Dressing up, a little bit naughty and very nice

Christmas can be a stodgy affair…but it doesn’t have to be!

Its like wearing that very expensive little something with bargain basement everything else and the whole ensemble looking super chic – if you aren’t careful it can go the other way; it is a question of thinking, balance and taste.

(Obviously I am not talking here about allergies regimes for illness, be aware and take care of your situation).

We don’t want to feel horribly deprived or be the boring one who says “Oh no, I can’t eat that, I am not eating XYZ” to the person who has slaved over a hot stove for weeks (yourself included) neither should we throw all caution to the wind and end up feeling ill.

There are lots of ways, but here are a few ways, to have a healthier Christmas:

Firstly drink lots of water, take your apple cider vinegar, and enjoy the satsumers and fresh nuts!

If you are having people over for drinks make a platter of delectable nibbles that will suit everyone – mix pumpkin and sunflower seeds with sea salt and a drop of olive oil in place of roast salted nuts, a creamy humus without lots of oil, recipe here Here, and with lots of crudites – radish, carrot and cellery sticks, cauliflower florets, chunks of avocado tossed in tomatoe salas (so easy to make, why do people buy the stuff?!), olives, bake small mushrooms and serve with a dollop of pesto on top, the list is endless really, you just need a bit of imagination and a lot less time than making cheese straws and endless bruschettas!

Simple things like loading your dinner plate with more veggies and less of the heavy stuff, not filling up on bread, snacking on more olives, radishes, cherry tomatoes and fewer vol au vents, nibbling some really good chocolate rather than mindlessly gorging on piles of sweet stuff will make your Christmas get togethers enjoyable rather than destroyable.

Try melting some good chocolate (even better make some raw tempered chocolate if you have the ingredients) and dip cherries, bananas or clementine segments into it. Store them in the fridge, not least to stop you eating them all, yum!

 

Think about it, that’s all, you know what is best and at this time of year it is lovely to enjoy the indulgencies but not to the point of feeling bloated, guilty, even sick. You can make good choices and avoid anything you simply can not eat because there are usually so many alternatives.

If you are the chef look at the balance of the meal. A traditional Christmas meal is actually very healthy if done well. The danger zones are the nibbles, patés, sauces and stuffing’s.

To start how about keeping it lighter maybe a mushroom paté, green pepper corns, oatcakes and some sliced figs made rich and sticky by heating in the oven with a spoonful of honey and splash of balsamic for about 20 mins. Pop them in as it heats up for your turkey then remove and mix up to serve later. Have small portions for taste not filling up, rather to chat and pull crackers over.

There is the meat. I would choose a higher welfare bird or organic – it has had a better life, is more nutritious and provides more meat. It is a good buy. Use the bones for stock. Serve less of it and more of the accompaniments.

Fill your stuffing with lots of chestnuts, onions, prunes, nuts, mushrooms and herbs for scrumptious flavour and texture. I make a meat based one for meat eaters with a small amount of organic pork (about 300gm for enough for 8 people), lots of chestnuts, mushrooms, prunes, onions, pecan nuts, garlic, sage, thyme, salt and pepper and an egg to bind it all together. Full of gorgeous flavours. Quantities below.

For my vegetarian one I use similar ingredients but in place of the pork I use more mushrooms and chestnuts and some chopped olives. I usually change the fruit and use figs, probably some walnuts and cashews in place of the pecans, extra onions and olives and some capers for depth. Quantities below.

The vegetarian version is as popular as the pork one with the meat eaters, it also makes great veggie burgers for any time of year!

Offer lots of vegetables, I usually roast some potatoes (of course!) and parsnips, steam sprouts and top with some butter and nutmeg and poach carrots sticks in orange juice. I serve mashed sweet potatoes and celeriac rather than more starchy potatoes.

Chop and boil sweet potatoes celeriac. When just tender strain, keeping the liquid for your gravy, add lots of black pepper, some butter and an egg to bind and make it deliciously creamy and mash it all together until smooth. Taste and add salt if needed, the celeriac has a lovely salty flavour so it’s a good place to hold on the salt. Recipe below.

I often add in some chopped kale or savoy cabbage at the end for a tasty and nutritional boost! This can all be prepped in advance and popped in the oven to reheat. Make it easy! Here is another recipe using cauliflower.

For the gravy I am purely indulgent – it is made with the meat juices, a stock made from giblets, carrot, onion and celery, any vegetable cooking water left after I make the vegetarian gravy, red wine and port and thickened in the traditional way with flour. No excuses for that today. There are lots of great gravy recipes to be found online. The vegetarian version involves some butter and flour, onions, garlic, vegetable cooking liquid, marmite, mushroom ketchup, some dulce (we are looking for the umami here) a glug of red wine and port.

For both recipes allow reduction time, as that builds the flavour.

I also make cranberry and bread sauces to compliment the meal and go with the left overs.

I LOVE the left overs, they are my favourite bit with pickled onions, homemade mayo, lots of leavy salad and Boxing day films.

Don’t forget to use the hand test, it helps me everytime, remind yourself here.

Merry Christmas, I hope you will be warm and happy, with or in touch with loved ones and most of all loving yourself. Thanks for reading my posts this year and motivating me to be healthier and happier and boosting my own health.

With love,

Desri XXX

Pork stuffing serves 6ish

300gm organic minced pork

1 cup chestnuts

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup pitted chopped prunes

2 finely chopped onions

½ cup crumbled pecan nuts or walnuts

2 crushed cloves garlic

Handful sage leaves chopped

Sprig of thyme leaves picked – use the leaves not the stick!

Big pinch salt

10 grinds of pepper

1 egg

Vegetarian stuffing serves 6ish

11/2 cup chestnuts

11/2 cup chopped mushrooms

¾ cup pitted chopped prunes or figs or half and half

2 finely chopped onions

½ cup crumbled pecan nuts or walnuts or mix of either with cashews

¼ cup chopped green of black olives

2 crushed cloves garlic

2 teaspoons rinsed salted capers chopped

Handful sage leaves chopped

Sprig of thyme leaves picked – use the leaves not the stick!

Big pinch salt

10 grinds of pepper

1 egg

 

Mash for 6-8

1KG sweet potatoes

1KG celeriac

Black pepper

1 dessertspoon butter

1 egg

Taste and add salt if needed.

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Dressing up and dressing down

 

It has been a bit mad here the last couple of weeks.
I have started my French business, Desri’s Kitchen and been number crunching and trying to make that work on paper (in the French system – that is hard!). I am adding in teaching raw cuisine as well as healthy ways to tweak your cooking (including gluten free, dairy free, grain free etc).

Also we have been running ahead of electricians putting wall frames and ceiling frames in the Little House which means that is really taking shape! Nothing like deadlines to make Robin and I make something happen. Talking of which we also had a photo shoot for Oliver’s Travels which meant we had to strip ourselves out of our house – every room had to be made neutral, which for a hoarder and we who attatch emotion and history to almost everything we have gathered was a tough ask, to say the least.

We did it though and the photographer was a great guy who, it happened had recently, along with his girlfriend started eating a raw vegan diet! We talked for ages as there was lots in common with Robin and me resulting in the shoot running late and giving me an excuse to ask him to stay for lunch. I whipped up creamy noodles, avocado and courgette tartar and a green salad all with crunch seed sprinkles.

It is really important when changing your diet to cover as many tastes and textures as you can. Food doesn’t only nourish us physically but emotionally too. I hear lots of you say to me “But I so want something creamy like Italian cabonara or a creamy spicy curry” or “I need a rich, sticky, sweet and sour Chinese meal”. So have it – make your healthy food taste spicy and creamy, rich, sweet and sticky, crunchy and pungent, salty and sour.

A few easy recipes which can be used as dressings for noodles; you could use spirilized or peeled carrot, courgette or squash noodles or some healthy alternative pasta type noodles like quinoa or, as I did, kelp noodles.

The same recipes could be used as spreads or dips for crudites. If you tolerate and want to eat bread you could dip that in or spread it over.

How to make your healthy food taste delicious:

Create creamy textures

1 avocado whipped up with a 1 TBS of sweet miso (I like sweet miso a lot at the moment but if you don’t have it use 1/2 TBS darker types), 1 TBS chopped onion, 1 TBS nutritional yeast (or more to taste, check at the end), 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, 1/2 tsp agave/honey/maple syrup (one of them, not of all of them!), 1/4 tsp salt, pepper. Optional some crushed garlic.

Make it sweet ‘n’ spicy

2 TBS olive oil, , 2 TBS lime juice, 1 TBS maple syrup, 1 clove garlic crushed, 1 crumbled dried chilli (the little red ones), salt and pepper to taste. Whisk or shake in a jar with the lid on (I know, its obvious, humour me;).

Use Italian tomatoes

Soak 3 sun dried tomatoes and 1 big or 2 small dates in warm water until soft (this can take an hour or so), chop. Blend with 2 chopped fresh tomatoes, 1TBS chopped onion, 1/2 TBS white wine vinegar (I am liking chardonnay vinegar right now), 1/2 clove garlic (or more, your choice), pinch chilli flakes or 1/2 – 1 small dried chilli crumbled, a good pinch of salt and lots black pepper. Sprinkle whatever you make with it with ripped fresh basil or use 1/2 tsp dried Italian herbs.

Use delicious oils and high-quality seasonings

And lets not forget good old olive oil and balsamic – use the best olive oil, old syrupy balsamic, flakes of fleur de sel or Malvern salt or similar and a few turns of good black pepper. I’d go with about 5-1 oil to balsamic, in a bowl sprinkle the salt and pepper over and use like that or whisk or shake and use as a dressing. Such a treat!

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Smash a mash.

Hello, hello!

How are you feeling? Have you followed anything here, changed anything?

Simply put, nothing will change unless you change something.

I know I am repeating myself but please don’t hold back until ‘all the bad stuff has been used up’, ‘after the holiday’, ‘after Christmas’ and all the other delaying tactics our heads can use. This is not a punishment!

Just choose better, mostly, now.

Right now stop reading and go and drink a big glass of water…..

Easy, useful, healthful.

Have a piece of fruit. If you don’t like biting into a juicy apple (pear, carrot, celery) cut one up and just have it on a plate next to you. Before you know you will have eaten it.

It’s the weekend in autumn, does that mean a comforting, big Sunday lunch or Saturday night pizza? OK, just change it up a bit.

Here’s a recipe to replace your stodgy mashed potatoes –

Multiply as needed but depending on the size of the vegetables this should serve about 4 or two for one meal and put the rest in a veggie soup tomorrow.

½ cauliflower

½ celeriac

Steam or boil (don’t swamp them with water, just enough to cover) with a lid on.

When tender, drain (drink the liquid or use it in your sauce or gravy) and put into a blender or bowl if you have a stick blender with

1 egg

A piece of butter, about 2 teaspoons or splash of olive oil

Pinch salt and a few grinds of pepper to taste.

Blend it all up.

Add, roughly chopped:

2-3 leaves of kale, calvo nero, chopped savoy cabbage or any dark green leaves

Pulse into the mash and serve!

Pizza

Replace your pizza base with slices of aubergine with a splash of love oil smeared over them and roast until tender. When ready top as you would pizza.

There are lots of recipes circulating for cauliflower pizza base, look one up.

Use a stronger tasting cheese and less of it.

Don’t use pizza sauce just put slices of real tomatoes, a smatter of salt and a sprinkle of herbs on as your tomatoe base.

Et voila!

Two things today –

EQUIPMENT

If there is one piece of equipment that I believe would help you have healthier meals it is a blender. A high powered one.

I use Vitamix and Blendtec. I have never used a Nutri Bullet but have only ever heard good things about them and they could be ideal for a lower price point and if you are not going to go the whole hog of grinding nuts, seeds, making flours etc. They also sound great for taking with you (I have been very tempted to get one for travelling, much easier than humping my Vitamix around!).

I am sure if you look on EBay or local second hand sale sites you could find any of the above at a good price because more people than I can count have told me over the years that they have a juicer in the back of a cupboard they never use and I am sure the same can be said for blenders.

REST

Whilst it is important to MOVE it is equally important to rest. If you are healing mentally or physically, recuperating, dealing with and overcoming autoimmune disease or any illness you need to push the toxins out and you need to rest to heal.

On the internet there are loads of guided relaxations, meditations, peaceful relaxing music. You need to look around and try to find what suits you, some really irritate me which is the opposite effect to the one we are looking for! It doesn’t mean they are all the same; Take the time and then use it regularly.

10-30 minutes of deep relaxation, especially regularly, will make you feel so much better.

If you are working and feel that fatigue or stress creeping in pop out for a breath of fresh air or to a quiet place (the loo even) and take a few minutes out to just stop thinking. It might help if you could put a short meditation on your phone and use headphones. Make it happen.

Listen to your body and trust it to tell you.

Have a fun weekend x

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Tweak… and twerking would help too!

Reminder

Doing this is your choice. Everything is your choice. Everything you eat, drink, think and do will effect how you feel mentally and physically. If you have an illness, an auto-immune problem, lack energy, have hormone imbalances, mood swings, lack of concentration, brain fog, constipation, acne – you fill in the words for you – you can change how you feel if you choose to.

You only need to tweak really – tweak a salad for a pie haha, no, I am kidding! Well I am not but there are better ways; Tweak a good pie for a bad pie (suggestion in the last post), roast some sweet potatoes with cumin and smoked paprika in place of fried potatoes. Use Make almond milk instead of drinking pasteurised milk, homemade almond milk its cheaper, fresher and more natural than prepacked. Top some roast aubergine slices with onions, red peppers, mushrooms, garlic and some goats cheese instead of pepperoni pizza and so on. Lots more ideas will follow over the coming weeks.

As you tweak and add in good stuff, move more,  sleep and look better you will be more inspired to do more of it.

Make it a habit to have a really fresh and juicy green salad with meals; if you don’t already love that you will start to. You just need a good dressing (recipes coming up over the next few posts) to make it just as you want it.

Be prepared

Be prepared for feeling a bit rubbish as you remove the bad. If you are used to drinking coffee and black tea all day, fluffy or stodgy white stuff (pasta, bread, pastry, cake, biscuits, pies you know what I am talking about) then as you remove them your body and head will probably complain a bit. Drink more water, rest if needed, move more to push the toxins through. Have warm salted baths to pull the rubbish out. You might be a bit bloated and windy (sorry) as you add more fibre to your diet – chew well, eat slowly, stop when full. Consider taking probiotics and digestive enzymes. You can find them in health food shops and online. They can help but you don’t have to. I take a course now and again and make my own probiotics which I eat and drink daily, more about that in another post.

MOVE

Walk, run, jump up and down on the spot, go for a swim, walk or run up and down stairs, dance, do whatever it takes and whatever you can to move. You need to use those muscles. They support you and hold you up, keep all your bits together. Moving raises your heartbeat, increases your oxygen intake, moves your lymph and so removes some of the toxins. It helps digestion, increases metabolism and mood. That’s enough for now, trust me, MOVE!

Humus Recipe

Drain and rinse 1 tin or jar of red kidney beans or chickpeas, put in food processor. Peel and chop 1 big courgette and throw that in too.

Add 1 big TBS Tahini,

Juice of 1 lemon plus a grate or two of zest.

1 clove garlic.

1 tsp cumin.

Pinch salt (GOOD salt!).

Blend adding a few drops of very cold water until you reach the consistency you prefer.

Serve as it is or with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice (please don’t be afraid of good oils, they oil your joints, your skin, feed your cells – olive oil, sesame oil, coconut oil, avocados all GOOD).

Serve with chopped veggies, in wraps preferably made from coconut or cabbage/ lettuce leaves, in baked sweet potatoes etc.

Bits and bobs meal

Last night I served this humus with:

Raw courgette, flax seed, physilium husk, onion powder wraps

Fried courgette, red onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, cumin and ground coriander

Chopped avocado, tomatoe, fresh coriander leaves, lemon juice

A pile of roquette and coriander leaves

Cherry tomatoes

Non dairy cheesy sauce made by blending soaked cashews, pine nuts, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, dash umboshi vinegar or a stoned umboshi plum, pinch salt and ground pepper. Actually I confess I used a few other ingredients (hence the interesting colour!), which have to remain secret for now, but that recipe will get you an amazing cheesy sauce!

There is no way you could feel deprived eating that!

Our diary for the last two days:

Monday

Me: corn crackers with butter and jam (homemade). Dates, soaked and sprouted almonds.

Robin: meusli type cereal (bought) homemade almond milk.

Both: 1 coffee with breakfast

Smoothie: celery, dandelion leaves, parsley, bananas, cherries, maca, spirullina, chia

Robin: Banana, Magnum ice cream!! (note to self make some sweet snacks to be at the ready!)

Humus (recipe in this post) carrots sticks and cherry tomatoes

Raw seed based Falafels with cucumber, tomatoes, tahini sauce wrapped in cabbage leaves.

Piece very delicious, old, hard cheese (using it up!) with Quince paste (homemade).

Apple cidre vinegar in water X 2, 1 ½-2 litres filtered water, green and red tea.

Walked over 10,000 steps (through forest, speedy), swam ½ KM (again, speedy).

Tuesday

Breakfast; Me as above, Robin whole grain toast.

Juice: celery, kale, cucumber, lemon.

Me: Chia pudding with homemade almond milk, banana, spirullina and acai.

Robin : Cereal with homemade almond milk and fruit. Ice cream (NB he is doing masses of physical work and when they are gone they are gone 😉

Grain free wraps, cooked veggies with spices, humus, chunky guacamole, Coriander and roquette from the garden, tomatoes, cheesy (non dairy sauce) recipes in the post.

Plenty of water, red tea, ACV in water x 2. Filtered water, green and red tea.

Walked over 10,000 steps (through forest, speedy), Me danced 30 mins, Robin active work. Ten minute meditation.

Wednesday so far:

Similar breakfast.

Smoothie using the large quantity of juice I made and stored yesterday with banana, mango, frozen cherries, pollen.

Boiled eggs (me 1 Robin 2).

Tonight I am not sure but probably heading for roasted veggies as I haven’t given it any thought and my hands are still covered in wax from renovating a floor!

Take it easy, be kind to yourself, keep hydrated and think about your left hand (see last post here Feel better!).

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Renovations dirty, frustrating, exciting

Do you ever have days when the thing you found so motivating and exciting yesterday is exhausting and overwelming today?

Welcome to my world!

I have been scared of heights for ever; I couldn’t go up the ladder to the first floor of the ‘little house’, the old tumble down house we are now renovating to move into so that the whole of the main house can be used for retreats, holidays and possibly B&B.

On Saturday, after months of attempts and a few days last week of “OK, Robin I am doing this, would you just turn the ladder that way then I will be OK?”….. I wasn’t. Then “OK, Robin would you put the scaffolding up under the hole and I can just climb up, easy!”….. It wasn’t, I didn’t.

So then he put a combination of ladder and scaffolding, then added planks, then stood on it all himself; no go.

So back to Saturday, I just decided and said to myself “I am a person who goes up ladders!” marched over, asked him to stand on the planks next to the ladder and walked straight up, hurrah!!!

Then I had to decide I was also a person who could climb down ladders. I did (eventually and with a few wimpers) and massive progress has been made.

All the bedrooms and bathrooms have been measured out and moved around until they worked. Of course all the windows and beams are not exactly where we thought, so I did a lot of moving around, toilets, basins, baths and showers juggled until there was enough room to get through a door and put a chair, a towel rail, a without going to the loo in full view of the garden etc.

It was fun and exciting.

Now it’s Thursday and Robin is still putting in the windows which don’t all fit (understatement) so have to be cut, filled, wedged and balanced to work inside and out on a crooked wall, a sloped sill, a wobbly lintel and two of us who think different things look best ha!

I have been putting more grass seed down on top of the seed that hasn’t sprouted – again. I am still wire wooling the floor in the main house, the electrician who has been promising to arrive for weeks didn’t turn up again (thats him out, enough is enough) and we are tired.

No amount of green juice, powdered or fresh wheatgrass or chia and aloe filled smoothies will help this mood – thank heavens for chocolate cake and juicy cherries! Raw, grain free, dairy free and energy boosting cake with cherries we picked and froze in the summer.

Sorry for the moan, better go and mow the weeds now while Robin calls the guy building the gate posts to ask where he is…..

Desri X

www.boutiqueretreatfrance.com

Instagram desrigoodwin

 

 

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Quick, tasty and bursting with energy.

Here are a couple of recipes for you. Easy to make. Quick. Very good and won’t give you that saggy feeling after eating it AND you will feel as though you have eaten!

I didn’t actually weigh or measure anything, just threw it all in. You can do the same or follow my measuements. When I need something to eat fast or have other things to do rather than enjoy the food prep I like to throw it all together, no fuss. I used what I had, there are substitution suggestions at the bottom of the post so that you can use what you have.

Falafel.

6 soaked sundried tomatoes chopped small – I didn’t wait for these to soak (I hadn’t planned to make this, if I had I would have soaked them an hour or two earlier). I put them in a cup of warm water when I started then used them as soon as I need them.

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds ground in blender or food processor or with elbow grease with a pestal and mortar.

1/4 cup pistachio nuts ground in blender or food processor or with elbow grease with a pestal and mortar.

1/4 cup hemp seeds

1 hand full of basil, parsley and coriander chopped

1 TBS chia seeds

Juice half a big lemon

1 TBS olive oil

1 TBS tomatoe soak water

1 tsp dried herb de provence

1 tsp ground cumin

Several grinds of black pepper

Good pinch of Himalayan or other mineral rich salt

Mix it all together and roll into balls.

At this point you could serve with the sauce or store in the fridge till later or dehydrate for a few hours and serve warm.

Tahini sauce.

1/2 cup Tahini

Zest of half a lemon

Juice of one lemon

3 cloves black fermented garlic

1 Umboshi plum, stone removed

1/2 cup warm water (or more if you want it runnier, wait until it is blended up to decide)

Dash Braggs

Blend it all up. If you do not have a high speed blender chop the garlic and plum finely or squidge through a garlic press then whisk it all up. Add more water if needed.

To serve

Plate with salald leaves, any salad ingredients you like, drizzle with the sauce, scatter with sesame seeds and nasturtium flowers – or any flowers or fresh herbs, make it pretty!

If you want to stuff it all in a pitta bread or a wrap. Wholemeal is best.

Substitutions

Braggs – pinch salt/ tamari/ soya sauce

Umboshi plum – Dash Umboshi vinigar or leave out.

Black garlic – one clove fresh, remove central shoot

Herbs de provence – Italian herbs, dried oregano

Pumpkin seeds – sunflower seeds

Pistachio nuts – wallnuts/ almonds/ pecans/ mix of all or any of these nuts/ more seeds for nutfree version

Hemp seeds – replace with any of the seeds or nuts

Sundried tomatoes – half a fresh tomatoes and 6 chopped black olives.

Fresh herbs – use any mix of the herbs I used, even just one.

Bon appetit!

 

 

 

 

 

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Doing or going to do – that is the question.

Lets have a word about procrastination, avoidance, distancing.

A client came to me about ‘all the things he has to do, and that he was not succeeding or getting anywhere’. He felt between a rock and a hard place, nothing was working.

We spent a lot of time talking and have spoken many times before about other things. I noticed that one of his frequent sentences was:

“I am going to……”or, I will do …” and often, “I should have done….”.

He was very focused on all the different things he had to do and on the point that he was not good at multi-tasking instead of focusing on a job in hand. Therefore getting nowhere other than more and more depressed and worried and distanced from what needed doing.

I explained that an example of multi tasking could be talking the phone (clutched under the chin) talking to a client whilst feeding the baby in one arm and stirring the soup with another. Or, filling in your accounts on the computer whilst on speakerphone to a supplier and watching (and worrying about) your expensive employee chatting to their best friend on the phone, again.

I suggested that having various jobs or commitments, keeping hydrated and exercising are not multi tasking unless he was planning on lifting weights whilst riding on the sit-on mower and making deals on his mobile.

I also suggested, somewhat forcefully after he kept escaping from our conversation to all the things he will do, he only needs to do one of these various jobs at a time. It creates variety, which we all need. The jobs do not over lap at all and if each job was given an allotted day or time slot and done properly, whole heartedly and thoroughly he wouldn’t have to think about it whilst doing another job. Therefore no multi tasking required.

I advised that he take job A – (which is basically selling) and has a list of everything that is required, the clients list, items he needs to sell, his target written down clearly. Then on that job’s day he starts and does absolutely everything he can with all his resources to get the best possible outcome on that day. So e-mail, phone calls, post if all else fails. Explore every avenue and be creative (if a contact number is not immediately available look at every possible way you could get one or make contact). At the end of the day he may feel a little frustrated if he has not made any contacts BUT ultimately he will feel immensely satisfied that he did everything he could to the best of his ability during Job A’s time slot. No point worrying about it afterwards, it will not change a thing. Let all the hard work percolate until the next time it is Job A’s time slot.

Next day he takes Job B and applies the same intention, intensity and determination and so on.

Maybe as there are a few different jobs have 15 – 30 minutes just to address any e-mails or things to deal with such as if the best client in the world’s PA sends an email to arrange a meeting…

Then, when he is mowing the garden (or driving the kids to dance class or doing exercise) he can put some great music on or an audio book, drink a beer and multi task happily (beer drinking is not applying to the bracketed options obvs 😉 this then becomes recreational rather than part of the job pile.

Lets also talk about ‘job’, ‘task’, ‘commitment’. Make them fun/interesting/exciting and they become enjoyable. Who wants to just do a job compared to playing at chatting to people, finding out how people work, feeling successful and providing something that someone needs? Who wants to do a task or fulfill a commitment when they could be playing at mowing, singing their heads off drowned out by the engine, zoning out to their favourite tunes or being told a facinating and exciting story. Think about how to make what you do into what you want to do. Life is to be enjoyed not endured, how lucky we are to have it.

I worked in a shop at one point and it was so boring until I made a challange to be the fastest on the till (it was the olden days, you keyed the money in as you passed the products along the counter beside you) and to try to get as many people a day to smile. In the end I had lovely if brief chats with people who I got to know in a chitchaty way, and was the fastest cashier in the North – my till was always out by a few pence either way (always!!!) so I didn’t get a pat on the back but I did get a lot of smiles 🙂

The moral of the story is you can spend so much time worrying about that big pile of stuff over there rather than concentrating on jumping right on top of the smaller, more manageable pile of stuff right in front of you. Jump right into the centre of it, splat!, and sort out every tiny little bit of it then go over to the big pile, take what you can carry and put it where the little pile was and jump splat! into the middle of that one and deal with it. How satisfying!

Saying “I will do….”, “I am going to do….” and “I should have done….” is SO much better changed to “I am doing”.

I am drinking water and I am hydrated.

I am exercising and I am fit.

I am dealing with this now.

I am doing my best right now.

I am in control.

I am satisfied.

I am finding a way to enjoy what I do.

I am doing it, now, in the way that works for me.

I am I!

____________________________________________________________________

I am moving this blog back to Whatdesrididnext.wordpress.com. If you want to join me there I would be very happy! Thanks for reading.

Desri x

www.boutiqueretreatfrance.com

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What is that?

“It’s a Papaya”.

“What do you do with it?”.

Where shall I begin?!

Here’s a few things you can do with papaya:

1 Cut it in half and remove the seeds. These are very good for killing certain parasites in the gut, I know but you probably have a few…at least…. If you are making a smoothy keep a reaspoon full to add in, gives a slightly spicy tang.

2 Sprinkle with lime juice and just eat it. Delicious any time and a great start to the day.

3 Dry the seeds and use them in a pepper mill, they add a nice punch to food and extra nutritional benefits too.

4 If you eat a protein heavy meal, for example red meat, have some Papaya as a refreshing desert or starter. It is full of papain, proteolytic enzymes, that help digestion. It is also high in vitamins A, B and C, potassium, calcium and of course fibre which we love!

5 Delicious in a salad.

I make a big mixed salad using various leaves, all the summer standards such as cucumber, radish, tomatoes, onions etc and chop in a papaya ( or half, depends on the size and how many people!) and avocado.

Sprinkle with sea weed flakes and toss in a dressing of your choice. My fave for this salad is:  juice of an orange, about 1 desert spoon (to taste) Braggs, same of really flavoursome olive oil, tsp honey or agave, a crushed clove of garlic.

I sprinkle the whole thing with some chia seeds (to soak up all that lovely dressing) and help seeds.

6 Don’t throw away the skin! Rub in on your hands, your face, elbows, knees, all over. It softens your skin, eats away the dead skin cells, cleans it really. Leave for up to ten minutes (avoid your eyes) then rinse off; like a baby’s botty.

7 I went to an Ayurdedic retreat and it was served steamed (traditionally Ayurveda is not so cooked as depending on the dosha some people find raw foods harder to digest). It was actually delicious, I couldn’t tell it had been cooked so maybe it hadn’t been steamed much; I’d stick to raw personally.

So, there you have it, a few ideas to enjoy the magic of Papaya.

I think I’ll print it out on cards and carry some around with me to give to the people on the super market tills!

 

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Motivation and wafting away grey mood clouds.

I just thought I would repost this after having a really low energy feeling yesterday afternoon.

I was kind of sinking into it (it can be so easy just to go with it, let it take your hand and follow it … down…) and forced myself to get on my mini trampoline and do some bouncing, 10 minutes later the mood was definitely more positive and after another ten, hey presto, energy restored, mood lifted.

It’s not always so simple, but it does really help to DO something when that shadow starts closing in.

I wrote the following post was about a year ago on “Desrissplash”…

Back in rainy Britain, what is going on? We left  the 30+° heat of France and arrived in the UK at 6.30am to 20° which was very hopeful but today it is pouring and grey. Kinda cosy though, sometimes don’t you just need cosy?

I have a meeting today that I am not looking forward to. I was thinking about what to wear and thought “OK, what would I wear that would make me feel better?”… no the answer wasn’t a power suit or even a mask, it was PJs and thick socks!

I had to have a tooth out at the dentist a while ago, I was terrified, I have never been good at dentists. I took along my thick super soft socks. He looked at me as though I was nuts when I started to take my shoes off, I explained the comfort theory and he got it – really we need to do whatever gets us through (within reason obviously;-).

I think we spend far too little time really thinking ‘what would make this work’ instead of ‘this isn’t working’. Because I am nervous we started the day today with a really brisk walk, in the pouring rain, up over the hills. 45 minutes later we were back, soaked but feeling much better about everything and had the exciting surprise that my new samples had turned up and are gorgeous!

Endorphines, laughing at being soaked, concentrating on balancing on stones rather than sinking in the mud, its all going to make you feel better. A fantastic help for people suffering anxiety, depression, grief, fear, almost any mind problem can be given some help/respite by getting outside and moving and being slightly challenged – even if it is by cow pats and mud!

Oh (back to real time) the other thing I just remembered I did was power jet spray some old floor boards, with the idea of using them around the house for window sills, maybe a table (that I couldn’t put anything on as they are very wonky), etc. I did this in the pouring rain and got thoroughly soaked, it felt great, free, silly – probably helped that the weather was quite warm despite raining ALL day, heavily.

So, a bit like the post above, maybe a good play in the rain washes the dark feelings away, just like going for a breezy walk blows the cobwebs away.

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