The Raw Journal Magazine

Page 1

The Raw Journal The Art of Clean Living

Paleo Nutrition £8.00 £8.00

Journal 1 June 2016

Primal Fitness

Lifestyle and Wellbeing

Sleep and Leisure


Editors Letter A warm welcome to The Raw Journal, this is Journal 1, a new publication about the Art of Clean Living that encompasses the Paleo and Primal lifestyle. You might have picked up this magazine because you are an avid Paleo and Primal follower, or perhaps you are a new convert and hungry to know more about clean living. I believe we can learn a lot from our caveman ancestors, we may have the advantage with improved language, and dare I say appearance, but I think they had it right from the beginning. Their lifestyle was simple. Paleo signifies eating naturally as a caveman would have and the Primal Blueprint provides recommendations on how to exercise, sleep and leisure. Practice these in harmony and you can achieve the optimum quality lifestyle. Personally I believe that we as the young generation of today are, more than ever, determined to defeat the stigma and stereotype of the ‘lazy youth’ that has previously clung to us. We want to take care of ourselves and enhance the quality of our lifestyles. Journal 1 is a welcome package into this lifestyle subculture, which is undoubtedly uplifting and curiously exciting to be a part of. It feels good to read something and feel a sense of unity, with people coming together through a common connection - that connection being to optimise their health,

Email - Therawjournal@hotmail.com

lifestyle and happiness. My curiosity about this lifestyle was motivated from successfully recovering from a bad spinal injury. Choosing not to take the surgical route I managed to recover naturally by changing the way I exercised and finding healthy foods that served as natural painkillers. Before I had only mentally linked exercise to pain, as that would be all I felt, I also lost weight due to bodily stress. A year after being temporarily bed bound and in continuous agony I was physically better. It is stories like this, however pitiful they may seem, that can jolt you into wanting to take the best possible care of your body. This journal gives me the ability to evolve experimental journalism, creating a printed blog. The concept of the Raw Journal is to explore all aspects of clean living and investigate different ways to improve the quality of our lifestyle, in the end its all about moderation and balance. Through growing observation and perspective the four chapters that follow immerse us in a 360-degree existence of food, exercise, sleep, style, art and travel. This is by no means a trend - it’s a historical way of living adapted for the modern day by us. Don’t worry though; there is no need to forage, hunt and gather.

Sarah Barnes

Instagram & Twitter @Therawjournal


The Raw Journal is a publication dedicated to the lifestyle subculture whose members seek

Photographed by Sarah Barnes.

optimum health by returning to the habits of our Paleolithic ancestors.

Editor - Sarah Barnes Contributing Graphic Designer - Holly Russell Models- Francesca Bennett, Holly Russell, Georgie Griggs, Jessica Barnes Hair and Makeup Artist - Jasmine Guida With Special Thanks To Terry Newman Robert de Nuit Bonnie Slotnick Ollie Moss James Duigan Vanessa Woozley Will Bees Tony Hornecker


Chapter


Paleo Nutrition The Paleo diet involves consuming food as a caveman would. Our paleolithic ancestors would only eat what they could hunt and gather such as; protein, fruit and vegetables, no dairy, grain or processed foods. We are now taking it back to the bare basics in a modern way. This chapter expands outside the definition of Paleo and looks at healthy eating as part of a clean lifestyle. • • •

Eating In The Stone Age 6

A Days Worth Of Clean Paleo Eating 8 Bonnie The Vintage Cookbook Seller 12 •

Primal Roost Eatery 16


The Raw Journal

Eating In The Stone Age We need to stop asking why good food is so expensive and ask why junk food is so cheap? 6

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avemen and women didn’t eat processed food or microwaveable meals; they ate what was available in their native environment. The term Paleo is used to guide our diet to consume food as a caveman would. Our paleolithic ancestors would only eat what they could hunt, forage and gather, meaning food was fresh, seasonal and healthy. Paleo is an ancient style of nutrition that has seen much attention since Doctor Loren Cordain published the book ‘The Paleo Diet’ in 2002, since then this way of eating has become more recognised in society. It is by no means a trend that will pass by; it is a historical way of living that we have adapted to suit our modern day habits.

and help develop healthier skin, hair and nails. You can use the Paleo diet as a guideline that you can adjust to suit your dietary requirements, personal tastes and health needs. You must be aware that the Paleo diet does eliminate certain food groups, such as dairy and grains. However you can still optimise your health with eating clean in a way that works for you. As long as you are eating wholesome natural food you will feel healthier overall. Times have improved as we now have dairy free chocolate, organic roasted coffee and grain free bread. Cakes are made with almond and coconut flowers and sweetened with honey or date syrup, so do not fear you are not missing out.

There are countless benefits to the Paleo way of eating. This natural lifestyle will; improve your gut health, balance blood sugar levels, increase brainpower and concentration and boost your immune system to prevent further illnesses. We all like to see external results too and eating in a Paleo manner can help you to lose fat cells and gain muscle ones, increase your energy levels

Paleo is not a fad or a starvation diet. It is a lifetime of edible dedication to improve your health, wellbeing and fill your body with the most nutrition dense food possible. We need to eat foods that are completely natural not that are man made from inside a factory. www.thepaelodiet.com


Paleo Nutrition

The Paleo Diet Paleo is a wholesome and basic menu with endless varieties and combinations.

No To

Yes To

Illustrations by Sarah Barnes.

• • • • • • • • •

Grass Fed Organic Meat Fish and Seafood Fruit Vegetables Eggs Nuts and Seeds Healthy Oils (Olive) Healthy Fats (Coconut) Natural Sugars

• • • • • • • •

Processed Foods Corn Legumes and Beans Dairy Refined Sugar Refined Oils Fast Food Alcohol

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The Raw Journal

A Days Worth Of Clean Paleo Eating Eating a Paleo diet does not mean every meal consists of plain meat and vegetables. Maximise your health potential by adapting your eating habits to the modern Paleo way. 8

Breakfast Breakfast comes in the form of simple Paleo pancakes. These are made by only using two eggs and two bananas. Beat them both together to create a chunky texture and fry lightly in a pan until golden on both sides. Serve them with a hearty dollop of almond butter and a cluster of blueberries. They are so easy to make and are both nutritious and slow energy releasing.

Lunch You might not think this meal could be Paleo but it can. Grain free wraps that are made with tapioca flour are stuffed full of grass fed and slow roasted pulled pork. Slather on BBQ sauce made from; tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, coconut aminos, garlic and a glug of honey. This is accompanied with a vibrant spiralized salad, made from carrots, beetroot and radish and dribbled with a honey and poppyseed dressing.

Dinner Served for dinner is grilled chicken breast generously topped with red pesto. This is made from; red peppers, pine nuts, basil, oil and ground pepper. Perch this onto a starchy grain alternative. Cauliflower rice is made by blitzing up half a cauliflower per serving and cooking it with a spoon of coconut oil. Add in fresh chopped tomatoes and rocket and roughly season with salt and pepper. Mix untill soft and browned.


Food Photography by Sarah Barnes.

Paleo Nutrition

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Photography by Sarah Barnes.

The Raw Journal

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Paleo Nutrition

A Days Worth Of Clean Paleo Eating A selection of healthy alternative snacks for all of those people that just like to graze.

Pana Chocolate.

Coconut Merchant Chips.

Savse Smoothies.

An Australian brand offering guilt free chocolate. Made using organic cocoa, it is dairy, soya and gluten free and fully vegan. Flavoured with herbs, coconut, citrus and spices - it is velvety raw.

Morishly baked coconut chips made from just three ingredients; fresh coconut, cane sugar and salt. They are also dairy and gluten free and fully vegan.

Available in an abundance of flavours that are coded by colour. These smoothies are 100% naturally organic, cold pressed and contain no artificial sugar. Simply made from fruits and vegetables.

Barney Butters.

Love Kombucha.

Naked Bars.

This Californian company produces a range of toothsome almond butters. They are certified organic and 100% peanut free. Flavoured with; espresso beans, cane sugar, chia and flax seeds, honey, coconut and cocoa.

Kombucha is a fermented drink created by distilling green tea and organic cane sugar with Kombucha culture. This drink has a natural fizz and is refreshingly full of acids, minerals and good enzymes, benefiting your gut health.

A natural snack bar filled with raw fruits and nuts. Naked bars contain 100% natural ingredients that are wheat, dairy and gluten free, and contain no artificial sugar. Flavours include; ginger bread, cherry bakewell, pecan pie and cashew cookie.

Primal Joy Foods.

Inspiral Co.

Planet Organic.

A brand offering an assortment of handmade paleo nutrition bars. Specialising in brownies, granola and pudding bars, they are all grain, soya and dairy free and contain no seed oils or preservatives.

Inspiral are dedicated to creating a healthy planet. Their superfood kale chips are raw, vegan, gluten free and high in protein. Flavoured with sea salt and lime or wasabi and beetroot.

Rawkin Roons are organic coconut macaroons that are; dairy, wheat and gluten free. They are avaliable in snackable flavours such as, salted caramel, chocolate and lemon.

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The Raw Journal

Bonnie The Vintage Cookbook Seller 12

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onnie Slotnick is a vintage cookbook dealer and collector. She gave up her career in publishing to open her own little shop in Downtown New York City in 1997. The shop opened holding 2,000 books but after Florence Fabricant wrote about it in the New York Times during Thanksgiving that first year, Bonnie’s shop thrived. Sixteen years later and despite having to move shop a couple of times, the new and larger space in the East Village holds 5,000 books, all vintage and dealing in every type of cuisine you can imagine. Bonnie has even lent books to the film set of ‘Julie and Julia’. She is also wisely fixated on knowing the stories behind the recipes, rather than printing out Cake Recipe #468 from Google. Very much mirroring the Paleo way of curiously learning from our ancestors, I craved to learn more about vintage cookbook collecting. I was keen to question Bonnie on new food trends and what young people could learn from cookery material that was published centuries ago. So I arranged to meet Bonnie in New York City to ask her in person.

My eyes gravitated to the locally iconic ‘Cookbook’ sign in vintage blue that hung outside the sunken brownstone. Bonnie’s shop was a warren. The shelves were lined floor to ceiling with vintage cookbooks from every county and century you could hope for. Bonnie herself is petite with lovely large eyes, which followed me inquisitively as I walked to a corner of the shop that housed cookbooks from Europe and vintage salt and peppershakers. One small sepia paperback particularly stood out to me, it housed vintage scone recipes, I was fascinated that it was once used by a housewife in the 1940’s to make dessert for her family. So you used to work as a book scout in the 80’s, do you think that with current technology it is sad that this type of profession has become more obsolete? It was a much more interesting way to buy books then. You buy online which is what book scouts do now, but I used to walk around the city for hours and every time I had time off from my regular job I’d go to bookstores and look for


Paleo Nutrition books. The only thing is you know you can find something really obscure now with the internet which might have taken ten years to find in the real world. It must be satisfying for your shop to be so bespoke and individual, a quality that I guess could be easily lost in New York. Yes that’s true of all small businesses, whether its something sophisticated like a bookstore or shoe store or the person who owns the deli down the street, it’s all about the person who owns it. The only thing is that I’ve made myself indispensable. You know I take a day off a week and someone else works for me but he can’t run the store how I do. So there can be huge missed opportunities if he can’t find something someone wants. People are curious about owning vintage things, maybe it’s the historical sense that they hold, but compared to recipes from the Internet, why do you think people want to have something tangible? Because we are human beings, people like to have things. It’s the objects physical qualities that something from a screen doesn’t have; but also when you have a book by an author, you know the source of the recipe and everything surrounding it, the introduction, the chapters that come in between and when I look at recipes online, half the time I don’t know if they have typographical errors in them or something. When you collect books and vintage kitchenware for the store what grabs your attention and makes you select what you buy? I tend to gravitate toward books I love from the late 19th century, but they are getting more expensive so I rarely see them. So I really like books from about 1910 to 1940 and the same with kitchenware. There is a point when you start getting to the 50’s and I remember that time so that’s not as intriguing, but when I buy for the store I buy what I think my customers would be interested in, I leave my own preferences aside. Is there a cuisine that you find most interesting to read about? I thought you were going to ask me what I prefer to eat and I was ready for that (laughs). Well,

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The Raw Journal Middle Eastern and Indian I think has so much variety and its so subject to different kinds of oil, chickpea or rice and I feel like I could eat that for the rest of my life. Although I do like to read about old American food; I live in a building that was built in 1882 and I can sort of imagine people living in my apartment cooking that kind of food. Being a small business it must be lovely to be able to create relationships with your customers, plus provide them with a place to escape to?

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I do get lots of old customers of mine from when my shop was over in the West Village. You know the West Village has gotten so expensive that only millionaires live there now, so many people that were shopping over on West 10th street actually live in the East Village so its perfect. They are the ones who give me the conscience to change the displays as normally I just stick stuff on the tables. Right now it was about Chinese Luna year and African American month. I also had a Valentines Day table, which I swept away on the 15th of February. This question follows on but have you noticed a difference in customers and business since moving to the East Village?

Seasonal cooking…there is a book that I have just bought that’s one of my favorites from 1900 and its called ‘I go a marketing’ (Bonnie begins to ruffle though the higgledy stack of books on her desk until she pulls out an old tethered blue hardback and wipes the dust from its spine.) So it’s about shopping with the seasons, “By all means let us be economical, truly economical” – she reads. This is January, as it goes by months, which I love, it says; beans, brussel sprouts, oysters, oranges and nuts are all seasonal offerings in January. Of course this is all about cooking from scratch, your not going to go out and buy canned goods and try to cook seasonally (laughs). I feel I have more demand for vegetarian books and vegan books and some for gluten free but home cooking is the only way to be sure of what you are getting, so buy fresh ingredients, we have markets all over New York - I was there just this morning.

“I do like to read about old American food; I live in a building that was built in 1882 and I can sort of imagine people living in my apartment cooking that kind of food.”

Maybe the younger customer, I mean unless if you’re between 20 and 30 and have a trust fund to live in the West Village you can sneak into the East Village or Brooklyn. Lots of people that work in restaurants in New York are young and I think a lot of them are interested in cooking. The foot traffic is just better here, I don’t know why and even with the construction outside. (We are timely interrupted by a cement drill as it burrows down into the street outside.) So the art of ‘Clean Living’ and being health conscious is now very popular in modern society but what do you think young people could take from vintage cookbooks and their content that would impact them now?

When you read these vintage cookbooks what memories are brought back to you from your childhood?

(Laughs kindly) Well my mother had just three cookbooks, one of them is the ‘Settlement Cookbook’ which if you reach behind you, you might manage to get it but be careful its very fragile. The thing I remember about looking at this book is that there is a recipe that I used to try and make as I wanted to enter the girls scout bake off, long before the Great British Bake Off, but I just couldn’t make it work as it had a whole jar of malvolio cherries and I think they changed the measurements since the book was published in the 40’s. I also used to just lie around and read this book instead of a young adult novel and it has strange things in it, German recipes, how to light an oil stove and invalid cookery (Bonnie leafs though the old pages; a look of nostalgia floods her face). It was published by a group of Jewish women who run a settlement house, which was for new immigrants to teach them how to be good Americans. I mean sometimes when I pick up a book in my collection I remember where I bought it and very often it’s from old bookstores


Paleo Nutrition in Vermont or New England. I would drive around and buy books that were a dollar in those days. Throughout the time that Bonnie kindly gave me we were often interrupted by phone calls from her neighbour and old school friends. She also greeted every customer with the same intent, ‘Is there anything I can help you with’? However all of this only added to my experience of interviewing her, it felt real and honest to see her interact with everyone as she normally would - the customers do come first. The interview finishes and I am left with the lasting image of a ‘You don’t get that on Amazon’ sign written in sharpie that Bonnie proudly and humorously holds up to me. “It’s the truth” she choruses.

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Illustrations by Sarah Barnes.

Photography by Bonnieslotnickcookbooks.com

When leaving I reminisce how this quaint little sunken bookstore that has become a local honey pot and how the modern exposure to ‘Clean Living and Eating’ can still reach the most innocent of spaces. It is craved by New Yorkers in their small numbers, who while away an hour sliding their hands over the limitless collection of vintage books, escaping to learn about vegetarianism or seasonal cooking from the 1900’s before they return to the big bustle of the city. Bonnieslotnickcookbooks.com


The Raw Journal

Primal Roost Eatery You are sure to be greeted with knowledge, humour and good conversation. 16

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t was bound not to be long, following the interest in Paleo and Primal lifestyles, before specialist cafes started popping up, creating a comfortable environment for the thirsty converts and information hungry. Primal Roost is a new independent eatery, an oasis for health conscious individuals. Based in Bagshot within the depths of leafy Surrey, this Primal inspired Cafe and Pantry religiously serves high quality and locally sourced food and drinks for the Paleo crowd. They are all about food that comes from the land, not factories and science labs, aiming to help customers achieve their optimum health. So indeed you can have your cake and eat it too. Established by three friendly couples, Roost is the new trademark that rustically blends together a deli, cafe, pantry and meeting place; a hub for the growing Primal community. All avid Paleo and Primal followers, the owners have created a menu packed with nutrient dense foods, all homemade and catering to Paleo conventions. Fully dairy free, gluten free, grain free, no processed foods and all naturally sweetened, nothing that wasn’t available to pre-agricultural people. Fancy eating like a caveman without the hunting and gathering

part - on offer for breakfast; granola with fruit and coconut yogurt or cashew nut waffles with maple syrup and berries. Continue and lunchtime serves up; ham hock or venison stew, thick soups with grain free bread, salted beef or pulled pork wraps and frittatas with colourful salads. Roost coffee has almost become a caffeine beckoning to the early risers and late afternoon workers. Organic beans and loose-leaf teas independently made in Devon, are served with blackberry and vanilla loaf or coconut and salted caramel cake. It is alternatively made food like this that leaves you guilt free once digested, knowing that what you are eating is healthy and nutritious. Perhaps we should stop asking why good food is expensive and ask why processed food is so cheap? After a virtuous indulgence, Roost also offers up their pantry, a sort of indoor farmers market. Rustic wooden shelves stand against exposed brick walls selling all the ingredients and snacks that are much sort after yet hard to find. This combination is similar to the health cafes found in Byron Bay Australia, bringing the outdoors in, seen by many as a home away from home.


Paleo Nutrition Walking into this homely little cafe on a Saturday morning I found as expected, weekend bike riders having a rest and munching on homemade wraps. Friends catching up over hot bowls of Paleo soup, capturing food photos only fit for Tumblr and couples perched by the windows, pouring over the newspapers and admiring their coffee’s latte art. As my observing hours passed I later noticed people escaping the traditional office environment to these more calm surroundings, drinking in smooth mochas and working away to the faint sound of laptop keys. Indeed this bespoke eatery is making a footprint and gaining a following that are hungry for the warm ambience. If you are gluten free, a celiac or just craving good food, have a peek in. You are sure to be greeted with knowledge, humour and good conversation - its what gives Primal Roost its uniqueness. Primalroost.com

You are what you eat so don’t be fast cheap easy or fake’

Photography by Sarah Barnes

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Paleo Waffles, Coconut Yogurt and Maple Syrup. An Almond Milk Pumpkin Spiced Latte.


Chapter


Primal Fitness The ‘Primal Blueprint’ refers to set recommendations of how to exercise, which when combined harmoniously with eating clean you can achieve optimum health and wellbeing. This second chapter physically immerses us in different experimental aspects of Primal fitness. • •

Take The Primal Path 20

The Primal Vibe - An Interview With Ollie Moss 22 • •

Bodyism London 26

Yoga In The Walkways 30


The Raw Journal

Take The Primal Path 20

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s a collective, we as a young generation are highly active, whether that’s playing on a sports team, training for a marathon or even owning a gym membership that we actually use. We are keen to abolish the lazy youth stereotype that we have previously been associated with and take care of our bodies, building them to be stronger. A key layer within the Paleo and Primal lifestyle is that of primal fitness, which introduces set recommendations of how to exercise in a pre-historic way, that avoids fancy machinery and takes you back to a basic yet effective way of exercising. Mark Sisson is an ex-elite athlete and the author of the ‘Primal Blueprint’, a printed observation supported by science and the study of our primal ancestors. By looking at the movement behaviour of ancient caveman Mark Sisson has created set guidelines of how we should exercise in order to achieve peak wellbeing and longevity.

Move Frequently at a Slow Pace. Modern day primal fitness is a mimicry of the hunter and gatherer lifestyle. There is no doubt that people who lived primitively had a more constantly active lifestyle when traveling across land and hunting for food. This law encourages us to always move daily or participate in low level aerobic activity, don’t stay still for long. Sprint Once in a While. Cavemen did not go to the gym and run constantly for 20 minutes on a treadmill watching replayed day time TV. Instead, they would occasionally sprint in short bursts to escape danger or hunt for food. This law urges us to increase our heart rate in small bursts, much like the popularisation of high intensity training, which increases growth hormones.


Primal Fitness

Play and Get Adequate Sunlight.

The Primal Blueprint Essential Movements.

Nature was our ancestor’s playground. The term ‘rough and tumble’ can refer to how cavemen and women would interact. You don’t have to bulldoze down your friend but instead try different leisure and sporting activities outside that are enjoyable for you and your body. Walking and biking all expose you to vitamin D from the sun.

Primal fitness is generally movement based; instead of muscle-based, meaning it is overall more functional and works out the entire body. Combine these laws of exercise with the four essential primal movements that are; pull-ups, push-ups, squats and planks. Primal fitness is not about isolating body parts but exercising a wide range of movements that will improve your fitness levels, and increase; flexibility, strength, weight loss and muscle gain.

Lift Heavy Things. No we are not recommended to try and create another Stonehenge in our garden, but ancient caveman were constantly lifting and moving objects; it is what our bodies are built for. By safely lifting things we are engaging all our core muscle groups, shaping and toning our bodies.

Next time we head to the gym to be greeted by the aggressive looking contraptions that we trudge on whilst watching 90’s music videos, perhaps we should take our training outdoors. We should try using our environment and emulate these caveman workouts, just be sure to wear lycra instead of animal fur.

Illustrations by Sarah Barnes

A Primal Blue Print Workout www.theprimalblueprint.com

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The Raw Journal

The Primal Vibe An Interview With Ollie Moss K 22

een to understand the breakdown of the Primal Blue Print and more about holistic fitness, I interviewed Ollie Moss hoping for some nuggets of advice. Ollie was an endurance athlete in his youth, qualified by the American College of Sports Medicine; he is now certified as London’s first Primal Blueprint Coach. Today Ollie provides services that cover personal training and group boot camps. I sat across from Ollie at his kitchen table and he spoke passionately about reconnecting with our genetic expectations, balancing what we eat with how we exercise and his personal philosophy for achieving a healthy wellbeing and optimum longevity. What first made you interested in holistic living? Holistic living equals all different attributes of lifestyle. So it’s not just about exercise, its not just about eating correctly, it’s a combination of these things. When we break it down I would say that food is the biggest contributor when changing your health, followed closely by exercise and sleep. Relationships believe it or not are highly important as well. These all help us mentally and physically and the biggest thing about all of them is how they affect our hormone imbalance. We need good input from all these areas. More and more research is coming out that shows us that we need to spend more time focusing on those lifestyle attributes, managing our stress, getting sunshine and definitely getting more rest. So that’s really what interested me.

What would you say is the most common misconception about the Paleo and Primal lifestyle? With Paleo it’s a term that means ‘old way’ which means stripping back and keeping it natural in order to enhance our health. People tend to have the misconception that it’s a fad diet all about protein, but it’s not at all. Protein is a requirement of course but it’s more about eating the right quality of protein. Our genetics haven’t changed since the beginning, but what has changed is how we now exercise and eat. The biggest thing with Paleo is how we reduce carbohydrates and man made products in our diets. I say just forget about the term and think about eating things that are simply dense in nutrient quality. The Primal Blueprint has four essential movements that benefit our health and functionality; Squats, Push-ups, Pull-ups and Planks. Can you sum up the benefits of each movement? Firstly, that group of exercises are chosen as they are great all-rounder’s that help us work all the major muscle groups and again produce the right hormones that we need for good health. Squats engage the bigger leg muscles, the upper body and the core. If you look at daily life, climbing up stairs, getting into the car, just walking; all these things involve some form of that squat movement that gives our spines support.


Photograph by Infrontphotography.com

Primal Fitness

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The Raw Journal Push-ups are am upper body workout based on a push or a pull. The push works the chest area and shoulder and back which are all responsible for our stability. Pull-ups work the back muscles and core and also provides a great stretch. The thing with these exercises is that we need to remember that we want to get a good range of movement and flexibility. If we over use running, cycling and aerobics, they are just lots of repetitive movements that can cause tension in our body.

lifestyle - what can you say to motivate them?

The Plank engages muscles that you use everyday for lifting and rotation. So it’s good to use the plank as a fundamental exercise to help with the sequence of everything else you do.

I just want people to understand just how little you need to do to get a balance. I guess at that age you are all out to improve your career and working long hours and socialising, and yes you have higher energy levels and can take a lot of that lifestyle but you need to remember that you need sleep and exercise. We know that with young people today there is pressure for exam results and expectations are high so they really need to take a step back and enjoy a healthy journey. I would advise to limit iPhones and how much you use your laptop and watch TV. Technology can be a massive distraction as it can zap up so much time. Finally with exercise, young people are so set up with gadgets and a great university lifestyle, we just need to understand the power of movement, how little or big, just keep moving.

What aspect do you think is most important, for us as the young generation, to understand when wanting to reach our optimal health?

“With exercise, young people are so set up with gadgets and a I guess rewarding is taking on someone that great university life has little confidence and wants to learn. Once style, we just need to they have the education and the understanding understand the power and the desire to do it, then we can put that of movement, how little in practice and see some big changes. Its satisfying as sometimes or big, just keep moving.” What is the most rewarding part about being a health coach?

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For me it’s making the time to find out someones history of exercise and just being friendly, happy and enthusiastic. I do understand that physiologically and physically people need me to come alongside them, set realistic goals and help get them where they want to be.

people need assistance with their heads more than their bodies, we find out where their weakness is and it’s my job to get them back on track. What training techniques do you tend to favour in your boot camps?

Keep it simple. I’m a cross trainer and even though I come from an endurance background I always work on good balance of strength training, flexibility, cardio and short burst work. I feel it’s important to involve all of those things as they all effect our bodies physiology. So with my interest in science and experience of working with athletes as well as people that have never done fitness before, you hope that you can just give people the best of the best. For anyone who is struggling to get into a positive mind set to start changing their

Can you sum up your personal philosophy for a happy and healthy wellbeing? Sort out your food first. We eat too many artificial fats and sugars that make our bodies over inflamed and we are then susceptible to cancers, heart disease and arthritis. Balancing our exercise and stress is also important, making sure you have down time and most of us are deficient in vitamin D so we need to get sun to keep up the strength of our immunity. The fundamental key to happiness, in any case, is relationships. We tend to put that aside but spending time with people that make you feel good is really important.


Primal Fitness

“I’am bringing out a Primal Vibe 28 day plan, which is a program that takes people through food changes and different exercise routines I’am focusing on the four Primal Blue Print moves that together we can apply to your level of fitness and strength

www.Olliomoss.com

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The Raw Journal

Bodyism London The Members Holistic Health Club for the Health Conscious Happy Seeker.

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ames Duigan is the founder of Bodyism and the ‘Clean and Lean Philosophy’. Originating from Perth Australia, James is an educator of fitness and holistic wellbeing and he describes the term Bodyism as “The science of a long, lean and athletic body”. Bodyism titles a number of state of the art members only Health and Wellbeing clubs. Since founded in 2006 James has opened in the Maldives, Capri and Turkey. By gathering press interest from the likes of Vogue, Women’s Health and GQ, James has trained some of the world’s most famous bodies; Elle Macpherson, David Gandy, Lara Stone and the Victoria Secret Models - just to name a few.

treatment rooms house Bodyism’s ‘Wellness Sanctuary’, attracting leading therapists offering vitamin facials and holistic massage.

I travelled to Bodyism London to visually experience these offerings. At street level is the Clean and Lean Eatery, an oasis of glowing healthy people. I sat in the sunken window with a menu that served; smoothies, acai bowls, quinoa pots, paleo slices, vibrant salads, healthy toasties and protein balls. The vibe in the cafe was comforting and natural and the friendly staff were an advertisement themselves for the brand and its concept. Ivy adorned the clean tiled walls and inquisitive Londoners stopped to peer in at the crisp turquoise, the shade chosen to colour Bodyism quickly gained a reputation as one all merchandise. The air has been purified and of the most exclusive wellness companies in oxygenated and the lighting systems expel the world. Today, under the two brand names ‘Bodyism’ and ‘Clean & Lean’, the company offers vitamin D, all creating a womb of protected health. Young disciplined Bodyism trainers spoke a total wellbeing experience including; bespoke personal training, natural food supplements, five to me about the collection of classes including; pilates, ballet, bodyweights, TRX training, yoga best-selling books and a Bodyism sportswear and fascial stretching. Being a members club you collection, available on Net-A-Porter and in got a great feel of community. The place was house. James created the ‘Clean and Lean small enough to feel personal without limiting on Philosophy’ to encourage an organic and locally space. I could see the attraction of this luxurious produced diet, rich in lean protein, vegetables escape after rush hour on the tube, a place to and healthy fats, cutting out toxic foods. The detox and work on your body confidence. purpose of these two harmoniously branded concepts is to empower people with their physical and mental potential. By revolutionising By opening such a new location James Duigan is spreading the outdoor-indoor element as a the way we eat and exercise we can naturally mind set as much as a physical attribute. The mold our bodies to become stronger and more Bodyism London membership starts from £110 energised. London has now opened as the first per month. However, if you don’t want to invest I city location. A sparkly new Bodysim club is still recommend a visit to snatch a feeling of this perfectly placed along the pretty Westbourne united connection where everyone is intent on Grove in Notting Hill, amongst the bespoke learning the Bodyism way of life, undoubtedly boutiques and blossom trees. A haven tucked away from the toxicity of city life. The space holds taking people to their happy place. www.bodyism.com personal training and group workout studios as well as a private yoga zone. Two private


Primal Fitness

Photography by Bodyism London

The Bodyism Gym and Clean and Lean Cafe

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Photography by Bodyism London

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James Duigan Founder of Bodyism.


Primal Fitness

An Interview With Mr Bodyism AKA James Duigan, who talks; fusion classes, being kind to yourself and empowering young Bodyism women. What snippets of personal advice would you give to someone wanting to follow the ‘Clean and Lean’ philosophy? My best advice would be to cut the C-R-A-P out: that being caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol and processed food. These are the four main toxins that cause our bodies to cling to fat. Instead, fill up on food groups full of vegetables, vitamins, lean meats and good, healthy fats. Try avoiding alcohol like the plague – it honestly is your worst enemy if you are trying to get your body back in shape or stick to a regime. Not only will it make you feel sluggish and bloated but will also reduce your body’s ability to burn fat. What key exercise or class that you have created for Bodyism are you most proud of? The Clean and Lean Class. It’s a dynamic fusion of yoga, meditation, interval training and ballet, and has been designed by our team to sculpt and tone the body, while at the same time invigorating and calming the mind, body and spirit. We as the young generation are becoming more curious about optimising our health and bodies whist wanting to escape the stigma of being ‘Lazy Youths’. What guidance would you give to young people aspiring to the lifestyle that Bodyism symbolises? Be kind to yourself! We live in a world of ever growing body image pressures, sometimes promoting unrealistic body ideals. It may sound

simple, but keeping oneself motivated is about positivity and listening and accepting your body. A top tip for staying motivated would be to have clear, yet realistic goals set in your mind of what you want to achieve. Being able to set goals and achieve them is one of the best feelings in the world in any aspect of your life. Try not to set unrealistic goals with tight deadlines, as this will just lead to stress and worry. What single place in the world inspires you most about living and enhancing your health? If I’m near the ocean then I surf, which is where I’ve had every good idea throughout my entire career. I also do Brazilian jiu jitsu - which you wouldn’t think would be relaxing but for me it’s the most relaxing part of my week. With growing global locations, athletic clothing and published books, have you got more ideas for expanding in the future? We look set to open our first stand-alone club in America in about 18 months which is very exciting. We would like to continue to grow the supplement range as well as maintaining the growth of our active wear and as always we will be at the forefront of everything that is good about the wellness industry. One thing I’m so proud of is that we will never ever compromise our integrity or principals so that everyone that works for our company can be proud of what they are doing. I’m also proud that we empower women within the company; it’s not just a slogan on a t-shirt.

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Yoga In The WalkWays

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Sunrise yoga on the glass walkways of Tower Bridge, for the early rising adventurist.

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licking around the Internet one afternoon looking for a different art of clean living to attempt, I came across ‘Yoga In the Walkways’. Intrigued, I followed the link and found myself suddenly purchasing a ticket. Unbeknown to me at the time of purchase, this was a much sort after class to take in the capital. I soon found the day approaching that I would be doing a yoga session on the glass floor at the top of Tower Bridge. As part of a £1million walkway installed in 2014, a glass heaven if you will, visitors are offered a 138ft bird’s eye view of the

city. At 11 meters long and 1.8 meters wide the walkway can withstand the weight of two black cabs. I sleepily trudged to the station at 5:45am on a Wednesday morning mentally shaming myself for booking such an obscenely early activity. But much like morning tiredness does, it wore off as the train pulled into London. The pointed tip of the sleek Shard and cargo boats chugging up the Thames greeted the ten of us that huddled outside the north turret of the bridge at 7am.


Primal Fitness Once at the top, the morning sun broke through London’s famous grey skies and glittered on the murky river below. I tried to convince myself I was a daring yogi and gingerly stepped out onto the glass floor that was refreshingly cold underneath my feet. Any fear of vertigo soon vanished as we were suspended above pedestrian life, looking down at everyone going about their daily lives 42 meters beneath us. Indeed, I am not a believer in the power of levitation but I felt as though I was suspended over Earth. We were captivated by the miniature people and toy cars far below making their way across the bridge; little boats sailed under in silence as we started working our way though Sun Salutation to Warrior Pose. Sarah Mcfadden, the London based yoga instructor, was intent on focusing on our breathing techniques. We soon found as a collective group that our inhaling and exhaling became synced as we stretched out through the Vinyasa movements, ending in Childs Pose. I am by no means skilled in yoga, I struggle to touch my toes. However, the levels we advanced to were not threatening as we dropped down from the Balanced Tree Pose to Downward Facing Dog. The sight below was not a distraction just a pure novelty with the view rushing in at all angles. This class is a calling for all photographic opportunists; although it is the place to achieve an instagramable standard of perfection, you should instead endeavour to create a meditative state of mind and just enjoy being present.

Illustrations by Sarah Barnes

After we had all finished the class by meditating, I chatted to Sarah McFadden. Originally from New Zealand she works as a part time yoga teacher and is also involved in a farmers market company, helping urban communities re-localise food systems and sustainably face climate change - very much living a clean lifestyle. Sarah told me how successful the classes have been in encouraging Londoners to wake up even earlier and trek their way sleepily to the iconic British bridge to then be inspired by the beauty and pure calmness that they are exposed to up in the glass walkways. There is something about being up in the sky looking down over London. You are oblivious to the car horns and street noise that normally invades your ears; instead you have this horizontal porthole of glass offering a clear perspective, free from brain fog and stress.

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The Raw Journal I left the class feeling stretched and refreshed. Unlike upon our arrival there was no more eye rubbing or yawning just excited chatter, picture taking and gazing out at the cities skyline. I felt disappointed to once again join the city streets when moments before I had being floating above silently yelling ‘the view from up here!’ Yes I hope to not hear my alarm at 5am for sometime but as a one off occasion it was refreshingly different and exciting to try something new - perhaps an activity for the subtle adrenaline junkie. Yes it was an extreme example of experimenting in clean living but nonthe less it was productive and stimulating. There is something annoyingly satisfying about finishing such a class just as people are getting up for work. Making the most of every wakeful hour is an aspect of clean living that I endeavour to make permanent. We should achieve things that make us feel good both in mind and body- Namaste. www.towerbridge.com

Photography by Sarah Barnes

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Any fear of vertigo soon vanished as we were suspended above pedestrian life


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Chapter


Lifestyle and Wellbeing We can immerse ourselves in a 360-degree view of clean living by experimenting in areas of fashion, beauty and holistic healing. This chapter exhibits unique ways to optimise our health and discovers brands that epitomise a clean lifestyle. • •

The Essential Oil Medicine Cabinet 36

A Healthy Conversation With Vanessa Woozley 40 •

I’m In Love With The Coco 46 •

Will Bees Bespoke 50 •

Handpicked 56


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The Essential Oil Medicine Cabinet


Lifestyle and Wellbeing An Essential Oil is natures purist essence bottled. The natural medicinal offering that is becoming the alternate therapy, helping our health and wellbeing. As a generation we are prone to being over cautious when getting sick. We seem to take pills for everything and carry medicine around in our bags so if a friend suddenly gets a headache we are on hand with paracetamol or ibuprofen by the packet. Yes, modern medicine is an incredible thing and has made extraordinary discoveries but by taking such man made drugs we are interfering with our bodies natural defences as well as our immune systems. Yes, in critical cases medicine is necessary, however there is a more natural and healthy way to treat a common cold, stomach bug or a case of flu. An essential oil is the immune system of a plant and is most powerful when it’s in its natural habitat. Primarily extracted through careful steam distillation, these fragrant oils are naturally found in plants, flowers, seeds, bark, stems and roots. These oils are stronger than any other botanic or herbal essence. One drop of peppermint oil is the equivalent to twenty eight cups of brewed peppermint tea. Such essential oils have been used for thousands of years, outside the conventional approach, to treat illness and balance our health. Converted users take the oils to achieve complete mind and body wellness, as they are highly acclaimed for their powerful anti-parasitic and antibiotic properties. These essential oils, used individually or as a blend, can help to cure; IBS, colds, headaches, viruses, acne, asthma, menstrual pain and nausea. They can also be taken to combat; dipping energy and concentration levels, stress, anxiety and depression. Frankincense, one of the most powerful oils, is a natural anti-inflammatory and has even been used alongside chemotherapy when treating cancer.

neck and wrists are the most receptive. You can digest essential oils internally by putting a single drop into a glass of water. These oils have a rich culinary history and can treat health conditions from the inside out. However, the water and oil combination must always be drunk from glass, as the oils elements are so powerful that they can extract chemicals from plastic, which you do not want to drink. Any concerns or reservations about potential side effects of taking essential oils can be eliminated by the fact that they are 100% natural. You are recommended to take one drop every two hours and you may take between twelve to twenty four drops a day, making it very hard for you to overdose.

Doterra is a brand indebted to producing oils that are unadulterated and fully organic. They produce the highest quality and purity of oils with a 120 strong product range, with their oils extracted from their exact origin. Currently 75% of Doterra’s business is in America, however they are expanding into the UK due to an increasing demand for these high quality oils from open minded and spiritually educated Brits. I can vouch that these oils are tried and tested. At sixteen years of age I suffered a slipped disc, leaving me with constant sciatica and limited ability to walk while I recovered. During this time I relied entirely on mainstream pain relief to take away the continual agony I was in. I would wake up to nurofen and go to sleep with it to. I became mentally reliant on these pills as without them I felt I couldn’t move. As I began to recover I needed less and less medication, even though I still felt scared not to take it for the fear of being once again in terrible pain. It was then that I found natural pain relief in the form of Doterra Essential Oils. Four years later Essential oils can be taken in three distinct ways; and I have not touched any form of modern aromatically, topically and internally. Aromatic medicine. I rely on the diligent use of such oils to is the process of diffusing oils through the air help me feel healthy. It feels satisfying to know so that you breathe them in, hitting you on an that you have a strong body which can naturally emotionally stimulating level. This is useful when overcome problems that you once turned to treating sinus related problems or as a calming pharmaceuticals to cure. Next time you have a alternate to help insomniacs. When topically cold, headache, bad breakout, virus or bout of applied, the molecules of the oils are so small constipation try converting to essential oils and that they seep through the skin into the blood at experience first hand how powerful they can be; a fast rate. They are easily absorbed if the oils are nature is always the best medicine. rubbed on different body parts, the temples, feet, www.doterra.com

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Photography by Sarah Barnes. Model Georgie Griggs


Lifestyle and Wellbeing

Lemon. A detoxing citrus oil, used as a mood elevator and to make you feel awake. It dissolves stains and smells.

Oregano. This hot chilli oil is a natural antibiotic, taken internally with water, it is antifungal, antiparasitic and antiinflammatory. Also dilute with olive oil and put on skin tags and warts to heal them.

Breathe. A respiratory oil that is great for sinus related problems. Drop on either side of the nose to help with asthma, no need for an inhaler.

On Guard. A clove oil is high on the anti-oxident scale. Always use it preventatively to help kill viruses and colds.

Frakincense. The most powerful anti-inflammatory oil. It crosses the blood brain barrier so rub it on the roof of the mouth to bring down swellings.

Peppermint. A calming oil good to help with stress, tension, cooling the body, and getting rid of headaches. A tablet alternate for colds and flues.

Lavender. The best oil to help with anxiety and depression. Rub a drop on your feet to regulate sleep pattens and to lower blood sugar. It is also an antihistamine to combat hayfever.

39 Digestzen. A soothing oil that you can drop on your tongue to help with travel sickness, nausea and constipation.

Deep Blue. An impressive oil that is a natural form of pain relief. Use for back muscle and menstrual pain.

Melaleuca. The tea tree oil that is recommended for acne. Mix with honey and dot on the face. It also naturally kills bad bacteria, so use it as a cleaning product by putting a drop in soapy water.

Illustrations by Sarah Barnes

The Ten Most Used Doterra Oils’


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A Healthy Conversation With Vanessa Woozley 40

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Nutritionist, avid food fermenter, practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming and Gut Psychology Syndrome; Vanessa Woozley is the creator of The Life Sutra, a blog showcasing that good food does heal. Vanessa talks to me about using food as medicine, the brain-gut connection and the powers of essential oils, all benefiting us, the young generation. What were the personal incentives that first made you interested in clean eating? I have always loved food and studying nutrition but my interest in clean eating heightened when I couldn’t get past the 3pm slump so I started researching how athletes eat. I changed my diet and never looked back. When my daughter developed chronic eczema I went back to the books and discovered the GAPS diet, which has transformed our health. Her eczema disappeared, as did my hay fever and many other minor health symptoms. What are the top three improvements you have noticed by changing your lifestyle and the way you eat?

Limitless energy, no more crashes in the afternoon. My continuous low-level anxiety disappeared. I don’t get sick anymore; I have gone from 3-4 bouts of flu every winter to none. In your experience, what are the main benefits of exercising a healthy body and mind? I personally want to feel good. I know everyone wants this too but when you do this specifically through training your body and mind there are no negative implications. People come with different motivations to change their lifestyle, usually it starts as weight loss, but as energy, skin, sleep and clear thinking improves, the focus usually switches to health. What is your top healthy snack for someone studying or working on the go? Energy balls - with lots of seeds, coconut, coconut oil and just a couple of dates to bind them. These are full of lots of healthy fat to give you sustained energy and keep you feeling full but not too sweet and no refined sugar. What inspired you to start up your blog ‘The Life Sutra’, as a platform to engage


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Photography by Sarah Barnes.


The Raw Journal

“People come with different motivations to change their lifestyle ’Usually it starts as weight loss but as energy’skin’sleep and clear thinking improves’ the

focus switches to health’

Illustrations by Sarah Barnes

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Lifestyle and Wellbeing with others about your psychology toward nutrition?

(Sour Cabbage) from Germany or maybe even Natto (Soy Beans) from Japan but there are many others spanning the globe such as Kimchi, I suddenly felt passionately that more people Kefir and Kvass. In fact you can ferment any needed to know how good they could feel by just naturally occurring food whether it be fruit, adjusting their food. Basically ignoring everything vegetable, meat or fish. What you may not we have previously been told about low-fat and realise is that homemade Sauerkraut has more saturated fats and returning to a very intuitive beneficial bacteria than most therapeutic-strength way of eating, a clean whole-food traditional diet. probiotics that you can buy. Healing the gut and Social blogs have become a quick way to reach restoring beneficial bacteria has now been linked people on mass in a very visual way through to every major auto-immune disease of which videos and inspiring recipes. there is now an epidemic. On your blog you talk in detail about GAPS (Gut Psychology Syndrome) could you simply define this and explain how we can educate ourselves about its benefits? GAPS is the protocol created by Dr Natasha Campbell McBride, which looks at all the factors in our external environment that are causing the explosion of brain related illnesses. She is a doctor who healed her 3-year-old son from autism and who now leads a completely normal life. I would strongly recommend purchasing her book if you are affected by anything brain related but also asthma and eczema too. When taking on the GAPS protocol you have to look at repairing the gut which means removing toxins in the external environment and eating in a specific way. Lots of bone broth to heal and seal the gut and lots of fermented foods to add in beneficial bacteria. You also take out everything processed; particularly grains which can be a difficult one for most people

What single adjustments could we, as the young generation, do to improve how we eat and exercise? Eat healthy fats and stick to whole-foods, don’t make it anymore complicated than that initially. Make exercise fun, whether it be Crossfit (my favourite), dancing, zumba, yoga, running. If it’s fun and sociable you’ll want to keep going rather than go because you feel you have to. I’d also suggest investing in food because your health is your most important asset and most times you don’t realise that until you are unwell, so economise on others areas of your life but never on the quality of your food.

“More and more people are now open to alternative therapies and as people discover for themselves that they work, I’m sure we will see a bigger shift towards plant-based natural therapies.” You are a practitioner

How would you describe the term ‘Fermented Foods’ and what do we need to know about them being a powerful medicinal treatment? Fermented foods are eaten by many traditional cultures all over the world and before refrigerators, were a critical component of preserving food to last several months, even years. You’ve probably heard of Sauerkraut

of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). For some of us that are unsure of this term could you explain what it is and how you apply it to people you work with? NLP is a way of changing how you think by changing the words that you use and the pictures that you create in your head. This has become a very useful strategy for weight loss because if we can change how we think about certain healthy foods and change our perception of our own body image then it means we are no longer battling with our body. When most people start a diet they use lots of willpower, with feelings of dread and usually an expectation of failure. Conversely the strongest motivation to change is visualising your goals and knowing what you want

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The Raw Journal and why you want it, this makes the change much easier to achieve. What are the key discoveries that have most interested you about the links between; mind, behaviour and eating? I think the most fascinating element to me is the gut-brain connection. We only recently discovered that the gut is connected to the brain through the vegus nerve and they are constantly signaling information to each other. This changes how we focus on eating, the health of the gut can subsequently manage our cravings and stress activated in the mind can negatively impact the gut health. We can go further to say that improving the gut microbiome can significantly reduce anxiety, so the 2 systems are inextricably linked. This means to maintain consistent weight, moods, health, energy and sleep we have to address the health of the gut and change our thought patterns to achieve optimum health.

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You are also a huge advocator of using Essential Oils and work with the brand Doterra. If people are suspicious of the benefits of these oils, what advice can you give to reassure them? I would say that initially I was very skeptical but I would encourage people to do their research and check out the science on ‘Pubmed’ (scientific database for clinical trials) about what essential oils can achieve health wise and you will be blown away. Many times they are more effective than pharmaceuticals and without any noted side affects. Plants have been used for thousands of years as medicine and our generation has been led to believe they don’t work and that pharmaceuticals are the only option. More and more people are now open to alternative therapies and as people discover for themselves that they work, I’m sure we will see a bigger shift towards plant-based natural therapies. I would encourage people to be diligent with the type of essential oils they use. I chose Doterra because they source their oils from the indigenous country where they grow and they are unadulterated so 100% pure which means that their potency is much stronger than many other oils.

It is an achievement to say that your medicine cabinet is mainly filled with natural oils. What is the best essential oil out there for our young generation to be aware of and use? It is only filled with essential oils, I threw away all my pharmaceuticals a long time ago. It’s hard to generalise because each oil will have a specific property and will therefore suit a person for therapeutic use but also for mood management too. Lavender oil would be the most versatile because it can be used for stress, anxiety sleep and depression. I also love peppermint oil because it is amazing for focus and concentration and memory recall so those 2 oils work perfectly together for sleep and pepping up. Can you educate us on the future of curing yourself with essential oils? Do you see it becoming more accepted within mainstream medicine? Many long-term diseases currently have no real solution from drug companies where they can help manage symptoms at best. I don’t believe essential oils are the panacea either but they certainly offer a convincing alternative when you dive into the science of what they are being used to treat. Essential oils are now being used in 150 hospitals in America. Christie’s hospital in Manchester has just started using them too so it would be great for them to form part of medicinal offerings. In the meantime I hope we can convert a few more families to use them as part of their healthcare. What three pieces of advice can you give to any young person in 2016 wanting to optimize their lifestyle? Sleep more, worry less and eat well. What is your health mantra? The secret is to create small healthy daily habits; some examples of mine would be lemon and water on waking, followed by a smoothie for breakfast. I try and meditate every day or do yoga and go to bed on time. It doesn’t always happen but I can feel the difference when I don’t achieve these things. www.thelifesutra.com


Lifestyle and Wellbeing

A Thought We spend so much on materialistic things; cars, watches and phones, whether that being time or money. So why don’t we always spend the same on what we eat, when we exercise and how we care for ourselves?

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Im In Love With The Coco L

ike the avocado or green tea of yesteryear, let’s introduce coconut oil, from the Caribbean genius nut that has too many uses to count.

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The coconut is now an all round hero product. First came the coconut water obsession that had to be sipped lightly though a straw, a trend that saw coconut-based drinks appear on shelves all over town. Now the actual coco-nut is having its oily moment. Previously publicised as the new health alternative for cooking, it has seen increased household demand, earning a rightful place next to the hob, in line with the salt and pepper. Coconut oil, which is made from the fleshy white curls, has been promoted as the new super food and used as an alternative to virgin or sesame seed oil for years. Although don’t worry, not everything you cook will taste like a Pina Colada. It is scientifically proven that coconut oil can speed up the healing process as it naturally increases hydration and reduces water loss as well as being a natural antibacterial and antifungal, helping your skin heal faster from that grazed knee or elbow. Coconut oil has also been used in collaboration with toothpaste brands, as it is a natural teeth whitener with no side effects. The beauty industry has caught on to this miracle nut and is using it in countless beauty products without us knowing. You could always just use the raw version and place it on your cheekbones as a

natural highlight. It can be used as an alternative to makeup remover and has also been proven to help calm inflamed acne and discolouration; some even use it as a facemask at night for extreme hydration. It’s a completely natural moisturiser, so goodbye to dry hands left parched from fairy liquid. If you have split ends or fly away hairs, coat them in coconut oil or why not try it as a shaving cream? Dollop it onto your legs and shave away, you will soon be ready to film your Venus razor advert. Wanting to see what all the fuss was about I bought a jar and exchanged it as the single new product of my beauty regime. My first thought, will I enjoy smelling like a bounty bar? However, the smell dissipates and is not noticeable even to the most sensitive of noses. For seven mornings and evenings I smothered and slathered it in a delicate fashion onto my face as a makeup remover and late night moisturiser. So, were there any visible results? Mentally it was nice knowing that what I was putting on my skin was completely natural and all the chemicals of the highly priced and over advertised skincare products were redundant. I did notice I was subconsciously touching my face a lot, it felt soft and plump and did not breakout. Yes I will admit I am newly converted. Later on towards the chilly months we have in England, why not buy a jar and keep it in your bathroom cabinet, who knows what the coconut will do next? www.coconutmerchant.com


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Coconut Oil - Coconut Merchant. Photography by Sarah Barnes. Model Holly Russell


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The Raw Journal

Will Bees Bespoke Accessorising the Salcombe Coast.

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lean living is indulging in different sustainable aspects of life that improve your wellbeing. When approaching fashion and style it’s rewarding both environmentally and morally to find British craftsmanship and traditionally designed goods. Will Bees is the proud creator of Will Bees Bespoke, which transports us back to our true UK manufacturing roots, specialising in luxury accessories. Opening in 2014, Will Bees boutique on Island Street in the popular coastal town of upmarket Salcombe is a glorious cave nestled amongst the boatbuilding sheds of this seaside spot. In modern times it is hard to create something unique and different, not much is now original as we trend to regurgitate creative ideas with a fresh spin or a new angle. At a time when the high streets are full of mass-produced goods of

faraway provenance, Will Bees Bespoke prides itself on using only British manufacturing and the most reputable UK suppliers to create a collection of beautifully designed bags and accessories that are interchangeable with an array of distinct fabrics. Will has managed to turn industrial materials and traditional masculine designs into softened feminine luxuries. Simply inspired by timeless quality, 600 to 700 inimitable fabrics such as; checked wool or printed linens, tartans, leathers, are available in the shape of; tote bags, cross body bags, backpacks, clutches, coin purses, key rings and note books. Will’s specialist printed bags are also made using the signature fabrics from Liberty’s London, not to mention a budding men’s collection of leather wash bags, wallets and phone cases.


Photography by Sarah Barnes

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Photography by Willbeesbespoke.com

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Lifestyle and Wellbeing

“'We do manufacture on site and emboss everything on site, as both are integral

to the brand”

All the UK sourced fabric is cut and stitched by local artisans who are challenging the culture of mass production. The vegetable tanned leathers are enduring in quality, evident in their design, texture and smell. Will Bees bags embody seaside luxury and the inaugural range reeks with versatility, his philosophy is all about personalisation, therefore brassy embossing machines are on hand to emboss the buttery leather with your initials. I travelled to Salcombe to meet Will Bees. In the midst of his rustic workshop the front half serves as a beautiful adorned boutique, his bags are exhibited amongst old wooden cages and leafy green plants like tartan gems. Displayed alongside the raw exposed woodwork are the sewing machines, embossing contraptions and artesian tools. The floor is stacked with vintage trunks spilling with patterned coin purses and tanned leather diaries. Crystal chandeliers and patriotic British flags hang from the old restored roof pillars that support the back ceiling where a postcard window looks out onto the river with little docked boats. Can you sum up the concept of Will Bess Bespoke in four Words?

Bespoke, Embossed, Unique and English Made. Why is it important to you to source and manufacture everything in the UK? I just quite liked the idea of a British brand and at the moment that’s quite on trend. What we do on a small scale in the cottagey industry is make the products ourselves, therefore giving us the flexibility to respond quite quickly. Compared to mass production and importing things from China that are on the water for months, we don’t have those long lead times. Do you feel that it consolidates your brand by having your workshop and retail space intertwined? Yes it is really important that we do manufacture on site and emboss everything on site, as both are integral to the brand. Therefore the workshop and store have to work together. We go away and do shows, we sell direct to the public at horse shows and Christmas fares so we take our workshop and embossing machine with us. The two spaces working together was part of the original brand concept.

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The Raw Journal What intrigues you about particular fabrics that you use to create your signature bags?

We did start as a ladies brand and we have expanded into men’s stuff, we started with wallets and wash bags and now we have overnight cases We looked at tens of thousands of fabrics and and journals too. Even though we have expanded picked about 600 that vary from wools to cottons it will always be an accessories brand, so we will to wax canvas to velvet. Its basically materials that not go into clothing. As for technology, we have we like, and if we like it we will find a place for it introduced I-Pad and I-Phone covers but it’s just and then these variations are all combined with down to whatever new area we can cover. At leather. the moment we are just focusing on the purses, clutches and cosmetic bags, as maintaining high Why do you think your customers are after quality is most important to us. something personalised and individual? We live in such a disposable age and always I think personalisation is on trend but we do it in feel obliged to keep up with trends that come a unique and different way. So everything we sell and then quickly go. Will Bees wanted to is personalised for the customer, we have a small create theatre within the experience of buying product range of about 6-8 accessories but within his designs. His handcrafted bags blur the those products you can chose from 200 fabrics. line between materialistic goods and essential We have a very unique product that is chosen by possessions as they hold purpose and an ethical you and that can’t be found anywhere else. Also aesthetic. You feel that a bag bought here will some products we sell are between £20 to £50, have history and personality- a must for any which is an ideal price for gifting. patriotic accessoriser. Can you see your Will Bees Bespoke expanding into any other avenues of merchandise?

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www.willbeesbespoke.com


Photography by Sarah Barness

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HandpIcked Styling and Photography Sarah Barnes. Model Francesca Bennett. Hair and Makeup Jasmine Guida 56

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t is always largely satisfying to discover a brand of clothing that is a little more unusual in style than the mainstream clothing retailers. ‘Olive’ is a British contemporary clothing brand that combines heritage and modernity with simplicity and playfulness. A company that oozes the ethos of clothing quality over quantity of clothing. A clean lifestyle can even include what you wear and Olive’s concept is to commit to a slower pace of life- except when it comes to deliveries. Their clothing is sourced entirely ethically using 100% wool, cotton and leather. Made in the UK, the pieces are sold from their headquarters and flagship store in Cheltenham. Here you are immersed in a beautifully curated collection of crisp white shirts that are delicately embroidered with distinctive motifs. Soft toned knitwear is mixed with graphically structured dresses, wildly printed asymmetric skirts and accompanied by tailored suede jackets. Hinting at 60’s mischievousness, modern day work wear and a lazy Sunday casualness, all at the same time. Enabling you to create a seamless capsule wardrobe or simply integrate particular statement pieces that preference the natural and minimal over the noisy and the try-hard. The clothing feels

bespoke in design, texture and tailoring and is elegant, flirtatious and contradictorily graphic. Alongside, the edition of ‘La Bruket Apothecary’ products such as shea butter and coconut oil body lotion and a careful selection of beautiful magazine titles such as Cereal and Kinfolk. Olive is very synonymous with Managing Director Rohan Moore’s ethical beliefs. Actively using virtuous suppliers and fabrics, the brand forms positive relationships both in business and with their customers. The business is not just a commercial one but a cultural one too as Olive has remained funded, managed and wholly owned since founded in 2013, proving sustainability. Isn’t it nice for someone to ask you “Where is your dress from” and you proudly reply knowing that you are wearing a brand that is both individual and ambitious about environmental and cultural equality? It is refreshing to browse such clothing that is quirky in creativity yet sophisticated in design, the garments alone will sell you the brand and make you say ‘O’live another look’. Shop online or visit their flagship store to indulge in some homely retail therapy. www.oliveclothing.com


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Wool High Neck Jumper in Cream and Pink ÂŁ54 - Olive Clothing.


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Olive Clothing Oozes The Ethos Of Clothing Quality Over Quantity Of Clothing

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Pleated Detailed Dress in Black ÂŁ69 - Olive Clothing


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Pleated Detailed Dress in Black ÂŁ69 - Olive Clothing. Black and Tan Leather Mules ÂŁ60 - Whistles.


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Cactus Embroidered Cotton Shirt in Ivory ÂŁ48 - Olive Clothing


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The Cactus Fact The tender pads of a Cactus, known as ‘Nopalitos’, are gaining popularity among Europeans due to their health benefiting properties. The Nopales are very low calorie vegetables containing rich sources of dietary fibres, anti-oxidants, vitamin A and C and minerals such as; calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron. The Cactus juice is said to be immune boosting and anti-inflammatory, a victorious health plant that just proves to not judge by appearance.


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Statement pieces that preference the natural and minimal over the noisy and the try hard


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Chapter


Sleep and Leisure We need to optimise our knowledge about the importance of relaxation, imagination and sleep. In order to live a clean lifestyle we must be open minded when caring for our minds and bodies. This chapter explores the Primal laws of sleep and relaxation through different forms of escapism. •

Unplugging - The Purposeful Power Cut 68 •

This Is Where They Keep The Air 72

Inside The Imagaination Of Tony Hornecker 80 • •

The Art Of Creating A Zen Den 84 The Myth Of The Eight Hour Sleep 86


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Unplugging The Purposeful Power Cut 68

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ncient cavemen obviously didn’t have the technologies that we do today. They did not have social media or the ability to surf the web, so if in danger from a predator they could not ask advice from Google or Siri. Neither could they update their status or post an Instagram photo of their latest forage for food.

exposed that the average person checks their phone every 6.5 minutes. As a result people are beginning to tune out from their busy, hyper-connected and digital lifestyle in order to connect with themselves - it’s the new sublimity.

However, we are not hoping for a world without technology or rewinding back to when you could Instead they tactfully interacted with one anothonly contact a friend via telegram. Some of us er and shared stories through drawings on the just crave a world where technology doesn’t cave walls. They might of had it right from the override our lives. Technological advances have beginning. Touch is one of the core senses that had unimaginably positive effects on our world we are very much loosing as a generation. Why but also on the contrary it is mentally encrypting not touch someone on the arm, showing your to be constantly connected to every digital plataffection through visual body language, rather form. Tweeting, emailing and live streaming only than virtually poking them on Facebook? OnePoll turns our reality into a virtual one where the lines published a survey that showed that we Britons become blurred between what is real and what is collectively spend an estimated 62 million hours a a depiction of an idealistic concept exposed to us day on social media. Now that we live in a world via the Internet. that is tech dominated, perhaps we need to develop digital abstinence and detox from techWe tote around serious digital baggage every nology, learning to just be present in the most day that wreaks havoc on our minds and bodies. important of moments. ‘Text Neck’ isn’t the only physical ailment caused by staying constantly connected. Scientists at The art of clean living leads us to believe that Harvard Medical School have found that using mental relaxation is a resilient necessity when phones or laptops before bed can disrupt the looking after our wellbeing. A study by Nokia body’s natural production of melatonin, our sleep


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The Raw Journal hormone. This is due to the increased night time exposure to the infamous LED blue light that emulates from our screens. Such florescent light suppresses our melatonin levels, which can increase rates of depression and even cause retina toxicity. To combat this, Apple has invented an iOS 9.3 feature titled ‘Night Shift’. This control automatically changes the blue light to yellow when it becomes night time. This warmer spectrum of colour is the technology company’s way of bettering the safety of their devices, so exposure to the harsh blue light of our electronics will no longer misshape our natural sleep rhythms.

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So while we wait longingly for this software upgrade we have also been introduced to the ‘National Day of Unplugging’, a day created to encourage tech users to shut down their digital devices for twenty-four hours as a way to slow down, disconnecting to reconnect with ourselves and others. German Psychiatrist ‘Johannes Schultz’ developed ‘Autogenic Training’ in 1932. This is a relaxation technique that is a daily practice of three fifteen minute sessions, morning, noon and night. You are to repeat a set visualisation of your choice that induces you to self-produce a feeling of warmth and heaviness, letting you experience a profound state of physical relaxation and mental pace. Think of it as scientific meditation or self-hypnosis.

entertainment, cooking and even our working jobs. So on a lazy Sunday morning or a sleepy Thursday night, try not to reach for Netflix’s or update your social media, instead gather with family to talk and laugh, cook, bike ride or organize your wardrobe. It will feel detoxifying I guarantee. I hold vivid memories of when my family would rent this cottage in the Lake District. We had no connection to the outer world; we were completely unreachable with no Wi-Fi or Sky TV. A week of solitude from the binging of your Watsapp chat was liberating and helped one regain perspective. All the brain fog that was clouding you sunk away and you were left feeling refreshed. Now imagine feeling that release every single day? We need to stop living on social media and live in the now. Time Magazine reported that the average person spends 2 hours and 57 minutes on their mobile device every day, which excludes computers at work and television at home. We need to beat our technological addiction and learn to look up, as I have come to observe that we must now have our visual eye span at a downward facing angle. The space where our phone usually is, planted in our palms with fingers furiously texting away. It’s such a contradiction, as we want to capture, record and virtually share every moment in our lives to be able to experience it again later - that is our logical mentality.

Ancient caveman obviously didn’t have the technologies that we do today. They did not have social media or the ability to surf the web.

We as the young generation should put down our phones, which have perhaps come to be the ultimate form of digital distraction. Whether you want to experiment with ‘Autogenic Training’ or not, think of creating your own purposeful power cut. Limit yourself with your technological contact for an hour a day or week. Only by detoxing are we driven to the realization of the reliance we have on technology for everything, from

However lets focus on the moments that we can enjoy long after the orange hearts of Instagram have become obsolete and it no longer matters how many followers you gained on twitter. If we detox from technology and relax, we can then get out and appreciate those ‘save for later moments’.


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The wifi free cottage in the Lake District.


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This Is Where They 72

Keep The Air A small collection of photographs that I have taken on my travels. We need to stop living behind our screens and see what is around us.


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Stood on the quiet jetty - Salcombe Devon


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The Terracotta walls of a Spanish Hacienda - Cala De Mijas


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Observing the graphic angles of the Brooklyn Bridge - New York


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Selling street art in the West Village - New York


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Furry bikes parked up in Tuscany - Italy


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The distilled reflections of a vivid green lake - The Lake District


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Rolling shadows throw shade over Grasmere - The Lake District


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Inside The Imagination Of Tony Hornecker. An interview with the British instillation artist, set designer, childhood escapist and pop up dinner party holder.

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ony Hornecker is an artist of many mediums, successfully dabbling in set design, instillation art, sculpture, architecture and performance. His creations instinctively come from the deepest corners of his imagination, inspired by childhood and countless life adventures. Featured in i-D, Vogue and Dazed and Confused magazine, Tony has worked with Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Puma.

Photography by Tonyhornecker.com

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Tony’s northeast home and studio became an attraction in itself. An elaborate space that is a blend of a memory filled attic and a quirky Aladdin’s cave. Possessions are arranged in a loving randomness that somehow builds a whimsical set, a re-visitation to childhood imaginings. Perhaps well known to Londoners as ‘The Pale Blue Door’, in 2009 people would dine in the ornate nooks and crannies of Tony’s warehouse and drink and dance into the night. ‘The Pale Blue Door’ was so successful that it expanded to Buenos Aires, Santiago, Valparaiso, Berlin and Glastonbury Festival. In 2014 Tony curated an exhibition as a summative offering of his journey through Chile where he built homes from the raw materials surrounding him. He would live in these beautiful naturalist dens and photograph them. Coming back inside from the wild lands of Chile, Tony was commissioned to design the window displays for Hermes. He created a fairytale story that would be told across the windows of Britain.


Sleep and Leisure Holding the flare to create anything out of anything, Tony explains how he combines imagination and childhood escapism as a creative form of artistic release. We all need the opportunity to let our over worked minds wander in order to occasionally escape. When envisaging and building the instillations that you do, what draws you to the objects that you use and do they have particular personal sentiments? It is very instinctual really. Things seem to appear in a way. Once I set in motion an idea, the right chair will turn up on my corner, the right blanket at Oxfam. I think I have an overzealous eye that catches things other people miss in a way. I know what’s right and what’s not for each project. Then I keep everything. So things become very precious, their stories retold in new adventures. Its like giving life back to something that otherwise had ended. When dissected most of my treasures are trash, but when put together they become special.

Are there any past experiences or adventures that have triggered the inspiration for your exhibitions? It mostly comes from reading, or came from. I read incessantly as a child. It was my escape. It took me a long time to work out that my visual stimulation came from books and images from my childhood that I’d translate into 3D form. Now I use it as a tool all the time. Before each project I write a story, from there I create the visual. After watching your video about ‘The Homes Project’, what was the most inspiring thing about creating homes out of such natural environments? I guess the simple fact is that there is an abundance of material in the world, also how simple life can be and pleasurable. The rest is fairly irrelevant in a way. It taught me how much we use, yet how little we need. Imagination, dreams and fairy tales - why did you base your idea for the Hermes display windows on these mediums of thought?

The Pale Blue Door - London

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The Homes Project - Chile

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82 Again I wrote a book, a 5000 word story about a boy, a magical journey, love and loss. It was loosely based on the god Hermes, his son Pan, the nymph Echo and Narcissus. So initially I presented them with this book, rather than anything visual. Which was a surprise I think. They were amazing to work with, very supportive of my artistic freedom and integrity. I loved every minute of it.

boyhood and its relation to fashion. Could you see a nostalgic link between your work and the child like spirit which some of us still carry as adults?

Well I haven’t really resolved my childhood, and certainly never had teenage years. So I guess I’m constantly trying to experience something, a moment, that I never had. I kind of jumped from child to man, in a swift leap that left a lot Your work seems to expose people to the best of unresolved play. It was odd because the show and most interesting form of escapism, is this was about teenage years, a time I skipped but an important concept within your installations? somehow was able to connect too quite strongly. I will always be Peter Pan, until my wings fade to I like to be on journeys myself, so I like to take grey… Each year I say next year I will grow up. people away for a few hours. It’s very immersive, I think, to be in my spaces. They are very familiar What is the best way for you to let your mind somehow, cosy and inviting. Yet otherworldly too. wander and induce your young creative side? Its an odd juxtaposition I suppose. It’s like homely surrealism! Comfortable yet odd. I also like to With a bottle of red wine, usually around 3AM make people happy. And generally people leave when I have an important meeting the next day. I my installations with a smile. get very excited in the night. Insomnia has always played a role in my life somehow. I’m more Your recent involvement in the exhibit ‘Mad accepting of my ways these days. I’ve managed About The Boy’ at the London College of to get this far. Also making sure I have time out, Fashion showcased different aspects of to travel. To just be me, goofing around in a


Sleep and Leisure foreign country, dreaming and dancing. Then I bounce back full of ideas. But I need my time out. Most creatives do, although so many lose the opportunity. Success can ruin the soul. Designers forced to produce and produce. I burned out a few years ago and anything I did for a while was a knee jerk copy of something I’d done before. Now I’m rested and ready! Will ‘The Pale Blue Door’ make an appearance at any other locations in the future? I’m not sure if The Pale Blue Door will, but incarnations of it are in talks with The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and a small town in Cuba. What have you done that you are most creatively proud of? I think The Pale Blue Door, Berlin. It was, in retrospect an insane idea. To build a village for 8 people to live in, in ten days, to entertain 50 people a night, in a plot of land in the center of Berlin. We arrived with a van and a few materials, very little money. We knocked up a tent the first

day, some kind of shed. A few slept in the van. Each day Berlin would offer us the materials to build a house for someone. We built a kitchen, an open air shower. Everyone had their own little tree house. It was magical, until it rained. It rained on and off for weeks and was one of the toughest, yet most magical experiences for all who lived there and all who passed through. I’ll never forget it. If you could live in any sort of home; tree house, boat, underground; what would it be? I’ll end up in a ramshackle farm, all odd bits cobbled together, somewhere in Latin America. It will be my final piece of work. I’ll be surrounded by a large selection of animals, each will have his own wee house and will be loved and caressed as all animals should be. I will probably talk a lot to the animals, bang nails in things and crochet. Each lunchtime I’ll have a bottle of white wine in the sun and a nap. Then a bit more banging about and some gardening, followed by a lovely dinner and a bottle of red. Shut eye and repeat. Watch this space. www.tonyhornecker.com

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““ I Will always be Peter Pan until my wings fade to grey Each year I say next year

The Homes Project - Chile

I will grow up


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The Art Of Creating A Zen Den The Housing of a Holistic Space for the Seeking Escapist.

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lean Living, as a concept, does not advocate a hermit like retreat from society, with an individual over cautiously detoxifying every negative and toxic repercussion from everyday life. Instead it encourages people to recognise imbalance and correct it through clean and simplistic measures that positively affect our wellbeing and happiness. When life gets over complicated and pressurised we often earnestly seek different forms of escapism as a way to relieve the stress that has built up and started to consume us. I am curious to experiment with creating my own Zen Den, a term I have coined from the influence of both art and childhood memories. My aim- to somehow build a protective cocoon where I could shield from life’s distractions and then truly relax. Swiss born artist Pipilotti Rist is one of the pioneers in video art and experimental instillation. In 2015 Rist famously exhibited her ‘Worry Will Vanish’ installation at London’s Hauser and Wirth Gallery. It was an exhibition that created a fully immersed environment that connected all the human senses. People had to remove their shoes before lying down and relaxing under one of the many soft white duvets

that adorned the floor. Projected onto the screens above was a kaleidoscope of images that merged digitally into patterns of the body and nature. Rist’s exhibit encouraged people to relax and calmly escape into the images they were seeing and music they were hearing, thus turning the empty space into a retreat away from the hustle and bustle of London’s commercial West End. By doing so, Pipilotti managed to truly bring her audience into their comfort zone. This past exhibition has always been a curiosity of mine and inspired me to try and experiment and create a similar escapist space, by returning to the child like habits that once made us feel carefree. Do you ever remember as a small child when you and a friend would excitedly scream, ‘Lets make a den’ in high-pitched unison? You would firstly make a pillow fort, doing so by delving into the laundry cupboard and pulling out all the cleanly washed sheets and proceeding to pitch them around your bed, using whatever rope or hair ties to tighten the ends onto the bed-nobs. You would then rummage around your house and take every single conceivable cushion and blanket you could find and bury them inside. You would stand back to admire it proudly before


Sleep and Leisure sweeping aside the sheeted door and crawling though the small entrance to a warren of comfort and in there you would stay, surrounded by fairy lights much like the scene from the film ‘The Holiday’. Your sleepover would turn into a late night of telling stories by torchlight and making shadow puppets on the sheet walls. The next morning you would awake to be encased in a transparent cocoon, the early light creeping though the rumpled and scraggy corners of your makeshift den. It was a subconscious ritual of mine when I had friends over as a young child and it somehow always felt magical to create a place that you could all escape to. It would feel like a fairy tale, a Tim Walker photograph enriched with the harmless essence of our innocent imagination.

Photography by Sarah Barnes.

There is something so simplistic and acquitted about this memory. Sadly unlike the cardboard box fort that Chandler and Joey make in an episode of Friends, we all grew out of making these dens as we became adolescents. Although much like memories of our pasts we like to revisit them and when we do we are greeted by that nostalgic feeling of times before everything got more complicated. I wanted to once again build a Zen Den, revisiting this simple childlike past time. It is an important reminder to take time for

yourself, not only is it a silly creative exercise but now I had visions of again creating a Tim Walker like fantasy, latching on to his child like spirit and building something that acted as sensory memorabilia, providing a space to forget and optimise my tired and stressed wellbeing. I have photographed the end result after curating my own make shift Zen Den. Turning this child like practice of playtime into a more Feng Shui interior that decorated my bedroom. The maturing girl in me swayed away from the clashing cushions that once built a makeshift den as a by-product of a play dates past, instead I reached for more colour coordinated offerings and mood lighting. With a calming aesthetic, it indeed gave me a cave in which I could retreat and not worry, just virtually wonder and daydream. Providing the perfect place to write, read or simply lie still and think of nothing. Try creating your own personal instillation, a creative paradox between childhood memories and the adult necessity to escape. Think Tracy Emin’s bed installation yet not depressive, instead let’s reincarnate our imaginations and create the Zen place that your inner child would love. Pipilotti Rists new exhibit opens in Zurich and is a retrospective exhibition of her work from 1986 to present. www.ppipilottirist.net

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The Myth Of The Eight Hour Sleep 86

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law from the Primal Blueprint tells us to ‘Get Adequate Sleep’. This contradicts the myth society has poured on us that we must sleep for eight hours each night to function at our best. Of course it is scientifically proven that a lack of sleep can cause fatigue, slowing down your reflexes as well as making you feel generally sluggish and grumpy. Being sleep deprived is something no one wants, however there is a different way of sleeping that was practiced by our ancestors. Titled the ‘Bi Modal Sleep Patten’, it seems to be the answer to not only sweet dreams but to a deeper sense of unconscious serenity. The Bimodal Sleep Pattern or ‘Segmented Sleep’ is founded upon how historic human beings naturally slept in two distinct phases, with a period of wakefulness separating the two, a pattern our ancestors followed when sundials still told the time. The first sleep takes place after sunset for a couple of hours, then the person would wake for an hour or so and then resume sleep until the sun rises in the morning. Sleep historian Roger Ekrich found recordings of two sleeps, the ‘Deep Sleep’ and the ‘Morning Sleep’ in historical books, medical files and even

the Bible. Caveman would wake in the night to be on guard from predators or in Islamic Religion you would wake to pray or meditate - we can guess how midnight mass acquired its name. Creatives have been known to wake in the dead of night to write or paint, so suddenly it makes sense to keep a pen and paper beside your bed to grasp at those floating thoughts we have at night, which by morning we can no longer remember. It is proven that this methodical sleep pattern optimizes the right side of the brain and also discharges high levels of prolactin, a hormone associated with a feeling of calm and well-being thus making you feel more peaceful at night and therefore more awake during the day. So why did we stop sleeping in segments? The introduction of artificial lighting and clocks must be at fault. Before such inventions the night was a mysterious realm, which could not be subdivided into minutes and hours. Also as the centuries progressed so did human evolution and the bigger scale of busy modern day lives. Could this loss of a solid intermission in our dreamlands be good? I used to suffer with insomnia as a child due to a very distinct imagination that would keep me


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Photography by Sarah Barnes. Model Jessica Barnes


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Segmented Sleep is founded upon how historic human beings naturally slept in two distinct phases with a period of wakefulness separating the two 88 awake night after night, so now I was inquisitive about what people did in that dark hour of wakefulness, buried in-between sleeps. I felt compelled to experiment with this and see just how it felt to sleep Bi Modal. So for seven days, each night I theoretically had two sleeps split by an hour of wakefulness. After two days I developed a growing hatred toward the sound of my alarm at 1am. I awoke in the mornings feeling unrested and irritated that my hours of being awake were a sort of confusing time blip filled with blurry thoughts and nonsensical dreams. However, being humans we have learnt to adapt to change and admittedly by the fourth day I felt somewhat used to this pattern and came to expect and weirdly look forward to my single hour of wakefulness. Somehow it is a strange feeling to be the only person awake at night in your house, not eerie but calming and you are exposed to feelings of absolute stillness and clarity. I would actually use my hour to read or edit photography or listen to music and plan my week ahead. Strangely I found myself more alert

during this time and briefly became a productive nocturnal, before dipping back into sleep. I can understand why they named it a pattern as it had become unexpectedly easy to fall into. I would recommend this way of sleeping to the simply inquisitive, the creative type who is curious to experiment in the dead of night. Granted it takes some getting use to but you have the capability of a solid hour without interruption. Fill this with reading that book you never finished, sketch and illustrate or perhaps write that short story you never have time for. You will be surprised at the ideas that creep up to you in the dead of night - a sort of light bulb moment in the dark. This could be considered an eccentric practice and rightly so, it seems obscure to not just sleep thought the night as we have been doing comfortably for years. Although would it be crude of me to say ‘sleep on the idea’ after all its supposedly our ‘natural resting condition’. Maybe this way of sleeping will become more accepted and integrating much like the Spanish Siesta, would not sleeping Bi Modal ever become abnormal again?


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Photography by Sarah Barnes. Model Jessica Barnes


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Photography by Sarah Barnes.

We are the young generataion who are intent on optimising our wellbeing within this lifestyle subculture We want to feel the unity of people caring about their minds and bodies. We are the Art of Clean Living.


The Raw Journal

The Paleo and Primal lifestyle is inspired by millions of years of human evolution. It is a sustainable combination of nutrition, fitness and behaviours that aligns you with a positive wellbeing, aiming to improve your lifestyle quality both physically and cognitively.


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