Prologue

Welcome to my ramblings on how I buzz through my life striving to live a pure, eco-friendly existence, whilst endeavouring to find a way of living to keep me healthy and full of beans, when stress, work and lack of time all seem determined to hinder me at ever corner.

My need for purity and energy stems from a bad time about 8 years ago when I suffered from ME (aka Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Post Viral Syndrome). A stressful job which ate into my evenings and weekends, a perfectionist personality and an inability to sit still, combined with two successive bouts of a flu like virus floored me for about a year and a half. My energy levels just plummeted to the stage where even lifting a cup of tea was exhausting. My nose streamed constantly as though everything I came into contact with irritated it. When conventional medicine had no answers apart from lots of rest and 'pacing' (not doing too much too quickly), my wonderful hubby did loads of research into possible lifestyle factors which could be hindering my recovery. The upshot was a move towards a more natural and organic lifestyle. I started incorporating lots of organic fruit and veg into my diet, including freshly made juices, and discovered that synthetic ingredients in skincare and household products were exacerbating my condition, in particular the streaming nose. I started using natural products in and around the house, and on myself, and tried to eat as much organic fruit and veg as I could, as well as forgoing caffeine. Slowly but surely, I started to have more energy, and although it took about 18 months to recover, in ME terms, that is a blink of an eye. Most sufferers are ill for much, much longer.

Whether my recovery had anything to do with my lifestyle changes, or whether I would have got better in this time frame in any event, I don't know. All I know is that period of time in which I had zero energy has now made me thankful for the energy I do now have and the desire to do all I can to make sure that I keep it and maximise it. I have felt a great affinity with all things 'green' and natural since I was a child, and I have continued to follow as natural a lifestyle as I can since my recovery, and I am sure that nature holds to all the answers to a life that is healthy, happy and vital. These are my ramblings as I try to search for all of those answers.. :)