Durango Mom Interview with Julie Cove of The Alkaline Sisters

 I am so excited for the first Durango Mom interview and am having so much fun 'meeting' new friends in this little blog space, as people send in their interviews. Thank you all! 

The Durango Mom interview will become a regular weekly feature with a new interview each Monday. 

I am so excited to bring you the woman behind one of my favorite food blogs, the Alkaline Sisters. Her name is Julie Cove and she has recently done a 360 in her life around diet and food. Her blog is informative and lovely and delicious. What more could you ask for?


Hello Julie!

Name and age:  

Julie Cove  47, ooops just had my birthday, now I'm 48!  For me it's just a number and I often forget how old I am.  I don't obsess with my age and I never, ever have.  It's how you feel inside that makes your age clear.  I feel more like I'm barely 40!

kids and spouse?:

I am married with 3 great kids, an adorable 5 year old daughter (so glad I got a girl!), a vibrant 9yr old son and a laid back 19 yr old son.

Location:

I was Born and Raised in Victoria B.C. and haven't left cuz I love it here!  Sometimes the rain is a little much but a warm vacation is a good remedy!

Occupation:

I am a qualified Interior Designer of 25 years, and a Retail Home Accessories and Furniture Shop keeper for 19 years (just retired from this), and have been blogging as a  Healthy food blogger for 1 year, creating, writing and styling recipes with extensive studies and experience on the Alkaline Lifestyle at www.alkalinesisters.com. 

Preoccupation:

I am obsessed with style props and sometimes they drive my creative juices in concocting a yummy alkaline recipe to fit the prop.  Kinda backwards but I find it more challenging and I end up with something more unique and fresh.

Unusual distinguishing characteristics:

I'm an Aries to the Max!  I never sit still, always spontaneous, a 1000 ideas of what to do and never stop at No!  My 9 year old son is exactly the same so it's interesting to see myself in him!

coffee or tea:

I only ever have herbal tea (obsessed with Good Earth-Sweet and Spicy) and the very occasional almond milk latte as a treat- sweetened with stevia or agave-and it's got to have cinnamon on top!

type A, B or C:

Definitely Type B, no question here! 

clean freak?:

I like a tidy clean house but I learned that time spent with my family is more important than fussing with domestic chores.  We are very blessed to have a nanny to assist us with our family a few days a week but when she's not there I'd happily set the chores aside and live in a little bit of messiness for time with my kids.  You can't get that lost time back and with my daughter still at the precious age of 5, I am doing my darnedest to savour it!

herbivore or omnivore:

My personal health journey has lead me, with much study, to evolve from an omnivore to a full on herbivore in the last 2 1/2 years.  If you had asked me 3 years ago would I consider being vegan I doubt I would have said yes.  But when pain is your biggest motivator and you start waking up to the current health issues and environmental impact of today it's most impossible NOT to respond and adjust.  Because of this shift, I have never felt better and I enjoy a truly healthy and conscious lifestyle, knowing my choices are slowly making a difference and will assist me in maintaining a more healthy, energetic and disease free body.

favorite book right now:

Crazy Sexy Diet, Kris Carr-If you haven't seen this book,  it's fun witty and shares her triumphant success in beating untreatable stage 4 cancer with an alkaline lifestyle and how to do it yourself for cancer or for optimal health.

favorite movie right now:

Food Matters Documentary  “Let thy Food be thy Medicine and thy Medicine be thy Food” – Hippocrates.

In a nutshell, what does a day in your life look like?

Well.... I am sooo excited that a new way of life is just beginning for me since my retail store has just closed- Like yesterday!  I'm excited to spend more of my days building my blog and my journey for sharing an alkaline lifestyle.  So a day in the life might be waking to my healthy green juice, then a green smoothie, as I get the kids off to school and then rotating days for writing and then days for recipe creation and styling and shooting.  I plan to socialize weekly with either a shop visit or lunch with a friend so I can leave the house to mix it up bit- but I do look forward to some time to work alone and really focus on building the Alkaline Sisters.

If you could only wear one thing, for the rest of your life, what would it be.

It would be my extremely cozy chunky knit cardigan from Scotch and Soda in Amsterdam.  It's thick, it's long and I never feel the chill in this fabulous long fitted sweater! and add a pretty scarf!

Is there any product(s), of any kind, that you swear by?

My Super Greens Powder in my daily water is my Elixir! and 2nd to that is my Phor Salts mineral powder that is also my daily fix that is a forever regime.  With out these two my day is not the same.  Both offer such an extreme benefit to my daily health regime and I do notice the difference if I skip them.

What is your 'go to' meal. The one that everyone in the family loves and is fairly easy for you to pull together. (and we may need that recipe!)

Because we always have tons of veggies in the house I would say that a Stir Fry with brown/kamut rice is our 'go to'.  We only lightly heat the veggies thru to maintain more nutrients and we still have a raw veggie tray or salad along side this recipe to maintain a high volume of veggies.  The rice is just an accent.  What I love about this is you don't need a recipe, it's kinda like making a soup, you just use what you have on hand and whip up a flavour that you are in the mood for to toss it all with and voila you have a yummy dinner.  Our most common flavour is sesame, ginger, garlic, Braggs (a soya sauce alternative) and sometimes a squeeze of orange.  But sometimes it's sweet chilli or curry.

Do you exercise ? What? How much?

My goal is to exercise consistently so I re-organized the garage and set up an exercise gym with a TV.  I never watch TV unless I can also be productive at the same time and even then I insist on inspirational or educational TV.  I am aiming for 3-4 times a week and working into 7 days.  I have a power plate vibration machine, elliptical, treadmill and weights. I also do pilates workshops.

What keeps you sane and centered? How do you renew, recharge and restore yourself?

Finding time to be alone is what usually fills me up and recharges my batteries!  As a mom and and entrepreneur with staff (until yesterday) my alone time over the years has been near impossible to find yet I have discovered that it's what I need the most.  I am often found reading or writing when everyone is asleep as this is my only time alone.  I also fit Spa time in as this is sooo nurturing for my female soul!

What is your most important family ritual?

Eating dinner together at a nicely laid table with flowers most every single day is a must.  We go to great lengths to make this happen and it is usually 7 days a week.  It's not easy, but as a mom with big gaps in age amongst my kids, family bonding time around the daily table is mandatory.  That's when we also share our day's best and sometimes worst happenings!

What is your greatest wish for your children?

I wish for each of them to have strong self confidence and a positive attitude for life.  With these traits you can endure most anything life has to deliver.

Have to ask. What is your greatest wish for yourself?

For myself, my greatest wish and what also really fills me up, is to inspire as many people as I can possibly reach in a positive way.  Inspiring others is one of my top values, besides being creative.  I have spent 25 years inspiring beautiful ideas for making a house a home, from the products I have provided in my store, to teaching over 1000 classes via my shop, sharing ideas that enable others to be creative.  Though I have finished my journey in retail, I really haven't changed my focus as I will always continue to inspire others in some way, shape or form.

Do you have extensive knowledge in a particular area that you would be willing to share in the future? examples: dyslexia, breast feeding, home schooling, wart treatments, field dressing road kill, preserving, gluten free eating,... get it? This would be in the interest of creating a network of resources.

It is my passion to inspire a healthy lifestyle and how to maintain it with recipes and reasons to choose healthy options.  I believe that the importance of making good food choices that nurture our body for every meal has been lost.  I will forever be sharing the benefits of making good food choices for a most every of symptom of ill health as I believe the alkaline diet is the way we were designed to fuel and nurture our body.  I'd be happy to share my knowledge here on Durango Mom on most any topic of health that readers might be interested in as they seem to all apply to lifestyle and diet.

Thank you kindly, Ivey, for inviting me to share a little more about what makes me tick and what fills me up.  I'm excited to read about other moms in your new column and I hope that I have in some way inspired your readers with my answers.

...............................

A HUGE thanks to Julie! She worked on this while relaxing with her family in Hawaii, and that goes above and beyond the call of duty, in my book! I hope you will all take a moment to read more about her journey over on her beautiful site, The Alkaline Sisters.