Exactly ten years ago this week, I faced all of my fears and jumped out of a plane. Today I am facing my fears and exposing online, things that only my closest friends know about my life.

What’s incredible is how in the very act of doing so (and for a long long time after), it is when you grab those fears by the horns, that your entire perspective on them changes. I never thought that I could go skydiving, but the second my feet touched the ground I enquired about getting qualified so I could do it over and over again. As I nervously publish this post about my personal life, I am reminded that YOU are also a close friend, that you are only reading this because we are supposed to connect in this way and that we are here to support one another. It feels so good to share my world with you and  I’m grateful for you every day.

So ‘fear’, my friend, is just an illusion. We have all come from love, love is what we are and it is where we are going. What ever happens along the way may be out of our control, but the way we react to it and the way we feel isn’t.

So here we go…

28 Things you probably didn’t know about me (in no particular order)…

1. My full name is Tatiana Vladimirovna Alekseeva. My family call me Tata. My sister calls me Bro. To my friends, I’m Tanz, Tootsie, Tits, Tats, Taniwha, T, TanTan, Tanka, Tina, T-dawg and Meatball.

2. I don’t remember my dreams.

3. When I learned to hypnotize myself each night before bed to remember my dreams, I saw all kinds of events which haven’t occurred yet but soon came true, exactly the way I saw them in my dreams. I don’t like knowing my future, so I stopped the hypnosis.

4. I like to eat chocolate first thing in the morning.

5. I coach others to menu plan and shop for groceries one week in advance, but go grocery shopping daily myself. It gets me out for walk and fresh air.

6. Most people aren’t able to guess which is me the first time around:

7. I don’t like labels or dogmas and refuse to refer to myself as a raw foodists, a vegan or a vegetarian. I eat whatever tastes good and is good for me. Therefore, the only label I’m comfortable with (and love) is being a Nutritarian.

8. I was always ‘the sober driver’.

9. If we were granted top health and body no matter what we ate and no animals would suffer for our actions, I’d include tiramisu, milk chocolate, cheesy arancini  balls and red wine to my daily menu.

10. For years I thought that I’d be an art teacher. Now I teach healthy eating and recipe creation is my art. I guess you can say, that I’ve made it! 

11. I used to be a children’s face painter and a balloon sculptor.

12. My fiancé Elliot and I were already living together before we started dating. I suppose if you can be flatmates first, then you’ve got a good platform. I can honestly say that it’s possible to love someone more every day of being together.

13. For nearly a year, I attended two entirely different universities, studying two entirely different full-time degrees, until I experienced what a break-down feels like for an entirely first time.

14. Blonde isn’t really my natural colour.

15. I’m a total homebody. And prefer to work from home, study from home, run my coaching practice from home, develop recipes from home and host parties here too (can you tell that I’m typing this from home?).

16. Travel is my sport. That’s about the only time I’ll refer to myself as very sporty.

17. Elliot and I got to drink tea with the Queen.

18. I wouldn’t trade my life for the world. Unless if my parents asked. I’d do anything for family.

19. I drink at least three cups of peppermint tea at home every day. But if I am out, I’d never go for peppermint, ever.

20. I’ve never missed an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I often fantasise about being Kourtney’s raw food coach, Khloe’s channeller, Kim’s chef and Kris’s best friend.

21. I couldn’t hit a musical note if my life depended on it.

22. If I had to choose one food to live on for the rest of my life- I’d choose avocados. Close second is chocolate.

23. If I had to choose one word to describe myself, it would be loyal. Close second is awesome.

24. I love to have a clean floor. Highly dislike cleaning it though.

25. I never learned to drive a manual.

26. I have one younger sister. She once gave me a birthday card, which on the outside read: ‘To my sister, if you were any cooler…”, then on the inside: “.. you’d be me”. No handwritten message, just a store bought empty card. I thought it would be funny if I gave it back to her on her next birthday. We’ve now been sending each other this very same card for nearly 10 years. Oh and it’s full of little handwritten messages.

27. By the age of 23 I was a property investor for the third time.

28. Apparently I laugh in my sleep. A lot.

So there we are. If there’s anything else you’d like to know or anything you’d like to share yourself, hit me up in the comments below!