Drinking aloe vera juice.

We all know we ought to eat enough fruit and vegetables (and other foods too!) in order to get our daily needed amount of nutrients. To give myself a little nutritional extra I tried drinking aloe vera juice.

Rituals Qi.

I would consider myself to be an okay sleeper. I have good nights mostly and a bad one every once in a while. My only issue with sleep is that it takes a while for me to fall asleep. To help me calm down and relax before bed, I've got Qi. 

Home scents.

Whether it be the smell of good food, flowers, perfume or shampoo, I am an incredible sucker for nice scents. Therefore I enjoy having a pleasant scent at home. 

Here's what I've got at the minute:

Sony MDR-EX50LP in-ear headphones.

About a week ago I got myself a pair of new headphones because my old ones 1. kept on falling out of my ears when I was jogging, and 2. were literally falling apart! So I said goodbye to the seven year old headphones that came with my iPod shuffle and I welcomed the Sony MDR-EX50LP in-ear headphones.

Body care and cosmetics ingredients.

Whenever I buy body care products, I take a look at the ingredient list to figure out if there's anything in the product that I'd rather avoid. For example I try to avoid sulphates in shampoo or parabens in any type of product. But then again, if there aren't any sulphates or parebens in a product, doesn't mean there aren't any other irritating or potentially harmful ingredients in there. So what to use and what not to use?

Start to Run.

Endurance has never been a strength of mine. I absolutely abhor jogging, but as I could do with better stamina, I decided to follow the Start to Run programme.

It's a training schedule that takes you from 0 to 5K in just 10 weeks. I dug up my old trainers -they are 10 years and a bit old, but haven't been used all that much- and joined in at my sister's trips to the track three times a week. I'm currently in week 3 of the programme and so far so good!

Apart from building up stamina, running has other advantages such as better blood circulation and lower risk of heart disease.
If you'd like some more info on the programme or want to read their full list of advantages of doing sport, I recommend you take a look at www.start-to-run.com.

I'm not looking forward to the next lesson, because I'll have to run for 4 and 5 minutes for the first time!

Wish me luck!
Sinserely,
R.

Hamsa hands.

In the past year I've seen several bracelets, rings and necklaces with hamsa hands in Topshop and Primark. I liked the look of them, but as I'm not one to wear something without finding out what it means, I did a quick internet search on them. As I understand it, the hamsa hand is an old symbol that originated from Mesopotamia and it is a symbol of protection. It often has an eye is depicted in the centre to protect people from the evil eye.