“How’s my Detoxing?” – What do you think of my 30 Day Mind & Body Detox?

You know those lorries that have an (I always think quite sarcastic) sign on the back saying “How’s my Driving? Call xxxxxxxx”…?

Well now I’m asking you about my Detoxing… how am I doing?

I know that I have been far from perfect but I really have changed my day-to-day life and am making significantly better choices than before (and they were already reasonably good!) Does anyone have any suggestions on additional actions I could be taking or disagree with any aspects of my programme? I’ve heard that deep breathing can be powerful? Does anyone have any meditation tips? Any other tips or ideas? :)

To recap, the ‘Mind’ aspect of my Detox includes attempting meditation and yoga 5 x week, getting better sleep (through going to bed earlier, turning off all wifi, mobiles, wireless phones etc in the house at bed time and using aromatherapy), and de-stressing by scheduling in creative time, nature time, quiet time, music, reading etc. I know these last items sound very juvenile but the simple fact is that if I don’t schedule time for these simple pleasures, I invariably end up hoovering or doing laundry instead – there is an endless rolling ‘To Do’ list in my head that never gets any shorter (something I suppose you can all empathise with). So I either dedicate "chill time" or lose it completely!

For the ‘Body’ aspect I am taking an ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ approach, although of course these are inextricably linked; I refer more to treatment from the inside out and the outside in. Yes, our outer shell is a mere reflection of what is happening inside us but our ‘outside’ is also very useful for delivering essential nutrients and expelling toxins… did you know that not only is the skin the largest organ in the body but that 60% of what we put on our skin is delivered into our bloodstream within 29 seconds of us applying it?? Now this is part of an essential function of our skin: to help us absorb medicines and nutrients we need, but if that’s not the strongest argument for using organic, synthetic-free skincare I don’t know what is!

So for my ‘outside’ body treatment I am keeping to a thorough but brief daily organic skincare regime and using a fluoride-free toothpaste morning and night. In addition I am boosting my skin’s absorption of anti-oxidants to neutralise trouble-making and ageing free radicals by using power-packed serums and body lotion. To boost my skin’s natural cell renewal cycle and encourage better toxin excretion and the absorption of these lovely lotions and potions I am also dry body brushing before my shower & finishing with an icy blast every day, as well as exfoliating, using a deep cleansing facial masque and soaking in a detox bath twice weekly as well.

To get the blood pumping and all systems firing I am also exercising 6 x week to varying degrees and having regular massage, another excellent balancing and detoxifying tool (it also feels grrreat!)

Finally for my ‘inside’ body treatment I am taking organic beauty supplements (including Beauty Oil, various teas & vitamin pills – see my last blog for details on which ones I’m taking and what to watch out for). I’m washing all this down with 3 (ok, more like 2 litres) of Highland Spring water from organic land and munching on an organic diet high in vegetables, fresh veggie juice and attention to eating in season and “eating the rainbow”, and low in meat, fruit, alcohol (except red wine), caffeine (except green tea), sugar, sweeteners, cow’s dairy, eggs, low fat foods, wheat, yeast and processed foods. And ok, no I haven’t been perfect at this but ye gods I’ve been better than I would have been.

It’s funny, I feel I’ve done really well on the one hand but not very well on the other so far. I think I had some idyllic sort of vision in my head where there would just be time and space for all these changes to come at once (I mean, that’s the nature of a 30 Day Detox, right?) but in reality I have to come to terms with what happens in real life… things work, others don’t and sometime it’s not a case of strong will power or the lack thereof, sometimes it’s just that sh*t happens ;-)

Anyway, onwards and upwards! I am going to knuckle down to earlier bed times, more meditation practice and trying to get more juice and water down me too. I think I’m ready for the next stage… I’m over half way and it’s time to notch it up a gear and stop dreaming about Pimms and pic-n-mix!

A final note, I met a lady the other day at some Neal’s Yard Remedies consultant training (I’m a Senior Consultant for them; gorgeous company & gorgeous effective products that I use on all my beauty clients). She runs her own company called Serenity Flow that does colonics (eek!) and she mentioned she thought it would be a very good idea for me to have a course of 3 colonics to support my liver and bowel during this detox, especially as I also suffer from IBS. Apparently one colonic is equivalent to 3 days fasting! I’ve got to admit I find the whole idea a bit gross but I think it’s time to bite the bullet and go for it… so I’m making my appointments now… watch this space (or don’t, look away; I definitely won’t hold it against you!)

Sarah is an Holistic massage & beauty therapist, owner of Edge of Eden and Senior Consultant for Neal’s Yard Remedies. You can call her on 01277 220301, email at sarah@edgeofeden.co.uk or comment below and she’ll get back to you x

'Supplement'ing your lifestyle - supporting my 30 Day Mind & Body Detox

Supplements - do you or don't you? Does it somehow mean you have failed to nourish yourself properly from your diet if you take them? Is it an excuse to eat whatever you want because you can always get the good stuff from vitamin pills? Are they ethically produced or just another way of stripping the planet bare through overfishing for fish oils and intensive farming for low-grade plants and herbs?

And what about what goes into them? Some capsules don't dissolve which is a total waste of money, but when you hear what's in them it's probably a blessing... Chalk, sand, talc, glue and other unhealthy additives to supplements are commonplace. And even if there are no nasties in there, are the vitamins potent enough and in the right balance for you, and if they are potent but unbalanced could they actually be doing you harm?

I DO take supplements and I'll tell you why. Thanks largely to our over-intensive farming methods (no crop rotation, no fallow years, heavy fertilisation etc etc) it is much harder to get the nutrition we need from modern vegetables. For example, in the1950s a carrot contained 67% Vitamin A; these days it can be as low as 17%! A field that used to grow inorganic foods that has been converted back to organic takes at least 10 years for all the chemicals to leave the earth, so even with the best organic veggies in my diet I can't help but think a sensibly chosen series of supplements is a good idea :)

I have chosen a series of supplements to take during my detox, based in part on the recommended list of 18 supplements for optimal health in Women's Health magazine. These are: Iron (ferrous sulphate), Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin A, Folate (folic acid, 400mg), Biotin, B Vitamins, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), Vitamin D (D3), Omega 3 (<3g daily), Melatonin (200mcg), Probiotics (multi),  Coenzyme Q10, Green tea, Grape seed extract, Reveratrol (found in red wine!) and Flaxseed seeds (for lignans) & oil. You can read all about why these are necessary and what amounts to take in their article.

The majority of these I get from the fabulous Neal's Yard Remedies Multivitamins and Beauty Oil, and I also take their Super Anti-oxidant Boost and Beauty Boost supplements in addition to individual supplements such as a probiotic. In addition I add Aloe Vera juice and various green 'superfood' powders to my morning veggie juice, including spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass and barleygrass for a super-duper boost and to aid my digestion as I have IBS. Finally I am also drinking organic green tea as well as NYR Detox tea, Summer tea (delicious and great for hayfever) and Beautiful Skin tea, although I must confess I don't really like this one as it is berry-based and I'm not a fan of fruit tea!

I guess this may all seem very confusing but the long and short of it is: Do your research and then Choose your path. Regardless of what you do, you should be taking a daily Multivitamin in my opinion and the Neal's Yard one is an excellent choice. Whichever you choose make sure that (like all Neal's Yard supplements) they are:

• 100% active ingredients
• 100% vegetarian natural and organic ingredients
• Super absorption capsules - released in 15 minutes once in the stomach
• Anti-oxidant rich botanicals
• Vegetable capsules - free from fillers and binders
• Absolutely NO GM ingredients, preservatives, synthetic binders or glues, synthetic fillers, magnesium sterate, colourings, animal testing, nano technology, irradiated ingredients, gluten or yeast.

Happy swallowing!

A final note from me before I head to bed following a busy couple of days offering free beauty

Neal's Yard Remedies mother & baby goodies at Ilford market

treatments at a fundraiser event for St Francis Hospice last night and then running a stall with beautiful organic NYR mother & baby goodies at Ilford mum2mum market today (plus a couple of massage & beauty clients!)

I was in Covent Garden the other day for some free training (all consultants receive as much free training as you like) and as we finished early I decided to go for a Massage treatment to aid my detox... as a Massage therapist sometimes it can be hard not to overthink the treatment you are receiving but it was very nice (not the best massage ever but then I am hard to please!) Having my naked legs rubbed and pummelled it made me think: a) Wow I'm glad I shave my legs every day (Intuition blades ladies, they're the future) and b) is there anything else I could be doing to bust my cellulite that I could add into my detox?

Of course the detox itself is great for getting rid of fat, and therefore cellulite, with my daily dry body brushing, twice weekly exfoliation and detox baths with Dead Sea salts, and icy blasts to finish my shower each day. However, I have also started using the Firming Body Cream from Neal's Yard so watch this space... fingers (and legs!) crossed this one works!  ;-)



Sarah is an Holistic massage & beauty therapist, owner of Edge of Eden and Senior Consultant for Neal’s Yard Remedies. You can call her on 01277 220301, email at sarah@edgeofeden.co.uk or comment below and she’ll get back to you x

My 30 Day Mind & Body Detox... Dispatches from the first 3 Days

What is it they say about the road to hell…? Paved with good intentions, you say?

Well the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that, whilst my last blog post dealt with the formalities of what my 30 day mind and body detox would involve, there have been no subsequent posts to check in on how I’m doing.

“Mixed” would be an honest appraisal of the last 3 days…  In the mornings I feel really proactive and then, I don’t know if it’s cutting out sugar and caffeine or whether getting up and getting on with the day at least 2 hours earlier are to blame, but I am dog tired come the afternoon!

Things I’m loving:

• OK, it sounds crazy but I’m loving finishing my shower with an icy blast. My strangled yelp still causes consternation from my other half but he’s learning to just roll his eyes at the whole thing and is even getting on board with some (other) aspects of the detox programme
• I genuinely feel my skin is softer, smoother and more toned since I started dry skin brushing and using my organic toning body moisturiser... can’t believe I’m seeing a difference already!
• I have more energy in the mornings… noticeably
• I feel happy I am being really planet friendly :)
• Realising that I have done by lunchtime what would previously have been a whole day’s worth of tasks #oohgetme #superproductive
• I can still drink red wine!!

Things I’m not:

• Getting up with a ‘To Do’ list as long as my arm before I can start my day! Meditation & yoga followed by an hour of exercise, then hot water, lemon, manuka honey and root ginger to drink (actually this is yummy) whilst I make fresh vegetable juice, then it’s off to body brush and shower… phew! There must be a better way of doing this
• The fact that I cannot stop thinking about what I’ll make for dinner while I’m supposed to be meditating, although I think this will just take practice (she says hopefully)
• There is no longer any such thing as convenience food! A quick snack means prepping veggies and dips and whatnot… This has really highlighted to me that even though I thought I was good before, I have a long way to go before I am living as well as I think I am!

There have been challenges aplenty in the last 3 days to encourage me to stray off the path of the detox but I have overcome them, even managing to eat out before going to a show last night. OK so it wasn’t organic food but I didn’t have any wheat, yeast, cow’s dairy, sugar, processed foods etc and I still enjoyed myself!

Too much information:

Consider yourself warned. So I promised there would be photos and honesty aplenty, so here are my slightly horrifying ‘before’ shots… Aged 32 and following a pretty horrendously stressful time in recent months and a horrible eczema on my face after becoming allergic to a common preservative chemical (which is not in Neal’s Yard Remedies products!) I have really started to see some ageing and a general ‘tiredness’ in my complexion. My main body concerns have been excess weight, lack of muscle tone, cellulite and less than glowing skin.

Did you know that fat is often created as a ‘safe’ way for the body to store toxins? (Dr Mark Hyman has written extensively on this) So I’m hoping that in addition to upping my water intake and exercising more, this detox in general will help me shed some fat by cutting out pesticide toxins, chemicals in beauty products and all the gunk in processed foods… We’ll see in the next set of photos :-O

My face has started to get spots and the fine lines between my eyebrows where I frown and across my forehead are a lot more visible than even a few months ago. The visible pores around my nose and on my cheeks have been a concern too. Let's see what the next 27 days can do!

Sarah is an Holistic massage & beauty therapist, owner of Edge of Eden and Senior Consultant for Neal’s Yard Remedies. You can call her on 01277 220301, email at sarah@edgeofeden.co.uk or comment below and she’ll get back to you x