Anete Dinne - bon vivant way
I can tell when someone is stepping into their genius because there is a change in frequency and their magnetism becomes more prominent. So this is an interview with a young woman who has now finally aligned with her essence and is confidently walking her path.
I believe it’s important to also share stories of women who are in the beginning of the discovery of their own genius so to have a glimpse of what it feels like and how it looks.
Anete and I know each other from our bachelor in Italy at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, but for some reason our friendship took years to deepen. As if the more aligned we become, the closer we get and our paths begin to cross.
After our hour long conversation, I sent her to check her human design type for fun and the results confirmed, all she is doing right now and the way she is it’s entirely her human design. Nothing wrong with what may be considered weird or strange, it’s just her uniqueness.
Tanya Gervasi: This morning I read you have a mantra and so I would like to start with your mantra: eat fat get thin.
Anete Dinne: I know it's probably quite different from what people would normally think of as a mantra but I'm just trying to focus on my brain health at this moment. So I'm really eating a lot of good fats. I know it's more focused on eating rather than a more spiritual thing but I’m just hoping that if my brain is actually functioning properly from a physiological point of view, I will also be able to get into a better mental state afterwards. So, for the time being I'm really trying to focus on this new way of eating, and really just focusing on a lot of fats. I’m not eating gluten because I discovered that I have some sort of a sensibility when I was actually really skeptical about this whole gluten-free-movement. However I'm feeling a lot better now and I'm really enjoying the way I'm feeling right now.
Do you have a morning routine?
I used to not believe in a morning routine, but once I actually started doing certain things myself, I saw how much more productive a day can be, and how I can wake up and be in a much better mood, even if I haven't slept too well.
I just bought this alarm clock that imitates the sunrise and makes it easier for me to get up in the morning. If I want to get up at 6 and it's still very dark outside it just starts emitting a very light light appearing 20 min before I need to wake up, so it kind of eases my body and it sort of adapts to the circadian rhythms. It's a less traumatic way to wake up early in the morning. Then I usually like to sit in bed and meditate for 5 minutes. I recently started an affirmation journal with my life goals and maybe ideas of how I want to be perceived, or how I want to perceive myself, which is actually quite shocking at first but as I read these things out loud like I am happy, I am fulfilled, I actually start to feel it, even if I’m sort of not happy in the moment. Next is I do my morning drink with some water, vitamins, probiotics and stuff like that. At last I get ready, I get dressed and then I prepare my breakfast, and maybe listen to some news trying not to make it to traumatic, knowing that the times we're living in right now. I’m trying to do this at least an hour before I start working so I'm really more awake and I actually have some time for myself before I get into doing things for others.
You repeated twice, answering these 2 questions, that you used to not be like this. So who was Anete? How did she get to be the you who’s now sitting in front of me?
Well, as you know I'm also studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and I must say that it has completely changed my view about many things, especially about self and my own wellness, because I was always focusing more on food and nutrient intake, and I was really not so about being happy or loving myself before I could love everyone else, or be before I could actually help everyone else. So almost 4 months or 5 months have gone by in the program and I have seen that by trying out a few meditations, or by trying out a few things, how more centred and calm I feel. When I recognise and control my feelings I can handle work relationships and personal relationships better. I don’t want to say that I fully believe in horoscopes but I think that there are some traits specific to every sign and I'm a Capricorn thus being very hot-headed and very stubborn. So I think that's what has always sort of made my life a little bit more difficult, because I wouldn't really listen to other people. I would always insist on my opinion that this is right, and this should be like this, and I admit it would be very difficult for me also, in some arguments, to see the other side. Now that I have started looking at myself and also trying to acknowledge the other person’s point of view, I feel like I'm really changing into a much better person, and better even for myself, not not only for the rest of the world. I just feel that I can handle stress situations so much better. And since I would really like to live a long and healthy life to a ripe old age, I thought that it would be better to start right now when I'm still in my 30 s because nowadays we probably can live up to a 100 years. We see these incredible stories or videos about ladies who are doing yoga in their nineties, and they look fantastic. I think that they're more flexible and more fit than I am, so I would really like to be like that so I'm just trying to, and at the same time I would like to inspire other people to want that as well.
I was recently in Cornwall, a beautiful place touched by the Atlantic Ocean, which is absolutely icy cold. Every morning I would observe these groups of older women who’d meet on the beach and go bathe in the ocean, they would stay in the water for at least 15 minutes which is a lot at that temperature. I got inspired, I thought they all looked so healthy and happy, so I too started going to the beach at 7 am and jumped in the water. At first it was shockingly cold, and not that it got less cold as I did it for a few days but I noticed my body craved it so in a way it was easier. I had more energy and was in a better mood starting my day.
That’s the thing, you start out and it seems so horrible at the beginning, you're thinking I'm never gonna do this again but then it's just as you said you get out or you just stay there for a little longer, maybe it just takes a little bit of mindful breathing and calming your nervous system down. And then you're thinking, my God this is amazing! The best thing is that it really becomes addictive, you just want to do this again, and again and again so it becomes so much easier. You don't have to convince yourself to do it, you're just doing that, and maybe you will inspire younger people to do that as well.
I really discovered that we inspire others when we truly embody our essence. When we do what we preach, or rather are what we preach. This is the point of IN HER GENIUS, women embodying all these different aspects not just talk about it.
You and I studied the same things, first a bachelor at the University of Gastronomic Sciences and then the IIN health coaching institute… yet our paths are different. Even though I love food and am grateful for the knowledge I gained through those studies, I know it will not be my focus and career because in the end it’s not really my thing. Unlike you I don’t spend 90% of my time studying food or learning about health. I've observed your path and it's been beautiful to see how you've been leaning more into this holistic lifestyle that acknowledges the importance of taste.
I think there aren’t many people doing that, yet. I think that you get to have this sort of calling to get into health coaching, which is probably not easy, but no one is actually ever talking about enjoying the flavour. When you look at these accounts for health coaching, it's about meditating, and it's about physical activities and loving oneself, etc. But it's not really focused so much on the gastronomic sciences that we did at the University that we know for people like us it’s a huge part of our everyday lives and of our passion, and our way of relaxing, or whatever that may be. I feel that there is a gap in the market.
Currently there is not enough holistic well-ness, health coaching and nutrition that is focusing on that I believe, or I haven't really seen so much therefore I really hope to be able to get a little bit more into that.
What did you dream of doing or becoming when you were a child?
I think, or as much as I remember, I was thinking of doing what my mother does so probably just study medicine, to eventually become a cardiologist. And I think it was just about a few months before finishing school that my mother sat me down and told me not to do it. She said she knows that I'm a very sort of obsessive person when I'm talking or thinking about a topic I enjoy - like for now after starting IIN I bought probably like 50 books that I don't know when I will ever read, but still I get very obsessed with the topic so I need to read everything, not because I think that I will know everything, rather I'm just super interested and curious about it, so I think she was scared that I would just drown in my work as a doctor.
She decided to give me this advice, and told me to do something else in life, and in a very lucky, happy coincidence, I found out about Slow Food and the University at the exact same moment. My family has always been very passionate about gastronomy, and about traveling to different countries, exploring the local food, culture, wine, and taking cooking classes. For example, one of the first things that we would always discover is the local markets, therefore when I found out about the University, it seemed like a dream come true, because not only was it in a country that I really loved - Italy - and I was already studying Italian, but it was also a University that offered 5 trips around the world per year, not to say that that it was structured as holistic way of seeing food in general. I was hooked and said, Okay, I need to study there.
And then after the bachelor I was not really sure what I wanted to do, because during those 3 years we studied a little bit of everything - which was really great - but at the same time you get out of the university pretty much lost, unless you know yourself very well, and you know already what path you want to take in your life. I didn't know where to start nor what I could do. Moreover I didn't know where I could apply because I didn’t know if I had the right skills. That’s when I was luckily called to teach Italian History of Gastronomy in Alma, the Italian cooking school, for about 6 months. Just enough time because I hated to speak in public. I really hated doing that but Michele Crippa - the course supervisor and also fellow alumna of the University - kind of obliged me, saying, Yeah, you can do it, don't worry, I believe in you. Honestly he didn't even know me that well at that point, so I don't know how it all happened magically and it was a great experience.
However I was always interested in sensory things and since I was a little girl I would go smell different containers in my grandparents home, and I say, this used to have coffee or hmm this used to have vodka or whatever. I always remember myself being very keen on the smell of people’s perfume and getting very attracted to some perfumes. So I was thinking maybe I should go and study perfumery, or something like that. But when I saw that there was a coffee sensory analysis course at the University, I just thought I would sign up to fill up my free time with something else exciting that I could do. I don't even know if I knew at that point that it was also a job interview for Lavazza. In fact, after 3 months of the training program, I was offered to do an interview for a job at Lavazza. I thought, Okay, that could be interesting, because it’s such a very well-known company is very good for the resume. I don't know if I was so excited about working in coffee at that point or whether that came only later, but since in the end I got the job, I thought, Okay, why not try this out? I mean, I didn't really have to say no to anything at this point in my life, only to explore, and I was really happy about it, because I found out that the world of coffee was as exciting as wine.
Later, in a very lucky way I got to live in Barcelona, because I got to meet my current boss, at 80plus Specialty Coffee Roasters, and his wife just through some people that I knew. I just knew I wanted to live in Barcelona because I really love the city, which is quite international and very gastronomic, with so many places to go out and eat. Plus it has fantastic markets. I felt super super lucky when they invited me to come work here, and I’ve been here for 5 years. Meanwhile I was called to work as an ambassador for Vittorio Arduino, an Italian espresso machine producer.
No matter how much I love the coffee world, I felt that there was always something missing, because I wanted to study medicine, and I was always keen on health, wellness and primary prevention of diseases. So I began teaching the medical students who are in their fifth year at the University of Latvia, where my mother has created a program that is basically about lifestyle, since there is very little about it in medicine. There's maybe 5% of the whole curriculum, or maybe nothing that the medical students actually learn regarding food, lifestyle and preventing the diseases before they actually happen.
I was looking for a master in nutrition but most require going through taking a diploma as dietician and I' was never interested in specific nutrition for people who already have some serious pathologies; I am interested in the enjoyment of food and prevention. That’s when I luckily found IIN - The Institute for Integrative Nutrition - and it was everything I’ve been looking for for so long! As I said I've been studying for the past 5 months now and I think I'm finally finding myself thanks to this program and finding my wellness, because I thought that I was a very healthy person but then, again, I understood that it's not only about the food that we eat, it's so much more and that there is not one way of eating.
The Mediterranean diet is not the only magic out there, but there are many ways that we can actually live and eat, and everything might be different for a different person.
Finally, I believe I found my right path. I love coffee but I think that I am meant to do this much more than working in coffee.
You're still working in coffee at the moment?
Yes, I'm working for the 2 companies right now.
So I do have a lot of work but I think I enjoy it because I like the fact that I can meet new people frequently, and that I can travel just as it was at the University. Until I can keep this up I am more than happy to do that.
I love how you said yes to all those opportunities that presented themselves to you and I feel that's so important, especially when one doesn't have a clear vision of who he or she wants to become or where to go and it's sort of like a guidance. Observed in retrospect your path was perfect and in the right timing. You were probably not supposed to know or find this program as soon as you finish university, like there were other things to learn and to discover, to add layers to you as a person and as a professional.
Yes, I suppose there are some lucky people who know very clearly since they were children what they wanted to do in life, but I think there are so many things that we don't even know that we can do as a profession or something that will in general get us paid. Because let's be honest, nowadays we know that we cannot live without being paid unless we live on a farm somewhere where we have a little bit of everything. Nonetheless we need to buy the farm before and still we need to invest some sort of money in that as well.
So the discovery journey is interesting and it's also a great way of not getting bored, because again if you are determined to live a long and healthy life there are so many things that you can do. The more things you do the more you get to know yourself, as well you understand not only what you like and what you don't like, but you acquire different skills that will be useful to you. Even if you didn't really like the experience that much, you still acquired some sort of skill in the whole situation.
What do you think you acquired from teaching at Alma?
Apart from speaking in public, I learned how not to be scared and too stressed out about just opening my mouth and speaking in front of an audience.
I think it also taught me confidence, because as women we have it so much harder than men whether we want to admit this or not. I didn't want to admit this for a very long time, I thought, Yeah, but we're all the same, men and women are the same. It's not true, I mean at a certain point in life you arrive to the point where you understand that that is not really true. So I think that was the moment for me because my students were an international group, and there were some people who were even 40 and 50 years old, and I was 25 at that point, I think, or 24. So it was an opportunity for me to learn how I can be, if not an authority, the reference person to older people and even older men, and how I don't really need to be scared of knowing more but owning the fact that I know something more than they do. I think that is something that I definitely used afterwards when I worked in Lavazza - which is a corporate business and of course very different from the companies that I work for now, where the teams are quite small. It was scary for other people who thought I was completely crazy, but I could stand up for myself and I could talk to the chief technical officer, who was the boss of the boss, and they would respect me for it because other people would get scared and would say Oh, my God don't do that, you're too young, you shouldn't open your mouth, you should just keep everything for yourself.
Well in the end I ended up actually making better relationships, and being more respected at work because of that, and not because I was being full of myself or anything like that. I just had the courage to speak up during some meetings where wasn't supposed to be speaking.
What's your vision for yourself and your business in the next let's say 5 years?
I would really like to open something, not yet sure if it’s going to be a school or just a beautiful place somewhere in a semi wilderness of Spain or Italy, or just anywhere where people can come for gastronomic retreats.
That's my goal for the next 5 years and become the reference person for good food.
That's why my brand is called the Bon Vivant Club.
People might think the Bon Vivant is just a gastronome who likes to eat and drink a lot, but to me, what I want to communicate is that the Bon Vivant is a gastronome but also living his/her best, healthiest, most mindful life in general. That's why I would like to get a beautiful space where we could do cooking classes and visit local producers, plus have wellness and health coaching sessions. Something unlike your typical yoga retreat. I would imagine the above events/retreats to be about celebrating and enjoying life, and just creating a better life for yourself.
So cool, I have not seen anything like this where people also discover what they like in terms of taste, which is not a given because many times we are accustomed to eating certain foods out of habit and as we learned at the University: taste is educational. I also find it important to eat foods that light up your body too, that make you feel amazing.
Yeah, I think it's a very important part to really fully nourish yourself because you can nourish yourself with poetry, beautiful music, sunlight and nature walks, and with the nutrients in general. But I think if you're missing this sort of carnal feeling of nourishment I think it's one small thing that is missing out from the holistic wellness that people are not talking about too much.
What is your take on eating and drinking from a feminine point of view of body and beauty? I ask you this because you embody a chimera: on one side the gastronome who has always been portrayed as a fat man, while on the other side you’re the health coach who is usually imagined as a very fit model-figure.
That's a very difficult question. I heard many times that beautiful women don't eat or you cannot be beautiful and good-looking and at the same time be a gastronome or enjoy food. It's such an ingrained belief, has anyone ever asked you, how do you eat so many different things and stay thin? Do you not get this question? Because I get this question all the time. I don't do diets, I just focus more on some foods that my body wants more at this point of life and when I go out I eat whatever I want. I think that probably the difference is I don't really eat junk food.
I think maybe there’s also a misconception of who a gastronome is. We are not gluttons. We don't eat everything that our eyes see, or the first thing that comes under your arm. As a gastronome you are educated to understand what good quality food is and learn to recognise foods with best energy - which we obviously know it’s something that you find at the local market or if you go to eat at at a restaurant that uses only local produce, has its own garden in the backyard, and the animals that they're serving were raised in a humane way, etc.
Being a gastronome is not about, Oh, my God, you're eating so much! Yes, maybe we're eating so much, but at the same time we're eating with our mind also, we're not eating mindlessly. The difference is that we, as gastronomes, choose foods based on where they come from and make sure these foods are more full of nutrients and more bio-available for our bodies. So we nourish our bodies better than choosing, for example, the same exact, identical ingredients, but from conventional agriculture which basically is depleted from nutrients.
I would also add another layer, because these are the same cliche gastronomes who disregard the importance of the body and their appearance. In a way they communicate that to be trusted as a professional food connoisseur you need to let yourself go, not worry about how you look. What are your feelings on that?
I think that is profound ignorance. I know it's very straightforward to say this, and maybe it’s offensive for someone but nowadays, since everything is changing - for example, there was this book by Massimo Bottura “Never trust a skinny chef”, though at the same time he himself is not a fat chef, so it's like an ironic name of the book. Chefs used to be fat, because it meant that they were cooking great amazing food, because if you weren’t fat you probably didn't know how to cook properly back in the days. However, things are changing and we are understanding nutrition, gastronomy, sustainability, and taste in a very different way. Nowadays, I think it's just a matter of evolution and I think the new generation of gastronomes doesn't really matter if we are women or men but maybe it will be more predominantly women, since we've always been more concerned about nourishing. We nourish in general. We nourish people, we nourish our children, we nourish our partner, our parents at a certain point in our life, and it's just something that we do.
Those who have lost respect for their body I can't be believe that they're doing a good job as a gastronome, because if you're overweight, or you’re obese then you're probably drinking way too wine - which we know it’s normally the case - and a lot of those gastronomes are also heavy smokers dealing with a lot of stress. So I really believe that at a certain point, you may have terrific skills as a journalist, and you know how to interview chefs and interview producers and associates, but I just think you're not doing a very good job as a gastronome. That's my take on this, and I think that it will change, it's just a matter of evolution of the profession and being a gastronome in general. What do you think?
I think that food is very much related or connected to pleasure, and to me pleasure comes also from feeling good in my body. The times that I was not in shape for how I like to see myself, and this was for many reasons, I think also I wasn't in a good place mentally, for when I'm in a good place mentally, and let's say emotionally and spiritually honestly I eat sometimes more than my partner, I exercise much less and I stay the same weight. My body knows how to regulate itself, and I do eat more, and I also indulge in some cravings when I feel. Like yesterday at some point while watching a movie I craved some cookies I baked earlier, so I went to get myself two cookies and a glass of milk. I felt good, my body needed it and I trusted it, because when I used to restrict myself when I wanted a cookie, I ended up eating honestly like a full pack of cookies. Now I can open the pack of cookies and have it on my lap and after 3 cookies I'm done. When I say to people it's not really about what you eat, still few people believe that your mind influences your well-being a lot. It comes natural at a certain point to have to go toward choices that are healthier like I don't force myself to eat healthy, I just naturally flow in that direction.
I agree, if you keep saying no to this and that and focus on all these restrictions, then you'll crave things a lot more often. But there's again, as you were saying, it's a psychological thing, so it's probably everything in your mind if you're stressing yourself. When you listen to yourself and you allow yourself to have these days, when you're just feeling like, Okay, I need some Haribo. I also do this once in a while and afterwards I don't feel guilty, and I don't feel Oh, my God, what did I do? I used to feel so judgemental about myself, and then I would go back to the shop in 2 more days, buy Haribo again and again be like Oh, my God! I should stop doing this! I learned not to be so hard on myself, and just accept things as they are.
Yesterday I separated from my boyfriend, and I thought today was going to be a disastrous day. But I just accepted it. I just accept that this happened. Things happen and you can't change them and it really just doesn't make sense for your mind to keep replaying some scenarios in your head, or keep inventing some imaginary conversation that you're having with him when you know it just happened. Things happen. These things happen in life, I repeat to myself, you're not the only one to whom this has happened. It might happen again. Maybe it will never happen again and it's fine. When you're actually saying this you're at peace with yourself, and it's also fine not to be super fine.
I don't know, maybe it’s just the morning, but I'm surprised I feel this way. And I'm happy that after starting this school and after acquiring tools for understanding myself and being with myself, I am able to manage the situations in a very different way than I used to do. Before I would go to a very self destructive place for example thinking, Oh, my God, I need to get a wine bottle. Yesterday at one point I was thinking maybe I should write to Tanya and tell her that I'm having a very rough period, and maybe we should postpone the call. And then I decided, No, I will not. I mean, life goes on. Why should I postpone things just because yesterday this happened? I'm really happy that I decided to go on with my life and do the things that I need to do, and show up to things that I'm supposed to show up to and I think this is also the reason I'm feeling so much better.
First of all, I’m sorry you’re going through this and thank you, I think it's brave to show up. I had a habit of canceling at the last minute and rescheduling. I did it so many times, until I realised what I'm doing, and I was like, Nope, I am going to do it even if I’m scared.
I can absolutely relate. And also I think it's because there was this one lecture I attended on brain health where someone - I will remember the guy, and of course I really want to buy all of his books - said that is probably going stick with me forever, and it's why I decided not to cancel anything this week, he said, the people who said that they would do something and actually showed up live longer and healthier lives. So I said, Okay, I'm gonna do this because it seems that the people who never showed up or just always canceled at the last minute or invented some excuses, seem to be living less or having less health for the last 20 years of their lives, or having more possibility of Alzheimer's. You know how it's weird how everything is correlated.
Oh, that's interesting! Whereas for me the thing that stuck with me and I don't remember whether I heard it or read about it somewhere, but it was related to trusting yourself. So I'm really learning. It’s something that doesn’t come natural to me, because I think it's a built habit inherited actually from my mom who always said she would do this and then she would never do it and brush it off as unimportant or say she’d come visit me and never did. I now pay attention to what I say I will do and when I feel like backing off I ask myself why it is and if I’m being honest with myself. I try to stick to the commitment big or small to be reliable for myself, so that I can learn to trust my word first and foremost. I still don't 100% follow up what I say and when I don’t it bothers me and I feel this is because it's a habit that's completely out of alignment with who I am.
I totally agree with you. I'm the same way and I always used to cancel especially when I was feeling a little bit down. I start coming up with excuses like I don't know if I can find a way etc. But I changed my mind and I’m just gonna be there but that's how you get to know yourself better, and keep yourself accountable first before you keep everyone else accountable for something.
Absolutely. Does the Bon Vivant Club have a motto?
I should. but I am not sure what the motto is yet since I'm on this journey of finding my true self and the meaning of Bon Vivant in general, I think it will come maybe a little later on.
