No more excuses.

Essential Health's number one pet hate... People who don't make New Years Resolutions!! Or those random fluffy ones like "Be healthier" or "Get fit", but don't make any improvements or changes to make them happen.

Resolutions need to be specific and realistic. Instead of “I will exercise more” how about, “I will go to a Body Balance class at the gym on Tuesday and Thursday nights”.

The things we want in life don’t just knock on our door or fall into our lap, so think about the steps you need to put into place and certain people who can help you to make your goals happen. Ask friends if they can recommend a good personal trainer or naturopath, find the timetable for your local yoga studio, browse book shops for healthy cook books, get a new pair of joggers or sexy Lorna Jane tights and schedule workouts into your diary (in pen, not pencil) like you would a hair appointment.

Telling a friend and writing your health goals down somewhere you can see them on a daily basis like on the fridge or the inside of your diary helps to cement them.

Having said that, here are my New Years Resolutions for 2011:

*Start tennis lessons to make use of the tennis racket Santa gave me for Xmas

*Climb Mount Warning

*De-stress by getting a massage once a month

*No more eating on the run

What are yours?

No grinches allowed.

There will be no grinches allowed in Essential Health this Christmas season.

That is all.

Crazy as a coconut...

What smells remind you of Summer? Sunscreen, mangoes, frangipani and gardenia flowers, salt air, surfboard wax, watermelon and of course, COCONUT!!

Poor old coconut oil got a bad wrap a few years ago due to the fact that it's a saturated fat. But people are now getting their act together and realising that it's a little gem with a plenitude of health benefits!

Try opt for extra virgin and certified organic whenever possible. We like the brand Banaban!

HAIR CARE
Coconut oil penetrates into the hair shaft and scalp to reduce protein loss in hair, especially through damage caused by styling. Massage oil into the scalp and leave for 15 minutes as treatment before washing your hair.

SKIN CARE
Due to coconut oil’s antimicrobial and antiseptic actions, it can be used topically for treating skin problems such as staph infections. It is very nourishing to the skin so is great for dry skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. Add a tablespoon to the bath or massage into the skin after a shower. It's also an epic makeup remover and cuticle treatment.

WEIGHT LOSS
The medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil are easily digested and follow a completely different pathway when eaten than other fats. They're converted into a rapid source of energy which increases metabolism, improving your chances for faster weight loss and more energy.

LOWERS CHOLESTEROL
Studies show that using coconut oil in your diet reduces LDL (bad) cholesterol and increases HDL (good) cholesterol and therefore helps to prevent heart disease and atherosclerosis.

URINARY INFECTIONS
Pour oil into ice cube trays with one drop each of tea tree and lavender essential oils. Allow to set in the fridge and insert into the vagina before bed while using a panty liner for it's soothing and antibacterial effects. (Who knew...)

IMMUNE BOOSTING
Coconut oil is antibacterial and antiviral, and therefore can be taken internally for viruses such as the flu, stomach ulcers, throat infections and urinary tract infections. The antifungal properties of coconut oil can kill fungi and yeasts that cause Candida, ringworm, athlete's foot, thrush as well as expelling tapeworms, lice, giardia, and other parasites.

COOKING
You can use coconut oil like you would olive oil as it has an extremely high frying point without turning rancid.

What's not to love?

Click here for some more Essential Health coconutty goodness!

The 'C' Word.

Everybody has a favourite word. Mine would have to be "convalesce". Yes, it is a word...

Convalescing means to grow strong and healthy again when you're feeling tired and depleted. If you've been pushing yourself all week (or all year!) and are feeling exhausted you need to take time to unwind and find yourself again otherwise you'll burn out (and look seriously unattractive)!

A lady came into Essential Health a while ago and told me how she was going on holidays soon. When she returned to the shop a few weeks later she absolutely floated through the door. I asked her how her holiday went and she told me that she cancelled it at the last minute because she was simply too tired from all the work she'd been doing and the thought of having a full itinerary of sights to see for two weeks was too overwhelming. She still had the two weeks off work but had a "sleeping holiday" instead.

She said the first few days were mentally tough because a little voice in her head kept telling her that she was being lazy, she didn't deserve this and that she should be cleaning out messy cupboards. But then she told the voice to shut up and just surrendered to her body. She'd wake without an alarm each morning, go for a walk on the beach, have a cup of tea and fall asleep on a blanket in the backyard. She'd spend her afternoons reading her book and then pick vegies from the garden and put effort into making a beautiful dinner for her and her husband each night. She said it was the best thing she had ever done for herself.

Your goal for the weekend is to spend time doing something that brings you happiness so you can emerge on Monday looking ridiculously well rested and vibrant.

Greetings from Earth.

If you're after good karma, Earth Greetings paper goods are for you. They are an Australian made carbon neutral company that uses vegetable ink on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Earth Greetings do a range of gift tags, greeting cards, bookmarks and wrapping paper.

The 2010 Christmas card range is now hot off the press and for sale at Essential Health.

Just when you think they couldn't get anymore ethical, from each ten pack of Xmas cards sold, $1.65 is donated to the Trees for Life Foundation to plant one tree.

So keep these guys in mind next time you lose your wallet or get a flat tyre...

Bend and stretch.

It's pretty safe to say that if you typed "yoga classes"' in your area into the yellow pages search engine, probably 4 or 5 would pop up about 10 kms from your house. Yoga studios are everywhere. But why should we sacrifice an hour of our favourite crime show to adorn stretchy pants with a bunch of strangers?

Yoga increases flexibility, muscle tone and loosens joints. Instead of complaining of lower back pain from sitting at your desk all day or the headaches that your stiff neck causes you, why not strengthen your muscles and increase the circulation to these areas so they fix themselves?

Yoga poses are like an "internal massage" for all the organs of your body so it's great for digestion and increases the flow of nutrients to all areas of the body. This gentle manipulation assists your body with its natural detoxification process.

The benefits of yoga aren't just physical. We store so many emotions and tension in our bodies that when we put our bodies in different poses it helps to release this stress.

I could write for hours about the benefits of yoga, but why don't you go out and experience them first hand. Don't worry if you're not that flexible at first. Regular practice will have you folding up like a laptop in no time.

Nailpolish, toothbrushes and e-string bags -oh my!

Tis the season at Essential Health...

Butter London nailpolish

Butter London believe in colour, not carcinogens, which is why they have created a complete range of hand and nail care products without the three chemical nasties formaldehyde, toluene, and DBP. There's a tonne of nail colours to choose from including Come to Bed Red, Diamond Geezer, Frilly Knickers, Scoundrel, Saucy Jack, Snog, The Full Monty and La Moss. We also stock their acetone-free nailpolish remover.

Bamboo toothbrushes

If pandas brushed their teeth, they'd choose these bamboo toothbrushes. You should too because they are biodegradable, environmentally sustainable, and only $2.95... In Australia, over 30 million toothbrushes are used and disposed of each year, amounting to approximately 1000 tonnes of landfill each year. The plastic they’re made of won’t break down in our lifetime. Nor within the lifetime of our children. No thankyou.

E-string bags

Yoga bag, gym bag, shopping bag, market bag, work bag, beach bag... The list goes on. Made from 100% cotton, available in eight pretty colours and with short or long handles. They're $3.95 each or 3 for $10. Bargain.

Burt's Bees giftpacks

Burt's Bees carfully create their beautiful products using ingredients that are the best nature has to offer. These great little packs include milk and honey body lotion, aloe and buttermilk body lotion, almond milk and beeswax hand cream, beeswax and banana handcream, miracle salve, lemon butter cuticle balm, honey lipbalm and peppermint foot cream. All for $24.95! We'd like to know how do they fit it all in there?

Stuff those stockings!

Baking is sexy.

Do you have a loyalty card at Muffin Break? Do the ladies at your local bakery know your first name?

Now I'm not saying get rid of the sweet stuff all together... Where's the fun in that? It's all about putting effort into the food you eat and knowing exactly what's in it.

So tie up your apron straps (you too boys) and get baking!

Maria’s Health Slice

1 cup spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ cup coconut
¼ cup sesame seeds
½ cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped apricots or dates

¾ cup rice or oat milk
1 tablespoon honey

and crap-loads of yummy cinnamon!

Combine milk and honey. Add all other ingredients. Stir. Pour into lined lamington tin. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 mins. Keeps really well in the freezer.

Well go on.... Get baking!

After long last....

We're happy to anounce that the Essential Health Clinic is officially open!!

A hug in a tub.

A few weeks ago a forty-something year old "super mum" came into my shop at her wits end. Her nerves were frazzled due to working full time, looking after her three kids and husband and constantly visiting her elderly mother in the nursing home. She wasn't sleeping well, was suffering leg cramps at night and a racing heart. The only thing that was getting her through the day was her three mugacino's.

I gave her a tub of BioCeuticals 'Ultra Muscleze' and told her to cut back on the coffee and take deep breaths. She came back in last week with a relieved look on her face. When I asked how how the powder went she described it as a "Hug in a tub".

Aswell as containing a variety of vitamins and amino acids, Ultra Muscleze features a therapeutic dose of magnesium. Magnesium relaxes muscles to reduce spasms, supports nervous system function and assists with energy production. Drinking coffee increases the elimination of magnesium from the body and stress causes the body to use up it's magnesium at a greater pace.

The 150g Ultra Muscleze is $34.95 at Essential Health. That's a whole months worth of hugs :)

Dear parents...

Parents, please don't feed your kids space food sticks.

Unless they are in fact going to space.

Just a thought.

Our *Glowing Skin* smoothie.

Skincare ads in magazines are designed to be seductive so that you, the reader, think that if you spend your hard earned cash on their products that you'll resemble their (airbrushed) models.

If you want great skin, the truth is that your skin is a reflection of your digesion and overall internal health. And all the creams in the world aren't going to change that unless you look at your diet and lifestyle.

So start cleaning from the inside out by eating nutritious foods, drinking plenty of fresh water and have a good chat to your naturopath or nutiritonist to see what supplements can help you along the way.

Here's an example of a fantastic nutrient-dense meal that will help your skin glow....

Whizz together:

2 Tbs of protein powder or 1 raw free range egg

fresh or frozen fruit of your choice (eg. bananas, mango, blueberries, strawberries)

2 cups of dairy/rice/oat/soy milk

1 spoonful of natural yoghurt (we like Jalna or Bornhoffen)

a few good shakes of ground cinnamon

a small handful of rolled oats

1 tsp of spirulina

1 dessert spoon of coconut or flaxseed oil

Drink up!

Let's make out.

They come in a super cute little vintage-inspired tin.

They're organic.

They come in sweet geranium, rambling rose and peppermint and tea tree.

They're $5.95.

They're Figs and Rouge lip balms and they're now available at Essential Health.

Perfect.

Get oily people!

It's scary how many women are popping up lately with breast cancer. One in nine Australian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 85. So what can we do to prevent ourselves from becoming a statistic?

Research emerged today stating that daily fish oil consumption can reduce the risk of getting breast cancer by 32%. I take BioCeuticals Omega Sure liquid fish oil because it sourced from anchovies and sardines (smaller on the food chain and more ecologically sustainable), has no synthetic flavours or preservatives, no fishy flavour, has a higher level of heavy metal testing (as it is a practitioner-only brand) and one teaspoon is equal to 6 standard capsules.

Have you done what you need to do today to prevent breast cancer? xx

Lend me your ears.

We've always been told that “You are what you eat”. But it seems that the truth is actually, “You are what you absorb”. You might be eating beautiful fresh organic produce, free range meats and eggs and a variety of wholegrains, not to mention a selection of supplements, but the reality is, if your digestion isn’t up to scratch, you may as well be eating McDonalds...

Coffs Regional Organic Producers Organisation (CROPO) have invited Emma Locandro to be the guest speaker at next month's meeting to discuss and answer your questions regarding what you can do for your health to get the most nutrients out of your food. Pop into the Coffs Harbour Community Village, Earl Street, Coffs Harbour, at 7:30 pm on Tuesday the 2nd of November and get excited!

Meet Evelyn, Jill, Patsy and Bobby...

The "Evelyn"27cm W x 22cm H x 10cm D1 x internal zip pocket$42.95

The "Jill"26cm W x 16cm H x 8cm D1 x internal zip pocket$28.95

The "Patsy"20cm W x 14cm H x 5cm D$23.95

The "Bobby"20cm W x 10 H x 6cm D2 internal pockets$27.95

Taking a trip? Or just taking a bath? Attic Accessories have created a range of makeup and toiletry bags in a variety of shapes and sizes with functionality in mind. Proudly designed in Melbourne, Australia. Now in stock at Essential Health xx

New beginnings.

Every now and then we need to make "sensible decisions". Like going to uni while all your friends are travelling or choosing salad on the side rather than chips. Or in my case, owning a business rather than lying on the beach in Byron Bay. When you take the road less travelled, it always pays off in the end. There's no shortcut to anywhere worth going...

My parents gave birth to the shop five years ago after a string of successful businesses. Their need for retirement and my completion of uni made for an exciting opportunity that I just had to grab. They are off to Italy as I am arriving at the address of Shop 24 Boulevard Arcade, Coffs Harbour. So here begins my Essential Health journey. Come along for the ride and hopefully a few helpful tips xx