About Me

I was 10 when my mother first took me to Weighless. As I know she loves me, I have no doubt she had my best interests at heart. Still, that was my first experience of putting a judgement on different kinds of foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Since then I have had a love/hate relationship with food, which has impacted many different areas of my life.

Diet No More

After dieting on and off for 25 years (so many different ‘eating programmes’!), losing and gaining back probably the equivalent of my own body weight over that time, I had just lost 20kg – again. When I started eating ‘normally’ (and of course putting the weight back on), a friend said to me, “Thank goodness – you’re a much nicer person when you’re not dieting!” That was the point at which I decided it was time to call a halt to the dieting spiral.

Since then, I have learned a lot about the dangers of dieting and I’ve adopted a different approach to my health. I’ve started practicing the art of listening to what my body wants and trying to give it that. I also now know how important it is to address other aspects of our lives – like our emotions, relationships and fears – and to follow our dreams, if we are to have any hope of a balanced and healthy life.

Food as a Spiritual Practice

As part of my own journey of personal growth, I have studied metaphysics and spirituality for many years. While recently attending a Mindful Cooking course by Daniel Jardim, someone who has radically inspired me, I had a lightbulb moment: what if, instead of thinking of food as either comfort or a guilty pleasure, I was to throw myself into it whole-heartedly? Could I make food a spiritual practice?

So I decided to start this blog as a means of exploring and embracing my relationship with food, as well as a way to share recipes that people have praised over the years and new, experimental ones that I’m coming up with all the time. I don’t want this blog to become another chore (my life tends to be ruled by chores, if I’m not careful), so I cook whatever I’m inspired to, and simply photograph and scribble notes about the ingredients I use as I go.

Food of All Kinds

I have explored and cook from an ever-expanding, wide variety of traditions. I was vegetarian for 12 years, and I still love veggies and eat a lot of them. I also incorporate raw and whole foods into my meals because I like them and they make me feel good. Using organic foods, preferably from my own garden, is one of my favourite things for so many reasons – flavour, nutrition and sustainability, to name but a few. I will be touching more on these things as time goes by so look out for those blogs if you want to know more.

I truly hope that what I share on this blog adds value to your life and inspires you to explore your own relationship with food (and with yourself). Food is an essential part of our life – we may as well relish it!

And the journey continues…

Alexandra
Cape Town, South Africa