Pregnancy – the Best Excuse

Most women diet at some stage in their lives. That is a fact of life. Yes, you may have one or two women around you who seem to be able to eat as much as they like whenever they go out, but generally speaking, most women diet.

Unfortunately, it may start very early in life, with young girls, as young as 11!

It is amazing how many women struggle with their weight. When I talk to women about how they think of themselves with an extra 3 to 15 kg, they usually share feelings of disappointment, failure, being ugly, not sexy, not wanted or clumsy. This is all because they feel they do not fit the standard weight graph (which, by the way, seems to shrink every 10 to 20 years).

Most of them are very unhappy with their weight, but they have many excuses for being overweight.

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See What Love Can Do

This week, I received this inspiring movie about a father, who participated in the “Iron Man” (triathlon) competition with his son. I watched it with tears of inspiration, tears of excitement and joy for the glory of parenting and the essence of love. Love can help us carry heavy loads and push through enormous difficulties, and then it can inspire others too.

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The Seatbelt is Your Friend

When my daughter started driving, I was scared to death. Talking to her and many of her friends, I heard some awful reasons why they did not want to wear seatbelts. I was also shocked that those who wore seatbelts were doing it just to avoid a fine!

Highway signs where I live warn, “Wear a seatbelt of wear a fine”. This makes young people think that the police are out to get people who are not wearing seatbelts so that is the best reason to wear one. In a way, I believe the authorities are promoting negative thinking about seatbelts with their choice of advertisements.

Instead of teaching people it is important to take care of themselves and wearing a seatbelt can preserve their lives, they scare them into doing it to avoid punishment. But I think that’s the wrong motivation.

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Aren’t We Lucky?

A couple of weeks ago, there was a special event at Southbank, the park along the Brisbane River. Among other things, there was a large enclosure, where an organization called Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) showed a model of a refugee camp and took groups of people on guided tours. The line before the gate of the model refugee camp was very long, but we decided to wait.

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Emotional Garage sale

Ask any person who has ever had a garage sale and they will tell you that it takes a long time to prepare for one, and sometimes it is hard to say goodbye to some items that you think are close to your heart. Still, in the end, you meet some wonderful people, you make some money and you feel hugely relieved afterwards. You feel fresh, clean, light and free.

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Health Allowance

Last month, I went to visit my family. My mom, who is over 65, was not feeling very well. In fact, she was feeling horrible. She had been diagnosed with Diabetes and had to check her blood every day. For the whole month we spent together, I understood exactly why she had been sick for so many years and why she suffered from so many serious medical symptoms. You see, my mom makes allowances for every little unhealthy thing she does.

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Children are Our Future (literally)

Recently, I visited my dad, who is now 71 years old, for the second time in 9 years. The other time was 18 months before, around the time my mom died. Living by himself, he has braved household chores to the point of mastery, including some excellent cooking, which makes him really proud.

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60 Tips for a Stress-Free Lifestyle (printable)

This post contains a downloadable and printable list of the 60 tips for a stress-free lifestyle to make it easy for you to follow them and share them.

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Are Motorcycles Worth the Risk? What You Need to Consider

Occasionally, the question “Are motorcycles worth the risk?” comes up when someone wants to buy one. It’s rather topical in our family, so I wanted to share a story for the benefit of other families having this discussion.

It was Monday morning and I had just taken my 7-year-old daughter to school. On the way back, I passed my son’s high school. As usual, the high school intersection was full of parents dropping their kids off.

I turned left after a motorcycle. A parked car started making a U-turn and hit the motorcycle! The rider flew in the air over 30 meters and his motorcycle dragged on the ground after him.

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Magic in Little Hands

It was Monday morning when I brought my green sprouting container to school. A group of 3-year-old kids ran towards me to see my “surprise”. I opened the plastic bag and took it out. The idea had come into my mind after my Reiki course.

Barbara McGregor, my Reiki teacher, had told us that kids, have life energy in their hands naturally and my brain had clicked. Even if they did not, I could always make sure they did…

“What is this?” they asked excitedly.

“We are going to do some magic”, I told them.

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