KIDS IN THE KITCHEN

“It was no longer just about creating tasty meals, but instead about loading my body with as many vitamins, minerals, nutrients and greens as possible. "I’ve always got the girls in the kitchen with me… Anyone who’s been through a serious illness like that knows that your body just feels it’s been stripped bare whether it’s getting them to – running on empty once it’s over. choose what they want us “All you can do is try and build yourself up again though wholesome, nutritious foods, which for me to cook that night, or just still needed to be loaded with flavour.” giving them a wooden COOKING WITH KIDS spoon to help mix up Food prep and cooking is essential family time in the Obermeder household. some ingredients"

“I’ve always got the girls in the kitchen with me and I like to involve them wherever I can,” Sally says. “Whether it’s getting them to choose what they want us to cook that night, or just giving them a wooden spoon to help mix up some ingredients, I think it’s incredibly important to teach them the value of not only cooking – but nourishing your body at the same time.

“Cooking is family time, they know this. After we’ve prepared a meal we sit down and enjoy this all together, catching up on the day and their little worlds. This time is precious. It teaches them that food and cooking connects people, and is good for your wellbeing in more ways than one.”

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THE DINNER’S DONE SYSTEM “The system we’ve created in Dinner’s Done was inspired by a need to cook smarter, not harder,” says Sally. “The less time in the kitchen, the better (even for someone who loves cooking as much as me!). It gets all your midweek meals prepped and ready to eat in a few hours.

“One of the main points for us was that the process had to be streamlined – not to have 10 pots and pans on the go at once! It’s seamless, fuss-free and time-efficient.

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“For Maha and I, this system has been a game changer, giving us back precious time and energy – without compromising on delicious meals or spending a fortune!”

GIVING BACK AND FORWARD A passionate advocate of causes, Sally is also an ambassador for the National Breast Cancer Foundation and The Sony Foundation, and works with the Breast Cancer Network of Australia and The Nelune Foundation, that provides psychological and practical support, assistance and care for public hospital and underprivileged cancer patients in the community – “Helping patients fight cancer with dignity”.

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She has also written Never Stop Believing, a memoir about her TV career, undergoing IVF and battling cancer. Maha is a best-selling author, entrepreneur and certified health and nutrition coach, not to mention the other half of the brains behind SWIISH.

Together the sisters have produced bestsellers Super Green Smoothies, The Good Life, Simple and Lean and Super Easy.

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Give Away

GET YOUR OWN COPY OF DINNER’s DONE Thrive has three copies of Dinner’s Done, worth $29.99 each, to give away to the first readers who email giveaway@thrivemagazine.com.au and tell us how Sally and Maha’s innovative cooking system will make their life a whole lot easier!

Watch how Sally and Maha make dinner so easily here and then flip to page 39 for some great Dinner's Done recipes

USEFUL Versus POSITIVE THINKING

THE SIMPLE SHIFT: BEING CONSCIOUS AND COURAGEOUS IN WORLD OF CHAOS

By CHRIS HELDER

Life is overwhelming. In a hotel room on a business trip before COVID restrictions, I was watching a morning TV show with a guest who was one of a seemingly never-ending array of health and fitness gurus looking to make more noise than the last. Then I heard him say: “We are actually not advocating stretching anymore …”

Stretching? Really? I stretch every day. And every day the advice I hear seems to contradict what was given two weeks ago. It’s chaos! It is impossible to keep up.

The world is full of noise that we are both addicted to and annoyed by. In this COVID-19 world it is noisier than ever, with an overload of information on our devices.

Sometimes I can’t believe the things I click on, from the Daily Mail headline about a famous sports personality’s drug addiction to the latest celebrity wardrobe malfunction. There is also the constant “messaging” through media and social media that we, ourselves, are somehow not good enough. This is on top of the fact, it is well documented, that many of us have a level of addiction to the feel-good hormone – dopamine - that is boosted when we get affirmation through likes on our social media.

There are arguments to be made that this is the most complicated time in human history. While for the most part we are safe from dying at the hands of marauders from a neighbouring village, there are the highest recorded instances of depression, anxiety and general unhappiness. Now we add in escalated isolation, sickness and unemployment.

Yet even with everything going on, we live in the greatest time in human history. It doesn’t seem like it right now but it’s complicated. Maybe we need to simplify it …

Typical motivation speakers tell us to be positive. Our parents and teachers told us to try and be positive in life. But positive thinking doesn’t really work. Really.

"Chaos thinking leads to weak decision making."

For example, if you've been in a rut in your life for the last six days, six weeks, or even six months, it’s not positive thinking that will get you out. If you are anticipating being in a rut for the next six days, six weeks, or six months it’s not positive thinking that will help you move forward, either.

Imagine if you were in a bad mood at work and someone walked up to you and said: “Hey, snap out of it! Just try to be positive!”. What would you want to do them? It’s fair to say it wouldn’t be a positive outcome. It’s the same as lying in bed in the morning and telling yourself: “Come on, you can do it. You can have a good day today. Just be positive. Walk into work and try to be positive.” But studies show that by 10 o’clock, if something bad happens, you are no longer able to sustain that level of positive thinking and feel worse than when you started.

I don’t teach positive. I teach this word - USEFUL. Because if you have been in a rut the last six days, six weeks, or six months, it's not “positive” that’s going to get you out of it. It’s “useful”.

If, for whatever reason, you are feeling at ground zero in your life, the question is not how can you be positive, but what is the most useful thing to do to get from zero to two, from two to five, five to eight?