CHANGE YOUR LIFE THIS YEAR: MONTH 4

I'm frantically trying to meet the deadline on my latest novel, Cape to Cabernet - so I don't have much time to research and write my usual weekly blogpost. However, I did come across this fun video that I thought you might enjoy as well. Month 4 in my book Change Your Life This Year is all about walking, walking for just 30 minutes a day. I happen to live at the sea and wherever I walk, its safe and its beautiful - but I'm very aware that not everyone has an environment like that to walk in. If you've been convinced by Chapter 4 that you simply have to change your life by adding 30 minutes of walking to your day, but you have nowhere to walk, then this video might provide you with the solution you've been seeking. What do you think of this new walking routine? Would you do it?

Is it possible to find body products that are kind to the environment and kind to you?

In the book I'm currently writing, Cape to Cabernet, Ganiet, my Israeli protagonist, is given a fabulous smelling gift by her grandmother - a jar of priceless frankincense oil from Oman. I too was blessed recently with a beautifully fragrant gift that is just up my alley - a range of all-natural products; a deodorant, a body scrub and a body butter. They are produced by hand by Rona Mirimi of Verte Natural Body Products. Rona is also an Israeli woman and my daughter bought her products for me as a celebration of the fact that I am so. nearly. finished . Cape to Cabernet.

Although I wouldn't class myself as a health fanatic or a rampant 'greenie' I do believe that the area we neglect the most when it comes to de-toxing, is our skin. We tend to focus more on what we're eating (ingesting). I don't know about you but I really didn't think about what I was putting on my skin when I first started de-toxing my life. My motivation was my grandchildren. I didn't want there to be any poisonous or lethal products in my home in case one of my grandchildren came in contact with it when visiting; so I slowly got rid of products like Jik and Handy-Andy and replaced them with vinegar, lemon oil and bicarb.

It was only later, when I started self-medicating with essential oils, that I discovered how incredibly quickly the skin absorbs almost anything you put on it. You might have heard that parabens and other chemicals found in skin care products are bad if ingested, but they can't penetrate the skin. This is simply not true. You only have to think about nicotine and birth control patches to realise that.

According to an article written by Deborah Burnes in HuffPost "in 2005, the Environmental Working Group published a combination of two studies that found toxic chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies. They screened for more than 400 chemicals and an astounding 287 toxins were detected". Many of these, like mercury, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated dibenzodioxins were most likely absorbed through the mothers' skin into the blood stream.

Some of this absorption just can't be helped. It happens as you go through life. But you certainly can avoid putting poisons on your skin deliberately. Deborah says that her Top Ten ingredients to be avoided are:

1. Parabens
2. Formaldehyde
3. 1,4-dioxane
4. Phthalates
5. Diethanolomine ((DEA), Triethanolomine (TEA) and monoethanolamine (MEA)
6. Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulphate
7. Propylene Glycol
8. PVP
9. Nanoparticles
10. Fragrance

The scary thing is, these ingredients are found in most commercially produced skin-care products, sometimes in disguise. There are two ways to go about avoiding the Terrible Ten: examine every label before purchasing or switch to products that you know are natural and free of the Terrible Ten.

Can I be honest for a moment? I'm not going to stop using Amarige in summer and Hypnotic Poison in winter. But I've eliminated pretty much every other toxin from my beauty routine. And that brings me back to my DIVINE smelling gift. I tested each one yesterday and here are the results:

1.  Verte Body Scrub. It contains only salt, jojoba oil, rosemary and grapefruit, rosemary and juniper berry essential oils. It smells so heavenly, its unbelievable. After using my skin felt smooth and soft.

2. Verte Body Butter. It contains only olive oil, calendula, shea butter, mango butter, vitamin E and sandalwood,patchouli and orange essential oils. As a former hippie, I was in seventh heaven surrounded by traces of sandalwood and patchouli and my skin felt hydrated all day.

3. Verte Natural Deodorant. It is the consistency of solid coconut oil, not surprisingly as it contains coconut oil, shea butter, bicarb, corn flour and essential oils. I applied it in the morning and it worked all day for me. I cannot vouch for whether or not it would be as effective in Summer. I usually use the Pure Beginnings deodorant but I'm just as happy with the Verte product.

So, do I recommend Verte Natural Body Products? I do. If you'd like to order something from Rona you can contact her on roxanacu@hotmail.com. (This is not a sponsored post by the way, I just like her products and think she deserves support. Besides, its not always easy to find all-natural, toxin-free body products and I really enjoy passing this kind of information on where I can).

Aren't you glad I've given you permission to read a classic?

I love reading but its not easy to find time in the day to read a book. It seems like a terrible indulgence, a luxury of self-gratification on a par with eating an entire chocolate cake by myself…especially when there's so much laundry and shopping and cleaning and writing and other responsibilities to take care of.  That's why I took great delight in instructing the readers of my book Change Your Life This Year (book 1) to find time in the month of April to just sit down, with a cup of coffee (and preferably a large slice of chocolate cake) and read a classic. 

In my book, I list my Top Ten recommendations for starting out with the classics and in a previous post, I featured an interview with author Fiona Veitch Smith who also shared her favourite classic reads with us. 

I recently discovered this no-nonsense book-lover on YouTube. I think that Samantha, owner of the YouTube channel Novels and Nonsense, has made a superb set of recommendations of which classics to read on beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, so I do urge you to watch the video below (be aware, Samantha speaks as rapidly as a sten gun so..listen up!)

At the end of the day, reading is about enjoyment, about being transported to another world. Another delightful YouTube discovery this week was this tribute to the classics of childhood by Brian Patten. It's moving and beautiful. 

It leads me to believe that, perhaps, the very best place to start if you're going to tackle the classics, is with the classics of childhood. The Narnia stories by CS Lewis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Dr Doolittle by Hugh Lofting (check out my video Lunch with Hugo to see the little row of houses that they used as Dr Doolittle's surgery in the BBC adaptation of the books..its just behind the man who waves at me from his tractor). After all, its never too late to have a happy childhood. 

Who were your favourite authors and what books made an impression on you as a child?