One Life - it's time to LIVE IT (Pt 3)... The Cortisol Connection

July 2011 - End of Financial Year done, heaps going on in the business and my personal life and I was feeling stressed, exhausted and totally over just about everything! My goreous husband (my knight in shining armour) booked us in for 5 days of R&R on Daydream Island. It was wonderful to get away for 5 days of sunshine, fresh air, no phones, no emails. Interesting choice of destination though (funny how these things happen sometimes).

Daydream Island is owned by a guy by the name of Vaughan Bullivant. I'll try to make a long, but interesting story short - but as a young man, Vaughan had been a professional water skiier and performed in Ski shows in Surfers Paradise and the USA. While working in the US, he had a massive crash which almost cost him his life. He made a miraculous recovery and with this 2nd chance that was given him he went on to study Naturopathy and later started his own line of vitamins and supplements. Several years later he sold the business "Nature's Own" for $135million (NICE). In a nutshell, many years later he now owns Daydream Island in Australia's Whitsundays, but his passion for health and natural therapies is still strong. Daydream Island now boasts one of the worlds Top 3 day spa's, and is super impressive to go visit. I decided to take advantage of it while we there and paid a visit to the Naturopath there.

After listening patiently to my list of health complaints, a bit of history and the research I had done, she helped me prioritise my key areas of concern and talk about how each facet was related to each other. From there we nutted out "THE PLAN"! Here it is...

WEEKS 1 & 2: Detox - the gut is where a lot of the "toxic waste dump" problems stem from, but fortunately e're not talking about one of those nasty 5 day detoxes where you live on rabbit food and water - no, no, no - we're talking a 1 tablet, 3 times a day for 14 days. This is an antiparasitic, antimicrobial and antifungal formulation to clear out gut inflammation and regain a healthy digestive system.

WOW! The results are impressive (& exciting)! By Day 3, 3kg had disappeared and I was looking and feeling less bloated. Day 5, 5kg gone and the belt does up another 2 notches and Day 7, 7kg - OMG, feeling fantastic - it's all happening.

During those first 7 days I didn't change my eating habits too dramatically, they weren't too bad to start with, just a few sensible tweaks and taking a bit more notice of what I eat. It's pretty much part Acid/Alkaline diet and part Gluten Free diet.

WEEK 3: Potion #2 which the Naturopath prescribed to re-build and heal the gut, plus a potent Tri-Flora tablet to maintain all the good work. I'm drinking at least 1.5 Ltrs of water a day with a slice of lemon or lime and the Scotch & Dry is gone...my drink of choice is now water or my very own DEMI COSMO - Vodka, Cranberry Juice & Lime over ice (shaken not stirred).

Time to get MOOVING & GROOVING! Back on the pole for me - it's been too long. Let's see how the wrist holds up.

WEEK 4: It's time to re-visit the Cortisol issue. Saliva tests to see what's doing, maybe another magic potion to correct this as well as some stress relieving Yoga/Meditation, Vitamin C, Pole Dancing and lots of sunshine and fresh air. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

For me, Stress plays a MAJOR role in my cortisol imbalance, so Stress Management will be my main focus over the weeks and months ahead. I'm notorious for taking on ALL the stress and need to learn to share it with others. I think this will be the key to success during this part of the journey back to healthier, happier me.

Will keep you posted!