Vegan Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

Vegan Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

It's that time of the year again: Christmas baking! I wouldn't call myself a good cook and even less so a good baker, so I was happy to have Vic's support in making these vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free gingerbread men. Yep, you heard that correctly, these cookies are void of literally ANYTHING that might upset your stomach. Christmas is saved, people.

In my house we usually make fruit loaf, cinnamon-flavored-star-shaped-biscuits and lemon-butter-biscuits, all of which are filled with refined sugar, glutenous (is that a word?!) flour, eggs and butter. Before becoming the health freak that I am (cause let's face it, I am), I didn't mind and it was just kind of normal. But since two years I always make sure I come prepared to our Christmas get togethers by bringing my own batch of healthy cookies. I have 0 self discipline when it comes to saying no to food, so if I don't bring a healthy alternative and someone offers me a 'normal' cookie, there is no way I will say no to it. Ever.

My Search For The Perfect Diet

My Search For The Perfect Diet

This is a post I’ve been wanting to write for ages, so I’m really excited to finally share it with you today. I’ve been saying a lot laltey how I want to be more open with you guys, more transparent and to share my struggles with being healthy, so here it finally is. It’s a very personal and honest post about my search for the perfect diet and it will shed some light on the questions I get about what I eat.

So many people always ask: Are you vegan? Vegetarian? Pescetarian? Do you eat gluten? What about soy? Would you ever consider going full raw?

Let me say it first off: I don’t believe in labeling one’s diet. People nowadays have this need to categorize people and themselves according to their way of eating. I personally think this just causes unnecessary pressure and can lead to eating disorders or even orthorexia. And what works for you now, doesn’t necessarily work for you in a couple of years, so why confine yourself like that? I’m saying this because I had a time where I felt like I needed to associate myself with a certain type of eating. I felt like I needed to choose and to stick to it and that I wasn’t truly healthy if I wasn’t eating specifically raw, vegan, paleo, gluten free or any of the other diets out there. I only learnt over time that it is OK to be a bit of everything.

Do We Really Need To Detox?

Do We Really Need To Detox?

I love detoxing. And I'm not just saying that because I work for a detox company. In fact, I was a detox fan way before I joined the Fit 'n' Tasty gang.

Undeniably, there are many great benefits from giving your body a digestive rest. Modern medicine has proven that it is only in rest that our body begins a deep detoxification process, a process which is beyond just the daily elimination of waste matter. You can cleanse your body in many different ways: fasting aka abstaining from food for a few hours or days, drinking juices, taking herbal formulation and colon cleaning through colonics. These methods all allow the body to use energy that would normally be used to digest food to be diverted to detoxifying poisons stored in many areas of the body.

I've done many things in the name of detoxing in the past: 1 day cleanses up to 10 day cleanses, liver cleanses, herbal supplements and yes, even colonics.

Given that I have a chemical engineer who works for Nestle as a father , I've had to defend my seemingly "useless", "unnecessary" and "ridiculous" detox ordeals in the past. Fair to say I have done my research to convince them that no, I am not crazy, and yes, this actually works. Here's what I've learnt:

Products I Love: BWT Water Filter

Products I Love: BWT Water Filter

Water is a life-sustaining fluid that is essential to health, but if you're drinking straight out of the tap, it can undermine your health in the long run. Yes, tap water isn't always as clean as we might think - chlorine, fluorine compounds, hormones, pesticides and even trace amounts of prescription drugs. You would think this would all get filtered out before, right? At least that's what I used to think...Unfortunately this isn't always the case (the severity of this obviously depends on where you live and how good your city's water supply is). The good news is that you can move the odds in your favour - with the help of a water filter.

There are different types of water filtering options that can drastically improve the quality of your water. Under-the-counters and countertop filters are great because they receive very high marks for filtration, but obviously these are very pricy options that require installation and only make sense if you are living in one place permanently (which clearly isn't the case with me...). So for me the easiest and cheapest solution is a simple water filter.

Healthspotalk with Justine

Healthspotalk with Justine

I originally turned towards veganism for health reasons. It didn't really have anything to do with animal rights or the environmental impact; I was just thinking of my own health. But now, the more I educate myself on the matter, the more I begin to understand the profound impact a vegan diet and a vegan lifestyle can have on our planet. There are a million and one reasons why going vegan is the right choice from a moral and environmental perspective, and I'm starting open my eyes to these important matters. But about that in a later blog post..

Today I want to introduce you to Justine, a vegan blogger friend who doesn't only report about vegan food but also about cruelty-free fashion. Her mission is to show how fashionable vegan fashion can be; and hell she's doing a good job! When I scrolled through her feed for the first time I didn't even notice that all clothes are vegan. She's inspired me to start thinking about not only where my food comes from, but also where my clothes come from. I hope she will have the same impact on you guys!

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New Restaurant Find: Roots In Zurich

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New Restaurant Find: Roots In Zurich

Moving from Lausanne to Bern has brought it's many benefits. Not only am I 10 minutes away from a local Tibits, but I am just a short hour train ride away from Zurich. We in Switzerland are not very 'spoiled' when it comes to healthy eating options and Lausanne is right up there in terms of vegan-unfriendliness. The change in residency might not be the best for my wallet (read: I am taste testing every health hot spot in my way of destruction), but my taste buds are happy campers.

Before going to the Rhythm108 event at Balboa with Victoria, we had some serious catching up to do. We decided to grab a quick lunch at Roots, which opened a couple of months ago and has been getting lots of attention since. I'm happy to see such positive reactions towards a healthy, trendy restaurant; maybe it will encourage more of this type to pop up?

Almond And Cashew Yoghurt With Baobab

Almond And Cashew Yoghurt With Baobab

November means that days are getting even shorter and nights are getting even colder. Hello cold and flu season. If I think about it, everyone around me gets sick at least once or twice throughout the winter, not even mentioning the chronic-sniffers-and-caughers. And it seems to be accepted as completely normal, as part of winter. But it doesn't have to be like that! I haven't had a serious cold in suuuuuch a long time; and if I do, it disappears again with 1-3 days and doesn't stick around in the form of a feverish-flu for two weeks.

What's the answer? Prevention, baby! Prevention is the best way to stop those sore throats and coughs in their tracks - by keeping our immune systems nice and strong.


My New Workout Routine

My New Workout Routine

I hate uncertainty. I'm also a big sucker for to-do lists and love planning things meticulously. Especially when going to the gym, I hate walking in there without a real plan of what I'm doing. I think that's why I am such a big fan of Kayla's BBG guide, or any type of workout guide really.

Taking on a ‘mission’ like "I want to get fit" without a defined goal or a plan is the same as walking out of your front door and not knowing where you are heading. If you have no plan and no goal destination, how can you push yourself to achieve that goal? Goals allow us to succeed and success keeps us motivated.

I've been working out regularly aka approximately 6x a week for the last 3 years now and have always followed some sort of guide or self-made plan with semi-realistic goals (alright fine, I still can't do the splits, I still can't do 5 pull ups in a row and I still can't walk in a handstand, so the whole "achievable" part of my goal setting hasn't really worked out that well for me yet...).

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From Addict To Ironman - An Interview With Darren

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From Addict To Ironman - An Interview With Darren

This week's #healthspotalk is a bit of a different kind. I met Darren, the founder of Old Dawg Coaching during my stay at Phuket Cleanse. Remember the torturous lifeguard workout I told you about? Yep, that's with him. What about the 45min. intense HIIT the stairs workout? Also with him. In short: all the tough workouts are with Darren. During one of our pool workouts I gave Phil a quick smooch and was mercilessly punished with a minute of swimming while being pulled back by a rope (see pictures below). Learned my lesson there.

Darren is the definitely the right man for this job. Armed with a degree in kinesiology  (exercise physiology), five Ironman Triathlon finishes and his unstoppable desire to see you transform your obstacles into opportunities, he has a willpower and drive that is contagious and make you want to work that bit harder.

However, his greatest result wasn’t on an Ironman race course; but 14 years of sobriety. Yes, you read that correctly. Darren has a history of drug and alcohol abuse and has been sober since 14 years. It's his past that has made him go down the path he is on today; one that is utterly inspiring and eye-opening.

My First Marathon Experience

My First Marathon Experience

We did it, it's done. Finally checked off the bucket list, the thing I've been planning for so long (read about my marathon prep here). It took 4 long and strenuous hours and while during the race I was begging for the time to pass quickly, I look back at it now and feel like the whole day flew by way too fast.

On the morning of the race, I followed the exact same schedule that I did for my first half marathon. I made sure to eat a warming bowl of oatmeal (with banana, almond milk and raisins) exactly three hours before start time and to drink lots of water up until one hour before the race. The goal is to go to the bathroom right before the start of the race to make sure you are perfectly fueled and won't need to search for a loo during the run.

Training For My First Full Marathon

Training For My First Full Marathon

I can't believe my first marathon is less than one week away. I remember signing up just a couple of weeks ago; somehow that time flew by without me even noticing it and I don't quite feel 100% ready. But then again - I don't think I would ever feel ready to run 42.195 kilometers. At least I'll be running the race with Vic whom I ran my first half marathon with in April 2015 (we were inseparable the entire race and went through he finish line hand in hand). She decided straight after that race to sign up for the Lausanne Marathon this coming Sunday, but I politely opted out of her offer to join yet again. It was only about a month ago that I changed my mind and decided to do it after all. If not now, when ever am I going to do it, right?

Given my spontaneous sign up, I haven' really had a lot of time to train. Thank god I've been working out 5-6 x a week in some form or another for the last two years, otherwise this mission would be slightly suicidal.

Products I Love: Spiralps Spirulina Drinks

Products I Love: Spiralps Spirulina Drinks

My morning routine looks like this: oil pulling followed by a glass of apple cider vinegar, a wheatgrass shot, a vitamin B12 supplement and 8 tablets of spirulina. Needless to say it's quite an ordeal. 8 spirulina tablets? Who the heck came up with that? For whatever reason that I'm not aware of, it's apparently not possible to put a high enough dosage of spirulina into one pill.

That's why I got really excited when Frédéric Dubois and Yannick Lesbros, founders of the Swiss drink brand Spiralps, approached me to try their products. They produce organic spirulina drinks in a range of flavours to be consumed in form of a detox or simply as a healthy refreshment throughout the day. Bye bye chugging pill after pill, hello sipping on green juices to get my daily dose of spirulina. But why go through all this hassle to consume spirulina in the first place?

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