Want to Cook Like A Rebel? Cookery Class 23 March 2014 in Leap, West Cork

Food Rebels!!! 

Want to learn some new recipes, cooking from scratch and a few simple meals that will uplift you? If you have been feeling low, heavy, have some health issues or are just sick and tired of feeling sick and tired...then it's time to come out and learn how to cook - like a rebel! 

Perhaps some high vibration foods are all your body needs to restore its' usual vitality and even if this is the first step on a new road - eating well is all about understanding how and what to cook. 

For you seasoned foodies out there, are junk and ready made meals creeping into your menu? Maybe a little tune-up and gentle reminder about what to feed your body is what you need...

However most importantly, eating well and renewed health starts with reducing the amount of processed food in your diet. Making more of our meals from basic ingredients is easier then you might think - all it takes is a little push in the right direction.

As a food rebel you can learn how to feed yourself and your family - make some items you may have thought too difficult and get to know your food on an entirely new, energetic level. There is no time like right now, and no better place to practice being a rebel!

This next class we will focus on high quality protein sources for vegetarian meals, even if you are not a vegetarian, including more vegetable protein sources in your diet has many advantages for improved digestive health and building lean muscles. All food should taste great, be versatile and easy to prepare, no matter what the ingredients! 

Come out and join an Intuitive Rebel Nutritionist in Leap, West Cork

23rd March 2014 (Veggie Meals – best quality protein sources & Bread) 11am to 3pm 

Only €35 for class, organic food, recipes & notes!

Contact April on mobile 087 236 1616 or email: info@aprildanann.com to book your place…

See you there!

Tasty….jasmine rice, lentils & roasted vegetables

So….you want to lose weight? Well…you’ve got to change your mind first!

Over these years (and years) of thinking about weight issues, studying nutrition, food, body image and diets….I have met many people who are unhappy with their weight. And I was often amongst them.

Then, I changed my lifestyle and my diet…a few years later I started incorporating fasting into my regimen as well and the rest is history. Or is it?

Since then I have found my biggest struggle is still with these patterns, habits and tendencies – that all exist in my mind! Our minds really are the majority when it comes to overcoming any negative patterns in an effort to create new ones.

Of course, as a Clinical Nutritionist, I also know that each cell in my body contributes to my overall mind (mood, emotions, intuition, thoughts etc.). Everything works together inside and outside – with each system and function forwarding something towards the whole being….

My gut is as much involved with creating my thoughts as my brain is. And this includes what I think about my body, my food – and especially 'what I am thinking (about my body/food) when I am eating it'.

Fasting has allowed me to explore my mind (through my body) in a new and realistic way. By going into these new places and spaces, I have found and made the deeper connections to weight, body image, eating and food.

If I have found out anything over these past few years….it’s this; to lose weight permanently, you have to re-build your mind from the inside out. This entails diet changes (food, fast and feast), exercise, emotional work (getting at the patterns) and for me, making the important spiritual connections with the food I eat.

Not one part of this is complicated, in fact having food days, fasting days and feast days has made my life so much simpler and easy to manage. It also allows me to have control over my mind (approach to food) in a new way.

Changing your mind about food involves eating the foods that assist in this process as well….we need to choose (and make) food that not only nourish our bodies, but also help to reset our body metabolism.

I have found many of these to be fermented foods as well as quality proteins…and for me, my diet consists of homemade, home grown, free range, wild harvested and organic produce as much as possible.

You are so much more then what you eat….you are the energy of the food you eat. Change that energy to something better (raise the vibration) and you do the same with your body and your mind.

April

 

Raise Your Vibration With Food

Here we are right in the middle of the Solstice - Christmas - Yule - New Years season and it all feels great so far. Or does it? How are you feeling right now, really? Do you feel over stuffed, full, heavy, like your digestion has stopped moving all together and generally yukky?

Yesterday I saw someone had written a Christmas greeting to their friends - 'Happy Bloated Christmas' and it got me thinking or more precisely remembering how I used to feel during this time of the year. Bloated, tired, achy, tight, stiff, sick, stagnant - you name it, however even with all the negative feelings floating around..... 

I never once put down how I was feeling to wickedness, evil or dark energy being sent my way from some of the people I was associated with. And these were my 'family' or friends!! But what was far worse, this was supposed to be a great time of plenty (food, drink and people) and this was relatively normal.

The back biting, gossip, negative comments, ridicule, bullying, maligning, two facedness and general wickedness - and that was just with family members in a small circle of people. I could not be part of this (even if I was not participating, I was still condoning it by my presence) and still maintain a healthy spiritual connection within myself.

How sad was all of that?

So, what I have done for well over a decade now since I walked (ran!) away from all of that - is a few different things. Of course I cut ties and stayed away from people who pulled me down, used my energy or spread negativity around in any way. 

But the bigger part of this cleanup was I completely changed my diet, my habits and my lifestyle into something far more suitable for a person walking a spiritual path. The irony here is that most of the changes I have made over the years have come about because of the behavior I saw around the Christmas season. 

Besides, all of this negativity around was causing me to eat all the dark, low vibration food that was showing up at my place in the hands of those same people (sound familiar?). Empty dead food which is devoid of life force is a vessel for this evil energy. 

And when we feel awful for one reason or another - what kinds of foods would we be tempted to turn to for comfort? That's right - the sugary, dead, highly processed and chemical containing low (or no) vibration foods.

So for me, when I let go of the one side of this equation (the dead end relationships), I also had to clean up the poor relationship with this kind of food. In fact one went out the door with the other....

And in it's place ever since has been a energy that has been healing, filling up with goodness, good will and happiness. It takes time to build a life around you and raise your physical vibration - but don't let that stop you - start with something kind and compassionate (organic wholesome food) and take it from there! 

April

Wholesome goodies - nut butter, oatmeal raisin and molasses ginger cookies (organic, spelt, whole grain, sugar free)

High Vibration Eating & Cooking

Today has been a busy one - just getting a few more things done for the holidays as well as trying to finish up some tasks I have set for myself. It's all good though and I am still working away down my list for our upcoming feast....

I just finished making cookies for the freezer (no one got to sample them!) as I thought how much easier it would be to have as much as possible made ahead of time. Then I get to concentrate on the main meals while I enjoy a little free time too.

Yesterday I decided to make another pudding for our collection - this one is a Sticky Date & Fig pudding - it took far longer to cook then I thought it would and I was up every hour checking on the steamer last night, until about 4 this morning! LOL

But, I think this one is going to be a winner because it smelled and looked so nice. It was steamed entirely on the wood stove (perhaps that's why it took 8 hours) and it has got me thinking that this slower cooking method might be even better than all of the slow methods I use now.

So with this in mind I only cooked food today for the kids on the wood stove....I made porridge, baked salmon, rice, stir-fry of veggies and some vegetable mash (carrot, sweet potato). All by gently cooking them on a lower heat for a little longer time.

Because I am still fasting, I really don't know if they tasted any better, however, I think the foods were of a higher vibration because they were handled in a gentler manner. And I am not sure I am explaining this very well here!! LOL

All living things have a vibration - food (especially) picks up and retains the vibrations of those who touch it, cook it as well as the methods used to process or prepare it. When it is gently and carefully made into a meal - then this is exactly the energy that you are consuming...

I feel as if I am learning an entire new way of eating and living here....once again.

April

Sticky Date & Fig Pudding