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Are feeling overwhelmed or stressed about the easi

Are feeling overwhelmed or stressed about the easing of lockdown and the return to work? Is it affecting your ability to get to sleep or your quality of sleep? Quite often, one will lead to the other, so I wanted to discuss how we can support good sleep through diet and provide you with a delicious smoothie recipe that will help promote good sleep.

First, let's look at the ingredients of the smoothie and why they are beneficial for sleep.
Cherries help to promote melatonin levels, melatonin is your sleep hormone.
Bananas contain B6 the facilitates the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin, which in turn regulates your melatonin levels.
Nut butter, healthy fats facilitate healthy hormone balance
Nut/Oat milk, avoiding dairy is pertinent when hormonal imbalances are present.

Recipe
🍒 120g cherries (frozen and stoned are best)
🍌 1 banana
🥜 tablespoon nut butter
🥛 200ml nut/oat milk
blend together and enjoy😋

Earlier this year a randomized clinical trial was

Earlier this year a randomized clinical trial was published, looking at the effects of sunscreen application on plasma concentration of sunscreen active ingredients. The results are quite shocking! Specifically, they looked at Oxybenzone, Octocrylene, Homosalate, Octisalate and Octinoxate over 21 days of application. In the study, they found that all of the active ingredients were systemically absorbed and plasma concentrations surpassed the FDA safety threshold on day 1 of the 21 days of application!

It is so important to be mindful about what we put onto our skin, it is our largest organ and readily absorbs the contents of your skin products directly into the bloodstream. I am not saying to avoid the use of sunscreen, but with this new evidence coming to light perhaps it is time to review the ingredients of your sunscreen. There are so many wonderful natural alternatives to choose from!

Week 9 Couch to 5K Challenge 🏃‍♀️ I have

Week 9 Couch to 5K Challenge 🏃‍♀️

I have reached my final week and WOW! What a journey this has been, I am now running 5k in 30 minutes, a challenge that felt almost impossible on week 1, with week 5 being 5he most challenging for me, but I have stayed focused and dedicated to the challenge and dare I say I even enjoy running now. My body feels do much stronger for it and my mind gets some baby free time to wonder where it likes.

I have quite a lot over the past 9 weeks, so I thought on my final week I would just do a quick recap to help keep it fresh in your minds.

Week 1: we covered the importance of physical and mental health during lockdown and how exercise can support this

Week 2: we covered joint health and how best to support it, specifically postpartum due to high levels of the hormone relaxin still being produced in abundance

Week 3: we covered how exercise induces the release of your feel good happy hormones and specifically for new mum's the added bonus of getting some much needed 'me time'

Week 4: we focused on breastfeeding mum's this week and discussed how exercise impacts on your breast milk

Week 5: we cover the best time to eat post exercise

Week 6: we covered when and what foods are important to eat pre and post exercise

Week 7: we discussed pelvic floor health, specifically post partum.

Week 8: we discussed the value of working up a sweat and the benefits of producing sweat.

Week 9: Here we are! My challenge is complete.

I hope you have enjoyed following my journey. If you you need any more information on the topic covered, please do comment below or contact me privately.

Week 8 Couch to 5K Challenge Wow! On the penultim

Week 8 Couch to 5K Challenge

Wow! On the penultimate week of my Couch to 5K Challenge I am now running 28 minutes non stop! I am fast becoming someone who enjoys the feeling of freedom and power that comes with an activity like running, I can see why people fall in love with it.

This week I want to talk about sweat. Now that I'm running for longer the level of sweating has somewhat increased. Usually sweating is considered to be undesirable, but I want to share with you the wonderful benefits of working up a sweat.

Sweat glands help our skin to filter toxins out of the body, which in turn boosts immunity. Sweating also cools the body down and helps us to maintain proper body temperature. There are 2 ways in which we sweat, from the eccrine glands found all over the body that help to regulate body temperature and the apocrine glands, which are linked to hair follicles such as under the arm, these are primarily triggered to produce sweat by emotional stressors, such as fear and anxiety and present with an odour. Exercise induces sweat from the eccine glands which promotes increased circulation through our organs, muscles and tissue, liver suppport through detoxification, kidney support through salt elimination, opens the pores of the skin to release stuck impurities and can promote clearer skin, increased thirst to increase rehydration of our cells and flushing out of accumulated toxins that have been expelled from the cells.

Now doesn't that sound great?! I'm certainly glad I'm in on the action. I highly recommend doing your exercise deodorant free and allowing your body work it's beautiful magic. Sweating during exercise is totally acceptable, so embrace it! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️😰😓😓 and make one of these your mantra I don't sweat, I glisten, I don't sweat, I sparkle, I don't sweat, I glow or I sweat, therefore I am 🙏

Week 7 Couch to 5K Challenge This week I'd like t

Week 7 Couch to 5K Challenge

This week I'd like to talk about pelvic floor health post birth and how it can impact on returning to exercise.
It seems to be a bit of a taboo subject that women don't much like to talk about for fear of being embarrassed. For this reason, and more, I think we should talk about it. The pelvic floor is a muscle that can be strengthened and can recover given the right conditions.
The pelvic floor muscles are a layer of muscles that support the bladder, bowel and uterus in a woman and the span the bottom of the pelvis.
During child birth the muscles become stretched and traumatized and will need time to adapt and strengthen again post child birth.

In an increasing number of cases, thanks in part to social media, women are returning to high impact exercise as little at 6 weeks after giving birth and the body can't cope. The reflexive action of the pelvic floor that is lost during pregnancy, won't have time to build up again, leaving women susceptible to leakage or prolapse. It is important to stop running and seek the help of a women's health physiotherapy if you feel a heaviness in the vagina or experiencing leakage on impact.

There are exercises you can do to help support your recovery:

While standing lift and squeeze your pelvic floor 10 times, then lift and hold your pelvic floor for 10 seconds 10 times, then lift and pulse 20 times. This should be repeated 3 times a day every day, you should notice a difference quite quickly.

Don't suffer or feel ashamed in silence, let's talk about it, work on improving it and enjoying the freedom of leak free running again 🏃‍♀️ 🙌

Week 6 Couch to 5K Last week I discussed the impo

Week 6 Couch to 5K

Last week I discussed the importance post-workout eating times to gain maximum weightless benefits and as promised this week we discuss the best food choices to support your workout.

It is important to eat pre-workout, but make sure it's at least 2 hours before you start exercising. The best food choices here are low GI carbohydrates such as porridge, sweet potato, chickpeas, lentils, quinoa, brown rice or vegetables.

Post-workout within the first 2 hour window choose high GI foods such as a banana, raisins, avocado or rice cakes (make sure not to eat too much, just a snack will do), thereafter choose low GI options as above. Combining protein with carbohydrates will improve recovery. Good protein sources include lean chicken, tuna, tofu, lentils, yoghurt, pumpkin seeds, eggs.

Having the right food at the right time will nourish and refuel your body to support peak performance and quick recovery.

Week 5 Couch to 5k Challenge Wow, this week was t

Week 5 Couch to 5k Challenge

Wow, this week was tough! I started the week running for 5 minutes 3 times and ended the week running 20 minutes non stop! Ok, for some more experienced runners this doesn't sound like a lot, but for me this really pushed me to my limits! But hey, I did it...woop woop! Now I know I can do it, I can keep on building up my stamina.
As well as my desire to get fit again, I am also looking to get back in shape post-baby, to help my do this I don't eat anything after my run until an hour has passed, this is the optimum amount of time to wait to keep burning calories, while also allowing the body to replenish glycogen stores. This will also help to reduce soreness, improve energy and recovery and replenish electrolytes. Make sure to rehydrate post run though!

Next time I'll will let you know what foods are best to consume post work out.

Week 4 of Couch to 5K 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️ This week felt like I was really pushing myself at the beginning, but by the end of the week, I felt like an athlete (only in my head of course 😁), but seriously I am so amazed to see how quickly my stamina is rebuilding.

I had to space my runs out a bit this week, as my 9 month old is teething which was disturbing her sleep and therefore mine, so I decided to be kind to myself and not force a run after a her broken few nights sleep. This got me to thinking about the effects of exercise on breast milk, as a breastfeeding mum I always have to consider what I am putting into my body, onto my body and how I am treating my body, not only for the sake of my own health but for that of my baby. There are many substances that can cross over into your milk supply of which lactic acid is one. Lactic acid builds up after exercise and is normally stored in the muscle but can also cross over to your milk supply. Although the substance is not harmful, it can alter the flavour of your milk, sometimes so much so that your baby will reject a feed. Basically, the more strenuous the workout the more lactic acid build up there is. So, if you are planning on exercising before a feed, make sure you allow 30 minutes post exercise before feeding as this is how long it take to dissipate from your milk supply.

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