Tag Archives: changing habits

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Changing Habits – Meeting the Guru, Cindi Omeara at the Wellness Summit

I felt incredibly lucky to see this lady in person when I attended a Wellness Summit in Melbourne on the weekend. Cindi O’meara from Changing Habits, is one of Australia’s leading Nutritionists who is incredibly passionate about healthy eating.

What I love about Cindi is her simplistic view on food. That we should focus on eating locally grown foods and those which are in season. We’ve complicated things so much with packaged foods, protein shakes, vitamins, etc. that we need to get back to the basics and just eat real food.

She is not a raw foodist. She is a REAL foodist. Someone who makes everything from scratch. That means not buying food contained in packets, bottles or jars because it’s not real food.

Cindi also mentioned how a Leaky Gut is one of the major contributors to autoimmune disease. A Leaky Gut is when the integrity of the epithelial lining in our stomach has been broken.

So how can we heal a leaky gut? Cindi’s tips are as follows:

1. Consuming bone broths
2. Consuming natural probiotics and fermented foods
3. Maintaining hydration (salt and water)
4. Consuming more natural foods (non inflammatory). Foods are different for different people.
5. Avoiding antibiotics
6. Avoiding preservatives in food
7. Avoiding wheat and gluten plus products

If you want to learn more about gut health, I can highly recommend a segment which was recently broadcast on the ABC’s Catalyst. It’s called – “Could our food be making us sick – very sick?”

Essential viewing for any immunocompromised shift worker living on a diet of highly refined and processed foods …

Catalyst – Gut Reaction

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Being At Home For Dinner: Finally A Benefit To Working An Early Shift!

Now if you’re a shift worker you’ll probably agree with me when I say there are not too many benefits to working early shifts. I for one despise them because I’m a night owl by nature.

For not only does our alarm clock interrupt our beautiful slumber at an ungodly hour, we actually have to drag ourselves out of our comfy bed (hard to do in winter-time when the temperature drops to single figures), and desperately try to put on a smiley face for work.

OK, so we might not do that last bit but the thought is there anyway!

However I must admit, one of the benefits of working an early shift is that you get to be at home for dinner – a precious commodity for those of us working irregular hours. Because let’s be honest, food always tastes so much better when we’re at home with our loved ones instead of having to sit in the lunch room and use the microwave oven to zap our dinner.

So I thought I’d share my “Benefits of Working An Early Shift Dinner” – Moroccan Lamb Soup. I stumbled upon this mouth-watering and nourishing recipe on Nutritionist Cyndi O’Meara’s Changing Habits website and as my husband said to me tonight … “It’s absolutely divine!”

Gotta love a happy hubby … and I hope you enjoy it just as much!

Moroccan Lamb Soup

Ingredients

1 brown onion, peeled and halved
2 garlic cloves, peeled
30g olive oil
500g lean lamb leg, diced
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
400g can diced tomatoes
500g lamb, beef or vegetable stock
100g dried apricots, halved
salt to taste
Fresh mint to serve

Method

1. Place onion and garlic in Thermomix bowl, chop for 5 seconds, speed 5

2. Add oil, saute for 4 minutes, 100ºC, speed 1

3. Add lamb, cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, cinnamon, tomatoes, stock, dried apricots and salt. Cook for 1 hour, 90ºC, reverse, speed 1.

4. Remove MC and place steamer basket on top to prevent splashes.

Serve garnished with mint and slivered almonds

My Little Twist: I added a splash of greenery to my recipe and threw in a handful of organic green beans 10 minutes before it finished!

Please Note: This was made in a Thermomix but if you don’t have one of these fancy kitchen gadgets you can always use a slow cooker, or just leave the soup to simmer on the stove top, stirring occasionally.