Saturday, June 25, 2011

Sweet weekend - Taking a leap...


This year I have made a lot of changes.
I am more dedicated than ever to eating a healthy, nutritious diet, I have cleaned out most of my bathroom and laundry cupboards, replacing my old, chemical-ridden products with clean, non-toxic ones, and I have become a runner (something which has possibly surprised me most of all!)

These positive, healthy changes in my life have led me to thinking a lot about my career and living a life that fulfills my passions.

I currently work in recruitment at a university in Melbourne. I have worked in education and marketing for a number of years now and when I look back at how I got into this field I feel as though I have just fallen into my career in a way. One job led onto another, and then another after that.

If you're a regular reader of this blog you would probably know just how passionate I am about nutrition, health and well being.
I love reading, watching and learning. The passion I have for these areas has been something that has acted as a burning fire in my belly. I love learning all I can. That desire is something I feel very strongly about.

So after much research, soul searching, and a little trepidation along the way, I have decided to take a leap. I am enrolling in a course to become a Naturopath.
I am excited, nervous and apprehensive all at the same time.

I am going to learn even more about how I can use holistic medicine to heal and nurture myself, my friends and family, and hopefully one day my very own patients.

Stayed tuned for what is sure to be more of what I am learning along this very new and exciting path in my life...

Friday, June 24, 2011

Reading the signs


I'm not talking about the signs you pass in your car as you drive along the road, on your way to work each morning. I mean the kind the universe throws at you, in it's attempt to make you stop and think.

More often than not we totally miss most of them, caught up in busy lifestyles, running after kids, working long hours.
The thing is, when we are really in tune with ourselves and what's happening around us we can learn to read the signs and in turn change the path that we are on.

Sometimes signs can easily go unnoticed. Like a topic, or name of someone who's been mentioned in conversation with others on a number of occasions. Sometimes signs come at you like a speeding train, kicking the crap out of you because you simply didn't listen the first time.
Sarah Wilson talked about how she reads signs a while back. She says they come to her in threes. She mentions how the name of her meditation teacher came up in conversations with three different people and so she booked in to go see him. Best thing she'd done in a while. She knew her body was telling her she needed to go see him.

Signs don't have to come in threes. It may be that you've been thinking about how much you need to book in for a check-up at the dentist, and the very same day you overhear a work colleague on the phone making an appointment with their dentist.

Signs aren't always obvious.

When I was first diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis I didn't understand why I had gotten so sick. I was young. I thought I looked after myself.
It's only now, years later, that I realise just how wrong I was.
I had run myself into the ground. I was partying hard (I was 21 at the time), had gone through a terribly emotional break-up with my boyfriend at the time, and my diet left a lot to be desired.
I had totally ran myself into the ground.
Then I got sick. I was depressed, exhausted, overweight, and I didn't even realise what was going on. I wasn't in tune with my body.
Looking back, I know that this was why I got sick. There were probably 50 signs along the way that could've told me so!
If I had've looked after myself this may not have happened. If I had've taken the ongoing illnesses, weight gain and depression as a sign, it may have been a different story.
But it did. And I now look at it as a blessing in disguise.
I now eat well, exercise, and look after my body. I feel better now, at 30, than I did at 21!
With age, comes maturity, and with that comes a deeper understanding of reading the signs. Listening to what your body, or what the universe, is telling you.

Last week my husband was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis. It had come on suddenly. A month earlier he seemed fine. He was running with me and eating a fairly balanced diet. Yet he had been run down, stressed and after a bout of gastro, followed by a cold, along came the joint pain.
He has always been prone to sickness. Around the age of 18 he had glandular fever. After that, he seemed to get one illness after another.
Now, I'm not saying that if he had've read the signs that he may not have gotten sick, we'll never know that. But auto-immune illnesses, including thyroid disease and various types of arthritis, can often come on when your body is under stress, when you've run yourself into the ground.

Right now, we are looking at ways to heal him and get him back to normal.
I think he realises that he now, more than ever, needs to look after his body, listen to it when it tells him he needs to sleep more, stress less and eat well.
I think it has also made me realise just how much we need to learn to read the signs and listen to our bodies.

Do you read the signs or do you keep cruising along, on autopilot, unaware of what's going on?

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Product review - Love Y'Hair Natural Shampoo and Conditioner


Like many so called 'organic' or 'all natural' products out there, one thing I have noticed throughout my clean product hunting over the past few months has been just how much companies try to fool us.
And unfortunately many of all fall for their tricks.
One sure fire way to make sure you're actually buying something clean is to check out the ingredients.
If a product doesn't even have the ingredients listed on the back of their packaging that's a big no-no for me and I put it straight back on the shelf.
If the list is a lengthy one, with many difficult-to-pronounce ingredients on there, again I am a little hesitant with making a purchase.

When I came across Love Y'Hair Shampoo and Conditioner I was really impressed with their ingredient list:
Shampoo
- organic coconut oil
- coconut betaine
- glycerine
- coconut DEA (vegetable)
- BNPD preservative
- citric acid
- sodium chloride
- aloe vera extract
- perfume FD + C
- chamomile extract

- essential oils
Conditioner
- organic coconut oil
- cetearyl alcohol
- glycerine stearate
- chamomile extract
- citric acid
- aloe vera extract
- perfume FD + C
- essential oils

That's 11 ingredients in total in the shampoo, and only 8 in the conditioner. And I can actually pronounce all of them!
Usually I do try to avoid perfumes in things, especially seeing you don't actually know what they contain, and what effects they have on the body. But check out this list compared to the below one. These are the ingredients of one of the most popular shampoos on the market, possibly one that many of us have used in the past... let's hope no longer!

- Water
- Ammonium Laureth Sulfate
- Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate
- Sodium Chloride
- Dimethicone
- Glycol Distearate
- Cetyl Alcohol
- Cocamide MEA
- Panthenol
- Panthenyl Ethyl Ether
- Lysine HCl
- Methyl Tyrosinate HCl
- Histidine
- Fragrance
- Polyquaternium 10
- Sodium Citrate
- Hydrogenated Polydecene
- Sodium Benzoate
- Disodium EDTA
- Trimethylolpropane
- Tricaprylate/Tricaprate
- Citric Acid
- Ammonium Xylenesulfonate
- Methylchloroisothiazolinone
- Methylisothiazolinone

Just a little different, no?

So now that we know the ingredients of Love Y'Hair are looking pretty damn clean compared to some others on the supermarket shelf, do they actually work well?

Well, I've been using them for a few months now and I have to say that while it took my hair a couple of weeks to adjust, I think my hair is in just as good, if not better condition as it was before going-clean.
The one major difference I guess I have seen is that it gets a little tangled and knotty (I have a lot of hair, and it's really long too) so I have to give it a good brush when I get out of the shower. The conditioner at first feels as though it's doing nothing, especially after you're used to the rich chemical-filled ones that make your hair feel like silk straight after putting it in. But given time, and patience with brushing, I'm pretty happy with the results.

One tip I will give you all of you out there wanting to change to a cleaner shampoo and conditioner is to give it time. You hair will need to adjust.
And another important thing is to remember it's not only what you put on your hair that will make a difference in it's condition, it's what you put in your body!
Make sure you eat lots of whole foods, including plenty of fruit and vegetables, water, and Omega-3 rich foods as this will really help.

Have you found a great clean shampoo and conditioner you'd like to recommend?

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