Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Family section. To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:
- Birgit Suess is a Swiss-American who grew up between the US and Switzerland and speaks English, German and Swiss-German. Because of a worldwide shortage of Speech Therapists, she uses technology to connect special needs students around the world with English speaking Speech Therapists. With almost 20 years of experience as a Speech Therapist and 10 years experience with Teletherapy, she is a pioneer in the Teletherapy world. Her personal specialty is working on social language with high functioning children on the Autism Spectrum. Her passion is finding new and innovative ways to help children with special needs.
- Dr. Irina Schurov is a Nutritional Neuroscientist with a PhD from Cambridge University (UK) and over 20 years’ experience in science and health-providing services. She created and founded LiveRight, an initiative to help others through nutrition and wellbeing strategies. By building an educational platform around healthy eating habits, by restoring the relationships between people and food, by supporting your individual circumstances and through personalized coaching in nutrition, she wants to help you and your family achieve the optimal balance between help and life.
- Micaela Crespo started her expat adventures at the age of 17. During her expat journey she obtained a PhD in Chemical Engineering, she became a project manager, started blogging, got married and had two children. She believes all expat mums have the potential of carrying out their dreams! She created Expat Lifehacks to help expat mothers who feel overwhelmed and lost develop the confidence and strategies they need to feel fully supported and thrive.
- Hiba Samawi (formerly Giacoletto)
Hiba is a Psychologist and Coach working in Geneva, Lausanne and online. She previously ran Healthwise.ch, a health coaching business where she also created healthy recipes. She now specializes mostly in difficulties around relationships, emotions, making healthy change and eating, and also offers group sessions, both in-person in Geneva/Lausanne and online. - Dr. Penny Fraser
Dr Penny is a British-trained Emergency Medicine doctor, who lives in Geneva. She is also the mother of two busy little skiers aged 7 and 8. Along with Dr Michelle Wright and her other colleagues at HealthFirst, she has a passion for delivering health education and First Aid training to the English-speaking community in Switzerland. - Milena McRae
Milena McRae works with individuals and groups from all walks of life, helping them build their dreams, accelerate their results, and create richer, more fulfilling lives. As a certified life coach, she specialises in helping you discover your purpose and create an environment that is supportive of it. In working with Milena, you will be guided to analyse your existing beliefs, patterns of thinking and behaviors that are at the core of your current results and then transform and align them with your desired results.
- Johdi Woodford
Born in Zimbabwe in 1979, Johdi discovered Pilates in 1999 when a leg injury ended her marathon running career and an osteopath suggested she try Pilates. Arriving in Switzerland in 2004, she decided to make her passion her career and trained to become a Pilates Instructor after the birth of her first child. Johdi opened Little Bird Pilates in 2014 with the aim of sharing her passion for intelligent exercise to a wider audience. Her main aim is to help people, of any age and any sporting background, to find freedom of movement, and gain strength and suppleness without pain and discomfort. - Tanya Jeannet
With children of her own, Tanya understands only too well the challenges of working and having children, and is determined to provide a service, through her franchise business, Rockmybaby, that will help make life a little easier for families when it comes to childcare. She strives to help parents feel confident in the care of their children so that they can have some well-deserved time-out’s for themselves.
- Duncan Delreeve (formerly Reeve) - Peak of Wellbeing
Duncan has been in the health, fitness and wellbeing industry for over 19 years and works with clients in Europe and the UK on a one to one basis, in small groups and via workshops. His specialist areas include Golf Performance Conditioning, Back Pain and Core Strengthening, Rehabilitation and Corrective Exercise. - Jennie Delreeve (formerly Delbridge) - Peak of Wellbeing
Jennie has worked professionally in the health and fitness industry for over 15 years and is passionate about helping others to achieve peak health and wellbeing. She works on a one to one basis and runs workshops, talks and seminars throughout Europe, including the UK.
By Tanya Jeannet, Rockmybaby
Full-time live –in and live-out nanny salaries range between 3500CHF – 5000CHF per month gross on average depending on experience and qualifications and number of hours worked per month (full time standard hours are 43 hours a week in Zurich for nannies – each canton varies on standard hours too). For live-in nannies, an amount of 990CHF can be deducted from their salaries for food and accommodation. Hourly rates for nannies range between 20CHF-35CHF per hour gross on average, once again depending on experience and qualifications.
On top of the gross salary, the employer has to add his/ her contributions to AHV / AVS as per below, Accident Insurance and BVG (if salary above annual threshold of 21 150CHF). The employer is also responsible for deducting the employee contributions from the monthly gross salary and paying them to the appropriate institutions.
by Johdi Woodford, Little Bird Pilates
The use of the word ‘butt’ bothers me a bit here, as I’m used to using British English, (you know, the one the Queen speaks!?), and so I would usually say ‘bum’, but that sometimes makes people think of a beggar-type person, and I’m trying to stick to anatomical parts here, and then derrière sounds so pretentious, but whatever the semantics, know that this post is for all of us, because it’s all about people who sit, what that does to them, and how they can avoid the major pitfalls of sitting. Oh no! That’s right, I’ve already written about that here.
Ok, now I’ve jogged my own poor memory, this time, I’m going to outline 3 ‘moves’ that we can do to lessen the impact on the parts of our body that tend to bother us? Think neck, shoulders, lower back, and hips, and think, simple, fuss-free strategies for breaking the sedentary cycle. With anything, any activity, in life, as humans, and as bipeds, if we engage our lower abdominals, think the lower half below the belly button and then lift our lower back bones, we work all the rest of our bodies. It’s all to do with a mights structure called the Thoracolumbar Complex, but don’t worry that now, just read on! If you spend long periods sitting, these 3 moves will help in many different ways that should become evident as you do them regularly. They’re easy and they work, trust me!
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
This is a simple, tasty recipe that you can serve either warm or cold.
The combination of tastes and textures in this recipe is incredibly interesting to the tastebuds, particularly due to the umami (http://www.healthwise.ch/umami-or-how-to-make-more-satisfying-meals/) combo of garlic / onion / Feta / olives. If you lightly toast the pumpkin seeds, this also makes them more umami and lends a more enticing texture.
Ingredients
- 4 sweet potatoes – medium sized (about 500g)
- 1 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 2 onions or scallions, chopped
- 200g Feta cheese, diced AND/OR olives
- About 2 tablespoons parsley or coriander, chopped
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Green vegetable of your choice – here I added some steamed broccoli as a side to make a more complete meal but you can also add a handful of spinach leaves or chopped kale at the end and simply stir through to wilt the leaves slightly.
“…my hands were going pump, pump, pump. It was so basic in a way – no fancy beeping machines, hospital bed or team of medical doctors in white coats. Just the wet ground, me in my old jeans and some bystanders with a phone.”
Dr Penny Fraser, medical doctor and founder of HealthFirst, talks to her:
So, what happened that damp evening in December?
“I was on the way to pick up my six-year old daughter from her school friend’s party, when I turned a sharp bend in the road and saw a man lying in a hedge. Then I saw his bicycle lying nearby and two people standing looking at him. This looked a bit worrying to me and I thought my skills as a nurse and First Aid Trainer might be useful. So I pulled over and parked safely a little way ahead.”
What did you do next?
“I grabbed my phone and car keys then approached cautiously wondering what I might find. I asked the two bystanders what had happened and whether I could help. They both looked rather blank, shocked really, and told me that they had no idea what had happened. It was a bit wet on the ground but I just pushed into the hedge where he lay and spoke to him. He didn’t reply and when I rubbed hard on his collarbones, he just lay there unresponsive. I think he was about 60 years old and he looked very pale – white-ish or grey but the evening light was fading and it was difficult to tell.”
by Johdi Woodford, Little Bird Pilates
Alignment is how the body moves; how the various parts move alongside each other to ensure that there’s no friction or restriction. Posture is static, it’s how you choose to hold your body when you’re not moving and it’s probably been influenced by your culture, your background and the activities you do.
Compare a ballet dancer to a footballer, for example. See the 2 photos in this article if you’re in doubt as to what the difference may be.
Alignment is more important to work on than posture because, with correct alignment (note I didn’t say ‘good’ alignment) what you are actually working towards is bringing all your muscles back to their optimum length, and (re)educating your body as to its best position for pain-free movement.
And why should you care? Because when your musculoskeletal system is aligned, all your body systems can function properly, for as long as possible, with the least amount of unnecessary wear and tear. Sounds good, right?
