introduction
This is my first book — ever! Who would have thought it would be a cookbook? Over my lifetime I have made two attempts at writing a book but didn’t finish either of them. This book means more to me than my previous attempts as it isn’t about my personal life, but my life experience with food, the effect it has on my body and how eating the right foods in combination has helped to keep me fit and healthy.
There is an old, familiar saying ‘We are what we eat!’ and I am a firm believer that what we put into our bodies creates the building blocks of our existence. I also believe that what we think about what we eat is just as important. Considering where food is grown, how it is transported and stored, and finally, how it is prepared, means that each meal can be gratefully received and enjoyed as the precious gift that it is. Every plant and animal once had life, and each time I eat, I try to acknowledge this and honour that life with a quiet grace.
There are thousands of cookbooks on the market but what makes this one so special is not just my own passion for the role food has in maintaining good health, but the support I have had in compiling the recipes. I have been fortunate to be able to include recipes written by some of my favourite people, whose taste buds I respect. The contributors in this book have not only devoted their time, but also their knowledge of food and experience in the kitchen to ensure that this collection of recipes not only reflects the way I like to eat, but may help set you on the path to a healthier lifestyle.
Naturally, my first port of call was to all the talented chefs, both past and present, at Gaia Retreat and Spa in Byron Bay, Australia (www.gaiaretreat.com.au) — which in my opinion is the best healing retreat in the world, and my favourite place to eat. As co-owner, I was proud to develop an organic garden at the retreat so that the food we serve can be picked fresh each day — just a part of what makes mealtimes at Gaia so special.
Karen Inge, a well-respected nutritionist from Melbourne, Australia, was also asked to contribute to LivWise. I have been lucky enough to dine at Karen’s table and her food is always delicious, nutritious and beautiful to behold!
In early 2010 I was in Australia fundraising for The Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre (ONJCWC) and someone gave me a book to read called From Cancer to Wellness: The Forgotten Secrets. I couldn’t put it down. It was written by Kristine Matheson, also a cancer thriver, who, as coincidence would have it, lives very close to Gaia Retreat. I was so impressed with her book and her thoughts on raw food that I immediately asked if she would contribute some of her recipes and she kindly has.
The common thread between all these recipes is the food philosophy behind them and a mutual respect for the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet and increasing your intake of plant foods, some raw as well as organic foods where possible. Along with regular exercise, this helps your body find its own natural balance and achieve a healthy weight. The aim of this book therefore is to introduce you to ways of eating that will help to keep you in good health, whether you are going through the cancer journey or just wanting to maintain optimum health.
We have included many tasty simple vegetarian meals within these covers. You can add fish or meat as you wish, but I’m always pleasantly surprised at how satisfying vegetarian meals can be on their own. We all agree that you have to enjoy what you eat, so there are also sweet treats included.
I am very proud to say that 100 per cent of the profits I receive from the sale of LivWise will support the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre (www.oliviaappeal.com) to help make available cutting-edge treatments and support cancer research. I am proud to say it will include a dedicated Wellness Centre with complimentary programs, such as massage, yoga and music therapy and so much more, that focus on the needs of the whole person — body, mind and spirit. It is a centre I dreamed of as I was going through my cancer journey. Ultimately, my vision is that cancer becomes a footnote in history.
Love and light,
Olivia
the common sense diet
Now that I am eighteen years past my initial diagnosis of breast cancer and feeling better than I’ve ever felt before I think of myself as a cancer thriver! People often ask me what my secret is and want to know how I manage to stay slim, active and healthy at my age — I feel timeless and even though my passport says so it is hard for me to comprehend that I am 62 years young!
I am no cordon bleu chef, nor am I a doctor or nutritionist, but I have picked up some pieces of information over the years about health and nutrition. Without getting too complicated, I wanted to present in this book some of what I do to stay healthy.
As I sat down to write this book I began to realise how many different eating choices I have succumbed to over the years. I have been a vegetarian at times, followed a strict macrobiotic diet on occasion, restricted my dairy and wheat intake on and off and have now returned to a more balanced diet that includes chicken and fish and occasionally some red meat. I am a very simple cook and like to keep things pretty basic in the kitchen (thanks Mum!). I believe first and foremost that simplicity is the key to healthy eating. I love eating this way as I can taste the freshness of my food. To me it seems obvious — when I start adding heavy sauces and toppings to meals I get into trouble!
The simplest way for me to explain my food philosophy is to remember that what goes up must come down. What you eat goes in, and if it doesn’t come out it has to go somewhere else — like on your hips! I believe it starts with a combination of controlling the portion size of what goes in, ensuring the food is of the best quality you can find (organic is preferable), exercising regularly, drinking lots of water, and eating enough fibre to keep your internal wheels turning so you can expel the waste, and any toxins, efficiently.
Of course, following a diet can be hard to do over long periods of time. I am lucky I have a quick metabolism and I listen to my body. If I eat a large amount of food one day, the next day my body will tell me to ease up. I cut back on my food intake and do a work-out. That way, I never let my body accrue extra kilograms.
From what I have learned over the years the one thing that everybody seems to agree upon is that combining a balanced diet with regular exercise and clean water (and, I believe, a positive attitude) is the best-known way to stay healthy. A balanced diet should consist mostly of plants, vegetables and fruit, some wholegrains, nuts and seeds. It should include some protein-rich foods such as fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, legumes (beans and lentils) and a small amount of healthy fats, such as avocados, nuts, seeds and seed oils, olive oil and oily fish.
This is basically the eating regime I follow. It’s not really a secret at all. I call it the common sense diet!
listen to your instincts
In all areas of my life I have learned to trust my instincts — after all, they once saved my life. After finding a lump in my breast (it wasn’t the first, but all the others had been benign) I went to the doctor to have it checked. I was sent for a mammogram, which was negative. I then had a needle biopsy, which also turned out to be negative. I still wasn’t feeling right in myself or with the lump, which was a little tender, so my doctor and I decided I should undergo some exploratory surgery. Although I had heard that breast cancer wasn’t necessarily tender to the touch, this was my experience, and I’m glad I listened to my instincts and persevered.
In the end they found that the lump in my breast was cancerous. The cancer was removed, I had reconstructive surgery and underwent chemotherapy for about eight months. I have yearly mammograms now, and although the medical term used is ‘remission’, I don’t like that word; it sounds like the cancer is lurking — I say it’s gone! I tell this story not to scare women but to encourage them to do regular self-breast examinations and to trust themselves and their instincts if they feel something isn’t right. (For more detailed information about how to do this yourself you can download a copy of a step-by-step breast self exam on my website www.liv.com.)
This experience reinforced the general idea that listening to your body and being conscious of the role nutrition can play in decreasing the risk of disease and helping to restore your body to its natural state of balance is so important.
After my experience with breast cancer I became even more conscious of what I was eating and tried the macrobiotic diet of Michio Kushi, one of the early leaders of the macrobiotic movement. I had heard that a macrobiotic diet was very cleansing and gave the body a chance to heal itself. In a nutshell, macrobiotics is all about eating food that is as natural as possible and avoiding foods that have been highly processed and refined. At the time I was eating a low-fat, high-fibre diet that did not include any meat, dairy products or sugar. A macrobiotic diet typically consists of about 60 per cent wholegrains, 30 per cent vegetables (it encourages you to eat these raw where possible) and the remaining 10 per cent is made up of bean and bean products, such as tempeh and tofu. It encourages people to eat some fruits and consume nuts and seeds in moderation while at the same time places emphasis on eating food grown locally and in season.
When I was going through treatment I employed a chef for a few months to cook my macrobiotic meals. I eventually eased my way out of the rigidity of the diet but learnt to respect much of its philosophy.
Luckily my mother, Irene, who was born and raised in Germany, set great food examples for me when I was a child. She fed me healthy food — rye and pumpernickel bread instead of white bread sandwiches in my lunchbox and dinners that almost always consisted of steamed potatoes (skins included), steamed broccoli and carrot. We ate plenty of fresh salads, delicious dishes of red cabbage made the German way with apple, and steamed or baked chicken breast or fish. For dessert we would have baked apples, pears or whatever fruit was in season, topped with a dollop of yoghurt. Mum would often make her own yoghurt, and always insisted that it was terrific for our digestive systems and she was right — probiotic yoghurt (the kind that contains health-promoting live bacteria) is still a favourite of mine.
It was all very simple and basic cooking, and while I was annoyed at the time that I wasn’t able to have the deep-fried snacks and cakes my friends enjoyed after school, I now thank her for those early years of eating training that have made such a huge difference throughout my adult life. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy sweets like the next person. I have a very sweet tooth which I also attribute to my mother. When she passed away we found chocolate hidden in just about every cupboard! Luckily for me, there have been research studies that show that chocolate can assist blood flow to the brain and is rumoured to release a chemical endorphin that makes you feel like you’re in love, so it can’t be all bad. I think my mother must have known this instinctively, without research!
From experimenting with many various diets over the years I have learned that it is important to listen to your body. We all have instincts and I pay close attention to mine in relation to food and the way it affects me.
LivWise organically
I always look for, and try to buy, organically. Organic food contains fewer pesticides and toxins. It is my belief that eating organically as much as possible really does make a difference to our overall health.
There are countless pesticides used in the cultivation of mass-produced fruit and vegetables, most of which have never been tested on humans. This is an issue that I became very involved with when my dear friends, Nancy and Jim Chuda, lost their five-year-old daughter, Colette, to Wilms Tumour — a kidney cancer that is believed to be environmentally caused. She was my daughter Chloe’s best friend and it was a heartbreaking experience for us all. The Chuda’s incredible spirit and their strong Buddhist faith helped them create something positive out of their pain, an organisation called Healthy Child Healthy World (www.healthychild.org) to inform parents of the toxins that their children are exposed to in their everyday environment, including the chemicals found in food. I am proud to say that the organisation is now aligned with webmd.com, the most respected online source of medical information in the world.
Buying organically supports the organic produce industry and our spending dollars can effect change and increase the demand for organically grown food. I also try to buy locally grown — it is bound to be fresher, taste better, and saves the fossil costs of storage and transportation. Most importantly though, seeking out organic produce means you are not ingesting the pesticides that are still allowed to contaminate some of our foods and products.
As I like to limit my exposure to chemicals as much as I possibly can — at least to the ones I know about — I am pleased to see that most supermarkets are now carrying a variety of organic foods, fruits and vegetables.
anti what?
It has taken a few years of trial and error to find the diet that suits my body best, but the recipes in this cookbook represent the kinds of foods I now love to eat (some cooked and some raw), and they are tasty, healthy and delicious too!
I have done a lot of reading about diets and words like ‘antioxidant’ keep cropping up. ‘Antioxidant’ is a word I see everywhere. For a while I never really understood what it meant, but was too embarrassed to admit it!
I remember from school that oxidation means basically, to rust, and that ‘anti’ means ‘against’ but in order to understand the role of antioxidants you need to understand what these agents are opposing. In much the same way as oxidation creates rust, causing a breakdown on the surface of inanimate objects, oxidation inside the body causes a breakdown of the cells. The particles produced by this breakdown are called free radicals and they attack healthy cells. This chain of events weakens your immune functions and speeds up aging and studies show links to various forms of diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and many other degenerative conditions.
When you cut an apple or an avocado and squeeze lemon over the fruit, it will not go brown — or oxidise — but rather stay its original colour as you are preventing the process of oxidation, or at least slowing it down. The vitamin C, an antioxidant vitamin in the lemon, is doing it right in front of your eyes.
Ideally, we want to get rid of those ‘radicals’ and one way of doing this is to eat properly, avoid stress and cut back on the habits that promote them, such as smoking, drinking, eating poorly and the one we can’t always avoid, pollution from the environment.
In basic terms, vegetables and fruits with the strongest colours are generally rich with antioxidants and high in vitamins and minerals. Oranges, red capsicums (peppers), tomatoes, spinach and carrots are all good examples of foods rich in these nutrients, to name a few. Culinary herbs and spices are also wonderful sources of powerful antioxidants and even when you add just a handful of fresh herbs to a salad you increase the antioxidant capacity of that salad by 200 per cent.
the good, the bad and the spooky
Every time I go to the doctor she checks my cholesterol levels — and for good reason. I know that smoking (luckily I don’t smoke) and consuming foods high in fat (bad fat anyway) can push your cholesterol over the top. Interestingly, cholesterol only comes from animals and animal products — never from plants — so a diet rich in vegetables and fruits is looking better and better as I get older!
Although most of us think of it as a bad thing, cholesterol has a number of important functions in the body including the production of hormones, vitamin D and bile acids. A waxy substance, the majority of cholesterol in the body is made in the liver from saturated fats and the remainder comes from cholesterol in food.
Because cholesterol is a fatty substance, it doesn’t dissolve in the bloodstream and needs to be transported around the body on a protein carrier called lipoprotein. The two major carriers of cholesterol are high-density lipoproteins (HDL), also know as ‘good’ cholesterol because they tend to take the cholesterol away from the arteries, back to the liver, and low-density lipoproteins (LDL), known as ‘bad’ cholesterol. I have come up with my own acronym to explain these: Happy and Delightful for the good fats and Lazy and Disgusting, for the fats we don’t want!
It worries me when people try to take fats completely out of their diets to lose weight because we need some fats in our body to produce hormones and repair our cell membranes and for the creation of Vitamin D, for healthy bones and teeth. But if there is an excess of the LDL (the lazy bad dude) in our body, it ends up sticking to our arteries and causing all kinds of problems — they call it plaque. When this plaque builds up in the arteries of the heart and brain it can cause strokes and heart attacks.
The spooky part is that there are not necessarily any symptoms. This is why a healthy diet and exercise is so important. We need to keep the blood pumping to exercise the heart muscle, ensure our arteries are elastic, and keep an eye on our Happy and Lazy ratio.
The aim is to try and eat less saturated and trans fats (both of which increase LDL cholesterol) and replace them with healthy fats, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
Over-consuming foods with saturated fats and trans fats in them can increase the risk of heart disease. These include foods like full-fat milk, cheese, butter and fatty meat products. Trans fats are unhealthy substances that are formed when oils are solidified during a chemical process called hydrogenation. Trans fats can also be found in things like take-away meals, packaged snacks, commercially packaged baked items such as crackers, biscuits, doughnuts, muffins, cakes, pies and processed meat products. These are all examples of foods that can contain fats that are not good for you. I admit that I do eat some of these foods (I’m human after all!) but in moderation — that is the key.
So what about the good fats? In general, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats can help lower blood cholesterol levels. Foods high in these fats include most nuts and seeds and a variety of vegetable oils. The two types of polyunsaturated fats that affect our health most positively are omega-3 and omega-6. According to the Australian Heart Foundation these can be found in oily fish, such as tuna, salmon, sardines and blue mackarel along with things like tahini, linseeds, sunflower and safflower oil, pine nuts, walnuts and Brazil nuts.
I believe the most important of all these happy fats is omega-3. If you can’t get it from fresh fish it can be obtained from good-quality fish oil supplements, flaxseed oil or oil derived from algae. As well as aiding with heart health by lowering blood pressure, blood fats and reducing the stickiness of platelets, omega-3s are also crucial for brain development and cognitive function and evidence has shown them to have anti-inflammatory effects. We should be trying to eat oily fish at least twice a week. All this and I find it also helps improve my hair and skin, too!
water, water all around and not a drop to drink
Wonderful refreshing and delicious, bubbly or flat, mineralised or distilled, PH balanced and alkaline — so many kinds of water!
I always love going to Australia, but especially because you can still fill a kettle for your cuppa with tap water. These days, in many parts of the world, it is considered a rarity to be able to do this.
It is commonly believed that between 60 and 70 per cent of our body is made up of water. The jury is out on exactly how much water we should consume daily, but it seems logical that we should at least replace what we lose every day in perspiration, elimination and breathing!
According to the Mayo Clinic based in the United States, we lose an average of about 1.5 litres (52 fl oz/6 cups) of fluid a day through perspiration and breathing, and another 1 litre (35 fl oz/ 4 cups) for elimination. By that maths, we need to drink at least 2.5 litres (87 fl oz/10 cups) of water to make up for all our bodily functions and help cleanse our system of toxins. I try to drink at least 1.5–2 litres (6–8 cups) water a day, including a coffee and a few cups of tea. Foods with a high water content, like most fruit and vegetables, can also count towards our fluid intake.
I notice throughout the day that I become very tired when I am dehydrated. I find that I will experience an afternoon lull when I have forgotten to drink water — and it often mimics hunger — an unfortunate mimic because it leads to snacking on all kinds of yummy bad food!
taking your pulses!
Our bodies need protein to repair cells. Meats and fish are probably the most well-known sources of protein, but protein can also be obtained from plants although most plant foods except soy do not supply all of the amino acids and so are often referred to as incomplete proteins. Good plant sources include a variety of legumes (when dried they are known as pulses) such as lentils and chickpeas; a variety of beans including red kidney, lima, pinto, black, white, butte, borlotti, haricot, cannellini, navy and adzuki beans; as well as split peas, nuts and seeds. Ideally, these should be combined with grains such as rice to make a ‘complete protein’. Fermented soy products such as tempeh, miso and tofu are all complete proteins. Protein can also be found in some vegetables, including mushrooms, coconut, corn, peas, spirulina, algae and barley greens.
Eggs are also an excellent source of protein and choline, plus an array of minerals and other nutrients. We love them in our house and eat them almost every day!
It is true that eggs contain cholesterol but dietary cholesterol has very little bearing on blood cholesterol and it is generally believed that if you cut back on saturated and trans fats you should still be able to eat one egg a day without raising your cholesterol. I try to look for organic free-range eggs where the hens have been raised with freedom and without hormones and antibiotics. Happy hens make better eggs!
the green, green grass of home
Every health book I’ve read sings the praises and stresses the importance of green food and drinks in our diet. Near our home in Florida is an amazing place called the Hippocrates Health Institute. They are famous for their natural healthcare and were the first to introduce me to the value of wheatgrass. They grow it on the premises and juice it fresh several times daily. Within only a couple of days of drinking this nutritious, cleansing and ‘living’ drink I felt wonderfully alive and vital. The woman who founded Hippocrates, Ann Wigmore, claimed to have cured herself of cancer by eating ‘live’ foods (www.hippocratesinst.org). It’s amazing to think that some of the world’s largest and strongest creatures survive on grass alone. Not that I recommend that for us!
Sprouts are a living food that release and supply energy to all the cells in the body. They have anti-aging benefits and are recognised for their high level of enzyme activity. The most essential enzymes in sprouts are amylase, protease and lipase, which are all extremely helpful in aiding digestion.
sprouting can be fun
Good-quality sprouts are often available at health food stores, but you can also grow them yourself. The following seeds, grains and legumes can be sprouted. Only use organic seeds, legumes, grains and nuts for sprouting. Non-organic produce contains chemicals and may not sprout.
Seeds: alfalfa, broccoli, celery, clover, oats, radish, fenugreek, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), sunflower seeds.
Grains: buckwheat, barley, millet, rice, wheat.
Legumes: chickpeas, lentils, mung beans and soya beans.
Nuts: almonds, cashews, Hunza walnuts, pecans, pistachios.
Anyone, anywhere can create their own sprouts. All you need is the right equipment. You can either buy a ready-made kit that includes seeds, or alternatively you can create your own using 2 litre (70 fl oz/8 cup) capacity glass jars with a wide mouth. If you are using your own equipment you will also need a square of fly-screen gauze or some muslin (cheesecloth) that can be cut to size and used for lids, as well as a few rubber bands to fix the lid to the jar.
how to sprout
Place 2–4 tablespoons of any of the seeds or grains listed above in a jar — do not mix varieties as they will reach maturity at different times.
Pour in enough filtered pure water to half-fill the jar. Place the gauze over the top and seal with a rubber band. Leave to soak for at least 6 hours. Drain the seeds, rinse well and turn the jar upside down to drain completely — this prevents rotting.
Rinse with pure filtered water twice a day.
Germination will take place and the seeds and grains will expand by about eight times their original size (keep this in mind when adding them to the jar).
Legumes and nuts will not expand at the same rate as seeds and grains. Place 1 cup of legumes or nuts in a jar as above and fill with filtered pure water. Set aside at room temperature to soak for at least 15 hours. Continue to wash and drain the legumes and nuts twice a day, even after germination begins, until they are ready to eat. See the chart below for more details.
sprouting chart
sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
As I said, I have a very sweet tooth but I try to steer clear of refined sugars. Instead, I use honey, maple syrup and the less well-known agave syrup, which has a lower glycemic index (GI) than sugar and is derived from the agave plant. It is available from most health food stores.
I also sometimes use a sugar substitute called xylitol, which is a natural sweetener, occurring in many fruits, vegetables and hardwoods, such as Birch, and tastes just like sugar. Xylitol has a very low GI and helps stabilise blood sugar and insulin levels. All in all, in small amounts, xylitol is a great sugar substitute for those with a sweet tooth.
Other sugar alternatives include the extracts from the stevia leaf, which are over 100 times sweeter than sugar, if you can believe it is possible! It has been used in Peru and Brazil for many years to regulate blood sugar and aid digestion.
My new favourite, coconut palm sugar, is also a wonderful alternative to sugar and can be used as a substitute in any recipe calling for soft or dark brown sugar. It contains some B vitamins, potassium, magnesium, zinc and iron.
extra daily support
My husband John, is an incredibly wonderful and intelligent man, who has owned and run his dietary supplement business, Amazon Herb Company, for twenty years. He started out life as a treasure hunter and spent years searching the Amazon rainforest for treasures and ancient artifacts.
During his years of exploration in the rainforest, the indigenous people introduced him to the traditional use of therapeutic plants. After a health crisis and healing experience using botanicals, he realised a simple truth: the real treasure of the rainforest is, in fact, the life-enhancing properties of the rainforest plants. Now he is not only devoted to expanding the awareness of this healing potential but also protecting the precious resources of the Amazon for future generations.
The Amazon rainforest is an amazing place and its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangoes, tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, pumpkin (winter squash) and yams; spices such as black and cayenne pepper, cocoa, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, turmeric, coffee, vanilla and some nuts, including Brazil nuts and cashews. At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western world. The Indians of the rainforest use over 2000 of them. One of the greatest treasures that John has discovered (apart from me of course — ha ha!) is an amazing fruit known as camu camu.
Camu camu (Myrciaria dubia) grows naturally in the Amazon rainforest basin — it spends part of its life in the rainy season submerged in the Amazon River soaking up all the nutrients of the rainforest. It is quickly gaining recognition as having the highest naturally-occurring concentration of vitamin C on the planet, beating out second-place acerola and having over thirty times the amount of vitamin C as an orange. It also contains amino acids, terpines, fibre, betacarotene, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, and other beneficial substances. A recent study in Japan confirmed that camu camu is an antioxidant and also helps with inflammation.
The wonder of the rainforest, apart from its beauty and the abundance of life, is that there is so much to still be discovered. Only three per cent of the 100,000 plant species within the Amazon rainforest have been studied for their therapeutic value — and from this tiny percentage come the basis of about 25 per cent of our pharmaceuticals.
Along with a balanced diet I take a few vitamin supplements that I can’t always get through food. Most of the time I try to take a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement, as well as a CQ10, Omega-3 and B-complex vitamin. In addition to these, I take Digestazon, Fiberzon, Camu Gold and many other Amazon Herb dietary supplements that help to aid my health and digestion. For more information go to www.amazonherb.net
let’s get physical
It’s funny really, that one of my most popular songs from the eighties is ‘Let’s get physical’. It’s perfect for me because I’ve always loved exercise. I never find it a chore — I love to get up, get out and move my body. Every day I do some kind of activity, even if it is just walking my dog. I play tennis or go for a run around the block or use the treadmill, or I do yoga. I have to do something to expend energy or I don’t feel good. I even carry a skipping rope in my carry-on bag when I travel. Skipping stimulates the lymphatic system and helps strengthen your bones and heart, and it makes you feel young too! At Gaia we encourage our guests to walk, especially after meals — I feel best when in nature and in times of stress just getting outside and walking is a naturally healing thing for me to do.
everything in moderation
For me, the best way to stay healthy and trim is to eat what I like in moderation. I eat a little bit of everything so I’m not denying myself the pleasure of new flavours and experiences — I just don’t eat it all! I find that the first few bites of dessert are amazing, but after a couple of mouthfuls the taste just isn’t as exciting. That’s the time to stop. You need to have willpower to continually make this decision. The easiest way I’ve found to eat less is to share my dessert with someone else, usually my husband, and it’s more fun as well!
Your mind is very powerful in all aspects of health and to enjoy your food and appreciate where it comes from means your body will accept it with gratitude. My husband John and I travel a great deal and much of our lives are spent in hotels and on planes. We have learned to eat wisely and include as much fresh ‘alive’ food as we can. We never eat without giving thanks for the meal before us and taking a few silent moments to appreciate the miracle of the food before us, and all those who grew and prepared it. This expression of gratitude brings us into the moment and we enjoy our meal with the acknowledgement of all the energy and love that has gone into it, including the soil, the sun and the rain on our beautiful earth that made it all possible. Enjoy!
LivWise shopping list
• lettuce — a selection of salad leaves, bright, light and dark.
• carrots
• celery
• tomatoes — try to buy a variety of heirloom and cherry to use in different dishes.
• onions — I usually buy a variety of spring onions (scallions) and red onions.
• beetroot with the beetroot greens intact (which are great to serve, steamed, with eggs)
• broccoli/kale/spinach/bok choy (pak choy) — any or all of these can be added to a dish or steamed to make a wonderful side dish.
• asparagus
• pumpkin (winter squash) and sweet potato
• lemons — buy lots of these!
• bananas
• blueberries
• raspberries
• cranberries, cherries and rhubarb in season
• almonds
• oatmeal and quinoa
• soy milk and organic low-fat dairy milk
• non-fat yoghurt
• honey — I try to use this instead of sugar in tea. It can also help with allergies if you buy honey that is locally made from local hives.
• maple syrup
• whole rye, pumpernickel or sourdough bread and crackers
• coconut palm sugar my favourite sugar substitute!
• olive oil and ghee
• sea salt and organic black pepper
• garlic
• olives
• cheese — we love it and we eat small amounts of cheddar and love soft goat’s cheese and brie.
• butter — love it! I have tried margarines and soy spreads over the years but I’m now back to the real thing!
• pickled okra, dill cucumbers or capsicums — pickled or fermented foods are good for digestion.
• coconut water — pure and delicious!
• English breakfast tea or green tea
• coffee — organic and as locally grown as possible.
• fish — especially salmon and preferably locally caught from sustainable sources.
• organic free-range chicken and eggs
• a bar of dark chocolate at the check-out!
