The last 3 months have been an interesting journey as I have attempted to return to my ideal weight.

During this time I noticed that I had a bit of a pattern going on. I would react to a food and then for the next 3-4 days eat things which I normally wouldn’t. I’d also be quite tired from the reaction and so I would eat more chocolate than normal. As the reactions piled one on top of each other, I found my weight going up until I decided “that’s enough”. Then for a few days I would stick to simple proteins, vegetables and fruit. Control became an issue whereas previously I hadn’t needed control to eat the things I know are healthy for my body. I also noticed that if I don’t drink enough water, even if I am eating well, I put weight on.

I have found my weight to be very dependent on what is happening to me emotionally and it is not always because the emotions influence the way I eat. I could lose weight one day when I was happy and eating exactly the same things on another day when I am unhappy, I put on weight! Upon doing some clearing work on my second chakra, I discovered an instant weight loss. I realised that my second chakra was so shut down that I didn’t feel hungry. Great you might think! However, the flip side is that I never feel full either. Except at Christmas time when I am absolutely stuffed. Then I feel uncomfortable so I know I’m full! Generally I eat on a schedule and if there happens to be some eating in between that doesn’t get factored in. Recently, I have started to notice the pangs of hunger and the feeling of fullness before I have overeaten. Yahooo!

Before writing this blog I thought I would contact Leslie Kenton and see what her opinion was on what was going on with my weight. She said that the binge eating I had done over Christmas had unstabilised my diencephalon. I was concerned that maybe it had been reset to the higher weight but she said this wasn’t the case. In her experience the only way to re-establish the balance hormonally, biologically and energetically is to do another round of Cura Romana. Right now I am not ready to do that so I will experiment a bit more with the idea that it is emotionally based.

I will let you know how I get on and would love to hear from anyone who has an opinion on the linkage between weight and emotions.

I recently had a Soul Necklace made for me by Margaret and Dan at Soul Design. Having seen the necklaces on a couple of people, the question was definitely ‘when’ not ‘if’. Then everything started to fall into place … and I ordered what I thought was just going to be a beautiful necklace specifically designed for me. How wrong was I? Not only was it beautiful and made just for me … but it was specifically designed to help me in my personal journey!

After wearing my necklace for a week, I had already noticed big changes. I had some things arise in my life that I was really resistant to accepting. This wasn’t unusual for me but what was new was how quickly they moved. Within a few hours of recognising the resistance, I felt completely different about it … completely accepting. I had gone from being absolutely freaked out that this might even be an issue of mine to “oh yes, of course that is the way it is”. Unbelievable and even that thought instantly becomes – not at all unbelievable, it’s just the way things are.

When I first saw my soul necklace I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. It was smaller than I expected and very uniform – the circles! My preference was for larger, eye catching, flowing pieces. Margaret explained to me that the piece was designed for what I needed spiritually, not what my ego would like to see. She mentioned that I didn’t need a large piece to act as armour and this resonated with me completely. I have bonded with my necklace and now love every inch of it.

Incidentally, I used money given to me many years ago from my grandmothers estate to purchase this necklace and today would have been her 100th Birthday! I love having the connection to her through wearing my necklace.

The stones – sphene, peridot, spessarite garnet and tanzanite – all have an individual part to play and as I read through the things they can provide support for, I realised that they were very well suited to me. I had most of the issues that were identified! The placement of the stones and the gold mixed with silver are also significant in providing exactly what I need. This necklace is really asking me to step up and be myself … something that I have been trying to do for a while. I look forward to the process and to being supported by this stunning necklace in achieving my true potential.

How do you support yourself in achieving your potential?

For the 2 months following Consolidation I remained within 1 kilo of my ideal weight. Any time that my weight rose above that, I completed a “steak day” and immediately bought it back down. Then came Christmas Day and 3 weeks away from home. During the time away I was staying with other people and/or eating out for meals and it wasn’t so easy to maintain a strict control on the foods I was consuming. I found my body reacting to foods, gradually putting on weight and I was unable to do a “steak” day.

What I have found most interesting is my attitude towards it. I am not at all concerned with the weight gain. I see it as a temporary thing due to the excesses of Christmas and holidaying. I have no doubt that I will return to my ideal weight over the next few weeks. Now that I am back home, I will return to my decision to complete a “steak day” whenever my weight raises by more than 900g from my current lowest weight. As my weight tends to fluctuate up and down on a daily basis, I will take this increase to be from the lowest point and in this way, slowly reduce my weight back to it’s ideal.

This time around I have discovered more foods which my body reacts to including some that I used to love such as salmon. However, I don’t feel deprived in any way as there are other foods that I am able to eat and maintain my ideal weight. Bacon and chocolate are 2 favourites which I enjoy in moderation and it astounds my friends that they don’t cause me to put on weight. Yet a mouthful or two of a food my body doesn’t like and I can easily gain 3 – 800 grams in a day!

Lately I have been noticing others reactions when I say that I can’t eat something and have come to the conclusion that they would be more accepting if I said I didn’t like it. Weird … it’s OK to dislike something but not to be allergic/intolerant to it … a sign of our times or maybe just that I have been around people without known allergies. It’s definitely not a very scientific study so I will continue to observe.

Do you have allergies/intolerances? How do people react to it when you are eating at their place or eating out?

Consolidation was a real challenge initially. This wasn’t helped by the fact that I didn’t read the book properly and so I started introducing new foods from Day 1 of Consolidation instead of waiting for Day 4 or 5. I was also a bit lax when introducing foods that I had previously tested and would do a couple at a time. In hindsight, I think both of these things overloaded my system and caused reactions.

This time around, I avoided red meat during the Food Plan as I suspected that I might be intolerant to it. I have since tested lamb and definitely reacted. I haven’t tested beef or venison yet. As I ate all 3 during the Food Plan and Consolidation last time, I wonder whether having these in my system masked some of my reactions to other foods. They may have also assisted the gradual weight gain I experienced.

My understanding about cravings was refined this time around. I really got that any food that I crave is caused by a reaction to that food. Also, general cravings are also caused by a reaction to a food. For example, when I ate a food in the morning that I reacted to, later in the day I found myself searching the supermarket shelves for a treat. And I found many that would do (in my mind)!

I found that the reaction to a food can be subtle and often explained away by other circumstances. One morning I found myself tired, irritable, wanting food I shouldn’t and 300 grams heavier. I had picked up a cold from my girls and had been getting better – I thought “I’m getting worse again” hence being tired and irritable. My bowels not moving explained away the 300 grams and emotional eating the craving! Not so – too many factors I decided. I immediately apologised to my body, started drinking lots of water and ate simply and well for the rest of the day. After lunch, my energy picked up.

My next reaction was much more obvious. 700 grams weight gain, smelly perspiration (which I had experienced last time with a reaction), eating when I was not hungry and doing it in an almost compulsive way. I also had cravings for all sorts of things.

I realise now that I missed some of the subtle signs of a reaction last time and pushed through them. Therefore, I was eating foods that my body didn’t love and it was telling me by the gradual weight gain I experienced and the lack of energy.

Although I have officially finished Consolidation, I have decided to continue as though I am still on it. Keeping records, reintroducing foods every couple of days, doing a “steak” (omelette) day whenever my weight goes 900 grams above my ideal, and really noticing what is going on with my body. How empowering it feels to be at my ideal weight and know that I can maintain it for the rest of my life if I choose.

What have you done recently that you have found empowering?

Holistic treatments are becoming more and more widely accepted and utilized in the Western healing community, and in particular, with cancer treatment protocols. EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), Healing Touch and Intuitive Bodywork integrate very well with traditional cancer treatments, reducing side effects and emotional distress. They provide tremendous healing benefits and can greatly increase the patient’s quality of life throughout the cancer treatment experience.

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that affects the lungs and is caused by exposure to asbestos. Mesothelioma life expectancy is 4 to 18 months. Using the holistic approach, one could ask, “What might be the gift, lesson or benefit in my having this experience?” Although this question may initially be hard to answer, by considering it, patients can yield some valuable insights about themselves and how they might grow and develop spiritually from this challenging experience.

Sometimes a new approach from a different angle can spark progress, results and healing that may not have happened otherwise. EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is one of a developing suite of tools called “energy medicine,” which taps into the body’s meridian and chakra system to catalyze healing at the root of an issue. One approach some practitioners use is to actually bring a welcoming energy to the disease, in this case, cancer. Since the cancer is appearing the body system, it must be serving some purpose. Yes, even cancer can have a positive intent for the patient; sometimes a very loud “wake-up call” is needed to inspire a person to clean up emotional traumas from the past, let go of grudges and resentments, and live a healthier lifestyle going forward.

Explains EFT practitioner Emma Roberts:

“In the holistic approach, we accept the cancer as a valuable part of ourselves which is using an inappropriate method of communicating something positive to us, the misunderstood teenager who goes on a destructive spree in order to command attention. Once understood, the need to behave in such a way is removed and healing can begin. Our constant thoughts create our reality. How much more useful is it to think positively about the cancer as a learning experience than to respond to it with fear and negativity? The aim is to accept the disease and work with it to heal the body and let it go… There are so many areas that EFT can effectively support the disease of cancer. These include clearing any negative beliefs, conscious or unconscious, connected with the disease itself, and the self. Beliefs are probably the most powerful mechanism in our lives. People die for their beliefs, they fight for them, religions are based on them, and governments are elected because of them. Do not underestimate the power of belief systems in the healing process.”

Melanie Bowen
Advocate for Natural Health and Cancer

My first week back on Cura Romana went very well considering that I started the week with a head cold and a hangover … a last minute attempt to revert to my old lifestyle. This time I am doing the program without coaching and so am making sure that I take notice of all the little changes so I can pick up any difficulties early.

What surprised me most on the program this time was how closely it followed the same pattern as last time – quick weight loss in the first 2-3 weeks, levelling off for 2 -3 weeks and then rapid loss again in the last 10 days or so. At several points during the program, I checked my weight loss and it was exactly the same as at that point last time and even more once. This totally blew out a few more beliefs I had about weight loss – ie. the more you have to lose, the faster it comes off! At the end of the 6 weeks, I had lost 10.2 kgs and 56 cms compared to 11.5 kgs and 89 cms last time.

The hardest part for me this time was that I found myself wanting other foods. It was not hunger as such but a desire to eat things that were not a part of the plan. I felt a bit deprived and noticed that this is as an issue I have touched on before to do with “missing out” and “not fitting in”. It feels good to be consciously aware of it and I am ready to let it go now.

Last time I went down the baby shampoo route and my biggest desire on finishing the program was to wash my hair and condition the straw it had become. It was a pleasure this time to be able to use conditioner in my hair and was definitely worth buying the John Frieda products (Farmers had them).

This time around I have experimented with some of the recipes in Leslie’s book and have loved the soups. So easy and so tasty. Last time, and for the first 2 weeks this time, I was very boring having grilled protein, steamed veg and fruit. Occasionally with salt and pepper. I found it easier than thinking about another meal after sorting out the rest of the family.

I felt like doing an apple day around the beginning of my third week and decided that the best timing would be on a Wednesday (4 days later). My weight stalled for those 4 days. In hindsight, I probably should have done it the day I first thought about it. However, later on my weight stalled again and on the day I was going to do an apple day, I started losing weight again. I did the apple day anyway because they are so easy and I like apples now. I had forgotten I didn’t like them before until I listened to one of the voicemails Leslie sent me when I was on the program last time.

My biggest hope from this program was that I would discover my ideal weight. As I have never maintained any weight, let alone a healthy weight, I had no idea what my ideal weight was. I am very sceptical of the doctor’s charts and the ideal weight they propose so my biggest wish was that in week 6 of the program, preferably in the last 3 days, I would get hungry and then know that I had reached my ideal weight. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen although I did use muscle testing (kinesiology) in the last week and on Day 45 I was at the ideal weight that I had been given.

I am now back to the weight I was before I got pregnant with my first daughter and I feel fantastic and so does my body. I had a great day sorting through my wardrobe – throwing out clothes that are too big and enjoying the ones that now fit (after almost 6 years on the shelf!). I love my body – really and truly – even the little flabby bits that are still there after 2 children! This is a first for me – loving my body not the flabby bits!

What “firsts” have you experienced lately?

I recently visited Patricia Whitfield, a Medical Herbalist regarding my daughters’ behaviour. She was often explosive and partial to angry / frustrated outbursts. I described the behaviour as best I could and with the answers to a few very insightful questions from Trish, she recommended a formula of Australian Bush Flower Essences.

Kayla, my 5 year old daughter, loved taking the drops (as she called them) which were provided in a bottle with fairies and stars on the outside! She attends a Montessori preschool where the learning is self-directed and will move into the primary school when she turns 6. Two days after starting to take the drops, one of the teachers at stopped me after school and said “Kayla has really stepped into herself in the last 2 days. She has started choosing big project work, asking for resources and really expanding her scope. She’s even pulled the other kids into it too. She’s really ready for the Primary school now.” The teacher was as surprised as she was pleased. So, is it coincidence that she made this change within 24 hours of taking the first drops – I think not!

Unfortunately, the behaviour at home got more extreme, more explosive, over the next week. By the end of that week, another of the teachers had commented to me about the change in Kayla and how nice it was to see. This led me to reflect on what the differences were between school and home that may be influencing this. A big difference I determined was “choice”. Within the boundaries set at school, she was free to choose what to do. However, at home, the boundaries were different and had to take into account the whole family.

I felt that Kayla had become very focussed on what she wanted and when this didn’t fit in with the rest of the family, she became very frustrated. Just being aware of this has helped me to appreciate where she was coming from and within 2 – 3 days I started to notice a change in her. I am not aware that I even did anything different. I think that my attitude shifted a bit and this gave Kayla the space she needed. Instead of coming home asking for a movie straight away, she got out an activity book and started to make things out of it, asking for help or resources as she needed them. She had never done this before.

What a lovely change it has been and all it took was 2 weeks on Australia Bush Flower Essences and one session of reflection on my part. That has to be the best $15 I have spent in a while.

I would love to hear about your experience with Flower Essences. What have they helped you, or your family, with?

My first week back on Cura Romana went very well considering that I started the week with a head cold and a hangover … a last minute attempt to revert to my old lifestyle. This time I am doing the program without coaching and so am making sure that I take notice of all the little changes so I can pick up any difficulties early.

The main thing I found different from the first week last time is that rather than focussing on the weight and how much I was losing, I found myself completely accepting that my body would lose weight at whatever rate it chose. This let me use the amount lost as an indicator of what was going on for my body. For example, when I only lost 100g one day, I checked my records carefully and discovered that my bowels hadn’t moved for 2 days. An extra dose of Senna Tea moved them along! On Day 6 I was surprisingly tired in the afternoon and when I checked, I discovered that I hadn’t had much water that morning. Needless to say, I started to drink more and my fatigue lifted.

Probably the most unusual thing I have found this time around was that after 2 weeks on the program, I had lost exactly the same amount of weight as I had last time after 2 weeks. This throws out all my beliefs from previous diets. Ideas like – the heavier you are, the more you will lose at the start – obviously not with this program. What a pleasant surprise.

What weight loss “facts” have you proved to be myths?

After being pleasantly surprised that my body had handled a few excesses while on holiday, I found myself back in a daily routine although away from home still as we temporarily relocated to Wellington after the February earthquake. I proceeded to push the boundaries. It was like an old habit or mindset clicked in me and said it was OK to continue with the excesses.

After 3 weeks of this, I started to remember that it’s not only about the weight. My energy and inspiration were being hindered by my food and wine choices. Helped along by an earache, I realised that I wasn’t really listening to what my body needed. I was back in my ego saying “I can do whatever I want. Just watch me.”

Although I didn’t like what was happening, I seemed powerless to stop it. For about 8 weeks, I went through fits and starts of sticking to the foods my body likes and NOT. I started eating foods without testing them first and I found myself gradually putting on weight (almost 4kgs). During this time, I was very tired and grumpy. Eventually, I stopped to think and realised it was probably the wheat. I immediately went back to only eating foods I knew were OK and I lost 2 kgs in 2 days.

I have decided to do another program of Cura Romana to get down to my ideal weight and to really cement into place the benefits I received first time around. I also look forward to the cleansing, simplicity of the meals and clarity I experienced last time.

How do you notice when you are off track? What do you do to get back on track?

I am sad to say that I will not be able to launch the Weekly Specials Newsletter as planned for the middle of July. Thank you all for your interest. I am needing to focus more of my energy on my family at the moment.

The Directory will run as usual with limited input from me.

Thank you for your understanding.

Warm regards,

When I was young I decided to change the world,
but the world would not be changed.

So I decided to change my country,
but the country would not allow change.

So I decided to change my community,
but the community was set in their ways.

So I decided to change my family,
but my family would have nothing to do with it.

So I decided to just change myself.

Then I found that when I changed myself,
my family changed.

And when my family changed,
they changed the community.

And when the community changed,
they changed the country.

And when the country changed,
then the world changed with it.

Anon.

Amanda’s Comments:
Change really does start within. An easy way to test this is to smile. Smile at everyone who crosses your path for a day and just notice whether they smile back. You will find that most do and some will also smile at someone else as a result of your smile. You may not see this but believe me, it will happen. Something so simple as a smile can brighten people’s day and it’s yours to give any time you choose!

I would love to hear your smile stories or any other change experiences you have.

I was treated to a rare experience recently when a friend kindly let me know that the Dalai Lama was going to visit Christchurch. Having never been a groupie of any sort, I surprised even myself by my desire to be at the airport when he arrived. Thinking it might be an interesting experience for my daughters, I took them out of school/preschool for the afternoon. It certainly was an experience with my youngest (almost 4) walking around the airport saying “Where’s the Daddy Lama?” at the top of her voice.

The very low key reception at the airport surprised me – several photographers and maybe 50 people. However, it did mean that we got very close to the Dalai Lama and that was a highlight for me. I never in my life thought that I would be in his presence let alone be close enough to reach out and touch him (if I had been so uncouth as to do so).

Later in the day, we were talking about the Dalai Lama and Kayla (5) said “but he’s a builder”. When I asked for clarification, she said “he’s come to rebuild Christchurch”. I assume that they must have been discussing him at school and talking about how he’s come to help rebuild morale!

The next day a few friends and I felt very privileged to be able to attend his talk and blessing. We were there nice and early to get good seats. As we walked into the CBS Canterbury Arena, we stopped to soak in the wonderful peaceful energy that engulfed the room. I found my mind wandering back to other events I had attended there and the very different energy I had felt without identifying it as such.

The Dalai Lama captivated us with his love, compassion, and wonderful childlike humour. He was both respectful to those who had suffered and bought strong messages of obtaining perspective through looking at the bigger picture and moving on with life. His presence was so peaceful and he was a delight to listen to with his simplistic principles and obvious application of them in his own life.

Following his talk, the monks commenced chanting and it was both fascinating (having never heard it before) and deeply grounding. What a wonderful experience and one I am forever grateful to the universe for bring across my path. I never in my life thought that I would ever be in the presence of the Dalai Lama and certainly not that I would be close enough to touch him. My heart sings with the beauty of the experience and I have a renewed desire to achieve even a fraction of that peace in my life.

What wonderful experiences have you had lately and how did they affect you?

Hypnosis, Brain Gym, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), Acupuncture, Time Line Therapy, Tapping (EFT), Massage (lots of different types), Reiki, Holistic Pulsing, Kinesiology, Meditation, …

These are some of the many modalities I have tried over the years. It seems to me that no one method is better than any other. They often work in different ways to achieve the same outcome – whether it be resolution to a physical problem, moving through an emotional issue or experiencing peace. As my life progresses, my favourite modalities change. Over time, I have found that my personal growth accelerates when starting something new and deepens as the modality becomes more familiar to me. It’s like a new commitment to the process.

As time has gone on, I have started to develop my own style of how to deal with a problem. A bit of this, a bit of that, stopping to smell the roses, … and now, I have a full appreciation for how new modalities are born.

Recently I noticed my preference for body or mind focussed modalities. Upon starting with spirit work, the realisation came that you can work with any one of the 3 elements and have results in any of the other ones. For example, body work can help your soul (spirit), spirit work can help with new mindsets and mind work can have physical results in your body. Fascinating stuff!

As my attraction towards particular modalities surfaces, I use this as my guidance on what to work with next. What a fantastic place we are in where there are so many options available to us.

What is your favourite modality and why?

Upon returning to Christchurch, I realised that I needed to check out each of my suppliers of health products and services and see if they are still operating. I thought you might find it useful if I provided that update for you here.

Christchurch Farmers Market at Riccarton House: Open and operating normally.
The stall holders provide locally grown, reared and prepared fresh produce.

Herbal Dispensary: The building has been demolished although they hope to be able to reopen in the future on the existing or another site.
Their practitioners are available for consultations – phone 365 3117 for individual contact details. Trish Whitfield, Medical Herbalist, is able to provide some dispensary products and can be contacted on 021 171 6621 or boragecottage@yahoo.com.

Liberty Market: Open and operating normally.
They provide organic foods, natural foods and special dietary foods.

Marshall’s Health Shop in New Brighton: Open and operating normally.
For a comprehensive range of quality health products at very competitive prices. They will order products in if they are not in stock and are able to source some Practitioner only products.

Organic Fruit and Veg Market outside Vic’s Café, 132 Victoria Street on Saturday’s: Closed

Piko Wholefoods: The Kilmore Street building has been demolished but they have reopened at 248 Stanmore Road. The Lyttelton street store, Lyttel Piko, has reopened at 12 London Street and is best accessed from Oxford Street.
They are a vegetarian wholefood store, specialising in organic and gluten free foods.

The Herb Centre: Open and operating normally. Best reached via Barbadoes Street.
They provide a Dispensary / Health Store, Natural Health Clinic and Cafe.

Individual Practitioner listings are being updated as I receive the information.

Do you know the status of any other businesses which would help our readers?

I had an amazing, inspiring and very promising result recently. My children and I went on a 2 week holiday up north where we were staying with several different friends. As it was only 2 weeks, and I was trying to pack as lightly as possible, I decided not to take my scales with me. However, during the second week of our holiday Christchurch was hit by the 6.3 earthquake which devastated the city. I feel very blessed that our children missed this event.

My husband and I decided that it was best to keep the girls away from the city so we spent another week with friends. I was overwhelmed by the support and offers from friends for accommodation and transport but I do digress. From there we flew to Wellington to reunite our family. My husband was lucky enough to secure a short term contract there so that we were able to be together.

So that’s the background on how I came to spend 3 weeks drinking 1 or 2 glasses of wine each night – everyone we stayed with was either in holiday or visitor mode – and eating a lot of food I wouldn’t normally. Sometimes the only food presented at a meal was things I would prefer not to eat. Consequently, when I arrived in Wellington I was rather concerned as to what the scales might say …

You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that I was only 500 grams heavier than at the end of consolidation and on the next day only 100 grams. In the past, I would easily have put on 5kgs in the same situation.

Over the past 3 months, I have found the following:

• My weight fluctuates from day to day but stays within 1-2 kilos of my weight at the end of the program.
• If I have indulged, I find it very easy to restore my health and vitality by eating simple proteins, veges and fruit for a day or so.
• I am more diligent in keeping track of my weight and so am much quicker to make adjustments if necessary.
• My weight loss appears to be permanent although I will need to go on the program again to further reduce my weight.

Have you recently completed a weight loss or any other personal change program? What differences are you noticing in yourself?

In the wake of the earthquake(s), you might find yourself saying “I’ve got no choice” or “There are too many choices and I can’t choose because …” However, you do always have a choice and can make a good choice. That may seem a bit harsh to those of you who are struggling to cope in the aftermath. If this is you, please seek some help.

The recent events have made many people stop and evaluate their life and this is a good thing. In many cases, they have made new choices and decisions on where to go from here. You can do this too.

You can choose to focus on the devastation, inconveniences and financial strain OR you can choose to see the beauty that has come from the earthquake. The neighbours banding together, the relationships forming, the generosity of the whole country and people from overseas, … It is always our choice where to focus.

If you find yourself asking ‘why me?’ or ‘why us?’ or you notice that you are not your usual self, feeling jittery, stressed, irritable, fearful, … after the recent earthquakes, contact one of our Natural Health Practitioners to retain your equilibrium and sense of balance. Each person has their own style and range of modalities so search the database to find someone who is a match for you. Many practitioners are offering special deals to assist those needing help following the recent earthquake.

I wish you all a speedy recovery and a return to normality as soon as possible. Please remember, especially in these times, IT IS OK to ask for help!

Consciousness is a state of awareness where we choose how to act rather than react. It’s being aware of the consequences of our actions and making choices while considering all the people or things that might be influenced by our decisions.

In a global sense, consciousness is being aware of how what we do affects the environment, the political situation, and the rest of the world. On a personal level, consciousness involves being aware of your true purpose in life, staying connected to your inner self and living your life in the present moment. It’s important to be aware of how the past has influenced who you are now and choose to let go of the past, if necessary, to live in the present. Notice each moment as a new experience and recognise when you over-react to a situation based on your past.

If you find that you are having difficulty in putting the past behind you, there is help available. Most natural health practitioners work in some way with clearing the effects of your past conditioning whether on a physical, spiritual, emotional or mental level. The aim is usually to bring you in to the present moment.

When we act unconsciously, it is more of a reaction, in that we act automatically without considering whether this is the way we want to act or not. The starting point for living a conscious life is becoming aware of times when we have acted unconsciously (or reacted) to a situation and make a conscious decision to act differently next time.

For example, your male boss comes to your desk and says “I need you to do this right now!” Based on your upbringing, you may react in one of many ways. Say, you had an overbearing father who constantly told you what to do, you may cower at the tone of voice and meekly say ‘ok’ but as soon as your boss leaves, you feel resentful and finish what you were doing just to make him wait. If you were to stop and think about your reaction, you may notice the similarity between your boss and father and realise that in actual fact you are reacting to your father not your boss. The next time your boss makes a similar request, you may be able to notice the differences between the way he has asked and the way your father would have. This then gives you the power to choose how you will act.

I find the more conscious I become, the less excuses I make and the less blame I place for the things in my life. I choose to take full responsibility for everything in my life – the good and the bad. This choice gives me the power to make any changes I desire. Again and again I see things flow perfectly when I am following my desires as to what to do, or not to do, next. When I do things at a time that I want to do them, I accomplish things much faster and better than if I force it.

I attempt to focus on ‘being’, although being a master at ‘doing’, I only manage small periods of being. Living in the present moment has allowed me to know that the universe will take care of me so long as I stay connected to my inner guidance. I now allow myself “guilt-free” rest periods, knowing that it rejuvenates me and, in the long term, I get more of the right things done. It also helps me to focus on now. Not the past, not the future, just right now and what I am experiencing right now.

Consciousness gives you the power to connect with your inner guidance system, to act in line with your purpose and to live in the present moment as often as possible. The present moment is where you will find peace and so it is a worthy target.

What has been your experience towards living a conscious life?

The health benefits and, in fact, the essential nature of iodine, appears to be a huge cover up by doctors and the pharmaceutical industry. Elaine Hollingsworth claims that the iodine in fish and iodised salt falls way short of our daily requirement of between 12.5 and 37.5mg. Our daily needs are dependent on the current state of our health.

Some of the ailments it is said to help with are depression, migraines, constipation, cancer, menstrual problems and other feminine complaints, thyroid and adrenal problems, and diabetes. Iodine is not held up as the cure for all but, according to Elaine, it is certainly a good start or a good addition to your current health program.

She recommends an inexpensive product called “Lugol’s solution” which is becoming harder and harder to get due to medical propaganda on iodine. I managed to find a New Zealand product which is said to be the same “Clinicians Iodine Oral Drops” www.clinicians.co.nz.

Dr David M Derry, MD, PhD, author ‘Breast Cancer and Iodine’ says that “Iodine is by far the best antibiotic, antiviral and antiseptic of all time.”

Has anyone had experience with using iodine?

Source: Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry (11th Edition) by Elaine Hollingsworth, pages 18-20 www.doctorsaredangerous.com

Over the month, I followed my plan to slowly continue introducing foods one at a time. However, I was more relaxed about it than I had been on the program. I haven’t discovered anything else which my body reacts to as severely as the Brie but I have found that:

• Sugar affects my mood. It makes me grumpy within 1 hour of consuming it.
• Eating too much of a variety of foods together causes temporary weight gain.
• Eating simple proteins, vegetables and fruit for a day or so counteracts excesses and my weight returns to normal.
• I can eat large quantities of the foods my body likes and still lose weight.
• It is rare that I get hungry.
• Fruit for breakfast is what suits my body best.
• I am still doing some emotional eating but it doesn’t seem to cause weight gain.

Since completing the program, my weight has fluctuated from day to day. However, it has remained within a kilo of my weight at the end of the program.

I am still very hopeful that this is a permanent change.

What successes have you had lately and what are you optimistic about?

Yet another large earthquake has rocked Christchurch (magnitude 6.3, 5km deep, epicentre Lyttelton – 10km south of Christchurch city centre.) The damage is much more widespread than the 7.1 quake in September last year.

Best wishes.

A Friend …

Accepts you as you are
Believes in you
Calls you just to say “Hi”
Doesn’t give up on you
Envisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts)
Forgives your mistakes
Gives unconditionally
Helps you without being asked
Invites you over
Just stays with you
Keeps you close at heart
Loves you for who you are
Makes a difference in your life
Never judges
Offers support
Picks you up
Quiets your fears
Raises your spirits
Says nice things about you
Tells you the truth when you need to hear it
Understands you
Values you
Walks beside you
X-plains things you don’t understand
Yells when you won’t listen and
Zaps you back to reality

Amanda’s Comments:
I received this via email some time ago and wanted to share it with you as I head off on holiday for 2 weeks to catch up with several friends up north. One, a very good friend, who now lives in France and I haven’t seen for many years. With families coming along for both of us, and living on opposite sides of the world, we have helped to keep the telephone companies in business. We are both looking forward to introducing our families to each other although my 2 girls are not that happy that she has 2 boys! Roll on another 10 years and the prospect of meeting two French/Italian/Kiwi boys may appeal!

As I was flicking through Elaine Hollingsworth’s book, thinking about what to write about next, Coca Cola caught my eye. This was a vice of mine before Cura Romana and I most definitely would have avoided reading this section before. Being a non-coffee and tea drinker, Coca Cola was my preferred pick me up. There are nutritional benefits of consuming Coca Cola … or at least it doesn’t do any harm to have the occasional one or 5 … as you can see I am still in denial.

Elaine is very brief and blunt in her summary of Coca Cola and soft drinks in general. She highlights that there are so many chemicals in soft drinks, it would take considerable effort to list them all. Diet soft drinks are even worse in that they use artificial sweeteners which can be extremely toxic. Soft drinks destroy our bones and teeth and if that’s not enough to convince you to banish them forever, she lists some experiments to try with Coca Cola.

In the past, I have heard about putting a coin in a glass of coke and how it dissolves in a couple of days. I always went with the adage “What you don’t know, can’t hurt you” and never tried it. How wrong was I? However, when I put the metal nails she suggested into a jar (I was scared what they might do to one of my good glasses) of coke, I found that it took the silver coating off the nails but left the rest of the nail intact – even after a week. As instructed, I tipped some coke on an oil stain in the driveway and it didn’t make any difference to the stain either. It would have been divorce in my household if I carried out the third experiment which was to pour it on the car and watch what happened to the paint.

So, have Coca Cola heard the rumours about what coke does to coins, nails, unmovable stains, … and changed the formula to provide a more healthful drink? Or did they just add a few more chemicals to protect the nails and stains from dissolving? You decide.

Elaine’s parting comments on this topic are “if you and your family persist in drinking soft drinks after these experiments, you need psychiatric help!” So, I tried Jack Daniels and soda water but it didn’t quite do the trick. I will have to stick to the odd glass of wine here and there instead. At least I know there is one natural ingredient included – grapes.

Have you tried these experiments before? Did they work for you?

Source: Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry (11th Edition) by Elaine Hollingsworth, page 75 www.doctorsaredangerous.com

Cura Romana officially finished half way through this week and the main change for me is that I am no longer recording everything that I eat and drink. I am still mentally keeping track of how much water I have had in a day, writing down new foods as I introduce them, noticing my energy levels and weighing myself regularly. I intend to continue introducing one food every few days until I have tested all the foods I want to. I haven’t introduced many grains yet as I suspect that many of them will react with my body.

Since I started my 6 weeks of consolidation, I have lost a further 1.2 kgs and 6 cms. I am hopeful that the weight will continue to drop gradually over the next few weeks. I believe that my body still has approximately 7 – 10 kgs to lose to achieve its’ ideal weight. This will be a rather slow process at the current rate so I suspect that I will be tempted to complete another program, in a couple of months, to shed the remainder in one go and then consolidate it again. The lure of that rapid weight loss is very strong and it was so easy!

Thank you to Leslie for supporting me on my Cura Romana journey. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and love my new body and new way of doing things. Thank you also to all my readers – I think that writing these blogs has really helped me to recognise the huge changes that I have made and the new understandings that I have come to.

I will continue to update you periodically on my progress and particularly my ability to maintain my weight and make this a permanent change in my life. This to me is the value of this program – the promise that it is permanent weight loss provided I only consume food that my body loves.

Where have you made permanent changes in your life and how did you do it?

For years I have been sceptical of the claims that dairy products provide the necessary calcium for bone strength. I have never liked milk and only every consumed small quantities of dairy products throughout my life. I have also never broken a bone or had any other signs of calcium deficiency. Conversely, I have had friends who drank huge quantities of milk and have had several broken bones. They even seemed to break a bone when others may have just twisted an ankle in the same situation. I realise this is a rather simplistic way of looking at it, and hardly very scientific, but my feelings about it were recently confirmed for me when I read Elaine Hollingsworth’s Book “Take Control of Your Health”.

She makes the following points:

• Over the years, a very extensive marketing campaign has ingrained into us that we need to consume copious quantities of dairy products to provide our body with sufficient levels of calcium.
• In New Zealand, we are one of the few countries where the cattle are allowed to roam free and are fed on grass. In many countries, they are fed cheap grains, milk enhancing drugs and are in other ways treated inhumanely. Hardly a healthy combination and unlikely to provide rich nutrient packed milk products. However, even in NZ, the drugs and antibiotics given to the cows, and the chemicals used for cleaning the milking equipment, all end up in the milk we are supplied with.
• Is lactose intolerance really due to the lactose or is it a reaction to the chemicals in the milk products?
• The majority of milk we are able to purchase is pasteurised and homogenised and this alters the calcium in such a way that is gets into the bloodstream and sticks to our blood vessels. This can lead to arteriosclerosis or arthritis when it gets into the joints. Unfortunately, any health benefits that milk may have had in the past, have been eliminated by the processing and ways in which cattle are now treated.
• Dairy products create mucous which can lead to colds, flu and asthma. Inversely, if you have a cold, they will delay your recovery. There goes the icecream to cheer yourself up when you’re sick or the yogurt because it’s easy to eat with a sore throat!

Research has shown:

• Calves fed only pasteurised milk die within 6 weeks of birth.
• Calves fed only pasteurised and homogenised milk die within 2 – 4 weeks of birth.
• The process of pasteurisation destroys 34 enzymes in milk making it indigestible.
• The consumption of milk products has been linked to increased risk in developing breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.
• Osteoporosis is almost non-existent in Africa and other places where they never drink milk once they are weaned.

I keep coming back to the thought that cows milk is meant for baby cows and as such it is suitable for their development. Mothers milk is designed for human babies and there is really no all encompassing replacement. Often with our health, the effects of our choices are not always immediate or obvious and research into the long term effects can be limited.

The research that is provided is often swayed by the researchers (or sponsors) chosen variables. It is important to look at the limitations of the research and also at who has paid for it (the sponsors) as studies are usually set up to provide a particular answer. You would expect that research conducted or sponsored by Fonterra would show the health benefits of milk. However, it may be less obvious that a doctor publishing “independent” research about the benefits of milk may have been directly or indirectly funded by Fonterra.

When it comes down to it, with a lot of these controversial issues, you can read the research on both sides but in the end you will follow your gut reaction based on what your beliefs are at the time.

Where do you question the popular beliefs? And why?

Source: Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry (11th Edition) by Elaine Hollingsworth. www.doctorsaredangerous.com

As I have mentioned before, several times probably, I love good wine. My favourite is aged wine particularly oaked Chardonnay. However, this week I tasted a wine that was a bit past it. Not quite corked but close. I surprised myself immensely by choosing not to drink it. My taste buds seem to be more refined now and I don’t choose to eat or drink anything I don’t like.

I came to the realisation this week that although my body may not be intolerant to certain foods (particularly sugars) that they are still not necessarily good choices for my overall health. I had noticed that I was having several ‘treats’ and decided to reduce these. I think part of it is conditioning from the past of how to act during a holiday period. Also, I have noticed that my body reacts a bit when I overeat – weight gain, lower energy and feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Leslie confirmed my thoughts after reviewing my report for the week. However, I just had to try it out one more time to make sure and so I ate raw cake mixture when I was doing some baking and regretted it an hour later. I started snapping at my children and was very irritable and tired. It lasted for about 4 hours even though I managed to have a rest. I learnt my lesson and am in no hurry to repeat those feelings.

It amazes me how quick my body is to respond. I can see now that feelings I regularly had in the past were caused by the food I was eating. Ironically, I often tried to pep myself up with more of these foods which just exasperated the problem. I am forever grateful for my new understandings and how in tune I am to my body and what it needs.

What do you and your body need right now?

There have been considerable changes in opinion over the years as to what is considered “good” for us as far as oils and fats are concerned and you have good reason to be confused. The studies are often linked to cholesterol, and particularly to reducing cholesterol, as high levels are thought to cause heart disease. However, often overlooked is, low levels of cholesterol can cause cancer and other non-coronary heart disease. It can also render men unable to produce their own testosterone.

According to Elaine Hollingsworth in Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry, the only good oils and fats are top quality butter, coconut oil and olive oil. The only one suitable for cooking is coconut oil as it can take high temperatures without spoiling. Other oils and fats, mostly polyunsaturated, weaken the immune system and accelerate aging.

Years ago farmers started to feed their cattle coconut oil as an inexpensive way to fatten them up and the reverse actually happened. This is because the coconut oil supported the thyroid function rather than suppressing it, which is what the soy beans and corn did and allowed the cattle to put on weight by eating less.

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature although it can be liquefied by immersing the container in hot water. When choosing a good coconut oil, ensure that it is not refined, bleached or deodorised. If you’re in for a change of skin care, Elaine Hollingsworth also highly recommends that coconut oil is the only product you use for cleansing and moisturising. So save time, throw some in the pan and use a little extra on your face! You can also take it to your massage therapist, you may smell as though you’ve been at the beach but at least you know what’s going on your skin and into your body.

What research have you read lately that is contrary to popular belief?

Source: Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry (11th Edition) by Elaine Hollingsworth, pages 82-95. www.doctorsaredangerous.com
 

This week started off with Christmas day and if you hadn’t realised it before now, there is a delay in me posting these blogs which gives me time to write and review them. In general, I was happy with my eating pattern on the day as it was a huge improvement over previous Christmases. However, at the end of the day, I felt like I had eaten too much. I apologised to my body several times and asked for guidance to counteract it. I also did some tapping (EFT) on my issues regarding the day – particularly the speed at which I ate, feeling like I was missing out and doing what others did so that I fitted in.

My body certainly let me know that it didn’t like the excesses I had consumed and I gained 2kgs in one day. This meant I had to take immediate corrective action which was a very restricted diet for Boxing Day. I had to do some writing on this as I was very resistant to it and particularly to having other people know what I was doing. After writing for approximately 30 minutes, I was at peace with it and so able to do what I needed to. My body responded well by dropping 1.2kgs in a day and I felt much happier.

I was able to start introducing grains and sugars last week but I wasn’t in any hurry. There are still so many proteins that I want to try so I waited until this week to introduce sugars. Possibly an unusual choice but I started with icing sugar on boysenberries and raspberries. Mmmm!

After celebrating Christmas Day and New Years Eve with a glass of Moet, I am pleased to say that my body likes good wine. What a relief! At the moment, I have my ideal regarding alcohol … I can have one glass of wine, enjoy it and then have no desire for more. I found on the occasion that I tried a second glass that it didn’t taste at all nice from about half way through.

I come from a family that habitually overeats at Christmas – it is quite usual to have more desserts on the table than there are people! It is also quite normal for the roast veges to be forgotten in the oven because the table is full. Next year will be a challenge for me to introduce some healthier options to our festivities.

What do you have at Christmas or other special occasions that is yummy yet healthy?

I recently completed a 6 week program called Money Magnificence which was designed to allow the flow of abundance into my life. Sonya Barron, the facilitator, is very intuitive and she lead the group in such a way that everyone got exactly what they needed. She is passionate about women achieving their potential and provided a comfortable environment to learn and grow in. I really enjoyed the sharing and connection of being on a similar path with a group of like minded women.

Before I started the program, I felt that money was something to be managed – frugally – and that I wasn’t attracting enough money into my life. Now, I feel that money is something that flows in and out. All I need is to be open to receiving and I will receive all the money I desire. This proved true during the course when I received money from an unexpected source. I no longer have the ‘frugal’ attitude. I buy quality and when I truly desire something for myself or others I buy it. I don’t buy any of the other stuff that I used to fill the space with. I enjoyed Christmas shopping for the first time in a while by focussing on what each person would really like rather than what would “do” for them. I spent more than I normally would and their pleasure at their gifts made it all worthwhile.

During one of the sessions, I learnt that I had 2 conflicting beliefs – “it’s not OK not to work” and “it’s not OK to work if you’re a mother”. This has caused a huge internal struggle over the last 5 years, since my first daughter was born. I was relieved to clear both those beliefs that evening and feel comfortable with being a working mother. I still choose to put my family first and I have designed my business around family life.

Where have you had conflicting beliefs and what happened when you cleared them?

The next Money Magnificence Workshop is currently advertised on the Workshops page.
 

Leslie noticed this week that I seemed to be drawn to fats and she asked about my breast feeding history. In her experience, if you don’t sufficiently receive the essential fats that are only in breast milk as a baby then you crave fats as an adult. This has certainly been the case for me and I was only breastfed for 2 weeks and then mum ended up in hospital and I had to stay home. After a few days of attempting to express and send me the milk on the mail bus, it turned out that the postal service wasn’t equipped for this! And that was the end of breastfeeding for me.

A few interesting things have happened this week:

• I actually enjoyed doing housework and it has been a long time since I could say that. I think it’s because I am meeting my needs/desires first and so I am enjoying everything.
• We went to stay at my in-laws and I hadn’t thought to mention that I wasn’t eating grains or sugars. Dinner the first night was meatloaf with breadcrumbs in it and I ate it to be polite. I apologised to my body immediately and either there was not enough to cause a reaction, I don’t react to wheat (very unlikely) or my body accepted the apology. Whichever one, I was very pleased to maintain my weight and energy.
• I realised that even though I was allowed to drink wine after the first few days of Consolidation, I have had no desire to even try it. This is despite the fact that I was an avid wine drinker before Cura Romana.

What have you found interesting this week?

Often January 1st arrives with enthusiasm for what you will do this year – drink less, exercise more, be nice to the neighbours’ dog, find a new job, … However, often within a few days, or weeks, you realise that you have bitten off more than you can chew. This is what I see is happening:

You are in a joyful state as New Year’s Eve approaches. This is possibly due to some or all of the following: being on holiday, having had a festive Christmas, spending time with family and friends, anticipation for the New Year, celebrations on New Year’s Eve, …

In this joyful state, you are open to the messages coming from within you (or if you believe in it, coming from the Divine/God). These messages are to help the ‘real’ you become more of who you are and take another step towards fulfilling your life purpose. This is whether you know what your purpose is or not.

However, often these messages or the resolutions you make, push you out of your comfort zone. You actually don’t know how to make the changes that you desire in your life. Luckily for you, if you choose to seek assistance, there are a multitude of very talented people just waiting to help you. They know their life purpose and it is to help people like you. Whether the changes you require are physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, there are hundreds of trained natural health practitioners for you to choose from. The best Practitioner for you right now, is the one that you are most drawn to.

One key purpose of the Mind Body Spirit Directory was to provide you with a place where you can go to find the most appropriate person for you. I believe that there is no one modality that is better than any other and that it is merely what suits you at the time. So, if you have a New Year’s resolution, goal or intention that you suspect you may not achieve, please search the Directory (either by modality or speciality) for a Natural Health Practitioner to help you. Not only will it be the best money you ever spent, you will find yourself with new behaviours and feel better than you ever have before.

What will you do new this year? Who will you ask to help you along the way?

After starting to doubt whether I was missing the signs that my body didn’t like a food, I reacted. I had Double Cream Brie for lunch and the next morning I couldn’t make myself get out of bed. Luckily school had finished for the girls and so I stayed in bed until 9am, while they played around me. I put on 1 kg in less than a day and was lethargic all day until about 7pm. I have no desire to repeat this experience.

Part way through the day, I realized that prior to Cura Romana this was a normal experience for me and I would feel like this several days a week if not every day. This was confirmation for me on how good I had been feeling – the joy, the peace, the clarity of mind, the energy, …

As putting on a kilo had pushed me over the maximum weight gain, I immediately undertook the protocol to counteract the effects of my reaction to the Brie. This worked very well and the next morning I woke feeling energized and 1.2kgs lighter. What a relief!

Since then, I have decided to muscle test (kinesiology) new foods before I try them. I want to avoid those feelings at all cost – even if they only last a day. To me right now, no food is worth that feeling for a whole day. I really like this new thinking that I have adopted.

What new ways of thinking have you come up with recently and how have they benefited you?

I recently received an email from Margaret Lynch about a new teleclass on Miracles that starts in a few days time.

Margaret has spent the last couple of months soul searching and researching the subject of miracles. She has discovered some very interesting things. Most importantly is this: Your ability to ask for, receive, allow and even SEE miracles will take you light years beyond where you can go with your will power and hard work alone.

But this ability is limited by our programming!

In this special class you will find and clear your programming around infinite possibility, connection to the Divine, and your worthiness for miracles AT EACH CHAKRA! 7 classes clearing all 7 chakras.

Listen to what Margaret has discovered about Miracles and why this is so important.

As you may know, I got huge value out of Margaret’s last series of classes and so have already signed up for this one. I could certainly do with a few more miracles this year to realise a few more of my dreams. Would you like more miracles in your life?

Here are some of Margaret’s goals for you in this class:

• Start experiencing miracles right now, REAL in your life, your business, your relationships.
• Find a deeper and personal connection with the God of your understanding so you can finally TRUST yourself and your life purpose.
• Know from the moment you wake up that you are worthy of miracles in the eyes of the universe and say yes to them!
• Know that YOU are a miracle and your mission IS to bring your miracle to the world.
• Start asking for and creating miracles fearlessly in your life, business, even your money.
• Put in LESS effort and striving for money and success and experience unexpected miracles supporting you.

If the class has already started when you read this, it’s not too late to sign up as you will receive audios of all the classes. I listen to the recordings each time as I value my sleep and don’t choose to get up in the middle of the night to attend the live class. This has the added bonus that I can pause it, if necessary, which is often the case with 2 young children.

I would love for some of you to join me in doing this class so we can discuss the topics as we go and our experiences after the classes. Please email me when you decide to sign up and I will co-ordinate a discussion group.

If you already know about tapping and want Margaret’s tapping script for Miracles in 2011, please email me.

I look forward to chatting with you and sharing our miracles for 2011.

I am proud to be an affiliate of Margaret Lynch and The Secret of Intentional Wealth.
 

This week has gone very smoothly introducing a new food every couple of days. So far I have had macadamias, mozzarella and eggs. I really felt like an omelette so introduced the mozzarella first so that I could have it with cheese.

I have been taking careful notice of my mood, energy and body for any adverse reactions and have been pleased that I have responded well to these new foods.

Interestingly enough about 2 years ago I saw a kineseologist about weight. She muscle tested my body and said it wanted to be 72kgs and that is what I should aim for initially. What a coincidence that this is my weight now – I think not!

What interesting coincidences have been happening in your life?

Now that the excesses of Christmas are over, you may find that you have a little time and space on your hands to consider the upcoming year. What would you like to do different this year? What would you like to accomplish? Who would you like to spend more time with? What thinking would you like to change? What would you like more or less of this year? …

There are a hundred (or more) questions you could ask yourself but the real key is to think about what you would like for the coming year in each area of your life: Family; Work/Vocation; Finances; Relationships; Health and Fitness; Personal Growth/Spirituality. These categories are not static and you may define the areas of your life in a different way. Just make sure that you set your intentions for what you want in each area.

I used to think that there would always be at least one area in my life that needed working on but I have realised what a limiting belief this has been for me. It has meant that I was always striving in at least one area of my life. Now that I no longer believe this, I find that it is possible to experience peace and to be comfortable with my life just as it is. This has also allowed me to live in the present moment and enjoy life – moment by moment. It has also meant that things come easily to me because any actions I undertake are inspired actions and therefore working towards my life purpose. What a wonderful feeling!

What are the wonderful things you would like to attract into your life? Do you believe you can have them?

This week was a big turning point with moving from the strict food plan and homeopathics into the consolidation phase. As it was suggested that I ease myself into new foods, all it really meant was that I was able to eat more simple proteins, add some fats and mix vegetables at a meal. This freedom has been wonderful and my body has responded well. My favourite meal was steak with garlic butter prawns and scallops. Mmmmm! Of course, with a great big salad.

I think it would be useful to summarise the last 7 weeks and what has changed for my body in that time:

• I have lost a total of 89 cms over 14 measurements.
• I have lost 12.1 kgs
• I like the look of my body both clothed and not – even though I haven’t reached my goal weight.
• The cellulite has completely disappeared from my thighs.
• My regular stream of pimples has become infrequent.
• I can fit into some of my top shelf clothes – let me explain.

In my wardrobe I have 3 shelves – the first shelf is clothes I currently wear, the second shelf is clothes that will fit next (the next size down), and the top shelf is the shelf I have aspired to get back in to since I was pregnant with my first daughter (who is now 5). AND on Monday I got the inspiration to try on a pair of jeans from the top shelf and I wore them that day!!!! Ooooh, did I feel good. I then proceeded to go through the rest of my clothes and removed a huge bag that are now too big and moved a lot of clothes down the shelves. I still have several top shelf clothes that don’t fit yet as I am still approximately 7kgs heavier than I was when I purchased them but I am confident that I will get back into them.

I look forward to next week when I get to start introducing other proteins.

What exciting things have been happening for you lately?

Dream what you want to dream.
Go where you want to go, be who you want to be …
And remember to enjoy every step of life’s journey,
For the essence of each day is unique and fleeting.

Minutes are grains of sand that slip all too quickly through our fingers,
Leaving only memories …
So follow your dream wherever it may lead you,
And remember to cherish each and every step along the way.

My comments:

We are quickly approaching the time of year where we start to review the past 12 months and think about what we want for the coming year.

This year has been one of massive personal growth for me. I have been focusing on following my intuition, being in the present moment and enjoying everything I choose to do (or choosing to do things that I enjoy). At the same time, I have launched a business and thoroughly enjoyed it. My children have grown a year older and I am blessed to have had lots of time with them. Before my first daughter was born, we decided that I would be a stay at home mum and although that hasn’t always been an easy decision, this year I enjoyed it – most of the time!

My biggest realisation this year has been about the importance of joy in my life. This will be at the forefront of my mind when I set my intentions for 2011.

What have been your biggest achievements this year? What are you most proud of? What has given you the most joy?

What a wonderful week! A huge thank you goes to my body for the way it has supported me so far on my Cura Romana journey and for the lessons it is teaching me. This week I lost the least weight of any week so far (1 kg) and yet I lost a whopping 21.5 cms overall. This included 3 cms off my chest and 4 cms off my waist! This is the same overall amount I lost in the first week when I also lost 3.3 kgs. To all of you out there trying to lose weight, please make sure you are taking your measurements and tracking other things such as your energy and well being. This week has really taught me at a deep level that it is not only about the weight. The reduction in size is great as well but more important than that, is my health. This is often an overlooked area, especially by me, and in the past I have chosen not to think about the long term health effects of many of my choices. I am pleased to say that my thinking has completely changed, sometime in the last 6 weeks, and I now intend to make my choices while considering my future health.

I realised this week that I am feeling very different about food. In the past, I couldn’t wait to get to my goal weight so that I could stop depriving myself. This time, I am excited about creating new meals and especially the one-meal salads suggested. In the past, I would feel ripped off if all I had for a meal was a salad. For example, if I was to eat out and have a Caesar salad, I would always order chips to go with it. Now, I look forward to all the wonderful creations I can make using proteins, nuts and seeds.

I am finding it easier to stay in the present moment and to follow my intuition as to what to do next. Although I am still very busy, everything seems to fit into place and I don’t seem to forget anything. I no longer desire a sleep after lunch and I am sleeping well at night. I find it easier to fall back to sleep if I am woken in the night as my head doesn’t seemed to be whirring so much with everything I need to do – yesterday! I am also enjoying life more and taking the time to do this.

What changes have you made that have really influenced your health in a positive way?

Christmas – Silly Season, a Welcome Break or Something Else?

Christmas often brings with it a lot of stresses that reduce our enjoyment of what can be a magical time. These stresses can include what to buy everyone, what needs to be done before Christmas, functions to attend, and of course the forefront of the mind – family dynamics on Christmas Day!

It seems that Christmas is that time of year where we put huge stress on ourselves to complete all those projects “before Christmas”; to move house “before Christmas”; to finish the renovations or garden “before Christmas”; … Just STOP for a minute and ask yourself, is this all really necessary or can some things wait until the New Year when you have a bit more time and energy?

If Christmas Day is stressful for you, is there any way you can make it less so. If you can’t change the physical circumstances of it, can you change your thinking? Rather than thinking about how you HAVE to prepare a meal for everyone, try thinking about how much you enjoy cooking. Also, what jobs can others do to lighten your load a little? Pick a few things that can easily be done by others and then either ask someone or wait until they ask if they can do something.

If you always have disagreements with a particular family member, decide that this year will be different. You will be different. Instead of responding to their comments as you would have in the past, try sending them loving thoughts and watch what happens with interest. Better still, start sending them loving thoughts before you see them and notice if anything is different when you do meet.

A commonly used phrase is: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.” Decide to choose a new strategy this Christmas and enjoy a different outcome.

It’s often said that “Children make Christmas” and I believe it is their enthusiasm and delight at everything around them that makes this true. So, why not join all the children at Christmas and take delight in the small things. Really notice what you like about Christmas in your family and focus on this. Think about what family traditions you have or would like to have. Do something new. Focus on quality not quantity. Embrace the Spirit of Christmas and enjoy it.

This Christmas I decided to really think about what each person would like for Christmas rather than what would “do” for them. It has meant I really enjoyed the shopping and the gifts that have caught my attention, I have known will be appreciated. I have decided that on Christmas Day, I will focus on each moment and fully enjoy my children’s delight and enthusiasm about their presents and everything else. I will choose love and joy as my focus for the day.

Having a young family, I am very interested in family traditions. What are the traditions you like best at Christmas?

I send my love and joy to you now and wish you all a little magic at Christmas time.

The Apple Day I did at the end of last week had me losing 1.3kgs in 3 days but then my cells seemed to fill up again fairly quickly as my weight returned to it’s yo-yo-ing. Roll on another Apple Day which I am more than happy about as it is so easy and causes rapid weight loss over the few days after it. This week I had a total weight loss of 1.8kgs and 6 cms overall.

In a random conversation with a friend this week, I finally found out where to buy a natural fibre dry body brush (The Body Shop) and I have one now. I will start brushing each day to improve my lymphatic function. I will also try to remember to get out onto the trampoline – with or without the children.

We went to Lake Tekapo for a long weekend and I really enjoyed it. The weather was great, the lake was a gorgeous turquoise colour and there was snow on the surrounding mountains – absolutely stunning! We relaxed in the hot pools and I took a few strolls around the lake. I just wandered and didn’t feel my usual need to achieve something on my walks. Eg. Get to the top of the hill, preferably faster than last time.

I bought some Stevia this week. It’s a calorie free natural sweetener and I used it on a grapefruit. What a huge improvement as the last one was soooo sour. In contrast, the stevia is sickly sweet and you only need to use a very small amount. I licked a bit off my finger – yuk – too sweet and I didn’t think I would ever say that.

This week I have started to get a bit bored with the food choices but that it mostly due to my lethargy around preparing interesting meals for myself. By the time I have decided what to feed the rest of the family and got it ready, I only have a few minutes left for me so I just throw my meal together. I am looking forward to consolidation when I can introduce more foods and, hopefully, new meals to the family.

Overall, I am finding this program very easy because the homeopathic means that I don’t get hungry. Things that would normally tempt me don’t because I don’t have any desire to eat. Even when I mentally decide that something would be nice, my body doesn’t have any desire for it and, therefore, I have no problem passing it by. It’s just so easy.

What are you doing that you find really easy? Is it work or pleasure or both combined?

ASTRONOMER
becomes
MOON STARER

DESPERATION
becomes
A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES
becomes
THEY SEE

THE MORSE CODE
becomes
HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES
becomes
CASH LOST IN ME

ELECTION RESULTS
becomes
LIES – LET’S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS
becomes
ALAS! NO MORE Z ‘S

A DECIMAL POINT
becomes
I’M A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES
becomes
THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO
becomes
TWELVE PLUS ONE

PRESBYTERIAN
becomes
BEST IN PRAYER

MOTHER-IN-LAW
becomes
WOMAN HITLER

My comments:
I was searching through my email folder of ‘Funnies’ one day when I found this.  It was not long after the earthquake and ‘that queer shake’ particularly appealed to me.  Aren’t some people very clever.

What have you done or seen lately that is very clever?

Well, the weight has started to drop off again … and people are starting to notice. After years of defending my dieting as ‘a healthy eating plan’ or ‘cutting back’, I am quite enjoying saying ‘I am on a diet’. I have a quiet confidence that this is the last diet I will ever need and so I am happy to call it what it is.

It appears that not only do I have an intolerance to gluten but I also have slow lymphatic function and therefore a slow metabolism. Leslie gave me 2 suggestions to energise my body and encourage lymphatic drainage – one, brushing my body with a natural fibre dry skin brush and, two, rebounding. I went straight out to the trampoline and had a bounce around with my girls. Normally, I would go on the trampoline but sit down as soon as I could get away with it. After my first spurt of enthusiasm for rebounding, I realise as I write this that I completely forgot about it and haven’t done it since. I don’t have a brush yet either as I have no idea where to buy one.

This week I managed to survive a night camping in the snow in an attempt for my husband to ride in the Molesworth Muster Mountain Bike Adventure. It wasn’t a great reintroduction to camping which I haven’t done for 10 years. I did manage to stay warm though by sleeping with 2 layers of clothing (including thermals), a hat, and my sleeping bag over my head all night!

Another first this week was an evening out with friends. It was really strange that mentally I wanted to drink and eat but not physically. I tapped discreetly and was comfortable to sip water for the rest of the evening. Leslie tells me that the lack of physical need to eat and drink is due to the deep connection that I now have with my body and what its’ needs are. Great, I will have to ensure that this continues.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I wasn’t able to fit into the dress I had planned to wear to Cup Day so the day before I went shopping. The universe was definitely acting in my favour as I found the most gorgeous dress, borrowed a great hat, and managed to get a last minute spray tan (ignorance is bliss right now as to the effects of this). I had a wonderful day sipping my soda water and vanilla while everyone else got progressively drunker as the day went on. I also had great fun dancing until midnight. I did get a few surprised looks from guys who asked to buy me a drink and then found out that I was sober. Lots of inner laughs for me!

My weight this week has been a bit yo-yo and so Leslie has suggested an Apple Day which is how you get your body to let go off all the water that it is storing in the cells where the fat has already burnt away. How easy is this, all I had to do today was eat an apple whenever I felt like one – and keep taking my homeopathics of course. I will let you know about the outcome of it next week.

Has anyone else tried something new this week? What was the outcome or how did you find it?

Dr. Phil proclaimed the way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started.

So I looked around my house to see things I started and hadn’t finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Cardonay , a bole of Baileys, a butle of Kehuha, a pockage of Tim Toms , tha mainder of bot Prozic and Valum scriptins, the res of the Chesescke, some saltins an a bax a cholates.

Yu haf no idr who gud I fel.

My comments:

I can really relate to this and laugh a lot whenever I read it. After years of attempting to finish everything that I started, and not only the food and alcohol, I was still no closer to achieving inner peace or all of the things on my To Do List. I recognise the alcohol, food and other indulgences for the crutch that they were. Now, I find that healthy food, guided visualisations, breathing and staying connected to my inner guidance is my formula for achieving and maintaining peace.

How do you achieve inner peace?

I have really accepted now that it is OK for my body to lose weight at whatever rate it chooses and in whatever way it decides. To give it the chance to do this fully, I have decided to extend the program to the maximum of 45 days. I feel that this will allow my body to really clear itself out so that I can start from a clean slate when I start to reintroduce foods. Besides, I have been conditioned over the years to feel that I must suffer and I’m not doing that yet.

It turns out I am probably intolerant to gluten and hence the cravings last week. I have stopped having the breadstick and find it easier in now there are only 3 things to remember for each meal. This makes more of a difference when I am eating away from home which I have been doing a bit lately. I have taken my own food with me as it is just easier at this stage. Family and friends have had lots of questions but are generally Ok with it.

I tried out Liberty Market this weekend and was not at all impressed with the range or quality of veges. I later learned that their produce all arrives on a Tuesday. At least now I have a place I can buy stuff during the week if I happen to be away for the weekend. I am slowly getting the mechanics of my new eating sorted out.

My weight hit a plateau for most of this week and then I lost 1.1 kgs in the last 2 days. Apparently this is quite normal because the fat has been burned out of the cell but the cell hasn’t yet had time to shrink and so it fills up with water. This plateau is common in people who lose weight rapidly at the start as I have been. I was very surprised that I accepted the explanation and trusted that my body would start to lose weight again when it was ready. I didn’t feel any need to kick start the weight loss again which I could have done (with a special process). I was also told that even though I wasn’t losing weight on a plateau, I would be losing inches (or cms) and this was certainly the case with 16 cm overall disappearing without a trace. Yahoo!

Towards the end of the week I found myself smiling a lot for no apparent reason. I also found that I was very centered and unswayed by other peoples’ moods. I find myself focussing on the present moment more each day and am managing to follow my intuition as to what to do next. In the past, I would push push push to get through my list of jobs for the day which was never achievable.

What makes you smile? What makes you happy? Do you think about this often and make sure that you do things each day to make you happy?

I recently undertook a 6 week e-course with Margaret Lynch entitled Wild Summer Spirit. The program was designed to help me really discover my passion, power and purpose and use this new awareness in my everyday life, business and relationships. It stepped through each of the Chakras (energy centres) using tapping (EFT) and crystal bowl meditations to clear past blockages and allow me to see and achieve my potential.

When I read the program outline, I thought – ooh, I need that. And that. And that. Very quickly I realised that I needed everything in the program: to really love my body, feel sexy, heal my shadow, heal my broken heart and refusal to love again, discover my life force energy, open my creativity and get in touch with my intuition. What more could I ask for and it was all in one program.

As a bonus, we were given an introduction to the Rhys Method Profiles which enabled me to understand clearly where I am coming from and also where others are at. Unlike many other profiling systems, in this one you are the same profile from birth. What changes over time is how much time you are spending in defence rather than in your power. What a real eye-opener on the benefits of operating from your power.

I didn’t know anything about Chakras but I didn’t let this stop me, I threw myself in to the program devouring each session several times. (We were given mp3’s of all the audio conferences.) Around the fourth chakra (the Heart), I started to experience real resistance in myself to clearing my blockages. I listened and tapped, and listened and tapped, very persistently until I finally broke through and was able to continue with the higher chakras. This is some of the most thorough and transformational healing work that I have undertaken. As I write this, I remember my intention to periodically revisit the audios and I feel that already different issues have surfaced regarding my Heart Chakra. You may have experienced that spiral before when you keep coming back to the same issue but at a different level. If this program interests you, click here to find out more about it.

If you would prefer to try out Margaret’s style first to see if it is for you, she is currently offering a FREE ‘Tapping for Money’ video course which is a unique approach to releasing the biggest blocks to money. I have already watched the first video and it’s a great way to start clearing your money issues. Click here to find out more. There are also several other free videos on her site, if you would prefer to review a different topic. These are accessed using the same link and then choosing “No, thanks” to the free video course.

I would love to hear about any work you have done stepping through the Chakras. Also, has anyone else experienced Margaret Lynch’s work and how did you found it?

I am proud to be an affiliate of Margaret Lynch and The Secret of Intentional Wealth.
 

What a week. It started with a major meltdown. I was really emotional for no particular reason. I tapped (EFT) and tapped and tapped and wasn’t getting anywhere so I decided to stop and ask myself “What do I need right now?” The answer I got was ‘cry’ and so I did. I found that once I acknowledged the feeling, I was able to let it go. I then went to bed early and woke up at 4.30am, fully awake and inspired. I wrote for 2 hours solid – downloading ideas for the Directory and my next venture. What a wonderfully unplanned productive time.

Two days later, I had another meltdown – just a mini one. This is apparently a normal part of the program and designed to help (or make) me slow down. I was prepared this time though so I left everything that urgently needed doing and took some time out. I had an epsom salts bath and listened to a guided visualisation on General Wellness – both of these were recommended by Leslie after my last meltdown. It’s great to have the regular mentoring.

If you like guided visualisations or affirmations, I can highly recommend the Health Journeys series by Belleruth Naparstek. Go to www.healthjourneys.com to buy them online. I found the mp3 option really easy as I could download the files straight away. Try tapping while you listen to the affirmations – extremely powerful – be ready for the accelerated results. For a free manual on how to tap, go to www.eftuniverse.com.

Even with the bath and visualisation, I was still a bit low and it was the first time that I really felt like having something bad to eat. I didn’t succumb as that was not an option I gave myself – unlike when I have been on other programs. It has been made very clear by all the program materials that you have to follow the program to the letter and I am not about to sabotage my success. It is also for a relatively short period of time and I am already seeing huge shifts in my weight and energy levels so I didn’t want to halt this.

Apparently my weight loss to date has been exceptional which tells Leslie 2 things – my body was ready to let go of the excess weight and I have been carrying a lot of waste that my body has wanted to get rid of. This week I have lost a further 1.9 kgs and 13.5 cms overall. I am very slowly starting to accept that my body will do whatever it needs to do and am trying to let go of the need to lose weight in a huge hurry.

What I learnt this week?

• There is only 160 grams of tuna in a 180g tin so we pay for 20 grams of water!
• I realised that I had a very outdated view of organic fruit and veges being wilted and expensive. I think this must have come from supermarkets many years ago where they had the tiny organic section which no-one bought anything from.
• On Saturday, I discovered the Organics market next to Vics Café in Victoria Street and was pleasantly surprised at the range, quality and price of the goods.
• A friend reminded me, after my meltdowns, that a few months ago I was saying that I really wanted to be able to feel emotions more rather than blocking them. And voila! Now I am really feeling them. Moral: Be careful what you wish for or at least be very specific!
• Exercise is only beneficial if you enjoy it. I have read some studies in the past that touch on this concept but it has never been so clearly identified as the enjoyment as being what makes the difference in your results. Basically, if you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it as you will be harming your body.

What do you think about the exercise idea? I would also love to hear about any success you have had with visualisations or affirmations.

It’s been said that life is like a garden.
Every small work of kindness and every thoughtful gesture is like a tiny seed,
and when you plant these seeds, wonderful things can happen.
Smiles appear, dreams blossom, and love takes root and grows.
Before you know it, happiness is all around you.

Please share your favourite quote or saying.

Week one is over and already I am 3.3 kilos lighter (than before I started my feast days), my clothes are feeling looser (due to losing 21.5cm over 14 measurements) and I am feeling great. The quickest I have ever lost weight before is 7 kgs in 3 ½ weeks.

The first 2 days – feast days – were fantastic and not much of a change from the 3-4 feast weeks I had prior to starting the program except that they were completely guilt free. With the help of a 40th birthday party and staying out dancing and drinking until 4am, I managed to put on almost a kilo in 1 day. I am a bit sad that wine may disagree with my body and cause me to eliminate it from my diet but I know I will not be able to knowingly harm my body any longer. Ignorance can be bliss in the short term!

The next 5 days were easy in their simplicity especially since I didn’t have much energy to be creative. It is helpful that I haven’t got bored with the choices, yet. What I have found hard is not being able to use food as a crutch or pick me up when I’m tired or emotional. I have found myself regularly looking in the pantry or fridge and thinking “in the past, I would have had this or that and I would have felt good”. Instead I breathed (as suggested) – a useful life skill but not quite as satisfying.

I experienced a few things during the week:

• Itching of the skin around my eyes due to my liver detoxing – no surprise there being the wine lover that I was and potentially still am. Only time will tell.
• Extreme exhaustion for the first 3 days on the food plan (day 3 to 5). I tried to take it as easy as I could with 2 young children. Epsom salt baths were recommended and I managed one. By day 6 I had more energy than I have had for a long time.
• Several audios and voicemails to increase my knowledge of the program and answer my many questions.
• A couple of mornings where I was a bit hungry but it was nothing major and completely understandable due to my excesses on my feast days. Again, I breathed and got on with it.
• Several realisations about destructive patterns from the past which I was still unknowingly running in the present. By being consciously aware of these, I was able to start to change my behaviour.
• An immense sense of calm and contentedness.

So, I end the first week 3.3 kilos lighter, 21.5 cm smaller overall, with a calm and contented countenance. Thank you Leslie and Cura Romana.

Anyone else spring cleaning or starting something new?

I was offered a free taster of Holistic Pulsing and as I had never even heard of it before, I decided to give it a go. I went along for a foot bath and a ten minute Pulsing session and was immediately hooked. I had been thinking for the past few weeks that I was in need of a massage and realised that I would much rather try a full session of this. I have always felt peaceful and slept well on trains and boats with their gentle rocking motion so my body loved the Holistic Pulsing.

After booking in for a full session plus a bit (1 ½ hours) of bliss, I waited impatiently and excitedly for the day. When I arrived I was offered a footbath again but I declined as I was impatient to get on the table. After a brief discussion of what I would like from the session, mainly being relaxation and a little balancing of the second chakra. In particular, my relationship with myself and, therefore, my husband. At last I was allowed on the table. So, up I climbed fully clothed and lay on my back (my choice) and then the pulsing began … Mmmm … that gentle, and sometimes not so gentle, rocking of my body … heaven on earth.

At one stage, I couldn’t feel my right arm at all and when I opened my eyes, I discovered that it was sticking straight up in the air. Weird – I’ve never felt that level of relaxation before. Then I was impatient to get to the other arm to see if it felt the same. Of course it didn’t and I was back to anticipating which finger was needed next and offering it. Never quite letting go enough to put aside my need to help and to not be a burden – that was a good insight for me! Along the way, I was guided to direct my attention to specific areas of pain or tension and asked questions to draw out the insights which were waiting there for me. What a powerful, yet gentle, physical and emotional experience.

Apparently some people’s bodies resist the rocking movements and it can be an unpleasant experience for them – my heart goes out to those people because this was fantastic. Everyone’s experience is different so give it a go sometime and see if it is for you. Personally, I am awaiting my next session eagerly.

What puts you into that blissful state?

Some time ago I contacted Leslie Kenton about her Cura Romana weight loss program and really liked what I read about it. However, the cost made me think twice and while I was still deliberating her book “The X Factor Diet” was recommended to me. I got it out of the library and devoured it one morning in bed (with 2 children playing around me). I was fired up to go the high protein way and I was hungry so off I headed to the supermarket for a roast chicken. Mmmm. Of course I had to get the one with the stuffing because they taste so much better. And I got the loaf of low GI bread for my recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes husband. So I sat down to one of many last suppers – thick sliced bread, stuffing, chicken (with the skin on of course) and to make myself feel a little less guilty I had some celery and tomato on the side.

Over the next few weeks, I proceeded to empty my cupboards and fridge, ready for my new eating habits, as suggested. At least almost as suggested, I proceeded to EAT my way through all the items in the fridge and pantry that will no longer be a part of my healthy eating lifestyle. All the time I kept wondering about the differences between The X Factor Diet and Cura Romana and eventually I contacted Leslie and talked about it. She had me convinced within minutes that Cura Romana would be worth every cent and is a much simpler program. After all it was going to be permanent change.

It’s probably useful for you to have a bit of background on me and my dieting history. My first memory of dieting is going home from boarding school for the holidays and mum suggesting we went on a diet together. I remember feeling a bit ripped off since hostel food wasn’t that great and now that I was at home I was on rations. That was the start of my yo-yo dieting which, true to statistics, I put on a bit more each time I regained weight. Even after the healthy eating plan (not a diet) I followed in my mid-twenties, where I lost 20kgs, looked great, still wanted to lose more and managed to put it all back on plus some.

Roll on my early thirties and more great lifestyle changes, helped along by NLP and life coaching, had me looking great, feeling great, still wanting to lose a little bit more … Then I became pregnant with my first daughter and I was fat again and I had no control over it. And I was so tired. I just had to have coke and chocolate every afternoon at work to stay awake in the meetings – at least for the last 3 months of my pregnancy. Welcome to 20+ kilos again. I effortlessly managed to hold on to most of these until I conceived with my second daughter a year later. I then made a concerted effort not to put on another 20 kilos as my brain couldn’t handle that thought. I succeeded to a degree.

Once I had got over the shock of having a new baby, a toddler, no sleep, … I discovered tapping (EFT) and I tapped off 15 kgs with hardly anyone noticing including myself. Ten kilos were gone before I realised that my clothes were hanging off me and when I went to buy some more I had dropped two sizes. However, people started to notice and I started to relax and guess what … you got it … I started to welcome those kilos back again. Arghh! The story of my life. Soon to be changed forever (permanently) if the claims of Cura Romana are correct and right now I am hopeful that they are. I would truly like to believe that I am not unmotivated, undisciplined and all the other nasty things people say about those of us who are overweight and that, in actual fact, there is a centre within our brain that needs resetting.

In short, the Cura Romana program involves taking homeopathic HCG while on a very strict food plan. This is where the bulk of the weight loss happens and then you go on to ‘consolidation’ where you test the reaction of your body to particular foods and determine a personalised plan for life. Specifically, avoid these foods and you will never put on weight again. Yipee! I can’t wait – finally a light at the end of the tunnel. And the cherry on top of the icecream is that you start with 2 feast days. Probably the first 2 guilt free feast days I will ever have.

I paid my money and I am so excited. Finally – permanent weight loss is a possibility and hopefully an inevitability. The emails, audios and voicemails started arriving from Leslie and with each one I got more excited as I learnt more about the program and what I needed to do to be ready to start. I learned that things absorbed through our skin can cause us to put on weight; it is hard to find a good range of organic fruit and veges in Christchurch; Marshalls Health in New Brighton has great prices; the organic butcher thinks I am absolutely deprived only being allowed 100g of meat at a meal; and much much more.

Is there anyone out there who can relate to this? What has worked for you before?

My role models growing up weren’t exactly conducive to a healthy lifestyle. My fathers’ favourite meal, when he was on his own, was steak and chips followed by sultana pasties. My mum was very focussed on doing the best for her children and this involved providing whatever treats she could on a low income. As finances improved so did the treats and they were nearly always edible.

At primary school, being a little overweight, I was always chosen last for team sports and this did nothing for my confidence. Swimming was my only real saviour and because I already knew I wasn’t any good at sports, I was only ever average at swimming.

Roll on boarding school where the nutritional value of the food was questionable – not that I even knew to question it. Our most frequent discussions were on what delectables we would buy when our afternoon out came about. Mine were often savoury – potato fritters slathered in salt – followed by something sweet such as a spoon or 10 of raro or jelly crystals.

University just added alcohol to the mix and had me strolling across the road to the dairy the next morning for a pie and coke for breakfast. In my third year, in an attempt to lose weight, I very religiously went to the gym 5 mornings a week and put on weight!

I had an active social life and when I started working I even managed to introduce a social club at work. This meant drinks (cask wine) on a Friday afternoon at our meeting and then being allowed to leave work early to go to the pub if we bought our boss a jug (beer) at happy half prices.

In my mid twenties, I lost 20 kgs eating a vegetarian diet and not drinking for 8 months. If the program ever focussed on the health benefits of eating well, and it probably did, I didn’t hear this. It was all about weight for me until after I had our first daughter at 35. Then I started to discover that getting up off the floor wasn’t always easy.

I suddenly had a very powerful reason to become healthy – one, so that I could do everything I wanted to with my daughter and two, so that I didn’t pass my bad habits on to her. However, I had a lifetime of habits to break and progress was slow.

I started to see a remedial massage therapist come kinesiologist and she helped with some of my physical issues and the occasional emotional one. A chiropractor was next on my list when I put my back out getting my daughter into the carseat one day when she was about 1. When I became pregnant with our second daughter, I saw an osteopath regularly as a preventative measure. I also starting seeing a kinesiologist and later added tapping (EFT) to the mix. The more I tapped, the less I seemed to need the others, and as I peeled back the layers of my past conditioning, I became more and more committed to natural health care. Helped along by several visits to the doctor, only to be told “just keep an eye on it” or “try this”. My confidence in my past choices wavered and I had a great alternative waiting.

When my youngest daughter was about to start at a Montessori preschool, I started to think about how to best spend the few extra hours I might find myself with. After throwing around a few ideas that always seemed to come up with strong resistance in at least one area, a friend introduced me to a guided meditation on discovering your ideal product or service. During the process, I discovered that a directory listing of practitioners was the next step to fulfilling my life purpose. Once I decided to go with this insight, I realised that the other ideas I had were limiting for me in one way or another and hence the resistance.

Three months later, I was able to launch this website to the public with 100 practitioners already listed. Everything just seemed to fall into place. During the process of creating it, I made the commitment to myself to use solely natural health care for myself and my family. With the help of a naturopath friend, replaced the pamol and vicks with natural products and I haven’t looked back.

So there is my short, or not so short, version of how I became passionate about natural health and have started to implement this in my life. This blog will continue to detail the journey I take, and realisations I have along the way, in a way in which I hope you will find informative and easy to read. My next blog will start to explore my weight issues and what I plan to do about them. I will also intersperse this with other topics which I hope you will find interesting.

I would love to hear your stories on how you first got introduced to natural health or where you are on your journey.