Making Love in the Kitchen

We’re going DIGITAL! Or maybe the term is virtual… or online??? I don’t know. What I do know is that we have now filmed our first ever full length online course! Yes- that is what all the hints we’ve been dropping are all about. We are slowly but surely working our way through all of my classes and workshops to make them fully accessible online for you to learn, laugh and cook along with no matter where in the world you are. Exciting, right? The first set of 20 videos were shot a few short weeks ago and over here we’re busy getting the finishing touches on the print materials that will go along with them. So, so, soooo many people email us every week asking if we have plans to put the course online, if they can get a copy of the handout, if we record them… All that jazz.

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I know that my readers and friends of my readers get their vegan underthings in a tangle whenever we hate on soy over here. I know. I understand. It goes beyond dietary choices to animal rights and cries for compassion. The point we continue to try and make, however, continues to be missed, or misunderstood. We’e not saying you have to up and start mowing on the farm animals if that’s just not you’re thing. Allow this to be another attempt to help you understand why soy does need to have a conscious place in your diet.

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We are huge, huge fans of Marion Nestle here in the kitchen. When it comes to food rockstars- she is at the top of the list. Author of awesometown books such as Food Politics and What To Eat (plus tonnes more), she is also Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at NYU. Ms. Nestle is truly at the forefront of the food advocacy movement. Sounds like she might know her stuff, huh? We had a few Qs for her- check out her insightful responses below.

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Remember a few weeks ago we wrote about our Friendly Correspondence with McCain Foods? After attempting to interview someone- anyone! – at the company in regards to their new “It’s All Good” campaign, our e-mails were dutifully ignored and we received no response after the initial inquiry about the nature of our interview. The thing is- after we posted our questions for McCain, it turned out a lot of you good peeps were looking for answers, too. We received countless comments and e-mails asking for a follow-up to our interview with McCain. Did we get our answers, you wanted to know? Maeve followed up with the representative at McCain who had initially (and briefly) been in touch, and passed along a link to our post. No response. Maeve followed up again- which, of course, garnered no response.

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I get loads upon loads of questions from amazingly excited people about to embark on their career in the health or creative field, seeking tips and tricks on how I manifested this wee little biz of mine.

Now this may not seem like a health related question, but it is. It really, really is. Remember that video I shared last week- about the missing link in the secret of health?

On May 1st, in a little over two weeks time, my business, Meghan Telpner Inc., will be turning 4 years old! That is pretty freaking exciting, especially since, when I started this here little blog and cooking school, which were both teeny, tiny- I hadn’t a clue where I wanted it all to go. I just kept working, envisioning, working more, being brave, being creative a lot of the time and smart some of the time.

The result is that in four short years- I’ve taught more cooking classes than I can count, had over 2,000 people attend one of my classes or public cooking events, sold out 4 retreats with the 5th on its way (just 3 spots left!), been a regular writer for a national newspaper, and a regular on national television, and most recently signed my first book deal (and then wrote, shot, edited, edited some more the best book there ever was) that will have Canadian and US disribution. Plus I have a few very special signature products.

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We’ve announced all the sweet, sweet details for the 2013 Nourish Your Soul retreat. If you like delicious and healthful foods, the beach, the rainforest and fun- this retreat is for you! Registration opens on Friday. Monday marks the official start of the Fab Uplift Detox! In honour of this awesometown new group of detoxers, check out these three detox worthy recipes to get the cleansing wheels in motion. As we saw this week on the blog, detoxing is a very important process for our bodies to ward off illness and disease. This weekend, instead of reaching for barftown healthwashed foods (like this), make these three delicious recipes!

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The title of this piece is tongue and cheek as much as it is serious. The truth is if you want to read about the facts of why and how yoga can help you, you can go to a health magazine or bookstore and find out. Don’t get me wrong they are very necessary, of extreme importance actually, but those articles/books become un-interesting quickly because it feels like you are reading something that is in a foreign language. Reading that a posture will massage your internal organs or rather someone speaking about your cervical spine and the importance of creating space while being properly supported is most likely going to go in one ear, and out the other. What I can and am going to do, is tell you about a type of yoga that I believe to be the most transcendent, transformative, and empowering type of practice I have personally experienced and witnessed. It is called Restorative Yoga.

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Did you see the greatness that is our brand spankin’ new online program? The Gluten-Free Renewal Cleanse is coming so mark your calendars for February 27th! Want to play with us before then? Join us for Edible Beauty Care on February 20th! We’ve had some seriously sweet entries for the Living my Creed contest! (Still time to enter – last chance is February 29th! If we chose your sweet sweet entry, you will win one of my awesometown creed posters plus some other fantabulous goodies). I just couldn’t wait until the deadline to share some of this sweetness with you peeps. Check out this sweet action shot our girl Val sent in.

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Your first healing thoughts should lean towards nutrition. I will be celebrating my 70th birthday this August with family and friends. So what is so unusual about this? Well I have been given an incredible body by the powers that be but an immune system that basically sucks. It seems
to have a seven year cycle that looks for a new organ or system to attack, but I also seem to have the cat’s nine lives syndrome and win out each time. I have also been blessed with an incredible loving family, friends, doctors and specialists that have gone out of their way to bring me back to health each time. I have done everything in my power to aid in keeping myself healthy – by eating clean, exercising, yoga, meditation, gardening, and enjoying life with my children, grandchildren, and friends. So this last immune attack really sent me for a loop.

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Eat Real Food. What does Real Food mean to you? My dedication to Real Food came when my intestines caught a fever and got all hot and bothered (read: bloody, inflamed, and constricted). Despite my GI telling me that I should eat what I wanted and nothing I ate would affect a disease of the digestive system, I chose to differ. I decided to commit to Real Food. It may have been an obsession for a while, was a bit of a tough transition at first, but ultimately became an effortless lifestyle. The basic premise is this: we have a right to know exactly what we are eating. You can’t do this with potato chips, cantoned orange juice, tinned spaghetti or boxed dinners. Food manufacturers don’t have to put ingredients of ingredients. That means that things that sound harmless like ‘natural flavours’ could actually be a collection of synthetic chemicals derived from plant/animal sources. You heard the one about food manufacturers using a substance that comes from beaver ass- specifically the ‘anal sac’- to make vanilla flavour, right? That falls into the ‘natural flavour’ category reference.

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Sit through the storms, for the sunshine and rainbows will follow.

Have you noticed this yet? Have you noticed that even when you think that thing that happened is the worst thing ever in the whole world to ever have happened, you might also be able to find the most unbelievable thing that came from it? That’s what this line of the creed is about. Things happen, and they are icky and sticky and crazy tough at the time, but no matter what, you will learn something, if you want to, and if you look hard enough, you will see the bright spot, you will find your grace and be grateful.You know the phrase “in a perfect world…” or “in an ideal world…”? We use it all the time. Here’s the thing, my little coconut, this is the only world we have. Yes that storm cloud is going to come by once in a while and dump that rain (usually in the form of disaster, crisis, upset, disappointment, illness, pain and struggle) all over us right after we’ve put on our best new party dress. Does this mean then that there is no point getting dressed up? Of course not!

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Working for Meghan and not making changes to my diet would probably be impossible. It has been two months, and slowly I have seen hemp seeds, MSM and vegan protein powder creeping into my morning smoothies, which is now consumed through glass straw. My once afternoon coffee was replaced by a big steaming cup of Dandy Blend. My meat and dairy intake has plummeted, being consumed minimally here and there and always via ethical supply. Overall, these small changes have begun to make a difference in me – and my health – and it only encourages my desire to take proper care and attention to my diet. I embarked on the Fab Uplift Detox – if for no other reason than to kick my caffeine habit and clean up my eating. Certain things aren’t an issue for me to cut out – meat, dairy and sugar are things that are on my sometimes but I won’t miss you list. Pathetically, it is potentially the worst vices that I realize I can’t cut out – like my beloved, beloved gluten (pass the pasta, please) and of course, coffee. (Oh, coffee…you are so warm and velvety and dark and…I digress. You aren’t good for me and I know this. We are like Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. Lovers, but not meant to be… Or something).

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Laugh at the ridiculousnessness of seriousness.

Have truer words to live by ever been written? At this very moment, I would have to say no. Pooperhnickle stuff happens in life. As it goes. And we can do very little to change it. What we can do, is change how we respond. There is no greater antidote to stress, worry and being serious about seriousness than laughing your head off, rolling on the floor, with tears streaming down your cheeks. We will always encounter people and things and places that take it all too darn seriously. It doesn’t serve anyone.

If you ask me, there is nothing more disarming about a person than someone who can have a good old chuckle at themselves- especially in the ickly prickley situations. When I was diagnosed with Crohn’s, I made a choice to make getting better the most fun in the whole world. See, there are those times where if we didn’t laugh, we would cry. I have often found that as someone who can laugh very easily, the tears can come just as easily. Have you noticed this too?

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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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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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