Nourishment not Punishment

It's time for a new way of eating. Nourishment not punishment.

With the likes of Instagram and Snap Chat gaining notoriety, the internet is rife with everyone trying to sell you the perfect diet. Many people, with no qualifications in nutrition, are selling e-books and downloadable programs telling people what to eat to get the tone perfect abs like they display in their pictures. However, what if they are selling dangerous diets that not only rob your body of vital nutrients but steal your self-esteem and tear you in the wrong direction?

I see so many people confused about what to eat due to the conflicting messaging in the media from traditional sources to social media, and the problem is getting worse. Whilst we know more about food than ever before, it seems we have lost our way when it comes to food. Othorexia is on the rise, along with obesity. From one extreme to the other or two sides of the same coin?

I believe that dissatisfaction with ones body is an almost normal human conditioning - we are almost programmed to dislike ourselves these days. Food is seen as something to count, measure or fit a set of rules. Diet is a four letter word that sums up the restriction, limitation and punishment. It is time to call back our power and fall in love with food once again. Food is the remedy not the enemy.

Food is nourishment for our cells. It gives us our zest for life - the energy to fully function. A healthy body is not just one free from disease. What if, instead of looking for the best diet to go on to lose the most weight in the fastest time possible, you committed to nourishing your body with foods that fuel your mind, body and soul? What if, instead of looking for the lowest calorie snack, you picked the whole food that was rich in colour, vitamins and nutrients? What if, instead of fearing fat, you became friends with it and fed your mind all the goodness that it needs to spark your metabolic rate and balance your hormones when you eat avocados and oily fish etc? What if you threw away man-made spreads and embraced the nourishment that comes from real butter? I wonder how much better you would feel if you drank water instead of coffee? How would you feel if you walked half the places you drove? These are just some of the things we can do every day to get back to the health that help us fuel our soul.

Healthy habits don't have to be time consuming, they don't have to be complicated. But start - start today! Have one less sugar in your coffee this morning. Have one less cup tomorrow. Swap the air popped low fat crisps for some unsalted raw deliciously nourishing nuts. Make this the year you say no more restrictive diets, but yes to real whole food that feeds your mind, nourishes your body and fuels your soul. Commit to yourself - you deserve a body you love. Life is too short to hate the skin you are in.

If you are interested in improving your relationship with yourself and ditching the diet mentality for good you are in the right place. Kirsten can help you feed your mind, nourish your body and fuel your soul. For more information, email: kirsten@thefoodremedy.co.uk

Nature Knows Best

Nature knows best I am a firm believer that food is a remedy, I believe that we need to nourish our bodies from the inside out, when we our optimally nourished we have clear skin, shinny hair and strong healthy nails that don't bend or break! 

Nature has provided us with everything we need to have shiny hair and clear skin if only we knew how to utilise all that nature has given us we would be sure to save a fortune on lotions and potions. So many women I know spend a crazy amount on skin remedies nail treatments and other lotions and potions, when nature really has all the answers and we could save so much money if only we knew how! 

HERE is a list of my favourite home made food remedies to help nourish our bodies with left over food! 

Face Mask

I LOVE avocados but don't always eat a whole one at a time, the down side of this is they can go brown and often I just don't like them when they are brown despite them tasting the same, all however is not lost as they are great for making a face mask especially if you have dry skin.

Mash half an avocado add a tablespoon of oil, some left over greek yogurt a splash of honey and blend then slather on your face and leave for a few minutes when you wash of your face will be moisturised and it kills acne-causing bacteria while providing essential nutrients. 

Avocado are high in essential fatty acids which help hydrate the skin, they are also great source of antioxidant carotenoids such as alpha-carotene, beta carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin and lutein all of which are great for zapping free radicals. These free radical zapping compounds provide significant protection for your skin from the environmental damage that leads to fine lines, wrinkles and other visible signs of ageing. High amounts of carotenoids in your diet have been shown in scientific studies to improve your skin’s density, thickness, tone and general appearance and you were going to throw out the brown avocado!! 

Greek yogurt has a lot of benefits of the skin even if its after is best before date. It’s a potent probiotic that keeps your gut healthy when eaten but these probiotics also have benefits when used topically as they can help prevents yeast infections (ever had cracks at the side of your mouth? just dap a biota greek yogurt on it but now I'm getting off topic) because of the healthy bacteria present in it.

Greek yogurt is also really high in potassium, protein, and vitamin B12.

Due to its antibacterial and anti-fungal properties, Greek yogurt helps with spots, Rub a bit onto your spot prone areas and let it sit for half an hour before rinsing off. 

Greek yogurt with a slash of honey is also an amazing deep hair conditioner.

Hair mask

Whenever there are damaged hairs proteins are thought to be the best cure. The simplest and easily accessible source of proteins is egg, which is available in every household I have a habit of always leaving a few eggs past their best before date so they go in my hair!Eggs are rich source of protein and also have healthy fats, micronutrients and vitamins.

Egg mask is a universal hair mask and effectively nourishes the hair to provide strength. Egg has long time moisturising effect that repairs the damage. For application whisk one egg (you can increase the number of eggs based on the length and thickness of hair) until the mixture is frothy and cover your entire scalp and hair with it.

If you have oily hair than use the egg whites only instead of whole egg. Use a shower cap to cover your head and leave the mask for twenty minutes. It doesn't have a particularly nice smell but if you can withstand the smell your hair with shine with thanks for you.

You could add other nourishing ingredients if you wanted to make the conditioner sweeter in small a mashed banana or berries are a great addition in the summer i normal add a punnet of strawberries and in the winter those over ripe spotted bananas that no one ever seems to eat in my house. 

Want your nails to grow? 

Another remedy that can boost nail growth is orange juice and coconut butter. The vitamin C in the orange juice encourages the production of collagen and keeps your nails healthy. Also, it has folic acid, which is essential for nail growth.and the coconut butter contains fatty acids that help keep your nails moisturised and strong. It also strengthens your cuticles, which play a key role in nail growth..

Soak your nails in fresh orange juice for at least 10 minutes.

Rinse them off with warm water, pat dry and apply some coconut butter to cuticles and nails

Make the rest of your life the best of your life.

THIS IS MY YEAR,

Now when you hear how my year has gone so far you may wonder if I'm actually a little mad. You see I started 2016 pregnant, my partner and I were over the moon, so super excited for the new addition we were going to be a proper little family, we found a house to move into to start our family in and everything was so joyful and exhilarating. 

Then just when you think everything is going right fate intervenes and things well just don't go the way you thought they were going. I woke up one day and had a dreadful feeling I was no longer pregnant, I tried to get over this horrible feeling but a scan four days later showed problems, I had to wait another week to know for sure and I cannot tell you how long that week seemed. A week later It was confirmed the baby wasn't alive, I had experienced a silent miscarriage.

My hopes of becoming a mum dashed grief and sadness swept over me, then the next thing to happen was the friend who house we were going to rent told us she had decided to rented it to a single mother as she had offered more money. Life was certainly not going as planned, a few weeks after that the relationship was under strain and sadly no longer working like it once had my partner left and we went our separate ways.

Single once again, 2016 really wasn't going to plan, shattered, disillusioned and seriously pissed off with life, I cried until I could cry no more and was actually starting to annoy myself.

Having experienced my rock bottom 6 years ago, I reread what I did then, how I coped how I moved on, I realised I had a choice, I could sign the rest of this year off as being the worst of my life or I could try and make it have a better ending than beginning.

So often we waste precious years of our lives being someone that we don't want to be. We allow the scars of the past and the people who have wronged us, the people who have hurt us to dictate what we do today.

We give up on opportunities because of these past hurts and their is so much opportunity out their for us if only we weren't so scared of being hurt again. All to often we get stuck in the past, we allow outdated beliefs of ourselves and allow the memories of past relationships to affect what we do today. We falsely believe we are not good enough, slim enough, pretty enough, lovable enough, clever enough or whatever your not enough is. We may wrongly think were are too ugly, fat or stupid to pursue our dreams.

We then allow these false thoughts to take over our lives and its a tragedy. The past is gone its done, the future however is your for the taking, We have these precious years to live, and they can be the most magical incredible years to live if we don't allow ourselves to be controlled by our insecurities and past hurts.

Its very easy to throw away these incredible years away by allow the people of our past, the peoplethat have wronged us or hurt us to control our decisions today but THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN!

If you want to move past this now this year - YOU HAVE THE POWER!

YOU HAVE THE POWER TOO MAKE THAT DECISION IN YOUR MIND NOW!

You can decide that this will be a different year.

This year has not gone to that plan I had in my mind, however I know that if I accept where I am right now however hard it is and set my mind to move on, I can make the changed and progress to grow.

That decision is mine and mine alone to make.

I can decide how the rest of the year will go, my story isn't over.

I get to decide how it ends, so often when things go wrong its easy close yourself off to new opportunities, don't let pain make you close up, allow it to open you up.

The year maybe a quarter of the way threw and it may not have gone how you planned, hoped or wished or expected it to go, but the year isn't over yet.

You have the power to change the way you year will end. Don't be one of the people who writes of the year before were even half way threw it! 

This could be one of the most magical years yet, if you decide that is what it is going to be. 

All that is required is a decision to change, don't sit back waiting, hoping praying and dreaming things were different, in fact don't wait anymore now is the time to create!

Think about what you want in your life, what do you want to happen>

what do you want to bring to life?

Its time to take a risk, i know your scared but don't let that fear hold you back anymore.

do what others wont do!

See the person you really want to be feel excited at the life you are creating and now get up and take small steps everyday to make that dream life become your reality.

You owe it to yourself to live a life you love.

Funky Falafel Recipe

Funky Falafels,

I love Falafels and I used to spend a fortune buying already made versions until I realised how easy and quick they are to make at home. Then of course I started to get creative and add more veggies and different spices and herbs until I mastered these funky falafels.

I used

2 cloves of garlic 

half ahead of broccoli

handful of peas

1 white onion

1 can of Organic chickpeas

1 teaspoon each of of coriander and cumin and salt

2 tbsp of ground almonds

1/2 baking powder

Rapeseed oil

Break the broccoli into florets and quarter the onion and add then to a food processor with the can of half drained chick peas and blend until a chunky puree pour into a bowl and add the spices, ground almond and peas and mix with hand.

Heat a frying pan with rapeseed oil and roll into walnut size balls and shallow fry for a few minutes until golden brown.

Serve with either a large green salad and salsa or in a warm pitta with a tahini dressing and salad for a more filling lunch!

Enjoy! If you make these funky falafels please post a picture to integral and use the hashtag TheFoodRemedy so I can see all your wonderful tasty creations!! 

Chickpeas are a really food remedy for more information on the health benefits of chickpeas read this blog. https://thefoodremedy.squarespace.com/config/#/|/blog/2015/01/the-food-remedy-chickpeas 

You're a Fraud.

“You're a fraud”

…..thats what someone in my inner circle said to me the other day.

The reason? I ate pizza and garlic bread and as a nutritionist I shouldn’t according to him.

I thought about this for a while, and for the first time in a long time I realised Im really ok with who I am.

There was a time you see that I thought I couldn't be a successful nutritionist because I wasn't a size 8 or even a size 10 I'm a size 12 and I thought I needed to be thinner, prettier and well anything but me to make the cut.

However what I've come to realise since Ive started to believe in myself is that my size has never been a problem for any of my clients in fact its not a problem for anyone other than me, well ok thats a small lie I got totally slated and called fat on twitter after I appeared on a tv show, but hey I realised then that I cant please everyone and not even one will like how I look and thats ok they don't have too like me but I really do need to like myself. 

I was also been told that I shouldn't post positive affirmations when I'm sad as its a false representative of who I am. However I post them exactly for that reason I often write the things I need to read for myself. It helps remind me that life for all its adversities is not truly a bad place. On the darkest days I sometime need to remind myself that the world really is a beautiful place.

I started this year without any resolutions, without any goals, for so long Ive had lists of things I want to do, a you tube channel, finish and publish a ebook, write down all my recipies and send that off, work out how to publish the 6 week online course Ive written and seriously finish my blinking book!! However in the end they made me feel like I was constantly stressed and never able to fully relax because of course these tasks were still pending.

This year I wanted to be different I wanted to listen to my heart and write out of pure passion. just after new year I found out I was pregnant - I was delighted, I cant tell you how happy I was of course I had moment of sheer panic but I was in seventh heaven! My partners face when I told him was that of pure delight he said it was the best day ever and he was over the moon. Ive need seen anyone look so happy. 

However weeks later I woke up and knew there was something wrong, I woke up and all of my pregnancy symptoms were gone every single one just like that over night, I tried to be logical I did another pregnancy test it was positive, I tried to think good thoughts and I managed to get on with life for three days however by the fourth day I was mildly hysterical I rang my GPs Surgery and said It think something is wrong they told me if I wasn't bleeding theirs nothing to worry about, I however just knew their was something wrong so an hour later I rang the surgery and told them I was bleeding they booked me in for a scan the next day.

The scan showed something was wrong the scan showed I was only 5 and a half week I should have been almost 8. I was told I had to wait a week to see if their was any growth, a week later it was confirmed I had had a silent miscarriage. 

Its so hard to say how I felt in that moment, because in all honest I felt so many things, crushed, disappointment, heart broken, I was angry and frustrated at my body, I felt like I had let everyone down later that day we saw my friend and her baby and both my mother and partner held her baby and I cannot tell you in that moment how much my heart broke into so many pieces. It was so hard dealing with my pain and knowing that everyone else was as hurt as me and it was my body that failed. I felt responsible. Logically I knew It wasn't my fault but it felt as if my body couldn't do its job properly. I was disappointed and took food to be my remedy in the wrong kind of way.

Food became the thing that cheered me up, I found solace in pizza, crisps actually anything.

As a consequence Ive gained weight.

However when I was called a fraud I had to dig deep and ask myself who I am. 

I realised Im not a fraud - I'm human - I'm flawed and Im ok with that - I reacted to a painful situation the way I help teach women not too because they seek my help and it helps them. 

One of the reasons I believe my clients connect with me because I see their struggle I remember how I used to feel and sometimes still feel. I was emotionally eating to ease my sadness. 

Im not perfect, I have never claimed to be, whilst I am a qualified nutritionist I sometimes eat really really crappy foods and after everything thats happened these past few weeks Ive developed some really unhealthy habits. However I believe they served a purpose for me. They helped me once again understand emotional eating and the food mood connection that I so often talk about. 

They also served as an emotional crutch thankfully I have been able to see the error in my ways and make the change I needed and Im now ready to once again stop using food to numb my pain, Im ready to feel my feelings and heal them and get my body back to full health and prepare it for pregnancy when the time is right.

A client yesterday left my house after giving me a big hug and told me “you’re amazing Kirsten you just know how I feel with out me even telling you, and that is a very special gift”. What a special moment that was, for both me and her.

If you've had a hard time lately or if you haven’t stuck to your new years resolutions don't beat yourself up, be kind to yourself, forgive yourself. You are not flawed as Brene Brown said once “You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.”