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 Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
Have you tried whipping yourself into losing weight? Do you promise yourself every time summer comes around that THIS time, you are going to stick to the diet plan and visit the gym religiously?
If you have tried all sorts of diets, but none of them seem to work, how about trying something different? An approach based on pleasure and kindness towards yourself instead of deprivation and restriction.
Here are six healthy ways to lose weight without dieting – they may not lead to rapid weight loss, but the weight loss tends to be more sustainable.
(c) copyright HealthFirst 2015
By Dr Penny Fraser, HealthFirst
Summer is here! The school bags will soon be slung into a cupboard and the suitcases brought out to pack for holidays and family visits. Whether you are travelling by car, train or plane, the one thing that should always be taken is your First Aid Kit.
How to make an arm sling
One of the essential items that you should find in your kit is an arm-sling, used for injured collarbones, shoulders, elbows, arms, wrists and hands. Do you know why you would use one of these?
Four reasons for putting an arm sling on an injured person:
- It's a pain-killer. Every time damaged skin, muscle, tendons, bones and joints are moved, they send strong pain messages along the nerves to the brain. Ouch! If these damaged tissues are kept still and supported in an arm sling then the person will be in less pain.
- It prevents secondary injury. If the damaged tissues are kept still in the sling, then this reduces the chance of bone fragments, torn veins and ligaments wobbling about and causing worse bleeding or swelling etc.
- It accelerates recovery. It is scientifically proven that if, after an injury, people have their pain controlled and psychological stress reduced, they heal quicker. Excellent First Aid includes reassuring the person with words, gestures and eye-contact whilst putting on an arm sling.
- It gives a clear signal to others. When another person sees the arm sling, they know that the wearer is injured and needs to be cared for. A paramedic, nurse or doctor will also be able to direct their questions and treatment quickly to the injured arm, indicated by the presence of the arm sling.
by Johdi Woodford, Little Bird Pilates
Picture this: it’s the evening on the African savannah, a large herd of antelope are grazing calmly. Nearby, a lioness is lying in wait in the long, yellow grass, alert to every movement, tail flicking intently. A young antelope wanders carelessly away for the rest of the herd, in search of greener pastures, and, like a bullet, the lioness leaps up, sprints the five hundred metres or so that separate her from the young buck. The agile lion springs on his back, sinks her canines deep into his jugular vein, and the rest you know from many a happy moment in front of David Attenbrough’s Wildlife on One, perhaps. You’ve seen it a million times, right? But what you never, never see, is the lioness on the sidelines quickly breaking into a few lunges, squats and quad stretches before she sets off for the kill. And what you most certainly never see is the unsuspecting prey giving it a hasty limbering up in case of a predator’s attack. So, if animals, and high-performing, athletic animals, (we’re not talking about the slow-moving koala, or the giant, three-toed sloth here), don’t stretch before they set off, should we, as another active and supposedly highly intelligent animal put so much stock in stretching?
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
These cookies are a healthier Nutella in cookie form made using just three ingredients: Hazelnuts, cacao powder and maple syrup. It is a darker chocolate adult version that loses the milkiness but keeps the hazelnut/chocolate combination and adds some crunch from the roasted hazelnuts.
These cookies are very simple to make but you will need a good food processor and as there are so few ingredients, try to buy the best quality you can find.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups or 300g hazelnuts
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 3 tbsp cacao powder (full-fat and unsweetened)
- a pinch of salt
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
Here are some easy, healthy options which all have a good mix of healthy fats, protein and carbohydrates to fill you up and keep you satisfied until your next meal! Combining sugary carbohydrates like fruit with a source of fat and/or protein like nuts or seeds ensures more stable energy as blood sugar levels rise more slowly and consistently.
If you are wondering what the role of snacks should be in your diet, I wrote about how often to eat based on my own experience here http://www.healthwise.ch/how-often-should-you-eat-%E2%80%A8%E2%80%A8/
Savoury Snacks
- Hummus with raw vegetable sticks (carrot, celery, cucumber). You can make a big batch of hummus to keep in the fridge for several days. Recipe here: http://www.healthwise.ch/humus-no-bread/
- Cottage cheese - you can add chopped herbs like chives or chopped fruit like apple or pineapple or even berries for a little more taste.
- Chickpea croutons are a super easy snack to make when you want something crispy - and you can add any spices you want to them https://www.pinterest.com/pin/261490322090355039/
- Hard-boiled egg - you can actually make these in advance and keep them in the fridge to use over several days. Learn how to boil eggs perfectly here: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-boil-eggs-perfectly-every-time-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-202415 or here: http://mykingcook.com/how-to-make-hard-boiled-eggs/
- Plain, air-popped popcorn.
- Tinned tuna or salmon. You can place it in a wrap made from nori or a lettuce leaf.
- Piece of cheese, perhaps with a few grapes or slices of pears.
- Dried meat - the Swiss meat viande des Grisons is a good option.
- A few forkfuls of fermented vegetables like sauerkraut or kimchi. Fermented food is great for balancing the bacteria in our gut and it can even help curb sugar cravings. You can make you own or buy fermented sauerkraut at Migros (make sure it is raw + unpasteurized).
- Whole grain crackers (like brown rice) with avocado, cottage cheese, hummus or nut butter spread on top.
- Grilled Haloumi cheese.
- Leftover piece of chicken, meat or fish
