Brighton rocks ! Nia and amazing raw food

So the hottest day of the year so far saw me in Brighton, I love that place. I spent the day at a Nia dance fiesta (more about Nia to come in Look great naturally - without ditching the lipstick - my new book out in June) but still got my fix of walking by the sea. We found a great coffee place on the beach and did some celeb spotting in the form of Patsy Palmer (and no we didn't shout Bianca!)

After a day of totally joyful energising movement I hotfooted it over to Aloka, the absolute best restaurant in Brighton - well my new best freind anyway. Thats an incredible accolade cos tha town is awash with great restaurants, at least two fabulous veggie places. Pretty much opposite one of the best Terre a Terre is Aloka at 14 East street. Now at first glance it looks like a spa or beauty salon and indeed it is a 'quality of life' centre, with 5 floors of 'soil to soul' nourishment, theres yoga on offer, an art gallery, they offer the Aura-soma colour therapy and best of all on the ground floor theres a veggie cafe and level one has a full blown raw food restaurant. Man alive its good ! I had a beetroot gaspachio with parsley oil and cashew cream. A fabulous Spanokapita (lousy spelling but you know what I mean the raw version of filo pastry with spinach etc and of course in a raw food restaurant you have to try the desserts. I had the most divine citrus 'cheesecake' with lime sorbet. Don't forget these terms describe the look of the food but its one hundred per cent raw and vegan. Unreal. They don't publish the prices on the menu which for me was very stressful - but I needen't have worried it was £20 for 3 course, brilliant value.

They also do some great organic and biodynamic wines.

Can't wait to go back, I see Jessica Fenton (raw food expert) is hostng some raw food dinner parties there, including a raw chocoholics party...ooh could be making it for that one !

check them out - www.aloka.auro-soma.net 01273 823178
Tell them I recommended you !

Janey at Vitality show

What a rocking show, sadly I was there only for my talk and then a fleeting look around but great to see more natural companies represented, had a chat with the lovely Sue from Mooncup, Phoneshield were there and they gave me a smashing little world cup protective thingy for the kids computer. Jason cosmetics were there and some amazing foodie treat companies, also Thermomix were demonstrating so I grabbed some fab home-made broccoli soup before my talk, odd at 10.30 but hey ho. Anyways if you missed me I gave some fab diy skincare tips and suggested everyone carries a little bottle of olive oil, its great as a cleanser, you can remove eye make-up too, its good for moisturising, great for wounds and even zits, no idea why I still get those since I'm over 21 (moi ?) but there you go, I also recommended coconut oil of course, see my chapter on Coconut oil in Imperfectly Natural Woman. it was nice that there were lots of Steve Wright in the afternoon listeners in the audience too. Of course my new publishers Hay House were at the show and I squeezed in a little plug for my new book out in June, Look great naturally - without ditching the lipstick, someone asked in one sentence what is it about - thats easy - You can be 100 per cent natural, yet still glam and gorgeous - oh and you are already beautiful. Most of us need a bit of reminding on that fact, a recent survey revealed that only 2 per cent of women think of themselves as beautiful, shame on us ! I'm reading a lovely Hay House book at the moment, The art of extreme self care by Cheryl Richardson, she reminds us that Louise Hay says we must look in the mirror and say I love you....(insert your name) Crikey off to try it now, if you hear the sound of glass cracking......

Happy birthday me !.....and Bowen rocks !!!

Happy birthday to me, I was asked to write the foreword for a new book by Lyndsey Agnes called 25 inside...I only need to write two words - Thats me ! actually some days more like 18 (give or take the odd day when I feel like The Old Woman on Steve Wrights show (and no we are not one and the same person - wish I had a quid for everytime someone asked if she is 'real' or if its me !)

Anyways a fantastic happy birthday email arrived from a woman I met when I did the Tortue rouge organic perfume making course in France (which reminds me gonna go and spritz some of my 'signiature' scent.....anyway she has horrendous back pain. Bossy old me nagged her the whole weekend about having a Bowen treatment, I sent her details of Fiona Meekes in Richmond and Jo Lunn in London (who also offer training) but of course she was sceptical....today got this email.....

Hi Janey,

Without wanting to sound totally melodramatic, I really don't know how
to ever thank you enough for introducing me to Bowen. I have to admit I was initially a bit sceptical but I can honestly say that the treatment has completely changed my life.

I've been waiting to write to you but I wanted to wait until I'd had
my 3 treatments to make sure it wasn't a false alarm. Now I've had
them and the almost total eradication of my back pain and sciatica has
been so remarkable I simply can't believe that the technique is not
more widely known and applied. Within 48 hrs of the first treatment I felt like a totally different person - bolt upright and aligned for the first time in 20 years!! I have never experienced such a marked difference in the way I feel
internally, structurally, with any other type of therapy. It's simply
mind-boggling how something that seems so gentle can have such a
dramatic effect on the body.

My therapist, Sarah Yearsley, said she met you and chatted to you once
at a conference and that you are a real advocate for the cause! I feel
the same now and have been telling anyone who'll listen - I even went
up to a complete stranger on the bus the other day who was clutching
his back and walking just like I was 6 weeks ago and told him all
about it!
I just wanted to write and tell you how grateful I am because this time 2 mths ago I was seriously low and thought that I would just have to accept having back pain forever. To think that I may have found a way to be free of it is just amazing.
Thank you so much

Isn't that great !!!!!
Over the years I've had hundreds of these kinds of letters, its nowt to do with me
Bowen rocks ! See my article from my first book Imperfectly Natural Woman - http://bit.ly/bowenbyjaney

I'll be at the bowen conference too so any therapists come and say hi.
If anyone is reading this straight after the last blog about eft you probably think I'm 'miraculous therapy mad' - just so happens that some things really do seem miraculous. Off to spray my birthday perfume.....

Tapping away EFT styley...a convert

Janey does level one EFT ....'a sceptic is converted'

I'll come out and admit that although I am queen of reccomendations on alternative therapies and holistic treatments I don't personally 'buy' them all, thats not to say that I don't beleive they can work but I suppose I figure some just don't suit me. When it comes to EFT emotional freedom technique I've known about it for years, I expereinced it a few times but only in conjunction with another treatment so my assumption was that it was the Shamanic healing that was working (I saw the incredible Dawn Paul www.liberate-online.co.uk ) and I have worked the excellent Linda Thursby of Bodytalk but again assumed it was her intuitive knowledge and massage etc that did the trick. Peter Donn of www.london-eft.co.uk is an eft consultant and trainer and uses only eft (well I say only!) but has amazing results with his clients.

This was a one day AAMET accredited workshop level 1 and we started by understanding the background of eft and how its works. Basically it was developed by a counsellor Gary Craig who was looking for a way to help people in emotional distress to process their feelings, he had trained in Thought Field Therapy but EFT simplifies that process. It works (if I've got the drift !) because energy flows through our bodies along meridians that connect to each other and to our organs resembling an electrical circuit, when we're under stress of any sort, physical or emotional then that energy meridian can become blocked or even shut down, Peter used then analogy of a battery being inserted the wrong way, the radio simply doesn't get power ! Its thought that the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the bodys energy system, and if we can clear the blockage, energy can flow once more. EFT has amazing results with trauma, allergies, fears, anxieties, anger, healing relationships, addictions and can be used to help you achieve your goals.

Sound a bit to good t be true ? Well yes, I thought it was all a bit far fetched until I was randomly selected to be the 'demo client' I picked an old 'trauma' an incident from my childhood, but didn't want to reveal it as it was too personal, we simply called it 'Being five' he tapped away on my forehead, under my eye, above my lip etc and repeated 'being five' after each series of tappings he asked me to rate the intensity of the emotion or sensation and rate it 1 to 5 (I'd given it a 10 to start with) bizarrely after each series of tappings the intensity came down and I gave it lower numbers but figured hey ho thats just him 'calming me down' but here's the interesting bit, what I hadn't said is that the incident was only one in a chain of incidents which all make up a pretty serious phobia - sorry to be so secretive - but interestingly it didn't seem to matter that i wouldn't share the story, Peter asked what other emotion I might be feeling and within a few minutes he'd uncovered other emotions that he 'tapped on' When he asked me to rate the intensity of feeling about the initial incident it had gone down to 0, he asked me to rate the bigger issue - phobia -that had gone down to about 2 ! Now 2 days on - I'm still feeling quite calm about this issue which usually I can't even think about for one second - a confusing testimonial but powerful nevertheless.

Even more revealing for me was when working with a partner on her issue, she had an eating disorder which she'd had from childhood, after only a few minutes her panic about food changed and she suddenly admitted she'd felt loneliness as a child, so perhaps unconsiously she'd chosen to be 'left out' of mealtimes and social situations around food. After only 10 minutes we had 'tapped this out' and she was shocked and amazed to find that she felt hungry and felt she could eat in a social situation - something she hadn't done for 20 years !

EFT is powerful, I left the one day course feeling totally inspired and motivated with a whole host of skills and tools to use in everyday life, come on down to my fan page on facebook by the way, http://bit.ly/janeyfans some lovely posts there on eft, including one from Barry who intends to tap away his hatred for DIY - he later said its OK its stands for Don't involve yourself ! On a serious note though this works on children and you even tap on behal of someone else - surrogate tapping.
For goodness sake don't tell Wrighty - he'll be accusing me of secretive tapping !
Theres loads of free info at www.emofree.com
and if you fancy doing the course I can't recommend this highly enough, Peter offers consultations in Herts and London.
www.london-eft.co.uk
email peter@donn.biz
To find someone close to you go to www.aamet.org

A finger in the ear..Janey Lee Grace at the folk awards

...but folk music is seriously hip now, and there really is none of that cliched finger in the ear thing, even the traditional folkies are in the loop. It was a great event, celebs poppng up to present awards included Kevin Whateley, Zoe Wannamaker and Greg Wise. it was also fanastic to meet Nanci Griffith who played and also graciously accepted a Lifetime achievment award.
folk singer of the year was Jon Boden and the best group was Lau. Best live act winner was Bellowhead and man alive are they good ! Its the perfect event for me, I've got such a low boredom threshold that one or two numbers from each band works great !

its broadcast on Radio 2 on wed eve so enjoy.

Thats it for burning the candle at both ends for a while, I'm still editing my next book, quite frustrating that its not out till June but in the meantime my diary is clocking up some events so check out the website and I'm writing for Get fresh magazine and lots of others, also desperately trying to get to grips with facebook in my old age so please join my fan page http://bit.ly/janeyleegrace

later...
x

Happy new year

Its been a very relaxing couple of weeks, well by my standards - as relaxing as Christmas at home with 4 kids can be ! I've been for long walks wearing wellies, we have some gorgeous fields nearby which looked so beautiful in deep snow.

The kids went sledging about 3 days in a row and the little ones built a huge snowman who incredibly is still just about there, his frozen scarf and hat protected him from the big thaw !

As for my wellbeing, I've let everything slip in truth, eaten far too much nonsense and drank coffee and alcohol so once again I'm very grateful that I chose my 'imperfectly natural' moniker otherwise I could never justify my naughty behaviour.

Determined to get back on track though, I do find it hard to eat high percentage raw food in winter but if you plan ahead theres really no excuse for not eating healthy nutritious stuff, I've just whizzed up a raw soup in the blender and it took literally minutes so I can't keep kidding myself I don't have time either.

Of course the new regime will have to start from next week cos I'm off to eat far too much gorgeous food in St Ives, I've been kicking off the new year with a trip to my beloved Cornwall for as long as I can remember, if I don't make it there something doesn't feel quite right. I have high hopes for bright sunny days ! If you're by the beach I'll be the imperfect one in the surfers cafe near the Tate gallery huddled over a cappucino...I'll be reading Get Fresh or Lifescape magazine, preparing for all the raw recipes I'm going to make.

By the way I'm thrilled to be featured in the official Visit Cornwall magazine, talking about my passion for the place and listing some of my recommendations, they've only included a tiny sample sadly, I had given a nice plug to Purenuffstuff, and several other small cornish co's but at least they left in my plug for Inlight and Trevarno for skincare, Frugi and Seasalt for clothing and the excellent New Yard restaurant at Trelowarren. They included a pic of me on the beach at Kynance on the Lizard, looking rather windswept with Lulu in a sling, she must have been about 6 months old, shes now 4 which really reminds me I must take some new pics !

Happy new year and may it bring you all you wish for !

A magical snowy outing

Our second family visit to Lapland UK - what a magical gorgeous day. Just like being in Lapland with husky dogs, reindeer, father Christmas in his log cabin, but without the carbon footprint. Even though I'm quite grown up enough to know that I hadn't actually taken a flight to Lapland I did feel really estactic see-ing the snowy glades and skating with my kids.

Rocky and Lulu aged 6 and 4 were off the scale excited, we were met by Eco Elf (very pc !) who taught us a song about looking after our world and then led by some very talented elves to help make toys in the workshop, after that the kids decorated their own gingerbread men and had a story from Mother Christmas - question from 9 year old by the way, is that Santa's mother or wife ????

We posted a postcard to grandma from the north pole' post office and had fantastic hot food in the log cabin restaurant, We were really lucky cos the rain held off (the older boys were concerned as to what might happen to the 'snow' if it really did rain ) and we went ice skating with profressional skating elves. Of course the big moment was being led down the snowy glade to visit the great man himself. Magically he seemed to know all about the kids, their freinds, interests and their pressie list and he gave them each a special gift.

We bought a copy of our family photo with Santa and a few trinkets and went and heard a story from one of the Sami people (they dress up in gorgeous blue kit with furry hats and boots) and made our way home as darkness started to fall and the lights started to twinkle. I can't recommend it highly enough if you've got young kids, a great bonus too is that you don't need to do another ice skating trip or a town centre Father Christmas - they've seen the real one after all.

All change for the evening, kids firmly installed in bed and we went to a Burlesque and Feathers party courtesty of Jason Vale at his new Juicy towers juicemaster pad, never seen so many basques outside a sex shop, and yes I did don the kit but no I have no pics, you'll have to settle for the Lapland pics where I was fully clothed.