Here I share a Banana cream pie, a very simple recipe with ingredients that are all locally available, and sweetened mostly by fruit.

I found this recipe at Elena’s Pantry. I sift through recipes that can be made with ingredients available here because a lot of them point to ingredients slightly out of reach.

For the crust: Only four ingredients – almond flour, sea salt, one egg, and coconut oil.

the almond flour dough

The recipe calls for two cups blanched almond flour, but I just pulverized whole almonds in a mixer to get course flour like consistency.

2 cups almond flour
¼ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil (I use conscious foods)
1 egg.

1)   Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and knead by hand to form dough.

2)   Press into a 9 – inch pie dish after greasing the pie dish with butter.

3)   Bake at 180 degree C for 10 to 12 minutes.

4)   Remove and cool.

For the filling: only 5 ingredients – bananas, dates, coconut oil, coconut milk, honey.

grain free piecrust

100 ml coconut milk (or one pack)
¾ cup coconut oil
I cup mashed, ripe bananas
3 – 4 seedless dates
1 Tablespoon honey – I used Under the mango tree honey – wild forest honey.
banana for garnish

1)   In a blender combine coconut milk and coconut oil.

2)   Add bananas, dates and honey and blend.

3)   Put the mixture in a cooled piecrust and pop in the fridge.

4)   Chill for 3 hours until it sets and garnish with bananas.

We really enjoyed this pie though next time I may try substituting cream with coconut milk and maybe topping with whipped cream. Simple, real food, fruit sweetened pie!

Thanks for reading, let me know in the comments if you’re going to try it!

The post Real Food Dessert – Banana Cream Pie appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.

Effective and safe, this method of carrying your child and keeping your hands free and letting your body carry your baby’s weight, is a very good option for new mothers, and old, experienced ones too. The benefits, apart from the fact that you can carry your child easily, are immense. The constant holding of your child – the constant physical contact, will foster long lasting bonds. Also, babies who are colicky will feel some relief as the slight pressure on the tummy will relieve gas and colic pains. The constant movement that a baby will experience when he or she is strapped to the mother or the father will also allow the child to stabilise his or her physical balance quickly.

Baby carriers are also convenient in more ways than one, not only do you have the freedom to move your arms about and your hands are free for any work, you can also take your baby places easily as carriers are easier to manoeuvre as compared to a baby stroller, especially if you are using public transport.

Many mothers use everyday use fabric to carry their children – instead of investing in costly carriers. One can use anything for these DIY carriers – a length of cloth, a dupatta – anything goes, as long as the fabric is tough and can withstand the weight of the child. The benefits of such a carrier is that you can adjust the length as the child grows in size and you can also adjust it to carry the child when he or she is awake or asleep – on your chest, cradled or on your hips. However, the negatives of this is obviously the safety aspect – be very careful that you have tied your wrap or fabric securely as an accident could occur.

Commercially available carriers are many in number and it is essential that you do your research thoroughly before investing in one. Baby carriers are available for newborns, infants and toddlers and there are even those that you can use right from babyhood to toddlerhood. The variety of carriers includes wraps, Mei Tais – which are soft fabric carriers with a shoulder strap and a tie mechanism on the waist; carriers which emulate slings, those with buckles and even pouches. The ring slings like the Maya Wrap are also sturdy when worn right.

Baby carriers can be used by both parents and others of course, and the child can be carried in front or even on the back though only highly experienced adults should carry the child on the back.

When you invest in a baby carrier ensure that the following are taken care of:

The carrier should support your child just as you would hold him/her. This means that the baby’s bottom should be well supported as should the head; which should be free of the carrier, and allowed to rest on your chest, most importantly, facing out and up.

The child’s legs should be placed above his/her bottom – this will ensure hip development is not damaged or hampered in anyway – the baby should be positioned high on your chest, enough so that you can drop kisses on the top of her/his head.

Make sure the baby’s weight is on his/her bottom, not on the legs – this will be ensured if you are carrying the child high up on your chest, as mentioned before.

If the child is older the chances are that they are going to be using a carrier that allows their legs to hang out – be very careful when wearing a baby this way. Make sure the carrier extends support to the child’s knees and again, the knees are positioned higher than the bottom.

Try not to use a carrier that your child will be facing outward in. Outward facing carriers don’t encourage a peaceful time for the baby and also, the child’s neck will hang forward thanks to gravity, without the support of your chest to lean on, thus giving rise to possible neck issues and might also negatively impact a baby’s developing spine and hips.

If you want your child to be looking outward then carry him/her in a high back carrier – where he/she can look over your shoulder while strapped on your back.

Always make sure your child can breathe easily and freely – if his or her head is tucked into his chin then it will hamper breathing and restrict the airway which will cause many serious problems. For the same reason, don’t cover the child’s head with fabric or cloth.

Your baby might be in a carrier strapped to your chest, but that doesn’t mean you run, jump or walk briskly so that the child is jerked around. Be very careful, as careful as you would be if you were carrying the child physically because jerky movements will damage the soft neck of the baby

Babies have been worn by mothers through the passage of time. So if anyone tells you not to carry your baby as you will spoil them the next time, tell them that it’s your baby’s birthright and wear your baby with pride!

 Guest article from www.glad2bawoman.com. Glad2bawoman is an online media company for women with over 77,000 members. The articles on their site encompass various topics around Health, Empowerment, Relationships, Leisure and Fashion.

Image source

The post Guest Post – Wear your baby! appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.

With most of the front wearing carriers its not that easy to take on and off a baby who changes his mind often about whether he wants to be carried or not. Also it’s not that easy to put the baby to sleep in a front carrier if he isn’t the type who falls asleep on his own.

N is highly sensitive to sleep. If he doesn’t get his 3 naps a day (yes even at 7 + months) he is downright crabby to be around. When I’m out and he starts feeling sleepy I just put him in my sling and he is off to sleep in minutes and I continue shopping or do whatever it is I’m doing.

This is one of the main reasons I love the Maya wrap (or any ring sling for that matter).

1)   Ease of putting baby in and removing him.

2)   Comfortable to wear around the house and do tasks.

3)   Very easy for baby to fall asleep in it as he is close to your body and so snug and feels safe.

4)   Easy to carry around in the diaper bag.

5)   Proper distribution of weight as baby is against your body so that it doesn’t feel to heavy on your arms or back.

My husband mostly carries him in our Infantino front carrier when we go for walks. He loves the view in it and doesn’t so much like the Maya wrap when he wants to view the world.

I must say my Maya wrap sling is my single most treasured possession – my life line for sanity with N. You don’t get it in India, so the other day when my son’s nanny said she left it in the playground… well lets just say I haven’t hit the roof so extremely in a long time.

Why do I love it so? Its just such a personal snug lovely mamma baby time when I wear it and walk around. And when he falls asleep in it while I’m walking just having him right there, breathing the baby drives me crazy. When he is awake I talk to him in whispers and sing and we share some words.

My sleeping in minutes baby

If you have an angel or textbook baby, it really doesn’t matter whether you own a sling, or which sling you own. Your baby may be ok in anything. When you have a high needs / spirited baby who wants you all the time, this sling is a lifesaver. Most high needs babies will calm down the moment they’re in the sling as they are close to their mamma and getting to see the world from a vantage point. It also really helps a spirited baby to sleep when he or she is too worked up.

And slings are very Primal Mothers have worn their babies from the beginning of time. As have kangaroos and monkeys and other mammals.

Thanks for reading. Let me know in the comments if you’ve used a sling and whether it’s worked well for you.

The post Sling review – The Maya Wrap appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.

Breastfeeding a very fast growing baby boy made me voracious and got me snacking on things I wouldn’t normally touch with a pole. This directly impacts my fitness levels I have found. For example, when I overdo it by eating the wrong stuff (at 3 am that too when I’m up for a midnight feed), my speed decreases when I sprint.

Sleep also directly affects speed and strength. When you’re getting stop / start sleep, as you will when you have a baby, it directly affects fitness.

Not to mention the constant levels of attention required by the little hurricane. Did I tell you I am the mom of a spirited baby? One who needs constant stimulation and needs to be constantly on the move? 10 minutes in one place at a time is all he can take.

Nevertheless I’m taking some steps to achieve my pre pregnancy levels.

My baby came in October 2012. I promised my bootcamp instructors and my yoga teacher that I’d be back in Jan. And I was. What kept my resolve strong was the fact that I exercised everyday during pregnancy. So those couple of months after baby was all I could take of less activity.

Pregnancy is NOT a time where you should take things easy and eat all you want contrary to popular belief (unless you’re explicitly ordered to take it easy by your doctor). Think about it, you don’t even have to look back to the stone ages to discover that women like our grandmothers and their mothers before that were far more active than we are.

There are so many rules these days like:

Don’t squat below parallel
Don’t let your heart rate go up to 140 beats per minute
Don’t bench press more than a certain amount etc.

When you’ve lived the primal lifestyle for a while, most of these rules don’t add up. Our grandmothers and all the women before them went to the toilet squatting way below parallel. They bent, squat, lifted heavy things, though they probably took it easier than they would have pre-pregnancy.

So coming back to my fitness post partum. Since I was pretty active, I jumped back in.

This is what I’ve been upto:

1)   Iyenger yoga – My husband comes back early twice a week to baby sit on the days I have yoga class. I went to this same class till two days before N came so I couldn’t wait to get back. I restarted when N was 3 months. Not primal as such but slow movements for holistic well being.

2)   Bootcamp – This was stalled while I was pregnant due to the heavy sprinting required. But I was regular for over two years pre pregnancy and couldn’t wait to get back. I restarted when N was 3 months.

Us leaving for a walk in his sling

3)   Walking – I did this for almost everyday for 9 months and continued 3 weeks post partum. Only this time I had additional weight. N loves it outdoors, so I take him in my front facing carrier or Maya wrap and sing to him/ talk to him until he falls asleep in it while I finish my walk. Many times his dad and I go for walks talking to each other while he enjoys the view and the sound of our voices. This is still an almost daily occurrence and this is one activity that no new mother can say they don’t have time for.

4)   Baby weights – ever since N was a month old we learnt that a sure fire way to take him from fussy to giggly was to play roughhouse with him. Like I said he is a highly-strung, spirited baby who likes to be in the thick of the action!
We started off cautiously but today we toss him in the air and play around with him with gay abandon. Since he turned 5 months I have been using him as weights for workouts. This happens when he is in the mood for fun and frolic and I am in the mood for, well a workout. These are some of the things I do:

1. Clean and press – squat down with the baby below me and push up with my legs and arms with the baby high above my head. I do this anywhere between 5 to 10 times depending on how he tires. Most of the times as he comes rushing up, it’s accompanied by the most delicious baby laughter imaginable and it keeps me doing more.
2. Walking lunges with baby – I hold him out in front of me and do walking lunges. For his benefit, I turn my hands in semi circles and make silly faces or noises.
3. Bench press with baby – I need not explain this one.
4. Overhead press with baby – I hold him from under his arms and giv him a kiss or a tickle with my mouth on his belly every time he comes down.
5. Weighted squats – I hold him in front of me and do squats. This one is the least fun for him so I don’t do much of it.

He weighs 20+ pounds now so any one of these is quite a workout. I do mostly one of them a day and as many reps as I can manage before me or baby becoming tired.  When I do cleans it’s a full body workout primal style. Quick short bursts of anaerobic activity.

Thanks for reading guys! Keep the comments coming

Do you have any tips for exercising with baby on board?

The post Primal Fitness with Baby on Board appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.

Why then did saturated fat and cholesterol get the bad rep? Watch this video.

But nothing that I wrote can explain the entire concept so beautifully and simply than this article by a heart surgeon shared below..

Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.

Read on for real food for thought.

The post ‘Low Fat’ is the enemy appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.

What with incorrect latching, sore nipples, engorged breasts, plugged milk ducts, and 10 additional terms in the same vein? You’d actually think it’s a new phenomenon that women today are plagued with and it never existed before today.

I’ve spoken to a lot of new mothers lately (who else?). In many cases the story is the same. Mom starts off thinking she will breastfeed. The babe cries (incidentally that’s what babies do) the grand mother, the maid, the husband panic, the mom panics, the baby is given top feed. The mom is told she is not producing enough milk. She keeps giving top feed and then the vicious circle continues.

The mom really does not make that much milk eventually and starts supplementing more and more with formula till she ultimately stops nursing far too early. She tells other moms that she didn’t produce enough milk. New moms believe her and when their baby cries they too think they aren’t making enough milk. Not stopping to think, that they will produce milk, they have no reason not to.

Even though today every where you look, breast feeding is touted as the best thing you can do for your baby, surprisingly a lot women look at it as something they will try out and if it doesn’t work well for them, formula is not such a bad thing after all.

At most hospitals (like Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai), the nurses are trained at institutes where the courses are outdated and very conventional in their outlook. Therefore when the 24-hour-old baby cries, they are quick to offer a bottle of formula citing hunger as the reason. A novice mother will do anything to pacify the helpless little miracle in her arms and agree, and this is where the problems begin.

When N was about two weeks of age, he began crying for a little while every evening on and off. This is fairly common in babies from 2 weeks to about 10 – 12 weeks. A lot of people told me he gets hungry in the evening and I even got myself a box of commercial formula (Nestle – Nan one – which I need to toss out now 7 months later), which I gave him once. Once I read the ingredients on the box (soybean oil and corn oil for starters) I knew I could not give him that. Apart from the obvious reasons, giving my baby something out of a box was a definite no no.

When I went for N’s 15-day check up, he had gained a good amount of weight and was peeing and pooping really well. And why won’t he be eating sufficiently well? I am a healthy mother am I not? There is no reason for me not to make enough milk. None at all!

My personal reasons for not considering any alternative to breastfeeding:

1)   Breast milk is real food and not chemicals put together in a package.

2)   Breast milk has a much higher fat content than formula. The brain is made largely of fat and the majority of the fat in the brain is saturated. The Myelin Sheath that surrounds the nerves in the brain and ensures their proper function is also largely made of saturated fat and cholesterol. Breast milk contains much more saturated fat than cows milk or commercial formula and is of utmost importance for a growing brain.

3)   Breast milk has lauric acid: which protects infants from viruses and bacteria and protects the immune system.

4)   Immunity: Prolonged breastfeeding really does boost the immune system. I have good immunity and passing it on to my baby is really, really important to me. So far not a sniffle has he had.

5)   The cuddly time outs: Never again will I be able to put my feet up for a few minutes every few hours and inhale my little one. The slowing down of life is really a luxury I will never give up. In todays hustle bustle when again will any of us get this sort of time to spend with each other?

6)   Evolutionary Tinted Glasses : Human babies (and all mammals) are meant to be breast fed. Who wants to argue with nature?

Having said that breastfeeding is the hardest thing a woman of today has to do. Even if IF you do by some stroke of luck (and a lot of research) get off to a good start initially the amount of hours spent glued to a chair with a baby gnawing on you is enough to make you want to pull out your hair. The first few weeks (two months or so) are probably the most testing times in most women’s life (when the world is going by and you’ve vegetated).  It’s enough to make a lot of women give up.

But a few months of your life is a lifetime of rewards for your baby!

Getting off to a good start immediately after the baby is born is very important though. Do whatever it takes to start trying to establish a latch soon after the baby is born! I cannot stress that enough, and I think it’s important to mention here.

There are moms out there who after their best efforts have not been able to breastfeed. My heart goes out to them. Again working women really do not have much of a choice after the first few months.

Are you less of a mother if you don’t breastfeed? I suppose it depends on the individual. But I do know it would have broken my heart, and made me feel like an inadequate mom. Having said that, I realize there are some circumstances that make it very difficult.
Am I proud that my baby is 100% breast fed? Ummm, clearly!

Here’s a mom who’s been an inspiration for me, and a lot of fit moms, who really went to great lengths to establish breastfeeding.

Here’s another story closer to home.

Must read: Moms nutrition for breastfeeding. Breast milk is the best food for baby, provided that the mom’s diet is rich in nutrients!

Thanks for reading! I would really love comments!

The post Why not breastfeeding was never an option appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.

Everything I’ve read about traditional societies and baby food says that babies have typically been on a high fat diet where 60 % of their calories come from fat. This makes sense because breast milk (which is the perfect food for baby) contains 50 to 60% of it’s calories from fat. In addition, the cholesterol in human milk supplies an infant with close to six times the amount most adults consume from food.

For the first 4 to 6 months of life, babies start producing functional enzymes for digesting proteins and fats (found in breast milk) and the only enzyme for digesting carbohydrates present is lactase for digesting lactose. In fact only when the baby is around 28 months of age is the digestive system properly geared for digesting grains (and some individuals never take to grains even through adulthood and may not even know it).

Amylase (the enzyme required for digesting grains) kicks into gear when the baby is past the one and a half year mark. Introducing grains too early (specially wheat, bread, cereals) could set the little one up for digestive troubles later on. A baby’s immature digestive system may let the particles of food reach the blood stream (leaky gut syndrome), which prompts the immune system to mount a response that leads to an allergic reaction.

Honestly even an average adult (those with bad skin, pcos, constipation problems) are probably reacting badly to grains. For a tiny little body it is a definite no no.

After the 4 to 6 month mark, the iron stores in the baby from the mom (while she resided in mom’s body) are depleted and breast milk does not provide the baby with enough iron. This is the reason cereals fortified with iron and packaged baby food became popular.

But what if you give baby foods that are naturally rich in iron? Like liver, egg yolk, and red meat? Studies have shown, that babies produce enzymes to digest animal fat much earlier than those required to produce grains.

Baby led weaning – I have been toying with the idea of baby led weaning for a while. Babies are fairly intuitive about what they want to eat. It’s only when we force feed that babies over eat and eventually stop listening to their bodies. So baby led weaning means you soft cook small pieces of food and out in front of baby and he decides whether he wants to play with the food or how much he wants to eat.

Well I tried it a couple of times. It takes a lot of patience, as initially maybe even for months baby won’t eat any of the food. I didn’t have much patience so I am doing the next best thing.

Spoon feeding without forcing. I let him come forward towards the spoon and when he doesn’t want anymore I don’t prompt. Sometimes he barely eats, and sometimes he wallops off the entire portion.

N will turn 7 months on the 4^th of May, and I have been offering solids for almost a month now.

This is what he has eaten so far:

Egg yolk, chicken, apples, banana, avocado, pear, papaya, chickoo, musk melon, sweet potato, broccoli, cabbage, red cabbage, cauliflower, carrots.

I give him fruits like chickoo, papaya, and melon in little pieces and not mashed up.

This is what his meals looks like :

Wake up : 7 am – breast feed

10 am – soft boiled egg yolk with butter, and whatever fruit we have at breakfast that day.

11 am – breast feed

1:30 pm – full fat yoghurt

2:00 pm breast feed

5:00 pm breast feed

7:30 pm – A veggie (whichever one that’s being cooked for dinner) with steamed and pureed chicken in coconut oil or ghee. Sometimes I grate in cheese into the veggies instead of chicken.

8:30 pm – breast feed, bed

3:00 am – breast feed.

N absolutely adores his egg yolk with butter. That’s the highlight of his day and I may start including it for his dinner too because he doesn’t take to the veggies and chicken half as well.

FAQs:

But he is just a baby, why would you put him on a diet?

I’m not. I am giving him nutrient dense, fat rich, whole foods that will prime him for a lifetime of good health I believe. By giving baby ‘fillers’ or foods that are not rich in nutrients, a tiny tummy that does not have place for a whole lot, is ingesting food that just takes up place but does not reap benefits. More over grains and cereals are downright harmful let alone less nutritious than whole foods.

Try as you may, he is going to cave in to peer pressure, what will you do then?

I don’t expect him to turn down cakes, pizzas, and burgers. I want him to be off to the best possible start that’s all and then take it as it comes.
As a mom who has been eating real food for 2 years before N was conceived, throughout my pregnancy, and while nursing, I can be rest assured that he has already the foundations of good health and I am pretty sure he cannot be too badly off for that.

What will you do if he eats food of grand ma’s plate (chapatti and the likes)?

That’s fine as long as he has finished his own meal first.

Delaying grains and other hard to digest foods actually prevent food allergies later on, and introducing baby to varied real foods open him up to different tastes.

Thanks for reading! I’m looking forward to learn about your experiences with starting solids! Is your baby a primal baby?

Sources:

Feeding Babies
Nourishing a growing baby

The post The makings of a Primal baby appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.

Like me, it’s no longer an individual, working out, losing weight, eating well, and writing without interruption.

Unlike me, it has had a makeover, is spruced up and fancy (WordPress and all) and even has a logo.

Unlike me, it isn’t in puke smelling clothes and yoga pants all day!

Wholesome Mamma is still about living paleo in India, how to manage tackling the conventional wisdom bestowed by well meaning people, how to workout in very little space, where to source good quality real food in Mumbai, and how to love yourself by taking care of your health.

My husband the other day was affronted. He said, you have never ever taken any trouble when it comes to my meals as compared to the lengths you’re going through for N.

I guess the mom in me brings a whole new dimension to my personality and will come through in all the things I write about. With due respect to me being a whole new person, Wholesome Mamma will tackle daily parenting woes, how to manage eating well and remain motivated to workout as a busy parent, experiments with trying to instill good eating habits in my child, experiments in trying to bring up a paleo baby, postpartum fitness, breastfeeding, wholesome real baby food and other stories. All this and more through evolutionary tinted glasses!

I’m excited! Hope you are too.

Thanks for reading!

The post Goodbye Allee G appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.

The post Will he be a primal baby? appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.

The post Can you be Vegetarian and Primal? appeared first on Wholesome Mamma.