Picture credits:
1. People enjoying a coffee at the duck pond in St James Park's restaurant/cafe 'Inn The Park'
2. A non-alcoholic beer at the top of Pinnacle Hotel watching New York's spectacular views
3. Impressive Parade in London for Thames Festival celebrations.
4. 'Planet Organic' by Tottenham Road. It is one of the very few places you can eat in the café and have a full variety of organic food.
5. 'Elvis', Jilly Smith and Brian Bovell, (Hollyoaks) at Utopia Club for Veda Holt Cohen's book signing 'Veda's Naked Truth'.
Sightseeing in New York and London
This has been a month of 'end of summer' parties and invites while the weather was still holding up so it's not surprising that every warm sunny day becomes special. One of the most interesting days that I have spent in London in a long time has been as a tourist and taking advantage of going to open house in London. Advertised on the internet, this one day a year event is a special day that you can get into many of the tourist places free. My friend Jilly took me on a tour on a barmy Sunday which will be a wonderful memory and tempting me on more sightseeing trips in the future. Sightseeing is something that Londoners sometimes ignore.
We started out at the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square to see an exhibition on 'Twiggy' and then on to Hyde Park Corner to visit Apsley House, home of the first Duke of Wellington and his descendants, standing right in the heart of London at Hyde Park Corner. For over 200 years, this great mansion has been known as 'Number 1 London'. It was the first house past the tollgates at the top of Knightsbridge. Check out the exquisite paintings, portraits and unique silverware. Then onto 'Inn The Park', one of London's best kept secrets. This is a restaurant and elegant self-service café at the Trafalgar Square end of St James' Park. It is hidden from one side under a grassy hill built specially under a grass incline so that it doesn't ruin the Queen's view of the lake from her bedroom window.
On the decking around the perimeter are some of the best tables in London with comfy cushions and a view of the lake that is hard to beat. It was busy but has a quiet sophistication about it that makes you think of more graceful times not too long ago.
The menu is very English and really quite posh and offers quality pastries, salads, organic children's meals, "pots for tots" and all sorts of sophisticated bits and pieces. Some ingredients organic.
New York
I sailed for six days to New York on the Queen Mary II for a business meeting to see an agent about lecturing on cruises and thought I may get some other business done on the four days before I flew back. I was looking to talk to film makers about the two feature films I am producing. Sadly, it was a long weekend holiday and everyone was away so I used the time to just wander round and enjoy the famous buzz of the city. I strolled into the Plaza Hotel opposite Central park for afternoon tea and then went downstairs to shop. I bought a fun dress that I was told was designed by the designer of 'Sex in the City', and it looks it. I enjoyed the long break and wandered into the famous Paris Theatre to see a film and then went to the popular hotel penthouse wine bars to see the incredible skyscraper views. If you ever want a break New York is so easy to get to and so very cheap with the exchange rate.
Surgeons Now To Be Trained In Superficial Lipo
If you see the bulges of young and old at the waistline over hipsters or short tops the surgeons are looking to make a 'killing'. Excuse the pun but they are going to be trained to skim fat from 'muffin tops', reshape thighs and trim buttocks! Top consultant plastic surgeon and body contouring expert Patrick Mallucci will be instructing future surgeons on new 'superficial' liposuction techniques during Trainee Day at the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons' (BAAPS) Scientific Meeting, held jointly for the first time with the European Association of Societies of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (EASAPS) on 16 –18 September at Cardiff City Hall. The theme of this year's September conference was 'Free Fat Grafting – the Current State of the Art' and is dedicated to topics related to the field of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery together with instructional courses dedicated to new devices, technologies, fillers, lasers or new applications of existing products. There is no two ways about it - surgery has moved on a long way and keyhole surgery is no longer cutting edge.
Placebos Are Getting More Effective. And Drugmakers don't know why!
In interviews with the press, Edward Scolnick, Merck's research director gave out his strategy for expanding the company's reach into the antidepressant market and competing with competitive drug firms such as Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline who created some of the best-selling drugs in the world. "To remain dominant in the future," he told Forbes, "we need to dominate the central nervous system."
His research on experimental antidepressant codenamed MK-869, still in clinical trials, brought up some very interesting questions. The drug tested brilliantly early on, with minimal side effects. However, MK-869 didn't do much better than the placebo substitute, with both trial groups feeling their hopelessness and anxiety lift. The placebo was in the form of a look-alike pill made of milk sugar or another inert substance given to groups of volunteers in clinical trials.
In subsequent tests, MK-869 turned out to be no more effective than a placebo. In the jargon of the industry, the trials crossed the futility boundary. What's new? Don't get me wrong. I know there are some marvellous drugs on the market but there are many more where the side effects outweigh the advantages.
Tips to keep Organically Healthy:
The Daily Express reported that there were two million people with diabetes in the UK. A charity stated that 100 victims lose a foot to diabetes every week so it is very important to look to your diet with the masses of sugar in conventional foods. It has also been stated that children could be consuming as much as 23 teaspoons of sugar a day more than a decade ago with all the junk drinks and food. I have just listed some food that I have found to be very good, either without added sugar and salt or not too much.
Organic food that is 'really' healthy – you need to check the labels:
So much organic food has cheap oil (palm oil and vegetable oil, which in the USA is called 'heart attack on a plate') instead of olive oil. Also because of the tremendous amounts of salt added for shelf-life it then can cause early heart attacks. To make it taste better the food producers add stacks of sugar to offset the salt which in turn can cause early diabetes and that is just in the organic marketplace, so read your labels before you buy. Then in conventional food you have the poisons of the chemicals from additives and pesticides, so eating healthy now is very complicated.
I am afraid you need to lose the bread, even organic, unless you check it carefully; not only with the ingredients in it from your store (even if it is unwrapped you can ask for a list of the ingredients) or the raising agent can be cacogenic. Ingredients to avoid would be palm or vegitable oil or any that isn't olive oil which cuts out most of the organic bread. It's amazing that the bread makers charge so much and yet use the cheapest and unhealthiest oil they can find. I haven't found one that I can eat as yet. If you have any brand that is 'fully' organic including raising agents please let me know.
Food Tips:
In place of bread:
Sunnyvale Organic Sprouted Wheat bread. With a variety of flavours, this is a wheat bread plus sunflower seeds for your protein. It has a variety of flavours with sunflower seed including, raisin and ginger. It is fantastic as It has no oil or added salt. Marvellous to have with organic honey in the morning and you can even have it for lunch with Sinita light organic Tahini creamed sesame. Ideal for when you have to rush to work, four slices with the Tahini can satisfy you until dinner.
Snack lunches or dinners
Expensive but worth it. Albaacore Tuna is sold in a glass jar. It has extra virgin olive oil and again from Waitrose, who are advertising it as hand-prepared. Really healthy and tasty.
At last a mackerel in olive oil without added salt, marketed under the label of Essential Waitrose. If you just go for any mackerel in olive oil you are likely to get your daily salt in the tin so it's not too healthy.
For Cheese and crackers you cannot go wrong with The Food Doctor's Wholegrain spelt Organic crackers. Only 49 calories per serving and incredibly no added salt. This is the only one I can find with no added salt. Have it with organic cheese and small organic tomatoes cut up and it is delicious.
Main Meals:
The best paste sauce I have found is 'Seeds of Change' tomato basil. It is organic with olive oil instead of cheap oil and although it has salt but less than most other brands. Serve it with organic whole meal pastor and you have another healthy meal.
Any wild fish such as cod, haddock and tuna in supermarkets on the section where you have the packaged fish and check that they are wild not farmed.. Otherwise the fresh fish stall in supermarkets will give you good advice. Served with lightly steamed vegetables and either organic rice, organic potatoes, or organic salad and you have a diet where you will be able to lose excess weight or stay healthy and trim without being hungry.
If you are not on a budget then organic meat is fine but it can be very expensive and you can get your proteins from other sauces.
To make sure you have protein if you are not eating meat then fish, beans, nuts, dairy, eggs and seeds are adequate unless you are under a doctor then you need to check with them.Thank you for reading my page. You can e-mail me at: valerieaustinhyp@aol.com
Please visit my website at www.valerieaustin.com
Valerie Austin Training (founded 1989)
Validated (GHR, GHSC) Hypnosis Training courses at foundation & practitioner level in business and medical hypnotherapy.
Valerie Austin is author of six successful self-help books including SELF HYPNOSIS published by Thorsons
Founder of UKRAH (1992) The UK Register of Advanced Hypnotherapy.
Eds Note: VALERIE AUSTIN is an author, journalist and trainer with an international reputation in the field of hypnosis. Her best selling books and training help people achieve their full potential. She founded the Austin Corporate Stress Management Company focusing on reducing stress and anxiety amongst executives and CEO's. She also worked as a consultant in hypnosis at the Priory Hospital, the UK's equivalent to The Betty Ford Clinic, which specialises in food addiction and alcohol abuse. Valerie's work in the film industry (Hollywood) interviewing movers and shakers, producing TV news segments and publishing celebrity magazines in London gave her invaluable experience for her current Harley Street practice. |
