The 5:2 Fast Diet | And so it begins…

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I’m rubbish with diets. I like food and wine far too much. I don’t really exercise; but I do walk 2 hours a day, everyday, to take Eli to nursery and back. So I’d say I’m lightly active. I’ll be honest here, because I think it’s important, I need to lose around a stone. Maybe even a little more. I feel dreadful. I’m exhausted, I’m sluggish, I’m bloated – and for some reason have recently acquired a sweet tooth. The 5:2 diet is brimming with health benefits, as well as the incredible weight loss results. Without going into the massive science and logic behind the diet… it sounds like the perfect for us. Due to work, I barely have lunch until 2/3pm anyway and we never have our tea before 8:30/9pm due to it taking Mr Memoirs so long to get home. We I do however have trouble with portion control – I cook for a family of ten, so we eat for a family of ten! Always have.

A friend had started the 5:2 diet a few weeks ago and has had great results so far. It took a while for me to get my head around it. Giving up food for an entire day, not once, but twice a week? NO WAY, GET REAL. No way could I do that! But actually, as a female, I get 500 calories for my fast day. If you’re lucky enough to be male, you get 600 calories. Bonus round. It doesn’t sound like a lot – but if you’re clever, and make the right choices, you can actually still have 3 meals a day! YES WAY!

Yesterday was my first fast day. It is advised by fellow 5:2’ers that you try and miss breakfast (I know, it goes against everything you’re taught growing up!) and try and last as long as you can throughout the day without food. Meaning you have more of those important calories left for your evening meal. I’m already a massive water drinker. I don’t drink tea or coffee. I don’t drink fizzy drinks. So at least I don’t have to give extra’s like that up. I kept gulping down the pints of aqua till around 12, when I quite literally felt like my stomach was eating itself. I also had a headache. Not wanting to ‘waste’ my valuable calories on paracetamol, I opted for a 13 cal beef OXO cube drink! This replaced the salts that my water intake may have been taking away. I somehow, managed to get to 3:30 and had my Knorr soup, 172 calories. I then had a medium-banana on my way to pick Eli up from the nursery, a around 89 calories. And for my big meal of the day, we had the below – Halloumi salad, at 215 calories, at 9pm. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed agsalad so much in all my life. I will be continuing to collate 5:2 recipes over on my Pinterest, here >> 5:2 Diet Recipes. I had a total of 489 calories yesterday and I SURVIVED! I feel proud to get through Day 1 of fasting.

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Halloumi Salad, by 5:2 Recipes Blog. Serves 1, 215 calories.

This is by far the most yummy salad I’ve eaten… I’m not sure if it was because I was so looking forward to my evening meal though! But it was delicious, calorie counting or not. You could easily slip some chicken in there to bulk it out. But it was zingy and filling – am looking forward to having this again!

Do you have any swear-by 5:2 recipes? I would to hear your recipe ideas and experiences with 5:2!
MM.

REVIEW | Meadham Kirchhoff x AMAZON.

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Following the amazingly successful sweater collaboration last year, Meadham Kirchhoff and online retailer, Amazon, have joined forces again for this incredible 4-piece silk scarf collection.

London Fashion Week design duo Edward Meadham and Benjamin Kirchhoff are famed for their rebellious take on fashion. This second collaboration with Amazon Fashion is an exclusive collection of four distinctive scarves, in the spirit of the designers’ main catwalk collections.

I was absolutely thrilled to be asked to get involved with this collaboration as I’d very much enjoyed their initial offering with Amazon – and we all know how Meadham Kirchhoff flies out of Topshop!

My absolute favourite scarf from this collection is ‘PEARLS’. The print is so pretty, and of course, I love all things gold.  I really like how it’s been styled on the model too (take a look at all the below photos for some unique scarf styling!).

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Each silk scarf is pretty massive and measures 120cm x 120cm! So LOTS of value for the £75.00 price tag. These scarves are all limited edition and can only be purchased from Amazon Fashion, here: MEADHAM KIRCHHOFF FOR AMAZON FASHION. PLUS, if you’re UK based you already qualify for FREE delivery – BOOM!

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“Pearl scarf is an ornate design of baroque gold detailing and drop pearls that we featured in our S/S 13 collection”.
Click here to purchase the PEARL scarf.

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“The Drawings scarf is a visual archive of Edward’s sketches from the ‘Cosmology of Women’ Autumn’11 show”. 
Click here to purchase the DRAWINGS scarf.

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“The Curtains scarf features signature imagery from our Spring/Summer ’13 collection, in this case opulent swaggered curtains with ornate gold fringes”.
Click here to purchase the CURTAINS scarf.

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“The Ballerina scarf features the tiny ballerina motif from our Autumn/Winter ’13 collection in a fresh new colourway. The artwork originates from a vintage silk scarf”.
Click here to purchase the BALLERINA scarf.

Which is your favourite scarf? And are there any different ways you’d style any of these scarves?

MM.

 

NB: I was sent the Meadham Kirchhoff x Amazon ‘PEARL’ scarf, for free, for the purposes of this review.  All opinions in this review are my own and are 100% honest. 

UPDATE | Mr Eli has Talipes and Benign Paroxysmal Torticollis.

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Last week wasn’t a very nice week, at all.

Mr Eli has been suffering with his Torticollis more frequently since I wrote my epicly long blog post, Mumsnet: This Is My Child | Mr Eli has Talipes and Benign Paroxysmal Torticollis. We haven’t had any attacks with the accompanying sickness and drowsiness since Eli’s 1st birthday; it has been just his head tilting to his shoulder. He’s been teething quite badly (well, he’s been teething constantly since he was 8 weeks old…). His Torticollis tends to flare up more when he’s teething – or when he reaches milestones. We were so hoping he’d started to outgrow the attacks.

His neck had been tilting to the left side since 24th October – coincidentally, OH’s birthday. It finally straightened up, to a perfect mid-line by Friday 1st November, 8 days later. Then on Tuesday 5th November Eli’s head started to gradually tilt towards the right. He had been unaffected for just 3 days. By the evening of Wednesday 6th November, poor Eli looked horrendously uncomfortable and was very clingy. We had a physio appointment at the local hospital at 11am on Thursday 7th November. This would be the first time our physio had seen him so badly affected with the Torticollis.

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Eating an apple after breakfast on Wednesday 6th November.

On Thursday 7th November, Eli woke up crying. He never wakes up crying… apart from when he’s been severely affected with his Torticollis, and we’re due an attack.

I struggled to get Eli into his high chair, he was so off balanced and crying in discomfort. He barely ate any breakfast. His head was completely touching his shoulder.

I got us both ready for the hospital appointment; we walked the 25 minute journey and Eli was fast asleep as soon as he went into his pram. He NEVER sleeps in his pram when we’re out and about now. He’s too nosey.

When we got to the hospital he started to wake up with the lights and noises. As he gradually came round, I noticed his eyes weren’t quite right. They looked misaligned. I pulled him out of his pram for a cuddle and closer look. And as I did so, he projectile vomited. EVERYWHERE. He was having the first full blown Torticollis attack in 3 months. His eyes rolled back and he passed out into my arms. There were such lovely people in the waiting room, rallying round with tissues and water for us both! It’s so scary and upsetting when it happens. This is the first time it’s happened outside of our house too.

I then went into the physio room. Our physio was in a state of shock I think – she’s always seen him when he’s been unaffected and his usual jolly self. She admitted she never realised the extent of the attacks and began noting down everything that had happened, so she could write to the big hospital in Chelmsford for a referral to a specialist.

We know that there is no treatment or cure for Torticollis. It is something that Eli must grow out of, and should grow out of by the time he is 3. But I would still like him to be seen by a specialist.

He was sick a further 3 times in the physio room. The physio took a video of how the Torticollis was affecting him during his attacks; so we can use it as reference for any further appointments, where hopefully Eli will not be affected. OH and I watched this back on Thursday night together and it was very, very distressing to watch back.

Eli continued to be sick all of the day on Thursday – something that doesn’t usually happen. Eli had changed through 6 tops, 2 pairs of trousers and I used 12 muslins and 4 tea towels to clean things up. It was too chilly to not have his clothes on. I kept him nil by mouth… aside from syringing water into his mouth as he just couldn’t drink from anything else. He slept on me in-between the sickness. As he snored in my arms, I sobbed. I don’t think there’s anything that quite prepares you for feeling so helpless as a parent – not being able to make Eli better is just the WORST feeling in the entire world. For his last nap that day, I put him into his pram – where he slept for 90s mins.

When Eli woke up, he was chatting away. I pulled him up and out of his pram for a cuddle. He wanted to be down and straight away grabbed his beaker! He was almost back to his usual jolly self again – aside from his head was still tilting to the right, just not as severely; but it was a huge improvement on how it had been when he woke up that morning. It was almost as though the earlier part of the day hadn’t happened.

He ate toast, a banana and some biscuits for his tea that evening, along with 2 beakers of water. He went to bed normally with his bottle of milk.

He was clingy on Friday 8th November and looked very uncomfortable still. His balance was still affected by the Torticollis so he was very clumsy and couldn’t sit upright on the floor or in his highchair, choosing to slant to the affected side.

Fast forward a few days to today. Eli is much better now, sitting comfortably and back to his usual routine. His head is more or less perfectly straight in the mid-line again. After previous attacks, his head has straightened back during the course of the day. So this has been a lengthy process, this time.

Eli has an appointment to review his Talipes at the end of this month – which we’re so looking forward to as his feet are remarkable now. His referral regarding his Torticollis will be at the beginning of December, at the same hospital.

If you or your child has been affected by Torticollis, or indeed Talipes, please do get in touch. I’d really like to hear your experiences with both – Torticollis a rare condition and there is not a lot of information out there.

MM.

Help needed! Songs, nursery rhymes and lullaby’s.

After coming to the conclusion that *most* nursery rhymes are actually pretty frightening (Humpty Dumpty dies… Jack, from Jack and Jill, smashes his head open and ring-a-ring-‘o roses is about the plague for crying out loud!), I turned to my iPod for exciting sounds for baby boy bump to listen to.

He favoured The Beatles, Enya and Fleetwood Mac. But that’s about it.

I’d like to actually sing mumble through some ‘classics’… What songs or nursery rhymes or lullaby’s did you yakkety yak sing to your bump and then continue to murmur sing when your buddle of joy was born? What songs did your bump respond to most?

Would love your thoughts on this one!

MM.

That old argument: To eat or not to eat the Placenta?

It’s just been revealed that Mad (wo)Man, January Jones, ate her own placenta after giving birth to her first child last year.

The placenta hold key, essential vitamins that can boost energy after a draining birth. But what are your thoughts on consuming your own placenta? Do you know anyone, or have you yourself eaten your own placenta post-birth?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

MM.