I have found a delicious recipe on the website of conscious food for you. Try it!

Blend all of the following ingredients in a blender or food processor:

2 Cans cooked chickpeas drained
5 Medium beetroots cooked, peeled and chopped into pieces (you can buy ready cooked beetroot but without vinegar!)
2 garlic cloves
Juice of ½ a lemon
2 tablespoons tahini
A generous glug of olive oil
Salt
Black pepper

Ready to serve with our crackers and dippers!

Please visit www.consciousfood.co.uk to buy healthy snack dippers for the beetroot hummus.

Ayurveda, a Sanskrit name which means “knowledge” or “science of life”, is the science of living in harmony with nature. Developed thousands of years ago the holistic systems helps to balance the body, mind and spirit with guidelines for diet, sleep, meditation, massage, oil baths, the use of herbs and yoga.
A core principle of Ayurveda is that the human body contains three bio-energies called doshas (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha).An imbalance of these doshas can lead to illness thus, maintaining or restoring the balance of the doshas is a fundamental purpose of Ayurvedic medicine. Incense is an essential element to keep the doshas balanced. The base, usually a mixture of tree bark powder, sandalwood and ground vegetable coal, is mixed with water to form a paste, rolled, dried and then immersed in a compound of aromatic oils. Ayurvedic preparation differs in that natural essential oils are added before rolling. The paste is made from the base compound of aromatic elements extracted from roots, bark, fruit, and resin, mixed with water and then the blend of essential oils is added. The mixture is rolled and left to dry.
Here some examples of commonly used Ayurvedic incense, including their effects.

Costen: Has a refreshing effect and lifts the spirit on a subtle level.
Jatamansi: Noted for its harmonising, sedative, and mental tuning properties.
Juniper: Is often used to cleanses the atmosphere and support cantering and meditation to uplift your spirit
Loban: Used in temples to create a devotional atmosphere. Purifies the consciousness and calms the mind.
Myrrh: Helps to free repressed emotions to increase powers of concentration.
Sambrani:Often used in Indian temples and spiritual ceremonies. It induces serenity, removes negative thoughts and helps to calm the nervous system.
Triphala: One of the best-known and most important Ayurvedic preparations, with a harmonising effect on the three doshas.
Well known and often used as an ingredient is Ginseng. Its physical structure is the crucial factor therefore. It is believed that it can bring balance and well being to the whole body. Indeed if the plant appears like a hand, then it would have the ability to heal the hands. You should give it a try…

Maintaining strict discipline with your workouts or exercises costs you more energy than a 100m sprint. Doing the exercise you love makes the whole experience more enjoyable. There are many exercises and activities that can help you to achieve your target weight. Besides Yoga and Pilates you should also do other sports to boost your heart rate. Sports like basketball, tennis, football and many others will burn calories while you have fun with friends or family. Doing Sports together really is an effective way to lose weight, have fun and engage in some sporting ambition at the same time- especially once you see the results! When you want to spend some time alone you enjoy nature and the outdoors. Running, cycling or swimming are the most popular outdoor sports that can burn lots of calories. Especially swimming where the antagonism of the water is like additional load that helps you burn about 3 calories a mile per pound of bodyweight. Plus it is gentle on your joints.

Power Snacks are a new range of delicious healthy Indian snacks from Conscious Food that are wheat, dairy and gluten free and made from grains including millet and rice, nuts and spices. Power Sacks are available in five savoury and six sweet snacks, sourcing ingredients from small organic farms and farming communities. The snacks are specially handcrafted using traditional family recipes that have been given an healthy twist.  Just pure, unrefined, natural ingredients handmade in small batches with care and love. These guilt -free munchies are truly perfect for when you’re on the move or just feeling hungry.

www.consciousfood.co.uk

Kirsty Norton is a very experienced yoga teacher in London. Her classes are fun, nurturing, strengthening, toning and detoxifying, you’ll walk out feeling renewed. Here are some yoga tips from Kirsty:

Finding your strength
If you are feeling you need to find some inner strength practice standing poses like the Warrior, Triangle, Yogic squats, they help you to find your feet so you can stand strong in the time of change.  They build up your internal heat so when the pose gets strong imagine there’s a fire inside and you are throwing all that ‘rubbish’ onto it.

Headaches
If all that thought and stress is getting to you and giving you headaches then try doing forward bends and reclining asanas like shoulderstand.  They soothe your head and release tension from your neck and jaw.  Also try blowing out through your lips to create a blubbering sound or keep your lips closed and blow into your cheeks, hold for 3 seconds and then release.  Probably not one to do in front of your colleagues but it works so give it a go!

www.kirstynorton.co.uk

Lemons are generally know as vitamin-packed fruits. They are not only good for colds but also good for headaches, for bad moods and for beautiful nails.

-If you are in a bad mood and need a little bit of a mood lifter the fragrance of a lemon could help you feel refreshed.

-If you have a terrible headache add the juice of a lemon to your strong coffee. Lemon juice helps to support naturally pain surpression of the body. However, people with a delicate stomach should not drink it.

-You can strengthen spongy nails by massaging lemon juice into them. Your nails will look beautiful and healthy.

Hands down my favourite highend dumplings are at the traditional chinese restaurant Royal China in London. However, if you are in Shanghai you just have to try the delicious dumplings at Whampoa Club, an opulent Art Deco restaurant on the Bund. Dumplings are healthy and cooked in either soup or water. China has been perfecting the art of dumpling making since the Sung dynasty. Chinese dumplings may be round or crescent-shaped, boiled or pan-fried. The filling may be sweet or savory; vegetarian or filled with meat and vegetables. General health rule is to go for soup dumplings, the deepfried and rice dumplings are best left for occasional treats.