Gluten Free in Search of Joy and Joyous Health

When Penguin Canada contacted me in the New Year about reviewing two books for them, I was a little flattered and more than just a little scared. One of the books, Grain Power by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming is a collection of gluten-free, ancient grain recipes and Joyous Health by Joy McCarthy is a lifestyle enhancement book meant to bring peace, balance, harmony and joy back to your life through the use of not only food, but mindfulness of body and spirit as well. It is this book that particularly made me feel beyond my scope. While I may have been an English major at Acadia University back in the day and I have taught my junior high students how to write, I did not feel prepared to write a review on a subject I knew very little about and knew the review would not fit the standard mould of fictional writing reviews; however, as I began reading Joy’s book I knew that it would not matter whether the review fit a mould or not because the book itself does not fit a mould either.

The subtitle of Joyous Health is Eat and Live Well Without Dieting and Joy herself states in her opening of chapter one that, “Diets are not sustainable, period.” (McCarthy, Pg. 1) I found myself smiling at this and began thinking just how much I loathe the term “gluten free diet” like it is some kind of fad meant to be embraced by celebrities and their fan base and then discarded when something comes along that is bigger and better leaving those of us with Celiac’s Disease and Gluten Intolerance looking like we are just picky eaters without a legitimate reason because celebrities and social media have made a mockery of our lifestyle. I tell people straight up that I am gluten free, period. It is not a diet; it is a complete lifestyle overhaul which has left me with a lot of anxiety when it comes to eating out, both in restaurants and in the homes of friends and family. I have managed to bury some of the anxiety, but like all things it eventually makes its way to surface and it is not pretty when it does.

Joy McCarthy is a CNP (Certified Nutritional Practitioner) and an RNCP (Registered Nutritional Consulting Practitioner). She is also the Holistic Nutrition & Health Expert to Global TV’s The Morning Show, and she is co-creator of Eat Well Feel Well, Toronto’s first integrated nutrition and yoga program. She makes herself relatable as an author and as a nutritionist by detailing her own struggles with health and nutrition. I found myself nodding in agreement quite often through chapter one as she gives hints about her philosophy and beliefs surrounding food and nutrition and the fact that it is not just physical nourishment that we need but emotional nourishment in the good sense as well. It is the emotional nourishment that we need in order to make the strong, healthy choices that will guide our physical nourishment throughout our lives.

Joy does not give herself the air of standing on a pulpit, preaching to the masses about how to live their lives. Her approach is more of a genuine, heartfelt, nurturing approach with most of what she talks about in chapter one being more along the lines of old-fashioned common sense; the kind we use to hear and follow before the days of convenience took over our lives in the forms of fast, cheap, and plentiful food that resembles and tastes like the cardboard it comes in. She gently guides us through her reasoning for her suggestions and has the proof to back up her claims. The book is laid out in an orderly fashion and goes step by step for the reader and tackles one problem and suggestion at a time. Joy herself says, “Ideally it should take you six weeks to work through this book. However, you can take as long as you wish. Go at your own comfortable pace.” (McCarthy, Pg.5) She includes numerous recipes to try and I really appreciated the fact that they are colour coded just below the title so that I can quickly scan to see if it is a gluten free recipe and make any adjustments accordingly, by quickly scanning for offending ingredients if it is not.

I am glad that I was given the chance to review this book, as I am not sure that it is one that I would have bothered to peruse or purchase otherwise. I am looking forward to my six week or longer journey, eventually reorganizing my kitchen and discarding any gluten free items that do not serve their purpose or are little better than “healthy” junk. I have been on a journey for the last three plus years and I am looking forward to the one that will lead me on the path to joy and joyous health.

Anyone who wishes to find their way to health or their way back to health then this is the book. With an entire section of recipes, detailed explanations of how to select foods for joy and health and how to practice mindful eating, it is like having a nutritionist on hand, complete with an example of how to keep a food and wellness journal. I think I would much rather have a consultation with Joy herself, but until the day that that dream comes true, this will have to do.

 

Book: Paperback | 210 x 133mm | 224 pages | ISBN 9780143186915 | 07 Jan 2014 | Penguin Canada

 PS: Stay tuned for my review of the aforementioned Grain Power. I am making a couple of the recipes and snapping a few pics for my next blog entry.

Post Christmas in the New Year

So my Christmas vacation is coming to a close and pretty soon the days of sleeping in and wandering aimlessly, day in and day out will come to an end as well. I am looking forward to getting back into my routine though, I won't lie. Especially that I now have a juicer making my days fairly exciting and fresh. The trick is to now incorporate my juicer into my work a day life. It will probably take a bit of planning and prep but I am up for the challenge, I think. I want to have a fresh veggie/fruit concoction once a day. That is my goal. So far I have done well with the exception of one day where I was out and about and barely home. But this is one thing that I am going to endeavor to do and I have already played with a number of combinations. I have looked at a few recipes but I much prefer to experiment. This is not so much a resolution for me but rather a resolve to get more fruits/veggies and the nutrients that go along with them and I would much rather do it in a raw format than a cooked one and hopefully decrease the amount of vitamin supplementation that I seem to require. Below is a list of my combinations thus far, they have all been really good and range in taste between tart, earthy and really sweet. My favourites so far have been day 2 and day 5. I never thought that beet juice would be something that I would take to, but I am truly addicted to its earthy taste and deep rich colour.

Day 1 (Dec 29^th)

1 apple, 1 carrot, 1 satsuma mandarin, 1 piece of ginger root

Day 2 (Dec 30^th)

1 cup of cranberries, 1 lemon, 1 kiwi, ginger root, 1 carrot, 1 cup of pineapple and 1 celery stalk

Day 3 (Dec 31^st)

6 strawberries, 2 mini cucumbers, ½ a personal watermelon, 1 cup of spinach, 1 pear, 1 satsuma mandarin and 1 cup of pineapple

Day 4 (Jan 1^st)

1 beet, 1 cup of spinach, 1 kiwi and 1 carrot

Day 5 (Jan 3^rd)

2 beets, 1 cup of spinach. 1 and a ½ carrots, 1 lemon, 1 cup of pineapple and a large piece of ginger

Day 6 (Jan 4^th)

1 cup of spinach, 1 cortland apple, 1 large navel orange, 1 piece of ginger root, 1 cup of cranberries, 1 and a ½ carrots

Day 1

Day 3

Day 5

Day 6

 

The other thing that marked my break was the amount of baking that I managed to complete. I will have to share the recipes in a separate post, but needless to say that I made a lot of treats for Boxing Day dinner at my place. Instead of one big dessert, I made numerous small ones including; Rum Cake, Besan Barfi/Burfi (Indian Chickpea fudge), Chex Muddie Buddies, Fudge Brownies, Marzipan Squares, Shortbread (my great-grandmother’s recipe), Date Balls, and Spiced Pecans and they were all gluten free. I cannot remember the last time that I baked that much or even attempted to and to be able to complete it all gluten free this year was a major accomplishment for me and it was all so yummy and I still have a lot leftover.

Clockwise from left: Shortbreads, Spiced Pecans, Fudge Brownies,

Besan Barfi,  Date Balls and Marzipan Squares

 

Speaking of Christmas and Boxing Day, I really adhered to the “Buy Local” movement this year. Most of the things that I bought were either manufactured/conceived or purchased locally or will help people regionally. Most of my nephew’s gifts I purchased at the Thomas the Tank Engine Experience by Ambassatours in Saint John. I also purchased books for him from Woozles and an Eastcoast Lifestyle hoodie. I bought my parents sweatshirts from the Lost Cod Clothing Co. and treats from Pete’s Frootique.  My sister-in-law received a clutch from Maggie Pearce and a necklace from the Shy Giraffe, while my brother received a tie from Prostate Cancer Canada. So my brother’s gift was not locally bought but I know that the money spent on it will benefit prostate cancer patients regionally. I participated in Movember this year, so the gift was well intentioned.

When you really stop and look around at places like the Halifax Seaport Farmer’s, DalPlex Christmas Craft Show, Christmas at the Forum and all the other unique places in the Downtown areas of any Maritime city including Halifax; you will find stuff that is better than anything that you can buy at any big box store. Beauty part is that it is unique stuff. There is no way that I would ever have been able to give my mother a little piece of her history if I had never been able to buy her a sweatshirt from Lost Cod Clothing Co. She can now proudly display her Sea Nymph Fish Foods Hoodie; knowing she once worked for A.M. Smith & Co. at the Smith Wharves.

Okay, so I clearly need to blog more often. I have so much to say some times that I cannot fit it all in. Next time, I promise to talk about my gluten free baking and share my recipes; as I started this blog to talk about being gluten free in Halifax.

Books and Food; two of my three favourite things.

I am remiss in posting for awhile, however work has kept me pretty busy and I hope that I will be able to share my foodie adventures over the Christmas holidays when I have more time to post.

Today, I am doing a fun little post on a book. There are three things in this world that I absolutely adore, if you don't count my nephew and I absolutely adore him no question. I also adore coffee, books and food in no particular order. When I was given a chance to become a book blogger for Penguin Canada I decided to give it  a try. I thought about reviewing a cookbook, but I did not have the time to cook my tried and true, let alone anything new, so it did not seem like a good idea to attempt first. So I went to the next best thing; a children's book. I am a teacher and it seemed like a natural fit. Penguin Canada has the December Delights promotion on right now and it is basically an advent calendar for book lovers, full of suggestions and contests for bibliophiles such as myself. Today is day #10 and it is The Day the Crayons Quit.

Drew Daywalt poses an interesting dilemma when he suggests that the crayons are not happy with Duncan, their owner. I read this book last night and I could not help but giggle for many reasons and I cannot wait to share this book with my nephew. I know he will love the green page. But I digress. Every year I put a big box of crayons on my desk along with markers and pencil crayons for my students to use and inevitably the crayons are passed over, because junior high students are too cool for crayons. I always feel sad because I love crayons! There is something about them and maybe it is nostalgia more than anything and the fact that they take me back to a time of innocence. I find crayons comforting and I was taught a long time ago that sitting and colouring is one of the greatest stress reducers because of the nostalgia involved. Unfortunately, it is the crayons in this book that are stressed out. All they want is to be used equally without having favourites played. When you think about it though; do we use all the crayons in the box? Sadly, no. However, Duncan comes up with an ingenious idea of how to keep everyone happy.

I like how Daywalt addresses all the problems individually and uses each colour to write the letter. The only problem I had was with yellow (but don't tell yellow crayon that). It was hard to read. Oliver Jeffers drawings combined with the letters were a perfect fit. I enjoy Oliver Jeffers illustrations. I first noticed his illustrations in a book that I gave my nephew for his birthday, How to Catch a Star. His illustrations are simple, yet powerful, and they recreate that sense of nostalgia by looking like a child has drawn the illustrations which fit perfectly with Daywalt's crayon dilemma as the crayons are trying to tell Duncan what it is that they need in order to be happy.

I cannot wait to share this book with my nephew and I am not sure if I will give him this copy of the book for Christmas or buy him his own copy and keep this one for myself. Sometimes we need a good children's story in our life to put our own lives into perspective and recapture some of the innocence lost with maturity. I think I need to go and buy myself a new box of crayons soon. ;) Hopefully I will be able to keep them all happy like Duncan finally does in the end. I love this book and hope that there will be a French translation of it soon, so that I can share it with my junior high students even though they are too cool for crayons. ;)