I have lived under the haze of chronic sleep deprivation for the last  six or seven years.  Having four young children very close in age is the primary cause. For four of those seven years I’ve been breastfeeding; all my boys have been keen night-time feeders ( one – three feeds a night until sometime around their first birthday).  I’ve chosen to do this (I don’t live under a rock, and am well aware that there are other approaches to parenting that might be more likely to give me uninterrupted sleep – but this post isn’t about right / wrong parenting choices … it’s about coping with sleep deprivation when that becomes your reality, for whatever reason).

For the first five(ish) years of this new life, this life in which a full night’s sleep had become a mythical thing of the past then, there were two words that described me perfectly – ‘run down’.  I was the picture of exhaustion; anxious, erratic moods,  chunks of each day where I could barely keep my  eyes open. Every bug that was cruising the playgroup circuit would settle upon me and wipe me out. Every sniffle would lead to acute sinusitis / tonsillitis etc. This came as quite a surprise because I’d always been pretty robust, rarely ever ill and generally quite energetic and healthy.  The kids were thriving, shaking off any snuffles way more quickly than I could, and so I decided my poor health was due to a combination of all the ‘kiwi’ bugs invading my foreign English immune system, and the repeat pregnancies zapping my reserves.

I self-medicated with a mix of coffee and chocolate (in various forms but more often than not just straight creamy milk slab,by the kilo – literally I would probably eat a kilo over the course of a week).  Aside from the excessive chocolate and coffee  my diet was (I thought) pretty good. It was certainly in line with what I had grown up to believe was a healthy diet (plenty of carbs / whole grains / salad / fruit etc). I would make big homemade pasta dishes for our evening meal, hoping to fuel myself up for the night ahead.  If anything, despite all that chocolate, I struggled to keep weight on (I do have pretty lucky genes .. thanks grandma!). and as I have a big appetite I would just eat more and more (even sometimes  sending the man of the house out to the kitchen at two am to make me a couple of pieces of toast!).

Then around two years ago we started to change the family diet quite significantly. This was in part due to the man of the house being diagnosed with a chronic inflammatory condition which (through trial and error) we found was helped by eliminating gluten from his diet). Around this time I also started working with a fantastic naturopath / nutritionist (Helen from Nourish-ed) who opened my eyes to a completely different way of looking at healthy eating (based around the principles outlined in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions).

Now, after gradually making some changes I can step back and see I am way healthier and better able to function, despite the birth of baby number four, and the continuation of the chronic sleep deprivation.  I am not bullet proof, getting up several times a night to breastfeed (calm nightmares / fetch water / take wandering toddlers back to their beds etc), is tiring. I still get a bit grumpy from time to time. But, I am way better. I have hardly been ill (no doubt I am totally jinxing myself by writing this) aside from the odd cold. I haven’t needed antibiotics in over a year and a half (the year prior to that I had to take 4 courses), and I’ve even started popping out for the odd jog. I can think beyond the basics of work and family, and am on occasion able to hold a reasonably sane conversation. I write this blog, for fun, and I have even played a couple of games of scrabble without falling asleep.

So what’s the secret? Here are my top tips for a diet to minimise the impact of sleep deprivation on your body and soul.

• Lots of fluids that are not coffee or tea. I still treat myself to the odd coffee (a couple of times a week) and have one or two cups of earl grey tea a day but the bulk of my fluid is not caffeinated and I never start the day with caffeine. Previously I would rely mainly on  tea, with the odd glass of water, which I would never finish. Now, I drink mint and cardamom tea made with fresh mint leaves and cardamom pods by the bucketful. It’s just my thing. I love it and I always have a pot on the go. I like it hot / cold and every temperature in between.
• Less carbs and more protein. I haven’t gone totally gluten free and do still have the odd slice of bread / toast but I try and ensure my meals are based around protein.
• Lots and lots of bone broth. I always choose meat with bones in if I’m making a casserole / curry, and I roast a whole chicken a couple of times  a week so that stock is always plentiful around here.
• Introduce lacto- fermented vegetables. Gingered carrots are the favourite.
• Found a breakfast that suited me. Which is this. Previous I’d dabbled with various / cereal / yogurt / toast / porridge combos that never seemed to keep me going very long. Everyone is different – this works for me.
• Lots of homemade soup. Especially for lunch.
• Less chocolate / more baking. I was addicted to chocolate until recently. Really seriously, I had a massive chocolate addiction, and had to ‘come off’ cold turkey – headaches / withdrawal etc.. It was harsh. Now I eat it in moderation. Mainly in baking. I bake a lot (as you’ll know if you read this blog) but I make good, nutrient dense cakes that satisfy my sweet tooth without excessive sugar or empty calories.

Those are the main things I’m doing differently. I was already eating lots of live yogurt , fruit , vegetables, oily fish etc ; so I didn’t have to change any of that. Aside from chocolate,I have always kept away from processed food.. it wasn’t enough!

So that’s where I’m up to. I’m still very much learning about a more nourishing diet – I am yet to experiment with a bigger range of fermented foods (but I’m kind of intrigued to), and I’m still holding on to a few old habits and treats… but I’ve done enough to feel a whole heap better. If I keep eating like this who knows what I’ll be like when my kids are all finally sleeping through the night – I’ll probably be running ultra-marathons or something.

Thankyou to everyone who submitted a recipe for the big swell food competition, and to those who voted! Congratulations go to the three winners.

In first place with an amazing 57 votes is Shilo Macklin with her creamy bacon pasta, winning herself Annabel Langbein’s cookbook, a 5 pack of Envirosax reusable bags, a tub of Lifestream’s spirulina and an EcoTank water bottle.

In second place is Emma Abrahams with her Herb roasted chicken which wins her Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution cookbook, a 5 pack of Envirosax reusable bags, a tub of Lifestream’s spirulina and an EcoTank water bottle.

In joint third were two soups, firstly Ali Law with kumera, pumkin and peanut soup and also Sarah Clarke with leek and potato soup. Third place winners receive the 4-ingrediant cookbook, a single Envirosax reusable bag, a tub of Lifestream’s spirulina and an EcoTank water bottle.

Thankyou to everyone for supporting the big swell food competition and to our sponsors. We would love for you to continue to share with us your recipes, and we look forward to hosting another big swell food competition in 2013.

Celebrating food, home cooking, and great recipe ideas. During May we have two very important ‘food’ dates coming up, and the big swell is challenging you to get involved!

7th to 13th May is New Zealand Food Week. Food Week 2012 continues with the theme JUST COOK. Just cook a family meal and sit down and enjoy with your family / whanau. For more information about food week click here

On 19th May is Food Revolution Day. Our kids are growing up overweight and malnourished from a diet of processed foods, and today’s children will be the first generation ever to live shorter lives than their parents. It’s time for change. It’s time for a Food Revolution. For more information about this Food Revolution click here Please remember that if you are planning anything yourself, or would like to know what others are doing to celebrate Food Revolution Day then go to the NZ Facebook page here.

To celebrate these two important events the big swell is running a recipe competition. Share with us those recipes that you love, that your children eat with enthusiasm, and that bring together your family. The recipes can be as extravangant or as simple as you like, savoury or sweet, but they must all include ingredients that are made from scratch. Simply post your recipe on our ‘food’ page between the 7th to 19th May to be in to win. The top three recipes with the most ‘likes’ will win a great prize. But the best prize of all is that we will all have some great new recipes to try. So get posting! Please share your receipes here

This competition is open to all, although we are limiting one entry per person, so choose your recipe well! Remember though that if you register with the big swell during the month of May then you will be in the draw to win an amazing prize, with products from Lifestream, Wendyl Nissen, Naturalus, Tranquility Healing and Viola Organics. Please check out our Mother’s Day Prize Draw for more information.

Our ritual is getting together every so often to celebrate life and contribute our five greatest discoveries since we last met. It can be any new information that has added value to living our Champagne Life. We share our discoveries with an intention to have some fun and make a difference!

Some of the best ideas are the simplest!

One of my recent discoveries has been a deeper cut of the importance of the last hour of each day. This idea isn’t rocket science, as it wasn’t for me when I heard it again recently. I’ve known about it and even shared about it in the blog post – One Year to Your Ultimate Champagne Life Week #4 – ‘Living your ideal life every day!’ I discovered it in the seventies after reading ‘The Magic of Believing’ by Claude Bristol. The impact of visualising the achievement of my dreams just before falling asleep at night turned out to be a life changer!

What I didn’t realise is the impact of the last 45 minutes of each day before going to bed.

The most important 45 minutes of the day!

Recently I’ve been mentoring a group of women through a series of workshops based on Jack Canfield’s bestselling book ‘The Success Principles.’  My new discovery about the last hour in every day comes from Jack’s Success Principle #27 – Keep your Eye on the Prize.

Jack says; “Whatever you read, see, listen to, talk about, and experience during the last 45 minutes of the day has a huge influence on your sleep and your next day.” The punch line I didn’t know about is: “During the night, your unconscious mind replays and processes the late-night input up to six times more often than anything else you experienced during the day.”  Wow! The scary part is if you go to sleep watching the late news you’ll be imprinting into your consciousness all the bad news of the world … everything from war, murder, drugs, drive-by shootings, the European debt crisis, political scandals and backstabbing, stock market jitters and gang wars!

So what can we do in the last 45 minutes each day to ensure we will wake up and make a positive start to the next day?

Here are  3 simple steps to prepare for positive dreams:

3 simple steps to your magic hour ritual

• Review your day by looking for the things that went well. You can keep a gratitude journal if that works for you.
• Plan your actions  for the next day and enter it into time in your preferred schedule.
• Run through the events you are planning for the next day and visualise them all as going really well.

Using the magic hour every day in a positive way, will reduce the prospect of waking up not wanting to get out from under the doona to face the world for another day!

Please follow Maree further on her website Champagne Life on a Beer Budget

]]> http://www.thebigswell.com/18/the-magic-hour-every-day/feed/ 0 http://www.thebigswell.com/17/the-white-stuff-sweet-confessions-from-the-parenting-front-line/ http://www.thebigswell.com/17/the-white-stuff-sweet-confessions-from-the-parenting-front-line/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 11:11:09 +0000 Amy http://www.thebigswell.com/?p=1662 If you’ve read my blog you’ll know I spend a fair bit of time thinking, making, photographing (dreaming) of food. I figure with all that going on it’s best to try and keep the worrying about food to a minimum (with 4 young kids I’m eager to keep the worrying to a minimum full stop). I do my best to give my kids a nutrient dense diet of real food and if some days my best doesn’t quite look like the stuff food-dreams are made of then I try not to sweat it. The small people appear to be thriving even if I’m not soaking their grains, or giving them too many second helpings of leafy greens. However, there is one food that I do stress about a little, and that’s sugar.

As a reader of Nourishing Traditions’ (Sally Fallon) and a real food activist I feel like I am confessing a sin saying this, but here goes…‘I feed my kids sugar (in moderation)…but probably every day’. There, I’ve said it.

I’m aware sugar is at best an empty food (nutrient wise), so should it have any place in a family diet? Why not cut it out completely?  Maybe in an ideal world then yes, but in (my) real world, whilst I’ve found it easy to keep sugar to a minimum, I haven’t cut it out completely.  I’m not even sure if I want to.

It’s been easy to;

Stick to water and milk for drinks.

Ditch processed yogurts and have live natural yogurt topped with fruit.

Ditch highly sugared cereals.

Stick to real food, cook stuff from scratch, stay away from most processed stuff.

 But the sugar creeps in here…

-      Baking. Baking is at the heart of our home. It’s the answer to ‘what can we have next?’ as well as, in my opinion, to many other questions. I do make some sugar free stuff but generally a few spoons of sugar will make a cake. You can read more of my love of cake here along with some great nutrient dense cake recipes like prune, chia, chocolate and beetroot cake.

-      Baked beans. We love beans on toast. Especially awesome after a morning playing sport. Or for a rainy lunch. With cheese.

-      Jam. The kids love jam. If allowed there would only be one sandwich filling and it would start with J.

-      Chocolate. We just have it around. We don’t gorge on it but we’re no strangers to it.

-      Cafe treats. I like to go out for a mid morning coffee sometimes (often). It helps with sanity. The kids get fluffies with marshmallows… and then there are the cute little kiddo cupcakes, barely the size of a postage stamp, lolly on top….and the not so postage stamp sized brownies… I think I’d rather just skip the coffee and stay at home than go in there and not let the kids indulge a little. That’s just me. This post is not about what’s right and wrong (which isn’t my style anyway) it’s about being honest about my reality.

-      Parties.

-      Ice creams on sunny days.

-      Ice creams on days when we all need an ice-cream

-      Ketchup

So that’s my family life in terms sugar. I’m still figuring out if I’m happy with it or if I need to cut it back further. But for every time I read an article that makes me feel that feeding my kids the sweet stuff is akin to letting them pop outside for a smoke, then I think of the simple joy of seeing a little face covered in ice-cream on a sunny day. It might be empty nutritionally but it sure can be good for the soul. I think someone once said something very profound about moderation.. perhaps we just need to get back to that?

INGREDIENTS FOR HERB ROASTED CHICKEN

1 size 14 free range chicken

2T butter, cut into small pieces

1 onion, peeled

Salt Pepper

1/2t thyme

1/2t marjoram

1/2t rosemary

METHOD FOR HERB ROASTED CHICKEN

1. Place rack in centre of oven and preheat to 190°C.

2. Rinse chicken inside and out and pat dry with a paper towel.

3. Place breast-side up in a roasting dish (preferably one that comes with a cover).

4. Loosen the skin and place small pieces of butter underneath it, against the breast. Place more pieces of butter on top of the skin, in the nook of the wings and drumsticks, as well as on the breast.

5. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram and rosemary.

6. Place the peeled onion inside the cavity.

7. Cover the chicken with the lid of the roasting dish or with tin foil, or place it in a roasting bag. This will result in a moister bird.

8. Place in oven and cook for around 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until juices run clear when pierced and pressed in the thickest part of the thigh.

9. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes before carving.

Note: Start preparing the potatoes for the creamy potato chunks after the roast chicken has been placed in the oven to cook.

INGREDIENTS FOR CREAMY POTATO CHUNKS

6-8 large baking potatoes

1T melted butter or olive oil for baking potatoes

1t sea salt for baking potatoes

2T butter or olive oil

1 onion, diced

1.5T cornflour or arrowroot powder

1.5c cream, milk or coconut milk

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

½ c.shredded Romano or Parmesan cheese

METHOD FOR CREAMY POTATO CHUNKS

1. Place oven rack under the rack holding the roast chicken.

2. Rinse and scrub potatoes in their skins with a stiff-bristled brush. Dry each potato with a clean tea towel and then inspect and remove any bruises with the tip of a knife.

3. Pierce each potato deeply with a fork, about 4 times on each side to allow steam to escape while cooking.

4. Rub each potato with a little olive oil or melted butter and then sprinkle with sea salt.

5. Place on prepared oven rack (underneath the chicken) and bake at 190°C for around 60-75 minutes, or until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.

6. In a saucepan, sauté the onions in butter on a medium heat until softened and golden, about 8-10 minutes.

7. Mix the cornflour/arrowroot powder with the milk/cream and stir until smooth.

8. Pour milk and cornflour mixture into the onions and stir until thickened.

9. Add salt and pepper.

10. When baked potatoes are cooked through, remove from oven and use tongs to handle them as you cut them in half lengthwise, scoop out the pulp and place it in a 20cm x 30cm glass or ceramic baking dish.

12. Cut baked potato pulp into chunks and pour prepared sauce over top.

13. Sprinkle with Romano or Parmesan cheese and bake at 190°C for 30 minutes, or until golden on top. (If you remove the roast chicken while the creamy potato chunks are cooking for their last ten minutes, this will give the chicken time to rest and allow the creamy potato chunks to turn golden on top.)

Serves 4-6