Organic Cotton Baby Clothes

I'm passionate about organic things, so it's great to be selling organic cotton baby clothes on our web site. Everyone who sees them, coos over them - they've got little baby bug motifs. The prices are good too. I'm particularly pleased with the baby gift box - sleepsuit, hat and mitts - a great gift for a new born baby.

The cotton comes in 3 different colours naturally so it does need to be dyed either. What a great start for a new baby!

Global Warming Myths

Although the evidence for man's part in global warming is mounting, there's still lots of people who say it's all wrong. Some people think that the earth is not egtting warmer; others say it is but i's nothing to do with what people are doing - it's just part of the normal variation over many millenium.

The 'New Scientist' has taken all these thoughts and provided a well-argued argument. You can read it here.

Chocolate And Vegetarians

I cannot believe that the chocolate manufacturer has decided to change the recipes in the Uk for Mars Bars, Bounty, Snickers, Twix, Milky way, Maltesers and Minstrels so they are no longer suitable for vegetarians.

This seems uncredibly short-sighted and presumably will also affect people who adhere to hallal and kosher principles.

Now I don't think we should be eating these sugary confeciosn all the time, but an occasional one is fine for most people. If you want to express your concern, you can do so here:

http://www.masterfoodsconsumercare.co.uk/contact_us.asp

All the products on our online shop are suitable for vegetarians and most are also suitable for vegans too, so please check those out.

Unusual and Inspirational Gifts

I've been really busy lately with the revamped Health & Goodness online shop.

One of the things I'm particularly pleased with is our new range of unusual and inspirational gifts. We have a great gift for a golfer, one for a gardener, a child who can't sleep, and a get well gift too. Most of the gifts come in really nice fairly-traded jute bags, much more eco-friendly than wrapping paper because they can be used again afterwards.

I have been showing the gifts to friends as I've developed them, and before I have had time to finish explaining what they are, my friends have been grabbing them out of my hand and wanting to buy them, so it looks like I've got it right.

The selection is small at the moment, but I'll be adding more over the next few weeks. Do take a look.

New Ethical Shop

we've revamped the Health & Goodness shop, and will be adding lots more stuff over the next few weeks.

new things include:

a homeopathy kit for labour /childbirth - we already had a basic kit and a homeopathic hay fever kit on the site

some great natural skin care products

the bestselling (UK) range of self-help CDs

We give 12% of our profits to various charities, so with the relaunch of the shop there should be even more money to give away :-)

Do please take a look.

Safe Alternatives To HRT

HRT replacement therapy may have caused 1000+ women in the UK to die of ovarian cancer since 1991 says a study published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. This is added to the risks of breast cancer and womb cancer.

Many women unfortunately believe that the only way to deal with the menopause is to take HRT or suffer the misery of hot flushes, low energy levels and more. But there are lots of safe alternatives. The study shows that the longer you are on HRT the more likely you are to get ovarian cancer, but it also shows that if you stop taking HRT your risk is the same as for women not taking HRT. So, if you’re taking it now, why not consider some of the safe and effective alternatives to menopausal medication.?

So what are the safe alternatives? Here are some ideas:

1. Try taking vitamin E for hot flushes / flashes.
2. Get fit and stay fit. Exercise stimulates endorphins (the body’s feel good hormones, revs up your metabolism, tones your body and gives you more energy)
3. If you’re feeling miserable, old and without purpose try taking flower remedies.
4. See an alternative and complementary therapist. Many can help and some even specialise in these sort of problems.
5. Irregular or heavy periods? Then try Neways Wild Yam and Chaste Berry cream. It worked for me.

Don’t believe that the only solution is HRT. There’s a whole world of alternatives out there. Explore some of them first.

Good Miles and Local Food

When you stop and think about the miles that food travels it's crazy:

Buying food from local farms and farmers’ markets is not just good for your taste-buds, health and wealth, there are wider benefits too. Comparing some foods which travelled from field direct to farmers’ market or farm shop with the same products air-freighted to reach UK supermarket shelves from overseas, Sustain’s researchers found that the carbon-dioxide emissions associated with distribution were 650 times lower when food was bought locally from a farmers’ market. The ingredients for an air-freighted Sunday lunch created 37 kilograms of greenhouse gasses but when bought from local farms only 58.2 grams of greenhouse gasses were released – a reduction of 99.8 per cent. (From
www.sustainweb.org)

I've written an article for Health & Goodness on seasonal food and food miles too.

Complaining

I really liked this from Charity Focus:

How long can you go without complaining? A few months ago, the pastor of a Kansas City church told people in his congregation he wanted them to test their limits. "The one thing we can agree on," said Rev. Will Bowen, "is there's too much complaining." And so he asked the group to give up complaining, criticizing, gossiping or using sarcasm for 21 days. People who joined in were issued purple bracelets as a reminder of their pledge. If they caught themselves complaining, they were supposed to take off the bracelet, switch it to the opposite wrist and start counting the days from scratch. Rev. Bowen said it took him three and a half months to put together 21 complaint-free days. Now, about a half a million people around the world have requested free wristbands to rise to the challenge.

Is everything connected?

Many integrative medicine/complementary therapy practitioners see everything as being connected in some way.

The article in New Scientist entitled "The universe is a string-net liquid" gives some support to this.

Scientists from MIT and Harvard University explained their experiment at the Topological Quantum Computing conference in the USA earlier this month.

I can't put my hand on my heart and say I understood all the article - I don't have a science background - but it appears that they have produced more evidence of entanglement - particles influencing each other over vast differences.

Healers who work with people at a distance and other therapies that defy the 'normal' understanding of the physical world may be a step nearer to vindication.

"I Want To lose Weight"

“I want to lose weight.” How often have you said it, but not achieved it. Most women, and a lot of men, have said but not achieved this more times than they care to remember. But, as you should know by now, wishing for it, doesn’t make it happen. So how can you turn “I want to lose weight” into “Yippee, I’m losing weight and feel great”.

Firstly, I don’t have a magic wand, but nor does anyone else. Weight loss is one of the things you need to work at, not just wish for. Here’s a plan of campaign. Read it, think about it, but most importantly put it into practice. Knowing this stuff doesn’t mean you lose weight. Acting on it, means that you’ll almost certainly lose weight and look and feel a whole lot better.

Have A Quiet Moment And Stop WishingIf you talk to people who have got down to their ideal weight, kept the weight off and look and feel great, they almost all had a quiet moment before they started. By this I mean that they stopped thinking about the future and wishing for change. They stopped beating themselves up for how they were. They accepted what and who they were and in that quiet moment they made a decision to do what they needed to do to live a healthier life. Does it sound grandiose to say that in that moment they experienced unconditional love for themselves? Are you saying: “I couldn’t do that.” Remember when you give yourself unconditional love you are not saying you are perfect, but you are loving yourself in spite of or because of your imperfections. I’m not saying you have to do this all the time, but just for a quiet moment while you accept where you are and commit yourself to something better.

read the rest of this article.

Complete Everything

Here's a great thought from www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

A task left undone remains undone in two places - at the actual location of the task, and inside your head. Incomplete tasks in your head consume the energy of your attention as they gnaw at your conscience. They syphon off a little more of your personal power every time you delay. No need to be a perfectionist, that's debilitating in an imperfect world, but it's good to be a 'completionist'. If you start it, finish it...or forget it. Do it - or dump it!
From http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk/

Asthma And Economic Development

An intersting article has just been published in PLOS Medicine on the incidence of asthma in Ghana.

In Africa, asthma has typically been thought of as being very uncommon, and indeed in many African dialects there is no word for asthma or the symptoms, such as wheezing, that asthmatic children experience. This is a major contrast to what happens in the UK and other developed countries.

Unfortunately the study is showing that asthma, or at least exercise-induced bronchospasm is on the increase. Two studies of 3 schools in 1993 and again in 2003 showed the proportion of children with exercise-induced bronchospasm increased in all three schools; overall this proportion went up from 3.1% to 5.2%. Children from the rich city school were most likely to have exercise-induced bronchospasm at either survey date. However, children from the poor city school experienced the biggest change over the time period studied, with more than double the proportion of children having exercise-induced bronchospasm in 2003 as compared to 1993.

Stability Ball (Gym Ball) Exercises

As many of you know I'm keen on fitness, but it's easy to get bored or complascent with what you're doing so recently I've started using a stability ball (gym ball, exercise ball) and follow a program from Core Secrets. I'm really enjoying it.

I've just posted an article on Health & Goodness which suggests various exercises you can do at home with one of these balls and includes stretching exercises you can do on the ball too.

Here's the link to the article.

Tips To help You Lose Weight

A study just published by scientists from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) should have some women reaching for the tape measure. The study has shown that women with a waist measurement of 34 inches (86 cms) or more have almost double the risk of developing womb cancer. More than 6000 British women are diagnosed with womb cancer every year, and about 1000 die from it. This adds to earlier research showing an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes for women with large waists. Don’t kid yourself that it won’t happen to you. There are all sorts of other reasons to lose weight. This is not a vanity issue – it is a health and happiness issue. Being overweight is likely to lead to pain, discomfort and ill health.

You may be saying you know all that, but dieting doesn’t work. I agree that dieting doesn’t work, so try making some minor changes in your life. Here are some ideas:

1. Taking a zinc supplement can reduce a craving for chocolate.

2. Keeping a food diary can help you eat better. Write down everything you eat. You may be surprised at the junk or the quantity you actually eat.

3. Don't order a large portion in a restaurant and think it's OK because you've ordered a 'lite' drink or used a no-calorie sweetener.

4. Skipping meals makes it more likely that you'll overeat later. Eat 5-6 small meals a day to maintain your blood sugar levels and minimise mood changes.

5. If you're trying to lose weight, motivate yourself by doing it for a good cause and get your friends to sponsor you.

6. So you over-ate, don't let that be an excuse to give up. No one succeeds all the time.

7. Eat with a naturally slim friend and watch them carefully. They probably eat slowly, chew their food well and stop eating while they're talking. Copy this way of eating in your life.

8. Snack from a plate, not the packet -- it is easy to feel you should finish the packet. Put what you need on a plate, and put the rest of the pack out of sight.

9. If you always want a second helping, make your first helping smaller, so that you can have that second helping without putting on weight.

10. Get yourself even more motivated by finding more reasons to lose weight. Did you know, for example, that there’s a direct link between obesity and some of the common eye conditions that cause blindness?

11. If you like these tips you can get more by installing our Google gadget on a personalised Google homepage.

I'm fundraising for WaterAid again!

Once again I'm fundraising for WaterAid. I've previosuly run the London marathon and riden across the USA from Seattle to just north of Boston. This time I'm tackling a bike ride in Africa with my son, Tom. We are going from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam. We are not riding it all but should complete approx 350 miles in two weeks. We expect it will be hot and thirsty work so riding for WaterAid is particularly appropriate. The money we raise will be spent on projects in Tanzania. All the money we raise goes to waterAid - we pay all our own expenses. Please support us:

Water And Water Filters

We use a water filter that filters water for the whole of the house. I know the water company doesn't consider it necessary, ut I think it tastes better and probably is a lot etter for your health.

I know a lot of other people are concerned about the quality of the water that comes out of the tap/faucet, so I decided to ask Ken Digby of NT Laboratories (UK) to talk to me about this whole issue. I recorded our converstaion and posted the article on water filters on Health & Goodness.

It's full of clear information, including interestingly that children with eczema often benefit from filtered water, particularly if they are using filtered water to shower or bath in.

Health & Happiness Tips

I am delighted that Google have now accepted our Health & Happiness tips gadget. It will rank alongside gadgets from the BBC, Wikipedia, CNN and many other movers and shakers.

You can see it at the top of this blog. If you'd like to have it on a personalised Google search page just click on the "+ Google" at the bottom left ahnd corner of the gadget and then follw the instructions from there.

You may get a warning message – this is a standard Google thing, but we do not have the technology or the desire to find out anything about you.

Please download it, share it and enjoy it.

Be A more Confident Therapist

I really enjoy writing for my web sites and newsletters, but it takes up a lot of time, so it's particularly nice when someone emails and says how much they like a particular piece I've written.

I've recently had a lot of apprecation on my article on being a more confident therapist. One practitioner told me he was very successful at geting people well, but still he struggled to make a business out of his practice, but now after reading the article he knew what he had to do. So if your a therapist or a therapist in training, I suggest you have a look at this article.

Therapists Doing Good In the World

I recived this email earlier today:


I have just been on your website in a search for possible outlets where we
may be able to advertise out training courses. Is this something you can
offer?
We are a small charity that gives on site chair massages to rescue workers
at the scene of a major incident. We run training courses 3 times a year,
and we are always on the look out for ways to advertise for more volunteers.
We can only use licensed massage therapists, with knowledge of aromatherapy
if possible.
We are all volunteers, myself included, so any help you might be able to
offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Kind regards
Kim Wooldridge
Managing Director, REST UK
Reg. Charity No:1098574
"Giving a rest to the rescuers"
T:01778 570120
M:0775 9695352
www.restuk.org.uk

so I decided to dedicate a page of My Therapy Practice to this sort of information. Here it is:

http://www.mytherapypractice.com/therapies/good-in-the-world.html

Stress Tips

many people have problems dealing with stress - it's the current 'disease', so I liked this article which gives some practical easy-to-apply ways to deal with stress. I hope you enjoy it too. :-)