Monday 23 September 2013

12 steps to better health... part two

Hello again! Thank you for tuning in again to learn more about the steps you can take to improve your health! Last week we briefly explored 6 out of 12 steps to better health, which can be followed in any order at your own pace. Let me encourage you that by making small changes now you will see a BIG difference down the track. These steps will help to restore and revive your health. So, let's get started!

12 steps to better health


To recap, here are the 6 steps we looked at previously:

1. Drink more water

2. Practice cooking

3. Increase whole grains

4. Increase sweet vegetables

5. Increase leafy green vegetables

6. Experiment with protein

Now, let's look at the other 6 steps that you can take:

7. Eat fewer processed foods

Just to be clear this means eat less of the food that is processed, comes in a package, and has a looong ingredient list with words you've never seen or can't even pronounce! Most people will start to feel significantly better just by eating less meat, sugar, artificial junk food, caffeine and alcohol, and by eating more fruit, vegetables, whole foods, high-quality protein, drinking more water and getting more rest or sleep. For what your plate should look like at a meal and for better health check out this article.

8. Make a habit of nurturing your body

Nurturing your body is all about self-care and taking the time to make sure that you are nourished body, soul and spirit. After all, how can you live your best life and help others if you're falling apart at the seams? Think about the oxygen mask demonstration on an airplane. You put on your own mask before you help others put on their masks. Take the time to breathe in and out again. If you are stuck for a place to start here is a list of 100 extreme self-care ideas. Try to make nurturing your body a habit by scheduling self-care into your daily or weekly schedule. 

9. Have healthy relationships

Healthy relationships are central to living a healthy life. It's all about people in the end. Our relationships with people can either enrich our lives or be a drain on our time, energy and health. One thing I've learnt how to do is to let go of toxic relationships in my life and work towards building healthy relationships based on love, trust and respect. Knowing how to have a healthy sense of boundaries can help you to either release or restore relationships. Here is an interesting article on how toxic relationships are connected to adrenal fatigue with advice on how to work through it. I am so grateful for the richness of relationships I have in my life now more than ever before. To my family and friends (you know who you are), I just want to say to you: I love and appreciate you!




10. Enjoy regular physical activity

Finding exercise or physical activity that you enjoy is the key to keeping active and working towards a regular fitness routine. Our bodies are made to move and all you need to do is start moving more and more often! You can read here for more of my thoughts on exercise and here for an explanation of how much exercise is enough. My weekly exercise regime includes running, walking and Pilates for strength, stretching and cardiovascular exercise, but you may find that by doing more incidental exercise, such as taking the stairs instead of the lift, you start to become fitter, stronger and healthier every day. 

11. Find work you love

There are many aspects of life that nourish us other than food and a fulfilling career is one of them. Finding work we love requires us to follow our hearts, dreams and desires, and leave behind the misconception that success and happiness is wrapped up in fame and fortune. Yes, it's about taking risks, but if you're not taking steps to change your life, your life won't change. Finding work that you love may look like cutting back on your work hours to spend more time on creative projects, doing some online study, or starting your own business. Whatever it looks like, know that by doing what you love, you are on your way to better health and a more fulfilling life. 

12. Develop a spiritual practice

We are spiritual beings. And we need spiritual nourishment. For me, as a Christian, I am nourished by being in relationship with the living God, who made a way for me to be healed spiritually and come to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. God is the One who quenches my spiritual thirst with His rivers of living water. He is for me, He loves me, He is always with me. My hope and my trust are in Him, and I know that as I turn to Him, He works all things in my life together for my good. He gives me peace and joy. He nourishes me. My relationship with God and my church family at Planetshakers has been an important step on my journey to better health. Perhaps developing a spiritual practice will help you on your way too!

May you be blessed on your journey to better health as you follow these steps and live your best life! xx


My gorgeous cousin and I at St Andrews Market, the best hippie market in Melbourne! I'm very excited to be going on an adventure to Western Australia tomorrow to spend the week with my beloved cousin!

Monday 16 September 2013

12 steps to better health... part one

Hello friends! How are you? We often answer this question with a very polite "good thanks" when in reality there can be a more complex answer bubbling beneath the surface. That's where knowing how to foster health in our lives can help us to work through whatever obstacles we may face in the day-to-day ebb-and-flow of life. I know for myself I am a busy bee this week as the teaching term winds down and I get ready for an amazing holiday in WA with my cousin next week. Life is good! But, there is a structure and stability to my life that allows me to stretch my resources so that I can truly enjoy and embrace the amazing adventure that is life! And that, my friends, is a self-care practice for better health.

I'll be writing more in the weeks to come about self-care, but for now I want to put to you a plan that will help you move towards better health. This 12 step plan is from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, the world's largest nutrition school, through which I am studying to become a certified Health Coach. You do not need to follow the steps in any specific order. Just pick one. And go onto another step when you are ready. Move at your own pace. And be patient with yourself. Better health is a long-term lifestyle and the way you move towards it is with one step at a time. 

12 steps to better health


1. Drink more water

Our bodies are made up of 60-75% water. We can only survive a few days without water. And most of us are not drinking enough. Just by increasing the amount of water you are drinking every day, you can significantly improve your health. And the best news is, water is free! Read my post here about water, but don't stress too much about where your water is coming from in the beginning, just start to drink more!

2. Practice cooking

Recipes are tools to help you learn how to cook. Follow them as you learn how to prepare nourishing food for your body. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, that's how we learn! I love to be creative in the kitchen and only use recipes as a guide when trying something new, but if you need to work on this step, see this blog post for websites with healthy, delicious recipes. 

3. Increase whole grains

Whole grains are the real deal. Try to replace the refined grain products in your diet with either the whole grain version, or the actual whole grain. Whole grains are a nutrient-rich food full of vitamins, minerals, fibre and protein, and include amaranth, barley, brown rice, buckwheat, corn, kamut, millet, oats, quinoa, spelt and teff. If you have a sensitivity to gluten try the gluten-free grains, which are amaranth, buckwheat, millet, oat groats or quinoa. Read these posts here and here to learn more about whole grains.

4. Increase sweet vegetables

Do you have a sweet tooth?! Combat those sugar cravings with increasing the amount of sweet vegetables in your diet. Sweet vegetables include many root vegetables as well as corn, onions and pumpkin. Here are some recipes for sweet vegetable dishes.

5. Increase leafy green vegetables

By now, I think you all know how much I adore my greens. But, just in case you don't, read up on my obsession with leafy green vegetables, the most nutrient-dense food on the face of the earth, here, here and here

6. Experiment with protein

For most people, eating less meat will improve overall health. And experimenting with protein can be an effective way to move towards better health. If you eat meat, try to eat better quality meat, such as organic or biodynamic meat, less often. There are many plant-based sources of protein, many of which provide you with all nine essential amino acids. You may want to try being meat-free one day a week and eating more vegetarian meals. For more information on plant-based proteins read this blog post


How's the serenity? My favourite place, Bonnie Doon (yes, it's real)!

I'll write more about the remaining 6 steps next week (I just want to keep you in suspense!), but to give you a head start and to help you on your way to better health, I'll tell what they are:

7. Eat fewer processed foods

8. Make a habit of nurturing your body

9. Have healthy relationships

10. Enjoy regular physical activity

11. Find work you love

12. Develop a spiritual practice

May your journey towards better health be one that revives your body, soul and spirit. All my love! xx

Monday 9 September 2013

sharing the raw food love

Today, I'm going to share some raw food love with you all! I've written before about eating raw food here but in this blog post I'm going to share with you some of my favourite go-to websites for both raw food and healthy eating. But first, let's look at why eating a diet that is high in raw food is good for us...


A raw food diet consists of mainly uncooked and unprocessed plant-based foods like fresh fruit and vegetables, leafy greens, sprouts, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, grains, seaweeds, superfoods, herbs, fermented foods and living water. There is an abundance of food to eat! Generally, at least 75% of the diet is raw or living foods, and mostly, raw foodies are vegan, although some do include raw meat or dairy in their diet. In the process of heating food above 115 degrees Fahrenheit or 46 degrees Celcius, enzymes in the food are destroyed, which your body needs to digest and assimilate food. Not only are the enzymes and most of the nutritional value lost in the process of cooking but eating cooked food will cause a response in our bodies called leukocytosis where white blood cells are used to digest food in the same way they would respond to a foreign substance. So, the fact is our bodies do not recognise cooked food as, well, food!

Now here's the good news: by shifting the ratio of raw to cooked food in your diet to at least 50% raw to 50% cooked you can stop leukocytosis in it's destructive tracks! And you will also receive the benefits of eating raw food, which include the prevention of degenerative diseases, effects of ageing are slowed down, enhanced energy and emotional balance, and an improvement of overall health, wellbeing and beauty!

I know it seems daunting to begin with but by adding more raw food into your daily diet you will start to crowd out the cooked food. Start by eating more fresh fruit for snacks and a salad for lunch or before you eat your dinner. And green smoothies for breakfast are always quick, easy and nutritious! To help you out, I want to share with you some of my go-to websites for raw food recipes and healthy eating info...


Hopefully, this list will give you a place to start in the kitchen, inspire you to eat more raw food, and help you on your way to finding health and wellness in your life. And please, feel free to share the raw food love!


My twin sister, brother-in-law and me during my last trip to London (where they live). I'll be moving in with them again for six weeks at the end of the year! I'm looking forward to their company and many adventures, including going back to eat at one of the awesome raw food restaurants in London, Saf, which is at one of my all-time favourite places, the Whole Foods Market.

Monday 2 September 2013

the season of singing... & chocolate

Hello friends! Well, spring has definitely sprung here in sunny Melbourne! I'm soooooo enjoying the warmer weather and my body is thanking me for the vitamin D fix! I don't have a favourite season per se, but I love how the seasons change. And I'm not just talking about climatic change. I love how the seasons of life change. Life, after all, always moves forward. And I love that with the season of spring comes new life and renewed hope. 
For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come... (Song of Songs 2:11-12, ESV).
We can support new life in our lives in different ways. We do this through nourishing our body, soul and spirit. Our food choices will not only affect the nourishment of our bodies but also the world we live in. And so, I want to encourage you, in this new season, to make food choices that will not only nourish your body but that also support the nourishment of the world we live in. Now, I'm not saying you all need to go hug a tree right now (you can if you want!) but if you're looking at living a greener life, the place to start that will have the greatest impact is with your food choices.

So, here are my best tips for being kind to your body and the trees! Try to buy more of the SLOP foods:

  • Seasonal
  • Local
  • Organic
  • Plants

Our food choices have an impact that reaches far beyond our bodies. Let's be conscious about our food choices so that our world is able to continue to produce food that will nourish all the generations to come. If you want to read more about sustainability and how our food choices impact the environment click on these links herehere and here. If you can't afford to go all organic, start with swapping out the most chemical-laden foods for which you can find the list here. Change starts with one step at a time - just make sure you're stepping in the direction that brings life!


Lastly, I have a confession to make... In case you haven't noticed, I have a love affair with chocolate, and though I only spend time with the real deal, I found that all those hot chocolate dates were taking me on a ride when sugar came along. So, I experimented with a sugar-free version of this beloved drink, and voila, my raw chocolate drink found me! Feel free to take this drink out to dance! 

Here's to dreaming in this season of new life and renewed hope; the season of singing!

raw chocolate drink


This delicious drinking chocolate is raw, vegan and sugar-free! Enjoy this drink hot in the cold months or cold in the warm months. Raw cacao is full of goodness like antioxidants and magnesium, which is the most deficient mineral in the western diet. Yacon syrup is both a natural sweetener and a pre-biotic, helping the digestive tract to function properly, which in turn boosts the immune system and aids in the removal of waste and toxins from the body. Mesquite powder is a sweet and caramel-like alternative to any sugar, natural or not. 

Shake of ground cinnamon
Dash of pure vanilla extract
1 tsp raw cacao nibs, optional (for extra chocolatey goodness!)
Drizzle of yacon syrup, optional

Blend all the ingredients together in a high-powered blender, such as a Vitamix. To warm the drink up, keep blending until the drink is warm to the touch and the almond milk is frothing. For a hot chocolate, pour the drink into a mug and drizzle with yacon syrup, if desired. For an ice chocolate, add ice cubes to the blender and process on low for a few seconds to break up the ice. Pour into a glass and enjoy! Adjust measurements to taste. Serves 1.