health Archives • Page 3 of 3 •

Posted on 22nd October 2016

CB12 Mouthwash Review: does it really work?

Roughly two months ago I requested a recommended teeth whitening product which really works, that doesn’t damage your teeth or cost the world. I was beyond desperate! My teeth aren’t awful but they could probably be at least 50 shades lighter and I have had a horrible stain in between my front two teeth for months. FYI this is probably one of the worst places to get a stain – I’m forever being told I have some food stuck in there. Shortly after my tweet a PR company contacted me and asked if I’d like to try out CB12 mouthwash, and I was more than happy to put it to the test.

Posted on 15th October 2016

Revive Your Skin with Scrub Love Mint Coffee Body Scrub

The days are getting shorter, the temperature is dropping and our skin is bearing the weight of the changing season. Winter is coming and we must all be ready. One of the only things which I dread about the cooler weather is the dry and flaky skin which accompanies it. I’ve used many a body scrub in the past, and although they do SOMETHING I find myself getting bored with them and leaving the half-used pot to rot in the shower caddy. Sound familiar? Recently I’ve seen Scrub Love blow up on social media. So many bloggers have been raving about this product & so I just had to try it and and see what all the fuss is about.

Posted on 10th September 2016

JOICO K-Pak Hair Treatment for Damaged Hair

As I’m sure most of you either know or can imagine, my hair is not in the best shape. Since starting University in 2013, my hair dresser appointments have become more than a little sporadic. The benefit of this is that my hair has grown about a foot, the downside is of course the split ends. Adding to that, over the past year I have gone from natural looking highlights to all over bleach and silver hair dye every 6-8 weeks. Ouch. In other words, it isn’t a surprise when I find my hair snapping and falling off in my lap – the price of beauty is steep! When I was contacted by Brooke at AJC consultants about the JOICO K-Pak hair treatment range, I jumped at the opportunity to try it out.

Posted on 27th July 2016

Muscle Dysmorphia: why don’t we talk about it?

This topic is incredibly close to my heart. I can only speak through my experience as a girlfriend of someone who suffers with muscle dysmorphia (other wise known as bigorexia). Dan inspired me and even suggested I write this post and I for one would like to applaud his bravery for allowing me to write this. This is such a HUGE part of his life, and it’s become a rather large part of mine now too. I’m both really excited yet incredibly nervous to publicise this post. Excited because I’m so passionate about it, yet nervous because I’m plunging headfirst into unknown territory. In this post I will be explaining exactly what muscle dysmorphia means, its place in today’s society, and how it has effected Dan, both physically and mentally.

Posted on 23rd June 2016

BMI: it doesn’t work for everyone

Hey guys! In this post today I’m going to be talking about something very close to my heart.

Learn to love your body – ditch the scales

Weight has been an issue for me for a long time now, since I can remember pretty much, and for the longest time I’ve been insecure about it. This only got worse when I was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (see my posts here and here for more on my experience with PCOS) monitoring my weight has become a part of my life, and regular weight checks at my nurse appointments have put me on edge and made me feel awful about myself. Recently I had a mini-revelation about BMI and it’s uselessness with my condition and I know that many others feel the same way!

What exactly is BMI?

BMI stands for Body Mass Index… but what does that even mean? Well by typing this question into google I was able to find the following answer from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention site:

“Body Mass Index (BMI) is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. A high BMI can be an indicator of high body fatness. BMI can be used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems but it is not diagnostic of the body fatness or health of an individual”

… Well that’s interesting… This reference would suggest that BMI isn’t reliable when calculating the health of an individual. Perhaps I’m the only one, but to me that came as a surprise seeing as my doctors seem to rely on it and that there is actually a BMI calculator on the NHS site, which will proceed to tell you if you are 1. Underweight 2. Healthy weight 3. Overweight. A link for this calculator is here but hold on before you type in your data and cry like I did at the results, because I’m about to tell you why you shouldn’t bother.

No matter how much I work out, the scales stay the same

As I’ve said, over the past few years I’ve done a fair amount of research on BMI and it seems that EVERYONE is asking why? EVERYONE agrees that it isn’t a useful tool for monitoring the health of an individual. For example, this was said by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

“BMI (body mass index), which is based on the height and weight of a person, is an inaccurate measure of body fat content and does not take into account muscle mass, bone density, overall body composition, and racial and sex differences”

So FINALLY someone with medical knowledge is backing up what everyone’s been thinking. At the end of the day, muscle weighs roughly 3 times more than fat, but BMI only takes into consideration your weight and height – which excludes important details such as the weight of your muscles, your bones, your natural body shape and other things which could effect your overall weight such as race and sex.

Now it’s getting personal…

So what’s my problem exactly? Why have I been so obsessed with BMI?

Well, as I mentioned at the beginning I was diagnosed with PCOS at 18 and at that time I was the smallest I’d ever been. I had a cyst on my left ovary the size of a golf ball (just imagine that in your head for a moment… A GOLF BALL?!) and as a result the pain had led to a complete loss of appetite. I fell out of love with food for the first, and hopefully the last, time of my life. My mum was really concerned about me but I couldn’t even force myself to eat… or sleep…. or just function as a normal human being. At this time I was roughly 8 stone 7lbs, the lightest I’ve ever been. When I was diagnosed I was weighed and my BMI was taken… Drum roll please…

Yep. On that day the doctor told me that I was the PERFECT WEIGHT and that with PCOS it is important to remain on the lower end of the scale in order to improve chances of fertility in later life so maybe I should consider losing a little bit more… Well my mum wasn’t happy with that I’ll tell you that much. She said something along the lines of “Look at her – this isn’t healthy! Don’t encourage my daughter to starve herself! She hasn’t been able to eat due to the pain!!!” Yes, the doctor was only doing her job but if she opened her eyes and took one look at me it would only take an educated guess to realise that she shouldn’t have told me to lose even more weight!

That was the day it began. Ever since then I have had to go to the doctors and be weighed every 6 months in order to pick up the pill, which I need to stop the cysts from growing. My weight now fluctuates between 9 stone 7lbs – 10 stone 7lbs (usually depending on my lifestyle), but I do live a healthy lifestyle on the whole. I absolutely dread my appointments because what do I get told?

And of course I get the TOTALLY offensive “Well… You don’t LOOK ten stone” immediately followed by advise to try to lose at least a stone, fantastic. It’s degrading, it’s emotionally traumatic, and what makes it worse: it’s completely pointless! I get myself so worked up over these appointments because even though I know it’s utter rubbish, a stranger still looks me in the eye and tells me to lose weight. It’s so wrong on so many levels GAH.

The scales have become my enemy

My alternative to BMI

My weight stays put at roughly ten stone for the majority of the time, regardless of what my body is actually looking like, so I have turned to a different method to maintain my health and that is by using body measurements.

For me, this method is SO much more accurate than BMI when I’m trying to lose a bit of fat or what have you because I’ve always been very muscly, particularly in my legs (I danced a lot from the age of 3 so my legs are firm as rocks!) and so it comes as no surprise that like many of us… I do have some muscle?! When I lose weight I do it through exercise, meaning that my fat turns into muscle. So whilst I reduce in mass, I stay the same in weight. Using a tape measure is honestly a game changer for me.

“You don’t LOOK ten stone!!” … Oh buzz off!

As an example: since coming home from University 3 weeks ago I have been eating healthier and tracking progress on the scales and it has come up at ten stone and seven pounds every single time. Out of curiosity I also measured my body and I have lost half an inch off my waist and half an inch off my hips!!!

That was sooooo amazing to see as I don’t usually see any progress being made at all! I honestly could have cried!

My advice to you

If I could recommend you all to do just one thing it would be to listen to your body. Don’t punish yourself for gaining a little, adjust your goals, forgive yourself and keep motivated. We’re all only human at the end of the day – we’re not perfect, and we would be boring if we were. Learn to embrace your insecurities and try something new if what used to make you feel good no longer does. I’m so happy to have ditched the scales and tried something which works far, far better for me. Equally, if the scales do work for you – then go crazy! What I’m trying to say is: don’t let numbers rule your life. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you don’t deserve to be happy. Life isn’t as easy as a scientific formula or a maths equation, so don’t treat yourself or your body like one. Look after yourself and be the best you you can be.

If you’re interested in reading more about Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, check out my two-part post about it, here and here, where I go into much more detail about how it effects me both physically and psychologically.

*DISCLAIMER* Please remember that every experience is different and if you have any concerns after reading this, ask your GP. I am not a doctor and I know through my own mistakes to never self-diagnose.

I really hope you’ve learned something and maybe gained some self-confidence in reading this post! Do you have any opinions on BMI? Perhaps you have a medical background and have an explanation for it’s use? Please let me know what you think in the comments below!

Thank you so much for reading! Don’t forget to follow me on my other social media accounts, and feel free to comment below or message me for a chat – I’d love to talk to you.

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Posted on 24th May 2016

How to Revise for Exams

Hello lovelies, following on from my exam on Tuesday I am doing a blog post today all about revision tips and giving you all an insight into how I revise. I often hear people say things like “Urgh I hate revision” and I wonder … Why?! I get that no one likes coming home to do homework or other work, but if you perfect your revision technique it really doesn’t have to be something to dread – you may even start to look forward to it whaaaat.

So here is my short little guide on how I do my revision to make it more interactive and enjoyable. Obviously we all work differently, and what works for me may not work for you – but I hope that the one thing you take away from this post is to make revision fun in order to stop yourself procrastinating, and most importantly, to get yourself learning!

Divide your revision into memorable topics, groups, titles or themes. I find this to be the easiest place to start in order to get myself thinking about what I should be focusing on for my exam. This makes your revision manageable and cuts out any unnecessary information before you waste your time factoring it in. I find it really helpful to assign a colour to each topic at this early stage in order to make my mind associate each topic with a colour. I sometimes find myself in an exam thinking “Yep I remember this bullet point which was on my red page” for example – it’s amazing what a little bit of colour can do!

Go through your notes and highlight key information. If you can, try to match your highlighting with your theme colours – once again, this helps your mind put things into groups of revision for you. This key information will be used later for spider diagrams and further notes so be critical with yourself – do you NEED to remember that? Is it likely to come up in the exam? Don’t try and overload your brain with useless facts! Keep it simple.

Make spider diagrams, graphs, grids or lists – whatever works for you! For this stage I always invest in a cheap A3 sketching pad, found in most stationary shops, as this allows for more room for creativity! I’m a very visual person and find that spider diagrams are best for my sort of learning – but if you feel more comfortable writing things into lists or other formats, go for it! Keep up your colour coding, doodle on the page – whatever helps to brighten up the page and make your notes memorable!

Shorten your notes to fit onto memo cards. For this step, you will be taking all the absolutely VITAL pieces of information which you will need for your exam. I find the memo card stage really helpful as I can carry them around in my bag and crack them out whenever I get a spare two minutes to test myself or have a quick read through. You can once again purchase a colourful and cheap pack of these from most stationary shops – I know I keep harping on, but once again, stick to your colourful themes, I promise it helps!

Recite, rewrite, underline, doodle – whatever works for you! In the final few days before the exam DO NOT ADD ANY NEW MATERIAL TO YOUR NOTES. This is key because your mind will go into panic mode and potentially throw out really important/ well remembered bits of information to make room for your last minute sloppy attempts at trying to cover everything. Have faith in the revision you have done so far, don’t panic – you have prepared well! What works best for me is to keep copying out my notes over and over again (this usually does result in really poorly hands and wrists but it works well for memorising things). I know some people learn better through listening or reading aloud or drawing pictures – do whatever is best for you! Only you know how you revise so have faith that you are in control and don’t worry if your friends are doing it differently.

MOST IMPORTANTLY… Relax. Take regular breaks throughout your revision. I would probably advise at least 30 minutes to an hour a day before bed of ‘me time’. Whether that be catching up with things on Twitter, watching your favourite programme, reading a good book, treating yourself to a facial mask, or trying out the Pocket Yoga app I recommended on my last post about panic attacks (the link to which you can find here). Whatever you like! It’s so important to take a breather during revision time and to not send your brain into panic mode.

I really hope this has helped those of you who are currently revising for exams, whether it’s for your GCSE’s, A Levels, Degrees, for work, or any other qualifications, GOOD LUCK! Remember: You’ve got this! As long as you have given it your all, you should be proud of yourself and proud of the work you have achieved!

I hope you have enjoyed this post about revision – I meant to do it sooner but my own revision kinda took over! Are you doing exams at the moment? Do you have any revision tips of your own? Would you like to know anything else about my revision technique? Please get in touch via commenting below, I’d love to hear from you!

Thank you so much for reading. Don’t forget to follow me on my other social media accounts.

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Posted on 21st May 2016

Panic Attacks: How I Deal with Them

Hey everyone, remember me? I’m so sorry I haven’t posted in a while! Revision took a complete hold over me up until Tuesday, then I went out drinking, then I caught tonsillitis, eeek. So whilst I’m full of cold and incredibly contagious, I thought I would write this post, which I have been thinking of writing for a while now!

I have battled with panic attacks since I was roughly 14 years old. I was incredibly quiet at secondary school and bottled my emotions up in the hopes that they would just disappear. Of course they didn’t. My temper became incredibly unpredictable, my mood swings were terrifying and I was generally horrible to be around. At night I would lay there, completely unable to sleep – at this time I would average on 1-2 hours sleep a night and fall asleep in class. I have always been an incredibly academic person, but because of this I completely lost all passion for school and gave up with my grades.

One night, when I was laying there with just my thoughts to occupy me, my mind started drifting and I started playing out horrible scenarios in my head [something I always tend to do when I can’t sleep]. Next thing I knew, I had a tingling sensation in my nose, fingertips and toes, and they went numb. I tried wiggling them and pinching them to gain some feeling and then my breath started to become shallow. I was gasping for air and shaking all over. Tears started falling uncontrollably down my face and I tried to call out for help but I couldn’t speak. All I could think was “I’m going to die”. This state of helplessness lasted for over an hour and it was truly awful. This is a panic attack for me.

Panic attacks are different for absolutely everyone. They are triggered by different things, the pain manifests in different areas and their bodily reactions are different too. If you would like to see another post about panic attacks by the lovely Daniela and how she deals with them, please click here. Her post gave me the courage to write this so you should all go check it out!

As I’ve said, my panic attacks were quite severe at age 14, and for a couple of years they showed no sign of easing up. I would have at least one a night – sometimes lasting for five minutes, sometimes for several hours! It took me a long time to learn how to deal with them and how to nip them in the bud before they escalated, but I finally managed it! 7 years on and I probably get a panic attack once every six months (if that). Below is my own little makeshift guide on what helps to ward my panic attacks off:

Recognise the triggers. What I mean by this is what sets them off? For me, I have a few fears such as losing the ones I care about, being abandoned and generally worrying that I will end up alone. Over the years I have recognised that these are recurrent triggers for my panic attacks. Once you know your regular triggers, it makes it easier to predict when you might have one, and to therefore remove yourself from the situation.
Learn how to spot the symptoms before it turns into a full-blown panic attack. My very first symptom, which I always experience is the tingling in my nose, fingertips and toes. Once I start to feel this, I become mentally prepared for a panic attack and concentrate on my breathing and positive thinking in order to ward it off.
BREATHE. The first thing I did when I started having panic attacks was talk to my mum. My mum’s panic attacks are fairly rare as she mainly gets them whilst driving, particularly on a busy road. She told me that whenever she feels one coming on, she pulls over and concentrates on her breathing and taking control over her body in order to avoid hyperventilating which would lead to a panic attack. This advice is TOTALLY invaluable. The cause for most panic attacks is shortness of breath: you are not supplying your brain with enough oxygen and therefore start feeling faint.
Tell a couple of close friends/family. I personally find it really helpful to call or to sit with someone whilst I have a panic attack, usually Dan or a close friend such as Jess or Katie. Sure, it’s embarrassing at first but they will understand. I tell them what I need from them, such as “Tell me to breathe”, “I just want a cuddle”, “Reassure me that everything will be alright”. This reassurance/ comfort helps me so much during a panic attack. I used to hide away from the world, embarrassed of my panic attacks- but trust me, having someone there for you really helps!
Don’t bottle up your emotions! This was a really big one for me. I’m quite private when it comes to my emotions, I would rather not burden anyone else with my issues. But this was one of the main reasons for my panic attacks! Suffering in silence is not the way forward! I started keeping a diary, which I used to vent all of my emotions, which helped loads. Just venting these everyday upsets is so important for my mental health. As my confidence has improved, these days I usually just end up ranting at one of my friends or Dan… Sorry guys!
Find a hobby. This really could be anything, photography, dance, blogging, drawing, painting, colouring, reading, running, etc. etc. One thing which has worked particularly well for me is Yoga. I’m hardly an expert and I have never been to an official class, but there is an amazing App called ‘Pocket Yoga’. The exercises are 30 minutes long and are so useful when I am feeling particularly stressed or out of control!

At the end of it all, I think it’s most important to find something that works for you! Because every panic attack is different, the way you deal with yours will obviously differ from how I deal with mine. But hopefully in thinking a little more about your symptoms and your triggers, you will be able to find a way which works for you!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post, I have been really nervous about publishing this one, so feedback would be great!

Do you suffer from panic attacks? Are your symptoms similar to mine? Or completely different? Please comment below and let me know what you think, I’d love to hear from you!

Thank you so much for reading. Don’t forget to follow me on my other social media accounts.

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Posted on 29th April 2016

Colour Run Lincoln 2016: Why I’m Glad I Tried Something New

Hey everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week despite the freak British weather. We’ve had rain, sun, snow and sleet… What is going on?!

This post is a bit different from my usual, but I just HAD to write about my amazing experience at the colour run last weekend! In this post I will be showing you millions of photos and going through what you can expect from a colour run, and why you should take a big step out of your comfort zone and give it a try!

When we booked our tickets for the Colour Run, I didn’t really know what to expect; but one thing which we could all agree on was that we would take part for fun, and probably not run the entire thing. After all, I hadn’t run competitively before and I was concerned about injuring myself. Although 5k probably isn’t very far to most people; I absolutely LOATHE running, purely because I’ve never been very good at it. I always try to stay in shape and healthy because of my PCOS in order to keep on top of my weight, you can find more information on this condition on my previous posts, here and here.

If I’m honest, we totally forgot about the Colour Run up until the week before: I blame this on dissertation stress! So naturally we hadn’t trained AT ALL. The closest thing I did to training was that I managed staying on the bike at the gym for 30 minutes; a new personal best for me. But I didn’t do this with The Colour Run in mind admittedly. But regardless of our lack of preparation, the day finally came and we were all really excited to get messy!

With the purchase of our tickets we received a really nice Colour Run t-shirt and our own running number to wear on the day as modelled on the morning by myself – before being absolutely covered in paint! But thankfully I did manage to get all the paint out and it is like new – so I have a lovely souvenir to remember the day by!

Pssst. I’m wearing my coppery eye shadow look from my Makeup Revolution Flawless Palette!

On the day of the event, we were really worried about the weather as it was forecast to rain randomly throughout the day and the wind was incredibly cold.

But luckily, although the sun was popping in and out throughout the day, it was warm enough to just take a light jacket and to wear shorts! – I really didn’t want to have to wear my nice gym trousers.

We arrived an hour or so before the event so that we could buy paint and soak up the atmosphere before getting messy!

The only issue I had with The Colour Run was quite a doozy – no locker rooms or bag holding areas were made available. Obviously we wanted to bring our phones, jackets, drinks, and money at a bare minimum. Considering that they were encouraging us to purchase more paint, you’d think that there would be facilities made available for us to store our possessions safely and out of harms way – but apparently not. So we were forced to strap our boyfriend’s up with backpacks. They weren’t all too happy with that, I’ll just say that much. But our argument stood – a handbag would be much harder to run with than a backpack (CURSE YOU WOMEN’S FASHION).

We were waiting for quite a while before the paint party kicked off, but that was because we arrived so early! It was quite chilly but they had a live DJ who kicked off the party and kept us in good spirits.