Generous hearts

This week at work I have witnessed so much care given from others. My love today goes out to all the carers (paid and unpaid) who selflessly put other’s needs before their own simply to improve another person’s quality of life. Is there no greater gift?


Those people who work a 9-5 job and still visit their elderly parent in a nursing home every day, even just for 10 minutes.

Those who do everything in their power to help a family member battling a serious disease.

Those who work in hospitals who spend their days looking after people in their most vulnerable state where just a warm smile and small chat can make all the difference.

Those parents who miss a day’s wage to nurse their sick child back to health.


It warms my heart to know that there are so many beautiful people with such tremendously generous hearts in this world.

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. My dream last night: I dreamt that my heart was a cold stone with the word LOVE written on it. Then I got some soap and a scrubbing brush and said nice things to it as I cleaned it. When I finished with it my heart was pink, soft and glowing. I always have these sort of dreams when I take a flower essence...
2. Biting the bullet and finally “investing” in sensible work shoes with proper arch support. I may look like I’m off to second grade but my legs no longer kill by the end of the day!
3. How friendly chia seeds are. They just want to hang out with you all day in your teeth, the kitchen sponge, the bottom of the blender…
4. The way my left hip clicks back in to place during trikonasana (triangle pose in yoga).
5. Having a bath before breakfast every day this week. Just because.

JAPANESE HEALTHY HABITS!!

1. Eat with chopsticks: it’ll stop you scoffing down your food and is a hell of a lot more hygienic than eating with your fingers. Plus it’s hilarious when you’re learning!

2. Add fermented foods/pickled vegies: encourages the production of your own digestive secretions and enhances the growth of friendly bacteria in your gut. Make your own to avoid preservatives.

3. Drink organic green tea: the flavonoids (antioxidants) protect your cells from free radical damage to slow the ageing process and protect fro cancer. Green tea also increases your metabolism, makes your skin glow and promotes detoxification.

4. Warm up with miso soup: such a nourishing little gem! It helps to recolonise your gut with the good bugs that boost your immunity. It’s a great source of protein, vitamins and minerals that support your nervous system. Add shitake mushies for an extra immunity boost!

You’ll be fighting like a Japanese ninja in no time!

I sacrificed my Wed night yoga class last night and went to a ridiculously informative business strategies seminar. Glad I did. 

One line the speaker said particularly stood out:


*A winner is a loser who never gave up*

Who overindulged over Easter…? Me too! Cakes, choccy, late nights, no routine, no exercise, wheat, dairy… but sooooo much FUN!!

Let’s start fresh again this week!!!

Here are 5 things I’ll be doing this week to get back on track:
1. Getting outside and moving to make the most of the last week of daylight savings!
2. Making fresh vegie juice such as carrot, apple, celery, ginger, parsley, apple and beetroot.
3. Putting 1 tsp of Synergy spirulina powder in my coconut water.
4. Drinking spiced dandelion tea.
5. Early to bed, early to rise.

Welcome to April everyone!!

Emma the Naturopath xx

Phone: 0266 514 533
Email: carrots_and_apples@hotmail.com
Facebook: Essential Health Coffs

I Luvju too.

I am constantly scouring health food shops for hidden treasures. Lately I stumbled across a collection of individually wrapped chocolate hearts by Loving Earth. So far I’ve tried the mint and afa (afa is a green superfood) and the coconut milk chocolate one.

In a nut shell:
Australian certified organic
Fair trade
Raw
Organic
Packaging is 96% plant based compostable material
Low GI
Gluten free
Lactose free
Vegan
Australian made

35g bars for $2.95.

Soooo velvety and rich! I’m salivating at the very thought...

Remember, choose quality over quantity!

To suss out more about Loving Earth and their products click here.
Happy Easter everyone xx.

Muffin, muffin, muffin! Oy, oy, oy!!

What do you do on a public holiday when the rain just won’t give up?

You and your Mr drag the futon mattress into the middle of the lounge room floor, along with every pillow, cushion, blanket and doona you can find. Drink endless cups of Madame Flavour peppermint and lavender tea, watch hilarious dvd’s, devour a block of Lindt mint choc, listen to the Hottest 100 Countdown, play Scrabble and oh, BAKE MUFFINS!!

Here is our recipe! Totally wheat and dairy free with MEGA amounts of antioxidants!

Spelt Blackberry and Choc Muffins

3 cups (375g) Spelt Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 free range eggs, beaten
1 1/4 (310ml) cups rice milk
125g butter, melted
1 tsp real vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups frozen blackberries
2 huge teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 300g block of Lindt blueberry dark choc
½ cup shredded coconut
1 sliced banana for the top of the muffins

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or place a muffin paper in each slot.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir in the sugar.
3. Place the eggs, milk, butter and vanilla into a separate bowl and whisk together.
4. Fold the egg mixture into the dry ingredients, add the coconut and broken up chocolate and then gently stir in the blackberries. (Don't stir the berries too much or you will get purple muffins!)
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups, and slice the banana and put a slice on top of each muffin. Place the muffin tray on the top shelf of the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the muffins are well risen and lightly browned.

Happy Aus Day boys and girls!!

Is that a zucchini in your pocket?

I am quite notorious in my house for sneaking in “surprise” ingredients into mine and my future husband’s food. I’ll often present him with an odd coloured smoothie, funny shaped muffin or an exotic new dish and enthusiastically announce “Guess what’s in it!”

He’s had turkey meatballs instead of beef, wombok cabbage omlettes and random wheat free, gluten free, dairy free, raw, vegan cheesecake made with silken tofu (which he couldn’t even tell the difference)!

So this Christmas we are in charge of dessert and I remember having a sensationally decadent chocolate cake in North Fitzroy one night and wanted to try and recreate it... Oh yeah and it had ZUCCHINI in it!!

Here is the recipe we’re using from naturopath Petrea King’s cookbook Food for Life:

Ingredients
· 300g dark Lindt chocolate. Chopped
· 200g unsalted butter
· 5 eggs, separated
· 1 cup raw or brown sugar
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· 2 cups hazelnuts, whizzed in a food processor until fine
· 1 cup zucchini, grated
· 1 cup wholemeal flour
· 1 teaspoon baking powder
· Chopped hazelnuts, grated chocolate to serve

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC.

2. Brush a 22cm round cake tin with melted butter or coconut oil. Line the base with baking paper.

3. Gently melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan stirring until smooth.

4. Using electric beaters, whisk the egg whites until stiff.

5. Place the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a medium-size bowl and using the electric beaters (no need to wash from whisking the eggs), whisk until creamy.

6. Fold the hazelnuts and zucchini through the chocolate mixture until well combined.

7. Fold in the flour and baking powder, then using a metal spoon, fold through the stiffened egg whites and pour into the prepared cake tin.

8. Bake for 1¼ hours or until skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.

9. Cool in the tin for 20 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

10.Decorate with chopped hazelnuts and grated chocolate.

Merry Christmas boys and girls xx

addiction confliction.

I read a really great quote by actress Magda Szubanski on the weekend. When interviewed regarding the lessons she has learnt to achieve her admirable 36kg weight loss, she said, "Chocolate is not your friend. Your friends are your friends. Chocolate is just fat and sugar".

Let me just say first of all that tucking into a Lindt chocolate bunny over Easter is totally fine, but emotional eating is a whole other kettle of fish. Emotional eating is about eating large quantities of food (usually junk food) in response to feelings such as boredom or loneliness, instead of actual hunger. It's when people eat to fill an emotional void as comfort rather than looking to see what the real problem is. This consequently results is weight gain.

I went to an eye opening seminar in Noosa last month where the naturopath spoke at great lengths about the emotional habits people create. This isn't just about chocolate, it can be alcohol, smoking, drugs or even shopping. All these things feed addictions to distract the person from what they're really feeling by giving them a little high. These substances increase the levels of dopamine in our brain, a neurotransmitter that gives us a feeling of reward, well-being and pleasure. However these effects are short lived and our levels drop lower than they previously were.

But there's hope. When you get the urge to grab some more chocolate out of the fridge, make another purchase on eBay or pour an extra glass of red of an evening, ask yourself what emotion you're feeling and actually feel it, instead of numbing it. Then go for a walk, or have a bath, or give your friend a call to create a new positive habit. When you don't have a large amount of something on a daily basis you begin to appreciate a freshly made latte or a row of quality 70% dark chocolate here and there.

What are you overindulging in?