Friday 13 April 2012

Super healthy raw chocolate

First things first. I apologise for the terrible timing of this post- I mean, it should be posted BEFORE Easter, so you don't pig out on packaged processed chocolate over the weekend, right? Well, now you know for next time. This choc is so good, I tried packaged chocolate the other day and went 'ergh...'
There is also the plethora of health benefits to consider. This chocolate is (white) sugar free, dairy free, gluten free, vegan, raw, full of antioxidants, magnesium, and brain boosting chemicals! See here for more details on raw cacao


Basic Raw Choc recipe....

To start with, make sure you have some awesome cacao, as that is the heart of chocolate. I love loving earth's organic raw cacao powder.


Melt 2 Tbspn organic raw cacao butter with 2 tpsn organic raw coconut butter/oil


Stir in 1 Tbspn agave syrup or other liquid sweetener like honey or maple syrup. 
Add 2 Tbspn cacao powder (approximate -mixture should be runny, but I usually use heaped spoons).


This part is optional, but I reckon it makes a huge difference: blend the mixture with a stick blender. You can see in the photos how different the textures are between mixing it with a spoon and blending it!


Now is the time to add things: try a chai spice mix (awesome!), cinnamon, shredded coconut (pictured), dried fruits, crushed nuts, orange rind, anything your taste buds scream for!
Pour into a mold - I use a recycled plastic container, then pop in the fridge til firm!


This recipe can be variable, as I measure the ingredients in spoon measures, but while the ingedients are still solid. So  1 Tbspn of chunks of cacao butter may different to the next Tbspn of cacao butter. The coconut oil is softer, so the  more you use of that, the softer the chocolate will be. Have fun and enjoy experimenting!
Unfortunately, by the time I went to take a photo of the finished product after it had been in the fridge it was all gone....Hehe!

xx

Saturday 7 April 2012

Laughing as therapy?


I signed up for a laughter yoga leadership training course on a bit of a whim. I saw the link while considering doing a yoga teacher training course, and it sparked a memory of my mum telling me she did a laughter yoga session once, and how hilarious it was. I wasn't working, and I had some free time. Why not? I thought. At the very least, I might laugh a bit.
Understatement of the year, that one.

I arrived to the venue in a bit of a harried, mad state. I thought I had woken up early enough to not be rushing, but some bad time management, and a late decision to add a small bowl of porridge to my breakfast (it was so cold!) made me a little later than planned. However, walking up the stairs I entered a calm yoga environment, the beautiful Prana House in Thornbury, VIC. I wasn't late (phew!) and was able to take my shoes off and settle in to the small circle of chairs.

It was a bit of a mish-mash group of people. Young, old(er), tall, short, Australian, German, men, women, first timers (me!) and some people who had done a few laughter sessions before. We began with an introduction to laughter yoga. It was devised by an Indian medical doctor, Dr Madan Kataria, in Mumbai in 1995. He wanted to gain the health benefits of regular laughter, and got together with his wife (a yoga teacher) and a few friends in a local park. There, they laughed! His wife Madhuri added in a yogic aspect of deep breathing and some gentle stretching. They began by telling jokes. As people wandered past and heard them having a great time, they joined the group, until there were 50 people meeting up to share a laugh. However, after some time, the jokes started to run thin, and were occasionally offensive and rude. It was then that Dr Kataria realised that you can gain the physiological and psychological benefits of laughter, even if you 'simulate' the laughter, as long as it is a belly laugh (from the diaphragm) and is for a long enough period of time (at least 10-15 minutes).
Thus, laughter yoga was born: The simulation of laughter, incorporating a childlike playfulness and yogic-style breathing and stretching, to stimulate spontaneous laughter.

Why? There are many health benefits of regular, long duration (at least ten minutes) laughing. Just a few of these are lowered blood pressure, improved mood, boosted immune system, improved control of blood sugar levels and improved sleep. There are many more, and lots of research papers can be found documenting this evidence.

We began our session with some group introductions. Say your name, laugh. Say where you are from, laugh. Say why you are here, laugh! It was much harder than I may have anticipated to bust out a belly laugh when I felt a bit nervous and self-conscious. Luckily our group leader broke the ice by starting, with a huge laugh.

We stood up in a circle, and did a few yawns and deep breaths, until we were all feeling a bit more relaxed. Next, a bit of warm up – some animal faces (with noises), fish lips and gibberish arguing.

Then, onto the laughing.
The session consisted of 10 different exercises, all playful and childlike, and all about laughing. For example: hot soup laughter. Imagine having a big bowl of steaming hot soup in front of you. Take an imaginary spoonful, and it's so hot and spicy you burst into laughter and fan your mouth with your hands. The soup is so tasty you do it again!
Or another one: I love you laughter. Imagine you are a 4 year old, in front of someone you reckon is pretty awesome. You run up to them, tell them 'I love you!' (or 'I think you're beautiful!' or 'I think you're amazing!') and then run away giggling.
We got into the exercises with gusto, giggling and guffawing and hooting away. Many time the simulated laughter, (the laughter we choose to do) turns into spontaneous laughter, either at the hilarity of the exercises, or just the sight and sound of so many other people laughing!

After about half an hour of these exercises, we were all feeling light hearted and a bit silly. We moved into the next phase – laughter meditation. We began seated, in a circle, with our yoga mats and blankets ready to lie down when the time came. We began with 'pushing out' both hands in front of you, while saying 'ho ho' then 'pulling in the hands' while saying 'ha ha'. This cycled faster and faster until the cue, at which point we all burst into a mixture of simulated and spontaneous laughter. We then lay down, and, no exaggeration here, laughed, with no effort, for 10 minutes. It felt amazing. During all the exercises, most of my laughing had been simulated. It still felt good, but it wasn't life changing. However, during the laughter meditation, I just lost it. I laughed and laughed, more than I have laughed since I was a child. Every time I thought I might be slowing down, more laughter would bubble up out of the core of me. It was flowing out of me like squeezing a never ending bottle of tomato sauce. After about ten minutes, our leader soothingly calmed us and led us into a guided yoga nidra meditation: focusing on each part of the body, one at a time. After about 15 minutes, we were done.

Around the group, we had similar experiences. A feeling of cleansing, of losing tension and relaxing fully. A feeling of lightness, of inspiration. We all felt uplifted, energetic and, above all, happy.

The rest of the leadership course was a mixture of experiencing laughing as a participant, and learning about how to facilitate a class. Every one of us was exhausted after the first day – laughing is a workout for the lungs, heart, and muscles! There were lots of other helpful aspects included into the workshop like focusing on self-care and self-love, meeting your own needs before looking after other people, and the warning signs for stress and burnout. At the end of the second day I felt like I had known all these people for weeks. 

Imagine what our communities would be like if we all celebrated laughter and happiness, instead of being told to 'shhh!'. Imagine how depressed people could feel, if they had a laughter session twice a week as well as therapy! Imagine all the lowered risks of chronic disease that could occur, as people lower their  blood pressure, stress hormones, and work out their lungs and muscles, by having fun. Sounds pretty awesome, right? 
xx

Saturday 31 March 2012

Laying ladies in residence

Ok, so they're not laying yet, but all going to plan they will be!

Yesterday, bf and I welcomed 2 lovely ladies to our place. Gertrude and Bettina. They are, to be precise, two 12 week old black australorpe hybrid hens.

Given a couple of months, these lovlies should be about ready to start laying, and we will be supplied with fresh, free range, cruelty free eggs. Highly nutritious eggs as they are going to get lots of highly nutritious greens and scraps.

A few ways keeping your own chooks can be part of living a healthy life:

1) Down with egg farms! Buying free range eggs from the shop can be a start, but it can also be a bit of a farce. In Australia the rules which govern who can use the term 'free range' are pretty slack - which means that some companies which claim to be free range in fact consist of a whole lot of hens inside a shed - up to 14 hens per square metre - some of whom never find the small opening that leads to the small patch of grass. (http://www.sustainabletable.org.au/Hungryforinfo/Free-range-egg-and-chicken-guide/tabid/113/Default.aspx) Another step up to ensure animals are living a happy cruelty free life is to have them in the backyard! It's important to keep them fed, watered, sheltered and safe from predators.

2) Reducing waste: Chooks love snacking on fruit and veggie scraps. Instead of putting potato peel, banana skins and outer lettuce leaves in the bin, put them in the chook  pen! It keeps the chooks healthy and happy, and means you aren't throwing into landfill more than you need to.

3) Reducing chemicals in the garden: Chook poo is awesome as a fertiliser. You can make it into a liquid fertiliser (http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/03/14/454621_gardening.html) or put it in the compost bin to give the compost a buzz. No need to buy chemical-y fertilisers now!

4) Mental health: People know that cuddling their dog or cat is soothing and can stimulate the release of calming chemicals in the brain. How about cuddling a chook??


Do you have any more ideas about how chooks could be part of a healthy lifestyle?
x

Friday 30 March 2012

F**king things up


Once upon a time a woman wrote a song, the chorus of which went, “I'm gunna give myself permission to shine”. Right now that song is stuck in my head, but with slightly different lyrics.Today I've decided to give myself permission to f**k up.

And I mean that in the most positive way possible. We can all get so hung up on being perfect, achieving greatness, managing to work full time, exercise 6 days a week, eat wholesome meals at every opportunity, engage with others in a positive way and look after our own emotional needs. Every day. Our modern society tells us that we need to do all the above, and still be independent. One must achieve all this greatness, with out relying on others. And get it right, all the time.

I have realised that for me this is just not possible. (Is it possible for anyone?). This week I've been beating myself up about feeling sad that my friends have been busy and haven't had time to catch up with me. I've been telling myself – Don't rely on your friends to meet your needs! Go and get your needs met some other way.
I've been beating myself up for feeling anxious about starting a new, challenging job. I've been telling myself – you're not good enough at this. You don't have enough experience, you're going to f**k it up.

Finally, today, I've realised – I AM going to f**k it up. I will feel anxious. I will feel sad. I will have seemingly irrational thoughts and sometimes get angry at the person who overtakes me on a double line. And that's ok. I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I'm going to give myself an internal hug and say, darling, you f**ked up. I love you. x

Thursday 29 March 2012

Green Smoothies

So finally a post that includes cucumbers as a vital point. From the title, cacao and cucumbers. I eat cucumbers most days, as part of a green smoothie. There are loads of websites and books that encourage green smoothies and juices, as a way to get a big hit of nutrients in an easy to digest (and palatable!) way. I got inspired to do the green thing after reading Kris Carr’s Blog,crazysexylife
I started off with a hand held mixer, which often left big chunks of veg floating in my glass. The more raw food recipes I read, the more I came across the need  for a whizz bang, high speed blender. Then, all of a sudden, it was that time of year! A birthday present suggestion later, super dooper blender is mine! (Thanks Mum and Dad x). 
Here is a pic of what I put in the first green smoothie I made in my new blender: 
image
You’re seeing rockmelon, cucumber, broccoli, baby spinach…There’s some coconut oil too, that you can’t see.
A short 30 seconds later, 
image
Smooth, creamy goodness. No hint of a lump, anywhere. (That white bit on the blender is a drop of coconut oil gone solid when it mixed with cold water.)
I find with some fat added - coconut oil or avocado, a smoothie sustains me for a few hours. And looking at a whole jug full of veggies, then knowing I ate all that for BREAKFAST, well, it’s a great start to the day!
x

Monday 26 March 2012

Healthy Sundays


I always appreciate not going out drinking and partying on a Saturday night, when I wake up on Sunday not hungover. This Sunday morning was no exception. It was a clear and sunny morning, but quite cool, perfect bike riding temperature. So, I went for a bike ride. I rode mostly along the capital city trail (http://www.bv.com.au/general/bikes-and-riding/43792/), which is about 30km around the outside of Melbourne city. I got to see a bit of this new city of mine (new to me, at least) and got a decent workout- haven’t ridden more than about 10 km’s in a long time! I also found myself down at Fed Square when an interesting competition was on - ‘Birdman’ where people jump off a barge into the river with homemade wings and see how far they can go. The health aspects of my joy ride? Well, one, obviously, the exercise of the riding. But also, I think it’s healthy to spend some time alone, from time to time. To be ok, just being by yourself. To take the opportunity to ride, without distraction from others, and smell the different air pockets as you ride through them, notice the wind moving the clothing over your skin. It was a nice ‘me’ time. 
Then I got home, ready for more healthful goodness - I almost always find that after doing exercise, I crave vegies and fruit. I whipped up this awesome salad:

What’s so good about it? 
  • Spinach: Good source of folate, iron, fibre, and calcium, 
  • Raw beetroot: Liver detoxing effect, fibre, vitamin  C and iron
  • Carrot: Vitamin C, vitamin A, and fibre
  • Quinoa: Complete protein, gluten free, manganese, folate
  • Tomato: Vitamin C, vitamin A, lycopene
  • Walnuts: Omega 3 fatty acids, protein, B vitamins, vitamin E
  • Lime juice: Vitamin C
  • Flaxseed oil: Omega 3 fatty acids
  • Parsley: Vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A
Wow! After writing all that down, the salad seems even better than when I ate it. The best thing about it though? It tastes awesome. I love eating, and eating great tasting food that I know is healthy for me is just so enjoyable. Having a good mental relationship with food is super important for a healthy happy life. 
x


Sunday 25 March 2012

Bread glorious bread

This is the first gluten free loaf I’ve made from scratch, in my new breadmaker - a Panasonic model which has a gluten free setting. (I was pretty excited to learn this). It’s made using a recipe which comes with the instruction booklet, plus a couple of tweaks by me. It is: gluten free, dairy free and vegan.  


The first slice? Crunchy crust, with a soft warm centre. I chose to slather it not with butter (regrettable, but I’m moving away from that era) but with organic, raw, cold pressed coconut oil. This oil is made within hours of the nut being open, so retains a slight coconut-y flavour and smell. (I also did my research, and bought from a brand that pays above the minimum fair-trade wage, and is conscious of the environmental aspects of coconut harvesting). I then drizzled raw organic honey (I’m no longer being vegan here) and enjoyed immensely. A nice addition would’ve been a sprinkling of cinnamon powder…