Act local.

I wandered through the farmers markets in town today and filled my bag with spelt bread from Bellingen (20 mins south of Coffs), bananas from Woolgoolga (20 mins north) and then bought a piece of gluten-free zucchini slice from a little old lady who was doing a roaring trade with all her scrumptious looking homemade treats. I went over to a local business and they ground up some fresh peanut butter for me, then bought the softest bamboo top from a lovely little shop that sells Australian owned and made goods. Afterwards I went into four different op shops and bought a stack of empty jars to put tea light candles in.

Here are Essential Health’s top 10 ways to support your local community:

Visit your local farmers market
Grow your own herbs, fruit and veg and make a compost heap
Pass on old clothes, sheets and blankets to an op-shop
Hand down old toys and out grown clothes to your friends who have kids
Donate money to your Surf Life Saving Club
Adopt new pets from the RSPCA rather than the pet shop
Buy your coffee at a little café rather than a big chain
Volunteer at the RSPCA, a retirement home or soup kitchen
Get crafty and make cards, toys and decorations this Christmas
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES RATHER THAN FRANCHISES!!!

What things do you do to support the town and country that you live in?

Two a day.

So bananas are still wildly expensive and lovely summer fruits like mangoes and apricots are out of season. Are you still having the recommended 2 pieces of fruit each day? Here's a few suggestions on how to make room for them in your diet:

Easy ways of having your two pieces of fruit each day:
*Make a fruit salad
*Add stewed apples or pears to your porridge
*Add tinned peaches to your muesli
*Chop fresh pineapple and add it to your homemade pizza

*Have strawberries, yoghurt and cinnamon for dessert

*Thread chopped rockmelon, honeydew and watermelon chunks onto a skewer
*Snack on mixed dried fruit such as mangoes, figs, dates and peaches
*Have a handful of prunes

*Add blueberries to homemade spelt muffins
*Take a container to work filled with grapes, berries and mandarin segments
*At the start of each week buy a ¼ of a watermelon, pineapple, paw paw, or rockmelon, slice it up and keep it in a container in the fridge for you to snack on when you want something sweet
*Make a juice smoothie:

Juice Smoothie

Blend:
1 cup of fruit juice
1 cup of watermelon
1 cup of fresh or frozen berries
1 heaped teaspoon of spirulina

1 Tbsp LSA

1 heaped dessert spoon of protein powder