Cinnamon Heart : September 2015

Does anyone have a product, that kindof changed their life? I'm no great believer in super foods, or miracle cures and diets. But I do have one product that really changed my eating, or in this case drinking habit. It is matcha green tea. In case you have never heard of matcha, it is a powdered green tea leaf. So instead of steeping the green tea leaves in hot water, and just drawing out the anti-oxidants, you are actually ingesting the entire life and all of it's benefits. 1 cup of matcha has as much antioxidants as 10 cups of regular green tea! So good for you! For me, it helped me to stop drinking energy drinks. I used to drink them, a looooot. Like in college I would just drink three energy drinks a day, instead of eating. Can you believe that? I was prone to migraines if I didn't drink one, I would get the shakes if I didn't drink at least one a day, I was 100% a energy drink addict. After college I did slow down a bit, but I still heavily relied on them, my last job I would be presenting in schools all day and I felt like I couldn't get through a day without at least one energy drink, and this was a serious problem. I started to really think about energy drinks, what's in them? I know it's a lot of caffeine, but to be honest that was the least of my worries. I was more concerned about the sugar and the chemicals in them. What were they doing to my teeth, my stomach, my brain??

I realized that I wanted to stop drinking energy drinks, and I needed something to replace them. I'm not a huge coffee drinker, and when I am it needs lots of sugar to make it palatable, again not great for you. So I started reading up on matcha and I loved everything I read. At first I tried blending it into a smoothie, which was ok, but I didn't feel like that was the best way to drink it. Then I discovered the matcha latte. I heat of half my mug of cashew milk, put in one teaspoon of matcha, no sugar, and whip with a hand held frother until it is really thoroughly mixed (other wise it will taste powdery) and then add hot water and mix again briefly. Keep in mind, this is not how people in Japan drink it, there is much more structure and ceremony to how they drink their matcha, they hand mix it with a wooden whisk and it's very different. You could totally do that your self, they sell tea bowls and whisks at tea places like Teavana but you could also check your local Asian market, like T&T. To learn more about the traditional way of drinking matcha, you can watch this video or read this article, and there is a lot more resources out there.

Now, this is where the matcha changed my life. If I had just one matcha latte in the morning, I had energy all day. I never felt like I needed an energy drink. I had steady energy all day while I was at work, and if I was feeling tired when I got home around 4pm, I would have another. There is nothing bad for me in this. No sugar, no chemicals, just nut milk, water and pure matcha. I couldn't believe that tea, just green tea, could be the thing that got me off energy drinks but it did. Do I still have the occasional energy drink? Yes, but maybe 1 every couple months because I miss it, or I didn't drink green tea and didn't sleep well and I'm desperate. I hardly ever get migraines any more, and I feel so much happier to not rely on an energy drink to get me through the day.

Matcha doesn't have to be expensive, when I bought it at teavana it was over 30 dollars! I couldn't believe it. So I asked my aunt who besides having a PhD in Japanese Literature also lived in Japan for over 10 years, and she said that was a ridiculous amount to pay, so I just buy a thing of it at my local Asian market for 6 bucks. An awesome deal and 100 times cheaper than buying energy drinks.

I'm not saying that matcha is going to change your life, even though it did for me. But whether you need to get off energy drinks, want to boost your metabolism, or lose weight, or maybe you just really like green tea, try it. It is so good for you, drinking it can only help you.

To learn more about Matcha Tea check out this website: http://matchasource.com/health-benefits-of-matcha-tea/, yes they do want you to buy matcha, no I don't buy from them, they just lay out the information really clearly.

Cinnamon

insta: @cinnamonheartvegan

twitter: @cinnamonheartv

Well, I pulled a typical me and didn't post for a couple months, but I kindof had a good reason. I had to return home to Hornby Island to take care of my Uncle and Grandma who were both very sick. My uncle is still sick, but now on medication and getting better. But I spent half of July and all of August on Hornby looking after them and their garden. Now I'm not going to lie to anyone, I wasn't vegan while I was there, I was vegetarian. It is a very small island (less than a thousand people) and vegan options aren't great, and none of my family really knows how to cook vegan food and it would have just been one giant stress on them too try and accommodate one more thing when we were already so busy and stressed out. I know a lot of people won't understand why I had to go vegetarian but I know that it was the best choice at the time, and made life easier for my family which is exactly why I was there in the first place. But now I am glad I am back home, and can return to a fully plant based lifestyle.

So what exactly did I do? Well I did a lot of stuff, I cleaned because we thought there was black mold in their heritage home, I picked and picked and picked in the garden. Beans, squash, potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes.... you name it and my grandma is growing it. She has a huge garden every year, but she fractured her back at the beginning of summer and was unable to care for it anymore. I cooked for them, which was a challenge as their are omnivores and my meat cooking abilities are limited at best. I learned how to can things, peaches, tomatoes, and to make jelly. I picked plums, and pears, helped with construction clean up, and was pretty much a general labourer haha. I also did get to see some of my childhood friends and hang out which was great too.

I am so glad I went, not just because I wanted to help my family get better, but because I hadn't got to spend so much time with my family since I moved off when I was 17. I learned all the gardening things I never learned when I was a kid. My aunt, who was also there helping, realized we didn't learn nearly as much as we could, or should have when we were younger, and I was so glad for that opportunity now.

I am about to start a new job, a government internship, so who knows how much I will be able to post, but for now I will share some photos from my time on Hornby, you can check out more on my instagram @cinnamonheartvegan.