I can hardly believe it, but the dream I’ve been busy building since for ever and working on tirelessly with the best team in the world for the last five months, has just been realised.

I have a cafe! With my own fricken name on it!!!

It’s been so full on that I don’t remember the last time I sat down or even slept for more than 5 hours, but today… today is different.

I finally got a chance to sit on our comfy cafe banquettes, looked around at all the beautiful natural walls full of living plants, observed the hardworking team happily chatting away and then overheard a customer on the phone:

‘I found the perfect new spot for us! Meet me in Chelsea, at Tanya’s.’Then suddenly, it sunk in.
This is the real deal.
These are real customers.
These are real people who really love raw food. My raw food!
These are real chefs who can make my recipes to my standards and perfect them to theirs.
These are real mixologists, who are as passionate about incredible cocktails as I am about quality, superfoods and life.
This is my new family. And they love coming to work and promoting the healthiest lifestyle ever.
This is my new home, my new office, my new happy place.

One day I will figure out how to put so much gratitude, joy and emotions into words, but for now I am happy sitting here breathing in what love created. 

It was built for you, so I invite you to do the same. If you are anywhere near London, stop by and say hello. We are open 7 days a week 7am-11pm (apart from Sunday and Monday when we close at 4pm). 

Our menu offers a variety of breakfast items, including rawtella un-toast and dehydrated fruit crepe, pour over coffee, cold-pressed juices, smoothies and liver flush shooters. Our lunch menu has an even bigger selection and includes multi-layered lasagne, detox salad, soft shell tacos with marinated oyster mushroom meat, pad thai and organic natural wine. Then come four- you can enjoy a shared platter of nachos or cheesecakes and chocolates, as well as our superfood cocktails made only with the top quality, vegan and organic spirits mixed with cold-pressed juices and superfoods.

Here’s more: www.TanyasCafe.com

I can’t wait to see you! Now we have a meeting spot 

With Love,

x Tanya

Today I learned about the sad sad news of losing our Polly.

The fire and ambition in her soul was almost comparable to the size of her kind heart. Polly Noble was an inspiration to so many around the world via her blog, Instagram/Twitter/Facebook posts, her book, eBooks, online courses and magazine articles. I know that she lived, worked and fought till the very end, but perhaps Heaven was looking for a magical angel and there’s truly no one like Polly.

Her struggling, surviving, thriving, fighting and struggling with cancer again and again has been a roller coaster for some years now, but she never gave up. There wasn’t a therapy that she didn’t explore, whether it was as mainstream as chemo or as alternative as John of God in Brazil. What this brave girl went through would make any of our worries seem insignificant, but she never rubbed it in and powered on, making us watch her in total awe and feel like we can do absolutely anything.

I am shaking as I type this, not even sure why I’m posting news that are this raw and sorrowful, but I’m being guided right now and I have a feeling it’s by Polly herself.

Actually I know it is.

I know that she’d want her family to know how much all the insane laughter helped her stay sane.

I know that she’d want her friends to know how their support was the greatest gift in this short life.

I know that she’d want her followers to know that it was their kind comments that gave her strength to carry on.

And I know that she’d want me to share this below conversation we had over text just after my and Elliot’s engagement party last year.

I know this, because she recently told me just how much that text meant to her and how encouraging words can keep your spirit alive, even when your body won’t keep up. She also mentioned about how much more power hurtful words have, which sometimes override any other beliefs. This really struck a cord with me.

So let Polly’s wisdom serve us all as a reminder to be kind with our words, no matter if they are aimed at a close family member, a colleague, a stranger or anonymously on social media.

Thank you for helping me write this, my friend. Love you always.

Did you know?

Doesn't that fill you with happy vibes just knowing it? Knowing that people all around the world are doing spontaneous awesome things- no strings attached, no expectations, no exchanges, no bargaining, just because?

I was sitting in a hair salon, when my bestie texted to say that someone did the most unexpected sweet thing for her and that she wants to continue the ripple effect. 

I too was so inspired, that I went straight to my local veggie store in Fulham to purchase a large watermelon, offered to pay the shop man a little extra to chop it all up into nice big slices, then walked outside and gave half to a homeless lady. 

What happened next was so unexpected, it moved me to tears...

The shop owner saw me do this and came right out to give back what I paid him for slicing the melon. It was only £1, but it was enough to affect me to the core and more than enough to remember the knowing look in his eyes forever.

I floated home, thinking only about how beautiful the world is and how lucky I am that I get to play in it.  It also got me thinking about my own mission, which is to inspire positivity and ignite so much love within everyone around me, that it gets them to do kind things for their body and their planet. It always felt like a no-brainer that the best possible start for that is a cleanse for your body. A way to clear out what's giving you toxic thoughts and make room for more beauty...

So I thought of a surprise for you!!!!

But if you don't already own a copy, for the next 24 hours only, I'm gifting it to YOU!*

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!

Unlucky for my poor fiancé (who spent most of the night hugging the toilet bowl), but lucky for your knowledge bank… Elliot’s unfortunate meal choice yesterday, brings me to share my top food poisoning cure, so you don’t have to suffer again.

Food poisoning sucks! I’ve had it once and that was enough to know that it was the most awful 24 hour experience of my life.

Before I get suggesting what you could eat, I must point out that if your body is doing its mightiest to dispose of the offenders in any which way it possibly can… let it. Poop the night away and don’t even try to hold back the vom. Let it aaaall out.

Our miraculous body does everything possible to fight for us, so when it knows that something within its temple is causing you harm – it will push, shove, kick and scream until the enemy has left the building. But it will probably become weak and exhausted from the fight, so it’s vital that you replenish it with goodness.

There are two ingredients to have on hand:

Aloe Vera
Coconut water (or celery)

Aloe vera is simply a wonder food. It is packed with essential minerals and vitamins, which every one of your cells would be begging for right now. It is soothing on the stomach and has a pain-killing and antiviral effect, all while restoring the balance in your gut.

We have a whole aloe plant growing on our window-sill and I often add it to our smoothies or when doing a juice cleanse. You can buy it from your nearest plant nursery and fillet it yourself (click to see how) or you can stock up on readily extracted drinking gel (purchased here) and store it in the fridge.

As for the coconut water- it is vital for the electrolytes, which you’ll need if you want to regain energy quickly. The word ‘electrolyte’ itself is no different to ‘electricity’ in the way it lightens up and turns on your bodily functions. When you drink coconut water, it acts fast to deliver the electricity to all of your cells. Celery also has plenty of electrolytes, so if you don’t happen to stock any fresh and good quality coconut water, then juice some celery and dilute it with pure water.

Once you have your two magic ingredients, simply blend them together and drink. It may seem impossible to think about swallowing anything right now, but believe me- you will be so happy that you did.