Voila

Wellbeing 

Welcome back and enjoy Lucinda's last article for Voila. 

Thank you for opening up our understanding of food and for me it's been a wonderful development in to listening and having a deeper awareness of my body. I needed a little push into the world of nutrition and with all the wonderful recipes and facts lucinda shared with us over the year it has set me on a new path, which I truly love! My boyfriend and kids are thrilled with my new passion and I even cook for fun now ( as you will see from my instagram account) It has been a revelation So thank you for helping me on this new journey xx    

  Self Love and believe, we are truly meant to be happy! 

Click on recipe to print out and save . 

January Article 

"Happy New Year! I hope you all had a joyful Christmas and saw in the New Year in whichever way brought you the most happiness – for me it was curled up in front of the telly with my husband in my pyjamas…bliss!

The past year has been a strange one, both personally and it seems for others too, a real mixture of incredible highs with sadder, less celebratory times. I think it is really important at the start of a New Year to reflect on the past twelve months, to honour your achievements and acknowledge where perhaps you feel you fell short. These short-fallings can give us an excellent focus for the next year, and whilst I don’t strictly believe in resolutions (they seem always to be hard and negatively worded), I think it is really valuable to align ourselves with things we would like to grow in ourselves or set on a new path. The best way of doing this, in my humble opinion, is to phrase our intentions positively, so, rather than saying ‘I will lose weight’ or ‘I won’t eat such and such’, we shift our focus to, ‘I will be kind to my body’, or ‘I will introduce more fresh food into my life’ or ‘I will find an exercise I REALLY enjoy’. This way we are not making a judgement on our past selves, but simply offering more love and attention to what we need to have a happier, more full life, rather than one plagued by asceticism and denial.

2015 was a year of change and upheaval for me, both enjoyable and at times tough. At the start of the year I knew I needed to take a break from writing a novel I had been working on to reconnect myself with the world. I did this through joining and becoming more active in social media, training as a yoga teacher, making more time for friends and family, and generally trying to be less of a recluse! It worked – I felt the benefits of being part of the world and my spirit for my writing was re-invigorated, in no small part by writing for Voila, which I have loved.

However, it is now time for me to return to what I love most, which is writing for myself. In order to do this a certain distance is required and so it is with sadness and with hope for new things that this will be my last post for Voila. I am also withdrawing from social media, although I will keep my Facebook and Instagram accounts open to advertise yoga classes I will be teaching in Bristol and Bath. I hope you have enjoyed reading my monthly updates as much I have enjoyed writing them. 

What has been the most interesting for me has been discovering and exploring what my own food ethos is: what matters to me, what I feel vs. I’m told is good for me, and what it is I want other people to understand about food. My main conclusions have been that there are no hard and fast rules to eating healthily and well – we are all different and require personally developed eating habits to feel our best; that for me, a high fat, low fructose diet which includes good quality, easily digestible carbs is what gives me the most energy and vitality, but that this in no means works for every one; and that finally, I mainly want people to realise that healthy eating need not be restrictive or unpleasant, that it is one of the greatest kindnesses we can do for ourselves, and that it brings far more peace and happiness than it does feelings of loss or deprivation. Maybe I’ve achieved this, maybe I haven’t, but it is enough for me to know that I tried. I hope, if anything, to have offered a few recipes that have been enjoyed and perhaps the odd bit of inspiration to make recipes of your own."

Wishing you all the best for a happy and healthy 2016 and the years which follow!

Love Lucinda x