Holistic Healthy Living

Making organic, natural & vegan skincare is a passion of mine because I believe in the importance of putting purity onto your skin. What you put on your skin gets absorbed into your blood stream so for me it is as necessary to feed your skin organically, just as much as it is to eat organic foods. You really are what you eat but also you are what you absorb. There are so many other important ways to achieve a healthy body and mind.

I have a background in health & fitness, nutrition and Information, Advice & Guidance (a combination of life coaching, careers guidance and counselling) so I appreciate the different aspects of healthy living. You could be eating well and exercising enough to keep your heart and bones strong yet the stress in your life could be such that it negatively impacts upon your health. This is why quite a few of the posts that I share on social media are not directly linked to skincare. I like to promote a healthy lifestyle.

I remember once leaving an event that I had attended and a young man started chatting to me on the stairs. He asked what my advice was for combatting bad skin with acne. My response was with one word “diet”. He immediately agreed and said knew he needed to change his eating habits, in particular by cutting out dairy. Our skincare is designed to feed your body with goodness, to nourish & cleanse it without stripping it of its natural goodness or polluting it with chemicals. However, having a good organic skincare routine is only one aspect to healthy living. If what you eat is full of hormones and chemicals, this is going to have an impact on your body’s well-being. For me, eating organic foods is a must. So many animals are pumped full of hormones & antibiotics in their short life span in order to produce food for human consumption. Dairy milk contains an allowable percentage of pus in it! I am glad to also hear the latest government push to get us to consume less meat. The sustainability of the planet is at risk with the consumption of meat at its current level. A plant-based diet can meet our needs adequately. Non-organic fruit, vegetables and crops are sprayed with chemical fertilisers and pesticides. All of the aforementioned nasties are absorbed into a person’s blood stream if they consume non-organic foods. I witness so many people who don’t consume the government recommended 5 a day of fruit and vegetables. I find this shocking; especially considering 5 is really the bare minimum we should eat. In addition to this the ratio of fruit and vegetables really should be 30% fruit and 70% vegetables. Whilst we all know we shouldn’t consume too much sugar, consuming too much fruit (high in fructose) is also not wise.

Organic living does not stop at food. So many people forget what they use around the home to clean with. Most of these high street products are laden with chemicals. The ‘irritant’ sign says enough surely! A lot of these cleaning products are inhaled as well as absorbed by the skin on contact. I have known many people who have seen a great improvement in their and their family’s health by stopping the use of chemical cleaners. All I use around the house to clean with are white vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, tea tree & lavender essential oil. Not only is it cheap, it is not harmful to health. I could write a book on the wonders of bicarbonate of soda but many people have already done that!

Drinking plenty of water is essential as well. Water (filtered or mineral is best) forms a vast percentage of our body’s composition. Water is so important to keeping the body in top health. It cannot be emphasised enough. Leave the fizzy, sugar-laden drinks alone!

So we move on to exercise! Again the government recommend 30 minutes of exercise a day. Yet it is surprising how many people don’t meet this basic need. The cells in our body need oxygen to be function properly. Exercise oxygenates our body cells. Lack of exercise makes our body sluggish. The less we exercise, the less inclined we will be to exercise! It can become a downward spiral. But it doesn’t have to be! Exercising releases feel good endorphins that will boost our mood and energise us even more! Therefore revisiting the previous point I made about stress! I will never forget one evening about 15 years ago when for some reason I was in a foul mood. I went out for my evening run. I think I ran the fastest I had ever run and I also returned in a wonderful mood! Exercise is such a beautiful way to keep your soul happy!  But exercise doesn’t have to be about going to the gym or forcing yourself to go for a run. Why not get out into the countryside and walk with friends along the glorious footpaths this country has. Be at one with nature! Or why not join a local netball or football club, or go to a fun Zumba class. Cardiovascular health is key but just so is bone health. We can drastically reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis by doing free weight exercises. Again, if you’re gym-averse this can be done by doing exercises such as bicep-curling your (FILLED!) shopping bags or just before you sit down, do a few squats!

I could go into much more detail about each of the points I have made but fear not; I won’t! But to summarise, my message to living a holistically healthy lifestyle is: eat organic foods, drink plenty of water, exercise regularly, use organic skincare and household cleaning products and laugh a lot too!!  Oh and….Go vegan!