Inside My Wardrobe

Well this is a nice and light topic for mid August isn’t it? I was contacted by a Podcast listener a few weeks ago and she asked if I would do a podcast on Eating Disorders and I of course said yes, but having been there myself, do not take this subject lightly and quite honestly, wasn’t sure where to start. However when I saw Beyonce’s diet plan being bandied around and a lot of discussion amongst the health experts as to how it can be dangerous, I thought I would jump right in. She says to reach her goals, she must limit herself to no bread, no carbs, no sugar, no dairy, no meat, no fish, no alcohol – and she admits she’s hungry – all very entertaining but also incredibly irresponsible – what message is she giving to all the girls and women who think she is fab? The reality is, if you go without carbohydrates, the brain is starved of essential sugars, the NHS however suggests that starchy foods such as potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and cereals should make up just over a third of the food we eat As far as I a

So we are in the thick of school holidays and we know they can be a testing time for everyone involved! We take on a huge mission as parents to care, nurture, protect, inspire and guide our young ones however with the testing times of no routine, boredom, too much screen time and sibling spats, how on earth do we get through?   I’ve had a few years doing this now and these are some of my top tips for coping? 1.      Put Something in their Love Bank Before you start the day and try to get through everything you need to do before taking the kids out, give them a small amount of undivided attention, pay in to their bank and they are then set up for the rest of the day 2.      Give Responsibilities Chores to help around the house are a great way to give them something to do and to also help you out at this particularly busy time. Come up with a list of jobs that you are willing to give pocket money for – encourage them to earn, it helps them learn how to manage money and it definitely slows down their spending

How many times do you find yourself descending into an argument and you can’t even remember why you’re fighting? This is a life skill that everyone needs but few master – I’m still on the journey too! So, after a slight near miss recently I was inspired to do this as a podcast as it dawned on me that often during summer holidays, or Christmas, or occasions when we spend prolonged time with each other, sometimes disagreements occur and I thought it might be helpful to address it ahead of time and come up with a strategy that might help so I’ve come up with a strategy that hopefully will not only help, but also give you a smile every time you remember it – because let’s face it, if you’re smiling, it’s really hard to be angry! *Listen *Empathize – empathy is the ability to understand how someone else might feel, to see things from their side of the fence and that can often really help understand where they are coming from even if from your side, it looks different. This can be a great point to realise you m

Have you ever been abroad and tried to be understood in your native language and not got very far? The same happens at home when we communicate love to each other. If we are speaking it differently, then we can often end up feeling unloved, misunderstood, and then potentially frustrated with one another and so the erosion begins.  If you want to safety net your love and guard it from waning, then you need to hear this. Have you ever heard of relationships that just sort of went wrong along the way but for no reason? The 5 love languages are key to understanding each other and communicating our love for one another both as partners and parents. 

This is something I have been challenged with as I get older, its easy to slip into the habit of needing to "have my face on" however that doesn't define who we are and sometimes therefore it's a good exercise, to force ourselves to go against the grain. It's all about confidence and self acceptance.  So, earlier this week I put out a challenge on Instagram for people to go somewhere without a scrap of make up on. Some embraced it with both arms and others were quite reticent, it was a really interesting response. I dig into it a little deeper during this podcast but the all important question is this, will you embrace the challenge ...and if so, can you repeat it again??

Hand on heart, the very first time either of my kids ever said no to me was not until they were in their teens, it was so foreign to me that I didn’t quite know how to respond! You see I had pretty much raised them without the word “no” in our vocabulary. I don’t like it, there are many alternatives to instruct our children in ways that allow them to think for themselves. “No” is definite and it is a door closer, and I want to keep that door between me and my kids open, always.   This all came about after spending a number of years in my 20s living in Holland. They are known to be a very liberal culture yet I observed that their children and more importantly their young adults were surprisingly balanced with alcoholism and teenage pregnancy not being an issue in the slightest. It dawned on me that with the lack of “no” in their lives, they had the freedom to become young adults who knew who they were, who had the ability to make their own informed choices and the will to walk away when necessary. I also obse

Flying by the seat of our pants on this week's podcast as we cover all sorts from giving away expensive jeans that you once loved, the challenges in a second marriage (don't mention the Jamie Oliver pestle and mortar!), how to handle sibling choices and karma, does it really come around? Enjoy! 

A bit like chasing the end of the rainbow, is it ever possible in today’s culture to live a balanced life? It looks different for all of us but there are some definite keys to finding it. To be fair, it looks different for all of us and the Swedish art of Lagom (pronounced 'lah-gom') ….loosely translated as “not too little, not too much, just right” is very helpful in encouraging us how to create balance by valuing “just the right amount” or having enough/sufficient, rather than having everything - there’s quite a difference!  Lagom is a liberating concept, praising the idea that anything more than just enough, is a waste of time. It also comes with a selflessness and core belief of responsibility and common good. The word itself is widely believed to come from the Viking term 'laget om', for when a mug of mead was passed around a circle and there was just enough for everyone to get a sip. In this episode, we unpick living “lagom” and discover our own personal balance in life. Once we get our heads around

Rather than pretending we are living our best life, we want to live our real life. So, if we dare be brave enough to look in the mirror and bare our true selves to our selves, to love and accept that person for who he/she is today, we will slowly grow in confidence and become more and more able to be that person we were born to be, to stand up, speak out, and embrace life in its fullness. Finally we reach the end of what has been an epic start to this podcast’s life! Who is mad enough to begin with such a monumental task as this? We have done well though and covered some pretty heavy stuff so this week I skim over it all, recap and remind us of all the aspects we addressed that hopefully will encourage us to be ok with NOT living our best lives but instead, walking in our own shoes and taking life with its ups and downs, highs and lows and making the most of each and every day we have. 005: Unedited – being ok with not being perfect 007: Unplanned – dealing with life’s curve balls and spanners in works 009

This weekend, You Magazine’s editor, Jo Elvin titled her Editors Letter “Ease Up Superwomen!” with a really open and honest personal story of how she struggled once she had been made redundant as it really challenged her identity. We take such pride in being considered strong, we feel that we have to be busy all the time in order to be taken seriously – I’m as bad as anyone else at not being able to sit down for any length of time which makes me think that sometimes we need to ask ourselves, WHY we are feeling the need to be superwoman? Who are we doing it for? Who are we trying to prove something to?  Because if we are running from something below the surface, we will just keep running. It’s not going to go away. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a real plate spinner and that’s often a necessity in modern life but if it gets to the stage that you CAN’T stop or you are CONSTANTLY on the go in order to feel like you have to keep up, to fit in – then I think we have to be careful that we aren’t heading for a brick wall.

Identifying what holds us back and discovering the antidotes to hurl us forwards! This week I take a look at the 3 main hurdles that hold us back in life and then give you the antidotes to them, hey presto, it’s that easy! We’ve gone through this whole journey over the last few months together and now it’s time to start looking forwards. We could go the distance if only we would believe in ourselves. We are our own worst enemies and our only limit is our heads. We fear that we won’t bounce back if it doesn’t go to plan but that means that we never take risks in the first place, yet we KNOW that the best experiences in life come from taking risks Expect success and deal with disappointment when you need to Find your own way, don’t follow the path everyone else has trodden before you Be excited about what might be Consume as much positivity and celebration as you can – WE ONLY LIVE ONCE I always tell my kids: ·         The more you love, the bigger your heart gets ·         The more you give the deeper your w

There is an ancient proverb which says the secret to living well is to eat half, walk double, laugh triple and love without measure so this week that’s exactly what the plan is! Slightly vague and around the houses, it’s a half hour chit chat going from comedy with Bill Bailey, to eating disorders and diets, to swimming like a fish or frog and so on! This is the link to the absolutely brilliant recording of Space Odyssey which never fails to give me a hearty laugh – their determination and commitment is worthy of an award …not to mention the joy that has been experienced by many after the fact! Not at all at their expense, let’s face it, it’s mainly this hilarious because we’ve all been there! I hope you enjoy, this is also the link to Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In (I got her name right finally, not without Google's help!!) and don't forget to come and join in with the Facebook group Inside My Wardrobe! 

Failure is a good thing! The only way to get out of a situation where we feel stuck, is to do something differently. Nothing changes if nothing changes and we don’t always know if we’re going to get it right but we at least owe it to ourselves to try. We only fail once we stop trying so get up, dust off, and keep going!   Thanks so much for listening, here's the link to the book by Elizabeth Day “How To Fail” and as always, do feel free to come and find me on Twitter or Instagram or join in with the Inside my Wardrobe group on Facebook   

So this week I was really inspired by the story of a young British vet who ditched everything she had at home and set up a charity in Sri Lanka working with dogs who lived on the street. Whether or not dogs are your thing, what struck me was how happy she was. She works from sun up to sun down, has no life outside of her work and very little money but doesn’t care. In fact, she said she feels like the luckiest girl alive. So what are we doing wrong? What’s it all about? This episode of Inside My Wardrobe is touching on how to feel the luckiest person alive by finding your passion and purpose, making a difference in your world, collectively making a difference in our world. I was reading a National Geographic article this week which states that the latest findings as part of a massive UN study, the first in decades of its kind, that thanks to our behaviour, 1,000,000 species may be pushed to extinction in the next few years – this holds serious consequences for our future but how often do we actually think abo

Everything in our life comes from what we believe is true and those truths inform our decisions and behaviour on a daily basis. What if however, those truths aren’t actually truth? It’s time to start confronting the fears that whisper in our ears and hold us back each day and start seeing where they have been affecting our relationships, our work, our choices and our future. It might be that you’re afraid of asking why the relationship broke, or afraid of showing your face without make up on, or asking your boss for a promotion, or of becoming a parent because you don’t know if you’ll get it right. It could be you are scared of being on your own, of embracing a new opportunity, fearful of moving forwards as hanging on to the past somehow feels safer. Afraid of putting on your trainers and being seen out on a run, of trying in case you fail, of telling someone your true feelings, or of working to save a relationship and saying sorry in case you are shunned – the list is endless. We all have things we hold ba

A light hearted 30 min episode on packing, going on holiday and what would you grab if your house was on fire - inspired by the miraculous escape of so many artefacts from the awful fire in Notre Dame. I take you on a whistle stop tour through my trying to come up with a plan should disaster strike - I don't think I succeed however I DO succeed in hiding from packing ahead of holiday and the rather necessary sort out and clean up - the house is a tip!

Having an Uncluttered head, heart and home is vital for coping with our busy and multi-facetted modern lifestyles. There is no avoiding stress these days so it’s all about structuring our lives around the different plates we spin and hats that we wear so we are best able to manage without falling apart! Living your unreal life means living YOUR life, being you, being connected with your reality and making it work. We all have bills to pay, it could be you have children to care for and raise,  you might be part of the sandwich generation and caring for a parent at the same time, you might run your own business, perhaps you have a job AND your run a separate business from home, you may have animals that depend on you for attention and exercise, you may be committed to a local club or association, maybe you do voluntary work – whatever it is, long gone are the 9-5 days where the weekend and evenings are open for rest. We all try to fit in as much as possible and consequently, looking at how we do that and possib

This week’s podcast continues the theme of managing stress and this week we look at living with long term stress – be it illness, family dynamics or other situations that aren’t necessarily that easy to change or walk away from. Earlier this week it was announced that over 40% of businesses have seen a rise in people taking time off work last year due to stress and that 90% of cases seen by GPs are stress related. The numbers are clearly increasing when it comes to anxiety and depression so, what can we do to manage our busy lifestyles and the stress that results from it? This week we look at the example of author Maggie O Farrell and how she lives with a long term stress caused by her childhood illness and also how her family lives in a state of high alert as one of her children suffers with multiple extreme allergic reactions, sometimes life threatening, on a regular basis. I have two coping mechanisms to share with you, one for short and one for long term stress – and this is where the water and coffee com

Well there was me thinking there might even be time to play the piano for 5/6 minutes in the middle of this one – ha ha ha!!! This week we are talking about managing meltdowns, dealing with stress and coping with the anxiety life often brings – what on earth made me think it was going to be a short one? I must be off my head! It’s the longest yet at 1hr 17mins and no, there’s not 45 minutes of plinky plonk in the middle! Living an unwound life - so this week I attempt to talk about where stress comes from and how we can manage it. Stress as a term is used to describe feelings we experience when we are feeling under pressure, when emotions are heightened, where things externally such as a negative work environment, family issues, financial difficulty, abuse, trauma, exams, daily hassles or change are in the air – there’s an endless list of what comes at us externally to cause stress but how much of it is avoidable? Government survey this time last year, 4619 adults found that ·         74% of UK adults have f

How on earth are we expected to keep up with fashion at the pace it is at these days? And with the rivers and oceans being so polluted, what can we do to make a difference? The fashion industry is the second highest polluter globally and we can’t keep our fingers in our ears about it any longer. If we all make a small change, together we can make a big one – and let’s face it, the government is busy bickering about other things right now! Here in Britain, we sent 235 million items of clothing to landfill last year alone. Both literally and figuratively, we can’t afford to live like this anymore. So in this podcast, we discuss the solution. It’s not about finding the least damaging fabrics, it’s about buying more wisely, sometimes buying less but definitely re-using more. Of course we love a treat but perhaps we should treat ourselves less often by spending a little more so it lasts longer and then of course, we could look back to our grandparents’ generation for inspiration. Make do and mend saw them through