People call it the ‘Silly Season’, while secretly loving it.  What’s not to love? Time off work, play time with family and friends, presents galore, inventive games to keep everyone entertained, long cold evenings wrapped up warm inside and a time when everyone is trying very hard to be on their best behaviour.

The only problem is that it’s too easy to want to over-indulge during this time, in every way; buying endlessly on the internet, eating and drinking with not a walk insight, heightened tension between family and friends making you want to splurge more and, dare I say, complications with loved ones too.  There is a sad statistic which is that more couples break up during this time of year than any other.

If you really want to do something different this year and put a bit of time into making it a different emotional and physical experience, here are 5 tips to prevent the obvious pitfalls.  If not, swipe left!

No 1 – Psych Evaluation

Look back on the past few Christmases and see which bits of it you really enjoyed and analyse why.  Then look at the parts that did not go so well. Analyse the part you played in it.

There is normally a pattern of behaviour, the answer is to break it. It might be falling into a favourite argument, doing too much and expecting people to pick up the pieces, or hoping through telepathy that everyone knows how you are thinking and feeling, for example, tired, undervalued, overworked, upset, whatever it maybe. Try to avoid the feeling by ensuring that the people around you support you before you fall apart. This comes with good communication and being able to verbalise your concerns  before they become  an argument.

No 2 – Balance

Work out how many nights you can go out and days you can work in the office without it affecting either your time at work or your enjoyment with your friends. It may be that you can only do heavy partying on Friday and Saturday night, or you may find that every other night Mon-Wed-Fri and Saturday work for you and you can be chipper and productive in the office.  Whatever it is, try to run your social life in accordance with how you will enjoy yourself the most, while maximising your commitment to work.

No 3 – Food

We cannot help but over-indulge – or can we?  Maybe we should re-label it.  Why not call it the ‘Christmas Diet’ instead?  Ask yourself candidly, which are your favourite foods during Christmas?  Earmark those foods you feel you have to eat more than you normally do to have a good time. Indulge in them, but know that the day you indulge like a ‘king’, you will have two meals where you eat like a ‘pauper’.  Those meals will not contain animal meat, dairy or sugar.
Always start your morning with lemon and water. If you have some mixed supergreen powder take that with two glasses of water on an empty stomach. If you have PH drops with them even better. Don’t eat for an hour while your body absorbs the goodness and rehydrates you on a cellular level.

No 4 – Alcohol

Which is your favourite beverage?  How much can you drink before you lose that happy high feeling and go into an unconscious, irrational, memory failing moment?

Stay on one type, either grain or grape, don’t mix. Try to get to know yourself and be your own best friend, keeping yourself safe at all times.

Here are a few tips to stay in control:-

At a dinner party always have your water glass on your right and your wine or alcohol on your left (unless you are left-handed in which case it’s the other way round). This ensures that if you are just drinking from habit and not out of enjoyment, you will tend to drink more water.

If you are at a drinks party or a club, for every one glass of alcohol you consume, try to drink two glasses of water.

Always begin your big evening with a tablespoon of olive oil to line the stomach and two glasses of water.

The next morning give yourself Vitamin B and C tabs to help the body recoup some of the lost vitamins.  Take a milk thistle/dandelion mix to help the liver detox. Have the lemon/water or supergreen/water regime.  Drink water through the day to help you re-hydrate.

No 5 – Laugh

Make sure you are having fun.  If you are not laughing, smiling and feeling good, then something is wrong. If you are at a party, remove yourself from the situation, go home, it does not need to be dramatic, but go home. In the morning you can work things out. This may sound obvious, but sometimes we hang on thinking things will change. Just remember you have lots of parties, so don’t hang on to something when there could be something better around the corner.

If you are at home or with family and finding yourself feeling miserable you are no doubt being miserable.  If you are being miserable you can guarantee others are also not enjoying themselves. Find something to laugh about. A funny movie, a clip from James Cordon’s Celebrity Drivers, get some funny jokes ready to make people laugh, or simply remove yourself from the situation until you can find something in you that makes you happy.

If you are angry, the Breath of Fire, a yoga breathing technique, is genius to bring energy up and get rid of anger.

This time of year makes me think about the earth spinning, the time moving and no matter how much we may wish time to stand still and the sun to remain beaming and the nights to remain bright, the dark will draw in, the sun will be less warm and the leaves on the trees will fall as nature prepares to hibernate for the winter.

I remember as a child, Harvest Festival used to be a big thing. It used to be fun, I used to take my pony and ride it to church where we would give gifts of food and harvest to celebrate what the earth had thrown up to us. It gave us a moment to feel grateful of receiving.

I loved the smell of the hops. It was later that I learnt about their soporific & therapeutic effects.  No wonder I always felt so relaxed after my visit to church.

I do find myself in my hectic, crazy life with electric lights and food whenever I want it and seasonal foods & fruits a thing of the past, that the natural order of things seems to be disturbed and, although the earth struggles to maintain its rhythm, we seem to work more and more against it.  That’s why I love this time of year.  I love it because we have Harvest Festival.  We have the Harvest Moon and we have the Equinox so, even if you are not religious, you can still see it in the sky as the Moon becomes big and the nights draw in.  This Moon can be seen anywhere in the world at exactly the same time, so we are all gazing on its glory together. It’s an amazing thought, don’t you think?   The Harvest Moon was on the 24^th September and it’s called that because of its luminosity which allows farmers to work late at night (before tractors had headlights!).

By the way, for the curious amongst you, Equinox means Equi – Equal and Nox – Night.  Although in fact we are a few minutes shy of an equal night and day.

The Harvest is celebrated everywhere and no more so than China where they call it the Moon Festival and have parties with the most delicious moon cakes, which are made of bean paste, a little like the aduki bean sweet pudding in one of my books.

The Harvest Festival may have past, but our next Pagan tradition is the celebration of ghosts.  I know everyone squeals with delight over Hallowe’en, but I approach it with a certain amount of terror, or at least anxiety.  I love the pumpkins in the shops, I like eating them and making faces with them, putting lights inside them and watching them glow.

However, the trick or treating, the banging on the door not knowing who or what’s on the other side and the dressing up in monstrously scary outfits, while demanding sweets, cakes or money, is something my rather old-fashioned brain can’t get its head around.

Anyway, Hallowe’en marks the end of the Summer and the Harvest, which I adore.  I brace myself for the cold winter nights ahead.  Hallowe’en was really to ward off ghosts as the Celts believed that on the 31st the dead would return and spook everyone.  Nowadays, no-one waits for the ghosts to spook them, they go out and do it themselves!

So how can we make the most of these months and feel more in harmony with the earth.  I love picking apples, which are ripe and ready in September/October.  From apples you can make a million lovely sweet dishes and even add a bit of excitement to a savoury one.

If you have a dehydrator, cinnamon apple slices are fabulous. Or peel and chop the apples in squares and place in a saucepan ¼ filled with water, add cinnamon, ginger and raisins and bring to the boil. If they are cooking apples it does not take very long, maybe 10-15 mins to make into a nice stew which can be used for crumble, pie, strudel and other delicious dishes.

If you are a bit confused about which vegetables you should be eating in the next couple of months, here are the seasonal fruit & veg for October.

Apples, Elderberries , Pears, Quince, Artichoke, Beetroot, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash, Cabbage – White, Savoy, Spring Green & Red – Carrots, Cauliflower, Celeriac, Celery, Chicory, Fennel, Garlic, Horseradish, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Lettuce, Marrows, Parsnips, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Rocket, Runner Beans, Shallots, Spinach, Squash, Swede, Sweetcorn, Turnip, Watercress, Wild Mushrooms, Chestnuts, Chives, Cobnuts, Curly Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Sorrel, Thyme.

 

 

I was at the gym the other day and I heard a woman comment, ‘I am a woman who does things in 5’s so, if I do 10 sit-ups today, the next day I do 15 or if I do a 30 second plank today, the next day I do 35 seconds’.   I thought, that sounds manageable, I kind of like that.  I can do that.

In my book Eat Yourself Young I am also a ‘5’ woman.  The book details the 5 processes happening in the body which age us, the 5 most ageing foods, the 5 most rejuvenating foods, 5 reasons to give up things that are causing dis-ease and ageing you.  So why not in this blog do the 5 Almighty?   And what does it mean exactly.

My 5 Almighty are the 5 ingredients which you can add to your food and guarantee that something good is happening to you while you chomp away.  They may be used for both sweet & savoury dishes, so they are completely adaptable to your mood or food requirement.  Importantly, if you can’t remember all the good things to eat but keep one or two of these in your head, you know you are heading in the right direction and can build on it.

So what are the Almighty 5?

• Aduki Beans
• Lemon
• Turmeric
• Beetroot
• Garlic

And why do you eat them?

Aduki beans because of their colour and because they contain flavonoid quercetin they are an amazing antioxidant. If you are fed up of getting your antioxidants from vegetables, this is a great way of getting them down.  They have a great repair effect on damaged DNA.  They are rich in calcium, copper and a wide range of Vitamin B’s.  They are hugely versatile and in my book you can see we use them for brownies as well as stews, soups and pastes.

Lemon is a wonderful alkalizer.  It is very high in Vitamin C which speeds skin repair by increasing collagen and slows the signs of ageing.  Despite being citric acid on the outside it is a citrate on the inside and a very good PH balancer for the body, especially if your food intake is overly acidic in nature.

Turmeric is the most powerful of anti-inflammatories.  Scientists believe that inflammation encourages premature ageing and fine lines, loss of muscle tone and joint pain, fatigue and allergies.  So even if you don’t look old, you will be feeling it if you have inflammation!  It has been an Ayurvedic ‘go-to’ herb for millions of years and is even put on plasters to help with wound healing.  Curcumin is the polyphenol responsible for inflammation damping and its fabulous colour.

Garlic, despite being the vampires enemy, is your body’s friend, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol and thinning your blood from the excesses of a western diet.

Beetroot rejuvenates your whole system because it is a detoxer and an eliminator.   The betaine in the beetroot works as a detoxer and generates cellular renewal. It is also packed with folic acid, fibre and vitamins and minerals.  It is a favourite for athletes who need to build iron, or pregnant mothers who may need more iron. It has been said to create more oxygen in the body giving greater athletic performance and is easy to adapt to soups, puddings, stews and salads.

So why not try some recipes from my book, Eat Yourself Young, and reap the rewards of my Almighty 5?  Do let us know how you get on.

ARE YOU PLASTIC AWARE?

I used to be afraid of recycling and thinking about making this world a better place to live. My contribution seemed insignificant in the scale of what needed to be done. It just felt like an impossible task and an impossible ask. But not now. Here we are today, everyone together in a movement that I hope will indeed turn the tide on making this world a more habitable place, not just for us, but for all the creatures and plants living with us and for our future generations.

So here’s the lowdown on plastic. If you have not noticed, it’s a bit like sugar, it’s everywhere and it’s involved in almost everything we do, from wrapping our food, to containing the creams and cosmetics we use.

The life of a piece of plastic can end on anything from the plastic island in the Pacific Ocean to the recycling plant in your local town. It all depends on how we treat and respect each piece we purchase and it’s time to make a conscious decision on how our actions can impact our planet and environment.

Be aware of those plastics that we don’t need on a daily basis; those single use plastic items like plastic sticks to stir our drinks, plastic straws to suck our beverages or plastic bags to carry our shopping. All these things we can say ‘no’ to and use alternatives.

What saying NO does for you.

Plastic is a hormone disruptor, it creates cancer in your body, it will bring on the menopause/andropause earlier and it will increase dis-ease in your body. The body finds it difficult to clear the microplastics and it can get into your lungs and can even be absorbed through the skin. Each piece of plastic we discard that ends up in the sea is at risk of being eaten, either in its entirety or as a microbe, by fish and we then eat the fish. Our food is becoming contaminated, and our earth is also dangerously contaminated by microplastic.

Plastic is airborne as well, so unless we really do make a concerted effort to lessen its use, the outcome is rather grim.

I love the ocean. We are 70% water, so we are mini oceans. If we pollute the sea we pollute ourselves. If we allow plastics to disrupt marine life and coral life and microbes in the sea then we are literally destroying a source of oxygen which we ourselves need in order to breathe. Anything that we can do to help stop the plastic polluting our seas is something worth doing. As a little girl once said “If we all save one drop of water, that’s still 6 billion drops” – sounds worthwhile doesn’t it?

For this month, I am just asking you to be aware of the plastic wrapping your food, the plastic that you use to stir and consume your drinks, the plastic you use to carry your groceries, the cosmetics, toiletries, laundry products, shower gels, detergents & cleaning products you purchase which are packaged in plastic. If you can attempt each day to choose another material instead of plastic, I promise you this will build up and make a difference, not only to your own life but to the lives of others and to our beautiful planet.

Here are some shocking statistics:-
• 275,000 tonnes of plastic are used each year in the UK, that’s about 15 million bottles per day.
• Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic per year, which could otherwise be recycled.
• The use of plastic in Western Europe is growing about 4% each year.
• Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose.
• 1 recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours.

I was asked recently what my USP was….. it sounded rather rude and like a parcel delivery service.  Ha.. I said when I found out it was my Unique Selling Point, it’s obvious isn’t it!…   Apart from feeling aggrieved that it was not obvious, it made me realise that in posting herbs/foods and how to eat them and why they are good for you, I was appearing like a good resource for food knowledge, but my actual principles were not necessarily coming through.  So how was I different?

I have written three books.  Eat Yourself Young, Cook Yourself Young and First Aid Kitchen Remedies,  within these pages are my principles.  It is about going on a journey and learning about your body and what makes it tick and what happens when it does not want to and how to get it going again, kick start it like an old car that has been neglected and left to rot.   Learning the basic 5 worst foods to eat and the 5 most ‘youthing’ foods to eat.  This will stop disease and create an environment which allows regeneration to occur and slow down the ageing process but also dis-ease.  It is also about learning how food can be your greatest friend and also your doctor.  Even a simple tea bag can stop bleeding by coagulating the blood…. Things everyone should know.

My snack foods are an indication of how to eat while on the hop. Deliciously comforting, but ethically produced with oils that are intact so that they feed the brain and nervous system and really satisfy the body.

However, with so many other sites and books and theories on diet, I feel I am not shouting loudly enough and my voice is being lost in the noise.  So if you are confused about what I stand for, here it is:

I believe that we should protect and respect the planet.  This means turning the lights off when you can, be careful of plastics, don’t throw rubbish onto the streets and don’t pollute the oceans with microplastics and non-biodegradable products.  EVERYTHING you do makes an impact, so don’t feel that you make no difference.  Every drop you save is one drop saved.

Be careful of man made anything, including foods.  Don’t believe the labels, most of them are written to confuse or simply omit offending information.  Remember manufacturers create products to make money, its about the profit, if it is cheap food it is because it has nothing good in it and you are better making it yourself. Everyone can make food better at home than they can in a factory and it is not complicated or take long.  Don’t be fooled.

I believe in karma, be good to those around you and the boomerang effect will occur.  The same with bad vibrations, if you send them out and if someone is in a bad mood and using you as a spring board, smile back, if you allow it to affect you it carries on through you onto someone else and will spread.   Smile and you will find people smiling back and joy will boomerang around and good things happen.

Our aim is to live well and live long, not to live long and be miserable.  So its an emotional journey about finding your truth, knowing who you are and being comfortable in your skin. Its about navigating others demands while staying true to you and its about having a balance and compromise which is not a cop out or a hostile takeover of your soul.

Good food feeds the soul.  Healthy food feeds the mind, healthy and good foods feed the gut and the gut is where 90% of your serotonin is made and 70% of your immune system lies, so it’s important for body and mind.  Everything is connected.  We are all mini planets, so don’t pollute it both mentally and physically.

This is my philosophy and from now on I will draw on these principles in my blogs and posts and give examples of how they work for others and how it can work for you too.

This is a journey and although every journey starts with the first step, we must remember that a journey with no navigation and no end means the key is in pacing yourself to the journeys end.

 

The year is rolling forward but, thanks to the Chinese calendar, for those of us who feel like starting again, we can celebrate the beginning of 2018 on the 16^th Feb. Phew. Extra time.

I am delighted to say that 2018 is the Year of the Dog.  When I heard this I smiled, not just because I love dogs and feel they are kindred spirits, but because in December I unfortunately had to put to sleep my precious companion and loyal friend, Cheyenne, who had gone from a very damaged rescue dog to the most engaging and intuitive soul mate.  The Year of the Dog is heaven for me.  It makes me feel like the year ahead will be her celestial spirit guiding me forward and giving me strength.

Dogs in Chinese astrology are seen as auspicious.  They symbolise good fortune as well as strength and loyalty.  A person born in the year of the Dog is seen as honest, friendly, faithful, loyal, smart, straightforward, venerable and have a strong sense of responsibility.

A prediction for this year according to Karma Weather’s 2018, is that many voices around the world rise and begin to make changes in the way people are heard.  It is thought that individual and collective voices will bring new hope to millions of people who are suffering from neglect, indifference and rejection from other communities or individuals.

This does tie into the beginning of the year as we have heard a resounding of voices clearly expressing disparity and abuse of power.

The prediction is also interesting on a personal level as for the past three years I have been working on a project, beside my herbal and food blogs. I have been developing an endeavour which is to protect and safeguard models throughout the world.  Creating professionalisation of the industry itself as well as creating a best practice in model agencies and a clear guide to who the ‘good guys’ are.  I am in the process of creating a standard certification over model agencies which will be independently audited and available in 120 countries.  It is a significant step forward and is work that I am very proud of.  We launch in August, so you will have to watch this space.

It certainly seems if the Dog has anything to do with it, then I have chosen the right path for now.

I hope you will all find your voice this year, whatever may have held you back, you can unleash your spirit and feel free to explore the inner most depths of your reason for being.

As with the beginning of every year, health is imperative and while developing the mental strength to keep going, the immune system as well as your physical strength and health is also important.  So as a tip for this year is to ensure a good gut, which we know has 90% of serotonin and 70% of the immune system and be mindful of your physically strength and mental discipline.

October is about giving up and getting real about the things that maybe harmful in your life.

So it’s the first week, if you have not decided to do something, you are not alone, but you are also not too late.  So let’s look at the options.

You could give up smoking/wheat/alcohol/dairy/sugar/swearing/plastic/ easy/fast food/snacks or limiting social media use.

You could take up one green drink a day/15 mins exercise a day/walking the stairs instead of taking the lift/reading a book instead of watching TV/eating at the table instead of on your knee or on the hop/ringing one new friend a day.

Whatever you choose to do, first look at your life and see where you most need improving.  What has been nagging at you, what do you feel you could do differently, or achieve different end goals?  Do you sleep badly and need to give up stimulants? Do you watch too much TV and feel you need to catch up on your classics?  Do you never chill before bed and need to have hot bubble baths?  Do you feel out of touch with loved ones and need to get back a bit of balance? Are you grumpy and irritable and allergic/intolerant to something you are eating or drinking?

Whatever it is, take an hour and think about it, meditate on it and then choose what you would like to do.  It makes the 3 weeks that much more pleasurable as the results will be tangible and the goal set.  Even if at first it is hard, nothing worth having is easy, so grit your teeth and know that this is a moment of time passing, it is but a grain in the sand of life.  Focus and achieve.

Good luck and if you feel like sharing your journey, please do.

Where did the summer go? It’s suddenly back to school and the start of a new academic year with children going back to classrooms in their shiny shoes and itchy jumpers. Mums breathe a sigh of relief that they have survived the summer holidays and managed to label everything in sight.

Most households however are flung into total chaos on school mornings trying to get the children up, get them breakfast whilst finding socks and library books and organising packed lunches. So the one thing we can do is prepare in advance for healthy eating. Time and again I hear mums say to get as much done the night before and that includes preparing packed lunches. Starting tomorrow and for each Friday in September we will be posting nutritious lunchbox recipes for you to prepare over the weekend for the week ahead.