Wellness

Your centre for nutrition, fitness and emotional health tips, the core of mirandaswellness.com

When it comes to gender equality, should we be normalising period pain?

/ Miranda Partridge / Leave a comment

A couple of months ago I was scrolling through my newsfeed and stumbled upon a video of a news segment where they were discussing the idea of work leave for period pain. The woman proposing the change mentioned how common it is for women to have to use their sick leave for period pain and then not have enough left over for when they actually get sick.

Personally, I agree that it isn’t fair that women are taking sick leave in order to deal with pain associated with their period every month. But also, the discussion brought up a few thoughts that I’d like to share with you, because I believe there is a different way that we could be approaching this situation.

While I think is totally essential to normalise periods (and challenge people who get grossed-out by the sheer mention of a period on a regular basis) it deeply concerns me that we’re moving towards accepting things like debilitating period pain as a totally normal thing.

092495546efd2a994a2b8cfa64570fde.jpgNow, this isn’t me dismissing these symptoms, or anyone who experiences this pain. If fact, I believe that if you are experiencing pain once every month that has you bed-ridden, has you taking hard-core pain medications, has you doubled over in pain, gives you migraines that make you vomit and have to retreat to a dark room, or you experience irregular periods (varying one week to months apart), experiencing spotting, never-ending acne, very heavy or very light periods, breast tenderness or in some cases, find yourself suicidal in the lead up to your period;

NONE of that is normal.

And you deserve so much better than to be told to accept these symptoms as ‘normal’ every single month.
Continue reading →

5 Things I Learned From Vegan Eating

/ Miranda Partridge / Leave a comment

The idea of going vegan for two weeks, to me, was incredibly daunting. I’ve had times in my life in the past where I’d mostly eaten vegetarian (for budgetary reasons, mostly) and even though I thought I was eating well, over time, my mental health declined, and I became more prone to anxiety and felt overall, pretty miserable.

Eating an animal source of protein usually improved my mood fairly quickly (within a day), so I associated good mental health with getting an animal source of protein in my diet most days of the week. The idea of eating vegan (for more than a meal here and there) scared the shit out of me – the last thing I wanted was to put myself at a higher risk of an anxiety attack, but all the while, I had found myself craving vegetarian meals since winter last year, and I always want to reduce my environmental impact on the world. It was a very confusing position to be in. Continue reading →

30 Ways I’m helping the War on Waste

/ Miranda Partridge / Leave a comment

And you can too!

Has anyone else been watching The War on Waste with Craig Reucassel on ABC?

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I have been absolutely glued to it; heartbroken to see the impacts of our waste and shocked at how slow we are at doing something about it.

So, while I’ll also be sharing a passionate email to my list tomorrow morning (you can sign up here), I thought I would share all of the ways that I reduce my waste in my home (as well as a few others that might be helpful). If you can come up with any I’ve missed, share them with everyone in the comments section below. Continue reading →

Healthy Meals: Campfire Edition

/ Miranda Partridge / Leave a comment

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This past weekend, Blake and I finally set off on what was my first ever real (read: not at a caravan park or music festival) camping trip. To give you a bit of history, part of me is a country kid, with half of my childhood living in a small town in North East Victoria. My Mum has a fireplace that I always volunteer to light, and I’ve been to many a bonfire each winter as a teen. I’ve camped at several festivals, and camping as a kid was always at a caravan park, so I have been itching to go ‘proper’ camping for years. Continue reading →

Bath time Essentials: Balneotherapy

/ Miranda Partridge / Leave a comment

10 Natural Remedies for Your Most Relaxing Bath Ever

Baths are one of my favourite ways to reset myself and relax, especially if I’m sore, tired and overwhelmed. It’s a ritual that doesn’t take much effort with huge benefits for your nervous system, your detoxifying organs, your muscles, your skin and your spiritual wellbeing. With a few simple tweaks to this cornerstone of self-care, you can take your bath to the next level, providing natural remedies to heal your body, mind and spirit.

The practice of enhancing the healing capacity of your bath is known as balneotherapy; the treatment of disease through bathing, and it’s something that I often find myself prescribing to treat stressed-out, tired an anxious individuals. It may sound a little bit hippy, but before you discount it completely, I have a story to share with you: Continue reading →