Gut Brain Glow Up

If someone asked me to work on my pelvic floor 2 months ago, I'd have no idea of what to do or if I was even doing anything! And having spoken to a few people (including my physio) everyone seems to feel the same! For starters, its not really widely understood what it is, and I include myself in that. It turns out its a expanse of muscle around your pelvis that has direct contact with your bowels and urinary systems, as well as our reproductive systems, its also involved in good breathing technique. So why touch on the pelvic floor this week? Well as I mentioned in previous posts, part of my issue is that my pelvic hasn't been working properly for many years, a fact I've only learned through being unwell this past year or so. This, as with all my issues it seems, is a result of stored trauma. I've now learned that our pelvic floors seem to be like a trauma sponge that soaks up all the tension we're holding in the body. Now this has the knock on effect, in my case, o...

This is a pretty honest one so buckle up! Before I became poorly, I'd always had a very good appetite, to the point I was known for it! However, that's another thing that changed over night, I went from a great appetite to not feeling hunger at all, even to this day I haven't felt 'hungry' for over a year. This has lead to a rapid weight loss of 14kg total, when I didn't 'need' to lose weight as it was. I was fit and strong and my body has changed completely. My weight loss is a result of not eating enough, both due to not feeling hunger and also when I do eat, I feel full very quickly. My weight loss has balanced out now but mainly due to having dieticians and nutritionists involved and placing me on supplement drinks. Unfortunately, it's also fed into something more that had bubbled under the surface and has become more of something that can't be ignored; an issue of body image also known as body dysmorphia, and also the development of the begi...

I'll be completely honest, before now I'd never been a big yoga fan...There I said it! But oh my how my opinions have changed! I've gone from avoiding it to looking forward to the weekly sessions I attend.  Before now, I'd had a couple of goes at yoga and found it not the slightest bit relaxing; for one I couldn't shut the chatter in my brain off, I also struggled to get my head around these strange positions that I was being told to put my body in... It also wasn't helped by my social anxiety being heightened due to the association between yoga positions and the accidental letting out of our bodies natural gasses...! On top of that, the only other time I'd tried a yoga class was admittedly with my dad, who fell asleep and snored very loudly during the final relaxation causing a then 19 year old me extreme embarrassment and stifled giggling... Needless to say it was not a class we returned to!  So how did I go from actively avoiding yoga to looking forward t...

So, I had initially planned to start focusing in on each of the different things I'm doing to help get better this week. However, after a couple of recent set backs, and a catch up with my consultant, I've taken a bit of a side quest and decided to focus on how easily it can be to get frustrated with progress and the unfortunate ease with which it can feel like you're going backwards.  If I were to look at a typical week, there are certainly good days where I'm starting to feel improvement, then do way too much and suffer the consequences of it for multiple days afterwards, this is known in some circles as 'boom and bust'. This can be immensely frustrating in itself as ultimately I only have myself to blame for over doing it, so learning to pace myself is a serious requirement! What's lead me to swivel on my planned topic today though is the more significant relapses than just the 'I've done too much' effect. This has happened a few times for me ...