What I actually look like when I run...

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Having the patience to cook homemade chicken, leek, asparagus and thyme risotto. Always worth getting RSI in your wrists from 45 mins of stirring.
2. Catching an old nana bopping along to a Hilltop Hoods track on my Triple J ‘Like A Version’ cd.
3. The sweetness of an organic zucchini.
4. Breaking my personal record during my PT session for planking. I was silently cleansing my chakras.
5. Driving past a plant nursery and seeing the sign “Have a dirty weekend”.

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. Have a beautiful long wkend everyone! I have been wondering this week how many of those mini Cadbury eggs I can eat before I lose my naturopathic accreditation ;)

Are you a long-time vegan? New vegan, trying to be vegan, or just curious to find out more about veganism? Then Coffs Coast Vegan Social Group is for you!
 Call Nat for more info 0416 122536.

The truth: you can not and will not look like a Lorna Jane model if you’re working out properly.

Your face will be lobster red, you’ll be dripping sweat, looking pretty unco and unable to talk and breathe at the same time.

When I get home from my weekly person training session all I want is a bowl of porridge. 

This is my post-workout refuel:

In a small saucepan add ½ a cup of rolled oats and cover with filtered water and cook on the lowest heat for 10 mins. Then splash in your milk of choice (mine is malt-free soy milk) and stir till creamy.

Remove from heat and add 1 tsp coconut oil, 1 Tbsp chia seeds, ground cinnamon, a scattering of frozen blueberries, a swirl of coconut nectar. If there’s some leftover coconut cream in the fridge from a curry the night before I’ll put a slurp of that in as well. Loco for the coco!

Packed with magnesium, B vitamins, fibre, healthy oils, protein and complex carbs. Then I enjoy my endorphin high for the rest of the day!

So I made these little pups today. They are the perfect accompaniment to my pot of rosehip tea on this rainy Autumn afternoon.

SUNSHINE BITES

Ingredients:
1 cup raw cashews
1 cup dried figs
¾ cup desiccated coconut
Zest of one lime
Chia seeds to coat

Directions:
1. Soak cashews for a few hours. Drain and rinse.
2. Cut figs into quarters and cover with water for 30 mins to soften them.
3. In a food processor combine all ingredients and whiz until combined.
4. Spoon out about a dessert spoon size amount of mixture at a time and roll into a ball with your hands. Pour some chia seeds into a bowl and roll the balls around to coat.

Store in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Makes 24. Great for lunch boxes, road trips, pre-workout, morning tea, kiddies parties, something sweet after dinner.

Gluten free, dairy free, raw, vegan and I made sure all the ingredients were organic. Packed to the brim with magnesium and fibre!!

Emma the Naturopath xx

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Move it and lose it.

Ahhh, the weather is warming up! What does that mean? Dresses without tights, no more cardigans and bikini shopping! Don't you just love those change rooms with the mirrors from all angles...

Needless to say we've had an influx of hopeful (and slightly deluded) customers coming into the shop lately looking for a vitamin that will instantly burn fat and melt away cellulite... I then proceed to hand them timetables and contact details for yoga classes, gyms, personal trainers, boot camps and pilates studios in the area (much to their disgust). How is all that mashed potato and apple pie with extra custard tasting now?

Dust off your runners, grab a friend and work that booty because actions speak louder than words.

And remember, sweat is fat crying!

head over heels.

You know that feeling when you’re first in love? You wake up thinking about them and when you talk about them you get a little sparkle in your eye. You get excited about when you can see them again and when you’re with them it’s the best feeling in the world.

This is how I feel about pilates. Seriously. My boyfriend often talks to me about the “surfing bug”. Well I have the pilates bug.

At the beginning of the year I was pondering a new hobby to enrich my life a bit more. Yoga felt too slow and I’ve never really been a team sports person. Then Suzanne McCarty dropped in to the shop with a stack of brochures for her new pilates and gyrokinetics studio in Sawtell so I thought I’d give it a try. To be honest I was expecting a bit of an abdominal workout. What I was not expecting was to fall head over heels for this new passion. As I write this I’m even rolling my eyes at myself at how ridiculous this must sound, but it's honestly how I feel!

If I could give somebody a massive high five, it would be Joseph Pilates, the pioneer of pilates, who dedicated his life to improving the health and vitality of others. This dude was born in the 1880s to his professional gymnast father and naturopathic mother and was obsessed with anatomy as a child, constantly studying physiology books and animals stretching in the forest of Germany. By the age of fourteen, Pilates had such a rig that he became a model for anatomical charts.

As a young man Pilates moved to England where he began teaching self defence and boxing at police schools and performed acts in the circus. After becoming imprisoned during World War I, Pilates began acting as a physiotherapist by disassembling the camp bunk beds and using the springs to create resistance to rehabilitate the injured and bed-ridden prisoners. This concept then went on to become the basis of the equipment used today in pilates studios. As the flu epidemic swept through populations of the world in 1918, it was reported that not one of the prisoners who followed Pilates’ routine fell ill.

Once released Pilates returned to Germany where he worked with dance and movement experts then immigrated to New York where he met his wife Clara, a nurse who he then went on to develop holistic ‘Contrology’ methods that incorporated deep breathing, proper posture and the correction of various physical ailments.

The studio they opened was situated below a ballet studio which attracted the dancers to quickly recover from their injuries while maintaining their flexibility. One professional ballet dancer was Romana Kyrzanowska, who went to Pilates in 1941 for help with an ankle injury. She then went on to become Pilates’ protégé and taught my teacher Suzanne, a ballerina from The Vienna Volksoper Ballet.

I could ramble on forever about the benefits of pilates that I've noticed in my own life on not just a physical but mental and spiritual level. But how about you go try it for yourself.


"After 10 sessions you will feel better. After 20 sessions you will look better. After 30 sessions you will have a completely new body.” ~ Joseph H. Pilates



Check out Suzanne's pilates studio on the link below and get inspired.

http://beyondmovementstudio.com.au/