I remember asking a personal development friend of mine recently why he seemed to avoid the one topic of food. He covered almost everything else: meditation; purpose; movement; sleep; positive psychology; values; alignment – all amazing topics from which I personally gained so much. But the topic of food and what we eat was conspicuous by its omission.
I think I get why my friend stayed away from teaching about food and eating. It is a difficult topic. There has been so much written already. There are so many opinions. There are so many diets. How can one teach others about this without dividing people, without raising more questions than answers, and generally not contributing anything helpful or new?
However, as I look around at the culture I live within I wonder if this is the thing that could have the biggest impact on improving the way we live. The obvious candidate for improvement is our collective weight, but I think there could be more subtle improvements in areas like mental health, sustained energy levels, happiness with our own self, the capacity we have for being present in each moment, and our ability to create and contribute our best work.
For me the top five things that have led me to living with the health and energy I now experience are sleeping well, meditating daily, lower my stress levels, being open and vulnerable with people, and eating well. I find it hard to separate these five, and they all impact and feedback on each other. But I think that eating well is pretty close to being #1.
And as I have started to understand some general principles about food and nutrition and to experiment with my personal requirements, my body shape has changed, I have stable energy levels throughout the day, and I feel more able to give of myself to the people I interact with. Eating poorly on a consistent basis is no longer an option for me – the circumstances of my life require me to be mindful about what I eat. If I don’t, I can’t show up in each moment the way I want to and need to.
It was this desire to find something of quality to eat when walking hungrily around the city one day, that led me to Seedling Cafe where this week’s guest is the chef and co-owner. Georgia Clarke-Edwards is all about the food, and Seedling cafe is one of a few emerging eateries in Melbourne that is putting the wellbeing of those who eat their at the forefront of what they put on the menu.
And while food and eating is the focus of our conversation, Georgia also shares her own journey of fad diets and unhelpful beliefs about her own worthiness, to 30-day cold-shower challenges, practising daily gratitude, and her dream of being part of the disruption of our education system.
Georgia is great to talk with, makes an awesome Turmeric bullet-proof, and has some great insights into how each of us can get the best out of ourselves in small, incremental ways. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Here are some other great, healthy Melbourne eateries:
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Really wish we had similar type cafes out on the fringes of Melbourne. We prefer to eat at home. Love Georgia’s passion for what she is creating. Thank you both for sharing your conversation.