Blog

Step Back

3 March 2021|Health, Recipes

Fight, flight, or freeze.  Like most of the planet I’ve felt all of these emotions in the past year!  Irena suggests that there is another option:  We can step back.  In this short video she’ll show us how.  She shares with us a simple technique to distract our brain when we feel anxious and tells us that as our brain doesn’t recognise past, present and future we are even able to step back and rewrite those negative past labels.  Fascinating. 

More on Healthy Mind on the site.

New to our site this week is – Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis. A global charity with a growing community of people from around the world who are making lifestyle changes to help manage their symptoms and live well with multiple sclerosis.  Professor Jelinek, the founder, has a bestselling book of the same name, available on Kindle this month for £1.29.  

Free resources are available on request from their site too and if you’re UK or Ireland based you can even apply for a free copy of the book.

Dr Jelinek was diagnosed with the disease in 1999, the year he founded the charity.  Since then he has adhered to the lifestyle package he put together from the medical literature. He remains free of further relapses, as do many of the people who keep in contact with him. His mission now is to bring this evidence to a wider audience.

Lifelines

22 February 2021|Health

What are yours?  Is your faith your anchor?  Your family?  Friends?  Pets? Habits?  

What is keeping you afloat?  This is from Donna Ashworth: (Ladies Pass It On).

You’re not imagining it, nobody seems to want to talk right now.
Messages are brief and replies late.
Talk of catch ups on zoom are perpetually put on hold.
Group chats are no longer pinging all night long.
It’s not you.
It’s everyone.
We are spent.
We have nothing left to say.
We are tired of saying ‘I miss you’ and ‘I cant wait for this to end’.
So we mostly say nothing, put our heads down and get through each day.
You’re not imagining it.
This is a state of being like no other we have ever known because we are all going through it together but so very far apart.
Hang in there my friend.
When the mood strikes, send out all those messages and don’t feel you have to apologise for being quiet.
This is hard.  
No one is judging.

Nailed it Donna, as usual.  More help for a Healthy Mind can be found on our site.

I found an empty nest on our drive this morning, gales having blown it far from it’s home.  Although displaced it’s still perfectly formed. I can give it’s creators a Lifeline by returning it to where it needs to be.  We can do that.  Let’s do it for one another.

This gem was added to the site this week, joining dozens of other podcasts.

A great, positive guy, Joe was a personal trainer, in a park, with no clients (his own words).  He started sharing YouTube content and now has 27M subscribers on The Body Coach TV and has been made an MBE. Today’s workout has had 48k views at the time of typing and really made me smile.

Joe’s one of the many success stories of Lockdown Life.  

A Lifeline some would say.

Self Love

14 February 2021|Health, Sustainability, Testimonials

It has been said that we cannot truly love another until we love ourselves.  Dr Bruce Lipton, a former medical school professor and research scientist explores how truly connected the mind, body, and spirit are in his book The Biology of Belief.

Charlene Fursland (pictured) concurs.  She has healed from cancer (twice).  Her powerful testimony is featured on our site.

Research from Deloitte shows the average American buys 5 new items of clothing every month.  Ideas in this article include setting a clothing budget, buying second-hand and having a good old clear out!  

Find more sustainability guidance under the Environment section on our site.

In Memory of Sebastian

8 February 2021|Health, Nutrition

Our guest blog today features my friend Eva, whose son Sebastian spent 6 loved days on this earth. On this podcast she talks of the importance of community, of sharing their loss, of the part talking therapy played in her healing, of her continuing, unbounded love for her boy and why she asks friends for birthday cards for him each year.

Healing resources here.  Pregnancy and parenting resources here.

New addition to our site this week.  I suffered with IBS for years, turns out it was completely reversible for me, wish I’d known what Dr Megan Rossi’s site shares at the time.

 A wealth of info to help find relief from IBS and Crohn’s Disease, Colitis, Menopause, SIBO, Coeliac, IBD, PCOS, Endometriosis, Cancer – it’s all connected.  Some medical experts call the gut our second brain.  With good reason.

New Kid in Town

1 February 2021|Health, Recipes, Sustainability, Testimonials

Watch out Deliciously Ella, there’s a new kid in town.  Well, new to us here at Double-zero:  Healthy Living James’ lemon drizzle cake was a big hit for dessert tonight. With 163k followers on Instagram this young man’s going places.  ‘The more the healthy merrier’ we say.

Speaking of health, James’ healing testimony is inspiring: Told there was no “cure” for his chronic fatigue syndrome and that all he could do was rest and wait, James changed his diet and slowly began to rebuild his life.  

What do ants, termites, bats, frogs and birds all have in common?  No bad joke coming up we promise… 

According to this article ‘humans would not exist without them’ 

Find this online guide to making conscious and compassionate choices that help people, animals and the planet featured on our Sustainability website section.

S.A.D.

25 January 2021|Health, Nutrition, Research papers

Seasonal Affective Disorder, Standard American Diet, Struggling Against Depression (ok I made that one up, but they’re all very real today.)

Wikipedia describes Season Affective Disorder as: ‘a mood disorder subset in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year exhibit depressive symptoms at the same time each year, most commonly in winter. Common symptoms include sleeping too much and having little to no energy, and overeating.’  (Maybe my definition of S.A.D. is not so inaccurate…)

According to this research article: ‘The Standard American Diet (SAD) has long been implicated in contributing to the health challenges experienced in the United States. Significant changes to the SAD have occurred since the 1950s, including a greater abundance and accessibility to calorie-dense and nutrient-poor food and beverage choices.’  It’s not just the States either.

Calorie dense, nutrient-poor foods often taste great, are easily accessible and cheaply available, but… Check out the Nutrition section for ideas to maximise your healthy years.

I’ll leave you with this thought, from Sangu Delle, who’s TED Talk below has been watched 2.5M times; ‘Being honest about how we feel doesn’t make us weak – it makes us human.’  Our ‘Healthy Mind’ section features websites, books, podcasts and films to encourage you.

A Healthy Mind During Difficult Times

19 January 2021|Health, Recipes, Sustainability

‘Healthy Mind’ is the title of one of the sections on our site. I’m not sure they are particularly bountiful.  In fact having a healthy mind feels pretty aspirational right now.  Our mental health affects our physical health too – that mind/body connection is very real.  I learned from Dr Mark Hyman this week that one third of Americans have been diagnosed with Alzheimers or another form of dementia, a scary statistic that is only forecast to rise in the coming years.  (Alzheimers websites/books are featured under Specific Conditions on the site).

Click on the pic above, or here to ‘head’ to websites designed to help and encourage you.

Outrage + Optimism is the most widely listened to climate change podcast. Each weekly show highlights how we can channel the outrage we see on the streets (and online) about incremental actions in the face of the climate crisis, toward the stubborn optimism needed to forge ahead with ambition. The discussion aims to help listeners realise that this is both the most challenging, but also the most exciting time in history to be alive. Guests have included David Attenborough, Ellie Goulding, Jane Goodall, Greta Thunberg, Richard Branson, Wanjira Mathai, John Kerry and David Miliband. 

Deliciously Ella’s Banana Pancakes were a ‘delicious dessert’ for us this week.  Ella says:  ‘These have been so popular over the last few years so we decided to give them a little revamp for you to make them even better. we’ve added some chia seeds to help thicken up the texture and some almond milk to improve the flavour and texture. get cooking and let us know what you think!’

Thumbs up from me – pancake recipes on her site.

Do let me know if you agree in the comments section below

Health – Environment – Nutrition Talk

10 January 2021|Health, Recipes, Sustainability

New!  

Updates on what’s happening: An article concerning health, one about our environment and another focusing on nutrition, plus maybe a testimonial or a new piece of research that’s been added to the site…

Here’s me: Your founder, talking to one of our contributors about how my passion for writing and my faith helped me through  breast cancer three years ago.  ‘My journal was an extension of myself.  It was always by my side on hospital beds, always to be found in my handbag.’  

Click on the pic, or here to read the full article.

Made these ‘beauts’ yesterday.  Thank you Bosh Boys!  1000’s more healthy recipes here.

Re-use, Reduce, Recycle

Are you a New Year, New Resolution-er? A Dry January-er?  A Veganuary-er?  Or all 3?

Click on Marie’s pic, or here to head to her (very well organised) website.  

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Use your company’s blog posts to opine on current industry topics, humanize your company, and show how your products and services can help people.