Flower porn

SPRING INTO GOOD HEALTH

HAPPY SPRING LOVERS!!

Spring is often welcomed with open arms after the bitter chill of winter. It is actually considered the first season of the year due to its sense of renewal and fresh starts. Our energy lightens and begins to move ‘up and outwards’ after hibernating during the winter months.

Spring is the perfect time to clear out our wardrobes and cupboards and let go of superfluous possessions. As this season sees us lightening up physically and emotionally, the food we eat needs to reflect this also.

ORGANS THAT NEED A LITTLE EXTRA LOVE THIS SEASON:

Our liver and gallbladder are sensitive during spring. We need to lighten the burden placed on them by being mindful of our intake of coffee, alcohol and fatty foods. Feelings of anger, resentment, irritability, frustration and impatience are stored in the liver. Flower essences and spending time in nature (biophillia) are ways to move through these feelings.

NOURISHING YOUR LIVER AND GALLBLADDER:

-incorporate SOUR foods into your diet like sipping on lemon or lime juice in water before a meal.

-consume BITTER foods like adding a handful of rocket to your salad, swapping to rye bread and brewing chamomile tea.

-eat FRESH, YOUNG greens like salad greens, sprouts and wheat grass.

-fruit salad and freshly made juices and smoothies are recommended.

-seafood is an excellent protein this time of year.

Pack away your slow cooker and bring out your wok. Spring is the time to be cooking food at a high heat for a short period of time such as stir frying or steaming. Choose an extra virgin coconut oil when frying and make sure your veggies still have a great crunch to them. Or throw together a quick salad.

 Avoid salty, heavy foods like meats which put stress on your liver.

TASTY SPRING MEALS

Brekkie: Free range egg omelette with goats cheese and a handful of rocket

Berry smoothie: berries, almond milk, psyllium husks, wheatgrass and mint

Lunch: Vietnamese rice paper rolls with local prawns

Fresh garden salad with home grown sprouts

Dinner: Scallop stirfry packed with vegies

Thai laksa with broccolini and soba noodles

Emma the Naturopath xx

Phone: 0266 514 533

Facebook: Essential Health Coffs

Instagram: emma_the_naturopath

Pie and lattes

Remember everything in moderation... including moderation!

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. A bouquet of home-grown kale and parsley from a gorgeous friend.

2. Taking a pair of scissors on my afternoon walk around the block so I can help out my neighbours by trimming their jasmine for them.

3. The beach this morning: pods of dolphins riding waves, happy dogs bounding around and finding perfect whole cowrie shells.

4. The red, orange, yellow and pink poppies at the roundabout in town. They look like butterflies fluttering in the breeze.

5. The return of that handsome husband of mine who’s been sailing around the ocean in Indonesia for the past 3 weeks. He returned with a few stitches and scratches but wearing a smile and carrying a bottle of French perfume.

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. An incredibly special mention to a beautiful Sicilian man, Tony Locandro. 

He took me to his yoga classes with him when I was five.
He gave me my first chai in a tepee at the Body Mind Spirit Festival when I was eight.
He patiently (and sometimes impatiently) taught me to drive a manual car. 
He would “forget” to tell me when boys called.
He bought me my first toolbox and a bag of cable ties for Xmas one year and then proudly explained how to use each device.

He paid for my naturopathy degree because he knew this was how I was meant to spend my life.

He proudly gave me away 18 months ago to my loving husband who promised from the bottom of his heart to be the one to take care of me now. (picture: )

Life doesn’t come with instruction manuals, which is why we have fathers xx

*NEW MEDITATION GROUP IN COFFS*

The lovely Maree Loprete will be running a meditation group the first Monday of every month at 7pm at her house. Cost $15 and all welcome.

Chocolate Zucchini Brownies

These are the most deliciously dense little morsels. They only rise a few inches and are really rich and moist so cut them into small squares for the perfect accompaniment to a peppermint tea as an after dinner treat or lunchbox snack!

1 ¼ cups almond meal

¼ cup cacao powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

¼ cup coconut sugar

2 tablespoons coconut oil

¾ cup zucchini, grated (one small-medium zucchini)

1. Throw all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz til smooth.

2. Grease 6.5 x 4 inch loaf pan with coconut oil or line with baking powder.

3. Bake at 180 degrees in a preheated oven for 35-40 minutes.

Dairy free

Wheat and gluten free

Paleo friendly

High protein

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Discovering Tumblr. No seriously, JUST found it.

2. Those yellow papery flowers that grow on headlands. Does anyone know what they’re called?

3. Freshly ground nutmeg in Wednesday night’s gluten-free tuna pasta bake.

4. A guilt free day off after an overbooked day of clinic on Thursday. In a nutshell: yoga, beach swims, chiro, new top, chai with a gf, afternoon nap, baking, date night.

5. Stifling giggles during yoga with my husband as we pulled silly faces at each other. I usually meditate deeper than a Buddhist monk except when he’s in class with me. We are the perfect balance: I keep him safe, he keeps me wild.

Emma the Naturopath xx

“I’ve learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel” –Maya Angelou.

No matter what you do for a living or whose path you cross this week, try to keep this in mind. Spread the love this week by being a little kinder than expected. The simplest gesture can change the course of someone’s whole day.

Here’s the honest truth… 

I cringe a little when people tell me they take a multi. High five for making an effort in the health department but the majority are synthetically produced and have sprinklings of EVERYTHING but NOTHING at the same time if you know what I mean. If they made a multi with the correct therapeutic amounts of vitamins and minerals it would be the size of a GOLF BALL!

Firstly, try and eat a diet full of unprocessed wholefoods: free range chicken, fish, eggs and meats with a variety of fruits, veggies and wholegrains, as well as healthy oils. That goes without say!

If you still need an extra BOOST then look at something like SPIRULINA. Spirulina is an aquatic microalgae that is considered more of a food than a manmade vitamin, therefore it absorbs 16 times more effectively.

I recommend spirulina to customers and clients who feel like they don’t have enough energy and need a bit of a ‘pick me up’. It’s particularly helpful for vego’s and vegans as it contains iron (58 times riches than spinach), protein and B12. Due to its high chlorophyll content, it’s an excellent blood cleanser (detoxifier) for glowing skin. It comes in tablets and powder that you can throw in your morning smoothie.

Have you tried spirulina before? Do you take a multi? What are your thoughts?

CONNECT FIVE

There is a song by Sheryn Binks that is on one of our mixed cds at the shop called Connect Five. Every time I hear the chorus while I’m working I smile to myself. It’s so simple and sweet, like the way love should be.

You would never leave me in the cold
you would never think my jokes are old
you would never give me bad directions
you would vote for me in the elections

You would write about me in your diary
if I was your employee, you wouldn’t fire me
you would put my picture in a frame
you would sit beside me on the train

And if we played connect 4, you would connect 5
and if I let you in you’d
change my whole life

*FREEBIE ALERT* 

You will receive a full sized Kora Organics by Miranda Kerr valued at $37.50 

for any product you purchase from the range!!

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Our undies hanging in a tree to dry after an impromptu river dip.

2. Drinking a giant mug of hot chocolate* while watching a DVD in the bath on my laptop.

3. Being read to by my husband each night. Even if Occy’s biograpghy is not my bedtime story of choice.

4. The moon on Tuesday night. It looked like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland was grinning down at me.

5. The inundation of bubs and kiddies in my clinic the last few weeks! And all their mummies deserve shiny ‘Super Mum’ badges for organising time off work to come in, bravely filling their lunchboxes and dinner plates with new foods and sneaking substances into their smoothies.    

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside of you that is greater than any obstacle”-Christian D. Larson. Rest assured that you are stronger than you know. Just have faith and patience.

*Hot choc =Pure Harvest ‘Coco Quench’ organic coconut/rice milk heated on the stove with raw cacao powder.

Essential Health

Boulevard Arcade (opp. Blush), Coffs Mall

0266 514 533

Facebook: Essential Health Coffs

Insta: emma_the_naturopath

How to shop like a naturopath

DIY ALMOND MILK AND BLISS BALLS

I made almond milk over the wkend! I decided that I had better things to do than spend time standing in the milk aisle of the supermarket every week trying to compare all the different brands. It was so much easier than I thought it would be and I already had the ‘equipment’ at home. The leftover ‘nut meat’ is ideal for making bliss balls.

ALMOND MILK

You will need:

1 cup almonds

Filtered water

A blender

A fine rice sieve

A glass jar with a lid (at least 750ml)

1. Soak 1 cup of almonds in some filtered water. Leave overnight.

2. Rinse and drain in the morning and put almonds in a blender.

3. Add 3 cups of filtered water and blend for about a minute. After you've tried this a few times you can experiment with the almond/water ratio to achieve the consistency of milk that you like.

4. Sit the empty jar in the sink and hold the sieve above it. Slowly pour in the milk, about ¾ cup at a time. I use the back of a spoon or my fingers to push it through the sieve. Pop the ‘nut meat’ in a spare bowl, then keep pouring the milk through until it is all done.

5. Pop the lid on the jar and store in the fridge for 2-3 days.

BLISS BALLS

You will need:

A food processor

A bowl for rolling balls in chia seeds

An airtight container for storage

1 x pkt of organic dates from the fruit/veg section of the supermarket. Has about 8 dates in there.

Leftover ‘nut meat’ or just soak 1 cup of almonds overnight in water then drain

1 cup cashews (ideally soaked overnight)

½ cup coconut oil

½ cup oats (leave out if coeliac or substitute with quinoa flakes)

½ cup raw cacao powder

½ cup LSA

½ cup shredded coconut

2 Tbsp protein powder (I use vanilla pea protein powder)

1 cup chia seeds for coating (or use desiccated coconut or LSA)

1. Throw everything (except chia seeds) in a food processor and blitz til combined thoroughly. If the mixture is too dry add more coconut oil or a fresh banana. If it is too wet add oats, shredded coconut or LSA.

2. Pour chia seeds into a bowl. Roll into mixture into small balls, coat in chia seeds then place in storage container. Continue till all mixture is gone.  

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. A faux mink leopard print blanket.

2. Button mushies, garlic and parsley cooked in salty organic butter on spelt toast.

3. The interesting things you find whilst spring cleaning: old love letters, the shell necklace I used to live in when I was 18 living in Byron, my FAVE bikini that I hadn’t seen since the summer of 2011.

4. My current morning juice combo: pine, mint, green apple, cucumber, lime, wheatgrass juice.

5. Finding the charm bracelet I had when I was little (yet another score from spring cleaning). There was a little silver apple on it because I wanted to be a naturopath when I grew up. I took the apple charm into the jewellers this week and had it made into a necklace.

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. Here’s one of my fave quotes by Marianne Williamson. Live loudly people!!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. 
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. 
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? 

You are a child of God.

Your playing small 
Does not serve the world. 

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking 
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, 
As children do. 
We were born to make manifest 
The glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; 
It's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, 
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. 

As we're liberated from our own fear, 
Our presence automatically liberates others.

I arrived home tonight from another whirlwind day in the shop to this touching email from one of my clients. It warmed my heart and reminded me that I am following the right path xx

"Thank you, Emma. I really appreciated your calm, attentive, and dare I say, quite angelic attitude. You gave the impression of really loving your clients".

Did you know that Essential Health has an Instagram account? 

Check out: emma_the_naturopath

*DELIVERY ALERT*

Vanessa and I spent the afternoon unpacking our MASSIVE Moogoo delivery!!

There are tonnes of new products including:

*Sun protection range: Cover Up Buttercup sunscreen, How Now Brown Cow (natural fake tan) and an anti-aging face cream plus SPF.

*Gentle baby range including Mini Moo bubble bath and Mudder Udder balm (nipple treatment for breastfeeding mums).

*‘Dr Zoo’ pet range for four legged friends: Itchy Dog shampoo and Irritable Skin balm

Come in and have a play with the testers!

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Finally digesting way too much choc avo mousse.

2. My bachelorette meals this week while my husband is in Indo: varying from extravagant meals cooked from scratch to a chicken breast, a carrot and a handful of snow peas on a plate.

3. The snap, crackle and pops of everyone’s joints at a winter mornings yoga class.

4. Fri night’s hour and a half bath: a pot of tea, 3 new mags, fairy lights and a punnet of strawbs.

5. Something hilarious happened during my dream and I actually woke myself up this morning from laughing in my sleep. What a fantastic way to start the day!

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself” –Thich Nhat Hahn, Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk and peace activist.

Please remember to celebrate your own unique beauty x

HOW TO SHOP LIKE A NATUROPATH

1. Fresh is better than frozen, frozen is better than canned: Opt for fresh, local and seasonal produce.
2. Always have a rainbow of veggies in your trolley: Each colour represents a different phytonutrient (naturally occurring compounds) that has specific health benefits.
3. Ocean raised fish is better than farmed: Only buy Australian fish and seafood that haven’t travelled from a far off country.
4. Avoid UFO's (Unidentified Food Objects): if you can’t pronounceable ingredients or they are full of numbers, put it back on the shelf and slowly back away.
5. Choose real foods and avoid processed (man-made) foods: If it didn’t walk on the land, swim in the sea or grow in the ground, rethink your choice.
6. Always buy organic for these dozen fruits and veggies: Apples, capsicum, celery, cherries, grapes, lettuce, broccoli, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach and strawberries.
Oh yeah, and bring your own bags.

Emma the Naturopath xx

Essential Health (opp. Blush in the Boulevard Arcade in the Coffs Mall)
0266 514 533