Talofa … it’s me Sister Rasela on a fine, crisp, sunshiney morning, where i continue to feel inspired and dedicated to bring y’all ways to make you feel tastier on the inside. Love yourself from the inside and see who the person on the outside really is. Respect to this Bundjalung Nation for allowing us to rest here on the land we call home. We give gratitude.

So … do what i did and take some long slow breaths and just STOP for a moment … STOP and close your eyes for a few seconds (no, no not yet, read to the end of this caption first !!) and think of all the things you are grateful for. It could be something glaringly obvious or something as simple as the sun shining out there today. Acknowledge and give gratitude for what you already have, what you have achieved, what you have learned in this life, it can be anything !! Your favorite food perhaps … hey, it makes ya feeel reeeal goood right ??  (might make your belly rumble too) Carry on if you want while you stand on this beach staring out …

Being grateful – This is the simple core philosophy at Cafe Gratitude way over there in San Franciscoland when it comes to food and lifestyle. We usually like to keep things local on belly but this attitude should be spread around the world and back. Start by thinking good and healthy thoughts and this will transpire into good and healthy eating … could it be that easy ?? Well that’s up to you to make your own mind up about. This is a cafe that encourages you to think, speak and eat positivity by naming their dishes with self affirming names. For example, if you wish to order the ‘I am adored’ dish then you have to say the words, ‘I am adored’ and when your dish is served, the waiter will present it to you by saying ‘You are adored’. This is how it all begins …

It’s an interesting concept and one that really captured me which is why i chose to share some readings from the book with you on belly. The book is called “I Am Grateful”  and is written by the co-owner and chef of Cafe Gratitude Terces Englehart. It’s the ‘Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude’ and it seems to be distributed by North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California if you’d like to get your hands on it and thumb through it’s pages of deliciousness. It’s full of the cafes recipes which are interspersed amongst captions like … ‘Do you invest more attention in being grateful or chasing desires?’ or ‘Unhappiness is the hunger to get, Happiness is the hunger to give’ so you see. it’s more than just your average cookbook in fact there is no cooking involved – It’s RAW and VEGAN !!!

We all have our own story and journey that has brought us to where it is we are today and Terces’ story is no exception. From her book i shared some of her story.

“This book is dedicated to my Mother and her love of food , with which she gifted me” Terces Engelhart. A wonderful gift indeed passed down to Terces in the kitchens of home. It was here that she was taught to follow explicit measurements and it was also here that she re-learned to cook with intuition. Her huband and co-owner of the cafe calls her a “Food Alchemist” which has been more than proven by their thriving providing !! A  natural kitchen farmer in the making it seems but not until she had made it back through to the otherside, from a life accompanied by eating disorders.

Things started to change back at the age of sixteen when her swim coach pressured her to loose weight for the National Championships and the possibility of going to the 1968 Olympics. That dream was never realised and instead a nightmare began with what was the start of a slow self starvation at this tender age, living on only lettuce and tab cola as the fear of regaining weight became too great. At just over 36 kg Terces found herself in a military hospital in the midst of the Vietnam war where she was molested by her physician and told to keep quiet, learned to lie and fill her pockets with rocks at weigh-in to be released into the fearful hands of her mother, who wanted only to feed her daughter and return her to ‘normal’. With the help of a tutor she went on to finish high-school and continued on into her 20 year battle with anorexia and bulimia. The secretive lives of these dis-ease sufferers was not understood back then. Today there is more awareness and help on offer but Terces believed she was caught in some unknown swirl of punishment and survival.

Still managing to major in Home Economics, she got her first job as a dietitian’s assistant in a hospital and while at the time married to her childhood sweetheart, she was once again sexually molested by one of their friends. Divorced at twenty she went on to join the airlines, become a dental assistant, work in and around restaurants, marry a Vietnam vet who was an addict, give birth to her first son, move to a farm in Pennsylvania, get hit by her addicted husband, go to work in the local pub, give birth to her daughter, start a wholesale bakery, get divorced, open up the first Mexican restaurant in Pennsylvania, marry the bartender who hired her in the pub, become a Navy wife, have another son, be transferred back to the Naval base in California where all of this started. Whoah !!!   

One day after coming out of the bathroom having vomited, her 8 year old daughter asked her “Mummy are you ok?” to which she brushed off with a casual “Yes,” before realising and deciding that she did not want to pass the lies, destruction and unhealthiness of her ways onto her own children.

Amongst the many healing modalities that were available and used it could be said that the ‘kitchen farming’, preparing, eating, sharing and being grateful for nutritious food was an outstanding element in Terces healing. To truly fuel and nourish a depleted body, to bring yourself back to life with raw, living foods, to love yourself from the INSIDE, to feel yourself revive means that people with eating disorders can be encouraged to go on to live a life that is literally full of life !!! Raw foods and juices were a predominant part of the turnaround for Terces and letting go of old patterns and habits which is harder than some of us could ever imagine … but it is possible. Clean and clear foods create a clean and clear mind. It’s a beautiful thing to discover your true self. Terces is now into her 20th year of loving and living life without any eating disorders and is therefore a live, breathing, vibrant voice of encouragement and inspiration. If you can change the way you think about food, it could well change the way you eat it. Putting positive, living thoughts and foods into your mind and body can only have positive effects … no ?? I think it’s time to start practising some of this around the Shire. Let’s open a belly cafe and bring the tasty love to one place where we can all come, share, learn, teach and EAT !! ha ha ha … maybe i should ask the other bellysisters first tho ….

Go to www.cafegratitude.com and be grateful for what you find.

If you need it – http://www.edap.org/ National Eating Disorders Association

I would recommend seeing both a Naturopath and Doctor if you have an eating disorder. There are some great clinics around the Shire where the two support each other. It’s my belief that the natural approach as well as the conventional approach is healthy, that way you have a broader understanding of information and it can be left in your control as to what you decide is best for YOU. It is my dream that Alternative Practitioners and Conventional Medical Practitioners will work together with mutual respect for each other and for the good of the patient one day … soon.

The other half of belly today was shared with the voice of an ambitious and nutritious film maker. I give thanks and more gratitude to the creators of this food documentary –

I found myself on the end of the phone to James Colquhoun who co-produced and directed “Food Matters” along with Laurentine ten Bosch. They are both Nutritionists who have brought a great documentary to the world which highlights some of the core issues that are still eluding many consumers. I urge you to watch it and decide for yourself how much Food Matters in your own life. Think about how much you spend to put premium petrol in your car or buy new clothes to keep you warm in winter, holidays to make you feel better because you are often unwell, makeup and perfumes and hair products and lotions for the outside and then tell me you can’t ‘afford’ to eat organic. I’m telling you now … if you take care of the inside, you will spend less money trying to make the outside look better !!!

Go to www.foodmatterstv.com for munch munch munch more info.

Alofa,

Sister Rasela