Travelling is always and adventure, but travelling with children is a challenge. With young children it is always go and one only gets to see the most relevant things of a place. Other times, however, it is thanks to the little devils that we discover little jewels.  Travelling with our "princess" and  "hooligan" we have discovered some of the most beautiful villages in France and Italy. Pushing prams, go-chairs, carrying nappies and picnic bags is more our "travel style". Sleeping in camping sites rather than 4 o 5 star hotels where our "darlings" would cause disrepair. Eating picnics and fast food rather than five course meals in fancy restaurants... that is us! There are several points to take into account when you ...

Aspect 3 - Eating Habits So, in the process of reading through these journals, I saw one glaring mistake - my Positive Affirmation should be:"I am Healthy, Fit, Curvy, and Toned", that way it clearly matches my values and the order in which I have naturally been working on this project. The next thing I decided to tackle was my 'drug of choice' - the dreaded sugar!  I was expecting to spend a couple of hours on it Max, but it led me on a journey that I was not expecting at all. First I described what the characteristic of sugar was to me - and found that there is a lusciousness in chocolate, and a momentary comfort.  Plus I realised that there appeared to be a fear of emptiness and darkness; hence I kept filling it up.  If you ever fancy...

Having a multilingual family I have often ask myself what is the best method for helping my children to learn and be proficient at several languages at the same time.  After 6 years, I am still trying to find the right balance and a concrete answer for this question.  So far, I believe that there is not a best method, but that there are several methods suitable for individual families.  that is to say that for each family there is "one best method" that works for them.  There are clearly some approaches that allow the child to develop the consciousness of two language systems more quickly than others. For example, the most often cited is the "one parent one language" approach.  There is also the family versus community lang...

Do we really believe the children are our future? Really?!! How much do we really value the lives of our children? Here's a few stats on just childhood deaths that I find heart-breaking.  Around the world, 27–30,000 children die every day. That is equivalent to:  One child dying every 3 seconds Twenty children dying every minute A 2004 Asian-type Tsunami occurring almost every week An Iraq-scale death toll every 15–35 days Ten to eleven million children dying every year Over 50 million children dying between 2000 and 2005 Isn't is it so easy to shrug our shoulders and assume everything's OK because, "Hey, I'm doing OK as a dad or mum. Why should I change things?" Maybe, you don't even have any ...

We're all superheroes pretending to be ordinary people. Don't believe me? Ask a child who they’d like to be when they grow up and they’ll give you a whole host of answers. A fireman, a police, a doctor, a nurse, in the non-PC days - a cowboy or Red Indian, a pilot, an inspirational speaker and business person.  So how come these people are the usual suspects that crop up for children? Because they're all superheroes saving and helping others. Think about it. What was your earliest memory? Who did you want to be when you grew up? I know I wanted to be like the all-action Bollywood hero, Amitabh Bachchan. He was my superhero. I also liked the Bionic Woman…but that was for another reason! As kids, we want to emulate our superhero...

Growing up in rural Bangladesh is no mean feat even today. This was especially the case in the 1940's at the time when the British left a devastated India, where our little hero started his journey. Our hero was the youngest of three sons. He also had two younger sisters of 6 months and 3 years of age. At around the age of 8, both his parents - an elderly father and an ill mother - died quite suddenly. This left the young children in shock and completely displaced. Growing up with family in that era was tough enough. Being an orphan was traumatising for our hero. His only immediate family were two older brothers of 10 and 12 years of age and the two younger sisters. Every day was survival. At moments, he was being cared for and nur...

Thanks to Dr Gina Shaw for this invitation... Hi, Do you have vegetarian or vegan children or know of someone who does? VeggieVision a vegetarian internet TV station are looking for people to promote the vegan children issue for some radio shows. Here's the details:- Hi, I wanted to drop you a line as I am doing my radio show again and am pre recording a show this Thursday from 7 – 9 pm – they are usually live. If you know of anyone bringing up their kids as vegan/veggie, vegan/veggie kids or pregnant vegans it would be great to hear from them (or you!) as I want the show to be jammed packed with how parents have done this successfully & to help and inspire others. Thanks and hope to hear back soon ...

Aspect 2 - Weight and FitnessMy next step was to make sure that I was inspired to become 'A Fit, Health, Toned, Curvy & Sexy size 12'. These exercises will ensure that you are inspired, versus motivated.  To be inspired takes little energy, when you are motivated, it still takes effort.  Plus if you have investigated the downsides, you are less likely to get blind-sided by problems that will get in the way of your success. BenefitsSo first I sat down and thought through the following questions - basically linking my objective with my highest values and what I love to do ... For each one I got 30 benefits(Quick hint - for each benefit you find, think to yourself, and' why would that be a benefit to me', and keep on until you move from 'kn...

Aspect 2 - Tackling Fitness My next step was to set my objective and measures for stage 2, which I am expecting to be about 4-6 weeks in total.  Did you know that 6 weeks are needed to start to fully integrate a change in being? I set an overall objective of being - A Fit, Healthy, Toned, Sexy & Curvy Size 12. It's important to be able to measure your progress in as many different ways as possible, whatever your goal is.The specific measures of mine are ...- 11 stone or less- Size 12 comfortably (versus tightly!)- Lung capacity increased from 400-500 flow- Fat% healthy (reduce by 2%)- BMI healthy (reduce by 2points)- Retain healthy water percentage - Getting back to a stage where I can jog for 30mins- Continual improvement of balance, fl...

Aspect 1 - Tackling the Health So about a month ago, I realised that I had a problem - - I was feeling lethargic all the time- I had put on 1/2 stone- I was working all the hours that I could find, and was getting overwhelmed, whilst being torn because I was so grateful for the success that I had dreamed of actually appearing in my life.- I had resorted back to the use of sugar to keep me going during the day- I was still feeling the effects of a nasty flu virus I had in Feb & March, and was still breathless if I tried to run- And my toddler was having the most amazing tantrums that I had ever seen.  In the past I had always been able to communicate with him, even as a baby with baby sign language, but he was beyond rational and unreacha...