Tag Archives: health

10 Tips for Sleeping Well

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Sleeping well is important for having a productive day. After a bad nights sleep our concentration levels are reduced as our brain has not had time to process the events from the previous day. We have missed that important time during the deep REM sleep when are body is healing. We may be grumpy which can put a strain on our relationships. Also we are more likely to reach for comfort food instead of cooking a healthy meal and be less motivated to exercise.

Taking measures to ensure we sleep well will mean we feel refreshed and ready to start the next day!

Here are my top 10 tips for sleeping well:

  • Avoid caffeine in the evening – having tea or coffee in the evening will stimulate your nervous system and keep you awake. If you want to have a drink before bed, a relaxing herbal tea such as chamomile will have a calming affect that will let you drift off to sleep.
  • Have a bath – a warm, relaxing bath before bed can work wonders for a good nights sleep! You can use essential oils such as lavender to relax or use Epsom salts which contain magnesium, a natural muscle relaxant.
  • Avoid eating before bed – eating a big meal before going to bed will mean your body will be digesting it all night. If you a hungry just before bed, I advise eating easily digested foods such as fruit which only takes 30 minutes to digest.
  • Avoid sleeping tablets – sleeping tablets can become addictive and will make it hard for you to wake up the next morning.
  • Avoid drinking water before bed – drinking a lot of water before bed will keep you awake going to the toilet all night! It is best to drink throughout the day to keep hydrated as water is not absorbed during the night.
  • Lavender oil on your temples – this is very effective. Rubbing a few drops of lavender oil onto your temples and the soles of your feet has an instant relaxing effect.
  • Write a to-do list – try keeping a notepad beside your bed to jot down your thoughts. Writing down what you need to do the next day will mean it won’t be playing on your mind all night.
  • Use an earthing sheet – these are fantastic. I use an earthing fitted sheet which is plugged into the bedroom socket. The connection draws up healing negative ions from the earth which neutralise the harmful build up of positive ions absorbed throughout the day from wifi, mobile phones, TV, computer etc. It guarantees an improved nights sleep!
  • Right bedroom temperature – we need to be slightly cool to sleep well. Adjust the layers on your bed as the seasons change to ensure you get a good nights sleep. Use a 4.5 tog lighter duvet in the summer and a heavier 10.5 tog duvet and blankets in the winter.
  • Use f.lux – if you are on the computer late at night download f.lux which changes the screen colour to slightly pinkish at sunset. The normal blue light emitted from computer screens, mobile phones or ipads signals the brain to stay awake at a time when it should be shutting down. The red light of sunset has a calming effect on the brain, signalling it to release melatonin for sleep.

I hope these tips help you to have a deep and restful nights sleep!

WDDTY Magazine Article: ‘How I beat my ME’

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I was casually reading through the lastest issue of What Doctors Don’t Tell You magazine, enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon, when I reached the back page, noticed a column IN THE NEXT ISSUE and saw my name!

They are going to publish an article on my recovery story entitled ‘How I beat my ME’ in the September issue. The introduction reads: ‘Student Kate, who was reading chemistry at university, overcame her natural scepticism to all things alternative when her chronic fatigue, so severe she could barely get out of bed, got resolved through diet.’

The September 2014 issue featuring the article is on sale from 28th August 2014. It can be purchased from shops in the UK, via hardcopy or electronic subscription or via the WDDTY app. Look out for the article!

Clearly I am very excited that my story will be viewed internationally in the magazine and will hopefully inspire someone suffering from ME to take control of their health and use diet to make a full recovery, which it exactly what I did.

If you have an inspiring story of recovery from illness, I highly recommend getting your story out there as it may help someone. Starting a blog is a great way to get your message out as it can be viewed by people throughout the world on the internet.

Fortunately for me, I was in contact with the PR department of CNM, the naturopathic college where I am currently studying, who were publishing my story of using natural methods to recover from ME along with a course testimonial on their website. They have links with many major alternative health magazines and contacted me saying that WDDTY is looking for an interesting story and could they put my name forward. Shortly afterwards I was contacted by the editor Bryan Hubbard who arranged a phone interview. Later a photographer drove down to me and we had a photoshoot in a local park surrounded by trees with the backdrop of a stunning lake. We even had a couple of white swans come up to us from the lake during the shoot!

I hope this inspires you to follow your passion and take actions steps to get your own story out to the world.

Thanks for reading! xx

What Happens When You Connect To Your Life Purpose?

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What happens when you connect to your life purpose? Well when I started following my dream of being a nutritionist and helping people to transform their health, a series of coincidences took place.

Ever since I visited the nutritionist in the midst of my illness in July 2010 I wanted to do that job. At one point I looked online for courses and came across the CNM Nutrition Diploma course. It looked amazing because it incorporated the mind, body, spirit link and naturopathic treatments into the course! Just my kind of holistic approach! I enquired but did not enrol because I thought I would not be able to afford to find the money to do the course as I was only working part-time. So I put my dreams to one side and carried on with my average life.

Then I met a man at Vegfest in Hove. We discovered that we had the same passion for using diet to cure illness and lived in the same town! He invited me over to his house for lunch and we started spending a lot of time together. We became close and one evening driving back from his Mum’s house in Deal, Kent he said to me “Kate you are stuck in a rut in your job. What do you want to do with your life?” So I told him I wanted to be a nutritionist. He said when we got back, we would have a look at courses online. So the next day we had a look and he saw the CNM course and said that looks good and it is very near to where you live.

So I booked an open day online and we went along together. As soon as I was there I instinctively knew this was right for me and what I wanted to do. I had no doubts in my mind. When they mentioned the course fee I felt anxious. How am I going to find the money to fund the course? I was panicking in the car journey home. He was reassuring me that I would find the money and everything would work out ok. So the next day I checked my bank account and discovered I had just enough in savings for the first year of the course if I used my credit card as well! The first year was starting that weekend! So I paid over the phone there and then on the Thursday and enrolled in the course! If it wasn’t for a push from him, I never would have joined the course. People come into your life to help you move forward on your path.

A few months after enrolling on the course, I felt the need to break up with him, as I didn’t have time to study and spend all my spare time with him. It was too much. Also there was a huge age gap between us. I’m glad he came into my life, but it wasn’t right for me.

So as I now had a lot more time on my hands, I began a regime of meditating for 15 minutes every morning which is excellent for oxygenating the body, releasing tension in the muscles and relaxing the mind. One morning, in a meditative state after the meditation I created a blog. It’s like an outside force was guiding me forward. It had been on mind for at least a week and I had been thinking of names. So I created Kate’s Inspired Cooking on 11th April 2014!

Blogging has brought so much joy and creativity into my life! I have learnt how to take good photographs and write inspiring articles! I love cooking and have done for years! So now every time I make a new recipe, I type it into Word and take some photos of the finished product! It is joy to connect with lovely people from all over the world through the WordPress.com reader! And now, after 3 months of blogging, I am grateful to have over 150 followers and growing!

It is important to me to connect with people with ME/CFS. I seek out ME sufferers and share my story with them so they know they are not alone. When I was ill I felt completely alone and misunderstood. Unsupported by doctors and deserted by so called “friends”. I feel it is part of my life purpose to give hope to people with ME.

The important point on my journey was in July when I read an article in the CNM newsletter about the director of CNM who had used homeopathy to recover from the chronic pain after having an operation on his fingers which he accidentally cut off working in industry. At the end of the article they mentioned, “If you have an interesting story of using natural remedies to recover from illness, please contact our PR department.” So I emailed them with the link to My Story on my blog. A couple of weeks later they got back to me saying they would like to publish my story across their platforms! So I answered their questions and await to see the final version online!

Shortly afterwards, they contacted me saying that What Doctors Don’t Tell You magazine is looking for interesting health recovery stories and can they put my name forward. I immediately said “Yes!” and not long after I received a phone call from the editor of the magazine saying he would like to put my story in the magazine! I was over the moon! It means that my story can be spread worldwide and reach many readers of the magazine who have the so called incurable illness ME. The next morning we scheduled a phone interview and I told him the details of what happened during my period of illness. He was a lovely guy and so understanding and on my wavelength in terms of views on the health system. So we ended the call as I had to go to work in my part-time admin job. After arriving, the photographer called and we arranged a date for the photo shoot! I was so excited!

So here I am, having returned from the photo shoot earlier today, awe struck to have met the amazing photographer John Clement who has photographed Stephen Fry, Jo Brand and Rachel Stevens among others! He is going to email me some of the photos and article will be published in several weeks! I am so grateful for these amazing opportunities that keep coming my way! This is what happens when you connect to your life purpose! The journey continues from here…

My Transition from Junk Food to Healthy Food

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Here is my transition from junk food to healthy food:

Step 1: Junk Food

When I was a student at university living away from home and first became ill with ME/CFS I used to eat a diet of junk food such as:

  • Microwave ready meal lasagne.
  • Microwave ready meal salmon and broccoli in creamy sauce.
  • Microwave chips and fish fingers.
  • Pop tarts
  • Sugary Cereal
  • Pizza
  • Prawn mayonnaise sandwiches
  • Baked potato with tuna mayonnaise
  • Chocolate bars
  • Pasta in creamy sauce
  • Beef burgers

I now know that when you microwave meals it denatures the structure of the food so it is not the same food that went into the microwave!

Step 2: Gluten-Free

After visiting a Naturopathic Nutritionist who used a bio-resonance machine to detect my wheat and sugar intolerances, I altered my diet and cooked things such as:

  • Trout with wild rice, steamed broccoli and carrots.
  • Sea bass with gluten-free pasta and steamed vegetables in a creamy sauce.
  • Sausages, wild rice and steamed vegetables.
  • Gluten-free pasta in tomato sauce.
  • Steamed egg ramekin.
  • Gluten-free sandwiches
  • Rice pudding
  • Oat porridge with blueberries
  • Spaghetti Bolognese with gluten-free pasta
  • Oat flapjacks
  • Gluten-free pasta bake
  • Fish pie
  • Homemade pork burgers
  • Lamb shanks

Step 3: Reduce Processed Food

However my body become intolerant to the gluten-free pasta made from maize which I was consuming at least once a day. I developed IBS with stomach cramps, diarrhoea and even vomited once. So I had to change my diet again and ate things like:

  • Tofu with rice noodles
  • Carrot & Coriander Soup
  • Spanish Sausage & Bean soup
  • Tomato soup
  • Cheese & tomato sandwiches
  • Liver and bacon with potatoes
  • Baked potato with tuna mayonnaise
  • Pork balls with stir-fried vegetables
  • Chicken Gohan curry
  • Chicken kebabs in peanut satay.
  • Homemade chips
  • Chicken drumsticks & wings

Step 4: Vegetarian

I became interested in Detoxing the Pineal Gland and read a book where the author explains that tap water contains toxin fluorine and chlorine and fish contains toxic mercury. He also explained that meat has a very heavy vibration of death, fear, pain and suffering. I did not want to put that energy into my body as I wanted to raise my vibration. Also I had a emotive dream about a chicken in packaging that was half cooked and half still alive looking up at me with innocent eyes. I couldn’t bear to eat chicken after that and decided to become vegetarian so as not to support animal cruelty. The meals I ate included:

  • Baked butternut squash with thyme, walnuts and feta
  • Spanish omelettes
  • Baked potato with cheese
  • Potato salad
  • Greek salad
  • Hummus on gluten-free toast
  • Gluten-free pizza
  • Ratatouille

Step 5: Raw Vegan

Then I met my health-conscious ex boyfriend who had cancer and became raw vegan like him to get the benefits of detoxing my body, more energy and clear skin. I ate things such as:

  • Kale Salad with Sprouted Seeds
  • Smoothies
  • Juices
  • Raw chocolate
  • Chocolate & almond milk smoothie
  • Veggie nut mix in lettuce boats with hummus
  • Nori Rolls
  • Guacamole on corn cakes
  • Hummus and sprouted sunflower seed on rice cakes.
  • Raw carrot cake
  • Kale chips

Step 6: Mixture of Cooked & Raw Vegan

I found it very difficult to get enough calories on that diet and although my skin was clear, I felt hungry and weak. So I am now a mixture of cooked and raw vegan and seem to have a lot of energy. My favourite meals at the moment are:

Featured in the September 2014 issue of WDDTY magazine in the article ‘Why ME?’ about my recovery from ME/CFS using diet.

10 Steps to Recovery from ME/CFS

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10 Steps to Recovery from ME/CFS

50156822 - young woman opening curtains in a bedroom

Here is a list of steps I have created in a moment of inspiration that you can follow when working towards your recovery from an illness. I followed these steps when recovering from my ME/CFS. My 10 steps to recovery from ME/CFS:

  1. Accept – stop and accept where you are. You may have to leave your job and be cared for by family. Accept and make peace with your current limitations.
  2. Look externally – get help and support from the outside world. See a doctor or a therapist.
  3. Healthy diet – visit a nutritionist and take supplements if necessary to ensure you are getting adequate nutrition to support your body during the illness. Alter your diet to include more fruit and vegetables.
  4. Look within – look inside of yourself to find out why you are ill and what lesson it has to teach you. Spend quite time alone meditating to connect with yourself.
  5. Look to the past – what traumas happened in the past that perhaps you have not dealt with? What behaviour patterns did you learn from your parents that perhaps are not serving you well in your life?
  6. Grieve – spend time grieving the past, then release it and let go. The past is over and you are free now.
  7. Get back into society – get out and meet people again. Do some volunteering. And if you are ready, look for a job.
  8. New behaviours – practice new behaviours to replace the old ones that may have made you ill. Think positively to attract good circumstances and people into your life. Practice being grateful for what you have. Think of 3 things to be grateful for every night before you go to bed. It can be as simple as ‘I am grateful to have a comfortable bed to sleep on.’ or ‘I am grateful for the caring and supportive friends and family that I have.’
  9. Look to the future – where do you want to be in 10 years time? Set goals for yourself. What would you really love to do with your life? Find your passion and take small action steps towards making it a reality. Create a vision board.
  10. Keep learning – the journey to great health is an ongoing one. Read about health and keep making small changes in your life such as starting to do 15 minutes exercise everyday even if it is just going on a short walk.

I wish you the best in your journey to recovery!

 

Featured in the September 2014 issue of WDDTY magazine in the article ‘Why ME?’ about my recovery from ME/CFS using diet.

Copyright: lzflzf / 123RF Stock Photo

My Story: How I Became Ill With ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

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Recently I’ve been studying Infectious Diseases for my Nutrition course exam. Reading about viruses and bacteria, I had a revelation about what caused my ME.

Basically I caught Glandular Fever/Epstein Barr virus at university, also known as the kissing virus. Virus inject their DNA into your cells which replicate their DNA for them and create more viruses! Eventually the viruses burst the cell and are released. They go undetected by your immune system and they hide in your cells and alter your genes for immune defence.

So this caused me to feel fatigued, dizzy, weak, with brain fog, difficulty concentrating.

Also I had a typical student diet consisting of chocolate, crisps, microwave ready meals, pasta and alcohol. So my diet was atrocious! I was malnourished and the high sugar diet gave me spots.

I went to the doctor and told him my symptoms. He gave me tetracycline antibiotics to take for the acne and told me to keep a food diary for a few months and then get back to him. I felt really alone and unsupported and didn’t know what was happening to me.

Back then I had very low self-esteem and pushed myself to please others, doing what was expected of me without questioning what I wanted to do. So I carried on working hard studying for my chemistry degree and working full-time on my industrial placement year at the same time, even though I could barely concentrate. I started collapsing suddenly as I was so weak.

Anyway the antibiotics took their effect and killed off the bad infection. However they also wiped out my good bacteria so the opportunistic yeast fungus that lives in everyone’s gut called Candida Albicans overran my gut. They have hyphae projections that plant like roots in the gut wall and cause little holes to form that allow food particles to leak through the gut into the bloodstream causing leaky gut syndrome.

Eventually I became so ill in December 2008 that I was unable to function in society so my parents brought me back home and my Mum had to care for me for 6 months as I was too weak to stand up and walk to the kitchen to get a drink or make food. I was confined to either my bed or sitting on the sofa in front of the TV.

After a year of diagnostic tests from the doctors, they all came back negative and a neurologist in London diagnosed me with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (a syndrome is a group of symptoms) in December 2009. The only treatment they could offer me was antidepressants and that said it would take time to improve.

At this point I took charge of my own health, and with the little energy I did have I began researching on ME I signed up to an ME monthly newsletter and in one issue it mentioned that acupuncture can help. So my Mum booked an appointment for me to see a local acupuncturist.

Although the acupuncture only provided temporary relief, and not helpful in the long time, she detected that I had severe digestive issues and recommended that I go and see a Nutritionist.

This was the key to my recovery as she used a bio-resonance machine to detect that my body was overrun with multiple viruses, Candida and I can several food intolerances including wheat, yeast, sugar and beef. I immediately cut out the offending foods and wondered what on Earth I could eat as everything seemed to have sugar and wheat in it.

I remember when I cut out processed sugar I had the shakes for a day like I was coming off a drug. I ate fruit as a replacement.

This is when my passion for cooking began as I began experimenting with wheat-free alternatives and baking my own bread with gluten-free flour.

After about 6 weeks of changing my diet and taking supplements including Oregano to kill the Candida and natural antiviral herb supplements, I returned to see the Nutritionist and she noted a marked improvement in my health. I felt better and had so much more energy. The brain fog had cleared.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I believe it is my life purpose to share it and to spend the rest of my life helping other people with their health, using the knowledge I have learned on my own health journey. I feel blessed to have had this first hand experience of illness so I can really relate to my future clients and help them on a deeper level.