time spent at home with consistent exercise and preparing of meals—and then there...

Are You a Victim of Food Bullying?

Most days, I am approached by strangers and clients alike, regarding my opinion on the latest diet, wellness, or health-related book, pill, potion, fad, or trend. Just this week alone, I had conversations about soy products, Lion’s mane mushrooms, dairy, lectins, and...

Nutrition for Longevity

There is no stopping the aging process, but we can certainly impact the effect it has on our bodies with our food choices. As an integrative culinary nutritionist who specializes in weight loss, autoimmune dysfunction, diabetes, and gut distress, the majority of...

Food For Thought: Would You Like a Quarantine Do-Over?

We are just starting to come up for air after experiencing unprecedented times together. Over the past few days, I have had conversations with several individuals who said they wish they could have a redo on this time at home due to behaviors they employed that they...

Our Health and the New Normal

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world faced other issues, including the mental health crisis and significant chronic diseases that have led to life-altering disabilities and deaths and are still major challenges that make us more vulnerable to this virus. While we...

Why Your Nutrition Matters

We are hard-pressed not to to mention COVID-19 as part of our daily conversations today. When thinking about finding "the new you", the importance of self-care has really been brought to the forefront of our lives, and your nutrition can no longer be ignored. I have...

Self-Care in the Midst of the Pandemic

Today, we sit in the midst of a pandemic that affects every individual worldwide, threatening our very lives. Interestingly enough, just a month ago, a large portion of us were afflicted by another pandemic, obesity. This, too, has endangered our lives and futures,...

Healthy Habits Begin One Meal at a Time

As New Year’s resolutions fade away, it is about this time of year that prospective clients ask me what is the best “diet” choice. Before answering this weighted question, I have to ask them what their goal is, as without this question answered, it is impossible for...

Are You Starving Yet?

We are seven weeks into the New Year, and I am wondering how that “weight loss diet” is going. What I have learned since I started my nutrition career back in the 1980s is that most diets with the goal of “weight loss” are temporary, unsustainable, and cause more harm...

No More Pain, No More Gain

It’s that time of year again, when lots of people are not only reinventing themselves but taking on lofty fitness and weight-loss goals, believing it’s their only option to finding true health and happiness. It’s all with the best of intentions to conquer their...

Bringing The Family Back Around The Kitchen Table

It is clearly agreed upon across the world, both scientifically and anecdotally, that the Mediterranean diet is among the most healthful food patterns. While one might assume it is simply the wholesome food components that promote longevity in this region, it really...

Create New Healthy & Active Traditions This Holiday Season

With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving and Christmas quickly approaching, the opportunity to be surrounded by your community of family and friends is here. With the abundance of holiday sweets and uncalculated meals, I want to remind you that your goal is not to...

How to Sneak Healthy Foods Into Your Child’s Diet

Today, the odds of feeding our families healthily are stacked against us, due to the influx of highly processed convenience foods that are actually chemically formulated to prevent you from eating “Just one Lay's potato chip.” That being said, how in the world do...

Managing Your Health Through the Holidays

I can’t tell you how many times Samantha B and I have heard “I just want to lose weight for the holidays” or, better yet, “I can’t believe how much weight I gained over the holidays!” I don’t know about you, but summer was barely over when I stepped into Costco and...

Addressing Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is often called the “silent disease.” Until a fracture occurs, we are often ignorant of its existence. The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) states that after the age of 50, one in two women will have an osteoporotic fracture, while one in four men...

Get Fit San Clemente: Your Guide to Living a Long, Healthy, Independent Life

Hi, readers, Mama G here, your culinary nutritionist, along with Samantha B, your fitness expert, combining our more than 40 years of experience with the goal of helping you move toward a healthier lifestyle by incorporating wholesome food and calculated movement....

Healthy Food on the GO

Today, we sit in a nationwide obesity epidemic, in part due to the convenience of highly processed and palatable, inexpensive food choices available on every corner. In an effort to make more healthful choices for ourselves and our families, we need to consider how to...

What is the Keto Diet? – Ketogenic 101

There’s a lot of talk going around about the latest diet craze, the “keto diet.” Those who have tried the ketogenic diet often talk about their successful weight loss, but then follow up with “while on the diet.” Like most diets, the goal is weight loss, and this...