{"id":29531,"date":"2017-05-09T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T06:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/?p=29531"},"modified":"2017-05-02T11:17:28","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T08:17:28","slug":"eliq-maranik-smoothie-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/eliq-maranik-smoothie-queens\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliq Maranik: Smoothie Queen\u2019s Health Kick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eliq Maranik, the Estonian-born author <\/b><\/span>of more than twenty books, mostly devoted to her favourite smoothies and other healthy recipes, didn\u2019t always think she\u2019d be writing for a living. \u201cI never chose that, it chose me I suppose! I wanted to be a singer – I\u2019ve thought I would be on a stage since I was three years old. I think I\u2019m more of a teacher. I\u2019m still taking my singing lessons, though.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Maranik, now 36, began publishing her recipes when colleagues at a publishing company in Sweden, where she worked as a designer, remarked how much they enjoyed her lunchtime drinks, encouraging her to show them how she made them. It might have come as a surprise to her initially, but Maranik is now a woman in demand, with her books published in sixteen languages and counting, including English, Finnish, Estonian and Swedish.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The most recent release, <\/b><\/span>Winter Smoothies, will be followed by Vegan Smoothies, available now in Finnish and English, and due to be released in Estonian in May as Healthy Smoothies, the name it carries in Finland and Sweden. Later in the year, fans will also be able to read Probiotic Smoothies, Maranik\u2019s guide to how to harness the power of friendly bacteria for a healthy lifestyle.<\/span><\/p>\n

The author was keen not to be seen as a didact, preferring to let people live as they wish, and simply describing what works for her in her life. One of the things that makes her so happy is living peacefully with her three year-old daughter in her current home, Malaga. \u201cI\u2019ve been coming to Malaga for ten years more or less; I made friends here, and then I decided to have a baby, and I decided I wanted to do something in my career that meant I wasn\u2019t dependent on anybody or anything. I used to have loads of employees, but now I can take care of my soul and my spirit, and writing is perfect for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have loads of time for training, which is a big part of my life. I can\u2019t imagine my life without training. My friends say I\u2019m not healthy, because I sometimes go to the gym for two, three or four hours. There\u2019s yoga too – my daughter loves it, we put on some calming meditation music and we can be there for hours. If you do yoga, you just don\u2019t eat bad food. It comes naturally. My body says, \u2018no, Eliq, because you\u2019ll have a headache later on!\u2019 If I have one glass of champagne, I know I\u2019ll have a huge hangover – I\u2019m a cheap date! I\u2019m a vegetarian because of my health – I realised if I ate non-vegetarian food, I got huge headaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to everybody to have their own lifestyle,\u201d Maranik continued, \u201cI like my own lifestyle – it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean people can do three or four hours\u2019 training a day, but that\u2019s my life. I also like to read, but that\u2019s work, because I have to read, as a writer. I don\u2019t really read news at all, though.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It might seem from the outside like the self-styled \u2018Smoothie Queen\u2019 lives a life free of sinful indulgences, but some are allowed. Maranik trains hard so she can enjoy the occasional pastry treat later. \u201cI\u2019ve been a croissant-eater since I first went to Paris, and I know I can\u2019t go near fresh croissants because I\u2019ll want to take ten of them, so I know there are some addictions in my life that I need to work on. If I go to Paris, I\u2019m going to let myself eat those ten fresh croissants. I can give this love to my body and my soul, because it\u2019s nurturing myself in some way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chocolate is also on the menu<\/b><\/span> from time-to-time. \u201cI haven\u2019t bought presents for the past ten years, so one Christmas I was making chocolate pralines, with natural ingredients, but of course containing sugar. I\u2019m an artist – I like to do things with my hands – and I realised, \u2018I\u2019m actually quite good at this!\u2019 I decided to write a chocolate book for that reason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI made a whole chocolate book, how to make rubbish-free pralines, cakes and so on, with natural ingredients, because, simply put, most of the bought stuff was full of palm oil, E-numbers, and artificial ingredients. It still wasn\u2019t a healthy book, though.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Maranik once worked on an Estonian television show in which obese members of the public were given diet plans and their results measured, the cook said it was always better to lose weight in a controlled way, over a lengthy period of time. \u201cFast weight loss is not the healthy way – it\u2019s better to change your lifestyle in the long run. There was one guy, in one week, he lost eight kilos, but that\u2019s not healthy, you lose too much energy. Generally, if you follow a healthy lifestyle, the body weight is going to work things out for itself. There are eaters out there, some people love chocolate, for example, and so for them, they can say if they want to have a piece of chocolate, they have to run for thirty minutes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Maranik was happy to exchange opinions on the many diet options that had sprung up in recent years. Regarding the paleo diet, where all food is at the lowest possible level of manufacture, she said \u201cit\u2019s never going to last forever.\u201d However, the key, she added, was for people to make their own choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

With many cooks and authors also taking advantage of social media and vlogging to reach new followers, Maranik confirmed this was something she was considering. For any young person who wanted to follow in her footsteps, she had some useful tips. \u201cWe all have the power within ourselves, we just need to believe in ourselves. Today it\u2019s all about social media, and letting the true \u2018you\u2019 shine through. Believe in your own special powers, because we all have them, and don\u2019t give a shit what people think of you!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TEXT SRUART GARLICK, PHOTOS KR\u00d5\u00d5T TARKMEEL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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