Recently, I attended a Mindful Eating Workshop hosted by The Ideal Lifestyle School in Sri Hartamas which completely exceeded my expectation! I actually did not have any expectations but when I left, I felt so blessed to have attended it for it was not only a morning full of rich learning but time spent at a beautiful space that was filled with great energy with some wonderful ladies. Blessed am I, indeed. If you do get a chance to attend one of their workshops, I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed.
The Ideal Lifestyle School (also knows as TILS) is a group of 3 lovely ladies below, all experts in their fields, who will coach you on how to work towards your Ideal Lifestyle. Is there such a thing for busy, working Moms? Of course, there is. Nothing is Impossible and Anything is Possible. You just have to know how to get there and that’s exactly what these 3 ladies are here for!
May I present to you from L to R, Marissa Parry (Fitness Trainer), Tracey-Anne Holloway (Life Coach) and Alexandra Prabaharan (Nutritionist) from The Ideal Lifestyle School (TILS).
Here was how I spent my Shining Saturday with the TILS team:
Apart from being in awe of their new lovely premise, I was observing all the little details that they had so carefully thought out. Simply enchanting…….the colours, inspirational words, green plants, pockets of flowers, pleasant aromas, warm smiles, really positive energy.
We introduced ourselves a little and chatted informally. There was this little booklet of secrets for everyone who attended and it even came with a pen! Can you imagine? I wasn’t sure if you were meant to take it home or give it back when the class was over! Haha.
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We started with everyone conveying what their food beliefs were, what food rules did you grow up with as a child? It is so important not to drown your children with ANY of these food beliefs or they will, like you, carry these beliefs and worse, practise them right up to adulthood. Not a healthy way to start, I can tell you. Food is one of my highest priorities for my girls. They are learning what is good for them and what is not. They are learning that they do not need to finish everything that is on their plate but to only eat till their full, but yet to only take what they think they can finish and if still hungry, to take more. They are learning the chemistry and compositions of foods. It is all important! Food is a Science! Food controls our bodies. Bad food causes bad health. Period.
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Then we got to open our secret booklet and were taught how to assess our hunger. It is amazing how simple strategies in knowing how to control our life can and WILL make our life easier and better to control. I’m truly amazed. It is all a learned process. People just need to learn it and life will heck be a lot more fun.
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Whilst we were going through our work, we were presented with Maca balls!! WOWEEEE!!! I hadn’t had any breakfast as I was busy first thing in the morning sorting out the kids so this was a great surprise!! What the heck are Maca balls? Ahhhhh……they are the most delicious, most nutritious, most power punched snack on the go. I am going to make myself some awesome Maca balls so that whenever I’m hungry in between meals, I won’t starve and can carry on till the next meal. So bloody awesome.
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And not only that, my dear readers, coffee was served. Oh. My. God. This Ideal Lifestyle School Workshop was so worth it. So much incredible value for a priceless experience. I felt like I was at a fine dining restaurant in a posh hotel, seriously.
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I just loved the little details…..
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After going through a class of theory, we finally got off our booties to the professional kitchen. The first dish was a Mexican salsa starter kind of dish. Lots of little healthy crunches and a rainbow of nutritious colour. Great snack, great appetizer, great dish to serve guests if you ever entertain at home. We had it with some healthy Nachos.
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Just look at the colour…..YUMZzzzz!!!
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These were some of the ingredients they used. Expensive stuff.
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We learnt how to bake a simple fish that tasted amazing simply with some lemon underneath baked with whatever you want to put on top.
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And instead of eating the fish with rice, we learnt how to eat couscous which is much healthier than rice. Who the hell eats couscous? It is so tasteless! But not the couscous that The Ideal Lifestyle School taught us! It was a couscous Pilaf, an alternative to Indian Pilaf rice. I didn’t take the finished product because I was too busy learning how to make it but damn, it tasted good. It had cranberries and almonds and I cannot remember what else. Awesomely delicious.
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Last but not least, The Ideal Lifestyle School taught us how to make a sinless chocolate brownie. You heard right. Now you can treat yourself without feeling so much guilt for half the calories.
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After all that cooking, we headed back out to the dining room to be greeted by this gorgeous table setting!!! I was so damn sold!!! Not to mention I’m a sucker for pink. I keep saying I hate pink but every time I see it, I just fall in love with it. I’m just in denial because technically, it’s a weak colour and weak I am not.
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When the food came out, we had to taste it and record every single bite. This is a strategy to really and truly taste your food rather than gorge it all down without a thought. That is why in fine dining restaurants, the dishes served are so minuscule that you wonder why you pay so much for so little but in actual fact, you do not even need that much to get full. If only you gave yourself that chance to learn how to really taste your food, one bit at a time. Every bite could be different as we experienced and learnt at the mindful eating workshop that day. Amazing.
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And after being already sold on their workshop, they put extra icing on the cake when they told us that each of us had a plant to take home that day to remind us about the workshop.
What a perfect experience. I loved it and will certainly go back for more.
If you are interested to join the Mindful Eating and Cooking Workshop, their next class is on Saturday, 7th December 2013. Click their facebook page here for details: The Ideal Lifestyle School Facebook Page.
You will not regret it.
It is a wonderful, wonderful way to give something back to yourself.
**************************************************************************Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin spent 7 years in London committing crimes to gain her Bartlett degree in Architecture. She then spent 7 years as a Stay At Home Mom raising her children as documented in this blog of over 15 years thereafter returning to the Corporate World stronger than ever as the Country Director of a British Multinational. She sets out to prove to all, that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.
Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past but has grown not one but TWO network marketing businesses in the notorious MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) industry, achieving success in under 2 years. She believes in the MLM business model but realises the DRASTIC PITFALLS and great stigma attached to it, understanding EXACTLY WHY the majority would shy away (or RUN for their lives) from ANY MLM business. But open your eyes and take time to understand it intellectually, remove your hang-ups, confirm your research, and you may just want to seize an opportunity. She did. And no, she never went about chasing people for sales. She had a sophisticated system work for her through technology and a smartphone.
She now impacts lives authentically with proven strategies amassed through the last decade of her own transformation offering online coaching programmes and always supports the underprivileged. She believes that we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.
A beautiful life without limits.
If you wish to learn some tools to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave enough to make contact as her life's purpose is to build people. She operates through a discovery call after which she will commit to helping you. Or not.
Most lose out on an opportunity because they are afraid they would be sold to, conned or whatever fear resides in their brain without even trying. And that's on them.
Mamapumpkin is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything, and she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, and supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.
