Who are we to judge?!

I would like to have a bit of chat about people who judge – does that mean I am judging them? Maybe, maybe – anyway here goes…

The way we live, the way we eat is often in question– we are what we eat, we hear that all the time.

Actually we are made of what we eat and do and think and say and experience.
That’s obvious isn’t it?

A LOT of people seem to think that their way is the best way and so they preach. I know, I know –  if someone asks me about health I tend to go on and on (sorry friends) and give advice freely when asked by anyone (I also charge, its my job). BUT I’m talking about those who insist “100% this” is the only right way or “100% that”, or “80/20% is the perfect way”.

We are all different. Not just in what we need but in what we want, what works with our life even our age and state of health.

Of course we can all change,  we could be flexible, change as needed, listen to our bodies and minds. I also believe that for me (the only example to use) 100% anything is not right.
Being a classic miss-matcher if I put a rule on myself (or if anyone else tries to) I usually break it. If I decide on Tuesday we will eat such and such on Friday – there is NO WAY we will be eating that on Friday. Its a bit of a standing joke in our house.

I must just say at this point that I believe eating fried foods, food with all the nutrients boiled out of them, dairy, sugar, white stuff,  lots of meat and alcohol as well as not exercising and leading a stressful and/or anger fuelled life  (and any combination of that little lot you choose) is going to end in tears – and health problems.

There are other ways to live and eat and some people don’t know them (some choose not to want to and they have that right – though when it effects others they could have the right to mention it!!) hence, when asked, I go on….and on.

Anyway. To state my point of view; I believe that a very high raw plant based diet, higher in veggies than fruit, is the best way for me and most people – if this choice is taken with knowledge and attention to advice. I believe that the more food and drink you take in that nourishes your body the better.
For me eating a plate of stodge, say pasta, is a wasted opportunity to a) enjoy something more delicious ( lets face it, its what you put on it that tastes good) and b) to notch up another “portion” of fantastic nutrients – so in place of the pasta I would probably use spiralised raw courgette for example. The sauce would be a divine blend of veggies, garlic, oils and herbs. If I wanted creamy (love creamy!) it would have nuts and maybe nutritional yeast and lecithin in there – so all the yumminess without guilt – ah, guilt thats another thing (another time).

I believe we need to use supplements, I do and I send them to my kids and check that they take them. I use spirulina, wheatgrass ( fresh when possible, frozen when not and powdered when neither are available), spray Vit. B12 and Vit D.
I take MSM, Maca and a mixed green powder with algea, acai, and allsorts of other great stuff in it sometimes (I swap and change and remember and forget with these).
At the moment I am taking Co-enzime Q 10, 5HTP and magnesium ( spray oil and tablets with B6) and a high dose of Vit C; because I am recovering from extensive stress and burnout.
I use frozen pollen when Im in France and so can get it.

I drink herbs as tea (plus lots of different red and green teas), drink lots of water and do not buy ready meals or anything really that I think is bad.  I drink green juices and green smoothies by the pint. Lemons, limes and apple cider vinegar are always to hand.

I eat out sometimes and don’t stress about it, I eat at friends houses and love the food they have prepared with kindness for their guests. I drink wine. I drink a tiny coffee most mornings ( OK I smell it a lot and sip it a little then throw it away having had what I want from it). I practice yoga sometimes, I meditate, I dance around the kitchen a lot, I feel huge love and happiness and, sometimes, have to wrestle myself from the clutches of sadness.
I do the best I can for me and my family and my friends and my clients.

Often and for long periods I only eat a raw plant based diet which includes nuts and seeds, sea veggies and draws upon a lot of experience and knowledge (and relies on my super fast blender, food processor and dehydrater). I am happy with that – I just don’t make it a rule!!

Of course I could and should “do better” in someone’s eyes, on the other hand I’m probably a mad, hippy, health fanatic in someone else’s eyes too!

ONE OF OUR RAW FEASTS

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So, I was burnt out but now I’m Rocking!

Well things feel a little quiet around here.

Last week was the Bleus Passions – the Blues festival- at Cognac, just down the road. It was super gooood! We saw Sinead O’Connor who was beautiful and sang like an angel, Beth Hart who was sexy ‘n’ sassy and sang like a rockin’ angel and The Hives who just took control and had everybody (say that word like the Blues Brothers would) eating out of their hands.

Sadly we were right at the front for The Hives (this is a small outdoor venue in a park, so a perfect place, even when it rains and everyone is sharing black plastic sacks to keep dry – which it didn’t this year, hurray) anyway,  we were right at the front as we had been for the previous two concerts, and so were a lot of, well, children.

OK so they were maybe 16, and they all started bouncing around and then jumping around, then it got a little manic and they started crowd surfing and hmmmm we moved back a bit. Then it got even more manic and I told Robin I was heading out and we’d meet up later. Good man that he is wouldn’t let me go alone (good excuse huh?) and held my hand and dragged me through the throng to a safe spot, only about 10 metres back but, can you imagine? It was the walk of shame!!!

I felt like someone’s granny (that is the “sadly” bit), till I looked around and there were all the other over 20s (OK, over 30s then) that had previously been at the front.

So, now it’s quiet. Sun’s out. I’m up early because I couldn’t sleep any longer.

Can’t keep calm and quiet for too long so today is the day I start the site for Robin & Desri (RobinandDesri.com) and also ByDesri so that we can start taking bookings for our retreat AND prepare to launch Tatty Tot in a few months time, yee haaaa!

Funny how a day can start out slow and speed up before most people are out of bed isn’t it?

I LOVE having something to go for, but have been more than a little burnt out for a while which was a huge shock to me and it took me a while to understand and accept, and I am over the hump – thank you family and friends who loved me better and love me just the way I am, green juices, meditation, good bands and the ability I have been given to always see the silver lining and find inspiration in the most unexpected places.

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Smile!

Have you ever said, when I get this, (or that, or the other) I’ll be happy?

The other day, someone said to me “I am aiming for XXX by the end of the year so I have to keep going till I get it then everything will be better”.

Fair enough, its good to have an aim, know what you are going for, a target. Somewhere I read something about concentrating on where you are going, don’t stress on the how to get there every step of the way. Good advice.

I don’t really like buts, but there is a big but here… BUT what about now?

Whilst you are concentrating on where you are going, and lots of people (myself included previously) do this, you say I just need to keep going now, head down, work work work, then when I achieve XXX ( promotion/level of income/ fit into smaller jeans/ own a red Ferrari) I’ll be happy.

I hear that from my kids, sometimes sounding so tired, but they live in a competitive world, both in fast cities ( London and Paris) and feel they have to keep going and going or they will lose momentum….

Who’s that song by ‘Ill sleep when I’m dead”? Good song but not a motto to live by.

Without relaxation you will not have any energy, we need sleep and stillness to facilitate activity – mental and physical.

Without food you will not have any energy; your metabolism will drop, your cells will diminish, your health will suffer.

Without enjoyment your motivation will sink.

More on each of those coming up.

Give yourself a break!!!

For today, lets enjoy today. Even if you are working towards your aim, have today as a happy day, find something good in it, funny, profound. Smile at all the people you see, it’s infectious, really! Someone might think you are nuts and ignore you but I bet someone else gives you a twinkly smile back, and it feels good!

Happy Sunday x

 

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/stitch/1333373279/”>Stitch</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>cc</a>

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Who knew how many sides a chair has!

Robin, he who puts up with me, commented patiently this morning that I have the attention span of a gnat.

It is true I like change. Regularly, however big or small.

Hence having moved more times than I can remember and when a house is finished ( OK, when a house is nearly finished or even just been going on too long) another will catch my attention and…. poor Robin, he who gets all the really hard work.

So, having discovered Annie Sloane paints in Derbyshire, those that need NO preparation ( joy, my favourite thing, straight in!!) we brought some back to France and after 25 years of living with cheapish, orangey varnished wooden chairs around my very ancient and beautifully worn big pine table I decided to Annie Sloane them.

Duck egg blue was the colour of choice, the paints are really chalky and gorgeous, then you wax them to stop the paint coming off. I couldn’t wait to get started.

I have just finished the third. Not bad going you might think. But, a small confession, the first was done about 8 weeks ago, maybe more. The other two started yesterday so I earned some (well deserved) brownie points for having seen two through to the end in 24 hours but oh, how tedious!!

You do not know how many sides a chair has until you try to paint them. And then wax them!
Imagine if I had also had to clean/ sand/ prep them too, and wait for them to dry – this paint dries in no time, ideal for gnats.
Possibly a majorly good development idea – Annie, please can you put the paint in a spray? Maybe thats one step too lazy.

I told a friend, via chat, yesterday that I was going to do some yoga and try to do more than 15 minutes. He said, very wisely, “its not how long, its the quality of the movement”.
I read his comment afterwards. How true it is, how right he was.

I did my yoga teacher training 5 years ago. It was tough, magical, empowering, strengthening, inspiring, everything I could have dreamed. How could I forget, even for a moment that every movement, part of a movement and breath counts.
As I did my practice, which actually did last way longer than 15 minutes because I was in the moment and each movement did count, it was just getting onto the mat that was the problem, it felt gooood.

I asked had he trained in martial arts. He had. I guessed because mostly people who think that way, or would say that, have trained in some ancient art.
Everyone should have that knowledge, that the quality of the movement counts – all movement. Being present, right here right now and making the most of it all.

Sooooo, never mind how many sides a chair has, I am going to enjoy painting each and every one of them…..

Says me; “Actually Robin, don’t you think the chairs would look really good alternating, duck egg blue then cheap orangey varnish, then duck egg blue, now we have three and three?”

Says he; “Attention span of a gnat”.

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Motivation and wafting away grey mood clouds.

I just thought I would repost this after having a really low energy feeling yesterday afternoon.

I was kind of sinking into it (it can be so easy just to go with it, let it take your hand and follow it … down…) and forced myself to get on my mini trampoline and do some bouncing, 10 minutes later the mood was definitely more positive and after another ten, hey presto, energy restored, mood lifted.

It’s not always so simple, but it does really help to DO something when that shadow starts closing in.

I wrote the following post was about a year ago on “Desrissplash”…

Back in rainy Britain, what is going on? We left  the 30+° heat of France and arrived in the UK at 6.30am to 20° which was very hopeful but today it is pouring and grey. Kinda cosy though, sometimes don’t you just need cosy?

I have a meeting today that I am not looking forward to. I was thinking about what to wear and thought “OK, what would I wear that would make me feel better?”… no the answer wasn’t a power suit or even a mask, it was PJs and thick socks!

I had to have a tooth out at the dentist a while ago, I was terrified, I have never been good at dentists. I took along my thick super soft socks. He looked at me as though I was nuts when I started to take my shoes off, I explained the comfort theory and he got it – really we need to do whatever gets us through (within reason obviously;-).

I think we spend far too little time really thinking ‘what would make this work’ instead of ‘this isn’t working’. Because I am nervous we started the day today with a really brisk walk, in the pouring rain, up over the hills. 45 minutes later we were back, soaked but feeling much better about everything and had the exciting surprise that my new samples had turned up and are gorgeous!

Endorphines, laughing at being soaked, concentrating on balancing on stones rather than sinking in the mud, its all going to make you feel better. A fantastic help for people suffering anxiety, depression, grief, fear, almost any mind problem can be given some help/respite by getting outside and moving and being slightly challenged – even if it is by cow pats and mud!

Oh (back to real time) the other thing I just remembered I did was power jet spray some old floor boards, with the idea of using them around the house for window sills, maybe a table (that I couldn’t put anything on as they are very wonky), etc. I did this in the pouring rain and got thoroughly soaked, it felt great, free, silly – probably helped that the weather was quite warm despite raining ALL day, heavily.

So, a bit like the post above, maybe a good play in the rain washes the dark feelings away, just like going for a breezy walk blows the cobwebs away.

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Paint ‘n’ onions…

OK so its not your usual combination, its not tripe n onions (yucky) or anything edible, but it is brilliant.

I have a really bad reaction to strong paints, to lots of chemicals really – I am sure most of us do but we get used to it, which is not good. Anyway, even having used ‘good’ paint the woodwork paints still smell strongly to me.

Onions are a treasure, did you know that if you put a cut one in a room with someone who has a bad cold/ flu/ bug, the onion absorbs the germs so you have less chance of being the next one with your nose in a hankie? Also if you put one next to your bed with the above, the duration of the illness will be reduced? Apparently so.

So, as you may know, we  (with a little help) are working madly to finish off the renovations to our house to open our healthful, restful, rawful retreat. It’s been a long job but we are really getting there now.

The first day of painting I suddenly had that burning sensation (which I had forgotten about, it was a bit of a shock) and I rushed to put cut onions out …. hopefully.

I went out and when I returned, quelle surprise!, the smell had dramatically reduced and no burning sensation in my wind pipe!

So today with 6 doors  and a long corridor painted I have onions in each door way and carefully placed up the stairs.

Eau de maison à la paint ‘n’ onions – lovely!

 

 

 

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We are back in France and we seem

We are back in France and we seem to have brought the sun with us ( though where we picked it up I am not sure!).

We are here for three months, home sweet home, which is lovely. Lots to do of course but all very exciting. Contracts almost signed for the birth of Tatty Tot, more on that later but marketing and product ideas are coming thick and fast!

I LOVE new beginnings, start ups, building the picture, the story.

Its like making a new person with its own personality – I shall share Tatty Tots personality soon, I just need to get used to it myself a bit first. Its all there but I want to know it and understand it before I share too much, for now its mine, soon I will give it its willful head!

As we were driving back I mentioned that because we are back for ages we could actually grow some things in the garden again for the summer – tomatoes for instance. We agreed we would which was probably more difficult for Robin than me as he knows he will end up doing all the hard work. We used to have the garden bursting with fruit and vegetables and were amazed every day with what we eat from it but now we are back and forth we are not there to water it, never mind eat the produce. We really miss it.

People can be so thoughtful sadly that does not include the very noisy family who took command of the “quiet room” on the Brittany Ferries boat we traveled on and proceeded to keep everyone awake (most who had long onward journeys and needed a bit of shut eye) because – I heard said noisy Mum say in the loo – they wanted to keep the kids awake on the boat so that they had would sleep in the car and give them some peace. It didn’t help that ‘the Dad’ found it very funny that the sleeping people woke up and left the room.  Rant over.

As we pulled into the garden after a very long day the first thing we saw were two rows of tomatoes, perfectly planted (I think there was a point being made as anything we do is usually decidedly higglety pigglety), our lovely neighbours had realised the same thing we did and planted them for us, what a welcome!

Thanks neighbours, you restored our flagging faith.

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Vulnerable? Me?

I find myself in an amazing world, living an amazing life, with amazing possibilities.

I have an amazing home, amazing kids and an amazing husband.

All perfect then? Hmmm, not really…

I am in a situation that isn’t great. The odd person who makes life difficult. Makes me feel bad. Often actually.

I’m not sleeping very well, 4 hours last night and about the same the night before.

All because of this situation and the odd person.

I really love metaphors, I use them all the time, in fact, sometimes I use more than one (I’m trying to learn to keep them to a minimum!).

I heard a great one the other day from my friend Emily. She was talking about her Mums latest diet and how if she gives into temptation once she gives up and thinks “That’s it, I might as well just be bad all day, I’ve messed up, why continue blah, blah, blah” – you know the sort of thing. Emilys metaphor for her Mum was; Imagine you have a collection of beautiful assorted porcelain tea cups and you drop one and it smashes, would you then just smash all the rest!”?

Another one I heard in some training or other was;  If you watched a really, really bad film would you sit all the way through it, and then watch it again, and again hundreds of times?

Obviously the answer to both is “NO, of COURSE not!”

But we do just that, well, I know I do! We replay things over and over in our minds. Every time we replay them we re-feel the hurt, anger, sadness, pain, injustice. So really aren’t we hurting, angering, saddening ourselves?

We spend time (waste time) hating the person who “did that to us’ but they only did it once (or lots of things once maybe) and we perpetuate it. They may not be a nice person but it is US who keep beating ourselves with their stick.  And so we get stuck. Tired. Depleted. Disempowered. Disenchanted. This can leave us unable to deal with even small set backs (you know like spilt milk, or someone nipping into the car parking space we were waiting for) and unable to enjoy all the amazing stuff because we are so over come with the ongoing replays of bad things that have happened. Often things that happened days, weeks, months or even years ago! And if they are still happening we are multiplying them so we are juggling lots of bad things not just dealing with the one in hand.

Imagine playing a song you love but at the same time you have three or four other tunes that you really don’t like at all playing – would you really enjoy the tune you love? Would the others playing at the same time take the joy out of it? Would they spoil it?

I think they would rather (probably make you go a bit mad too – so lets add that into the mix). Funny what we do to ourselves isn’t it.

Time to stop. You can. I can. Just put the stick down, turn the other tunes off, throw out the bad film, put the china in a cupboard.

JUST STOP.

Vulnerable…..me? Yes, vulnerable to me.

So who’s the odd person?

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Its up to you!

I have learnt (many, many times haha) that thoughts become feelings.

And its very useful be able to to turn the thoughts off especially when they become destructive and in turn feel bad. Easier said than done? Maybe not.

I have learnt and used many methods. For a quick fix the most effective so far, for me, has been the #Sedona method – just letting go – it is SO simple if you LET yourself do it.

(NB: This is an amazingly effective method for much deeper and bigger problems with more exploration and practice). 

I really believe that a lot of our problems can be self made or at least self-perpetuated.

I was speaking to my son yesterday, who has a big audition coming up and end of year exams etc. He was saying he is so stressed about this and that and he was so tired. I have felt that so many times (quite possibly where he learnt to be stressed :() but it doesn’t help! I try to say it doesn’t help but that doesn’t work; it only works when we realise it for ourselves.

If you are stressing about something, it doesn’t make you sharper, more alert to the problem, more able to deal with it. Its the opposite. You tense up, lose some rationality, become tired and lose energy and focus, resulting in being overcome by the feeling of stress rather than the event that’s causing it!

If you fall and relax into a roll you are less likely to hurt yourself than if you fall and tense up like a stick. If its tense it will break, if floppy it with bend and be moved – does that make sense? Same in our heads.

Recognise a problem, breath through it, stay ‘in the moment’ right now this minute is just that – don’t start catastrophising about what might happen or did happen, stay here and now and focus. In most cases we have options and with a calm mind we can look at them. We may not have many – or maybe we don’t have many that we like.

Sometimes we have to let go of our preconceived ideas and wants, change the plan. Tweak it or turn it on its head but we have to be prepared to do something other than go under.

Sometimes its helpful to speak to someone else about it, or write it down, do the for list and the against list. If you are sinking fast write a list of everything wonderful about your life, recognise the good bits, any good bits however small! It will change how you feel.

If its a case of choosing what to do, where to go, which option to take ( and I’m not just talking about where to go to dinner – though it would work for that too!) write your list – as short as you can, maybe up to 6 options – and pit them against each other one by one.

If you are a miss matcher like me when you get to the last one (and so supposedly the winner) you will choose another but it will have focused you and helped the decision be made.

Depends on the problem, its not always about choice.

Sometimes I have found we think we are stressed but if we look deeper we are actually excited, nervous, anticipating or something else and if we used those words to ourselves we would take the sting out of the tail of “stressed” and so our reaction may change.

So in a nut shell;

if you have a let a thought become a feeling, as in the Sedona method 1) FEEL the feeling, let it get as big as it can then 2) ask yourself – “Could I let it go?” (answer yes to this one, even if you think you can’t) then 3) ask  “Would I let it go?” – can you see the difference? You have to allow yourself because it is you who is in control. 4) Take a deep breath and answer YES breathing the feeling out. Honestly if you practice it works. I didn’t even need to practice at the beginning though various things have happened over the years when its needed real concentration and was worth persevering. Look up the Sedona method, there is a lot more too it, but this is a brief synopsis that has worked for me in moments when I have needed to address a feeling quickly and unobtrusively.

There are many methods out there for helping deal with stress, stopping the chitter chatter in your head, the self inflicted drama of what could be etc. Another post another day, I hope this one helped.

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Dieting? Not me!

After my obsession post I had various views from people who were involved in potentially extreme things… religion, diet, anorexia.

Maybe we shouldn’t bandy words about without meaning them. I am passionate rather than obsessed, though having said that I have been obsessed and I have used food as a way to give myself control and also to give myself something to focus on when going through more difficult times.

Sometimes we do feel out of control because of situations we find ourselves in, maybe through relationships, work, home, finances, illness.

Something to focus on can be a good thing.

I used to say to my kids, if they woke with a bad dream or had a bad day and were trying to go off to sleep, ” think about something happy, its your birthday in a few days/weeks/months, what would be the best birthday cake in the whole world, think about how it will look and tell me on the morning” or Xmas cake maybe….. you get the idea. It took their mind off the problem they could not do anything about right then.

So, could that have potentially started a comfort eating problem? Maybe. Could it have contributed to minds that won’t be quiet when we want them to? Maybe. Could I now add it to the list of things I did “wrong”? Maybe.

To me, at the time, it was the right thing to do. So to me now, I did my best, with what I had at the time so I am OK with that.

I am sitting here at 3.25am. I couldn’t sleep, again. Too many thoughts, too many ideas. I’m not awake because I am worried but because I am excited. I don’t need to think about what my next birthday cake will look like ( probably a raw chocolate one with fresh fruit on top:) but I can’t help but think about new ideas for food, new ways to make raw work on a day to day basis sidestepping cravings and habits of a life time. Where to have our UK retreat, whats next to do for the french one. Its fun, its exciting, its creative.

Its a long way from obsessed.

So, confessional; when I was about 19 I was at art college. I would get up in the morning and have a slice of toast with a diet spread and jam. I would cut it into several pieces and slowly eat it whilst getting ready. I would drink OXO cubes in hot water through the day (maybe one or two, sometimes only half at a time) and then I would have part of a crunchie bar as a reward for being good. Half I think.

In the evening I would cook something like lambs liver with onions and green beans and carrots – in some water, no fat. I was proud of how healthy and nutricious it was, simple, cheap and tasty.

Hmmmmm.

Maybe a year or two after that I read about some super diet involving seeds and yogurt. I remember struggling through live yogurt mixed with sesame and sunflower seeds. Now I know there are great benefits there but that was all I ate. It didn’t last long. Luckily.

The other day I was in a health food shop and there was a young lady asking about diet products. The lady working there was very careful what she said, they were a similar age and the shop assistant was distinctly uncomfortable because the customer was not over weight by any means. I thought ” what on earth is she worrying about, she doesn’t need to diet” then quickly realised I had been just like that! Who knows what the diet was replacing, feeding, nourishing – not her body but her mind in some way.

I was very slim, a dancer, gym bunny, health fanatic, constantly on the move – I recently went back to Harrogate for the first time for years. Someone said to me ( in a very loving, happy to see me way) you used to be such a slip of a thing…. I did have a momentary panic, I had put on weight and was more than I “should” have been and way more than I had been, but I have been learning to accept myself as I am and the work I have done on that over the years stood me in good stead BUT there was a time when that would have meant water only for days on end. They didn’t mean I am now fat, more likely if they had any intention other than “oh, I remember you well”, it would have been that I had been too slim! But what someone says and what we hear can be very different.

We need to learn to hear what someone says – and yes, somethimes people can be plain mean in which case we need to hear that they are being mean and not us being whatever they said – and not turn it into a stick with which to beat ourselves.

So now (and for many years) I believe in being a healthy weight, I believe in exercise to keep us strong, flexible, move our lymph, sweat out the toxins and to keep us mobile. I believe that the majority of what we eat should be feeding us, not just filling us. Nutrients in every mouthful. I believe in moderation and enjoyment and peace of mind and I believe I need to go back to bed and sleep!

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