Lifestyle
If you've ever seen the movie Julie and Julia- that's been me for the past few years! In between working and raising my daughter, I've been cooking up a storm in my kitchen and testing the recipes out on a constant stream of friends, visitors and relatives. The whole experience has bought so many people together and my kitchen has not only become a central hub of activity, mayhem, experimentation and tantilising aromas but also a place of comfort, reflection, accomplishment - a metaphor for everyday life. The website stemmed from a need to share easy and simple recipes after being diagnosed with a non specific autoimmune disease and fibromyalgia and changing my diet to help improve my symptoms. I've also been working on improving the food in NSW Hospitals with my petition, which has resulted in the minister and NSW Government rolling out a new hospital menu in selected hospitals. It is an important area that I'm truly passionate about. I realised during this time that many of us are living a time poor and work orientated existence so I set about making the recipes not only classic and elegant but also also simple, quick and easy to prepare to enable everyone to cook nutritious meals from scratch without having to be a Cordon Bleu chef. I've always had trouble navigating my way through complex gourmet recipes from magazines and cookery books and most of them contained ingredients I have never heard of before... Some of the recipes left me thinking I had bitten off more than I could chew and that there must be an easier way to prepare and cook nutritious food simply, without breaking the bank or giving me brain fog! I found that by incorporating the recipes into my diet, after a couple of weeks my taste buds changed and processed food just tasted like cardboard. There is nothing like the feeling you get from a good meal and I have found that natural foods are the best way to nourish and energise your body and feed your soul. In my experience the first step to Supercharging your life is to listen to your body and the clues and signals it is giving you. As a Qualified Clinical Nutritionist (Adv. Diploma of Integrative Nutritional Therapeutics) from Naturecare College and a wholefoods chef and yoga and meditation teacher, I see alot of people everyday who are stuck in a diet rut. I think that once you make the mental shift and decide that it's not about weight loss and its more about optimum health your body will respond naturally. Making positive nutritious food choices and having the desire within you to change your life for the better is the first step. Book a Nutritional Consultation with me. I believe in simplicity- if it's too hard you are more likely to give up and grab convenience foods which in the long run are detrimental to your body. The trick is to just make a just a few small changes to your daily routine, set aside time for a batch cooking day and have fresh ingredients on hand for those times when you want to whip up a quick snack. The problem for a lot of us is that there are a multitude of fad diets out in the market place that come and go like the rise and fall of the tide such as paleo and restrictive diets which are difficult to stick to. When it comes to how to eat right, there are dozens of conflicting messages from our peers to marketeers and from pharmaceutical companies to razor thin celebrities all selling their latest wonder product or diet. It’s no wonder it’s so overwhelming and confusing. Whatever conventional diet you may be on right now, one thing is clear, it may make you lose weight in the first few weeks but it may not be good for your overall health in the long run. Unfortunately we are led to believe that low fat foods are healthy, when actually many of them are full of artificial ingredients that cause toxicity within our bodies... You can’t tell at first but after years of eating these foods small ailments start to appear and if we don’t change our eating habits long term problems can arise. We all lead super busy lives and although many low fat foods are quick and easy to prepare for eating at your desk or on the run they are also filled with unnatural ingredients, preservatives and sweeteners and the longer we consume them the longer it takes us to return to our natural healthy condition. Marketeers like to label products as healthy but next time you are in the frozen food section of the supermarket reach for a lean cuisine, check the back of the packet and you will notice that it contains many unnatural ingredients and additives as well as extremely high amounts of sodium. Unnatural ingredients build up in our body and cause problems and put a strain on it and that's why when we get to our thirties and fourties little niggly health conditions start to arise. It’s really sad to notice that over the past century food has changed dramatically and is far less nutritious to the body. This is due to the unnatural processes that food must go through to keep it on the shelf longer and also the addition of preservatives, artificial colourings and flavourings and genetically modified ingredients. Animals are injected with hormones and antibiotics to plump them up and processed food is often bleached and stripped of all its nutrients. Because of these changes our health is suffering. As we are ultimately responsible for our own wellbeing, so why not choose foods that are nutritious and energy giving? Consuming a variety of wholefoods, antioxidants along with the right type of fats and reducing your intake of refined foods will put you on the right path for a healthier life. Add in the amazing everyday super foods such as garlic, turmeric, green vegetables and herbs you can buy at your supermarket that I recommend and you'll feel supercharged. All the free recipes contained in Supercharged Food are gluten, sugar (mostly) dairy, free and fortunately don’t taste like cardboard so are suitable for the whole family. Personally I follow the plant-based way of eating which includes eating meat occasionally. You can read more about the benefits of plant based eating here. I think the most important thing to do is listen to your body and decide for yourself what is right for you and eat a balanced diet with foods in moderation. I generally follow the 80/20 rule and eat well 80% of the time and indulge 20% of the time which I find sustainable long term. Cutting whole foods groups out permanently unless absolutely necessary for medical reasons can lead to disordered eating and is not healthy in the long run. The great thing about all of my recipes is that they can be customised to your own taste and dietary requirements as there is no one size fits all when it comes to food. If you enjoy my recipes, you can read more about my recipe books here. I hope that you enjoy the site and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me via email: lee@superchargedfood.com. Health and wellness to you all xoxo Lee
If you've ever seen the movie Julie and Julia- that's been me for the past few years! In between working and raising my daughter, I've been cooking up a storm in my kitchen and testing the recipes out on a constant stream of friends, visitors and relatives. The whole experience has bought so many pe...Read More