I’ll be the first to admit it: I’m very easily influenced. When I was thirteen my mum bought me a t-shirt emblazoned with ‘Easily Led’ and a picture of a sheep. Looking back, it was a wildly inappropriate purchase (but it did match my brown velvet jogging bottoms wonderfully, so I’ll let her off).
That t-shirt appears to have made a lasting impact. A couple of years ago I was very almost convinced to go into Wood Green library to read The Book Of Mormon with two lovely guys from Salt Lake City. Honestly, it’s a marvel that I’m yet to join a cult.
So when I arrived at Wellbeing Escapes’ Healthy Cooking and Nutrition Workshop, I fully expected to be a signed up member of the clean eating brigade by the end of the morning.
As it turns out, this wasn’t a course that advocated a radical lifestyle overhaul (a relief, because committing to living off wheatgrass shots seemed like a lot of hassle). Instead, nutritionist Candice Van Eeden, taught us how to make healthy cooking both practical and exciting.
We’d all come to the course for different reasons. One lady wanted to find the link between diet and insomnia; another needed healthy snack ideas. I suffer from a terrible sugar addiction/have zero self-restraint, so needed alternatives to sugary snacks (KitKat Chunky, I’m looking at you).
Candice kicked off the morning by making a breakfast smoothie. We each made our own – simply a case of chucking a peeled orange (but keep the pith!) into a blender, along with spinach, chia seeds, berries and banana. It tasted ludicrously healthy, but in a good way.
The highlight for me was learning how to cook a Prawn Steam Fry. Instead of using oil to stir fry your vegetables, we used half a cup of water. It only takes a few minutes for the prawns and veg to cook perfectly. We seasoned it with soya sauce, coriander, lime and a spoonful of coconut oil – it was probably the most incredible stir fry I’ve ever eaten.
Delicious food aside, the most valuable resource the workshop offered me was nutritional knowledge. Candice focused more on what we should be adding to our diet, rather than taking away. Let’s be honest, Fad diets are never going to lead to better health. Instead, we need to understand the impact individual ingredients have on our bodies – the bad, but more importantly, the good.
I came away from the workshop with recipes for salad dressings, green smoothies, and snacks to beat the sugar cravings; but foremost, I left with a better understanding of what I should be eating and why.
Enlightenment rather than indoctrination: surely that’s the only way of making mindful choices and sticking to them.
I was lucky enough to be offered a free place on this course. The workshop usually costs £65.00 per person (honestly, an absolute steal considering you come out very well-fed). For more information and to book, visit WellBeing Escapes Lifestyle.
To The Table 