A joyful appetite for life
By Elva Carri
Susan Jane White is the vibrant author of free-from food Bible, ‘The Extra Virgin Cookbook’. Now on its third print run, her book sold more copies in six weeks than celebrity chefs in Ireland’s cookbooks have sold in six years. She seems to be a woman aglow with a delightfully realistic brand of happiness. She arrives beaming and with her fingers crossed that they’ll have Dublin Kombucha inside. They don’t but she seems equally pleased to settle in with a cup of Earl Grey.
Changing your diet isn’t just about what your eat
Changing your diet isn’t so much physical as it is an emotional or mental change. It took me a long time to get over the price of health food. I was still comparing the price to that of a bottle of wine for a long time. I think you need to see it as nourishment and investment. Starting is the most difficult point because you don’t have the benefits to spur you on but once you’re on that road, theres no stopping you. I should have been in my prime in my twenties and I have so much more energy now. Prepare for it, reward yourself, and be kind to yourself, I think that’s important. If you’re not going to be kind to yourself no one else will. You’re the one who has to live in your body, so you’ve got to treat it right.
Enjoy preparing for the week ahead
If you can carve out even an hour on a Sunday evening, it’s really cathartic. On a Sunday evening, I’ll relax and think of what’s going on for the week and make stuff for the children, for me and my husband and I’ll have loads of stuff in the freezer. Creativity for me is being in the kitchen like a little alchemist, I love it. That’s what makes my blood race.
Staying inspired
Go on Instagram and follow healthy authors. (See below for Susan’s Instagram account and links to her favourites!) If you’re checking it every day and you’re looking at people who are on your vibe or the vibe you aspire to be on, it’s like a support network. You’re seeing these amazing photographs and thinking “Oh that looks amazing, I want to do that!” Go into accounts that you like and see who they’re following and you build up a network very quickly. And subscribe to health blogs, you don’t even have to look at them but it’s almost like a positive, constructive form of advertising in your inbox.
Tips for radiating positive energy
Here’s one that immediately pops to mind and gives me great satisfaction; sending love out in the world. I write letters of gratitude. If I’ve been somewhere and I see someone working really hard, it might be here and they’re covering all the tables and being really lovely, I write them a note and say thank you for looking after me. Or it might be someone I haven’t seen in a while or an author or someone on Instagram who’s work I think is amazing. I’ll find their address and handwrite them a letter.
Also bright clothes and red lipstick! Brightness is a big thing that radiates positive energy for sure.
Hugs, lots of hugs. And smiling, it costs nothing, smile at strangers. I find it’s almost rude if someone’s walking down the same road and you don’t smile. You have to acknowledge each other, right? And I don’t buy fashion magazines. I know it’s controversial because they write about me. I have to to be kind because they help me and they help spread the word. But fashion magazines make me feel inadequate. They show me things that I never knew about and suddenly I think I need and I don’t think they’re a positive force in my life. And seeing 13 years olds airbrushed, it’s just indecently depressing.
What is the glass half full of?
Kombucha! But only Dublin Kombucha!
The Extra Virgin Cookbook is available in bookstores around the country and Amazon.
Some Instagram accounts to follow, to help positively reinforce your healthy pilgrimage!
- You can find the lovely lady herself here
- The First Mess
- The Ghost On My Back
- Dagmar’s Kitchen
- Alkaline Sister
- _Nobo_
