releasing excess fat tips!

1. Zigzag Your Calories
You may be staying on track with your weight-loss plan, but by consuming the same amount of calories every day, your body weight can actually come to a standstill. For example, your body simply adapts to 1,200 calories and stops slimming down.

Oz said to keep your body working hard at shedding those pounds, vary your caloric intake. Consume 1,200 calories one day; then reduce to 1,000 calories the next day; and 1,100 the following day. Keep this pattern going, and your body will have to exert more energy to make adjustments, which can trigger bigger weight loss.

2. Eat Your Water
A recent study showed that women who ate water-rich foods lost 33% more weight in the first 6 months than women on a low-fat diet. Choose both water-rich and nutrient-rich foods. Fruits like watermelon and cantaloupe, and vegetables like celery and green lettuce contain lots of water and vitamins. Soups made with low-sodium broths are a good choice, too. By eating your water you can actually eat more food and cut down on calories at the same time.

food for thought / spiritual fuel!

Bliss Divine

Purify the mind and meditate. Silence the bubbling thoughts and surging emotions. Plunge deep into the innermost recess of your heart and enjoy the magnanimous Silence.

Mysterious is this Silence. Enter into Silence. Know that Silence. Become Silence itself.


Swami Sivananda

minty choc chia!

This decadently-sublime and yet healthy concoction reminds of the not-so-good for you processed mint choc chip ice cream of childhood, it's soo good!

*chia seed gel made up from previous night!
*ripe frozen banana chunks(ice cream)
* raw and organic cacao powder
* 1-2 drops pure peppermint essential oil!

good resources!

The Broken Mirror: Understanding and Treating Body Dysmorphic Disorder. By Katharine A. Phillips (Paperback - Jan 2005)

The BDD Workbook: Overcome Body Dysmorphic Disorder and End Body Image Obsessions. By James Claiborn and Cherry Pedrick (Paperback)

Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel By Changing the Way You Think. By Christine A Padesky and Dennis Greenberger (Paperback - 10 May 1995)

Overcoming Depression: A self-help guide using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques. By Paul Gilbert (Paperback - 25 May 2000)

treasured memories of Diana the loving mother!

You know you're getting OLD when you can recall quite clearly:

* Lady Diana Spencer's engagement to Charlie looking resplendent in royal blue!

* The 'shy Di' newspaper tabloid headings that followed her prior to her wedding in July 1981!

* The pending birth of Princess Diana's first child(William) on the longest day in 1982(one was especia

lly excited as there was a possibility that her first-born son might be born on my birthday, he came a day before:)

* the oh-so-cute photos of the young Prince William and the incident with the golf ball!

Diana simply adored 'her boys' and would be so, so proud of her first-born son's nuptials(what a catch:)and thus lives on in her sons.

As a fellow early crab I'm soo proud of her for being a very decent human being(she secretly took a very young Prince William to 'Centrepoint' homeless shelter in London to show him how the other half lived:)!

Congratulations Wills and Catherine(let's raise a glass to Wills and Catherine and Princess Diana for her fine maternal skills on April 29th:)!

favourite zucchini spaghetti with a raw tomato salsa

pomodoro salsa:fresh garlic, fresh and ripe vine tomatoes(6),1TBS unfiltered Biona cider vinegar, 2 TBS olive oil, cayenne mixes to a smooth and velvety salsa. Pour over a bed of raw zucchini spaghetti, enjoy!

traditional N.African ie Moroccan product AKA barley cous cous find!

being real being human!

Praise and cheers goes out to the lovely Welsh actress, Catherine Zeta Jones for seeking professional help for bipolar and depression. Hopefully this endorsement will help to dispel and destigmatise mental illness as a taboo subject(I hope so)and thus save and improve lives!

let's have animal-friendly chocolate cake!

fine organic wholemeal flour(I normally use organic spelt but this was 50p off due to a slight tear in the paper packaging:)
cacoa powder
tiny amount of coconut sugar
2tsp baking soda
water
almond extract
cider vinegar

frosting: coconut sugar combined with coconut butter!

Sublime Smoothie

Started my Sunday with the most satiatingly-sublime green smoothie brunch: organic pointed sweet cabbage,
3 small local(Kent) apples, juice of 2 lemons(lemon and lime juice are soo incredibly-versatile and adds a real depth of flavor to any juice, smoothie or meal:) and a small, but perfectly-ripe avocado; ah what bliss in a glass. It was DELICIOUS! Go on try it for yourself(you know you want to:0), I dare you?! The perrrfectly-balanced, Sunday brunch meal in a glass for a healthy brain / mind, body and soul, Namaste

Here's why Veronka(founder of The Mother Magazine:) is a favorite bloggist!

Zest and Ordinary Days



I love ordinary days…


This morning I woke at 6.45am. It’s dark then! I made Paul and I our morning drink of hot water and lemon. He usually makes it and brings it to me in bed.The zing of lemon zest always makes me feel good. This was followed by a kelp and chia smoothie.


I felt the need to bake some lemon and blueberry scones to see if I want to include the recipe in my upcoming cookbook. (I DO!) We ate them later while I gave the girls a psychological astrology lesson.

Then I had a mentoring session by phone. During that time Eliza made a lovely barley soup for lunch.

Both girls did their music practise; I played cello. This afternoon I baked chocolate and almond cupcakes for a friend up the road to say ‘thanks for feeding the felines while we were away’. I delivered them earlier under the light of a beautiful three quarter moon.


Paul and I pottered in the garden, tidied up the shed where the back issues of TM are stored, made the compost heap a bit higher, took today’s postage down to the post office, fed the birds.


More time spent in the kitchen preparing vegan moussaka for tonight’s meal. A special friend is joining us for dinner. I’m looking forward to a long chatty evening by the fire.


I’ve been choosing my favourite recipes for The Mystic Cookfire and am immersed in the soup chapter this week, and spent some time going through astrological charts for some phone consultations.

Bethany was doing fashion design, and is now at her flute lesson a mile from here. Eliza’s reading a book on creative writing.


Paul’s spent a good chunk of the day doing TM admin. That’s my boy! He’ll be in Su Doku heaven right now while Bethany’s in her music lesson.


So, today’s just another ‘ordinary’ day but within that there’s zest. It’s a zest for life and following one’s passion. This is at the heart of unschooling. By observing their parents live their lives, our girls have found passions of their own. Bethany’s interests include music, drawing, dancing, writing, design. Eliza’s include history, historical fiction, writing, drama and music. They’ve come to these interests in their own time and way…all discovered on ordinary days.