Listen to your body...

Hey there! 

Yep I'm talking to you! Since you were born I've been here, trying to get your attention in all sorts of ways. Sometimes I can,  sometimes you seem to want to ignore me and just do your own thing.

I've been sending you message after message in all different guises, in the hope that one of them may get through and you'll listen to what I'm saying and act upon it.

The thing is, you live inside of me, and have done since your conception, and you're growing and maturing all the time but I'm writing this because I'm hoping it will do the trick and you will at last take notice of me . 

I'm a little upset you see. I don't like some of the things you do to me and need to let you know. I get hurt by them , literally, and can't just take it without creating some kind of fuss. You make these strange decisions, over and over, with no regard for me. I do my best for you every minute of every day, and am very seldom rewarded for it. 

You fill me up with the strangest of substances, sometimes way too much, but it's more the content I'm worried about. You see when you eat lots of sugar, and refined carbohydrates, cheap nasty fats, and salts, I have to deal with it. When you pour alcohol down your throat with gay abandon I'm the one that has to bail you out! 

It's all getting too much and if you carry on I feel I'm going to be overpowered and the consequences of that are .... well, disastrous. I need nutritious food, I need fresh stuff, I need balanced food full of vitamins and minerals that I can work with, that I recognise. Some of the stuff you give me, I have to harbour in strange places because I don't know how to digest them . I just can't do it; it's not in my make up, and I can only adapt so far.

The other thing is I was built to move, and move frequently. I wasn't designed to sit behind a desk or a car steering wheel for hours at a time. If you let me I'll suprise you with my skills, really I can walk, run, jump, skip, swim and all sorts if you'll just give me the chance. It hurts me to sit around and not be active. I get all stiff and sore, and some parts of me have to overcompensate for other bits of me that don't work so well. Then I end up walking all funny, and it doesn't feel right.

The important thing to realise is that you can't replace ME , you only ever get one of ME, and so taking care of ME, should be your number one priority. It seems you'd rather be doing other things, and that perhaps I've become an after thought. But please, please, please, I am where you have to live. You can move house as often as you like and call it home but I'm your permanent home. You can't live without me.

So please, spare a thought for me and what I'm going through when you don't take care of me.....simple changes are all that's needed and you can begin today.

You can't carry on the way things are. 

With Love

Your Body

XX

Spirulicious Energy Bombs

Yesterday I wanted to add spirulina to my diet; hadn't had it for a few days and after all it is a superfood of epic proportions! So I came up with this little beauty of a recipe... 

Please enjoy making these lovely little balls of goodness. They are gorgeous, and will perk you up at any time of the day with all natural ingredients.

So here's the ingredients for Spirulicious Energy Bombs : 

2 tsp ground almonds

100g macadamia nuts

100g medool dates

1 1/2 tsp Spirulina (or more or less to taste)

1 tbsp Raw cacao powder

1 tsp Raw honey or more to taste

1 tsp hemp seeds

2 tsp cacao nibs

Method :

1. Put the dates and the macadamia nuts into a Vitamix  and whizz up until paste like ( with the odd lumpy bit of nut)

2. Add in all the other ingredients gradually until you're left with a dark green paste.

3. Tip into a bowl and roll into lots of little balls.

4. Roll each one in dessicated coconut, or raw cacao powder, and place in the fridge to harden slightly.

Enjoy!! I love mine with a peppermint/ green tea. 

Rx

Eat what you like, just make it yourself

If you had all the time in the world I wouldn't say "eat what you like, just make it yourself", but I know your time is as limited as mine, so it's safe to say.

What I'm getting at is, if you allow a big company to make your meals, you lose control over what  goes into it. The chances are it will be full of lots of fat, sugar and salt. These three ingredients are cheap, filling, and they increase the 'craveability' of food. So that's great for them because you want to eat more. 

It's way quicker to nip to the supermarket and buy a ready meal, or call at a takeaway on the way home from a busy day at work, and pick up dinner that you can eat there and then, or at least within minutes of heating it up in the microwave (don't get me started on those nasty, nutrient zapping machines). 

But you're putting your health in the hands of a big food corporation who , quite frankly, couldn't give a toss about you or your family. If they did they'd only use the finest ingredients, they wouldn't use chemically derived substitutes for real food, they wouldn't use ingredients that your body doesn't recognise and so harbours in your fat cells, and they wouldn't need to hide behind fancy packaging. 

They make their products taste so good they know you'll be back for more, and quickly. 

Let's take chips for example . To buy them takes seconds, and they're so more-ish they're gone in minutes. If you make them yourself though, you have to buy the potatoes, wash them, cut them up, cover them in oil and cook them. Time consuming and faffy, even if the result is that they taste great. So they're self regulating... Chances are you  don't have the time to make them every day. The same goes for cakes, biscuits, doughnuts etc. There are not many people who could be bothered to make these foods from scratch. But when you buy them you can eat them by the bucket load, and they're as cheap as chips!! 

If you want to take your health into your own hands the best way is to buy fresh food and cook it yourself from scratch. Cake , chips and doughnuts, within reason, made with quality ingredients will do you no harm if they are made and eaten 'sometimes'. 

A friend of mine told me he made KFC at home using a recipe he found on the internet. I googled it, it's simple, uses real ingredients and with organic chicken makes an amazing meal. Who needs bargain buckets? Why not try to make a 'fast food' meal at home. See how great it tastes, even though it's time consuming. Listen to you body afterwards and I think you'll be rewarded- no bloating, no gas, no feeling stuffed, no IBS, no reflux, just a satisfied gut. 

Food for thought... You really can eat what you like, if you make it at home , with quality ingredients . Buy good quality meat,fish, sea salt, local organic produce, and avoid highly processed sugars and carbohydrates.. Oh and heaps of fruit and veggies. 

Health is the new wealth. 

Have fun!

Rx

Do these things .... Daily!

Today's blog originally started as a thought from reading a book on adrenal fatigue. I'm nearly out of the woods, but every now and again still have a 'blip' where I need to rest, take stock and always go back to the book Adrenal Fatigue The 21st Century Stress Syndrome by James L Wilson. To be honest it's a great book for all to read, as it offers the best advice for stressy, busy people... And doesn't that cover most of us??

Please don't stop reading .... This blog is not just for/about adrenal fatigue sufferers, it's for everyone living and breathing on this wonderful planet of ours....

This morning I started with warm lemon water, but still felt a little dehydrated. After consulting the book I've had two glasses of water with sea salt and a piece of lime- this helps to rehydrate (dehydration is a common symptom for all of us, but particularly people with adrenal fatigue. Don't try rehydrating with sports drinks, they're usually high in potassium and low in sodium , which is the opposite of what most of us need.

The book gives some great straight forward, simple, easy to follow advice for everyone..Adrenal fatigue is very rarely diagnosed by medics, but the following list of symptoms may mean your adrenals are being challenged to a certain extent, and I believe this is everyone at some stage in our lives :

difficulty getting up in the morning (err well that's most people isn't it?!) , 

feeling fatigued even after sleep, 

craving salty foods, 

feeling drained of energy, 

feeling like even small jobs are too much for you, 

not wanting to get it on in the bedroom, 

constant road rage, 

smoking too much, 

anxiety, 

compulsive eating, 

yelling at your kids all the time, 

taking longer to shake off viruses,

feeling light headed when you stand up quickly,

feeling abit depressed but not able to work out why,

feeling a bit down, not laughing enough, not much interests you

bad PMS - wanting to kill your partner!, bloated , tired, crabby, cramping, cravings...,

feeling rubbish if you don't eat enough,

fuzzy thoughts, 'brain fog',

forgetting  things, 

getting quickly irritated, by people and things,

sensitive  to loud noise (this is me... still, even the tv being turned up too high),

getting second wind at 10pm, having been ready for bed mid afternoon, 

not feeling like you're achieving as much as you had to

So, to help with any of the above, the following things to do each day can be selected,  as many as you can do or want to do, or have the inclination to do .

 I dip in and out depending on how I'm feeling but it's worth revisiting the list, or picking just one or two to do each week until they become a habit.

Here goes :

Use salt in food and drink, but proper sea salt or Himalayan, not refined 

Look for things that make you laugh!

Be in bed by 10pm - this takes some doing for me!

Sleep until 9am whenever you realistically can

Be grateful for at least three things daily - I have an attitude of gratitude reminder on my phone at 6pm each day, and share this with my kids

Eat lots and lots of coloured vegetables, but especially green

Drink juice (80% veg, 20% fruit) 

Learn which foods make you feel bad - keep a food diary/mood diary

Move your body daily

Breathe properly - if you don't know how,learn

Do yoga

Meditate, even for ten minutes a day- I do it before I get out of bed, and use an app called Headspace on my phone

Make your lifestyle a healing one

Get rid of your energy robbers - those things/people that drain you. Make a list of things that serve you and things that don't and start to release the ones that don't 

Believe you are healthy

Do something you love every day

Chew your food well

Laugh a lot

Take the responsibility of your health into your own hands, it's not the doctors job ! 

Have acupuncture - it helps your body to heal itself, no pills required

Keep a journal

Make lifestyle changes that will move you to greater health

Make your own food, from scratch - if you can't, learn

Avoid CRAP foods 80% of the time

Drink herbal teas, reduce regular tea and coffee

Reduce alcohol intake 

Eat whole foods as nature intended 

Have a regular body massage

Bathe regularly in bicarbonate of soda/Epsom salts and lavender oil - heaven! 

Get outside in the fresh air every day

Go barefoot on grass or sand to ground you, whenever possible

Her your chakras balanced - Jenny Kaye in Harrogate is amazing

Massage your feet with oils - this stimulates reflexology points, and can help with pain relief

Surround yourself with what you love - candles, and flowers are my thing

Stroke pets - my two beautiful black cats, Elle and Minx do wonders for me when I'm having a bad day

And lastly .... Visit me for health coaching!!

Hope this has been helpful.

Enjoy your day. Rx