Emotionally, it wasn’t pretty. A friend of mine often talks about the necessity of valuing oneself. She means cultivating the inner light, the life spark that says “I am here, I am worthy.”

It isn’t selfish to cultivate love, even self-love, but when one’s attentions are always being drawn away from oneself toward children, partners and work, talking about it can make one feel even more guilty. Lamenting not caring for oneself can take you even further from the path toward self-care. At least, that’s what happened to me.
I could eat for energy when I couldn’t sleep. I could comfort eat when I couldn’t change my situation. I could medicate with sweets when life made me bitter. It was all disguised as taking care of myself.

I sound new-agey here and, really, I am fine with that. Cue the music mixed with waterfalls and rainsong.

What made me change my mind? What brought the change? I don’t know yet, but I hope to figure it out in time.

Post from: Babylune

July and it’s already time for the thirteenth Healthy & Fit Family. There are plenty of people who still believe that 13 is unlucky, but I am feeling pretty confident about this edition. As usual, the carnival is limited to the ten submissions I thought were most family-oriented, health-oriented and fitness-oriented.

I know, I know, most carnivals publish everything bloggers send them. And, if it weren’t for that kind of democratic spirit, none of my submissions would ever be featured in a blog carnival. That said, when was the last time you read a carnival post with 50 or 60 links?

Ten posts is a manageable number to read, and since so many people have their kids home on vacation, even 10 might sound like a stretch of stolen time.

If you’re tempted to let the kids watch as much TV as they like, the Midnight Raider has a lesson for you. If you’re thinking video games, the Grrl Scientist has a warning for you.

Speaking of vacations, a number of us have carefully planned and expensive trips to take. The closer we get to our departure dates, the more we need to follow Ruby’s advice about how to prevent illness.

Meanwhile, Nature Mom’s care never takes a holiday. She has learned a lot about packing her son’s lunch to take to kindergarten.

Therapy Doc’s classroom doesn’t close for the summer either. She has already started teaching her little grandson about asking permission.

I ended another term of the English classes I teach by learning a lesson about how to include other people’s children with allergies in a cookie-oriented class.

One of the most positive things about taking up exercise is the opportunity it presents to strengthen our awareness and do good in our communities. Most races support charities and other runners launch their own campaigns. Richard ran to save a local river.

A Crazy Wisdom Grandma (her words) is eating to save herself, her family and the planet.

Mama is ranting again, but this time she’s been talking to a healthy eating expert.

Crazy Grandma, Ranting Mama and everyone else, you can’t always bend kids’ eating habits to your will and knowledge. Hueina wants to teach us how NOT to take it personally.

The Fourteenth Healthy & Fit Family will be held on 7 August at Sports Girls Play. Submissions are now open on our Blog Carnival page.

Post from: Babylune

There were over 30 submissions to The Twelfth Healthy & Fit Family and you’ll find the ten most practical, most family-oriented and that we just liked best at Wisdom of Healing.

Now that the weather is good, quite a few of the posts have to do with being outside and enjoying nature, but there are also a few posts of special interest to new and expectant parents. There are special notes from the adventure that is VBAC and the marsh adventures of a little baby and his parents.

The Healthy and Fit Family July edition will be hosted here at Babylune on July 3rd. If you’re interested, please read the guidelines and submit via out Blog Carnival form.

Post from: Babylune

So, I am going to try something different to increase page views, to tantalize readers…I am going to use a trick from second grade. I shall tell A SECRET!

On Tuesday, I signed up for Weight Watchers. I’m doing the online program and, to make Thrifty Mommy proud of me, used a coupon I found here. Some women at work have been having great successes with the program and I want results like theirs. I hope to lose 25 pounds (about 11.5 kg).

That revelation ought to be worth an extra click!

Post from: Babylune

I do worry about the decision to limit the carnival to 10 spots sometimes, but I want it to be completely readable. Parents who want to head healthier families are often overwhelmed with blame guilt information and it can often seem impossible to counteract the billions of dollars in advertising budgets that create experiences designed to make our kids crave food and drinks that don’t nurture their growing bodies (it’s actually just food in disguise says Al Nye) and even leads to high-colesterol in teens. I wish the best marketing minds in the world would try selling nine superfoods in one bowl to kids.

Even a step in the right direction toward a healthier, fitter family life can have its drawbacks.

In an effort to make my family a little healthier and a little fitter, we joined the YMCA in my hometown for the month of our visit. They have excellent programs for 3 to 6 year-olds and last week my four year-old learned all about the difference between healthy & not so healthy food choices for a few days last week. As soon as I picked my son up, he showed me his “healthy foods” artwork and said, “I like chocolate donuts and milk.”

Lifestyle changes are hard to implement for everyone, says John Peter. Especially if we aren’t motivated for the right reasons. That’s certainly something Arun learned through personal experience. If you are motivated, getting or staying fit doesn’t have to cost a cent. Hiking is free.

The Eleventh Healthy & Fit Family will run on May 1st here at Babylune. Submissions can be made via the blog carnival submission form. There are only 10 spots in the carnival. To control the number & quality of submissions, only one per blog may be submitted for consideration.

Post from: Babylune

Dinner last night was the final meal in our Eating the Alphabet Challenge.

We ate 25 out of 26 letters.
While I could have legitimately, it turns out, called watermelon xigua, I used it for W. And, the Ximenia caffra fruit from South Africa (also known as Large Sour Plum) eluded me. But, I will find it…eventually.

The week was marked with many culinary highs and lows. While it was an interesting and expensive experiment, adding so much extra fiber to my diet too quickly left me feeling rather bloated. Eating produce that was either out of season, picked too green or just not tasty enough didn’t do anything to educate out senses.

There were, however, some hits that will go into regular rotation. In particular, pancakes with quince jelly and powdered sugar. A truly superb combination of sweet and tart.

The second big hit was last night’s root vegetable casserole (recipe to come tomorrow).

We also had one perfect mango to share, an experience that left all of us wanting more mango!

The best part, though, was working with my four year-old on a little book we made with pictures of what we’d eaten together…even if he did reject the jackfruit.

If I were going to do it again, I would spread the new tastes (and their expense) out over a month. Buying everything at once, though, did mean that I planned our meals and cooking time a little more thoroughly than usual. And, we did eat fewer snacks and less junk food.

Plus, I lost a whole kilogram (2.2 pounds) in a week.

Post from: Babylune

Yes. We ate stuffed vine leaves from a can. You have to understand, my husband was born in Bulgaria. Vine leaves, aren’t just part of our eating the alphabet adventure. They’re part of our family culture. If my mother-in-law knew about this, she’d have fit. (Ah, we miss you, Nadka.) She could make beautiful sirme, taking care to fill each vine leaf with the same amount of delicious filling, shaping it perfectly. I don’t have that kind of time on a work day. I also don’t have access to the quality, farm grown ingredients Nadka did.

I also, I have to confess, haven’t been feeling so well. Introducing so much more fiber to my diet so quickly has left me feeling really, really bloated. When I was losing a lot of weght, I used to eat a high-fiber diet all the time. Losing weight wasn’t my only goal. I also am deeply concerned about cancer prevention because I am a cancer survivor. At the time, though, I walked almost everywhere and exercised in the gym for about 2 hours 4 days a week. I just don’t have that kind of time and, when you eat a high-fiber diet, you have to keep moving to keep the fiber moving!
So, I couldn’t face the idea of my original plan for W. We would have had white bean soup, another typical Bulgarian dish, if I could face the idea of more fiber!

Food does and should, link us to our culture, to our families and traditions. A piece of fruit, picked very green and shipped from Jamaica, really doesn’t do anything for my sensory memory. The canned vine leaves just made us mourn Nadka as if we lost her last week instead of last year. While trying the ugli fruit was interesting, it’s not something I want to eat all the time.

So, we each had a small triangle of water melon for dessert. It was awful, out of season, expensive stuff. Maybe we should have taken a month for the eat the alphabet challenge?

Post from: Babylune

There is nothing you can’t do to lose more than 40 pounds too. Stopping the alcohol, eating less and jogging 5km four days a week helped me.

The rest of it was emotional and that transformation is in my essay in the above book. I haven’t read it yet, but I hope the other writers will have some help for me too.

Post from: Babylune

Inspired by My Name is Mommy and her well-communicated efforts to lead a healthier life, I am pleased to present the Healthy & Fit Family, a blog carnival.

Healthy and Fit Family is a weekly update from bloggers who are working to improve the health and fitness of their entire families. Are you a father who has managed to cut half the fat from spaghetti bolonaise? A mother who taught her kids ten skipping rhymes the old-fashioned way (by jumping along)? A kid who inspired Gramps to get up with everyone else and do the electric slide at a wedding? If so, this is the carnival to share your posts about the experience of leading (or starting to lead) an active life as a family.

Here are a few ground rules:

Since my own health goals have to do with stress and time management, only ten submissions will be posted in each edition of the carnival.

The emphasis of posts should be on living healthier lives as a family. Naturally, we’re interested in weight loss, but not eating disorders. If you’ve been losing weight through dehydration, self-starvation, or self-hatred, or if you’ve been brow-beating your kid into losing weight, you should read the carnival to learn about being healthy and having a healthy attitude, but your submissions won’t be considered.

The deadline for submissions is every Sunday at midnight starting on the 29th of October. Click here to submit.

EDIT: Today is October 30th and you can read the first edition of the carnival here.

Post from: Babylune

Back tomorrow.

Until then, read this classic post on postpartum weight loss that I felt never got the number of comments it deserved.

What do you think? Should I write a diet book?

Post from: Babylune