// Recipe // Healthy & Filling Pancakes (coconut milk, almonds, berries, chia seeds) – no added sugar, no added fat!

Healthy, filling and yummy pancakes – perfect for those Family Sunday Mornings! They contain everything you need for a healthy meal without the guilt of splurging: protein, healthy essential fats and vitamins. No topping even needed as they are delicious by themselves!
And honestly, you will fill completely full with only 2 of those!

Ingredients for about 10 to 12 pancakes:

1. 175g of whole wheat – unrefined – flour or almond flour (1 1/4 cup)
2. If you did not use the almond flour, 1 cup of chopped raw almonds
3. Chia seeds
4. 4 eggs
5. 500 to 700 ml (2 to 3 cups) of coconut milk, depending on the consistency you like
6. 1.5 cup of chopped blackberries (and/or blueberries)

Mix Ingredients 1 to 3. Then make a funnel and add the eggs, mix with a fork. Add the milk slowly, while mixing, then the berries.
Make one pancake to test the consistency and adjust milk/flour if needed.
Tip: Use coconut oil on a paper towel on your pan to avoid sticky pancake (every 2 or 3 pancake should be enough if you have a good Tefal pan) –> no fat needed in your pancake mix!
Serving: either by themselves or with a touch of honey / maple sirop if you have a sweet tooth . Add these to your green juice and Udo’s oil and you have a great day ahead!

**Baby series** The 5 S System (from ‘The Happiest Baby on the Block’)

I think one of the best thing we did a couple days after coming back home with our 1st new born was to watch that video “Happiest Baby on the Block” from Dr. Karp.
It is quite scary to go back home, left alone from all those nice nurses who know everything about babies, to find your baby crying, not knowing why and what to do about it… This 5S System showed us how to calm our baby in at least 90% of the times!!! Unbelievable! The principle is easy to remember and easy to apply, and we just loved it. So here is the summary:
The first 3 months, a baby is not quite yet “in the outside environment”, what I mean by this is that to calm and reassure him/her you need to re-create the “womb environment” –> this is where he/she felt good. To do so here are the 5 methods that you can do, either one or a few or all of them at the same time. Each baby is different and you will find that yours may like some of those better than others

1. Swaddling – I loved that one. In the womb your baby used to be all tight and feel the warmth of mommy. By swaddling him/her you can re-create that feeling. For a guide on how to safely swaddle your baby you can check this video https://youtu.be/LLqfRQdUP7k. We particularly liked to use the receiving blanket.
2. Side/Stomach position – Hold your baby on his/her side (on your arm, head resting on the ear in your hand.
3. Swinging – In mommy’s womb, baby was used to be rocked all the time, as mommy moves around. By gently swinging/rocking your baby with small movements you can recreate that motion feeling. For our baby this was an important one, I guess because I was moving so much
4. Shushing sound – Ha! This is another good one. We always think that babies need calm and quiet, but actually in the womb it is pretty loud due to the blood flowing through the arteries by the baby “nest”. You can recreate that feeling by making the “shhhhhhhh” sound, quietly by your baby’s ear.
5. Suck – last resort, to my mind, but definitely a great one for a lot of babies I hear (including mine). Either by sucking a finger or a pacifier. “Sucking has its effects deep within the nervous system,” notes Karp, “and triggers the calming reflex and releases natural chemicals within the brain.”

Here you go! The golden technique! Try it at home, you will see the miracles it can make

More information on the website: http://www.happiestbaby.com/the-five-s-way-to-calm-a-fussy-baby/

Fun ways to announce pregnancy

We were looking at how to announce this amazing news to our friends and family and here is an example of what we did…
1. First we announced it to our close friends and family members with a riddle, that we sent by mail. You can see below the document we sent (click on each picture to enhance it)


2. Later on (when the12 weeks uncertainty period was over) we made a funny picture, to share publicly with all our friends and family.
We did not have too much time to have it professionally done but the idea was just to announce it in a cute and fun way, so we did what we could on a sunny day

Please share your announcements as well – it makes it easier for the rest of us when we try to figure out what to do

PS: I forgot to say... the answer to the riddle was
1. 28
2. October
3. Family
4. Upgrade
5. 5.0 (because 5 family members including our doggy)

Last chance hint: "A bun in the oven"

Ingest (essential) Fats to help you lose fat

Intro note: a lot of explanations from this blog entry has been taken from my Life (health) mastery seminar I attended at the Mastery University from Antony Robbins. The below mostly comes from Dr Udo Erasmus, Phd – authority on Fats, oils, Nature and Human Nature. For more information: http://udoerasmus.com/

As wikipedia truly states: “Only two fatty acids are known to be essential for humans: alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid)”. Studies have shown (1) that our body requires them both for good health, however we cannot synthesize them. This is the reason why it is essential to get them through daily intake.
Before taking you directly to the solution on how to get healthy fats, let’s have first a look at what are the different fats so you will be a better judge in the future of what comes to your mouth…

Unsaturated fats

“Unsaturated fats, which are liquid at room temperature, are considered beneficial fats because they can improve blood cholesterol levels, ease inflammation, stabilize heart rhythms, and play a number of other beneficial roles. Unsaturated fats are predominantly found in foods from plants, such as vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds.” (1)
Omega 3 and 6 are present in these types of fats. Most people don’t eat enough healthful unsaturated fats. The American Heart Association shows evidence that eating up to 15 percent of daily calories of polyunsaturated fat—in place of saturated fat -- can lower heart disease risk.
They are also essential food for the brain. Recent studies have found far more good linked to those fats: decreased risks of Alzheimer or Parkinson diseases, decreased rates of depression, and of course good embryonic development (brain activity). They have also been linked to healthy skin and are an essential element to detox.
Great food sources of omega 3 and 6 include:

• Fish
• Oils: Flaxseed, canola, sunflower
• Seeds: Flaxseed, sesame, sunflower, pumpkin
• Nuts: almond, walnut
• Avocadoes

Saturated fats

“Saturated fats are mainly found in animal products. Although all foods containing fat have a mix of specific types of fats. Even healthy foods like chicken and nuts have small amounts of saturated fat, though much less than the amounts found in beef, cheese, and ice cream. “ (1)
A vast amount of studies recommend to limit the amount of saturated fats in the diet and to replace those with unsaturated fats to increase the ratio good/bad cholesterol – and thus decrease the risk of heart diseases.
Those fats are commonly present in: dairy products, meat products, pizza, cookies,…

Trans fats

The worse types of fats and the ones you definitely want to keep out of your mouth. Trans fatty acids are produced by high temperatures and hydrogenation that turns oils into margarines, shortenings, shortening oils and partially hydrogenated oils. A slight molecule change, but a drastic change of its properties, its performance in our body and its effect on our health. To pass on the chemical demonstration, the thing to retain is that our body’s capacity to break down acids is limited. When our intake exceeds our maximum, disease begins to manifest, because our body attempts to use altered molecules for vital structures and functions.

In a Nutshell….
Bad LDL cholesterol can be reversed by drastically decreasing these last 2 types of fats, and by increasing the intake of good (HDL) cholesterol (= Unsaturated Fats).

If you need to remember something:

• Ingest daily Essential fats/oils (= unsaturated fats) to cover your intake of omega 3 and omega 6. The recommended dose is 1 tablespoon/50 lbs (25 kg) of body weight / day.
• Oils are very sensitive: Light, Air, Heat –> buy them in a dark glass bottle (the reason for glass is that plastic can leach into oil faster than water, and plastic does not belong in the body), refrigerate them and consume them fast.
• Organic is the way to go! Regular oils are washed to remove pesticides then cooked to allow to be stored. This process actually damages considerably the oil and is harmful to our body.
• Oils are damaged (and become hurtful to our body) with high temperature – don’t cook them! Remember: Oils are vindictive: “If you fry them, they will fry you!”
• The ratio Omega 3 / Omega 6 is 2:1 – since it can be hard to measure, some oils already provide you with the needed ratio from different seeds. At home we are big fans of the “Udos’s oil – Omega 3-6-9”, since the process to manufacture them takes into account all the points mentioned above. You can find it in the refrigerate section of your health store, or, now that we moved abroad, on online stores…
• Tropical Fats, which include coconut, cocoa, shea nut,... used in their natural state are also very good to add to your diet as they are very high in vitamin E, tocotrienols, carotene and other nut-specific unique ingredients –>  try them at home!

Remember: “Its not FATS that make you FAT” – Udo Erasmus

My personal testimony: Since we started taking our daily “oil shots” (to make this fun we drink it in a shot glass), I honestly saw a big improvement on my skin: a lot less dry, looks hydrated and less  (to none) breakout – after all this money I spent all these years on expensive face creams, the thing that works the best is my oil shot!

(1) http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/types-of-fat/

15 Health Principles

A short post, just to share an idea that has shown some success at our house, with the hope you may find this useful…
After recently attending a “Life Mastery” full immersion program where health (= body, mind, spirit) was in the center, I took an action to define my husband’s and myself “15 Principles of Health”. This consist of a list of 15 principles that we commit to live by to the best we can on a daily/weekly/yearly basis.
This list is hung at our house, well visible and also at work. It fulfills us to look at it and each time we accomplish one of the line and motivates us as we feel we are working on what is the most important to us, a healthy and fun lifestyle for our family. Yes, health IS fun !
If you are interested, take a look, and don’t hesitate if you have any question!

Post Pregnancy – Back to shape : tough for everybody but achievable by anybody.

So it took my a while to post this one and feel comfortable about it because it was first tough to admit how much my body had changed (and by change, I mean weight/fat gain ) with pregnancy. And yes, I got back into shape, and I think even better than before actually. However because I have always been active and healthy people think it was “all natural and easy” for me. Yeah…. well, No….
To tell the truth, I believe it is even harder when all your life you have been rather active and fit, regularly exercising to stay that way or trying to get better, and all it took is just a few months during which you were not allowed/able to work out + hormonal changes that made you hungry all the time and BOOM! + 18kg (~40 lbs) accompanied with the loss of muscles, which I had worked my butt off so hard all all my life to get to the point I was – and still not fully satisfied.
I would have people telling me “don’t worry, you were fit before, you will get back into shape in no time” – yay, well I was not in shape just out of good luck and sitting on my butt, so for me I knew I would have to work harder than ever before. However I was always convinced I would get back into shape – I never had a doubt about it – the hard part was not to loose motivation and stamina realizing all the muscle/physical endurance I had lost and had to gain back, within a year (that was my goal). Why a year? People say 9 months to make a baby, 9 months to lose the weight, and I had to have a C-section, so unfortunately recovery takes a bit longer and you have to be more cautious when you start working out again. So 1 year sounded good and achievable.
Honestly it is a slow process. I did breastfeed for a year, but that makes me laugh when people say that breastfeeding helps you lose weight. It is true that you do spend a lot of calories doing this, but damn that makes you so much hungrier as well! And it is not like I wanted to munch on a celery stick to fill up this hunger… I mean some people might, (unfortunately?) I just prefer ice cream and cookies .
Also, I did not go on a diet. I was reading about some women loosing it all super fast by strict diet, but honestly this does not seem smart to me. You need to have all the essential nutrients when you breastfeed: to pass on to your baby but also for yourself to be able to recover fully after giving birth. Strict dieting can lead to weak heir/teeth/nails, for the least. But maybe the most important reason to me that dieting to lose weight has never been my thing. It does not make me feel happy at all drinking those shakes made out of processed food powder. I would much rather make my own fresh smoothies. I do love to eat pretty healthy with lots of fresh raw greens, vegetables, and home-made food. I was focusing on having a balanced diet – while keeping my desserts
I truly believe that a healthy balance diet is the first step towards getting your body in shape. Second one: work-out.
It is hard when you have a baby, as your personal time becomes considerably limited, and when you do have a few minutes, you just want to rest. But an intense 30 min work out 5 days a week will take you a long way, plus some walks, quick opportunities to do a few toning exercises here and there… all these will pay off. And I will keep on giving some tips in this blog of what has worked for me.
To conclude, no matter where you are with your physical shape, how fit you were/are, I truly believe the body is an incredible machine mother nature has blessed us with, and that as long as you give it the means, you can achieve pretty much anything you envision. The key point is to have full faith about yourself, have the vision of what you want to achieve and share it with your partner so that he can support you. Then holding on to it is easier and results will show.

Special Edition: Couple Work-Out

During your lonely times together when baby sleeps and you do not know what to do (**cough, cough!..) OR.... in case you want to take advantage of this time being free to have some fun and sweaty time with your partner! (Yay! That's the spirit!)

We actually had a great time doing this video :)