Raw Choc-Mint Mousse Cake

This is one of those moments where I just want to throw on my onesie, chuck my hair up into a messy pony and dive face first into chocolate. But I don’t want the guilt nor the roller coaster highs and lows that normally follow after a dessert so what’s a girl to do?

Enter this beauty….

Completely raw, completely guilt free and completely yummy!!

Courtesy of my friend Marie, lets bow our heads together and give thanks to this young lady for bringing such joy into our lives…. And then lets eat!

For the crust

1.5 cup almonds (or mix of ur favourite nuts)
1 cup medjool dates pitted
1/4 cup cacao powder
1 tsp vanilla powder
1 pinch salt

For the filling

2.5 cups almond milk (can use rice or oat milk)
3/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 cup medjool dates pitted
1/3 cup raw honey or or agave syrup
1 cup cashews soaked 2 hours (optional)
1/2 tsp mint essence
1/2 cup raw cacao powder
2 tsp vanilla powder
2 Tbs agar agar
2 pinches salt

What to do:

Crust

Place dry ingredients in food processor and plend til roughly chopped. Leave processor on and feed through dates. Process til finely chopped. Firmly press into spring form tin and place in fridge to set.

For Filling

Place wet ingredients first then everything else into high speed blender and blend until smooth. Pour filling over crust and place back in fridge to set overnight. When set garnish with mint leaves and cacao nibs if desired.

Can substitute mint essence for orange essence.

Enjoy Pecans! And send me a slice yeah???

Not alone

So now I have a Labrador I consider myself part of the Secret Labrador Society. We all give each other that special wave and that head nod when we pass on our walks and we share tips on how to stop our pups from eating our shoes. We almost seek each other out and take comfort in having a similar interest.

Much the same can be said for my current sugar free self. I spend my evenings online looking at other blogs and Facebook pages that promote a sugar free lifestyle, desperately reassuring myself that my current headache and lethargy is worth it.

I have a rotten cold which I am convinced is half due to Perth’s arctic conditions and the other half due to the fact I can’t snuggle up in bed with a cheesecake to keep warm. Regardless of what’s causing it I remain determined to see this through. The fact alone that I can feel this way simply from cutting something from my diet is reason enough to prove it was never good for me in the first place.

Aside from the above the main struggle for me so far is a lack of variety and fruit. It’s so easy to whip up a nutritious smoothie or fresh juice or make a huge salad with a dash of lemon juice with pieces of mango in. Homemade raw balls call for dates and I’d do some questionable things for a banana pancake right now. But the last thing I want to do is replace my current sugar addiction with an overkill of fruit so I stand true to my word of no sugar at all for the 6 weeks.

And I believe this will pay off for me in the long run and my taste buds will thank me for it. A whole new appreciation for things such as fruit or raw honey are not too far away and I anticipate the processed stuff is not going to have quite the same ring to it anymore…

But above all I am looking forward to being proud of myself for doing this and excited to show people that anyone can do it. You can rid yourself of sugar’s hold and putting in the hard miles, just for a little bit, is truly worth it.

I read an interesting quote the other day that said “If you’re interested, you’ll do what’s convenient. If you’re committed, you’ll do whatever it takes.”

These words couldn’t be closer to the message I hope to give to people. I don’t want to talk about healthy whole-food dishes only to eat a magnum at the weekend. And I don’t want to discuss the importance of making time for yourself only to be going 100 miles an hour myself. I appreciate I can never be perfect but I can strive to be better.

I want to live and breath what I say to others and be about it, not just talk about it.

There’s a reason you go to a hairdresser for your haircut or a riding school for your horse riding lesson. These people ARE THEIR PASSION and I inspire to be my own and in doing so, perhaps inspire you a little bit too…

Men are from Mars…

There was a time not too long ago where for me being skinny would have been at the top of my wish list. And as shallow as that sounds I can bet that 99% of females have had the same thought.

The runway is full of stick thin girls and horror stories of models surviving on an apple and coke diet grace the pages of magazines. I can only think of a handful of girls that have gone into the social scene that is Hollywood and come out the same size they were when they went in.

We should all work hard to achieve what we want in life, whether that be a great body or change of career or lifestyle in general but when does it reach the point of being too much? When do we cross that line between doable and dangerous? When do we start doing things not because they are what’s good for us as the individual but because we think it’s what other people will like more?

I love the saying “Men are from mars, women are from venus.” It wasn’t until I started to get a bit older that I started to appreciate what this saying actually meant. For example now I know that when I write a long message to a guy and he simply puts “ok” it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t like or want to talk to me, it’s just that he’s more likely engrossed in the footy game he has on with his hands down his pants. Or if I need a good cry I don’t go to my boy bestie because he’ll get weirded out and start making inappropriate jokes about my “hot” Mum to ease the situation. Accepting that men is different is just a part of life.

But much the same as they don’t think as emotionally as us or with their hearts, it would seem they also tend to differ from us on our opinion of the “perfect body” and our perception of what guys think is attractive is actually not the case for a large majority of them.

I asked the males in my Facebook friends list what their opinion of the perfect female body was, giving the options of thin, curvy and athletic.

The results were as follows:

Thin 0%
Curvy 78.5%
Athletic 21.5%

Now isn’t that funny. It would seem that although we as females tend to be right (most of the time, c’mon guys!) the boys have got something right here for a change.

Whilst I understand that some people are genetically very thin regardless of what they eat, a lot of what we see in the media is not natural and therefore not achievable at a safe level. The bodies I’ve seen and heard of friends and young girls trying to achieve just isn’t feasible yet we still beat ourselves up when we haven’t accomplished it.

I’ve battled with body image like a lot of us out there and I can honestly say that the one of the worst times for me has been when I’ve strived to achieve a body shape that isn’t practical for me physically, emotionally or mentally.

Yes I want to be the best version of myself but not at a cost to my happiness or more importantly, my wellbeing. So now it’s about eating more of the right things and working out because I enjoy it and it’s what leaves me feeling my best. I don’t under eat as a quick fix or stare longingly at size 0 models desperately hoping that one day I’ll be able to run in a bikini and have nothing that wobbles apart from boobs. I do what’s right for me and accept that however I turn out, whatever clothes size my body slips into, that will be what the big man upstairs intended.

Much like my thin friends who can eat and eat what they like and remain tiny, I shall land on whatever size I am to be as me. Not as a result of a crazy starvation diet but of a realistic, sensible and healthy approach to living a lifestyle that suits me and my needs.

It’s common sense. We have one life and if we do it well then that’s all we need. A mars bar will only make you happy for a second and starving yourself will leave you miserable for hours so realise that there is no logic to either and approach it from a different angle.

Real foods, heart pounding exercise and big laughs. That’s the stuff right there 🙂

Who are we to judge?

I think unfortunately it’s in our nature to judge. As a species we are so competitive and constantly strive to be better and there is nothing wrong with that. But does being our best self make as any better than the person next to us? Does eating a sugar free diet make us better than our friend who starts her day off with a croissant and jam? Or does the fact that we run 5 kilometres every day make us better than the stranger we travel past doing a fast walk?

The answer is no.

Being a truly wonderful version of you is not all based on a rocking body that you feel confident in and an attitude to match – it goes so much deeper than that. You aren’t better than someone simply because you have worked for a body you’re proud of or because you haven’t eaten a carbohydrate in 2 years. And your idea of a happy weight or way to eat is more than likely going to be completely different to at least 90% of the rest of the population so why waste your breath judging others around you just because they don’t believe in what you do?

Be proud of what you have achieved and the journey you have taken. Share it with others and be excited that you have found yourself! But beware the fine line of sharing and preaching…

I like to remind myself sometimes that if I could eat ice cream covered with marshmallows and toffee sauce and chocolate sprinkles and caramel wafers…caramel…caramel…caramel………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..where was I? Oh right ice cream! So I like to ask myself, if I could eat ice cream with let’s say (to be on the safe side) a variety of delightful toppings for each meal for the rest of my life and not work out and have the body of a Victoria’s Secret Angel then would I? Uhhhh hell yeah! I mean who wouldn’t right? But the simple fact of the matter is that just won’t work for me and the harsh truth is i’d probably kill myself within a year or turn into a 99 flake. Oh and just so we’re clear I wouldn’t last longer than a day as a 99 flake as either i’d eat myself or the dog would so this is just not an option for me! The point is if we are really honest with ourselves, we would most likely choose the easy way if it were viable in helping us achieve our goals. Only it’s never that simple and if it were, well it wouldn’t be a journey now would it.

So instead we set our goals and we work hard for them, sometimes making sacrifices and doing things that we might not always want to do and yes I get it. I understand the frustration that can arise when you say no to the bread basket or no to that cocktail with your friends because it’s not going to help with your class tomorrow. I appreciate it can be difficult and seem a little unfair and so when we finally hit our goal we may somehow think we are ever so slightly inferior to everyone else. But step down from your pedestal and don’t judge because they’re on their third cosmopolitan of the night – it’s not their journey remember.

Instead be graceful and embrace their choices as you would hope for them to embrace yours because after all, what’s so special about everyone being the same??

Make your journey a positive one by letting go of any negativity and in doing so you’ll make it so much easier for yourself, I promise 🙂

I have butterflies!!

Eeeeeeeekkk so here it is! My very first blog post! I guess I’d probably best start off with why am I here, why This Pecan Princess?

For as long as I can remember I’ve felt a little bit inadequate, a little bit anxious and a little bit sensitive… I’ve made decisions based on what I don’t necessarily agree with or want to do but what I thought would eventually make me happy.

Then one day on a complete whim I thought, I’m going to move to Australia. I’m going to leave everything and everyone I’ve known for 25 years behind me and go and live over 8000 miles away. I mean why not right?

So after 8 months of planning and saving and boring everyone around me with monthly, weekly and daily count downs, I left. And life was never the same again. In fact it was the most awful it’s ever been for a time.

Do you know what happens when you have nothing and nobody familiar around you? When you don’t even recognise the street you are on and have no one to call and talk to about your day? You start to look at yourself long and hard and start over thinking things and it becomes very apparent (and very quickly too) if there is something you aren’t happy with. Because you literally have nothing else to do but to search within yourself. You aren’t going about your normal routine, rushing around and blocking out thoughts and feelings. For once you can actually hear the noise in your head and you can’t escape it! It’s a scary thing.

But it was the best thing to ever happen to me. It made me face what I had been hiding from for so long. All of these little niggling doubts about the types of people I should be having in my life or the food I was eating because I had been told it was good for me or the lifestyle I should live because that’s what you do when you’re an adult. I was at a cross roads and it was time to start making decisions based on what was best for me…

I started to be kinder to myself, working out because I enjoyed it and trying new forms of exercise which lead to making new friendships. Eating wholesome foods because they actually made me feel good and not because a new diet said I should eat them. I began to form friendships based on people who brought out the best in me and I them and I said goodbye to the people that brought me down instead of holding on to them for fear of feeling like a bitch.

And then one day it hit me – i’m happy! And it was all down to the simplest of changes, so simple in fact I can break it down into one sentence for you:

Treat your body and soul with kindness and happiness is yours for the taking.

That’s it! Just those 14 little words and yet it had taken me 25 years to figure it out.

So why it had taken me so long to realise where I was going wrong? It’s because the everyday noise and bullshit around me had prevented me from waking up to it sooner.

And so, This Pecan Princess was born!

My site is dedicated to promoting a healthy and balanced lifestyle that is maintainable by anyone and everyone. It doesn’t focus on a size or a shape and there is no right and wrong. I am not a personal trainer or a nutritionist and I don’t have a degree in psychology. What I am an expert in though is me. My thoughts, my feelings, my wellbeing and my happiness and if how I live my life can help or inspire even just one other person out there who is just as lost as I was, well then that makes me feel all giddy inside!

So welcome! This is the first of many posts to come, posts about wholesome foods, exercise, positivity, love, friendship and an overall healthy and happy lifestyle that leads to just one thing – your very best you 🙂