Travel is good for the Soul,

Its been a while since my last blog, to be honest, even though still very passionate about what I do, we all need a break sometimes to get away from it to take a fresh look at our goals, choices, direction and focus. With lots of other great things on the boil in my life at the moment my blogs have taken a back step for now. Practice what you preach is important, taking some time out to live in the present and appreciate what you are experiencing Now!!.

The South of France by the Sea is Gob Smackingly beautiful and full of nutritious, culinary surprises including some such as local seaweeds which this time I have had the joy of cooking local produce myself having hired an eco cottage in the country side, something I have always dreamed of doing. Mission Accomplished and very much enjoyed , white asparagus, globe artichokes, local seafood and enjoying the natural wonders of France, am pleased to see they have preserved and care for their environment, choosing paper bags over plastic, recycling, with many local markets and pride in dishes native to the region with the local produce. Lots of clean and green.

Having time to reflect on things during my travel and in retrospect, it was clear that I had no balance in my life but only obsessed with working harder. Consequently, I required intervention meaning prescribed medication, and counselling, to combat the anxiety/depression as well as the inability to control my weight, which leads me to the sadness that I felt when Anthony Bourdain sadly past this  month whilst in France as a result, I believe from over exhausted, lack of balance and pressure to perform in the modern world, he reminds me somewhat of my husband Glenn Austin in his timeless passion to travel, learn, grill deep into the true history, food, culture and psychology of a country, then honestly try and help, support and improve the everyday peoples lives and mental health. It sadness me to see that these great givers in our society go on in their own private pain and be aloud to reach this point by a greedy world that’s only desire is for more and to just keep taking to fulfil and insatiable appetite of instant media and new material without research, investigation or thought.

Successful people in life achieve their goals through hard work or by working smarter. I began to analyse myself and realised that I had proven myself, worked ridiculous hours but at the cost of my health. Proving myself to the world may have been achieved had I not “pushed” my body to exhaustion and ill health but, simply, may have taken a longer time. It was at this time in my life that I made the decision to change, be more proactive, and take more care of my physical, and psychological self religiously, I would eat a varied, healthy diet and began exercising by walking regularly, rejecting cigarettes in favour of attending to the needs of my body and my mind. From then I noticed that weekly changes in my life such as that I became fitter, stronger and calmer, more controlled, in my mind. Also I felt happier as I completely, changed my life but still managed the restaurant, taught commercial cookery at college level and judging culinary competitions and moved forward to my real true passion, assisted healing through diet, nutrition and alternate therapies. I recall people telling me I looked 10 years younger and I felt it.

Throughout my journey with food and a healthy lifestyle, I believe I have found strategies in developing better health and to reverse the deleterious effects of poor diet. By studying diet and nutrition, food psychology and wellness coaching, I have developed programs online or personalised, that include some 10 workshops to empower woman to learn practical, effective and evidence based skills to enhance your lifestyle. My commitment, and focus, has been to improve people’s lives by adopting the moto “be the best you can be”.

“So sad to lose another industry great, Thank you Anthony Bourdain for helping us not feel alone with Kitchen Confidential. Don’t forget to take time out for you, enjoy the now, nourish yourself with tasty, sexy, nutritious food, not only with food,  be kind to your body and mind, travel, spend time in nature and the people who are important to you and keep some gold dust for yourself.”