Laying ladies in residence

Ok, so they're not laying yet, but all going to plan they will be!

Yesterday, bf and I welcomed 2 lovely ladies to our place. Gertrude and Bettina. They are, to be precise, two 12 week old black australorpe hybrid hens.

Given a couple of months, these lovlies should be about ready to start laying, and we will be supplied with fresh, free range, cruelty free eggs. Highly nutritious eggs as they are going to get lots of highly nutritious greens and scraps.

A few ways keeping your own chooks can be part of living a healthy life:

1) Down with egg farms! Buying free range eggs from the shop can be a start, but it can also be a bit of a farce. In Australia the rules which govern who can use the term 'free range' are pretty slack - which means that some companies which claim to be free range in fact consist of a whole lot of hens inside a shed - up to 14 hens per square metre - some of whom never find the small opening that leads to the small patch of grass. (http://www.sustainabletable.org.au/Hungryforinfo/Free-range-egg-and-chicken-guide/tabid/113/Default.aspx) Another step up to ensure animals are living a happy cruelty free life is to have them in the backyard! It's important to keep them fed, watered, sheltered and safe from predators.

2) Reducing waste: Chooks love snacking on fruit and veggie scraps. Instead of putting potato peel, banana skins and outer lettuce leaves in the bin, put them in the chook  pen! It keeps the chooks healthy and happy, and means you aren't throwing into landfill more than you need to.

3) Reducing chemicals in the garden: Chook poo is awesome as a fertiliser. You can make it into a liquid fertiliser (http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/03/14/454621_gardening.html) or put it in the compost bin to give the compost a buzz. No need to buy chemical-y fertilisers now!

4) Mental health: People know that cuddling their dog or cat is soothing and can stimulate the release of calming chemicals in the brain. How about cuddling a chook??

Do you have any more ideas about how chooks could be part of a healthy lifestyle?
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F**king things up

Once upon a time a woman wrote a song, the chorus of which went, “I'm gunna give myself permission to shine”. Right now that song is stuck in my head, but with slightly different lyrics.Today I've decided to give myself permission to f**k up.

And I mean that in the most positive way possible. We can all get so hung up on being perfect, achieving greatness, managing to work full time, exercise 6 days a week, eat wholesome meals at every opportunity, engage with others in a positive way and look after our own emotional needs. Every day. Our modern society tells us that we need to do all the above, and still be independent. One must achieve all this greatness, with out relying on others. And get it right, all the time.

I have realised that for me this is just not possible. (Is it possible for anyone?). This week I've been beating myself up about feeling sad that my friends have been busy and haven't had time to catch up with me. I've been telling myself – Don't rely on your friends to meet your needs! Go and get your needs met some other way.

I've been beating myself up for feeling anxious about starting a new, challenging job. I've been telling myself – you're not good enough at this. You don't have enough experience, you're going to f**k it up.

Finally, today, I've realised – I AM going to f**k it up. I will feel anxious. I will feel sad. I will have seemingly irrational thoughts and sometimes get angry at the person who overtakes me on a double line. And that's ok. I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I'm going to give myself an internal hug and say, darling, you f**ked up. I love you. x

Green Smoothies

So finally a post that includes cucumbers as a vital point. From the title, cacao and cucumbers. I eat cucumbers most days, as part of a green smoothie. There are loads of websites and books that encourage green smoothies and juices, as a way to get a big hit of nutrients in an easy to digest (and palatable!) way. I got inspired to do the green thing after reading Kris Carr’s Blog,crazysexylife. 

I started off with a hand held mixer, which often left big chunks of veg floating in my glass. The more raw food recipes I read, the more I came across the need  for a whizz bang, high speed blender. Then, all of a sudden, it was that time of year! A birthday present suggestion later, super dooper blender is mine! (Thanks Mum and Dad x). 

Here is a pic of what I put in the first green smoothie I made in my new blender: 

You’re seeing rockmelon, cucumber, broccoli, baby spinach…There’s some coconut oil too, that you can’t see.

A short 30 seconds later, 

Smooth, creamy goodness. No hint of a lump, anywhere. (That white bit on the blender is a drop of coconut oil gone solid when it mixed with cold water.)

I find with some fat added - coconut oil or avocado, a smoothie sustains me for a few hours. And looking at a whole jug full of veggies, then knowing I ate all that for BREAKFAST, well, it’s a great start to the day!

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Healthy Sundays

I always appreciate not going out drinking and partying on a Saturday night, when I wake up on Sunday not hungover. This Sunday morning was no exception. It was a clear and sunny morning, but quite cool, perfect bike riding temperature. So, I went for a bike ride. I rode mostly along the capital city trail (http://www.bv.com.au/general/bikes-and-riding/43792/), which is about 30km around the outside of Melbourne city. I got to see a bit of this new city of mine (new to me, at least) and got a decent workout- haven’t ridden more than about 10 km’s in a long time! I also found myself down at Fed Square when an interesting competition was on - ‘Birdman’ where people jump off a barge into the river with homemade wings and see how far they can go. The health aspects of my joy ride? Well, one, obviously, the exercise of the riding. But also, I think it’s healthy to spend some time alone, from time to time. To be ok, just being by yourself. To take the opportunity to ride, without distraction from others, and smell the different air pockets as you ride through them, notice the wind moving the clothing over your skin. It was a nice ‘me’ time. 

Then I got home, ready for more healthful goodness - I almost always find that after doing exercise, I crave vegies and fruit. I whipped up this awesome salad:

What’s so good about it? 

• Spinach: Good source of folate, iron, fibre, and calcium, 
• Raw beetroot: Liver detoxing effect, fibre, vitamin  C and iron
• Carrot: Vitamin C, vitamin A, and fibre
• Quinoa: Complete protein, gluten free, manganese, folate
• Tomato: Vitamin C, vitamin A, lycopene
• Walnuts: Omega 3 fatty acids, protein, B vitamins, vitamin E
• Lime juice: Vitamin C
• Flaxseed oil: Omega 3 fatty acids
• Parsley: Vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A

Wow! After writing all that down, the salad seems even better than when I ate it. The best thing about it though? It tastes awesome. I love eating, and eating great tasting food that I know is healthy for me is just so enjoyable. Having a good mental relationship with food is super important for a healthy happy life. 

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Bread glorious bread

This is the first gluten free loaf I’ve made from scratch, in my new breadmaker - a Panasonic model which has a gluten free setting. (I was pretty excited to learn this). It’s made using a recipe which comes with the instruction booklet, plus a couple of tweaks by me. It is: gluten free, dairy free and vegan.  

The first slice? Crunchy crust, with a soft warm centre. I chose to slather it not with butter (regrettable, but I’m moving away from that era) but with organic, raw, cold pressed coconut oil. This oil is made within hours of the nut being open, so retains a slight coconut-y flavour and smell. (I also did my research, and bought from a brand that pays above the minimum fair-trade wage, and is conscious of the environmental aspects of coconut harvesting). I then drizzled raw organic honey (I’m no longer being vegan here) and enjoyed immensely. A nice addition would’ve been a sprinkling of cinnamon powder…

How to live a healthy life

Today I decided I wanted to write about healthy living. Wellbeing, mental health, physical health, good eating, happiness...which aspect really defines health living? 

To me it encompasses so many different aspects. I’ve been reading a lot recently about things like chemicals, and nutrition, which are two areas that have a LOT of contradictions floating around. For example - is sunscreen bad for you because it’s full of chemicals that soak into your skin? Is it better to be damaged by the sun than wear sunscreen? Or does stopping the sun damage by using sunscreen and in the process getting some chemicals on your skin outweigh the risks of skin cancer caused by the sun? How about the deficits in Vitamin D that are becoming more prevalent as we use sunscreen more often?

How about food? What is the healthiest way -

• raw (fruit, vegetables, sprouted grains with no dairy or meat)
• vegan (no animal products, including eggs and honey),
• alkaline diet (a large focus on specific fruit and vegetables with some grains ok, some not, no animal products or things like sugar, coffee and alcohol),
• paleo (veg, fruit, eggs, lots of meat, little grains or dairy or processed foods)

….and the list goes on. 

With so many contradicting fads and theories, how does one person claim to live a healthy lifestyle, which can be completely different to someone else also claiming to be living a health lifestyle? For now, the answer eludes me. 

But, for me, living a healthy lifestyle involves these factors:

• Feeling good physically
• Feeling good mentally
• Being kind to other beings, including animals
• Trying to live as ‘green’ as possible

There are so many different aspects which play into each of these factors, involving physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, creative and financial health, which I will attempt to delve in to in future posts…

How do you define living a healthy lifestyle?

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