Did you Know? - I'm a doTERRA Essential Oils Wellness Consultant and you can be too and receive free oils!

I'm into essential oils? Yep, big time.

I have used oils for a long time and last year I won a set of doTERRA oils from Tara at The Organic Sister blog and I was hooked. Peppermint, Lavender and Lemon, which I made into lip balms, sugar scrubs and candles. I made presents, toiletries, cleaning products, and added lemon to my water and cooked with them. N.B. Not all essential oils are safe and please check carefully... this stuff is powerful.

It got me thinking about why we would put stuff on our skin that we would NOT be safe to ingest? Our shop bought toiletries and cleaning products are now reduced. My face cream is now a reusable amber glass jar, which I refill with organic coconut oil and then add drops of frankincense and sometimes a little lavender (we are talking just drops).

If you are interested in ordering or finding out how you can get your own oils at wholesale prices and receive free oils, please go to my doTERRA page at http://www.mydoterra.com/lisaigo/.

Or if you'd like to find out more, Tara is running a free workshop about essential oils for the soul. http://organichomehealth.com/e

Monthly Art Classes at the Spa Studio from May

Monthly art workshops will start in May at the Kettering Park Hotel and Spa.  It has a very special relaxing vibe there and all are welcome (its not just for members #bonus).

I will be running drop in sessions if you'd like to pop by for coffee and find out what we will be doing.

Getting My Health Back Update - Part 2

Rereading my last post and my experience with the Mirena coil, I realised that I do need to point out that this was my experience and that Mirena works brilliantly well for lots of women. It was just not right for me.

Since my 2012 wishes and plans I,

Stopped running - I pulled a muscle and then it was Winter and then I had no energy, and a whole load of other excuses!

Stopped trying to lose weight - hindsight is a great thing, how was I ever going to succeed reducing my calorie intake when my body craved energy and good real food?

Things finally turned a corner when I

                   Started honouring my own needs with self care and listened to my body

                   Started meditating and resting

                   Started reading and researching women's health

                   Started asking for help
               
                   Started taking good supplements

                   Stopped adding sugar to my drinks

                   Cut down my caffeine intake

                   Had surgery

                   Started walking and getting outside, enjoying nature and fresh air

Well that is the quick rundown.  It's been a long slow process. Slowing down has been the key.  Slowing enough to listen to what my body needs and allowing myself time and space to validate whether its a right choice or if it isn't not, not feeling guilty about making changes.

Looking back at the list even those things have changed.  Meditation has gone from laying down resting in quiet to a walking meditation.

The asking for help and researching women's health (Dr Christiane Northrup, Caroline Myss, Dr Sara Gottfried) and reading women's stories (Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes) resulted in surgery. The best thing was that armed with my little knowledge I avoided an unnecessary full hysterectomy at 42 years old.

My surgery was a day procedure in October 2013.  A 90 second endometrial ablation for my menorrhagia.  It took me longer to recover from the general anaesthetic than the actual procedure.

http://www.drnorthrup.com/womenshealth/healthcenter/topic_details.php?topic_id=67

It was an instant improvement, my loss returned to normal and I don't have to take to my bed or wear black or add extra pads, or be within yards of a toilet anymore.

I've always loved essential oils and won a set of doTerra oils. I was hooked. I then took advantage of the fact that if I joined as an IPC, I could buy them for myself and my family at wholesale prices.

I was spending a fortune on supplements. I tried doTerra's Life Long Vitamin packs, which included vitamins, omega oils and a cellular complex.  This meant I was taking less tablets daily.

As we move into February and the days slowly begin to lengthen, I can now feel my energy returning further. I enjoy walking my dogs, getting out into the fields. Actually, I am now looking at the clock, I need to fit in an hours trek before collecting the little one from school.  We have a big night with him being invested as a Beaver.  Happy days.

Here's to a continuing increase in energy levels, happiness, joy and great health. x

Getting my Health Back - 2011 - Menorrhagia what a bloody mess!

I found this unpublished post from 2011... reading it back today, it has shocked me how ill I felt back then!

WARNING THIS POST IS ABOUT HEAVY PERIODS. 

I can't spell it, I can't even say it!  'Menorrhagia' or what became known as 'what a bloody mess - half my life!

I have been battling whether IT really was heavy? How do we know? Because I'm knackered and drained and miserable, that's how!  So I measured my loss with a Mooncup. Gross to some, but so easy to use, and at least I knew how much loss there was. 90ml is considered heavy. Ok tick.  I kept a diary, including ml lost each day and a note of number of days.

After our third son was born I was sterilised.  Then together with that and age it started.

I saw my Doctor, she told me about Mirena an IUD or coil.  Alarm bells rang.  It just didn't sit comfortably with me.  I had scans and checks to check nothing else was going on. I went away and read all the stories and decided I had to try something. I was planning a summer on the road!  My other option was hormone therapy, so I took tablets that stopped it all completely.  I felt great, had more energy, felt human, happy.  For the first six weeks.

After the six weeks I was booked in for the FITTING.  OK it was a little uncomfortable but not bad at all.  Over and done with and ready for my next six weeks on the road.  For me it was not good.  But it takes time.  So I gave it time.  For six weeks I bled.  I continued to gain weight. Then other things happened.  I developed acne, bad acne.  I got joint pain.  I have always suffered with back pain, but never before knees, elbows, ankles and shoulders!!!  And I still bled, a little less but for half the month still. 

I know it can be amazing for some people.  Next more blood tests for Rheumatoid Arthritis and other things. It sounded like rheumatoid arthritis.  I had stopped eating meat and done other things to help like taking supplements. 

I turned into an old woman, I had a job getting up from a chair.  I'd seize up, have headaches and pain.  I was living on pain killers.  I asked the Dr if it linked with the fitting of the IUD. 

The results came back yes, on the rheumatoid arthritis scale, but presently no inflammatory indicators.  

There and then my Dr booked me in to take it out.  The results were immediate for me.  My head fog cleared, headache lifted. Within a week my wrists and ankles stopped hurting.  A month later, energy levels rising, knees, elbow, shoulder and wrist pain all gone.  I have started to lose some of the weight.  It will take a while for hormone levels to change back. My periods are yet to stabilise.  

Personally, I think I began to develop rheumatoid arthritis as a result of my body fighting this foreign body in my body.  It was doing what our body does naturally to fight off bugs and illnesses. 

A month on and even my back pain has eased.  I am on the road to health and will be looking at other ways to help menorrhagia, if it returns.

I realised, I was scared, scared that I would never be able to run again.  The fear of losing my mobility. I am continuing on the vegetarian, active path and have started WeightWatchers to get to a healthy weight again.  I want to be able to run again in 2012 and not hurt my joints in the process, and raise my energy levels.  I hadn't even realised I missed running.  But not having the choice to, made me want to.  A similar thing happened when my husband was ill 3 years ago.  Within 6 weeks of his aneurysm he raced our eldest son across a field.  Physical health is so important to our happiness.  

Here's to great health, happiness and wealth in 2012. 

............................................................

Re-reading this I must point out a few changes...I now prefer walking to running, I stopped WeightWatchers and I began eating meat again. I've also read a lot of research and books since this post but particularly Dr Christiane Northrup's Women's Bodies, Women's Health and Dr Sara Gottfried's The Hormone Cure.

Getting my Health Back Update - Part 2 coming soon

Dreams and Wishes for a New Lunar Year.

What are your hopes and wishes for the new lunar year?

One of my dreams has always been to live on a smallholding. But where do our deepest dreams come from?

My wish stems from happy memories visiting my Grandparent's smallholding near Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire. The end of a lane of traditional estate cottages.  Door in the middle of four windows, two on each floor, an image from a child's drawing.  I remember the joy of the adventure of our visit, a bus ride, arriving after a long walk from the bus stop along the lane beside hedgerows, in the warm summer sunshine.

One garden was a traditional cottage garden, billowing with tall frothy blooms. The rooms of the cottage were decorated simply, embroided slip covers on armchairs, a scrubbed pine kitchen table, a range and the smell of homemade bread baking and a large shiny brown teapot on the table. The door from the kitchen lead to the working garden which was divided into vegetable beds and enclosures for goats and chickens. To the side was a field, the butcher's white horse resided and my grandparents cared.

The excitement tinged with fear of entering the chicken house to hunt out their ovate treasures, sticks with me still. My Nan's leading me in by the hand and showing me how to gently pick up the warm eggs.

We returned to the cosiness of that kitchen and Nan cooked us egg on toast for lunch.

And we have found it... our very own smallholding, a serendipitous find, within our budget and still in our local area! Our house wasn't on the market but with encouragement and support from our nearest and dearest we put in an offer. Our house went on the market and sold within the first 24 hours!

It has a name and is pretty wild and is the end cottage of a row of Victorian cottages. It has a chicken coop, pigsties, raised beds, trees, a kennel (future shed), a pond, and a woodland. It has a beautiful space which will be my studio. It is small, and is just right for us, a tiny smallholding, which is not too isolated. We will still have neighbours.

We have kept this quiet so far, housemoving can be a slow process sometimes.

I am trusting that if this is meant to be in our future, the Universe will deliver at the right time. There is no need to hurry, everything is occurring in perfect timing. I am learning patience.

Mandala Tent Painting - The Lost Blog Post

Today I found an unpublished post on my blog from March 2013...

Easter weekend means its time to check our festival cafe tents.

Our trip to Disney gave me lots of ideas for painting our tents. But in the end I decided against these and decided on something I have doodled and hennaed lots of times... beautiful mandalas.

My original plan of bright colours also went out the window. I started by painting white ornate frames around our blackboard painted menu wall and then added more frames to lots of new blackboards.

I started the outside by priming the mandalas and Kindred Cafe sign white, with the plan to add bright car spray paints for the colour details. The first tent was complete and left overnight to dry at our friend's garage.

The following morning the vintage effect of the Kindred Cafe sign really stood out and was enough for me to completely scrap the bright colourful plan. Just tidying and edging and fixing a huge drippy mess and we began again on the second tent.

The final tent has a fireplace and candlesticks. There'll be 3 low tables in here, painted with blackboard paint for children to draw on here inside the play/crafting area of the cafe.

Fruity Flapjack

Today, I tried making Nigella Lawson's, Soot's Flapjack recipe and Rachel Allen's Date Slice.

Not too happy with the cake iness of the date slice I decided I'd try making up a fruity flapjack slice recipe of my own.

Heat oven to 180 degrees.

My fruit filling
2 apples peeled and chopped
150g chopped dates
1 Tablespoon currants
9 fl oz Apple juice
1 Tsp mixed spice
1/2 Tsp natural vanilla extract

Heat apple juice and add all the above ingredients. Stir over heat for about 5 mins.

Flapjack
450g oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
75g soft brown sugar
300g butter
50g golden syrup

Mix oats, walnuts and sugar in a bowl. Slowly melt butter and stir in golden syrup.
Add the golden liquid to the dry ingredients and stir.

Add half mixture to 20x20cm square cake tin or circular cake tin. Press down lightly.
Add the fruit mixture and spread over the base. Finally add the rest of the flapjack mixture and press lightly again.

Place in centre of oven for 30 mins or until golden brown.