I am a Reflexologist and Complementary therapist based near Lescure-Jaoul, Aveyron, France.
The therapies I provide are Reflexology, Wellbeing Massage including Indian Head Massage, a variety of Holistic Facials, Reiki and Crystal Healing.
Over the years I have taken part in many personal and spiritual development courses and I'm passionate about self-heap and self-care. Wanting to share my knowledge and experience, I developed a wellbeing blog where I share my own healing journey from fibromyalgia and write articles on Healing and Self-Care.
I am currently in the process of developing online courses and hope to
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Janet
I started this blog to share my progress on the goals I’ve set myself on overcoming physical limitations, losing weight and improving my overall wellbeing. My intention was that by sharing with you my schedule and progression, I will be motivated to stay on track as well as inspire others to achieve their goals.
What has held me back in the past has been the inability to focus and commit to my own needs because of ‘life getting in the way’. The distractions of unexpected events and demands on our attention and time lead us to forget the new positive habits we wanted to incorporate into our lifestyles.
Distractions
These last two weeks have been a perfect example of this; for a start it’s the school holidays and whilst my children are now teenagers and don’t want me to spend time with them like when they were younger, they still need taking to appointments, shopping trips for school books or clothes, taxiing to social events and obviously providing more meals which means, more time shopping and preparing and cleaning etc. Another distraction has been building work at the house so lots of mess and noise. So, I’ve been immersed in trying to keep on top of the normal day to day routines, delegate chores to reluctant teenagers, rearrange clients to fit into less chaotic noisy time frames and taking my children to school meetings and driving lessons and so on. I’ve managed to do a few things for myself like a little bit of gardening, writing blog articles and a bit of creative work such as embroidery, macramé and wire art which I’ve tried to combine with listening to audio podcasts or relaxing watching TV etc.
Obstacles
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I suffer from fibromyalgia and this is my major obstacle because the effect of doing too much leads me suffer from a flare up where I am in so much pain and feel so exhausted it’s a struggle to not only prepare a simple meal but also the brain fog that goes along with it means I struggle to even come up with an idea of what to make in the first place. In an ideal world I would have lots of pre-prepared meals that can be heated up easily by any member of the family.
There are lots of distractions and excuses that prevent us achieving what we set out to do. Unless you have a perfect work/life balance with a good support network and no financial insecurities then there will always be something that doesn’t meet our needs and desires. We also know people who seem to be able to organise their lives and be super-efficient, self-disciplined, high achievers or super-mums who make us feel like inadequate failures. However, we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others, what you see on the surface isn’t necessarily the truth, we can’t know what other people are dealing with and what it would be like in their shoes. We are our own worse judges and critics and beat ourselves up over our mistakes and setbacks.
Inspiration
With all this in mind I thought I’d also address the setbacks that hinder our progress and look at various ways we can deal with them to overcome some of the obstacles that get in our way. Rather than address all these issues here I’m going to break them down into individual posts. Some of the subjects I’m planning on writing about are listed below (in no particular order), as I publish them I’ll also add a link to them, if I can work out how to do that. This is what I have in mind:
A lot of the topics will be related to my own issues and the methods I have used or intend to use on my wellbeing journey and will also complement the articles on different therapies I’m interested in. You can find lots of self-help books and webpages on these subjects but you can also get overwhelmed with the amount of information out there so I’m going try to write brief, easy to read posts that will hopefully be useful to you.
And Finally
I hope you enjoy reading my blog and I thank you for the time you have taken to read it. If you you would like to see future content then please enter your email address and press the subscribe button below, I have no intention of using you email addresses for any other purpose other than to inform you of new posts I have published.
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Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to try to start a new schedule just before a two week school holiday, without factoring in any unexpected events such as the roofers arriving without notice to replace the barn roof after waiting two years for them to do the work and now we have a tree surgeon noisily cutting some trees down in the garden.
Finding time to write has been difficult enough let alone stick to an exercise and fitness plan.
During the times I’ve had to myself I had lots of ideas of things I can write about and I’ve started putting a few more articles together which will be uploaded very soon. My next post is about ‘Obstacles and Distractions’ which is very relevant to my circumstances at the moment. So I’ll keep this post brief as I’ll be including personal updates in my other posts too. Thank you for reading and if you want to see my future posts please enter you email address and press subscribe below and you will be notified when I post anything new.
Images that I haven’t taken myself are from pixabay.com, unsplash.com or pexels.com.
So it has been quite hectic the last few weeks. The kids have finally gone back to school today though and the work going on around the place is no excuse not to get back on plan.
I have started the day eating well and just taking my time getting my head back in the right space to continue with what I set out to do.
I did manage a zumba class last week with a friend and because I was doing it with someone else I managed to do much more than I would have alone.
Images that I haven’t taken myself are from pixabay.com, unsplash.com or pexels.com.
Nature is so beautiful – even in death. This ash log had been lying on the ground for a couple of years before this stunning fungus appeared. The log is slowly rotting and the fungus is part of that process. There is no real ‘death’ as such – everything is transformed. Everything that is part of this planet is energy and this energy changes and vibrates at different levels but it never disappears. We are living in a world far more amazing than we are able to fully comprehend at this stage of our evolution.
Here is a poem a wrote about how I view death. I find it comforting but it may not be everyone’s cup of tea!
We are in the first week of February already and I feel like I’ve been in a complete blur for the last month. I used to find January and February the most depressing time of year. It’s the middle of winter so the weather is usually cold and often wet and dreary. The aftermath Christmas holidays can be a bit deflating, all parties and excitement have ended and there’s nothing to look forward to except going back to work etc.
That changed for me after having my daughter in January (many years ago). I actually look forward to taking the Christmas decorations down now and instead of feeling like the place looks sparse and dull, I feel like the rooms are more airy and even a little bigger without all the tinsel, trees and various other festive decorations cluttering the place up. Within a couple of weeks the house has birthday banners, balloons and cards on display and it’s time for birthday celebrations, cake making and teenage sleepovers. It isn’t easy starting healthy habits during this time so I gave myself permission to start mid January instead of the beginning this year.
I consider the phase I’m in at the moment a ‘weaning’ stage where I ease myself into the New Year gently. It sounds like excuses I know, but by allowing myself to go slowly it takes the pressure off trying to start out with too many changes and restrictions or imposing strict exercise plans where there is a high risk of failing and giving up too soon.
So I started the year by being more mindful of what I eat, we all have left over festive foods and treats still tempting us, not to mention two birthday cakes (teenage girls deserve at least two celebrations apparently!). So I didn’t deny myself a slice of cake and glass of wine but I also didn’t eat cake with every meal or drink every night. I started my ‘dry January’ halfway through but decided I would continue it until the end of February to make up for it. I’ve founds some lovely alternative that make me feel like I’m not depriving myself. The ones in the image below are a few of my favourites, I also like herbal teas and fizzy water from my soda stream and so far I’m not really missing alcohol that much.
Diet
So that is the alcohol taken care of. Food hasn’t been as good but I am easing myself into it so I’m making some of my favourite recipes from various diets I’ve done in the past and trying to make sure I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables with the meals, also only having one portion of bread or cereal a day. One of my favourite recipes for breakfast is banana pancakes, these are delicious and don’t use up any of my bread or dairy allowances. I can’t remember where I found the recipe and I tweaked it a little anyway so I will give you the recipe here:
I’m also trying to use up the contents at the bottom of my freezer to make room for when I really get organised and start batch cooking! I’ve enjoyed making frozen cauliflower bakes and frozen mushroom soup to name a few. Tonight will be chicken stir fry with noodles. It’s best to cook from scratch rather than convenience food because you can control what ingredients you use and you can usually find great healthy alternatives. Even though I have many cookery books I often just search google for healthy versions of popular dishes.
Exercise
As I love dancing and the weather is far too cold to use the pool or the gym equipment in the unheated barn, I’ve focussed my exercise on using a Zumba DVD and I’ve also bought the online Figure 8 basic package by Body FX.
Both the Figure 8 and the Zumba are based on Latin American dances and are a lot of fun to do. They are very high energy but you can go at your own pace and build up in your own time. A lot of the focus is on hip movement and abdominal crunches but it’s a whole body workout too.
I’m enjoying the classes and can manage short routines and have to make sure I don’t try to push myself too much until I overcome some of my health obstacles.
Struggles
I have found the main problem I have is the pain in my knees during exercise. So now I’m also looking at ways to help with that as many of the dance routines use a variety of squats and lunges too. I’ve made by own pain and inflammation reducing oil using frankincense, myrrh, ginger and wintergreen essential oils, you can find many recipes on the internet to make various remedies and I’ve been collecting essential oils for years and now putting them to good use. I’ve also bought some tiny magnets that you stick on painful areas but haven’t noticed any positive results yet, I may need to look more into the correct placement of the magnets to see if I get better results.
It’s an uphill battle at the moment but, no matter how difficult, I’m optimistic that perseverance and pacing myself will eventually ease any problems as I become lighter and fitter.
Before starting these workouts I used and still intend to use workouts on YouTube by Dr. Bri who does exercise routines for Pelvic Health. While the exercises are for improving pelvic floor muscles they are really great for loosening up your hips and toning your stomach muscles. They are low impact exercises using figure 8 belly dance movements. This is a great alternative to use on days when I’m in more pain or feeling less energetic.
Sleep
One essential area I am focussing on at the moment is to improve the quality of the sleep I get because it is during the deep sleep cycle when the body repairs itself and I’ve struggled with insomnia most of my life and although I can get to sleep OK now I have developed the habit of waking up to use the toilet two or three times a night. Sometimes I can get back to sleep but not always. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea last year and I’m currently trying to adjust to using a CPAP machine, I’m finding it easier but for some reason I always seem to get a blocked nose at night so I’m woken up by the air leaking out of the mask making lovely hissing and farting noises not to mention the cold air blasting into my eyes. Luckily this doesn’t happen every night and it does seem to be improving.
I bought a new fitness watch last week and according to that I’m getting over 3 hours of deep sleep each night which compared to my old watch is at least two hours more than before (I suspect one watch is not as accurate but I’d prefer to believe the new one!)
One thing I have changed is to load my MP3 player with motivating meditations and audio books and setting it to play all night. I’m asleep before the first one finishes but I’m hoping that the words in the meditations still get through to my subconscious mind while I sleep. Have a look at my article on meditation if you’d like to know more about the subject. It’s a free tool you can use and adapt to use anywhere at anytime to help you cope with stress and negative emotions, there are many forms of meditation so you are sure to find something that works for you. Another tool is EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique and I will be posting an article about that soon so keep an eye out for it.
Summary
So the progress so far is slow, I took all my measurements two weeks ago and started exercising and eating healthier.
It’s too soon to notice any results so I haven’t measured myself since but I’ve lost two or three pounds in weight which is a positive sign as I still intend to build on the regime I have in place.
I will hopefully have before and after pictures but I’d like to wait until there is actually a noticeable ‘after’ picture to share with you. Until the next update you can click on any of the icons below to see my Facebook, YouTube and Instagram pages to see other content that you may find interesting. I have two Facebook pages; one is my business page ‘Solistic Therapies’ where you will find links to videos on self reflexology and acupressure techniques and the other page ‘Healing Myself from Fibromyalgia’ has articles that I’ve shared on the subject. My YouTube channel is quite new and only has a few meditation tracks on there at the moment but I’m working on some of my own guided meditations that will be added soon so if you’d like to try them please subscribe to my channel to see future content.
Every year I set the same goals, exercise more, eat healthier, get more sleep etc. etc. I start off well, even losing weight and feeling quite motivated. But then one of the children may be ill or work on the house disrupts my routine and all my new healthy habits get forgotten as I get distracted with life outside my own personal wellbeing.
I have struggled with exercise since starting with fibromyalgia in 2013, until then I would go to the gym two or three times a week and walk the school run twice a day, the rest of my time revolved around doing housework, shopping and helping my elderly mother with her shopping and housework and taking her to medical appointments, she had suddenly started declining into dementia and it was a very traumatic time. I didn’t work but was constantly on the go as my husband worked away from home so I was entirely responsibly for the children with very little support for myself. I think the stress of all of this is what led to the fibromyalgia. Literally from doing a full workout in the gym one day, the next time it was like trying to run through treacle, and it never got better.
My symptoms of fibromyalgia included widespread pain, I felt bruised all over and would brace myself when my son, who was only 5 years old at the time, would try and jump on me wanting to play fight, I wasn’t a fun mum anymore. I had morning stiffness, it took a few hours to loosen up so I could function and the stiffness would return in the evenings after sitting for a while. I used to joke that I felt like a tin man. It affected my sleep too, I’ve struggled with insomnia on and off for as long as I can remember but I started waking in the night feeling very anxious for no reason. As well as the pain came the exhaustion, which was probably the worst. I just didn’t have the energy to do anything, I had to learn to pace myself and do a little at a time, my co-ordination and concentration was affected too. Any stressful situation made it worse, I would literally seize up and had to learn to distance myself from stressful emotions in order to deal with anything. Being diagnosed with a long term illness and told there is no cure and very little help other than pain killers, is very difficult to come to terms with. I was offered CBT and went along for the assessment and felt hopeful that this therapy would help but I was about to move to France so couldn’t start treatment.
Over the years the condition hasn’t exactly got worse and I’m grateful that my symptoms are quite mild compared to others, but I’ve gained a lot of weight which makes everything worse. I wasn’t going to give up though, I continued to exercise and even joined the local line dancing group and performed on stage at the village fetes. I love to dance but found the classes very painful and I was ashamed as I’d get sweaty and breathless and I assumed that was because I was unfit and overweight. The village did an annual ‘Marche Gourmande’ which was an night time, 13K hike stopping at intervals for each course of an evening meal ending in a party and firework display. It was a very popular and successful event and I was a volunteer serving ice cream for a couple of years. I did the practice run of the hike the very first year we moved here and I struggled climbing the steep hills with my seven year old son tugging on my arm. The other hikers were avid ramblers and I was lagging behind as they waited, I couldn’t get my breath, when I stopped to drink water and catch my breath people would look concerned and ask if I needed help, so I’d keep pushing forward to catch them up, when I’d reach them they would march off again as they had rested while waiting for me. I finished the walk though and managed to do it easily at the official event because I could go at my own pace. Since then, my breathing got worse and again I would think it was because I was unfit and overweight but it never improved with exercise at all. I’d also get periods of extreme exhaustion where I didn’t have the strength to keep my head up or even talk, I suspected it might be my heart as my pulse was also very erratic during these periods. The doctors tested me for everything and nothing showed up so they said I just need to lose weight. I felt fat and lazy and blamed myself for the state I was in. Until by fluke, last year the doctor detected unusually high blood pressure at a random examination, this is when I finally got to see a cardiologist and discovered and had Atrial Fibrillation (Heart Arrhythmia) and Sleep Apnea!
This latest discovery was quite emotional for me, realising I wasn’t going crazy or just being lazy afterall. But I also felt I’d made a breakthrough and now I had something to work with. I’m being treated now and the heart arrhythmia is under control and I don’t get that overwhelming exhaustion anymore but it’s still early days. I still have to get used to using a CPAP machine and get into a better sleep cycle but I feel optimistic that now I will get results from my efforts to get fit.
What Now?
So here I am again at the beginning of a New Year with all the same intentions except now I feel I have a chance of achieving them. Losing weight and getting as fit as I can is a priority.
I have done all the diets over the years, Slimming World, Intermittent Fasting, Keto etc. I’ve learned a lot about nutrition and have learned to cook quite well. I have friends with different dietary needs so when we get together to share a meal I’ve found recipes to accommodate everyone and my store cupboard has all the core ingredients. Living in rural France we don’t have the temptation of takeaway deliveries and because the nearest supermarket is a 20 minute drive away you can’t just nip to the local corner shop when you have a craving. Most food is cooked from scratch which is always healthier. I find writing down everything I eat and calorie counting tedious though, so I need to find a way to lose weight without all that hassle.
FOCUSING ON NUTRITION
The priority for getting into shape and losing weight is nutrition and portion control but there are other factors to include to help me achieve my goals:
Healthy balanced meals
Exercise
Emotional and Mental Wellness
Relaxation
I plan to incorporate all my knowledge from previous diets and not obsess about calories, so lots of healthy fruit and veg with a healthy balance of protein and small amount of healthy carbs. I decided to cut out alcohol for a few months so I will be drinking more water and herbal teas and I will not deprive myself of the occasional treat, my weaknesses are crisps and chocolate.
I have lots of cookery books but there are a couple of websites I can recommend with a vast selection of low calorie recipes for all the family: Both the websites linked below list all the nutritional information of their recipes, are compatible with many slimming programs, they have cookbooks you can buy and most importantly the recipes are delicious and simple.
So basically I’m not going to obsess about food, if I go out to eat I will just make sure I don’t overindulge and try to find healthier options. I don’t eat out often so it shouldn’t be a problem.
Exercise
Exercising has been difficult for me because of pain and energy levels but I do feel better if I exercise regularly, I find it easier to exercise in the spring, summer and autumn as I tend to go into hibernation mode in the winter.
I am very fortunate to have a swimming pool, gym equipment and a room where I can exercise to fitness DVD’s, not to mention living in the countryside with a very enthusiastic border collie who loves going for walks.
So there are no excuses, I’ll start off little and often and build up from there.
Exercise itself only contributes about 10 – 20% towards weight loss so the focus is on cardiovascular health, flexibility and strength with the hope of reducing pain, improving sleep and gaining more energy.
Emotional and Mental Wellness
Emotional wellbeing is the best way to keep on track with goals because stress has a huge impact on everything and learning to calm your mind and emotions will help with rejuvenating sleep and reduces the chance of reaching for unhealthy options in order to cope.
Being a holistic therapist I believe on working on all levels and addressing the cause rather than just treating the symptoms. Trauma and stress can be held in the body long after an injury or illness has been treated. The cells of the body hold memories from traumatic events and even if we don’t remember them, unless they have been released they will cause pain or dis-ease somewhere.
Avoiding stress in the first place is the ideal option and this can be done by maintaining a healthy balance on all levels; physically, mental and emotionally. Sometimes things happen that are out of our control and can really upset that balance, the after effects can have a huge effect on the immune system and while we address the physical implications, it will greatly help to find ways to release negative emotions that linger long after the event, whether it’s recurring memories of trauma, resentment about an accident or coming to terms with a diagnosis there are many methods out there to help.
A couple of methods I will be using myself are Emotional Freedom Technique and The Emotion Code. I will be writing some articles on these and sharing my experiences but if you want to know more on the subject there is plenty on information on the internet.
Relaxation
Restful sleep is the best medicine, it’s when we are in deep sleep that our body heals itself and our mind processes the events of the day. We should wake up feeling energetic, alert and ready to face the day but that isn’t always the case. This is one area I’m hoping to improve for myself, I have a lot of healing to do and years of sleep deprivation to recover from.
Practicing things like yoga and meditation or prioritising taking a break and making more ‘me time’. Reading a book, taking up a hobby, quality time with people you care about and have things in common with, there are tons of options, you just need to find what is right for you.
I will be following on from this post with articles about some of these subjects too, so if you feel it’s beneficial to you then please subscribe below so you can see further material.
Solistic 