#31days2015

[yourletswriteourmindout]

The joys of Playful Parenting

Living the book 'Playful Parent' turned out to be lots of fun for both me and my 2 year old daughter. I am quite sure it wasn't just January that we lived the book, it is definitely going to continue for her entire childhood.

Even before reading the book, I did try to be 'Playful' with my daugther but the ideas in this book are just awesome! A cardboard box became a boat and a wooden spoon became the ore. And it was such a delight to see her imagination! She was hapilly singing 'Row row row your boat' sitting in the card board box and rowing with the wooden spoon!

Following another idea in the book, I cut pictures from Newspapers and stick them at my daugher's eye level on the door. She gets so excited everytime I change the pictures to new ones! And it is so easy to do! I cut them out and stick them while watching TV! It is fun to see that she can recoganise most of the things! And helps in increasing her vocabulary too when something new is included in the pictures.

She has learned new dance moves! From 'la macarena' to 'Brazil' to bollywood 'Lungi Dance'. Now a days I don't have to initiate dancing on songs, she herself demands it before I can even think of it! And she gives names of songs she wants to dance on! And when I do cooking, we put the songs up and I dance along while cooking! I can definitely say I enjoy my cooking much more and don't feel guilty of not spending that time with her. I am dancing with my little one indeed and doing cooking as well! What more can you ask for?

I had tried finger painiting with her earlier or even painting with normal painting brush but she was never spent more than 5 minutes with those! After reading this book, I gave her brush we used to repair paint on the celling and she had a lovely time painting with that brush! She wanted more and more. And she calls it 'Daddy's brush'. I can't wait to try painting with feathers, spray painting, block printing and many more ideas in the book!

Earlier playing with my daugther used to be tiring after a day's work but after reading this book, I have so many ideas which are better type of play and are much less tiring for me and much more fun for my daughter.

Really great idea Sam!! Three cheers for you on organising Live the book for a month initiative. I am so excited I am going to read few more books from your 100 book list!

[harpercollinsuk]

Delicious recipe from Clean Eats for Chicken and Broccoli Pad Thai. Enjoy

[aislinghc]

Fluent in 3 Months

Ok, so in December it seemed like a great idea for me to attempt to learn a language in the New Year. I was so excited, then January hit and left me staring at my new book with trepidation. What had I gotten myself into!? Fluent in three months - what was I thinking?!

So it was with a little hesitancy that I picked up this book, but I must say it's been a really interesting and gripping read so far. There's been no complicated exercises drilling a new language into me, but more of a gentle nudge to what I should be doing to learn a new language. My first impressions are that the author, Benny Lewis, is a very impressive guy. He has learned an insane amount of languages and basically calls the reader out claiming that there are no excuses - if you want to learn a language you can and you will. He presents helpful tips and ideas to immerse yourself in the language. The simplest of which is "Pick a specific target with a specific deadline"

Ok so here it goes - I aim to be able to get by as a tourist in Italy with some basic phrases by the time I make a trip there at the end of March 2015. I'll keep you posted :)

[njyeeds-blog]

My attempt at camel pose🙊

[runriot2015-blog]

Day 1 smoothie: blueberries, raspberries, spinach, protein powder, chia seeds, almond milk and lots of ice. Yum.

[viewsfromthefence-blog]

Mindfulness, Day 1 – On which I eat a grape

As I understand it, the raisin exercise serves as an introduction to the concept of mindfulness – to fully experience something, and notice all aspects of it. I didn't have a raisin, so I went with its younger cousin and used a grape.

When eating a raisin/grape, the aspiring mindful person can choose between following the written instructions (which span nearly 3 pages), or an audio guide that lasts about 6 minutes. I picked the audio, because I don't really trust myself to focus on anything without noise-cancelling headphones on. For all I know, a car might drive by outside while I'm trying to fondle that grape, and out of the window goes my attention.

In either form, we are instructed to, well … engage with the food item in a manner of different ways, such as holding, looking, touching, and eventually tasting, chewing, and swallowing.

I told a few people about this exercise, and usually got the same reaction:

Okay, I know it sounds dumb. I'm pretty sure it looks dumb. Go to a restaurant and watch people. No one looks at their food for a very long time (unless they want to Instagram it, and even then–), or smells it before eating, or holds it, or...

Well, most people don't.

The point is to get out of the routine with which we inhale food on auto-pilot, and experience something with all five senses: look at it, touch it, smell it, taste it, and hear the sound it makes when you chew it.

So that's what I did.

I sat down and held the grape in my palm, noticing its weight, and its temperature (the damn thing came from the fridge); its colours, its shape. After having investigated the matter in detail, I can now tell you that grapes have no smell. I can also tell you that I'm so old my jaw creaks when I put a grape between my back teeth, so for a few minutes I had to hold on to my face to keep that from happening. (I'm so glad right now that no one was watching.)

Furthermore I can tell you that grapes are incredibly juicy, which is something I hadn't noticed before. I mean, we all know they are, but being aware of it is something else, and dare I say it – paying attention to this kind of thing made for a better experience. So I guess we could call this exercise a success. It certainly wasn't awful. And I want another grape now.

Tomorrow: the body-scan.

[yourletswriteourmindout]

Playful Parenting - The 'Judgy Judgerson' in me!

03 Jan, 2014

So I signed for 31 Days of Inspiration and picked up book called Playful Parenting. The reason was it sounded fun way of raising a kid. Even though I have signed up for it already, the 'Judgy Judgerson' in me can't stop judging the book! It starts from the time, I read the description of the book and it goes on till have completed reading the book and thought about it at least couple of times on how was the book overall.

Here is how the 'Judgy Judgerson' thought:-

Expectation was it would be a 70 pager, as when I read the description, it sounded it would just talk about 7 ways to be a playful parent. But when the book arrived, it turned out to be a much thicker book! . Lets see if the content is worth the thickness. I will be back after reading further....

25 Jan, 2014

I am delighted to report back that book is every bit worth the thickness! it is an excellent book. The book has many wonderful ideas to keep the little one busy with play. Although, I wouldn't say it is the most interesting book to read but it is not bad. I did feel sleepy at times reading the book in the evenings but in the mornings it is definitely an interesting book. 

It is definitely full of great ideas, is very creative and tries to even provide something for everyone! Overall a 5 star book.

[harpercollinsuk]

Enjoy these 3 free recipes from Victoria Boutenko's The Green Smoothie Prescription.

[samatlounge-blog]

I have signed up for our 31 Days of Inspiration campaign for January. I am going to live Jason Vale's 7lbs in 7 Days juice plan book and blog about it here.

Here's my first blog:-

It is with more than a little trepidation that I embark on a juicing diet. A short potted history of my relationship with food and exercise – all the food and none of the exercise. In fact, I can honestly say that I've NEVER been on a diet. At 44, I see this as quite the achievement. Some of you many not believe that, but until recently I was blessed with a metabolism that kept me slim and since putting on a little weight, I’ve revelled in having curves.

Also, I have seen the damage that dieting can do to women and their mental well-being. And as the mother of a teenage daughter I purposefully don’t have scales in our house, I encourage her to eat what she fancies, no foods are ‘bad’ and to enjoy meal times. If she takes a decent relationship with food into adulthood, I’ll be a very happy bunny.

So, I’m pleased that Jason Vale describes 7lbs in 7 days as a plan rather than a diet all the way through the book. He focusses on cleansing the body and making lifestyle changes that you can sustain. And that’s much more up my street.

With that in mind, I won’t be talking about losing weight as that’s not my motivation.

The book talks about being prepared for the 7 day juice plan, so I’ve bought a new juicer and 3 bags of fruit and vegetables from the local greengrocers. I’m now heading out to find spirulina, which may involve a trip to a health food shop – that’ll be a first.

More tomorrow.

[njyeeds-blog]

7th Day of Yoga

I have spent the last week coming to grips with the fabulous Light on Yoga book and am now ready to share some of the things I have learnt 😊

Pose of the day: Camel Pose (ustrasana)

Benefits: nearly all the major muscles of our bodies are being stretched. It stimulates and tones many of our limbs including the chest, abdomen and thighs.

[viewsfromthefence-blog]

31 Days of Inspiration – Let's get mindful

So here we are. Or rather, here I am – part of HarperCollins' 31 Days of Inspiration, where a bunch of us have chosen a book to live by for the month of January.

My choice? Michael Chaskalson's Mindfulness in Eight Weeks which, according to the cover, is 'the revolutionary eight-week plan to clear your mind and calm your life'.

I'm not sure what a clear mind feels like, but it sounds awesome. My own mind is always busy. If I'm not wondering, I'm worrying; if I'm not worrying, I'm planning; if I'm not doing any of those, I'm daydreaming at the speed of light, imagining conversations I'm about to have, or should have had differently, or I start thinking about that thing I did several years ago which was really awful or the thing that might happen in ten months' time and how it could go wrong and what I could do to stop that even though it inevitably will, also did I turn off the lights before I left the house this morning?

Surely I'm not the only one who thinks their mental capacities could be used more efficiently. It's like aimlessly pounding away on the treadmill when you could be running the Great Wall Marathon. (now there's a life goal)

I'm not a complete stranger to the concept of mindfulness – the art of noticing your surroundings as well as your inner workings, and using this skill to ground yourself. Still I never made it to the point of having a sense of inner calm, or most of the benefits Michael Chaskalson mentions in his introduction, such as:

higher, more stable self-esteem

more satisfying relationships

ability to let go of negative emotions more quickly

improved attention and job and academic performance

fewer hospital admissions and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and,

for sufferers of depression and anxiety, a reduced risk of relapse.

Apparently, practising mindfulness regularly gives you all of the above benefits, and more, which is why it is also one of the popular treatments for several kinds of mental illness, including depression (Ruby Wax, for example, devoted a good part of her book Sane New World to advocating mindfulness). And it's supposed to take only eight weeks until you feel the difference!

Sounds great, right?

So here I am: I have read the introduction, and I have downloaded my audio guides. I am so ready for the first exercise.

Which is to eat a raisin, and take about 15 minutes to do it.

[harpercollinsuk]

Enjoy Amelia Freer's Super Simple Chicken and Chips recipe. Just one of the delicious recipes in Amelia's new book Eat. Nourish. Glow.

Find out more here http://ads.harpercollins.co.uk/emailuk?isbn=9780007579907&retailer=amazonuk

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Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable

Oscar Wilde