Making Love in the Kitchen

It’s been quite the ride the past three months. The time has come to say goodbye to the kitchen and I wanted to take this last opportunity to share some insight and talk about my experience. After three months of cooking classes, workshops, detoxing, packaging 100 pounds of smelly Irish moss, messes made and cleaned up – there have been lots of laughs and days of full bellies here at the kitchen. Today, I can proudly say that I can bake a really good batch of gluten free muffins…among other things, and I have truly appreciated and loved every moment of being part of the Making Love in The Kitchen Team. Meghan has been our leader, fearlessly running the show while Alexa and I (currently known as thing 1 and thing 2 – an unstoppable team) have been behind the scenes cooking, organizing, prepping and observing. Words cannot express how much I have grown the past three months. After graduating from nutrition school in October, I never could have imagined feeling as prepared and excited about going out into the world to spread the word of health after my time here.

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September 7th 2010, will be a day that I will always remember.

My life changed that day. At 1:30 pm about one year ago, I heard those four words…you have prostate cancer. I guess my life actually changed before the 7th. It was on August 25th that I had my biopsy at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

It was not a pleasant experience.

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Sugar, my sweet coconut lovers, is a drug. A delicious one, but a drug all the same. We get hooked as kinder and we stay on the substance all the live long day- only until we grow old enough to add caffeine to the mix. Getting off processed or even natural sweeteners is one sweet challenge and those playing the Fab Uplift Detox are gonna win that game! With a little help of course.

Some argue that refined white sugar is the most addictive substance on this planet. You might even admit this yourself. You have a little, you want a little more and than you find yourself needing your daily fix, whether it be in your coffee or tea, soft drink, muffin, breakfast cereal, bread, pasta sauce, salad dressing, fruit juice or after dinner cookie. Sugar is in everything and we are consuming more than we think.

The average person now consumes roughly 135 pounds of sugar per year. Holy moly! A person’s weight in sugar? Hello obesity epidemic and hello cancer! Sugar is the number one fuel for those pesky cancer cells.

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The four words “You have prostate cancer” are shocking.

I heard those words over a year ago and it has taken me this long to feel comfortable writing about this journey. When most men hear those four words they rush to eradicate cancer from their bodies. They want surgery or some other form of treatment. They pray they’ll be one of the lucky ones who does not experience erectile dysfunction or incontinence. I have chosen a path of active surveillance and hope I will never have to have anything more invasive.

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Everyone who spreads a little of my All Purpose Edible Body Butter on their hands, lips, cuticles, or face is always so excited by it- declaring it good enough to eat. I, of course, remind them that they can. That it actually is good enough to eat, meaning everything contained within it is 100% edible. Then I suggest they get an extra jar to keep in the boudoir. Everyone has a bit of a nervous giggle and then they get a second jar.

At my recent Edible Beauty Care workshop (next one, sad for you, isn’t until April), I decided to impress my guests by whipping up, on the spot, without first testing it, a warm smoothie latte that would, in fact, taste just the same as my Edible Body Butter, and using nearly identical ingredients.

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Just when LA schools put a ban on flavoured milk, a Canadian chain of fitness centres, Goodlife Fitness has declared it their official recovery beverage.

Hey there Healthwashing, didn’t expect to see you here.

Their healthwashing claim is that that consumption of chocolate milk after physical exertion is excellent replenishment for muscles. What is needed for recovery is carbs and protein to boost muscle repair. Being high in water, they also state that chocolate milk provides hydration. Well so do a lot of things, um… like water? What one seems to be considering is the amount of sugar in chocolate milk. As soon as there is an insulin response in the body (caused by refined sugar intake) the body will switch into a fat storing mode.

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It’s my birthday today. Oh me, oh my. As of today I am a whopping 32 years old. Yep. I always thought by the time I was 32 I’d be all grown up, with a grown up job, maybe running my own little biz, travelling the world, have a sweet man-panion by my side and enjoying other such lovely indulgences as coffee-like dairy-free ice cream, and hopefully not looking a day over 30… maybe even 28.

And by golly gee me, I think I have done it. The abundance is sweetness. And to celebrate my birthday, my besties over at Hamilton Beach Canada are helping me, help you celebrate. We’re giving away an ice cream maker!

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Oh the joy. The fun. The writing I will be doing with a whole weekend free. Sort of. In my imagination, I booked this weekend off so that, I would have it free and easy to travel the globe, leading up to my 32nd birthday coming on Tuesday (yep, the 25th). I was going to go to New York, or LA, or Fiji (in my dreams anyway)… And then decided that instead I would check in with reality because this mamasita has a book to write. And write like the wind I will.

Another great week over here in the nutrition front. We ran five classes in eight days which made this kitchen a mad, mad house.

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In his own words, Ron Telpner, my dad, shares his story and experience with prostate cancer. His series, The Four Unwanted Words chronicles his experience from diagnosis to the best health of his life.
Read Part 1: Four Unwanted Words

You are what you eat.

When I was told “You have prostate cancer,” I thought my business career might be over. It was only after doing my homework that I realized that prostate cancer, when caught in its early stages, is not a death sentence. It is more of a condition. Just the same, I was scared.

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You know those people who go on those re-donk-you-lus cleanses that essentially sound like they’re spending a week, crash course style living the way you’ve been living for the last five years, only to go back at the end of it and start eating like the slothy fatty McFatter standard North American processed diet full of wheat, cheese, booze and sugar?

Wait a second! You’re not one of them too are you?

Here’s the thing most people have to learn about detox. It’s not a diet. A detox should not be a crash anything. It’s not something you can do twice a year where for 1 week you drink epsom salts, consume only lemonade and enema your poopershnickle out the hooha. The best of the best way to detox is to make 80% of what most people would consider a cleanse, your everyday way of living. Make sense?

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For those of you have joined our 21 Days To Health Challenge, no matter where you are at in it, you likely skipped ahead and noticed the bit where you’re supposed to cut out caffeine.

Now, before you start asking all kinds of questions about whether caffeine is really so bad for you, I will say Yes, yes it is.

Caffeine, unless taken up the bum (yes, that’s what I said), will work against each and every one of your physical, and emotional goals. You can read all about it here, but to summarize:

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Happy Monday!

What a delicious weekend it was. I had a Saturday off! This rarely happens and so what did I do with it? I made our fave Super French Toast breakfast, did laundry, went for a massage and created the most delectable Deluxe Stress Busting latte recipe there ever was with all of my favourite stress busting herbs, foods and magic potions. The recipe and video are coming tomorrow!

For now, the info and best stress busting regiment there ever was.

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What a week it has been. I have been doing my very, very best to abide the rules I wrote myself with my 21 Days To Health, program. My most favourite challenge of course is on day 3 when we must get ourselves to bed early. There are three things I love to bits that help me sleep like a baby.

Sleep mask to block out the light.
Lavender essential oil sprinkled on my pillow
3 capsules of Peaceful Spirit- my most fave bed time supplement in the whole wide world (more on that next week)
I have been loving these things even more as I spent just three nights last weekend on the other side of the country, 3 time zones away in Vancouver and then came back right in the swing of things. And you know what? No jet lag! Not even for one night. It was amazing.
I digress, as today I sit in the audience at TedX Toronto, invited to participate as a delegate, I wanted my brain powered up and ready to rock. And you know what does it? A green juice breakfast and a smoothie brunch.

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My name is Jen and I do not condone the use or consumption of packaged foods.

This is not because I have the “nutritionist” moniker associated with my name. It is just my food philosophy. I believe in eating whole unprocessed foods because I really want to be healthy and quite honestly, packaged foods are gross. The were made in some far off factory from strange ingredients and taste more like the cardboard box they come in than real food (I know this because I was once a university student and managed to somehow get by on lean cuisines and frozen burritos for dinner. I’ve since moved on).

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After the Vegetarian Food Festival last weekend, I was all soyed out. Seriously! Soy was served up in every little shape and size they could dream up. From icing on cupcakes, to dried out beans covered in sugar and cinnamon, they could almost change the name of the event to the Soy Food Festival.

What did I eat the weekend of the event? I kicked it BYOS- Bring Your Own Salad/Smoothie. Now it’s not that I hate soy… Okay, I do. I do hate it and all the ways it functions like plasticine- getting moulded and blended and cooked and baked into all kinds of things. Soy on it’s own, in it’s whole organic form is a-okay though. I will actually eat it, love it and feel okay after.

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