Rozanna Giannakis

Food, Photography, Travel & Writing

Rozanna Giannakis

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Unbelievable turmeric

Hi everybody! I hope your week was better than mine – I’ve shed a few tears these last couple of days out of sheer frustration. However, fortunately one can find solutions to many things in a cordial and hopefully peaceful way. I have a very strong sense of right/wrong when it gets to children and I can be like a raging lion if I feel a child is being treated unfairly but there are ways to go about things which I have had to teach myself.

Had it not been for healing foods and food that nourishes, calms, balances and restores mental clarity, I am not sure where I would be today. Pia and I spoilt ourselves to a delicious almond milk turmeric latte. Friends, this is tha thang! Turmeric is so healthy and if you are someone who likes to work out alot, have stiffness in the bones, flu symptoms and so many other things, I can attest to the fact that this is an amazing healer. I have read and encourage you to please research on how beautifully healing this spice is.

I usually include turmeric in my juices (not always, but very often); this morning Pia and I enjoyed home made almond milk, with a tad of salt and maple syrup to which we added turmeric powder. Really delicious.

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Celery and cucumber juice – amazing cleanser

There has been alot of hype around celery juice and honestly, in my experience, well deserved. Celery juice has a very calming effect; I have found it to be immensely helpful in so many ways including cleaning my skin, adding a glow to my eyes (yes) and giving me alot of energy. However, this is definitely not all, the internet is filled with more detailed information so I would encourage to please do some reading and research. My goal is to simply remind and confirm truthfully that celery juice is really very healing. This particular version which I had for breakfast includes the following:

1 whole bunch of celery stalks
2 cucumbers
1 peach

Juice or if you are blending add water.

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seeds and fruit blossoms

One of the reasons why I am so in love with fresh, unprocessed food is because aside from it being so healing and tasty, it’s also incredibly beautiful! Take a fresh lemon (organic if you please) and rub some of the peel on your hand or skin, just smell those essential oils perfectly fresh, intoxicating and miraculous permeating the air. Examine the wonderous beauty of seeds and fruit blossoms. Nature and nature in food is a reflection of a being so high, so magnanimous that we cannot wrap our minds around the facts.

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wounded

Sometimes life leaves you breathless one moment all is good and the next you’re on a path of self destruct questioning what lead up to this and how the signs were overlooked! Repeat behaviours: not believing that you are worthy of love, negative self-talk and leaning over to the whispers in your head “who do you think you are”, “did you really think you could”, “go back to where you came from” “look at them and look at you”.

I’ve spent so much time carefully building self confidence, nurturing wounds inflicted during childhood with careless words flung like bullets at my little child’s heart  by callous adults.  I admit that my past catches me from behind sometimes (as all cowardly acts do) and holds me in a deadly grip;  I start to feel the life force seeping from me, losing passion for creativity, writing, travel even for friends; it’s almost as if an internal struggle between life and death takes place in my mind and it takes every cell in my body not to give up on me. Then I remember to look at fear, I remember to look at doubt, I remember to step back and look at failure and the reminders thereof as if they are people I no longer associate with or an old untrustworthy car I used to drive but now I fly. I remember that the words spoken to me and over me are reflected back and returned to sender. More importantly though, I remember to forgive because they did not know what they were doing. I remember that the most powerful weapon in my artillery is forgiveness and that includes forgiving myself. I love the word “grace”, it means forgiveness even when guilty and that is what I strive for. Healing comes one positive affirmation at a time, one good thought at a time like little petals that ultimately form a beautiful flower, like raindrops that swell into a powerful lake, moments of right choices add up into days that turn into lifestyle.

It’s a topic very close to my heart; I do not think that parents and family in general are aware of what deep wounds they inflect into a child when they say negative, discouraging things. I have not really found any one thing that heals but I have found a way to move on from a damaged soul and still be happy and that is to speak to myself lovingly each day almost as if I were a little girl again (not in a weird Twin Peaks kind of way … no weirdness) but just encourage and remind myself that all those people in my past, have the right to have been wrong.

 

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Skin lover, collagen giver sensational pomegranate

The main reason why I started this website was to remind of how cleansing, healing and beautifying fresh, unprocessed nutrition can be. One only has to visit the rows and rows of shelves in cosmetic stores promising a healthy dose of avocado, papaya etc. to help us with our issues. My question is always, why do we not simply eat the real thing? Sure, to be fair, I do understand that it’s easier to swollow a pill, apply a cream and the dopamine associated with shopping and unpackaging pretty things. However, in my opinion and experience, many products contain miniscule amounts of whatever it is they are promising. Pomegranate for example, have been medically proven to be extremely good for skin. It’s a very old fruit mentioned in ancient writings. I have read through online medical journals documenting the effects of pomegranate juice on mice and on skin by decreasing the depth of skin creases and helping with edema. Those journals were very detailed, using a great deal of medical lingo. Suffice it to say that pomegranate contain collagen and is a great source for vitamin C, is rich in magnesium which of course is the lover for hair health, migraines, headaches, diabetes, hyperlipdema etc. Another article mentioned that pomegranate juice inhibits the growth of prostate cancer cells, however, research is still ongoing. I usually enjoy pomegranate pips with papaya or berries or simply on their own. I try to do a berry smoothie including pomegranates at least once a week and sometimes, buy freshly squeezed pomegranate juice and include it in my green juices throughout the week. We were not left helpless here on earth, nature provides everything we need.

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Avocado provides healthy, plant fat and is delicious with garlic pepper, Himalayan salt and a tad walnut oil or even oil oil (just a bit). I enjoy about one avocado a week half per meal because it can add on the calories if one is not careful. However, if you find your skin is feeling a bit dry consider adding avocado to your lifestyle.

https://rozannagiannakis.com/2204-2/

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Divorce. Loneliness. Change. Restoration

 

Loneliness. I recall one Friday afternoon very shortly after my daughter’s Dad dropped the bomb that he was leaving, sitting in my office vaguely aware of colleagues wishing me a beautiful week-end as they hurried off into their lives. I thought how unbelievable it was that  life was one way one moment and in the twinkling of an eye, another way the next. It’s the usual cliché, everything I had built up over 20 years suddenly fell apart; it seemed as if a huge wave came over and wiped away all traces of the life we knew. Suddenly other people replaced us. It was like a movie I was watching from a numb body.

Sitting at my desk alone that late Friday afternoon, I sank my head into my hands and wept.  However, through all of that I resolved to do things completely differently: I would not follow a route of bad-mouthing, I would not demand money, I would not force him to see his child – it would need to be either he wants to out of love and character or he did not,  I would not use our handicapped daughter as a chess game for manipulation, I would not speak about it to my colleagues until I was ready or never, I would not inquire and be curious about his new life. He was none of my business anymore and has the right to choose his happiness. Instead, I would focus on building a beautiful, new life for my sweet Pia and I. Conflict free.

The first six years after the divorce, I used for the restoration of my heart, learn new things and follow my dreams. Some might think that this is an awfully long time to be “single”. It was a very conscious decision. From the age of twenty three I had been in back-to-back relationships that lasted really long, had never been alone, did not know what it was like to completely make my own decisions, go where I want, say what I want. I did not even really know me! Most importantly though,  there was my daughter. I did not want her to deal with the instability of men coming or going in our lives so I created a cosy space for us where she would feel comfortable and was respectful and mindful that she too needed time to adjust, to grieve her Dad’s absence from home. I feel all too often, children are so badly neglected not necessarily physically but emotionally as we adults are keen to take care of our personal needs when a partner leaves. It’s hard for children, my heart bleeds for them.

The only way I could approach my new life in a healthy, balanced way was to ensure that my body, mind and soul was taken care of. Each decision I was going to make would come from a point of restoration. So I changed my eating habits. Changed my thought process from fear, negativity and doubt to believing that I have the power, am equipped and able to do way more than I thought I could. Yes, there were and still are, uncomfortable moments; stepping out and putting oneself out there, learning new things, walking down unknown pathways … it’s scary, it’s uncomfortable, it can be lonely. The thing is though, life is so much more than hopping into the next relationship, getting back at someone, rehashing disappointments. I feel that there is too much fear of being alone and it leads us to settle for less, make very poor decisions and very often, return to the same mistakes just in a different form.

In closing, my life now is beyond anything I could have imagined, however,  I do want to be real  and add that it is hard work and entails alot of falling down, getting up, sacrifice and help. (One of the things I have had to learn is to ask for help which is hard as I value my independents). The secret is to become selfish and to understand that it’s our duty and we owe it to ourselves and loved ones to take care of ourselves mentally, physically and spiritually; allow those who want to leave  to leave, declutter – not to “show” anyone anything but to free yourself from the old and move into the new. Decluttering played a huge role in transforming my life. Lift up your head, dry your tears, look!!! – a new day has come. 

 

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Quinoa as a replacement for rice and magnesium for hair

I used to have an addiction to rice. I’d consume so much of it not realizing that the bloating, listlessness, weight gain not to mention constipation, to a large extent was due to the consumption of rice. It’s taken me at least five years to be able to walk past a bowl of rice and not have it even turn my head. How I did this was with thanks to quinoa. Quinoa is delicious, gluten free, much lower in calory than rice and contains alot of protein and magnesium amongst others. I particularly mention magnesium because it is very good for hair. Quinoa is in principle a seed passing through our bodies much faster thus lighter on digestion than than rice. I’m so grateful to have been introduced to quinoa and my favourite way to enjoy it is seasoned with cumin, salt and curry powder.

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Organic pretty please

I love their imperfect little stout bodies  and the life emanating from them. Please support Farmers Markets selling organic products as much as you can because it helps to raise awareness that we are no longer willing to eat food loaded with poison (pesticides) and that we are starting to value the quality of freshly farmed produce.