I never understood the stress and chaos of planning a wedding until I had to plan mine. Between living and working in Dubai, managing work here and planning a wedding in Greece and coordinating with family and friends all over the world, things can get a bit challenging and overwhelming, to say the least!  

To be honest, my decision to start living a more plant-based lifestyle was definitely not an intentional one. It’s now been over 3-years that I’ve eliminated all meat, chicken and fish from my diet. In fact, it began when I decided to cleanse my body for 21-days post a very long summer holiday-as such, I had cut out all gluten, dairy, animal products and sugar for 3-weeks.

I came out of those weeks feeling the best I’ve ever felt about food and that’s when I decided to continue leading a vegan diet; it felt great for the first 5-6 months, but the reality is that I started getting anxious.

Eating disorders are on the rise all over the world especially among adolescents. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, up to 30 million people suffer from an eating disorder in the USA and worldwide that figure reaches about 70 million sufferers!

As an eating disorder specialist, it pains me to see eating disorders affecting girls as young as the age of nine. The sad news is most often what prompts an eating disorder to start is a DIET, a few unintentional comments from a loved one about the need to lose weight, or unhealthy comparisons of their body shape to friends and influencers on social media. Though this is the trigger at the surface, eating disorders are rarely about food or wanting to be thin instead it is a way to cope with unpleasant and overwhelming emotions and stressful situations.

The restaurant and food industry trends are constantly changing, with new products and dishes coming out all the time! As consumers, we are always on the lookout for new and trending dishes to satisfy our ever-changing palate taste. The prevailing trend for this decade has been for products that appeal to the more health-conscious consumer with a growing trend for more plant-based options. Here’s a few of the top restaurant food trends for 2019:

It’s been over three years since we ventured into the world of startups and entrepreneurship, and what a roller coaster it has been! A lot of hard work, many sleepless nights, challenges and many many more white hairs! Yet, with all that, there’s also been so much learning, growth both personally and professionally, new relationships and friendships fostered and many rewarding experiences.

We wanted to take the time to write a blog about the entrepreneurial world, and so we decided to ask a few questions to some of the most inspiring entrepreneurs we’ve had the pleasure to come into our lives, and help us with sharing their journey so here’s what they’ve had to say:  

Personal coaching, life coaching, and NLP coaching allows you to have a professional in your life who can help you when you feel most lost or alone, or when you’re feeling stuck and ready to level up.

NLP stands for:

Neuro – The Mind & How We Think

Linguistic – What We Say, the Language We Use & How it Affects Us

Programming – What We Do – How We run our Actions to Achieve our Goals 

It is a powerful and effective concept that allows you to have a better understanding of how you organize your thoughts and feelings, your language and communication and your actions and behaviors to produce the results they do, within the real world. Once you can harness this understanding, you’ll start seeing your life transform.

Nowadays eating out (or ordering in) is more popular than ever. Customers though are also becoming more health-conscious, and expectations of nutritional information being available on menus are becoming more and more prevalent. Diners expect to know what’s in their food and what options are available for people with dietary restriction such as gluten-free, vegan, dairy free etc.

With that being said, more and more restaurants are turning to in-house or consultant dietitians and nutritionists to assist them.

Take a moment for yourself.

And as you gently close your eyes, allow yourself to take a deep breath in through your nose and then exhale gently through your mouth, just for this moment – clear your mind

And then, I would like to ask you to complete these sentences with ONE word each:

2018 was a year of ________________________________________________!

2019 is a year of __________________________________________________!

And now, gently open your eyes and embrace how 2018 was and all the learnings that came with it, and how 2019 will be for you!  

As we ran a mini poll between family and friends, it was beautiful to see how the past year has been for a lot of us, and how we aim to channel our energy to welcome the new year! Here are some of the answers we got:

With the year coming to an end, December is a month that is filled with joyous celebrations and festivities around good food, good friends and loved ones!

It is also however common to pack on a bit of weight during this time, and so why not have things differently this time around and manage your expectations around health and feasting and enjoy this season, by staying healthy, eating well and staying active!

Here are 5-tips to encourage you to keep things in check, while enjoying the holiday cheer: