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Tess Talks with Monique McPherson

From chocoholic to salad lover: a mother's story
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Monique is a hypnotherapist and the warrior mum of three wonderful boys and two wonderful girls. She specialises in supporting people with weight loss and sugar addiction, and she could not be a better guide as this is a road that she has travelled down herself.

In our conversation, she shares her own story of how she went from eating several chocolate bars a day, to being completely sugar free. Her approach was gentle and pragmatic, moving step by step rather than attempting to ditch sugar overnight.

Monique also shares the impact this has had on her own health and also on her children. In our interview, she mentioned a couple of recipes and I’m delighted to share them below. I do hope you enjoy our conversation!

Recipes from Monique

To help give up the snacks and biscuits I experimented/created smoothies to have instead. These I made in bulk in a blender jug.

Chocolate mood boost

1.5 tablespoon coconut milk powder
1 frozen banana
1 teaspoon chia seeds
half teaspoon acai berry
1 teaspoon flaxseed
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
3 teaspoons erythrytol
1 or 2 teaspoon cacao powder

Top with filtered water and blend.

Green Ginger Cream Dream
1 banana
2 cups of spinach or rocket
1 cup almond milk
1 cup coconut milk (if it's thick then half)
1 mango
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon of chia seed.

Add water as desired and blend.

Winter Health Bomb
1/4 cup tart cherry juice
1/4 cup erythritol
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon acai berry powder
1 teaspoon collagen powder
2 teaspoons cacao powder
1 frozen banana
1 teaspoon powdered greens

Top with filtered water and blend.

Berry Bliss
1 banana
1 cup kale (and kale actually does work in this one!)
1 tablespoon strawberry powder
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon flax seeds
1 tablespoon unsweetened cranberries
1/2 teaspoon acai berries
2 teaspoons coconut sugar

Add filtered water to the fill line and blend.

Next lower sugar intake by switching (gradually) to these:

Missy's Green Smoothie 
1 handful leafy greens (I use organic spinach)
1 or 2 sticks of celery
1  piece of cucumber
1 tablespoon of omega-3 seed mix
1/2 to 1 avocado

Top up with water. You can sweeten with chopped apple, mango or carrot. (Being sensitive to celery I swapped it for romaine lettuce)

Monique's Green Smoothie
1 handful of spinach
1 handful of lettuce
1 piece of cucumber
1 tablespoon of omega-3 seed mix
1/2 to 1 avocado
1/2 teaspoon organic hemp protein powder
1 handful of organic blueberries

Top up with water and blend. I like to use Strawberry ió fibrewater as it's natural strawberry and gives it a nice flavour, plus it contains chicory root powder which is great for the digestive system.

You'll be surprised how much energy you get from these smoothies. Having one every morning makes me go longer without feeling hungry. You'll need to play around with how much water you add, so that you get the consistency you prefer. 

Guilt-free biscuit/cookie
In the UK we call them biscuits but I know in other places they are called cookies so I will use both terms here and there.

Buckwheat biscuits
I do see buckwheat flour as a processed food so it is not something that I will have all the time but it's simple and not loaded with nasties like many store-bought ones and has only 3 ingredients: buckwheat flour, extra virgin coconut oil and raw honey. I prefer organic ingredients. Natural raw honey that is, not the over processed runny honey. Otherwise the biscuit/cookie consistency would be too sloppy.

The ratio is 4, 2 and 1 so:

4 measures buckwheat flour
2 measures extra virgin coconut oil
1 measure raw honey (I like to use wildflower but there are lots to try to your taste)

I usually use a quarter-cup scoop, as it makes about 7 cookies. 
Mix and knead into doughy consistency, separate into balls,  flatten into cookie shapes on a baking tray and place in the upper half of a preheated oven; 180°C (350°F) for 15 to 18 minutes. Easy!

There are a few ways that you can adapt them without compromising the benefits; for example: 
1) Add to the mix one tablespoon of omega-3 seed mix (sunflower, chia, pumpkin, flax/linseed,) or sprinkle on top of biscuits before baking.
2) Add to the mix, one tablespoon dried (unsweetened) cranberries.

Thank you for reading this, I hope this helps you on the road to a permanent, positive lifestyle change!

Blessings,

Monique McPherson

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Authors
Dr Tess Lawrie, MBBCh, PhD​