Many things happened since I blogged in November 2011.
Perhaps you remember that last June I wrote about ´Living my dream` somewhere in France? I had some great feedbacks! In essence we all want the same things out of life.. And now I want to let you know that my dream is coming true in the northern mountainous area of the Ardeche!

Since my articles in Magazine Spiegelbeeld appearing now every month since September, lots of people found the way to my practice for consultations.
The contacts with the editor of Spiegelbeeld, who knew of my French dream sped up things. I will relate below..

The editor of Spiegelbeeld and his wife live the bigger part of the year on their Domain La Vie Tara (www.lavietara.nl) in Lalouvesc. Lalouvesc is a small pilgrimage village in the most northern part of the Ardeche (1100 m. altitude). A village that used to have the status of Centre Climatique many years ago, a ´kurort´ where patients came to get healed from their lungdiseases.. The area is 100% agricultural, no industrialization whatsoever, so clean air all around.
And this status of Centre Climatique the Mayor wishes to reestablish again in Lalouvesc. So the editor mailed me in the beginning of November, after his conversations with the mayor, if I was interested in brainstorming and working on this plan and invited Hans and me to stay for a week at the Domain La Vie Tara to discuss things and to get to know eachother.
This Centre Climatique will be located on the Domain of La Vie Tara and will have wellness facilities like hot tub, Turkish bath, massage, magnesium therapy, aromatherapy, healthy nutrition and other healthy complementary disciplines.
Really a place to regenerate, rejuvenate combined with outstanding beauties of the Ardeche, like hiking, rafting, swimming, you name it! I remember I wrote in my previous blog these words:

´A center where there is peace, stillness, gorgeous nature, nearby lakes, canyons, with good food, good company and silent and dark nights.. No noise nor light pollution. Just basic, simply enjoying the gifts of nature in its purest form..
A place to regenerate, rejuvenate, to enjoy the beauties of nature like hiking, rafting, swimming, just to find how awesome life is once you open your eyes and heart for the beauty around you.´

And this description I wrote then about my dream, exacts fits in the Centre Climatique!
Amazing how things go in life once you cling to your dream!
We had a great time on the Domain with Albert and Joke and spent time together outdoors by working in the garden, collecting woodlogs for the fireplace and designing the interior of the cottage Hans and I are going to rent as per the beginning of July so we will be 'commuting' between France and Holland this year! Then after I will put my appartment for sale. Selling property is difficult right now..
I am still flabbergasted about the speed of my dream coming true! Is this really happening? Yes it it..

La Vie Tara is a holiday and workshop resort during the bigger part of the year. Workshops on yoga, painting, music, meditation, transformation therapies are held. And now my Workshop ´Voeding voor Gezonde Genen´ (Nutrition for Healhy Genes) is scheduled from the 12th till the 19th of May. See the agenda under the button Programma on www.lavietara.nl. My husband Hans is of course the Chef for this week!
As La Vie Tara is a resort for vegetarians, Hans and I attended a workshop in the Librije, a famous Dutch restaurant by Jonnie Boer, to get more knowledge about how to prepare nutritious vegetarian dishes and how to compose it in a appetizing way on your plate! That was my challenge! Hans, as a professional chef will also attend the Masterclass Vegetarian dishes for Chefs later in March.
If you want to see pics go to www.facebook.com/variatieindekeuken or go to my wall on facebook!
It was a great fun preparing veggie dishes on the 4th of February in Zwolle! A group of 12 students prepared gorgeous veggie dishes and ate them afterwards as you can see in the pics!

So big changes ahead for us in France! I am looking forward to grow my own veggies in my garden, to bake my own spelt bread but also to explore the area for gorgeous goatcheeses, ruby red wines, and to find a baker to bake spelt-baguettes for our guests and to visit the local pizzeria (the best in the area!) to bake speltpizzas topped with beneficial veggies and cheeses, according to every Genotype! All conform to my slogan: There is more to eat than wheat! Right?

Hmmm…. there is much work to be done!!

Since my articles in Spiegelbeeld my practice has experienced an enormous boost, for which I am thankful. Many clients, all women, visited me and were introduced and guided in the Genotype way of living! Always a feast of recognition for all my clients. A few weeks ago I was interviewed in a radioprogramme. The hosting lady was soo intrigued by this way of life, that she wondered why this was not acknowledged in Holland? She wants to start a Genotype project with me with regular updates in her programme. But first she will come to my practice Uniek Gezond for genotyping and advice! Next wednesday she will visit me.
So I hope the Genotype will become more known here in Holland.

Next year will be different for me. I have decided to retire from my secretarial work as per the first of January 2012. More time to work in my practice. More time to spend with my friend Jolanda in her new platform www.heart4earth.nl promoting complementary, preventive medicine in Holland. Because of the fact that healthcare costs are rising and rising, prevention is a must. The Genotype way of life is just THE way to prevent disease.
More time ahead to explore our french dream with my Hans!
More time to write and talk about those things that matter to me.

Some years ago I wrote a poem a time.
Maybe now is time to let time go.

time to be angry
time to be mild
time to be patient
time drives me wild

time teaches much
time to think
about love as such

time as a friend
time as a trap
time to dissolve
time fills a gap

time to enjoy
time to grieve
time to yearn
time is too brief

Cocky

Today in one of our Dutch newspapers (De Telegraaf) the artificial sweetener Aspartame is being scrutinized. In EU parliament, the United Left Party (the Dutch MP Kartika Liotard) stresses since 2005, that the effects of the artificial sweetener aspartame must be thoroughly researched.
Danish research (Thorhaller Halldorsson) among 60.000 pregnant women shows a connection between the consumption of softdrinks and premature baby's.
Besides there are indications that aspartame increases the prevalence of cancer. An italian oncologist Morando Soffritti signalled an increased prevalence of liver- and lungcancer in mice exposed to aspartame during their entire life.

Still the EFSA (European Food Authorities) estimates a daily intake of aspartame of 40 milligrams aspartame per kilogram bodyweight as safe.
40 milligrams equals 7 glasses of softdrinks for a child of 25 kilograms. For a person of 30 and 50 kilos, 8 till 13 glasses are 'acceptable'! When you are more than 65 kilos you can drink 17 glasses of light/softdrinks!!

Still the United Left Party will go on with her quest for more research: It is unnacceptable that aspartame is omnipresent in our food and drinks. New research must be done! Food and drink must be guaranteed of high standard.

So far the article in the newspaper this morning.

I reacted to this article that I am glad that finally Aspartame is being scrutinized also here in EU! Aspartame as well as the cheap sugar High Fructose Corn Syrup are dangerous to our health. HFCS contributes to obesity, diabetes and more.
A wake up call to start read ingredient labels.
Because you ARE what you eat, so know WHAT you eat!

A wake up call in fact to all of us:
If we do not want foods with dangerous ingredients anymore: Don't buy those products anymore! We, as consumers, do have the power to stop the big foodfirms from degrading our health. Eat your foods as fresh, organic as possible. And buy it locally. I am convinced that we all must go back to a more slower pace of life in order to stay healthy in body and mind.
The only way to provide a healthy future for ourselves and our children.

Today is a happy day! Today two years ago I married my Hans. How quickly time passes when one is happy.
For me this time of the year around Christmas, is always a time of reflection. What happened this year and how did it affect me? And more important: how did I deal with it? Happy things are easy to cope with. I had good news in September when my gyno called me stating that the uterus tissue examined was 100% okay! After two years of treatments and control visits this news was great! Not until next September I am expected back..

Other parts of my life are not that easy to cope with. The wish to see my children more frequently has partly been realized. I see my eldest daughter on a regular basis. We enjoy eachother’s company and rebuild our contact cautiously. For my son and youngest daughter to make contact with me is still difficult. Motherhood has many faces.. But my children are healthy, and building their lives in jobs and relationships. This pleases me and makes me so proud as a mom! But the invisible presence of my kids in my life, is challenging..
As Khalil Gibran stated: the source of your unhappiness now, was once the source of happiness in your life.. So true.. Happiness and unhappiness equal debaters in my life. Who grabs the microphone more frequently to state his views? ’Happiness’ or ‘Unhappiness’? I often say to myself that I am blessed. Becoming a mother of three healthy children was a major life-changing, happy event! Getting to know the BTD and thus have the power and knowledge to master my health was another important momentum in my life I happily incorporated.
Becoming a foodtherapist and coach in order to help other people is energizing and such a joy! Meeting the guy I am now married with, was an unexpected present bestowed on me.. Life has many presents in stock for all of us once you dare to make choices and go for it.. Life must be lived up in the sky and down on earth.

My wish for all of you is be kind to yourself and your loved ones and acknowledge and count your blessings, because there are many..

Only a few boardmembers know of my dream of establishing a center in France (preferably in Auvergne or Midi-Pyrenees) where people can stay for holiday, for wellness, for nutritional advice, or all combined during their holiday, weekend, congress or whatever! Or just for pampering their worn out, stressed tortured bodies and minds.. Beneficial treatment like massage, sauna, hot-tub, and more delights in a healthy, safe haven in order to re-find and re-connect with themselves. A place to regenerate, rejuvenate, to enjoy the beauties of nature like hiking, rafting, swimming, just to find how awesome life is once you open your eyes and heart for the beauty around you.
A center where there is peace, stillness, gorgeous nature, nearby lakes, canyons, with good food, good company and silent and dark nights.. No noise nor light pollution. Just basic, simply enjoying the gifts of nature in its purest form..

All this I found in the mountain areas in France such as Tarn, Cantal and the Allier. I have lost my heart to the French ‘campagne’. With its tranquility, kindness of the locals, the time people have for eachother, the quality of caring deeply for eachother, and moreover the feeling of responsability for eachother. A quality we, working urbans, lost when moving into the cities in the course of time.. A quality so vital for staying healthy in body and mind and… a quality for keeping a society alive, tolerant, inspiring and worth living in..
My husband and I have this dream for a long time, in fact since we met, we knew we wanted to start an ‘entreprise’ for health and advice in a healthy environment, to have our own garden loaded with vegetables, fruittrees, to have our own waterwell, to eat eggs of our chickens, milk and cheese of our own goats and more… In fact we want to live as close as possible to nature and to live of the land. We want to be host and hostess for people seeking these same qualities to share with them.

In the past years we have been ‘estate-hunting’ from the Morvan, Bretagne, Pyrenees and recently we have spotted a farm in Tarn. Real estate properties ranging from expensive ready-to-move-in to less expensive, but in need of renovation to upgrade it to our needs. Too much money for us to afford, so we look for a farm to rent, to lease or hire-purchase.
I think it would be awesome to host a wellness farm to guide people to listen to their inner voice and see them leave again refreshed, with reloaded batteries.
A place where you can do culinary workshops, learning that cooking is more than opening a pizza box and put in the oven.. A place where one can do painting, carpentry, cheesemaking, breadbaking (of spelt of course!), spiritual courses, or just spend some time with friends to enjoy eachother’s company, to experience in essence what life is really about…
Perhaps a place where EU BTD/GTD gatherings annex culinary clinics can be held. My Hans is a cook by profession and well introduced in BTD and GTD cooking. So that is settled then!

Well, that is my dream and I sincerely hope this year my dream will be realized and that we can move to France for good.. I do keep visualizing and forwarding my thoughts into space..
Meantime I keep dreaming..

Cocky already in France in her dreams