Check out the NoSdiet. It is common sense eating and designed by a man, although it is also how many cultures eat already. Rather than focusing on WHAT you eat you eat 3 meals a day, no seconds, no snacks, no sweets, except on weekends when you can break all the rules. Easy to follow. Then you exercise- whatever you actually enjoy doing.

For me any reasonable definition of a classical education- such as this one I just grabbed off google: a classical education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty by means of the seven liberal arts and the four sciences is such a different paradigm to the practicalities and utilitarian function of a public school education. Yet they both have their place and truth is, most people aren't so interested in the above. We can survive pretty well without history, science, algebra- even without grammar and reasonable writing skills. I guess the "masses" did survive without those things for most of history, too, and they were reserved for the elite. But the masses were probably a lot better at all sorts of survival skills, crafts etc than we are, too. I tend to think of schools as training for the culture, for the workplace, for the society- they are places of enculturation into the mainstram modern culture nowadays. I think of a "good education" as a completely different paradigm- inclusive of the practicalities but so much more.

Hi Rosie- Deepak Chopra's books on Ayurveda- such as Perfect Health- are also pretty good.

OK, here is where i am at with this stuff. I have been doing some training in non violent communication- went to another workshop yesterday. I have changed in how I communicate with my kids. Instead of always "telling" , including the type of telling where we sound like we are asking but we are really telling, I am asking nicely. If I get a bad response- I stop and communicate and find out what is going on, and also share what is going on for me- but respectfully. I have also told the kids this is what I am doing. Yes, sometimes they take advantage of it- but overall, the communication is healthier and the anger levels are much lower. I have come to the conclusion that telling kids what to do all the time IS also a way of disrespecting them. Especially teens- and I have only got teens to work with. I know *I* dont like my husband to *tell* me what to do. Or anyone else. But if he *asks* me nicely in a way that I feel I actually have a choice here, it is completely different- I am respected as an autonomous being. Teenagers are on the threshold of adulthood and I think deserve more than to be *told* to do things all the time- even if they are disrespectful. Mine are responding pretty well to being asked. Yes, they often dont do their chores still- mainly because they are very busy nowadays, especially in the mornings- but a gentle reminder and a checking if they are going to do them- is usually enough if they forget. Thats better than the escalating frustration I used to act on and express, and which would cause a certain response in the teen. I am not setting up a pattern of resistance, or an opportunity for rebellion. I am just asking. The thing is- they respond much better to being asked. They feel respected. Even if they are chores they are meant to be doing day after day, that we have an agreement on. And I feel better- I sometimes do get upset- but I also share my feelings with them- how frustrating it is to have to remind them etc- and that way, I am being real with them too, not just selling out and being nice. I havent gone the whole way with the non violent communication methods because I am just working with this one and building trust with them. Empathising with them. No one likes to be bossed around and everyone wants to be heard and seen deeply. A kid who feels really understood and respected is much more likely to see the reasonablness in unpacking the dishwasher. Yes, I think that is very important- to start fresh and not to hold their bad handling of their own emotions against them in an ongoing way. I know my son has told me what he hates the most is when he first gets up in the morning to be told to do something. He would really like some time to just connect, and do his thing, before being told/asked to do things. And he especially doesnt want to go to school with a parent angry with him. Yes, I think that is the same here too. Except in our case, dh has a tendency to toilet humour so the toilet humour level sometimes goes over the top. :glare: My angriest is my most loving and affectionate one too. They make us grow, don't they? Thats why I think it is more a personality thing than necessarily a "there is one way to do it" thing. You learn what works for your kid. It sounds like you have some serious emotional wounding there, which makes it hard to find the balance? No- and if they are not respecting you that is because you are not respecting yourself. But if you snap- which is perfectly human- what about apologising? If snapping is common, then are you feeling out of control and disrespected regularly? But when I have seen what you have written- it sounds very much like you are ordering your daughter around- and while that is "normal" parenting in our society, I really wonder if that is a source of her disrespect and rebelliousness towards you? Its a pattern and it builds resentment in some teenagers. To me, asking nicely doesn't mean I am not respecting myself- I am - but I am also modelling respect to my teens and giving them an opportunity to respond with similar respect. They nearly always do. And by the way, my dh is not on board with my approach and that is causing issues here but I can't go back to my old way of parenting of bossing them around. I just can't. So we have 2 parenting models happening here and the teens are seeing both and responding accordingly. Dh knows what i am doing though and it is influencing him. However I am also respecting *him* more to parent the way *he* wants instead of arguing with him about it. The kids are fine with it- we have always had different approaches.

Yes, I really think that is true. I was a great parent until my 2nd came along :)

Well, Negin...if it doesnt feel right...maybe you should trust that too. DOign a diet that is supposed to be healing something, but that is also hurting (because its so high in protein, restrictive, and causing him to lose weight), jsut doesn't sound right to me. On what information are you going, that he is on such a strict, restrictive diet? I am studying Ayurveda again at the moment and what you are saying really makes me think that he might be a bit of a Vata constitution and the diet he is on for the candida is not helping his constitutional balance- not nourishing it properly. In the end- if the cost of the candida is balance and health in other areas- you are still not going to get health. I am just getting a feeling that you might need to widen the scope and not focus so much on the candida as the "enemy". It definitely shouldn't be a long term diet for a skinny person, that's for sure. The way I have tended to deal with candida with myself, and in recommendations to others, is just to cut out bread (yeast), white flour, too much fruit, and especially any sugar. FOr most people that is fairly doable and if their health is otherwise ok, their body will naturally come back into balance. I know mine does- for me, I used to be addicted to sugar. When I cut that out- only sugar- all those chronic candida symptoms dropped away too over time, although that wasnt my intention. I dont want to undermine whatever authority you are using to treat your husband, but reading your post above just seemed like a red flag to me that something is not right with his treatment. The cure shouldn't be worse than the disease, IYKWIM.

I havent seen it before but it just looks like another rehash of the high protein/ketosis type diet. I dont like it myself because I don't think a high meat diet is healthy. When they say "high protein" they only mean "high meat". Its not that it doesn't work to drop the weight- its just not healthy or sustainable- IMHO. I am coming back to edit this post because i am reading a book called the 3 season diet by John Douillard this evening after coming across it today online- and I really like the concept and its kind of relevant here. The idea is that in nature, we would all eat seasonally- and that is how animals in nature eat. His idea is that in winter, a high protein and fat diet is natural- such as squirrels and their nuts, man and his stored foods (dried meats, nuts and grains), bears and their whatever. So in winter, an Atkins type approach will work much better than in say summer. In spring, it is natural (in nature) to eat a lot of greens, bitters, roots, sprouts, and basically a low fat and low carb diet - such as Weight Watchers. Interesting to me that I started WW last September- which is Spring here- and enjoyed it and lost weight for a few months but as summer came on I dropped it. In summer, he says, the days are longer, we need more energy, and the harvest is abundant with fresh fruits and vegetables- so a high carb diet is more natural- such as the many vegetarian or near vegetarian diets out there. All have scientific research to back them up. His theory is that they all work- but they wont work long term because they all limit major food categories- and they work best in the appropriate season. But after a few months, the cravings for the next seasons' natural foods will overcome the willpower to stay on a diet that doesn't suit that season. I dont know if I have explained it very well but it is making sense to me. He is Ayurvedically trained and I am very familiar with the system- I have always loved ayurveda- but he has relaly brought it into the western way of thinking. Just throwing that out there for other diet- interested people. I am not really interested in losing weight- the weight watchers and No So diet (which this book endorses- 3 meals a day, no snacks- although it doesn't mention it), have dealt with that for me. But I am fascinated with diet anyway and this seems like a very common sense way of looking at why diets work sometimes, or for a period of time, but are often unsustainable in the long run.

Respectful is ideal but we dont always make it. Any of us- except dd16- she is always respectful now I think about it. Dh and ds are loud, expressive, emotional creatures :) and sometimes I have to tell both of them to tone it down and talk to me more respectfully. I have been known to lose my cool too.:) However I would rather have it a bit loose and loud and real and expressive at times, than repressed and polite all the time. I grew up in a family who didn't express anything- I am now in a family where it all hangs out :) and I know I prefer what we have now.

I agree that you just need to wait till they are teens and then it will be a non -issue :) Still- I know what you mean and I love how you are already handling it. I have pretty much done the same.

We live in suburbia and have 7 chickens- its very easy. About 5 minutes work a day, really.

Yellow- sunshiny yellow.

I had my first one recently- very painful! I think it happened because I cut the nail too short. I tried various things and I wanted to cut it but couldn't get to it and it was really too painful to touch. In the end, after a week or so it just grew out and has been fine since then. My nails grow quite fast I think.

My husband has had one and it changed his life- but it wasn't in the sense that he died and then came back- which I have read many cases of as well- but in the sense that he was facing his death for many hours, and it changed his life. He was a wealthy entrepreneur living the high life. His now ex wife and he were going out in a boat to meet up with friends out at some islands. He didn't check the weather and the islands being low lying, he went past them and then got caught in bad weather. The swell went to something ridiculously high and the boat started to sink. They had to bail out the boat constantly, and were suffering from hypothermia, and constant vomiting from sea sickness, for 12 hours straight. He was on the radio trying to get help but they couldn't find him- this was before GPS- eventually an oil tanker picked up his signal and they were rescued. Within weeks of that incident, which was in the newspapers, he had sold his businesses and his whole life direction changed towards service.

That's good news though, Jean- parasites are very treatable. Candida is such a vague sort of thing since we all have it anyway.

And if your thyroid condition is related to a lack of iodine, it will help. I know in Australia iodine is lacking in the soils- and in western countries our diets do tend to be low in iodine compared to, say, Japan. But I have been reading that iodine can actually fuel an attack on the thyroid if it is an auto immune system condition.

Would you be wiling to share what else you changed? I know it might be personal to you, but I am gathering information.

:iagree: but the problem is most doctors don't really have a clue about this stuff. I found one who specialises in nutritional medicine who gave me the thyroid antibodies test- I actually didn't know about it until after that- and am only now learning all this stuff. I honestly don't think my doctor knows about these other tests. I will probably end up educating her. Yes, you can certainly have low iron and blood sugar issues. I would go so far as to say unless you specifically eat a low carb diet and are very conscious of eating low GI- you probably do have some sort of blood sugar issues if you have eaten a typical western diet in your childhood or adulthood. It may not be a primary issue though- for me I am leaving that issue which is not so bad for me, on the back burner, while I work on my low iron/ferritin levels. No, it is NOT "normal" to get a slump after meals (the author of the book I recommended says that a sign that you ate too much carbs during a meal, for YOUR body, is a slump after meals)- or to get shaky if you miss a meal- but it IS so common that is seems normal. Yes I think this diet probably works very well because auto immune issues are very related to the gut. I think I had better have another look at it. Yes, but treating yourself naturally can be a very hit and miss thing- just because she tried something, even recommended by a naturopath, doesn't mean she was really treating the issue, the cause- the thyroid research is really relatively new and not all naturopaths will be up on it- particularly if they don't have access to blood tests. Taking some selenium, iodine, even porcine thyroid - is a hit and miss thing. It may work, it may not- because it may or may not be dealing with the cause of the issue. In which case synthroid will at least deal with the problematic symptoms- to some extent. But I just wanted to make a point that just because you see a naturopath for thyroid issues doesn't mean they really know how to fix it- and doesn't make all other alternative treatments void. I would personally not give up so easy. However of course pregnancy is a major trigger for hypothyroid issues so if you haven't got a handle on it by then, its not surprising to need to take synthroid at that point.

I am working on this right now too since getting back a positive antibody test- my immune system is attacking my thyroid- the most common cause of hypothyroidism (hashimotos). It is my understanding that YES, it is DEFINTIELY curable in many cases. I downloaded this book as a Kindle: Why do I Still HAve Thyroid Symptoms? and have read it and am implementing what i have read, even though I havent got all the vairous blood tests- over there in the U.S. though you will have access to physicians he has trained. There are forums at this website which I have found useful. Basically I am going gluten free and soy free. I do not take iodine for reasons stated in the book, though it is not going to be harmful to everyone- it can apparently fuel an attack on the thyroid. I also want to know if going gluten free is enough, when I go back for blood tests in May. Basically he is saying that if your hypothyroidism is auto-immune, it is actually an immune system issue rather than a thyroid issue, and that is where it should be treated. Treating the thyroid itself is just treating a symptom. That makes sense to me. Auto immune issues tend to cluster- you have one, chances are you will get others along the track- so it is important to treat that rather than the end results. So he talks about two different immune system pathways and how one is usually dominant and one is usually weak, in most people. By supporting the weak one it apparently can really help the immune system to come back into balance. You balance the weak one with a supplement of herbs- I am familiar with the herbs he uses and have found equivalent supplements here in Australia- not the same as his brand. Also, low iron/ferritin is extremely important to fix, as is a blood sugar issue, as are exhausted adrenals. Basically, all the endocrine systems work together and when when one is affected it is often all affected- from PCOS to diabetes to thyroid to pituitary to adrenals etc. It is a very wholistic approach that is very scientifically based. He and physicians he has trained have cured many hashimotos cases. There are probably other approaches too, which also work- I am going with this one for now (in my own way at home, without access to his labs or physicians) because it makes sense to me and the guy has certainly done his research, as well as worked with many, many cases. But yes- I do find it sad that hypothyroidism is so, so common and so many people just end up on tablets for the rest of their lives as if that is normal for your thyroid to stop working. It isn't normal at all!

I have only been completely gluten free for a week- no joint pain in that week though. Except the day I drank coffee. Wow, I get immediate feedback now from one cup of coffee- instant aching joints. I would expect it would take a month or more though for the body to clear out the toxins built up by years of eating gluten if one has developed antibodies to it.

I must say this is what has happened to my son. He has less free social life and significantly less personal free time. However being surrounded by kids all day is fulfilling something anyway, as is the stimulation of various teachers and class discussions.

They are definitely not necessities. I have an IMac, an Ipad and an IPod. I have a mobile phone that I hardly use but I do intend to upgrade to an IPhone in the next couple of months when my contract runs out. I am not mobile phone savvy at all and it has taken a couple of years for my family to train me to actually charge the thing regularly so they can call me. I don't hand the phone number out because I don't want anyone other than family phoning me in the supermarket, as ds15's Scout leader did the other day. I don't know how she got my number- I must have written it down once on a permission form in a moment of insanity! But I do admit having my mobile phone is handy for staying in contact with the kids and dh, especially for meeting up when we are all out and about. Beyond that- I prefer email. I don't like phones. Technology is meant to serve us- we are not meant to be slaves to it. If you can use a computer I am sure you can work out any of these other things if you needed to.

It was an issue here and I put it off for a year but then couldnt postpone it any longer. Both kids are out of the house now during the day, although dd16 has gone to college rather than highschool. She also had a very full social life while homeschooling- similar to the OP's dd- but it did get to the point where she needed to move into the world. My son was the same- but for him the motivation more came from me not being able to teach him any more as he was resistant. I kind of pushed him into highschool! He is doing well there though. I don't know the answer but I think for some kids, yes, it should be considered seriously. Mine are both very social and very competent socially- both are flat out busy now balancing study and social lives- but that is how they want it and really they are young adults. Keeping them home would have been unhealthy in our case. As it was, the last year was hard- they didn't want to be at home with me all day, even though we are close, and even though they had plenty of social life. And I was hanging onto them and the whole homeschooling thing when they needed to go and interact more with other people. Everyone is much happier this year, and thriving with the stimulation (except me who is thriving with the peace!).

I have never been to a pediatrician in my life and nor have my kids. I think its an American thing!

Can you go back today or tomorrow rather than wait? I imagine they would make room for you if you are in pain? I guess it could make it worse- but also could make it better.

Similar to Laura although we live in a lower lattitude and i get plenty of sunshine- still my Vit D was low so I am taking that. I also have garlic capsules (Kyolic), Cats Claw capsules, echinacea liquid and an astragalus tonic for when there is any sign of sickness and/or for building the immune system. This morning ds15 woke up with a cough and a sore throat. I gave him a dose of everything I have :) plus a green smoothie and he came home from school feeling well- no longer sick. I agree with letting them get exposure to germs. We don't even do the washing hands thing others seem to do. Also remember that every time they do get sick, their immune system is working hard and getting stronger- but every time you resort to antibiotics, the immune system doesn't get to overcome the illness and build antibodies to the same extent.