Introducing Kaleidoscope

Well, hello there! How are you?

Have you missed me? Have you been wondering where I have been?

Well, as I mentioned here, and here, change has been in the air for a while now. I've been assessing and reassessing what it is I love, what I want to spend my time doing and what I feel passionate about. 

The more I thought about it, the more I kept coming back to design and blogging, and my design blog Kaleidoscope. So, after more thinking and planning I have given Kaleidoscope a major redesign and have relaunched the blog!

See the new and improved Kaleidoscope here.

Kaleidoscope is a design and lifestyle blog all about beautiful things.

Simple as that!

Both life and design are multi-facetted and Kaleidoscope hopes to illuminate the beauty in each, offering inspiration and simple ways to bring the two together. You will also find free downloads, DIY inspiration and anything else that is beautiful, fun and creative.

The Kaleidoscope style is colourful, modern, typographic and has a twist of retro – just like me.

I have big plans for the blog and for myself and as such my blogging efforts will be concentrated at Kaleidoscope, not here at Musings. So I invite you to head over to Kaleidoscope, have a read, look around and subscribe so you don't miss a thing! Oh and you'll want to like the Kaleidoscope Facebook Page for unique content too!

I may blog more personal posts here at Musings from time to time, but if you want to stay connected, Kaleidoscope is the place to visit.

I understand you won't all be interested in the content of Kaleidoscope, so for those who do not come along for the next phase of the adventure, I thank you for your time, your friendship and for joining me thus far!

Eating for Health

As I mentioned previously I've been having a lot of health problems recently that have continually worsened. I am a firm believer that the body and all it's systems, including emotional and mental are all interdependent, if something is off in some area it is more than likely going to impact on others. I was tired of each ailment being treated separately and knew there had to be a better way. Seeing my GP wasn't getting me anywhere, so I found a naturopath who is now helping me try to sort out my overall health. 

In my last post I told you that the Naturopath has given me a health tonic and suggested a bunch of supplements for me to take to help a variety of my health issues. One of the major things she discovered is that I have had a digestive issue, probably since birth. Incredibly this is known to contribute significantly to allergies, sleep issues, depression, anxiety, weight gain, and more - all of which I have! While the supplements will help, the best way to tackle this issue is through diet. 

When she first said this to me, I thought to myself, here we go, another person telling me I need to lose weight, story of my life! I wasn't overly impressed.

If you've been reading the blog for a while you would know I've been trying to lose weight and get healthy for the past few years and I have had some success, unfortunately through all the changes in my life, family and health over the last few months I have put a lot of the weight I lost back on. I have been stuck, feeling very disappointed in myself and not knowing how to move forward.

The naturopath suggested I try eating for my blood type. She said she really felt I would benefit from it as many of her other clients have. She recommended I read Eat Right 4 Your Type by Dr Peter D'Adamo. I must admit, as much as I wasn't impressed the suggestion was to change my diet, I was intrigued to find out more. I can't help myself, I'm always wanting to learn! So I ordered the book and started reading it as soon as it arrived. 

In a nutshell, for my blood type, type O, I need to eat mainly protein and veggies... That sounded kind of familiar, it sounded like a way of eating I had heard a lot about recently, after looking it up and asking a few friends, it turns out a Paleo diet is pretty ideal for someone with type O blood. No dairy, no grains, gluten free, lots of meat, eggs, veggies and some fruit. Ok, so I know people who have had success with Paleo helping with their health, maybe this is worth trying!

Then, I was talking with my Mum about it and she said it sounded similar to the eating suggestions of a book she read a couple of years ago called 10 Years Thinner by Christine Lydon. So I started reading that too. She was right, the three philosophies to eating are very similar. Having spent about a month reading about the science behind these philosophies I was starting to feel more positive. It makes sense to eat in the way that your body can get the most out of the food you are eating!

So I have decided to give it a go! If I have half of the health benefits they all claim to help, then I'll be in a good place! Through all the information I have read, I have settled on trying Paleo strictly for 30 days. I'm going to see how it goes. If I'm not improving as much as I need, I will then take out the foods that eating for my blood type suggests I should avoid, like avocado and bacon/ham etc. From 10 Years Thinner, I'm using the no gym, scientifically devised exercise regime. 

I prepped over the weekend, removed or used up all the grain and dairy products from my cupboard and fridge, planned all my meals and snacks and did a massive grocery shop. Then, I started on Monday. It hasn't been too bad so far. I love meat and I love eggs, so that's been fine. Yesterday I did a big cooking session and pre-cooked and prepared a whole bunch of meals which will make the cooking side of things easier. My main concern going into this is how I would cope with doing it while the rest of the family continued to eat as they were. I usually do most of the cooking for the family, but thankfully, they kindly agreed to do their own cooking for the first 30 days and we can work things out from there. So far, making sure I have my foods easily accessible has meant that I haven't had any issues with not eating the same as the family.

To be honest, I have felt less than average over the last few days. I've been more exhausted than usual, have had a massive headache and a little just, blah! Thats all part of the adjustment it seems. However, I haven't felt hungry, I've had very little craving for bread or sweets and I have already noticed a significant reduction in the amount of mucous my body is creating. I used to have blow my nose and clear my throat multiple times a day. I used to also have a lot of "sleep" in my eyes all day every day, but already, on day 3 it's drastically reduced! That's a win so far in my book!

I'm hopeful things will continue to improve. I'm hopeful that I will experience all, the health benefits others have from eating this way, and I'm hoping, beyond hope, that this doesn't just turn into something I tried once and gave up on, like so many other things.

I also have a VERY exciting and definitely deadline to work towards getting healthy for [more on that soon] so I HAVE to give this a good go!

Eating for health, that's what I'm doing. Giving my body the fuel and nutrients it needs to heal itself, be healthy and I can start to live the life I'm dreaming of!

Here's hoping!

The Girl Who Is Sick All The Time

The girl who is sick all the time...

That would be me.

I have been sick for the majority of the last almost 5 months, but it has been particularly bad in the last 2-3 months.

In 2008 I was diagnosed with Reactionary Stress Disorder along with Anxiety and Depression. This was a result of having endured an extreme amount of stress due to personal situations and family tragedy for quite an extended period. Due to the constant exposure to the traumatic events and stress, my body became overloaded with stress chemicals and came to a point where it could no longer regulate itself. I was unable to cope with normal everyday functioning. I could no longer work, and I withdrew from the world for over a year.

Little, by little, with the help of medication, professionals, my faith in God and my family, I started to recover. I started to be able to take baby steps towards coping with life again, all the way until August last year when I was feeling as though I was in a good place. Certainly, I still struggled with over-abundant production of stress chemicals and high anxiety, but I was getting to good place emotionally, mentally physically, relationally and I was even able to cope with working a couple of days a week.

Then things at my job started getting really stressful. I felt things were getting beyond my capacity, so I made the very tough decision to leave that position and try and find more work from home. A week after making that decision a big change happened in my family that was totally unexpected and that was  an indelible change. It caused my anxiety to skyrocket and from my emotional and mental standpoint my whole world seems out of control.

Since then, I have very slowly adjusted to the change and I am doing much better emotionally. I'm still not back to where I was, but I am coping with things a bit better. However, it seems this last phase of intense stress and anxiety has completely wiped out my immune system.

As I said, I have been sick, a LOT. In fact there has probably been less that a week's worth of days collectively that I have felt semi-ok since late December. First it was my sinuses, then my allergies, then I got some horrible virus that resulted in me Doctor's orders not to talk at all for 3 days, then I got a rash and just felt like I was dying. I did recover mostly from that, but I have been sick with fluy type viruses pretty much ever since.

I've hardly left the house, hardly seen any friends or done anything interesting all year. I have managed to do a couple of things, but I've mostly been at home, sick, either in bed or on the couch in front of the TV. I have struggled to keep up with doing design work from home and as a result of just feeling so unwell for so long have had times of feeling very lonely and quite sorry for myself.

After going to my GP a number of times only to be told I just have to wait it out until I get over it, I had had enough. A couple of weeks ago, desperate to build up my immune system again, I went to see a Naturopath. I learned some very interesting things. Through taking my medical history and through Iridology, the Naturopath believes that I have had digestive and small intestinal issues since birth. These issues can cause [wait for it] depression, anxiety, insomnia, joint inflammation, metabolic imbalance, allergies, sinusitis and much more - all of which I have! She was also able to pinpoint other problem areas in my health including hormonal imbalance. Since then, I have been following her suggestions, taking tonics and herbal supplements to aid in digestive function, hormones, to alkalise my system and give me more energy. As yet I haven't experienced a major improvement, but I am hopeful I will over time. The second part of the treatment is to deal with the types of nutrients I am getting from the foods I eat - but I'll put that in another post soon.

Oh and on a side note, it seems these digestive issues have cause my eyes to appear brown, but she showed me, that in fact, the base colour of my eyes is blue! The fact that I have always had brown eyes is what makes her believe these major problems have been there since I was born. It is very possible that as I correct the problems my eyes will turn blue! I have always really loved my eyes and am not sure how I feel about them turning blue, but we'll see what happens.

So that's what's been going on for me. That's why I haven't been around online very much. I miss you all very much though. It has been very lonely on this side of the screen. Hopefully now my absence makes some sense.

I'll be back soon with part 2 where I talk about some interesting things I have read and discoveries I have made that may help me get healthy again.

[photo from Dust Jacket Attic]

Nivea Giveaway Winner

WOW! What a response I had to the Nivea Giveaway! Over 1900 entries! Seems there are a lot of us out there who love Nivea products and need help in pampering ourselves! There were also a lot of great comments with ideas, tips and suggestions for how we can all take a little time to love and care for our bodies and minds.

So now it's time to announce the winner. The lucky person who has won this amazing Nivea Prize pack above worth over $68 is:

Valentine's Day Nivea Giveaway

It might be Valentines Day in this part of the world today, but not everyone has someone to celebrate with. However, everyone has themselves and so with the help of the lovely people from Nivea, I want to give you a little Valentine's Day gift to help you love and care for yourself. We all need a little reminder to do that from time to time. It's also a little way for me to say "I Love You" to my cherished readers - you!

I have a wonderful pack to give away which includes:

Change is in the Wind

Change is coming. I feel it in the wind. I don't know exactly what form it will take, or how it will play out, but I do know it is coming.

I do know there will be changes in my life.

I do know there will be changes in my work.

I do know there will be changes in my dreams.

I do know there will be changes on my blogs.

Sunraysia Organic Juice Giveaway Winners

Well, it seems there are a lot of you out there that like the idea of affordable organic juice as so many of you entered the giveaway to win the packs of Sunraysia Organic Juice!

The winners have been drawn at random and they are: