Shake it up baby !

Amazing how a new job can put you off your food! Well as from day one back on the 10-7 treadmill I am determined to kick my sugar habit and be eating clean.
So after my fresh lemon & ginger tea fix this morning I had homemade cereal, of brown rice flakes with nuts and seeds topped with berries and coconut yogurt.
Lunch is a salad of spinach and cucumber with carrot and celery sticks (funny thing celery).
Dinner, a little something I made earlier, a coconut chicken and courgette pasta (brown rice pasta).
I discovered I have Candida Overgrowth about six months ago, I also have a sugar addiction which is really not helpful at all.

I have decided I am going to get healthy in the right way, not by dieting but by eating properly and cleanly.

Another treat I give myself which although it contains a very small amount of sugar is a meal replacement shake by Arbonne.If you blend it up with plenty of ice and water it’s like eating ice cream! I recommended it to my friend Dawn Lowe who is an actress, model and singer plus Ms London Galaxy 2015/16, this is what she has to say :-

My good friend Lecia Finch, who is an Arbonne Distributer and suggested I try Arbonne’s Essentials Chocolate Flavour Meal Replacement Shakes to help with weight loss and to replace any nutrients I’m losing through my thyroid malfunction.

The instructions tell you to replace breakfast and lunch or breakfast and evening meal with the shake and have a proper balanced meal each day.

I have to say the shakes are amazing. Not only did they taste delicious but I was also never hungry on them! I managed to lose the weight I needed to in record time too for my fitting model job and I also felt a lot healthier.

Thank you Lecia for your brilliant recommendation – I will continue to use and recommend them to others.

So you see losing weight and being healthy is not as awful as it sounds, it’s not just about mourning the things you shouldn’t eat it’s about discovering new and yummy things you can.

Now if you will excuse me I have some blending to do!

Good Morning

One of the perks of working from home for me has to be morning televison or This Morning to be exact.

I love the presenters, Philip & Holly, Eamonn & Ruth and Rylan. They actually cover some very serious and enlightening topics, which I lap up for research purposes obviously. The amazing nutritionist Amelia Freer has been on twice so has Deliciously Ella, the books from both of these ladies are helping me with my Candida Dysbiosis and it’s great to see them promoting what some people still see as a cranks diet! But most of all I love the fact that they make me laugh.

Laughter is a very important thing in life, apart from being one of the most fulfilling emotional releases (which many of us do not get enough of), it’s actually a very good exercise for our core stomach muscles.Imagine how fantastic a washboard stomach just from lots of belly laughter as opposed to crunches! It’s also great for stress and anxiety.

HOT TIP for a flat tummy.

Try standing up straight and blowing up a balloon as much as you can with one big breath, fifteen times, everyday. You use the same muscles as you do for crunches and sit ups, without killing your back!

Mental exercise for your well being is just as important as the physical stuff. For this (apart from my Sudoku addiction) I love The Chase. Bradley Walsh and the chasers apart from being very intelligent and competitive are again very funny. And the fast paced questioning gives your brain a good workout.

I am going to miss this as I am now back in full time employment.

Back to just the balloons and the Sudoku!

Sugar, I’m having a hot flush!

Hot flush

Today I want to talk about hot flashes or flushes as we say in Blighty. Something else like female hair loss that is often sighted as another sign of peri -menopause or early menopause, but is it?

My Mother will tell you that the worst part of menopause is the flushes which boil up and overtake your body like a possessive demon. This is what makes you lash out, swear and throw things, apparently, I was sure this is the same as what happens to me at P.M.T time.

I am actually not very good with heat anyway, I tend to get panicky and cry a lot because I just can’t function, I get brain fog, sickness, headaches or sometimes I just pass out!

Discovering my Candida Dysbiosis, was like having all my prayers answered in one go. Even going on the initial elimination diet (no wheat, gluten, dairy or sugar) unveiled so much. When I do have the odd intake of sugar, I can instantly feel it surging through my body, flushing my face, making me dizzy and of course sending my temperature soaring.

I totally agree with recent news pieces about the dangers and over consumption of sugar, I think it has a lot more to answer for than just obesity and premature aging. I know this through my own ‘experiments’ with it. Much as I love it I know it to be the food of all evil, I used to think that was tomatoes!

But when I am being really good and eating (and drinking) really clean, I do not suffer from any of these things but best of all no hot flushes! And because I am not overloading on carbs, chocolate and other unnecessary ‘comfort’ foods (sugar) at period time, I do not try to kill anyone or jump out of any windows.

Feel like a bit of old rope?

I know when I do, it’s time to get back on track with Amelia Freer.

The news yesterday was that we all have to half our sugar intake, well I am definitely one of those that needs to stop it altogether!  I suffer from Candida Dysbiosis, a leaky gut caused by the overgrowth of yeast spores that leech and live on the yeast created by sugar and white carbohydrates. Causing, among other debilitating symptoms. extreme tiredness and fatigue, digestive issues, lack of concentration, poor memory, lack of focus and brain fog, skin issues, mood swings, anxiety & depression, headaches, sore throats and infections.

Now whilst I know this, I also have the terrible fate of being a total ice cream addict. A carton of Ben & Jerrys only lasts about half an hour in my hands, four almond magnums? don’t mind if I do, then I have to go out and hide the package evidence in a nearby bin so that my other half doesn’t know. Confessing this to you helps, but I need to have a serious word with my willpower. This has gone beyond just being about, gluttony or emotional eating it’s about my general health, ‘I must not feed the spores they make me really ill.’

So, on waking up feeling mega c**p again this morning I decided that today was the day, I put this to bed. Lets face it when I go back to full time work on the 28th I’m not going to have the time to pop to the shops and eat nonsense. The plan is to force myself to eat salad during the day and when I get home it will be too late to mess about so, steamed vegetables.

Today is mostly about liquids of water and the green tea variety, with eggs and smoked salmon (good protein) for breakfast and a prawn and mango stir fry for dinner ( yes @FreerNutrition, the one you made on @itv_this Morning).

I’m busy planning all of my blogs, newsletters, posts and content for the re-launch of new look Hat Attic so I might as well add in planning menus and shopping lists for the big return, I’m not going to have time for messing about!

I have got my vitamins  lined up to top up my energy levels and keep me tip top, I need to make sure I do the rest right and practice what I preach!

I can’t be  Wonder Woman if I feel like a bit of old rope can I?

The penny has dropped!

It’s only taken 45 years 9 months!

When I was five I wanted to be a fashion designer, twelve, a textile designer, at nineteen I had to go into what I knew, fashion shop manager. So you can see I have always been a dedicated follower of fashion in one way or another.

From managing a shop in the Fulham Road, being an assistant manager of a very fancy designer shop in Knightsbridge and a concession manager in a department store I made it into said department stores buying office. I was to spend the next seventeen years dedicating my life to learning, striving and battling bullying to climb the career ladder, I was going to get my buyership even if it killed me, and it damned near did!

The MD that was bullying me died and suddenly it was all change, in with the new out with the old. Suddenly we started seeing members of our beloved ‘family’ disappearing, my turn came suddenly in October 2013, just after my 44th birthday.

I was thrown into major depression, anxiety and panic attacks, nervous breakdown country.

In the last year and nine months with very close monitoring by my brilliant GP (when I actually can get an appointment), C.B.T , my amazing counsellor and my love of reading and learning, I have managed to pull myself out of the abyss and make the improvements I feel comfortable with.

I have decided that I don’t have to meet other peoples approval by dressing, acting and being a certain way, I wear what I like, because it suits me, it’s my look. I have always refused to be anybody’s little ‘fashionista’ but even more so now, I don’t have that sort of precious attitude. I love my family, friends and the planet we all live on, I want to live as cleanly and quietly as possible, that includes my diet, skincare and all other products that I need to use. I prefer to use alternative or holistic medicines as far as I can (I find diet has a lot to do with that) and most unlike anyone in my ‘sector’ I do not want to be seen as judgmental. I have never been a materialistic sort of girl, despite my job, so to go to work and not have major responsibilities and just be able to bring in enough to pay the rent and put food on the table is enough for me. My fabulous website, that has been created purely to help people (like me now!) who have no spare time to be messing about looking all over town for that perfect gift or classic accessory, will provide me with a bit of extra, to be able to treat myself now and then.

The penny has dropped, I am now my own woman, who is practicing emotional detachment, mindful meditations, eating and living cleanly. I am happy, healthy and looking forward to living my carefree, comfortable life in my way with my nearest and dearest.

#27 NEVER STOP LEARNING.

One thing I have learnt to love since I was rendered unemployed is cooking.

In an effort to make myself feel better, I went on an investigation into the relationship between food and mood (so to speak)

During this time I found that I actually suffer with a condition called Candida dysbiosis/ overgrowth, leaky gut. This is when yeast spores get out of control in your gut and can cause many different ‘illnesses and diseases’ ie. bloating, IBS like symptoms, skin & nail infections, extreme fatigue, autoimmune problems, brain fog (lack of concentration, memory loss etc), skin issues (eczema, psoriasis, rashes itching), depression, mood swings, all of this and more. So I decided that I would experiment with my diet in order to combat, visits to the GP ( they are busy enough as it is).

Basically diets high in sugar, yeast and carbohydrates make your stomach a playground for these spores. That’s why you get the cravings for these specific foods.

After reading and learning a lot from books by Amelia Freer, Deliciously Ella and many others, I have decided to go clean on my diet. That means I am wheat, dairy and sugar free, most of the time. Obviously this mode of eating is quite difficult to be 100% on when you eat out but easy to maintain at home.

This is my basic essentials list and few recipes that I use over and over again, you can use them as basics and make twists to them according to your tastes as you get more confident and experiment a bit.

I am not a doctor or a nutritionist, but I find this is working for me. And I am really enjoying learning new tricks with food, spices, tastes and ingredients. Now that I have had the time to learn to cook properly I am really enjoying it.x