Monday, September 24, 2012

Fab Uplift Detox | Precleanse

Fab Uplift Detox Program
If you follow me on facebook then you probably already know I'm super excited about Meghan Telpner's Fab Uplift Detox. Today is the first precleanse or transition day. The fab detox is about food, nutrition, health and most importantly its about learning to love both yourself and your food.

I'm nervous and excited to try and put aside my excuses and really take care of myself. I discovered Meghan Telpner via my friend Sondi who writes at The Copycat Cook and guest posted here about eating gluten free and ensuring you meet your nutritional needs (Sondi assures us we are doing just fine).

For me today is about getting into the mindset, skipping the coffee (I've been practicing) and unnecessary snacks and staying focused on eating healthy.

I'm also super exited about diving into the amazing box of goodies that the fine folks at Navitas Naturals sent me to support me on my journey back to health. Today I'm drinking out of my new Camelback bottle and munching on raw cashews, yummy! (In case you are wondering, the cashews are NOT processed in a facility with peanuts so I feel safe eating them!)
Superfoods from Navitas Naturals

All opinions are my own; I am a member of Meghan Telpner's affiliate program and Navitas Naturals provided me with product.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Aggressive Children at Daycare

What would you do if there was a slightly aggressive child at your daycare? A boy with the tendency to push or hit if words did not have the desired effect?

What if you witnessed that child pushing YOUR child? What would you do then?

Worse yet, what if YOUR child was the aggressive one?

I ask because MY child, the boy, has aggressive tendencies. I assure you, we are present for both our children; we try and model good behaviour, we talk about (show and explain) gentle hands, feelings and emotions. We've tried empathetic parenting and time outs. We try and ensure that our boys get one on one time with each of us and we work to encourage and acknowledge good behaviour. We've been to the behavioural paediatrician and we've followed their advice, which included enrolling the boy in a very structured daycare.

Slowly but surely, we are seeing improvements; the boy now tells people when he doesn't like their behaviour or asks for a turn with a toy, but he doesn't seem to have the patience to wait and his words often turn to aggressive behaviours within seconds. All that being said, the boy is a very sweet and lovable little man who uses his manners and gives out hugs and love on a regular basis, particularly in one on one situations.

I know that this week two daycare parents have expressed concerns to the site director about my boy and I honestly don't know if there have been others in the past. I understand their concern for their child's safety and wellbeing and in no way begrudge those parents for expressing those feelings.

I just want them to know that we have those feelings too. That we empathize with their concerns because we worry about the effect the boy's behaviour will have on the baby's development.

I want those parents to know that we are acutely aware of the boy's behavioural issues and that we work every day to try and find a way to help him work through his issues. That we want him to have the skills to go through life without aggression and just like every other parent out there we are doing the very best that we possibly can in a challenging situation.

So if there's a particularly challenging child at your daycare, please take a moment and ask yourself, 'what if my child was the aggressive one?'

Sunday, September 2, 2012

The Litterless Lunch | Green Your Routine with Seventh Generation

The litterless lunch is an easy way to green your routine; its something I work on constantly, but I have to confess, sometimes I give in to the convenience of disposable.

This is week 1 of Green Your Routine with Seventh Generation and they've provided some numbers that are hard to ignore.

According to the stats, the average child throws away 66 pounds of lunch packaging waste a year, this might not sound like a lot, but when you think about the actual weight of disposable packaging, that's a pretty astounding number.

If the environmental costs don't sway you, the economics might. Litterless lunches are 35 perfect cheaper than their disposable counterparts; that number is based on an average price of $2.65 and $4.02 respectively.

Seventh Generation provides some pretty compelling arguments to commit to litterless lunches, and I promise, I'm going to try. My boys are fed lunch and snacks at daycare, but I send extra snacks for the baby to accommodate his dairy-free diet. I'm going to work on consistently sending snacks in containers rather than ziploc bags.

As for my own lunch, I tend to have problems with the lunch bag itself. I have tons of Tupperware containers (because Kat used to sell it) but they are a variety of sizes so I perpetually have problems fitting my entire lunch into one bag. I fixed that problem by buying a larger lunch bag, its actually a small cooler that can accommodate 9 cans, or in my case, a lunch.
Lunchbox Cloth Napkins
But my commitment, specific to this challenge is to start packing cloth napkins with my lunch (and sewing them too).

This inspiration came directly from a comment on my Green Your Routine introduction, thanks for the idea Bets. I'm so excited, I'm going to start sewing myself a set of lunchbox napkins now.

Do you litterless lunch? Will you be starting this September? What's your litterless lunch secret?

Don't forget to enter to WIN a Seventh Generation Cleaning Starter Kit.