Dear me,

They told you that your results today would dictate the rest of your life, that everything rides on the content of the envelope resting in your hand; your successes and failures categorised by a letter between A and E. But know, they are only letters and good or bad, they are a key to one of many doors which you can now open; even the worst results still make you step over a threshold into a new chapter of life.

You studied, you worked hard, despite all the distractions of teenage life and for that I still commend…

Unfortunately, stress and poor diet choices are often an unavoidable part of getting through the day. A few years ago, I was putting my own body under a huge amount of stress. This resulted in severe anxiety and unfortunately three almost back-to-back episodes of a horrible skin reaction across my entire torso. In a 30-something body, this was a huge red-flag and a clear warning that something needed to change.

I began to combat my problems through nutrition. It was on this journey that I was introduced to the term epigenetics. As I read into this emerging science, I began…

We hear a lot of bad stuff about chocolate but the real truth is that the right kind can be really good for you. It can improve mood, boost brain performance, lower blood pressure and protect your heart. All good things for a nation of chocolate fanatics who love a little indulgence at times. But don’t go hunting down your favourite treat yet, not all chocolate is created equal.

All chocolate as we know it originates from the same source, as seeds from the Theobroma cacao tree. …

Aldous Huxley famously wrote “ending is better than mending” in the twisted yet scarily accurate, A Brave New World. The 1932 novel predicted a society focused around consumerism and if we look around now, his words seem sharply prophetic. In the book, society is encouraged to spend rather than mend, discard and buy new. In the real world eighty-seven years later, a similar approach to consumerism has helped economies boom yet given rise to a ‘throwaway culture’ and disastrous impacts on the environment.

When exploring today’s throwaway culture, a few main offenders come to mind; fast fashion, plastic and food…

It seems we can’t get away from dreaded plastic; before David Attenborough opened our eyes, many of us existed in ignorant bliss, I know I did to a certain extent. I recycled and lived as low impact as I believed I could, but now with my eyes wide in shock, I cannot un-see plastic’s devastating impact and the extra changes I must now make.

This isn’t a bad thing; we needed a wake-up call. When the final episode of Blue Planet II aired in 2017, I cried myself to sleep that night.

So ashamed was I of being human and…

Today is International Women’s Day and it has me thinking about our relationship with social media. I joined social media websites such as Bebo and MySpace in my teens, but the first platform I started using on a regular basis was Facebook in 2006. It was only at the end of 2018 that I began to examine closely at how over a decade of social media exposure had impacted me. In November 2018 I went cold turkey and what started as a detox has become a lifestyle choice.

Not only have I survived without it, I have thrived. It wasn’t…