THURSDAY 27TH OCTOBER 2011:
Anthony and I visited our good friend Faye in Huapai  yesterday, who is just about to open her new Herbal Clinic and Therapy rooms, 'Nurture by Nature'.  It is so beautiful and peaceful in her healing rooms, we wish her well with her new journey.  Together we are going to plan a natural health fair day in December, so I will keep you posted with details in the near future. Blessings for your day,

WEDNESDAY 26TH OCTOBER 2011:
Anthony and I went down to the Viaduct to enjoy a leisurely walk and stopped for a drink at the celebrity chef Simon Gault's restaurant Euro, when we were approached by a roving American magician, Edward Harcourt who gave us a FREE 20 minute private magician's performance.  He was spectacular and certainly made our day more magical.  Then to repay his kindness, Anthony gave him a numerology reading and made his day, hehe! Blessings, PeaceX
PS CHECK OUT THE FESTIVAL PROGRAM & EXHIBITOR PROFILES PAGES NOW TOO!

WEDNESDAY 26TH OCTOBER 2011:
Hi everyone, along with another friend I will be doing a few "Angels & Chocolates" day, where we will be doing mini readings, mini healings, and serving a delicious afternoon tea (including chocolates, cake, club sandwiches, cupcakes and tea of course) to six very stressed out Japanese students preparing for their exams next month.  It will be fun and I'll let you all know how it goes.  Blessings for your day, PeaceX
PS CHECK OUT THE FESTIVAL PROGRAM & EXHIBITOR PROFILES PAGES NOW TOO!

TUESDAY 25TH OCTOBER 2011:
Hi everyone, glorious day today - I think it is 25 degrees in the South Island somewhere, wow, just like summer already!  Anthony and I are still on a high about the All Blacks winning the rugby world cup, it really has uplifted everyone and you see that when you walk down the street.  Have a great day today everyone, but I guess I don't have to tell you that!  Blessings, Peace x

SATURDAY 22ND OCTOBER 2011: Hi everyone, have you been able to get down to the Viaduct and The Cloud these past few weeks - there is so much down there to see and all of them have been free for all, which is fantastic.  The atmosphere with all the visitors from overseas here for the rugby is amazing to experience, and I loved the wakamaori exhibits, the kiwi innovation exhibition, and the rural sports competition - Here's a photo of me with the World Champion Woodchopper, Kiwi of course - Jason Wynyard.  I feel proud to be a Kiwi.  Blessings for your day, Peace x

THURSDAY 20 OCTOBER 2011:  i had been looking for a yoga teacher for quite a while now, and through a mutual friend was introduced to Alasdair, surfer, author, philosopher and Yogi.  His passion and dedication for yoga and meditation is what really impressed me, and I invited him to my home for a personal yoga and meditation session. He was brilliant, and I love the program he's given me, I found out later he was a 36/9 in numerology, exactly like me!  Every so often, he textes me with encouraging messages with my yoga practice, thanks Alasdair.  Blessings, Peace x

WEDNESDAY 19TH OCTOBER:  Who says you can't eat a delicious VEGAN meal out at a cafe spur of the moment.  As you can see I've got an amazing-looking brekkie consisting of: mushrooms, small stir-fry veges, cooked spinach on the side, plus home-baked toast with vege pesto, and a soy flat white to finish off!  The chef was more than happy to be do something different and use her creative culinary skills  to make me something to eat - and I was more than grateful to eat it.  Blessings

SUNDAY 16TH OCTOBER:  Here is a pic of me and Litsa (colour co-ordinated as usual!) at the Titirangi New Energy Fair today.  Litsa is an amazing woman who organises a beautiful monthly fair at the Memorial hall.  Anthony and I look forward to it every month.  There is organic coffee, great people, live music and yummy vegetarian food to be had - my affirmation is have something as wonderful like that at my Herne Bay "Peace Fair" starting in January next year and every 4th Saturday of the month thereafter.  Litsa gave me this cool piece of music, check it out on the MY BLOG PAGE. Blessings, Peace x

Here is the beautiful piece of music that Litsa plays for us while we are setting up our stalls at the Titirangi New Energy Fayre..... enjoy.

How did I become a vegan?
All of my life up until the middle of last year, my diet literally consisted of: on salmon eggs benedict, raw fish sushi, steak eggs and chips, beef lasagne, mince and cheese pies, pizzas, cheese on toast, nachos with sour cream etc etc.  If you told me back then that I was shortly going to change and become a committed vegan and lose 4 and a half stone in the process, I would have probably laughed and said - "no  #@&*%! way",  you and whose army!!  Well, as I was soon to discover, my body and the Universe had other plans for me....

It started last year in June when my intuition told me that I needed to go to my doctors for a check up - mind you I hadn't been to my doctor for over 7 years. I CHOSE TO IGNORE THAT MESSAGE and in doing so, I suffered greatly.  I became so ill for one whole week, that I was continuously praying for Spirit to take me back - I didn't want to live in my physical body anymore.  The pain was so incredible, that it hurt like hell to even blink my eyes.  At the end of the week, I gave up, and promised the Universe I would start taking better care of my body and myself. My body must have believed my heartfelt prayer because the next day I started feeling better. Within a few days thereafter I felt almost normal again. 

The first thing that came to me was to go to see my doctor for that full check up. I got blood tests done and went for a thorough check up. The results were very interesting, I actually was in very good health, which was quite incredible since I was so very overweight (morbidly obese actually).  Everything was fine which totally surprised me, except for my blood pressure (180/110) which was exceptionally high. 

I was quite blessed, because my doctor is a homeopath as well as a GP, and understood my preference to not take any pharmaceutical drugs.  She urged me to immediately change my diet, start exercising and do some kind of meditation.  (You all know, that we all know what we should do to be healthier, but we don't do it, usually because it's too hard, and we don't have any discipline or even want to give up our destructive lifestyles).

When I got home, I felt defeated... I've done all kinds of diets, and lost and gained weight many times in my life - how was I going to do this?  Plus I hadn't exercised at all for like, 15 years (I am so ashamed to admit that).

Then, that exact same day, two things happened.  Firstly, I remembered how much pain I was in for that week of hell, so that was an excellent reminder of how I was going to feel if I was tempted to do something that wasn't going to be good for me (it was the thought that the pain would return that scared me enough to keep me on the straight and narrow from now on  -  rather than the more noble reasons of: wanting to be healthier, or saving the animals and the planet, or being a good example to others,  etc. etc.)

Secondly, I sat down and just happen to switch the TV on and saw that the Oprah show was just starting. I had watched her show many times, and seen how she was such a great catalyst for people - to help them change their lives for the better, sometimes, even saving their lives.

I had no idea, that this particular show was going to be my life-changing moment. Oprah had an actress by the name of Alicia Silverstone on as a guest.  She was talking about the benefits of being a vegan.  I remember thinking at that time, Alicia looked fantastic, she was glowing from the inside out.  And everything she said seem to make perfect sense to me.  Then, she clinched it for me when she promised everyone in the audience and watching on their televisions, that if they tried being a vegan for two weeks they would feel amazing too, and then she carried on to say that as a vegan you would never starve, you could eat as much as you wanted and never have to worry about counting calories or measuring portion sizes ever again, but you would feel incredible.  Promise. 

There it was.  I made a decision right then and there that I would give it a go. I believed her. Anyway, what harm could it do - and two weeks out of my life, not much to ask.  I then borrowed a copy of her book from the library - "The Kind Diet" and started reading it.  I read the first half of it in a full day, and it was such an eye opener about food, about our bodies, about animals & about the planet, that after reading it, I became a vegan then and there - cold turkey, as they say.

Of the two weeks trial period, it took only about a week of trying this new vegan diet, that I noticed I was feeling different.  Physically, emotionally, mentally - all different.  It took a while for me to know what I was feeling, but then I realised - I FELT ALIVE!  More alive than I had ever felt.   Had it been so long that I'd forgotten what it was like to feel so alive and happy.  Most of all, I felt peaceful.

Is it possible that by simply changing to a plant-based diet I could feel so good?  Yes, absolutely, and I've had over a year as a vegan to prove it, not to you, but to myself.  It works for me, and as Alicia puts it and I agree with her completely, it is the kindest thing we can do for ourselves.

Is it hard to find vegan food?  No, there's so many vegan substitutes for dairy and meat these days, and often a lot of restaurants and cafes have vegan options on their menus I'm happy to say, or they usually don't mind making up something special for me either (which makes me feel special too).  I do love cooking more though, we might have an indian curry and dhal one night, chinese stir fry the next, or even vegan pizza and garlic kumara fries, I mean the variety is ENDLESS. 

Desserts are fantastic, because I use real ingredients in their purest form like - making a fresh organic fruit salad. drizzle it with organic deep maple syrup and topped with warmed, melted green and blacks 70% dark organic chocolate (one of Anthony's favourite dishes).  Simple, but so delicious!  He makes a mean vanilla oat milk custard too.  So you see, you don't starve at all, in fact my love of food is greater now that I'm a vegan, because I'm eating food in it's purest unadultered form - it tastes so much more delicious and makes me love food even more.

People argue that organic food is expensive:  Well, we find that it is cheaper for us to be vegan - meat, milk, bread and butter are so much more expensive these days to buy.  And plus, when you buy 'real food in it's natural form' you don't need as much to eat to fill you up.  So it really can be cheaper to be an organic vegan (and healthier) - eating lots of veges, grains, beans and lentils - using more herbs and spices, trying different dishes from different cultures, I love cooking now.  So much delicious food to make and enjoy.

Also, for those of you on the wheel of endless diets, perhaps one of the best things you should know about being a vegan is the incredible freedom you have - I never ever have to worry about what I eat or how much I eat because as a vegan, everything you eat or drink is good for you, and you still lose weight.  So how does that sound to you - fantastic right!  Then, why don't you try it for yourself, you might be very surprised. 

Oh by the way, I went back to the doctors again after just 6 months of being a vegan, and my blood pressure had come down to 130/90 from a terrifying 180/110 from 6 months ago, which is brilliant.  And did you know that Bill Clinton is a vegan?  It's the best diet to follow if you've got any heart problems.

So there you go, my journey to being a vegan. Peace x