Finding A Lump.

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for quite some time. And what better time than than a few weeks before ‘Breast Cancer Awareness Month’ begins. Just warning you now, this might be a bit of a long one, but I think talking about these things more does a lot of good, and if this helps anyone out there then I’ll be happy.

Only a small number of people know this about me, but about 1 1/2 years ago I was doing a quick breast check after reading about boobs in an article (I think it was from somewhere like cosmo?) and I found a lump.

Lucky for me, it ended up being labelled benign which means it’s cancer free and shouldn’t impact me. I recognise that I am incredibly lucky that my lump ended up being benign as not everyone is so lucky.

Let me take you back to when I found this lump, I think I was reading an article about why all boob shapes are beautiful (being a girl just wanting to like her body for what it is and all that.. still working on that now haha) when it occurred to me that I hadn’t checked my breasts recently.

So that was when I decided to give my boobs a once over. And that was when I found a pea sized lump towards the bottom left of my left breast. It was like the entire world had stopped when I felt it, then the panic set in. That was when I got my mum to see if they could feel it and that I wasn’t going mad for nothing.

Unfortunately they could feel it too, which meant the next day ringing up the doctors to get an appointment. Sadly my doctors are a bit short staffed without as much people as they probably need for the area I live in, so I had to wait a little while before I could get booked in, but I know that they’re doing everything they can in the current funding situation.

The day of my appointment came and off I went to the doctors absolutely terrified because in the time waiting for my appointment my anxious had wreaked havoc with my head and I had basically come to the conclusion that I was going to have to have surgery or it meant death. Some people may think it’s silly that this is what I was thinking, but that’s the reality of anxiety for you, it’s not rational and you can’t control it.

Once I went in for my appointment the doctor was so lovely and she calmed me right down; she asked me about what I’d felt, where and if I was in any pain. For the record, I’ve suffered with chronic chest pains for about 6 years in the left side of my chest reaching round my entire back and through my shoulder blades (I’ve been back and forth to the doctors for years about it with no avail), so I mentioned this in my appointment to see if this lump could be the cause of the pain if it had trapped a nerve or something, I didn’t know what it could be because I’m not a doctor and no amount of googling was helping me out.

I’ve recently found out the pain is actually coming from a few other conditions which I’ll talk about in another post, but I am okay and getting treatment so it’s now being managed. Right, back to talking about boobs!

After talking about what was going on, then came the examination. It was pretty nerve wracking getting my boobs out for a complete stranger, but it had to be done. She got me to show here where the lump was and then she felt my breasts for lumps. That was when she confirmed to me that I was right and that there is something there.

The doctor did then confirm to me that yes there is a lump, but the good news was that it was very small, around 8mm-1cm big, which meant it was probably benign which is great news. In order to just double check everything from my appointment, I was then given an appointment for an ultrasound so we could actually see what was going on.

The hospital appointment came round about two weeks after my doctors appointment which was pretty fast in my eyes. And I was glad because I just wanted to know what was happening and if I needed to start thinking about how I was going to potentially tackle the big C.

I brought my mum along with me to this appointment because 1.) We love doctor/hospital shows like 24hours in A&E and stuff like that, and 2.) She’s always there to support me in whatever way I need it. Going in for my ultrasound was pretty surreal, I walked into this dark room with 3 medical professionals in it, a load of equipment, a medical bed, 2 chairs and a curtain. My mum stayed with me for the entire thing, which helped a lot with the nerves.

So, I said hello to all of these very welcoming women in this dark room, took my top and bra off and laid down on the medical bed. It’s pretty weird having 3 women that you met 5 seconds ago staring at your boobs I’m not going to lie. The main doctor there did another examination on my breasts and then she put the coldest gel in my boobs I’ve ever felt haha. Then came the ultrasound machine, the doctor pushed it all over my boob until we came across a dark blob on the screen. My lump.

Here came the good bit for me. After a bit of moving around the blob the doctor came to the conclusion that my lump is definitely benign, and that I actually have something called a fibroadenoma. Fibroadenoma’s are a range of solid breast lesions that can feel hard, soft, smooth and rubbery, a bit like a pea, but they can be larger. Fibroadenoma’s are usually painless, but if they are causing significant pain they can sometimes be removed; you should also keep an eye on the lumps and go back to your GP if anything changes.

It’s pretty strange looking at an image of your boob on an ultrasound screen, especially because you only ever see ultrasounds happening to check on pregnancies.

So, once my ultrasound was done, I headed out with a leaflet about fibroadenomas and a huge sense of relief. I was and am incredibly lucky that my lump isn’t anything that serious.

At the beginning of this year, I thought my lump might had gotten bigger; but this was also around the time that I had lost a lot of weight, so I wasn’t sure if maybe I could just feel the lump more. So along came a second round of appointments to the doctors and hospital and lucky for me, nothing had changed other than myself losing weight.

This was great news for me as you can imagine. Some people aren’t as lucky as I am and I will be forever grateful that my lump is nothing serious. I’m still living with my lump at the moment, and it does cause some achiness now and again, but I know things could be so much worse.

What I want everyone to take away from this is to make sure you’re checking your breasts on a regular basis. You never realise how lucky you are until you have a scare like this. Even if you’re a man reading this, check your chest too, because men too can breast cancer. If you’re looking for some more information about what signs to look out for when checking your breasts, you can find that here! You can download a leaflet on what to look out for here!

I hope you’ve all enjoyed finding out a bit more about me and have found this useful; I know it’s been a bit long winded, but it’s an important issue that needs to be spoken about.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you! And I also want to say a big thank you to all of my lovely readers for all of your support, and to celebrate my first 100 subscribers and say thank you to you all, stay tuned for a giveaway at the end of the month!!

So that’s it from me for today! Have a great week everyone! Love,

Trying Out Bootea For 14 Days

Since I tried BoomBod for a week about 2 months ago, I’ve been getting lots of requests for more posts like that! So over the past 2 weeks I’ve been trying the oh so famous Bootea! I wanted to see if all of the claims it makes are true or if it’s going to be a similar story to my experience with BoomBod.

I will state now though, that these posts aren’t sponsored and that these are just my personal experiences and reviews with these products and how I found them to work! So even if something doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work for other people.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s what I ordered:

(You can buy the two week teatox here!)

So, it is claimed that this teatox “will leave you feeling energized and motivated to reach all of your fitness goals. Beat the bloat and feel better than ever with our two-week programme, complete with Daytime and Bedtime tea bags to keep you on track” – Bootea 14 Day teatox description.

Well, I’m here to put this to the test.. and see if it would do anything for me without changing my lifestyle. Just for the record, I currently work out regularly between 4-6 times a week and have a healthy diet, so whatever happens should be from the teatox.

With the teatox you’re supposed to drink the day tea first thing in the morning and then the night tea every other evening before you go to bed. So if you order it and are wondering why there’s half the night teabags, that’s why.

Right, on with the review! I’ll give you a rundown of how my two weeks went and then show you my photos from throughout the week! First off, here’s what the tea looks like, yes it looks like pee when made, so don’t be alarmed when I goes a yellowy colour!

Day 1 – 3

Thoughts: If this does anything I’ll be impressed, especially because it’s just a cup of tea in the morning and every other night. Taste wise these are okay, the morning tea tastes like a variation of green tea to me; which I personally don’t mind. The night tea however tastes like peppermint tea, which I haven’t ever had before so we’ll see if I end up liking it by the end of this.

Thoughts at the end of day 3: This seems very easy compared to Boombod, and since I love a good cup of tea, this is pretty good if it does anything!

Day 4 – 7

Thoughts: So far I’m not seeing any results, but I am finding that the peppermint night tea helps me fall asleep a bit better than without it. I think I’m starting to get used to the taste of it too which is good. I have found that the morning tea keeps me fuller for longer and I’m finding that I don’t need anything after breakfast to tide me over until lunchtime.

End of day 7 thoughts: I quite like this teatox, but there doesn’t really appear to be any visible results as of yet.

Day 8 – 11

Thoughts: Today I feel like I’m starting to see a little more definition in my stomach, but my stomach still looks bloated in my opinion. At least this is a simple teatox rather than something that’s a hassle to make up every time. One thing I have noticed is that I’ve started looking forward to the teas in the morning and especially in the evenings. I’ve been trying to be mindful as I’m having my tea first thing, which has been quite a good de-stressor for me, so that’s good.

End of day 11 thoughts: I wonder if this would make a difference if I started exercising even more and eating healthier? But then the results could just be from upping my exercise routine and changing my lifestyle further.

Day 12 – 14

Thoughts: I think I might actually re-buy this teatox, purely because I like the taste of it, not because it’s done anything physically. I’m pretty sure the only reason I’ve actually enjoyed this teatox is because I’m a bit of a tea addict, and love a good cuppa to wake up with first thing in the morning, and throughout the day t be honest..haha. These two weeks have gone fast, and I think the only difference physically is very minimal between the start and now, so I do wonder what this tea is actually supposed to do.

End of the 2 weeks thoughts: When I started this I thought that the only thing these teas could possibly do was make you need the loo more, which I doesn’t anymore than normal green tea. And I didn’t expect the tea to do much else, which I have to admit I was right in my opinion.

Here’s my before, during and afters! And as you know by now, I like being real with you on here, so here you’ll get to witness me in my very unsexy pants and pyjamas because I’m not going to dress up and be fake to you guys, this is me (I took these first thing in the morning half asleep!) and what the teatox actually did..haha!

On the left is day 1 of my Bootea journey and the right is after 4 days of the teas.

Here’s what was going on after an entire week of Bootea and then here I am after 11 days of the Teatox.

On the left is before Bootea and the right is after the 2 week Teatox.

What I would take away from this is that if you’re looking for a quick fix to lose weight, this isn’t the answer; sorry, I know for a lot of us we wish it is, but the sad reality is that working hard and eating right is the healthy way to do that.

What I will say is that I have decided to order another batch of Bootea, purely because I like how it tastes and I’m curious to see if doing it for another 2 weeks will make any difference. But don’t worry, I’ll do a follow up in another 2 weeks time if anything has changed after doing this for longer!(nothing changed! Surprise..surprise..)

My final thoughts on the Bootea 14 Day Teatox are that for me it didn’t really change anything physically. However, I have noticed that I feel more confident in my appearance due to drinking the teas and feeling like they could be helping me feel a tiny bit less bloated; but I think the reality is that it’s the placebo affect.

Nevertheless I would suggest giving this a go if you’re generally curious or wanting to try out some new teas. The only reason for saying give this a go if you’re curious is due to the fact that It’s surprisingly cheap considering the reputation they have with celebrities promoting it and stuff. I bought my pack whilst it was on offer for £12.45, so it didn’t feel like a waste of money giving this a go and not seeing results.

At the end of the day though, this experience has been a reminder of how we should all learn to love ourselves as we are, with no ideal body types, shapes, sizes or colours in mind; because we’re all beautiful no matter what. One thing I did notice was how Bootea did say on their website that they do not promote a certain body ideal, which I do appreciate. But I think that celebrities and influencers should take care in what they promote, because you never know how their messages can effect someone.

I hope this helps out any of you looking to try out Bootea! And remember, you’re perfect as you are and the only thing you need to do is realise that! Have a great weekend lovelies! Love,

I Tried BoomBod For A Week!

Happy Saturday everyone! This week my mum and I came across a product called BoomBod. I came across this when my mum sent me a link at around 10pm at night (that’s usually when she’s looking at the daily mail online and finds all sorts of hidden gems which are usually a load of old twoddle). The article that was linked said that BoomBod prevents bloating and helps you lose weight and inches. So, mum and I decided to order ourselves a seven day supply and put it to the test/review it.

Here’s what you get for a weeks supply, 7 x ‘Morning Energizers’ Sachets, 7 x ‘Afternoon Motivators’ Sachets and 7 x ‘Night Rejuvenators’ Sachets.

So.. I’ll take you through my experiences with BoomBod day by day.

First things first, THE PLAN: Take a sachet  30 minutes before every meal 3 times a day whilst eating normally and exercising as normal.

Initial thoughts and predictions: If this actually does something this could be great, however, it’s probably going to do nothing.

Day 1: I’ve just taken my before photos (which I’m dreading uploading but never mind !). First sachet down and I’m regretting doing this already.. They taste like those cystitis sachets you have to take when you’ve got cystitis – in other words, they taste disgusting imo.

It’s lunchtime and I’ve just realised that I’ve eaten way more than usual which is weird considering these are supposed to fill you up and make you eat less. Bit confused..

Ok, so it’s  been 2 hours since my ‘night nourisher’ with dinner and I’ve now also worked out and I actually feel full finally but also feel like a slob and bloated.. which is the opposite to how I normally feel after a workout!

End of day 1 thoughts: This is a load of rubbish.

Day 2: It’s first thing in the morning and I feel so bloated and like I’ve put on weight! Fingers crossed this goes away and I start feeling better later today or tomorrow.

Lunchtime has come and gone and I’m still eating loads more than usual; don’t know if this is because I’m really trying to test if this thing works or if it just happens to make me hungrier.

End of day 2: Mood is that I hate everything about this.

Day 3: Finally feeling better!! My ‘morning energiser’ has kicked in and I’m feeling good and FULL! About damn time too because I was really giving up hope on this thing..

I’ve had my lunch and it went okay, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the taste of these things.. But yay I’m less bloated so far!

End of day 3: Forget my earlier comment, the bloat has just come on..

Day 4: I’ve just taken my half way photos and it’s done absolutely nothing! No visible difference so far, but that is sort of what I expected.

Again I’ve eaten way more than usual because I’m super hungry and could happily demolish a bucket of chocolate right now.

End of day 4: Why am I doing this again?

Day 5: I’m feeling good, still not used to the taste of the sachets but at least I’ve only got a few days left!

I’ve noticed you definitely have to plan ahead when doing plans like these because if you’re eating out at any point, you need to get your sachet in in advance.

End of day 5: Not as bloated this evening so that’s a plus! Don’t think it’s the sachets doing this though..

Day 6: Yay! One more day to go!

Feeling super bloated today.. what is happening?! What happened to yesterday’s no bloat?

End of day 6: I’m so ready for this to be over!!

Day 7: IT’S THE LAST DAY OF BOOMBOD!! Hallelujah!

Ok, so I don’t think it’s done anything other than inconvenience me.. actually I know all it’s done is inconvenience me and made me hungrier than ever.

So, what am I taking away from this week of BoomBod and do I think it’s worth doing?

Well you tell me, here’s my before and after pictures:

Here’s before, during and after my week of drinking BoomBod sachets.

I will say, it did make me think about my food choices and plan ahead more, but in saying that, if you’ve read any of my earlier posts then you’ll know that I suffer with an eating disorder and half way through this week I realised that this is just playing into my disordered thoughts. It occurred to me that I’ve come so far with my recovery from my eating disorder that this is testing my determination to get better and I’m actually kind of happy that BoomBod did nothing for me because otherwise I’d be spending a fortune to just decrease my recovery progress.

My mum was supposed to do this with me but she kept forgetting to take her sachets so she’ll write up her thoughts on it when she does it in a few weeks time.

I want to say that BoomBod is a complete sham; but I can’t say that for certain as this is just my personal experience and everyone’s experience is likely to be different depending on your body, food and exercise habits. BoomBod just didn’t work for me, and I’m glad it didn’t overall because it taught me a lesson.

Can I just say, I nearly didn’t post those images on here because I am not comfortable in my own skin, but I think it’s important to shine a light on the fact that we all have body insecurities and it’s about damn time we embrace them and love ourselves. And if this helps anyone feel a little less alone with their body insecurities then I’ll know that something positive (other than learning a few lessons along the way) came out of this week!

Moral of the story is that you should do you. And if you want to try something new then go ahead, but make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Doing this has just reminded me of how we need to forget all of the ‘rules’ about beauty and health that has been drilled into us from such young ages. Don’t conform to what all the stupid women’s magazines are telling you you should look like.

I hope this helped any of you thinking about taking or trying any diet supplements(I’ve also reviewed BooTea here)! And I just want to say that being what society has conditioned us to think as being ‘imperfect’ is actually what makes us perfectly imperfect, and I think that’s beautiful just like all of us (cheesy but true!).

Have a great week ahead everyone! Love,

I Took An Intolerance Test!

Hey everyone!! So this week I’m going to be talking to you about intolerance tests. Why you’re asking? Well because my mum and I have suffered with annoying coughs for months on end for no apparent reason (the doctors said it’s nothing) and we both suffer with psoriasis which can be triggered from certain foods, stresses and other things! And to be honest, we both love sending stuff off to get health results!

So, the labs we used are called ‘Test Your Intolerance Labs’ or ‘TYI Labs’ (very creative name I know..). Also, just for the record, this isn’t sponsored, but if any labs wanna send us away for health tests feel free!!

We bought the ‘essentials’ test, partly because they were on offer for £29 instead of £39 at the time. Also, if you recommend the test to a friend you get £5 off so that’s what my mum did for me so it was even cheaper which is also a bonus.

So how did the test work, well, it was super easy and wasn’t painful at all; all they needed from us was around 5 strands of hair, ideally from the root (so we gave a few more just in case). Then we had to send off the hairs to the lab’s address ourselves; we’d recommend putting your hairs in a small clear bag and writing your order number on it just to ensure it doesn’t get lost (we wanted to make sure we got our results as quick as possible so took all precautions to make sure it didn’t get lost!), and then we put it in an envelope with our order sheets and send them off!

After a few days we got emails to letting us know that the lab had received our samples and then after that it took about 10 working days for the results to come through, online it said between 7-10 working days for your results to come through so we were prepared for having to wait a bit. The good thing is that they email you your results so you get them as soon as they are ready in a pdf; and it helps the environment by not sending out paper!

I will admit that I was a bit impatient waiting for my results but that’s because I sent them off just before a bank holiday, so I had to wait a little longer for my results because we had a 4 day bank holiday which is obviously non-working days!

Once I got my results it was pretty surprising what I am intolerant to, and it was the same for my mum! We found out that foods and ingredients in foods we were eating everyday we are intolerant to and that may actually be causing our psoriasis to flare up and these annoying coughs!

Here’s my results:

My Intolerance Test Results

Here’s my mum’s results:

My Mum’s Intolerance Test Results

So, this is what we found out! Turns out my mum is intolerant to basically all plants near us which definitely explains why she has all year round hay fever. Also, turns out she’s intolerant to buttermilk and mustard which she eats ALL THE TIME. So that has been a fun thing to try and cut out for her..(I’m joking, it’s been a struggle but she’s finally used to it!). And we did find it funny how my mum is apparently intolerant to gin, just because she loves a G&T every now and again!

For me, we found out that I’m intolerant to pears, which I absolutely love! That was disappointing but I figured I could manage a few weeks without them to see what difference it would make to my health. I’m also intolerant to butter lettuce which was something I was eating nearly everyday as well as pears; so it’s no wonder why I was feeling bloated and coughing all the time alongside my skin flaring up. One thing I couldn’t believe was that I’m intolerant to cat hair; especially because I’d never even considered being intolerant to certain pets and I love cats and my boyfriends cat seems to love me!

After getting the info back, we decided that it’d be a good idea if together we gave up all of our food intolerances (well at least for a while as an experiment). For my mum it meant changing a huge amount of her diet, you’d be surprised at how many things mustard is in!! It’s in everything!! And it’s the same with buttermilk, also in everything! Gin and everything else was easy for my mum to cut out just because she wouldn’t have that everyday anyway, so that was no big deal. My mum began taking antihistamines in the morning to help with her other intolerances and that has definitely helped her a lot.

For myself, I cut out butter lettuce, which was pretty easy because there’s so many other salad leaves you can have instead! Pears were also pretty easy to cut out, but I definitely miss eating them because they’re so good when in season. Everything else on my food intolerances list didn’t really make any difference to me luckily just because I don’t like those foods in general (I’m a fussy eater, and for once it’s a good thing!). Obviously I’ve not cut out my boyfriend or his cat haha.. I love them both way too much to do that!

So… how has cutting these things out helped us? And how long did it take for us to feel a difference?

Well, for one, it took about 4 weeks for us both to feel a difference in ourselves. Cutting out these foods made a big difference for us both! For me, it actually stopped my annoying cough altogether! For my mum and my own skin, it definitely helped with our psoriasis flare ups, obviously it isn’t a cure for it (partly because there is no cure unfortunately) but it was something we found that helped a little. And now that I think about it, my mum hasn’t been coughing as much anymore either to be honest!!

So what should you take away from this weeks blog post? I would definitely recommend taking one of these tests if you’re suffering with a health issue that doesn’t appear to be caused from anything; and then trying out something like this to see if it makes a difference! And if it doesn’t, keep going to you GP until its resolved.

I think I’ve babbled on for long enough now so I’ll let you get back to your day; but I’ll ask you this, have you tried any health tests? If you have, which ones? And finally, do you want my mum and I to try some more to see what we find? Have a great weekend everyone!!

Love,