I care more about three of those things than the other two, but every now and then twisting your body into a pretzel, rather than eating one, is a good idea, I hear.

The new place to do that (followed by my preferred activities) is Nux Wellness Centre, directly across from the Vendome metro. There's one sunny, ceiling-to-floor windowed room for tree and corpse poses, plus one salad bar and one organic pantry/grocery store with seating area and juice bar. I have no idea where they do their workshops, film nights and classes, but it's probably as beautifully decorated - and hopefully as soundproofed - as the yoga room.

The organic pantry

The workshops Nux offers include everything from green smoothies and detoxing to healthy eating shortcuts for kids. I don't have any of those, fortunately, but if I did and if I wanted to find ways to make them eat green things, I'd probably consult Ildiko Brunner of Raw in Montreal, aka the queen of green. Banana masks everything, even kale.

Then there's the Centre's blog, "Health Evolver." Rarely is alternative medicine, yoga, and general health so eloquently written about, without sounding dogmatic or condescending. It includes links, videos, and interesting images. Vague, right? Let me try to make that clearer: The first time I went to the website the top article was about the number of chemicals in common beauty products as shown by write-ups on different parts of a woman posing in half a swimsuit from a typical fashion magazine. 16 chemicals in blush (the scariest of which are parabens), 24 in foundation (polymethyl methacrylate, which apparently disrupts immune function, causes allergies and is linked to cancer), 15 in deodorant, and 26 in eye shadow. I'll keep at least my face naked, thanks.

Wasn't I writing about food once?

The Jade Salad with a spoonful of raw walnut paté

From the salad bar
The "Chihuahua" with pumpkin seeds, cherry tomatoes, avocado, red onions, blue corn chips, and a cilantro dressing; the "Jade" with baby spinach, Jerusalem artichokes, black sesame seeds, hemp seeds, green onions, and pears with a ginger-sesame dressing. They also make their own Rawmesan cheeses from lemon juice and soaked cashews. No dairy or nutritional yeast! Same goes for their patés. The walnuts I threw on my make-your-own salad were a treat (unsoaked and undehydrated, for the raw foodies out there wondering), and the dense protein feels good after a yoga class. Or make your own salad from a ton of options. The salads are all organic, of course, and though they're about $12 for a meal-sized one, they're very satisfying. Pecans and baby spinach with peppers, tomatoes, avocado, and hemp seeds with a ginger dressing, yes please.

If you prefer straws to forks, though, try the juices instead. When I went the menu wasn't very long, but as they did for my salad, they could also probably make something to order. They have a well-stocked natural foods pantry, too, so if you're more the Vega shake type, or have plans to make some almond flour cookies with coconut sugar later (lower glycemic index than cane sugar), you can just pick that up instead.

The prices of the smoothies and juices are about on par with Crudessence (about $6 each), which is fair for all-organic ingredients:

From the smoothie/juice bar
apple, banana, coconut, and bee pollen; a virgin pina colada all health-ed up; lots of strawberries with goji berries, homemade walnut milk and honey; simple apple, carrot, ginger; "Ephemeral Emerald", and "Rigorous Red Veggie"

And for those needing a caffeinated kick, there are other fairtrade hot beverages. But instead of honey, here you sweeten your tea or coffee with xylitol (or was it stevia? One of those two non-aspartame or sucralose sweeteners).

And if you need a movie with your smoothie like a moose needs a muffin with his milk, they have those too. Some may prefer non-GMO pop corn with non-GMO soy-free Earth Balance, but some would be wrong. Coming up tonight (June 14th), it's "May I Be Frank?", about "Frank, a 54 year old Sicilian from Brooklyn who finds himself living in San Francisco struggling with addiction and depression. He is severely overweight and must rely on pharmaceutical drugs to combat his Hepatitis C. One day Frank unknowingly stumbles into a local restaurant in San Francisco. Cafe Gratitude, a raw, organic and vegan cafe. Frank becomes friends with the staff and is invited back to come into the cafe everyday for the next month. What took place over the 42 days wasn't anything the boys or Frank could have expected."

Apparently the showing is sold out! But there's a waitlist. Contact the centre to get on it.

Right, desserts. A new Montreal company, Rawesome, does the desserts here: Raw cheesecakes with saoaked cashews, agave nectar, and raw cacao galore. Around $6 a slice, but packed with nuts and addictive, non-refined sugar goodness. You'll be buzzing for a few hours, though.Raw cheesecake by Rawesome

I was also talking about yoga once: Hatha, Vinyasa, mom-and-baby, power flow, anti-stress yoga, and a six-week intro course for beginners ($70 for a six-week intro class. $14 drop-ins for students. $17 for others, but 6- and 12-class packs ($75/$135) come with smoothie and lunch specials.

I have a big problem with drop-in classes for yoga. I do them, but there's rarely any progression and the teacher doesn't know your body and yoga history so it's a bit dangerous. You can easily push too far, let someone else push you (usually only verbally), try a pose like a headstand that you don't really understand or don't feel comfortable doing. A once a week class with a regular teacher and a group of people who've pre-paid is very helpful, but my drop-in class here, I admit, was very fun. Yes, fun! The teacher was very experienced but not overly strict. He made jokes and smiled but also made me trust him. We even did some poses I don't usually do and I felt safe.

So the people behind Nux Wellness Centre are trying really hard to make people healthy. They're the genuine type of health conscious people who just want to play their part in making your day better, or the community better, or just a little less stressful or difficult. They want to make customers happy and healthy, one salad, juice, yoga class, movie night, or workshop at a time. So I'm wishing them all the best, and hope their day just got a little sunnier.

Nux Wellness Centre
5221, de Maisonneuve W., #401
514 510-1020