Just before I write about my potty training experience, I just wanted to give some background information on what I used for nappies etc, as there is something research that suggests a child will potty train sooner and easier if they are in cloth nappies.

Well my son did wear cloth nappies until he was about 1. Then I started using pull-up eco-disposables. I chose to use the disposables because I did not have the money for cloth pull-ups (they seem to be about 10-15 pounds EACH and ebay wasn’t helping) and my son would always fight me when I had to change him. He is a heavy wetter so struggling like 10 times a day was making things miserable and so I went with the disposables which my son was happy about putting on because he could stand up. I hope to be able to get cloth pull-ups for my next child or to try out elimination communication! I did use cloth nappies at night though until around 1 and a half.

I thought that putting him in disposables would be a detriment because I had always read that cloth nappies make potty training easier as a child can feel the wetness. I now believe, from my experience, that cloth or disposable doesn’t really matter in how easy potty training will be.

Anyway, when I changed him over I started reading lots about infant potty training and came across elimination communication in my research. I think that it would be something to consider with my next child but it did lead me to try out a potty with my son very soon. He didn’t really show an interest in the potty though and instead of fighting him I took my usual route of being relaxed and leaving it.

I am so glad I left it, because when he turned 2 he just started showing an interest in the toilet without me or his dad really doing anything. He has always seen us go though so maybe this helped. He picked and chose when he used it but also started telling us he had gone or was going in his nappy. He is now 2 and a half and uses the potty all day. He still needs to go through the night and use it but that will come in time I am sure. He has to wear little pants now and has to use the potty or preferably the toilet.

I am so happy about this and wished I hadn’t have gotten stressed about the idea of potty training. I let my son eat solids in his own time and am letting him wean himself off the breast in his own time, so why I didn’t consider letting my son dictate the potty is beyond me. Well at least my son showed me J

I think as parents we really need to have more faith and trust in our children. They can pick things up and will when they are ready. I have always been laidback with my son and I think this has been to my advantage. I have also seen others get really stressed and flustered trying to force their child to do something they aren’t ready for because they are worried about developmental progress and what others think. I am glad that I haven’t let those things get to me and am so happy that my son potty trained himself! Life is easy with him J

With weaning, I decided that I wanted to let my son wean himself. I didn’t really understand the point of forcing him to eat or worrying if he wasn’t eating a lot but I did have my moments. My son is currently 2 and a half and still breastfed. He also has a huge appetite!

I first started to introduce solids around 6 months. I had read that anything before this would not be a good idea. He enjoyed melon, bananas, avocado and sweet potatoes. This wasn’t a regular thing though. Most of the time he was uninterested in food but when he did want it he ate quite a bit. As he got a bit older, he tried new things and enjoyed biting into plums, bananas and soft fruits on his own. I think this was around a year when he started to eat these things. Again this wasn’t a regular occurrence. He was not having consistent meals by 1, in fact he was still 99% breastfed.

At this stage I did have a little concern because I thought he would have been eating more than this. So I did some research, checked out other people’s experiences via forums. I found out that many babies are like this. If left to their own device they won’t eat huge amounts or regularly until well into their second year. So I relaxed and around 14 months my son’s appetite really grew and he started to eat more and more. Some days he would even have 3 meals but his nursing did not really decrease much.

He is now 2 and a half and has 3 meals everyday nearly. Some days he is a little needy and prefers to have more breast, while others he will graze all day. He is very happy, full of energy and a healthy little boy who hasn’t been ill at all. I have also found that his nursing has decreased to the point where now he will have a huge morning feed and then generally be ok during the day unless he gets upset. He also has a habit of trying to go for breastmilk when he is thirsty but I have encouraged him to drink water instead and he is often happy with that. If he isn’t happy with that then he will have breast.

If I could give some tips to other mothers on baby led weaning, I would say that my first tip would be not to worry too much. Your baby really does know what they are doing. Some days they may eat lots and lots, others they may not eat that much. Try not to be too hung up on how much they have eaten, although I must say that is more difficult to do than to say! If you are breastfeeding its much easier to relax about their eating habits because you know that they are getting lots of lovely nutrients from you still. I am not sure how this would work though with bottle fed babies so can’t really give any guidance on that.

The best thing about bay led weaning is that its easy. I did have moments where I let people get to me and then started thinking he should be eating more at this age etc, but that soon went away. I wasn’t going to stick my son on a strict feeding schedule or force him to eat – that’s too much hard work and isn’t fun. Generally though we have naturally fallen into a little routine. I make it a point of sitting at the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My son usually wants to come and sit down with me and eat. Sometimes he will eat lots and lots really quickly so he can get back to playing. If he doesn’t want to sit then I don’t make him but encourage him to eat at other times. Kids really do get into playing and my son is no exception. He has too much energy to be sitting and eating!

Anyway that is my experience with weaning my son. He isn’t fully weaned yet but I am pretty casual about it, it seems to be going well at the moment. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will give more details about my experience.

I also hope to get in more running, but as we are moving next friday I am not going to be too upset if I can’t fit in 5 or more runs. 1 or 2 this week would be great. I do get plenty of exercise out with my son so it isn’t too much of a big deal.

I got some inspiration from Naked Food Cafe to do this. The thread I got inspiration was about starting your new years resolution NOW so that when new year comes around you will already been where you want to be making 2010 the best year ever

For my weights I have been using The Basic Workout from bodybuilding.com plus their Ab Workouts.

So on Monday I did chest, triceps and shoulders. Plus I did the ab workouts. It was a great workout and got me motivated for doing my Legs today. Another tough work out.

I haven’t been able to do every life on the basic workout as I don’t have a bench right now (been using elevated surface) and I also obviously don’t have the leg attachment either so added more by going to their exercise section.

I have been really enjoying it. Hopefully but just documenting it here just that I have been working out I might actually be able to stay accountable

I will go through my plan properly on friday but just wanted to get a few things down tonight!

It is sort of a mini update on my diet. Well lately – the past month of so I have for some reason just really upped my greens. I guess I have been craving them a lot lately. When I started the 811 journey I wasn’t too fond of greens but now can sit happily munching on a romaine lettuce no problem and desiring more afterwards. It takes me a very short time to eat my greens these days then it did in the beginning (and I am glad I stopped eating spinach..because I didn’t really like it too much at the time or rather I didn’t desire it).

I seem to be eating 2 romaine lettuces (which are organic and seem to be a LOT larger than the non-organic), a few cucumbers. Sometimes I might eat more. Generally though I really enjoy – it just happened and it is very enjoyable. Before I was eating maybe a head of romaine.

What it has made me realise is how important that it is to eat your greens and a sufficient amount. When I was eating less greens I did not experience the cleansing I seem to get with eating more. I have found that I am much more regular and my body gets a good thorough cleaning. I just feel much better for it.

I feel as though your body will definitely let you know when you are eating enough greens. If you aren’t experiencing anything when consuming them daily then I believe you probably aren’t eating enough. It is almost a sense – I just know that there is something different to me!

I wish I had been consuming as much as I am now in the beginning but don’t think that would be realistic for me. I hope this makes sense

It has been a while since I have been on here but I will be back regularly very soon. I stopped posting because I was waiting patiently for something to happen with my henna pictures for my post and my experience with using henna. My phone camera decided to pack up and leave me and ever since I have been struggling to get a few off there that I REALLY wanted to use in my post about it.

Nevermind, I do have plenty but me wanting the others so much has made a 4 month delay in me posting about it! Shame on me!

I will be writing that article tonight or tomorrow though so stay tuned

For a long while I thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it because I have dyed hair (finding this hard to let go of) but from reading it seems perfectly ok. I am seriously considering growing out my dye now because I want to get rid of all chemicals, but next week am first going to try out some henna. Curiosity more than anything as I haven’t done henna properly and now I know I must try .

Anyway this is how my hair looks after baking soda/vinegar. Its the second time in the past 2 weeks I have used it and haven’t used anything else.

I am really happy with it – it feels lovely, although getting used to no smell is weird. Also the first time I used baking soda and vinegar it felt greasy but didn’t look it. This time it feels fantastic!

Hopefully I will not have to use this for very long – but once a week is all I am going to do for now.

I will update this week with the henna experiment

I have chronic tension in my back, particularly my shoulders and neck. I know these muscles can mess with your eyesight and I also know that if you want to do the eye exercises efficiently and well it is best to be as relaxed as possible. These muscles never relax – even when I think I am relaxed. So it has been my attempt to find something to relax them.

I started off going to see an osteopath which was a big waste of time. I wish I had taken the chiropractic route. The osteopath didn’t help whatsoever, so after a few sessions I had to give it up. He was just massaging me – I may as well have seen a massuese. Yes I was getting relief but only a tiny bit and only for a very short period of time. Everytime he turned me I noticed how stiff I was even when I tried to relax I remained this way.

Anyway I wish I had since a chiropractor because from my reading I feel it would have been better suited for me. I may attempt this in the new year or/and I am definitely going to try the Alexander Technique. I have be meaning to do this for a while but had decided on the osteopath first, so yeah I have learnt from that mistake!

Currently I am doing some exercises from a book by Craig Williamson called Muscular Retraining. It is a fantastic book that explains the issue of muscular tension exceptionally and in a way that makes sense to me. Like in the Alexander Technique he references to kinesthetic awareness being loss, due to muscles being tense all the time. Just like if you are in a noisy room, after a while you do not notice the sound anymore even though it is still there – he suggests muscle tension is the same. I know with my own tension that it is very hard to distinguish what those muscles are doing when I concentrate them. I have lost or rather have a faulty kinesthetic awareness due to them being tense constantly. The exercises being back awareness.

I have only been doing the exercises a few days and have found some of them impossible for me to do. This is apparently very normal for someone who has suffered from tension for such a long time, but quite annoying. It can feel quite frustrating not being able to something that should actually be really simple! Anyhoo I do feel that my shoulders and back have been loosening a little because I have this sensation of feeling a little uncomfortable emotionally. As though its loosening old tied up emotions from my back. It has made me feel a little anxious of what will be in store for my emotionally in the coming days…weeks…because I am already experiencing emotional release through my diet! So we shall see. I have hopes for these exercises.

I have also started reading a book by Kathleen Porter called Ageless Spine, Lasting Health: The Open Secret to Pain-Free Living and Comfortable Aging. This book is more focused on posture. I have skipped to the end and tried out some of the realigning and it does feel uncomfortable. I guess that is only to be expected when I have had bad posture for such a long time. I hope to put it in practice as well and in fact I am at the moment. I am sitting quite nicely on my sits bones with feet flat on the floor and my laptop screen a little higher up. I am sort of comfortable. I don’t believe I have my upper body properly aligned or my shoulders just yet but hopefully I will sort this issue out in the coming days/weeks. I really look forward to reading this book though.

I also look forward to releasing my tense shoulders for good and hopefully being able to finally deal with my eyesight. Wish me luck!