Heidi Strickland-Clark

It’s not all eating leaves and drinking water with me you know! Today is a completely different angle. Sophie (our younger daughter) won a Tesco competition in February that gave her a sneaky peek for the Harry Potter behind the scenes tour at Leavesden Studios. She asked me if I’d go with her, most probably so she had a guaranteed return journey!

A bit of background info. Sophie is mad, mad, mad on Harry Potter. I know that at 17 years of age she probably should have moved on, but she grew up reading the books and watching the films and getting silly over Rupert Grint. It’s been an obsession growing for a long time. The competition couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person! So much so, that despite telling me every 15 minutes on the way there that she was “so excited” that when we pulled into the studios and saw the Harry Potter posters and signage she screamed in my ear so bloody loud I swerved… this was going to be exhausting!

This was actually the last picture of the day, but really sums up how she looked all the way around!

The beauty of going in early before the public had access was that it was quiet. So we weren’t rushed or hassled, it was nice to have space and take time looking at what we wanted to look at. We started at 09.45 and appeared from the gift shop(more on that later) about 12.15. I think if it had been busier it would have easily taken 3 hours and a few exhibits weren’t open for us to view.

You start the tour with three guided sections. An introductory room with a preview film on how the first film came into being. A second viewing in a very comfy cinema, then a guided tour of The Great Hall, after that you were left to your own devices.

I think I would say at this point, don’t take little children if you personally have an interest in this film and all the millions of hours of painstaking work that went into it. Little kids don’t want to stop and read signs, don’t appreciate the intricacies of handmade wands, robes, handwritten potions label bottles, handmade tapestries and hundreds of paintings made for the walls of Hogwarts. It really is stunning. Don’t take them if you’re going to get pissed off with them for ruining your day, or accept that you won’t see it all. Your choice.

You move through the tour from one sound studio with parts of set laid out to small displays and details of departments like wardrobe and hair and make up. You see wigs and beards and all manner of Harry’s clothes in various stages of distress. There are props of various scenes. Resin chocolate puddings for example and a proper chocolate falcon that is 7 years old!

Within this section are sets of the dorm (tiny beds that were made when the boys were 11 and grew out of!), the common room with minute details that in the film would be on screen for  a mere glimpse and then a large section of just props large and small, intricate and brash. Attention to detail just doesn’t even touch the surface. You could also have a ride on a broom, wearing robes of the house of our choice and have a green screen film going on behind you! I’ll add it was all adults on this! If you wanted a memory of this? It’s £12.50 please for a photo…

From that sound studio you are moved outside where you can stand outside 4 Privet Drive, stand on the Knight Bus (it really is 3 levels and made up of the parts of 3 London buses), sit in the Ford Anglia or just drink butter beer (not cheap, very sweet, but needed to be done!). From there you move inside again and see more of the behind the scenes stuff like the model makers, the artists and the animatronics people. There is a great 3 part video with the main model maker man and Warwick Davies, where the best quote was “you never turn down the opportunity to make a dragon”! So many of the scenes, when you would assume there was CGI or special effects, were actually made or really worked. Like Molly Weasley’s magic washing up brush (works), self stirring cauldron in potions lesson (works), the huge door with snakes all over it that slide to open the door (bloomin’ well works!, this thing was h-u-g-e!). 

From there you move into the preparatory stages for the film, the detailed pencil drawings for the buildings, the white paper models made to scale so perfectly that the owlery had little owls sat in each archway. The beautiful paintings used to set character or scenes. Pieces of work that ordinarily go unseen and unconsidered. Astounding talent from so many people.

You walk along Diagon Alley, see Gringots and look in the window of Ollivander’s and Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes cobbled floors and all! There is a really breathtaking moment which I’ll leave for you to experience for yourself if you go. For a grown woman I’m not ashamed to say it bought a tear to my eye!

Finally you leave the exhibition by passing through the inside of Ollivander’s wand shop. Box upon box of ‘wand’, each named (by hand) with the name of everyone who had worked on the films. Over 4000 of them. Ceiling to floor on 3 walls. A nice touch I thought.

You then move into the shop, hmm, now this is where I think they missed a trick. It’s SO expensive. Ridiculously expensive. £10 for  mug, £7.99 for a chocolate frog, £7.99 for a bag of sweets, £25 for a tee-shirt. Silly money. I know people do spend on such things, but make it cheaper and more people would have bought. There was nothing pocket money priced for the younger children which I thought was a shame. Sophie didn’t buy anything, even though she wanted to as it was so overpriced. Shame on you Warner Brothers, you’ve made a lot of money out of Harry Potter already, milk it even more why don’t you. (pic of most expensive item I saw in the shop — copy of Albus’s robes! really, who is going to buy this?!)

So, all in all if I’d have paid the £28 per adult, £21 per child ticket price would I have thought it was good value? Yes, I would. It’s a fascinating experience IF you can spend the time to read the posters and appreciate the work and passion that went into these films. If I got the chance to go again I would, I missed stuff and would enjoy finding out more. Just be warned that the cafe and gift shop are over-priced, so go well informed or thick skinned to protect yourself from the cries of “but Mum, I want ONE”.

So, I’m at the end of my first week of my ‘normal’ way of eating. It’s good to be back! For those of you who only are interested in the nitty-gritty the results are:

• waist down to 34″ which is less than the 34.5″ I started with on 7 March. So I’ve lost 2.5inches in 8 days.
• belly down to 38″. I’ve lost 3 inches in 8 days..
• hips down to 41″. I’ve lost 1inch here.
• weight is 13 stone (82.7kg). On 7 March I weighed 80.5kg. I’ve lost 2kgs (4.4lbs) in the same time.

Please realise this isn’t fat loss. It’s bloat and water. Feels good to see less of me now though!

I feel better! More energy, so much less bloated and heavy, sleeping well (apart from Wednesday night when I was worried about the Triathlon!), no cravings or snacking. I’ve also done 2 of the 3 Fit Camp sessions for this week. I’ll do my third one tomorrow. These are in addition to my normal classes I teach which are 2 Nordic Walks of about 1-1.25 hours each, 3 BodyPump classes, 2 BodyVive classes and and aqua and the swim at the Sports Relief Green Park Triathlon on Thursday!

Typical breakfasts:

• Blueberry and bacon omelette. (I’m really enjoying these at the moment! If you are someone who like bacon and maple syrup and pancakes it’s that kind of sweet/salt thing — very nice!)
• Soaked oats porridge. Soak oats in water with a touch of apple cider vinegar overnight and then cook as porridge as normal. Serve with fruit or nuts, some form of fat ( I had sheep’s yoghurt) cinnamon. (It’s nice, but leaves me hungry not long afterwards, but so much less bloated than ‘fresh’ made porridge)
• Poached eggs on wilted spinach with tomatoes.
• Sheep’s yoghurt, desiccate coconut, dried fruit or banana and cinnamon (I like this 🙂 it’s light and tasty, but frankly does nothing for keeping hunger at bay if you have a lot on!)

Typical lunch

• Big salads with either cold meat, or fish or previous dinner leftovers.
• Soup

Typical dinners

• Pork burgers with stir fried veg
• Red Thai curry, basmati rice and broccoli (unusual I know!)
• Homemade grain free fish fingers with saute potatoes and veg.
• Risotto

I’ve been drinking water, (water filtered) decaffeinated coffee, fruit teas. If I have snacked it’s been on olives, nuts or fruit. Oh! and one confession, Herman the 10-day-long-fermenting -cake was made today and I had a slice — he was very nice, but not on plan!

So, there you have it. Week one done and dusted and I’m a getting back to my normal state. I’m certainly more lively. Which is great as I have a Fit Camp session to do tomorrow! Be good y’all.

Hungry for Change is an online documentary that is available free to watch until 31 March before it goes on sale. Everyone should watch this. It’s 90 minutes long but worth it. And it’s not just because this ‘is my thing’ that I enjoyed it, it’s a message to everyone.

Some people don’t really care what shape they are in, that’s fine but most of us care how we look facially. Is our skin clear, do we look old for our years or young, do we look grey or fresh, do we have bags under our eyes? Others may not worry too much about looks and would rather be pain free or illness free or symptom free of nagging conditions that keep getting them. All these things are reasons to change how you feel about yourself and improve your situation.

This video shows you why we’re in this state and what to do about it. I watched it purely for eduction first, but by the end I was in tears because the answer is there for everyone, but you have to do it for yourself no one is going to do it for you.

The presenters have all been through from the dark side to the bright side. They speak passionately and simply as to why we need to wake up and become a new, healthy, good looking, energised you!

Do one thing for yourself and watch this, then tell others about it too. We owe it to ourselves and our children to pass this message on. Remember what Phil Richards said to me in his little video? Well the message is the same. Stop eating crap. Stop thinking crap. Stop feeling crap. Start your life.

Here endeth today’s lesson! 🙂

The Sunday session was a slightly smaller affair. There were no breakout streams and we all stayed in the main area which contained the exhibitors. This was a bit problematic at times as it got a bit noisy, but people soon learned to keep stum during the presentations.

The morning was taken over by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride on Gut & Psychology Syndrome (GAPS). This was a fascinating 3 hours on how all sickness and disease comes from the gut. If the gut isn’t functioning then neither can we. Her own story is that he son had learning difficulties (may be autism but I am not sure) and she got him well through this protocol of eating and mending his gut.

The basis is that our gut health is determined by the micro-flora passed to us by our mothers in birth and also from the early days of feeding. A bottle fed baby has a completely different gut flora to a breast fed and, as mothers, we are setting our children up for bad health if this is not addressed early on. Natasha spoke so clearly and knowledgeably that the time just flew.

She spoke of how GAPS patients can’t digest fat, of how the worsening of asthma is being exacerbated by the early prescribing of drugs. She told us how parents should handle a child with their first ‘wheeze’ or sign of asthma. Wrap them in a blanket, pop a warm hat on them, sit them on your lap, hold them calmly and give them broth to sip. The bronchospasm will pass, the body will repair. The body is good like that :-).

Conditions like asthma, eczema, cystitis, bed-wetting, thrush, sinusitis, runny nose, rhinitis, gingivitis, vaginitis, diarrhea and constipation  are all symptoms of problems with elimination. These are all conditions that is helped with the GAPS diet.

In addition to eating disorders, allergies, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes 1, celiac disease, lupus, osteoarthritis, ME, fibromyalgia, migraine, headaches, chronic cystitis and epilepsy the list went on!

She spoke at some length about patients with eating disorders (mainly anorexia) and how the mis-processing in their brains really is making them see a distorted picture of themselves. She said it happened a lot in teenage girls who turn vegetarian. She made a very bold statement, “if your teenage child comes home and says they are going vegetarian, tell them they can, once they have researched the topic thoroughly and presented both arguments to the family” — she attributed bad vegetarianism to many of her eating disorder clients problems with the fat in the diet is too low, insufficient protein and the immune system failing.  She had a lovely term for these clients, when she starts them on the GAPS programme she waits for ‘Bingo Day’. The day when they look in the mirror and really see how thin they’ve become, then she knows she’s turned a corner with them.

Her website www.gaps.me gives all the dietary protocol, to save me space here. But suffice to say mending the gut, increasing microflora and detoxing were all part of it. Including getting sun, plenty of sun, saturated fats, ripe fruits, fermented foods, and cold pressed, unprocessed honey. It’s a long process for some, but the results are there. Amazing woman, I loved listening to every minute of that one!

After lunch Dr Stephanie Seneff spoke of Autism, Depression and Ahlzheimers. The conference room was quite noisy and she spoke quickly through her slides, so my ability to follow was a bit flawed. However her main topic was that all these conditions showed insufficiency of cholesterol sulfate. Much of her presentation was research notes showing the evidence to support her story. She spoke of the importance of cholesterol and also sulfate. Sulfate in the diet protects the cells from bacteria and a sulfate deficiency leads to a leaky gut (linking back to Dr Natasha’s presentation). Sulphur is found in foods like onions, garlic, leeks, cabbage, seafood and nuts.

Elizabeth Wells spoke of being Alergic to the Modern World. Her own experience lead her to find a cure for symptoms like getting electric shocks off everything, not being able to use electrical devices and being allergic to pollution. For people in this position life is very dark and lonely. I would imagine they are regarded as ‘weak’ or ‘sicky types’ but it’s very debilitating. However they can be helped and she spoke through her own life experience of getting a life back. It was the kind of presentation when you realise how lucky you are.

Finally, we listened to Dr J Turner (a chiropractor) and K Pirtle who spoke of Solutions to Healing. It was a lighthearted summary of the weekend and a nice way to finish the day. They spoke of the problems with man and animal not eating as we were supposed to. Giving cattle corn for example and processing our own foods beyond any recognition of their former state. K Pirtle had cured herself from a very debilitating disease that was caused by gut health problems. She now eats a very Weston Price style diet that contains lots of saturated fat, meat, fish, fermented grains and vegetables and broth. She liked her broth! To see her speak you wouldn’t have known she had been ill, she was the right shape for her bones, not fat, bright and energetic. And she ate a lot of saturated fat! So remember eating fat won’t make you fat!

All in all in was a great weekend. I met up with a friend on Saturday, met a lady I’d seen at another event last year, met a chap who had lost 50lbs from following an un-mainstream fat loss diet and had a lovely time soaking it all up! It satisfied my deep belief that the food we eat is to maintain our health throughout our lives until we die pain free in our sleep of old age. I am not anti-supplementation and given the quality of the soils our food are grown in I think supplementation is important, however for me it has to be excellent quality food all the way — afterall that’s what our bodies want and we prefer!

Day one continued…

The Benefits of Raw & Grass Fed Milk – Professor Tom Baars

This was a fascinating glimpse into the dairy industry. In the United States 80% of the total milk production comes from 4 companies! These dairy companies dictate the price they will pay to the farmers and that is currently $1 a gallon. The same price as just after World War II. However it costs the farmer $1.15 – $1.50 to produce. And guess what? 16 farmers a day are going out of business in the US. Not good.

Raw milk (non-pasteurised, non-homogenised) is a nutrient dense food that is well utilised by the body. There is no removal of important digestive enzymes, or important fatty acids that are destroyed with normal processing. It supports the body rather than hinders it. Eating organic, raw, unpasteurised dairy produce is something that would support many of us nutritionally and, if possible, should include in our diets as a good nutrient dense food source.

Raw milk farmers in the US are finding it harder and harder to sell their produce, despite a growing number of people recognising the benefits of it. The government is making it more difficult for them and in some cases dairy farmers are being imprisoned. We do have a small network of raw milk dairy farmers in this country. If you get the chance to buy or use raw milk, I would encourage you to. It is a real food.

Fluoride Dangers – Professor Paul Connett

If you’d been falling asleep at any point during the conference, this man would have woken you up! BOOM! Professor Passionate or what?! He was great! He has been studying the effects of fluoride (especially in water ) for 16 years. It was scary and depressing all at the same time. A few gems for you,

• “we should never use public water to deliver medicine” — yep, got that.
• “there is not one single biological process that needs fluoride” — yep, got that
• “adding fluoride to drinking water violates medical ethics that state we should have an ‘informed consent to medication’ ” — definitely got that
• “Does not improve the teeth of people who have it in their water” — research backed
• “It isn’t pharmaceutical grade fluoride that’s added”– euw..
• “adding fluoride to drinking water causes more health problems than teeth protected.” — ouch.
• There is no adequate margin of safety, and when you consider that a baby and a child’s brain is smaller, the effect of dosage on their system is heightened. —scary

In the UK the NHS pays for fluoridation in water. So write to your MP to repeal it should you have fluoride in your water supply in your area.

If you have a baby — please do not make up their bottle or feeds with tap water if your supply is fluoridated. And remember a filter will not remove it, nor will boiling. Empty your kettle after each use and fill with fresh water.

Check your local area here.

The Cholesterol Myth  & The Oiling of America – Sally Fallon Morell

This was the last presentation of the day and it was probably my favourite of the day. One of those presentations where you just shake your head in amazement, nod in agreement and think how immoral and corrupt big business is….

So Sally spoke first of all about ‘ The Cholesterol Hypothesis’ , the much publicised notion that we should reduce our saturated fat intake to reduce the risk of heart disease, that we should lower our cholesterol levels to reduce our risk of heart disease and we should lower our cholesterol by eating less saturated fat and increasing ‘heart- friendly oils’. She also told us how she would show us that it is lettuce that gives us heart disease…hmm, I wasn’t sure but I was prepared to listen!

Did you know the first recorded heart attack was in 1921? Since then this has increased of course, but despite all the media coverage and pressure to reduce saturated fats (which has happened), lower cholesterol (which isn’t coming down) deaths from heart attacks haven’t changed much over the last 20/30 years.  It’s also worth noting that Crisco, the first vegetable oil to be sold, was launched in 1913.

Sally spoke of how the increase of vegetable and seed oils have increased rapidly, the profits for these companies increased dramatically, but the obesity, cancer, stroke, diabetes and heart problems are still increasing. She gave us snappy little insights as to how the level of cholesterol at which Americans would be tested and subsequently treated was set (arbitrarily) and how scientists who publicly disagreed with the new theories were black balled. Fascinating and depressing all at the same time.

It was also interesting to see the flawed and deliberately concealed information in research that tried to show the health professionals and the public why saturated fat and cholesterol were bad. We also saw the results of study after study saying how having a low cholesterol level is much more worrying to health, especially for brain function and mood.

Statins were of course discussed and when you realise they are medication given to the most people and making the big Pharmas a gazillion dollars, you can understand why they do not want people to get well. Keep ’em medicated, despite the fact they will not alter the risk of you dying of a heart attack. Yes they will probably lower your cholesterol level, but given that cholesterol level and heart disease have no correlation its a nonsense.

So you’re wondering what causes high cholesterol then? Refined carbohydrates for sure, over-using the vegetable and seed oils and lifestyle choices. The very things we have been told to do to improve our health and lower our risk. Sally called this ‘genocide’ — it sounded strong, but with the evidence she showed us, you can see that the big businesses have too much to lose by us knowing how to restore our own health naturally. We have also all been told for so long to not eat saturated fats, that even if people know they can, they still balk at the idea. How many of you would pour sunflower oil on your new warm slice of bread? Not many, but I bet you would be happy to put butter on? I know I would, and do!

I could go on and on about this, but suffice to say it will be the topic of our next talk sometime in May after all the Bank Holidays.

That was day one done. It was 20.45, I was tired but exhilarated. It had been a complete day from the foods available to eat (I’d had great traditional food all day: Soaked porridge and real cream for breakfast, grass fed beef, salad and fermented veggies for lunch and hog roast, sourdough rye bread and salads for dinner) , to the people I met, the exhibitors and the speakers.

Day two (part iii) tomorrow!

P.S Want to know why Sally said lettuce caused heart disease? Because we’re all eating salad all year around (despite the seasons) and chucking salad dressing all over it, what’s in salad dressing? Vegetable oil – ergo, lettuce causes heart disease!

This weekend I have two fabulous days at Epsom Downs Racecourse learning about all things food and health (as normal, I hear you mutter) but from a traditional viewpoint rather than a new age, supplement silly, almost religious approach to food that can sometimes be seen.

Weston A. Price was an American dentist who decided to study well people to see what they did that kept them well, rather than studying sick people to see why they got sick. Not many people do that even now. In the 1930s he visited communities around the world, did detailed studies on their facial and dental health, over all health and diets. His book ‘Nutrition and Physical Degeneration’ is his documented evidence of his studies.

This conference is run by the London Chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation and Philip Ridley did a fantastic job with regards to the organisation of the event, getting great speakers on great topics and also some very interesting exhibitors.

There were several streams and you had to choose who to listen to, so I am going to review my own sessions, but then give you sneaky tips I picked up from others who were at different meetings.

Keynote – Sally Fallon Morell – President of the Weston A. Price Foundation

Sally introduced the audience to the works of Weston Price, using photos from his studies to show the difference between the communities who ate nutrient dense foods and those who moved away to a more westernised diet that contained processed grains, sugar and fats. In the communities where traditional foods were eaten teeth were straight and strong with no overcrowding or decay. He would see 1 decayed tooth every 3 mouths or so and yet when he measured the teeth of the communities who had moved to a modernised diet, and were eating ‘displaced foods’ he was witnessing 1 tooth in every three.

His travels took him to many different parts of the world where food supplies were different. So on a Scottish Hebridean Island he found a community with no animals, no nuts, fruit or vegetables, and yet they were healthy and thriving. They lived off the land on oats, seafood and seaweed. Makes you wonder whether our overloading of information with regards to a good diet is too much noise — back to basics.

She spoke of the Swiss, the Scots, the Eskimos (who ate a LOT of seal oil), Floridian Indians, and people from the South Seas. All showing signs of excellent health and longevity, but with a variety of indigenous foods that suited their bodies well.

All of these diets contained nutrient dense foods high in vitamin A, D and K. Now before you pop off to Holland & Barrett for a pill. It won’t work like that! The combination of those vitamins within the food stuffs was the key to the success of this natural way of eating.

Nourishing Traditional Diets – Sally Fallon Morrell

If you chose to stay,  Sally continued with the 11 principles that Dr Price concluded with after his travels.

She covered how every diet he came into contact with used animal produce in some ways. It may have been meat, but milk, cheese, butter, bone broth, fish eggs, fermented fish oil all had a part to play too. He ranked this very highly.

The foods were very nutrient dense. They were locally grown, off course no chemical sprays then and foods were cherished for being healthful. Each community for example had a ‘sacred food’ one that was saved for couples pre-conception, for the pregnant and nursing mother and for the young.

They ate fermented foods of some sort. Whether it was yogurt or cheese, sauerkraut or fermented fish. All of these foods kept their digestion healthy.

They ate a lot of animal fat. They recognised that the body runs on fat, prized it and made it a large part of their daily intake.

There is much more Sally spoke of. She spoke at length and comfortably. It was nice to listen to her, she had a dry sense of humour which came across every now and then. A very interesting and yet encompassing presentation as to why what Dr Price discovered then is so relevant today.

Benefits of Raw Milk, Dangers of Fluoride and The Cholesterol Myth in part ii