Little nutrition tricks I've learnt / By Mariella

Little tricks, we all have them. Things we've learnt along the way that we now take for granted, things that have possibly yet to occur to others. It’s good to share these things, grow the trick pool a little. 

This is a little list of nutrition tricks and bits of info I have acquired along the way. This is not a complete list! I’ll add to it periodically, as I remember things!

-Coconut oil, when eaten, is a natural sunblock. I haven’t researched this and haven’t found it in the research I have read regarding coconut oil, I found out accidentally. We went hiking for a few days and I took coconut oil along as a superfood snack. I ate about 4 tablespoons of it a day, maybe more. We do this hike every year, and every year I burn, this year everyone else burnt and I didn't  except on the last day, when my coconut oil ran out! Also, i use it on my face instead of moisturizer and I've noticed a difference. And it's great to put on after you been in the sun, but not before! I use two different oils, one made by Quinns, which is deflavoured for everyday use, and one by Crede, which is super flavourful and yummy, check out the Crede Oil on the Fresh Earth Website. 

http://www.freshearth.co.za/store/p-2974-crede-coconut-oil-500ml.aspx

-Chocolate craving is indicative of iron deficiency; this does shed light on the cravings that happen at a certain time of the month. Incidentally, the more carbs we eat when we are PMSing, the worse the symptoms become. 

  

-Grinding your teeth is indicative of Magnesium deficiency, I find that if I take 1500 mg a day, I stop grinding and the benefits ripple over into things like being about to wake up earlier in the morning, clearer thinking, no cramps.

-Dehydration results in: Fuzzy eyesight, extrasystoles (when your heart skips a beat and then makes up of it with a double beat, usually at night), swollen hands and feet, sleepiness, loss of concentration and short term memory, back pain, craving something sweet, feeling hungry all the time.

-My body can handle a certain amount of mucus forming foods before reacting. Now that i don't eat carbs or sugar, my tolerance of Dairy has sky rocketed. This is the first year that I've eaten it throughout winter without so much as a sniffle!

-I read once that Chillies are so good for you that your body releases endorphins as a reward so that you'll eat more! Chillies are also great for your immune system.

Ok that's it so far, a little shared insight. I find that if I make sure I have at least 1l water before i leave the house and don't forget my Magnesium, I'm good to go. Find the little tricks that work for you and share them with others. A little wisdom goes a long way! 

My daughter's team wins the ETA awards Young designers category! | by Mariella

I am the proudest mother in the world! No really! Today, right now, I am! Ok maybe not, maybe there are three other mothers out there just as proud as I am! My daughter and her three friends from Bay Collage got together and decided that they wanted to enter the Eta Awards. This is an annual competition sponsored by Eskom which rewards projects in the field of energy efficiency. There are quite a few categories – Industrial, Commercial, Young designers etc. And my daughter was part of the Greenwood Independent school group which entered previously and received a special mention.

http://www.eta-awards.co.za/?q=con,70,2012+Winners

So, with the inexhaustible help of Susan Donald, regional coordinator for Wessa/Eskom Energy and sustainability program, my daughter and her friends, calling themselves ‘Girls Looking Forward’ set out to do a research project on ways to reduce electricity consumption in cooking. They prepared a dish using three different methods – microwave, stove-top and slow cooker. The aim was to determine affordable cooking costs for local communities and to figure out which cooking method was the healthiest.

They found that the slow cooker used the least electricity (saving a whopping 71% compared to the stove and 81% compared to the microwave!) and it yielded the food with the highest Nutritional value. But not everyone can afford a slow cooker, so they made hot boxes, did the presentation to a soup kitchen and donated the hot box!

http://www.thehotboxco.co.za/

They submitted their findings and made it through to round two, which meant that they had to fly to Johannesburg to do the presentation in person and got to stay overnight in a hotel, they had a blast! The final event took place on Thursday night and their category was far down the list for the evening. They were so sleepy by the time their names were called out! They won! They won money for their school too. I am so proud! Well done Kharma, Courtney, Chanelle and Ava, you rock. And Susan, you relentless hard worker! Thank you for all the commitment you put in to help them! If ‘Girls Looking Forward’ (GLF) were a political party they would have my vote! Proudest mother in the world!  

New Moon at Sun up | by Mariella

I’m a little tired today. It could be because I went to bed at 12:00 last night or it could be because I got up at 5:30 this morning. Either way, I am not holding a full deck of cards today and it’s probably great that I am not obliged to operate any heavy motor vehicles or power tools today! And why, oh, why would I do this seemingly incongruous thing to myself? I can wholeheartedly blame the moon.

I am part of a woman’s circle, we meet on Dark moon, as the tribal women before us would have done, to share and hold a space of sacredness in our otherwise disconnected lives. Under usual circumstances, we meet on the evening of Dark Moon, open with a warm up exercise, share the delicious dishes that we've all brought, and then share our thoughts, delving as deep as we must because we know, of all the quiet places to take your secrets to, this place is safe, will lock your cautious whispered words deep down into a place where no one will ever find them, you are safe here and your agonies, fears, conundrums, disasters, laughter, sighs, singing voices will settled down here and go no further than the hearts of the women sitting before you. But because of many things happening simultaneously, we chose the morning, and because we are mostly moms with jobs to go off to, and because the sun rises so early now, we chose to meet at the lagoon at 5:30 am! Goodness, it seemed a very good idea at the time, I slur over the keys as I write this, it’s been a long day!  

But it was worth it! The sun at my back and the hazy sleepiness of a morning meditation washing over me like the ripples of the water in the lagoon, what a blessing! But beach frontage aside, it’s a lovely practice to start: Once a month, on Dark Moon, to come together with your girlfriends and enjoy a little bit of organized something, be it tai chi, yoga, breathing exercise and then talk and eat and then eat dessert!  

I recently spoke with a girlfriend of mine (not this morning) who told me about recent studies on mental health indicating that women need a 10 minute heart to heart with another woman everyday. So go ahead, call someone up, now, for a good gossip, it’s good for your health!

Post Staph! | by Mariella

We are not in the clear yet but my son is finally healing! It’s a great relief! He’s back at school today, bandaged up to the hilt so that no one else gets exposed, even though the two remaining sores are no more than two millimeters big.

My son is a very physical boy and extremely confident in his body, this may have something to do with living in an area where most of his activities involve hiking, climbing, running, jumping! Or it could be that we do not rein him in, we leave him to jump off high things and climb dodgy stuff and be a boy. We thought it was just that, him being a boy, but one day, two years ago, we realized that was not entirely true….

I had just returned home after work and was met by a very excited child saying, ‘Come look what I can do, come, come!!!’ My husband and I came around the corner to see my daughter standing at the top of the hill holding an over sized bike steady so that our son could climb on. His feet couldn't even touch the pedals and he didn't know how to ride a bike yet! Once he was on, she let go! He went bouncing down the lawn full speed as we stood, mouths agape, unable to do anything. Once he reached the bottom of the lawn, instead of braking, he simply rode, full tilt, into the bushes and got off unscathed, leaving the bike suspended in a bush, wheels off the ground, as he ran up to us beaming from ear to ear! He has an accomplice! 

This is how it is with him. He lives life to the full, and there’s no stopping him, there’s only guiding him toward minimal injury! So you can imagine how strange it was to see him out and about yesterday for the first time in weeks without us fussing over him and trying to keep him from hurting himself and finding him, well, a fraction less coordinated than usual. It was noticeable. And the obvious conclusion is this:

The more we let our kids be kids, the better they get at being kids. 

So kick your kids out the house today. Close the door on them and feed them lunch through the cat flap! Not really, but remind them of the great outdoors where a backyard can really become a jungle. Inside is great for when it’s raining and they have their entire adult lives to sit in front of a computer. 

The time is now! 

Some interesting stuff about Staph! | by Mariella

Yip, there is no place like home! Especially when you come home, with your mind full of the things you seen, places you've been and you are met with your sweet baby boy who has acquired a staphylococcus infection in your absence and you are thrown straight into the turmoil of helping heal him. 

Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that is frequently found in the human respiratory tract and on the skin. Although S. aureusis not always pathogenic, it is a common cause of skin infections (e.g. boils, grim!), respiratory disease (e.g. sinusitis), and food poisoning. Disease-associated strains often promote infections by producing potent protein toxins, and expressing cell-surface proteins that bind and inactivate antibodies. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant forms of pathogenic S. aureus is a worldwide problem in clinical medicine so if you cop out of trying it the natural way,which is very tempting when you've been sitting on this for two weeks, you may end up having to try it again after the antibiotics have failed you, except now your child's immune system has been further compromised!

This is a post about icky stuff but we felt totally alone when we first had to deal with this and if you have kids in school, and ever have the misfortune of encountering this, maybe sharing our experience will be of some help

I shall spare you the gory pictures, there are plenty out there, but this is what an otherwise healthy but contagious child who has been kept at home from school for two weeks looks like:

And we hope that this:      

+ this:= this:

What’s in my home care kit of staph-destruction:

Raw garlic served orally on rice cake with marmite, twice a day

Olive leaf extract x 4 capsules a day

No sugars of any kind (fruit included) as they will feed the bacteria

Non acidic Vit C

Lavender and Tea Tree essential oil

Miracle Comfrey Ointment

Food grade hydrogen peroxide

Care (a biodegradable disinfectant by GNLD) – any disinfectant will do

Daily plan of action:

It’s essential to keep the wounds covered as they are highly contagious so every morning we redress them.

-First, we clean the wound with watered down disinfectant and one drop….I repeat….one drop only of hydrogen peroxide, open any new blisters and clean them out.

-We let him sit outside in the breeze for a while to let everything dry.

-Then we drip lots of Lavender Oil and a little Tea Tree over the area and wipe the oil off the skin around as plaster doesn’t stick to oily skin.

-Next, we spread a thick layer of Miracle comfrey ointment over a square of gauze a couple layers thick, place that over the sore and tape it in place with surgical paper tape.

-We wrap bandage around the whole job to keep it properly covered and safe.

-Then, and this is the tricky bit, we keep him entertained with things like audio books and lego so that he doesn’t run (excuse the pun) the risk of injuring himself and having more infected sores to deal with. I have, at times, given five drops of Rescue Remedy when I can see he is completely freaking out from frustration and fear. 

It’s a traumatizing thing for a little person and a very sobering experience for a parent. I’ll let you know how it goes and if you have any ideas, please let me know! Now is the time!