Fast Diet Kitchen Summer Ready Campaign week 1 update

Last week I have started a 5:2 diet plan, which means that you can eat everything for 5 days and other 2 days fast (500 cal per day).

I decided that will fast on Wednesdays and Thursday as would hate to miss out on chili con carne and pulled pork.

My weight before I started the diet was 92.9 kg or 14.6st (204 lb), the next day after fasting my weight was 91.2 kg, but over the weekend I'm back to 92.9 kg. I don't feel any difference so far, apart from the next day I feel more energised and my face was thinner.

Last week was a little bit tough, on day 1 I was extremely hungry and on day 2 I had a horrible migraine which didn't help at all.

As Fast Diet Kitchen supplied me with meals for 3 weeks I had a huge variety of meals to choose from.

Day 1 consisted of fruits throughout the day and garden pea & mint soup (150 cal) for lunch and aromatic chicken curry (190 cal) for dinner. 

Day 2 consisted of fruits again throughout the day and hearty 3 bean soup (213 cal) for lunch and butternut risotto (184 cal) for dinner.

I liked that meals are not powdered and you can see what is inside each packaging. All packaging has clear information about calories, ingredients and how to cook instructions. 
Suits those that don't cook, have no time to or out and about as it just takes 2 and a half minutes in microwave and it's done.

Garden pea and mint soup is something I have never tried before. 

As peas are normally overpowering but with a mint the taste wasn't too bad, quite an interesting flavour actually! 

Butternut risotto was my favourite meal of the week as I'm a big fan of rice and can eat overcooked, under cooked rice and the more the better!

Can't weight to new week of fasting and trying new Fast Diet Kitchen meals.

Disclaimer: I was sent the items mentioned above for the purpose of these weekly updates. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Postpartum hair loss

During my pregnancy I was chatting to other mums-to-be on different forums and none of us ever spoke or mentioned hair loss simply because we didn't know how common it is post-pregnancy.

I have obviously heard about hair loss after giving birth but I was convinced that it would never happen to me. 

It happened at once, I went to take a quick a shower when L was just few weeks old and what I saw in my hand surprised and shocked me at the same time- lots of hair in the bath and my body. Every time I washed my hair or touched them more hair would fall off. 
I was surprised but didn't take any action at first, I started noticing more and more hair in my hand, in the bath, on my pillow, on my clothes. Some day I would cry in the bath as it was so upsetting and thinking that the best solution would be to cut the hair short or to shave them all. When I have asked other new mums they said that they are experiencing exactly the same problem and that it will pass.

It is not so easy to get used to these changes, my fringe looks bare and awful, hair has no volume. It got slightly better since then but now hair loss is back with a bang! 

Luckily lovely people from Nourkrin® provided me with 3 months worth of Nourkrin® post pregnancy tablets (£29.95). 

Nourkrin® post pregnancy for hair maintenance is a safe and drug-free OTC supplement to help maintain natural, beautiful hair for new mums.

I have started using the tablets few days ago ( 1 tablet a day) and will be posting my monthly updates for you to see if it works, I hope it does!

Wish me luck!

L eats- Ella's kitchen

L is a big fan of pouches, when she is not in the mood to eat solid food or a jar, pouches are always a saviour! I was so delighted to receive Ella's Kitchen products for a review as was eyeing them up in my local supermarket for ages.

Our mission is to develop healthy eating habits that last a lifetime by offering a range of tasty, natural and healthy 100% organic foods for babies and kids, which are handy for mums + dads and fun for little ones.
We think it's important to always approach things from a child's point of view. So, we've taken simple, natural ingredients that ooze goodness and created foods, and packaging, that should really connect with kids - with flavours, colours, textures and even names that will appeal to all of their senses.

We have received: 

- from 4 months pouches: parsnips, prunes, peas
- from 6 months pouches: lots of lentils, parsnips & peas; cauliflower cheese with butter beans; tomato and lentil bake with red peppers
- baby finger food range

Parsnips pouch (70g, £0.79) 

Contains organic parsnips 75%, water 25%. 
It tastes smooth, the parsnip flavour is there but it is not overpowering. L have tried parsnip pouch for the first time and at first wasn't sure about it and wouldn't suck straight from a pouch but the moment I put it on a spoon she accepted it without a problem.

Peas pouch (70g, £0.79) 

Contains organic peas 50%, water 50% and are L's least favourite.
I have tried it myself and it seems that regardless of a brand peas purees have a strong flavour which you can either like or hate.

Prunes pouch (70g, £0.79)

Contains organic prunes 100%. 
This pouch was a well needed "medicine" for constipated L and it did it's trick well. As prunes are quite sweet in general, it had a strong flavour but not too bad. It was a little bit messy though as I allowed L to hold the pouch and due to the dark colour the mess was more obvious than with other flavours.

The orange one pouch (90g) 

Suitable from 6 months and contains organic apples 51%, organic mangoes 30%, organic bananas 10%, organic coconuts 9%, a dash of organic lemon juice concentrate. 
I can't seem to find a single pouch for sale but you can purchase a pack of 5 pouches for £3.25. I have noticed previously that mango is a very overpowering flavour that is the case with the orange one, having said that it tasted nice and L finished it in few seconds.

Cauliflower cheese with butter beans pouch (£1.29) 

Suitable from 6 months and contains organic vegetable stock 44% (water and organic vegetables: swedes, parsnips + carrots), organic potatoes 19%, organic cauliflower 15%, organic whole milk 11%, organic cheddar cheese (milk) 6%, organic butter beans 5%. 

Cauliflower has overpowering flavour, but still a nice smooth texture.

Tomato lentil bake with red peppers (£1.29) 

Suitable from 6 months and contains organic lentils 46%, organic sweet potatoes 32%, organic red peppers 12%, organic tomatoes 10%.

This is my favourite pouch from Ella's Kitchen, tastes lovely. I must admit I enjoyed a smooth, not overpowering tomotoey-peppery flavour more than L, she is not a big fan of peppers at the moment.

Lots of lentils, parsnips and peas (£1.29) 

Suitable from 6 months and contains organic lentils 48%, organic parsnips 31%, organic peas 21%. 
This pouch has a strong, overpowering flavour of peas. As L doesn't like anything pea related that was our least favourite pouch.

Grab me melty puffs tomatoes leeks (£0.69) 

                Grab me melty puffs strawberries bananas (£0.69)

Ella's kitchen snack range is a great way of developing gripping, picking, grabbing skills and exploring of course.
These grab me melty puffs are suitable from 7 months. L is still a bit uncertain about a new shape and texture but she doesn't mind them at all. They are crispy, melt quickly once in a mouth and have very gentle flavours.

Pick me melty hoops cheese tomatoes (£1.49)
Pick me melty hoops vanilla bananas (£1.49)

These tiny hoops are suitable form 10 months old and are L's new toy. She likes to reach for the and grip few hoop at once. Same as puffs they melt and I’m are perfect for developing finger and thumb ‘pincer grip’.

                       Grip me baby biscuits apple ginger (£1.99)

Grip me baby biscuits are suitable from 10 months old and are great for out and about as they are individually wrapped.

We couldn't taste apple but ginger is certainly there. It will take a little bit of time to get used to a harder texture of biscuits. L tired to bite them but it is a little bit hard at the moment and she found that the easiest way is just to suck on them.

We like Ella's kitchen products for its funky packaging, L's face lights up when she sees colorful packaging and I like that it all products contain healthy ingredients without  hidden additives or nasty stuff. 

Ella's kitchen have kindly sent us jingly apple and funky vintage building blocks to encourage L to ‘pick’, ‘grab’ and ‘grip’. We have thoroughly enjoyed playing with them. I liked building blocks a lot and here is one of our creations.

Disclaimer: I was sent the items mentioned above as well as jinggly apple and building blocks for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.