Tag: Clean

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Cleanse and Detox

Cleanse and Detox.  The words cleanse, detox, diet, for some can be quite emotive, even scary, or a potential joy for remedying digestive issues.  What you eat, drink and inhale, literally forms the building blocks of your body, therefore, it’s important to know how to help your body to swap some of the shady, polluted or diseased blocks with healthy ones to keep the body functioning optimally.  Not a lot of people are aware of how joined up our emotional states are to what we eat; it still surprises me when I talk to people who aren’t nutrition aware about how powerless they believe they are for their own state of health through what they eat and drink, think diabetes, cancer, skin conditions, arthritis to name but a few conditions which can be both caused and remedied using food.  Your body is super intelligent, give it good fuel and it’ll work the rest out!

I’ve tried pretty much every diet going, from the ketogenic to the vegan, paleo, low fat, low sugar, ayurvedic, no carbs, juice, G.A.P.S. (Gut And Psychology Syndrome); I’ve attempted intermittent fasting and dreamt about doing the lemonade, juice, water and a whole host of others cleanses too.  With fasting, I’ve never gotten too far as my BMI is always generally healthy but on the low side and to be honest, with past eating disorders, I don’t think this is something I want to put myself through (again, lol).  Dieting, wow, trying to heal my gut of Crohn’s, IBS, incessant bloating and skin conditions, that’s why I’ve tried a lot of them.  Before I go any further I’d like to acknowledge that we’re all so different and thus if you find something which works for you, go with that, go with your gut.  It’s only when things aren’t working out and your digestive, mental, emotional, skin and joint health aren’t feeling so good that you can be aware it’s time to change what you’re doing around your diet.  Google define for:

diet noun
 the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.  e.g. “a vegetarian diet”

So by me talking about diet, I don’t mean you go on it only to lose weight or with a short term goal, as even if you’re starting out at 20 Stone, there’s going to be a point at which losing weight is no longer a goal.  Therefore, diet in that case isn’t looking long term and is probably unsustainable as starving yourself to get a goal can only lead to HAnger (Hunger Anger) and falling off the wagon due to being hungry, then eating, punishing yourself, crying, trying again, failing and falling into a trap of disempowerment and buggering yourself up.  With any food, aim to get it as close to it’s natural state as possible, and it’ll have less rubbish in which stresses out your body.  Whole grains, real food, produced by decent farms, being wary of big brands where mass production can dramatically decrease the quality of your ingested building blocks.  Just because an ad or packaging tells you something it’s healthy doesn’t mean it is; there’s a lot of advertising loop holes and if it needs someone to advertise it then clearly it’s not selling itself..  Most diet foods are full of chemicals and synthetic fillers, derived of nutrition and shoddy building blocks for your human organism!  So, have a good diet, and the cleanse and detox are a part of it, with less need to starve yourself or drink psyllium husks for a week.

The cleanse and detox I’m on at the moment involves:

  • Cutting the crap.  Phase it out to start, then simply, cutting foods which are processed, containing refined sugar, fake table salt and E numbers.  Also, alcohol, caffeine except a treat green tea if going out.
  • Switching to Fish, Olive, Coconut and flaxseed oils, reducing vegetable, sunflower, canola oils and animal fats.
  • Eating FRESH food everyday, cut up real veggies; make soups, salads, steam things, stirfries.  For animal protein (if you eat it) then eat fresh fish, lean poultry, eggs (if you can tolerate them), minimally so as to not over load your system during this time.  Make soup out of chicken with the bones in.
  • Having a large vegetable juice every day, on an empty stomach, adding wheatgrass powder, incrementing how much each week (up to 20g).
  • Being mindful of portion size, stop eating when full and save left overs for later.  Not being worried to clear the plate.
  • Probiotics, probiotics, probiotics!  In capsule, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, natto, miso, which ever but take a little bit with each meal to aid friendly bacteria and digestion.
  • Drink plenty of water or herbal teas.

So my cleanse and detox is pretty much the diet I hope to continue on, but the forward diet being one which has space for the odd night out with my friend gin, or going out for a curry or tea and cake; it just won’t be every week as the healthier I get, the less I want to go back to eating how I know doesn’t make me feel my best.

The more simple the better with diet and cleansing, in my opinion, you just need to know why you’re doing it and the consequences later on.  Trust your gut and think about your whole picture, not just how you want to look on your next beach holiday.

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The Way ‘back?’ to Health

The way back to health, or is that, the way to health?  As I’m not sure I’ve been at my best yet..

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Having visited the M&S at Westfield recently, I bought up as many carrots, organic cucumber, organic spinach, lemons, ginger and a couple of other veggies as I could carry, and it’s brought up some questions.

I stand at the check out, my shopping all veggies, lemons and some organic milk to make my kefir with and look around to everyone else’s containing bread, cakes, chocolate, sausages, ice-cream, potato salad and it reminds me of my cravings, when I’ve been at my most unwell.  When you’re healthy sure, enjoy these things on the odd occasion (if your taste desired them when you are healthy is another question!) but if these are in your everyday?..  How was I surviving before?  Why is it that I used to eat so much which I now know can cause me pain and discomfort?

About this time last year, I was getting into good health, bone broth, Kefir, juices (some but not done right for me I now realise), but I let this go due to some personal reasons.  Now, I’m bloated, always tired, have a foggy head, and seem to have intolerance to eating a LOT of different foods (I.e. pain from too much citrus or other fruits, eczema and random spots, constipation and bloating from other seemingly healthy eats, bacteria and yeasts having a party on my insides!), enough is enough.

Detoxes are at a plenty out there but to be honest, my gut instinct is that these aren’t all for me (having a super active job).  Now, the words diet and detox can trigger some pretty whacky or scary ideas.  I’ve had issues eating enough and too much, in the past and detoxes seem to send my sensitive system into shut down, so this time I doing things differently.  If you want to read my definition of a cleanse or a detox, clicky here.

Diet is about the way you eat, not a fad you do for a week or two.  Detoxes don’t have to mean starving yourself, but they do mean having discipline to not intoxicate your system with what can cause it to become disrupted in the first place..

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Why drink Ayahuasca? What to expect from it.

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Why is ‘alternative’ healing becoming such a big thing in the West?  What’s happened with conventional pharmaceuticals?  Why do we seek something to take the pain away over and over again (not just pharmaceuticals, drink, drugs, sex, addictions)..?  Why do we get so caught up and cranky in the first place?..

Because we need help, because the drugs and the pharmaceutical companies don’t work, or, they make things worse..  Because denying we have a problem doesn’t work, because sometimes we feel the symptoms but we don’t know where to start in order to get a cure..  We are ultimately human, programmed to be forgetful and have minds which often dominate our lives; thus, sometimes we forget to ask for this help, even when our bodies and energies have been crying out for years..

Ayahuasca is a traditional, indigenous medicine which has been used for many many years to shed the veils of ‘crap’ (technical word) we accumulate during life.  Consider an innocent, pure, loving baby.  Then consider it’s parents (usually with good intentions), they start to train it how they were trained,to give it the same or similar constraints they were given growing up; i.e. you can’t eat this because of X, do this because of Y, if you do Z you will fail in life, you need to do W to be successful.. etc. etc..  There is also school, religion, peers and other influences which bombard this little soul until it grows up with a whole set of conditions for life that it’s taken from its family, friends and society; without really getting a chance to even express its reason for living.

Ayahuasca (Aya) helps you to see and pull back all of these layers of conditioning, to liberate the soul and give each individual a chance to reset and deprogram from the junk accumulated during life.  Those fears, those anxieties, those pains you have but don’t know where they came from half the time.  Aya helps you to see them for what they are and, purge them out, leaving you a little lighter than society left you (intentionally or unintentionally, everyone tries their best..).

Full Moon Ceremony

The Maloka roof top when in ceremony during full moon

I went to the jungle to drink this ancient brew because I was struggling in life.  Struggling in my city life to feel a part of something, as so many people who pass me by also felt (to me) so disconnected from life its self.  I wanted to feel a connection to something consistent and healthy, something energising rather than draining.  Yes, I have beautiful friends near by which I am totally grateful for, some family too.  But, this busy city life plus feeling totally done-in from the years of self-abuse, drugs, men, hectic living and, even though my path was now much more conscious, it still hadn’t made up for these past 15 years where I had endured a LOT of pain, suffering and outputting energy never recouped.

You can see it in someone’s eyes when they’ve been on a path like this for too long, not taken enough heed of nature or not getting out enough from the concrete jungle, even for the humble yet beautiful British countryside..  You don’t have to have an interesting story of debauchery to have a reason to want to find this release, quite often the mundane day in day out in the city or ‘civilised’ towns, is what can disconnect you further from the precise reason why you were born..  We weren’t made to be so herded together, our true nature has been inhibited by our drive for growth and excess; but that is another story, I won’t digress..

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The Maloka roof top during a day ceremony

Again, ayahuasca is not a drug on which to just get high.  Anyone who uses it as such hasn’t been shown how powerful it can be..  Misuse of anything, even paracetamol, alcohol or coffee (all legal and easy to get) can end up fatal, for those people who are scared – don’t be a dickhead and make sure your shaman is legit (am writing a post for this now – PLEASE go from a recommendation, and NOT just a facebook page as I’ve close friends who’ve had a bad encounter with these Facebook promoted people, even if they have thousands of followers, not cool) and you’ll be safe.

I’m sure you get the why of it, deprogram, cast a light on those dark parts of you so hidden you can only feel their shadow.  If you seem to have anxiety, stress, low energy or keep falling into destructive or unhelpful patterns..

So, what to expect from an ayahuasca ceremony?

Expect the unexpected.

Everyone experiences it differently, every shaman has a different twist on how their medicine is brewed, how strong it is, or even if you take Aya and not something different, more tailored to suit your needs.  Some people see geometric patterns or visions (check out Luis Tamani’s work, there are many more artists who depict well but his is something else!), some people see unicorns and snakes!  As I’ve written before, you need to set an intention about what you want to work on.  Ask about something you hope to uncover about yourself, or some blocks you wish to clear, then my dear, focus on that intention and let the medicine do it’s work..  Some ceremonies I’ve had deep physical reactions, others just a few visuals and soft messages – But I cannot stress enough how important it is who hosts your ceremony, you need to be in hands of someone who knows what they are doing to help guide your journey with as much love and containment as possible (even if it feels from a far).

It was only in my last 4 ceremonies that I ever purged (down purge, very minimal up purge), the last one was intense but then I asked some big questions, and I am still processing from what I asked for now (I’ve already written about the after process here https://core-focus.co.uk/plant-medicines-ayahuasca/).

That’s all I can write on expectations.  As intentions are more important.  I know a lot of people who are scared to drink Aya, scared perhaps of undoing the tight web of protection they’ve weaved around their life to help feel some kind of safety or order in such a mad world; or scared even to face those darker parts of life/themselves which they don’t wish to revisit..  My opinion to this is: there’s nothing to fear except the fear its self.  Undoing those threads may temporarily be uncomfortable, but we only live this life once..  This is just my opinion.  Everyone is different, thankfully 😉

Much love, I hope this answers a few questions for some xx

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Best. Deo. Ever.

aromaco2

I used to rely on aerosol deos, I thought it was unnatural how much I sweat..  Over recent years or so there has been publicity about the connection between breast cancer and the lymph nodes (detoxing glands) are under your arm pits; it therefore seems counter intuitive to put something on to such a sensitive place which contains hazardous chemicals (i.e. many mainstream deos).  I tried crystal deos, natural roll ons, making my own, you name it I tried it, but I still had to wash 3-4 times a day to stop smelling like the pits!..  Then, a good friend had visited Lush before a dance party, she gave me one of the new samples she had..

Aromaco, by Lush.  Every time I wear this with no perfume, I get compliments on smelling nice!  Patchouli soft fragrance, easy on the skin but works all day against smell.  I have a very active life, this deo has been spot on even since I first tried it.

A Lot easier on the skin than a previous home made version (bicarb of soda wasn’t the best for my sensitive skin ‘sigh’).  I’ve been using aromaco for over a year and it’s great!  Lush Aromaco

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Technicalities

A bit more below about sweating, and why this deo works for me, without feeling compelled to block up my underarm pours with antiperspirants anymore..

How much you sweat depends on a couple of different factors, sweat, or perspiration (as some would rather call it), is the bodies natural way of cooling when one gets hot, heat from exercise, hormone fluctuations (as happens to most women each month), and stress or anxiety levels and the body being in fight or flight mode (sometimes can be a long term issue). I used to sweat a lot; fortunately these days it has dramatically reduced; I put this down to mediation practices intertwined with yoga, which have helped to lower my stress and anxiety levels dramatically.  I would be sweating profusely, literally sweat dripping from under my arms (especially if in contact with certain people, even just eye contact) and yet my arms would be ice cold!  These days, I can actually wear tops with sleeves and not worry about staining the under arms within 2 minutes!

If your body is hot, i.e. if it’s going through a lot of energy and you’re doing some physical exercise (i.e. running), or fighting off some disease or bacteria, or, if you feel very anxious (then your body is constantly making lots of energy readily available to be able to flight or fight as a response to stresses being felt; imagined stresses through worry, mental stresses trying to meet deadlines or immediate physical threats).  Your body is working harder to pump sweat out so that it can cool down as the sweat evaporates from your skin and take some of your excess heat with it.  This is one branch of homeostasis, and is regulated by the hypothalamus in your brain.

Your body needs to be able to keep it’s baseline temperature, despite all this energy and heat (usually produced as a byproduct); so that it can continue to work optimally.  Enzymes which catalyse reactions in our cells all function at preferred temperatures, if this temperature is too high, it can not only inhibit functioning of certain enzymes and reactions but it can destroy (denature) them too.  You see, anyone with a high enough temperature get’s pretty quick medical assistance, your body has to work even harder to keep doing it’s job in extreme conditions (hot or cold) – hence why we sweat when hot and shiver when cold (among many other homeostatic processes)..

On to smell..  How your sweat smells also has different potential causes, of course, the most common reason is due to natural bacteria under your arms, feeding on the sweat and giving off odor as their byproduct, thus is the type which is generally avoidable (yay) by washing or using certain products which have an antibacterial effect.  Also, for some of the population it can be affected by what you eat.  I happen to be in the minority of the bodies who metabolise foods in such a way that my sweat can take on smells from foods such as garlic, literally, even straight out of the shower, my armpits will have a certain strong odor!  Fortunately I’m happy to leave garlic out except for special occasions and the Aromaco deo seems to keep the underarm bacteria in check so this issue doesn’t stand for me.  However, one must wash ones pits at least once a day – deo cannot be used to simply mask a smell which is already there.

Thanks and InJoy! 🙂

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspiration

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-07-20/health/ct-met-heat-science-20110720_1_extreme-heat-heat-stress-heat-exhaustion

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My favorite natural cleaner

ind-bath-tub-scrub

I love being messy, I can’t fight the fact that sometimes I get clumsy and throw whole bottles or bags of things up in the air.

I also love being clean, it seems to help calm my mind.

However, being both a messy and a clean person AND one who cares about the environment AND who has sensitive skin is pretty tricky and can be time consuming aiming to meet all these needs.

Thus, I was SO happy when I found my favorite brand of cleaning products:  Method.  There mission statement is:

 “to inspire a happy and healthy home revolution”

Gold.

If you’re still using chemicals, go buy a bottle of this!  They smell really nice too (my faves are featured in the picture above) 😉

 

Happy Home xx