Category: health

2020, the year that many are hanging on to for big things to happen. Meanwhile, I am just trying to navigate through the last year in my 20s without being blind sighted (no pun) by another crazy Anaphylaxis episode.

So let me rewind to 4 months ago. I had been going to hot yoga classes once every week for a few months and this time I was trying out a new venue with Classpass and taking my friend along for her first ever yoga experience – exciting!

For anyone that has not been to a hot yoga class, imagine a dark room with sauna heat and slow movements on the matt while you concentrate on your breathing. It works up a sweat while you stretch and unwind from your day, I loved every minute of it. But 15 minutes into this class and my eyes started to itch. I gave it a little rub and it started to water and I felt the area around my eyes tighten, feeling worst every minute. At first I simply though this was my contact lenses reacting badly to the sweat and me rubbing and it would eventually calm down.

It didn’t.

I turned over to my friend and whispered – ” are my eyes ok they feel weird?”. And imagine being in a quiet room with only the sound of air flowing in your nose and exhaled out through your mouth and then a loud “OH MY GOD”. I immediately jolted out of the downward dog position and left the room and rushed into the changing room.

The next few minutes went so quickly with my eyes swelling every second. Now this is the first time anything like this has every happened to me. I’ve only ever been aware of my allergy to prawns and even when I eat prawns i just get a slight itch in my throat and swelling on my lips which dies down after 10 minutes. But this, this was something else. I took my contacts out because at this rate, my eyes were going to close shut and my friend jumped into an uber with me to UCLH which was a 5 minutes drive away. But in the uber, my throat started to feel funny and my nose was completely blocked, by this point I couldn’t even open my eyes.

We walked into A&E and before I could say much I was rushed straight into the back and put on a bed with a drip and adrenaline injected into my body. I honestly felt like everyone was staring at me every time I managed to force my eyelids up. I always wanted to be famous, but not in this way.. The doctors checked every few minutes because my throat had started swell, even my voice was going funny and the nasal passage was their main worry, not the eyes that attracted all the attention.

Thankfully the swelling in my throat began to tame itself and I was kept in there for a few hours to monitor my pulse and heart rate (adrenaline in your body can sometimes have bad side-effects). The eye’s however stayed puffy for a few days and only got back to normal after a week, plus I had a new accessory to keep with me, my epipen.

It has been 4 months since then and I have had another reaction, not as bad but a similar start with the eyes. This time I was just sat at home and it randomly started, so maybe it was not the hot yoga. But until I find out in my allergy clinic due soon, I am left quite baffled at what is causing this.

The doctor’s have said that you can suddenly be allergic to something you have eaten or done all your life, which does not help. I have had a few suspicions like:

1.essential oils (don’t have this at home though)

2. contact lenses (but I wear these every day and do not usually have issues)

3.cake ( I had cake on both occasions of my allergic reactions but I have also had cake

And I havn’t had any change in make up or creams that would impact me. So I invite all of you to have your guesses but I will confirm once the tests speak for themselves. Either way, I am sharing this story mainly to make everyone aware that this can happen to anyone, even if you never had an allergies before! Be extra cautious, if you ever feel an itch or swell, especially around your throat, call an ambulance and don’t take the risk. I severe and sudden allergic reaction can be a deadly matter if not looked at immediately!

The other reason I am sharing this story is to say that if you have a chance to opt in to private healthcare at work make sure you do, I wish I did as I am currently waiting months to get any allergy tests done and most private healthcare insurers won’t cover me now because this is a “pre-existing” condition. So I have no choice but to wait until I get an appointment and have some tests taken, until then I just have to keep my epipen close and my wits closer.

Before I start this post, I just want to say I am no nutritional or fitness expert. I do a lot of research and experiment with different types of activities. Last year after two semi-successful pole dancing classes, I realised how weak I was in my upper body and core and doing weights in the gym made me realise how weak my back was. I was constantly having lower back pains and I needed to concentrate on building my strength without rushing to my weight goal.

Majority of the weight loss I saw was after the Christmas sluggish period where most of us probably put on a few cakes and glasses of wine. Before I found out about my yeast intolerance, I decided to just cut out refined sugar and lower the carbs in January. On top of that I went completely alcohol free. And there you have it – the secret diet…

Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? Think again. All I do is crave sugar in the winter and especially when it’s gloomy outside, which it always is. I had to swap chocolates with fruits and nuts but the truth it, while I had withdrawal symptoms and the sugar free flu for the first week of Jan, the cravings subsided in the next weeks and soon I wasn’t constantly thinking about brownies and wine. I did have a week of intermittent fasting but I realised it became too hard with the physical training I was undergoing.

In terms of fitness, I do have a PT (aka my boyfriend) which helps me with focusing on target areas through free weights and body weight, at the same time I also upped my cardio. I started to go to the gym twice a day, at least two times a week. The first session would be a body targeted weight session and the second gym visit would consist of 25-30minute cardio with 10 minutes abs.

With all these factors, I managed to lose 4.5Kg in January which was impressive for my standards! However, since then the weight loss has admittedly plateaued. Possibly due to the alcohol being re-introduced into my diet once – twice a week.

But it was impossible not to drink in February seeing as it is my birthday month, a very serious affair. With all the celebrating and cheat meals, I managed to keep my weight stable ( thanks to the gym) but since then I have upped my game in the gym and in the kitchen and I continuing to tone.

With all these factors, I managed to lose 4.5Kg in January which was impressive for my standards! However, since then the weight loss has admittedly plateaued. Possibly due to the alcohol being re-introduced into my diet once – twice a week. But it was impossible not to drink in February seeing as it is my birthday month, a very serious affair. With all the celebrating and cheat meals, I managed to keep my weight stable ( thanks to the gym) but since then I have upped my game in the gym and in the kitchen and I continuing to tone.

The truth is, I have never liked to weight myself because I found it could sometimes be so de-motivating if they scales do not reflect the hard work. We all know muscles weight more than fat so as you tone your body, your weight won’t fall as much. And while I have only lost another 0.5kg since Feb, I can see a continued loss in body fat through pictures tracking. I continue to do fitness class to keep the heart rate high, like the one I did recently with Modibodi to launch their new sweat proof gym leggings ( what a treat!) .

But what I am extremely proud of is my commitment to Yoga. Since the beginning of this month I have gone twice every week and it has already stopped the lower back pains AND strengthen/tone my core muscles. I have said this before, but this time I really am going to give monthly updates on my diet & fitness progress. Next update will be to share more yeast free, low carb, candida friendly and nutritional recipe’s that have helped me cut down on some body fat. I still have a long way to go but I’m moving in the right direction!

What are some of your health and fitness tips/challenges?

I am a big believer in trying different things and making changes to your lifestyle to understand your body better, because we are all different. With my vegan detox that I tried last year, it became evident that dairy wasn’t my friend so whilst I’m not vegan, I have cut down on my dairy intake and it has done my body and skin so much good.

When I first heard about intermittent fasting, it was from a gym-freak friend of mine so I immediately dismissed it thinking I would never be able to do it. But then I knew someone more normal who started it and lost weight, that was enough to motivate me.

So what is intermittent fasting – to break it down and simplify it, you eat within a 8 to 9 hour window and fast for the rest of the day. So in theory, if you start eating at noon you have to stop by 8pm. Most women find a 9 hour window more feasible and still effective.  The argument is that whatever food you eat is used as energy by your body for the next 12 hours, and only after those 12 hours does your body actually start burning fat. If you want to read about on intermittent fasting in more details, I found this resource extremely easy to understand. Continue reading “Mel Tries: Intermittent Fasting, The Easy Way to Lose Weight?”

I have been jumping on and off the fitness band wagon for years now and saw the best results over 4 years ago as I was in my 2nd year at Uni. It was so easy to fit my fitness regime into my not so strenuous schedule and I was doing really well with my diet. However, I fell off it after my amazing holiday in Miami and getting into a relationship and moving to Germany to start my placement year. That was my excuse, life.

I guess you can get a bit comfortable when you are in a relationship, the evenings you spent at the gym are swapped for going out for dinner with your partner – I have seen it happen to many people. Now I am not saying relationships are all bad….. you just have to find the right balance I guess. Continue reading “How I keep myself fitness motivated”

We all love indulging in fatty foods every now and again – and what better time to do that than when off on your holidays? Today, just to make you feel as bad as possible for indulging yourself, let’s take a closer look at five of the unhealthiest foods to snack on while travelling. Continue reading “Guest Post – 5 of the Unhealthiest Foods to Snack on While Travelling”