I can't I'm...

For three days I've been on an Eating Plan. Now I say eating plan and not diet because there is a difference. I'm focusing on healthy living and not deprivation. Actually all I'm doing is eating low carb (so lots of vege, fruit, seafood) and no bread, potatoes, rice etc and I'm exercising (gives me a wonderful high).

Everytime I'm offered something high carb I notice I usually start with "I can't I'm...and everyone finishes my sentence with "on a diet". NOT. It is an eating plan and I never feel hungry and I feel great and I've lost heaps of weight YAY.

Breakfast Abroad

A Wellington friend is moving house and was worried that she would be without a fridge/freezer in her new home for a few days. I assured her that I'd travelled the world with a backpack, a packet of corn flakes, milk powder and a wooden bowl given to me by a friend from the Philippino headhunter tribe near Sagada. International breakfast!

My Philippina friend, Norma lives in a small shack perched on a hillside surrounded by incredible rice paddy terraces ringed around high steep hills. Like footsteps for giants. We trooped up and down these terraces daily to vist family members in other villages. This was the 1980s and her grandfather still wore traditional garb - a loin cloth and feather headdress. They no longer headhunted I was told but the social structures remained. If someone was wronged they expected a favour (not a head).

I miss Norma.

Jet's Behaviour

Well, happy happy parent didn't last very long. I'm trying a weekend of 'The Incredible Years' Parenting philosophy (I'm taking the advanced course at the moment).

Jet is swearing a lot and unhappy. So lots of GOOD attention coming his way. We'll do lots of fun things together and at the end of the weekend I'll discuss his behaviour with him in a positive way.

I'll also tell him that if he is well behaved during the week(eg. no swearing, and gets ready for school in time)then I'll give him little treats in his lunch box.

I hope he will feel happy and secure after all this.

Wish me luck

P.S. I'll have to discuss with Tashi what he would like to do tooooo.

Green Brekky!

I visited my friend, Peter, to discuss making a recycled shop display. He lives next door to the Botanical Gardens in Wellington and has built himself a small cottage in the bush. As soon as I arrived he asked if I'd had breakfast (I hadn't) and asked me if I would like a green breakfast.

Nowadays 'green' can mean anything - eco-consumer, Green supporter, wind farm proponent, composting toilet enthusiast! But what Peter meant was a 'colour green from the garden' breakfast. Not green eggs and ham!

We walked through his lush veggie garden picking grass, carrot tops, celery, nasturtium flowers, lettuce, kawakawa leaves, and a few greens we weren't sure about! We washed it all, cut it and popped it in a big bowl with organic fruit and a sprinkling of oats.

YUM - that's what GREEN really means.

P.S. that's a photo of me, Jet, Bradley, and Daniel up in the tropical highlands above the Gold Coast, Australia.