As many of you know by now, I regularly go to Skin Renewal for treatments which, coupled with eating plans by Dr Graham, has drastically improved the tone and texture of my skin. I thought I would do a follow up post from this one to talk about how I have been handling my lifestyle changes, the challenges that come along with it and some of the things I have incorporated into my everyday living.
Diet
I have written about the myriad benefits of drinking Golden Milk – more fondly known as haldi ka doodh, but decided to add some more information and re-publish my recipe into this post. This is simply because I noticed an improvement in regularly drinking the milk and definitely think that it’s something that everyone needs to try. I will be the first to admit that it sounds horrible but promise that by following my recipe below, you too, become a Golden Milk Guru. Keen to learn more about the benefits of adding turmeric to your diet? Read here!
With the winter months approaching, Golden Milk will come in handy for many people as it is a natural and delicious way to prevents colds and flus, aid sleep and reduce inflammation in the body. If you have been following my fibromyalgia journey, you would probably have noticed that I have been taking a combination of turmeric and cayenne pepper capsules at night and in the morning. This is because turmeric is an excellent anti-inflammatory spice and contains a really great amount of nutrients and antioxidants which is all due to curcumin. This is the main compound found in turmeric and, the addition of peppercorns in my recipe below, works along with the curcumin to improve the absorption of the compound. The turmeric itself contains amazing nutrients such as iron, potassium, copper, calcium, zinc, .Vitamins K, E and C and manganese amongst many others. I prefer using it as a fresh root (which you can get at Woolworths) as opposed to the dried spice but, if you can’t find the root, then the spice works just as well.
Recipe to make the milk (serves 2)
Note: You can play around with the measurements depending on your taste. Therefore, if you prefer more cinnamon, then feel free to add some more. My recipe below is the quantities that I prefer. I use almond milk when making it but feel free to use whichever milk you find tastier. Many recipes uses coconut milk but I find it to be too rich (unless diluted with water). Homemade cashew milk tastes great on its own but I wouldn’t recommend it when making Golden Milk as its way too thin and watery. If you are new to this, then I would suggest using the sweetened almond milk for your first few mugs as the turmeric taste can be quite overpowering in the beginning.
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- 2 cups of milk
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- About 2 -3 cm of the root chopped up or ¼ to ½ tsp of dried turmeric powder
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- 2 smashed cardamom pods
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- A stick of cinnamon or ¼ -½ tsp ground cinnamon
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- ¼ tsp black pepper or 3 -4 peppercorns
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- ¼ tsp ginger powder or a tiny slice of fresh ginger root
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- ¼ tsp nutmeg
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- 1 tsp coconut oil
- 1 -2 tsp honey depending on the taste you want
How to make it:
Add the milk to a saucepan and put it on a medium heat until it simmers. Take it off the heat, add your spices and give it a good stir – I usually use a whisk to do this. Once all the spices have infused, stir in your sweetner and coconut oil before straining the milk into a mug. If you are using the fresh turmeric root then it will take some time to turn a beautiful yet muted golden yellow but if you use the spice, then the milk will turn yellow almost immediately.
I mostly have this at night but have recently found myself craving this in the morning as opposed to having a coffee.
Skin
The month before last month was perhaps one of the worst skin months I have ever had. I had huge breakouts on my cheeks which was sore to the touch and left some scarring. None of my creams were working to alleviate these breakouts and I eventually met my lovely therapist, Shanice from Skin Renewal Claremont, who gave me a treatment of Dermapen and PDT which almost immediately healed my breakouts. While Dermapen is my absolute favorite treatment, I was quite shocked at just how well it worked to clear up my congestion. After my breakouts disappeared, I met with Dr Graham to discuss my concerns about getting them again and, while chatting to him, remembered that I had the flu twice and had some really bad fibromyalgia pain spells. According to Dr Graham, this could have been the cause of it all – who knew? He put me on new medication, both from Skin Renewal and, coupled with a Dermapen treatment, my spots and marks disappeared.
When asked what the five things he does every morning is, Dr Graham responded with “I begin my mornings with a honey-ginger-turmeric-pepper-lemon juice shot to reduce inflammation” (I do this too as it is really good for you!). And then,“I have my daily allocated supplements which include antioxidants and vitamin B and I mix up a gut-healing, collagen-boosting shake of bone broth, whey protein, glycine and glutamine. A few minutes mindfulness meditation and yoga and I am ready for the day!”
The tablets I am currently taking are Acne 2 in 1 and Liver Cleanse. Both have really made the biggest difference in my skin as I have had only two or three tiny spots since starting them – which is amazing. The Acne 2 in 1 is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capsule that helps to reduce acne and breakouts while the Liver Cleanse works to increase the functioning of liver cleansing properties. It also helps to detox the body and helps with skin conditions associated with a stagnant liver.
If you have any health problems that you cannot seem to recover from, then I would highly recommend making a booking to see one of the Skin, Body and Health Renewal doctors. They offer great advice, have fantastic and caring staff and approach their healing holistically. Get in contact with your closest branch here.
Fitness
My fitness has been on the slow side recently due to the simple (but bad) reason that I have been too busy to work out. I have however, found great joy in using 7 Minute Apps as it has been brilliant at reminding me to do my daily workout (it’s amazing what 7 minutes a day can do!). I especially love it on days when I don’t have a lot of time to work out and find that it comes in really handy in reminding me to take a few minutes out and focus on myself. I would highly recommend downloading it from the app store and giving it a go. You can choose between different challenges and fitness levels with my favorite being the ab workouts.
Download it here on Google Play or iStore
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Fatima
