 The Objective To detox by feeding my body non-processed food for 7 days and see the impact. It wasn’t designed to be a "diet" just an experiment to clear my body of all the junk. I felt “dirty” after a 5 day holiday eating lots of ice cream, cake at breakfast, pasta and fried foods – you guessed it, I had been to Italy. In general, I was getting obsessed with food and my portions were getting larger and larger. I was reaching a new norm with my eating. My weight post birth had fallen to a steady state of about 77 kg and in May it had been jumping between 77 and 79 kg never going lower than the 77kg mark even though I was trying to be food conscious. DETOX DAILY MENU Breakfast: a fruit smoothie – I thought this would be hard to get used to because I love porridge BUT it wasn’t. I had a huge smoothie that almost filled the NutriBullet cup and it took so long to finish that by the time I did, it was nearly lunch time. Lunch: a huge bowl of salad Dinner: a light cooked meal with lots of fresh fruit and vege Snack: any fresh fruit or vegetable allowed BUT I found that I wasn't needing to snack much. Coffee and tea with milk allowed with no sugar. Honey allowed to sweeten one cup of tea or coffee in the day. All second cups of tea or coffee cannot be sweetened. Where I got my recipes: LoseWeightByEating Note: I didn’t have smoothie only days as recommended in the Detox above because that would be too extreme for me, I'm breastfeeding. I adjusted recipes to account for my taste, e.g. I added tomatoes, cucumber and grated carrots to salads a lot. I used chicken thigh instead of breast or canned mackerel in sweet chilli – it’s more fattening but hey ho! Banned Food
Allowed Processed Food
In a proper detox you should only allow canned food in water with no sugars or sauces but I didn’t go that extreme. I had a can of Heinz 5 beans over the week (half on one day and half a couple of days later). I drain as much of the sauce off as possible when I had canned food. EXERCISE I jogged 3 times and swam twice over the 7 days. The jogs were just under 3 km each and the swims were 30 minutes each time. Always first thing in the morning, always on an empty stomach. That's how I usually exercise. I hadn't jogged in 7 months due to pregnancy and recovery after but I had been doing cardio and lots of walking in that time so I wasn't starting from a base of no exercise.  The big question I had before I started: how long will I last? I thought 3 days max, my husband thought 1 day. I wanted to make a facebook status update re. my detox project but I was so sure I would fail that I decided to only do it if I succeeded. Facebook is a happy place, right? SO – WHAT HAPPENED? Weight Over The Period: I weighed myself in the morning before drinking or eating anything 14-June: 77.7 kg 16-June: 76. 3 kg 17-June: 76.0 kg 21-June: 75.7 kg Note: my breasts are super full with milk this morning and I think if they weren’t I could be as much as 0.5kg lighter – you should see the size of them. The shocker: my breastmilk production shot up! My baby had been stuck to my breast all the time, never unlatching, a possible sign that it was taking her ages to get the needed quantity of milk. However, by about day 3 or 4 on this eating plan she was getting so full in 5 minutes - she'd unlatch and take on this milk-drunk look - that just said, "that was nice". I don't know if this was a coincidence as milk production gets more efficient over time anyway but I think it is definitely related. Feelings Over The Period 14-June: I kept realising I was stopping myself from snacking on things, e.g. my son’s food, bits of chocolate. I realized I don’t eat large quantities when I snack but I am grazing all day on anything and everything: nuts, crisps, a piece of a chocolate (not a whole bar), toast, sandwiches, etc. 15-June: I had a carrot as snack to avoid a post-swim sugary snack; I go to the park with my friends on a Thursday and I was 100% going to have a pastry if I hadn’t had an apple to hand when I got hungry. Note to self: always carry a fruit in one’s handbag otherwise you will give in. 16-June: I was peckish in the evening so I had 2 peaches and an apple. This normally happens if I delay a meal. 17-June: By the end of the day I realized I hadn’t been particularly hungry enough to snack ALL day. My only snack of the day was a mint tea with honey in it and I never got round to having another snack! I want to eat like this forever was my feeling when I went to bed. 20-June: I’ll stick to healthy eating in the week but even on my eat whatever you want days I won’t go crazy. I’ll just have a couple of treats. 21-June: the detox is officially over but I've found it so easy I'll just carry on until Friday. Realizations About The Way I Eat Carbohydrates are a large part of ALL my meals at the moment:
 The Plan Going Forward
Completely cutting out processed food is not realistic for me. Although by day 4 I realized I wasn’t having cravings I know I enjoy the junk I eat so I’ll end up bingeing if I decide to cut it out entirely. I’ve decided the following:
Tips:
I love banana cake and I still know what it tastes like so I’ll bake it this weekend BUT I currently actually feel scared to eat it because I might start getting that hungry feeling again. It’s funny that when I was eating much more than I am now, I was always hungry and wanting a snack. I never stepped into the kitchen without grabbing a handful of nuts, a pack of crisps, a yoghurt etc. In addition, I’m out a lot so I just buy snacks too with the excuse that at least I’m not bringing them into the house but if you’re usually out the house anyway there’s plenty of scope for eating bad snacks out there. Just cut them all out. Don’t accept offers of cake, biscuits etc. from people; cut out the hot chocolate, energy bars, flap jacks etc. and you’ll see your desire for sugar and fried foods falling. Just one biscuit makes you want 5 – that’s how the brain works. I might try to follow the maxim of “eat all the junk you want provided you make it yourself!” I ignored all people who say don't eat fruit, it has too much sugar or don't eat bananas because they are high in carbs - the fact is, NO ONE out there is obese because they eat too much fruit. A banana or a handful of grapes a day won't kill you. Yes, fruits are rich in sugars but this probably only really matters if you're trying to get super skinny. Biggest advantage of this way of eating: you don't have to count any calories. Before you put anything in your mouth you just ask: does this food occur in the environment like this? If the answer is yes, eat away. Disadvantage of this way of eating: the salads take 15-20 minutes to make where as toast with an egg or a sandwich, my previous go-to lunches take less than 5 minutes. Buying all the extra fruit and veg has added £10-20 to the weekly shop but that’s okay for me. You spend a little more in the first week because you stock up on some staples, e.g. quinoa. If you try to cut out processed foods yourself I'd love to see how it goes for you.
1 Comment
 I don't like some of my Facebook comments to get buried and lost, especially if I believe I've given a half-decent reponse. My friend asked the following:
The Question: how does one bring up a child/nephew/niece/student in 2017 with the right mental framework and education so that they are resilient to trauma of finding out that later in life that just like Santa, God is also a fictitious idea that was injected into their innocent brains as a way to control their behaviour? MY RESPONSE I’ve lived in a homogenous culture where practically everyone believes in God, a specific God, as well as in Britain where there’s a good mix of believers and non-believers. MY CONCLUSION: The truth is, there definitely is a God for some people and there definitely is no God for others. Whether this is true for you or not seems to be based on a mixture of upbringing and life experience. For me, I definitely believe in a God but don’t think She comes with a certain religion so I’m happy to enter any place of worship and enjoy it for what it is, people trying to connect with their God. I actually like the base concept of religion but most people take it too far. My parents never used religion to control me, nor told me to accept their religion but they did introduce me to it. I decided we humans are just WAY too basic and generally too primitive to be the highest order of things so there must be a supreme organiser of things. I sometimes call my God, Mother Nature and I’ve at times reached a point where I just don’t feel in balance with life and calling upon my God has seen me through. There are also times when I have literally felt the presence of God, notably when I came to the end of a natural labour and saw the result. I had spent 9 months telling myself “I was born to do this, I can do it without interventions, I can do it without medications, I can do it at home!” When I came to the end of those 11 hours of labour I definitely felt something supreme, I can’t even explain it to you. Anyway, I’d never force my children to believe anything just as my parents didn’t force me but I’ll introduce them to God, spirituality, calling on their inner selves, all the values that exist on this earth and let them decide. They won’t have any trouble on this topic. Everyone is a spiritual being and it’s that’s spirituality that is God, the supreme organiser of all things. Many numb it with drugs, alcohol, fanaticism of a topic be it movies or academics but everyone has a need to feel that something is bigger than them. Altruism itself is driven by a need to connect with the supreme organiser of all things, to feel the good that exists in the universe, for me, that’s all God.
Before you vote on the baby names you like, remember the boxed set of four Queen of Kinks natural hair products is now only $10 / £10 for another 2 days.
It's been massively reduced to clear stock, making a full-sized tube just 2.50, 2.50!!! That's 10% of the real price. Get a few boxes to stock up before we're all out! ALL STOCK MUST GO (links below). Already bought some? Please buy more. In the last EIGHT days only we've sold THREE TIMES the volume sold in all of 2016 because those who love the line don't want be deprived: JUMP IN ON THE ACTION! Hugs, Heather 
Okay, the names are in no particular order. First pick your favourite first name for a girl and then your fav for a boy...if you like something else entirely, make a comment!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FOR A FIRST NAME?
 I grew up in a country where everything is everyone’s business!
All my adult life I’ve lived in a country where people generally mind their own business sometimes to the extreme. Now, I’m writing about this experience because it hasn’t left me since it occurred three days ago: The Good Husband and I were sat in a restaurant having a date night when I noticed a woman sitting behind me with her son in the pram. “That kid’s about the same age as Chester,” I said to Harry for no specific reason. He nodded. About 10 minutes later I hear the kid making sounds to get the mother’s attention, she didn’t even look at him. Her face was glued to the phone, she was furiously texting someone, maybe the baby daddy, perhaps he'd p*ssed her off. Now, her son was my son’s age which meant he could probably walk and he could most certainly sit in a high chair and colour in or flip through a book. The kid wasn’t free to move a limb at all: he was in a warm winter coat indoors, quite tightly strapped in his chair with a dummy stuck in his. Ignoring the fact that the dummy should have been ditched at 12 months because it delays speech development beyond that point I was more frustrated by the fact that he was completely unstimulated but this is England, I thought, it’s none of my business. 30 minutes passed, then 40 minutes, we were coming up to an hour when the kid had been completely ignored despite several attempts to get mum's attention. It was that time in the day when doting parents were serving dinner to their kids, bathing them, reading them a story and putting them to bed and this little boy was having none of that. In fact, he hadn’t received so much as a smile from his mother in the hour we'd been there. I couldn’t stop myself. My legs took on a life of their own before my head could take control of them; I turned to her and said, “You need to take care of your child!” “I am taking care of him,” she argued. “How old is he?" I asked. “One and a half,” she scowled. In a triumph of tact and diplomacy (because anyone who knows me knows I could have said much more) I looked her in the face and said, “He needs some kind of attention.” “There’s nothing wrong with him,” she said, “he’s just being naughty.” He wasn’t being naughty. I let that particular choice of wording slide as a language issue because English was obviously not her native tongue. I turned back and sat in my chair and the Asian American lady sitting next to my table goes, “Oh my Gad, we were just talking about that.” I should have said you and everyone else in eyeshot of her is probably talking about it but this is Britain, we make excuses for people so I simply said, “Maybe she never gets a night off" - as if that would be an acceptable excuse for neglect. The lady and her baby didn’t stay long after that. Having lifted her head from her phone for the first time in an hour she suddenly realized she had been the centre of attention for a while and left. I worried about what punishment she'd mete out to her son for being "naughty". That night as I tossed and turned The Good Husband woke up and asked what was wrong, “I’m still thinking about the little Chinese boy,” I answered. I’m glad I said something. This is Britain. We mind our own business but sometimes we shouldn’t especially when the people we’re speaking for cannot speak for themselves. I know there are different forms of parenting out there and I do agree that most parents know what's best for their child. Indeed, some of the things I do would probably have helicopter parents and tiger mums around the globe tearing their hair out and I might feel the same about their practices. Ultimately we'd both fall into categories that are trying their best for their child. We're actively engaged in being parents of some form. Nowadays people ignore bad things happening right next to them then they go home and write the now infamous "open letter" or Facebook post, a heartfelt note that will most likely never reach the intended audience - what's the point? I can live with most parenting styles but neglect is definitely not something I can sit next to and watch…it’s not an acceptable form of parenting. It’s too impersonal. It shows a lack of care. We Africans take care of our relatives when they're old as gratitude for them taking care of us in our youth. Oh, how I used to be naïve.  I used to tell my English friends that we don’t need old age homes in Malawi because we take care of our old people within the family. This is certainly not universal; hundreds of old people in Malawi are completely destitute with no one to support them except the odd well-wisher.
With almost 90% of the population living on less than $3 a day, their own children are not in a position to care for them in any significant way. Indeed, many people aged over 80 have seen their own kids die young and the one or two kids they are left with can’t even feed themselves. Overpopulation is another issue here. Having too many children means that you can’t afford to educate them all so they’re bound to end up poor themselves. Our own cook is now 61. He’s still fit but he has 10 children the youngest is only 6. We used to talk about him having to many kids 15 years ago when he had 7 or 8 already but such is his myopia and poor judgment that he went on to have more. He says his two oldest children have left home but they are constantly coming to him to ask for money because they quite literally have nothing to eat. In 10 or 15 years time he’ll be too old to work and will probably retire to the village despite the fact that there’s nothing for him there. So, how could we solve this issue. What format could old age homes take in Malawi? Can the government even afford it? The government is currently paying for lots of things it can’t afford so let’s suppose that it could rejig things to prioritize old people. For instance, we could reduce the free goods being given to working age people to direct more towards the old. Most people would be too embarrassed to take their old to a home so we’d need a structure that would allow the old to submit themselves. Local clinics could be extended to include “wards” for people aged 80 or 85+. This would allow the very old to stay within the community they are familiar with. These places don’t have to be lush: a wooden bed, plastic mattresses, basic blankets and three square meals a day. Cleaners would ensure the accommodations were clean and those that were too old to bath themselves received the necessary support to wash themselves and keep infections at bay. In the video above you see aFelegesi the old woman with one arm sleeps on the floor without a mattress in a mud hut with a leaking roof. With no one to help her she has to cook for herself on an outdoor fire. What kind of life is that? The model I propose is simple and inexpensive. We Africans like to think of ourselves as having strong community links and compared to the West we do but it’s not enough to prevent this degrading old age poverty. Oh, sad day...Little Zeusy started nursery last week. On the first day, he waved at me and I thought, this will be easy... ...however, I now realise he thought I was just going to the next room - he now cries when I drop him off and it breaks my heart. I know he's 10 months and lots of people have to leave children in day care much earlier but it's no consolation. On the other hand, I do enjoy my work so at least I'm not leaving him for a job I hate which for others is the case. How was it when you started leaving your child at nursery or day care?  Michael Serwa, originally from Eastern Europe, is a life coach. He isn't an ordinary run-of-the-mill life coach, however, he's at the top of the coaching game. He really knows how to get to the soul of a problem. He's gained massive popularity since the launch of his book From Good to Amazing and is so in demand that people now pay up to 5-figures to get onto his calendar. I was honoured to be interviewed by him. If you have any questions at all about my business or starting your own, please ask them under his video. Watch here:   This blog post is dedicated to my NCT friend, Kat. Antenatal classes never explained why skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby was important. They said it needs to happen as soon as birth happens but didn’t go into the details of why - frankly, I’m sure most midwives couldn’t give you a proper explanation if you asked outside of the surface level: It helps with bonding, regulating body temperature, preventing postpartum depression etc. But why? Why does it have this impact? Importantly, whilst skin to skin immediately after birth is strongly recommended they never tell you to continue doing it when you get home. The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff has helped me to understand why it’s important and whilst I will try to explain it in my own words I know I won’t do the book justice. It’s a very academically rigorous book with many case studies. So in my own simple, layman words: Skin-to-skin Immediately After Birth Skin-to-skin post delivery is important for continuity of the human species. Basically, at the instant that a child is born mother nature wanted to ensure that its mother wholeheartedly wants to care for it. Consequently, at the point of birth and skin-to-skin contact a plethora of hormones are released that impress upon the mother the need to take care of this baby come hell or high water. In pre-historic times, the only reason a mother would not receive a baby post birth is because there was still birth. The result is that grieving hormones were released designed for the mother to mourn her child and eventually get over that loss. As sophisticated as we humans might think we are, evolutionary responses don’t develop so fast. If there is too much of a time delay between birth and mother-baby contact those grieving hormones kick into action and even if the baby is brought later it may be too late. The woman will be feeling all sorts of negative emotions and the mourning process cannot simply be stopped. Interestingly, not all animals have evolved the same way. With geese, the baby forms an attachment to the first thing it sees coming out and follows it everywhere. This happens because geese have many goslings and there is no way the mother goose could follow them all around. This is why you see a gaggle of goslings all following their mother. They were primed to do this at birth. If the gosling’s initial contact is with something else, e.g. a human, it will follow that human around everywhere too - interesting, right?  Skin-to-skin During Early Development (New Born Onwards) This is all about helping a baby transition from a comfortable, fully active environment (the womb) into a world composed mostly of “lifeless” air. Basically, in the womb, a baby is in a state of “bliss” - it is happy and content. The baby expects this happy existence where all its needs are met to continue. Whilst the initial skin-to-skin is crucial, follow-on skin-to-skin helps to build on the bond created and it has very calming effect on the baby because it reminds him of what he knows, the warmth and comfort of the womb in which he developed. The need for skin contact progresses towards a need for human contact in general. It’s a natural progression. When your baby is born it doesn’t think in words (as we do) but at first in terms of emotions (happy, sad, scared) and sensations (cold, hot, soft, hard). It’s taken out of the blissful, warm womb into a world of inactive “cold” air. Every single thing it hears and feels, every single treatment and experience feeds the baby with information about its new world; all the initial life experiences happen when your baby is in your familiar arms giving your baby confidence; it can smell mother and knows your voice well. So your baby’s not scared. In my case, I held Chester for just over 40 minutes as his body was rubbed clean and he took his first breaths and heard sounds outside of the womb. I lay in my husband, Harry’s, arms whilst Chester lay in mine still connected to me by the umbilical cord. When an infant is in arms intolerable experiences become much more tolerable to it and soon become expected. Because of this The Continuum Concept encourages taking baby about your daily life preferably in arms and not constantly treating them with "kitten mittens". Liedloff studies rural Amazonian communities to develop some of her theories and sees that an infant is carried around as its mother does all her daily tasks: walking through the forest (where many sounds are heard); the child encounters rain, wind, sunshine and all other weather changes. In its mother’s arms it experiences all that life has to offer and these life experiences are normalised thereby helping the baby transition into this life.  She compares this to a “Western” baby’s experience in a hospital where he may be taken into a baby ward/nursery (I don’t think this happens in England anymore) and instead of a mother tending to its needs immediately, the baby is left without motherly contact. He's also in lifeless clothing - his nappy perhaps changed according to a schedule, whether it was just soiled, clean or was soiled ages ago. Leaving baby in cots and prams where he’s stimulated only for short periods of time becomes the norm. Beyond the womb, a baby craves to have real life experiences, however, your baby will only meet life with a strong sense of self, with confidence, without fear if he is transitioned progressively from skin-to-skin to the in-arms phase to independence. Independence is a natural progression. You won’t spoil your child by holding them too much. They need that contact. Just as you should feed on demand you should also cuddle on demand. All too quickly the day will come when your little one crawls and needs your cuddles less and less. Ultimately, live your life as you always have and make your baby a part of it. There is no need to follow an overly rigid schedule. Going out? Take him. Going downstairs to make a coffee or bake a cake, take him. Let him watch, speak to him as you do it. Don’t leave him staring into space in his cot. This way your baby will transition naturally into independent living. Buy The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff on:  On 25 October 2014, at about 30 weeks pregnant, Harry's sister hosted a baby shower for our first son Little Zeusy. It was beautiful. It completely surpassed any expectations that Harry and I had for the event. This is the footage of the event:   I'm somewhere in this picture, can you spot Heather?  On 17 October 2014 I was proud to be one of a large group of people that broke The Guinness Book of World Records forThe Most Number of People Attending A Business Speed Networking Event At A Single Venue. Prior to this day the record was held by Australia and stood at 475 participants where each participant networked with 21 people. How Did It Work? The event was hosted by Entrevo. They sold tickets to over 600 people for Their Brand Accelerator Day at The Mermaid in Puddle Dock (Blackfriars, London) to take part in the event. They needed at least 500 people to show up to ensure that we had a chance of breaking the world record. 10 minutes prior to the event we were still 20 people short. The CEO of Entrevo, Darshana Ubl, and her team had been going crazy calling no-shows for the last hour trying to get to 500+. The Process:
Anyhow, long story short, the Entrevo team managed to get 510 people into the room prior to the start; Darshana went through how the rows would network with each other and speed networking began.
I totally underestimated what hard work this would be. Because I was speaking to people in a lower row in a VERY loud room I a) had to speak loudly to be heard and b) sometimes had to bend for effective communication. The strain on my pregnant back was massive. On top of it all I needed to use the ladies almost from the start but the rules meant anyone that left the room was automatically disqualified. I’ve pretty much mastered holding my need for the loo for 2 to 3 hours so I was fine. The whole process took about 1.5 hours. Of the 22 people I spoke to only one was completely boring - everyone else was rather interesting; a few people I could possibly work with in the long run. The Results The Guinness Book Officials needed a few hours to count the papers. When the announcement was made the GB Official looked sombre. I was pretty sure he was going to say it had gone wrong. He started off with all the bad news: It transpired that in the midst of the speed networking drive some losers had left the room for “urgent” meetings and mundane reasons such as “I can’t do this”. He concluded with (and I paraphrase), “Australia holds the record with 475 attendees. Because although we started with 510 people many had to be disqualified, I’m here to tell you that…” he not only paused for effect but pursed his lips like he was reading a eulogy (and quite frankly Darshana looked like she might cry), “with 487 networkers you’ve beat the record.” Cheers all round. I even jumped out of my chair and did a happy dance. My only hope is currently that I wasn’t caught on camera because for a moment there, I completely lost my marbles.  |
By Heather
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Heather Katsonga-Woodward, a massive personal finance fanatic.
** All views expressed are my own and not those of any employer, past or present. ** Please get professional advice before re-arranging your personal finances.