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My Five Day Water Fast

If you've just raised your eyebrows at my five day fast and have a comment to poke fun at my most recent experiment, then you're not alone! I received a whole lot of those this week so before I get into all the detail, here are my best rebuttals when I told people I was only going to drink water for five days: Them: OMG, won't you die of starvation? Me: 1. If humans died after a few days of not eating, I don't think the human race would have survived as long as it has, do you? We are in unp...

How the Phases of the Moon Impact Your Body & Mind

Whilst we don't know why, there are many observations and some correlations between behaviour, medical conditions and symptoms with the phases of the moon. It's unlikely to be the gravitational pull affecting the water in our cells (the physics doesn't quite stack up), it could be the impact of light on our circadian rhythm (although the floodlit false lighting of our streets and cities has made this difficult to tell) and it could be the changes in energy which disturb our sleep and therefore a...

What Do The Sun & Moon Have To Do With My Health?

If you have any of the following symptoms, as noted by Julie Roberts from Sanctuary Much: Mood swingsExcessive EnergyExtreme Tiredness, Lethargy, FatigueExcessive YawningHeadachesMuscle aches, muscle tensionJoint painFrequent UrinationDigestive Irregularities (constipation, diarrhoea, gas, bloating)ChillsHot flashes, night sweatsNausea, vomitingFlu-like symptomsFeverRashesRe-appearance of old aches and painsHeavy periodsSkin flare ups then you may be experiencing a form of natural detox due to t...

Night Waking: Why it happens, how to break the cycle

Over 50% of my clients have complained of waking up between 3am-5am and finding themselves frustratingly wide awake causing long term disturbed sleep patterns (and leading to issues with appetite and weight). I also see this time and time again with friends in general.  Chances are you will have many friends with the same problem. There is a reason for it. And it is hormonal. And there are 10 things you can do about it....

Canine Companions, Cuddles & Connection

Of course, going walkies regularly and being more active can improve your physical health and reduce your risk factors for certain diseases, but did you know about the positive impact your canine companion can have on your mental and emotional health? Dog owners the world over will no doubt have experienced the positive benefits that studies are now evidencing without even realising, but for some settings and age groups, the therapeutic effects of spending time with animals are at the heart of t...

Natural Homemade Face Cream Recipe

Soooooooooo excited about this!!! Been wanting to make more of my own beauty products for ages, so I've been hoarding recipes and ingredients trying to work out what to do. I've tried a number of natural products over the past few years and with some tips from my mum made this beautiful face cream (well, you could use it on any skin really). Though it took me many weeks to actually get around to doing it, the whole process took literally 10 minutes to put together, then a few hours to cool slowl...

Thinking to Boost Health

One of the most profound statements I’ve heard recently, that really stuck with me is this:  The story you tell yourself should be the same as the story you are telling others. But, if we are being truly honest with ourselves, how do we get to that stage?...

Breathing to Boost Health

In the introduction to his book the Oxygen Advantage (2015), Patrick McKeown highlights that: we can live without food for around three weeks, we can live without water for a few days,but we may only be able to survive without breathing for five to ten minutes.  We spend a significant amount of time trying to optimise the quality and quantity of our food and water, without paying as much attention to the quality and quantity of our breath.  There are studies showing how our modern...

Moving to Boost Health

The term ‘exercise’ these days conjures up images of treadmills, mirrored studio rooms, pain and sweat, but this is not what our bodies were designed for. Sitting at a desk for 8 hours and then hitting the gym has been shown to be detrimental to overall health and fitness, and can cause injury. We were designed for more continuous movement to keep blood flowing, joints working and limbs active. There are infinite ways to incorporate movement into your daily routine, to boost your h...

Sleeping to Boost Health

Quality sleep could well be the most important aspect of our health, often overlooked and neglected in a modern society where we feel the need to utilise every hour of the day...and night. Have you ever wondered whether the bright, fluorescent lights in our homes, or the blue, flickering lights of our screens, impact our ability to get the 'shut-eye' our ancestors got used to when sleeping under the stars? Well they do BIG time. Along with a whole host of other modern habits. But when you k...

Eating & Drinking to Boost Health

Whilst better health is not all about the food it’s a great place to start. It is the relationship we have with food that can tell us more about what is going on inside. Deciding which food to put in our body can provide us with a sense of control (especially if we are lacking it elsewhere). However, our choices can be based on mis-information which is working against us and actually preventing us from feeling better.When you schedule an appointment with me we start with looking at how you cur...

Floating For Health

A colleague of mine had been talking about how blissful her regular 'float' experience was and as I am always looking for ways to improve my health I wanted to try it! There aren't too many floatation centres around (hopefully that will change) but there is one close to where I work in Pangbourne, Reading (UK) called Floating Point so I booked in. The co-founder and facilitator Michael Cordova is a wealth of knowledge on floating and the wider field known as 'bio-hacking' and I get the feel...

Pregnancy Part 4 - New Mums (and Dads!)

Learn to swaddle and keep baby swaddled at night for the first week or so, they feel safer this way (ensure they can still kick their legs about if they need to)I rolled my eyes at the cliché ‘sleep when baby sleeps’ because I felt I had so much else to do but please believe me, those things can wait. The ONLY things you need to take care of are you and your baby, and you can’t do that whilst sleep deprived.  Plus lots of other amazing things happen to your body whilst you sleep, che...

Pregnancy Part 3 - Movement, Birth & Placenta Encapsulation

You’re not sick, you’re pregnant.  Unfortunately, in times gone by preggos (as I affectionately refer to them, as I did to myself when ‘with child’) were treated as invalids, confined to their beds for the majority of the term! (I'm very sorry for anyone who has any condition that also confines them to a bed, ultimately we should be up and about but I appreciate sometimes this is not possible.) One of the best things you can do for your and your baby’s health is to continue e...

Cutting the Crap at 40 (or any age)

So I turn 40 today*. Woohoo! I've received lots of comments, 'ooohs and aaahs', pitying and sympathetic looks, and lots of reassurance that 'age is but a number'. But only a few positive and congratulatory remarks (would those be for making it this far? 😂). Is this an indication of how everyone else feels about getting older? I hope not, because I can honestly say that I feel the best I ever remember feeling, across all aspects of my life. I certainly wouldn't want to go back to being 20...

Pregnancy Part 2 - Morning Sickness

There are so many changes going on in your body once you conceive is no wonder some of us literally feel giddy and sick with it. I felt so nauseous in my first trimesters but I never had the relief of actually being able to throw anything up, I just dry retched (very attractive). For me this was especially and weirdly triggered by breathing in cold air strangely enough.  There are many theories about morning sickness. It could be a result of the extra hormones you have circulating, it could...

Pregnancy Part 1 - Preparation (environment & diet)

My health principles are relatively easy to follow as I often pretend I’m a cave woman and imagine what they would’ve done.  Pregnancy is no different. Women over the ages have successfully reproduced so even though the whole thing is quite overwhelming, you can comfort yourself in the knowledge that billions of females before you have done this….and ultimately it’s what we were designed to do. Sadly in this modern era of information and technology the whole process has be...

Naturopathy & Ancestral Principles

Modern science and medicine cannot always explain the human body. The thing that makes us human is that we are more than just a sum of our parts, we also have a driving life force, or energy, also called chi or prana. When this vital force is weak, illness can take hold. Ancient systems like naturopathy, Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) provide tools for prevention and balance, whereas modern medicine focuses more on treating symptoms.  The modern medical system has been well...

Top Tips for Digestion of Christmas Dinner

I have to start this post by addressing the role of stress in digestion. If your body is in the 'fight or flight' state, under stress, exhausted but thinking of your massive 'to-do' list, the last thing it will be doing is focussing on how well you digest your food! Christmas can be stressful but given how much more we seem to consume during this time make sure you keep up with your relaxing activities, don't skip your yoga, massage or gentle gym session and start your preparations ear...

Foundations of Good Health for Kids

Forget my own cravings and weight loss, raising healthy kids has been my biggest challenge by far! My kids have seen me slowly change most aspects of my life over the years, many of which have of course impacted them, but let’s face it, kids are kids and they have minds of their own. Below are some of the techniques I’ve learnt and applied (some more successful than others) over the years to try and create a foundation of health that will stand them in good stead for the future*. *This is qu...

Healthy Holidays

I find our lifestyle less of a challenge now than I did when I first started and trips like this are less intimidating and easier to prepare for. But there are always situations that you can't control, and actually....maybe you don't want to (I'm a bit of a control freak incase you hadn't picked up on that!). So whilst I did prep a few dishes and snacks etc and took my essentials (listed below) I did partake in some normal holiday behaviour (I use the word 'normal' loosely). By that I mean I dra...

Becoming a Healthier, Happier Mum

This post is for all the mums out there who face the tough and important jobs (plural) of being a mum, working or and/or building a career, running a household, planning a future and taking time to enjoy who they are. All at the same time as trying to keep themselves healthy enough to continue with the multi-tasking whilst looking out for their family's health too. It's a minefield. It's complicated. And we are inundated with opinions and information from everywhere (thanks to the Internet) that...

Health & Healing: what it means to me

In my opinion, true health is all about balance. There are many factors affecting the balance for us and so we are forever travelling along a health spectrum, sliding up and down the scale, trying to reach the point where we feel well and can function at our optimum level. This optimal point is not only about building and operating a healthy physical body successfully, the part we can actually see, there are other factors that I have found need to be considered. The phrase: ‘mind, body and sou...