When I was younger and working as a circus artist I paid a lot of attention to my health. I ate a very healthy diet, exercised regularly, and took a number of supplements to boost my health and energy levels. Over the last five years I’ve been focussing most of my energy on my children. My diet has not been terrible but there is definitely room for doing better. I’ve abandoned supplements for myself to help with our budget, and I’ve been a lot less physical. My health has suffered, I have a lot less energy, experiencing a real slump from mid afternoon onwards. I’ve struggled to relax and as a result my tolerance for stress is very low. It’s time to take care of myself.

I’ve made the decision to make some changes. Because of my CFS/ME diagnosis I know my health is compromised, so I want to try to achieve the best level of health for my own personal set of circumstances. It would be great to have more focus and energy for spending time doing the things I love with the people I love.

I’m planning on concentrating on a more healthy diet. I will continue to eat wholegrain carbs, something I already do which is good. In addition I want to increase my fruit and vegetable intake, in whole form and using my juicer to make green juices. I would like to drastically reduce the amount of sugar I eat, I have a sweet tooth and I know that sugar has no nutritional value and will not be helping my mid afternoon energy slump. I also need to eat less cheese, laziness has led to me massively overusing cheese in our piscatarian diet. There are many other options for protein, fish, nut butters, tofu, and quinoa will all make healthier alternatives. I’m also going to swap my usual squash and diet coke for water.

Today I’ve been to my local health food store to purchase some good quality supplements. We’ve been taking a regular multivitamin, but it’s a cheap brand and definitely not the best quality. So I bought a Solgar multivitamin specially formulated for women. I also bought a probiotic supplement  (the links are to my amazon affiliate scheme so if you fancy trying supplements too I will make a little money) because I have issues with digestive health and thought this might help. I’m already taking an Omega 3,6, and 9 supplement so between them these seem to cover most of my bases.

I’m going to build some stretching into my daily routine, I suffer from muscle ache in my legs, neck and fingers so I’m hoping stretching will help to alleviate that as well as increasing energy levels. I already try to walk, cycle or scoot regularly to maintain cardiovascular health.

I’m aware that all this is a very cliche January aspiration but it’s as good a time to start and if I feel better then these steps will be well worth the effort. I’ll keep you posted with how I get on. I’m also interested in any ideas my readers have for better health and energy levels? Leave me a comment if you have any thoughts.