I am very excited to announce two very cool things!

1. I have just launched an exciting project I dreamed up a few years ago:
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Cafe Inspire: A perky blend of raw cake and inspiring speakers!

This is the place where I will be bringing you raw cake and inspiring events. I will be running both live and on-line events (if it’s an on-line or recorded event then you will be gifted a recipe for raw cake so you can make it yourself!) I don’t have an actual cafe, but will be using various venues around Stockholm, and eventually the world!

2. My first guest presenter is amazing!! In October Kate Magic will be holding 2 raw food classes, full of cutting edge info, gorgeous raw cake (made by Miss Magic!), and lots of lovely books and treats to buy!

So hop on over to Cafe Inspire and find out more!

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When I was younger I was a girl guide. Yep, complete with blue uniform and life-saving badges. I think I stopped going when I got old enough to be aware of the lack of ‘cool’ factor about this activity. But I did learn one thing from my experience as a helpful, if not rather mischievous little girl guide, and that is from their motto ‘Be prepared’.

If I could only give one tip to help people succeed at eating yummy, healthy, energizing food it would be just that: be prepared. We need to plan a little and think ahead to make sure that we always have access to the food that best serves us. If not, then when energy levels drop, or hunger strikes we are at the mercy of convenience stores, vending machines, or the nearest restaurant, which may not even have a salad bar.

If, however, you have thought a little ahead then you will have something to snack on to keep you going, keep your mind alert and keep you away from life-draining temptations. And this pre-planing doesn’t even need to entail a lot of work. Just by buying or ordering in some suitable snack bars to keep in your handbag or desk, you are giving yourself a much better chance at staying true the foods you know keep you happy and healthy. Of course fruit is a great option too, but it’s also good to have something with a longer shelf life so you can have some emergency stashes dotted around your person/office/car/home.

This week I tried a great bar from Juice Mastercalled ‘Veggie Juice in a Bar‘. As they say themselves ”It’s juice…but in a bar”. Made from 100% raw vegan ingredients this yummy, moist bar is packed full of goodies such as dates, almonds, wheat grass juice, green vegetable juice, sea vegetables and algae. No nasties in this bar what so ever. Just yummy goodness, and that’s what we want, right!? Of course, you can’t beat freshly juiced veggies, but having them so conveniently stored in a bar is a fab idea

I liked this bar, not only because it’s packed with juicy raw goodness, but also because all the green seems to balance out the sweetness of the dates. So although it tastes sweet, it has a more of a sweet-savoury taste. I didn’t feel over-sugared by it either, as I can sometimes feel from date based treats.

It has a nice balance of carbs and protein so would make a great snack before or after working out too. I will be stocking up on these for sure. And I am not the only one who has a soft spot for these bars. Last year they won the Best New Food Product Prize at the Natural and Organic Awards.

The bar also comes in a super fruit variety containing acai and goji berries, which I will want to try next. Purely in the name of research, of course!

Oh, by the way, my bar was sent wrapped in paper, which seems to be a good idea as the paper absorbed a little moisture from the bar. So you may want to wrap this bar in a tissue or something if you keep it in your handbag, in case it leaks a little juiciness. I am queen of having to peel squished raisins and the like from my dairy or mobile phone, or tying to get rid of other squashed food stains from inside my handbag, so I can definitely recommend a little preventative action here!

Stock up with a box of the yummy Veggie Juice in a Bar and Super Fruit in a Bar from Juice Master here >>

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As you may recall from a previous post, Christoffer and I had the pleasure of spending a day and night at a lovely spa the other weekend. It was a really lovely thing to do, and what I found interesting about the experience is that while the actual physical part of being at a spa is, of course, simply heaven, the simple act of being treated to something is equally as wonderful.

This is very exciting, because I don’t feel that the feeling of self-worth carries a price tag. The fact that the spa cost quite a bit of money wasn’t particularly relevant (lucky for us, our stay there was a gift from someone!). Of course, it was divine to use the luxurious facilities, but the fact that we had taken time off work, time away from our daily routines, in order to ‘treat’ ourselves was the most significant thing.

We may not have someone who will treat us to a stay at a spa. In fact, we may not always have someone who’s thoughtful enough to make us a cup of tea, to offer to make dinner, or give us a foot rub, so we need to be even more aware of gifting small things to ourselves.

It’s so easy for us to get swept up in the tidal-wave of life, whooshing along between work, household duties, family responsibilities, studies, growth…everything, that we can forget to just take time out and thank ourselves for all that we put into our existence.

For me, once I tasted this sense of the extra-ordinary, it left within me a glow of knowledge that for others to love and respect us, and value us even, we need to love, respect and value ourselves.

Yesterday, for probably the first time since I started work on my Miss Best projects last Autumn, I actually took a proper tea break. I made some tea, (and some raw treats, of course!), sat on the sofa (well away from my computer) and just took some time out. Apart from the minimal cost of the tea and chocolate treats, it didn’t cost me a penny. But damn! Did I feel like I had wrapped up an hour’s spa session and presented it to myself!

And I returned to my desk, relaxed, invigorated, productive, and feeling just a little silly that I don’t do this more regularly.

Inspired by this, I decided that it would be a lovely gift this morning to treat myself to some yoga before I did anything else. And so, when it was time for me to make my morning smoothie, and sit down at the computer I felt really rather special. Like it was my birthday! Or a ‘Me’ day! Every day should be a ‘Me’ day! I think we are cable of giving more to others when we nurture ourselves with rest, relaxation, Life-Loving food, exercise and self -appreciation.

As Tinu Su once wrote: “I must prioritize my day to do things that nurture my soul before anything else.”

And so, fueled by all these inexpensive, easy-to-do little gifts of self love, my lovely Christoffer and I have decided to spend this weekend in our home version of a luxurious spa.

OK, so we don’t have a swimming pool, hot tub, or private chef, but we are going to treat ourselves to a liquid feast of fresh juices, smoothies, shakes and raw soups to energise our bodies. We are – or at least I am – also going to enjoy doing more yoga, soaking my feet in my lovely foot bath that Christoffer’s sister gave me for Christmas, massaging our feet, walking in the forest with our dog.

I am also planning on trying out some natural, home made beauty treats such as hair masks, facial scrubs etc. This is where I would LOVE your input. If you have any that you can recommend, please post them below.

I am really excited about this weekend. I am very interested in what this experience will trigger, and to see if I can continue with my little gifts of self-love.

l will let you know how this weekend of relaxing self-love goes in a future blog post. In the meantime, have a fantastic weekend, full of little treats. And do let me know your favorite home-made natural body treatments, below!

Oh, and I would love to take this opportunity to let you know about a yummy, introduction to raw food class that I am holding near Stockholm on 24th April. Perhaps this is a prefect opportunity to give yourself a gift of self-love? Please visit this page to find out more!

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As you may have gathered by now, I am pretty interested in food and nutrition. Hee hee…if you have been following this blog for a while, or see what I am up to on Facebook, then you will know that this is a bit of an understatement. Learning about food and nutrition, making food, eating food, loving food, and teaching others to make heavenly healthy, Life-Loving food pretty much fills up all my waking hours in the day – when I am not out walking with our dog and cuddling my boyfriend, that is!

So when I finally got round to reading Gabriel Cousen’s book Depression-Free for Life: A Physician’s All-Natural, 5-Step Plan, I gobbled it up almost as quickly as one of my yummy desserts. The link between nutrition and mental health is hugely fascinating.

On a basic level, I know myself just how much my enthusiasm, motivation, patience, creativity and positivity is affected by what I do and don’t eat.

There are many factors that cause depression, and as Cousens says, there is no magic bullet – pharmaceutical or natural – that alleviates all types of depression. But part of his natural, five step plan to cure depression, without the use of drugs, is to ensure that we are eating the right balance of the omega fats.

People often think, like I used to, that fat is not something you want on your plate; that healthy equals low fat. A slim person must be healthy; low-fat food always means healthy food, and all fat is bad and must be avoided at all costs.

There was a time that I would save my fat intake for desserts and junk foods. Although my main meals were pretty healthy and contained whole foods, they were very low in fat, which meant that if I wanted to treat myself to rich dairy ice-cream or refined, sugar-laden cake, then I could do so…

Oh, poor, silly Miss Best! I now know that a) good fats are essential for good physical and mental health, b) processed fats and refined sugar are not good for the body, and c) you can actually have healthy and tasty desserts! Yay!

I know I wasn’t alone in this thinking. One college friend told me one day that she had skipped her lunch-time sandwich and just ate a chocolate bar because she was on a diet! Someone else I observed would eat daily low fat versions of unhealthy snacks laden with salt, refined flour and sugar, just because the label screamed out that it was ‘less than 3% fat’!

But now, every day, I enjoy good healthy fats such as avocado, flax oil, cold pressed olive and coconut oils, nuts and seeds to provide me with the good fats needed for the function of my body and brain. I enjoy these essential fats even more when I can use them in a dessert! Some of the desserts in my eBook ‘Loving Life-Loving Desserts’ are less than 3% fat (the Frozen Desserts, for example), but most are slightly higher in fat. However, the ingredients used in these desserts contain not only goodies such vitamins, protein, fiber and minerals, but also balanced, healthy, and essential fats.

We need Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) in the correct ratio for good mental health, sharp vision, cardiovascular health, and healthy skin and stomach. In fact, all our organs depend in EFAs. You have probably heard about EFAs, and that it’s important to eat foods that contain Omega-3, but what we also need to remember is that we shouldn’t eat a lot of food that is high in Omega-6. Many people consume too much omega-6, which is found in highly processed foods containing hydrogenated fats, and there is a risk that people who eat a low-fat diet of mostly refined foods are creating an imbalance in their bodies and minds due to the skewed ratio of omega-6 to omega-3.

So, to rectify this imbalance, we need to ensure that we avoid highly processed foods, and eat more Life-Loving Foods that contain Omega-3. Sea vegetables such as nori, hijiki and kombu contain a good balance of EFAs, as do the following foods, which also have the the highest levels of omega 3:

* Walnuts
* Pumpkin seeds
* Soybeans
* Kidney beans
* Flaxseeds

Flaxseeds (linseeds) have a particularly high concentration of omega-3s – a much higher concentration than those found in cold-water fish, for example. They are also one of the richest sources of lignan – a special fiber that is converted to compounds called lignans, in the colon. Lignans are great for the immune system, and are also antiviral, antifungal, and have been associated with reduced rates of prostate, colon and breast cancer. And if this wasn’t a great enough gift from nature, they are also packed with protein, B-vitamins, calcium, magnesium, and other nutrients such as potassium.

So, I think you will agree that these teeny flax seeds are mighty little powerhouses, and should definitely make a feature in our daily lives. But how do we do this?

One or two teaspoons of flax oil, or one tablespoon of ground flax seeds should meet your daily requirement of omega-3s. While flaxseed oil is a convenient way of consuming flax (on salads, and in smoothies, for example), it does not contain the beneficial lignan that the seeds have.

Flaxseeds are inexpensive, which is good news. You can buy them whole or ground: if you have a nut/seed mill or coffee grinder, then I suggest you buy whole ones and grind them yourself, as they quickly lose their healthful properties once milled. Ground seeds should be stored in the fridge.

If you are not used to eating flax seeds, it may be a good idea to gradually introduce them into your diet. If you eat a lot of them straight away, they may …er… have a bit of a FLAXative effect! So start with a teaspoon or two to begin with.

It’s a really great gift to yourself to get into the routine of adding crushed flaxseeds to your breakfast cereal, or on top of your food. I understand, however, that it’s not always very tasty to sprinkle ground flax seed on your dinner, so I have a tasty recipe for you to make sure you have no excuses for not eating your omega-3s

This recipe is inspired by Ani Phyo’s Coconut Breakfast cakes from her book Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. I have built on her idea by adding pumpkin seeds, which are also a good source of omega-3, as well as being high in zinc, magnesium and iron. Ani’s original recipe uses only flax seeds, but I think the addition of pumpkin seeds makes them tastier, as well as boosting the nutritional value. Also, as I said, if you are not used to eating so much flax seed in one sitting, then this combination will better suit your tummy.

I have also added some yummy and nutritious goodies such as cacao, raisins and goji berries. If you can’t get hold of gojis, then just leave them out. If you don’t have a seed mill, just buy ready ground flax seeds, and process the pumpkin seeds in a food processor.

These are like a raw version of pancakes, and make a fantastic breakfast, brunch or dessert.

Chocolate OMG Cakes
Serves 2

1/2 cup ground flax seed (about 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons whole seeds, ground)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, ground
2 tablespoons dried coconut
2 tablespoons raisins
1 tablespoon gojis (optional)
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/5 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons agave syrup or maple syrup
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons water

Mix everything together in a bowl and form into four patties. Place the patties on plates, drizzle with agave syrup or maple syrup, and serve with plenty of fresh fruit. They are also divine with one of my Raw Sauces and/or Frozen Desserts, such as Chocolate Chip Ice Dream.

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As you know I love to share my recipes with you, and I usually blog about food that I have recently been eating. Since my last blog, however, I have been eating – or rather drinking and slurping – mostly green smoothies and green raw soups. I am not going to share those with you today as I have done so on a few occasions and I do rather believe there is more to life than smoothies and soups, even if they do make me feel satisfied, energetic, zingy and balanced.

I would like to share, however, a little of what I have been feeding my mind the past week or so. Christoffer has recently bought and devoured the book ‘The 4-hour work week’ by Timothy Ferriss. On his recommendation, I too gobbled it up as quickly as I could and found it most helpful and inspiring.

As the title suggests, the book provides helpful, and often humorous, tips and case studies of how to make your work days more efficient to advance towards the ultimate goal of working just four hours a week, but with at least the same – if not higher- relative income and preferably from remote locations, to enable you to travel the world (if you so wish), or do other fun things while still either working as an employee or as an entrepreneur.

What struck me while reading the book are the similarities between this approach to working-life and Life-Loving food. The initial similarity is the goal. For the 4-hour work week (4HWW) it is to free your self from spending most of your days having to earn money to have instead the time, energy and love to do things that bring you and others joy, such as traveling, learning languages or a new sport, helping others, spending time with your family, or spending your days doing what you are really passionate about e.g making music, art or gardening. To love life.

I have had the pleasure of briefly enjoying the life Ferriss describes while we were in Costa Rica. For a few weeks, Chris and I worked remotely/freelance. We spent a few hours a week working from the hammock in the above photo and the rest of the time learning Spanish, snorkeling, chilling, drinking from fresh coconuts, and planning our lives. I can certainly recommend this as a life-goal!

(If you want a great place to stay in Costa Rica, go to Cashew Hill Jungle Cottages in Puerto Viejo. This is where we stayed for 5 weeks, and had the best time thanks to great owners of this establishment.)

The goal of bringing more Life-Loving Food into your life – apart from the obvious fact that it tastes amazing – is to bring you health, energy and joy. If you spend less time (or preferably, no time) feeling tired, ill, depressed, moody, bloated and blurgh, then you will have time, energy and love to do the things that are actually fun, like the examples in the above paragraph.

Ferriss introduces/reminds us of Pareto’s law. Vilfredo Pareto (1843-1923), a ‘wily and controversial economist-cum-sociologist’, demonstrated the highly uneven distribution of wealth in society where 80% of the wealth and income was possessed by 20% of the population. This 80/20 principle, as it is also known, can be found almost everywhere and in business and even our lives the ratio of output to input is (roughly) 80/20.

Therefore, Ferriss encourages us to look at our businesses to see where the majority of the income comes from. Some may find, for example, that 80% of revenue comes from 20% of their customers. The remaining 80% of customers can be high maintenance and un-profitable and so Ferriss encourages us to spend as little time as possible on these customers, and to certainly not spend money and effort marketing towards them.

It would be interesting to analyse our lives and our health with the same principle in mind. What foods bring me the most energy? (And by this I dont mean calories. I mean energy left over after digestion that can be expended doing other things.) I believe our health (and indeed our lives) reflect not just what we do or eat but what we don’t do or eat.

For example when it comes to physical ill-health (a negative output), someone may find that they are mostly eating healthy food e.g 80% but if they are still filling up on steak and chips, bread (gluten), booze, coffee and dairy products for the remaining 20% they may find that 80% of their discomfort stems from the 20% of the unhealthy foods they are eating. The solution? To cut out those 20% of foods that you may feel you ‘need’ but which don’t actually serve you. It’s amazing that even though we feel that ‘it’s only one cup of coffee, or one bacon sandwich’ how much of an effect it can have on our health; even it is just for one day. I know myself, I have done the same. One cup of coffee out of a whole day’s intake of food and drink (5%) can make me feel 95 % crap! Which is I why I will never drink more than the very occasional sip of coffee.

Similarly we may find that 20% of the people we spend time with (family, friends, partners, customers, bosses or colleagues) bring us 80% of our joy and well-being, while the remaining 80% may be high maintenance people who don’t bring anything positive to your relationship. Surely it is better then to avoid those 80% life-suckers and invest our time and love in the life-enrichening 20% and have time left over for other pursuits!

Something else that struck me as similar is other people’s reactions to both goals. Many people are suspicious of both the 4HWW and Life-Loving (vegan/raw) Foods. ‘Surely if it were that simple everyone would do it!’ I have come across more than my fair share of skeptics who refuse to consider the link between diet and life style with ill health. And not just that, many don’t believe that we can feel fantastic in our body and minds if we give ourselves the chance.

And I myself have been victim to the conditioning that the only option in our work lives it to trudge away putting in all your waking hours in a job you don’t much care for, with retirement as the final goal to bring joy and free time.

Both Life-Loving Foods and the 4HWW are long-term investments in your life, but both can produce immediate results which is both encouraging and motivating. By adding healthy foods to your life and cutting out unhealthy ones (even in small amounts to begin with) will bring some immediate positive results. Likewise, if you go on one of Ferriss’ proposed email diets and ensure you only check your mail twice a day, for example, you will immediately free up both time and mental energy.

In addition, even if you don’t feel you can incorporate 100% Life-Loving Foods in your life, or structure your business or working life as an employee according to the 4HWW, you can still benefit by adopting just a few healthy foods or tips from Ferriss.

So today, I encourage you to look at your life and see what brings you 80% of productivity, good health, love joy and laughter. Focus your energy and time on these things and see if you can make a start to cut out the offending 80% dead weight.

I for one will be dissecting my life to see how I can make it more efficient so that I can do more pleasurable things like writing e-books, and developing other fun things to help others love their lives. Speaking of which my e-book ‘Loving Life – Loving Desserts’ will be available for sale in the next few weeks’ I am super excited and will let you know when I have a little preview for you! In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Check out ‘The 4-hour work week’ by Timothy Ferriss here >> and here:

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The days have gotten ridiculously short here in Sweden. By that I mean of course, the hours of daylight have been re-scheduled into a rather inconvenient slot somewhere between 8 am and 3.30 pm rather than the customary 24 hours being slimmed down as some sort of money saving precaution.

I am very grateful for the fact that I work from home and can go out walking at lunch time so that I at least get a bit of fresh air when it’s light – unlike poor Christoffer who only gets to see what our area looks like in the daylight on weekends! But I really have have to keep an eye on the time to make sure that I have taken Pixie dog for a nice long walk before it gets too dark. One damp, cloudy day when it had barely gotten light at all thanks to the grey sky I caught myself having a little moan at this. I had to have a little giggle though because I realised that I was trying to find someone to blame the lack of light on: the government, the recession, the price of out-of-season tomatoes….but then I realised ‘it is as it is’ and asides from moving to a warmer sunnier country there is not much I can do about it, but stop moaning, put on my walking boots and get some air and exercise!

Which reminds me of an interesting fact I read in Gabriel Cousens ‘Conscious Eating’ where research shows that exercise gives relief from depression in 80% of cases where as Prozac helps about 65-70%. I think that is an amazing, and probably not well-known fact. And the side effects of exercise are heck of a lot more positive than those of Prozac!

I am not about to naively bang on about how to cure depression by slipping on a pair of leg warmers and doing an aerobics class as I am no expert in Prozac or depression. Besides, if I was depressed I am not sure how I would react to someone saying ‘C’mon grumpy pants, get your trainers on a give me 100 sit-ups’ as I am sure it’s more complex than that, but now when I am just mildly bored of the dark damp grey days (hurry up and snow properly will you!!?) I know that I certainly feel better for getting daily exercise.

But I do believe that exercise has to be fun. I love a walk in the forest with Pixie. Christoffer loves spending a day on the golf course (actually, yes, it is physically demanding – I have seen how his physique improved when spending hours on the course each week, which rather put a stop to my ‘golf isn’t a sport, it’s a recreational stroll for pensioners’ attitude!) I also love a good dance but don’t do it enough, which is a shame as it puts such a big smile on my face. So next time I get a bit fed up with the weather I will reclaim my power and make sure I ‘don’t blame it on the (lack of) sunshine, don’t blame it on the (lack of) moonlight (damn clouds!), don’t blame it on the good times; blame it on the (lack of) the boogie’. Ooohhh, yeah!

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Well, after a blissfully sunny September, summer has finally left Sweden for the other side of the world. The leaves are turning to beautiful shades of yellow, orange, red, making a striking contrast against the deep greens of the pine and fir trees.

And so people start sniffling and coughing and debating whether or not they have this piggy fever, or whatever the new thing that the media and the government are using to scare us into a) buying in to vaccinations and medicines and b) thanking them for ‘protecting us’ against this new health terrorist.

Thankfully, Miss Best likes to burrow away on her projects from the comfort of her own home and doesn’t often come in to contact with the sniffly folk. (Why isn’t it acceptable to just stay home when you are sick and not go around on over-crowded trains and offices spreading it to everyone else? Why should people be guilted into reaching for the Lemsip and soldiering on, when all we need, as Tom Hodgkinson puts it, is ‘to go to bed with a pile of books and a fruit salad’?)

But last week Christoffer came home feeling rather under the weather. And he really didn’t look good either. So I juiced some oranges and apples and a large knob of ginger, stirred in some camu-camu (which is extremely high in naturally occurring vitamin C) and put on some Pau D’arco tea to brew. These potions plus a light raw dinner and a long night’s sleep really did the trick! He woke the morning restored to his good health. Amazing!

There are some nice tips on how to boost your immunity in Detox Your World’s ‘A little bit of Passion’ e-zine. Have a look and see if you too can avoid turning in to a little sniffle monster this season!

Be well, be happy!

Miss B xxx

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The other day we watched an episode of Two and a Half Men when Jake, the 11 year old kid in the show, has been grumpy all week long. His parents keep asking him if there is anything wrong, and even his ‘cool’ uncle Charlie has a go at trying to get him to open up. Assuming it’s a reaction to his parents’ divorce his mother books him an appointment with a child psychologist. The housekeeper suggests what’s really wrong with him, but her idea is waved away and so Jake is dragged off to the shrink. Even she can’t get him to open up about anything, and Jake’s family get increasingly worried about the little chap, especially when he asks to go to bed at seven that evening.

The next morning, however, Jake bounces into the kitchen back to his chirpy self. He grabs himself his usual bowl of ‘wonderfully nutritious’ (not!) maple loops, sloshes on some milk (ahem!) and bounces out of the kitchen again leaving his dad and uncle with questioning looks on their faces. Then the housekeeper tells them that she paid Jake a visit before he went to sleep and gave him a bottle of prune juice. “I told you” she said “ He was just constipated. And what do you expect, all you feed him is pizza and pancakes!?”

So all that Jake needed was a nice relaxing poo! So simple! But I wonder how many people just laughed at the story line and left it at that, as a bit of light comedy relief from the day’s grind, or if many actually reflected on the situation. How insane is it that people – and I know this is not limited to sit-com characters – will send themselves or their kids off to a shrink or a medicine pushing doctor before even considering something as basic yet so crucial as the link between what we put in our body (food, drink etc) and what comes out (energy, emotions, poo!). And we can’t leave it up to the ‘professionals’ to figure it out. Doctors have a frighteningly small amount of hours dedicated to nutrition during their degree.

Fear not, I am not about to digress into another blog about “number twos”. I have already done that and there are plenty of other people out there informing us of the perfect poo and celebrating with a Facebook update or tweet when they have produced such a perfectly formed plop.

But what I do want to convey is that I am constantly fascinated by the effects that food can have on our bodies and our moods. Several studies have shown, for example, that improving the diet of prison inmates and ‘problem kids’ have improved behavioral disorders. So imagine what it can do for you, or your kids, or loved ones who are perhaps struggling through the day, are constantly tired or just swing from mood to mood.

I have recently started a course in Vegetarian and Vegan Nutrition Consultancy and while I was buying some of the books on the reading list, and I decided it was time to order Gabriel Cousens’ books Conscious Eating and ‘Depression-Free for Life. ‘Conscious Eating’ is based on Dr Cousens’ 30 years of research into the “art, science, and practice of optimum nutrition” and ‘Depression Free for Life’ shows how to heal depression without the use of drugs but instead using mood-boosting substances (sounds almost a bit dodgy!), vitamin and mineral supplements, and a mood-boosting diet and lifestyle. I haven’t had enough time for more than a flick through these books – the former being over 800 pages long! – but they look that they are going to be a seriously fascinating and useful read.

The reading that I have been doing for the course is deepening my knowledge of the vegan diet and re-fueling my passion for promoting plant-based food for a healthy and happy life. We often read of the vegan diet as ‘beneficial’ to our lives, but based on the facts that I have been reading I now consider the vegan diet to be crucial for a healthy and happy life.

I am so excited that the food I create is really life supporting and not just kick-ass tasty! How could I possibly serve you up a collection of recipes using ingredients that toxify your body, cause cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, obesity etc etc etc etc? I love and respect you more than that and I would feel that I would be doing my fellow humans a sincere disservice by offering them anything less.

The Perky Lime Pie (raw and vegan) that I perfected today is an excellent example. So tasty; rich yet refreshing, and bursting with goodness. It’s made with….whoops, nearly revealed my secrets. You are going to have to wait for the book to find out. Sorry, I know I am a dreadful tease!

So now I have gotten you all worked up, here are some sexy facts for you to think about:

Interesting Facts – Diabetes:

Fact 1:
Studies carried out in Finland and Canada show a strong link between childhood-onset (type 1) diabetes and the consumption of cow-milk protein
(Source: Food for Life, Dr Neal Barnard, NY, Three Rivers Press, 1993)

Fact 2:
A raw vegan diet can reverse diabetes!* Check out this amazing film that documents the journeys of 6 diabetics who go raw for 30 days and remove their need for insulin: Raw for 30 Days
*“The program featured in the film at the Tree of Life Rejuvination Center is most effective with diabetes type 2 but is also very effective at increasing quality of life and reducing insulin levels for diabetes type 1 “

Image: Piku

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I invest a large proportion of my energy and resources into my health and well-being. I prioritize good quality, healthy, home made organic food over many things. I would rather forgo a few trips to the cinema/pub every month in favour of ensuring that what I eat makes me feel well, happy and healthy both physically and mentally.

Much of what I read helps my personal growth, and I try to exercise and stretch regularly to keep myself in reasonable shape, and to avoid stiffness and back pain which I can get from sitting at a desk all day. (Notice the ‘try to’…there honestly are days when I can’t be bothered and so my little body scrunches up in to a crippled chair shape until I am literally forced to un-scrunch my self again with a brisk walk and some yoga!)

I know that not everyone has these priorities in life, which I respect. But also know that many people have looked at my lifestyle choice and wonder why I bother. I mean I do spend a silly amount on fresh, health giving food, I go without many things for sake of the environment, and I seriously narrow my job prospects for the sake of not working for obviously ‘evil’ companies that harm my health, the health of others, the environmental or animals.

I think that some doubt the usefulness of investing in their physical and mental health for the future. One person justified their lack of investment in their health by saying ‘Life’s too short – I could get run over by a bus tomorrow’. Indeed that is true, and we must live with this in mind. Not to be depressing, but we need to remind ourselves that life is short and the years tick by so quickly that if we don’t live the life we want to live now, then it may be too late.

But I am not just investing in my future I am investing in my now. If I eat non-supportive food today and don’t exercise for weeks then I feel the negative effects immediately; not just physically, but also emotionally and mentally. It’s not just about giving myself the best chance to avoid illness later in life. It still may happen, but if my todays are good then my tomorrows are more likely to be good too. If I have a clear mind (which eating mostly raw food and plenty of greens does indeed give me) I will more likely make better life choices today. Today is my future.

The ironic thing is that when this person told me that life was too short – that he might get run over by a bus tomorrow, so there was no point in stopping smoking – he was working as a cleaner in the office where I worked. My instant thought was: if this guy thinks he may die tomorrow then why the hell is he emptying bins and not living his life to the max spending time with his kids or fulfilling that dream he had always had?

I fully appreciate the commitment and challenges it takes to shift one’s life from a place of bad health to good health, but if we discover that the benefits will be felt immediately then perhaps we would be more motivated to make these changes. After all, someone may live a healthy life and feel great on a daily basis and still get seriously sick at age 80. Someone may abuse their body and mind with bad food, cigarettes and lack of self respect and live till they are 100, but every day might pass with them feeling low in energy, unenthusiastic, unhappy and with a foggy mind. Thinking short term and looking forward to a shift in our well-being in the immediate future may seem more motivating than doing it to prevent an unimaginable, bad thing that may or may not ever happen.

Personally, I know that if I am looking after my physical and mental health it gives me more clarity, strength, creativity and passion to get on with the things I really want to do in life. It’s an investment that gives amazing returns. So even if I end up having to empty bins to earn a living, at least I can do it with a spring in my step and a smile on my face.

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