Bruno Blog

I have always had problems with weight, and it hurts a lot. Not liking what you see in the reflection, not knowing what to wear, and see that all your friends or colleagues are thin and eat whatever they want (or at least it is what it seems like) makes you feel like the worst person in the world, whichever your age is. “I AM FAT” is what your little head keeps telling you day and night.

This week, the book that I am presenting by two authors, Anna Sibel and Beatriz Campos, titled THE EMOTIONAL OVERWEIGHT, makes me very happy because it is a very useful tool to stop worrying about this issue that determines the life of so many people. All of us who have felt it this way know that it is a constant fight against the scales and what that entail emotionally. Here is where Anna and Bea give us the key. How do you feel? How are you? These are the questions that you must solve before knowing what to eat and what not to eat.

Obviously, feeding is basic to lose weight; there is no need to mislead ourselves: eating a donut every day will not make us thinner, but sometimes the mind and emotions are almost more important than eating a donut. Also, if I may add, we should not worry just about our weight, being in a healthy weight is also important. I learn this when I decided to have an operation to reduce weight because my overweight was out of control. It was one of the toughest decisions in my life. However, if I had had a tool like this book maybe I could have lost weight listening to my body, with the help not only of nutritionists, but also a psychologist. It is the case for the two people that wrote this book: they do not show us one of those miraculous method that end up not helping, but they give you essential guidelines, so your emotions do not affect your feeding.

This is the secret: maintain the balance; everyone has bad days, for different reasons, and now more than ever with this pandemic that does not let us breath, and the feelings of sadness, nerves, apathy, make that or internal chip goes out of control and most times bring us to comfort ourselves with eating like there is no tomorrow. So, to arrange ourselves, mark our priorities to be able to feel ok again, with both body and mind, is the first step to achieve your goal. In this easy and motivational book, you have the key that will help you put your body ready and achieve health and your goal to get rid of that annoying overweight that makes you lose your smile. It is a highly recommendable lecture in every moment of the year but specially during January, like a personal purpose even more.

One of my favorite books is THE NEVERENDING STORY by Michael Ende. Atreyu was trying to save fantasy and I loved that idea. What would we do without fantasy? The same thing would happen if we didn’t have imagination. Imagination is power. One of the good things about being a child is that we don’t put up barriers to what we imagine, and sometimes we even strongly believe in what our imagination whispers to us. It is true that letting our imagination fly free is to be able to feel free, and that is why I believe that when we grow older, we limit ourselves don’t letting that imagination work and almost without realizing it, we eliminate it. Reason becomes that which takes the reins of our everyday life, and leaves no room for dreams, but nothing and nobody should stop us in this sense.

For this reason, the new illustrated book by Ana Alcolea, SERES FANTÁSTICOS, published by Grupo Anaya, brings us closer to those beings who accompanied us as children in stories, movies or in our imagination, and with whom we discovered fantastic worlds. From the nymphs and gnomes to Frankenstein, Yeti and Dracula, all these magical beings are present in this book where Ana explains who they are, what they played, did and liked. Don’t you think it is fun to share this reading with the little ones of the house? Remembering these characters who, managed to scare us to the bone, others made us feel tender… and we might not even know some of them, but we can discover them together. An ideal book to give as a present this Christmas and to discover, as a family, that fantastic beings never fade away, because those of us who do not stop imagining, feed them. Therefore, let us encourage our children to dream, to live endless and fantastic stories, so that, as in Ende’s book, these magical beings do not stop breathing.

This blog is special, because today I just want to thank all of you who have participated in our solidarity campaign LA LITERATURA ALIMENTA. We set ourselves a challenge, which was to collect 3000 euros, for El Banc Dels Aliments, which due to the situation caused by covid19 is overflowing with families who come to them for help. Families that, before the pandemic, already needed it and this huge health and economic crisis is showing us that the people who suffer the most are always the same, the ones at the bottom of the system, the workers, those who are fighting everyday to keep going.

That’s why it makes a lot of sense to do this campaign every year, it’s been seven years since we started it, because there are always people who need this support, and our only goal was and has always been to HELP those who need it the most. I thought that a big collective like the literary one could do it, that once a year we could think about the others, but we just needed someone to organize it and I jumped into the pool. It’s true that when you start a solidarity campaign you have to dedicate a lot of time to it, there are a lot of hours and uncomfortable moments asking people to participate, to help, to scratch their pockets, and that’s not easy. My SB team and I have invested a lot of time to reach the goal, but it has been worth it. The satisfaction of knowing that this money will be able to give some light to families who are suffering, for me has a value that I cannot express in words. There are people who have even asked me what I gain from this, and they do not believe that what I gain is the satisfaction of being able to help others.

This weekend has been magical, the reactions of the friends who helped have been extraordinary, and although we were quite far from the challenge in one day, we managed to complete it. The chain of good people got going and with a little bit of everyone, we did a lot. And that is how I understand life. Every time I want to be closer to those who understand it as I do, and I have realized that I have chosen well the people who are around me. By helping each other we can achieve everything because at the end unity is strength. For most of us it may seem easy to help, but if we think about it, it harder than we think. And although we brag about being supportive and thinking about others, making a firm step and roll up our sleeves to put the work, costs. Luckily there are always engines of positive energy, of real energy, that make good things possible and for that reason, I am very grateful to all of you who, after my THANK YOU SO MUCH.

This blog is special, because today I just want to thank all of you who have participated in our solidarity campaign LA LITERATURA ALIMENTA. We set ourselves a challenge, which was to collect 3000 euros, for El Banc Dels Aliments, which due to the situation caused by covid19 is overflowing with families who come to them for help. Families that, before the pandemic, were already in need for its help. This huge health and economic crisis is showing us that the people who suffer the most are always the same, the ones at the bottom of the system, the workers, those who are fighting every day to keep going.

That’s why we feel it makes sense to do this campaign every year. It’s been seven years since we started it, because there are always people who need this support, and our only goal was and has always been to HELP those who need it the most. I thought that a big collective like the literary one could do it, that once a year we could think about the others, but we just needed someone to organize it and I jumped into the pool. It’s true that when you start a solidarity campaign you have to dedicate a lot of time to it, there are a lot of hours and uncomfortable moments asking people to participate, to help, to scratch their pockets, and that’s not easy. My SB team and I have invested a lot of time to reach the goal, but it has been worth it. The satisfaction of knowing that this money will be able to give some light to families who are suffering, for me has a value that I cannot express in words. There are people who have even asked me what I gain from this, and they do not believe that what I gain is the satisfaction of being able to help others.

This weekend has been magical, the reactions of the friends who helped have been extraordinary, and although we were quite far from the challenge, we managed to complete it in one day. A large chain of good people got going, and with a little bit from everyone, we did a lot. And that is how I understand life. Every time I want to be closer to those who understand it as I do, and I have realized that I have chosen well the people who are around me. By helping each other we can achieve everything because, at the end, unity is strength. For most of us it may seem easy to help, but if we think about it, it harder than we think. And although we brag about being supportive and thinking about others, making a firm step and roll up our sleeves to put the work, is hard. Luckily there are always engines of positive energy, of real energy, that make good things possible and for that reason, I am very grateful to all of you who, after my messages, have wanted to help me achieve this goal. Thanks to all of you, with this common challenge, many children will have a hot plate on the table this November and December. And is there something more important than that? Yes, there is because everyone should always have food on their table. That is why I do not give up, and I will continue feeding this campaign with more strength every year.

And one last note for those who are most confused: the challenge ends this November 15th and although it has already been accomplished, we can still raise the mark, the more we collect, the more we will have to help others.

So, my blog’s recommendation for today is to go to https://www.migranodearena.org/reto/la-literatura-alimenta and make the last donations for these families. In return you will receive our ebook “El hogar de las emociones”, with nine stories that nine of our authors gave us for the cause where they explain nine emotions that help us to be the best that we can be in this life wich is what my parents have taught me, A GOOD PERSON.

THANK YOU.

The month of October begins and with it we start to dress with a jacket and boots from one day to another. We have overcome summer and we are entering this autumn, which most predict as cursed. October is the month of the Frankfurt Fair, the queen of book fairs, and this year we will have to celebrate it from distance, as we have done with almost everything. I confess that it is a fair that I have never liked, but after attending for 27 years I have known how to find the positive parts of it, the main one being the contact with the publishers, many already friends, from all over the world. It is true that technology makes it easier and easier for us to be in permanent contact with those who are farther away. Now a screen can show us the smiles and looks of people but deprives us of many other things, such as human contact, hugs, handshakes … in short, the proximity of the face to face. At the moment, we cannot achieve this through a computer, although I don’t really want it to be like that either, because in the end we would end up being more like robots than people. I hope that this is a transitional situation and that next year we can go to the fair and hug, kiss and cuddle each other again, because the essential part of business, from my point of view, is that human part. And now that a virus wants to take this essence away from us, for me the idea that these intangibles are the most important thing becomes stronger and nothing and nobody should take them away from us.

So this special year, the year of Covid19, in the agency we wanted to make a different catalog, a visual one with a clear motto: CULTURE IS SAFE. The books protect and save us, as does the famous mask today. There are masks of all models and colors, but ours is one of the most beautiful ones that exist and you can see it in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmmW_aObf_M. In my opinion, books have survived everything, wars and pandemics, and this time they will do it again. We must be the first to not stop doing what we love the most, which is reading, and in that way, we will be able to feed the world with good stories.

Here we leave you our catalog: http://www.sandrabruna.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/FrankfurtRightsCatalogue_SandraBruna2020-Final-2.pdf. Together with this video full of virtual hugs and kisses, which I hope to be able to give you in person very soon. To all the editors that I will see on screen very soon, and to all the readers of this blog, to whom I thank for following us, I want to dedicate our most recent news, among which, surely you will find the book that can accompany you to face this autumn, an autumn that does not present itself as an  easy one, but we can still have many beautiful things and many unforgettable moments in it, some of them accompanied by a good book.

To finish, we would love that this campaign we have initiated for this so special fair of Frankfurt2020 called #MYMASKISABOOK, becomes viral. I hope that after seeing our video you will encourage yourself to share your photos with the best mask of this new season and that you will send them to us through our social networks (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook), tagging us so that we can make a global tribute to the books that have always helped us, in good and bad times, and through that campaign we will support culture, because without culture there is no future and as I always say BOOKS ARE LIFE, so don’t take them away from us.

It’s safe to say that food is an important part of our lives. A varied, balanced diet is what most of us aim for but, because of the life we lead, healthy eating is one of those things we tend to neglect in spite of being aware of its importance. Ada Parellada, writer and the owner of the restaurant Semproniana, just published a book called: LA COCINA SOSTENIBLE (Sustainable Cuisine), which seeks to give visibility to one of the most significant issues nowadays: the amount of food we throw away but could actually still be used.

One day I was leaving the office late, quite late, and I saw that the bakery next to my agency was closing; I also saw the bags of food they were about to throw away and my soul hurt when I thought of all the people that food could feed. I couldn’t help it, I approached the girl and asked her why they wouldn’t give the food to people in need or to a soup kitchen, and she replied that the owners of the franchise had forbidden them to. Before the ban was set, she said, there had been cues of people from the neighbourhood waiting to take that food home, but as soon as her bosses realized what was happening they immediately forbid it because of the poor image it gave. I was stunned, and I still am, because I cannot understand what can lead someone to prioritize ‘image’ over helping someone who doesn’t have anything to eat. Ada told me she wanted to write a book to teach people to reorganize their kitchen and make it more efficient and effective; she wanted to teach people to make use of what they cook, not just what’s left over but also to optimize the food they cook and how they do it. I thought it was a place to start, a first step towards showing families, bakeries and restaurants that there’s no need to toss out so much food.

However, I still had in mind that girl throwing away fresh food, and that ‘monsters’ was the nicest you could call those restaurant and franchise bosses for not thinking about other people. But while reading this book I’ve realized that giving is not easy; I’m sure there’s a lot of owners of food-related businesses that would give away the spare edibles but that aren’t able to, because it demands a certain amount of human resources, logistics and space that many don’t have, and can’t have access to. Social entities lack the capability to store and transport the amount of food that isn’t used, and they also don’t have giant refrigerators to keep it fresh. Therefore, until the Food Security Act changes, there will always be a refusal to give fresh or pre-cooked food away because the provider is responsible in case the edibles they provide cause food poisoning.

As always, laws set the course, and we know changing one in our country is hardly possible; even if it would benefit a lot of people that can’t provide a proper diet for themselves. I understand this situation is like a snake biting its own tail so, for now, a book like this, with which we can learn not to waste food, is a good start. It is also the first complain to this Act, the modification of which would help so many people. So I encourage you to buy it and to put into practice the tips that this excellent cook gives us. And you know they’ll be good because she does think about people and will always do.