HurRAW!

"What often happens is that we label ourselves as the feeling: "I am sad, I am angry, I am happy" instead of "I feel...", which is a very different experience. It's not who I am; it is what I am feeling. And it's okay to embrace that feeling and let it flow through you, without resistance." -An interview with one of my favourite naturopaths Petrea King in this month's Australian Yoga Life.

Today I am feeling optimistic and content. What about you?

There is a constant influx of amazing new products at Essential Health and it’s easy to lose track of what we’ve got on the shelves. Once a week I will feature one product/brand to keep everyone (including myself!) in the loop. Please welcome...

*THE ESSENTIALS*
Let’s face it, we unintentionally ingest our lipstick and lip balm. Some sources say up to 4.5 kilos in our lifetime! A lot of red lippies contain nasty chemicals like lead and are also tested on little bunny rabbits. Sad face. Along comes Hurraw! lip balms that arrived to us on Thursday.

-Organic
-Vegan
-Raw
-Hand made in small batches
-Preservative free
-Premium fair trade ingredients
-Non-GMO
-No animal testing
-Gluten free
-Natural flavours and colours including black cherry, earl grey, cinnamon, blue chamomile, lime, almond and grapefruit.

So basically, it’s so natural you could eat it! We have the chai spice and coconut flavours in stock at the moment (clearly I did the order)! They are from the States and are $7.95 each.

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Cooking everything in coconut oil. This wk: spelt spiced apple cake, vegie patties, roasted vegies for lasanga, fried eggs for nai goreng, haloumi and green apple slices.
2. Getting caught in a down pour when on a beach walk. You’re instantly soaked to the bone within 30 seconds and all you can do is smile and embrace the experience.
3. Having a candlelit blackout on Friday night. Quite romantic.
4. Sleepless by Flume. I swear I just love it the more I listen to it.
5. My 89 year old client who gives me gardening advice brought me in a photograph that he took especially for me of his vegie garden. Bless!

Clear out one of those corners/drawers/cupboards in your house where you dump stuff. You know the ones I’m talking about. For me it’s the corner of our breakfast counter where I throw down my bag, lap top, files, bra as soon as I walk in the door. So much so that my husband has named it Emmy’s corner. You'll feel better without the clutter :)

So I woke up this morning... and found that Essential Health Coffs had cracked the 500 likers!! 502 in fact! Wowzers!! Thanks peeps!

Have a gorgeous week and remember that every day is a fresh start!

Emma the Naturopath xx

Address: Shop 24 Boulevard Arcade, Harbour Drive, Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450
Email: carrots_and_apples@hotmail.com
Phone/fax: 0266 514 533
Facebook: Essential Health Coffs

We heart Miranda

I remember reading DOLLY when I was 13 and Miranda Kerr won the Model Search. I had a meeting with Jane, her aunty, this week who is the rep for Kora Organics, Miranda’s stunning organic skincare range.

The week before Jane mentioned in a meeting with Miranda about Essential Health becoming a potential stockist for Kora Organics and she remembered our “cute little shop” from a few Christmases ago when she popped in to grab some paw paw ointment!

Well if we’re good enough for Miranda…

Brrrr! What happened to Summer? It's so rainy and blustery outside so I’m having a Winter convalescing day! I was in clinic this morning and now I’m spending the afternoon drinking tea, eating leftover chicken soup for lunch, reading the new Frankie in the bath, baking vegie lasanga, then off to yoga tonight. I’m clearly still pining for the winter wonderland of Japan…

Embrace the chill!

My gorgeous friend and Ayurvedic practitioner Amy Graham is running another Ayurvedic cooking class at 5 Church St in Bello next wk! The classes are always a huge hit and fill up straight away so grab Amy's contact details so she can keep you in the loop for the future if you're keen :)

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Stopping by our favourite antique shop on the way home from the airport and asking the owner what cd she was playing. Turns out it was a little jam mix that her son and his bestie made up one night in their garage. She gave it to us and refused to accept any money.

2. Taking a full day off after my holiday to settle back into my life again. My gorgeous friend Mish taught me to do this. I bought flowers, filled the fridge and fruit bowl and burnt some Nag Champa.

3. Having a new appreciation for all the things I missed whilst travelling: vegie juice, watering my garden, broccoli, Om Veda exfoliant, a saucepan of chai simmering on the stove, salt air, coconut water.

4. Romance.

5. Listening to the water lap under the stand-up paddle boards as we cruised down the river.

Open up one of your cookbooks this week, close your eyes and flick to any random page and create what you see!

Want to get healthy? Great! Just don't do it overnight...

Check out my latest 'surf health' post for the guys over at ST Surf Images

http://www.stsurfimages.com/featured/change-it-up/


Head over to Facebook and hit the like button on the Essential Health Coffs page!
Have a beautiful week everyone!

Emma the Naturopath xx

Glow from the inside out!

*GLOWING SKIN*

I was chatting to one of my gorgeous customers this week who has the most flawless skin. She has a perfect peaches and cream complexion and she simply glows. Did I mention she’s in her mid-sixties! Not a wrinkle in sight.

We started talking about juicing and she mentioned that people constantly ask her what she uses on her skin because it is so fantastic. She tells them that she has never drank alcohol or smoked. But she attributes her clear skin to making a fresh juice every day since she was 20. She has never skipped a day.

We agreed that whenever we talk to people about juicing they admit that they do in fact have a juicer collecting dust at the bottom of their pantry which sits there idly because “it takes forever to clean”. This is clearly a first world complaint.

People in Africa are dealing with their family members being shot by rebels, have to drink dirty water and only have a cup of boiled rice to eat each day… And here we are in beautiful Australia having a whinge that it takes less than 3 minutes to rinse out 4 or 5 parts of our juicer.

There are endless benefits to fresh vegie juice so leave your juicer out on your kitchen bench, stock up once a week at your local farmers market (or from your own garden) and get juicing! Our morning fave is carrot, apple, celery, ginger, lime beetroot and parsley! What’s yours?

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Chivalry. It goes a long way gents.

2. Informing a customer that castor oil was not in fact a product from a beaver’s anal glands. Never a dull moment at Essential Health…

3. The weird and wonderful meals and juices you create the week before your holiday to use up everything in the fridge.

4. The cushiness of a new pair of Havianas.

5. Homemade choc mint coconut ice cream made with almond milk! It tastes like a coconut rough and a mint pattie made love!

This week’s Top 5 are coming to you a couple of days early because tomorrow I am heading to JAPAN!!! You see there are a few things worth celebrating… (Clearly I have a fetish for writing lists)!

1. My incredibly intelligent husband has completed his Masters degree in Clinical Exercise Physiology (with flying colours) and scored a great job at a private hospital. My heart beams with pride for how far he has come!

2. It will be my 28^th birthday!

3. On the same day as my birthday it is also our first wedding anniversary!  My husband is the honey in my chai. He makes my life sweet. If I had a flower for every time he made me smile, I’d be walking through an endless garden xxxxx

Looking forward to bringing you a very special Japanese Top 5 sometime in Feb. Sayonara! 

Emma the Naturopath xx

Happiness is...

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. The Brady Bunch. Seriously.

2. Walking along the beach, my head full of thoughts. Looked down and saw a heart shaped stone. I stopped to pick it up and decided it was a sign.

3. Reading a book in a cool bath on a 37 degree day.

4. When you start cleaning one part of the house and then you’re on a roll and all of a sudden you’ve done two loads of washing, washed the dishes, weeded the garden, vacuumed the floors and cleaned the bathroom. Doesn’t happen often so I thought it was worth mentioning!

5. Learning new Japanese words for my trip every time I go to buy sushi from the new onigiri bar in town.

Mid-January already… Write down your goals or theme/word for 2013 and stick it on your mirror so you are reminded of it every day!

                                                                  Don't you agree?

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Pedestrians who wave to say “thank you” went walking over the zebra crossing.

2. Doing yoga in the car park at the beach on our towels while we waited for the sun to come up.

3. The mango and coconut cake I baked on Fri night. Almond meal and polenta instead of flour. The boys ate it with a cheeky scoop of homemade banana chai ice cream!

4. Dresses with pockets.

5. The week before your holiday when you are nearly bubbling over with excitement. This time next week we’ll be in JAPAN!!

Plan something to get excited about! Even if it’s just getting your hair done or a day trip somewhere an hour away!

Emma the Naturopath xx 

PS. You can LIKE us on Facebook. Just look up 'Essential Health Coffs'. Go on, don't be shy!

Balance

Are you moving forward or standing still?

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Homemade banana chai ice cream and mango passion fruit sorbet. We’ve been palming it off to all our friends and family.

2. Taking off on a wave at Arrawarra point, then looking over my shoulder to see my husband had joined in for the ride.

3. Starting 2013 with a healthy body and a clear mind. It’s going to be a GREAT year!!

4. My husband driving over to hang out with me while I waited for the NRMA. He brought me a mango, gluten-free brownies and a coconut water and we tore around the car park on our skaties.

5. Our regular fish and chip shop was closed so we went to a new one that turned out to be ten times better. Then we turned left instead of right at the beach and stumbled across a perfect little creek where we spent the afternoon eating and floating with the current.

Don’t forget to have a theme for the year ahead. Eg luxury, spontaneity, rest, playfulness… Mine is honesty and freedom. What’s yours?

 Can you relate?

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. The Brady Bunch. Seriously.

2. Walking along the beach, my head full of thoughts. Looked down and saw a heart shaped stone. I stopped to pick it up and decided it was a sign.

3. Reading a book in a cool bath on a 37 degree day.

4. When you start cleaning one part of the house and then you’re on a roll and all of a sudden you’ve done two loads of washing, washed the dishes, weeded the garden, vacuumed the floors and cleaned the bathroom. Doesn’t happen often so I thought it was worth mentioning!

5. Learning new Japanese words for my trip every time I go to buy sushi from the new onigiri bar in town.

Mid-January already… Write down your goals or theme/word for 2013 and stick it on your mirror so you are reminded of it every day!

Emma the Naturopath xx 

PS. You are more than welcome to LIKE us on Facebook 'Essential Health Coffs' xx

Stay creatively juicy xx

 *CREATIVE JUICES*

Whether you put paintbrush to canvas, sow seeds in the earth, cook up a storm, write in a journal or dance your story –live each day expressing yourself in your own unique way! Above all else, always keep your creative channel open!

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Chocolate coated almonds on Christmas day. Whose idea was it to put the bowl in front of where I was sitting?

2. Pondering how likely it would be for us to actually turn into mangoes due to the quantity we have been consuming this Summer… Currently obsessed with homemade mango and lychee sorbet from our Cuisinart ice cream maker. Raddest engagement present ever!

3. Lauren Hill’s section in Nathan Oldfield’s new movie ‘The Heart and The Sea’. The soundtrack, Nat’s talent, her gracefulness, that stoked grin.

4. Antipodes mineral water. The glass bottles make the perfect vases.

5. Costume parties! Here is a pic from our friends’ Disney party on Fri night. Take note of Mickey’s buttons that are made from coconut water bottle tops that he sewed on.

Take a moment to reminisce on all the sweetness of 2012!

MANGO COCONUT CHAI SMOOTHIE

What do I love?

Organic stuff, coconut stuff and chai. So you could only imagine the joy I felt when I discovered Pure Harvest’s Coco Quench milk! It’s a blend of organic coconut and brown rice blended into a milk in a nifty 1L carton. I bought it at the Jetty IGA in Coffs for about 5 bucks.

I created this little puppy this morning and threw it in an empty 1L raw honey jar as I ran out the door for work.

1 mango

500ml Coco Quench milk

1 Tbsp LSA

1 Tbsp vanilla pea protein powder

2 tsp Hari Har Chai sprinkles (an organic blend of cocoa, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and ginger)

1 Tbsp desiccated coconut

6 ice cubes

Amazing-ness. I didn’t want it to end...

"Like many over scheduled, multi-tasking women, I questioned if I really had time for yoga; I could use that extra time to get through the to-do list in the office or surely spend that hour getting ahead on my uni assignment...."

Take a couple of moments to read this beautiful account of how yoga inspired Holly H's daily life.

http://www.girlosophy.com/eat/health/yoga-and-me

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. Don't forget to 'Like' ESSENTIAL HEALTH COFFS on Facebook!

How to be a succulent wild woman

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Two AMAZING chairs from the antique shop that look like they were made for the very purpose to live in our house.

2. The relief of finding things that you feared had been lost FOREVER! Eg. My group certificate! Hooray!

3. The gluten-free biscuits my grandmother puts on a plate for me when we go over for a cuppa. I would never have the heart to tell her that each biscuit is equivalent to a week’s worth of sugar. She even bought me a packet to take home last week. Too cute.

4. Fireworks on Saturday night. The banging, the colours, the sparkling,  the “oohs” and “ahhs”.

5. Filling out one of those security question things for my online banking: “What is your dream job?” I went to type ‘naturopath’ then paused and smiled.

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. Put your phone on silent, turn off the TV, stop writing to-do lists in your head and take ten deep cleansing breathes and smile…. Then take another ten.

"A succulent wild woman is a woman of any age who feels free to fully express herself in every dimension of her life. 

Stand firm and whole as a woman. You are precious and irreplaceable. Treasure your female self. Choose innocence. Invent ways to feel more free. Investigate your darkness" -Succulent Wild Woman by SARK.

(Which I read last night in the bath while drinking a cup of peppermint and lavender tea by candlelight).

If your man was one of the million guys who rushed into the shop today to ask me to help them pick out their wife/girlfriend/mother/mother-in-law a gift... Don't worry, you'll be opening something epic tomorrow ;)

Have a delightful day peeeps!

Emma the Naturopath xx