Thoughts on the world, homeopathy, mindfulness and food...
A collection of blog posts - feel free to respond with your thoughts and comments - I love to have feedback - thank you!
I've been thinking about sharing thoughts, videos, recipes etc on YouTube for some time. And was always put off - I need to do it properly - to have a camera, tripod, you know - the works (dressing team, make up artist, goffer boy....). But so many things make me think about how lucky I am to have the time I have right here, right now. So without putting my contact lenses in, thinking about what I'm wearing (it's OK I'm off to work so more than respectably dressed), or who was going to hold the camera - I did it. I made my first video of my breakfast green juice. It's an easy one to make - it's so tasty and feels great to drink and without further ado it's here to share with you: The process of making it has been great - I've learnt a lot from that in itself so please subscribe, like and share and there'll be more coming very soon!
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Well 'Where do you get your protein from?' definitely is one of the most commonly asked questions I've been asked over the last 6 months. And whilst this blog post is not aimed at providing all the information you could possibly require to answer all those questions, I was planning to provide some direction, guidance and my own personal take having done the reading I've done so far. I say was planning as I've decided that I'll let someone else do the work for me and leave you with a film to get started on a little information around protein. I definitely had no awareness of the recommended quantities of protein in my diet until I took steps to go for a raw vegan diet. And, to be honest, no one was ever interested in where I got my protein from whilst I ate a 'normal' diet... I do want to keep this brief (I've been burning the candle at both ends to get our fabulous Homeopathy for Health in Africa calendar ready for printers) and an early night is so appealing - so I won't waffle on too much and will cover more another time but for now, from this tired girl I'll leave you with one of my daughter's (and mine) favourite YouTube videos: I dare you not to dance along...
Back again, my juicing and smoothies workshop aimed at getting people started creating tasty smoothies and great juices with confidence is coming soon. On the 7th September 2-4 we'll meet and discover more about how, what, when and also why? It's always really important for me to know why I would choose to do something and eating this way has been no different. I want to do the research, make my mind up and then carry on doing more research. I guess that's just the way I am. I love to share what I've learnt along the journey and it's a practical, hands-on session where everyone gets to have a go at creating delicious drinks. Juicing and smoothies can be a great complement to homeopathy, or I suppose, visa versa. Both are working at enabling your body to heal itself and can work well together. It is my belief that great healing happens from the inside, and simplifying your diet to assist your body is a brilliant start on the path to increased health and vitality. £15pp including all fruit/veg to make and taste 4 great drinks, raw snacks and (time permitting) possibly we'll make an easy, tasty, delcious raw dessert. If you'd like to know more just get in touch. At the moment there's just 3 places left... And I'm so pleased to say it passed my expert Mac and Cheese (she's American - I think they're really good at it? Or maybe it's just she's really good at it?) friend's standards... the leftovers were gone within minutes!
I can't claim to have concocted it all by my lonesome as it came from The China Study Cookbook. Which I am totally in love with. So far all three dishes I've created from it have been a great success. Tonight's fettuccine with broccoli and cashew sauce was all cleaned up by my diddy helper. The Mac and Cheese (well less fond was the diddy helper but with some persuasion did do great with it) and the Apple Cake. Mmmmmm. I did however adapt it for us as we don't generally use onion or garlic or soy products which are listed in the original. So I thought I'd share the Mac and Cheese that I made (partly as my mum - who's making great progress through The China Study) asked for it, as did aforementioned lovely American friend. You'll need: Pasta for 4 (I use gluten free generally - up to you) 2 cups of cooked, mashed butternut squash 1/2 cup raw cashews 1/2 cup oat milk 1/2 cup water 2 tbps nutritional yeast Pinch himalayan salt to taste Preheat oven to 180C Cook the pasta. Cook butternut squash (with enough water to cover the squash), drain then mash with a tiny amount of remaining cooking water until smooth. Process the cashews, milk, water, nutritional yeast in a food processor/high powered blender until smooth. Mix with mashed squash. Add pasta to the squash and sauce, add a pinch of salt if desired and mix well. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. And then marvel at how something so delicious can have not even the teeniest little bit of cheese or milk in it! Magic Mac and Cheese! The hardest bit about doing exercise (I think anyway) is getting dressed for it. Once I'm dressed, I'm off, pretty much committed and unlikely to do an about turn and change my mind. The easiest way for me to get fit (and following injury, lots of fab trips and travel and a school summer holiday - I'm going to have to follow my own advice any moment...) is to do a little bit at a time, build up gradually and before I know it I'm comfortably running 5k and thinking nothing of it. Swimming the same - a few half mile swims and before long I'm able to easily swim a mile. A little at a time. So I figure there's no difference with foods if you'd like it to be this way. I pretty much dived into a veggie diet from a point of nearly veggie-ness anyway, then vegan 2 months later and then raw vegan 3 months after that but to stealthily have the changes happen would be great too. To introduce an extra fruit meal a day a few days a week - for example a big bowl of fruit for breakfast (my favourite competing breakfast is 6 bananas and 10 dates (the dates blended into toffee) which keeps me smiling for hours), a fruit smoothie or a big juice. Adding in a huge salad with your evening meal can be another baby step - or simply just adding an extra portion of fruit a day can be a big step for some people. Steady, baby steps are a great way to get to a brilliant place. If you do want to move faster you can always up the pace, grab some of the recommended books, have a chat with someone who's on the same journey or find relevant YouTube videos which can be wonderfully motivational. Slow and steady can win the race in the end too. Happy fruit days x Go! But how? With what? If you're not eating milk, cheese, eggs, meat, fish, and maybe even looking at eliminating oils, salt and gluten - then what's really left?!? It was great to get so many comments and remarks following my last blog, and consistently the how? what? when? questions seem to be the most common. I find it pretty easy now sorting out my diet but it's still evolving, not perfect and, well I'm not sure the journey would be all that great if it was always perfect all the time. My own transition was pretty gradual from full time veggie last September (from reluctant and occasional meat eater) to badly done vegan in November (so many excuses) to high carb, low fat raw vegan in February. In the last few months, I've spent time in France, Germany and Italy as well as going camping several times and I've managed to maintain eating that way (with some slight fluctuations but always eating a vegan diet). To use a metaphor I thought that adopting a raw diet was like going through a door into another room and what I found was that I went through the door and into a hotel - I could go through loads of other rooms and choose lots of different styles. To get back to food though two of the main options were high protein/fat or high carb/low fat. I feel that moving onto a vegan diet is very similar. There's loads of options, choices and routes to take and how to know you're choosing the right one? Is there a right one? To a high degree I believe we do all need to find the right thing for ourselves, however for optimal nutrition and physical health high carb/low fat makes most sense to me. I read Doug Graham's The 80-10-10 Diet which I would recommend to everyone regardless of whether raw food was a consideration or not. Doug recommends raw foods but the ratios that he discusses (80%+ of calories coming from carbohydrates and a maximum of 10% coming from proteins and fats) fit in line with several other things I've read. In particular this co-incides with the ratios that come through as beneficial for health in The China Study book and can be adopted for cooked foods as well as used for raw foods. My most frequently asked questions - What do you eat? Fruits and vegetables with a small amount of nuts and seeds. However if I was adopting a cooked vegan diet following a similar ratio (which Dr Doug Graham (along with many athletes) believes as optimal for physical performance) I would include whole grains such as quinoa, oats, amaranth, wild and brown rice, polenta, barley as well as beans, legumes and non-dairy milks too. But where do you get your protein from? My fruits and vegetables, and a small amount of nuts and seeds. I feel it could be important to share here that the protein required by the body to replace excreted proteins (relative to total calorie intake) is 5-6%. The RDA is set at 9-10%, allowing for individual variation. The majority of people way exceed this level. My mum made up a fruit salad the other day which contained mango, blueberries, grapes, pineapple and bananas and this contained 4.3% protein and 3% fat. There is more protein out there than you think. And - where does the meat you've been eating til now get it's protein from? If it was lucky then grass, if not then largely plant based foods. What books would you recommend to read to start with? The China Study T.Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell The 80-10-10 Diet Dr Doug Graham Forks over Knives Gene Stone And for cooking from? You'll have to bear with me a teeny bit as I've been not cooking my foods since February but have had a keen interest for helping others on this route so my favourites so far are: The China Study Cookbook Forks over Knives The Cookbook Both of these fit with the low fat approach, unlike many vegan recipes which can be very high in fat with added oils and nuts. And the man I can credit with the start of my journey last year - I would love everyone to read Scott Jurek's Eat and Run. Scott discovered he recovered better, was all round healthier and was able to train harder on a vegan diet. He did experiment with raw foods and in the end went back to cooked vegan. It's a great read for inspiration as well as recipes and ideas. His granola is the best I've had too! How am I best to get started? I always try to plan my menus ahead of time - so I can shop for the week instead of keeping running into the market. Personally I have a big fruit breakfast (my current favourite is a watermelon), a bowl of fruit or green smoothie for lunch, and for dinner often have a fruit starter then a load of veggies (in maybe a raw pasta dish/salad wraps/huge salad with a yummy fruit based dressing). The books I've listed have lots of ideas for non-raw meals though and it's worth a look through then plan for the week. How quickly should I make the change? It's really up to you. We can change overnight should we desire to and the hardest part is often in our heads. Change can be immediate. However it doesn't have to be. It can be a gradual journey like, for example the one I undertook, or really whatever speed suits you. Once you're aware of unhealthy practices and unhelpful eating habits it may be harder to hang onto them than you think. Will I be getting enough nutrients/calories? One of the biggest mistakes people can make when adopting a raw food/vegan diet is not eating enough. When you're too busy on concentrating on what you're not to have it's easy not to eat enough. Tools such as CRON-O-Meter can be great at checking on this (as well as intriguing to see just how much protein or fat is in foods where you'd never expect it). Not getting enough calories will make it harder to maintain this lifestyle. It really isn't one of denial and if you're not eating abundantly and enjoying it then it's going to be hard work. Would you like more help? I've more blogs planned around getting started, as well as the whys of plant based eating, I've a 5 day fully raw plan to share soon and lots more. However if you'd like more information or help right now then just get in touch - I'm more than happy to help with wherever I can guide you on your journey. I wanted to share some advice about how to help minor complaints both while abroad and on holiday in the UK.
Digestive problems can blight even the best planned holiday, with tummy bugs being the most common travel-associated illness, according to the NHS Choices website. While simple measures such as not drinking tap water can reduce the risk of stomach complaints, homeopathic remedies can be used to help holidaymakers get back on track. Other common holiday complaints include sunburn, insect bites, jet lag and travel sickness. Many people are looking for a more natural way to help their ailments. Homeopathic medicines are non-toxic, so they are safe to use in people of all ages. Homeopathic medicine is holistic and while treatment by a professional homeopath is recommended, over-the-counter remedies can be used in minor ailments. Homeopathic medicine works in a different way to conventional medicine, with each remedy having its own specific characteristics. Useful remedies to take on holiday include: Arsenicum - the number one food poisoning remedy. There is much vomiting and diarrhoea, the patient is chilly, restless and anxious. Belladonna – useful in sunburn where the burn is throbbing, you can feel heat coming off the body, and the patient may have a headache. Cocculus – useful in travel sickness and jet lag, where there is nausea, vertigo (i.e. a ‘dizzy’ sensation as if you’re head is spinning), an empty feeling and you feel better lying still. Ledum - useful in puncture wounds and insect bites, where the area is swollen blue and cold, but better for cold. Arnica - the number one remedy for bruising but also useful in jet lag where there is an exhausted “bruised” feeling. Note: patients are advised to consult their GPs before travelling abroad. Happy holidays to everyone! |
AuthorI'm a Homeopath working in the Skipton (North Yorkshire) area. I am also able to offer food intolerance testing using Kinesiology and advice around diet and lifestyle. |
07734 861297
em@emmacolley.co.uk Em Colley Homeopath Practitioner of Classical Homeopathy BSc(Hons) Psychology and Neuroscience Laughter Yoga Leader Focussed Mindfulness Practitioner |